Equis, Manehattan
To say that the battle between Sombra's forces and the Avengers was going well would be a lie. True, they'd managed to stop any of the shadows from entering the museum, and not even Sombra's leading minions had made it to the building. Unfortunately, they hadn't managed to hold the line quite as well as they would've liked. Steve's team had been pushed farther and farther back, to the point where the museum was barely two blocks away from the center of the fighting. This wasn't helped by that fact that, unlike last time, the onslaught of shadow creatures seemed to never end, no matter how many they destroyed.
Adding to the problem were the wounds they'd sustained. Most of the ponies had no protective clothing, leaving their exposed flesh vulnerable. Fortunately, their small size allowed them to evade a lot of attacks, and most only had basic cuts or bruises. The worst was Rainbow Dash, who had a small gash in her left wing from one of Phobos' blasts, but it failed to keep her out of the air.
The Avengers were a different story, taking the brunt of the physical damage. Tony's suit was cracked and sparking in several places, most of the damage having been inflicted by a yak ramming him in the chest. One of Wanda's eyes was beginning to blacken, Sam had a rather large cut across his chest, and Steve had bled quite a bit from the mouth. That didn't seem to be slowing them down, luckily.
One small bit of good news was the fact that Sombra himself had been kept away from the ground forces that he could've easily overwhelmed. For the majority of the battle, his attention had been diverted to the alicorns, along with Thor, who packed the most firepower. The dark unicorn was keeping them busy, though. No matter how much lightning or magic they hit him with, he seemed to recover faster than what should've been possible.
Naturally, the situation wasn't sitting well with Thor. Roaring in frustration, he sent another flurry of lightning bolts bearing down on Sombra, burning into the blob of darkness. Holes formed in the mass, sparking with blue electricity, eliciting another pained shriek from the morphing unicorn. Sombra's tentacles lunged out once more, striking Thor in the chest and pushing him through a high-rise apartment building. A bolt of Sombra's magic struck the asphalt, causing another of his rocky, dull crystal spires to burst out of it. Sombra's real body reformed on top, scythe at the ready.
"Master," came the voice of Grogar, magically sent to Sombra's mind, "are we prepared to execute the plan? Phobos and Deimos grow impatient."
"Nearly," Sombra mentally replied, as he parried a swipe from Luna's sword. "We need them all in one place. Drive them closer together."
"As you command," Grogar replied, black magic flowing down his curved horns. The ram had led the charge of his shadow minions, pushing the Avengers closer and closer to the museum. Steve's grounded squad was currently trying to take him out, with little success.
With a quick clang of his bell, Grogar sent a sonic blast towards the humans, forcing them to dive to the sides. This turned out to be part of his plan, however, as his horns glowed with power, sending bolts of dark purple electricity arcing out towards the divided groups. Fortunately, Wanda and Starlight were quick to act, projecting red and turquoise force fields to stop the magic attack.
With an open shot, Steve reared back and chucked his shield at Grogar, hitting him in the lower neck. Wanda charged a blast of red energy in her hands, firing it directly at the ram, but he managed recover enough to levitate himself out of the way. What he didn't manage to avoid, however, was Pinkie's party canon, firing a miniaturized Scott at him. Ant-Man hit Grogar in the head, bouncing off and re-enlarging himself once more, landing on both feet, as Grogar slammed into a fire hydrant.
"Now that's what I call 'Big things come in small packages!'" cheered Pinkie, as she bucked a donkey shadow in the head.
"Pinkie, that doesn't make any...oh, never mind," Wanda groaned, hurling a chunk of asphalt at the approaching shadows.
Across the battlefield, Bucky was locked in a fight against Phobos. Though the soldier clearly had the greater skill among the two, Phobos' fear spell had thrown off some of Bucky's focus. His nerves made concentrating on the fight more difficult than it should've been, and intrusive thoughts leaked into his brain, centered around his guilt and anguish. Bucky wished that he could stop himself from feeling anything, as it would be preferable to this.
