Black clouds.
Those were the first things to greet Billy's eyes as he woke up the following morning. He had awoken to find that he was feeling better for the most part, but he was still powerless. With a sigh, he turned to look out the window and found to his surprise that black clouds were covering the land, not the bright, sunny skies he was used to seeing. Billy was an expert on thunder and lightning, the knowledge coming from his magical power, so when he saw these clouds, something inside of him shuddered. These were not natural clouds, these were something more. At the moment he had no idea what, so he decided to push them from his mind. He hopped out of bed to find Spike sleeping in his little bed. Billy needed to talk to Spike and Applebloom, the only two he could confide in at the moment.
"Psst. Hey Spike, wake up," Billy whispered, shaking the dragon a little. Spike mumbled something about Rarity and turned back over, ignoring Billy. "Okay, so we're playing that game?" Billy walked into the bathroom and filled a cup with cold water. He walked back out and started to tip the cup over, letting just a bit of the water fall onto Spike’s head. The stubborn dragon still remained asleep and just brushed the water off. Billy shrugged and turned the whole thing over.
"GAH! What the heck?" Spike shouted as he was very rudely interrupted from his sleep. He looked over to Billy with a glare in his eyes. "What the heck? Why did you wake me like that? Don't you know its bad luck to wake a sleeping dragon?"
"No. Is it?"
"It will be when I'm big enough to eat a house," Spike mumbled, standing up and stretching. "So I can only assume that you wanted to talk to me about something given the way you woke me up?" Billy pointed out the window to the clouds, which had seemed to grow even darker in the short time he had been up. Spike wasn't impressed. "You woke me up out of my lovely dream to show me some dark clouds?"
"Something’s up with those clouds, Spike. My...special abilities tell me that," Billy said seriously. Spike's face lost its annoyed look and became more concerned.
"Have your powers returned yet?" Spike asked in a hushed voice.
"No, but I've been around magic long enough to know when there's dark magic around me. These clouds...they aren't natural."
"Not natural?"
"Evil, dark; signifying that something really bad is coming," Billy said in a tone so that not even the skeptic Spike could doubt him.
"So what do we do?"
"For now we tell Twilight and get her alerted. After that I want to go to Applebloom's and see if she has any ideas on what could be happening."
"And why don't we just tell Twilight about your feeling?"
"Because she doesn't know that I'm Marvel."
"Oh...wait, does that mean Applebloom knows?"
"She smarter than I thought," Billy said with a shrug. "Come on, let's go talk to Twilight." The two descended down the stairs to the living area, where Twilight was hard at work trying to make a breakfast that wouldn't kill the two of them, with little luck.
"Oh, hi boys, I thought I heard your voices," she said cheerfully, despite the fact that she looked like she had been attacked by a pile of flour. "What were you two talking about?"
"Billy decided to wake me up with cold water," Spike grumbled, giving Billy a look. "I then proceeded to tell him what would happen if he tried that on a dragon much bigger than me."
"Glad to see that you two are bonding. Sit yourselves down, breakfast will be ready soon," she said with a smile, both Spike and Billy looking at what she called breakfast with a bit of dread.
"Um, Twilight, I think I should take over from here," Spike said in a careful tone, trying to move past Twilight to get to the kitchen and looking to Billy for help.
"Um, yeah, I need to talk to you about something," he said quickly. Twilight turned from the kitchen and walked over to him, much to the relief of the two.
"Sure, what's up?"
"Have you seen the weather today?" Billy asked, not sure how'd she respond.
"Yeah, it's a bit odd. We weren't supposed to have a storm for another few days," she muttered to herself, looking out one of the windows. "Oh well, I'm sure those pegasus ponies know what they're up too."
"Actually, I don't think that this is not normal weather," Billy said slowly. "I'd feel a lot safer with the Elements of Harmony around."
"What do you mean? Pegasi sometimes move a storm up in the week so that we'll have better weather later on."
"Just trust me on this, I...have a feeling." Twilight wasn't impressed.
"You have a feeling? That's the reason why you believe that this storm is not normal?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. The nod Billy gave her probably didn't help as it garnered another look from her. "Alright Billy, I'll talk to the other Elements."
"Wait, you believe me?" he asked dumbfounded.
"Family trusts each other, even when they're not sure what anothers going on about," Twilight said with a smile, passing up her breakfast and heading for the door. "And seeing as you're part of the family, I figure I should trust you and your "feeling." I'll go gather the Elements." Billy watched her leave, amazed that she had believed him. He wasn't lying; this was something that he knew to be true but just couldn't explain to her fully. Spike sat down beside him and passed him his food.
"Plain salad with nothing else added," he assured his friend. "So, what's the plan this time?"
"With Twilight having the Elements of Harmony on standby, the coming threat might be averted," Billy said while he ate, thinking over his steps in his head. "Next is to follow up what Twilight told me about past villains and try to find out which one of them would be behind this plan. You still have the book?" Spike walked over to a shelf and pulled the book on Equestria's monster out and brought it over to the table, opening to a few pages that he had marked.
