My Little Avengers: Part 2

Steve Rogers and his companions arrived at Canterlot High School, determined to begin investigating how Thanos and Sombra carried out their treacherous actions against the students and teachers.

"Kind of reminds me of Cassie's school," remarked Scott Lang as he stood with Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna, looking at the students going about their day. "Makes me sick just thinking about what Thanos did."

"It is going to take time to adjust into what happened," sighed Principal Celestia. "How could such a creature brainwash us into doing his bidding? I mean, we've all gotten so used to magic in our school, but this…"

"..is no ordinary magic," finished Steve as they walked towards Principal Celestia's office. "Thanos clearly wanted to obtain the magic of Equestria to repower the gauntlet. Tell me, Celestia. Were you and your sister ever hypnotized in breaking protocol?"

This made the two sisters confused as Celestia sat down behind her desk.

"We have a very strict protocol," said Vice Principal Luna, reaching into a filing cabinet, pulling out Sombra's file. "I can assure we were following it when we supposed hired Sombra as a social studies teacher."

She handed the file to Steve, who carefully skimmed it over. Right away, he knew that there was something amiss with the file.

"It looks like a forged application," he whispered, motioning for Bucky to look with him. "Doesn't this remind you of anything, Buck?"

"Yeah, something that reminds me of the war, Steve," Bucky remarked. "A lot of underaged guys would do anything to fight for the sake of our country."

"It still happens today," added Sam, joining Steve and Bucky in looking over the file. "Just recently, the air force had to turn away a dozen forged applicants made by underage teenagers."

"Seriously?"

It was apparent to Steve and his companions that the interview was not like any other interview. Placing the file down on Celestia's desk, he looked at the sisters with a look of suspicion on his face.

"What are you looking at, Mr. Rogers?" asked Vice-Principal Luna.

"We all have reason to believe that you were under a hypnotic state when you wrote this file," answered Steve, much to the principal's embarrassment. "Thanos wanted Sombra to be a teacher in your school in order to go after Sunset Shimmer and her friends."

"As in…get close to them?"

"Yes, in order to obtain the Equestrian magic inside of them."

"But…" wondered Vice Principal Luna. "Why would this Thanos go after us?"

"Because he needed an army," sighed Sam. "That he could use to destroy Equestria."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" asked Principal Celestia, but Steve nodded that their services would not be needed.

"All you need to do is look after your students and faculty," answered Steve as Bucky, Sam and Scott left the office. "Don't worry, we're going to get to the bottom of this."

The sisters then saw Sombra's file still in Steve's hand.

"Wait!" cried Principal Celestia. "What about the…?"

"We are going to need this as evidence."

Vice Principal Luna almost opened her mouth in protest, but Principal Celestia stopped her from doing so. With Celestia's acknowledgement, Steve and his companions left the office and made their way out to the front entrance.

"Well, that seemed interesting," remarked Scott. "Do you think they even remember being hypnotized?"

"Of course not, Tic Tac," replied Sam. "Most who get hypnotized don't even remember being hypnotized in any way. So, what do we do now, Cap?"

Looking down at Sombra's file, Steve thought of where to go to next.

"We find the school where the kidnapped girls go to," he said. "Although I can't figure out the name of it."

Suddenly, a voice from behind them caught them off guard.

"Crystal Prep."

Turning around, they saw Sci-Twi standing before them.

"Crystal Prep is the name of the school," she continued before walking towards them. "I should know because I went there."

"What are you doing here?" asked Bucky. "Shouldn't you be…?"

"Principal Celestia ordered me to take you to Crystal Prep," Sci Twi answered. "She told me just after you left."

"If she sent you to retrieve this file…" Steve started to say.

"She didn't," Sci-Twi interrupted. "All she did was ask me to lead you to Crystal Prep because I was once a student there. Honest, I am not here to take Sombra's file."

Having heard Sci-Twi give her peace, the four Avengers followed Sci-Twi towards Crystal Prep with Sam taking flight via his wing pack.

…

Meanwhile, back in Equestria, Princess Celestia was immediately taken in by her personal doctors for examination after her encounter with Ultron while Dr. Strange watched at the doorway.

"The hell's going on here?" cried Bruce, racing into the room with Tempest and Sunset right behind. "What happened?"

"Ultron is what happened, Dr. Banner," replied the Master of the Mystic Arts with a worried look. "It appears that Grogar has brought some of our most feared enemies back from the dead."

"Shit."

With a deep look of concern, Sunset ran over towards Celestia, who slowly opened her eyes as she came around from her unconcisous state.

"Princess Celestia," cried Sunset, placing her hooves on her face. "Wake up! Can you hear me?"

"S…sunset…" Celestia replied groggily. "It's…it's all right, I'm here."

Grateful, Sunset reached down to Celestia and hugged her tightly. Dr. Strange then walked towards Princess Celestia and gently stroked her mane.

"Just a few cuts and bruises, your highness," said a Royal Doctor. "And the unconsciousness should go away shortly."

But all Celestia could do was look up at Dr. Strange, who gazed down back at her.

"Are you all right, Princess Celestia?" he asked, Celestia's eyes locked up on Dr. Strange.

"Who…who are you?"

"I'm Dr. Stephen Strange, a human and sorcerer. I've come along with others to find the being known as Thanos."

Right away, Celestia couldn't help but take a strong liking to Dr. Strange, despite the fact he was a human. At that moment, Princess Luna ran into the room at a frantic pace.

"Sorry, she was concerned," apologized Tony, stepped out of his Iron Man armor.

