The Emerald Mare Vol. 1: Succession: Issue #2: Ring Slinging
For a moment, Fluttershy felt like she died and was now going to Heaven. Not because she was feeling so good, but because she had no other way to describe what she was feeling. Only she never expected heaven to be so green. White, maybe? Perhaps blue like the sky or yellow like the sun. But green felt like such a random color for heaven.
Green. That was all she could see. Her body felt entirely weightless. It was like floating in an endless body of water except without the pressure. And then the green started to fade. Fluttershy regained awareness of her surroundings, and she still felt like she was floating towards heaven. She felt something dragging her upwards by her wing and when her vision cleared, she saw stars passing her by at great speed.
Then Fluttershy finally regained her senses as well. She felt that she was standing on a floor of solid energy. Her vision was now almost completely clear and she could see the green energy bubble that held her hostage around her. She looked down at he body in confusion and saw the uniform Grinn'glo was wearing before she removed his ring.
The ring! Fluttershy's attention snapped to the wing she felt tugging her and sure enough, she saw the exact same ring she took from the dying alien vibrating with green energy. It looked like it had a mind of it's own as it pulled her towards an unknown destination.
Fluttershy then looked around herself and saw something that almost gave her a heart attack. She realised that she wasn't dead and she wasn't floating towards heaven. She was very much alive and being carried through space. She was being abducted by aliens!
"Where... Where are you taking me?!" She asked the ring in panic, knowing that it was capable of answering. And it did.
"Destination: Oa. Headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps for purpose of training and mission assignment." Fluttershy was completely lost. Training? Training for what? And mission assignment? What mission was she being given? And what was the Green Lantern Corps?
Well, it looked like she was gonna get the answer to all of those questions very soon. The energy bubble she was traveling in was approaching a large planetoid radiating with green light. As Fluttershy got closer to it, she got a good look at the planet's surface. Her fear of her current predicament was replaced by awe as she looked over the futuristic looking city. She wasn't a sci-fi enthusiast, but that was exactly how she supposed it would look like in those kind of productions.
The most breathtaking sight however was the giant lantern in the center of the planet that looked exactly like the one she got from Grinn'glo. It didn't take a genius to make the connection between the two. Whatever this Green Lantern Corps was, this was where they got their power from.
The green energy was the brightest around that construct and probably the most powerful too. Fluttershy could feel a strange sense of courage and certainty wash over her as she got past it. As if the energy was flowing into her as well as the ring.
Her fear quickly returned however when she noticed that her ring was flying her towards the surface of a circular building in the ground. Fluttershy could see no entry points on it and the ring wasn't slowing down as they approached. Fluttershy's fear turned into panic as the building got closer.
"Stop... Stop!" She yelled frantically as she tried to flap her wings in a vain attempt to slow herself down. "You're going to make us crash!"
"Negative." The ring replied. "Our approach is safe and we're expected to make a smooth landing in three... Two... One..."
Fluttershy wasn't relieved by the ring's words. She closed her eyes, preparing herself to be smeared on the side of the building, but as the seconds passed and she still felt herself being in one piece, she slowly dared herself to open her eyes.
She was surprised to see herself inside a room surrounded by mirrored walls and the green lantern symbol on the floor. In one of the mirrors, she got a good look at herself. Since she was no longer trapped inside an energy bubble, she went closer to one of the mirrors. She observed the uniform now covering her body.
Her entire torso was covered in green with a lantern symbol on the meddle of her chest and on her flanks where her cutie marks were supposed to be. Her legs were covered in black spandex with white shoes on her hooves and the green domino mask was also present across her eyes. She was so used to not wearing clothes that the fabric felt really strange. She was so occupied with her new appearance that she didn't even hear another being enter the room.
"Welcome to Oa!" Fluttershy jumped before turning around to see a bipedal creature dressed in the same uniform as she was. The creature looked like a wingless bird walking on two legs with orange skin, two pointy ears, a beak and a large crest on the top of his head. Having never seen such a creature before combined with the fact that he towered over Fluttershy, the pegasus was easily intimidated by his arrival.
"Who are you?!" She asked as she cowered. "And... if you don't mind me asking... WHAT are you?!" If the creature was offended by the last question, he did not show it.
"My name is Tomar-Re." He replied politely. "And to answer your second question, I am a member of the xudarian race and the Green Lantern of Sector 2813. May I have your name in return?" The mention of the title of Green Lantern immediately grabbed Fluttershy's attention.
