Equestria, Ponyville - Golden Oaks Library two days after the attack of Queen Chrysalis on the Star Sapphires.
The shapes of the Elements of Harmony and Apple Bloom; each with an accompanying alien looking animal floated between The Queen of the Star Sapphires and the Leader of the Yellow Lantern Corps. The creations of yellow light became more and more defined their creator spoke.
“... and you can’t remember anything from when you were inside of this thing?”
“Um,” Fluttershy stammered. “I…I don't remember much really.” Her eyes widened as she stared at the dragon, seeing inside of the creature an image of herself with a hard face.
“It was like...I was drowning in...love.” The queen frowned a moment. “Like….being caught in river with a strong current that was drowning you, and all you could do is try and keep your head above water.” Fluttershy swallowed hard. “It carried me where it wanted to go, all I could do was go along for the ride.”
“Hum….” Twilight hummed while she tapped her chin with a hoof. She then turned to face Rainbow Dash.
“This happened to you first Rainbow,” the red lantern grunted in acknowledgment of the unicorn's statement. “What do you remember of it?”
“I don't,” the pegasus answered flatly. “It's pretty much as Fluttershy describes...overwhelming rage like fire.”
“And then...nothing?”
“Not…really,” Rainbow answered. “Everything is just a jumble after that until...”
“Until?”
The red lantern took a deep breath before continuing. “I calmed down. OK?”
“Until you calmed down,” Twilight's voice trailed off as she looked at the image of Dash and the bull creature. Her eyes narrowed as she turned back to look at Rainbow Dash again.
“Why didn't you tell us that this happened WHEN it happened Rainbow!”
“I had it handled Twilight.”
Twilight laughed with a scoff. “Handled? A mysterious creature appears that takes you over, causes you to lose control over your ring and yourself, makes you both attack your own lanterns AND forget that you did it, you call that handled? That is NOT handled!”
“I stopped didn't I?” the Red Lantern answered with a growl.
“Did you? Did you? Ugh!” Twilight shouted. “But...WHY did you stop? What made you stop? What made the creature go away?” The Leader of the Yellow Lantern Corps then tapped at the images of Rainbow Dash and the three star sapphires. “And, more importantly, WHY did you all start to begin with?”
Twilight then glanced at Fluttershy. “Please Fluttershy can you remember anything, ANYTHING more? Any little detail would be helpful.”
“Well,” Fluttershy said with a half frown. “Just what I said before, it's just that...”
“What?”
“It sound funny but with all that love I felt like...” Fluttershy paused.
“Like,” Twilight stammered.
“I felt...like…” Fluttershy closed her eyes as her ears pricked up. “...a...predator.”
“Predator?”
“Yes...that's the word that continues to run though my head when I try and remember what happened.”
“Hum,” Rainbow Dash chimed in.
“Alright,” Twilight voiced as she turned to face her friend. “Did you feel the same?”
Rainbow waved a hoof “Not quite Twilight, I felt a lot like Fluttershy but 'predator' is not the word I feel when I try to remember that night.”
“What then?” Twilight asked with a snort.
The Red Lantern Archon rubbed her chin with her ring hood, as she ruminated on what to answer. Her face then made a slight frown.
“Well…I just wanted to hurt anypony…bad. I wanted to…”she paused with a hint of uncertainty. “…’butcher’ the ‘guilty’.”
Twilight summoned what looked like a construct clay tablet and began to write furiously with a construct stylus. “Interesting choice of words…” she muttered.
“All of this happened when you felt the emotion of your ring powerfully and you both 'blacked out' while whatever it was happened to you?” Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy both nodded.
“I need to do research on this,” Twilight said. “I might have an idea where this came from, and if I'm right, I know how to get to the bottom of it.”
“Really Twilight?” Rarity spoke with a tone that dripped with fatigue. “Where did those...things come from?”
The yellow lantern smiled. “It sounds like to me they are manifestations from the unconscious, and if it is...I know how to get in touch with it!”
“Why do I not like the sound of that Twilight?” Spike asked under his breath.
