Chapter 4
Chapter 4
“Uh...” Shining took a moment to collect his thoughts before speaking again. “Is that a bad thing?”
“Not particularly.” The bird-alien said. “It could mean that the ring has not yet adjusted to your mental input. Keep it on for a day or two and it should adjust.” Hopefully it won’t take too long; I still have no idea how to explain this to Cadence. Shining nodded before rolling over onto his stomach and standing up, turning to face the two others.
“So... who are you?” he asked.
“My name is Tomar-Re,” the bird-alien said. “I am the Green Lantern of Xudar and keeper of the Book of Oa.”
“My name’s Shining Armor of, uh... Equus.” he raised an eyebrow. “Unless it’s called something else. Is it?”
“If there is one, I don’t know of it. I have other duties to attend to, but I would like to speak to you later. Ke’haan will take you to the training grounds.” Tomar-Re’s ring glowed brightly and the alien flew away, leaving Shining alone with the minotaur named Ke’haan.
“Is it possible to do the training some other time?” Shining asked. “I didn’t get the chance to explain things to my wife before I... left.”
“Training shouldn’t take long, and I’m sure your wife would understand. Come, follow me.” Ke’haan began to walk away, and Shining paused for a brief moment before trotting to catch up with the alien. I’m not going to get out of this, am I? “Equus... That’s in Sector 2814, isn’t it?”
“That’s what the ring told me.” Shining looked down to the green band wrapped around his foreleg. “I’ve never seen a... Green Lantern, so I have no idea what’s going on. Is there something I should know?”
“Abin Sur was well liked amongst the Lanterns. His passing shall be mourned.” Shining frowned, his ears flattening against his head.
“Guess I’ve got a lot to live up to...”
“If you see it that way. All we ask is that you carry out your duties as a Lantern to your utmost ability.” ... I think I could do that. Shining took a few deep breaths to calm himself. Even when surrounded by dozens of aliens and other beings, he was still a member of the royal Guard, and he composed himself as such. “So, how did you come upon the ring, Shining Armor?”
“It hit me in the back of the head and then dragged me through the snow.” Ke’haan suppressed a small bark of laughter.
“The rings can be a bit blunt when they recruit new members. Give it some time to adjust, and everything will be fine. I also suspect that a bit of training will help you control your ring better.”
“... Fair enough. Are you in charge of that?” another laugh.
“I do train some new recruits, but I am currently off duty and your sector is just out of my jurisdiction. No, Lantern Kilowog will be handling your initial training.”
“... Who’s Kilowog?” Ke’haan said nothing, instead stopping and ushering Shining towards a large group of Lanterns. He did see one or two ponies standing in the group, but the majority of the Lanterns were alien in some way or another; some looked like large bipedal apes, others looked like some variation on a lizard or insect, and Shining thought he saw a squirrel sitting on the shoulder of one of the aliens. And standing before them was a massive pig-creature, small jets of steam billowing out of its nose with each breath. Shining also noted that his uniform contained the same circle and line image that he had seen before. Maybe it’s something with rank...
“Kilowog!” Ke’haan called, catching the pig-creature’s attention. “Got a late arrival here.”
“Do we now?” Kilowog asked, his lips curling into a devious smile. “Since he seems so content on arriving late, why doesn’t he come up here and explain himself to me?” Singled out by the drill instructor... Joy. Shining steeled himself for what was to come and walked forward, the other Lanterns-in-training parting as he moved. Once he was in front of the crowd, he stood at attention and looked Kilowog in the eye.
“I have nothing to explain, sir.” Shining said.
“Sure you do, poozer.” Kilowog snorted before he started yelling again, this time directed at the group. “Don’t expect me to take your sucking up that easily! When I’m finished with you, you will actually be halfway decent Lanterns, but until I say otherwise you pathetic wastes of air are nothing but slaves to me! Do you understand?”
“Yes sir.” the group chimed. Shining furrowed his brow slightly before sizing up Kilowog; aside from being a giant pig-thing he did not seem to be all that different than a normal drill sergeant. He was loud, but Shining had yet to see any real force that he could apply to get the recruits to do anything. Unfortunately for Shining, his ring detected something else in his mind, and a construct resembling a hoof-boxing glove materialized and socked Kilowog in the back of the head. Every single being standing in the courtyard looked at Shining, some of the other recruits fidgeting around nervously.
