Applebloom slowly stirred as the morning sun gently cast its morning gaze upon her through her window, filling her and her room with light and warmth. She slowly opened her eyes as she sat up and yawned, looking out of the window at the morning sun rising over the hills. The moment the sleepiness wore off, she kicked back the covers and leapt out of bed, throwing open her door and racing down the stairs to the kitchen. Applejack and Big Mac were already up and about, AJ preparing their breakfast while Big Mac was preparing himself to go to work.
"Morning, Applebloom," Applejack said with a smile as Applebloom raced by her and towards the door. "Don't bother Sugarcube, he's not out there," AJ said with a frown, already knowing where AB was heading. "He hasn't been here ever since what happened with Sombra." Applebloom had heard what happened in Canterlot from her sister the previous night, everything from Superman killing Sombra to Celestia and RD trying to fight each other. Upon hearing the news, Applebloom immediately wanted to check on Superman to see if he was alright, but no matter where she looked or how often she called for him, he never showed.
"Why is he hiding from us, Applejack?" Applebloom asked her sister while she sat back down at the table with a sigh, placing her head on both her hooves. Applejack sat down across from her and replied, "From what Insectum said, as well as what you and yer friends told me, it sounds like Superman only hurt Sombra to save Insectum's mom. He would never hurt on purpose."
"Yer right, but right now Superman probably feels guilty about what he did, whether it was on purpose or not," Applejack said with a sigh, remembering how beaten Superman had sounded. "He's always been pro life, so killing another pony has probably hurt him worse than you or ah could think."
"But he's supposed to be our friend," AB said with a frown. "Why would he just ignore us?" AJ looked at her with sympathy in her eyes before getting out of her chair and walking over to her sister, wrapping a hoof around her shoulder while trying to comfort her.
"He just needs some time, Applebloom. He's been through a lot of stress since he's arrived here," AJ explained. "Ah'm sure that if anypony's in danger, he'll be back to help. Now, how about ya get ready to go? Ya promised yer friends that ya'd take Insectum around town today." AB nodded and Applejack smiled, letting her sister up while she got her hat. AB hopped out of her chair and headed out the door, walking onto her porch and looking at the barn with a sad frown. Superman hadn't slept in their barn for days, and she had begun to miss him. So with a small sigh, she started to walk towards the town, keeping her eyes on the sky in hopes of seeing the red blur. As she walked into town, she noticed that something seemed different. For one thing, ponies everywhere were going through a massive cleaning frenzy, throwing out bags of garbage and sweeping the streets clean. As she walked by Sugar Cube Corners, she could smell cakes being baked, and not the cakes that she was used to smelling. These cakes were made for one pony in particular.
"So Celestia's coming to town, is she?" AB muttered to herself with a smile. That would explain why all the ponies were getting ready and trying to make the town as clean as possible. She also realized that the princesses had been coming to Ponyville a lot lately, mostly due to reasons that involved Superman. Did Celestia's coming to Ponyville have something to do with Superman? And if so what? She shook the questions from her mind as she reached the Carousel Boutique, knocking on the door and smiling when she heard Sweetie say she'd get it.
"Morning, Applebloom!" Sweetie said cheerfully as she opened the door with a smile. "Rarity! I'm going to go crusading with Applebloom and Scootaloo!"
"Just don't do anything crazy!" Rarity yelled back groggily from upstairs, telling AB that she wasn't fully awake yet. "Superman's upset right now and I don't want you doing anything to put extra stress on him!"
"We won't!" Sweetie ran out of the door and slammed it behind her, both she and AB giggling when they heard Rarity's cat go crazy. Both of them took off towards Scootaloo, who said that she would meet them at the center of the town. As the two of them reached the center of town, both of them saw that Scootaloo was joined by both Dinky and Tiara. "Hey Scootaloo! Hey Dinky! How are all of you doing?"
"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Tiara said with a frown, but got over her being ignored quickly. "Scootaloo invited us over to crusade as well, that's why we're here."
"Alrighty then, what are we doing today?" Dinky asked with enthusiasm, looking between the four fillies with a huge smile. "Bear wrestling? Sky diving? Rock stars?"
"Ah don't know, ah was thinking along the lines of..."AB stopped with wide eyes when she saw Chrysalis flying towards them, the others following her gaze and were equally stunned by the sight. Chrysalis landed in front of them with an imposing glare, causing all of the fillies to move closer together in fear. The fear on their faces turned to looks of joy as Insectum jumped off her mother's back and landed in front of them, smiling at all their stunned faces.
