The solar alicorn, raised by the last son of Krypton. An adopted displaced fic.
He wonders, not for the first time, if what he does for us even matters. No matter what he does, he just cant seem to do enough...and he wonders if we would be better off without him. She will be his second sun, the light of his life, she is worth it.
She finds herself in a world not hers, surrounded by creatures not like her. She doesn't know anything about herself, or her past. She sees him, and she knows that he needs her now as much as she needs him. He will be her guardian protector.
The sunshine was bright as it met the city of Metropolis, and Superman had only had to respond to a few everyday emergencies. There were a few near miss traffic accidents that he had averted, a window washer had fallen off of his scaffolding, and a dog had almost been hit by a truck. It was a very light day for the man of steel, and he was grateful for it. Of course he never complained about the amount of work he had to do, but it was nice to see that peaceful days like this could still happen.
Now he was on his way back to the Dailey Planet, flying through the air at a decent pace without rushing, so he could enjoy seeing the city in peace. Though this was ruined for him when he noticed the single large cloud, in a sky with very few small wispy clouds.
“Well that's not suspicious at all.” he said sarcastically as he smirked. He focused his X-Ray vision onto the cloud, and inside was a rather comical looking aircraft. It was a combination of a helicopter, airplane, hot air balloon with a tail rotor to steer it, a nose propeller for forward motion, and a small blimp on its left and right sides. Superman nearly laughed out loud at the sight.
He studied the aircraft a bit more, and saw how it created water vapor to hide in an artificial cloud. Actually kind of ingenious once you think about it. he thought to himself.
As he flew closer, three turrets (one on top of each balloon and one on the bottom of the aircraft) opened, and aimed gun barrels at him. Superman’s smirk was replaced by a frown as his easy day suddenly vanished. The hero placed his hands in the trajectory of the lower turret, which was the only one that could currently hit him, so he could stop the shot from doing any collateral damage.
A bolt of electricity shot out of the gun, and shocked Superman’s nervous system. The energy coursed through Superman's body as easily as it would anyone else's, his invulnerability only protecting him from the physical damage while he still felt pain from the attack.
After a quick tumble through the air, Superman righted himself, and came back at the attacking aircraft.
After a short battle (if it can be called that) the aircraft had crashed into the Metropolis public park, with Superman's help it just barely messed up the grass. He blew out the fires that had started when he shot the balloons with his heat vision, and tore open the cockpit to get the pilots out before it could possibly explode. Granted there was no fuel source to blow up, but he felt better knowing that nobody was in harm's way.
“Alright, talk.” Superman held the two men up by their shirts. “What was that thing, why were you flying it through the city, and why did you attack me?”
“Whoa whoa whoa!” one the men held up his hands. “We're just doing what the boss told us!”
“And your boss would be-” Superman stopped when he saw the employee badges on their belts.
The bald man sat behind his desk as he looked over some documents. Having started his own business years ago the scientist had evolved into a financial thinker. His research was now carried out by his employees, unless it was something very important, or something he didn't want anyone to know about. Most of his time now was spent making money, and doing his best to get under a certain alien's skin.
He looked up from his papers after hearing a knock on his window, dozens of floors up from the ground.
“Ah, Superman!” the man smiled and opened the window. “What brings you by this fine day?”
“Your aircraft, the one that shoots lightning.” Superman hovered in place with his arms crossed.
“Yes, quite shocking was it.”
“You put people's lives in danger, Luthor!” he reached out to grab the man. “I'm taking you to the police.”
“You'll do no such thing.” Lex Luthor held up a contract. “Permission granted by the mayor to test a new urban stealth aircraft inside the city. Of course it had weapons, in case of a metahuman, or alien attack, but the weapons in question were low grade electric pulse generators with relatively short range. Why...something would have to frighten the pilots quite a bit for them to use them, such as an indestructible flying alien that can shoot death beams from his eyes.”
They watched each other for a few seconds, Superman scowling and Lex Luthor smirking. The man of steel knew that he had been played, made to look like he had unnecessarily frightened two men who had just been doing their jobs, and he knew that if he pressed the issue the billionaire would just use the following media hype to his advantage.
“Anything else I can help you with?” Luthor asked with an annoying smirk.
Superman didn't say anything, and flew away. It was infuriating! Luthor could get away with anything as long as he had his lawyers. He was a chess master, and while Superman was far from stupid he needed only to make one wrong move and Luthor would win. It was always like that; Lex Luthor would do something that was either just illegal, or directly meant to be an attack on Superman, and Superman would stop his plans only for Luthor to have some legal way out of any trouble. And each time the people caught in between them took the fallout.
Sometimes it's like I can't actually succeed. Like I don't have a way to win. No matter what I do, there is always more that I can't. Superman flew aimlessly through the clouds as he thought to himself. I know there are other heroes, but I'm Superman, I'm supposed to be able to save everyone...but I can't.
Almost as if it could sense he was in a bad mood, the universe dropped something else onto his shoulders. Back in the park where he had left the two men, people were screaming. With an exasperated sigh Superman plummeted down towards the chaos.
“Ok, this is different.”
All around the park people, including the two men from earlier and several cops, were being chased and attacked by large thorny black vines. At first Superman thought that Poison Ivy had come to Metropolis, then as he watched one vine give a police officer a wedgie, he thought of the Joker, but the plants did not seem intent on hurting anyone so that ruled out both of them.
“...Alright. Time for some gardening.”
Superman ran in front of a vine as it reached for a woman, and grabbed it between two thorns. The vine tried to pull away...which was useless. Superman snapped his arm up and down very quickly making the vine flow from his hand to its root like a big wave, and right as the wave reached its end he pulled hard to snap it straight again, and the vine snapped apart from the force of its movement. The vine fell limp in his hand.
“Well, that at least is-yowch!” Superman jerked his hand out of the grip of a vine, and saw the blood slowly trickling from the pin sized holes in his skin. He sped away from more vines and examined his hand. “No kryptonite poisoning, has to be magical.”
“Help!” He was there in a blink to stop the vines from snatching a man up by his ankles.
“Get it off my face!” Hearing that Superman looked to the person who shouted, and saw one of the cops trying to fend off a vine that was attempting to latch onto his face with fly trap type mouth. He grabbed the vine by its mouth, lifted it up, and burned it off with his heat vision. The cop looked up to Superman. “Behind you!”
Superman turned, and got sprayed in the face by a fly trap. “Ah...ugh...magical poison...urg...perfect.” he froze that vine with his cold breath and smashed it.
Three vines sprung up and wrapped around Superman's legs and left arm. The vines were not any stronger than before, but their thorns seemed to intentionally dig into his skin. He ripped off the vine on his arm and burned away the ones on his legs. Before anymore could grab him he flew up above the trees.
“Jeez loueez, that stings.” Superman winced from the pain as he hovered over the area with a dark cloud over his head, literally. The black cloud was studded with gray spikes, and it seemed to almost quiver as it stayed in perfect position over his head.
Superman floated forward a little, and it was in his peripheral vision that he saw the cloud following him. “......” The cloud zapped him in the butt with a lightning bolt.
Down on the ground the two cops were watching Superman get chased around by the apparently living cloud.
“Should we help him?” asked the male cop that had been attacked by the facehugger vine.
“What are we supposed to do? Shoot a cloud?” his partner asked as she watched Superman try to fly through the cloud...he got stuck.
“Good point.” they continued to watch the show.
Superman took a deep breath just before the cloud could envelope his head, and he froze it from the inside out. The cloud lost its buoyancy with the air and crashed next to the police car where the cops had hidden behind.
Superman broke free from the rest the ice and spoke to the cops. “I'm going to put a stop to this, you help the people who are trapped.”
“Hey! You're the one who's supposed to save people, all I'm supposed to do is arrest them, and I don't see anyone to arrest.”
The female cop had the good sense to smack her partner over the head. “He's just kidding, bad sense of humor.”
Superman just squinted at them before he flew away. With his super hearing though, he heard the rest of what she had to say to her partner. “You idiot! That crazy alien could have melted you with its laser eyeballs. You saw what it did to Metropolis last year when it fought those other ones.”
They are better off without me. As soon as I went public, Luthor began playing against me, criminals started to use more dangerous weapons that put civilians in harm's way, and then I brought a war to their city. I-I'll leave. If it will mean that they're safer, I'll leave. These were Superman's thoughts as he descended into the central point of the vines’ growth.
And there it was. A bundle of the black thorny vines, coiled around something as if protecting it. Probably a seed pod or something, Superman thought.
“Probably sent by another supervillain who wants to take a shot at me, and doesn't care about who or what gets between us.” He sighed to himself, and turned his heat vision onto the coiled vines. Instead of a concentrated beam, like usual, he unfocused his vision so that the heat was spread evenly, and ignited the vines all at once.
As the vines burned away, he saw a small organic form revealed, and a cry of surprise met his ears. In less than a blink, Superman had stopped his heat vision and snatched the little creature from its nest.
“Oh, lord no, please be ok…” he looked over the small thing in his arms, and was only mildly surprised to find that it was a little white unicorn with wings, and a mane and tail that were almost like rainbows.
“I am unharmed, little sleepy though.” she (gender was apparent from her voice according to his super hearing) rubbed her eyes with a hoof. Superman was rather surprised indeed by her ability to speak flawless English-
“What cha doin, pops?” she asked as she smiled up at him.
