//------------------------------// // Heroes // Story: The War of Champions // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// Crystal buildings that towered above a green landscape greeted Adam's eyes while he descended from above towards the empire in the north, a place that he had not visited in nearly ten years. Not that he wasn't welcomed, for many of the ponies here respected and even admired him, but because his own guilt kept him away--kept him away from one of the nobler souls in Equestria, a stallion who had chosen not to fight despite what Adam had done to his family. It was a choice that Adam knew was beyond him. The crystal ponies in the streets all began to cheer and wave to him when they spotted him flying above them, most of them motioning for him to descend and talk to them. He knew that the Crystal Empire was a place that he never visited and many of the ponies were desperate to speak to him, but he did not wish to be there longer than he needed to be, 'For my presence will only cause Shining more harm, harm that he does not deserve. I will make this brief.' The Crystal Palace was his stop and the guards standing out front opened the doors for him without an word, but the smiles on their faces told Adam that they welcomed him. Adam nodded to them before taking a moment to look up at the top of the tower, where a beam of magic could be seen shining off into the distance, protecting Canterlot from harm. 'Yet, that only means that this place will be attacked in time as well. But I will make sure that their destruction of my Spires ends here. They will not get past me.' While Adam walked into the Crystal Palace, his thoughts turned away from how he planned to defeat the champions of the mare and instead wandered down a darker path, a path that involved thoughts of the Sphere of Destruction and the army that had been raised by it. 'Spike told me that there has been a number of strange sightings with cloaked ponies, all of whom seem to work for the same master--Star-Swirl, if what little I heard from the cloaked ponies is correct. Does that mean he is behind this?' 'But that is impossible,' Adam decided as he walked up the crystal stairs through the library, ignoring the looks of admiration many of the ponies gave him. 'I visited his grave myself. I saw his bones. He is still dead...unless, somehow his spirit managed to transcend death and...' A cold realization began to wash over Adam, but before that thought could root itself in his mind, his thoughts were broken by a cry of sheer joy by a foal before him. "OHMYFAUST! It's Black Adam!" the small colt with a pinkish coat and an ice blue mane before him exclaimed with a huge smile as he ran around Adam. Black Adam could not help but smile at the pony's enthusiasm, for despite having never met the colt before, he knew well who little Victory was. "I can't believe that you're finally here! Did you finally get the letter that I sent you?!" "Which of your hundreds of letters are you referring to?" Black Adam politely answered before his face took on a far more serious expression. "I wish I could talk but I have urgent matters that I must discuss with your parents. Can you please lead me to them?" "Of course, Sir!" Victory said with a salute before he practically skipped ahead of Adam, leading him through the halls of crystal towards the throne room. Victory was quiet for a barely a minute before he burst out talking again, asking Adam a number of question that Adam either answered politely or silently ignored. Black Adam was relieved to finally reach the throne room, for he did not know how much longer he could endure Victory's bombardment of questions. With a light tap the twin doors to the throne room swung open, revealing the prince and princess of the Crystal Empire, both of whom had looks of shock on their faces when their son ran over to them with Adam following behind him. "Black Adam. What are you doing here?" Cadence said with a snarl in her voice, telling Adam that she had not forgiven him for his actions. He could not fault her. Shining held out a hoof before his wife could say any more, and he cast a quick glance towards Victory, who seemed confused as to why his mom was angry at Adam. "Hello, Black Adam," said Shining, who greeted Adam in a very calm and professional tone, standing up from his throne and giving Adam a small bow, one that made Adam's heart burn with guilt. "I must admit that I never expected to see you in the Crystal Empire. Something big must have happened for you to come here in person." "Isn't it awesome, Dad?! For years I've wanted Black Adam to come here, yet he never did--until now!" Victory exclaimed with excitement, before a realization crossed his mind. "Hold on a minute, Black Adam, I've got some posters of yours that I want you to sign! Be right back!" With a somber expression on his face, Adam watched the colt race off before he turned to look back at Shining and Cadence. Both of their expressions matched his. "You never told your son that I was responsible for the death of his aunt, did you?" Adam asked the pair. Shining responded with a slow nod while Cadence spit onto the floor beside her throne, refusing to make eye contact with Adam. "What would be the point?" Shining asked with a heavy sigh while he looked at one of the stained glass windows in the throne room, the one that held a purple alicorn with five other ponies around her. "We planned to tell him when he was old enough, but then one day he got ahold of a paper telling the story about how you saved all of Equestria from that eight-headed dragon that emerged from the west. Ever since then, he has been a huge fan of yours, idolizing you as a hero." Adam hung his head with guilt