Equis, Near Canterlot
On the side of the mountain overlooking Canterlot, a massive, mismatched group all sat around trying not to freak out. Considering that dealing with the unusual and strange was pretty much in the description of their jobs, they were pretty well versed in doing so at this point in their lives. However, a large portion of the group was trapped on an alien planet for the first time ever, and naturally, they weren't exactly psyched up about it.
"Aunt May's gonna kill me, Aunt May's gonna kill me, Aunt May's gonna kill me..." mumbled Spider-Man, arms wrapped around his knees, rocking back and forth.
Bucky rolled his eyes. "Kid, I think you're being overdramatic," he quipped. "It's not like you knew there was gonna be a massive attack on us with burning deer...things, and creepy ghost horses that blow ice over everything and didn't tell her."
"Yeah, if you think she'll believe me when I say that, you're dumber than I am," replied Peter, clutching his mask. "Oh man, I am so screwed it's not even funny..."
"You're right, that's not funny at all!" chimed in Pinkie Pie. "You wanna hear something really funny? Okay, so a pegasus, a unicorn, and an earth pony walk into a bar-"
"Um, sorry to interrupt what I'm sure is a very important conversation, but can we focus?!" yelled Valkyrie.
"Thank you, ma'am," said Steve, getting to his feet. "We need to decide what we're going to do next."
Steve looked over all those who'd been unable to enter the portal in time. Among the Avengers, besides himself, there was Bucky, Sam, Thor, Vision, Spider-Man, Loki (wonderful), and Valkyrie. From the ponies, there was Applejack, Starlight, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, and Princess Luna. Then there was that Wong character, who was quietly meditating on a patch of grass. Steve sighed, partially in relief. At least this time, he had some of the more powerful Avengers. When the team had split up before, Tony got pretty much all the strongest ones.
The captain then took a glance over at the city of Canterlot. Or rather, the giant chunk of ice currently taking the place of Canterlot. Steve couldn't help but shiver. This attack had been planned, coordinated for who knows how long. Those windigo things had taken out all the remaining Asgardians, dozens of Canterlot ponies, and all the visiting tribes. Not to mention Nick Fury. It was a terrible thought, and it made Steve's stomach clench with rage.
"They'll pay," he vowed. "For all those creatures they killed—"
"Uh, actually, Steve," said Starlight, poking him with her hoof, "everybody that got frozen is still alive."
"What?!" shouted Sam. "That...that can't be. Even with magic—"
"No, it's totally possible," Starlight insisted. "Windigos feed off hatred and strife to create more blizzards. Their ice is enchanted to trap anybody inside it in a state of suspended animation, keeping them alive so the windigos can continue to feed off them. Anybody trapped in their ice is still alive, at least for now." She looked over at the mountain city. "The windigos don't seem to be around to absorb their negativity now. Whoever sent them probably recalled them, and is keeping them on a leash."
"But who could capture windigos?" demanded Princess Luna. "They've been diminishing in numbers so greatly since the founding of Equestria they were once thought extinct. Even if they are still out there, it would take very powerful magic to keep them under control."
"Amora could do it," Thor chimed in, leaning on his axe.
"Who was that lady, anyway?" demanded Rainbow Dash. "She knew who you were and everything."
"Amora is a very powerful Asgardian sorceress," Loki spoke up. "Sometimes referred to as the Enchantress. Unfortunately, she had no morals about using her magic to get exactly what she wanted. She stole powerful artifacts and priceless treasures for herself, and even tried to seduce my brother, if you can believe that." The God of Mischief chuckled for a brief period, before a glare from Luna brought it to a halt. "Anyway, Thor and I battled against her and exiled her from Asgard. I haven't heard from her in centuries."
"So your saying this Amora was behind the attack?" asked Applejack.
"No," Thor replied. "Amora may be clever, but not clever enough to organize all of our enemies like this. Somebody is controlling her, and I aim to find out who."
