"Chin up, back straight," Celestia instructed the young Radiance, who did her best to mirror her mother's posture. "Straighter, Radiance; look a bit more professional," Celestia added as she sipped some tea that she had made for them.
"I'm trying, Mom, really I am, but this...it isn't me," Radiance sighed as thunder shook the castle, followed by the rain beating across the walls. "I can't do all of this fancy princess stuff. Don't you have anything else I could do, like one of your special mage forces or maybe one of the anti-dark magic force?" Celestia pursed her lips as her daughter stood up and began to walk around the room before relenting, taking a moment to put away the tea.
"It's weird having a thunderstorm that's not being caused by Teth," Radiance observed as she looked out the window, noticing how the lightning seemed to be striking around a single point near the castle. 'Teth.' "Did he...tell you about Fluttershy? I can't believe that he would do something like that."
"I do not think he was trying to be mean, I think that he went about teaching her all the wrong way," Celestia added to defend Adam. "You force a pony to learn something your way, you have to teach them in a way they'll understand," Celestia said while gently brushing Radiance with her wing. "Something I still need to figure out with you."
"Maybe another day, Mom, but right now it seems that your advisors want you." Celestia looked down the hallway to see her advisor and his understudy walking towards the pair, neither of them having a pleased look on their faces.
"Alright Radiance, that's enough for today, go...do whatever you want. What did he do this time, Willow?" Celestia asked the advisor as he and his understudy walked over to Celestia, Radiance running by them as she headed out.
"Actually, Princess, we are not here to talk about Black Adam, although we do wish he was here at the moment," the advisor Willow said with fear in his voice, gaining Celestia's full attention. "We have recently received a message from the dragon kingdom. Their king Draco has passed away. His son Firewing now rules the dragons."
"Father help me," Celestia whispered as she shook her head. "Did the message to us say anything else?"
"It said that they wanted to let you know that a change is coming, one that you might not like," Willow muttered weakly, pulling the letter out of his pocket and giving it to Celestia. She scanned over it quickly with a sinking feeling in her chest. The letter seemed to be more of a threat than anything else. "What do you want to do, Princess?"
"I need to find Teth. Do any of you have any idea where he went?" she asked the two. Willow shook his head, but the young unicorn beside him spoke up.
"Um, I think he said something about the Griffon Kingdom." Celestia's eyes widened before she turned and sprinted to the nearest exit, opening her wings and taking to the skies despite the rain storm, using her magic to propel herself across the thundering skies. Both fear and anger gripped her heart as she flew as fast as her wings could carry her, fear for the griffons and anger at Teth if he was doing what she believed he was doing.
'Doesn't he know anything about the word 'diplomacy'?' she thought to herself as she struggled to see through the rain, beginning to give up that she would find him before she found the bodies, but to her surprise she sensed his magic at the very edge of the border with the griffons. She flew as best she could until she practically flew into him floating in the air, arms crossed and a cold stare on his face as he glared across the border. Looking through the rain, the princess saw a large number of griffons there, but they were not armored like their forces were. Instead, they carried bags and had children with them.
'These are simply civilians,' she thought before turning to Teth. "TETH! I order that you turn around and come with me back to Canterlot at once!" she yelled through the rain and thunder. All she got in response was a scowl from him as he began to float towards the griffons, but Celestia placed herself between him and them. "Try anything here and I promise that I will be the next immortal you face! They are civilians and families! Stand DOWN!" From the look on his face Celestia was beginning to believe that she would have to carry out that threat, but after a moment he scowled and turned away, but then he pointed at the griffons and thrust his finger back towards their kingdom. They got the idea and flew off back towards their home while Black Adam descended to the ground below.
"Care to tell me what that was all about?!" Celestia yelled through the rain, which had now drenched her coat. Despite soaking her thoroughly, the rain never seemed to touch Adam and slid off a very transparent barrier that seemed to rest just a centimeter off of him. That made Celestia wonder what other powers he had that he wasn't telling her about. "Why were you at the edge of our borders intimidating griffons?"
"Allow me to ask you a question in return," Adam thundered, the power in his voice drowning out the rain and thunder that flashed around them. "Why are you so tolerant of those creatures? They are your enemies, who have already tried to tear a city apart without any remorse for who was inside of it. They need to be wiped out before they become an even more serious threat...for your kind."