“Alright,” Twilight continued, ignoring the dragon's comment. “Now...the next thing: I believe we are all agreed for their own safety and sanity: the Cutie Mark Crusaders should stay together as much as possible.” Twilight said as Spike wrote in a large book. “Sweetie Belle and her Blue Power Ring will be a balancing influence on both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom.”
Rarity, lounging on a fainting couch of indigo energy pressed her lips together in a half frown and nodded as Applejack, with a loud and long exhale said “Yeah.”
“Applejack….” Twilight began. The farm mare held up a ring bearing hoof.
“Ah just think we should be figurin' out how ta get that dang ring offa' my sister insteadda' this is all!”
“I'm working on that, Applejack,” Twilight said in a soft soothing tone. “There was an...incident with Princess Celestia in Canterlot with the orange ring Apple Bloom grudgingly gave to the princess. She has had new insights about the nature its power.”
Twilight grinned nervously as Applejack raised an eyebrow at her statement. “After what she told me,” Twilight said, “this is the best thing we can do for her at the moment Applejack.”
The farm mare nodded sadly as Twilight looked at a list made of yellow ring energy.
“Now our relations with the changelings….” Rainbow Dash snorted then uttered a low rumble, causing Twilight to turn and face the Red Lantern Archon.
“Please try and be OK with the peace...” Rainbow waved her hoof and grumbled.
“I know I know. 'Leave all the Changelings alone',” she said in a suddenly soft voice like Fluttershy's. “I get it.” She glared at the Queen of Star Sapphires who recoiled a little from the gaze of the rage wielder. “What I DON'T get is taking some of them in and treating them like they're our friends!”
“Well, they did warn us of Chrysalis,” Fluttershy began. Red Lantern cut off the Star Sapphire.
“They SAY that's what they were doing Fluttershy.” Her eyes narrowed as red light flashed from them. “Me, I don't believe them. ANY of them!”
“Rainbow...” Twilight said with a gruff tone. The pegasus crossed her forelegs and half turned away from her friend.
“I said I'd stop warring with them, I NEVER said I was going to make friends with them!”
Fluttershy shook her head while Applejack quietly nodded. The love wielder turned away as she moved to sit next to Rarity, summoning a tuffet of violet energy.
“Now...speaking of Princess Celestia, she sent me something interesting this morning.”
A new ring creation appeared as the earlier images disappeared. The spreading yellow light formed sharp wings and a tail that looped over its back.
“What's that thing,” Rainbow asked.
“It looks like manta ray from the ocean,” Fluttershy said.
“It may look like a manta ray, “Twilight said with a hint of delight. “But it's not. Princess Celestia says it's a kind of ship!”
“A...ship?” Applejack asked as she stared at the image. “Somethin' ta go under the water?”
“No. Apparently it was grown to go...into space!”
“Grown?” the farm mare exclaimed.
“Yes,” Twilight answered with a gleam in her eye. “Grown! Apparently it's alive!”
“What's it for?” Rarity asked in a labored tone.
“It’s to answer some very important questions. Princess Celestia would like answers to the same questions I've been asking since Applejack found the Book of Oa and offered us this to help.”
“What questions?” Spike asked.
“Where are the other Lantern Corps? Why do they not answer our calls for help? Are we really on our own?”
***
Looking out at the scorched ground, she looked up into the sky at the great blazing sun overhead. Tendrils of plasma spat out from the great ball of fire, light brightening and fading with the arcs of flame. The air seemed to be almost boiling around her.
“Nothing will grow here,” she said out loud, the ground quivering when she spoke.
She gazed into the face of the blazing day-star, watching the eruptions bursting from it's surface. The ground almost glowed from the heat of the sun's touch.
She decided to end that, here and now.
A columned of energy burst from her being into the sky and struck the sun, which protested by sending out more tendrils of raging fire from it's surface. The touch of those flames burned, but she took them into herself to cycle back energy into and from the sun.