when he heard the pain in the prince's voice. "Hell, he even bought all of your action figures." "So, if I were to tell him that his hero killed his aunt, he might never believe in heroes again," Shining continued while he regained control of himself, talking in his professional tone once again. "And for the most part, you've acted like a hero ever since the fall of Ares, so I see no reason to tell him any different. Now then, what did you wish to talk to us about?" "There are a group of six champions...five now, if we assume that the one called 'Ryan' is done, that are destroying the Spires so that they can attack Canterlot and overthrow Celestia," Adam informed the pair, both of whom nodded to tell him that they knew. "If you know that, then you must also know that it is only a matter of time before they come here as well, to destroy this Spire and come one step closer to their goal. I am here to ask you which one of my judges would you like to have protect you?" "You do not believe that we can defend our own home?" Cadence snarled at him, but the cold look she received from Adam silenced her. "No, Princess, I do not believe you can. These six are far beyond anything you may have seen, with one of their own able to match me in power," Adam informed them, and from their faces he saw that he got his point across. "I...would like to request, if I could be the one to protect the Crystal Empire. If you would allow-" "No, Adam," Shining coldly cut him off. Adam silenced himself at once. "I may tolerate you being here to discuss official business, and I may have promised that I will not raise a hoof against you in revenge, but do not think for a moment that I welcome you here. Spike can protect us. I have always liked that little dragon. He reminds me of my sister's dragon. You remember what happened to her?" "She...yes, I remember what happened to her," Adam said with guilt in his voice while he forced the memories back. Any further conversation was interrupted, when Victory burst back into the room with posters practically falling off of him. He skidded to a stop in front of Adam, holding all of the posters of the Dark God that Adam did not know existed, begging him to sign them. When Adam had done so, using his symbol instead of his name, Victory thanked him profusely before racing back off towards him room, saying that he had some trading cards that needed to be signed next. "Why, 'Victory'?" Adam asked the two once their son had left the room. "After all that I've done and all that was taken from you, why a name like that?" Cadence and Shining shared a look with each other before answering him, both of their faces became softer as they spoke of their son. "His birth was a struggle for Cadence, one that the doctors weren't sure she would survive," Shining explained while he took his beloved's hoof in his, gently resting his head next to her with a smile. "But the two of them pulled through, and we had a son. When we decided on the name, we thought about everything that had happened in the past couple of years and how everything seemed to be against us. So, his birth was like a small victory for us. We liked that idea and decided that it should be his name. That's how he got it." "I see. Thank you for listening to me. I will send Spike over as soon as I can," Black Adam said to the pair before he floated in the air while preparing to leave, not wanting to cause the two any more pain with his being there. He had just reached the opening in the ceiling when Shining said his name, stopping him and turning him back around to look at the prince. "You know, Black Adam, sometimes at night I wonder to myself what would Equestria be like if you had never showed up," Shining said out loud, though his eyes informed Adam that he was a thousand miles away. "Would my sister still be alive? Would she be the ruler of her own kingdom? Would everything be peaceful and harmonized?" Adam's face fell at his words, figuring what he was implying, but Shining continued on: "Or would we all be slaves of Discord? Would Chrysalis have taken over Equestria and would Cadence and I be kept apart forever? Would Tirek have killed the princesses and destroyed harmony itself? I do not expect to know the answers to these questions, but it's a thought that sometimes keeps me up at night. I wonder if you think it as well?" Shining motioned for Adam to leave after saying his piece, and the Dark God did so without another word, taking to the skies above the Crystal Empire. He tried to keep his thoughts on the mission at hand and how he would inform Spike that he would be protecting the Crystal Empire, but his thoughts betrayed him and his mind kept wandering back to what Shining had asked him. What would Equestria be like if Adam had never appeared? 'It is pointless to think about. It is an answer that he will never know,' Adam silently thought before he came to a stop in the air, turning his head to where his interdimensional transporter was kept. 