"Hiya everypony!" she said with a huge smile as she ran into them, all of them forming a mass of hugging fillies. "How are you all doing? Haven't seen you in...a day actually." The CMC began to tell her about how they had been in the past day, but Chrysalis interrupted them by clearing her throat.
"Now remember what I told you, stay away from any strange ponies and stay safe," Chrysalis reminded her. "And if anypony gives you trouble, call for Superman and then make whoever is trying to hurt you regret it. Have you been practicing your fireball spell?" Insectum nodded eagerly and fired a blast of green fire into a tree, disturbing a birds nest. She screamed and started to run in circles as the birds started to dive bomb her, forcing Chrysalis to shoot lightning at them to scare them off. Insectum began to laugh at the situation while Chrysalis looked at her daughter with worry. "Alright, be safe then. I need to get in contact with one of my advisors to see how the hive is holding up." Chrysalis buzzed her wings and flew off, letting the ponies who had been watching exhale in peace.
"So, what are we doing today?" Insectum asked the fillies while they watched Chrysalis fly away. The girls thought about it for a minute before they looked at her with a shrug.
"Actually, we were just debating what to do when you showed up," Scootaloo explained. "Alright, show of hooves. Who wants to wrestle bears?" Sweetie and Dinky both raised their hooves, but the vote was two to four. "Alright, next is rock stars?" Three hooves went up this time, but Scootaloo wanted to ask the last one just for her sake. "Any pony want to sky dive?" Only her hoof went up, so with a growl of frustration she told them that they'd be trying for rock stars today.
"Alright girls, let's head to-!"
WHAM!
All of the ponies screamed in shock as a blur slammed into the ground, creating a massive crater in the center of town. The girls looked at the smoking crater in horror as a snow white hoof placed itself on the edge of the crater, pulling out a massive stallion that seemed to freeze the air around it, its breath freezing into ice every time it breathed.
"What is that?" Insectum asked, while she put herself in front of her friends, charging her fireball spell. She looked back to the other fillies, who were backing away in terror.
"It's a Windigo!" Tiara screamed as she backed away from it. "They're creatures that feed off of hatred and spite!" The Windigo looked at them and narrowed its eyes, getting back to its hooves and starting to walk towards them. "This is bad! It's going to get us! It's-"
"Done," Dinky said with a smile as a red blur shot by them and slammed into the Windigo's chest, the frozen body doing nothing to affect the man who held the stallion by its neck.
"SUPERMAN!" all of the girls cried out with glee. Superman looked at them and smiled, allowing them to see with shock the state he was in. His eyes were red and his suit was torn, his cape nothing more than a burnt piece of cloth now. And even though his smile was trying to tell them that they were safe, it still had hints of sadness in it. He turned back to the Windigo and snarled at it, reaching back with the arm with which he was holding it and throwing it off into the distance.
"Superman, wait!" Applebloom cried out as he kicked off after the Windigo, shooting off into the distance and leaving the fillies. "Wait..."
"Wow, he looks like a wreck," Tiara said with a whistle, backing up when the others glared at her. "Well, he does."
"Did you see his suit?" Insectum asked them. "I know he looked bad after the fight with Sombra, but I didn't think it was this bad."
"Weren't you there with him?" Dinky asked.
"Hey, he flew off before I could get all the tears out of my eyes," Insectum said in her defense. "I didn't see much after Sombra got his brains fried." Applebloom had been staring off where Superman had flown away, an idea slowly beginning to form in her mind.
"Ah've got it!" she exclaimed, startling the others. "Ah know what we can do! We can make Superman a new cape!" While Dinky and Insectum smiled at the idea, Sweetie and Scootaloo exchanged worried glances with each other.
"Not to rain on your parade, but I already tried to make capes before, remember?" Sweetie said with a frown. "And Rarity yelled at me for using her best material. That, and it took me all day to make it."
"That's fine, because this time we'll do more than just us working on the capes," AB reminded her. "We have Dinky, Tiara and Insectum with us. Do any of you know how to sew or work with materials?"
"My Mom taught me how to sew, considering all the accidents that my family seems to have," Dinky said so quietly that none of them could hear.
"Mom taught me how to link chain mail. Does that count?" Insectum asked them.