"While I agree with your goal, Thor," said Vision, "we first need to determine our next move. We've lost half of our team, and we also lost the portal that would've gotten us back to Earth. We need to find another way."
Steve turned to Wong. "You and that Dr. Strange guy were able to warp directly to us, right? Could you get us home?"
"Unfortunately, Captain, that's impossible," Wong replied. "I was only able to make that jump because Strange and I combined our powers in a massive teleport spell. With the magic of the ponies here, I could make a pretty good attempt, but the magic here...it's different from what I use. It seems based in this planet. If I tried to use their magic to make the jump, I might accidentally strand us in space halfway between the two planets."
"And that's terrible," Bucky chimed in. "Okay, so we're stuck here. What do we do now?"
"There is another mirror, remember?" Rainbow said. "Back at Twilight's castle, we have the mirror that warps directly to Wakanda. Why don't we just go get it?"
"It's a possibility, Rainbow Dash," interrupted Luna, using her horn to project a map of Equestria in blue light, "but our enemies may be watching us. We won't be able to take the train back to Ponyville. We'll have to walk the distance, down from the mountain. It'll be more difficult, time-consuming, and there are hidden dangers on the path."
"Well, from what I'm hearing, we don't have a lot of other choices," Steve said with a sigh. "We'll just have to bite the bullet and go. Everybody on board with this plan?"
"No," Loki quipped, but everybody ignored him. The others all nodded their agreement.
"Then let's get moving." Steve strapped his shield to his back. "We've got a lot of ground to cover and we have no idea what our timetable is. So let's get to it."
The mismatched team gathered together, looking at Luna's projected map. While Steve, Luna, and Wong discussed what the most optimal route would be, Loki hung back, watching the Princess of the Moon with longing in his eyes. He felt his stomach droop as she continued to ignore his existence. The worst part was the nagging voice in the back of his head, telling him that, in all honesty, he probably deserved the shunning. That he'd done terrible things. Even worse, that voice sounded annoyingly like his mother. Or rather, the woman he'd believed to be his mother. He tried repeatedly to shut that voice up, but it would never stay silent for long.
"You miss her, don't you?" came a voice. Loki turned to the side, finding Bucky observing him.
"Don't act as if you understand, you one-armed cretin," Loki snapped, brandishing his dagger. What right did this mortal have to even speak to him?
"Oh, boo-hoo, poor Loki," Bucky mocked, but his face softened. "Look, I know Luna, and I understand her, probably better than you think I do. She's a good pony, and she deserves to be treated better than you've been doing so far."
"Oh, here is comes again," Loki groaned, rolling his eyes. "You're going to tell me all about how I'm the problem here, and how Luna is right to toss me aside, after our years of friendship."
"Well, if that's what everybody's telling you, maybe they have a point!" Bucky snapped. "Did you ever think of that? Look, if you want Luna to forgive you, you need to make an effort to be forgivable. And from what I've heard, you pulled some pretty bad shit over the past couple of years. You need to start thinking about this from her perspective."
"What would you have me do?" Loki protested, growing more and more angry as the conversation continued. "I can't go back and undo the things I did. I can't make it so that Hela never escaped. I can't—"
"You haven't even taken the simplest step yet," Bucky cut him off. "You haven't looked her in the eye, and said 'I'm sorry.' You know why she and I were forgiven for the stuff we did? Because we repented. Because we didn't try to shift the blame onto somebody else. Because we owned up to what we did wrong. You ever think of trying that?"
Loki opened his mouth to fire back with another angry retort, but it died in his throat. He hated to admit it, and he would never do so out loud, but Barnes did have a point. For all that he didn't regret, Loki was sincerely sorry for making Luna think he was dead. When he'd faked his death, she hadn't even been part of the equation, as she'd still been imprisoned in the moon, and even if she were freed, Loki had believed he'd never see her again.