-when she wanted to. And he was slightly put off by being called ‘pops'.
“One moment.” he asked her for patience. A look to the vines that she had come from, and he saw that they had been completely burned away, and all the other vines were now dead, so he blew his cold breath over the ash to put out any still burning embers.
“Now,” he set her down, and sat beside her. “since you can talk, let's introduce ourselves. I'm, Superman.”
“I am Princess Celestia, and it is a pleasure to meet you.” she said very politely, and did a little bow.
“Princess of what exactly?” If she was royalty, Superman would need to return her to her people as soon as possible.
Celestia scrunched up her face as she tried to think. “I-I don't remember.”
Superman's eyebrow arched up. “Ok, can I take you somewhere safe? Away from the public, would that be ok?”
The little white filly looked around, and saw several people watching them, and taking pictures of her. “Yes, please.” she said from under her wings as she tried to hide herself.
Superman chuckled at the display of shyness, and picked her up. “Alright, here we go… Up, up, and away!”
Superman sailed through the air with a little white pony in his arms. Celestia uncovered her eyes, and they widened at how high up that already were. Clouds whipped by close enough to reach out and touch with her hoof, so she did.
Superman pulled himself to a sudden stop after he realized that he was no longer holding Celestia. He looked frantically for her. Could she fly? Were her wings strong enough? Why couldn't he hear her screaming as she fell? ...Why does that cloud have four legs, and why is it doing a dog paddle?
Superman blinked, and slowly floated over to the cloud. He waved his hands through the vapor where he thought her face would be, and found two light magenta eyes looking at him.
Superman stood up and moved away from his Kryptonian computer. For the last three days he had been documenting everything about Celestia. So far he knew that she was definitely magical, was exceptionally strong for her size, could easily fly even though she prefered to walk if it wasn't far, could levitate several times her own weight,she can physically touch clouds like he could touch the ground, her garments (golden shoes, necklace, and crown) were made of some enchanted metal that would grow bigger as she did, the sun shaped marks on her flanks were a natural part of her, and that she had not fallen asleep in the last three days.
He couldn't find anything in her DNA to suggest why she hadn't slept yet. She just wandered around the Fortress of Solitude, playing with a deck of cards or looking at all of his stuff, and he didn't have much stuff to look at. Her face clearly showed signs of exhaustion, and yet she hasn't slept for three days.
He didn't see her anywhere inside the Fortress, but a quick look with his X-Ray vision revealed her outside in the arctic weather.
“Celestia?” he spoke softly as he sat beside her in the snow.
“Why is it not nighttime?” she asked. “I sleep when it is night, and it has not been night for forever.”
Superman blinked, and then he chuckled at his obvious and simple mistake. “Here in the arctic, it's always night, or day depending on what time of the year it is. So it's stuck as daytime for quite a while. I'm sorry that I forgot about that. I'll take you back to Metropolis so you can sleep, just wait a moment.” He gave her a scratch behind the ears before heading black inside to turn everything off and lock up.
Celestia sighed, and gazed at the sun. Suddenly she had random and childish idea. “I'll help the sun down so that the sky will be nighttime!”
“Oh, yeah! You go ahead and pull it down with your magic.” Superman smirked as he walked back towards the Fortress door.
“I did it!” Superman stopped, blinked, and turned around. He saw Celestia prancing around in a sort of victory dance with her horn lit up by her magic. He looked up.
“Holy mother of God!” Superman screamed in sheer panic as what appeared to be the sun came crashing down into the Fortress of Solitude.
“Holy mother of me!” Apollo screamed in sheer panic as his chariot went crashing down into the Fortress of Solitude.
“I didn't do it!” Celestia screamed as she ran as fast as her little pony hooves could carry her into the Fortress of Solitude, and her magic continued to pull the gigantic burning thing along after her.
“So you're really from Olympus?” Superman asked Apollo as he put out the last of the many fires that had sprung up from the chariot’s passing. The god of the sun was not what Superman would have expected; he looked to be about eighteen years old, was wearing a sleeveless shirt and jeans and loafers, and his chariot was a red Maserati Spyder.
The god of the sun smiled, and the room literally brightened up. “Yep! Apollo of the sun, speaker of prophecies, and there's a few titles I go by but my personal favorite is lord of awesome.”
“Lord of awesome?” Superman raised an eyebrow at the immortal. “People actually call you that?”
“I'm sure they do when I'm not around”
Superman rolled his eyes and Celestia giggled, she liked Apollo, he was silly.
“I'm also a great poet in case you didn't know it” Apollo winked at Celestia, and she laughed again.
“Can I drive your chariot?” Celestia suddenly asked. She beamed up at him with a very big smile.
“Sorry kid, but I'm behind schedule as it is.” Apollo shrugged apologetically.
Celestia frowned and blinked up at him. “But, your chariot isn't actually the sun, nor does it actually pull the sun, so what are you behind schedule for?”
Superman scratched his head. “You know I was wondering about that myself. Why do you fly around the world if you're not actually pulling the sun?”
“Magical reasons dude. I'm supposed to do I so I do it.” Apollo thought for a moment. “There's also something to do with my power being shone down upon the mortals, and healing their spiritual ailments...or something like that, kinda hard to explain it to someone who isn't a deity.”
Celestia nodded. “I understand.”
“You do?” Apollo looked inquisitively at Celestia. “Hmm, I wonder…”
The god of prophecies knelt down to Celestia, and placed his hand on the top of her head. His eyes widened, and his mouth hung open in astonishment. “Whoa.”
“What is it?” she asked him.
“Ah…sorry, but it's never a good idea for for someone to know too much about their own future. The more you know about a prophecy, the more you try to change it, and that just makes things worse. What I can tell you though is that, in the end, you will be happy.”
“Sounds like it won't be all that happy getting there.” the little filly said with a frown.
“Are you kidding! You've got Superman as your dad, it can't get anymore cool that that.” Superman nearly corrected him, until he saw the happiness in her eyes, so he kept quiet. “Actually, I do need to talk to your dad about something, go play some cards for a bit.”
Celestia threw her front hooves up in the air and flapped her wings wildly. “No! Not more solitaire! I've been playing solitaire for three days. I just CAN'T play anymore solitaire!”
Superman blinked. “Is that why you've been calling it the Fortress of Solitaire?”
“Yes.” she deadpanned.
Apollo took out his own deck of cards and gave them to her. “Here, these are enchanted to play with you like a second person-
“Thank you!” Celestia grabbed the cards and ran off to play.
Apollo chuckled at her. “So, Supes, you should probably know about this.”
“Why did you say I was her dad?”
Again Apollo laughed. “Dude, I'm the god of prophecies. I saw her future with you, and she's going to be here for a while, and she already calls you ‘Pops'. Trust me, you're going to love her like a daughter.”
“...Ok.” Superman wasn't going to argue with a god of prophecies, especially when he was also the god of the sun. “But...what do I do?”
Apollo shrugged. “Can't really advise you on that Superdude. All of my mortal children are raised by their moms until they're old enough to go to camp, and raising an immortal child is different every time. Oh, by the way, she's not a true immortal, but Celestia is definitely not mortal.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, her physical age is somewhere around ten years old, but her spiritual age is closer to my age.” Apollo walked as he tried to explain, heading towards his chariot. “I can't be sure, but I'm pretty sure she was reverse aged by some very complex magic.”
“Now pay attention Superdude, because I'm running late and I don't have enough time to go into detail.” Apollo climbed into his sports car chariot and started the engine. “There's going to be ups and downs in the future, you and she can do a lot to change the outcome of most situations, but there will be two moments that you can't change. But as long as you are there for each other it will all work out. Gotta go!”
Apollo stepped on the gas, and his chariot went rocketing out of the Fortress of Solitude. Superman watched him go flying through the sky until he merged with the sunlight.
“I'm hungry.”
Superman turned to see...a completely different winged unicorn who only looked like Celestia. “...Ok, where did you come from?”
Her horn lit up with magic as she removed the spell. “It's me! Apollo left a disguise spell in the cards he gave me.”
“Well it fooled me...and since it fooled me, I think it will fool everyone else too.” Superman tapped his chin as he studied the little magical pony. “If you could just do something about your hair. It was still all wavy and sparkling. ...Actually, how does the spell work anyway?”
“The spell is just a ‘spell of normality’ so people will see me, but they will just think I'm a normal part of everyday life. As for my hair…” Celestia grabbed her flowing multicolored mane with one hoof and studied it. After a moment of concentration her mane and tail both turned pink and stopped moving on their own. “How do I look?”
Superman pretended to think about her question. “Adorable.” This made her smile, which resulted in her squeaking. And then her stomach growled. “Well, since you can disguise yourself let's go out to eat. Have you ever had pizza?”
With the spell of normality on, and her mane and tail as regular pink hair, Celestia sat with Clark Kent in the restaurant as they waited for the pizza. At first she had been quite startled by her father's sudden change in appearance, it was simply astounding how he was able to make himself look like a different person without anything other than a simple change of clothes and different hair style. Amazing!
The restaurant staff had at first thought that Celestia was his pet and tried to tell him to leave her outside, but a quick hello from her own muzzle had solved that. Now she was sitting with him in a booth and nibbling on garlic bread while they waited for their veggie lover's pizza.
“So why did you dress up in such boring clothes?” she finally asked him. “And why are you wearing glasses?”
