//------------------------------// // Chapter 17: Round Two // Story: From the Ashes // by Boltstrike58 //------------------------------// Equis, Manehattan Normally, Manehattan was the busiest, most crammed city in Equestria, surpassing even Canterlot itself. The Elements of Harmony could testify to the validity of this fact, especially given that Rarity held an entire branch of Carousel Boutique in the town. At most times, the streets were jammed with taxis, ponies swarming across the sidewalks, the occasional street vendor here and there. Packs of foals would bounce from place to place, partaking in whatever new game they'd come up with on a whim. Today was not a normal day. Now the streets were completely deserted, with the entire population of the city evacuated. Nopony roamed the dirty roads, leaving only the occasional piece of paper to flutter across the concrete by itself. The shops were all closed down, the lively lights of store windows extinguished for the day. In one day, Manehattan had apparently become a ghost town. Not that it mattered to Sombra. The dark unicorn strolled through the empty streets, his armored shoes clanking against the ground. Phobos and Deimos stood on either side of him, staves at the ready, their butter-colored eyes constantly scanning their surroundings. Behind them was Grogar, alongside another force of shadow ponies, raised from the graves of the nearby cemetery. This small army included griffons, yaks, and donkeys, all of whom had spent their lives in the city. Now, their dark reflections followed in the wake of their master, Grogar's bell commanding their every move. Sombra continued at a leisurely pace, as though this was an everyday stroll through town, as though his minions of darkness did not exist just behind him. As the terrible armada approached the Maretropolitan Museum, they reached the entrance to Equestria's version of Central Park, where Sombra stopped in place, halting all those behind him. The king turned his head from left to right, checking all directions around him, as though he expected something to jump out at them any second. He raised his muzzle and sniffed the air briefly, before a look of surprise came over his features. "I really expected they'd try to halt us," he muttered out loud, to no one in particular. "They cleared out the city. Did they take the key and—" The remainder of that sentence would never be known, as a rather unorthodox interruption cut Sombra off. That interruption took the form of several large confetti cannons popping up in front of the group, accompanied by three more on each side. None of the monsters had a chance to react before the cannons fired, but instead of shredded paper and compressed air, the weapons launched gobs of thick, gooey batter at Sombra and his minions, coating them in a layer of slop, as it plopped over their eyes, and started to dry in the hot sun. "WHAT THE—?!" screamed Phobos. "Surprise!" yelled Pinkie Pie, leaping out from behind a rock. "I've mixed up the confetti with the cake batter before, but this time was on purpose, because you guys are meanies, and you need to learn your lesson!" Grogar reached up with one hoof, wiping the batter from his hair. His red, pupil-less eyes bore into the party pony, who didn't react at all. At his side, Sombra performed the same action, at a loss for any taunts for the first time. "Master, may I incinerate her?" Grogar asked. "By all means," Sombra replied. "And reanimate her corpse so we can kill her again." Grogar began conjuring up a sphere of black lightning between his horns. Pinkie just laughed. "Come on, silly, you didn't really think I was alone, did you?" Realizing that her antics had distracted him, Sombra hurriedly threw up a dome-shaped barrier over his army, but not fast enough. Some of the force from Thor's lightning still managed to get the group, frying several shadow ponies, and zapping Phobos to the point where all his wiry hair stood on end. Deimos took a moment to laugh at his brother's predicament, until twin beams of gold and navy blue magic came flying at the group, knocking them backwards. Grunting in frustration, Sombra cast his gaze skyward. Above them, Thor, Celestia, Luna, Rainbow, Twilight, Sam, and Tony all floated, weapons primed. Celestia and Luna had once again donned the gold and blue battle armor they'd utilized during the War of the Crystal Empire, and held their respective halberd and short sword. On the ground, Pinkie was joined by Rarity, Starlight, Applejack, Wanda, Scott, Steve, and Bucky. Sombra's attention was drawn to the alicorns. "So, the great Celestia finally deigns to show herself," he chuckled. "And Luna. Still hanging onto big sister's every word, no