"And just where have you been young lady?!" Rarity half shrieked at Sweetie Belle once she had finally decided to come home, the little filly hanging her head while Zecora looked over her shoulder from the front entrance of the Carousel Boutique. "And for the love of Faust don't tell me that you were in the Everfree Forest again, because I warned you that if I caught you going into that forest again without us..."
"Technically you didn't catch me," Sweetie muttered under her breath, infuriating Rarity only further. Rarity would have probably grounded Sweetie for life on the spot if Zecora had not taken that moment to intervene.
"I had not known she had not confided in you, but through the forest I helped her through," Zecora said, taking Rarity's attention off of Sweetie Belle. "For a delicate problem she came to see me, so do not judge her too harshly. She will talk to you about it if she feels, but if not I am afraid my lips are sealed. But know that for the day she was under my care, but she should have told you to be fair."
"Well, thank you for looking out for her at least," Rarity said with a thankful look to the zebra before turning her rage back to the filly that still hadn't lifted up her head yet. "So then, little sister, would you mind telling me what was so important that you had to risk going through a deadly forest and talk to Zecora about it instead of your own sister?"
"Sorry Rarity, I wish I could tell you, but its way too big a surprise for me to do that," Sweetie said with a sly smile before she shot under her sisters legs and ran up the stairs to her room. Rarity let out a small sigh as she turned back to Zecora, who was looking at some of the felt in the shop.
"Some of these materials might make for an interesting brew," Zecora muttered as she felt them in her hoof. "How much would I pay to buy this patch from you?"
"Just take them...as thanks for looking out for Sweetie Belle," Rarity said with a sigh, looking up the stairs to where her little sister had run off to while Zecora began shoving the material into her pack. "If you cannot tell me why Sweetie Belle came to see you, can you at least tell me what she did with you while she was in the forest?" Zecora opened her mouth to answer before placing a hoof under her chin, having to think on it for a moment before she decided to answer.
"Training." Rarity blinked twice in surprise as Zecora nodded and left the shop, leaving the mare confused as to why her little sister would be training in the middle of the forest for a day. Meanwhile, Sweetie had shut her door behind her and locked it, closing her blinds to make sure that nopony could see as she pulled a blue ring out of her coat pocket and let it float in front of her, causing her to smile giddily as it floated over to her.
'This is sooooooo cool!' she thought to herself as the ring slipped onto her horn, causing a blue suit to cover her body, with a strange, alien symbol in the center of it. She smiled as she looked at her mane in the mirror to see that it was just as blue as when she had put the ring on at Zecora's. 'I hope that Rarity doesn't get too upset with me for not being honest with her, but she'd tear her mane out if she knew I had you,' Sweetie thought with a smile as she looked at the blue ring on her horn. Then she concentrated and slowly began to float off of the floor, containing her desire to laugh when she started to fly around the room.
'But if that's the way Rarity would react, then I can't wait to see the look on Spike's face when I show him,' she thought as she floated to the ground and opened to blinds just a crack, looking out onto the streets of Ponyville. 'Especially since there's a new Lantern in town!'
IOI
Deep within the Everfree Forest, in a place that only a few had gone to before, a single pony was dragging his body up a flight of broken stairs to a chamber that rested underneath the sky. His normally black and grey coat was covered in blood and he panted heavily as he sat down on what used to be a great throne, looking at the yellow ring on his head with a scowl.
"Again. That damned dragon managed to get the better of me again!" Sombra growled to himself before he coughed twice and rested his head against the throne. 'How? How could his will be greater than his fear of me? Is it because I am no longer as terrifying as I used to be...Or maybe I just caught him on a good day? It doesn't matter now, all that matters is thinking of a way to exact my revenge.' He groaned before hearing a cute squeak from his side and he looked to see a colorful circle with wings and cute eyes looking at him.
"A...Parasprite?" he asked as more and more of the small creatures began to enter the empty castle, swarming around him with interest. He noticed that they all seemed to be attracted to the ring on his head like moths to a flame. He looked from them to Ponyville with a sinister smile spreading slowly as his ring began to glow, causing all of the sprites around him to begin shaking with fear. "And I know just where to send all of you. Now...BEGONE!" A flash of yellow light shown all through the castle and the Parasprites all came flying out as fast as their fear stricken wings would carry them, all heading towards Ponyville.