Clark glanced around to be sure nobody was listening. “I don't want anyone to know about me being Superman, so I make myself look as unlike Superman as I can.”
“Smallville?”
“L-Lois! What are you doing here?”
The sudden change in Clark’s demeanor told Celestia all she needed to know about this dark haired woman. Dad likes her! The little alicorn clapped her hooves together mischievously as she contemplated how best to get them together, and then she pouted as she realized how little she knew about them. She decided to pay attention to their conversation.
“You what?!” Lois Lane gasped.
“I adopted.” Clark said again and gestured to Celestia.
“Hello.” Celestia waved a hoof at her. “It's very nice to meet you.”
“..........You adopted a talking winged unicorn with pretty pink hair?”
“It's not official yet, but yes.”
“You are so weird Smallville.” Lois grabbed one of their breadsticks and walked away. “Let me know if the kid wants to go clothes shopping some time. You know she's kind of naked right now.”
“Naked?” Celestia looked around at everyone, then she looked at herself, and then she dived under the table. “Clothes! Now!”
Clark Kent walked into his apartment later that evening with a sleeping Celestia in his arms. The magical pony was fully dressed in a ladies business suit that Lois had picked out in a nice shade of lavender, a gray fedora, and at her insistence a pair of glasses that matched his now rested on her muzzle. Following behind him, Lois Lane entered his apartment with a box of takeout pizza and several bags of clothes held by one arm, and a slice of pizza in her other hand.
Clark carried his little pony daughter to the couch and set her down gently. After getting her a blanket and pillow he joined Lois in the kitchen for some cold pizza.
“So you're really doing this?” Lois asked with a wave of her half slice of pizza. “Adopting a magical talking pony as your daughter?”
“Apparently so. Why?” Clark grabbed some sodas for them and opened his.
“Well, you know it might get kind of dangerous.” Lois waited for him to take a drink, and made sure she wasn't in the line of fire. “With you being Superman.”
Clark spat his drink out and obliterated the drywall in his kitchen. “What!?! How?”
“I see you on a daily basis as Clark Kent, and UP CLOSE as Superman at least once a week. Do you think I'm stupid or something?” Lois raised an eyebrow at him.
“No I don't!”
Celestia peeked over the couch at them as they continued to talk. She was still very sleepy, and ready to pass out for real, but now she had a mission.
I’m going to have her as my mom! The little alicorn thought to herself before she fell asleep.
Superman pulled his fist back, and punched it into the body of the battle mech armor suit that stood at least four feet taller than him. Since he did not want to harm the person inside of the war machine he only applied enough force to dent its titanium plating. Even so it stumbled backwards for a few yards.
Intergang. Superman thought to himself, giving the name of the near terrorist-like organization the same consideration as a particularly unpleasant swear word. He blocked his face with his arms to deflect the energy blasts from the armor’s laser weapons.
Intergang, their purpose unknown, had been mostly quiet in their activities as organized crime, until early last year when Superman put several members behind bars. After that they started to up the ante, and started using never before seen weapons that seemed to let just a few individuals rival an army in power. Finally the man of steel had brought an end to Intergang’s reign of terror on Metropolis, but the cost was a war that tore through the city. Buildings fell, lives were shattered, people died…
And some of Intergang were still out there! For as long as they could hide from Superman. This person in the armor, he was not part of them, but he had some of their tech and he knew where there was more.
A heat vision blast destroyed the armor's laser, and a burst of cold breath froze the hydraulics in its legs. With it immobilized, and its primary weapon disabled, Superman approached the mechanical suit.
The man inside the armor activated its secondary weapons. Panels on either shoulder opened up to reveal miniature rocket launchers, and two rockets fired at Superman.
He caught a rocket in each hand, and contained their explosions by holding them to his body. He kept walking. Before more rockets could be used he destroyed their launchers with his heat vision.
Circular structures in the armor's hips popped out and shot electrified saw blades at Superman.
He kept walking and let the flying disks hit his chest where they shattered.
With the hero now in arm's reach of the armor its operator used its only melee weapon. The massive fists of the armor turned inward, rocket boosters appeared to lock in place opposite them, and the forearms extended to turn the limbs into massive rocket propelled hammers. The weapons swung at Superman, aimed for his head, in a move meant to squash his skull between them…
...and he leaned back, letting them clash harmlessly together. Before the man in the armor could react, Superman grabbed the arms of the mech, held its fists together, and used his heat vision to weld them into a single useless block of metal.
“Are you done?” he asked with a smirk.
The armor opened up, and the man inside pointed a shaking gun at Superman. Faster than the man could blink, Superman reached out and pinched the weapon where the trigger mechanism was causing it to lock up. The man slumped in surrender.
The police moved in to make the arrest. Most people would probably joke about the cavalry being on time as usual, but Superman knew that they just weren't prepared to handle such threats. Two of them, Maggie Sawyer and Daniel Turpin, approached him with the intent of thanking him.
Suddenly he heard the screech of tires, and anguished screams. Superman took to the air as fast as he could…
Lois Lane sat at her desk across from Celestia, or Tia when in her disguise, who sat at Clark's. Tia was dressed up in another of her business outfits, but she had left her fedora at home in favor of getting Lois to fix her hair like her own. Lois had become curious about how the clothes fit so well when they were made for humans and asked about it, Tia had replied that she used her magic to change the length of the threads that made up her clothes.
“Nice trick kid.” Lois rubbed her chin. “Does that work on swimsuits?”
“As long as it's cloth it will work. I tried it on other stuff, but I couldn't figure it out.”
Tia looked around at the many people in the room. Jimmy Olsen was playing one of his hand held games, Perry White was on the phone in his office, everyone else was doing whatever job they did, and her father was still not back from his ‘coffee run’. What was taking so long? She decided to ask Lois.
“How long does he usually take on a ‘coffee run’?” Tia raised her forehooves and made air quotes with them when she said coffee run.
Lois looked at her watch. “Not usually this long, unless something really big happens, but unless it's like a giant robot or something I wouldn't worry about it.”
“...I'm a little hungry, can we go get some cake?”
“Too much cake will make you fat.” Lois smiled teasingly. “And you already snuck Jimmy’s cookies out of his lunchbox.”
Tia, completely unconcerned about Jimmy’s cookies, looked at her belly. “I'm not fat.” she said, frowning.
“What do I pay you people for!?!” Perry White yelled as he burst out of his office and turned on the tv that they used to keep up with their competition. “Something big just happened with Superman, and you're all here NOT reporting on it!”
They all gathered around the tv. Perry finally found the right channel. A brown haired woman in a yellow jumpsuit was reporting, and she looked like this was the very last thing she wanted to do…
...here at the scene of the tragedy that happened earlier today. Behind me is the car that hit, and killed a young boy when its driver lost control. It has been discovered that Superman arrived on the scene too late to prevent this horrible accident, and that when she saw him the mother of the boy asked Superman: Where were you?
Perry White turned off the tv, told everyone to take the rest of the day off, shut himself in his office, and brought out the bottle of Scotch he kept in his desk.
Jimmy Olsen shook his head as he headed for the elevator, and spoke to nobody in particular. “Superman must feel terrible.”
“I'm sure he is.” Lois looked up from her desk. “Come on, Tia. I'll take you home… Tia?” The alicorn was gone.
Celestia sailed through the sky, flying as fast as she could. It was a long flight to the Fortress of Solitude, especially if you flew by wings instead of will power. The cold did not help.
The wind began to pick up, and a storm of ice and snow buffeted her wings. She had not yet learned how to fly in such strong weather, and the struggle to maintain her altitude drained what strength she had left. She fell, slowly at first, and then rapidly as her wings gave out. She landed in a fresh pile of snow, and had to dig her way out.
Celestia called out for her father. She sent a bright beam of magical energy into the sky. If she could just figure out which direction the Fortress was…
She did not know what to do, and so she collapsed in the snow and wept.
The crunching of snow under heavy steps alerted her to someone's approach. She looked up to see an unknown man.
“Well isn't this something? Haven't seen an alicorn in a long time.” The great bearded man picked her up. Somehow she could sense this man's good and gentle nature, and his fierce protective nature, and she knew that he would not harm her. “You are lucky that I decided to take my team out for some exercise. If I had not, I would not have seen your signal. Come now, I will take you where you need to go.”
Celestia walked into the Fortress of Solitude. She knew he was here, he had smashed his way in rather than use the door.
She found him in the room with his rocket. He had stripped off his cape and was looking at it as he sat at the foot of the statue of his Kryptonian parents. She hugged him.
“It wasn't your fault.”
“It doesn't matter.” he mumbled. “I can't do it, not on my own. No matter how fast or strong or smart I am, I still can't be everywhere at once. I can't stop a bank robbery if I'm across the city stopping someone from killing themselves. I can't put out a fire if I'm fighting someone from Intergang. I can't even find a cure for cancer because I'm out saving people.”
Celestia just hugged him tighter. She remembered the man who found her, and his team.
“You are not alone. Your are not the only hero in the world, and just because you are seen as the greatest of them does not mean that you expected to do everything.” she told him. Celestia levitated his cape onto her and made him look her in the eye. “I know how much they mean to you. I see your heart breaking because you cannot save them all, and I feel as if I am reminded of myself having the same heartache. I do not know if in some past life I had to endure this alone, but I know you do not have to.”