He sighed to himself as he brushed the hair out of both eyes. He hated this uncertainty. He hated having Luna angry with him. And he hated his pride, which was coming dangerously close to stopping him from ever making amends with her.
Earth, Wakanda
Tony shook his head as he looked over the sleeping form of Bruce Banner. Since the impromptu trip from Equestria, the physicist had shown no signs of waking, which made sense, considering the beating he'd taken. Shuri had looked him over, saying that nothing was really wrong, thanks to the Hulk's healing factor. Everyone had breathed with relief at that, leaving them one less problem to deal with.
"Rest easy, buddy," Tony said, before turning back to his band of misfits.
At the moment, the Avengers who'd managed to make it through the portal, as well as Korg, Dr. Strange, Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, Princess Celestia, and Autumn Blaze were gathered in Shuri's lab, resting after the rather disheartening defeat they'd faced back in Canterlot. Tony himself felt more annoyed than anything, but he supposed he couldn't blame the others for being discouraged.
"So, Twilight, any idea how to melt the magic ghost horse ice?" he asked, Twilight having already explained how the windigos didn't kill their victims. "Or how about you, sun butt? You were around when those things first appeared, right?"
"I wasn't exactly present," Celestia corrected him. "Luna and I only reached maturity and ascended after the unification of the three tribes. We were too young to truly remember details from back then."
"I just don't know," Twilight replied. "The Hearth's Warming story only talks about the ponies moving beyond their hatred of each other, and that being strong enough to melt the ice. Star Swirl was the only one who studied windigos enough to know exactly how to combat them, but now he's frozen. I'm sorry, Tony, I don't know."
Tony cursed quietly, causing both Celestia and Rarity to gasp, but he ignored them. "Well, we can't just sit around doing nothing."
Autumn Blaze wiped her eyes sadly. "It's all my fault," she sobbed. "If I hadn't brought the kirin, the windigos wouldn't have been attracted to the niriks' negative emotions, and—"
"Sssh, it's okay," said Natasha, hugging the kirin. "There's no way you could've known. Nobody blames you." Autumn Blaze smiled a bit at the human's kindness.
"We have another problem," Twilight pointed out. "Equestrian magic comes from the natural forces surrounding the planet Equis. Since we're separated from it, we only have a limited supply. It'll last for a while, but once it runs out, Fluttershy, Celestia, and I won't even be able to fly. We'll be completely useless in a fight."
"Not that I was that useful anyway," Fluttershy lamented, but nobody heard her.
"Okay," Wanda spoke up, taking charge. "Clearly, we need a way to pick up Steve and the others who got left on Equis, not to mention figure out who's behind this attack and stop them before they carry on with whatever they're doing. So how shall we go about that?"
"You know, if you'd thought to get away from that fight sooner, we might all be together, and we'd have avoided this problem in the first place," Dr. Strange remarked from his spot in the corner.
"I'm sorry, who asked you, Dr. Strangelove?" Tony retorted, annoyed. "And for that matter, why are you even here? You came to us, and we've never even met you. Except Thor, but that's beside the point..."
"Well, Wong and I detected there was dark magic being performed on that planet, and came to help you out. You're welcome, by the way."
"Whatever."
"If I may," T'Challa interrupted, "we still need a way to get back to Equis. Tony, where is the other portal?"
"Back at the compound. Rhodey's watching it. Any chance we could borrow one of your jets? It would make the trip faster and way easier."
"Well, at least Wakanda no longer has to worry about exposure to the outside world."
"We'll also need to pick up those magic batteries Twilight's talked about from the compound," said Rarity. "Our magic won't last long without them.
"Oh! Oh! I have something!" Shuri chimed in, having been silent for the duration of the conversation. She scurried over to an unmarked table filled with black sand, pressing a couple of buttons. The sand dissipated, revealing what looked like a set of pointed, glowing crystals on belts. "Princess Twilight, ever since you let me study those little portable magic batteries you developed, I've been trying to improve on the design. I've upgraded these with vibranium shells, which helps prevent a lot of leakage. They should last at least a few hours more than the ones you're currently using."