doubt." "Don't bother," Luna answered. "You can't get a rise out of me anymore." "Sombra of the Crystal Empire," Celestia announced, using a low-key version of the Royal Canterlot Voice. "By the law of Equestria, you are charged with war crimes, attempted murder, terrorism, regicide, and crimes against ponykind. You are under arrest. Surrender and no harm will come to you." "And give me back my stuff," Tony chimed in, leveling his repulsor at Sombra. "Arc reactors are expensive." Sombra's face never faltered, the superior, mocking smirk never leaving his expression. "Actually, no harm will come to me anyway. After all, you never did have the spine to get your own hooves dirty, did you, Celestia?" The solar alicorn ground her teeth at his biting remark, but had no response. Flying in front of her, Twilight took over. "You can't win this fight, Sombra!" she shot back at him. "Drop your weapons and throw up your hooves. This doesn't have to be hard." "Unfortunately, due to your innate foolishness, Princess Twilight," Sombra mocked, "it does. Here's where I teach you how worthless your precious 'friendship' really is." He turned his gaze to Grogar and the others. "Take them. Retrieve my key." Grogar, Phobos, and Deimos all smiled, and replied in unison. "With pleasure, King Sombra." Steve grunted as a pegasus ghost dive-bombed his shield, pushing him back a few inches. Starlight, noticing his predicament, blasted the construct away with a bolt of blue magic. "Thanks," Steve acknowledged, before tapping his earpiece. "Alright, we need to hold them back from the museum. Sam and Rainbow, you're our eyes in the sky, and our perimeter. Call out patterns, and take out any that get too close to the museum. Everybody else who can fly, bombard them from above. "Pinkie, Applejack, Starlight, Rarity, Bucky, Wanda, and Scott, you're with me. We hold the line here, stop them from advancing. "Natasha, Vision, T'Challa, and Fluttershy: You hang back at the museum. Pummel anything that gets too close. Use the element of surprise." "O-okay," Fluttershy squeaked from her hiding position beside the others. Natasha gave her a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. "Wait, wouldn't surprise be more of my element?" asked Pinkie, as she bounced on the back of a shadow griffon, knocking it out of the air. "I mean, surprise isn't an Element of Harmony, but laughter's kinda surprising, and everypony always says how surprising I am, and—" "Not the best time, Pinkie!" shouted Applejack, as she ducked under one of Phobos' beams, her Stetson barely grazed by the attack. Up in the air, Twilight grunted as a small mob of shadow pegasi and griffons swarmed after her and Tony like angry bees. It was difficult enough to fly and fight at the same time, but she also had to flap her wings harder than usual to keep up with Iron Man. Tony glanced around the area, taking notice of Manehattan's equivalent of Time Square. "Just like New York all over again," he grunted. "Twilight! Follow my lead!" The purple alicorn obeyed as Tony rocketed towards the currently blank screens, shadow creatures on her tail. Just before he slammed into the glass, Tony made a ninety-degree shift upwards, a move that Twilight barely managed to duplicate. The shadows, beings without real brains, were less fortunate, impacting the screens headfirst, exploding into poofs of dust, and raining shards down onto the street. "Phew!" Twilight breathed. "Next time, you partner with Rainbow. This is too over the top for me!" "You want to play around with my erector sets, you gotta take the perils of hanging out with me, Twily," Tony quipped back. The two of them made their way back towards Sombra and Grogar, Celestia, Luna, and Thor joining them. "Oh, now this is getting interesting," Sombra laughed to himself. His body began to morph once more, becoming the shapeless mass of black tentacles. The appendages lunged outwards, tips pointed like spears. The diarchs of Equestria, along with Tony and Thor, managed to swerve to the side, but the inexperienced Twilight found one stabbing right in her direction, without enough time to dodge. "TWILIGHT!" Celestia screamed, directing all her attention to her former pupil. Sombra noticed Celestia's plight, of course, and sent two more sharpened tentacles to impale her from behind. Thankfully, Thor and Luna were reliable as ever, blasting Sombra's body with lightning and magic, halting his assault. Twilight, thankfully, hadn't been injured. She'd managed to conjure up a spherical shield around herself, just before the tentacle stabbed her. The limb had become amorphous again, engulfing her barrier, pinning the Princess of Friendship in place as it tried to pierce her