From the Ashes

by Boltstrike58


Chapter 10: First Act Fight Scene

Equis, Equestrian Badlands

Twilight would've been the first to admit her own fear at that point. Applejack and Rainbow would've been too proud, Pinkie would be making jokes, Rarity was infuriated at Sombra's evil (that mare could be scary when she wanted to be), and Starlight distracted herself by digging into her arsenal of spells. Twilight Sparkle had faced down Tirek by herself (albeit with the magic of four alicorns), but this was a whole new level. The Changeling army attack on Canterlot had nothing on this. Dead-eyed shadow ponies surrounded them, along with Sombra's cohorts.

Then she looked to the Avengers.

If the human visitors were afraid, they weren't showing it. Steve, Tony, Thor, and the others shifted from on guard to aggressive battle stances, readying themselves for the attacking monsters. Wanda was the first to respond, shielding the group with a dome of red energy. The shadow ponies slammed into the barrier, bouncing off and landing on their rears. Staring at the cool and collected Avengers, Twilight felt herself relax. These truly were heroes.


As Wanda's barrier dissipated, Phobos dived forwards, hurling a heavy punch towards Rainbow Dash. The pegasus prepared to swerve to the side, but it turned out to be unnecessary, as Steve's heavy shield intercepted the blow.

"You puny ants think you're a match for us?" cackled the faun.

"Hey, pal," said Scott, walking towards him, "don't go around insulting ants like that. Why not pick an insect nobody likes that serve no purpose, like flies?"

Phobos gave him a perplexed look. "I guess I won't even have to drive you insane. You've clearly already cracked." He pointed his staff at Scott, sending a yellow bolt towards him, though not before the man activated a trigger on his glove.

Then Scott seemed to just disappear, the blast hitting empty air.

Phobos blinked in surprise, looking all around for the missing Avenger. His search proved fruitless, until he heard a tiny sound, resembling a voice saying "Psst...over here..." Confused, the faun looked down at his hand, finding what appeared to be a tiny—

Then Ant-Man jumped off and punched him in the face.

The concentrated blow sent the faun into a daze, stumbling backwards as Scott backflipped away from him, returning to normal size. Phobos tried to regain his focus, but was interrupted by twin blasts of white and magenta energy, courtesy of Twilight and Tony, pitching him backwards into a wall.

"Stupid loser," said Tony. "Never saw that coming."

"Ha!" laughed Twilight, her horn buzzing with magic. "I don't get to do that enough!"

"Save it for the after party, Princess!" yelled Natasha. The Black Widow had drawn two electrified batons, and rammed one through the chest of a shadow pegasus. The atrocity screeched with an unnatural sound, before crackling and bursting into black smoke.

The others had taken the fight to the enemy as well. Sam, Rainbow, and Vision took flight, battling the airborne shadow pegasi, while Rarity and Starlight provided covering fire from the ground. Sam, unable to fully utilize his duel Stayr SPP machine pistols, had adopted a more physical strategy, using his wings to batter the undead ponies, and pummeling them with descending kicks. Rainbow bounced between them like a flying pinball, ricocheting from one enemy to another, laughing all the while. Vision added his Mind Stone beams to those of the unicorns, enhancing their striking force.

The remaining Avengers faced the grounded shadow ponies. Steve, wary of throwing his shield in this environment, instead charged forward with it, battering the earth ponies and unicorns off their feet. Bucky and T'Challa followed in his wake, using a combat knife and vibranium claws to rip apart any remaining shadow ponies. Applejack and Pinkie rounded up any stragglers, either bucking them into the air, or launching them out of a party cannon, where they were promptly eliminated by their flying allies. Thor, unable to call down lightning in such an enclosed space, allowed the ponies to dogpile him briefly, before scattering them with a single swing of Mjölnir.

But no matter how many they took out, the shadow ponies just kept coming.

Steve ceased his shield charge as two shadow unicorns focused magic beams at him, raising the vibranium disk to intercept the attack. As he tried to come up with a possible counter, he failed to hear the tiny beat of cloven hooves behind him, as Deimos emerged from the shadows. The faun's staff glowed with the familiar sickly green light, as he reached for the back of the Captain's head—

"Steve, look out!" roared Bucky. He drew a pistol from his belt, firing three shots just over Steve's head. Deimos evaded the bullets, but the distraction opened him up to Pinkie, who bounced over and gave him a double kick to the side of the head. Bucky charged as the faun, bringing his metallic arm down in a devastating overhead smash, directly on Deimos' head, which was blocked by both of the latter's arms. Both human and faun pushed against each other, arms locked in a clash.

