He Who Wields The Lightning

by Onomonopia

Judgment of a God

Thousands of ponies all stood within the walls of the restored Canterlot Castle, but none of their thoughts or words were about the restoration of Canterlot or the fate of Tirek. Everypony there was having one of two thoughts: Why is Black Adam back, and what will he do now that he is?

Within the castle walls stood the very man of whom they spoke, and while he could not hear their thoughts, he was still more than close enough to hear their words, none of which instilled him with hope that they would ever accept him again.

"Why is he back? After what happened with the Elements of Harmony..."

"I can tell you why he's back. He's here to finish off the princesses and send us all into slavery!"

"But he defeated Tirek! Why would he defeat somepony who hated us unless he was trying to protect us?"

"Because there isn't enough room in Equestria for two mad rulers. And the one who is stronger would remove all competition."

"You can hear what they're saying, can't you?"

Adam didn't need to look to know who was speaking to him, the loathing and scorn in the voice instantly clued him in on who it was. "Some of them still see you as the second coming of Faust, and for the life of me I cannot figure out why! But the other half have seen and remember what you are, monster! And after what you did the last time you were here, I'd have to say they're the smarter of the groups." Normally, Adam would have verbally retaliated for the insult, but his conscious held him at bay.

'She has every right to say what she does about me,' Adam reminded himself as he gazed down at the crowd of ponies who had gathered in the castle courtyard, summoned by the word of Celestia. 'It has taken nearly a month to repair Canterlot to its former glory, but the scars run far deeper than we can repair. Their faces say that to me.'

"What's the matter, Black Adam, nothing to say for your crimes against our kind?!" Adam continued to remain silent, having heard her accusations every day that he had returned. To his moderate enjoyment, the silence he gave her seemed to infuriate the Princess of the Night more than his words ever could. Silence was all that Luna received as she continued to insult him, but the arrival of Celestia from her throne room silenced her sister.

"It is time," Celestia said with no tone. Luna nodded and walked ahead of Adam onto the balcony of the castle, giving Adam a smug look as she walked by him. After Celestia passed him, Black Adam floated behind her and onto the balcony, where his presence was met with either looks of worry or roars of hatred from the crowd.

"Murderer!"

"Give us back the Elements!"

"Throw him in the dungeon!"

Celestia cleared her throat and the shouting died down, yet the eyes of the crowd never left Black Adam, nor did the hatred in most of them. Adam wished to return the glare, but once again his conscious prevented him from doing so.

"Ponies of Equestria, you all know why we are here today!" Celestia called out in the regal voice, turning the crowds' eyes upon her. "We are here to put Teth...Black Adam...on trial." The crowd roared with approval as Celestia turned to look at Black Adam, who had no emotion in his eyes. Celestia seemed slightly unnerved by his look, but she continued without showing her unease. "Black Adam, you have been accused of the following crimes. Destruction of personal and public property. Assault. Threating another with death. And finally..."

"MURDER!" the crowd roared. Another look from the princess silenced the crowd, though Luna's smug smile grew even wider when she heard the ponies' cry.

"These, as I am sure you know, are very serious accusations," Celestia said to Black Adam. "If both my sister and myself agree on the same punishment, you could face anything from thousands of years in the dungeon to...well, I doubt that we could actually summon the strength to kill you, so I guess the death sentence is out."

"We could still try," Luna smiled wickedly as her horn glowed, but thunder rumbled overhead and everypony looked at the sky with fear in their eyes. "Alright Celestia, we have heard the accusations. Now shall we carry out the punishment?"

"Not before we give him the chance to speak in his defense." Luna gave her sister a look, but she said nothing against her. Adam could feel every eye staring at him, waiting to hear what he would say. "Alright Teth, what do you have to say about these accusations?" Black Adam's eyes looked out across the crowd. Adam purposefully ignored the wisdom of Zehuti, whose words told him what to say to get out of this situation. He needed to speak from the heart to them...tell them what he truly felt--tell them what he truly was.

"When I first regained my powers, I swore to the Princess of the Sun that I would use my powers to protect the ponies of this land, the same way I had protected my own people back on my home," Adam began with a booming voice, a voice that seemed even louder due to the absolute silence of the crowd. "And I have tried my best to do so, no matter the foe or what I had to do to achieve that goal. I have spent the last ten years believing that everything I did was for your sake, and that no cost was too high to be the protector I knew I was!" Celestia, Luna and the crowd all looked at him as he spoke with power in his voice, which for a moment, seemed to be filled with the same arrogance with which he had spoken for years. Then, Adam hung his head and his eyes lost some of the power that he had held moments before.