"Uh, my name is Fluttershy. And... did you say Green Lantern? The ring mentioned them as well." She spoke in realisation. "So... If you are one of them, can you please explain to me what is going on here?" Tomar nodded.
"Of course! That is why I came to you in the first place. I am in charge of greeting the new arrivals." He replied before motioning for Fluttershy to follow him. "This way please. I will show you everything."
Fluttershy had a hard time comprehending everything going on around her. The planet's surface looked even more futuristic and advanced from up close. She bad never seen anything like this before. She doubted anypony had. But not only did she feel amazed by her surroundings, she also felt very out of place. Which didn't go unnoticed by her guide.
"Forgive my bluntness, but I can't help but notice that you seem very taken back by all of this. Even more so than most." Fluttershy nodded as she cast down her head.
"You could say that. My world has nothing like this. We didn't even contact any alien species before." Tomar nodded in understanding.
"That certainly explains it. It is rare that a Green Lantern is chosen from an unascended society, but not unheard of." Fluttershy was tired of being confused by all this Green Lantern stuff. She wanted answers and she wanted them now.
"So, what exactly is a 'Green Lantern'?" She asked, both eager and nervous to finally get an explanation.
"There was a time eons ago when the galaxy was a lawless, chaotic place." Tomar began. "Before a race known as the Guardians appeared." He used his ring to show Fluttershy a projection of a small, blue skinned figure with a large round head wearing a red robe. The figure was about as tall as Fluttershy, it was bald on the top of it's head but had white hair around it and was wearing a red robe. The mention of the Guardians immediately reminded Fluttershy of Grinn'glo's final words.
'The Guardians know the truth. Make them reveal the truth.' She still had no idea what he meant, but right now, there were other issues she wanted to focus on.
"Those are the Guardians?" Tomar nodded.
"Correct. They are believed to be the oldest sentient beings in the galaxy. They created a force known as the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum and harnessed the green energy of will to create the Central Power Battery here on the Planet Oa." He explained, pointing towards the large battery in the distance." They harnessed this power to create 3600 power rings and bestowed them upon one individual from each Space Sector they divided the galaxy into. The task of these individuals is to protect their respective Space Sectors from galactic threats and uphold law and order."
"Uphold law and order?" Fluttershy asked, a little spooked. Is this what was now expected of her? "Like... a galactic police officer?"
"Precisely." Tomar nodded with a smile, glad that she managed to understand. "Now then, since you're from an unascended society, I do not expect you to know which space sector you are from, so please tell me, what was the name of your predecessor?"
"Um... I didn't understand perfectly, but his name sounded like... Green Glow?" Tomar thought about this for a moment before realisation dawned upon him.
"Grinn'glo? Grinn'glo of Sector 1996?" His look turned sorrowful upon hearing the news. "Those are bad news indeed. He was a fine lantern. His passing shall be mourned." This statement only served to further increase Fluttershy's concerns. Did that mean there would be a lot expected of her as well?
"I wouldn't know. He only said a couple of things before he passed. I buried him in the clearing he crashed into." Tomar noticed her concern and knelt down to her eye level in an attempt to comfort her.
"That was a noble thing of you. All we can ask of you to honor his memory is to use his ring well." Sadly, his words had the opposing effect as Fluttershy's eyes widened and she gulped. Just as she feared, they were expecting her to fill in Grinn'glo's horseshoes.
"Uhm... Well... You see, I think there may have been a mistake." Fluttershy stammered. "I don't know if I will be able to do that. I can't be a galactic police officer. I'm just a simple veterinarian. I can't uphold order among my animals most of the time and I need my friend, Paw Tamer to get them in line for me. Maybe she could be the pony to take his place? I think she's more qualified than I am." She tried to ramble her way out of this while thing, but to her surprise, Tomar merely smiled knowingly at her.
"A feeling of inadequacy is perfectly natural at the start. You are not the first new recruit to feel this way and I assure you, you won't be the last either." He then stood up and motioned across himself. "Take me for example. I used to be a scientist before becoming a Green Lantern. Not a role you would typically associate with law enforcement, is it? Especially on a galactic scale." Fluttershy still wasn't convinced.
"I still think the ring made a mistake in choosing me." She muttered.
"There are no mistakes in the ring's judgement." Tomar said firmly. "If it deemed you worthy to overcome great fear and join the corps, then you are. And by the time your training is complete, you will be able to sling a ring like the best of us." Fluttershy was about to reply, but she never got the chance as she was interrupted by a deep, booming voice.
