"This is definitely the area." Down below Black Adam was the land that he had been sent to investigate, and from what he could see from above the ponies here needed his help. Carrots grew nearly five times larger than what they were supposed to do and the land gave off an eerie green and gold color, something that was unnatural, even for the ponies. "Once again Celestia, you are correct."
'The land has normally been fine, but a few months ago a strange radiation has started to pollute the land,' Celestia had briefly informed him before sending him out. 'The area is home to a meteor that crashed there centuries ago, but it never caused any problems. That was until the Diamond Dogs in the area stole the meteor and brought it to their underground home. I want you to find out how they are connected to the recent radiation poisonings that have been affecting the ponies.'
'She has been working without sleep for days after the attack by Firewing,' Adam thought silently to himself while he descended upon the small farmlands, gaining the attention of all the ponies in the area. He should count himself lucky that I spared him, but if he tries anything again I will not be so kind.'
"Greetings. I am here to deal with the Diamond Dog problem that seems to be affecting your home."
"T-thank you kindly Mr. Adam," one of the elder farmers stammered out as he started to bow, but a growl from Black Adam stopped him from doing so. "But we don't really care about the dogs so much as we do the radiation that is affecting our land. If we can't grow our crops, then we can't provide our families with food. And any pony that tries to eat the food that has been...contaminated becomes sick for days on end. Please do something about our crops first!"
Adam narrowed his eyes for a brief moment, wanting simply to deal with the dogs and leave, but as his eyes passed over the starving families and the hungry eyes of their children, he could not bring himself to say no. "Lead me to your crops," he replied. The ponies all began to thank him as the eldest farmer led Black Adam to the carrot fields, allowing Black Adam to confirm up close what he had seen from the sky.
'It is as I thought. Whatever radiation was within that meteor has greatly affected these crops.' The ponies came to a stop at the edge of the field, none of them wanting to enter into the contaminated area. Black Adam went on ahead, knowing that his godly powers would protected him from the radiation. 'But why now?' he silently asked himself as he plucked one of the carrots out of the ground, eyes narrowing as he saw green veins running through it. 'Celestia informed me that this meteor was here before the ponies and never once bothered them. Why does it bother them now?'
"Can you do anything?" Adam snapped out of his thoughts and lifted the carrot into the air so the ponies could see it, a frown on his face.
"I do not know if I can remove the radiation from your field with my magic, but what I can do is go down into the Diamond Dogs' lair and see what the cause of this radiation poisoning is,' he called out to them before dropping the carrot to the ground. He then leapt into the air and drove himself towards the field, ploughing straight through it, feet first. He had barely gone that far beneath the ground before he burst through a ceiling and found himself within an underground tunnel.
"The Diamond Dog tunnels. I have heard of these," he muttered to himself as he silently began to fly down the corridor, reaching a larger chamber within moments. "And this is your home." There were multiple huts that all surrounded a larger one in the center, while a number of mine carts filled with gems lay off to the side. Adam could see a large number of Diamond Dogs within the room, but no sign of the meteor that they had taken. But he did spy a number of sickly dogs all lying around in a large pile. 'Time for some answers.'
"Dogs." A large barking frenzy started the moment Adam's voice reached their ears, but the dogs all fell silent when they turned their eyes to see who had spoken. Their ears went flat and all of the dogs pushed themselves as far to the ground as they could, fear in all of their eyes as Adam descended to the ground with thunder rumbling in the caves. "What have you done with the meteor that you have stolen from the surface? Why did you contaminate the ponies' fields?"
"We no do anything! We just bring shiny rock down here!" one of them whimpered. Now that Adam had found the talkative one, he flew over to him and lifted him up by the throat.
"What happened to the meteor?" Adam asked.
"W-we brought it further into the cave! It was so shiny, we wondered if there was more shiny on the inside, maybe some gems!" the dog barked out as both of its paws held onto Adam's wrists for dear life. "And inside were gems we'd never seen before, gems that were greener than emeralds! We all took some and spread them around the pack! But then after a few days, pack begin to get sick and some soon die! We then lock away all the shiny, but the death continue! Please, help us!"
Adam's eyes narrowed as he looked at the dog, but a quick glance of the other animals confirmed his story. The dogs looked even sicker than the ponies above, and Adam surmised that it was the same radiation that was killing them. His eyes then narrowed when he spotted a pile of the dead in one corner, with many young pups lying within it.
