//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: My Little Lanterns // by Shepard1707 //------------------------------// The next several days were a flurry of activity for everpony in Ponyville. Work had already started on rebuilding what could be rebuilt of Sweet Apple Acres, though even with the whole town chipping in to help pay for the repairs, it would take time for the once lush and sprawling orchard to recover from the fire. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and even Rarity were all out toiling in the fields to get everything set up. Leaving Rainbow Dash alone in the hospital with Ch'p. Not that Dash was bored, not in the least. The former Green Lantern had Dash working hard in training. Currently, Dash was levitating three different shapes in the air at once. They were simple, just a sphere, a cube, and a cone, but keeping all three clear in her mind was difficult. Her brow beaded with sweat, which the 'ring' kept out of her eyes thanks to it's new shape as a headband. The sphere was easy enough... but the cone kept wobbling and rippling, and she could barely keep the cube with square faces, let alone equal along all three dimensions. "This is stupid! When am I going to need to keep track of three different shapes at once?" Dash demanded of her teacher as the cube became a flat square, then a rectangular prism as she compensated too far. "When indeed. The truth is that you can't have any expectations about what you'll encounter out in the field. More so here on the Frontier than anywhere else. So you must be prepared for any eventuality. Any possibility." Ch'p explained, watching her for a moment. "Hmmm... you've got the sphere down pat... no surprise there." He hopped off of his bed, grabbing a crutch and walking over to the blue pegasus. Dash just grunted in exasperation, canting her head to the side and narrowing her eyes as she tried to keep her shapes straight. The Cone wasn't tough except that it kept shortening and lengthening, and the rectangle seemed to change all over the place. After a moment, the rectangle seemed to grow too large, and it bumped into the cone and sphere, nudging them out of her line of sight. With the cone too far out of her sight to keep track of it, it quickly shrunk into a disk, and Dash just sighed and dropped the constructs, letting them fade. "This is nuts..." "No, it's rocks. It'd be nuts if you were doing good." Ch'p corrected, and gave the pegasus a nudge on her shoulder, not bothered at the least by her hiss of pain. "Try again, this time, don't just try to picture the objects, picture them in space, maybe even a scene, so you can have a reference point for the objects." "Won't that be harder?" Dash asked, trying again, willing the three shapes to materialize in the air. "When you made that squadron of pegasi, and later that bat, did you picture these things just in a blank, distance-less space? Or did you picture where they were, and what they were doing?" Ch'p said, limping his way around the room. The sphere briefly elongated into the bat before Dash could correct it, and she furrowed her brow. "Huh... you're right." Dash closed her eyes a moment as she 'reset' the pictures in her head. When she opened them again, she stopped trying to see each shape individually, and tried to look at them relative to one another. The cone quickly fell in line, and the Cube came much closer to what it was supposed to look like, just the tinest bit squatter than it should have been. "Aha... there you go..." Ch'p said with a smile, looking at Dash. "I told you you could get the hang of it. The rings are designed to be naturally intuitive. For the most part, the limit to them is what you can imagine and how clearly you can imagine it." Then Ch'p stepped forward, lifting his crutch and smacking it against Dash's side, producing a bleat of pain from the blue pegasus. All three constructs popped like little bubbles, and Dash glared at the squirrel like critter. "What they hay was that for!" "Now that you've got imaging down, time to switch to focus..." Ch'p said chipperly, smacking Dash again. "Who says I've got anything down yet..." Dash complained as she received yet another smack. "I do! Now bring up those shapes again. Let's see how well you keep those constructs up when I'm hitting you!" Ch'p said with a laugh, obviously finding this part of the training quite therapeutic. He swung again at Dash, and as she grunted in pain, the cone popped. The next swing brought the cube down as she lifted her hoof with a wince and glared at Ch'p. As the third strike came, however, Dash decided that she'd had enough, and hopped right out of the way. The sphere wobbled in the air a moment, but stayed quite spherical and intact. "Stop that." Ch'p grinned, an oddly menacing thing coming from such an adorable little creature. "Why? We're only just getting started. You've finally figured out it's easier to get out of the way of my attacks than it is to try and focus on your shapes when I hit you." Ch'p chuckled again as Dash glared at him. "Bring them up again, and try and keep them in focus as you dodge, now." Dash let a little growl out of her throat as she lowered her head, the lantern emblem on her headband glowing as it conjured up the shapes yet again. "You're enjoying this way too much..." "I have yet begun to enjoy this..." Ch'p said as he hefted his crutch up like a rapier, striking a fighting stance. Dash thought it somehow unfair that the little squirrel thing was recovering so quickly. Again the attacks came, this time much more rapid fire and with far greater precision than Dash had expected. She ducked and hopped over Ch'p's jabs, and swayed from his down and up slices. "Good... good... use that better footing..." As he said that, though, he flipped his crutch and hooked the handle on one of Dash's legs and yanked. The blue Pegasus, gave a flap of