Luna stalked towards her sister's room with a fire in her eyes that forced all of the guards to turn their gaze to the floor as she walked by them. She had arrived back at Canterlot before the Elements, and hopefully before Adam, so she could talk to her sister in private, but to her annoyance she found Black Adam resting against the wall in the corridor in front of her.
"What do you want?" Luna spat at Adam. "Have you come to tell Celestia your twisted version of what happened? Or have you come to silence me before I can tell her the truth?"
"Do not tempt me, worm. You still act as though I am the villain, yet we both know there is true evil that rests within you," Adam shot back, thunder rumbling across the sky while the two glared at each other. "Black Heart begged me for death so that he would no longer harm any of his citizens. He died a true hero."
"He did not need to DIE!" Luna roared with a rage that only gained a look from Adam. "He could have been saved! The Elements would have been able to free him from the demon's power!"
"Just as they did when you and your sister tried over a thousand years ago?" Adam asked with a smirk, which turned into a true smile when Luna looked at him with shock. "In the ten years I was powerless, I read up on my history. The Elements failed before, and with so many innocent being harmed, I could not take the risk that they would again."
"But now we'll never know, murderer," Luna scowled. "But that's what you do best. Kill anything that might be a threat, without so much as a second thought for their families or if they can be saved. And you speak of my past, Adam, but I know about yours. I might have tried to cast the land into eternal night, but at least I do not have the blood of millions of innocents on my hands!" Adam narrowed his eyes at her before he stalked towards her, Luna holding her ground as Adam looked down at her.
"Do you assume that I do not know of your activities? How you are creating an army to defeat me?" he asked her in a deadly whisper. It took all of Luna's willpower not to look shocked at his words. "I know that you have created a force that you believe will be able to bring me down, but it will fail. I will say this to you now Luna, when the day comes when your actions result in the deaths of innocents, I will personally send you back to the moon myself."
"And will you do the same to yourself when you slaughter the innocent?" Both glared into each other's eyes for a long minute, Adam's hands crackling while Luna's horn began to glow, but before the two unleashed their fury upon each other the door to Celestia's chambers opened, and they heard a ragged voice say,
"Enter."
Both of them shared one last glare before they entered the room, Luna respectfully bowing to her sister while Adam continued to float above the Princess of the Night. Celestia was resting in the darkness on a pillow and looked more composed than the last time they saw her, but when she looked at the two adversaries, they could see that she still hadn't recovered from what had happened to Radiance. "I have heard many reports about what has happened in Stalliongrad, but I wanted to hear it from the both of you. Who wishes to speak first?"
Adam bowed to Luna in such a sarcastic way it made her growl at him, but she didn't pass on the chance to speak first. "When I discovered that Black Heart was back, I took the Elements of Harmony to Stalliongrad, hoping to use their power to free Black Heart of the sludge monster that consumed him. Despite running into a little trouble, we were able to mostly subdue him. But before we could try the Elements on him, HE showed up," Luna snarled at Adam, who said nothing in reply.
"And then he did what Black Adam always does: He flies in, doesn't listen to the ponies who know better and murdered Black Heart before we could react," Luna said with a venom. Celestia turned her eyes to Adam before looking at her sister again, motioning for her to continue. "Then, I came back here to tell you of the news and this murderer threatens to throw me to the moon. That is my report." Celestia nodded her head before looking back to Adam.
"And what do you have to say?"
"She is right, for the most part," he admitted without any hesitation, crossing his arms as he did so. "Yes, when I sensed a dark magic attacking one of the cities, I flew in and dealt with the problem. That is what a protector does. What Luna failed to mention was that Black Heart did manage to break free of the monster for a few moments. And in those moments he begged for me to kill him, so that he wouldn't have to hurt anypony else. I did what he asked. I did not murder him. I took mercy on him."
"But if you had the Elements-"
"The Elements failed before, who was to say that they wouldn't fail now?" Adam cut her off, gaining a growl from Luna. "There were innocents in danger, and I could not take the risk to see if they would succeed this time. I destroyed the monster and the ponies were saved. I do not like the fact that I had to kill a pony as brave as Black Heart, but I did it to ensure that there would be only one death that day." The two began to bicker again until Celestia held up a hoof, silencing the both of them.
"Were any of my ponies hurt during the attack?" she asked.
"No, Sister, they are all fine. Except for-"
"Then this discussion is over," Celestia said in a tired voice as she lay back down. "Teth, thank you for protecting the ponies. And I am sorry that Black Heart asked you to do such a task. It could not have been easy." Adam nodded while Luna looked at her sister with a dumbfounded expression, not believing what she had just heard.
"And that is it? You are simply going to let him walk away with another murder without any consequences at all?!" she roared. "He killed Black Heart even though we had a chance to save him! We could have-!"