“I don’t think you should have done that...” the squirrel began before Kilowog cut it off.
“No, it’s fine.” he said, grinning. “I was looking for volunteers anyway.”
...................
... yeah, I probably set myself up for this. Stupid ring. Shining thought after being encased in a large green sphere.
“Now,” the pig-alien said, “You can use the ring to create anything you can imagine, within the limits of the ring’s power supply. The strength of your constructs directly correlates to the strength of your will. You freak out or doubt yourself, you’re dead... with how terrible you all are, I’d expect this sooner than later.”
“Kind of obvious, isn’t it?” Shining said from inside his bubble. “The thing about freaking out? I’m sure most of us could figure-”
“I didn’t ask for your answer, cadet!” Kilowog barked. Shining rolled his eyes and looked towards his ring. Kilowog mentioned something about imagination... Shining focused, trying to think of some way to get out of the bubble and back with the recruits. The ring flickered before a small knife construct appeared, and with a flick of his hoof Shining sliced a hole in the bubble and leapt to the ground.
“Guess your will wasn’t strong enough if I could get out.” he said once he landed. He tried not to sound too smug, but one-upping a drill sergeant was always a welcome experience.
“If I really wanted to keep you in there, you wouldn’t have been able to get out.” Kilowog responded, walking over to a box and pulling out a yellow disk. “If you’re so confident in your skills, then catch!” with that, Kilowog hurled the disk towards Shining’s head. Instincts kicked in and Shining dove towards the ground, but not before sending up a net construct to catch the disk. The disk impacted with the construct, and despite slowing down slightly it broke through the net and shattered against a wall. Shining blinked a few times as his construct dissolved, his mind trying and failing to find an explanation.
“... What.” was all he could say.
“New lesson,” Kilowog said, turning to the group. “Overconfidence will get you killed faster than doubt. I would let it slide on account that he tried to dodge, but he still wasted valuable ring energy trying to block the disk.”
“But why did it break through?” Shining asked, still somewhat dazed from the experience. This drew a few murmurs from the other recruits.
“Doesn’t he know about the yellow handicap?”one of the Lanterns asked.
“He’s an Equestrian; they don’t even have space travel yet.” another replied. Shining ignored the second comment, eyeing the fragments of the yellow disk.
“... Why?” there was no immediate response. Shining looked around, noting how many of the other recruits were looking at him as if he had just set himself on fire. Realizing he was not about to get any answers soon, Shining asked again. “Why yellow? I mean, you have this really powerful device that lets you fly in space and make things with your mind, and it doesn’t work on yellow? Wouldn’t someone just paint a crossbow or sword yellow and then go on a killing spree?” the other recruits looked to him, and then to each other, trying to find some meaningful answer. “Don’t tell me no one ever thought about this.”
“Just get back here and shut up about yellow, poozer.”
..................
Shining was not sure how long they had been training. Kilowog had eventually moved on from singling him out, but that still did not make the training sessions any easier. Mentally he chided himself for not pushing on like a good soldier, even if he was on a different planet surrounded by aliens... now that he thought of it, the aliens were not all that bad.
Although, not everything was adjusting properly. Shining was not sure what, but something about the entire situation just seemed off; his rushed recruitment, the yellow weakness, all of it did not seem right. Kilowog singling him out was to be expected, but the other parts...
“I can’t help but notice that you seem troubled.” Shining looked up and saw Tomar-Re standing over him.
“When you got recruited, did you ever notice how things around here are... weird?” Shining asked.
“Not particularly, no. Would you be more specific?”
“Well... It kind of feels like I was pushed into this position unnaturally fast. When I joined the Royal Guard back home, I was at least given some time to prepare, but now?” Shining shrugged. “Am I just overreacting, or am I right?”
“I believe you might be overreacting. I remember Abin Sur telling me of a few sectors that were attacked by Manhunters; their Green Lanterns were brought in much in the same way as you were, rushed and without much time to prepare.”
“So... these ‘Manhunters’ are why I got brought out here so quickly?” Tomar-Re gave a small laugh.
“The universe does not revolve around the Manhunters any more than it revolves around me or you. I’m sure that, in due time, you’ll figure out what’s bothering you, but for now all I can say is remain focused and bring yourself to a level where you can deal with whatever threats await. You have potential, Shining Armor, and I’d hate to see you waste it worry over little details.” Shining thought for a moment; on one hoof he could not just give up on his training, but on the other hoof there were still plenty of questions he wanted answers to... then again, maybe if he gained a bit of recognition, he might be able to have those questions answered.