Celestia’s horn illuminated the Fortress with her golden magic. Her eyes closed for a moment, and opened again to flood the room with more light as they glew with the brilliant light of her power. She touched her horn to his forehead.
Two lives now intertwine.
Bound by blood of the paternal line.
What was just yours now too is mine.
My love and power now is thine.
Light flowed from Celestia’s and Superman’s chests, and merged together into a swirling double helix before both her own light and his flowed into her.
Apollo pulled out a checklist and marked off the first thing on it. “Prophecy.”
Superman looked in shock at his computer. He stood before it's massive screen as it showed him the most recent scan of Celestia’s DNA. Not feeling like he could stand much longer, he fell back into his chair.
She's my daughter. Not because of some god’s prophecy, or because I took her in. She has my blood. His feelings of dread and despair over not being good enough to protect everyone evaporated, and a new feeling replaced them. A feeling of protective responsibility. No longer was he the young Superboy that went on secret adventures just for fun. No longer was he the grand saviour of the masses. No, he now had something, SOMEONE, that would need him, not because he was a hero, but because he was her father. It's not about me or them anymore. It's not about making the world better because they or I think I should do something. It's about her. It's about making the world better for her.
“But how?” he asked himself. And then he saw her, sleeping under his cape, and he knew that no matter how much he wanted to keep her safe...she was not just his daughter, she was Superman’s daughter, and she would want to be like him. “Ok then. Let's get you ready.”
Several armed fugitives were having a firefight with the Metropolis Police Department in broad daylight and in the middle of the street. The fugitives had force field generators and special high temperature guns that shot bullets that came out of the barrels hot enough to melt steel. The cops had standard issue SWAT gear.
One fugitive lined up a shot with the head of Daniel Turpin, and pulled the trigger.
Plink
Dan Turpin glanced at the younger officers next to him and wondered if they had felt that sudden gust of wind.
With a great whooshing of the wind that followed in her wake, Celestia arched up into the air. With a cry from below of “It's Superman!” everyone's attention followed the vapor contrail of something flying at high speed. With a great whoop of excitement she dove downwards, her blue shirt and red skirt making a magenta blur to accompany the light rainbow blur of her mane and tail.
The Kryptonian Alicorn landed in front of the criminals with a powerful dispersal of her momentum that pushed nearby cars back.
Celestia had spent a few weeks helping Superman out with the more basic street crime, robberies and assaults mostly, and honing her skills. Her new Kryptonian DNA had not simply been added to her previously existing genes though, and this caused a few surprises.
Where her father could levitate at will, Celestia could not, she instead got an increase in the strength of her magical telekinesis, allowing her to use it for lifting and throwing extremely large or heavy objects as easily as he did with his muscles. Her body had been strengthened as well, but that strength too seemed to be magical in origin and somewhat circumstantial. She could move and break any earthen material, from the hardest stone to the most resilient wood, but less natural things like steel and especially titanium were more difficult; it was almost as if the natural elements were bending to her will. Her physical speed and durability were almost a match for Superman himself, and he was positive that when fully grown, she surpass him.
Unlike him, she had not developed the same extra powers, such as heat vision or X-Ray vision. Instead she had spontaneously learned how to project pure sunlight from her horn as an lazer beam; it usually takes a moment to charge before firing, but it was more versatile. And in place of telescopic, microscopic, and X-Ray vision, she had developed a more universal way a scanning her surroundings and other people with her magic; this way she could still ‘see' far away places, just without having to actually see them.
And while she could use super breath, it was not as strong as his. Her wings, however, could manipulate the air as easily as a hand could a pencil. By flapping her wings at super high speeds, she could start a massive tornado or, with a bit of magical help, cool the air enough to make a blizzard. She could also shape and control the weather like an artist with a brush.
Currently she was using all of these abilities to keep up with Superman while he battled several large robots...so that she could beg him to let her go see an R-rated movie.
“No.” he told her as a robot's piledriver arm punched him into a building's wall.
“I'll go to bed early.” Celestia promised, and dodged an energy blast. She turned on the robot that had fired at her and waved her wings to pull a powerful gust of wind from behind it, and the pushed up with her wings to make the wind flip the robot upside down.
Superman grabbed the robot's arm and judo flipped it into another robot. “Before or after you stop being scared?”
“It's a comedy.” she explained as she melted the armor of those two robots and welded them to each other.
“Well now you are definitely not watching it.” Superman told her and put his foot down onto a robot's head causing it to crumple like a soda can.
“But Jimmy is going to go see it.” she countered his argument while telekinetically used one robot as a weapon to hit another.
“Jimmy Olsen is an adult. He can go see as many R-rated movies as he wants.” Superman used his cold breath to stop the last robot in its tracks and turn its body brittle.
Celestia flew over and lightly kicked the frozen robot with one hoof, and the whole thing cracked apart but stayed still long enough for her to get away from it before falling. “But why can't I go see it? It's a superhero movie.” she pouted at him with big adorable eyes. “Please.”
If this had still been that first week before he had come to accept her truly as his daughter, Superman would have given in to the display of cute. However, he now had a responsibility, backed up by his newfound protectiveness of her, to keep her safe, and to preserve her innocence. So he steeled himself and again denied her.
“Any comedy film that gets an R rating is most likely full of vulgar humor, bad language, and references to things that you are much too young to know about.” he crossed his arms and gave her his best ‘end of discussion’ look. “You can't go see it.”
Celestia hung her head and sighed. “Fine.”
“Good. Now come on, we're going to be late for that charity auction that Lex Luthor is hosting.” Celestia just sighed again. “I'll bet there's cake.”
Celestia reared up on her hind legs and kicked her front hooves in excitement. “What are we waiting for?”
Celestia, or Tia, as that had become her secret identity, looked disappointedly down at the small piece of cake before her. She could eat it in two bites. It didn't even have frosting!
“Not what you were expecting?” someone asked her.
“How can they call this cake?” She glared at the lie that was not cake.
“It's a high class event.” the person explained. “High class people have different ideas about food. ...Not saying I share those ideas, but I'm used to it.”
“I feel sorry for you if you have stuff like this on a regular basis.”
The man laughed. “To tell the truth, I'd rather have chocolate ice cream with vanilla wafers and chopped strawberries. All these stiffs care about is public image. I can't stand any of these people.”
“Then why come to Lex Luthor’s auction?” she had not looked up from her uneaten strawberry flavored slice of bread.
“It was my obligation as tonight's host.”
Celestia looked up at the man.
“Lex Luthor,” he introduced himself. “Pleased to meet you, Celestia.”
“Uh...I'm not Celestia. That's Superman’s daughter. I'm Tia, Clark Kent's daughter.” she said rather quickly. “Completely different, and I'm completely normal.”
Lex Luthor smirked as he looked down on the little winged unicorn standing on a chair so she could reach the food on the table. “I don't know how you have convinced all of Metropolis that there are two completely different creatures like you, of the exact same size, with the only difference being a hairstyle and a pink dress, but I'm the smartest man on Earth. I'm not fooled.”
He idly ran a hand along her wing, apparently studying its anatomy. “The only thing I can't figure out,” he pulled a feather, making her yelp. “is why Superman leaves you in the care of that pathetic farmboy Kent.”
“I see you've met Mr Luthor.” Lois Lane approached with an unpleasant expression. “Come on kid, you shouldn't hang around bad influences. Let's go before you get slime on your coat.”
“Miss Lane, no need for that is there?”
“Bite me, Lex.”
He watched them go, and flashed a smile at Clark Kent before they left. He scowled. “Another alien. This one able to actually control the minds of those around her on some small scale.” He put the feather he had taken from her in his pocket.
Superman and Celestia flew down to front porch of the farm house. She had squeed several times already as they saw various farm animals, baby chickens included. He opened the door and…
A white furry projectile shot out off the house and tackled Celestia to ground.
“Ah! Help!” She scrambled to get the best off of her, and to make it stop slobbering on her face.
“Been a while since you had someone to play with, huh, Krypto?” Superman grinned and scratched the dog between the ears.
“He'll be a big puppy till the day he dies.” an older woman said as she came to greet them.
“Ma.” Superman hugged her. “I should visit more.”
“Yes, you should. Especially now that I'm a grandmother!” she looked at Celestia who had finally gotten the dog off of her. “I had to find out from the news.”
“I am not amused.” Celestia deadpanned, with dog drool on her face.
Superman rubbed his neck as his mother stared him down into feeling guilty. “I had to make sure she could control herself and her abilities.”
“Kept you from picking up a phone did she?” Ma Kent asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Uhh...Can you keep her tonight?”
“Of course I can.”
“Hey! I don't need a babysitter.” Celestia stomped a hoof.
“Homemade from scratch chocolate chip cookies.” Ma Kent said very simply.
Celestia blinked. Than she started to prod Superman’s knee with her horn to get him moving. “Go on. Shoo.”
“Thanks, Ma. I've got to do some entertainment research with Lois so the paper will have a review ready.” he gave Celestia a quick hug before flying away.
“Wait a minute…” Celestia blinked. “No fair! He's going to see that movie that he wouldn't let me see!”
“Yes he is.” Ma Kent confirmed. “He's going to go see a movie with Lois.”
“Oh... Ok then.” Celestia was about to ask about the cookies when Krypto licked her face again. “Gross!”