“You shall be calm!” she said as she poured her power into the sun. The arcs of fire began to increase as she tried to force the energies in the star to become more balanced. Slowly the light of the sun began to become more even as she concentrated on making it's behavior more regular. When she thought she had succeeded she began to withdraw her power, only to have the sun flare up again and send more burning streamers of plasma into the ground near where she stood.
She growled and used her power again, using her magic to force the protesting star to retract its claws of fire. Enough of her power was going into the task that it might not be possible to fully remove herself from the day-star when she had finally calmed it down. Just as she could 'feel' a regular 'pulse' within the core of the sun take hold, her connection to that core made her realize a horrible fact.
To make this star become fully stable, to make it shine with a calm regularity might be beyond even her own strength unless…
...she bound itself to her.
She poured more power into the sun, the perturbations of the core began to lessen when great flares erupted suddenly, as if the sun was trying to shake off her influence.
“I am one of the TITANS!” She screamed. The mountains around her, which up until now had always seemed small to her, shook with her voice. “You WILL obey me!”
The star suddenly shuddered and began to fall in on itself, pulling in the flares that it had sent out. She could feel it's solar wind become more gentle as the rhythm of the star she had felt earlier resumed. As it did so she could feel a sudden rush of power flow out of her, pulling herself into the star she now was binding! She reached out with a portion of her magic and anchored herself to the earth she stood on, feeling her size and strength flow away into the magic trying to bind the sun above her. When the very last spark of her magic was spent the drain stopped and she fell to the ground, diminished, but alive!
In her heart she could feel the core of the star burning in her, it's rhythm in time with her new heart. In order to not loose herself utterly to the sun, she tried to hold herself to a form of the earth and as she rose from the ground, she stood on legs for the first time.
'Hooves? Interesting! My new form uses hooves.'
“Sister?”
She turned and faced the image of her sister eons hence.
“Sister, it is I! Please wake, we must talk.”
Celestia awoke blinking, the sleep still weighing on her eyes as if she had not slept at all. The princess licked her lips as she levitated a glass of water to her lips and sipped. From the shadows the piercing blue eyes of her sister stared at her from the shadows.
“I have many questions and I do not know where to start?”
Celestia swallowed the water then lowered the glass. “Ask any and all of them, I will answer them if I can.” From the carafe on her side table Celestia refilled her glass. “I will provide a beginning: how about the dream you interrupted?”
“Very well,” Luna began.” This is the third night in a row you have dreamed that memory. Why do you torture yourself so? Why are you reliving that particular instant over and over again?”
Celestia chuckled. “Because of the image of mother and what it asked me.”
Luna cocked her head to one side as Celestia made a half chuckle. “Remember what it said: 'You of all who live know the reason'.” The sun princess then shook her head. “But I DON'T Luna, I don't understand! So I thought I should explore what made me so different from anypony else, and that incident is the only one that separates me from the rest of the world.
Celestia then cracked a half smile. “Or rather it separates you AND I from the rest of the world because I couldn't and didn't do it all myself did I?”
The moon princess took a deep breath and nodded slowly as her sister continued.
“It was us who made this world a garden after the other Titans had almost destroyed it. We calmed the sun and used the moon to anchor and steady the spin of the world to allow life here to flourish!” Celestia rose from her bed and walked to a window. She opened the shade and gazed out at the surrounding mountains of Canterlot and into the sky beyond the snow capped peaks.
“We made this world livable Luna, you and I. Nopony really knows what it took to accomplish it.” The sun princess then laughed. “Most of the world thinks of us as so powerful, they think of us as gods or near gods; yet they have no idea just how weak we really are compared to what we were!” Celestia sipped from the water glass again. “We were gods eons ago. The irony is humorous isn't it?”
“No sister it is not humorous, and some did know what we truly were!” The tone of Luna's voice rose in concern. “Star Swirl...”
“Yes,” Celestia breathed. “He was one of the very few that did. Star Swirl discovered what we truly were. He learned what we did long ago and how old we really are.” Celestia quivered for a moment. Luna could feel the yellow ring seem to purr suddenly as it drank up her sister's fear.