her wings, which ached in protest, giving her just the moment of lift she needed to get her footing back, earning another whoop from her instructor. "Excellent! Don't forget your shapes, though." Ch'p admonished, and Dash winced as she realized that her cube had turned into more of a rectangular rod. Correcting it quickly, she just barely ducked under a jab, hopping to the side out of the way. The next several attacks seemed more sloppy, and Dash briefly entertained the thought that maybe Ch'p was running out of steam. But then her flank bumped into the wall. Quickly trying to get out from the edge, she hopped the other way, only to find herself in the corner. "You really should watch where you're going..." Ch'p said with a chuckle, stabbing in. His crutch gave a resounding 'knock' as it met hard light, the cube now reshaped into a barrier between Dash and Ch'p. The squirrel lowered his crutch, then set it to lean on, smiling all the while he did. "And, of course, when you can't dodge... block." Dash huffed, letting the constructs fade once again. "Did you have to smack me so much just to get that point across?" "I've found that pain is probably one of the best teachers around. Or rather, the desire to avoid pain is." Ch'p explained. "You didn't want to get hurt, so you naturally progressed through the training without me having to actually tell you all that much about what you were doing." Dash blinked for a moment, then nodded. "Huh... you're right." "Of course I am, I'm the old master, and you're my student." "Don't you dare insist I start calling you Sensei..." Dash said, narrowing her eyes warningly. "Of course not, that would be ridiculous... Call me Sifu Ch'p." And the former lantern let out a hearty laugh. Dash narrowed her eyes warningly again. "I am not calling you 'Sifu'." "Oh, you're no fun at all." Ch'p said with another grin, then gestured for Dash to fallow him as he walked toward the door. "Now come along... I've got still more training for you. You've a long way to go before you're ready to head out there and kick some red lantern butt." ****** Dash groaned in pain. Nearly a weeks worth of recovery and she was sure Ch'p had managed to ruin it in just a few short hours. First the 'focus' lesson, then defense lessons with Rarity throwing innumerable small objects at her, then offensive lessons as she was made to bust through shining Armor's shields, then combination lessons as she had to take on them both working in concert. And to top it all off, Ch'p had convinced Celestia to have the whole of the Wonderbolts team up, then pair up with a unicorn, and then split into two teams so Dash could learn how to work in a team against another. When all the training was finally said and done, Dash felt exhausted not just physically, but mentally as well. Like she'd pulled her brain muscle with all this thinking. With a heavy, tired sigh, she plopped down onto her cloud bed and let her eyes start to close. "Rainbow Dash! My Student! Where are you..." Dash groaned as she heard Ch'p come looking for her. "Oh come on! There's only so much a Pony can take in one day!" Dash complained down, not really able to take it anymore. "Oh... then I suppose you don't want to come and see the surprise..." "Surprise?" Dash perked up, leaning over the cloud and looking down. Her eyes narrowed warningly at the squirrel. "What kind of surprise?" "If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise, would it?" Ch'p said as he turned and walked back the way he came. "Pinkie Pie told you to say that... didn't she?" "Yup." And he continued, totally unfazed by Dash's accusation or reluctance. Dash gave a little huff, but her curiosity, naturally, got the better of her, and she floated down from her cloud. Still aching, she didn't do much more than spread her wings and let the ring do the work for her. It felt... uncomfortable... but it was quite a far sight better than a new flash of pain with each flap of her wings. Using the same method, she floated over to follow after Ch'p as he led her down the path. They walked for quite a bit, mostly quiet, something that Dash wasn't sure she figured Ch'p to be capable of, until they came to a trail leading into the Everfree Forest. "Hold on... we're not going in there, are we?" "Hmmm? Not afraid, are you?" Ch'p asked, canting his head with a smirk. "No! But the Everfree's dangerous... it's not safe in there." "I believe you know the Zebra named Zecora, yes? She's been keeping this path quite safe for us to walk. Come along..." The squirrel led Dash right through, much to her continued anoyance it seemed he was right, too. Not a single sound or stir came, in fact, it almost made Dash worried that nothing moved out of place in the forest. It somehow didn't seem right for it. "Where are we going?" She asked, and the diminutive critter just gave a chuckle. "You'll see..." It wasn't long before she did. A huge clearing had been made in the forest, and around it was the most curious camp of scientists, engineers, and wizards, all working on a gigantic rectangular structure. Dash had to guess it was at least 50 ft tall, and several times that width and length. It consisted of a narrow (relatively, she still figured it had to be about 30 or 40 ft wide) rectangle and two broad wings held in a vertical position, tipped on their ends with massive rocket engines. The whole structure was obviously metal, though a bit rusted. Emblazoned on the side was the Green Lantern emblem and the intertwined Alicorns that had recently been replacing Celestia's Sun as the royal banner of Equestria. "Woa..." Dash said, her eyes wide as she beheld the spectacle. "Woa indeed... that is a Zretilian slaver ship. Used by some very not nice people to do some very not nice things. However, it is also a pretty decent ship. I've tousled with them a few times, and I'll admit that they can be the handful to