"Just because the king doesn't show any remorse for my people doesn't mean that I will show the same heartlessness to his!" Celestia snarled back. Adam had enough of the rain and fired a blast of magic into the sky, blowing apart the rain clouds until they were scattered across the sky and the sun shone down upon the two. "The king is the one who ordered the attacks, is the one who does not care. His people are innocent." When Black Adam smirked at that statement Celestia narrowed her eyes, her horn starting to glow with magic.
"Do you truly believe that they are all monsters? Then come with me and let me show you the truth," she demanded as she extended a wing to him, her horn causing a golden light to flow through her body. Adam looked from her to the extended wing for a moment before he reached out and took hold. The moment he did, his consciousness was ripped from his body and when he opened his eyes again he saw both himself and Celestia looking over their bodies, both of which had glazed over eyes.
'What did you do to us?' Adam asked the spectral Celestia besides him.
'Just as my sister can travel unseen at night, I can enter a spectral state during the day,' she explained before floating into the air, casting a shield over their bodies. 'Come, we are going to take a peak on those so-called monsters that you hate so much.' Adam raised an eyebrow as he followed her into the sky, following the spectral Celestia across the border between the griffon kingdom and her own. The pair traveled across both weird and majestic landscapes until they reached an area where chunks of the ground floated in the sky, with waterfalls cascading over the sides into the ground below.
'This is their land? It is...nice,' Adam begrudgingly muttered, not seeing Celestia smirk back at him from where she flew. 'But if their land is so nice, then why would they seek out your lands to claim as their own.'
'They live on floating islands that protect them from the creatures below,' Celestia explained as she looked towards the forest, in which Adam spied a large number of beasts that would be terrifying to a lesser being. 'But even if it offers protection, there is little room for them to grow their food. They need land where they can farm, which is where my land comes into play.' Celestia flew up to one of the floating landmasses and landed unseen in the streets, Adam landed besides her a moment later.
'So this is what they call home,' Adam muttered as he looked around. A large number of the buildings were carved into the very stone, but there were still streets and fountains that made the chunk of rock look somewhat like a normal city. Turning his gaze off into the distance, Adam took note of a massive castle with a large number of armored guards surrounding it. 'That is where that fool of a king resides. I will deal with him later.'
'Not as long as I'm around.' Adam turned to Celestia with a curious glance, wondering how she had heard his thoughts. 'In this form, both speaking and thinking will be heard by any other in the same state. But where the castle is located is not why I brought you here.' Confused, Adam followed her through the streets until the came to the largest of the floating landmasses, which held a massive city with the largest number of griffons that he had seen.
'This is what I wanted to show you.' Adam looked around at all of the griffons, but he did not see anything special that he was supposedly looking for. 'Look closer Adam. Look with your heart, not with your eyes.' After rolling said eyes, Adam began to look around without much of a care, simply watching as the griffons all ran around. A griffon child ran through his legs, something that slightly unnerved him, before being tackled by a couple of other griffons.
'I do not understand what she is asking of me,' Adam thought as silently as he could, casting a quick glance at Celestia to see if she had heard him. 'All I see are regular griffons and their children playing around, talking amongst themselves and simply...living.' He was watching a pair of children wrestle on the ground when his sight flashed, and for a brief moment he saw his own children wrestling in the streets.
'In the name of Ra was that?' he asked, Celestia slightly turning towards him with interest. He turned his gaze away from the wrestling children towards the adults, but his eyes flashed again and he saw his own people for a moment, talking and laughing amongst themselves with smiles on their faces. 'What has your accursed magic done to me?' He closed his eyes, but despite not being able to see he could still hear all the laughter and the happiness. Even his magical nature was beginning to pick up on the calm and happiness that washed over the griffons.
'Are you finally starting to understand, Teth?' Celestia asked when he opened his eyes again, allowing himself to truly take on what the images were. 'They are no different that your own people, our own family. All of them have their own lives, have family that loves them. They are simply a people that want to live happily...just like your people were.' Adam shook his head, but now he was starting to have issues distinguishing the griffons from the ponies...and his own people.
'And if you were to attack them to defend us, to wipe them out as you said you would, then you would be to them what Doomsday was to you,' Celestia said with fire in her voice, a fire that pierced through Adam's impenetrable skin. 'If you attack them, you will be the very same monster that took away everything that you loved. Can you really do that, Teth? Can you take away so many families the way yours was taken from you? Is that you? Are you Teth, the human who saved both my daughters lives? Or are you Black Adam, the god who wipes his foes off the face of the earth?'
