//------------------------------// // All Will Be Well // Story: The Emerald Torch // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// 'W-what?' With a soft groan, the belle opened her eyes for what felt like the first time in days, seeing past her blurry vision when she looked up at a red sky. 'Where am I? The last thing...I remember...was Brainiac taunting me and then...rage...so much rage...' Sweetie shook her head and glanced around at her surroundings, confused as to why she was surrounded by ruined buildings and decimated streets. "What's going on? John?!" she called out into the empty streets, but only the whistling of the wind answered her. "Wait a moment, my ring!" she cried out as she looked up at her horn, gasping in shock when she realized her blue ring was no longer there. For a long moment, Sweetie stood in place stunned, trying to remember what happened to her and her ring. 'Come.' A tiny yelp escaped the mare as the voice seemed to speak inside her very mind, yet, while she looked up through the ruined streets to a house sitting on the top of a hill, she had no doubt that from there the voice had spoken. Stepping over a fallen column, Sweetie began her walk towards the house, figuring that she had nothing else to go on. "What...happened here?" she whispered as she looked at the red scorched walls, a red tint that seemed oddly familiar to her. Yet, despite all the carnage and the destruction, Sweetie saw that plants and flowers still sprouted through the cracks under her hooves, causing a small smile to cross her face while she walked. "Heh, seems that you guys didn't give up. But...so...cold..." she whispered as she felt the darkness beginning to tug at the back of her mind. "There...there was death here. So much death," Sweetie whispered as she heard the faint voices of the dead calling to her, telling her that she was one of them--that she had no right to be alive. "No! I came back! I didn't die!" Sweetie tried to argue, but the voices of the dead went from a whisper to a roar, demanding that she join them. Desperately she ran forward, trying to outrace the shrieks of the damned as she sprinted towards the house. "Leave! Me! Alone!" she yelled back at the voices, before bursting through the shattered door and immediately feeling like the darkness could no longer touch her. And when she laid eyes on the figure in the center of the room, she understood why. A Blue Lantern with a hood covering his face meditated three feet off the floor, his blue light banishing the thoughts of death and darkness that had been pulling at Sweetie's soul. "Who...are you?" Sweetie asked as she took a step forward, but in a moment the Lantern had held out a hand and she stopped in place. He then pointed to the floor beneath her, and Sweetie looked down to see a small bug scurrying along where she would have stepped. "Oh, sorry," she apologized while she stepped to the side of the insect and sat down before the Blue Lantern, who moved his hood slightly to keep his face hidden. "So, who are you? And did you bring me here?" "Yes, Sister Belle, I did bring you here," the Blue Lantern clarified, yet Sweetie noticed that he never spoke his name to her. "I brought you here because you are in need of guidance, in need of someone who can help you through the pain that ravages your soul. A pain I know all to well." "Wait, what are you talking about? I know that Spike's...gone, but I..." Then, the memories started to return to her. The rage. The hatred. Her attacking both friend and foe alike, while ripping apart anything that got in her way. Had it not been for the Blue Lantern's aura, she would have collapsed to the floor in tears. "Oh Faust...what did I do?" "You were in pain and you sought for a way to end that pain, even if it meant surrendering yourself to your hatred and abandoning hope," the Blue Lantern spoke gently to her while he held out a blackened and shattered ring that Sweetie knew all too well. "I salvaged what was left of it from deep within space, but by that point you were filled with hatred. You had become a Red Lantern." "I...lost my hope?" Sweetie whispered as she gently levitated the broken ring out of the Lantern's hand and held it close to her chest, unable to feel the glow of hope that had once filled her with power. "And I...surrendered to my rage...I gave up the very thing that made me, me...all to destroy Brainiac. To get revenge for Spike...what kind of Blue Lantern...fallen Blue Lantern was I?" she sobbed. "One that felt pain and suffering just like any other living being," the Blue Lantern said as he levitated over to her and gently placed a hand upon her shoulder. "And one that went down a path that I too went down once myself...the day I lost my whole world," he said as he motioned to the house around him. "This...this was your...?" "Yes, this was my home, where my wife and I tried to live in happiness," the Lantern nodded. "But one day my world was torn apart when she was killed, by those who waged war on each other. When I found her dead, I was consumed with grief and pain, too much for me to bear or so I believed. Then he appeared, offering me a way to seal my pain and gain revenge for her