Billy had been watching as the Cyclops lifted its massive leg over the two ponies, prepared to crush them out of existence. But it would never have the chance, for Billy had decided that he had had enough of watching others get hurt. So with a single word, he entered the battle.
"SHAZAM!"
The lightning bolt had barely struck him before he flew at the Cyclops with his incredible speed, landing under its hoof right before it could squish the Apples. He raised both hands and caught the massive hoof in his hands, the ground shattering under the weight. He moved all the Cyclops weight into his left hand and scooped up Applebloom into his right hand. She slowly opened her eyes and, just like last time, her eyes widened at what she saw.
"Are you alright, Applebloom?" he asked her. She only nodded slowly as she looked up at the massive hoof resting over them. Marvel looked up at it to and pressed upwards, lifting the hoof and pushing it off of him. The Cyclops stumbled back and looked at Captain Marvel in confusion.
"I was not told that there would be a creature with such strength," it said in a low, booming voice, its one eye focused on Marvel, "but you are no match for me." The Cyclops fired off another beam of heat at Marvel, who swung his cape around himself and Applebloom, protecting them both of them as the flames rolled off his body, burning him a little. Marvel gritted his teeth as the pain trickled through his body, hoping that none of the flames were hitting Applebloom or her sister. When the fire stopped, he swiftly flew over to Applejack and grabbed her, flying the two ponies over to Twilight.
"Watch over them for me," he said to her quickly before flying back over to the Cyclops and avoiding Twilight's questions. Twilight watched him go with a frown on his face, but Applebloom had more of a confused look as she watched him fly off. He flew up to the beast's face, eyeing it in it's...eye, amazed by its size. The creature was taller than all the buildings and towered over the town, the tallest building coming up to its shoulders. The Cyclops was a bluish yellow, but it’s one eye glowed red. It had no cutie mark, but Marvel was more focused on its head at the moment.
"What do you want?" Marvel yelled out to the Cyclops. The ponies answer was another blast of fire that knocked Captain Marvel into several buildings, bringing them down as he passed through them. He landed in a small carrot stand and knocked it over, scaring away the ponies there.
"Ugh, this guy's a lot stronger than the last guy I fought," he muttered as he got up and brushed some of the rubble off his suit. He slammed his right foot into the ground and used the momentum to launch himself at the Cyclops, flying through the air and delivering a devastating left hook when he got close to it. The force of his punch knocked the Cyclops’s head to the side and practically bowled him over. The Cyclops’s just barely managed to remain vertical. Marvel flew back around and slammed into the Cyclops’s side, this time knocking him over and toppling him onto the residential section.
"Whoops," Marvel muttered as the titan began to pull himself back up, scanning the rubble for any ponies that might have been trapped underneath. Much to his dismay, not all of the elder ponies had managed to make it out of their homes in time to avoid the collapse of the Cyclops, meaning that they were trapped. Marvel smashed the Cyclops in the face to knock him off balance and then quickly flew down to help rescue some of the elders. Marvel landed next to one that had been trapped under a beam and quickly tossed the beam off, allowing the pony to move.
"Are you alright?"
"I can't move my legs!" the old colt yelled, trying desperately to move. Marvel scooped him into his arms and flew him over to where he had dropped off Applebloom, placing the pony into Twilight's care. Marvel went airborne to rescue the other trapped ponies when a blast of heat vision consumed him again and threw him across the skies of Ponyville. He managed to regain his balance this time and tore back towards the Cyclops, delivering seven good shots to the head to keep him dazed. After giving him an uppercut so mighty that Superman would've felt it, he flew back down to the other elders trapped in the rubble. He rescued two more that had stayed alive by hiding under a stone table, while another he had to dig out of a debris pile. One he was too late to save. He had scooped another old couple into his arms when he felt a wave of heat heading towards him. He turned around in time to see that the Cyclops was once again trying to attack him. The attack was too close to dodge and he wouldn't be able to shield the two ponies with his body. They were dead.
And then the unbelievable happened. Marvel had gone to throw his body over the old ponies when a purple shield wrapped itself around them, protecting the three from the oncoming blast. Marvel looked over at Twilight, who was using her power to protect not only the two elders, but also him as well.
"Well? Are you going to move or WHAT?!" she yelled at him, her barrier beginning to falter. With the speed of lightning Marvel moved the two just as the barrier collapsed, the beam striking where they had been standing a moment before and turning the ground to a molten pool of magma. He landed next to Twilight and handed the elders over to Fluttershy, who was helping them with their wounds.