“That fact...truly frightens me. With his magic and that black ring, our old friend is now our most dangerous enemy.” Celestia sighed. “That is why I've decided to help Twilight against Star Swirl.”
“How?” Luna coughed. “That ship you gave her doesn't work sister, besides how could it help her against Star Swirl.”
Celestia shook her head. “The ship is not what I'm referring to Luna. I gave her that to see if it would aid her in finding help form the original lantern corps, to answer if we are on our own.” Luna opened her mouth to speak but the sun princess raised a hoof.
“It makes an envelope of air for the passengers, can grow simple food in its hold, heals itself of damage...”
“But it can't fly Celestia!” Luna sneered. “Star Swirl himself may have grown the ship from a small size, but even he couldn't get it to travel! Only you or I could get it to move. What good is it to us if only an alicorn's magic can...”
The moon princess suddenly stopped speaking as her eyes widened. The then quickly glanced at her power ring.
“The ring!”
“Yes,” Celestia smiled. “The ring. Any of the rings can fly it though the void. But as I said, that was not what I sent, or rather I am sending to Twilight to help against Star Swirl.”
“Then…..what are you sending her? What item or artifact could help her...”
“Star Swirl's danger is his magic. He was one of the greatest mages of all time. We need to take that advantage away from him! What I'm sending to Twilight is a weapon none of us could use safely...until now.”
The elder alicorn's horn glowed and an image of a disk appeared. It looked like a large coin with runic symbols impressed into its face. Looking at the image Luna's heart turned suddenly ice cold.
“You can't be serious!”
“But I am Luna. Very serious!” Celestia sniffed. “Just as Star Swirl 'found' that ship, he found this as well. He always feared it just as we do for the same reasons. Nothing we could do would stop it from killing us if it was ever used but now, I think that rings will allow any using this terrible weapon to get away from its area of effect when it's activated. Magic will not work around it and the place where it is used will be utterly void to magic… but rings aren't magic!”
“But...but...” Luna stammered.
“Yes,” Celestia let out a long breath. “The best way to deal with a mage is to take away his magic! Until now, we couldn't use this at all without killing ourselves too but things have changed!” the image faded. “Now...now we can use this terrible thing.”
“I...I thought the Warlock's Wheel was destroyed ages ago Tia!”
“No my dear,” the princess of the sun sighed. “I kept it.”
"Why...what would possess you keep such a lethal thing?" The Moon Princess cried.
Celestia smiled slightly. "The same thing that fuels your ring dear sister...fear."
***
Equestria, Ponyville, Golden Oaks Library Later that night.
“I don’t know why Twilight, but I really think this is a bad idea,” Spike said in a low tone.
“Come’on Spike,” Twilight said as she raised her head from a book. “It should be OK.”
“I agree with Spike Twilight.” Rarity said in a slightly pained tone. “Maybe you should re-think this.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Rarity, if what you told me you felt is true and these are living beings, we have to try and communicating with them!” Rarity’s nose wrinkled. Twilight waved her hoof as she continued. “They may have answers to the questions of what this whole thing with rings and the walking dead.”
“Couldn’t you let someone else do it then Twilight? Some other lantern?”
The yellow lantern leader shook her head. “The emanations that appeared only appeared around the first to acquire a ring and not anyone else. So it makes since that one of us should be the ones to do this.” Twilight looked into the eyes of her friend deeply.
“Besides, I’m the only one of us who has the training and experience to tackle this.”
Rarity winced. ‘So much pride and fear tangled together.’ ”Just…be careful darling.”
“Wait a minute,” Spike raised a claw. “The violet dragon appeared around three ponies not one Twilight.”
“Yes true, but one of those ponies was Fluttershy, and like Rainbow she received the first of her particular color of ring.” Twilight glanced back at the book and nodded. “I think I’m ready for this. Do you remember what to do if something strange appears?”
Spike patted a metal cylinder. “I’ve got it Twilight, the signal lamp is ready and three lanterns from each corps will come flying if I use it.”
