//------------------------------// // Chapter two: A whole planet of new friends // Story: The Unlikely Lanterns of Planet Equis // by xanderman1201 //------------------------------// “Because…do you know what I keep in here?” The Doctor asked as he stood by the doors of the TARDIS, a playful smile on his face. “Muffins?” Ditzy “Derpy” Doo, a grey Pegasus with a blonde mane and golden eyes that were never pointed in the same direction, asked. “The alleyway we came in from?” Sparkler, Ditzy’s teenage unicorn daughter, remarked sarcastically. “In a matter of speaking, yes to both, because what I keep in here is…” He turned around and put a hoof on the doors. “…absolutely everything.” He pushed, and both of the mares with him gasped at the sight. On the other side of the doors was outer space in all its glory. The beauty of stars and nebulas and the entirety of the cosmos right outside those doors, so close they could reach out and touch it if they wanted to. Sparkler walked up to the threshold first. “No way. This…this can’t be real. It’s got to be an illusion or a trick or-” “Oh, hey Sparkler, what are you doing all the way out here?” A familiar voice interrupted. The Doctor blinked in surprise and poked his head out the door. What he found was the strangest sight he’d seen yet in his entire life. Slowly floating past the TARDIS was Pinkie Pie in a transparent green bubble. Her mane was straight, and she looked tired. It also looked like she had been crying recently, even though she had a very genuinely happy smile on her face as she looked at them. “Pinkie Pie?” “Hi there, Time Turner!” she said, waving at him in an enthusiastic manner. “Wow, you really do get around a lot. How did you get your whole house this far into outer space?” The Doctor stared at the pink pony in the green bubble, completely bewildered. “It’s my TARDIS. It’s supposed to be able to travel in time and space.” “Cool! I’d love to stay and chat some more, but my bubble won’t let me. See you guys around!” Pinkie called back to them as her bubble carried her away. The inhabitants of the TARDIS stood there, staring after her, completely confused as to what had just happened. Finally, Sparkler spoke up. “Mom…we’re in outer freaking space.” “I noticed that.” Ditzy replied. “Your boyfriend lives in a blue box that travels in outer space.” “I noticed that too, sweetie.” There was another pause, before Sparkler spoke again. “Mom?” “Yes Sparkler?” “This is your coolest boyfriend yet.” “How did she get this far out in space?” The Doctor asked himself, as he continued to stare after Pinkie Pie. * “I wonder where Dinky was…” Pinkie commented out loud to her bubble as it started to pick up speed again. She had lost track of how long it had been since she had left Equis. She had been woken up from her sleep when the bubble had taken her close to a particularly bright star, and had spent a lot of the trip trying to figure out a way to play Patty Cake with herself in an effort to alleviate her boredom. It hadn’t been going so well. Bored out of her mind, and with nothing else to do but think, Pinkie had gone back over everything that had happened during the last month in her head, for absolutely no reason. She had then attempted to see how high she could count, only to quit after reaching three hundred seventy-four thousand nine hundred eighty six because it turns out that counting in an effort to relieve boredom was not only more boring that being bored in the first place, but was also incredibly depressing. After that she remembered she had a paddle ball hidden in her mane for boredom emergencies, but the string broke and the ball ended up hitting her in the face, so she put it away. After that she had seen Time Turner in his fancy blue box that could travel in time and space, along with Derpy and Sparkler. And now that she was done reviewing the events of the last however-long-it-had-been she was bored again. “Wow; who would have thought space was so boring?” Pinkie asked the bubble as she turned around to face the direction they were headed in, only to gasp in surprise. The bubble was approaching a rather large, green, planet, and was beginning to slow down again. Judging from the look of things, the bubble was actually going to land this time. The planet itself had the same symbol on it as her ring, which was probably a sign that she was right about it being her destination. She let out a sigh of relief, glad that the trip was finally over. There was only so much of outer space she could take without having something else to keep her from getting bored. The bubble quickly began to descend through the atmosphere, decelerating at a very gradual rate. As she got closer to the world, Pinkie could see that the part of the planet that made the symbol from her ring was a bunch of giant green buildings, bigger than even Canterlot Mountain. As she continued her observations, she realized that it wasn’t just the symbol; the every last bit of green she’d seen from outer space had been a building. The entire planet was a massive green Manehatten only with bigger, more alien looking buildings. Well…okay; in fairness, green wasn’t the only color around, just the most common one. The buildings also had lots of white, and