Twilight practically squealed with joy, clopping her hooves against the floor. "Shuri, you are amazing! How did you manage to bypass the vibranium's absorption of the spell's inner matrix!" She started bouncing up and down, talking with Shuri in technicals that nobody could really understand, except for Tony.
The billionaire chuckled at the alicorn's antics. "She really is a gem," he laughed to himself, before turning back to T'Challa. "Anyways, can I use your communicator? I need to make some quick calls."
"You gotta be kidding me!" Rhodey exclaimed. "We got attacked again?! How can this keep happening to us?! I knew I should've come to that stupid conference..."
Tony had activated T'Challa's holographic communications array, and was currently speaking with projections of Rhodey, Pepper, Scott, Hope, and Clint. The discussion was, of course, surrounding the team's current predicament, and what they were planning to do about it.
"Well, I can't say I'm really surprised," Pepper admitted. "The portal mirror is still safe here, but can you get to it fast enough?"
"Yeah, we got plenty of time," replied Tony. "We just need to pick up the others." He turned to Scott and Hope. "Miss Van Dyne? You up for being an Avenger?"
Hope shrugged. "I've got nothing better to do. You can count on the Wasp."
"Awesome! Finally, somebody who will laugh at my jokes!" exclaimed Scott. Hope rolled her eyes, looking at Tony as if to say, 'Look what I have to work with.'
"Clint, can we count on you?" Tony asked, moving back to the archer.
"I dunno, I'm pretty sure this violates my house arrest," said Clint, thoughtfully scratching his chin. "Oh, who am I kidding, I'm in."
"Okay, we'll make our way to Arrow Guy's place," said Scott. "That way, you can pick us all up, and you only have to make one stop."
"Excellent," said Tony. "See everybody in a few." With the push of a button, he shut off the holoprojector, and returned to the others.
"Okay, we are set to go. Everybody's on board. We just need to—" He cut off abruptly, as another person entered the room.
Bruce Banner, having woken from his sleep, and wearing one of T'Challa's old workout shirts, looked around at the assembled group, who in turn stared back at him. The tension, as well as the levels of awkwardness, began to rise, as nobody dared to break the silence. Not to mention, nobody knew what to say.
"Uh, hi, I guess," Bruce finally spoke. "I'm back. I'm guessing a lotta stuff must've gone down...when I was the Hulk, huh?"
"Hi...Bruce," Natasha awkwardly replied, scratching her hair frantically, as one does when they're looking for something to do with their hands, just to lighten the tension of whatever was currently going on.
Bruce looked around the room. "So, I'm guessing we're in Wakanda. Where's everybody else?"
"Most of them are on Equis," said Tony. "You got the crap beat outta you by that Abomination freak you fought before."
"What?! The Abomination's loose?!"
"It's a little more complicated than that. Why don't I explain everything that's gone down since you left?" Tony took Bruce by the shoulder, leading him into another room.
Meanwhile, Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy turned to each other. From the expressions on their faces, each could tell they were all thinking the same thing. Bruce's sudden departure several months ago had affected them very deeply, especially Fluttershy, who was rather close to the doctor.
The butter-yellow pegasus stared after Bruce Banner's retreating form, thoughts swirling about her head. She'd felt betrayed by the man's disappearance, considering that he'd acted like he was doing it to protect them from the Hulk, when they all trusted him not to lose control. And Fluttershy had been trying to teach him calming exercises to help with the transformations, yet he'd still run out on them. And when he'd returned, he'd somehow been trapped in the Hulk form, for what seemed like forever. Yet, here he was.
Fluttershy was certain of one thing. She and Dr. Banner were going to have a long discussion, and it wasn't going to be particularly happy.