defenses. However, Luna and Thor had thrown off Sombra, giving Twilight time to focus her magic and expand the barrier, ripping the tentacle apart. Celestia released a heavy breath at the sight of her student's safety. Sombra wasn't done, of course. His eyes and blood-red horn rematerialized on his smokey body, glowing with purple magic. The asphalt beneath the fighters trembled, before spikes made of ugly looking black crystals burst out of it, hurtling towards them. Thor, thinking quickly, spun his hammer around in front of him, shattering the crude projectiles easily. Luna and Twilight picked off the stragglers with magic bolts, but Celestia had a different objective in mind. The solar alicorn, face filled with rage, dove towards Sombra's glowing eyes, her halberd primed and glowing with gold magic. A white sphere formed on the tip of the weapon, and Celestia stabbed it into Sombra's form, right between the eyes. The dark king's fanged maw reformed on his body as he let out a roar of agony. The brilliant white glow traveled down his body, leaving glowing cracks, threatening to split his essence into shards. But then Sombra's horn reignited, surrounding himself in dark purple magic. The white glow receded back to where it came from, as Sombra reformed his original pony body. With a grunt of disgust, he spat out the ball of white magic onto the ground. Directing his gaze back upwards, Sombra summoned his scythe once more, as he stared down Celestia. "You always were that itch that wouldn't be scratched to death, Celestia," he growled, swiping at the Princess. Celestia leapt backwards, and Thor hurled Mjölnir at Sombra, who deflected it with his scythe. Above the main battlefield, a group of shadow pegasi attempted to use the distraction to make their way to the museum, Grogar following them in the sky through self-telekinesis. Unfortunately, they found more resistance than they'd expected. "Stop them! Kill them!" the irate Grogar screamed at his creations. Sam and Rainbow had a brief chuckle, as the shadow ponies dived to grab them with both front hooves, but the far more acrobatic duo had little difficulty evading them. Rainbow whooped as she swerved across the sky, dodging three hoof punches from all different directions. Sticking up one of her back legs, she began spinning in a circle, kicking out and bashing everything within her vicinity. The shadow ponies were sent spiraling out of the air, crashing down into the asphalt below. Grogar roared with fury, attempting to launch himself at Rainbow Dash, only to be cut off by Sam. The Falcon made a quick flyby, clocking the ram on the face with one of his metal wings. Grogar, angrier than ever, came after Sam now, just as he wanted. Sam made a quick upturn, directing the chase to an open area above the buildings. All of a sudden, he executed a quick u-turn, aiming himself right at Grogar. The ram chuckled to himself, prepping a lightning blast, until he noticed the compartment in Sam's backpack opening. With a burst of speed, Redwing rocketed out of Sam's pack, zooming forward and slamming right between Grogar's eyes. The necromancer could only manage some sort of strangled squeak, accompanied by the sound of part of his nose breaking, as he rolled backwards in the air. He did not stop his descent. "Ha! Nice," said Rainbow, coming up beside Sam again. "Think you could get a pack big enough to hold me?" "Don't be so quick to volunteer as a projectile weapon," Sam replied, drawing his duel pistols. On the ground, a group of shadow earth ponies and yaks was rushing to help their fallen master, only to find themselves on the receiving end of Sam's rain of bullets. Near Grogar's landing spot, Tony had joined the ground battle, attacking Phobos and Deimos, Deimos in particular. The faun was engaged in a magic/repulsor firefight with Iron Man, using the trees for cover. "Considering you're the one that got me into this mess," Tony grunted, "I think it's only fair that I vent my aggression on you!" He deployed his wrist laser, slicing down the tree Deimos hid behind, trying to drop it on his opponent. To his surprise, Deimos actually managed to catch the falling tree. With quicker reaction time than he'd expected, Deimos pitched the chunk of wood at Tony, spinning like a boomerang. Know his own reflexes wouldn't be able to equal Deimos, Tony instead triggered his unibeam, his chest reactor launching the massive white bolt into the spinning tree. Though his attack managed to reduce the threatening projectile to splinters, it left Tony vulnerable to a green energy sphere from Deimos that exploded right between his neck and shoulder. Iron Man was tossed across the park, coming to a sliding stop in the