//------------------------------// // Weeping Willow // Story: The War of Champions // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// Willow's hoof tapped three times against the door to Black Adam's chamber, a small sigh escaping his lips when he heard no answer. He knew that Adam still resided within the room, for he had not left for a day now, but what the old stallion did not know was why Adam had shut himself off from the others. But that was something he needed to find out. "Black Adam, it is me, Willow," Willow announced as his hoof rapped against the door once again. Only more silence answered him. "Please allow me to enter. I wish to speak with you." Upon his third knock the door slightly swung open, giving Willow a moment to decide whether he shoulder enter or not. His desire to help the defender won out and a moment later he had pushed open the door, entering a chamber within which very few had been. The room was surprisingly bare for Adam, with only a bed, table and carpet to make up most of the furnishings in the room. A sword hung on the wall, and Willow's eyes spotted a staff with a lightning bolt at the top that rested against the wall, yet those items became an afterthought when his eyes rested on Black Adam, who was standing by the window with a faraway look in his eyes. "Master Adam." Black Adam turned his head to look at Willow, yet Willow noticed that Adam's eyes were not 'there' at the moment. They slowly began to clear when Adam recognized who was standing in his presence, and with a small shake of his head the thunderous eyes of Adam returned. "Willow. What are you doing here?" Adam asked with faked annoyance, but Willow had been around the defender long enough to know when he was faking an emotion. "You left your door open," Willow informed Adam as he pointed to the door, getting Adam to nod slightly before Willow continued. "But to answer your question, I am here to speak with you...to see how you have been doing." "I am fine," Adam swiftly replied, getting Willow to raise an eyebrow. "I am simply concerned with the fall of the Spires and the impending attack on the city." Despite himself, Willow let out a small chuckle that gained him a narrowed look from Adam. "I am sorry, Adam, but you have never been that strong a liar," Willow informed Adam, who seemed more curious at Willow's words than he was annoyed. "There is something else on your mind that you have discovered, something that has shaken you to your core. I can see the pain in your eyes and I can tell from your stance that you have lost some of your confidence. All I want you to know is that I wish to help you, even if you do not tell me what is the matter." Adam turned away from Willow for a moment, debating if he should simply remain silent or let Willow in on a subject about which he had not even spoken to Celestia. "I went to a number of different worlds the other day," Adam finally admitted, getting a look of confusion from the old unicorn. "But that is not unusual for you. You have traveled to different worlds many a times," Willow reminded him. "Yes, but this time I went to some places I thought that I would never need to visit," Adam began as his fists slightly tightened. "I went to worlds that were home to a story devoid of a single element, and what I discovered is what shook me. It was that the ponies were happy, that there was no war, no pain or suffering," Adam scowled with lightning flashing in his eyes. "Where the Elements of Harmony are still alive and the princesses are the closest of friends. And do you know what all of these worlds had in common?" "You...had never shown up there," Willow answered somberly, getting Adam to nod slightly while he hung his head. "But you cannot believe that just because some of the worlds have a different story that-" "That what? That I am a hero who saved this world? I am the man that damned this world!" Adam roared with a thundering voice that shook Willow's very core before the Dark God regained control of himself. "Twilight and the others defeated Discord when he re-appeared, even managing to conform him...whereas I killed him without a second thought. They banished Chrysalis from their land whereas I wiped out an entire species. They used their friendship to defeat Tirek without the need of godly lightning. And those are the worlds where there is no war between the sisters, no pain of a split nation, and no hatred that drove two sisters to loath each other. There is no me." "Adam, surely you are not implying that you-" "That I am not the one who is responsible for this? No Willow, I am the reason for everything that has happened," Black Adam admitted with tears streaking down his face as he looked down at his hands. "I have brought nothing to these ponies. The ponies knew friendship, love and harmony long before I came here. I taught them how to hate, how to kill, and I have brought them pain...So much pain. I am no champion, Willow; not even a protector. I am the reason that everything here is happening. I am no better than the other villains that have plagued your land. There is only one difference between us. I managed to destroy a nation built on friendship and turn it into hatred." Willow opened his mouth to argue with Adam, to say something that would snap him out of this line of thinking, but his words failed him and all he could do was shake his head slightly, sensing that Adam was done speaking. Willow left the room silently, closing the door behind him while he began to walk down the mostly empty halls of the castle. 