"The Elements failed to save him before, who is to say that this time would have been any different?" Celestia cut in, stunning Luna. "As sad as it is, Black Heart asked for death so that he would no longer be a threat to those he swore to protect. He died on his terms and the ponies were saved because of it. That is all I care about." Luna looked at Celestia with disgust in her eyes before she turned and left the room, leaving Black Adam alone with Celestia.
"She will not forgive you for saying that," Adam pointed out, only for Celestia to shrug in response. Adam looked around at the shadow that covered the room, knowing that they were a reflection of how Celestia was feeling. "Celestia...I am so sorry that I failed you." Celestia said nothing, but Adam knew she was listening. "I promised to protect Sunny...and I gained the powers that could have saved her the moment after she died. I was too far away to protect Radiance...and she is dead as well. If I could, I would find a way to-"
"Thank you, Teth, but you have done enough." Adam took the hint and left the room, silently hating himself for having failed so. He prepared to take off on his patrol of the land, but to his surprise Celestia exited her room and walked by him without a word. Curiosity overcame him and he floated behind her to find out where she was going.
'She does not seem to care that I am following her, but I wonder what cause would be great enough to get her to leave her chambers?' he pondered as he followed her. To his surprise he found her path led to the science wing of the castle, more specifically to the area where Adam had dumped the remains of the human that had killed Radiance. She briefly spoke with a scientist who ran off before she turned to face Black Adam.
"You tried to tell me the other day that there was something strange about this suit, yes?" she asked him with a dry tone, Adam only nodding in response. The scientist came back with the human corpse on a cart, allowing the pair to look over it. Adam narrowed his eyes as he saw the hints of silver magic coming off of it, and a quick look at Celestia showed that she could at least sense the magic. "You can sense it too?"
"I can do more than that. I can see it," Adam muttered as he muttered some enchantments, trying to draw out the faint traces of magic that flowed through the human. "It is a magic that is foreign to me...yet at the same time it feels like I have sensed it before. But the color is what truly interests me. The color of this magic is silver." The look on Celestia's face told him that she knew what he was implying.
"So the silver one has already tried to take my life, only to claim my daughter instead," Celestia muttered, already knowing the answer. Adam nodded as he began to look over the strange technology that the human wielded, from the oddly designed suit to the helmet (minus the head inside) and slowly came to a conclusion that interested him.
"This is not something from my world," he muttered with interest. "And my senses are telling me that they do not belong in this reality."
"This reality?" Celestia muttered with confusion. "Are you saying these humans came from a parallel world?"
"Stranger things have happened. This must be how the creature that uses the silver magic is escaping my senses. Because it is not in this reality." Turning the body over revealed a storage compartment and upon opening it Adam found a number of schematics that he could not read. "But it seems that these humans came from a race far more advanced than mine."
"Can you decipher what that says?" Celestia asked. Adam looked over the schematics for a moment before shaking his head.
"No. I may have the wisdom of Zehuti, but that does mean I can read what this says. I know of a few humans who might be able to unravel it, yet they are out of my reach for now." Celestia sighed before shaking her head and walking out of the room, looking down at the scientist as she passed by him.
"Take anything that may prove to be of scientific worth and place it in the laboratories. Dispose of the rest. I do not wish to be reminded of what happened." The scientist nodded as Celestia walked out of the room, but he had to wait a few minutes to do as she asked due to Black Adam still looking over the schematics.
'Yes, only a few humans could read this, but the one I am thinking of would not do so without a price,' he silently thought to himself. 'And even if I could reach him and had something of value to trade, I do not enjoy working with Luthor.'
S=H=A=Z=A=M
"Why do you require me to meet with the ponies in the center of town?" he snarled at Luna, the Princess of the Night giving him an equal glare at his defiance.
"Because the ponies wish to see you and despite my numerous attempts to convince them otherwise, they see you as a hero," she said with a cold venom. "So instead of being upset about having to talk to some beings that don't want to kill you, how about you suck it up and get ready to meet with them!" She turned and stormed away from him after saying this, leaving Adam to sit on his anger as he looked out of the castle window.
'That oaf of a princess never cease to infuriate me. But I suppose it has been too long since I spoke with the ponies of this land,' he bemused to himself. 'I would wager that Luna has some ill-contrived plan thought up to make me look like a fool in front of them, but I will take this chance to prove to her that I am the true champion.' He turned to head out, when his ears picked up on the slightest sound of stifled crying. He need not look to know who it was, but still he flew over by the Canterlot library, seeing the purple and green dragon within.