mud. "Chassis's sustained damage to torso, Boss," Friday reported, bringing up a summary of the injuries sustained on Tony's heads-up display. "Attempting to reroute power to defensive shielding." "Could you do it a little faster?" Tony demanded, noticing that in the distance, Deimos was charging up another beam attack. As it turned out, he didn't need to worry. Deimos' blast was intercepted by a blue shield, courtesy of Rarity. The faun himself failed to notice Applejack sneaking up behind him until it was too late, and she bucked his lower back with every ounce of strength in her body. Deimos pitched forward, flying directly at Pinkie, who smacked him aside with her own back legs, sending Deimos to collide with a dumpster. "And that's for being a big thieving jerk!" Applejack declared, stomping with her front hooves. "You okay, Mr. Stark?" "Yeah, whatever," Tony replied, activating his jets. He rocketed off without another word. "Hmph! How rude!" Rarity scoffed as he departed. "Could he not even spare one word of thanks for—" She didn't get to finish that sentence, as a group of shadow unicorns chose that moment to converge on her. Applejack grunted as she heaved another undead donkey over her head, slamming it into the ground and causing it to dissipate. Though Tony's response, or lack thereof, annoyed her, she was willing to let it go in the middle of a battle, unlike her drama queen of a friend. That didn't exclude her from other concerns, however. She looked over at Steve, who was currently dueling Phobos. She knew that he'd seen Tony get blasted, and he could've easily thrown the faun off him long enough to help, yet he'd done nothing. Applejack understood that there were plenty of allies who could've helped Iron Man, and Steve might've assumed someone else would do it, but it seemed outside of his nature to ignore a comrade. She uttered a quiet prayer, to anyone who as listening, that his personal feelings weren't starting to affect him now, in the midst of the fight for Equestria. Meanwhile, Steve grunted in frustration as he bashed Phobos across the face with his shield. He and Bucky were double teaming the faun, but he seemed to be shrugging off their strongest blows. Bucky grabbed the dazed Phobos by the horn with his bionic arm, then reeled back and smashed his head into the ground with full force. For about a second, it seemed Phobos was out of commission. But then a yellow glow materialized around him, expanding out into a large dome of pure magic. Both super soldiers managed to leap back in time, but Phobos had gotten back on his feet. "Get him!" Steve roared, charging at the faun, shield positioned like a battering ram. Bucky came from the other side, bionic arm pulled back for a massive punch. Unfortunately for the two friends, Phobos was prepared this time. "Perhaps my brother was right. I haven't been taking full advantage of my powers," he thought to himself. "We're not yet prepared to execute the plan, but perhaps just a small taste..." He faced Bucky, making direct eye contact. For about a second, his eyes pulsed with the same sickly yellow color as his magic. Bucky blinked. None of this was real. It was all a desperate fantasy that he'd built from his prison inside the Soldier. In the real world, he continued to kill, taking life after innocent life. Steve was dead, and he only wished that— Bucky gasped with surprise and fear, losing all focus on the task at hand. He tripped, stumbling across the grass before falling face-first onto the ground at Phobos' feet. "Buck!" Steve yelled. This left him open to Phobos, who backhanded him across the face with a chuckle. The hardened plating of Phobos' fist drew blood from Steve's mouth and nose as he collapsed onto the ground. "So weak!" he laughed. "A small disruption, and—" Applejack wasn't in the mood for the faun's gloating, as she tossed her lasso around one of his goat legs. She yanked as hard as she possibly could, tripping Phobos up and dropping him on his head once more. This was followed by a beam of midnight-blue magic from the sky, hitting Phobos in the center of his back and sending him flying. Steve grunted, as Applejack helped him back onto his feet. If he weren't in the midst of a savage battle, the sight that awaited him when he looked at Bucky might've knocked him back down again. "Sergeant—no, Bucky," Luna breathed, lifting up the soldier with her front legs. "Are you alright?" "Yeah, yeah," Bucky muttered. "He used some magic crap...I'll be fine." He allowed Luna to lift him back up, and use her wing to wipe the dirt from his eyes. Steve had to restrain himself from gasping in surprise, both at Luna's actions, and the fact that she'd referred to Bucky by his