Of course, all this didn't cancel out Bucky's capabilities as a fighter. Phobos grunted as yet another hammer fist from his metal arm found its mark on the top of the goat skull, followed by Bucky whacking him upside the head with the butt of his pistol. With Phobos driven back, Bucky ejected the clip from his gun, loading a new one and shooting a shadow griffon that'd tried to sneak up on him, destroying it. Whirling around, he thrust his fist towards Phobos again, but this time, the faun caught it.
"I'm going to enjoy watching you crumble even more now," Phobos snarled. He punched Bucky in the stomach, his fist carapace knocking the wind out of the soldier. Phobos then heaved, throwing Bucky back as hard as he could, aiming the human at the brick and mortar apartment across from the museum.
"Oh, no you don't!" exclaimed Twilight, rejoining the ground battle. Her magenta aura enveloped Bucky, catching him before he could crash and shatter several bones. She gently rotated Bucky in midair, placing him on both feet. With her ally saved, she turned and fired three bolts of magic at Phobos. One connected, pushing him away.
"Thanks, Princess Twilight," Bucky breathed, firing another few bullets. Steve soon joined them, hurling his shield to decapitate a shadow unicorn and watching it rebound back to him from a wall, only to throw it once more.
"We're losing a lot of ground, here," he grunted, kicking a shadow pegasus off him. The undead pony was grabbed and destroyed by a passing Rainbow Dash. "Sam, how are we doing on thinning the herd?"
"Not gonna lie, Steve. Not great," admitted Sam, as he weaved between griffon shadows that tried to slice him. He looked down on the crowd of shadow creatures that continued to steadily march towards the museum, the discernible difference between the current size and the size of the mob that had existed at the start of the battle almost negligible. "We keep chopping them down, but we're barely making a dent."
"Then we need some kind of game changer," said Steve. He turned to Twilight. "Can you whip out the chest?"
"All six Elements of Harmony need to be together for it to work, and we'll need a minute to charge it up," Twilight admitted, blasting another dark earth pony. "And we can't do that effectively while we're being assaulted on all sides. Maybe we could—"
Twilight's suggestion would remain unspoken, as the heavy weight of Iron Man slammed into her from the back. Tony and the Princess of Friendship were sent tumbling out of the air and across the pavement, nearly crashing into Bucky. Tony was followed by Rainbow Dash, courtesy of another blast from Deimos. The panic creating faun stomped over to the group, but Starlight blasted him in the head, and Sam dive-kicked him across the sidewalk.
"Ow...son of a bitch," Tony grunted, climbing to his feet. "I'll rip him a new one." He helped Twilight back onto her own hooves, only then noticing the man he'd almost hit. Twilight, aware that something bad seemed to hover between them, felt herself sweat nervously at the sight. She breathed a deep relief when Tony merely grunted, "Get away from me," and took off once again.
He didn't get far, though. The flock of airborne shadows, pegasi and griffons, was now swarming the skies, keeping the fliers of the team from making any significant progress. On all battlefronts, the Avengers and the ponies were being boxed in, shoved back towards the museum. Steve noted with a growing panic that the building was close enough behind them that he could easily hit it with his shield. Natasha, T'Challa, Vision, and Fluttershy were completely swarmed with shadows that managed to make it past the blockade.
Celestia and the others weren't having much better luck. Even outnumbered, Sombra still kept them at bay, his morphing abilities preventing any of them from keeping a grip on him. The massive dark blob, Sombra's eyes and horn visible at what might've been the head, extended more than half a dozen tentacles, as Thor, Celestia, and Luna did their best to parry the swinging limbs, while looking for an opening to attack. Unfortunately, Sombra had wised up, his form shifting to creating pockets of empty space whenever they fired, allowing their assaults to pass harmlessly through him.
"You cannot do this forever!" Thor snarled, bashing his hammer against Sombra's horn. "Even you know limits!"
"Perhaps, son of Odin," Sombra cackled. "Or perhaps you have no knowledge of whom you deal with. Allow me to correct this error."
With that, two of Sombra's tentacles split at the tips, transforming into dozens of tiny tendrils, barely thicker than a single strand of hair. The smaller limbs stabbed outward, latching onto the bodies of Thor and Luna, freezing them in their tracks. Celestia moved to help them, but the split second of her divided attention was all Sombra needed to smack her aside with a tentacle. With a purple pulse of his horn, Sombra sent thousands of volts worth of magical electricity into the bodies of his caught enemies, causing them to shriek in pain, before he casually dropped them to the ground.