“I am one of those that will come if needed,” Rarity sighed as she floated to the window, Spike walking behind her. “Please watch over her Spike,” she said as she touched the dragon’s cheek before turning and leaving out the window. Spike, sighed softly as the Element of Generosity departed.
Spike watched her glide away as he slowly closed the window. Twilight floated into the air before gently landing onto her bed. The lantern uniform disappeared as she settled into the comforter.
“It may take me a while to get into a trance state. Don’t expect anything right away.”
“OK Twilight.” Spike said as he gathered a book and quill and sat across from her bed.
“One thing?” Spike looked at her with a slight frown. “Why didn’t you tell anyone else what Princess Celestia told you about the blue ring? I thought you’d at least tell Applejack right away?”
Twilight Sparkle sighed then bit her bottom lip as her ears drooped. “Believe me Spike I want to, but the problem right now is what would happen if I did remove the orange ring from Apple Bloom with a blue one? Would it simply clatter to the ground? Would it fly off to find another being to attach to?”
“Princess Celestia said it just fell off her,” Spike offered. Twilight sneered slightly.
“I know but the ring the Princess had on was a copy of the original orange ring! It may not act the same with the original ring.”
The unicorn’s pupils became smaller. “Then there is her reaction! What would she do if she found out: a blue ring could allow her orange ring to be taken from her? Would she allow it? Would she go to war to ‘keep’ it?” Twilight shivered.
“Then there’s the question of, what would the ring itself do? OK we free her of the ring, the Apples are happy. But what about if the ring flies off to find another host? What would that being be like?”
She coughed. “I agree with the princess and for the record I do not like it at all but it might be for the best for the time being to let her keep the ring…at least until I can find either a way to contain it, or a being that can handle its power!”
Spike nodded. Twilight’s aura had grown slightly brighter as she spoke.
“Then there’s Rainbow Dash. She’s ready to go to war with anypony who she sees as threat! Tell her we want to take her rings and she may turn on us.”
“You think she would Twilight?” Spike asked pensively. She shook her head.
“I feel like she wouldn’t, but I’m not sure. That red ring makes her crazy! Then there’s her corps…”
“Your yellow one makes you crazy too.” he muttered under his breath. Twilight’s ears pointed at him and she cast a dirty look at him. The dragon smiled nervously.
“As I was saying…then there’s her corps. I’m afraid of what they would do if that came out! It’s just...Augh!” Twilight rubbed her head with a ring bearing hoof. “It’s just better to hold off right now!”
“OK Twilight.” Spike sighed. “Do you still want to do this now?” She nodded. He grabbed the quill.
“Ready Twilight?”
The unicorn inhaled deeply and then let out an even long breath.
“OK here we go.”
Twilight concentrated on her breathing, slowing its cycle down until a steady rhythm of respiration became like a ticking clock. Twilight let her mind drift, loosing herself in the cycle, hovering between awake and asleep.
Hovering in her mind she then began to try and reach out, probing for anything that might be dwelling within her. Emptiness was all she touched, unending void. She had no stray thoughts of emotions which was the general background 'noise' of any trance state. That was unusual, never before had she managed to enter such a state so completely and fully before.
“Hum...” she said out loud. She wanted to contact whatever inhabited the ring, but she could sense no presence what so ever. In her trance she strayed calm, but her consternation was growing.
'Did they come with the rings? Do they appear though the rings?' Her thoughts reached out to her own power ring as a thought came into her mind.
'Maybe...maybe I should use the ring to try and reach whatever it is.'
Twilight suddenly felt as if she was dunked in ice water.
Her heartbeat began to quicken as her body became rigid. Dryness filled her mouth and her coat and mane bristled as her heart felt like it was being pricked by many tiny needles. She tried to calm herself but the more she struggled against the terror now threatening to drown her the deeper she sank into emotional quicksand.
A light buzzing sound seemed to fill her ears as frighting thoughts now entered her mind like flashing lightning, blinding and burning for an instant then disappearing just as quickly as they appeared. Fear of the future, fears about the black lanterns, fears about what she was doing, fears about not having a colt friend, fears about family, fears of pain all these fears surged through her instantly then disappeared to be replaced by different jolts of terror.