"But do not believe that I am so arrogant that I do not know when I have gone too far," he whispered, though his voice still carried in the dead silent courtyard. "My home, my people, were wiped out by a monster...a monster that nearly defeated me." It shouldn't have been possible, but the crowd went even quieter at those words. "In my grief, I swore revenge upon those that unleashed that monster, swearing that I would not rest until I had killed those who had been responsible and achieved justice...vengeance for my people."

"Yet that very same vengeance made me forget that I am supposed to protect the innocent, made me forget why I was given these powers in the first place. In trying to exact my vengeance, I became the very monster I sought to destroy. I have been so obsessed with vengeance that it was the only thought I cared about...and it is the reason I killed the Elements of Harmony," Adam admitted. "When they unleashed their power upon me, the Elements judged me and they deemed me guilty of atrocities...which I am more than guilty of. With their power trying to destroy me, I unleashed my magic without thought of what it would do to them, for the only thought I held was that if I fell, there was no one who would avenge my people. My desire for revenge blinded me in that crucial moment and because of it, six innocents are now dead by my hands. Yes, I am guilty of that murder and many more than I wish to admit."

"I believed myself a protector, I believed myself to have changed from the rage-fueled Adam of old...but in the end I have not changed at all. I am still driven by revenge and wrath, and because of that I have killed those who have not deserved it. I am guilty of murder, yes, but I have committed a far worse crime. I have failed all of you, those who believed me to be your protector. And I have failed the Princess, the one who believed in me more than she should have," Adam said as he turned to look at Celestia, unable to read the look on her face.

"But my words still remain true. I still wish to keep you safe, to protect you from all that would seek to harm you and your ponies. And if you believe me to be a threat to them...then judge me guilty and do what I could not. Protect them from the monster." Luna narrowed her eyes at Adam, but Celestia wore a face of confusion and uncertainty.

"You heard what he said, ponies of Equestria!" Luna roared out across the crowd as she glared at Adam with a smile. "He said to judge him as guilty and that is what I plan to do! Black Adam, for the crimes you have committed against the ponies of Equestria, I have reached the verdict that you are-"

"Did you mean to kill them?" All eyes turned to Celestia, who was looking at Black Adam with nearly emotionless eyes, but despite her best efforts to hide it, there was still a small light of a certain emotion: Hope. "Did you mean to kill Twilight and the others when they used their magic on you?"

"No...With their magic trying to destroy me, I was not able to think straight and in an act of desperation, I called down the Power of the Word to cancel out their magic," Adam admitted, but then he shook his head. "But that does not lessen what I have done. Even if I did not wish to, their blood is still on my hands. They're dead because of me." Celestia lowered her head, lost in thought for nearly a minute before she raised her head again.

"Yes, you are the one responsible for the death of the Elements of Harmony," Celestia admitted sadly, getting a smile out of Luna as she turned to face Black Adam with her horn aglow again. "But you are also responsible for stopping Discord when he tried to claim our land," she added. Both Luna and Black Adam looked at Celestia with surprise, both noticing that Celestia's face no longer had any uncertainty written on it. Instead, it looked like she had come to the hardest decision of her life. "And you also saved us from Chrysalis and her army when I was unable to do so. And just a month ago, when Tirek was running rampant across Equestria and there seemed to be no force that could stop him...you returned. And you saved us."

"Sister...what are you implying?" Luna asked, the crowd's eyes asking Celestia the same question.

"I am saying that we should not just focus on the harm that Teth has caused while he has been here," Celestia said in a strong voice, despite the looks that her sister and the ponies were giving her. "Teth is responsible for the death of the Elements of Harmony...but he has said that he did not desire to kill them. And I still remember the look on his face after the lightning bolt had descended...and I have never seen a clearer look of guilt upon a pony or human's face."

"So, it is third degree murder! He still is responsible!" Luna yelled with rage, but Celestia's eyes remained calm.

"Yes, but that changes how I will decide a punishment for him. And as I previously said, we might not even be here if it had not been for him," Celestia said in a quiet voice, but everypony could tell that she was very serious. "I will not make light of his crimes, nor will I forget what he has done for us." Celestia looked down upon all the ponies of her land, each of whom was waiting to hear what she would say.

"I have reached a verdict as well, and Black Adam...you are guilty of third degree murder, that I know for certain," Celestia said coldly, but then her gaze softened slightly. "Yet, while I know the punishment for this would be twenty years within a prison...Tirek, along with all the other foes of the past, shows me that I cannot trust my own strength whenever evil threatens my home. Yet you always come through, you always defeat the evil. And with the Elements of Harmony gone..."