IOI
"...3600 sectors?" Spike and Twilight both asked the ring in disbelief. Both of them had returned to the library after the other Lanterns had left and so they turned to the only thing on the planet that would have the information, the green power ring. But after a few questions, the two realized just how large the universe was.
"Wow, there's that many sectors for the Lanterns," Twilight asked as she sat down on a chair, trying to wrap her mind around what she had just learned. "And there's so many planets and life forms in all of them...geez and most ponies thought that humans were only a myth. Now I'm being told there's more alien species out there than I could have thought."
"And that doesn't count all the species out here in the Frontier," Spike told her as he turned off the image of the sectors that the ring had been projecting. He wasn't really shocked by there were aliens, the ring had told him that there were, but he had no idea how many there were. And with all the different Lantern Corps, he wondered just how many of them had power rings of their own. Twilight sighed at his statement and lowered her head onto the table.
"I'm glad that the princesses took the orange ring back with them to Canterlot, but I wonder why Larfleeze didn't want it," Spike mused to himself, having been under the influence of the orange ring and knowing just how hard it was to give up on anything with that ring on. "But then again, the ring does seek out the greediest person or pony, so it might just fly back to him if he's close enough."
"I'm happy they took the red ring," Twilight said with an angry look. "That was the more dangerous of the two." Spike wondered what he should say to comfort her when he began to hear screaming, followed by what sounded like hundreds of wings buzzing all at once. Both he and Twilight ran outside to see ponies everywhere running from hundreds of thousands of Parasprites, which were devouring everything in sight. "Oh, not these guys again," Twilight groaned.
"I'll keep them distracted, you go get Pinkie," Spike said as he flashed his ring and took to the skies once the suit had formed on him, looking around at all of the Parasprites with narrowed eyes. They were eating everything and it seemed to Spike that they were doing so even faster than the last time they showed up in Ponyville. A cart was gone in a second and they were also eating through buildings, endangering ponies within. Some of the Parasprites were heading right for the library, when a giant wall shot up in front of them to halt their progress.
"That is enough," Spike said with a growl as he turned the wall into a giant butterfly net, smiling as he gave it a few test swings. "All of you are getting on my nerves. Let's get you out of here!" He swung the next and caught some of them, but after a few minutes of trying and even increasing the size of the net, Spike saw that it was a futile battle. There were simply too many Parasprites to catch. All he could do was keep the ponies safe as he waited for Pinkie to show up with her instruments.
"Okay all my friends, it's time to listen to some Pinkie music!" Pinkie yelled from behind Spike as she began to play all of her many instruments at once. Spike smiled as the Parasprites all turned towards her to see what she was up to, but then he gasped in shock as they swarmed her and devoured the instruments, leaving a confused Pinkie sitting on the ground.
"Why didn't it work?" Spike growled before grabbing a number of Parasprites with a construct. When they all turned to look at him, Spike saw that all of their eyes were a yellow color. "Ring, what's with the Parasprites
'They are under the influence of a yellow ring,' the ring said, immediately confirming Spike's fears.
"And that means that Sombra had something to do with this," Spike said as he turned to see Twilight flying alongside him, catching as many of the Parasprites as she could within her magic, but it barely made a difference. There were simply too many. "Sombra's the cause of this attack! Any plan here Twilight or are we going to try and catch them all one at a time?" Spike yelled over to Twilight as he turned the net to a flyswatter and started chasing the Parasprites, who just barely managed to avoid being hit by him.
"I'm thinking!" she yelled back as she was swarmed by a large number of them. Spike scowled as he created a girder to keep an unstable house from falling on a pair of ponies. The Parasprites that were nearby then tried to eat away at his construct, but Spike smile to himself when he saw that even with their large numbers they couldn't eat through his will. He left the construct there as he flew over the town, trying to see who else needed help. The answer was everypony.
"Just how many of these things are there?!" Spike asked nopony as he created a fan to blow Parasprites away from the buildings around him.
'Seventy five thousand, six hundred and twenty two,' the ring answered after it scanned as much of the town as it could.
