Oh Captain, My Captain

by Onomonopia

We All Fall Down

Tiles shook beneath the hooves of Tirek as he stomped through the streets of Canterlot, swiveling his head from side to side. His eyes glared at his subjects while he passed by, daring one of them to look into his eyes. Yet to his frustration, all hung their heads as he passed by and refused him the chance to vent his anger. Even though the ponies refused to even dare a glance at Tirek, Tirek was still able to see some sets of eyes as they stared at the ground. And they were not the eyes of beaten subjects, like they once were.

'All because Captain America has given them hope,' Tirek burned, his thoughts like a volcano that had finally had enough and was ready to blow. 'All the work we did to keep them subjugated and keep the thought of rebellion out of their heads is ruined, all because of that damned hero!'

He was so deep in his hatred for the Captain that he barely registered that something had tapped him on the backhoof. Slowly, and with as much menace as he could muster, Tirek gradually turned to gaze upon the fool that would dare to touch him. Yet it was not a rebel that had struck the mighty centaur, nor was it a hero. It was a foal. A foal holding a trash lid painted with red, white and a star in the center.

"You...dare?" he asked the small foal with smoke billowing from his nostrils, bringing his face down so that his eyes were able to fully glare into the foal's eyes. To any other being, this glare would have been met with panic and begging for one's life. Yet with every eye upon the pair of them, the small foal smacked Tirek dead on the nose with his trash lid.

Tirek could barely hear the ponies' gasp over the whistling that was screaming in his ears due to his fury. 'I could crush this foal without so much as a thought,' Tirek realized as his front hoof began to lift slowly, preparing to carry out the brain's order. Tirek then forced the hoof back down, the wiser part of his mind telling him that was a bad move. 'Yes...crushing a child will make the ponies turn against me even more so than they have. Let the child play hero. For when the Captain his dead, this foal's pain will be all the sweeter.'

Ignoring the glances of disbelief at Tirek's self control, the titan turned and marched towards his castle. He always found comfort and peace in the darkened hues of what had once been a monument to the ponies' foolishness. Now the dark walls clashed against the bright sky like a demon waging war against the light, refusing to give in despite being surrounded.

'Yet this light is a fleeting one, and after it burns out our darkness will be all that's left,' Tirek comforted himself. Grasping hold of the handles, he tore the doors into the castle off of their hinges to announce his return. Dozens of butlers and maids shot into the room at the call of the master, bowing down to him as he marched by with a blaze of rage. "Is that infernal Sombra here yet? For if he makes me wait again, I swear I will burn down all of Canterlot."

"He arrived ten minutes ago," one of the butlers informed Tirek, who wore confusion on his face as he glanced down at the pony. "I had the same expression myself when he showed up early. It seems from his expression that he has something very important to tell you. He is, as always, in your chair in the main room."

Tirek stomped past the butler and kicked open to door to his throne room with a single blow, eyes narrowing as he spied the king of darkness sitting in his chair. Sombra wore a languid smile that drew forth the bubbling fury from within Tirek, yet with another effort of self control Tirek managed to drive down the lava once more.

"Sombra. You're early," Tirek growled to his ally, who raised a glass of wine in response to Tirek's words before pounding down the drink. "I do not know whether to be grateful or afraid for the news that you have brought for me. And you have better brought me news."

"Indeed I have. And you'll hate all of it," Sombra previewed with a smile. Groaning in anticipation, Tirek sat down in the chair closest to his and dropped his chin onto his hands. "First is, that Captain America and his band of misfits have driven out our forces in Manehatten. The city is theirs."

"By the creator," Tirek replied with steam pouring from his nostrils, the magma making a second attempt to break free of Tirek's control.

"Oh, don't blow your lid yet. Please wait until I'm finished," Sombra asked with a chuckle that bubbled the magma even further. "Also, our superweapon has been derailed. Yep, they dropped the train off a cliff and stopped that potential for death and destruction from happening." Tirek could feel the magma pounding at his mental dam, wanting to be let loose and destroy everything in its path.

"And finally, you have a bit of paint on your nose from where that foal struck you. Looks like you're wearing the Captain's shield." Volcanoes would have been envious of the explosion that erupted from Tirek. The centaur screamed with fury that could not be matched as he unleashed a torrent of magic from his horn that decimated the wall that had been facing him.

"This cannot be! Captain America has freed cities, defeated our forces left and right, and has somehow managed to avoid our detection despite having no magic whatsoever!" the centaur billowed as the rage poured forth from him. Sombra simply raised an eyebrow in response to the beast's rage before shaking his head and taking another sip. "How can this be?!"