'I...do not know anymore,' Adam panted as he looked upon the griffons, now seeing the griffons, ponies and his own people talking to each other, all of them smiling and happy. The children all played in the streets, with a feeling of peace washing over him. A part of him knew that this was caused by Celestia's magic...but another part didn't care. Then, he saw his wife, Isis, and his children, all of whom looked at him with expectant eyes.
'Who are you?' Celestia asked once again.
'I...I...' Adam began as he looked to his family, who were shaking their heads at him. But then he remembered the image of the heroes all looking at him as if he were a monster, and the disappointment that Shazam had on his face when he cast Adam into space again. And it made Adam mad. He clenched his fists and roared, blasting away all of the images until it was only the griffons and Celestia again. The griffons were all on alert and looking around, having felt the rage of his scream. 'I may not know who I am, but I know what I am. I am a champion, protector of the innocent! And these griffons...are innocent, just as the ponies are. And the dragons, who simply wish to live their lives. My power is one that they shall not fear. Only those who wish to harm the innocent, who wish to kill them for power, will face my wrath! I will prove that I am the hero they say I am not!"
'So...do you no longer live for revenge?' Celestia hesitantly asked.
'I will still avenge my family upon those who took them from me, but while I am here, I am a protector of all who need me,' Adam said with confidence and power. 'I am the hero chosen by the power of Shazam, despite what he believed of me...thank you, Celestia, for allowing me to see the griffons as more than foes. To see them as living beings. I...am once again in your debt.'
'You're...welcome,' she replied, glad that her face couldn't turn red while in this form.
'I need to get started. I have a lot of work to do.' He clasped his hands together as he said this before vanishing in a flash of lightning, canceling out Celestia's magic. She opened her eyes to find herself sitting alone on the rock where she had cast the spell, with Adam having already launched himself into the sky. But for the first time in a while, she had no fear as she watched him fly off. Instead, she was filled with hope. For Adam had given her his word that he would do his best to protect the ponies. And Adam always kept his word.
S=H=A=Z=A=M
"That is odd, even for Ponyville," Black Adam muttered as he looked out of the castle window, down to the land below.
"What is? Is it another parasprite attack, because if it is Twilight, she is going to have to clean this one up herself," Celestia mumbled as she surfaced from the paperwork under which she was buried, snarling at the new tax information and looking away from the request to turn a forest into a mini-mall. Radiance joined Adam by the window and both her eyebrows went up when she looked outside.
"Ugh, it's going to be one of those days. Mom, it seems there's a sphere covering Ponyville, keeping all the ponies trapped inside!" Radiance called out to Celestia.
"Except for Twilight; I can see her on the outside of the sphere," Adam muttered as he shook his head. "Do not bother getting up, Celestia, I can deal with this problem easily."
"Alright, but I don't want you killing anypony," Celestia said in a stern tone. Adam nodded once in response before rocketing out the window, Radiance watching him go. "Radiance, please help your mother and go get me a triple sundae from the kitchen. I'm going to be here a while."
Adam flew across the sky and reached Twilight in seconds, who yelped as he slammed into the earth beside her. "Is this your doing, or has another ancient force from the past awoken and now needs me to defeat it?"
"It's Trixie," Twilight explained, getting an eyebrow lift out of Adam. "She's a unicorn who's had it out for me for a while. She has the power of an alicorn now and is doing whatever she wants to with the ponies in there! But now that you're here, maybe we can think of a way to beat her!"
"I have a way. With my fists." Adam drove both of his hands into the barrier and caused a crack to run all along it. With little effort, he pulled on the crack until the barrier was torn open in front of him, giving him an entrance. "You wait here, I will go deal with this Trixie." He began to stalk through the town, his magical senses telling him that it was indeed alicorn magic, but it felt darker and more corrupt than the magic that Celestia and Luna used.
"What in the...?" he asked when he found a number of foals were trapped under a glass jar. He shattered it with his fist, only to find that more of the town had been placed under the influence of the dark magic. While he wanted to go right after the source of this dark magic, his duty to the innocent came first, and he used his magic to undo the magic that had been done. "Well whatever this magic may be, it is, of course, inferior to my own. This will not take long."
