Explosions and shrapnel roared past Shining Armor's head as he staggered into the entrance of the Crystal Palace, silently begging for forgiveness as he shut out the sounds of his comrades falling in battle outside while the doors slammed shut behind him. With tears staining his eyes and pain throbbing in his shoulder, he sprinted as best he could into the palace, blocking out everything that had happened so that he could complete Cadence's request...her last request.

He made sure to close his eyes whenever he ran by a window, not wanting to see the fires that consumed the buildings of the Crystal Empire nor the stone reapers that claimed life after life with ruthless efficiency. And then there were the Royal Guard, the brave mares and stallions that were out in the fire and death trying to save as many as they could, while he was racing through the halls like a coward. He knew that he would consider himself a coward for the rest of his life...a life that would most likely come to an end soon.

'But Cadence feared a day like this may come,' he thought, trying to push back the black thoughts as he reached a door that was heavily guarded with spells and enchantments. 'At least this part of the Palace hasn't fallen yet. Of course, not even those bastards could get in here, these enchantments could keep out even Celestia...dear Faust why? No, can't focus on them. Need to get in.'

He pressed his horn against the door, closing his eyes with a small sob as the magic that shielded the room fell. He used to be one of only two ponies in the whole empire that was able to get in...and now he was the only one left. He threw the door open the second the spell faded, slamming it shut behind him and reactivating the barrier before turning towards what the room held. A single mirror.

"The Mirror of Reality," he whispered to himself, able to forget the pain and war that was waging outside for just a moment while he gazed upon the mirror's beauty. Then he shook himself free of his shock before racing to the mirror, incanting the forbidden words that Cadence had told him long ago. His reflection in the mirror began to swirl, rotating faster and faster until soon there was only the vortex.

'Got to make this quick,' Shining thought as he pulled out his only piece of parchment, his horn glowing as he stabbed himself slightly with his knife to draw blood. He then began to write with the tip of his knife, speeding up his words when he heard the sounds of something starting to pound away on the door. The enchantments held strong and gave Shining enough time to finish his message, which he rolled up and tossed into the mirror...before he heard the voice of the pony he hated with all of his heart.

"Well of course you didn't make it through you idiots, look at the magic on that thing! Not even I would be able to break through that shield, and I have centuries of experience with magic!" With a cold heart yet burning eyes, Shining turned towards the door, taking the knife in his hoof to free up his horn, knowing that he would be needing both in a moment.

"However, you can see that while the door is heavily enchanted, the wall next to it..." Shining refused to flinch as the wall exploded and crystal flew by his head, narrowing his eyes when a dark pony with a sinister smile on his face waltzed into the room, flanked by two giant gargoyles that barely managed to squeeze in the hole behind him. "Ah, Shining Armor. I wondered where you had scurried off to."

"Sombra," Shining whispered with such wrath and venom that Sombra let out a small whistle.

"I'm impressed, pony. I didn't know you were capable of such hate," Sombra laughed with a smile.

"Hate? After all you did to me, my home, my FAMILY...you believe that I only hate you? "Shining seethed with absolute fury, yet all Sombra did in response was raise an eyebrow. "You attacked my home...you waged war against Canterlot and Ponyville...aided by Tirek and Chrysalis during the middle of a day of fun and relaxation...and then you kill my wife...my Cadence...when she tried to stop you. I don't hate you Sombra...there isn't a word that exists that describes how much I loath you!"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute...that spell I hit Cadence in the back with actually killed her?!" Sombra asked with a laugh, smiling with victory despite the sheer fury that Shining glared at him. "Wow, I can't believe that she went down so easily! I must be better than I thought to kill a princesses so easily."

"You dare speak of her like she was nothing?! I swear I'll-"

"Oh give it a rest, Shining, this battle is already over, here and across Equestria," Sombra cut him off with a low voice, all mirth and joy gone from his face while he coldly stared down the guard. "This age of friendship and harmony that you and your wife loved to preach about? It's over. It dies with you; it died with your sister and it died with those two fools who thought themselves untouchable up in Canterlot."

Then the smile slowly spread across Sombra's face as he looked Shining up and down, a small chuckle escaping his lips as an idea came to him. "So all that's left is to figure out a way to deal with you. Now I could just leave and let these two tear you limb from limb, but I'm a fair, mad tyrant, so I'll make this interesting. We fight. You and me. And if I win, you'll get to see your wife and sister again. But if you manage to win...hell, you'll get to kill me! So it's really a win-win for you? What do you say, Shining?"