"How about we just head to Rarity's and go from there?" Scootaloo suggested. All of the girls looked at each other with a shrug, realizing that her suggestion was best. So they all ran off towards the Carousel Boutique, slamming open the door once they got there, and deciding who would be working what. All of the noise woke Rarity from her beauty sleep, resulting in her stomping down the stairs like a dragon storming out of it's cave.
"What are the six of you doing, making this much noise this early in the morning?" she half-shrieked at them, eyes bloodshot. "I was up 'til midnight talking with the princesses and the other Elements of Harmony about what we should do about the escaped criminals, and I didn't get to bed until two in the morning. I NEED MY SLEEP!"
"S-sorry Rarity," Sweetie Belle said sadly. "We were trying to make Superman a new cape to cheer him up, but we can leave if you want." At the mention of Superman, all of Rarity's rage vanished and she looked at her sister with calmer eyes.
"I'm sorry for yelling Sweetie, I'm just tired," Rarity said apologetically. "If you and your friends want to make something for Superman, go right ahead. You can use any of my materials except those on the top shelves." Rarity then yawned again and headed for the door. "I need to talk with Twilight about later today. Be good and on your best behavior."
"Okay girls, let's get started," Sweetie Belle said with a smile, running over to one of Rarity's chests and throwing it open. She tossed out a number of different fabrics of varying colors and sizes before finally emerging once again with a smile on her face, while she dragged out a large red cape from inside. The cape didn't seem to be in the best condition, with tears and rips all over it, but Sweetie figured that this was the best they could get. "Alright ponies, let's get started on making Superman a new cape. What should we do first?"
"Well, Superman has his yellow symbol on the back of his cape right?" Insectum asked, causing the others to look at her with curious looks. "He drops by the changeling empire a lot, so I see a lot of him," she said with a smile.
"Sounds good to me!" Sweetie also said with a smile, looking around the room. "So, what around here can we use for yellow?"
"How about that jar of yellow glitter up there?" Dinky asked as she pointed to the top shelf. All of them looked to the top to see a jar filled with a shining gold glitter, casting a small light on all of them. "That looks like it would be cool to put on his cape."
"I don't know...didn't Rarity say not to touch anything from the top shelf?" Tiara asked them.
"It's fer Superman. Ah'm sure she'll understand," Applebloom said as she started to climb the bookshelf, finding out rather quickly that it had been designed so that it couldn't be climbed. "Shoot, she must have known that we'd try to climb it. Welp, ah'm out of ideas. You girls have any?"
"I can fly up there and get it," Insectum suggested. "My wings grew strong enough to fly last month," she explained while Scootaloo pouted. "I should be able to reach it. Stand back please." The girls did as she asked while Insectum started to flap her wings at super speeds, creating the sound that a bee's wings make when they take off. She flapped them twice as hard and shot straight up, smacking her head on the ceiling. She managed to maintain her flight even though her head hurt and reached out to grab the jar, wrapping her hooves around it tightly. She then moved back to take the jar off the shelf...and the added weight immediately brought her to the ground with a thud. The girls shrieked and backed away as a cloud of gold went everywhere, covering the changeling princess head to toe in gold dust.
"Well, you got it down at least," Sweetie said as she bit her lip, imagining the fit Rarity would have when she got back and found the gold dust in her carpet. What was worse, some of the glitter had reached the cape and stained the lower part of it. Insectum coughed as she stood up, looking down at herself with a smile.
"Ha, now I'm the world's first golden changeling. Oh, Mom's going to have a fit when she sees this." The fillies picked the jar back up and found that despite the drop, there was still some of the glitter inside.
"Okay, so we got it down. Who wants to paint the symbol?"
"I will!" Scootaloo said happily, racing over as Sweetie laid the cape out on the ground and stuck her hoof into the golden glitter. She pulled out her golden hoof and looked at the cape with one eye closed before she started to draw. All of the others crowded around as she started, their faces turning into looks of confusion the more she drew. "There! All done!" she said triumphantly while she stood back.
"Um, oh, how to put this?" Applebloom said quietly, not sure how to describe what she was looking at. "It...It looks-"
"It looks like a z in the center of a bug," Tiara said bluntly, saying what all the ponies were thinking about the badly drawn symbol. "Well it does," she said in her defense when Scootaloo glared at her.