occasionally some black too, but overall it was very monochromatic. The pink pony started to notice something else too. Aliens. Lots of aliens. Aliens of all different shapes, sizes, and colors, and all of them wearing similar outfits to the one Saban had worn. They were everywhere. They were walking on bridges, moving around in buildings, standing on balconies, flying around (even the ones without wings!). There were so many aliens… …So many new friends just waiting for her to meet them. There was a burst of confetti as her mane and tail finally burst back to their usual poufy selves. So many new friends, so little time; how was she ever going to throw all of them parties? The sheer amount of cake that would be required was inconceivable. She only had one choice: she needed to build an orbital party cannon! Before her thoughts could go any further down that set of tracks, the bubble around her popped, and Pinkie dropped a good five feet down on to a balcony, face planting the landing. “Thanks for the ride Mr. bubble.” She called to the no longer existent bubble, before removing her face from the floor. She heard someone laughing, and glanced over to an archway nearby just in time to spot an alien approaching her. It was similar in shape to Saban, but far less feline in appearance. It was tall, roughly coming up to about Iron Will’s chest in height (or so Pinkie would have said if asked to provide a comparison) and much less bulky. It looked more like a hairless ape, with pinkish colored skin…except, it wasn’t completely hairless. It had a brown mane on top of its head. It didn’t have a tail, though; just the mane. It wore an outfit similar to the one Saban had worn, except it’s came with a mask. As the alien approached, Pinkie’s ring shone once, and she found herself in a strange outfit. It was similar to the feel of a wonderbolts uniform (Pinkie’s friend Surprise had let the pink pony try her uniform on once) minus the cold spots where the holes for their wings should have been. It didn’t have a hood, but it did come with its own little green domino mask for her face. The suit itself was mostly black, with a lot of green around the torso area. On the center of her chest was a solid white circle, with the symbol from her ring inside it in green. The white circle and symbol were also adorning her flanks, right where her cutie marks were supposed to be. “Wow…snazzy.” She commented upon finishing her examination of her new outfit. “Hey there. You must be a new recruit.” The Creature approaching her said with a smile. He held out a hand to her. “I’m Hal Jordan of Earth, Green Lantern of sector 2814. What’s your name?” She put her hoof in his hand and shook it, as a toothy smile appeared on her face. “Hi Hal Jordan of Earth, Green Lantern of sector 2814! Wow, your name is a mouthful to say. I’m Pinkamina Dian Pie, but my friends all call me Pinkie Pie, so you can call me that too! I’m from Equis and I’ve been having a really weird day. Have you ever noticed how green everything is here? Where is ‘here’ anyways? And why is nothing blue? Have you ever seen a blue box flying around in outer space? What are you anyways? What’s a ‘sector’? Are you a Green Lantern too? Do you prefer vanilla or chocolate frosting for a cake? Saban told me that the Guardians would explain stuff to me; do you know who they are? Did you get carried here in a bubble too? Was it just as boring for you as it was for me? When is lunch? How-?” “Whoa, whoa, easy there! Please! Slow down with the questions!” Hal interrupted, holding up his hands slightly. “Yeah, you’re definitely a new recruit, and a little on the excited side too. Okay, Pinkie right?” She nodded in the affirmative. “Okay then, Pinkie, all I got out of that was ‘Equis’, ‘chocolate’, ‘Saban’, ‘Guardians’, and ‘lunch’. Why don’t we start with you answering some questions of mine, so I don’t waste time telling you stuff you already know, okay?” She nodded again. “Yeah, that sounds good. What do you want to know?” “Well, for starters, you mentioned Equis. Is that your home world?” She nodded once more. “Yeah; I’m from Equis, more specifically Equestria, even more specifically Ponyville.” Hal stifled a laugh upon hearing this. The other Green Lantern from Equis that he knew had mentioned places like “Ponyville” and “Canterlot” before, but it was still funny every time he heard it. “Okay. I take it you already know your planet has a Green Lantern?” “Yep; the unicorn one, from canterlot. She helped during the changeling invasion.” “Okay, good. Next question: you mentioned Saban Ran’ger. How do you know him?” “He’s my friend.” Pinkie said, before her look of happiness turned into one of sorrow, and her mane and tail fell flat. “I mean…he was my friend…in the short time that I knew him.” A look of understanding came over Hal’s face. “Oh…I see.” Seeing that her new friend was just as sad over the news as she was, Pinkie couldn’t help but feel the need to try and provide some comfort. “I waited with him until his time came. He told me all about his home world and…and he was at peace when he went. I even gave him a proper burial.” “Thanks. It’s good to know that.” Hal paused for a moment, before continuing. “Anyways, I should probably go ahead and say welcome