'You are wrong Adam,' Willow thought before Adam's very words came back to him, describing how Adam had brought about the end of the world. Despite his heart saying that Adam was wrong, Willow found that his mind could find no argument against Adam's words. But his train of thought was derailed horribly when he turned a corner to find two cloaked unicorns standing in the center of the hallway, one of them holding a knife to the throat of a pony he knew well. "Windy!" the old pony cried, taking a step forward only to watch as one of the cloaked ponies pressed the knife closer to Windy's throat, drawing blood. "You monsters! Release your hooves from my assistant or so help me I will-" "You will only do what we demand of you, Willow, or the stallion shall never speak again," one of the cloaked ponies barked, cutting off Willow. "Do not try to call out for Black Adam, for we can slit this one's throat before he reaches us. If you wish to keep him alive, then you will keep silent and lead us to where you have hidden the Phantom Zone generator." Willow's eyes widened in shock at their demand, wondering how they could have possibly known that he was the one who had hidden the generator. For a brief moment he did consider calling out for Black Adam, but then he looked into the terrified eyes of his assistant, and the pony's fear sealed his lips. With nothing more than a nod he motioned for the two cloaked ponies to follow him, cursing internally when he saw that they did not remove the knife from Windy's throat and brought the unfortunate stallion along with them. He led them to the picture of the king and queen who had ruled the land before Celestia and Luna, giving the two cloaked ponies a reproachful look before he used his magic to fling the picture back, revealing a massive, mythril door that loomed over the four. He quietly uttered the incantations he needed to enter, stepping back as the door slowly and silently swung open to reveal a long passageway down into darkness. He motioned again for the ponies to follow him while he started down the dark stair case, feeling their eyes watching him closely as he descended. "You'll never make it out of here alive, you know," Willow said quietly to the two cloaked ponies, who remained silent. "And even if you do, you can't possibly think that you'll win ay whatever game you're playing. Black Adam will stop this plan of yours." He could hear the two ponies snicker at his words, telling Willow that they didn't believe Adam to be a threat. That also told him that the two ponies were fools. Their descent was in silence until they reached the bottom of the stairs, which revealed a long hallway toward a bright room at the end of it. Willow led the three down the hallway, occasionally hearing Windy whimper in fear, before he heard two loud gasps as the four of them entered into the room. The shock was understandable, given what was hidden in the secret vault, and Willow remembered his reaction when Celestia had shown it to him when he first became her advisor years ago. Over the course of centuries, hundreds of both alien and pony weaponry had been brought to the vault, with most of the recent additions having been made by Black Adam. A large saucer hung from the steel beams overhead, while a weapon that had remained unknown until Adam had classified it as a photon cannon was underneath a sphere of glass in the corner. "This is truly an impressive room," one of the cloaked ponies said to the other, getting a nod of agreement in response. Willow slightly turned his head to face the two of them, so that he could see them out of the corner of his eye. "Perhaps we should take some of these items with us. According to this sign here, this is a weapon of mass destruction." "You believe that to be impressive? This cylindrical tube was used to wipe out an entire species," the one with the blade to Windy's throat said with awe as he looked into one of the glass containers. "And there are six in here! Just imagine how fast our progress would be if we used these to cause destruction," the pony continued as he placed a hoof against the glass. "We would probably be finished by--" The pony never got to finish either his sentence nor his estimate, because at that moment Willow spun faster than any of the three thought such an old stallion could turn, while firing off two shots of magic, one striking the pony with the knife on both the arm and the shoulder, forcing the pony to drop the knife while the second spell hurled him into a sheet of glass. "Quick Windy, hide yourself!" Willow ordered his assistant as he began to fire more volleys of magic at the two cloaked ponies, who dove behind whatever they could find to use as cover. For a brief moment, Willow saw that