"Moving on," Sweetie cut in, placing herself between Tiara and Scootaloo. "Next we need to try and sew up the tears in it. Now I've already tried my hoof at sewing and the doctor said he had never seen anything like it in his life, so I can't do it. And Applebloom and Scootaloo already tried once, and we barely got out of that situation alive, so they won't be doing it. Can any of you three sew?"
"I can!" Dinky said excitedly, grabbing the needle and thread from Sweetie as she held it out. The very first thing she did, once she had the material, was to miss threading the needle and accidently poke Diamond Tiara in the side, making her yelp in pain as she shot up almost as high as Insectum had flown. "Sorry about that," Dinky said softly once they had gotten ice for her.
"It's no problem," Tiara said with restraint, holding the ice pack to her side. Dinky tried again and this time managed to get the thread through the needle on her third attempt. Then she began to stich, which was less like watching a needle go through thread and more like watching a pony try to fit a rock through her front door. Dinky just couldn't get the needle to go in correctly and even managed to tear an even bigger hole in the cape, forcing Tiara to intervene. "Give me the needle, Dinky, and I'll show you how it's done." Then to the surprise of everypony, Tiara got the needle threaded on her first attempt and quickly repaired the tear Dinky had caused in one swift motion. "You can't force it, it takes finesse instead of brute force. See?"
"Wow, Tiara, I didn't know you knew how to do anything else beside be a jerk," Scootaloo said, impressed, causing Tiara to sigh sadly.
"I'm sorry about all the grief I've given the four of you," she said as she continued to stitch. "I guess that's because Daddy was rich that I always saw myself as better...but I know that I'm not. If anything, I'm the worst out of all of us." The CMC looked at her fallen face, not used to seeing the depressed side of Tiara.
"Come on, you're not that bad," Dinky said with a smile as she threw a hoof around Diamond's shoulder, making her poke herself on accident. Once they had gotten her a bandage, Dinky continued what she was saying. "I mean, yeah you were mean at first, but you've shown to be a nice pony deep down. And at least you learn from your mistakes, which is more than I can say from some ponies who used to tease me." Tiara gave her a small smile at that, thankful for the kind words. Within another minute she had finished the stiching, allowing the fillies to move on the final task.
"Okay girls, now here comes the hardest part," Sweetie said in her most serious tone, forcing them to huddle so that they could talk in secret. "We need to find a way to wrap this present so that Superman can't see through it. So how do we do this?" All of the ponies looked stumped on this, except for Dinky.
"Oh, that's easy. You just use lead-lined wrapping." All of the fillies stared at her with dumbfounded expressions.
"How do ya know this?" Applebloom asked her.
"Oh, mommy's boyfriend had all sorts of weird gadgets and tricks, like a weird screwdriver" she explained a bit more somber than before. "And he always said that x-ray vision, no matter how strong, can't go through lead. It's like...the only thing it can't see through."
"Of course, even if you are correct that would mean we need lead-lined material, and I highly doubt Rarity's going to have that," Tiara said with a sigh. Sweetie Belle walked out of the room and down into the cellar where Rarity kept her failed designs, looking through the dusty chest for a certain item in particular. After ten minutes of searching, she finally found what she was looking for and ran upstairs with the item in tow.
"Tada!" she exclaimed as she threw down the gray paper at their hooves." One roll of lead-lined paper all ready to go."
"How...?"
"Rarity tried this stuff a few months back when she wanted to make dresses that couldn't be destroyed by magic," Sweetie explained as she grabbed a pair of scissors. "While it didn't work with magic, she figured that it could one day be used again and stored it in the basement...where she forgot about it," she continued explaining as she folded up the cape and placed it in the center of the wrappings, cutting off the parts they didn't need and folding it close. She then wrapped it with a bow and stared at their work with a smile. "I think he'll like it. Now who wants to carry it?"
"I will!" Dinky volunteered. So Sweetie handed the package to Dinky and the six of them ran out of the shop, leaving the jar and wrappings on the shop's floor. The six of them ran through the streets, laughing to themselves as they did so and wondering how Superman would react to their gift. Dinky ran behind the others, having to balance the present along with trying to keep up with the others. She was so focused on the other fillies that she never saw the divot in the road or the puddle of mud that was next to it. So she was completely caught off guard as she stepped into the divot and stumbled to the side, falling face first in the mud with a huge splash. The others stopped when the heard the sound and ran back to her, helping her out of the mud, while Insectum retrieved the gift.