Sombra's words had barely escaped his lips before Shining hurled himself at Sombra with a cry that was devoid of sanity. Sombra barely managed to erect a shield to block Shining's knife, eyes wide while Shining screamed with unholy fury as he slammed the blade against the barrier again and again. With another bellow he shattered the knife against the magic shield, yet the shards had barely begun to fall before he unleashed all of his fury into the magical barrier with one magical blast.

"Not bad kid, you're a lot more of a challenge when your entire family's dead!" Sombra laughed while he slipped into the shadows and weaved behind Shining, popping out of the darkness and blasting Shining in the back with a dark bolt that hurled him to the floor. "Oh, didn't I tell you? We made sure to target your family and the families of the Ambassadors of Harmony as well. Because if being a damn thorn in my side runs in the family, then we'll burn the bush down before those thorns can grow. I'm sure you understand."

Shining slowly rose to his hooves, every fiber of his body trembling with hate as he slowly looked back to where Sombra stood smirking at him. With all of the concentration he could muster he conjured a blade of light from his horn, saluting Sombra before taking up a fighting stance. Sombra raised an eyebrow before he chuckled and conjured a blade as black as night, twirling his blade.

The two stared each other down before Shining let out an unholy scream and hurled himself at Sombra, who chuckled with madness as he swung his blade at Shining. The two swords of light and darkness collided, good and evil colliding for a brief moment...before Sombra's blade shattered and he was hurled backwards. He struck the wall and slid down with surprise written on his face before Shining's blade placed itself at his throat, getting Sombra to slowly lift his eyes up to the black eyes of the stallion.

"For my family," he whispered before lifting his sword over his head...and crying out in pain as a burst of green fire struck him in the back. He collapsed to the floor as the sword vanished in a flash, struggling to see through the tears in his eyes at the flaming maw of the gargoyle that had shot him.

"Well then Shining, I guess you lose," Sombra chuckled as he rose back to his hooves, using his magic to lift Shining up and smile into the stallion's face. "Your rage just wasn't enough to slay an evil tyrant like me."

"But...you said..." Shining stammered out weakly, before his eyes shrunk as Sombra plunged a black blade right into the heart of Shining Armor.

"Evil," Sombra reminded Shining as he removed his blade, watching with a smile when the light faded from Shining's eyes. Yet once the light faded, Sombra's smile fell and he tossed the body away with a careless air, having lost interest in the Captain of the Guard. "Come on you two idiots, let's head up to the balcony. I want to see what crystal looks like when it burns."

"But boss, I thought you've burned crystals before?" one of the gargoyles asked. Sombra glanced back at him before his horn flashed and the stone creature shattered into millions of pieces.

"You have anything stupid you want to say?" Sombra asked the other one, which shut its mouth and held both hands over it. "Ah, you must be the one I put the brains in. I wondered what I did with them." With that remark Sombra walked out of the room, leaving the body of one of the noblest ponies that had ever lived...and a mirror that had just finished sending its message, a message that Sombra could have stopped had he bothered to check it.

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

Men and women raced back and forth through the gray hallways, each of them trying to keep up with their tasks under the pressure that came with being an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, but for the man that walked through the crowd of agents, he found that he was simply happy to be back among friends...or those agents on the Helicarrier that he knew to be friends.

Yet, even with their busy schedules and multiple assignments that they had to do, every single one of those agents turned and either saluted or nodded to the man in the red, white and blue when he walked by. And he saluted or nodded in kind, to each and every one of the brave men and women on the home base of S.H.I.E.L.D., while some of the agents tried to flag him down. Captain America had been called off his "guaranteed" three days leave to come back to the base.

'So that means either Fury has somehow managed to doom the world or the world is doomed and Fury wants me to stop it,' Steve thought to himself as he entered an elevator and slowly began to go down, resting his back against the wall of the elevator. He felt a slight bit of pressure as he leaned back, assuring him that his most trusted comrade still had his back.

The elevator doors to the deck of the Helicarrier slid open and the Captain stepped out of the elevator, walking straight for the man in the black suit with the pistol strapped to his chest at the end of the room. The Cap narrowed his eyes slightly when the light beaming in through the windows got in his eyes, hating how Fury always seemed to love standing with his back to the light.