"Where is it?" Adam asked again and the dog pointed to a sealed-off room. Adam dropped the frightened dog to the ground before floating over to the stone that sealed the tunnel, lifting it easily before tossing it aside. A moment's glance was all it took him to see that something was wrong with this part of the tunnels, for the walls were stained with green radiation and the air felt heavier. Adam marched through the tunnel until he came to a larger room at the end, where a massive greenish stone rested.
"By the gods," Adam muttered aloud when he saw the meteor, which was at least three times his own size. The large stone was definitely from space, but what caught Adam's attention was that it had been cracked open and large green shards rested within the center of it. Adam knelt down on the side and tore out one of the shards, holding it in his hand while he narrowed his eyes. 'I...have seen this before...yes, it was called kryptonite. It is what the weak use to try to wound Superman. I am surprised that a piece of his planet made it this far.'
'This must be the source of the radiation poisoning. It seems that it affects this land far differently than it does mine,' Adam mused as he turned the green shard over in his hand, glad that he had no such vulnerability to a rock. But then another color within the green caught his eye, and Adam reached within the meteor to its center before he grabbed what he wanted, ripping out the shard so he could see it. "Golden kryptonite? I have never even heard of this one before," Adam muttered as he looked down at the gold piece of material before looking to the green one, an idea forming in his mind.
"Time to deal with the problem," Adam muttered as he rose up, slipping both the pieces of kryptonite into his sash before he grabbed the meteor with both hands. He then shot through the ceiling above and out of the ground in one of the fields, still bringing the meteor in tow. He took aim at the sun resting above his head before he hurled the rock with all his might, watching as it sailed off towards its doom. He then floated back down towards the ponies, who had all gathered around him again. "I have rid you of the source of the radiation, but it will take time for it to fade away. I would suggest staying away from the contaminated fields for a long while."
"But what about-?"
"Canterlot will send food and provisions to aid you until your land has returned to normal," Black Adam finished, snarling at the pony who had interrupted him. "I will speak with the Princess and we shall try to find a way to return this land to normal. I will not abandon you to die here," Adam finished as he turned around.
"Like you let the Elements die?" a young voice called out. Black Adam heard the ponies around the foal try to shush him, but Adam did not care. He had encountered this kind of hatred many times in the few months that he had been back. This was nothing new. Adam shot into the sky and soared towards Canterlot, holding a chunk of kryptonite in each hand so they would not fall. He descended to the castle, but to his surprise he found out from a guard that Celestia had been out for a while.
"What are those?" the guard asked Black Adam as the man leaned against a wall to wait.
"These are the solution to the Royal Guard being a laughing stock," Adam replied as he held up the two shards. "These will bring you technology that you have never seen before."
S=H=A=Z=A=M
The Griffon King looked out across his nation from his balcony, racking his brain with ways to try to be rid of the only obstacle that stood between him and Equestria. 'But no matter how hard I think, there is nothing that can even scratch that being, let alone be rid of him.' Garda sighed before sensing a presence behind him, turning to see what looked like a pony hidden under a black coat.
"Before you call your guards, Garda, perhaps I can tell you what you desire," the pony said before Garda could speak out. The pony pulled something from under his cloak and offered it to the king, who took it with caution. He looked down upon the stones and the parchment with interest, seeing some kind of ballistic weapon upon the parchment. "Even Black Adam has a weakness, and those stones are it." Garda looked up to find that the pony was gone. But that didn't matter to him in the least.
"Because if I have studied these designs right, then this could be the chance I have been waiting for," he smiled.
S=H=A=Z=A=M
"I do not know about this, Teth," Celestia muttered as she looked over the plans Adam had drawn up on his idea. "Most of the ponies in Canterlot remember what the humans looked like when they...all I'm saying is dressing our guard in this attire might instill fear and hatred in the minds of the ponies."
"Celestia, the armor and weaponry that has been distributed to your guard is pathetic," Adam bluntly replied. "They were helpless when the changelings attacked and they were foes that could be matched by a pony, yet due to their weak armor and weaponry they were overrun. And think about this. If their armor failed to protect them against something as insignificant as a changeling, then what will they do if another foe, such as Tirek or the dragons return to you kingdom to seize it? Even more lives would be lost, Celestia."
Celestia sighed as she looked back down at the plans, not liking the idea of her guard wearing the same armor of the beings that killed her daughter. 'But Teth does have a valid point. The Royal Guard may make the ponies feel safe, but they have had little success in stopping any threats that have attacked our city. Maybe...an upgrade should be considered. And if they have this weaponry that could hold me back, then any threat they face would have an equally hard time dealing with them.'