"You're lucky nopony wants to read this," Spike said with a smile as he looked down the page for the monster he was after. "Okay, first up is Nightmare Moon."
"Describe her for me."
"Um, ability to control smoke and darkness, sought to cast Equestria into eternal night, powers that rival Celestia's. That sound like any of the ponies you fought?"
"A bit. The smoke and darkness fits, but they only sought destruction, not to cast all of Equestria into an eternal night. Who's next?"
"Chrysalis, queen of the changelings, who are able to take on the shapes of others. The feed primary on love and every time she has shown up was to take the ponies love and feed on it for herself and her children. That sound better?"
"Worse, actually," Billy muttered, looking over at the picture. "None of my opponents could shape shift and were completely alone. Chrysalis is out."
"Hmm, that just leaves Sombra then," Spike muttered, turning the book so Billy could look. "Sombra controls darkness as well and tried to conquer the Crystal Empire a while back. But thanks to yours truly, he was defeated and destroyed."
"Wait, you beat a supervillian by yourself?" Billy asked amazed, to which Spike grinned sheepishly.
"Well, I had a little help, but it was mostly me!" Billy looked at the picture of Sombra, his gut telling him that this was the pony. He had the powers, the motivation; this one was a conqueror and would use others to try and take what he wanted, which was exactly what had been happening.
"This is the guy," Billy confirmed, his gut never being wrong. He looked out the window at the darkening clouds, knowing what to do next.
"Come on, let's go talk to Applebloom."
"Why?"
"I want to see if she knows what's going on."
"Why would she?"
"She figured out my identity, so I figure that she knows a lot," Billy said, putting the book back on its shelf and heading out the door with Spike behind him. The town was finally looking like it was getting back to normal. Houses were starting to go up; the streets were being repaved and all looked like it had when he had first arrived. Which made his prediction about the evil coming even worse. He waved to the ponies that waved to him but for the most part moving at a fast pace to where Applebloom lived.
"Hi Billy!" an excited voice said. Billy turned to find Pinkie Pie standing behind him, apparently having scared the crap out of Spike.
"Hey Pinkie, what's up?" he asked while walking, wanting to continue moving.
"The sky, silly," she said with a giggle. "And also those weird clouds. Never seen too many of those around here. They normally signal something bad coming." So he had been right and something bad was on its way. From what he had been told about Pinkie, her Pinkie sense were never wrong.
"I know. Something about them just doesn’t feel right," he agreed, walking while she hoped along beside him. "What are you doing here by the way?"
"Twilight told me to meet her at the library. She said that you wanted the Elements to gather because you had a bad feeling. So here I am!"
"Thanks for going. By the way, when you see her, tell her that Spike and I went to Applebloom's to talk."
"Sure thing, I'll see you two a little later today!" she said with an energetic smile and hoped off backwards down the street. Spike shook his head as he watched her go.
"She's a weird one," he commented.
"Yeah, but she's nice. Come on, let's go." The two headed for the barn in relative silence, until Spike asked a question that he had wanted to ask for a while.
"So why did you really come here?" The question Billy had been dreading. He went to say that it was an accident, that he hadn't meant to come here...but Spike considered him family and if he couldn't trust family, then who could he trust?
"I'm chasing a monster."
"A monster? Really? What kind of monster? Is it a hydra, a manticore? What?" Spike asked. Billy shook his head, thinking back to how many had died while trying to capture the thing. A hydra and a manticore had nothing on it.
"It is infinitely more powerful than any of those. Its name...is Doomsday." The last part was said in a whisper, Billy losing himself temporarily in memories.
"Doomsday? Stupid name," Spike said with a smile, hoping to make Billy laugh. But when Billy looked him in the eyes Spike saw only fear.
"He's no laughing matter. Doomsday is responsible for killing Superman," he said in his most serious tone.
"Who's Superman?"
"The most powerful guy on my planet. How powerful?" he asked before Spike could. "So powerful that he can move planets. So powerful that he can fly into the sun and come out unharmed. He's that strong. And Doomsday beat him to DEATH." With each word Spike's eyes shrunk smaller and smaller, until they had reached comical proportions.
"And you're supposed to capture him? That's insane! Even with your powers it sounds like this guy could easily kill you! Why are you here after him!?" Billy could hear the concern in his voice, which he was thankful for.
"Because I'm the only hero that can stand up to Doomsday at the moment. But don't worry; he should still be trapped in a suspended state, so he shouldn't be a problem." Spike looked relieved at this, but after a moment's thought fear returned to his face.
"Twilight told me that there was a monster attack in the north that the princesses stopped. Could that have been Doomsday?"
"No way," Billy said with a laugh. "Do you know what Doomsday would do to your princesses? Unless he was SEVERLY weakened, they'd stand no chance. So I'm fairly certain that it wasn't Doomsday that they were fighting...Also, could you keep what I told you a secret? I'm not sure if I was supposed to tell anyone while I'm here."
