Avengers: War for Equestria

While the boss and his associates were in Canterlot, the agents of S.M.I.L.E. remained in the charge of Dr. Banner, who was still playing host to Sunset Shimmer. As they completed another round of studying how much Equestrian magic was in the other world, the sounds of a ringing alarm abruptly ended the meeting.

"Dr. Banner?" called a S.M.I.L.E. agent as the alarms rang off at S.M.I.L.E. headquarters. "We've got something on here!"

"What is it?" asked Bruce, dashing towards the agent and looking up at the large screen. "What is that?"

"It looks like something falling towards the Everfree Forest."

Knowing that something was amiss, Banner raced over back to the interrogation room where Sunset was sitting.

"What's going on?" Sunset asked, rising to her feet.

"I need you to come with me," he panted. "We've got something heading towards the Everfree Forest. Something that looks to be a ship from space."

Doing as she was told, Sunset accompanied Banner and several S.M.I.L.E. agents towards the source of the ship's landing.

"Looks to be coming from that direction," called a S.M.I.L.E. agent. "From the northwest."

Heading northwest, the group looked up to the sky and saw a streaking fireball coming down as fast as lightning.

"We might need to be careful," advised Sunset. "The object might be radioactive. I learned about it in science class at Canterlot High!"

"I'll have you know, young mare," replied Bruce, now gasping for breath. "I know what radiation feels like. It gave me my other personality who rests inside of me."

"It's about to crash!" shouted an agent. Suddenly, a loud boom was heard and was followed by a wave of bright light.

Acting fast, the group got down and braced themselves for the onslaught that was coming their way. 30 seconds later, it stopped and they continued onward towards the downed object. Moving quietly, the group found themselves going closer and closer towards the ship.

"Do you think you can detect any Equestrian magic?" Banner asked Sunset. "You can sense magic, can you?"

"Wait a minute, you don't think that maybe…" Sunset asked, an eyebrow raised up. "If you say so, Dr. Banner."

Activating her horn, Sunset slowly advanced towards the wrecked ship, which was now smoldering with smoke and heavily damaged. The former student of Princess Celestia carefully examined the ship, but found no traces of Equestrian magic until she examined the ship's nose.

"Dr. Banner!" called Sunset motioning for the team to come over. "I found something! The magic is Equestrian."

"Are you certain?" he asked, putting on latex gloves to examine the nose of the downed ship.

"Yes."

Just then, they heard the sounds of groaning coming from inside.

"Get a medical team!" shouted Banner as he ran towards one of the ship's doors, pulling it wide open. Opening it, he and Sunset were shocked to discover that there were several occupants inside the ship's cockpit, one of whom was a racoon in hunter's clothing. "Oh my God. We got to get them out of here!"

Acting fast, Sunset reached down and used her magic to carefully lift some of the occupants out of the wrecked ship. The first one she pulled out was a green skinned female alien creature, handing her over to the medical crew.

"Be careful with her," Sunset advised as she then proceeded to pull the unconscious raccoon. "Be careful with all of them."

"I'd better tell Fury what has happened," sighed Dr. Banner as the medical team carefully extracted another human from the wrecked ship. Sunset then noticed another strange creature inside: a medium sized plant creature that was semi-conscious.

"I…am…Groot," the plant creature said weakly trying to wake up. Sunset reached in and picked the creature up with her magic.

"Shh, shh…" she whispered. "It's okay. You're going to be all right."

"We'll take him from here," said a medical pony as Sunset sighed heavily at what had just transpired.

…

Back in Canterlot, the meeting with the princesses continued.

"The Elements of Harmony?" asked Peter. "You mean those crystal things that you put in the tree back in Season 4?"

"Uh, do you know how he knows about the elements?" remarked Rainbow Dash to Twilight. "I think Pinkie Pie should talk to this guy."

"Pinkie Pie? She's Aunt May's favorite."