“Long range scan confirms that the new Kryptonian life sign detected several weeks ago was not a fluke.” a computerized monotone voice stated without emotion. The son of Jor-El seems to have found a way to rebuild his race, slowly but surely, and on a world with a yellow sun.”
The thing knew no emotions, not even anger or fear, but it knew survival. And it knew that as long as even one Kryptonian lived, it's directive was in jeopardy. ”My plans must be changed. This primitive planet, Earth, may not have much knowledge to offer, but it must be taken now, before the new Kryptonian becomes too powerful.
Celestia sniffed the air, and her nostrils were met by the most enjoyable, warm, and enticing aroma that she had ever smelled. It was a heaven unlike any other. Ambrosia; food worthy of the gods.
Fresh baked homemade from scratch chocolate chip cookies.
One more whiff and Celestia was hovering like a butterfly as she floated into the kitchen with her eyes closed.
Ma Kent chuckled at the antics of her ’granddaughter’ as she took the cookies out of the oven. The woman did not know where her son had found the little flying unicorn, but it did not really matter. They were all Kents, and it does not take much to be called family by a Kent. It would take some getting used to, considering that Celestia was not even close to being a human, but she had already seen enough from raising Clark for her to not care about such oddities.
“Just a minute, Tia.” Ma Kent said as she put the tray of cookies on the counter. “We have to let them cool off first.”
“I can do it!” Celestia inhaled a breath and readied a small cold breath...and got smacked on the nose with a wooden spoon. “Ah! ...Why?” she looked up at the woman with her eyes big and watery.
Ma Kent almost apologized and gave her all the cookies. “Absolutely no powers in the house, young lady.”
“But-
“No. We've had to rebuild this house too many times because Clark sneezed, or an alien or a robot came looking for him, and I like it just fine the way it is now.” she put her hands on her hips and stared down Celestia. “No powers, or no cookies.”
“Yes, ma'am!” Celestia saluted with a wing across her brow.
“Good. Go play with the dog while we wait.”
Celestia looked around the kitchen for Krypto. “Where is he?”
Her ears twitched as she listened for him. Hearing a growl come from the hallway, she trotted out to find him staring at the door. “Krypto?”
He growled louder. “Uhh, Ma, something's wrong with the dog.”
“Krypto?” Ma Kent came out of the kitchen. “What is it, boy? Another raccoon?”
The dog's hackles rose and his ears folded back as he growled louder and barked, his lips pulled back to reveal his ivory teeth.
“Celestia stay back.” Ma Kent said, and pulled a shotgun out of the hall closet.
The robot crashed through the door, its face like a gunmetal skull. It stood more than seven feet tall, and the wood floor cracked beneath its footsteps.
Krypto charged at the intruder. The dog leaped to tackle and bite the thing that wanted to hurt his home, hurt his pack.
The dog got backhanded through both kitchen walls and left a trench in the ground where he skidded across the lawn.
The robot continued forward without missing a beat. Eliminate Kryptonian it said in an electronic voice. Its optic sensors scanned over Ma Kent and Celestia. Kryptonian energy signature detected.
“DON'T TOUCH MY DOG!” Celestia screamed. She launched herself at the robot -not even giving it a second thought since she had just beaten some other robots earlier that day- and slammed her front hooves into its body with enough force to shatter steel.
KLANG
“Oof!...” it did not budge. She looked up into the robot’s green eyes, and gulped as for the first time since she arrived on this world...she knew fear.
The robot punched at her, FAST. Only her extreme reflexes saved her from taking that big metal fist in her jaw. She saw it all in slow motion; the arm of the robot rising, its hand clenching into a fist, it striking at her, the attack just barely missing her face by mere centimeters, the wind that was generated by the speed of the swing. Her wings had never beat so quickly as they had then as she propelled herself backwards.
Her hooves hit the floor and slid backwards across it when she landed. Celestia looked up in time to see the next attack, and dodged to the side just fast enough to avoid the energy beam that crackled with electricity. This was repeated three more times.
The robot was rapidly recalculating its strategy.
“Celestia get back!” Ma Kent shouted. “We have to-
The robot aimed its arm blaster at the elderly woman, and fired.
“NO!” Celestia jumped in front of her Grandmother and took the shot herself. The energy pierced her nervous system with the first pain she had felt since being on Earth, the only physical pain she had ever known. Her body shook uncontrollably as she was being electrocuted. “YYAAAAAHHHIIIIIEEEEIIYAAHIIE!!!!!!”
Celestia fell unconscious to the floor.
Target immobilized. Waiting for directives. the robot did not move for a moment. Retrieve target for vivisection and further dissecti-
“YOU!” BANG! KALAC! The shot hit the robot’s face with perfect aim. “GET THE!” BANG! As did that one. KALAC! “AWAY FROM MY GRANDDAUGHTER!” BANG!
The robot dashed forward and snatched the weapon from her, the force of the move slight but still strong enough to send her falling to the floor. Ma Kent landed on her arm and felt something pop.
The old woman was more scared then than she had ever been, but she glared daggers at the intruder of her home. “Sic em, Krypto!”
A beam of bright red energy as big around as the robot was tall slammed through the walls. The house seemed to explode as the robot was punched out through the living room and across the lawn.
As the energy died down, the robot rose to its feet and looked back through the gaping burning hole in the farmhouse. On the other side of the lawn was the white dog, its fangs bared, its fur standing on end, and its eyes glowing red with heat vision.
The dog charged.
The robot was suddenly jerked backwards by its arm. And on inspection, it found itself without a hand. Krypto skidded to a stop, and crunched the metal hand in his teeth to pieces. His eyes lit up again. The robot recalculated its situation. The robot ran.
Krypto went after the robot, barking and growling like a beast possessed. His heat vision focused into a narrow bullet sized beam and melted through the armor to turn the mechanisms that made up the robot’s knee joint into a chunk of slag.
As the robot was trying to run away on one good leg and a stiff unbending limb, Krypto rushed up to bite its damaged leg. He lifted the robot completely, effortlessly, from the ground and shook his head. The robot flopped back and forth like a…well like a dog toy. Eventually something broke and the robot was sent spinning through the air. Krypto bit through the metal leg still in his mouth and gave chase.
The robot managed to right itself, land upright, and fire energy blasts at Krypto. Heat vision pierced the robot's good arm and melted it from wrist to shoulder into a hollow useless tube.
The robot spun in place as Krypto ran past, again biting and taking a piece of its armor with him. Again, Krypto ran past his prey and swiped with his teeth, taking yet another part of the robot with him. Again the robot spun in place, and again the process repeated.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Finally, the robot lay motionless, its body reduced to nothing more than a heap of shredded metal. Krypto stood over his victory, and marked his territory.
The computer being watched the video feed from his robot's failing video. “Unsanitary.”
The sky burned red with the fading light of the setting sun, illuminating the broken and shattered skyscrapers of Metropolis as smoke billowed from fires caused by exploded fuel stations. The city had not stood a chance against the monster's destructive wrath.
It stood now in a crater that marked its battle with him. It stood victorious. Gripped in the monster's massive fist was a strip of red cloth.
It roared in triumph.
Something got the monster's attention. Its evil rage-filled red eyes turned to them. And it launched its massive spike armored body at her mother as Celestia could only watch in despair.
“No!” Celestia screamed as she woke from the nightmare. Her body trembled as she looked around.
“Tia!” he was there in an instant, holding her to him, shielding her. Clark had stayed in Smallville after what happened with the robot to help rebuild the damaged parts of the house, and each night Celestia had had a bad dream about robots. “It's ok. It was just a dream.”
“No, this was different. No robots. Just a...a monster. It felt so real. Like I was actually there. It-It killed you.” she sobbed. “I tried to stop it...but I just got in the way.”
“Oh, ok, it's ok. It's still just a dream.” Clark held her until she drifted back to sleep.
Clark lifted the last piece of wood in place, and Tia levitated the nails to the correct marks before tapping them in with her hoof. It had taken a couple of days -he preferred not to rush the farm work- to get everything cleaned up. But the house was finally repaired, and all the trash was picked up and ready to be dumped. The robot had been taken to S.T.A.R.R. Labs.
“All that's left is the paint, b-
“I can do it!”
Celestia stared at the wall they had just repaired. She stuck her tongue out in concentration and lit up the wall with her magic. After the golden glow faded she looked to see what he thought.
“It's...nice.” Clark barely stopped himself from laughing. She had interrupted him before he could tell her that Ma would want to pick the new paint herself. “It's very pink...and blue, and yellow. Looks like a rainbow.”
“Will she like it?”
“I'm sure she will.”
“Oh, good.” a relieved expression crossed Celestia’s face, “Because I accidentally did the whole house, and I'm not sure how soon I will be able to reverse it.”
Clark studied her face...but he simply could not tell if she was telling the truth or playing a prank.
Before they could continue, they both heard a car turn into the driveway. A rather too expensive car for anyone who lived in Smallville; red convertible, European model, and an engine that barely made any noise.
“Do they need directions?” Celestia wondered aloud.
“No, she doesn't need directions.”
“She?”
Parking her car the woman got out and walked towards them. She was an auburn haired beauty, with expensive everything, jewelry and clothes and shoes, on her trim body. Celestia did not like her.
“Long time no see, Clark.”
“Good to see you too, Lana.” he greeted her.