"Hey, Tomar! Is that the new meat you're talking to?" Fluttershy looked behind Tomar and her pupils shrunk at what she saw. Her ears deflated and she literally tugged her tail between her legs as she noticed a large, bulky creature that looked like a bodybuilder bulldog approaching her with heavy steps.
"Ah, right on cue." Tomar mused as he turned around. "Fluttershy, meet Kilowog. He is our best training officer and as such, he is responsible for training the new arrivals."
"And I'm damn good at it as well!" He boasted with a grin aimed at the poor pegasus mare before he turned to Tomar. "Leave us, Tomar. I'll take it from here." Tomar nodded and completely ignored Fluttershy's pleading look, asking him not to leave her alone with the large creature.
"Good luck, Fluttershy. Don't worry, you're in good hands." He said before leaving.
'That's exactly what I was afraid of.' Fluttershy thought as Kilowog stared her down with a look she really didn't like.
"Well, poozer, welcome to Kilowog's School of Ring Slinging 101. Or as I like to call it, the worst days of your miserable little life!"
The training ground of the Corps was nothing like Fluttershy expected. Instead of some high tech training facility that one would imagine they'd employ on a futuristic planet like this, she was taken to large, barren field of rocks with no sign of civilisation as far as she could see.
The one thing of worth she did see did nothing to ease her worries about the upcoming ordeal she was about to go through. It looked like an obstacle course with several incredibly dangerous looking objects set up including very heavy sandbags, hanging saw blades and even flame jets. Fluttershy gulped.
"I'll... I'll have to go through... that?" She whimpered in absolute terror.
"Nah. Those are for the advanced cadets who have already graduated my training camp. A sort of final exam, if you will. You won't have to go through it." Kilowog replied, trying to sound reassuring. Fluttershy let out a relieved sigh, which Kilowog immediately made sure to dissipate with just one word as his expression turned into a sadistic grin. "Yet." Fluttershy gulped as her pupils shrunk.
"Now then..." Kilowog continued. "...let's start with the basics. Lesson #1: Flying!"
"Oh, I can already fly!" Fluttershy said, trying to sound confident as she took off into the air a few centimeters above the ground and flapped her wings around a little. "See?"
"Oh, yeah! Thanks for reminding me!" Kilowog ignited his ring and Fluttershy felt something tying her wings down as she fell back on the ground. She looked behind herself and saw her wings being tied down by green chains.
"Uh... How am I supposed to fly like this?" She asked, both confused and nervous.
"Those little wings of yours are cute poozer, but they won't do you much good in the cold of space." Kilowog explained. "You're gonna have to learn how to fly Lantern style." Fluttershy's face lit up with awe as she watched Kilowog's body lit up with green glow and he floated several meters into the air with seemingly nothing to keep him up there.
"Now you try!"
"Umm... How?" Fluttershy asked, completely clueless on how to do it.
"You have to will it, poozer!" Kilowog instructed. "Our rings work through our will. If you will to fly, the ring will make it happen."
Fluttershy wasn't sure how she was going to do it, but it's not like she was having a choice in the matter. She immediately remembered her embarrassing and humiliating experience back in flight school. This was a lot like that, except here, there weren't any obnoxious bullies to harass her over her failures. But there also weren't any brave fillies like that blue rainbow maned pegasus to stand up to her.
Will it. She had to will to fly. Back in flight school, she remembered how badly she didn't want to be there. How badly she wanted to be anywhere but there. She remembered the cruel looks of her peers, their laughing, they're taunting.
'Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can hardly fly!'
Fluttershy recalled the harassment she went through back in those days and she allowed her mind to project those images around her as if they were happening then and there. And that gave her the will to fly away from her current spot. Except this time, just willing it would be enough to make it happen.
'Please, ring, take me away from here!'
"Not getting any younger up here, poozer!" Kilowog called from above, urging her to hurry. His words seemed to have done the trick as Fluttershy's form was immediately surrounded by the same green glow he used and the timid pegasus took off into the air.
The training officer was surprised. Few recruits managed to take off so quickly. This little pony must have been remarkably strong willed. Kilowog was about to congratulate her, but before he could, she ended up soaring past him and leaving him stunned in place. But the quickly managed to get over his shock and flew after his trainee to cool her down.
"Alright, poozer! That's enough! You've done it!" When his words seemingly didn't got through to her, the lantern summoned a brick wall in front of her. Fluttershy was still too caught up in her mental images to notice it and ended up crashing into it, receiving one heck of a wake up call.