"You're actually helping me?" he asked her in disbelief.
"Don't get too used to it, I still don't like you or your methods," she said with a frown before looking back to the Cyclops. "But we have a common enemy at the moment and you probably know how the old saying goes."
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Marvel said for her, smiling that the fact that they would be fighting together. The Cyclops fired off another blast that was aimed straight for where the children and elderly had gathered, Marvel flying into its path to intercept it and being knocked right back down, but managing to protect them.
"I've never seen an angel get its butt kicked before," Twilight muttered in an amused tone.
"I'm not an angel, I'm Captain Marvel," he said as he got back up, rage slowly building. He was fine with getting hit a little, even getting kicked around. What he wasn’t fine with was an opponent that tried to harm children or the elderly to try and beat him. Yes, he was a good guy, but Billy had his rules. And the Cyclops had just broken them.
"Make sure no other ponies get hurt. I can't fight at full power if I have to worry about civilians," he ordered Twilight, ascending back into the sky. He brought his right fist back and gritted his teeth in rage, aiming to knock the Cyclops’s head off. But the Cyclops wasn't just a one trick pony, as he demonstrated when Captain Marvel got close. He fired off his beam, but this time closing his eye when he did so, letting the power build under the eye lid. Right before Marvel could crack his skull, Cyclops’s opened his eye and let the built up power out in one big blast, devastating any buildings that were still standing and launching the Captain backwards, smashing him right into Sugar Cube Corners. Marvel groaned and slowly stood up, trying to stop the world from spinning.
"Ugh, didn't know he could do that. Darn, this guy is a lot stronger than Erebus ever was," he muttered to himself, taking a few stumbling steps forward and leaning up against the wall to regain his balance. "I need to find some way around that eye, but what? Poking it out would be my best bet, but I don't know how the ponies would like that. The lightning bolt would also be another option, but that might kill him and I know how most of them feel about that." Marvel shook his head and took back off towards the fight, telling himself that he'd have to figure out something on the fly, he was needed at the moment. He returned to the battle in time to watch Twilight get blasted into a wall, her purple barrier barely holding up. Marvel flew under the Cyclops’s chin and uppercutted him with a massive blow, toppling the giant onto his back. He then flew up high in the sky and turned around, heading back down into the Cyclops’s stomach, practically shattering his ribs. A glance from the titan knocked Marvel back over to where Twilight was flying, panting heavily and covered in bruises.
"You don't look too good," Marvel said to her, pointing at all the injuries. She spat out a little blood and cast a spell on herself, healing up a majority of her wounds.
"Well there isn't a scratch on you, yet you've been hit more than anypony. How do you do it?" she asked with a tired smile, trying to keep herself conscious. Before he could answer the Cyclops began to attack with a new trick. He would fire a blast at them so they would shield themselves and then quickly fire another blast towards where the civilians were being kept, forcing Marvel to fly into the blast to protect them, slightly damaging him. He knew the damage would add up over time and he needed a new strategy.
"Keep him busy and get ready to throw up a shield." Marvel flew under the belly of the beast and looked up with a smile. "SHAZAM!" Just like with Erebus, when the lightning bolt came down it connected with the Cyclops, causing the titan to cry out in pain and drop to one knee, the hair on his back scorched.
"SHAZAM!" The next bolt pierced the skin, bringing the Cyclops down on all knees, breathing heavily and in pain. Captain Marvel swung his fists back into the beasts under belly, cracking any ribs that weren't broken and finally tolling the giant. "That has to be it," he muttered, scowling as the titan began to pull itself back to its feet.
"You are indeed strong, Marvel. But you are a fool if you believe that I am defeated," Cyclops roared, closing his eye and beginning to charge power for the second time. But Twilight had been waiting for him to do this again. So while he focused on charging his power, she wrapped his head in a sphere of magic. When he opened his eye, the energy erupted into the sphere, which trapped it and forced it back upon its master. The blast back burned the Cyclops’s face and eye, blinding him completely. While he was blinded, Marvel swung up underneath of him and finished off his remaining ribs, bringing the titan down for the final time.
"Yes! He's finally down," Twilight said with a weak smile, trying to remain airborne. Captain Marvel flew down next to the Cyclops and put a foot on his head, pressing down slightly.