'He has taken the death of Radiance harder than the rest of us,' Adam thought as he watched the dragon try to arrange the library books through tear-stained eyes. With a sad shake of his head, Adam turned and flew out of the castle, heading towards the place Luna had described. 'Celestia was kind to give him a job and a place to stay within the castle.' He reached his destination within seconds, though he was a bit startled to see that a large crowd had already gathered in an area that reminded him of the Greek stages. His keen eyes picked up the two princess along with the Elements of Harmony, and he descended next to them, nodding in greeting to each of them while picking up hints of hatred in the Elements' eyes.
'They have not forgotten what I did to Black Heart. They will in time, though.' He had little time to ponder over this though, as the crowd went wild at the sight of their hero. Adam smirked to himself when he saw the face Luna made at the reaction, but he did not say anything about the matter.
"Alright, Sister, we are all here now. Why did you want to speak with all of us in front of such a crowd?" Celestia began, once she had silenced the crowd by raising her wings. Luna gave both Celestia and Adam one hard glare before she turned to the crowd of ponies and yelled in her regal voice,
"Ponies! I have called you here today to tell you a truth that has remained silent for far too long! To tell you the horrible truth about the "hero" that you call Black Adam!" The sound of thousands of ponies gasping all at once amused Adam for a moment, but he said nothing as he waited to hear Luna's full plan. "Indeed, this hero is no better than the very villains that he supposedly protects you from! You believe it bad when Sombra enslaved the Crystal Empire? Well, what if I told you that Black Adam murdered two MILLION of his own people in a rage!"
Upon hearing the crowd gasp in shock, Celestia looked over to her sister and asked, "Luna, what are you doing?"
"Opening their eyes, and hopefully yours, to the truth," Luna muttered back before turning again to the crowd. "Adam has also slaughtered every single villain or threat that he has fought since arriving in our land. Now some of you may think, "well they're evil, shouldn't they be punished?" Punished, yes. Murdered viciously? Never. We are better than that!" The crowd fell into a dead hush and Black Adam felt all eyes upon him, waiting to hear him answer.
"What she says is true," he admitted without guilt, getting horrified cries from the crowd. "But again, this foal of a princess has left out the full story. The two million I killed were the murderers who killed my family in cold blood. I retaliated in kind. And you say that I murdered the villains, but you left me with little choice. It is obvious that the Elements are weaker than you believed, if so many can escape their power. Discord, Black Heart; how many more evils have you imprisoned with the Elements' powers? How many more dangerous foes may possibly return? I have done what I always do. Protect those under my care."
Luna listened to the murmuring of the crowd and didn't like what she was hearing. While some seemed to be concerned about Adam's actions, most of them were supporting his side of the argument. With little choice left if she hoped to convince them, she knew that she had to resort to her trump card.
"Very well then, Adam, if you truly believe yourself free of any guilt, then you would be fine with facing the Elements?" The crowd fell into a dead hush as Adam looked at the six Elements of Harmony, all of whom, including Fluttershy, looked like they wanted to beat him into nothingness.
'So, that is your grand plan, Luna? Use this pathetic magic of yours to try to overpower me and see if they will do to me what they have done to other criminals?' he thought to himself with a smirk, amazed that Luna had spent so long on such a futile plan. His first instinct was to turn it down and not waste his time with such a meaningless task, but a quick glance toward the crowd told him that if he did not undergo this task, he would lose their trust. "Very well, Luna, I will face what you consider to be your champions. But know that when this is over and I have proven myself, there will be trouble."
"I highly doubt that we'll get that far," Luna said with a sneer as she nodded to the Elements, all of whom nodded back and took up fighting positions while Luna moved to the side, Celestia racing over to her with fear written on her face.
"Sister, what are you doing?! Teth does not need to do this, he has proven multiple times--"
"That he is a serious threat that could wipe us out in an instant!" Luna cut her off as Adam turned to face the Mane Six. "The only way I will ever be convinced that he is as good as you say, is if he can survive the Elements' powers without any ill affect on him. Only then!"
Adam looked over each of his "foes" with a hint of mirth in his eyes, knowing that his battle would be easy. 'Yet while I am certain I know most of these ponies' motivations for trying to face me, I am not sure of one of them.' "Care to tell me why you are siding with that fool of a princess, Twilight? You have known me longer than any of your friends. You know that I am not the monster that Luna describes."
"You're right; Teth was no monster," Twilight seethed with rage. "But you're not Teth anymore. You're Black Adam, a murdered and a destroyer. And I'm going to stop you here, with the power of Friendship!" The six of them all joined together in formation, a formation that Adam knew signified the Storm of Harmony. There was no worry on his face as he watched the six of them charge up their powers, for he knew that his magic was superior in every way. "Prepare yourself, murderer."