nickname, but said nothing. It was a problem for another time. "We ain't gaining too much traction here!" Applejack cut off everybody's thoughts, as she bucked another dark unicorn in the head. "They keep trying to push through us!" "So we don't let them," Steve answered simply, flinging his shield at a recovering Grogar, where it bounced off and decapitated a shadow earth pony. Despite the best efforts of the front line, some of the shadows had managed to slip through their grasp. The creatures had no will of their own, operating entirely on the orders of their creator, Grogar, and headed towards the museum. A small group made their way towards the main entrance, rushing towards the glass doors— Until the yak leading the charge found itself on the receiving end of Vision's golden beam, hitting it right in the middle of its head. The blast cut clean through the construct, tearing it apart and reducing it to a small mass of black smoke. The synthezoid himself floated down to confront the remaining shadows, the Mind Stone glowing with pure power. The few shadow unicorns that had managed to join the assault ignited their horns, firing their gray, lifeless bolts at Vision, who matched them with another gold blast. As the beams clashed, two shadow griffons flew out of the pack, trying to dive down on the android, only to be hit in midair by Natasha's Widow's bite. Plummeting down, the griffons were shredded by T'Challa's vibranium claws. Fluttershy shivered nervously as her comrades battled the approaching shadows. She'd been conflicted over being assigned to the rear guard for the battle, as she wanted to actually be useful, but she was afraid of actually slugging it out with these ghost monsters. Looking over, she discovered that a donkey, yak, two unicorns, a pegasus, and two griffons were preparing to break through a window, and the Avengers hadn't noticed them. It was up to her, whether she liked it or not. Bracing herself, Fluttershy flew over to the group of shadows, screeching to a halt in front of the window, and hovering in place. The shadows stopped their advance immediately, assuming battle positions, as Fluttershy weakly held up her hooves. The donkey reared back and punched with his front hoof, Fluttershy barely managing to dodge, leaving the blow to smash into the asphalt. Gulping to herself, Fluttershy put on her best brave face. "Now listen here, you bad...ghosts, you!" she admonished them, bringing out as much of the Stare as she could. "You may be shadow creatures, but that does not give you the right to attack ponies like me, or my friends! And breaking and entering is just mean! You think the laws don't apply to you?! The laws apply to everypony! Even the ghosts!" She folded her front legs, her famous Stare piercing into the blank eyes of the shadows. The shadows had no facial expressions, but oddly enough, they seemed apprehensive to attack the butter-yellow pegasus. The griffon raised a claw weakly, but made no move to step forward, its wings remaining folded at its sides. The shadow unicorns didn't even bother to charge up their horns. Fluttershy felt sweat dripping down her neck, but fought down her nerves, afraid that showing any sign of weakness would break her hold on them. As it turned out, she needn't have worried. Vision's golden beam came from over by the entrance, piercing through the sides of the shadow yak, donkey, and unicorns. The remaining shadows turned to the source of the attack, only to have T'Challa cross the distance in one leap, and swipe through the pegasus, destroying it. The griffons met a similar fate, dispatched with a few well-placed bullets from Natasha. Fluttershy released her breath, blinking rapidly to rehydrate her eyes. T'Challa, with the battle done for the moment, retracted his claws, turning to the pegasus. "Thank you, Fluttershy," he calmly spoke. "We might've missed them if not for you." "Wow, first Rarity, now you," Natasha grinned. "You ponies are full of surprises." Fluttershy blushed at the compliment. "Um, thanks," she replied. Equis, Ponyville "This sucks!" Lyra shouted, using her magic to fling a beanbag chair across the room. The poor inanimate object had already taken quite a beating, but Lyra kept hitting it, considering it was the only thing in the room that nopony would miss if she wrecked it. "Yeah. You've said that four times in the last thirty minutes," Spike deadpanned, as he continued to attempt to read his comic book, but only succeeding in passing over the exact same speech balloon for the twentieth time in a row. "Well it does!" Lyra lamented. "Twilight and her friends get to go out and fight alongside humans, and talk to them, and see all the cool stuff they can do, and