to Oa, and to the Green Lantern Corps.” Pinkie tilted her head in confusion, her mane quietly poufing back up again as she did so. “Oa? What’s an ‘Oa’?” Hal laughed a bit as he turned around and started walking back to the archway, motioning for Pinkie to follow. She trotted quickly to catch up to him. “Oa is the name of this planet, and the central base of operations for the entire Green Lantern Corps. You see Green Lanterns like me, Saban, and the one you have back home, are all members of the Green Lantern Corps, which is kind of like a intergalactic police force. We fight bad guys all over the universe and lock them up to keep everyone safe. There are two active GLs per sector of the universe, and three thousand six hundred different sectors.” “Wow…that’s a lot of Green Lanterns.” “Yeah, and that’s not counting all the ones stationed here on Oa or the ones who aren’t on active duty.” Hal informed her as they walked along. “The whole thing is run a group called the ‘Guardians of the Universe’…” Hal abruptly halted in front of a door. “…who you’re about to meet.” Pinkie, having been briefly distracted by the sight of another alien, didn’t see him stop, and promptly ran into the door. “Ow…” she said as she rubbed her head with a hoof. “…that hurt.” She looked up at the large doors, and her pinkie sense told her that whatever was on the other side was not going to like her very much. “So…uh…these guardians are like…the big bosses of the Corps right?” Hal nodded. “So it would be really bad if I made a terrible first impression, wouldn’t it?” “Kind of, but not too much; I make most of them mad at me almost every time I walk into the room, and I’ve been a GL for years. Just relax, be yourself, and remember that if you actually do manage to make them mad enough to kick you out of the Corps based of a first impression, I’ll give you a lift home.” * The first and most surprising thing Pinkie found out about the guardians was that… “You’re blue…” As soon as the words came out of her mouth, Pinkie knew that befriending the guardians of the universe was going to be very, very difficult. There were seven of them, sitting in chairs in a semi-circle. They were like small (shorter than Pinkie), blue versions of Hal, with (proportionately speaking) bigger heads. All their manes were white and were styled differently. The second most surprising thing Pinkie learned about the guardians of the universe was that… “…and you’re wearing red?” As soon as those words came out, she knew she should probably stop talking, unless she wanted to make an even worse impression. Unfortunately, the words “stop talking” don’t have any understandable value to Pinkie’s brain. “Well, I have to admit, this is the most surprising thing I’ve seen all day. I was expecting more green stuff, but this is definitely a refreshing change of pace. It’s like watching an old black and white movie, then going outside and seeing a rainbow. Oh my gosh, I have to tell Rainbow Dash about all this when I get back home. Although, I don’t think she’ll believe me unless-” The sound of someone clearing their throat cut her off and alerted her to the fact that six of the seven pairs of eyes belonging to the guardians were giving her a less than friendly stare. She let out a nervous chuckle. “Sorry…it’s been a really rough day. I’ll be quiet so you guys can talk now.” There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, as Pinkie could almost literally feel them judging her, and not in a good way. Things weren’t going well. “Pinkamina Dian Pie of Equis, Green Lantern of Sector 1847. Welcome to-” one of the guardians began, before Pinkie gasped. “Oh my gosh! How did you know name? Are you psychic? Is it written on the back of my uniform? Did Hal tell you? I didn’t see him tell you, but maybe he did it while I wasn’t looking and-” Again she was cut off with the clearing of a throat. A number of the guardians were now openly glaring at her. It was starting to look like she was going to need to take Hal up on his offer to give her a lift back home. “Sorry.” She said, as her ears flattened back against her head. “Welcome to Oa and to the Green Lantern Corps.” The Guardian she had interrupted continued. “As a Green Lantern, you will be expected to adhere to the laws of the guardians, and show us respect.” “Sorry.” Pinkie whimpered out, shrinking under the hostile looks she was getting. Hal had clearly forgotten to warn her about their temper and frightening stares. “Don’t worry too much about it; everyone makes mistakes…” One of the other guardians said. His voice carried a tone of kindness to it that was missing from all the others. He glanced around at his fellow Guardians. “…Some of which bigger than others.” He turned his gaze back to Pinkie, and she instantly noticed a hint of a smile on his face. “I’m sure the next time you are brought before us, you will do much better. Until then, Pinkie Pie of Equis, you should leave and have Hal Jordan train you with the ring.” Upon hearing the nice guardian call her “Pinkie” instead of “Pinkamina” the party pony knew for sure that she had at least one friend among the Guardians of the Universe. A small smile appeared on her face; there was hope for her as a Green Lantern yet. * “How