"Thanks ring, I really needed to know that," Spike grumbled while trying to figure out a plan to stop the swarm. He then heard a scream that he knew all too well and turned to the Carousel Boutique. The front of the building having been completely eaten away and Parasprites inside eating everything within the shop, even with Rarity trying to swat them away with a broom. He snarled as he flew towards the building, using a hand to swat as many of the pests away as he could.
"Oh Spike!" Rarity said as he landed next to her and threw up a shield to push back as many as he could. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you! These...PESTS...have eaten nearly everything in my shop!"
"I noticed Rarity," Spike said as he increased the shield to encompass most of the Boutique, but he knew that it was only a temporary solution. "Ring, can I use the power of my will to...I don't know, get rid of the fear that's possessing these Parasprites?"
'I cannot do that,' the ring said as Spike shot into the air again, blowing away some more of the bugs with a fan. A huge bundle of them began to surround him, all trying to eat away at his constructs. 'Fear is the natural enemy of will and my power will be nullified if I try to use my power to remove the fear. In order to get rid of the fear, we would need a-' At that moment, a burst of blue energy consumed the Parasprites and Spike, who felt a sudden surge of power within. It passed with the burst, but he noticed that the Parasprites near him no longer had yellow eyes and weren't trying to eat everything in sight.
"What did you do?" he asked the ring as he floated over the confused Parasprites, who took one look at him before they started floating back to the forest.
'That was not me. That energy surge can only come from one object. A blue-'
"Hey Spike!" Spike pointed his ring as he turned, but it slowly lowered as he was struck dumb by what, or rather who, he saw floating next to him in the air. She had a blue suit with a strange symbol on it, but it was similar to the one he was wearing. Her mane and tail were also both a light blue, as was the mask that covered most of her face. A blue ring sat on her horn, a ring that Spike assumed was responsible for getting rid of those Parasprites. But despite the mask and that change of mane color, Spike knew immediately who she was.
"Sweetie Belle?" he asked in total disbelief before getting tackled by the filly, who let go with the biggest smile on her face. "You're a...you...where did you get that?" he eventually asked.
"It came to me a few nights ago," Sweetie said before noticing a swarm of Parasprites down below. "One second." She shakily flew down to where they were and sent out another burst of blue energy into them, causing the Parasprites to look around in confusion. "Go on back to your homes, it's safer there," she told them with a smile as she gently nudged them towards the forest, heading back to Spike when the Parasprites headed back to their home. "So as I was saying-"
"You can tell me later," Spike said as he looked around at the still large number of Parasprites. "Right now we need to get rid of these guys and even with your help I don't know if we can keep everypony safe."
"Don't worry Spike, all will be well," Sweetie said with a smile.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Spike asked.
"Dunno." Spike and Sweetie flew into the mess of Parasprites and with Sweetie's blue energy able to reverse the effects of the fear energy, they found that they were able to deal with them in large numbers. Spike would round the Sprites up and Sweetie would use her power to release them of their fear, before helping them back to the forest. Spike was amazed at just how well she could use her ring, even if her flying was a little shaky.
"This is still taking too long," Spike growled as he tried to wrangle in a large number of the Parasprites while Sweetie help remove some rubble that had fallen on a group of ponies, the two heading back up to the sky when they were done so they could scan the town. "I wish there was a way to get all the Parasprites at once."
"Well...I can try making my burst larger," Sweetie said nervously. "I just don't know how much it will take out of me and I do not want to fall from this height," she muttered as she looked down.
"Don't worry, I'll catch you if anything happens," Spike said with a thumbs up. Sweetie looked at him for a moment before smiling and closing her eyes, creating a large sphere of blue energy on the tip of her horn. Once she thought that she had gathered enough power, she let out a scream as the burst exploded from her horn, sending the blue energy coursing through everypony in the town and all the Parasprites as well. Spike could feel the hope running through him as his ring seemed to supercharge itself from the blue energy, while ponies everywhere were suddenly filled with hope. The Parasprites all stopped eating everything as the blue energy washed over them and began to leave the town, all of them heading back to their homes peacefully. Sweetie groaned once and began to fall, but Spike had been waiting and caught her before she could fall too far.