I'm stuck here doing nothing!" "Uh, I'm still here," Bruce piped up from his place in the corner. The physicist, desperate to find something to entertain himself, was currently examining a new helmet Tony and Twilight had built. "How do you think I feel?" Spike snapped. "I've spent my whole life living with Twilight, and I never get to help her! I know, I know she doesn't exclude me to be mean, but I feel like dead weight! I feel like I'm completely useless to her!" Lyra paled at the dragon's outburst, her telekinetic grip on the beanbag chair dissipating. "I...I'm sorry, Spike," the unicorn mumbled. "I-I didn't consider that this is probably harder on you." She turned to Bruce. "Sorry, Dr. Banner. I actually forgot you were here." "It's fine," Bruce replied. "Not a big deal." Spike put down his comic book, breathing deeply, "I'm sorry for that outburst, Lyra," he said. "I guess I've been letting it get to me lately." Lyra opened her mouth to respond, but found an interruption in the form of a blaring bagpipe note that reverberated throughout the entire castle. Pony, human, and dragon slammed their forelimbs over their ears, drowning out at least part of the unnaturally loud 'music.' Spike grunted as he looked around to find the source of the disturbance, which didn't take long. "DISCORD!" he yelled, panting emerald flames. The draconequus in question had materialized out of nowhere, as per his norm, wearing a kilt, and blowing into a massive set of bagpipes. In true Discord fashion, the bag was bright green, dotted with pictures of Fluttershy's Cutie Mark, and the pipes themselves were formed of what looked like deer antlers. "What?" Discord asked, playing up his cluelessness. "Can't a guy just practice his new hobby in peace?" "Very funny," Lyra snorted, irritably. "You know, I haven't forgotten you turning my house into a giant cherry pie." Discord shrugged. "Eh, what can I say? Being trapped in stone for more than one thousand years makes me cranky." "So, I'm guessing you're the...goat-snake that turns the laws of physics into Play-Doh?" asked Bruce. At Discord's affronted reaction, he held up his hands. "Tony's words, not mine." Spike chuckled to himself, before a thought hit him like a lightning bolt. "Discord! You could warp us right to Manehattan! You could get us to Twilight so we could help!" Discord scratched his beard, emitting a sound like a piano keyboard. "Yes, I certainly could," he admitted. "But from what dear old Luna's told me, it may be dangerous." Noticing Spike quickly becoming enraged again, he quickly added, "Hey, I know we may not be the best of friends, Spike, but I care about your well-being!" "But what about Fluttershy?" Spike brought up. Discord flinched visibly at the name. Spike knew exactly which button to press. "You wouldn't leave her, right? And I know you prefer not to get involved very often, considering..." the dragon hesitated to bring up Tirek by name, "...but I know you want to help her. And if you're there, you could protect us, right?" "He does make a convincing argument," Lyra pointed out. "Oh, sure, two on one, that's real fair," Discord quipped. He turned to Bruce. "Want to weigh in, Dr. Banner?" "Hey, I can't go in and fight," Bruce protested. "I'd only make it worse. But from the way Tony and Steve are acting towards each other...If they can't cooperate, it puts everyone at risk. They're gonna need all the backup they can get." Discord sighed. "Sometimes, I feel like this 'friendship' is more trouble than it's worth," he groaned. "Is this really what you want?" Lyra and Spike both nodded, without hesitation. "Alright, if we're gonna do this, we—" For one of the few times in his life, Discord was the one cut off by an unexpected interruption. This particular disruption came from Tony and Twilight's portal mirror, as it fired a blue beam across the room. Pausing in midair, the beam's tip expanded into a massive oval, glowing with the resonant magic of the castle. The portal glowed pure white for a few seconds, pulsing as it charged to full power. With a burst of pure magic, three figures stepped out of the blinding brilliance, feet clomping onto the flawless crystal floor. Bruce almost jumped out of his chair. "Rhodey? Clint?" "Hey, Bruce," said Rhodey, decked out in his new War Machine armor. "Doctor Banner?!" exclaimed Spider-Man, barely able to contain himself from leaping across the room. "OhmyGod! I've read all your papers, and I have pictures of the Hulk on my—" He froze in mid-sentence, his eyepieces widening as he took in his surroundings. "Uh...well, this isn't exactly what I was expecting." Discord chuckled to himself. "Oh, this ought to be good," he laughed, conjuring up a bag of popcorn.