//------------------------------// // Interrogation and An Offer // Story: In Brightest Night, In Darkest Day // by The Phantom Joker //------------------------------// In Canterlot there was a marvelous castle, home of the diarchy of Celestia and Luna, and below the castle was a small prison. Inside that prison, Hal Jordan was beginning to stir. Finally regaining consciousness, Hal noticed two things. One, he had a TREMENDOUS headache. And two, he was hanging by his wrists in a cell. A quick glance at his hand revealed that he was still wearing his Power Ring, but the lack of a glow indicated that it was about as useful as carmel at the moment due to a lack of energy. Damn, thought Hal. And I suppose these creatures did something with my Power Battery. The cell door clicked open and three more of the creatures entered. Two them were female and had powerfully built bodies, wings, and a horn. The third, however, seemed to be a male, and had only a horn, as well as an expression that indicated that the Sinestro Lantern was nothing more than a bit of slime on his boots. “Captain Armor, please unlock his restraints. My sister and I wish to speak with him in the interrogation room.” said one of the... Pegacorns? All Hal could really make of her at the moment was that she had white fur. “Yes Princess.” the unicorn said as he brought out a key and unlocked the shackles. Before Hal could do anything he slapped a pair of handcuffs over his wrists and started to lead Hal out of the cell. It didn't take long to get to the supposed “interrogation” room. After Captain Armor opened the door, Hal was pushed into a blank white room with a metal table and a bunch of motivational posters on the walls. One of them was a kitty hanging on a branch. “Alright, I've waited long enough. What's with the look, pointy?” Hal asked the unicorn after he was seated at the table. “I don’t know, what’s with you thinking you can get away with making threats against Canterlot and destroying cities?” replied the unicorn, contempt evident in his voice. Hal laughed. “Oh, look at you, thinking you can instill fear in me. Hate to break it to you, but as of now, I do the instilling of fear around here,” he said with just as much contempt. “Not from where I’m standing,” replied the unicorn, getting as close as he could to Hal’s face as he could. “If the reports are true, you may have done so while your batteries were charged, but what can you do now that they’re burnt out?” “That reminds me, anybody seen a yellow lantern full of yellow energy? It should’ve been by that Fluttershy girl,” said Hal. Before the stallion could say anything further, the female from before, who Hal could now see properly, had alabaster fur and flowing mane of blue, green, and pink wearing an elegant sun-golden dress with matching heels and a golden tiara with a purple gem inlaid into the center said, “Stand down, Shining Armor.” Shining Armor took a breath and backed away as the mare who’d spoken walked up to Hal. “Do you know who I am?” she asked. “Lady, I don’t even know where the Hell I am, so why would I know who you are?” asked Hal. “Be silent, you-!” “Captain Armor, that will be all. You may return to your fiancé now.” “Yes, Princess,” Shining Armor said with reluctance. After he had left Hal decided to speak. “I pity whoever is his fiancé.” He said causing the white Pegacorn to giggle. “Oh, there's no need to worry. My niece has him on a rather short leash,” the white Pegacorn told him. “Her bite must be worse than her bark,” said Hal with a small smile. “Even Tirek would not want to be around her when she’s upset.” “Who's Tirek?” Hal said more confused than before. “Someone you will, hopefully, never meet.” the second Pegacorn said. She had dark blue fur, a shimmering navy blue mane that looked like the night sky itself, and wore a navy blue and black uniform of some kind with black leather heeled boots, a rapier at her side, and a black tiara on her head. Must be a really bad whatever-he-is. thought Hal before deciding to get straight to the point, “So, you two lovely ladies wanted to know about me. Where I came from, who I am, what I am. Is that right?” “Very astute observations Mister…?” “Jordan, Hal Jordan.” Hal said as he mimicked a tip of his non-existent hat. “And as for what I am, let me answer your question with one of mine. Do you believe in life on other Planets?” “You mean Extraequestrians?” “No, I mean little things that hop about and deliver goodies. Of course I mean aliens,” said Hal in a way that surprised himself. Damn, who knew I could be such a deadpan snarker? “Thou is speaking utter nonsense to us and our sister. The only life anywhere is here on Equis. Just as the only planet is Equis,” the dark blue Pegacorn said before her sister decided now would be a good time to bring her up to speed on modern Equis Astronomy. “Actually Luna, that's not entirely accurate anymore.” “And what does thou mean, dear sister?” Luna asked the taller Equestrian. “Well, while you were gone many Equestrians, Pony and otherwise, have actually taken up Astronomy, which is the study of stars and of the sky at night. Two such individuals Gally Leo and his brother Gally Lei, twin Griffons from Griffonia, discovered four other moons orbiting a