"You're three minutes late," Nick Fury said with a growl as he turned around to face the Captain, his one good eye narrowed.

"Sorry I'm late. Had to help put out a fire," Captain America responded, yet his response only made Fury's eye narrow further.

"I hate it when I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not," Fury grumbled. "So how was your day off yesterday?"

"Making small talk, Fury? This must really be big then," Cap deduced, getting a snicker from Fury while he reached into a pocket and pulled out a small piece of parchment.

"Our resident hocus-pocus expert found this floating in his room when he returned to his house," Fury explained as he handed the parchment to Captain America, whose eyes narrowed as he began to read what was written on it. "Yeah, he didn't like it either. But he felt a strange magic coming off of that, a magic that even he himself hasn't seen before--magic that belonged to a whole other reality. And to remind you, his name is Strange."

"Seems like there's someone out there that needs help...an entire nation if I'm reading this right," Steve said as he finished the message, handing it back to Fury who pocketed it before crossing his arms behind his back and turning around to face the windows. "Yet, you're hesitant to send an Avenger or Shield agents out there to help? Fury-"

"Don't try and lecture me, Captain. You've fallen into plenty of traps because of a faulty plea for help," Fury reminded the Captain with a snarl. "We'll send a probe there and see what the situation is. If they really do need our help, whoever they are, then we'll send in the Avengers or some agents. But not until-"

"Many more have been killed," Captain America finished for Fury, who turned to face the Cap with his name flashing in his eyes. "Fake or real, that is a cry for help--a desperate cry for help, Fury, if their message is able to go across multiverses to get here. And I don't care who sent it and I don't care if it's a trap, the Avengers don't ignore cries for help. And I sure as hell don't. Now let's stop wasting time and get these guys the help they need."

"I really hate working with you sometimes, you know that?" Fury sighed before reaching back into his pocket and pulling out two items, one of which was a stone that had numerous strange markings engraved in it. The other was an earpiece that Cap knew was meant for him. "This is a dimensional stone. The good doc made one for us when he found out which reality the paper came from. It should be able to take you to wherever in hell this place is."

"Well, if it does take me to hell, there are more than a few people there that I would like to have words with," Cap joked as he took the stone and earpiece, able to feel the power radiating off of the stone. "How do I get it to work?"

"Just place it on the ground and stand on the circle it makes. Simple." Steve nodded before following Fury's instructions, eyes narrowing slightly when the stone created a circle of a crimson red near his feet. "You really want to go in alone? Not even going to take another hero or metahuman with you?"

"Which metahumans do you have that can get here in five minutes?" Captain America asked, his face telling Fury that he wasn't going to wait longer.

"Let me see...the only one that we have on hand is Wade," Fury replied when he pulled up a list.

'Oh please, let me go with him! I want to see this magical land of ponies.'

"Sorry, but I have doubts about taking Deadpool into a situation like this," Captain America replied with a shake of his head. "He's good to have when I want my enemies confused. I'll leave him out of this one.

'Aw, why are you so mean?'

"Guess you're doing this alone then?" Fury said with a shrug as Cap fitted the earpiece in before pulling his mask over his face, a smile crossing his lips as he did so.

"I never go in alone, Fury. Not as long as I got this," Captain America replied as he reached back and removed his shield, fitting it over his left arm before taking in a deep breath. "And besides, I've got you on comms in case you get lonely and want to talk."

"Was that an attempt at humor?" Fury asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey, I'm still learning about this strange world you call the twenty first century," Steve replied with a smile before he took a step into the circle, his vision beginning to blur the moment he did so. "And don't worry Fury, I'll save this world before you know it."

"Or you'll avenge it. According to the message there may not be anybody left to save," Fury reminded him. Yet even in the vortex that was making the Captain phase in and out of their reality, he could see the Captain smile at him.

"I'll save them. And don't look so worried, Fury. It's just saving a doomed world from the forces of evil. Just like any other day."

A blinding flash of light then went off, causing everyone on the Helicarrier to shield their eyes. Alarms blared, the ship shuddered for a moment and for a brief second no one was capable of seeing anything. When the light finally died down, Fury found that the Cap was gone...yet the stone was still laying on the deck.

"I hope you're right about this Steve," Fury muttered as he picked the rock up, the engravings on the side still as red as blood. "Because I have a bad feeling about this one."