death. That was the day I became a Red Lantern." "What...but you're a..." "Please sister, allow me to finish. For years I worked for him, exacting his grand revenge upon all whom he saw fit. Then, after being captured, I met another. Another who reminded me of my wife, and who taught me how to feel again. Yet my rage and refusal to let go drove her away from me...and turned her into one of our greatest foes," the Blue Lantern whispered, with sadness in every word as he gazed out from under his hood at the stars that were just beginning to shine. "So...what happened next?" Sweetie whispered. "We fought. Then she sacrificed herself for all of us, to stop the terror that she--but in reality I--had unleashed upon the world. And she died in my arms," the Blue Lantern finished, yet to Sweetie's surprise there was strength in the Blue Lantern's voice, instead of pain, and he seemed to glow brighter than before. "And once again, I felt the same agony and sorrow that I had felt when I lost my wife before...the same pain that drove me to become a Red Lantern." "So...what did you do then?" "I embraced it. I had tried before to bury my sorrow and pain with rage, yet all that did was blind me to the truth, to what I needed to feel. And that, Sister Belle, is what happened to you," he said with a knowing tone. "You couldn't embrace the truth, the pain and the sorrow. So, you gave into your hate, seeking to destroy the one that had caused such pain upon you. And in turn, you nearly destroyed John and his allies." "I...did, didn't I?" Sweetie shamefully admitted before an idea came to the mare, and she looked up at the Blue Lantern with curious eyes. "But...if you became a Red Lantern due to your hatred, why are you a Blue Lantern now?" Sweetie could see just enough of the Blue Lantern's visage to catch a small smile spreading on his face. "Because I decided that I would not give up, would not try to bury the hatred and pain. Instead of giving up on the one I had come to love and seek revenge, I chose to remain strong. To believe that even after there was no chance of her survival, that I would find her--I would help her become whole. And all would be well." His light shone like the stars above when he said this, forcing Sweetie to shield her eyes until the light died down. "And ever since then, for years, I have continued my search. And while I have not found her yet, I believe that she is out there waiting for me. I have hope that she survived." "And...what does this have to do with me?" Sweetie asked, hesitantly. "It is what I am trying to teach you, Sister Belle, that no matter what happens to you, no matter how painful or devastating, you must hold onto your hope," the Blue Lantern said calmly, yet he caught hints of Sweetie's anger flashing in her eyes as he said this. "I tried! But just like you, I lost somepony who was near and dear to me, somepony who saved me in more ways than one!" Sweetie growled with the rage starting to flash in her eyes. "And then Brainiac went and turned him into his own personal soldier! How am I...supposed to remain hopeful, to think all will be well, in the face of that?! How can I think tomorrow will be better?" The Blue Lantern did not respond right away, leaving Sweetie to cool down before he finally answered. "I know how much pain you are in, Sister. I know it all too well. And you are not the first Blue Lantern to lose their hope in the face of such pain and loss," the hooded Lantern assured her before reaching out with both hands this time and placing them on her shoulder, allowing his light to calm her heart. "But what I ask you now ,do you believe that what happened with Spike and Brainiac is the end?" "What do you mean?" Sweetie asked with a slightly hostile tone. "I mean, do you believe that that is it? That Brainiac has won. That he has taken Spike and many other Lanterns from you and now has the power to take over the cosmos?" the Blue Lantern asked her before his grip seemed to tighten. "Or, do you believe in Spike? Believe in his will and strength? Do you believe that even after death, even after Brainiac has turned his corpse into a puppet, that you can still reach him? Do you believe that he is truly gone? Or, like me, do you believe that he can be saved? That his light can shine brightly once again?" As the Blue Lantern said this, he released Sweetie's shoulders and held out her blackened and cracked ring before her, seemingly waiting for something. Yet ,as Sweetie looked down at the ring, she found that she couldn't feel it, she couldn't feel the hope within her as she once could. That she couldn't believe. 'That is because you belong with us,' a dark voice whispered in the back of her mind, turning Sweetie Belle cold when she felt the frigid fingers of death pulling at her mind. 'You are already dead, Sweetie Belle, you just haven't accepted that fact yet. But there is no longer a reason for you to fight. Join us. There are many here who wish to meet you, especially a certain dragon that you have longed to be with again.' "Believe, Sweetie. In those you love and in yourself." 'But how?' Sweetie raged within her mind as she felt the darkness and death start to seep into her very being. 