"Oh no," Dinky said with tears in her eyes as she looked at the mud-covered package, once Insectum had pulled it out. "I ruined Superman's gift. Oh, I always ruin everything!"
"It's alright, maybe he'll...no, I'm certain he will accept it anyway," Scootaloo said, trying to comfort her. "He's Superman right? He's always nice to us." Dinky nodded softly, wiping the tears out of her eyes with her mud-covered arm. The six of them continued their run until they reached the headquarters of the CMC, the clubhouse that they had built a while ago. Once they had all caught their breaths again, they all inhaled deeply and all shouted at once,
"SUPERMAN!"
They saw Superman flying towards them before they heard the multiple sonic booms that followed him, forcing them to cover their ears as the noise reached them. Superman slammed into the ground ten feet away from them, eyes burning in anticipation of a possible attack. When he saw that it was only the six fillies that had called him, he closed his burning eyes and opened them again with a hard glare.
"Why did the six of you call me?" he asked them in a stern tone, crossing his arms with a frown. "I'm very busy at the moment and I simply don't have the time to play with you." He realized almost immediately that he had hurt their feelings and sighed before trying again. "I apologize for my tone, I'm just really stressed right now. I'm sure that whatever you wanted to talk to me about is important, but it while have to wait 'til later."
"We just wanted to give you something," Insectum said quickly before he had the chance to fly off. She and Dinky moved to the side to reveal the present, making Superman's eyebrow go up. "We made it for you...to try and help you feel better." She nudged Dinky in the side and motioned for her to give the gift to him, which she did so slowly.
"S-sorry for dropping it," she stammered as he took the gift from her, smirking when he found that he couldn't look through it. "I didn't mean to, I just tripped while running and..." Superman tore back the wrapping to see what they had made, staring at what he held in his hand for a full minute. It was a cape; he knew that, but this cape looked beaten up and was covered in glitter. The symbol was wrong and the stitching was amateurish, not to mention that it was covered in mud. The fillies looked at him while holding their breath, having no idea how he'd react. Eternity seemed to fly by as he looked at the cape. Then he smiled, a smile that put all of the fillies' worries to rest while he unfolded the cape completely, swinging it over his back and tying it in a bow in the front.
"How do I look?" he asked them with a silly smile as he put his hands on his hips and let the muddy cape flap behind him in the wind. The girls looked at the image of this powerful-looking man with a silly looking cape on his back for a minute before they all burst out laughing.
"That bad huh?"
"N-no, it's just that the cape really doesn't suit you," Tiara explained as she wiped away a tear from her eyes.
"We understand, if you don't want it," Sweetie Belle began, but Superman gave them another smile as he got down to one knee.
"I wouldn't trade this cape for anything in the world," he said softly, feeling tears beginning to form. "The six of you didn't have to do this."
"Are you kidding?" Insectum asked with a smile. "You've saved us and our loved ones more times than I can count. This is the least we can do for you."
"Yeah, what are friends for?" Applebloom asked with a smile that slowly turned into a frown. "We...are your friends, right?"
"Yes, you are all my friends," he said with a nod. The fillies all smiled and rushed Superman, all of them tackling him to form one massive hug...all except for Tiara, who smiled sadly and started to walk away. "I said all of you are my friends and that includes you too, Diamond." She looked back at them with an unsure gaze, but smiled and joined in on the hug when they all motioned for her to come over.
"Thank you."
"For what?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"For reminding me that no matter how upset I get or how rough the job gets, that I can never forget why I do this," he said quietly, releasing the hug and standing back up. "For giving others a reason to smile." He then turned his head to the side as another call for help went up. "I need to go. But I promise that I'll be there to talk with Celestia tonight and after that...how about I fly the six of you around the world a few times?" All of their eyes lit up, and they instantly agreed and backed away to give him space to take off, covering their eyes as he shot off. Even as the six of them turned towards each other and started to talk about what to do next, they never knew what they had done. They had helped a being whose heart had been broken and full of pain, and helped to mend it. As Superman finished saving the day and flying off into the distance, he looked down at the cape that fluttered behind him in the breeze and promised that he would keep it as a reminder to stay strong. Another cry went out, and Superman flew off towards it, his golden heart repaired once more.