She could feel where the fears came from now. They had became more abstract and primal, welling up from her deep self to become a flood that began to tear at her sense of self. The buzzing sound had become louder with each bolt of fright becoming a deafening roar in her ear when suddenly the fear of what she saw in Pinkie's 'vision': the 'creature' in herself, was real.
She was frozen with fear, unable to breath, unable to move when a strange idea came to her mind. She suddenly began to 'ride' the fear, harness the tidal wave of terror as that thought became a focus of order in a torrent of chaos.
'What if...it's using my fears to hide from me?' She reached into the flood of terror and screamed in her mind a demand. The fear seemed to form a whirlpool around her thoughts as her mind formed them.
'Who are you? What are you? Show yourself!'
Her ring suddenly buzzed in its icy tone. [= Dragon-tooth protocol activated. =]
The fear disappeared just as suddenly as it had appeared. He snapped her eyes open and looked around the room, seeing a sleeping Spike still holding his quill in his claw as he breathed softly. Twilight rubbed her chin with the back of her hoof, feeling something running over her coat and down her leg. Her skin twitched as whatever it was crawled over her coat.
Twilight's muscles twitched then her body shook in response. Streams of fluid flew off of Twilight's coat, falling on the ground like rain.
“Ugh! Sweat.” She mumbled as she levitated a towel with her magic.
Twilight wrinkled her muzzle as she dried herself. The pungent sent of fear, her fear hung in the air like a cloud on a mountain peak. The towel rightly dripped with fear. She took small shallow breaths as she rose to the window and opened the sash to let fresh air into the room.
Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath of clean air she took a moment to clear her head. The cool air felt refreshing and she felt calm when the sudden pricking of needles ran up her spine again. Light glowed somewhere beyond her closed eye lids and when she opened them to see the source she gasped.
Floating before her was a creature that looked like a very long and thin monkey Fluttershy like to take care of when she was in Canterlot. It had almost no fur except for a thin black brush at the top of it's head and below its nose. The ruddy bare skin clung tightly to the creature's frame which was also clad in the uniform of the Yellow Lantern Corps. Golden eyes stared at her with a withering cold intensity. Twilight's heart skipped a beat as she struggled to swallow, but found her mouth suddenly very dry.
“So,” a deep menacing voice sounded from the figure. “You are the one my ring found.”
It turned its head to look down over its nose at her, its piercing gaze dissecting her like the strictest school teacher she could imagine. It placed a paw under its chin and stroked at the end of its mustache.
“Interesting.” the deep voice said.
Twilight blinked then drifted back. She had seen this being before, in the records from her own ring and from Applejack's. No creature of Earth was he, the being before her came from another world very far away. The realization that she was the first pony to speak to a creature from another world brought no comfort or excitement to Twilight. He was no mystery to her…she knew all too well who he was.
Her throat felt parched, making her voice a low and raspy whisper as she struggled to speak a single word:
“S-S- Sinestro!”
“Hum…intelligent, capable, driven…” The mask of coldness cracked into a thin smile. “Just like me."
***
Equestria, The Citadel of the Green Lantern Corps at that moment.
Rufus crouched on the floor before the green power battery looking intently at the bottom pillar of stone which held it. The lantern was held between two columns of material not unlike the stalagmites and stalactites of a cave. Construct calipers gripped both the top and the bottom of the material that held the power source of the green lantern corps firm.
Rufus stared at the dials of the measuring tools and muttered quietly as his ring made him aware of a presence. He had left his senses enhanced as he stood watch over the battery. Few disturbed him in his duty save Alpha Lantern Raindrops who came to play cards and consult on corps issues and Instructor Boomerang Blitz who occasionally asked him to help in training and make small talk. Only one other cared to talk to Rufus, the one his ring told him was behind him right now.