"Hold on a moment, Sister! You...you cannot seriously be thinking of reinstating Black Adam as the guard of the ponies!" Luna screamed at her sister, confusion and disbelief written clean on her face.

"Not without his punishment," Celestia loudly said as she turned to face Black Adam, whose eyes were as confused as Luna's. "Black Adam, your punishment for the crimes you have committed is that you will use your powers to uphold the law, to protect the innocent and the defend those who seek to harm us WITHOUT the use of lethal force. If you are truly as powerful as you claim to be, then you should not need to kill to defeat your foes. I want you to swear by this oath."

"That is your punishment, Sister?!" Luna yelled in pure shock. "To make him swear an oath to be better than he ever could be? What is to stop him from saying that he agrees and then to break that same oath whenever it suits him best?!"

"Because he will give us his word. And Black Adam never breaks his word," she replied with absolute certainty. "Black Adam, I want your word." Black Adam looked down at the determined face of Celestia for a moment before he lowered his head and, for the first time in his life, lowered himself to one knee, barely.

"I swear that I will uphold the laws of this land. To protect the ponies in it no matter what they think of me, and to defend the land from all who seek to do it harm without having to kill. The Elements will be the last to die by my hands," he whispered with truth in his words. "So promise I, Black Adam." As he rose to his feet Celestia nodded with satisfaction before turning her gaze to her sister.

"Well, Sister? We both have to agree on the punishment for it to be official," Celestia reminded her. "Are you satisfied with the punishment?" Luna looked from Celestia to Adam, a war raging within her that she had never felt before. Then her eyes narrowed and absolute rage fought its way to her face.

"No, Sister, I am not satisfied!" Luna growled through gritted teeth as she gazed with loathing at Black Adam. "This monster deserves far worse than anything our laws say, yet once again you cover for him, make an EXCUSE for him! When he killed Discord you thought nothing of it! When he killed Chrysalis you barely batted an eye! You have always been on his side!"

"Sister, that is not true. They were threats, and while I did not condone how he protected us, I believe this punishment to be fair and--"

"No, Sister, the real reason for why you let him go so easily is because of how you feel towards him!" Luna screamed as her eyes turned white, her mane rising as magical energy flowed through her body. Black Adam placed himself between Celestia and Luna as the Princess of the Night began to rise into the air. "You have been lost ever since the death of Radiance, allowing this monster to do what he pleased because he is kind to you! A true ruler rules their emotions, not the other way around! You were never fit to rule this land, you were too soft!" Her coat began to turn a darker shade of blue as she said this, and her teeth started to grow into fangs. Adam narrowed his eyes and began to crackle with power. The sound of the lightning brought Luna to her senses and she lowered herself back down, but the hate never left her eyes.

"Very well, Sister, allow this murderer to continue to "protect" you. But you will do so without me." Luna turned away from the dumbstruck Celestia. As she said this, a dark shadow descended over the land, causing the crowd to begin to murmur with concern. "I will not stand by your side as long as you allow this murderer to run free. But if the day ever arises when you realize the true evil that he is and wish to be rid of him...only then will I stand beside you. Only when you see the true evil."

"Luna, wait!" Celestia called out, but a flash of light went off from Luna's horn that blinded all of the ponies. Through the flash, Black Adam could see Luna open a portal into darkness. She flashed one last look of loathing at Adam before she leapt through it, Adam not bothering to chase after her. The portal closed just as the ponies gained their sight back. Celestia let out a cry as she began to look around for her sister, Adam noticing the fog that had covered her eyes when Radiance had died was now once again clouding her gaze.

"That is enough for today," he called down to the ponies, who were rooted in place by what they had just witnessed. "All of you return to your homes! That is an order!" The crowd began to thin as Celestia walked off of the balcony and into the castle, barely making it ten steps before she fell to her knees and began to sob, lamenting that her sister was gone once again. Black Adam gently placed a hand upon her shoulder as she looked up at him with tear-stained eyes.

"Why, Teth? Why can't we just be a happy family?" She continued to sob as Adam retreated into his thoughts. Once again, simply his presence had made matters worse, for despite the fact that Celestia was willing to give him another chance, he had split Luna and Celestia apart again.

'And I have the feeling that I shall be finding myself as her foe now more than before,' he thought as he looked out at the darkening sky, watching as the lightning flashed in the clouds. 'In my trying to help bring the ponies peace again, I have only torn them apart that much more. Why, wizard, am I so cursed?"