did it go? Not too badly I hope.” Hal asked as the doors shut behind Pinkie. “Well…at least one of them didn’t seem to hate me, and they told me to have you train me how to use my ring, so I don’t think I’ve been kicked out yet.” She replied. “Really? They said I was supposed to train you?” Hal smirked. “Well then, I guess we’d better get started right away. For your first lesson…” Hal’s body became surrounded in a green aura. He rose a good five feet into the air, smiling at Pinkie’s shocked expression. “…I’m going to teach you how to fly.” Pinkie stared at him in disbelief. Her? Fly like Dashie did? The thought alone boggled her mind. She was going to learn how to fly! She could picture it in her head; her and Rainbow Dash, soaring above the clouds together, zooming around, having a blast… She was quickly brought out of her thoughts as her head hit the ceiling. Her focus having been broken, the unintentional aura that had appeared around her dissipated, and the pink pony found herself falling a rather long distance back to the floor. Oh, pony feathers; this is going to hurt. The neither the pain nor the impact with the floor ever came. Instead she landed on something soft. She looked down and saw she had landed on a giant, transparent, green pillow. There was a beam of green light connected to it that led back to the ring Hal was wearing. “Little quick on the take off there, pink stuff. You might want to try not rocketing yourself into the ceiling.” “That sounds like a good idea to me.” Pinkie replied, and then paused before asking. “How do I do that?” “Just do what you did last time only think about doing it more slowly. In fact, why don’t you not even focus on flying just yet; try to hover in place first.” Pinkie nodded, and then tried to do as he asked. Closing her eyes, she tried to picture herself hovering. Rainbow Dash appeared in the mental image next to her, but unfortunately the imaginary Pegasus was bored and wanted to try out some stunts. The next thing Pinkie knew, she’d smacked face first into a wall. “Okay…thinking about Dashie is definitely not a good idea when I’m supposed to be taking this slow.” She muttered to herself. Fortunately Hal caught her with another cushion before she could hit the floor. “You know, most people try to avoid crashing into things face first.” “Don’t worry; I think I know what I’m doing wrong now.” Once more Pinkie closed her eyes, and pictured herself hovering again. The mental Dashie came back, but this time Pinkie pushed it aside in favor of a different friend. The imaginary form of Fluttershy appeared hovering next to her pictured self, flapping just enough to stay air born. “Well, looks like your getting the hang of it now.” Hal said. Pinkie risked taking a peak and found herself floating in the air, once more surrounded by a green aura. Good old quiet, slow, careful Fluttershy. She thought to herself, smiling. The party pony did a little mid-air twirl, and let out a small squeal of delight. “Wow…this is so cool! I’m actually flying! By myself! I’ve always wanted to fly like a Pegasus!” As soon as she finished talking, her ring started beeping and blinking. “Ring power levels at critical; power failure is imminent.” The ring said. “Say what now?” Pinkie asked the ring as she held it up for a better look. The blinking and beeping died off and Pinkie’s aura, along with her suit, disappeared. The party pony hung there in the air for about five seconds before her brain processed that she should be falling. True to Pinkie’s cartoonish defiance of the laws of physics, the second she realized this fact she fell. “Oh horse feathers!” she shouted in surprise as she began her sudden decent. Thankfully, as he always had so far, Hal caught her with another cushion. Not so thankfully, he failed to catch something else that had appeared when Pinkie’s uniform had vanished. The party pony’s lantern battery bounced off of her head as it made its trip to the floor below. The blow dazed her, and she found herself watching cartoon stars and planets circle her head. “Ouch. You okay there?” Hal asked. “There are stars and planets circling my head; I don’t think I can deal with astronomy right now.” Pinkie replied before shaking her head and coming back to her senses. “What just happened?” “Your ring ran out of power. Your lantern battery popped out when the power failed.” He informed her, as he lowered her to the ground. The pillow disappeared, and Pinkie planted her four hooves firmly on the floor. Hal landed and picked up her lantern by the handle, carrying it over to her. “Which makes for a really good lesson number two: Always keep your ring charged. You never know when you’re going to need to make a long trip out to the middle of nowhere, and if the power cuts off in a dangerous situation, like in the middle of a flight through space or while you’re fighting a killer alien monster, you might end up like-” “-Like Saban.” Pinkie finished for him, with a frown. Hal nodded somberly, then sighed, and held out the lantern for her. “Anyways, it’s probably a good thing it ran out in here instead of on your way back to Equis. Recharging is really simple; all you have to do is put your ring into the lantern and say the oath. You do remember the