“And who's this?” Lana asked as she got a good look at the winged unicorn. “Is this that kid that Ma told me about?”
“Yes. Her name's Celestia.” Clark introduced them both, “Celestia this is my old school friend Lana. Lana this is my daughter Celestia.”
“Nice to meet you.” they said simultaneously; Lana cheerily, Celestia not so much.
“Someone's in a grumpy mood.” Lana announced. She eyed her friend, “Clark, don't tell me you haven't taken her to the Malt Shop yet.”
“What is a malt shop?” Celestia asked her father.
Celestia loved the vanilla caramel swirl malt she had ordered. She had no idea that a milkshake could be so thick. It almost required a spoon! And dipping her fries in it was even better than Lana had told her.
Celestia was still suspicious of Lana, and absolutely refused to leave the woman alone with her father. But she was nice enough to not be considered a threat to her plans for Lois to be her mom, yet. So Celestia could tolerate her, especially if there were more milkshakes.
“So what else has she not done in Smallville?” Lana asked.
“Well...there's fishing and swimming in the lake,” Clark began to list a few ideas, “hiking, going on a picnic, and riding- actually riding the neighbor’s horses is probably a no, since, you know, pony.”
Celestia thought about that for a minute, with her face getting even more scrunched up as time went by. “Yeah, no riding horses for me. Sounds...odd.”
“I got it!” Lana told them.
Clark, Lana, Tia, the old barber and his assistant, and the lady hair stylist all looked stumped. How could they do anything to her hair? It was made of light.
Tia sighed and hovered out of the chair and towards the door. “Thank you anyway…” she politely told them.
The old barber was frantic for a moment. No-one had left his shop dissatisfied in over forty years, and he refused to let that happen just because he (literally) couldn't cut her hair. He looked around for something, anything, to cheer her up...but the only possible solution was her adoptive father Clark Kent -also adopted, he remembered….he remembered that Clark Kent had never once gotten his hair cut in his shop!
“Are you sure about this?” Lana asked a few minutes later as Clark sat down in the barber’s chair.
“I'll replace his scissors and combs.” he whispered.
“Who's ready for a haircut?” Celestia -dressed in a miniature barber’s uniform that she had altered with her magic to fit her pony body- asked them.
Clark raised his hand, and his little flying unicorn squeed.
Tia climbed up on the stool they had given her to be able to reach his hair without flying, which would move his hair while she worked on it. With her magic she levitated the items she needed to work with. She held the scissors up to his hair and snipped.
Clark was a bit startled to feel the cut hairs fall past his ear. “Hehe, be careful, Tia.”
Ten minutes later Clark had a freshly trimmed head to hair. The barber was satisfied that the child had left with a smile. Lana was enjoying Clark's new look. Tia was happily fluttering beside them with a sucker in her mouth.
“How did you get my hair so perfect in one try?” Clark asked her.
“Didn't.” Tia shook her head, “Had to regrow it by shining sunlight on it and recut it till I got it right.”
After stopping by the coffee shop, Talon, for some caffeine, they picked up Ma Kent from the doctor’s office and drove out for a trip around town. Tia found herself enjoying the simple little town of Smallville quite a bit. It felt nice and slow and stress free; something she felt unfamiliar with but happy with.
They showed her the schools where Clark and Lana had gone to from kindergarten through high school. She saw, but didn't go down, the trail that led to the caves where some of those meteors had landed.
Their truck stopped next to an old iron gate. Tia knew what the place was, though, she could not understand why they were here. She followed them, respectively silent as they chatted about the person they were here to visit. Finally they found him.
“It's your family, Jonathan.” Martha Kent said to the tombstone. She held her injured arm to her body as she hugged herself. “You're a grandfather now. Clark adopted. Her name's Tia. And you thought he would be lonely.”
“How did Grandpa die?”
Clark looked down at Celestia, sitting almost in his lap with her head snuggled up under his arm as he drove them all back to town. He had not expected her to be sad about his father being dead.
“Cancer.” Ma told her. “In his heart. Nothing the doctors could do. He left us in his sleep, darling, nothing to be sad about now.”
The little pony returned her grandmother’s smile. There was nothing to be sad about, nothing to be fearful of, so long as she had her little family.
Then she looked out the window.
Clark stopped the truck as it could go no further on the now crowded street. Beside him, Celestia whimpered and her eyes widened at the thing in the sky. Everyone saw it; it's hard to miss a giant skull shaped spacecraft with three green dots on the forehead in a V pattern; the same symbol that had been on the robot that attacked Tia.
“Lana, hold my glasses.” Clark asked as he handed them to her, and got out of the truck. “I need to have a talk with someone.”
In the middle of the street Clark stripped of his disguise, and Superman flew up to the ship.
Nearby, two old men were playing checkers, both completely unfazed. One said to the other, “Told ya he was him. You owe me a sarsaparilla.”
Above the Kansas town of Smallville a giant skull shaped spacecraft floated motionlessly...well, mostly motionlessly. There was the occasional shift from one side to the other as something inside suddenly exerted a great amount of force on its structural frame.
Below, the citizens of Smallville watched the ship as it was rocked one way then the other. They couldn't imagine what was happening, but they were sure of one thing; Superman was doing just fine.
Six robots just like the one that attacked Celestia at the farmhouse swarmed down a corridor to get at the Kryptonian. They moved at the speed of a bullet fired from a sniper rifle. So urgent was their directive to eradicate the intruder that their safety protocols had been shut off, and they beat dents into the carbon fiber nanotube plating that made up the floor, walls, and ceiling.
All six of them slammed to a stop when they hit him, and he kept moving forward. They scrambled to strike him any way they could. They fired their lasers into him at point blank range. He casually grabbed them one at a time and crushed their cpu housing before tossing them aside.
“Where are you?!” he yelled, and the ship quaked from his voice.“I'll keep tearing your ship apart until I find you, unless you want to stop being a coward and come to me!”
Several guns popped out of the walls and ceiling to fire energy blasts at him. They had no more effect than a pellet hitting a car.
“That stings,” he said as he began to lose his patience, and lit his eyes with heat vision.
The alien watched as the video was flooded with a brilliant intense light before going dark. Revealing himself had been a calculated risk. Bringing the Kryptonian to where he had the biggest advantage was worth the loss of resources. Those robots would have been destroyed in any case.
Only moments later the floor of his ship's control center burst open as the Kryptonian found his way to him. A power surge shot through his cpu at the sight of him, his fingers clenched as an illogical semblance of the emotion anger rose within him.
“You!” Superman approached robotic being, “You attacked my child and hurt my mother. Can you even think of a reason why I shouldn't rip you apart right now?”
“Kal-El.”
“How do you know that name?” Superman asked after a moment of silence.
“Son of Jor-El. Last of the house of El.” the robot, if that word could properly describe it, descended from the center of the room where it was held up by numerous cables with many glass containers floating around it. He -the physical design obviously masculine- was dressed in black combat armor with nothing covering his arms or head to hide his organic looking green ‘skin'. The cables detached halfway to the floor, revealing glowing access ports for the exchange of power and data, and he floated the rest of the way down to stand before Superman. “As you are the last Kryptonian, I am the last Coluan. I am Brainiac.”
This is not how Superman thought an encounter with a hostile alien in a giant battleship would go. He held himself ready in case of a sudden attack. “What do you want? Why did you attack my family? And how do you know my birth name?”
“All of your inquiries shall be answered.” Brainiac told him. “And then, when you truly understand why I must eliminate all of your kind,.....I believe you would call it a Clash of the Titans.”
“Nothing's happening.” Lana said as she and everyone else watched from the ground.
It had gone quiet a few minutes after Superman had entered the ship. Everyone was just waiting. Smallville was silent as it watched the spacecraft.
BOOM!
Celestia launched herself into the air to intercept the red and blue rocket as it plummeted down from the ship. If she had not caught Superman with her magic, he would have turned main street into a crator. She set him down and shook him to get him conscious.
“Oh...what hit me?” he asked with a groan and cupped his jaw in his hand. “Ah!” his eyes shot up to Brainiac as the alien flew down to them. “He hit me… He's as strong as me…”
“Please tell me you're joking.” Celestia pleaded with him, eyes bigger than normal.
“Wish I was. Listen, Celestia, I need you to do something extremely important.”
“Oh, sure.” Celestia grumbled quietly to herself. “Send me into the ship full of robots, when I'm scared of robots, by myself to find some little model cities.”
She hovered rather than walk to avoid having her hoofsteps echo around the corridors. It wasn't that hard to avoid the robots, because there weren't any out and about in large groups, and they were so noisy that they could not possibly surprise her.
“Eep!” she squeaked and ducked out of sight as she was surprised by a robot that was just standing there guarding a door. Guarding a random door, she thought.
Using her magic, Celestia made a little ball of light and floated it down the corridor by itself. The robot took the bait and followed after the intruder, leaving the door completely unguarded.
“Well, alrighty then.” Celestia applied a little telekinesis to the door and triggered the mechanism to open it.
Inside she found the things her dad had told her about. The little cities that Brainiac had hidden away after revealing what they were. She huffed and reached out for one with her magic….
“Oh, my….” she gasped and stepped back and let her magic falter. People. It's people. He did this to them?! A bit of smoke began to rise from her mane.
The robot returned to its position at the door. The intruder had vanished and with no other directives, the robot had no other interests.