"Strong," growled Deimos, "but predictable."

"Whatever," Bucky grunted.

Deimos looked into the former Winter Soldier's eyes. On top, there was merely a layer of adrenaline, focused on the battle at hand. A brief green flash glowed in the faun's eyes, as he peered deeper in Bucky's brown orbs. Beneath lay fear, guilt, murderous instincts long buried...

"Interesting," chuckled Deimos. "You're more unique than I've been led to belie—"

The faun's words were cut off as he roared in pain. He reeled back, clutching the new gash on his left arm, courtesy of Bucky's combat knife. Grunting in frustration, the faun fired a beam of green energy at the soldier, which was quickly ducked under.

"Well, you're setting a great example, brother," Phobos snapped, as he punched Iron Man in the stomach.

"As if you have any room to talk," replied Deimos, continuing to fire at Bucky. "Your intelligence is comparable to—"

For the second time in about thirty seconds, Deimos was cut off in mid-sentence. This time, the interruption took the form of Wanda's red magic, grabbing both him and his brother in her telekinetic grip. Wanda swung her arms in an arc, clapping her hands, causing the two fauns to have their heads clapped together. Seizing the opportunity, Thor and Applejack rushed up to the fauns, sending them hurtling across the room with a buck kick and a swing of Mjölnir..

"And that's what happens when you mess with us!" declared Applejack, giving Thor a quick high hoof.

Grogar gritted his teeth in frustration, as the Avengers and the Elements of Harmony continued to pound his shadow ponies.

"This isn't exactly going according to plan," he snarled, giving a look to Sombra.

"Oh, I wouldn't be too concerned about them," the king answered, smugly.

Grogar opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by a blast of repulsor energy knocking him across the room. Sombra casually watched him go, before turning to Iron Man.

"Not enough sense to hit us both, Stark?" he asked.

"Oh, no, I got that," replied Tony. "Twilight just wanted a piece of you herself."

At the end of his words, Twilight Sparkle came hurtling across the room, wings spread wide. Sombra grinned, before igniting his horn with dark purple magic. A curved, angular black scythe materialized next to him, held in his telekinetic grip. He brought the blade in a wide sweep, but Twilight was able to dodge with a quick teleport. Before the king could pull the scythe back around, Twilight rammed into the handle, pushing against it with the raw magic coursing through her horn.

"You should've learned from last time," grunted the alicorn as she grappled with Sombra. "We stopped you once. We can do it again."

"Cute that you'd believe that," replied Sombra, "but delusional. Once I'm done with you, like I said, I think I'll visit that baby dragon pet of yours. Then perhaps your irritating sister-in-law—"

"No you won't!" roared Twilight, pulling back and firing a magic beam.

Sombra grinned, before his entire body seemed to fade into a pure black, viscous substance. All physical features of the unicorn faded, leaving a shapeless black blob. A hole opened in the middle of the thing's body, allowing Twilight's attack to pass harmlessly through it. Tony immediately opened fired with both repulsors, but they were similarly avoided. Sombra's familiar green and red eyes appeared in the blob, and if he'd had a mouth at the moment, Tony was sure he'd have been laughing.

"So, uh, any ideas on how to deal with this guy, Twilly?" he asked, rocketing into the air. The space Tony had occupied mere seconds previously was smashed by Sombra's black tentacles.

Twilight didn't get a chance to reply, as Sombra's horn reappeared on his body, glowing deep purple. Suddenly, black crystal spires burst out of the ground, lunging at both Iron Man and Twilight. Though the spearing points missed them, they were slammed against the wall, pinned in place as more crystals were conjured.

Sombra's face reconstituted itself in the black smog, laughing as Tony and Twilight attempted to smash the binding crystals. Unfortunately, in his current position, Tony couldn't get enough leverage to break them apart with his fists, and Twilight couldn't aim her horn at them. Sombra conjured more tentacles, aiming them at the duo, only to be caught in the temple by a blast of gold light. Staggering, Sombra reformed his normal body on top of a crystal spire, turning to see Vision floating freely next to him.