planet in a way that they seemed to be doing so by themselves. Afterwards, technology kept advancing time and again leading to the discovery of whole Solar Systems never before seen. Not even by ourselves. Sentient and sapient life being on at least one of them is not that farfetched,” explained the white Pegacorn. “Um, I hate to interrupt this little lesson but, what do you mean by ‘seemed to be doing so by themselves’? Because the laws of gravity should apply throughout the universe, meaning this planet should be orbiting around the Sun due to the conflicting gravitational pulls of this planet and the sun, while the Moon orbits around this planet for the same reason,” said Hal, earning a couple of blank stares from the sisters. “And while we’re on the topic, who are you?” The white Pegacorn smiled. “True, we haven’t introduced ourselves. I am Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria and Princess of The Day. This is my younger sister, Luna, Princess of The Night,” said Celestia. “But, if thou indeed were not talking nonsense before, then thou must be speaking it now. How is this gravity supposed to move planets and moons without magic?” asked Luna. “Gravity is one of the fundamental forces of reality, it's what keeps us all from drifting off of the planet's surface into the cold reaches of the cosmos where many would not survive due to the severe lack of Oxygen that is produced from plant life found on a majority of the known planets because of the core of the planet. It’s like a magnet that's constantly pulling everything towards it. A planet’s core is what creates the gravitational pull and sometimes, in the case of the moon or moons and the star which you and the rest of the inhabitants of this world call the Sun, just their mass is what creates the intense pull. But, I think we’re getting off track here.” he said leaning forward as he spoke. “As I said before my name is Hal Jordan, I'm from a planet called Earth located in Space Sector Number 2814 out of 3600, which contains a lot of what I’ve seen here, except creatures like unicorns, pegasi, and pegacorns-” “Alicorns, actually,” said Celestia. “Alicorns,” said Hal with a nod. “Well, creatures like you are supposed to be the stuff of myth and legend, and on top of that, they usually don’t look like you.” “And what, pray tell, do they look?” Celestia asked intrigued. “Well, they're quadrupedal, first off.” said Hal, “And the females lack the, ahem, assets that you all seem to have.” Hal said gesturing to their chest areas. “Fascinating.” “Alright, let’s cut to the real reason you wanted to talk to me. Preferably without prying eyes.” he said as he got up, walked towards the hanging kitten poster, and tore it away revealing a hidden camera with a red light blinking. Celestia and Luna shot each other a glance. “Wha-? How did you know?” said Celestia. “If you’re going to hide a camera, make sure you hide it with the least obvious poster,” said Hal, before smashing the camera. “You want to know about my powers, don’t you?” The sisters just nodded their heads, unable to form words due to the shock of their camera system being figured out by a stranger, an alien one at that, when so many others had most likely thought that there was not anything watching them in such an old room. “Thought so,” Hal said as he sat back down in the chair and put his legs up onto the table, “Well ladies, you may want to take a seat because this may very well blow your minds out of the water.” Hal waited until the sisters sat down in the other seats at the table, before beginning his tale. “To start, we have to go back to before the beginning of the universe, just before whatever cosmic beings decided to create life throughout the universe and began being called God, Goddess, or Gods and Goddesses. In the beginning there existed nothing but darkness. No stars to bring life or light, no planets or moons for species to live on and call home, just pitch black nothing. This nothing ruled itself in peace and, in its own way, it was happy. Until another entity appeared, one of blinding light and everlasting life, the new Entity unknowingly was pushing back against the original causing it to lose its own home. In anger and retaliation the dark Entity fought against its younger sister I guess you could call it for intruding upon its only home and taking what had belonged to it for so long. The younger Entity became sad that its elder was fighting against it for something outside its control and tried to placate the elder being, but it would have none of it. It felt that everything in sight belonged to it and demanded the younger being to vanish, to return from whence it came. But the younger Entity did not know where it came from, or how to return which only served to anger the dark Entity further causing the fight to escalate into a full blown war. For millennia the two fought each other until they wounded each other severely. The white Entity shattered into seven new beings, each one representing a color and a single emotion, while the dark one was put into its equivalent of a coma and was sealed away by the remaining will of the younger sibling in hopes that they could come to reach an understanding one day. The dark being was named Necroz, and the