"Okay, that wasn't fun," she groaned as the blue energy surrounded her again, but she was too tired to fly. "Did it work?" Spike looked around at the town, seeing how all the Parasprites had left or were heading to the forest.
"Yeah, I think it worked," Spike said, before realizing that a lot more green energy than usual was coming off of him. Now that he thought about it, he had never felt this strong, not even after charging his ring to its full power. He began to wonder why that was before Sweetie groaned again and held a hoof to her head. "Come on, let's get you back to Rarity. She can take care of you."
"Ugh, I think that was too much for me," Sweetie groaned as Spike flew her back to the Boutique, where Rarity was still cleaning up the mess caused by the Parasprites. She waved Spike down when she saw him approach, but then her jaw hit the floor when she saw who he was carrying.
"Sweetie Belle! What happened to you and why...why are you wearing one of those rings?" Rarity asked in absolute horror when she saw the blue ring around Sweetie's horn. "Sweetie, take that off immediately! You have no idea what it could do!"
"Don't worry Rarity, the blue ones aren't bad," Spike said as he placed Sweetie on his sisters back. "The Blue Lanterns are one of the good lantern corps. Isn't that right ring?"
'The Blue Lanterns are fueled by hope,' the ring explained to Rarity. 'They are allies to the Green Lanterns and help to spread hope throughout the galaxy. And they have no side effects like the red or orange rings that twist the user’s personality.'
"See Rarity? I'm fine," Sweetie said weakly. "Just tired." Rarity looked back at Sweetie nervously before looking to Spike with worry.
"You are certain that it's safe?"
"The ring would only choose somepony who has great hope within them," Spike said, a little surprised that one of the main six hadn't been chosen again, but he figured that it didn't matter as long as somepony like Sombra didn't get their hooves on it. "I have to go Rarity, Twilight will want to know what happened and she'll want to be told about another Lantern. Keep an eye on Sweetie." Rarity watched him fly away before she turned and brought Sweetie up to her room, the only place that the Parasprites hadn't touched. She gently placed Sweetie on the bed before trying to remove the ring with her magic, only to find that it would not come off.
"Rest well sister," Rarity said gently as she kissed Sweetie on the forehead and left the room, looking down a bit as she did so before closing the door behind her. 'I can't believe Sweetie became a lantern like Spike. She's always been so lucky and everypony loves her...' Rarity walked away from Sweetie's room, not knowing that somewhere far away, a stone ring was stirring.
IOI
Sombra waited until night had fallen before he decided to sneak close to the town, knowing full well that the green ring could sense him. But what worried the former king on this night wasn't the fact that Spike still had the green ring and no lives had been lost during the Parasprite attack, but it was that another Lantern had appeared in the land and this time that Lantern was on Spike's side.
'Not to mention her power is somehow able to overwrite my own,' he thought as he slipped through the streets, heading towards the house of the new lantern. He knew that he had to be careful since the rings could sense each other, but he was banking on the new lantern not being awake at this time of night. 'I should be surprised by the fact that the filly became the new lantern, but after she hung onto hope for a week, I'm not that shocked.' He slipped through a hole in the front of the shop and snuck upstairs to the filly's room, where he found her sleeping in the bed with the ring still on.
'Time to die!' he thought to himself as he created a blade of yellow and prepared to bring it down, when something interesting caught his attention. At the window a stone ring was tapping lightly against the glass. Sombra walked over to the window and silently opened it, allowing the ring to weakly float through before it fell to the ground, trying to move forward as it fought against it stone prison. He picked it up and looked at it closely, noticing that it had hints of orange coming through the cracks in it. A smile spread on his face as he slipped out of the room and into the hallway, where he used his own ring to break this one out of its prison.
'So that's what happened to you,' he thought as the orange ring floated in front of him. Sombra ponded what he should do with this ring as it slowly began to move, forcing him to capture it again. On one hoof, he could kill the blue lantern now and only have to worry about Spike again. But if he could find who the ring was after and turn them to his side, he would have somepony to fight with him against the two Lanterns...and he hoped it was somepony they cared for. 'Sounds good,' he thought to himself as he let the ring go and began to follow it.
'Alien ring of the orange light, show me who's the greediest pony in town tonight.'