fight. Hopefully we can turn it to a more... admirable purpose." Ch'p said, walking over to where Celestia was speaking with the other girls and a few technicians. Dash furrowed her brow in concern. "You guys aren't coming with me, are you?" She asked as she followed behind Ch'p, and the group looked to her. "That... is still yet to be decided." Celestia said, though Applejack clearly didn't agree with that statement. "Space is a dangerous place, and it's become obvious that quite a few interstellar powers have popped up around Equestria in the years since I last walked among the stars." If Celestia even noticed Dash's questioning look, she didn't show it. "Alright... what's the big thing to decide?" "Nothing is! Ahm goin'! With all rightly do respect, Princess, I just can't have mah best friend goin off on some adventure with nuthin but a fancy ring, a rickety spaceship owned by no good varmints, and some alien she met just a week ago!" Applejack nearly shouted. Celestia sighed. "Please, listen to reason, Applejack. And everyone... this is going to be a dangerous quest. Perhaps more personally dangerous to each of you than you have ever faced before. And you've responsibilities here, and not just mundane ones. You're the remaining elements of harmony and it would be a terrible blow to lose all of you." "Princess, if I may speak freely." Rarity said, stepping forward with a regal bow. She politely waited for Celestia to nod. "Without Twilight, Fluttershy, or Rainbow Dash... there are no Elements of Harnony. Together is when we have our power, without even one of us, it's nothing." "There's no need for everyone to get all emotional about this yet..." Ch'p interrupted. "Much as I love a touching speech, how about we save them for the launch?" Dash, who'd been growing rather uncomfortable with the emotion charging the air herself, graciously latched on to the new line of conversation. "Yeah... speaking of that. When is the Launch?" Celestia sighed. "The ship will leave with tomorrow when Luna takes watch. I want to be here to see you off..." She looked over to the others. "Whoever is going." The three nodded they're appreciation. Celestia gave a soft sigh of defeat, and smiled. "Very well... make what preparations you will, I need to oversee some more of the work being done on the craft." And with that, Celestia turned and signaled for some technicians to come and speak with her. "So... we've a crew... a ship." Ch'p pondered a moment. "A ship needs a name... can't have a ship going out into the black without a name." Dash chuckles. "I'm sure we'll come up with something..." ****** Nearly hundreds of lightyears away, Fluttershy had to wonder how she'd gotten herself into this situation. She'd heard one of the inhabitants call this planet Zretilia, and she recognized the people here as the same who had tried to foalnap the Cutie Mark Crusaders almost three weeks ago. It seemed that the civilization was one based on slavery and torture, as that was somewhat where she'd found herself now. After 'subduing' a Zretilian brute who'd been pushing around a poor, bunny like creature, the guards had set upon Fluttershy and dragged her to see their 'king'. And now she stood before him, giant, monstrous, scary creatures to either side, all of them glaring down at her. "Now just who... are you?" The biggest, scariest and meanest looking of the lot said, standing up from his throne and glaring down at her. Fluttershy gulped, trying not to tremble. "I'm... I'm Fluttershy... f-Frontier Green Lantern..." She responded, her voice stuttering out the introduction. "This... is a Green Lantern?" The king bellowed in disbelief. Then he let out a roaring belly laugh, holding his stomach as he did. It took a beat for the rest of his court to begin laughing as well, and they stopped quite suddenly as he looked down to Shy again. "I've heard of you Lanterns, yes... great, powerful,fearless warriors. Unmatched in combat." He stepped closer, looming over the shy pony, making her shrink down even more. "I'm not impressed... clearly those tales were embellished." The king said with a smug look of contempt down to Fluttershy. "I would not be so dismissive of our green friend, my lord." A figure said from the crowd. Fluttershy turned her head and looked over, and she saw a most curious alien. It had large, black eyes and light blue skin, with other shades of blue forming a pattern on it's face. "Oh?" The King said, turning and looking to the newcomer. "And who might you be?" "I am Saint Walker, and I am but a humble pilgrim come to your great kingdom." The alien went into a deep bow, coming back up with a smile. "And I must tell you, that of all the Green Lantern's I've met in my travels, this is perhaps the most fearsome..." "Oh..." The king asked, glancing down to Fluttershy, who merely looked between the two aliens in confusion. "Oh yes... Why, she's the one who defeated the great Slothian Gortux, and vanquished the monstrous Uurd. She'd never admit to it, of course. She's much too modest..." "i... I never..." Fluttershy tried to say, but Saint Walker just stepped over beside her, giving her an encouraging pat on the head. "See? So humble. We could all learn from her example of humility." Walker said, looking to the King. "Indeed... perhaps this warrior will show her true strength if she's given the proper... motivation." The King grinned. "I'd love to see what the power of the fabled 'Green Lanterns' is." "You've something in mind?" Walker asked. "Yes..." The King said, turning and stepping up to his throne, then turning and throwing his arms in the air. "Let the Green Lantern battle the most fearsome... terrible monsters that the empire of Zretilia has to offer!" "Deal!" Walker said over Fluttershy's meeps of protest. For a moment, Fluttershy had to wonder what it was she had done to deserve such cruel punishment as what she faced now...