{S}
Unknown to Superman or to any of the ponies in all of Equestria, even Celestia, another being was also putting on something new for the first time. In the laboratory of Celestia, Luthor had just finished putting on his suit of armor and started running tests. The suit was green and purple, just as he requested and completely covered his body, even having a helmet so that his face was covered. He lifted his right arm and smiled as he felt the suit comply perfectly, his enhanced strength not bending or morphing the armor in any way. He then quickly flew around the room at speeds no mortal could follow and again smiled when the suit wasn't ripped off of him. Finally, he walked over to the small blue sun that Celestia had left him and took it in his hand before placing it in his chest plate, feeling its power was over him.
"Yes Superman, your time has finally come," he said to himself as started walking towards the cell door. He then came to a stop and turned towards the briefcase that he had brought with him as a thin smile crossed his lips. "How could I almost forget the final piece of this plan?" he asked himself, as he opened the briefcase and reached inside with his metal fingers. "For what else do I need when I have you?" Once he had finished installing the final piece, he then walked back to the door and tore it off its hinges as he left. He knew where Celestia and Superman were going to talk, but Superman didn't know that he was here. That gave him the edge.
'Prepare yourself Superman,' he thought to himself as he shot out of the castle at super speeds, reaching outer space within seconds. "For your reckoning--and all of Equestria's--is at hand!" Luthor threw his head back as he began to laugh, turning his gaze towards the planet below to watch the fireworks.
{S}
Celestia watched with a scowl as Superman floated to the ground in front of her, wearing a ridiculous cape that she would expect to see at a homeless shelter. She had been waiting at the castle where the Elements of Harmony had been rediscovered, apparently having been chosen in hopes of creating harmony between them. Twilight and Luna sat at her side, and she was fully aware of both of them looking at her out of the corner of their eyes. The other Elements sat off to the side, even RD, who sat as far away from her as she could. And while most of them wore their respective Elements around their necks, RD still refused to wear hers. It had reached midday by the time that Superman had shown up, allowing the cloud cover that had been forecasted to cover the land in darkness.
"So, you finally decide to show," she said with venom as Superman stood across from her.
"Others needed my help," he explained as he sat down at the table that had been laid out for them. "I was told that we had both been called here to try and work out our differences through talking. I hope that we can put any fears you have of me to rest."
'There will be only one thing here put to rest,' she thought to herself, but took up a regal manner and began the talk. "You already know that I do not like nor trust you, Superman. I was told that you would try to convince me that you are not a threat to me or my ponies."
"And I'm not," Superman said quickly. "That is what I've been saying, and hopefully proving to you, ever since I arrived here. I don't know where you got these suspicions about me, but I can assure you that none of them are true."
"Then how about we start with this suspicion," Celestia said with a smile. "That on your planet, you act as a vigilante that fights crime outside the law."
"That is only half true. Yes, I may be a vigilante, but I always try to act within the law," Superman said with a smile. "If you want a full-on spirit of vengeance, then you'll want to talk to my friend." Celestia scowled at his smile before putting her next question forward.
"Then, how about that you save all lives, no matter if the people want to be saved or not?" Celestia asked. "Who are you to suddenly one day wake up and decide to save the world? What right do you have to put yourself above everypony else?" Superman frowned at this question, since it sounded an awful lot like a question that someone he knew well would ask.
"I am simply there to help out the best I can, I'm not there to save humanity," Superman explained calmly, having given this speech before. "Humanity, and all other races, must be the ones to create peace themselves; they must be the ones to overcome the hurdles."
"Then why are you there if not to save them?"
"To catch them if they fall," he said with a smile. While Celestia raged, RD secretly chuckled to herself. All of Celestia's best attempts to prove that he was a threat were being blown through with ease. Superman had an answer for everything, but Celestia had a few more tricks left.
"How about the criminals you fight? From what I've seen, you're an unstoppable force of good that will fight any foe to the end, but when you are victorious you are more than willing to throw the criminal in jail and call it done. Why do you not take the final step and keep your people safe from them forever?" Superman sighed again, another question that he had been asked too many times.
"Because in order to show the world that they can be better, I must show them that there is another way besides killing to solve problems," Superman explained, putting all of his emotions into this one answer in hopes that it would reach Celestia. "That peace and justice can prevail over evil if everyone tries to achieve it. That we can rise above the hatred that consumes the world and try to find peaceful measures to situations. I try to only be there as a last resort." RD snickered once again, Superman shooting down another attempt of Celestia's to try and trap him. And as she looked over at her friends' faces, it seemed that his words were winning back any faith they had lost in him.