"Sure thing, bud, my lips are sealed," Spike assured him while motioning a zipper closing over his mouth. "Thanks for confiding in me though, glad to see you trust me." Billy thought about that. He did trust Spike a lot, didn't he? First with Captain Marvel, then with Doomsday.
"Of course, it's what brothers do." If Billy had been looking at Spike, he would have seen the dragons eyes get massive as he said this. The two continued small talk about what the other did for fun until they finally reached the farm. The dark skies hadn't dampened the Apple spirit and the two found most of the Apple family hard at work in the fields. Spike and Billy found Applebloom at the base of an apple tree, doing her best to knock the apples down. They watched as she took a position in front of the tree, aiming her back legs at it. She gave it a nasty glare before slamming both her hooves into it. The result was an angry Applebloom in pain.
"ARGH! Stupid apples! Mah sister can knock ya down no problem, but you won't fall for me! It's not fair!"
"Having some trouble?" Applebloom turned to face the two, pain and rage still on her face.
"No, ah'm perfectly fine," she growled, kicking the tree again with the same result. Billy and Spike watched in amusement as she continued before Billy got back to business.
"Applebloom, we need to talk," he whispered, making sure none of her family was around.
"About what?" she asked, kicking the tree again.
"About...Marvel," Billy answered after checking again. Applebloom stopped what she was doing and turned to face them, giving Spike a suspecting glance.
"He knows?"
"Yup."
"Alright then, what's up?" she asked, sitting down.
"You see the sky?" he asked her after sitting down himself.
"Yeah, what of it?" she asked, looking up.
"Those aren't normal clouds." Applebloom gave him a look, as if he had just confirmed a suspicion. "I'm not crazy. I have a connection to all magical forces through the power of Shazam. I can feel that those clouds aren't normal. That's why I had the Elements on standby when something happens."
"Ya said when. Ya know that something bad is gonna happen?"
"Positive."
"Well, what do ya want me for?"
"I figured I should tell you, as you figured out who I am," he said with a shrug. While she rolled her eyes, inwardly she felt happy that he had chosen to include her.
"Sounds bad. Any idea on how to get yer powers back?"
"No, but I'm sure they'll return in time. And with what Twilight told us about past Equestrian villains, it seems that they can handle anything that's thrown at them for now." The universe is cruel and the moment Billy uttered those words a massive explosion was seen from the town in the distance. The three only stared for a minute before they were on their hooves and feet and running towards the city as fast as they could. Billy could hear the scream, followed by the sounds of laughter, evil laughter that he was all too familiar with.
"What's going on?" Spike asked as they got closer.
"No idea. Keep running!" Applebloom shouted back. As the three approached the city, they watched as blast of rainbow colored magic flooded the area, only to be counteracted with beams of darkness and power. The waves created by the two magical forces nearly knocked the three off their feet and hooves, causing them to pause.
"Seems the Elements are battling back," Billy muttered, watching as Rainbow Dash and Twilight ascended to the sky to fire rainbow bolts on the unseen foe before they were both swatted down. "Come on, we need to go help them!" The three ran into the city, being met with a wave of ponies trying to escape the conflict. They fought and pushed for a full minute before finally reaching the outskirts of the battle, each letting out a gasp at what they saw.
The Elements of Harmony, the most powerful known force in Equestria, were fighting for their lives. Fluttershy looked like hell, badly cut and bleeding profusely. Pinkie's eternal smile was gone, replaced with a look of rage that would put the stare to shame. Applejack was barely standing, having to be rushed away from the fight by a beaten up Rarity. The only two ponies still fighting on the front line were Twilight and RD, neither of which looked to be in the best condition. Then the three looked across the battlefield to their opponents.
They were like something out of a nightmare. The biggest one was a blood red color, wielding a massive broadsword with a demonic smile in his face and fire in his eye, cutting down any and all in his way. The one that stood behind in was much smaller, but equally as terrifying. He was dark black with twin scythes floating around his head, sickeningly stained already. The skull on his face only added to the horror and his cold, dead eyes completed the look. The disgusting creature that the other three stood far away from made the three gag to look at. He was bulky, ugly and looked like something out of the black-plague era. He wielded no weapon, but anything he touched withered and died, even buildings crumbled under his touch. His sickening laughs sounded like a dying man and made the group shudder. But as terrifying as those three were, the pony bringing up the rear was the real terror. He looked normal, sophisticated even, but one look into his eyes told a much different story. There was no emotion. No love, no rage; nothing. Billy could feel his rage building as he watched the pony look down at a corpse with a smile, seeming to enjoy all the destruction around him. And what circled him haunted the dreams of all that cast their eyes upon them. Two dog like heads on chains circled his body, scarfing down on corpses and living beings alike, as if starved.
"W-what are they?" Applebloom asked in terror, her young mind trying to comprehend the death and destruction in front of her.
"I-I've only read about them in legend," Spike whispered, looking upon the group with pure fear in his eyes. "Those four are responsible for the death of the old king and queen, the parents of the princesses. Each of their names represented a different curse that has been cast on ponies since the ancient times! The signify the end, for they are-"
"The four horses of the apocalypse," Billy said with a growl.