"I have underestimated you. You are clearly worthy of the title of angel," the Cyclops said in a voice filled with pain, looking up at the lightning bolt on his chest. "Descended from on high in a strike of lightning to save the world. He was right in your description."
"Who was right in describing me?" Marvel asked, putting more pressure on the face. "Somebody here already knows about me? Answer!" he said with a bit more force, putting even more pressure on the Cyclops’s face and causing the titan to flinch.
"Enough. Hurting him won't get the answer out," Twilight said sternly, pushing the Captain back with her wing. Marvel chuckled to himself at the pain won't get the answers out. Oh if only she could meet Batman she would see just how wrong she was. Twilight walked over to the Cyclops and cast a spell on him, causing his one eye to grow dark and his face assumed a peaceful look.
"What are you doing?" Marvel asked her.
"Scanning his mind. I hope to find some information on who sent him here to deal with you," she muttered, concentrating all her energies onto scanning the Cyclops’s mind. While she did that, some of the ponies that Fluttershy had been taking care of, along with the CMC and some of the Elements, walked over to Marvel and began to thank him.
"You're incredible!" Scootaloo exclaimed, looking up and down at his outfit as Marvel floated over to them. "Dressed a bit weird, but you were still awesome! I've never seen anypony so powerful, that guy was like...twenty feet tall and you still tossed him around like he was nothing!"
"Yeah, that was super cool! You're like a...superpony or something!" Sweetie agreed. A lot of the other ponies agreed with the two fillies, he even got a nod from Rainbow Dash. Only Applebloom kept her distance, looking at him with a confused look on her face, like she was trying to put something together. Before she could ask him anything, one of the older ponies walked up to him with a confused look.
"Why is that monster still alive? Finish it before it has the chance to get back up!" he ordered, trying to pull Marvel over to the Cyclops. "That's what you do, right? Finish him!" Marvel looked around as more and more of the wounded ponies began to chant for him to kill the Cyclops’s, almost forming a riot. But before anypony could do anything else, Twilight screamed and leapt back from the Cyclops, who had a smile on his face and was glowing with a dark power.
"It was a good attempt, but I programmed myself to self-destruct if my mind was ever tampered with by coursing my power through my body," he coughed out with a smile, the dark energy flowing from his wounds. "I did not wish to destroy the entire town, but it is an acceptable outcome as long as I bring the angel with me. So...die." Marvel was the first to react, flying underneath of the Cyclops body, pushing his pulsating body into the air, climbing higher and higher while getting farther from Ponyville. He burst through the cloud cover and into the light of the sun, just as the Cyclops body reached critical mass.
"Sacrificing yourself to save the town and the ponies. How...noble," Cyclops said with a sneer, closing his eye as his time came and his body couldn't hold the energy any longer. He erupted and unleashed all the built up power, consuming Marvel in a hell storm of power and fire. He screamed as the power burned his body, the magical properties of the Cyclop's magic messing with his powers, making Marvel switch back and forth between Marvel and Billy. As Billy/Marvel fell to the earth, he managed to watch as the ground started to get closer and closer. He prayed to someone that he would land Captain side up and closed his eyes as he fell into the forest below him, sending up a huge dust cloud when he impacted. After a few minutes the dust died down, with the forest being the only witness to what had happened.
{S}
Sombra watched as the angel fell to the forest floor, notebook in his hoof and a smile on his face as he watched the child be the one to enter the forest head first, not his invincible angel form. He laughed aloud to himself as he watched the dust cloud kick up from the impact, practically telling him that the child had not survived the landing.
"It seems that the angel was not as strong as you believed," Death whispered with his sickly voice into Sombra's ear. "Now nopony will be able to stand up to us and our conquest of Equestria."
"Maybe," Sombra muttered, looking at the orb with an uncertain face. Yes it had looked like that the angel had died in the crash, but it was possible that he had switched back at the last second, which would mean that he had survived the fall. Sombra decided that the second was more likely and continued his search through the massive tome, looking for a certain spell.
"With him gone, does that mean that you will finally let us out of our prisons?" War asked in an impatient voice, flying around Sombra's head. "We have been imprisoned here for nearly five hundred years without food, water or sunlight! I cannot wait much longer!"
"Patience, brother," another voice whispered, barely audible but he still silenced War immediately. "You know that Sombra in his weakened state cannot release us for a while, so we must be patient and wait for him to recharge."