'But just because he cannot know does not mean that I cannot find out.' S=H=A=Z=A=M Thunder rocked the forest while lightning flashed from nearly all directions, terrifying all the animals and birds that were close to the place where the pony trained the god, who was not having much success with his magic. With a roar that shook the very ground, Marvel slammed his hands together, ceasing the spell he had been trying to cast and ending the potentially deadly lightning storm. Marvel let out an exasperated sigh as he collapsed to the ground, holding his hands over his face while Trixie walked over to him. "Alright, let's try it again," she said to him, only to get a muffled grunt in reply. She sighed before using her magic to lift him to his feet despite his small attempt at resisting. "Remember, in order to use worded magic properly, you must have complete confidence in the spell you are casting or else the magic will fluctuate and become unstable. This is what happened during your escort mission--your rage compromised your spell." "I get it, you told me this already," Marvel growled as he clasped his hands together once again, creating a sphere of lightning between his two palms that began to grow larger while he muttered ancient spells to increase the size and shape of the orb. But then, the image of Applebloom's bow flashed before his eyes and he shut them in fear, causing the sphere in his grasp to fluctuate again. Trixie dove for cover as tendrils of lightning carved burn marks into the ground around them while Marvel fought to regain control of the sphere, but when the integrity of the spell was too far gone he hurled the orb of lightning skyward with all his might, shielding Trixie with his body when it exploded into a thunderstorm. "Argh! It's no use! I can't control my magic!" Marvel roared as he stomped one of his golden grieved legs into the ground, causing a minor earthquake in the surrounding area. He sat down after his outburst and placed his head in his arms, saying nothing else when Trixie sat down beside him with a sympathetic smile. "It takes time and practice to reach the levels that you are trying to achieve. But you will not reach Black Adam's level of spellcraft in just an afternoon," she reminded him, only to get an angry snarl in response. "Billy, what exactly did the Twilight of your world teach you in regards to magic, because it certainly seems like she did not help you with the spells you are trying to create." "Twilight didn't like the idea of me using my magic as a weapon. She thought it would be better for helping ponies and healing them," Marvel grumbled when he lifted his head and muttered an incantation, placing his hands upon the ground as he did so. When he removed them there was a bundle of flowers that were all red and gold, which got an eyebrow raise out of Trixie. "So, while I'm pretty good as transfiguration and healing, the spells that I'll need to defeat Black Adam are severely lacking. Heh, not that any of my spells mean anything to his 'supreme form' or whatever he's calling it. Why am I even trying?" "Because odds are you will fight Adam at some point, and I will make sure that you are ready when you do," Trixie said to him as she rose to her hooves and motioned for him to do the same. "Magic is a very fickle weapon Billy, far more unpredictable than science or the weapons that the army of Adam uses against us. For you see, even a weaker unicorn can overpower a stronger one if their magic is unpredictable and something that the more experienced unicorn has not seen. Take the shadow form that Sombra taught me; I have beaten more foes by using that than any of my spells, simply because they did not know how to counter it." "That will not work against Adam. He's far too strong and cunning for something like that," Billy grumbled with defeat in his voice, blocking out everything that Trixie was trying to tell him. "Why did I have to be one of the chosen ones? Why couldn't it have been Superman or someone else? All I've done since I got here was mess up." "Billy." Marvel snapped out of berating himself to look over at Trixie, who had a hard glare upon her face. "You have been one of the most helpful members of this team since you got here, and you are also one of the most positive members as well, helping to lift our spirits when we feel down. You are here because no one else could take your place." "Then why couldn't I save them, if I'm supposed to be this champion?" Captain Marvel asked. Trixie thought about her answer before deciding that a question would be the better idea. "Do you have a hero, Billy? Someone that you believe in?" Trixie asked him. "Yeah, he's called Superman, the greatest hero to have ever lived," Billy said as his eyes lighted up. "He's stronger than me, faster than me, has all these cool powers and is the face of justice. He's the greatest of the heroes, bar none." "I see. And has Superman ever failed?" Billy was silent for nearly ten minutes after her question, thinking back to his life with the League and the few times that he actually got to go out on missions with his hero. He had never seen Superman fail while on those missions, but he had heard stories...stories of when even Superman couldn't save the day. "Yes." "I see. And after these failures, did he give up? Did he stop fighting?" "No, but he's Superman, the ultimate Champion of Good. I'm not him," Marvel sadly sighed as he tried to sit back down, but a glare from Trixie kept him standing. "No. You are not. You are Billy Batson, the hero who saved his Equestria from not only your version of Sombra but also from Doomsday, a creature that the mare told me is stronger than you or Black Adam, and that killed Superman," Trixie reminded him, getting Marvel to avert his gaze. "You were chosen by the wizard Shazam because he saw something in you that he didn't see in anyone else, even Superman. And, you were chosen to be a part of this team because of the same reason--because there is something in you that we need." "I know how much it hurts to be responsible for the deaths of innocents, to have their blood on your hands, but many more will die if you are not with us. We have lost Ryan; Hulk refuses to leave the depths of Banner's mind, and I have no idea where Batmare is. We need you, the Champion of Magic, more now then we ever have. I am not asking you to get over your grief and move on. I am asking that you help us now, to not let what happened there happen again." Captain Marvel thought about what she said for a moment before he ascended into the skies and clasped his hands together, feeling the magical lightning course into them, before he slowly began to pull his hands apart to recreate the sphere of lightning that he had not mastered yet. Words of magic long since passed flowed from his mouth while he used their magic to keep the sphere under control, increasing its size and power while preventing it from becoming too powerful for him to handle. Then, the image of Bloom's bow flashed across his mind again and the spell began to waver just as it did before. 