Celestia roared with fury at the display, flying at Sombra, full-speed, her halberd primed to stab. Sombra grinned, morphing back into his pony form and blocking her weapon with his own. Celestia's magic gathered at the tip of the halberd, firing a golden beam with the glow and heat of the sun itself. Sombra responded by charging his own horn, launching a purple sphere at the attack. The two magic strikes collided in midair, creating an explosion of light and smoke.
The shock waves didn't deter either of the combatants, of course. They charged each other once more, Celestia bringing her halberd up horizontally, as Sombra brought his scythe down in a descending slice. The curved blade caught on the metallic handle at the two rulers grappled.
"So feeble," Sombra cackled, his eyes glowing red with power. "A few key strokes, and you lose all emotional control. It'd be amusing if it weren't so pathetic."
"Silence, you cur!" Celestia snarled, shoving her halberd up. Sombra's grip with the scythe was lost, and he stumbled back. Celestia aimed a stab at his neck, but the blade only grazed the side. Sombra didn't even bleed from the wound, only release more dark purple magic. "You will not lay waste to Equestria! Not while I still draw breath!"
"Oh, taking the initiative for yourself, are you?" Sombra replied, the smug grin never leaving his face. "Interesting. From what I've heard, over the last thousand years, you've grown quit accustomed to forcing other ponies into all your dirty work."
Celestia, in the midst of prepping another attack, actually faltered at his words. She still held her weapon, but the golden glow of her horn dimmed. Celestia clenched her teeth, trying to appear more enraged, but internally, she'd been hurt.
"That's not true," she snapped back. Sombra's smiled only widened when he noticed she wasn't able to throw everything behind her words. She didn't even realize she was trying to justify herself to an enemy. "I am the Princess of the Sun! I protect Equestria—"
"Really?" Sombra cut her off. "Because from what I've heard, the majority of that job has been taken over by Twilight Sparkle. At your insistence, no less."
"Twilight is bonded to the Element of Magic!" Celestia protested weakly. "Luna and I can't use the Elements anymore!"
"True," Sombra conceded. "Of course, you let her find that out all by herself, didn't you? What were you doing while she and her friends battled Nightmare Moon? Relaxing with a nice crossword?"
"Her friendships had to be genuine—"
"Or there was sending her to my Empire to save it from me. You didn't even tell her I might return!" Sombra laughed like a lunatic. "I must admit, that was highly amusing. Even more amusing was watching her sob in front of an empty door, thinking it was you, rejecting her forever."
"That was a test..." Celestia mumbled. She was no longer even facing Sombra. Her head had drooped down, her weapon lay lifeless on the asphalt. Tears began to drip from Celestia's purple eyes, and her shoulders shook.
"Ah, and our good friend Tirek. You gave her all your magic to hide it, knowing he'd eventually learn of her existence and hunt her down. She had to battle him all on her own. I must say, Celestia, if your goal is the give that filly the most traumatic life you possibly can, you're doing a fantastic job."
"Shut up!" Celestia sobbed, firing a gold beam from her horn. But her heart wasn't behind the blow. Sombra deflected the weak attack with one effortless swing of his scythe.
"Well, then," he announced, charging his horn, "I believe we're done here."
Sombra fired, the black and purple beam hitting Celestia directly in the horn. The ivory white alicorn screamed in pain at the dark magic traveled down the appendage, shocking every nerve in her body. Celestia's eyes turned the horrific shade of green, with purple wisps of smoke coming off them. Her veins glowed purple, and chunks of black crystal formed on the tip of her horn. As she screamed, Celestia was pitched off her hooves, crashing to the asphalt on her side and sliding. To add insult to injury, Sombra chucked her halberd at her, clocking Celestia on the head with the blunt tip.
"TIA!" Luna screamed, flying over to where Celestia had fallen. Thor joined her, though not before hitting Sombra with another bolt of lightning, driving him back.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!" Luna screamed again, cradling her sister's head with her front legs. Thor felt Celestia's neck, breathing a sigh of relief as he found a steady breath and a pulse.