S=H=A=Z=A=M

Deep within what remained of the Everfree Forest stood a broken castle, a castle that was almost as old as the princesses themselves. But if one were to look upon the castle and compare it to the smoking wreckage that used to be home to hundreds of trees and wildlife, they would wonder how it was still standing when everything else was ruined. But they would never seen the cloaked unicorns that had hidden themselves within its walls.

"...And Luna has distanced herself from her sister, saying that she will only be with her again when she realizes the evil that he truly is," a cloaked unicorn said to an elder unicorn, who was also cloaked, with the only way to tell him apart from the others being the grayish beard that was exposed under his hood. The elder unicorn thought about the news for a moment before he let out a dry chuckle.

"This could truly not be better news," he cackled slightly before turning and walking over to a circle in the center of the room, the bearer of the bad news following him as well. The circle shook as it began to lower itself deeper into the castle depths. "With the princesses at odds with each other and the return of Black Adam, nopony will pay us even the slightest attention. And as the last year has shown, it seems that those fools in Canterlot no longer care for this." The circle came to a stop in a room that the two knew well, having spent nearly a year within it.

"But won't the return of Black Adam mean that he will be able to sense when we are trying to free the sphere of destruction?" the younger one asked, but instead of a response, all the older unicorn did was chuckle as he looked upon the sphere in front of him. Six other cloaked unicorns were using their magic upon the sphere, being the only force that held the power of the sphere back.

"All we have to do is ensure that he and the princesses are far more...preoccupied with other matters than to look in on us," the elder dryly replied. "And our order is more than willing to keep the two preoccupied. First, meet with our informant in Canterlot and tell him to...tamper with the letters Celestia received. Tell him to make it seem like the other nations are now wanting to take Equestria for themselves. Then send a message to one of our agents within Luna's ranks, and instruct him to slowly implant the idea of war with her sister within her mind. Each day those two wage battle with each other is another day that we can unlock the sphere's secrets." The young one nodded as he sprinted away, leaving the elder to look upon the black sphere, which was still contained by the field.

'Yet, Black Adam does provide a problem, albeit one that can be dealt with if I can convince the monster to fight with us,' he mused to himself as he pulled out a mirror, within which he could see a darkness that was not of this reality. And just like all of the other times he gazed into the mirror, a set of red eyes looked out at him. 'Yes, you are a stubborn one, but I will find a way to convince you to join our cause.'

"Master, the shielding is barely holding. Even our strongest spellcasters can barely keep it in place," another one of the cloaked unicorns said as he knelt before the elder. The elder placed the mirror back within his cloak before he approached the cage holding the sphere once again, feeling the magic beyond anything he could cast, wash over him.

"Yes, it seems that this spell will not hold for long," he muttered after a few moments of observing the cage, never once bothering to use his magic. "Release the sphere."

"But that might be the death of us all! The sphere might consume us!" the unicorn said, but he hung his head again when the elder turned his gaze to the young one. "It would be impossible to survive!"

"No, the sphere will not destroy us, not yet. It still needs something from us," the elder said with a thin smile creasing his lips underneath the hood. "And do not speak the word 'impossible' in front of me, weak one. We are unicorns. There is nothing we cannot do."

Comments

[spikefan23]

And yet Luna doesn't realize the power of friendship

[Battle154]

Dammit Luna! Your going to doomed us all again!!

[shadowpunisher]

there will be war again and it will be Luna death for cause it. Race bitch.

[The Hat Mann]

Dammit Luna! Why does she have to be so short sighted?!

[Leonard Church]

What you people don't realize is that this situation is well and truly fucked up, and it's meant to be fucked up. Onomonopia has created a dualthree-part anti-hero situation, where each side is right, and each is wrong. It's the classic box canyon scenario, and it's things like this that make him such a good writer. The story is meant to provoke a war in the comments, in your mind, on the topic of saints or sinners, good or evil, and who's truly worthy.

Welcome to Red vs. Blue

[La Barata]

Hmm. I did a bit of legal reading, and it wouldn't really be third degree murder as much as it would be involuntary manslaughter. He was negligent with the magic, and that led to the spell breaking. There was no intent to kill that marks murder.

[defunct321]

Black Adam is a hypocrite, according to his moral standards he should kill himself. He is a criminal with a very likely chance of killing many, and according to himself, that warrants death even if there's a chance of being redeemed. Now, I can't decide whether he deserves death according to my own moral system as there is the very tricky situation of the fact he could kill many in the future, but could also save just as many, so I'll only judge by his.

[ConfettiColored]

5373195 So.. Criminal negligence?

[Josh1988]

Luna is the one who is really responsible for the death of the Elements of harmony.