'Everything we've done, all we sacrificed...it's been for nothing. Brainiac has Spike, he has two of the Lantern Corps, and soon he will have the power needed to bend the whole cosmos to his will. And here I am, fighting the voices of death because of the pain, the agony in my heart that I wish to end! How can I be hopeful in this state?! How can I stay strong when fighting somepony I still love?! How can I even hope to see a brighter day or believe all will be well when everything seems so hopeless?!' ... ... ... '...Because I will make it happen.' Sweetie's tear-filled eyes snapped open at the faint voice that spoke in the back of her mind, a voice that seemed to push away the darkness and sorrow that had been coiling around her heart--a voice that belonged to a belle who had not given up. 'Because I have always had more than hope. I have held within my heart...courage, and above all else, the will to make my hopes become reality.' 'And perhaps that's because, more so than any Blue Lantern before me, I believed in myself. Believed that no matter the obstacle, be it my sister being consumed by greed or the army of death that sought my planet, I and my allies believed we would find a way, even when all light seemed lost to the darkness. Not only did I hope in a better tomorrow, but I also made damned sure to help make that tomorrow a reality. Maybe it's time I stop being just a Sweetie Belle who hopes all will be well, but one that will give others around me a tomorrow to believe in! To create a light that will banish their pain.' "And that's what you were trying to tell me," Sweetie spoke in an almost soundless whisper, but a smile crossed the Blue Lantern's face when he heard the strength in her words. "When the Blue Lantern ring chose me, it chose me not just because I always had hope, but because it saw within that I would fight for my hope and the hopes of others! That is what a Blue Lantern is supposed to be! One who inspires and protects the hopes of others, no matter how unwinnable the situation or battle is!" "And I may have forgotten those ideals when Spike died, when I believed the source of my hope died, but now I see the truth beyond the pain! I see that he is not gone, that I carry his hope and the hopes of all those who believe in a better tomorrow with me! That is what a Blue Lantern does! We hold within us the hopes and beliefs of others and make a better tomorrow!" As she spoke these words with power, the cracked and blackened ring began to glow with life, gaining Sweetie's attention. She nodded with confidence before lifting the ring with her magic and placing it upon her head, turning slightly to see that the Blue Lantern had placed a battery on the table, which she also grabbed. "But never again. I will not allow the light of the hope I carry to ever burn out--to give into my hatred and pain. Instead, I believe that it is not the end. That if I fight against the darkness and pain, then there will be a reason to believe! That hope can overcome! That all will be well!" And as she screamed those words, she pressed her ring up against the battery and spoke an oath, an oath behind which she finally understood the meaning--that she was just not a conduit of hope for herself, but for all in the cosmos who held a hope within them. That she would bring their hopes to light. "In fearful day or in raging night, I will be the torch that helps hope ignite! Because when all seems lost in this war on light, I shall be the one to make things RIGHT!" A column of blue energy swirled into the sky, blasting away both Sweetie Belle's doubts and the darkness that crept at the back of her mind, allowing her light to shine brighter than any star, as she looked at the other Lantern. "Thank you...for sharing your pain with me and helping me to see what I was blind to," Sweetie Belle said with a bow before she stood up and looked up at the stars. "But I need to go. John will need my help in the battle against Brainiac, and with our allies constantly dwindling, we need to keep moving." "Indeed. That is why I helped guide the way of another lost Lantern to your ship," the Blue Lantern informed Sweetie, who looked back at him with a raised eyebrow. "She was just as lost as you were, but hopefully, now you will be able to help her believe again. Now go, Sister Belle, go and give the cosmos someone to believe in." Sweetie nodded as she prepared to take off, but then she stopped and turned around with curiosity. "You never did tell me your name, Brother, and after all you have done for me, I would be glad to know it." The Blue Lantern thought about her words for a minute before he slightly moved his hood back and allowed Sweetie to see a white face with thin black lines on his chin and cheeks. "You may call me, Razer, Sweetie Belle. And I was glad to help." A blinding flash of blue shone at that moment which blinded the belle, and when she could see again it was with a smirk she found that he was gone. She bowed one more time to where he had been before turning and flying towards where the Interceptor was, belief flowing through her entire being as his voice spoke once again. 'And remember, Sister Belle. All will be well.'