"Because they have a unicorn on their team that is almost as good with magic as Twilight was, minus the whole alicorn thing," Sombra informed the centaur, who managed to ebb the flow of wrath long enough to hear the king's words. "She's been the one teleporting them, protecting them from our spells and managing to hide their base. But funny thing about a magic like hers, is that if used too much it becomes very easy to...follow."

Slowly, a smile began to spread across the centaur's face as the weight of Sombra's words sealed up the volcano within once more. Sombra smiled at Tirek in response, but the smile that Sombra wore was far beyond menacing. Sombra allowed his horn to glow and a portal to darkness was torn in the wall beside them, revealing dozens of gargoyles within.

"So what do you say we see where this trail leads?"

/ \
//A\\
/// \\\

Silence had always helped the Captain relax. As far back into his life as he could remember, he always found that he was at peace when there was nothing going on. But in the modern day world, there was almost no such thing as quiet. Technology had a death grip on the modern world and while the Captain could see the good it gave, he missed the days when a simple breeze rustling through the trees would be the only sound one could hear.

'But this world...doesn't have any of that. They barely have radio,' Rogers appreciated. He lay against a tree that had been kind enough to use its branches to shield him from the sun, keeping the temperature perfect for him as a breeze held his hair in its fingers. 'Which means that I can relax like I used to. Before the war...before the Captain.'

A tilt of his head to the left brought a tree that towered over all the others into his field of vision, a tree that was filled with pink petals that swayed in the breeze as the wind made them dance in the air. Yet beneath the beauty of nature, Rogers knew there were hundreds of ponies below. Ponies whose world had been stolen from them. Ponies who had been so desperate for help that they had sent out a message across dimensions to reach him.

'But I'm still not sure if I'm the Avenger they needed,' Rogers pondered as he shifted his weight, sitting up with his own strength instead of relying on the tree to support him. 'Tony would be better at adapting to his foe's technology, while Thor would have ended this war long ago. Of course, they might have gotten the Hulk and then everything would have been destroyed. I just hope that I can protect them. Because while this shield of mine is strong, some things are just beyond-'

The call to action assaulted Rogers ears as an explosion of earth-shaking magnitude snapped the Captain to reality. Rogers snapped his head towards the tree to find that the pink leaves and branches were now ignited with a black fire that hungrily consumed every inch of the tree. Rogers was on his feet the moment he had seen the smoke, his hand already grabbing the edge of the shield that was still resting against the tree.

'They've found us.' That thought fueled the Captain's muscles, forcing him to race faster than he normally would as he vaulted, rolled and navigated the forest back to the base. His fears were brought to light when he spied gargoyles tearing apart the secret entrance to the tree, forcing him to take action.

His shield sailed through the air from a well-aimed throw and caught a gargoyle in the back of the head, slamming the skull into the trunk of the tree from the force of the blow. With demonic energy pouring from their eyes the other gargoyles spun around to face their attacker, who had just caught his shield before he began to analyze what he was up against.

'Seems to be a new model,' Rogers noted as the two gargoyles belched black mist towards him. Rogers rolled out of the way and cast a glance sideways, noting how the mist turned the grass to death within seconds of being touched. 'Can't let the mist hit me. Even trying to deflect with my shield is too risky. How to do this?'

Captain America crouched down low as the two gargoyles stalked their prey, each moving to a different side of him in order to make him split his focus. Faster than their eyes could react, Captain America hurled his shield at the one to his left before charging the one on the right. He heard the shield strike home just as the gargoyle he was facing took in a deep breath, telling him it was time to act.

America dropped to the ground and slid beneath the gargoyle's legs, just in time to evade the blast of mist that suddenly found no target directly before it. With nothing else to hit, the gargoyle's mist shot ahead towards its brethren, who was still stunned from the shield's blow.

"Friendly fire. Happens in every war," Rogers said with a shake of his head when the mist began to melt the stone monster. The second one turned to exact its vengeance upon the Captain, but the return trip of the shield caught it in the back of its head and put an end to that idea. Rogers snatched the shield out of the air with a spin before sliding the shield back onto his arm. Edge first went the shield into the stone sentinel's face, dropping it without any further resistance. With his foes out of the way, Rogers raced to the secret door and wrapped his fingers around its exposed edge. One strain of effort was enough to tear the door off of its track, granting the Captain access into the burning base.