"Ow!" She looked up to see the brick wall over her disappear as Kilowog flew up next to her.
"Got a little carried away there, poozer!" Fluttershy looked down sheepishly and rubbed her foreleg.
"Sorry. I guess my memory was too intense to hear you."
"A memory you say?" Kilowog asked. "Let me guess, a bad memory so hurtful that it just made you want to get away from here." Fluttershy nodded. "That's not unusual for new lanterns to try. It usually works, but you gotta keep your mind in the present. Mind your surroundings or else your enemies will catch you off guard." Fluttershy gulped nervously. She never considered having enemies before, but if she was gonna become a galactic police officer, that was to be expected.
"What... what should I do?"
"Remember the feeling from your memory but seperate it from your senses." Kilowog replied. "If that memory was really that bad, it should keep you going, but it cannot happen at the expense of your awareness. But you're still in the air, so I'd say you managed to get the grasp of it."
Fluttershy looked down and saw that she was indeed still floating without flapping her wings and covered in green light. She did it. She was flying via her ring. And strangely enough, the sensation felt much more natural to her than flying with her wings. It felt like she's been doing this her entire life!
"So does that mean I passed lesson #1?" She asked, almost enthusiastic about it. Kilowog had to admit that her excitement was a welcome change to her nervousness. He almost felt sorry he had to break her spirit down. Almost.
"Hmph. Not quite yet, poozer." He replied, causing Fluttershy to frown. "You managed to take off into the air, but staying up there? Now that's much trickier. We're gonna see how you fly in action."
Before Fluttershy even got the chance to ask how are they gonna do that, Kilowog raised his ring a conjured a green boulder that he hurled towards the pegasus. Fluttershy barely willed her ring in time to get her out of the way. This sudden violent move awakened a sense of anger in Fluttershy that she didn't know she could feel, but her teacher was bringing the worst out in her.
"Hey, you could have warned me first!" She yelled at him, but the only response she got was another green boulder flying her way, forcing her to keep flying.
"You think your enemies are going to warn you, poozer?!" Kilowog snapped as he kept firing at Fluttershy. "They are going to try and take every advantage to get the drop on you! You cannot expect to survive on the goodwill of your enemies! And in case you haven't noticed yet, I'm trying to teach you to survive!"
Kilowog kept bombarding his trainee with green energy projectiles, but fortunately for Fluttershy, her will to avoid them and stay alive was strong enough for her ring to avoid them just in time.
"Come on, poozer! 30 seconds in the air, at the least! And no cheating by using your wings! I'll be watching!"
"You're enjoying this, aren't, you?!" Fluttershy shouted down at her as she kept flying. Kilowog chuckled.
"What's wrong with enjoying your job?"
Fluttershy had no choice but to keep evading the heavy green objects flying her way. So far, she has been doing an adequate job at it, but she knew she won't be able to keep it up forever. She was getting tired and there were nothing near her she hide behind from the oncoming onslaught.
She was so caught up in what she was going that she completely lost her track of time. How many seconds were left? She couldn't recall. All she could do was watch where the next projectile was flying to and will herself out of it's way.
Kilowog saw what she was doing and decided to try catching his new pupil off guard by firing the next projectile in front of her trajectory. Fluttershy was so focused on the ones heading towards her that she didn't notice it and ended up colliding with it in the air, forcing her to crash back onto the ground. She landed right in front of her training officer and looked up to see him stare down at her with a smirk.
"You might be good at dodging what's coming at you poozer, but you still gotta watch where you're going." He lectured the newbie lantern. Fluttershy looked down.
"How many seconds did I need to reach your time limit?" She asked in embarrassment.
"Well, let's see! According to my calculations, you have... passed it by 15 seconds." Fluttershy's eyes widened. She passed?
"But... then why didn't you stop the exercise?" She asked. Kilowog shrugged.
"I wanted to see how long you'd last." He chuckled. Fluttershy was not amused. She still couldn't bring herself to be mad, but that didn't mean she was happy with Kilowog either.
"I... I dislike you with great intensity." Fluttershy panted. The response was not what she expected.
"Good. Find strength in that! That could help you through training. If nothing else, you'll want to complete it just to show me up." Kilowog told her before offering her his hand. Fluttershy reluctantly stated at it before finally taking it and letting him help her up.
"Good news is, you passed lesson #1 with flying colors! No pun intended." Fluttershy smiled with pride, but it quickly faded. "Bad news is, it'll only get harder from here. Much harder."