Windy was racing farther back into the vault for his own safety, but as two spells zipped by Willow's head he found that he had to focus completely on the battle at hoof. Willow briefly had the upper hoof when the element of surprise was on his side, but without it he quickly found that the two younger unicorns were able to start pushing him back. "You are a fool, old pony! Destruction comes for all, all except those who are true to the destroyer!" one of the cloaked ponies preached to him as that pony's spell shattered a glass container behind Willow and nearly set off the weapon inside. "Careful you fool or you'll blow us all to Tartarus!" his companion yelled while he fired a burning spell at Willow that the old stallion barely avoided, only doing so by hurling himself onto the floor and twisting his leg. Willow fought back the pain as he sprang up and fired a spell above both of the ponies' heads, cutting the wire that held up the flying saucer and dropping it down on top of them. The two yelped in surprise and fear as one threw himself out of the way of the object, while the other threw up a shield that barely stopped the U.F.O. from crushing him to death. "Damn you, you old fool!" the unicorn that had thrown himself out of the path of the saucer roared as he leapt back to his hooves, only to find that Willow was waiting for him. A flash of light erupted from Willow's horn and the cloaked unicorn was hurled across the room with a blast of magic, which slammed him into the wall hard. The unicorn fell to the floor with a grunt where he remained motionless, though groaning weakly. "Yes, I may be old, but I am not the fool here," Willow smirked at the felled foe before he turned his attention back to the other pony, who had just managed to push the saucer off of himself. Despite the hood covering the pony's face, Willow could see the pony's eyes shift from the old stallion to his fallen comrade, telling Willow that the pony was considering his options. "If you give up here, I promise that I will do my best to keep Adam from ripping you apart. But only if you surren-" Willow's cry of pain was drowned out by the loud bang, that was followed by a blast of energy that caught him in the back, and hurled him through multiple glass casings. He slammed into an ancient tank and dropped to the floor with weak groan, barely able to see through bloodied eyes. He was aware of a burning sensation in his back, and from the amount of blood that was seeping around him he knew that the glass had dug into him deep. He weakly lifted his head to see the two cloaked ponies walk over to him, before a third pony holding the generator and a rifle filled with dark energy joined them as well. "Windy?" Willow asked weakly when he looked up at the smirking face of his assistant, the final piece clicking into place as Willow let out a weak sigh of inner loathing. "Of course. Who else would be able to tell the cloaked ones that the generator had been hidden. I am such a fool." "Indeed you are, you pathetic excuse of a unicorn," Windy said with such bitterness and hatred in his voice that for a moment, Willow wished that this was a changeling or an imposter. But he looked into the stallion's eyes and knew that it was the same pony he had taken in years ago, but it was also a side of that pony that he had never seen before. "You could have been one of the many to be saved, but instead you cast in your lot with the pegasi and the earth vermin. I feel ashamed for having called you my master for so many years, even if it was all an act." "So...you have believed the lies that that fool Star-Swirl has been feeding you," Willow weakly wheezed with disappointment in his voice, noticing that his vision was beginning to blur and he could no longer feel his legs. "I thought that I had...raised my assistant better than that." "I was never your assistant, you old fool," Windy Days snarled. "I have been a servant of destruction for years, having been hoof-picked by Star-Swirl himself to infiltrate Canterlot and keep him informed of the Queen and Black Adam's movements." "So...all of the years together...all of the moments we shared as student and teacher...they were all a lie?" Willow whispered weakly, both blood and tears flowing from his eyes as he rested his head against the shattered pieces of glass. "Yes. You may have taken me in after the changelings wiped out my home, but Star-Swirl saved me, gave me purpose," Windy said with a bitter laugh as he hoofed the generator to one of the cloaked ponies beside him. "And that shall be to wipe Equestria clean of all of the filth and rebuild a new world where only we, the superior, get to rule. And that is not a world that needs fools such as yourself." Willow closed his eyes as he felt the last bit of his strength begin to leave him, but a sound reached his ears and he opened one of his eyes again. "I am so sorry Windy, that I was not able to lead you away from this path of destruction that you are on. And I am also sorry that I will not be able to protect you from him." The three ponies turned around in time to see a flash of lightning illuminate the chamber, that was quickly