He shot down the stairs into the main room, where, to his horror, he spied hundreds of ponies being suspended in the air within the confines of spheres of magic. Within some of the spheres he spied ponies such as Scootaloo, Applebloom and Lightning Dust, all of whom looked badly beaten and injured. Yet the horror in his eyes turned to caution, for across the burning floor and the ruined chamber next to a pit stood two beings that he did not need to know in order to be wary. One was a centaur that was nearly too big for the room, while the other was a unicorn that wore a look the Captain had only seen on the likes of Loki.

"So, the Captain finally decides to reveal himself," the large centaur, who the Captain figured was Tirek from what he had heard, said with a booming voice. At the mention of their hero, everypony that was confined with the spheres turned with looks of hope towards the Captain. "Now that you are here, everypony can finally watch as you die." Rogers braced himself for the battle of his life as Tirek took a step towards him, but Sombra held out a hoof to stop the titan in his tracks before shaking his head.

"Don't be foolish, Tirek. Captain America has the home field advantage. Who knows what traps he might have here, just waiting to spring on us?" Sombra asked his partner, whose eyes narrowed with understanding as he retracted his leg. "We have what we came for. The Crusade fell to us in matter of minutes. We have ensnared them all with barely any effort. And they had to watch as I struck down their strongest amongst them with ease."

"But we could end him here!" Tirek argued.

"Perhaps. But I do not like to take chances. Besides, even if we burn him to ash here, the ponies of this world will not believe that he is dead. They are stubborn like that. So when we kill him, it will have to be in front of everypony, so that none can deny how their hero fell to us," Sombra replied in the tone of a pony that had calculated everything. "So that is what you must do Captain. If you want to save the lives of all these trapped ponies who believed in you, the you will come to Canterlot. Where you will die. And then the world will finally see that our rule is absolute."

"What's the matter? Afraid that the two of you are no match for me alone?" Rogers asked the both of them, but annoyance flashed in the Captain's eyes when Sombra merely chuckled with a shake of his head.

"None of that Captain. The only way you will save all of these ponies is if you come to Canterlot and take them by force," Sombra promised the Captain before a grin spread across his face, each tooth filled with the same venom and guile that the pony himself wore. "That is...if you survive."

Rogers didn't even have time to glance around him before the dozens of gargoyles that were clinging to the ceiling above all detonated at once. The detonation of the stone sentinels ruptured the core integrity of the tree, causing chunks of smoldering wood and iron support that the ponies had added to crash down upon both parties. Through the rubble and smoke, Rogers managed to make out the cackling face of Sombra as he vanished in a flash of light. Rogers wanted to chase after them, but with the base coming down around them he had no choice but to duck under his shield and brace himself as the last symbol of freedom in Equestria was buried beneath the weight of its base.

/ \
//A\\
/// \\\

Pain. That was all the Captain felt when consciousness returned to him. And he was glad that he felt pain. Pain meant that he was alive, meant that there was still a chance. But as he wearily opened his eyes and glanced around to find himself buried beneath tons of rubble. He shifted slightly and felt the edge of his oldest friend pressing into his back, holding up the parts of the structure that would have crushed him had the shield not intervened.

'Got to get out. Got to get to Canterlot.' Those were the only two thoughts that Rogers allowed himself to think as he began to strain against the seemingly endless weight that pressed against him. But he had traded blows with the Iron Man armor, withstood impacts from Thor's hammer, and survived battles with the Hulk. Being crushed to death was child's play to the Captain. So after a full minute of straining against the rubble, he felt it shift to the side and provide an exit.

Rogers crawled through the small hole that he had made to escape, gritting his teeth as the reminder that he was alive coursed through his body. With one last grunt he fully freed himself from the rubble that had sought to bury him, bit the freedom did not bring him any joy as he glanced around the chamber.

What had once been a room filled with lights and plants was now ash and death, with the support trunk that had held up most of the base now cracked in half and devoid of life. Rogers shook his head at the loss before forcing himself up, glancing around for any exit that might have survived.

Yet even as Rogers kept his eyes open for an exit, it was his ears that picked up on where he would go next. Just as he was climbing over a pile of rubble he heard the faint sounds of coughing, a weak cough that he had heard many times from those who were close to death. Following his ears, the Captain pushed through pile after pile of what had once been a base constructed in the hopes of freedom, eventually leading him to the pit by which Tirek and Sombra had once stood.