"The machine," grunted the king brandishing his scythe. "Such a waste."

Vision turned his head, firing two quick beams from the Mind Stone. Tony and Twilight had their restraints shattered, and both sprang from their places on the wall. Twilight, fury fully visible on her face, launched another volley of magic at Sombra, which was ducked under. At the same time, Tony opened an arm compartment, firing a small missile at Sombra's pillar.

The crystals burst in a violent explosion, and King Sombra was sent plummeting from several meters in the air. He managed to catch himself with his telekinesis, but was unprepared for Rainbow Dash zooming at him, slamming him with the force of a bullet. The pegasus took the king all the way to the brick barrier, pushing him back-first into it. Sombra slid down a few more feet, landing on his rear.

"Yeah!" Rainbow shouted in triumph, diving down towards Sombra, her hoof pulled back for a punch, with Twilight on her tail.

Unfortunately for them, the unicorn had managed to regain his focus, and once more transformed into the black blob. Tentacles swiped out, smacking both flying ponies away. As the plummeted down, Tony rocketed backwards to catch Twilight, while Vision managed to snag Rainbow Dash out of the air.

"I'm really starting to dislike this guy," Tony grunted, firing another batch of repulsors at him.

Sombra was unable to shift fast enough to avoid the shots, and was pushed back into the wall. Vision followed up with another Mind Stone beam, though Sombra was able to snake his way around it. Sombra lunged at the android, but Vision altered his density, allowing the shadow to pass harmlessly through him.

"Impressive..." Sombra admitted, "but insufficient."

"We'll see about that, you overgrown scuzzball!" yelled Rainbow Dash, charging at him again.


Grogar gnashed his teeth in frustration as he picked himself up off the wall. Iron Man's blast had sent him flying into the brick wall, impacting hard enough to crack the stone. Now he was climbing to his hooves, and he was not happy.

The ram turned his furious gaze across the room, where Steve, Scott, Bucky, Starlight and Thor were battling his shadow ponies. At the moment, the battle was clearly in favor of the Avengers, with only the dark unicorns even having any real effect on the battle. Bucky had been blasted onto his rear a couple of times, and even Starlight had trouble defending against their lightning quick spell casting. Despite this, the number of shadow ponies had been reduced to half overall. Grogar clenched his teeth, channeling his magic through both horns, charging a large ball of black light between them, taking aim at the Avengers.

"I would advise against that action," said a voice.

Grogar whipped his head around, but he wasn't fast enough. The Black Panther came right at him, performing an elaborate flip, bouncing on the balls of his feet over to the ram. T'Challa rammed his foot right between Grogar's eyes, impacting hard enough to crack bones. Grogar was thrown off his hooves once more, but this time, he managed to recover himself with some self-telekinesis, levitating just off the ground.

Black Panther stood in opposition to the necromancer, popping his claws from their hiding places. Rarity and Black Widow dashed up next to him, standing in battle positions.

"You know," said Grogar, his red eyes glowing, "Deimos finds you humans interesting. Personally, I've always thought you were exactly as irritating as you'd expect hairless apes to be."

"Shame on you, sir!" Rarity snapped. "How discourteous! And on the basis of their species, at that!"

Natasha game a small smile. "I like her already."

Grogar glared at Rarity. "I despise ponies like you," he growled. "I'll enjoy disposing of you."

Magic coursed through the ram's curved horns. Bolts of black electricity formed at their tips, before lightning lanced forth from them. Rarity gasped, before igniting her horn with blue light. The resulting spherical blue barrier narrowly managed to protect the trio from Grogar's attack.

"I may not be the—urgh—mage that Twilight is," Rarity grunted. "But I can still—rrr—hold my own!"

"Good enough for me," said Natasha, aiming her Widow's Bite.

She fired through the inside of Rarity's forcefield. The electrified disk was narrowly avoided by Grogar, but a second one found its place on his rear left leg, sending a shock throughout his body. T'Challa took the opportunity to rush forward and seized the ram by both horns.

Unfortunately, the Wakandan prince hadn't prepared for Grogar to recover as fast as he did. The ram roared in fury as the panther grabbed him, focusing his magic into his bell. The brass instrument shook, and the resulting note hit with impossible force. The sonic blast not only prompted Rarity and Natasha to slam their front appendages over their ears, but sent T'Challa hurtling across the room.