Sombra chuckled to himself. "I merely opened her eyes to her greatest failure," he answered, sadistically. "It wasn't difficult. After all, Princess Twilight has been weighing heavily on her mind these past few nights."
"Nights...?" Thor snapped back up, pointing Mjölnir at him. "You. You caused her nightmares! You invaded her dreams!"
"And the mighty prince proves he's not a complete buffoon," Sombra mocked, pretending to clomp his hooves on the ground in applause. "Celestia is a formidable foe, I admit, but predictable. Like the Avengers you seem so found of, Thor."
Luna ground her teeth, raising her sword. "You will not—!" She never finished her threat, as Sombra formed a large tentacle, smacking her and Thor aside.
"Attend your sister, Luna. It's what you do best." Sombra's amorphous form rose into the air. "I have business to conclude."
Sombra's shapeless body floated towards the center of the battlefield, levitating over the fallen Celestia. Over in front of the museum, the Avengers and the Elements of Harmony had been forced into a tightly packed crowd, with shadows converging on them from all sides. The rear guard of Natasha, Fluttershy, Vision, and T'Challa had been dragged into the fighting as well, with their backs against the wall. Even Sam, Vision, Tony, Twilight, and Rainbow had been forced low in the sky, barely able to maintain any altitude. Worse, this left all the fliers except for the armored Tony and Vision more vulnerable, as they had no room to dodge attacks. Sombra allowed himself a brief chuckle at the sight, as he powered up his horn. Black sparks and green spheres bubbled up the appendage, and Sombra's eyes glowed with green light.
"Phobos, Deimos," he mentally ordered. "It is time."
The fauns both grinned with malicious joy, before readying their staffs. A bubble of pure yellow magic formed in the crook of Phobos', as a green sphere appeared in Deimos'. Sombra's horn sparked, and two wire-thin trails of black magic shot out of it, linking to the staves of the fauns. Grogar, prepared for this, ordered his shadow minions to fall back. The Avengers and Elements of Harmony paused in surprise, as the never-ending onslaught actually ceased their attack.
"Avengers," Sombra announced, cackling madly. "Now, you will experience the consequences of getting in my way."
With those words, his blood-red horn pulsed, sending out more thin black bolts, with lines of green and yellow magic trailing around them. Before any of the humans could move, the bolts flashed onto their heads, going right between their eyes. The sclera turned the sickly green color, with Phobos' yellow mixed in, and the irises turned blood red. Those whose eyes were visible rolled them back in their sockets. Sam, Vision, and Tony all dropped out of the air, thankfully not too far.
"NO!" Twilight screamed, recognizing Sombra's spell immediately. Grogar hit her with a bolt of lightning, knocking her out of the sky, and restraining her with his magical electricity. As she struggled in his grip, Twilight saw that all of her friends were either restrained, or otherwise occupied by the shadow creatures, preventing them from helping the Avengers.
"Sit back and enjoy the show, Princess," Grogar mocked. "It's sure to display a new side of your human friends."
The other ponies could only look on as the Avengers stumbled where they stood, eyes glowing green, red, and yellow. The lights in Tony's mask flashed the unpleasant shade as he clutched at his head, falling to his knees. Steve dropped his shield, his breathing ragged. Twilight could only watch in terror, as she knew exactly what Sombra had done to them.
Tony was watching the footage from Siberia again, only this time, it was reality. He stood off to the side of the road, as Barnes drove by on the motorcycle, smashing the window. Howard Stark crawled out of the driver's seat, falling to his knees, only to be bludgeoned to death with a metal arm. Maria could only cry out in fear, as the cold steel fingers wrapped around her throat.
Tony screamed in anguish as he tried and failed to stop the tragedy. It was as though he was trapped behind a transparent, endless pane of glass. No matter how hard he pounded on it, even with the full force of the Iron Man suit, he couldn't dent it.
The scene changed. First it was Peter, looking up at him, disappointment and disillusionment all over his face, as he discarded the suit. Rhodey, lying on a hospital bed, bleeding out from his back, his dying eyes gazed at his friend, condemnation filling them. Happy, shaking his head dismissively as he walked away. Then, worst of all, Pepper.