white Entity remained nameless in lore. As for the seven other entities, they each chose a name and learned of what they represent in time. Butcher the Entity of Red Light and Rage, Ophidian the Entity of Orange Light and Avarice, Parallax the Entity of Yellow Light and Fear, Ion the Entity of Green Light and Will Power, Adara the Entity of Blue Light and Hope, Proselyte the Entity of Indigo Light and Compassion, and finally Predator the Entity of Violet Light and Love.” Hal then held up his hand, the one that bore his Power Ring. “See this ring? That’s the source of all my powers, and there are others who use the same power source as me, the Yellow Light of Fear. And there are six, maybe eight, other organizations that use the other colors and Emotions. Thing is, though, we can't use our powers without our ring having been charged by the Power Battery. That’s how Twilight and her friends beat me. My ring ran out of energy, and left me a sitting duck,” explained Hal. Luna adopted a puzzled sort of look. “Thou say thy ring is fueled by fear, and yet thou certainly do not seem afraid. In fact, thou seem brimming with confidence,” she said. “An easy mistake to make,” said Hal with a nod. “But what really gives me my strength is the ability to instill fear in others. The better mastery of fear the users of rings like mine have, the more powerful they are.” Celestia nudged her younger sister with a smile. “Perhaps you should get yourself one of those yellow rings, Luna. Especially considering what Twilight told me about last Nightmare Night,” she said. “While I am interested in learning more about the possible holiday you call Nightmare Night, I will tell you now I would highly advise against joining the Sinestro Corp, as most of the members are insane, murderers, or the worst beings imaginable. Only a handful are respectable beings in their own right, me and the Corp’s founder Thaal Sinestro being two of them.” Hal said with grim seriousness. “Oookay…” said Luna. “Thou said thou needed something called a ‘Power Battery’ to make thy ring work. What doth that look like?” “The Power Battery looks something like a railway lantern, only it’s pure yellow and the closer you get to it the more afraid you feel when it’s active.” explained Hal. “I see…” said Celestia. “Well, I think that’s about everything I need, so Luna, you want to go ahead and do your bit?” She said turning to her sister. “What bit?” asked Hal, confused. “We have a proposition for thee Sir Jordan.” “What sort of a proposition?” Hal asked cautiously. “We wish for you to become something akin to a knight, loyal to only me and the Night Guard.” “Like a mercenary or an assassin?” “No, like a knight who pledges themselves to a noblestallion or noblemare until the end of their days.” “So you want me to serve you, until I die in battle or by natural means? Is that right?” “Verily.” “No.” Hal said causing Luna to huff in disappointment. “Tis a shame. And here we were going to use this opportunity to give thee leeway with the other Nobles and lessen the sentence they have chosen to bestow upon thee for thou’s crimes.” Luna said as she started to get up, “If thou wishes to remain imprisoned until thy death sentence is carried out then so be it.” This is reminding me of the Suicide Squad scenario, thought Hal. “Alright, I'll do it. But there will be rules. First, I don't unjustly kill. I will injure and terrify, but I will never kill those who do not deserve it. Second, I am not someone who will do whatever you say, whenever you say it, if the order you give me goes against my moral code I will not follow it. Third, I'm guessing there will be others joining in on this ‘Knight’s Order’ you're gathering, so if I'm the first one I'm the leader and I pick who gets added. Finally, if I find out that you or someone under Celestia or you have implanted an explosive anywhere in or on the Order’s bodies, I will personally take that pony and make him or her live out their worst nightmare until they can no longer feel fear, in a bad way. Is my side of this negotiation understood your highness?” Luna and Celestia glanced at each other. “Yes…” said Luna uneasily. “Then we don’t have a problem,” said Hal. “My first order of business, before I do any sort of missions, however, is to find my Power Battery, otherwise I’m about as useful as a normal guard. I wouldn’t be surprised if Twilight or another one of those mares from Ponyville has it.” “Fair enough,” said Luna with a nod. “Once thy Power Battery has been returned to thee, thy first assignment is to provide extra security detail for Shining Armor and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza’s marriage.” Celestia nodded. “As Shining Armor mentioned earlier, a threat has been made against Canterlot. I wouldn’t be surprised if some, if not all of the Nobles who passed down your sentence believed you to be the one behind it. Your task is to find out who’s really behind it and put a stop to them,” she said. “Sounds like fun,” said Hal, standing up as the Princesses did the same, before shaking each of their hands. “Well then, I think that’s all. Luna will show you to your quarters,” said Celestia. “Follow me, please,” said Luna. Hal nodded and followed Luna out of the interrogation room.