“Every time Ah see you in a free moment, yer always tinkerin’ with somethin’,” Applejack chuckled."By the by, thank you again for fixin' the grandfather clock."
“Good evening.” He said as he continued to stare at his construct tools. "...and you are welcome Clarissi."
She sighed before talking. “Why do ya continue ta call me that Rufus? Ain't we friends now?”
The Diamond Dog dissolved his constructs as he turned to look at the farm mare. “It is your title and office. It should be used when greeting you.”
Applejack shook her head. “Ah think you an' Ah are beyond that don't ya?”
“Perhaps.” He sniffed. “But we Diamond Dogs are very...sensitive to titles.”
“Ah know, Warden.” Applejack coughed. “But Ah ain't.”
“We are an army Clarissi. We have ranks and it would be disrespectful…”
“I understand the need for respect Rufus, Ah just don’t like the highfalutin’ labels when were talkin’ like…” Applejack cocked her head. “You were one of the first Ah found Rufus…we’ve been through Tatarus together you, flappy, Raindrops an’ I. Ah never thought a Diamond Dog would ever…” The great canine nodded his head.
“I am sorry if...” the earth pony held up a hoof.
“Let’s just skip it Rufus. If yer not comfortable usin’ mah name without the title, Ah’m ok with the title as long as it’s from you.”
Rufus nodded slightly as his studded tail wagged. “I’ll try to be more…informal…in the future mam.”
‘Still not as weird a friend as Pinkie,’ she thought. “Alright then the reason for the visit…ya remember how ya asked to know about any Diamond Dog Black Lanterns were seen?”
“Any great dog Black Lanterns, not just my pack.” Rufus cocked his head to one side. “Has there been any new ones?”
“Eeyup,” an image appeared between the two green lanterns of a large 'warrior' diamond dog on the ground a scorch mark where his ring had been. He was clad in the 'uniform' of the black corps and by the look of his skin he had only died very recently. Rufus stared at the image closely, leaning in as he did so.
“Where and when was this?”
“Outside of Van Hoofer yesterday. Braeburn sent it ta me.” Applejack looked at the image, then at Rufus. “Does he seem familiar to ya?”
Using his ring Rufus highlighted the collar around the great dog's neck and was silent. His ears suddenly folded back and his teeth bared. His ring aura flashed around him and he rose into the air.
“I have to go back to my mines!”
“Whoa there big feller! Hold on! Have ya heard anythin' on the helograph?” Applejack trotted to the door of the chamber stopping just before the door and raising her hoof up. “They're tied into our system ain't they?”
“Yes they are part of our warning system and it should be functioning! No, I've heard nothing!” An image of Boomerang Blitz appeared over Applejack's ring. “I checked it when I was visiting home days ago. Both the day system and the night system were working!”
Applejack bit her lip. “Flappy, ya need ta come to the battery and guard it fer a while. Rufus has ta go home right away!”
“HOLD!” The bat pony yelled as a construct weapon disappeared.
“Night fightin'?”
“Yeah. They never close, so we don't either.” Applejack nodded. “What's up Jackie?”
“Rufus is heddin' home right away. A black lantern Breaburn took out yesterday may have been one of his folk.”
“Damn.” the instructor growled. “Has he got anypony else going in with him?”
“Wuz thinkin' that m'self.” Applejack said with a hint of worry. “Rufus ya ain't goin' anywhere without back up!”
“But...” he stammered.
“Ah'll wrangle up ah strike team for ya so you can leave right away. You'll be in charge of em. If any Blank Lanterns show up do what ya can but come back ta us alive.” Applejack rose into the air. “Sit tight until Flappy gets here.”
“Yes Clarissi.” the dog said solemnly.
Applejack blushed then frowned, “Please stop with...” Rufus held up a paw.
“I say it as a token of my respect.” His large and suddenly sad blue eyes stared into hers. “I mean no offense.”
The farm mare nodded. “Back in two shakes Rufus, Ah promise.” She disappeared in a flash of green light as Rufus stared at the battery.
“Thank you AJ,” he whispered to himself. “And please...hurry!”