"You let him get away with this, Tony," she said, judgement radiating from her. "You say you make a difference? Great job so far."
Tony tried to protest, tried to defend himself, but the words didn't come out of his mouth. He'd been put on mute, anything he would've spoken drowned out by some unseen force.
"Your weapons killed God knows how many people," Pepper continued. "You created Ultron. And now you failed to do anything to make up for this. You couldn't even bring yourself to stop Steve when he betrayed you and everything he stood for. You're nothing, Tony."
Tony howled as the mental attack bore down upon him. Clenching his fists, his mind was overwhelmed by a single thought.
Kill Barnes.
Steve was reminded of the dream Wanda had shown him. The Commandos were there once again, along with Peggy, Howard, Colonel Phillips, and Dr. Erksine. However, now they were trapped in chains, bound in an endless line of prisoners, marching towards a black void. Steve tried to rush to them, to free them, but he couldn't move. He was chained to a spot in the darkness, every limb paralyzed.
"You did this, Steve," Peggy growled, not even raising her head to look at him. "Your friend supported this. Let the Accords do this to us. And you just watched."
"I was wrong when I chose you," said Dr. Erksine. "You're nothing more than a thug. Even with the serum."
"You let my son destroy everything," Howard somberly droned. "Barnes is already gone because you failed to act. You're too weak. You don't deserve the shield."
Steve kept trying to speak, even as all sound was snatched from his mouth. He strained at the bindings, searching for weak links, desperately trying to reach his friends.
"You want to refute that, Steve?" said a new voice. Steve looked up, seeing Sharon standing in front of him, arms folded. He nodded, not knowing what else to do.
"Then you know what you have to do."
Kill Stark.
The images the others were forced to watch were just as bad.
Natasha saw her younger self, as she squeezed the trigger so hard her hand bleed, pumping bullets into defenseless individuals, as the faces of her friends taunted her, telling her this was her only purpose in life, all she would ever accomplish...
T'Challa held the decaying corpse of his father, and those of the Captain Rogers, Barnes, all those he'd wrongfully blamed surrounded him, as Zemo stood over him with a knowing smirk...
Wanda screamed as Vision ordered soldiers to arrest her, telling her she was too dangerous to be let loose, insisting that he was doing this for her own good, even as he betrayed every bit of their friendship...
Sam could actually smell the flames as everything he and his friends stood for burned. Stark stood over the fire, telling him he deserved it for his role in Rhodey's accident, even as Sam insisted it wasn't his fault...
Vision reached out to Wanda as Steve dragged her away. Away from the safety of his embrace, towards a mob armed with stones. Wanda glared back at him, anger filling her eyes...
Scott heard Cassie's shrieks reverberate from all around him, as he shrank further and further. Government agents, on orders of the Accords, were taking her for his crimes. Scott kept jamming on the thumb trigger of his glove, to no effect...
Bucky wasn't shown anything new. All he saw was the nightmare he kept having, telling him once again to lie down and give up...
Nobody moved for a few seconds, as the assembled Avengers slowly got to their feet, the daze seeming to fade. The ponies could clearly see their eyes, however, and that sickly, evil green glow remained. Twilight, released from Grogar's magical restraint, reached a tentative hoof towards Iron Man.
"Tony...?"
It was like she'd fired a race starting pistol. Tony whirled around where he stood, priming a missile from his arm launcher and aiming it directly at Bucky. The soldier himself, seemed to have gone comatose where he stood, falling to his knees and staring at the ground. If he noticed the immediate threat, he did nothing about it.
However, another did, as Steve's shield came flying out and struck Tony in the chest. As Iron Man slid back, the Captain rushed over, catching the metal frisbee and assuming an aggressive stance.
"Stay away from him, you pampered piece of garbage," Steve snarled, his voice filled with a fury he'd never used before.
"He killed my mom," Tony spat back, clenching his metal fists. "You gonna defend that? Is it okay just because he's your friend?"
It was then that Steve said the cruelest sentence he'd ever speak for the rest of his life.
"Your mom would be ashamed of you."