Just like triage, Shining. Just like triage...
“Do you think you can help me?” Shining asked.
“If I have time, and once your training is complete. If you ever need advice, come and find me.” With that, Tomar-Re turned and left, taking off to some other part of Oa while Shining prepared himself for the next round of training.
....................
Training continued on for some time after that. Maybe it had only been a few hours, maybe it had been a few days. Either way, Shining was sure he knew a lot more about what exactly he was supposed to do with the ring than he had when it had first pulled him out into the snow. Instead of feeling nervous, he felt almost... excited. Like when he first enlisted in the Royal Guards, or when he proposed to Cadence.
“Well, somehow you all managed to get through this.” Kilowog said as the cadets stood before a massive version of the lanterns. “Good for you. Hopefully you don’t all get yourselves killed right off the bat.” Shining let out a small chuckle; Kilowog had talked at length about the numerous ways they could get killed serving in the Green Lantern Corps (the bit about crashing into asteroids due to careless flying was amusing). But the lectures and the drills would end, for now, and Shining could get back home.
He just had to take the oath once more.
Once a certain signal had been received, Shining and the other cadets touched their rings to their lanterns. He could feel large amounts of energy flowing into his ring, some of it washing over him and down the length of his jumpsuit. As power continued to flow into his ring, he and the other cadets began to recite the oath.
“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!” As they finished, a green flash enveloped the cadets. When it cleared, Shining saw that the originally blank white circles adorning the uniforms now bore the symbol he had seen the others wearing: the same circle set between two parallel lines. Shining looked down at himself and smiled.
Great. Now I can finally figure out what’s bothering me... wait, how am I going to tell Cadence that I’m some kind of space cop?
... I’m dead.
....................
He had watched the training session below, and he was unimpressed. While he did have some respect for Kilowog, the drill sergeant could get rather sloppy with his work at times. And this new batch of recruits did not seem like much; idealists, beat cops, he had seen them all. Accept the ring and think they can change the universe... I almost pity them.
What had caught his attention, for whatever reason, was the white unicorn with a blue mane. From what information he could gather, this was the pony replacing Abin Sur as Green Lantern of Sector 2814, and first impressions were not looking too good. The recruit was unsure of himself, too reserved to be a proper Green Lantern. He had watched the new arrival, analysing every single flaw he could find from appearances alone. Perhaps I could make the effort to properly train him... He seems simple enough; it should not be all that difficult.
“Lantern Sinestro.” his ring chimed, pulling him back to reality.
“What is it?”
“The Guardians would like to speak to you, in regards to the information that Abin Sur gave you.”
“Of course...” Sinestro turned away, but stopped for a moment. “Ring, before I meet with the Guardians, I want you to find all the information you can on Abin Sur’s replacement.”
“Processing...”
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Awesome and glad to see you working on. This again
I have my own dc crossover story called Twilight Sparkle: Green Lantern of Sector 2812
If you can give it a read and maybe even give me ideas
I'm... impressed with the use of The Manhunters. So I take it Parallax will be the real bad ass he is in the comics and not the movie?
3502475 if and when he shows up (which won't be for awhile; we've still got Darkseid to fight)
Also, I wanted to give Shining something to warm up on before he starts battling gods and other nasties of that level
So remembering the man hunters will they be the main villains
And since they are apart of Irish origin story could we see atrocitus as well
3502479 Of course. Still that guy is one of my personal favorite bad guys in the comics. A being of pure fear tends to be epic personally.
3502487 perhaps
Formatting's different from the rest of the story. Intentional change, or just an editing oversight? Either way, story's still great as usual.
3502525 Check again. I just forgot to do the formatting
3502529
Happens to the best of us.
If Kilowogs training doesn't kill Shining yet his wife will
3502604
She's going to beat him black and blue trying to get the ring off.
Well, let's see here. Hal's origin + Johns' Military Background + Some hints of Kyles' doubts = Green Lantern Shining Armor ....... Seems legit
Something to remember: GLs really don't need to hide their IDs from anyone unless that's their preference (Examples include: Sinestro, both his successor Katma Tui and His daughter Soranik Natu, Guy Gardner, Jade**[Debatable, as she was never an official member of the Corps. plus she is the only human with green skin, so.....], John Stewart, and even Kilowag)
So who's the main villain here? Hector Hammond? Parallax? Mongul? BlackHand/Hoof? Nekron? Atrocitus?