"What are you foals doing? I specifically said 'no wheels'!" The voice was as irritating as it was new to him, meaning that this was probably the Trixie of which he had been informed. Walking out from behind some buildings, he found a pair of foals dragging around a unicorn with dark energy coming out of her eyes. The foals looked exhausted and the chariot had no wheels, doubling their work load. With a snarl, Adam walked right up to the chariot, getting a gasp out of all the ponies that were watching Trixie.
"That is enough," he growled as he put his foot on the front of the chariot, stopping it dead. A snap of his fingers was enough to break the bindings that held the two foals, and they sprinted off with a quick thanks to him, but he was far too busy glaring at the unicorn, who looked at him with both arrogance and a hint of fear.
"You are the one who has enslaved Ponyville?"
"Who else, but the great and powerful Trixie would be able to do such a task?" the annoying pony asked him as she threw her head back and laughed, but Adam barely paid her any mind as his eyes were focused on the artifact around her neck. That was the source from which her magic was coming. His hand shot out and he wrapped his fingers around it, yet when he went to yank it off, he was surprised to see Trixie come with it.
"Hey, let go of my amulet!" she yelled as she struggled to escape his grasp. Adam raised an eyebrow as he shook her a few times, attempting to take the amulet off. "Haha! Did you think the great and powerful Trixie would allow her amulet to be taken so easily? The amulet can only be taken off if I wish it to!" She vanished in a puff of smoke and appeared at the end of the road, a smirk on her face. "And with it, I have the power of the princesses! And more than enough power to deal with you!"
"So many have said," Adam muttered as Trixie began to create a massive spell at the end of her horn. Upon seeing such a spell, ponies everywhere began to run for their lives. Adam remained unmoved as Trixie fired the massive spell of darkness at Adam, who shook his head once before swatting the spell away with one hand. Trixie's eyes shrunk in her head as she and the ponies watching the battle looked at Adam with disbelief in their eyes.
"Alicorn magic? You believed that alone would be able to defeat me? Compared to my magic, alicorn magic is a child with a sparkler."
"No...stay back!" Trixie yelled as she fired spell after spell into his chest, only to find that her super magic didn't even slow him down. He drove his hand through another one of her attacks and grabbed her by the amulet, lifting her up so she could look into his eyes.
"Do you know what I hate more than those who hurt the innocent? Those who enslave them," Adam said with a snarl before he tightened his grip, a slight cracking sound escaping the amulet. "Let me show you what I do to beings like you." He clenched his fist as he said this, shattering the alicorn amulet in the process. Free of the amulet, Trixie fell to the ground, with shocked eyes looking at where her amulet had once been. Adam then tilted his hand and allowed the dust that used to be the amulet to fall to the ground in front of her.
"Please...don't hurt me," she whispered, tears rolling down her eyes as the dark eyes of Black Adam scowled down at her. He brought his fist back to end her, but before he delivered the final blow, he remembered what Celestia had asked of him. His eyes narrowed, but instead of knocking her head off, he grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up with one hand, using his other one to blast a hole in the sphere around the town, destroying it.
"This battle is over. You are all safe," he said to the awestruck citizens before he shot into the sky, preparing to take Trixie to her new home...the palace cells.
S=H=A=Z=A=M
"Master, it seems that Black Adam is even more powerful than we realized," a dark-clad unicorn said to another in the dark chambers, the elder unicorn once again gazing into the mirror in front of him. "Trixie, the boastful idiot from before, returned wielding the power of the dark princesses, and Adam treated her like she was nothing. It confirms that not even the princesses would remotely be a match for him." The elder unicorn turned towards his subordinate, who lowered his head even further. "We are no match for him."
"And yet, you say this as if we have to fight him," the elder one said as he glided away from his mirror and sat down on a dark chair, looking over at all the unicorns while they began to appear out of the darkness. "My friends tell me that Luna is raising an army to combat Adam, but it has few volunteers since everypony sees Black Adam as somepony to be trusted. All we have to do, is find a way to break that trust."
"But how, Master? We cannot even get close to the castle without him knowing we are there. How can we plan an accident and make them lose faith in him?"
"That is why you are not in charge. We do not need to design an accident; all we have to do is make sure that there is an audience to see what kind of dark god he really is," the dark one said as he chuckled, but only slightly. "Because Adam will break their trust himself. They will see him at his worst, when he at his most vengeful...which shouldn't be too hard. After all, that is who he is."