"...Alright Teth. I do believe that the guards do require an upgrade. But are you sure this "ally" of yours can create the armor?" she asked Black Adam, who smirked at her response.
"He is not an ally of mine Celestia, for I do not trust an ounce of him," Black Adam responded. "But he is one of the best at inventing and with the items I have retrieved, I believe there is little he would not do to lay his hands upon the shards I have." Celestia gave Black Adam a worried look as he said this, but she let the worry go with a sigh.
"How are you going to reach him? I thought that you did not know how to fly back to your own world?" Celestia asked.
"I do not, but I do not need to know the way back to return." Celestia raised an eyebrow at him as he said this, motioning for him to continue. "I have a spell that with enough magical power will enable me to teleport back to my home. The reason I have not done so is that there are other spellcasters on the planet who will be able to sense the magic if I were to cast it. That is why I will ask you to cast the spell."
"Why me? Won't they just sense my magic as well?" Celestia asked.
"Yes, but a great deal of magic enters and exits the planet each day," Adam explained. "The heroes are on the lookout for evil or destructive magic, such as my own. Your magic is neither malicious nor my own, so I believe that they will not be as quick in searching for where I appear. Then I should be able to use a hint of my own magic to throw them off my trail...for a while at the least. It took me a while to master the spell, so I will incant it. You will open the portal."
"This sounds risky."
"It would not be worth doing otherwise." Celestia chuckled slightly at that before she looked out the window at the rising moon, which was almost in the center of the sky. "Do you think she's alright?" she asked. Adam followed her gaze to the moon before slightly shaking his head as he turned towards the exit.
"I do not know. Only time will tell." Adam exited the room, leaving Celestia alone to gaze at the moonlit sky, tears forming in her eyes as she thought of her sister. She allowed one of the tears to fall from her eyes before she headed towards her bed, throwing herself face first upon the pillows with a sigh.
'Why must everything be so hard nowadays?' she thought to herself. 'Why can't things go back to the way they used to be?' The grasp of sleep began to envelope her and with one last yawn she closed her eyes, beginning to drift off into dreamland--when she had the most peculiar vision. 'Why is everything silver?' she thought to herself as she looked around at a silver room, not sure if she was awake or not. She turned around to find herself looking at a small pony that was made completely out of silver energy, her eyes going wide the moment she saw her.
'The silver one,' she whispered with rage as she glared down at the pony.
'It has been far too long,' the silver mare said, her voice sounding like she was holding back tears. 'How many years have passed since I last saw you?'
'I do not know what you speak of, monster!' Celestia snarled back as she fired magic at the silver pony, who simply vanished before the spell struck her and re-materialized behind the princess. 'Have you come to take my life as well or are your monsters waiting for your command to strike me down?!'
'W-what are you talking about?' the mare asked with complete confusion in her voice as she took a step towards Celestia, but the princess snarled as she fired another bolt of magic at the hooves of the mare. 'I would never seek to harm you. You gave me everything in my life. Why would I wish to harm you?'
'I don't know," Celestia responded with a snarl, trying to not let the mare's words confuse her. 'Why don't you ask those humans you brought to this world, the ones that killed my daughter!' To Celestia's surprise the mare seemed physically taken aback by this. The silver mare looked at the ground before she collapsed to all fours, the silver mare covering her face.
'What do you mean?' she asked in a barely audible whisper.
'Three humans appeared in my home while my daughter and I were talking and began to attack my subjects! During the attack, Radiance tried to save me from an attack by the humans and she lost her life in the process!' Celestia screamed at the mare, who made no sound in response. 'Once Black Adam had slain them, he found that there were traces of silver magic upon them, the very same magic that I see coming off of you!'
'No...' the silver one whispered as she began to shake, wanting so desperately to cry, but her form prevented her from doing so. 'How could this have happened? Could it have been...the sphere that I accidently sent off into the unknown? Did I bring those creatures here?' While she was asking herself those questions Celestia had been getting close enough to her so that single magic blast would do her in. Celestia looked down at the mare with narrowed eyes as she aimed her horn at her.
'I...I killed my own sister.'
'What did you just say?' Celestia asked her, the words of the silver mare piercing through her rage in an instant. 'What do you mean you killed your own sister?' The silver mare lifted her eyes towards Celestia and moved her mane out of her face, allowing Celestia to looking into her blank, silver eyes.