The two remaining fighters didn't have time to follow their ally, as Grogar came charging straight at them, horns in prime position to stab them. Natasha, having more experience, managed to seize the petrified Rarity around the midsection, leaping away from the ram, and gripping the stone wall. Recovering, Rarity managed to aim her horn at Grogar's flank, sending a beam of pure, cyan magic right into him. His momentum altered, Grogar crashed headfirst into the brick once again.

"Nice," Natasha complimented her unicorn friend. "Wouldn't have expected that kind of reaction time from you ponies."

"I'm not what one would call a fighter, darling," responded Rarity, "but one must take care of themselves!"

Across the room, T'Challa grunted as he lifted himself up once more. A lone shadow pegasus dived down to try and smack him, but the Black Panther sliced off its head in one swipe, casually disintegrating it.

He looked over to the ones he'd been fighting alongside before. Natasha and Rarity were currently dodging more lightning blasts from Grogar, who was more furious than ever. He couldn't hit them, but there wasn't much of an opening for them to return the favor. T'Challa turned his gaze over, finding Wanda, Applejack, and Pinkie were trying to deal with Phobos, who was blasting with wild abandon. The king grinned to himself underneath his vibranium mask.

Crouching on all fours, T'Challa made a springing leap towards the attacking faun. He grabbed onto Phobos, digging his vibranium claws into his enemy's shoulders. Phobos howled with fury, before the Panther planted his feet on the ground, and heaved Phobos over his head. The faun slammed into the ground headfirst with a satisfying crack.

Wanda blinked in surprise. "Um...thanks, Your Highness," she finally replied.

"My pleasure, Miss Maximoff," said T'Challa. "Now, could you help me deal with another problem?" He pointed over to Rarity, Natasha, and Grogar.

Applejack, Pinkie, and Wanda looked over at the scene, before a smile found it's way onto all of their faces.

"We're way ahead of ya, partner!" said the earth pony, pulling out her lasso.

She rushed towards Phobos, tossing the loop of the rope around his ankle. She circled the still recovering faun, tying him up into a bundle. Phobos tried to focus energy into his staff, but Wanda seized him with her magic grip before he could do so. Levitating the struggling faun, Wanda guided him over to Pinkie's party canon, not bothering to question why it had appeared out of nowhere, and crammed him inside. Pinkie aimed the cylindrical device at Grogar.

"Gangway, everypony!" she shouted, before bringing her hoof down onto the button.

Phobos was launched across the room like a bullet, accompanied by flying bits of confetti and streamers. The faun slammed headfirst into Grogar, and the ram was completely thrown off by the impact. Natasha and Rarity took the opportunity to hit him with another taser disk and magical bolt, causing the necromancer to crumple against the wall, alongside Phobos.

The Avengers and ponies advanced on their enemies, but a massive burst of yellow light cut them off before they could get close enough. When the blast cleared, they were faced with Phobos, freed from his bonds, along with Grogar. Neither of them looked happy.

"You..." Phobos snarled, gnashing his teeth as saliva flew from them. "You will know true fear!"

He ignited his staff, a ball of yellow magic forming at the tip. He stabbed it into the floor, and the light broke off from his staff. The ball turned into a writhing mass, the light seeming to take on actual physical skin. It grew longer, forming a thin, flexible body. The sickly yellow light turned into pale green scales, and a head formed at the tip. The team found themselves facing what appeared to be a massive serpent, nearly dwarfing the Hulk.

Rarity, Pinkie, and Applejack gasped, drawing themselves back, and Natasha put herself on guard, but Wanda and T'Challa had no reaction at all. Before anybody could ask a question, Wanda focused her power, forming a ball of energy between her palms, pointed it at the giant snake, and fired. The beam of red energy passed through the reptilian beast as though it didn't exist, and Phobos, standing directly behind the illusion, was knocked off his feet once more. The snake seemed to actually fade away like mist.

"We saw your illusion powers in Wakanda," said Wanda. "Did you think we wouldn't remember them?"

Pinkie blinked, then began to laugh. "That wasn't so scary!"

Grogar groaned, placing his hoof against his head. "You are so unimaginative, Phobos. Your brother's right, you are an imbecile."