"Don't apologize on her behalf, Tony. This was her sister, you know."

"Do you think I don't know that?"

"And…who…who are you?" Celestia asked as she rubbed her head against a concerned Luna. "Are you…also human?"

"Ding ding ding, you win a million dollars!" remarked Tony in a sarcastically humorous tone. "I'm Tony Stark, founder of the Avengers and Stark Industries and who also happens to be working alongside the Doctor here. My protégé told me so much about you and this land you live in."

"Tony…Stark?" moaned Celestia, struggling to sit up with the pain of her injuries still fresh. "Is that…your name?"

"It is my name," answered Tony, shrugging his shoulders. "It's also a long story, but let's just say that I am not who seem to believe. I'm supposed to be dead."

A confused look befell on the two royal sisters along with Sunset.

"Dead?" wondered Luna.

"Yeah, it's a long story," interjected Sunset, looking at Celestia and Tony with double takes. "But, we've got more important matters to focus on right now. There is a vulture in the dungeons that we have been questioning."

"What vulture?" asked Tony.

…

Back down in the dungeons, Adrian Toomes could only sit and wait for whatever was coming his way. He had been moved from the torture chamber to a jail cell, back to where he was before he was recruited to Grogar's ranks. Just then, he saw a guardspony standing at the entrance to the dungeons who then looked at him was a gaze.

"What are you looking at?" Adrian asked, but the guard said nothing. "Do you realize that I didn't want any part of this to begin with?"

However, the guard could merely hear nothing but squawks and screeches, which quickly irritated him. Going over to the cell, he banged on the bars.

"SHUT UP!" the guard bellowed, giving Adrian a mean look before going back to his post. "Damn bird."

Quickly, Adrian grew more and more despondent to escape his captivity. He needed to get out, but didn't know how to do so.

Just then, he heard the sounds of footfalls coming towards the dungeons and saw Grubber with what appeared to be a bag of bird seed.

"I, uh, didn't know where to find this," the hedgehog said, placing the bag of bird seed through the bars. "Apparently, this feeds the geese that guard the throne room or something like that."

Adrian gave Grubber a confused look, not understanding entirely of what was going on.

"Hey, don't look at me. I was just asked to bring a bag of this to you. You're a vulture and all you eat is bird seed and dead things."

"I don't eat bird seed," Adrian said to Grubber, who backed away in surprise. "In fact, I'm not even supposed to be here to begin with."

"You…you can talk?" Grubber asked in surprise. "I…I didn't know birds can talk."

"Look, I'm not a bird and I don't even belong here. My name is Adrian Toomes and I was recruited by a blue ram. You may think it sounds stupid and you are right, because it is."

"Heh, I…I must be dreaming. I mean, how else can I be standing here in front of a talking vulture that eats creatures like me for breakfast?"

"I don't even eat hedgehog for a start," protested Adrian. "And secondly, you've got to help me get out of here. I've got to get back to finish my sentence."

"Look," stammered Grubber, not wanting to be put under anyone's bad list. "I've…I've got to tell you that if they find out I helped you escape…"

"I can explain for you," said Adrian. "What's your name?"

"Grubber."

"All right, Grubber, I can explain for you. Just open up the door and…"

Suddenly, the sounds of footfalls were heard coming down the stairs to the dungeon, revealing to be Princess Luna, Tempest Shadow, Sunset Shimmer, Dr. Strange and Iron Man. Grubber nervously backed away as they looked over at the jailed Adrian.

"Grubber, what's going on here?" asked Tempest.

"The uh…prisoner has something he wants to say."

"But first," said Luna, looking down sharply at Grubber before turning to Adrian. "We have something we want to ask of him. Where is your companion, Ego?"

"Wasn't he leading that white winged pony towards the ram's lair?"

"That white winged pony just happens to be my sister!" Luna snarled. "Who also happens to be injured! Now, where is Ego? Did he tell you of anything…?"

"Anything of what?"

"Of any plans of escaping captivity?"

"No, he didn't."

"YOU LIE!" Luna screamed, her blood boiling with rage as she was restrained by Sunset and Tempest.

"I swear!" cried Adrian, clutching his wings on the bars of the cell. "He explained nothing to me about escaping. In fact, I didn't even want any part of this, but Grogar said he would kill my wife and daughter if I refused to comply!"

This made Luna stopped raging as Sunset and Tempest released Luna from their magical grips.

"Please, listen to me! All I wanted was to make a living and raise a family, but I never wanted to become a criminal. But, a teenage boy made my goals impossible to live by. He drove me mad and put me in this situation. Look, I'll do anything to help find Ego."

Some understood him, some didn't. But, Adrian was going to do everything in his power to detach himself from Grogar's services.

…

Meanwhile, Ego and Ultron returned to Grogar's lair and were now facing the blue ram himself.

"So, you've managed to escape after all?" he asked, a look of disappointment on the ram's face. "Yet, you failed in your task."

"I can assure you that I didn't fail in my task," protested Ego, backing away at Grogar's advances on him. "I've figured out how to get inside Canterlot."

"So you say that you have found a way and yet, you managed to escape without the one called Vulture? At least you were successful in part of your goals. Very well then, you shall share everything you have learned, while I keep my eye on the invaders."

"What invaders?" Ego asked, as Grogar activated his crystal ball, showing the groups of Avengers searching for Thanos. "Who are they?"

"The Avengers," answered Grogar, chuckling evilly. "Who will soon fall along with the rest of Equestria when all is said and done!"