It noticed a lot of heat coming from inside the room it was supposed to guard. Opening the door...was a mistake.
A great torrent of flames poured out from inside the room and filled any nearby corridors and rooms with enough heat to equal the sun's surface. The robot was turned to glowing sludge.
”I hate robots!” said a voice that shook the ship as much as Superman’s had.
Superman was thrown into telephone pole spine first. The weak wood snapped into splinters at the point of impact, and the rest of the pole collapsed into the street. He picked up the twelve foot piece of foot thick wood and swung it like a bat, hitting Brainiac in the shoulder. But the hostile alien had seen this coming and braced himself, he slid only two feet and absorbed the rest of the momentum.
“Resistance is futile, Kal-El.” he said. “This body is built with combat against a powered Kryptonian in mind.”
Brainiac grabbed the telephone pole and repeatedly swung it at Superman. Each strike was blocked and shrugged off, or just barely avoided.
“I am as strong as you,” Brainiac threw the lumber like a spear.
Superman punched through the projectile, shattering it and sending wood chips everywhere. Brainiac dashed in and punched him in the gut twenty times.
As Superman bent over from the blows, Brainiac brought his knee up towards his face, but Superman moved at the last second and aimed an uppercut at opponent's jaw…
“I am as fast as you,” Brainiac said and grabbed Superman's wrist and elbow before spinning in a circle a jet turbine speed. He released his hold and Superman went through a building.
A moment later Superman rushed back through the building and reared his right fist back for a haymaker blow.
“And I am smarter than you.” Brainiac told him and moved to block the punch.
Superman lashed out with his left hand when it was already past Brainiac’s ability to block, and rammed his left fist into his chin. “What was that?” Superman asked as Brainiac got his head burried in a nearby car's engine.
Brainiac pull the car off of him and threw it aside. “Clever. But I will prevail.” with that the three lights in the middle of Brainiac’s forehead lit up and let out a series of beeps.
Krypto looked on towards the town as his ears picked up the almost forgotten sound of his master in battle. Not since before the dog had last worn a cape had he known something to truly challenge Superman. He wanted to join in and protect his home, but unless the situation escalated soon then any collateral damage from him fighting would not be worth it; or that was the intelligent canine’s reasoning anyway.
Truthfully, the dog was plenty smart compared to normal creatures. But he was still a dog and he still thought like one. He did not want to get in trouble. He was still worried about getting in trouble for blasting a hole through the house.
His head cocked to one side as he suddenly heard a beeping sound. A moment later he saw a swarm of robots defending from the ship.
Bad, he thought to himself. Quickly he ran into the house to retrieve something.
Brainiac and Superman clashed together, a shockwave radiated out from the impact of their bodies colliding and rocking the nearby buildings on their foundations. They punched and kicked each other, and it was like the sounds of a thunderstorm. With a sudden uppercut, Brainiac caught Superman unaware and knocked him on his back.
As he lay there, Superman saw the robots coming down. He began to rise, but Brainiac pressed a boot into his chest and ground it down hard.
“Do you see now? I am inevitable. I am knowledge, and in the end knowledge is all that exists.” Brainiac noticed something unpleasant. “Why are you smiling, Kal-El?”
“Because, Brainiac,” Superman grinned and pointed at something, “I was stalling for backup.”
Brainiac turned, and saw a white dog in a golden collar with a red cape...ripping into his robots like they were paper.
Superman grabbed Brainiac's leg and threw him off. “What? Did you think I had forgotten about the army of robots you had?”
A mechanical growl escaped Brainiac's mouth. He charged his enemy.
“Let's take this out of town!” Superman yelled. He drew back and slugged Brainiac in the jaw.
Krypto zipped through the air at a non-stop bullet speed. His indestructible teeth shredded the robots’ armor. His hear vision melted them like butter.
One robot grabbed the super dog's collar and fired a laser beam into his head. Krypto just flew into several more robots, digging straight through them, until the one holding his collar was dislodged. He then turned around and blew his cold breath at it and a few other robots. He kicked one of the frozen robots and sent it crashing into the others, shattering them.
Brainiac suddenly was blasted through his own robots, destroying several of them. And was followed by Superman who blasted more robots with his own attacks.
“Good boy!” Superman told Krypto as he quickly passed and gave the dog a pat on the head.
Krypto yipped happily, and returned to savagely rending the robots to shreds with his teeth.
As they descended from the sky, Superman accelerated and kicked Brainiac in the face. The robotic alien fell to Earth like a meteorite.
“Get up!” Superman called out as he landed next to the small crater Brainiac lay in. “I'm not done with you. Not even close.”
“It is interesting that you think you have won when I still can stand.” Brainiac stood and turned on an emergency feature. A barely visible energy field flickered to life around him; an omega symbol glowing over his waist.
“What's that, a force field? I've punched through those before you know.”
Superman moved to punch Brainiac's face, but the energy surged outward and turned hostile. It was almost like electricity, but a thousand times worse. Brainiac kicked him in the gut, exposing him to the pain again and knocking him down.
“I have been to many worlds, Kal-El. I did not destroy each that I found however. Some I ignored because they had yet to evolve to a point that could provide me with the knowledge I required. Some, like Oa, were too well defended.” Brainiac gestured to the glowing Ω. “Others provided me with their technology in exchange for a truce. This is an energy field weapon called the Agony Matrix. Direct neuro-stimulation of pain receptors... All of them. Imagine the worst pain you have ever felt in your life times a thousand. Now imagine that pain continuing forever.” Brainiac stepped on Superman’s hand, the Agony Matrix expanded over him again. “...Oh, that's right. You don't have to imagine."
Brainiac picked Superman up with one hand on his cape, and turned his head to look at Smallville. “I was going to destroy this pathetic excuse for civilisation and take a bigger more populated area as my trophy from this world.” his mechanical voice getting a slight variation as Brainiac's computer mind had another glitch of emotion; he sounded gleeful. “Begin collection.”
Celestia melted the faces off of three robots before they could blast Krypto from behind. She grabbed them in her telekinesis and applied enough heat to weld them together into a bludgeon, which she then used to repeatedly bash any robot that came near her.
She showed extreme prejudice against those that went after Krypto.
“DON'T TOUCH MY DOG!” she yelled as a robot was pounded into a metal pancake.
Miraculously, Celestia and Krypto had drawn all the attention of the robots and kept them from attacking Smallville. So when the robots all began to retreat to Brainiac’s ship, they assumed that they had won.
“And stay out of Small...ville….oh my…”
Celestia watched as an arm extended from the bottom of the ship. She saw the field start to form…
“Krypto, get everyone out of Smallville!” she told the superdog.
Celestia flew up to face off against Brainiac's shrink ray with her magic. She sent out the golden light from her horn and expanded it to try and contain the weapon’s power.
“Aaarrrgg….please….work…” she grit her teeth at the strain of trying to power through her own immovable object vs unstoppable force problem.
“I will always be able to remember the look on your face, Kryptonian, as you watch your home become a piece of my collection.” Brainiac droned on as he forced Superman to look on at the fate of Smallville.
Superman fought back against the Agony Matrix. He was able to stand and throw Brainiac off of him. But Brainiac pulled him back before he could go stop the ship and they locked up in a hand to hand grappling hold. Again Superman was trapped in the unending pain of Brainiac's weapon.
“I will keep them, all of them, as my pets.” Brainiac taunted him, and turned up the power output of the Agony Matrix. “All of your friends and family. Your old love. Your mother. All kept alive for eternity knowing that I killed you!”
Superman screamed as Brainiac forced him to one knee.
“Though, I have to experiment with them, for the sake of science of course. I wonder how long a human can last against the predators of Pandora. Perhaps I'll start from the bottom and get rid of the weakest humans. Your mother doesn't look like she can last much longer, Clark Kent. Better to remove the weak link.”
That was it.
Roaring in rage, Superman blasted him in the face with heat vision at point blank with almost full power. He pulled with a surge of strength and ripped of Brainiac's arm, and then began to use the computer being’s own limb as a blunt instrument of battle as he slammed it repeatedly into his face while still blasting away with his heat vision.
Finally, the severed arm broke and Superman punched Brainiac's abdomen. His hand went right past the armor, and he grabbed something and squeezed. The pain from the Agony Matrix stopped.
Superman backed away, breathing heavily. Never had he put out as much energy as he had then.
“Impressive.” Brainiac said simply. His face even less expressionable than before now, because the green ‘skin' had been melted off to reveal the metal skull underneath.
“I'm not going to hold now, you know that.” Superman glared at the robot. “You're not a criminal, you're not even a conqueror. You are a soulless monster, a rabid beast that needs to be put down for the safety of others.”
“You are going to kill me?”
They watched each other for a moment.
“You're not alive.” Superman finally said. “Being alive is to feel, to want, to desire. Even if you desire something bad. You? You're just following a program. No, I'm not going to kill you, Brainiac. I'm going to destroy you.”
“Allow me.” Brainiac's chest opened and inside was something to stop Superman cold. His chest closed back up, and he dared Superman to make a move. “The fusion bomb is powerful enough to destroy Smallville from here, as well as most of the surrounding area. Stop me or stop my ship, but you can't stop both.”
“I don't have to!” Superman grabbed him and flew straight up into the atmosphere.
“You are killing yourself.” Brainiac attempted to reason with him.