"Zip it, Parker," snapped Stark, motioning him to zip his lip and redirect his attention back to the princesses. "Excuse us, your highnesses, please continue."

Clearing her throat, Celestia restarted the meeting.

"About a month before Luna was banished to the moon," Celestia said to the assembled group, creating her own magical screen that showed a group of Equestria's most feared villains including Chrysalis, Sombra, Tirek and Grogar. "There was a group of Equestria's most feared enemies called the Nine Circles of Death, whose goal was to wipe out all life in Equestria and rebrand it as their own. Twilight and Rainbow Dash, you of course know of Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra and Lord Tirek. But, there are several other enemies that you have never heard of until now."

"And the lava dude is one of them?" asked Wade.

"Yes," answered Celestia, showing off a picture of Lavan to the crowd. "The lava 'dude' as you put it is, in fact, one of the nine circles. But, you are better off referring to him by his real name, Lavan. He once ruled over all of the volcanoes that surrounded Equestria before ponies settled here."

"As a result, he ended up trying to force volcanoes to erupt and scare the ponies who made up towns and cities around the volcanos away," added Luna. "We had to step in and force him to go into hiding for a thousand years."

The group then watched Celestia and Luna use their magic to force Lavan into the side of Mount Ragnaros, sealing him inside.

"But, he did have two enemies," Celestia said, producing another screen that showed two more creatures, one of whom was the sea creature that attacked Thor. "Squirk, the emperor of the sea and Arabus, the wind king. The three of them were just like the unicorns, Pegasus and earth ponies before Equestria was founded."

"So, basically, they were Hurricane, Puddinghead and Platinum before they actually came into existence," guessed Rainbow Dash, as they all watched a scene of them fighting with each other. "Always got to be inspired from somewhere."

"But, while Luna and I did seal away Lavan," continued Celestia. "Squirk and Arabus were sent into deep sleeps for a thousand years, a pair of sleeps that came to an end when Grogar was brought back from his banishment along with Tambeleon."

The screen then disappeared, leaving a tense silence among the meeting hall that lasted for a good long while. Then suddenly, tears began to form at the corners of Celestia's eyes.

"Celestia, what is it?" asked Twilight, showing concern for her mentor. "What's wrong?"

"There is one last footnote to this story," said Luna, going over to console her sister while also getting teary eyed herself. "The nine circle of deaths did have a leader, but it wasn't just any leader."

"Who was the leader of the nine circles of death?"

"He was…"

…

However, before Luna could give the answer, a ringing sound was heard and Fury got up to answer it.

"What's going on?" asked Julia, rising to her feet, only to be silenced by Fury as he listened into a communication device.

"Don't leave us in suspense, kitty cat," cried Steve, also rising to his feet. "What's going on?"

"A ship from space just crash landed in the Everfree Forest," he replied, causing several members of the meeting to gasp in shock. "Forgive me, I have to go."

"Fury, wait!" cried Natasha, following him out of the room.

"Cadence, we'd better find out what's going on," said Twilight. "Are you sure you three will be okay?"

"We will, Twilight," replied Cadence, before directing her attention back to the meeting attendees. "Meeting adjourned, everypony."

Once the meeting was adjourned, everyone left the hall except for Twilight and Rainbow Dash who watched as Cadence and Luna led Celestia away. Twilight felt sorry for her mentor and wanted to help her out but knew that finding out where the ship came from was more important.

"Twilight, if you want," suggested Tempest. "I'll stay with the princesses along with Grubber. You go with the others."

"Are you sure, Tempest?" asked Twilight.

"Yes, don't worry, I'll keep an eye on them."

The two mares shared a brief hug before Twilight left the room with Starlight and Spike. Just then, the skies above began to darken and Tempest realized that something was happening, but it was too late to warn the group that was leaving. Suddenly, a low growling sound was heard.

"Did you hear that or is it just me?" asked Grubber.

"I heard it, Grubber," remarked Tempest, nervously looking out the window. "And I think it might have something to do with what we just heard."