'Don't you recognize me, Mother?' the silver mare weakly asked. 'It's me, Sunny.' Celestia looked down at her with compete shock in her eyes, but before either of them could say something, a thunderous boom could be heard as the dream was torn apart by a bolt of lightning. Celestia's eyes snapped open and she shot up in bed to see what had happened. Black Adam was standing in front of her bed with his body crackling with power, eyes narrowed and teeth bared as he glared at the pony across the room from him. On the other side of the room was the silver mare, her body flickering slightly as she looked at Black Adam.
'W-who are you?' she asked him as she leaned in to get a better look. 'You...look remarkably similar to Teth, but he was just a regular human. He couldn't--' She never finished speaking as Black Adam shot forward, throwing a punch right at her head. But to his surprise his blow went right through her, never making contact with the mare. The silver mare yelped and leapt back while Adam looked down at his hand, his mind trying to figure out what had gone wrong.
"I am Black Adam. The superior form of the man you have mentioned," Adam snarled. "How do you know that name? Why are you here?"
'You're Teth?' the silver mare whispered. 'I-it's me! Sunnysmiles!' Black Adam gave her the same dumbfounded expression that Celestia had, but after a moment his face contorted with a look of rage and lightning crackled along his body.
"No, you cannot be her. I watched her die," Adam snarled as his eyes flashed with the same power that flooded through him. "I was there when they buried her in the ground. You are not her! You are an imposter!" Black Adam threw both of his hands forward and sent two tendrils of magical lightning into the silver mare's chest, blasting the silver pony through the wall to Celestia's room and into the hallway, where she violently flickered.
'P-please Teth, it is me. I am your friend,' she begged. Adam narrowed his eyes at her for a moment before the darkness of his hatred returned to his face.
"You are no friend of mine! And I shall kill you!" Anything else she tried to say was drowned out by the thunder and lightning that Black Adam summoned into his hands, creating a sphere of lightning that caused even the silver mare to tingle. With no other option the silver mare tore open a portal in reality and flung herself into it just as Adam threw his sphere. To his surprise the sphere was absorbed by the portal and was added to its power, causing the mare to vanish in an instant. Adam shot forward to grab her but the portal closed before he could, leaving him to stare at the air where the portal had been.
'She got away. That was the one who summoned those humans that killed Radiance,' he deduced, but then he remembered what she had said to him. 'It...it cannot be. She is dead.' Black Adam threw himself through the ceiling as he rocketed across the moonlit sky, landing a moment later on a small hill where eight graves rested. He walked over to the oldest one and blasted a hole in it with his lightning, having to know the truth.
'It is as I thought,' he thought as he shook his head, filling the grave back in with dirt from the surrounding area. 'She is dead. And none I care about ever come back from the dead. But now I know the face of my enemy. But I cannot chase after her. Whatever magic she is using, it is...superior to my own, at least in allowing her to escape. The only way that I can track her...is to add to my own power.'
S=H=A=Z=A=M
"Are you certain of this, Teth?" Celestia asked Black Adam, who nodded as he stood in the center of the ritual circle in her chambers. He began to mutter enchantments as Celestia added her own magic to the mix, grunting as she felt her magic begin to get syphoned out of her. She heard Adam mutter something and for a brief moment, she saw another human before the portal appeared at Adam's feet. "that was harder than I thought it would be," she muttered.
"I used my magic for the summoning part and to locate whom I wished to teleport myself to," Adam slightly panted. "All you did was open the portal for me," Adam responded as he floated over the portal. He then floated over to a table to grab a number of supplies. The suits the humans wore, the schematics that they had held, the guns and finally a container made of lead. "I do not know how long I will be gone, but any longer than a few days and it is most likely I have been captured again. If I fail to return...be safe."
"I will. Because you will come back," Celestia said to him with a smile. Adam nodded at her before he dove into the portal, closing his eyes as he felt his very being get ripped apart before having himself be placed back together. The process was over in an instant, but it felt like an eternity to the god. But as he felt the magic end he opened his eyes, smiling at the sight before him.
"B-Black Adam?" the bald man who had fallen to the ground asked him in complete disbelief, his eyes looking at the god more with confusion than with fear or rage. Black Adam turned his head to see that he was within a laboratory, the likes of which he had never seen, telling him that he had indeed reached his destination. "I thought that you had been cast off into the never-ending reaches of space?"
"I was, but when has that ever stopped me from returning," Black Adam asked as he looked down at the human standing before him. "Luthor."