“It's worth it.”
They fought each other as they rose through the clouds. Brainiac eventually got the upper hand because Superman was more focused on flying.
Brainiac held Superman from behind in a one armed choke hold with his legs wrapped around his body. “Your home is mine, your planet will soon be-
“Excuse me, is this yours?” Celestia asked as she floated up to them, and she was holding Brainiac's shrunken ship in her hooves.
There was silence for a moment… and then Superman burst out laughing.
There was that glitch in Brainiac's mind again. The simulation of the emotion called anger.
Anger.
It refused to stop.
Anger.
Perhaps he should give in to it?
Anger. Anger. Anger. Anger. Anger.
“DIE!” He activated the bomb.
The Collector of Worlds: of Kryptonians and Coluans
A feeling, and a noise, rushing past her and stimulating her mind from unconsciousness; the wind, she thought to herself. This thought pulled at her mind, and awoke her.
Around her there was nothing but sky; empty sky. Her eyes found nothing, but her magical sense cast out and found him! She angled her wings to quickly carry her to his side.
She called to him, but he did not awaken! Her hooves caught him, and they found the wound on his back! The bomb had been too strong and too fast, it had taken all of his invulnerability to survive it. It was now night where they were, and below them, fast approaching, was an island; she had to do something quick, but she was still too dazed to fly properly or use her telekinesis.
She did the only thing she could; she held onto him, closed her eyes, and released her own energy from her horn as an enormous ball of purest sunlight.
He stirred from unconsciousness and felt the sand shift beneath him. He did not remember going to the beach.
“Da!”
He felt Celestia nuzzle his hand, and he reached up to give her a scratch behind the ear. Her head seemed small in his hand and he raised himself up to look at her.
The second thing he noticed was the ring of large sharp rocks around him. He had apparently landed in the middle of them and crushed them into sand. However, the very first thing he noticed and took several moments to process was that Celestia was now about the size of a house cat, and looking much like a baby. He could have sworn she was almost as big as Krypto.
“Da!” she exclaimed again and jumped into his lap.
Superman chuckled as he held her and stood up. “So, I guess you reverse age yourself if you expend too much sunlight.” It was the only logical conclusion he could think of. “What exactly did you use it all up on?”
She babbled for a bit, trying to get her words to work. Finally she poked a hoof into his chest. “Da!”
“Brainiac's bomb.” He remembered. He hugged her close. “Thanks. Now, let's go home.”
He jumped up from the ground within the stone ring and sailed through the air…..for about ten yards. After that he fell back to Earth.
“Da?” Celestia asked him, worried that he was still weak.
“It's ok, Tia. I just need more time to recover. Won't take long, end of the day at most.” he gave her a reassuring pat on the head. “Not the first time I've pushed my abilities too far.”
Superman caught the arrow before it could connect with his head. The arrowhead itself was blunted to knockout a target, rather than kill. The shaft was simple wood, but the arrowhead was some kind of shining bronze and the fletching was not from any bird he knew of, and he has an eidetic memory. He looked back to where it had been shot from, and saw several female warriors straight out of a movie about ancient Greece.
One of the women, apparently impressed by him catching the arrow, stepped forward. “Man, you are where you should not be. Surrender yourself now, and-
“It's so cute!” one of the others finally said as she smiled at Celestia.
“Warrior!” the one in charge scolded her subordinate.
“Excuse me but, where am I?” Superman, wanting to focus the conversation into something peaceful, asked. “I'm a bit lost.”
The leader looked at him, in a rather judging manner, and approached him. “Before the dawn, I saw what could only be described as the sun, falling from the heavens. Yet, there the sun is in the sky now. So, stranger, were you sent by Apollo or did you try to steal his light?”
“Neither.” he did not like that they seemed to know about Apollo being real. He just hoped he hadn't traveled back through time.
“Then I repeat; surrender and- Is that an alicorn?!” she finally had got a good up close look at Celestia.
Superman glanced at Celestia, currently laying comfortably across his forearm, before he responded. “Is that what she is? Honestly, I just thought she was a crossbreed of some kind.”
Celestia didn't quite understand his meaning, for her mind was now that of a younger child, but she understood the tone and was not happy. She showed this by pouting.
“Alicorns,” the woman confirmed “they are incredibly rare, sacred, magical beings. Real ones are so rare that in this world, their name has been mistaken to mean the bone that makes up a unicorn’s horn.”
The woman stood there thinking for a moment, “May I see her?” she asked with her hands held out to hold Celestia.
Being Superman, he felt no need to say no. He was Superman after all. “Alright.”
She took Celestia in her arms. “Never have it seen an alicorn with my own eyes. They are to be protected.” and then she turned away.
“Hey!” Superman reached out, and got kicked in the stomach by what felt like a elephant. He was still a bit weak, though, not enough for a human to hurt him like that.
“OK, ow.”
The woman was already halfway back to her group and passing Celestia to one of the others. “Take the alicorn to Queen Hippolyta.”
“Not happening!” Superman leaped across the beach in one bound, coming down between as he exhaled with his super breath to push the women apart while the first one still held Celestia. “You are not taking my daughter!”
“......daughter?” the woman asked, and in response to her question, Celestia reached her hooves out to him him and cried out “Da!”
After proper introductions had been made, Superman and Celestia found themselves as guests in the palace of the Queen of Paradise Island, Hippolyta. His super suit, torn from Brainiac's bomb, had been replaced by Greek cloth robes that were conveniently colored red and blue. Celestia did not enjoy being put in the booster seat while they ate.
“Has man's world changed so much that men can now fly without wings?”
“Ah, no. Not really….” Superman replied to the queen. He enjoyed meeting her and getting to see her home, but darn if it wasn't like his mom suddenly had super powers and was on the verge of giving him a lecture. “I'm a special case.”
“It see.” she sipped her wine. “And how did you come to Paradise Island? It is not often someone new finds their way to our shores.”
“Brainiac…” the little alicorn beside him growled at the name. “He was an automaton, and an evil one.”
“Should my warriors prepare for him?”
Superman reflexively put a hand to his abdomen, where an actual bruise had formed from the woman's kick. He knew he was still recovering from the bomb, but still! “As impressive as they are, that will not be necessary.”
“You destroyed him?” Hippolyta asked with an even expression.
“He sacrificed his own body to try and kill me. ….nearly succeeded, too.” he gave Celestia a pat on her head. “If not for her, I may have actually died.”
Hippolyta relaxed, she knew from experience that she was talking to a true hero and not a warrior or a fanatic. “Tell me about this Brainiac. Where did he come from, why did he seek to kill you?”
Superman looked grim for a moment as he contemplated what he knew. “......As he told me before we fought; Brainiac's people were a race of non-physical beings who had evolved as a kind of living technology and lived peacefully on their own world…
“But my people were at the height of their power, and they were not peaceful. The ancient Kryptonians still had a yellow sun to receive power from, but it was waning and they knew it. They traveled the stars, finding different worlds with much to offer in the way of technology, and they took that technology. Eventually they found their way to Colu, the home of Brainiac's people, and they took them.”
“You do not approve?” Hippolyta’s answer was a hard glare from the man. “Continue.”
“Then Coluans were enslaved and used as by the Kryptonians to make our own technology. It drained them, mentally, to the point that they simply started to fade away…
Then, in the final years of Krypton, there was only Brainiac. He was different, more aware, a genius amongst geniuses. He arranged things without anyone knowing, and kept them from knowing that our world was dying, and he left us to die.”
Hippolyta was silent for a moment “Forgive me but, it does sound more like he was justified in his actions.”
Celestia disagreed and slammed her forehooves onto the table, she then whimpered at Hippolyta in apology for breaking the table.
“He was justified, in a way, but not for what he did next.”
Hippolyta saw the anger in Superman, and she almost did not ask. “What did Brainiac do?”
“He took some technology that had been developed on Krypton, shrinking technology. He put people in a bubble, shrank them to the size of insects and kept them as a collection. He did this to a city on Krypton before he left, and he has been doing it to every world he could ever since. And then he destroys the world he has invaded, killing everything he doesn't need for his collection. He bragged about it to me, like it was a grand accomplishment.”
“Well...it is good that he is gone then.”
Kal-El…
The hum of power running through his systems once again had awoken him. His sight returned a moment after his consciousness, but he did not recognize his surroundings.
“You are wondering where you are.” and unfamiliar voice spoke. “You have fallen so far…. You came to this world as a god! Ultimate power that actually surpassed Superman's! And you only fell because of a single, simple disadvantage….”
“He had help.” the voice laughed ecstatically at the idea. “Superman actually needed help to do something!”
“Tell me….” The speaker turned on the audio device to let him talk. “Tell me, if someone could help you get rid of him, would you ask for their help, Brainiac?”
The man stepped in front of the ‘head’ of the alien; in actuality it was his shrunken ship. Brainiac saw him; finely made clothes, bald, a smile of superiority, and a gleam of slight madness in his eyes. A quick search of the data Brainiac had taken from Earth's Internet, and his own facial recognition program gave him the man's name.
“Greetings, Lex Luthor. Would you like to help me destroy Superman?”
Far from Earth, but in the Milky Way galaxy, a rift formed into a doorway to the dimension known as the Phantom Zone. The rift lasted just long enough for a single person ship to escape it. This ship's passenger was a young woman, a teenager at best, from Krypton.