I still think revealing Ion as the voice of the ring should be done. And I still think the blue meanies (collectively known as Asshole Smurf, save for Ganthet) should really meet Pinkie Pie
just because. or Discord (on second, have the blue idiots meet them both
)
I always thought the 'yellow' weakness was a bit strange (even knowing its the color of fear)
3502689 Well, Pinkie and Discord are the Plastic Man and Mr. Myxptlk of this universe, so that would be very interesting
Maybe Shining will conceal his identity, maybe he won't. As fun as being a hero might be, it'd be kind of hard to live a normal life if everyone you met would say "Hey, you're the Green Lantern, aren't you?" Maybe I'm overthinking this, but I will address this later
3502717
The emotional spectrum is weird like that. But fear can play merry hell with one's willpower. So it makes sense.
3502728
Like I Said, Secret IDs in the corps is Optional. Whether they have one or not is up to the individual lantern. Depends on which Lantern you want Shining to be the counterpart of really (Since you have him with Jordans' Origin, I assume that he would keep a Secret ID). I will state this, have his family (Father, mother, Twilight and Cadance) and a best friend character (who that is, is up to you) know he is green lantern. It makes sense to have family know about something like being a superhero. Having a best friend that knows is just Superhero 101: Someone outside the family that he can talk to about his problems that he's uncomfortable talking with family about, including his Superheroicing.
But enough about Secret ID and the whatnot, new question: Will the most powerful being in the DC universe (Besides Darkseid) appear in any of your fics? I am of course talking about the Spectre. I'd to see how the ponies of your world would deal with him.
3502954 I tossed around different ideas for Spectre; originally the Spectre was what helped Luna and Celestia defeat Discord (but Spectre went on one of his all crimes are equal rampages, resulting in Nightmare Moon) but that passed by when I started writing Princess of Themyscira and Celestia and Luna were raised by the Olympains (and have a different backstory that I won't reveal as of yet). Then I was planning on doing a Crisis On Infinite Earths style story, and have the Spectre manifest from one of the characters killed by the Anti-Monitor, but that's been delayed
Glad to see you're back in the game.
3503011 Yup. I'm still having issues with my computer charger, but my stories are here to stay
Now I am wondering who the villain is. In other news, Shining Armor should at least be headed home to work on his sector by now, after the supposed end of the training, but considering Shining has not yet met the blue midgets, I'd say that would be an interesting story.
"What is this primitive Pony doing here?"
"Chosen by the ring."
"Damn, we need to up our standards, if this is what the rings choose when a great Lantern dies."
I don't think much more was needed here, you've had him trained, met the other lanterns and introduced things like Sinestro and the yellow impurity. What happens next is going to be interesting, how does on explain to their wife that they are now an intergalactic beat cop?
3502717
Officially, it's because of the Parallax entity, currently still imprisoned within the Central Battery. Yellow is the emotional color of fear and terror, which Parallax is literally composed of – even driven into an eons-long coma as its imprisonment did, its own power is still enough to significantly diminish a GL's ability to affect that portion of the emotional spectrum, and thus that color. (Sort of like trying to swim upstream against a powerful current – possible, but incredibly difficult.)
Why else do you think one of the major criteria in becoming a Green Lantern is their "ability to overcome great fear"?
3503554 Yes, I stated that I knew why it was a weakness (Paralax and Fear go hand in hand when Lanterns are involved); I was just stating that I had the same thoughts Shining did about it. I guess its better than the Lantern with a weakness for wood.
Well, good to see this is updating.
One thing of note: Keep in mind that Shining also has Unicorn magic at his disposal. Before the ring chose him, he was still capable of creating citywide, nigh-impenetrable shields and sustaining them for days. A whole lifetime's worth of experience using that kind of magic doesn't simply go away when he put on that ring. His first instinct should have been to catch the disk with his TK.
3503983 true... I'll think of an explanation
3503554>>3503566
Truth be told, the Yellow weakness has been given several different explanations over the years, and all of the sound like copouts.