"Is someone down there?" the Captain called down, yet before the someone could answer back the Captain's eyes widened with shock at what he saw. Halfway down the pit lay a mare in a small alcove, which had probably saved her life. The mare was covered in blood and barely seemed conscious, yet Rogers didn't look at the blood or the injuries. Where he did look was at the mare's head, and the cracked stump where her horn had once been.

"Dear God, Belle...what happened to you?"

Comments

[josue]

first and dear god is bell going to die

[Boyzilla]

She'll live! Right?

[JakeAndDollars]

You, are not nice.

~Dollars.

[WhitewolfStormrunner]

So. Two of the Three think they've won by default, huh?

I think they're going to find out that they're wrong.

Dead wrong.

They just made the biggest mistake of their miserable, misbegotten lives, I think.

What they, and other tyrants and would-be world-beaters like them, don't realize it, it is always darkest right before the dawn.

And for them, and their cohort Ahuizotl, the sun is about to rise, and they are about to fall.

By the hand of Captain America, and the hoof of Sweetie Belle.

Calling it now.

Calling it now

[NightDerpFury]

Welp, this got featured today.
Congrats man!

[Grahf]

I'm just waiting for when Cap shouts "Avengers assemble!"

[Onomonopia]

6661804
thank you.

[Norwegian boy]

I know it's cold but I don't fell sorry for Bell.

[Grif_Bladefeather]

...caps ooc when he's talking about the other avengers. he knows tony would have been over confident made a stupid mistake and nearly kill everyone. he also knows the hulk a lot better then to assume he'd destroy everything.

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Oh f-u-c-k, SB, her horn, Sombraaaaa! *Summons Squad leaders to decide on plan of attack *

[Asid_Ink]

I'm pretty sure this sums up what's about to happen to at least ONE of the remaining three.

[Emperor of Jurai]

Well to be a little honest Belle had this coming, she couldn't have been the only unicorn in the Crusade and yet she didn't even try to train others to pick up some slack. Even if the other unicorns had to work together in a large group to do the hiding trick, it still would have been a prudent choice.

Maybe this humbling moment of having her `I can do it alone` mentality beaten to a pulp will make her finally act right.

[mbpony 512]

The end game is near as Steve is finally caught by the villains because of their superior knowledge of the magic in this world.

It's going to take a miracle for the heroes to overcome this major set back.

Please do keep up the good work upon such a great tale.

[SwimmingDalek98]

A rough assessment of what's going through Cap's head.

6661663 The Blackest Night will always end with the Brightest Day. Heh, funny how something from DC fits right in with a Marvel-oriented crossover.

[ColvaMoon5]

Calling it now, belle's horn is the key to calling the rest of the avengers.

[WhitewolfStormrunner]

6662841 True, on all counts.

Also, slightly OT question here, but how are you and the others posting videos in your comments?

The reason I ask is because I just tried to insert a video of my fave new song from The Mane Attraction in a my blog post today, and the YouTube button seems to be gone from the little bar at the top (everything else is still there), and from this one, too.

Don't know what's up with that, as I've posted YT vids in my blogs before this..

6662850 Well, let's hope so.

[NightDerpFury]

6661921
Why did I just got down voted?

[GenerousGhibli]

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK!!! Belle... Nopony deserves that.

[SwimmingDalek98]

6663078 Dunno. Maybe it's your device or something. I've got the 'YouTube' button right here.

[Onomonopia]

6663359
Random down vote? I have no clue.

[WhitewolfStormrunner]

6663422 I don't know, either, but I figured it out, anyway.

The the option itself is still there; it's just the icon itself that seems to be gone.

I figured out how to get it to work, so it's all good now, anyway.

[KillerShadow 15]

I'm guessing that the next chapter is going to feature at least one Avenger based on the time lapse of the story. At first, Shining Armor sends a cross dimensional help letter, only for Shield to send Cap in asap. When he does get there, its years after the war was over and the rebellion has started. From what I understand, at this point in time most of the Avengers are done with there assignments and are just getting on the Helicarier. Then Fury discuses what happened, they use the stone thing and land in Ponyville right as Cap is running through. Then Avengers Assemble and some major ass kicking ensues. That is what I think will happen.

Now that I say this, watch the author change the chapter. That would be my luck.

[UnablePone]

But funny thing about a magic like hers, is that if used too much it becomes very easy to...follow."

Fuck....

"So what do you say we see where this trail leads?"

FUCK!!

Looks at the end without really reading the middle.

No, please, FUCK NO!!!