"Thank you, Famine. Glad to see that somepony knows how to stick to the plan," Sombra muttered, going back to his book. But before he could get invested again, a breeze blew through the chamber, breaking his concentration again.
"You fool! You got lucky with Erebus and the Cyclops, but if you release the other four, there will be no kingdom left for you to rule!" the voice of Star-Swirl said from behind Sombra, taking his ghostly form.
"You're still here, Star-Swirl?" Sombra asked, annoyed that this ghost just wouldn't seem to go away. "What does it take to keep you dead? I blasted you, banished you; even trapped you in your own book and yet you keep coming back. What do you want?"
"What I want is for you to stop this nonsense! If you release the last four of the trapped ponies, none of Equestria will be safe! They will destroy everypony, including you!"
"I am tired of your ramblings, old colt. But before I destroy you again, maybe there is something that you can do for me," Sombra said with an evil grin, walking over to where the apparition was and holding his tome to his face. "Perhaps you can tell me where you hid the information on the magical word known as...Shasam?" The ghost's face got even paler and he backed away from Sombra.
"I-I know not of what you speak. The word Shazam or of its powers."
"Oh I think you do," Sombra whispered with a small chuckle, pressing his attack. "For I purposely mispronounced it and you happened to say it correctly. And if you knew nothing about it, then why did you know of its magical properties?" Sombra had trapped the old ghost, who still refused to answer. Sombra sighed in defeat and walked away from the ghost and sat back down on the floor. "I suppose I can't physically make you talk, but I can threaten you."
"Ha, what could you possibly threaten a ghost with?"
"The death of those ponies that you fought so hard to protect. When I release the four, and believe me I will release them, I will promise you that they will not kill all the ponies...or your great-great granddaughter." Sombra nailed him and he knew it as he watched the colt's face turn the whitest it could be for a ghost.
"You know...?"
"I know. So what's it going to be, oh great wizard?" Sombra asked, holding out the book once more. Star-Swirl wanted to fight, but Sombra held the superior hand and he knew he was beaten.
"Hold the book upside down and go to the pages on magical fire. There you will find what you seek."
"There, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Sombra asked with a wicked chuckle, laughing even harder when Star-Swirl closed his eyes in disgust and vanished, leaving Sombra with the voices and the spirits.
"I just love how evil you can be," Death whispered once again. Sombra ignored him and flipped to the pages the wizard had spoken of, flipping the book upside down and beginning to read. As he learned more and more, the more his face fell into a frown. This was not what he had been expecting.
"It seems that my initial plans for the angel will not work. The power of Shazam will only work on one who is chosen to receive the powers, meaning I can't steal them from the boy. However, it seems that there are many ways to keep him from receiving those powers as well. That is what I must aim for."
"I realized that you seek revenge, but you seem to be more determined than other villains to gain it," Famine said with a smile. "What did they do to you that was so bad?"
"I was a king! A king that ruled all of the Crystal Empire! But then the princesses with those Elements showed up and kicked me off my throne. I will rule with an iron hoof and once again show why I must be on the throne!" he roared in rage, going into a rant about how good the times used to be before the princesses defeated him. While he ranted, the three shadows met in the corner of the room chuckling to themselves.
"He is so easy to fool," Death whispered to his brothers.
"He will be easy to crush once he releases us," War agrees. "I can't wait to see the look on his face when we burst from the stone and cut him down.
"As fun as that would be, I believe that we should go ahead with his plan and destroy the Elements first. They are what imprisoned us in the first place," Famine suggested to his brothers.
"And why would we do that?" War growled.
"Because I said so. You're not going to try and disagree with me, are you?" Both of the other shadows slowly moved away, feeling the air change a little. Even Sombra looked back over at the three, wondering what they were talking about. There had been no threat in Famine's voice, no malice. Yet his two brothers knew him well enough to know what he was saying and that they were treading dangerous waters.
"O-of course not, I just wanted to know for sure," War stammered.
"That's good, I hate it when we don't get along," Famine said with a laugh that sent shivers through the other two. "So it's agreed, we go through with Sombra's plan and then betray him. Agreed?"
"Agreed!" the other two shouted together. Unknown to any of them, Sombra had actually tuned in on their conversation and had already formed a plan to counter theirs.
'So they plan to betray me, do they? Heh, I guess I will have to destroy them as well. But not before they destroy the Elements for me. This will be a very beneficial, yet short, partnership.' He chuckled to himself as he finished reading up on the Shazam power, feeling happy for the first time in a long time.