'No. I might not be able to create this spell as Adam can, but I will be damned if I cannot stop it!' he roared within his mind while he muttered trapping enchantments, creating a cage of electricity over his own sphere that contained the same streaks of lightning that were trying to burst forth from the sphere. He then clasped his hands together once again to silence the sphere before looking down at his hands. 'Trixie is right. I can't reach the level of magic that Adam controls right away. I can't match his power. But if I can find a way to contain it and use it against him...' Marvel floated back down to Trixie, crossing his legs as he sat on the air in front of her with a sigh. "I need you to teach me how to trap or redirect magic. You were right in telling me that I cannot fight Black Adam spell for spell. He has had five thousand years on me. But what you can teach me is something he never learned: Restraint. Teach me how to control every aspect of both mine and my opponent's magic. Help me to even the field." "That is an interesting idea, Billy. Yes...it might just work as well," Trixie muttered while she already began to formulate plans on how to help Billy create trapping and dispelling magic with which to fight his foe. "Trapping another pony's magic is hard, since all magic is unique to the pony casting magic, but as both you and Adam draw your powers from a similar source...very well, let me teach you what I know on stopping and countering magic." She began to set up counter spells and magical vortexes for Billy to practice against, but when she turned to look at the champion she saw that he had another question to ask her. "You asked me about my heroes earlier, and I answered you with Superman, but you...never told me who your hero was," Marvel pointed out. Trixie retreated into her memories for a moment before she nodded with a sad smile. "Yes. Her name was Morgaine." Trixie saw Marvel's face turn into one of shock, and that told her that he knew of Trixie's mother. "She taught me nearly all that I know about magic and helped me become confident and strong--a strength that I had to turn against her to prevent her from destroying my world. But despite my betrayal, she came back to save both my life and my family's lives, sacrificing her very soul so that we could live. So she is my hero, because she did what so few do. She changed for the better." "Wow, your versions of my villains are sure different than mine," Marvel said with a thin chuckle. "The multiverse is crazy, huh?" "Indeed it is. Also Billy, once I have helped you get the basics for magic ensnarement, I wonder if I could ask you if you would help me bring down a Spire?" Trixie asked Marvel, getting a confused look from the boy. "This Spire is said to be in the heart of Las Pegasus, a place where this world's version of me seems to reside. I would like to confront her, but I would also like some backup, and with your magical properties I believe that you would be of great aid." "Sure. Just let me tell the princess and Banner where we're heading and-" "No. Do not tell them. Batmare believes that our base has a spy within it," Trixie informed Billy, who nodded as Trixie's words confirmed some of his own suspicions. "I want to do this secretly, and then when we return I will watch the other ponies' faces closely, to see if I can determine who the spy is." "I miss the days when the villain was just someone I could punch in the face," Marvel reminisced with a sigh. "Me too Billy. Me too." S=H=A=Z=A=M The sound of laughing foals and a soft moan informed Banner where Mr. Bubbles had gotten to, so when he entered through the doorway into the infirmary, he wasn't surprised to see the mass of metal sitting on the floor covered in foals. He nodded to the nurse in charge of the foals before he silently motioned for Bubbles to join him, which the Big Daddy did after a minute. "Look, I know you want to get back to the foals, so I'll make this quick," Banner said in a serious tone to the yellow-eyed titan, who kept turning his body to view the playing children every couple of seconds. "Things...have really gotten bad in a short time with Ryan and Hulk so...I want you here." Bubble's eyes turned green in surprise at Banner's words, but Banner continued on after a pause. "Yet, my biggest worry right now is Luna. She's...acting a lot like Nightmare Moon did and that worries me. So I need a set of eyes on her and you're the right pick for the job. Your cover can be that you're looking after the foals, and even if she asks you what you're doing, you can't answer her," Banner explained with some hesitance. "I also want you to be on the lookout for anything suspicious. I have...a hunch that someone here isn't what they seem." The Big Daddy let out a soft moan as his eyes flashed green before he headed back into the room with the foals, though for a brief second Banner saw the Daddy's eyes flash yellow when he looked at the nurse. Now, knowing that Bubbles was on alert and that he could leave the base without having to worry too much, he turned and began to plan how to help the Hulk.