followed by a fist driving itself into one of the faces of a cloaked pony, tearing the jaw from his face and hurling the body across the room. Black Adam then turned to face the other two only to receive a laser to the face. The blast did not hurt him, but it stunned him long enough for the two ponies to vanish in a flash of magic. He snarled at the disappearance of the ponies, but then Adam's eyes rested upon Willow and all of the hatred melted away into fear. "Willow!" Adam cried as he appeared at the old stallion's side, horror in the gods eyes while he examined the wounds that the stallion had sustained. "Do not worry, I shall have you healed in a matter of moments." Adam pressed his hands against the side of the old pony and muttered a few words of magic, but to his fury he found that black tendrils of destruction ate away at his magic. "No! I will not lose any more of those I swore to protect!" Adam bellowed as he placed his hands against the side of the stallion and tried again, only for the darkness of destruction to interfere once again. With a roar that shook the castle Adam tried once again, yet when it failed Willow weakly lifted one hoof and placed it upon Adam's hand. "No, Adam...leave me to my fate," Willow admitted weakly, only to see fury and helplessness burn in Adam's eyes. "Do not...concern yourself with me...when so many more are in danger. They have taken the generator...they now have...whatever it was within that you fear. You...must...go after them." "NO! I will not leave you!" Adam roared, but Willow shook his head one last time with the little bit of strength he had left. "Adam...so many more lives are on the line than my own. And...as great as our forces are and as noble as the queen is...only you can stop them," Willow said. Doubt flashed for a moment in Adam's eyes and upon seeing that doubt, Willow's eyes hardened for a moment. "No...do not doubt yourself. You have...overcome every other threat that has plagued our nation. You can...defeat this one." "How?" Adam asked weakly and hung his head, his teeth gritted in emotional turmoil as he glared down at his hands. "I am the cause of all of this war and pain. I could not stop the sisters from fighting; I could not stop the two fillies I cared about the most from dying...and now I cannot save the only pony whom I could truly trust. How can I fight destruction when I am the cause of it?" "Adam...there was a time...when I truly thought you would be the death of us all." Adam lifted his head to look at Willow, who had rested his head upon the floor once again with eyes that seemed barely there. "When I saw your power, your ferocity and the way you disposed of your foes, I truly thought that one day I would wake up to see the princesses dead and all of Equestria under your rule. For years I had that fear, that you would turn out to be a greater foe than Discord or Tirek could ever be." "But then...you did something that I had never seen done by someone who held so much power and had so much hatred. You changed." Willow's voice was barely a whisper at this point, yet Adam's godly hearing allowed him to hear every dying word that the stallion spoke. "You...ceased fighting for the sake of vengeance. You...chose to let your foes live. You...stopped being a symbol of fear to the world and instead slowly became a symbol of hope...somepony whom we could trust." "You may believe that you are the cause of all of this destruction; that you are the reason that the world is about to destroy itself, and you may be right. That by simply appearing here, you have set a number of events in motion. But you have also fought every step of the way to protect the ponies, to keep them safe from that very destruction. That is why...I know that you'll save us," Willow whispered before he began to cough up blood, his voice barely audible even to Adam. "You...may...believe yourself to be...the destroyer of the world...but we who follow you...you will do...whatever you must...to save this world. You are...our hero Adam. We have...accepted you...as our hero...that you have changed...you just have...to accept it...yourself..." Willow then looked ahead with blank eyes, one last breath escaping his lips as they slightly smiled. "Thank you...for...showing me...that even the most...dark of hearts...can...become..." Adam lowered his head when the last breath escaped Willow's lips, tears beginning to fall from his face as he slowly lifted his shaking hand towards Willow's eyes, slowly closing them. The air crackled around him and thunderclouds formed in the room all around him, letting loose their downpour as if they were crying alongside Adam. Adam then slowly lifted the body of the old unicorn into his hands and headed for the entrance, with both sorrow and rage burning in his heart. 'I will not deny you your last wish, my friend. I will stop those who seek to bring about the end of the world...and I shall also stop those who seek to defeat Celestia,' Adam sobbed within his mind, yet when he opened his tear-filled eyes, lightning flashed with more thunder and fury than it had in years. 'You have my word. And I shall never break my word.'