"I do not blame you for what you will fail to do, ponies. Luna has twisted your opinion of me. I will set it straight with this test." Twilight and the others began to glow with a white light as the magic connected them, each of them glaring at Black Adam with white eyes as they prepared their spells. Black Adam crossed his arms as the spell reached its full power and remained motionless as they all let out a scream, sending a tidal wave of rainbow magic towards Adam. He never flinched as the magic struck him head on, not afraid in the least. At worst, he was expecting a light breeze.
What he was not expecting was pain.
Adam writhed as the magic coursed into him, somehow slipping past his natural defenses to magic and nearly bringing him to his knees. Against his own will, he could see every action of his life flashing before his eyes, as if the magic was judging him for what he had done. The pain subsided as memories of his early life passed him by, but where it intensified again was when he murdered in rage for the first time. As his life as Black Adam went on, the pain got stronger and stronger until he was forced to his knees and the ponies took notice.
"It is just as I thought," Luna smugly said to herself as the crowd gasped at the sight of the Elements forcing Black Adam to his knees. "He is far beyond corrupt. He is evil."
"For those you failed to protect," Dash snarled.
"For my animals," Fluttershy growled.
"Fer Black Heart."
"For Teth," Twilight finished.
'You cannot judge me like this!' Adam roared within his mind as he struggled to fight back. He felt the pain intensify every time he betrayed one who called him friend, every time he stabbed a loyal one in the back or whenever he lied through his teeth for his own goals. Acts of cruelty induced the worse pain and for a moment Adam truly believed that he would be consumed by the Elements as stone started to gather on his body. But then an image flashed across his mind. The image of Isis.
'Do not fail here, my beloved. You must still avenge us all!' The image of his nation and all of the people within it flashed before his eyes, giving Adam the strength that he had been missing.
'Yes, I cannot fail until I have my vengeance! Until I have my justice! I am sorry Twilight, but I am going to stop your Elements here!' With vengeance fueling his movements, Adam managed to lift his head just enough so he could look at the six opposite him. The Elements restricted him from moving even with his godly strength, but Adam was aware that he could still talk, however small his voice was. But he was also certain the Elements held no candle to the power of the word. So as he cast his head back, the skies let loose their fury as he yelled,
"SHAZAM!"
The thunderbolt that descended upon the combatants would forever be burned into the minds of the ponies who were watching. For the moment the divine lightning assaulted the Elements with its power, an explosion that rocked the very land beneath them went off, sending a column of magic into the sky that could be seen for miles. Adam could feel pain envelope him as he was thrown back, far greater than what he had felt before. His cape was blasted to ash by the power, and for a moment he was afraid that he would be as well, but his godly body held--for his own lightning had never reached him, never returned him to his mortal form. He felt himself collide with something as the explosion ended, allowing him to slowly rise to a vertical position.
'That...hurt. I gave those Elements far too little credit, their power was more than I bargained for,' he thought to himself as he prepared for the next assault from the Elements of Harmony, but the attack never came. And then the horror began to rise as the smoke cleared, revealing to him and to all of Canterlot what he had done when he had summoned the lightning. Six bodies lay motionless in the center of the crater created by the collision of the magics, six bodies that only a moment ago had been filled with life and power.
"No..." Adam whispered to himself before he appeared at Twilight's side, looking down at her with absolute dread when he saw that nearly all of her body was covered in magical burns. With shaking hands he gently took her into his arms, agony flooding through him as he felt no life course through. Almost instantly and against his will, images of her playing with Radiance and Sunnysmiles crossed his mind as he held her, along with a sickening realization...
'I did this,' he silently thought. 'I...I was so focused on my revenge that I did not consider what the word would do to their spell. I...' A gust of wind blew through the dead silent stage, and to Adam's shock the cracked and blackened Element upon Twilight's head was blown away like dust. The other five Elements were blown away like dust in the wind. Adam's eyes looked over the six innocent lives that had just been taken, the six who had died because he had given into his revenge. His hands dropped Twilight's body to the ground as he gazed at them, horrified beyond words.
"Teth..." Adam turned his head to see not just Celestia, but all of Canterlot looking him with complete horror in their eyes. But Celestia's eyes were the worst to look into. Because there was not just fear in her eyes, but pain, agony, and betrayal. Black Adam could feel every eye in the city upon him, but none of that mattered to him. All that went through his mind was the realization of what he had just done. Six innocents, one of whom was his friend, were dead by his hands...because of his desire for revenge.
And with that single thought running through his mind and the guilt crushing his heart, Adam shot into the sky with a speed that quickly took him out of the planet's atmosphere, where all he could hear was the thunder that had claimed the six lives...that he had destroyed innocents for revenge.
That despite everything he had tried, he hadn't changed at all.