Sombra's tentacles had slammed into pretty much every reachable surface in the shrine. He now had Steve, Tony, Twilight, and Rainbow attacking him (Vision had left to deal with Deimos), and all four were proving rather difficult to hit.

"Just hold still!" he snapped, conjuring a pointed crystal and firing it at Tony and Twilight. "I'll eviscerate you humans!"

"Lotta tough talk for a guy whose name isn't recognized by spellcheck," Tony retorted, looping around the crystal, Twilight following him. Tony crossed both arms over his chest, charging up his unibeam, and firing it directly at Sombra's head. The altered unicorn created another shield-shaped crystal, and the beam ricocheted off, flying right at Steve.

Twilight shouted in frustration, trying to form a barrier around Steve, but the repulsor beam was moving too fast. Thankfully, the Captain's reflexes were fast enough to raise his own vibranium disk to intercept the attack. The bad news was that the beam was reflected off of the shield, and right back at its sender. Tony was quick enough to zip to the side, allowing the beam to only graze his right arm and leg, but was still sent tumbling through the air by the force. Stumbling, Tony managed to right himself, patting the sparking sections of his armor.

"Watch it, Rogers!" he yelled to Steve, angry.

"Hey, I didn't see you!" Steve shot back, leaping over another one of Sombra's tentacles. He did not apologize.

Grunting, Tony opened a compartment in his suit's wrist, producing a laser emitter. He turned the beam to the ceiling, slicing off a few chunks of rock directly above Sombra. The stones slammed down on the unicorns head, but some came dangerously close to hitting Steve. The Captain was forced to roll to the side to avoid them.

"You did that on purpose!" he shouted at Tony, fury evident in his exposed features.

"Didn't see you," Tony responded, his tone of voice clearly mocking his comrade. Steve looked even angrier.

"Hey! Hey!" exclaimed Twilight, hitting Sombra with another beam. "Could we maybe focus on this after the battle?!"

Sombra whirled on the alicorn, but Steve chucked his shield at his face, knocking him off course. Rainbow Dash struck him across the jaw, staggering him.

Growling, Sombra compressed his body back into his true form, avoiding more blasts from Tony. He picked up his scythe.

"Phobos! Deimos! Grogar!" he shouted. "We are leaving!"

The shadowy unicorn ignited his horn, forming a pool of pure black energy beneath him. Similar pools formed under each of his minions. Before any of the ponies or Avengers could react, all four were pulled into the pools, completely vanishing from view. The pools compressed, and finally disappeared. The team was left by themselves, the shadow ponies all destroyed, with their adversaries gone.

Sam flew down from the room, his wings automatically folding back into his pack.

"Well," he said. "That could've gone better."

"Oh, yeah," Tony snorted, popping up his mask. "We didn't catch a single one. Great day, everybody!" He clearly gestured at Steve.

Steve glared at him, gripping his shield as he prepared to throw it again.

"Whoa, there, partner!" said Applejack, putting her hoof on him. "Fighting with each other ain't gonna help."

"She's right," said Twilight, floating over to Tony.

Iron Man and the Captain glared at each other once more, before turning away. Twilight and her friends could feel the tension in the air, but nopony had any clue how to address it. The other Avengers felt it as well, but none of them interfered, for reasons only known to them.

"Uh, hey!" said Starlight, clearly uncomfortable. "How about we look at that alter?"

"Yes! Great idea!" said Rainbow, speaking louder than she needed to.

Twilight flew over to the alter, followed by her friends, and the Avengers, though Steve and Tony stood on opposite ends. Deciding not to focus on it, Twilight took a close look at the stone alter. Age had eroded it, though the remains of what might have been writing remained in the stone. Focusing her eyes, Twilight noticed a spot where the top didn't clearly join up with the sides. Focusing her magic, Twilight grabbed the loose section, and pulled.

As suspected, the loose stone was a lid, revealing a small, hidden compartment. Inside were two objects. One was the mirror Deimos had taken from the Castle of the Two Sisters. The other was a small, rectangular tablet, carved out of a slab of black marble. Etched into the stone were strange symbols, clearly arranged in sentences, but unreadable. Starlight levitated it out of the socket.

"I don't recognize this script at all," she said, staring perplexed at the object. "Do you, Twilight?"

The Princess of Friendship examined the tablet.

"No," she responded. "I hope we can find somepony who does."