"And of course, it's so easy to preach about non-killing when you're as strong as you are," Celestia spat. "The great and powerful Superman wants us to be like him, to find other alternatives to killing. But we are not you nor will we ever be. We can't leap across planets or throw a mountain. We are mortal. We come across situations where it is either kill or be killed. Kill, or millions will be killed instead...that fight for survival, something you will never know." The ponies all looked to Superman, expecting to hear him have some sort of comeback to what she was saying. But instead, he hung his head slightly, memories resurfacing that he didn't want to remember.
"I know what that's like," he whispered. All of the ponies looked at him in disbelief, a silence falling over all of them that was finally broken by the sound of Celestia laughing.
"What did you just say? Are you saying that the great Superman has actually killed before? Oh, I must know what happened." Superman stayed quiet for a minute, lost in the memory of the day he had to sacrifice his greatest belief.
"His name was Zod," Superman began quietly, everypony hanging onto his words. "He was an evil tyrant who only sought to bring about the second coming of Krypton and didn't care for the lives that were lost during his mission. I naturally tried to stop him. But he was as strong, maybe even stronger, than me, and he put me in a 'no win situation'. He was on the verge of killing billions of innocents, and no matter how hard I tried he would not see reason. So I only had two choices left. Let him finish his plan...or..."
"And you killed him?" Luna asked, speaking what everypony was thinking, with Superman only nodding in response.
"Oh, that is rich," Celestia said with venom. "And it just goes to show that you are no different than everypony else. You preach about non-killing, but when you are desperate you will kill without hesitation. All you've done is lie to humanity about how good and noble you are and how you're there to help, but in reality all you do is take from them-" Celestia and all the ponies screamed as two beams of fire raced by Celestia's head, burning through the wall. All of them then looked to Superman, whose eyes were burning red with rage. He slowly stood up and walked over to Celestia, the clouds covering his body so all she could see was his outline and the burning red eyes.
"I only take from them?" Superman repeated in a whisper, the ponies backing away as they felt the very air shake around him as his rage began to surface. "You have no idea how much I've given them. I have given them my freedom and my entire life. I am forever a servant to come running at their beck and call. I have given them my family and friends, constantly forcing to hurt those close to me in order to help others I don't even know. I have given them my life on more than one occasion, and I will continue to give it to them whenever I am called to do so. But do you know what I've given them that I wish I didn't have to give? I gave them my greatest virtue, that I would never kill. When I...killed Zod, I didn't just kill a random dictator bent on ruling the world, I killed one of the only other survivors of my race, one of the only other people alive that could help me to rebuild the home I lost!" Superman shouted, lost completely in his emotions. "When I killed him, I took away the only thing that had gotten me through all that loneliness, and that was my father's belief that I could show the world how to be better. That is what I lost by killing Zod. It sickens me, it disgusts me, and I wish that there had been some other way, but given the same situation with the same fate on my shoulders, I would do it again. Now tell me, Celestia, after all that I've given to the human race, tell me what I have taken from them?!" The last shout shook the entire land and the ponies all cowered from his wrath, all except for Celestia, who stared him down with cold eyes.
"What have you taken?" she asked him. "Your kind took my father from me. You have taken away both the human and our ability to grow. We no longer can advance on our own because you're always watching over our shoulders to fix any mistake that we make. We no longer need to worry about risk, because you'll be there to eliminate the danger. All you've done is taken away our ability to evo-" Celestia's words died in her throat as Superman grabbed her by the neck and lifted her up, his eyes blazing red again.
"Superman, what are you doing!?" Twilight screamed at him as she and the others stood shocked.
"Where is he?" Superman asked her. Only one person he knew would ever talk like that, and if he was here, then every pony and other creature was in danger.
"W-what are you-?" Celestia started saying before Superman tightened his grip.
"Where is Luthor?" he asked again.
"Right behind you."
Superman had barely dropped Celestia before a magic-powered fist slammed into the back of his head and drove him through the floor of the ancient castle and into the forest below, his impact shaking the whole continent. The ponies all looked at this new figure with confusion as he walked over to Celestia, who smiled up at the green and purple clad figure that offered a hand to her. "What did I say, my dear? His hand at your throat. But you have no need to worry," he began to say as he looked down to where Superman was. "Because I am here to strike down the mighty."