The TvTropes page for Weaksauce Weakness has a rather lengthy entry listing all of the possibilities for both the yellow and wood weakness ranging from self-imposed mental blocks to failsafes built in by the Guardians. The Parallax and Emotional Spectrum explanation is simply the latest.
3503992 Well, the ring has been acting on its own; just have that it reacted faster than his magic
3504052 that could work
Yes! New chapter!
3504074
Another possibility is that Shining was still a bit too much in WTB-mode at the time, that his instincts hadn't quite yet figured out which way to jump.
No instincts, plus no conscious direction from him, no magic.
3504036
The so-called "wood weakness" doesn't apply here – that quality was only found with Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern, and his powers came from a different source entirely.
As for previous explanations of the yellow weakness... Admittedly, I've only been following the comics since Rebirth, so I've only got the various wikis to go by, however it mentions that the Guardians had previously tried to claim the weakness as the result of a dopant (deliberate impurities within a semiconductor, in order to modulate its electrical properties) within the Central Battery, unfortunate but necessary for function. (Certainly not a lie, but as with everything else coming out of the Guardians' mouths, not entirely the truth either.)
3505441
That's what made Kyle Rayner's introduction interesting... after Jordan destroyed the power battery, the last power ring had no weakness to yellow. Explaining that major difference away years later as due to Parallax being freed from the Central Battery when it was destroyed was an interesting take on the mythos. The ring also needed to be recharged based on actual usage, not via an arbitrary 24 hour period. I'm not sure if that was ever adequately explained. My personal take on this: the individual lantern's batteries acted as a conduit to the central battery, so it's possible that the 24hour thing was simply using the small batteries as a sort of wi-fi point to access the Willpower-energy network, and this network connection from ring to Central Battery via small battery needed to be renewed on a daily basis. With the Central battery out of commission during Rayner's reign over the GL title, his individual battery must have been converted to act as a network point on it's own, and Kyle could only download a finite amount of energy from it this way.
Is Sinestro humanoid or horse-based, physiologically? Should we just assume that all of the classic aliens have their original body shapes?
3523114 I haven't decided yet. I was thinking about making him and his kind Equinoid in appearance, but I've still got some time before they actually meet face to face to decide
3496472 i understand i was just making the sugestion. :3
Sinestro isn't going to let him go back home is he?
Awesome update though
iowa, if you need any pointers on the GL's I'd be more than happy to help with your brainstorming/fact checking if you need to. After all, GL probably creates the biggest mythos in recent years thanks to Geoff Johns's extensive work on retooling the way the book series works. And with all the tweaks, side lanterns, regulations, history, etc., I'm pretty sure that there's bound to be a fanperson who'll complain you got something wrong at one point.
Although, I think you played "business kilowog" great. Tough, uncompromising, but still able to crack a joke at his recruit's expenses. Now, is Shining flying home, or is he bound to stay on oa a little longer?
3538312 I've got to cut Shining some slack...
3539234 I think he'd appreciate that
What happens in the next chapter? And is Shining going to tell Cadence about the ring and is Cadence going to tell him about the foal? Those are what on my mind.
I finally got to read these chapters and I like the idea of it a lot. Shinning Armor is a good choice to be a green lantern, and with this version of Cadence you've made, it promises for some interesting husband/wife team-ups. I'm interested to know if Sinestro is humaniod still or if he's a pony in this universe like Zod was.
I hope you continue this story sometime soon. You have a lot going on right now with stories and I know how that gets and how it's hard to stretch your attention to each. Whatever you're working on now, I hope it means you'll update these stories you've got going soon.
Quick question - why not put Shinning's ring on his horn instead of around his hoof? Just wondering.
3752697
XD
*Laughs.* I didn't even think about that, and I had the GLaDOS!Ring idea in the first place.
Thanks for that!
Ooh, I'll have to read this.
...hmm. If Hal Jordan = Shining Armor, does Kyle Rayner =... Pinkie...?
3792753 plastic man
3792753
Personally, I'm thinking that either Lyra or Cheerilee would be a good Kyle.
Oh dear.
Because Yellow is the color of Fear, Fear beats Will except when it doesn't.
Cadaveriffically so.
3502728
I pity the Guardians if they ever have to deal with the Lord of Chaos.
I got a feeling that Shining is going find out why he was chosen in the first place.
Heh you have no idea dude. How are you going to tell Twilight about this?