oath, don’t you?” Pinkie nodded, and then put her ring adorned hoof into the lantern. “In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil’s might, beware my power…Green Lantern’s light!” Her ring shone brightly for a moment, and her uniform reappeared. She removed her hoof from the lantern. Her hoof was tingling and the ring itself felt charged with energy. The last time she had felt anything close to what she was feeling now was when she had last put on the Element of Laughter. This ring…it’s so powerful. As strong as my element and ten times easier to use! To think, there are thousands of these things being used all across the universe… “It’s incredible…” she whispered in awe, staring with renewed fascination at her ring. “Yeah, the first time charging always feels like that. In any case you should probably put you lantern away now that you’re done recharging.” Pinkie looked up from her ring, to her lantern, then to Hal. “Okay, but…where do I put it? It’s kind of big and I’m pretty sure this outfit doesn’t have any pockets.” “Your ring is preprogrammed with a pocket space for holding onto your lantern. All you have to do is will it to be put away, and your ring will store it for later.” Hal informed her. Pinkie closed her eyes and focused, willing the lantern to go back inside her ring. She felt the lantern return to its pocket space, waiting for the next time it needed to be used. She opened her eyes and once again looked at her ring in amazement. “Anyways, we should probably go someplace else before we continue your training. I’m sure the guardians don’t appreciate us slamming into the walls out here.” the green aura reappeared around Hal, and he lifted off the ground. “Come on, know exactly where we can go, and I’ve got a friend there I’m sure you’d love to meet.” Pinkie’s ear twitched and a gigantic toothy grin spread across her face. “Friend?” She took off quickly flying past Hal, and heading straight for the archway they had initially entered through. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” * As Pinkie flew through the sky, following Hal to wherever he was leading her, she couldn’t help but ponder a very interesting question. “Hal?” “Yeah Pinkie?” “What are you?” Hal glanced back at her, giving the pink pony a questioning look. “It took you this long to ask that?” “Well, I up till now I was kind of busy. First I was landing on a strange new world, then you were telling me stuff about the Green Lanterns, then I was meeting the guardians, then you were teaching me how to fly and recharge my ring and stuff…this is really the first moment since I got here that I haven’t been busy thinking about other stuff.” Hal chuckled before responding. “Yeah, the first day is always pretty busy for new lanterns. Anyways, to answer your question, I’m a human, a type of creature from a planet called earth. It’s located out in sector 2814. You should visit some time. Later on, of course, once you’ve got some experience with the whole lantern thing.” “I think I will. Thanks for the invite.” “No problem, just remember to let me know ahead of time before you come. Nothing quite panics the human race as easily as an unscheduled alien visitor.” Hal slowed down to a stop. “Speaking of going places, it looks like we’re here.” The human and pony both descended, coming in for a gentle landing on a balcony, directly in front of a pair of doors. “Now, just as a heads up; my buddy is kind of a big scary looking guy. He can be pretty intimidating when he wants to, and he usually scares the new recruits pretty good, so be ready for that.” Pinkie nodded to show she understood, and her human friend opened the doors. Inside was a large open space. There were other Green Lanterns flying around inside. Some were chasing after others and shooting blasts of green energy at them, while others were creating obstacles like walls, pillars, domes, and shields with their rings like how Hal had made the cushions when he was teaching her how to fly. Off to one side, a group of lanterns were sparing with various weapons made from the same green energy. In the middle of it all, there was an alien roughly the size of Iron Will the Minotaur, in both height and width. His skin was a pinkish color and his eyes were red. His head looked a bit like a bulldog’s. His suit was different from all the other ones she’d seen so far. The suit itself was all black, but had green armor over it, with the Lantern symbol on the chest plate. He was shouting at the other Green Lanterns. “I said over, not under! Do it again, you useless piece of space trash! And you! What is that pitiful excuse of a construct supposed to be anyways?! Give me five laps around Oa and then make a new one, you worthless rookie! You two over there! If you’ve got time to slack off, then you’ve got time to do a couple hundred pushups! Get to it! Or do you want to try and go a round with me instead?!” This last comment was directed at Hal and Pinkie, the latter of whom was smiling. “That sounds fun! Let’s do that!” Pinkie said as she bounced her way over to the large alien, stopping just a few feet in front of him, before tilting her head to one side and giving him a questioning look. “By the way; a round of what, exactly, am I going with you?”