For the next training exercise, Kilowog had set up several training dummies in the distance. Given the nature of her previous training exercise, Fluttershy quickly figured out what she'd have to do. It was going to be her turn to create projectiles with her ring. When Kilowog was finished setting up the targets, he turned back to her.
"Now then, lesson #2: Lantern Constructs!" The instructor began. "Like I said, our rings are powered by our will. As long as we will something, the ring will make it happen. It's power is only limited by your imagination. Imagine it and will it into existence!"
Fluttershy spread out her right wing which the ring was latched onto. She saw what Kilowog was able to do with his ring during their previous lesson so she knew he was telling the truth. It clearly wasn't a dying creature's delusion when Grinn'glo said this ring was no mere jewelry.
So all she had to do was imagine it and will the ring to project it out. That didn't sound too hard. Being the animal lover she was, it didn't take her long to figure out what she wanted to create first. She focused all of her willpower into forming the image in her mind and then channeled that energy into her ring.
Kilowog watched as Fluttershy's ring projected the image of a dog in front of her, which then proceeded to run around and lick the face of the pegasus playfully. Fluttershy giggled at the sensation, but that was replaced by confusion when the construct disappeared. She opened her eyes and looked at Kilowog for an explanation.
"You need to focus to keep the construct up, poozer." He told her. "Don't let your mind wander off like it just did!" Fluttershy was slightly disappointed, but nevertheless complied. She would make sure her next constructs would not interact with her so distractingly.
For the next minute, Kilowog watched as Fluttershy formed Lantern constructs of various animals. First it was a giant eagle that flew across the training field, then the eagle landed and turned into a bear that let out a mighty roar and finally a giant snake that slid across the training ground and then back to her.
Fluttershy was almost giddy with excitement upon witnessing what the ring can create. And her enjoyment only made it easier to conjure up more constructs. Once Kilowog made sure that his trainee truly got the hang of it, he cleared his throat to get her attention.
"Sorry to spoil your fun, but there's another part of the exercise." He said as he pointed at the targets he set up. "I didn't put those things for decoration, you know. Knock 'em down!"
Fluttershy turned towards the dummies and pondered what would be the best construct to hit them with from the distance. Kilowog apparently noticed this uncertainty and was quick to comment on it.
"Don't think too much on your constructs! You won't have time to think in battle!"
Fluttershy was so spooked by the mention of a battle that she ended up just summoning the first construct that came to her mind, which ended up being a swarm of giant wasps. The glowing green insects proved more than sufficient in knocking down all the targets.
Fluttershy mastered her next lesson as well with minimal difficulty, however, animal constructs only scratched the tip of the iceberg and while Kilowog appreciated them, he knew that his new trainee had to widen her repertoire. And he was about to help her to do just that.
"Okay, looks like you've got the basics down. But forming your constructs is the easy part. Keeping them up is the real work." The alien sneakily raised his ring and formed a giant club which he brought down on top of Fluttershy. But this time, the pegasus was prepared.
CLANG
The descending club was blocked by a shield quickly constructed by Fluttershy. But that wasn't the end of it. Fluttershy flew up and sent the shield crashing down towards Kilowog who was so stunned by this that not only did his construct vanished, but he was also knocked down onto the ground by the shield being sent his way.
Kilowog swiftly recovered and got up to look at Fluttershy who was staring down at him with a confident smirk. After getting over his shock, the alien scoffed and returned the smirk.
"Ha! You're learning, poozer! There might just be hope for you after all!" Fluttershy was pleased by this compliment that she didn't notice Kilowog charging his ring for another strike. It was Fluttershy's turn to be caught off guard as a raging bull of green energy sent her flying backwards.
"Consider this another lesson!" Kilowog instructed. "Never let your guard down! Now, let's..." Kilowog never got to finish. Out of nowhere, Fluttershy sprung up and summoned a giant green steam engine speeding at the alien. Kilowog barely had time to get out of it's way in time before launching a counterattack.
Kilowog summoned a bumping post to stop the engine in place. Fluttershy's anger fueled her resolve to keep the construct charging against her training officer. It was enough for her to keep it going for several seconds, but eventually she started to feel both her will and the green locomotive of energy weakening until finally she couldn't keep it up anymore and ended up falling over in exhaustion.
Panting on the ground, Fluttershy looked up to see her instructor looking back with both concern and slight disapproval. She didn't understand. Had she done something wrong? Did she fail the exercise? She opened her mouth to ask, but once again Kilowog beat her to it.
"You let your anger get to you, poozer. Big mistake. Your anger weakens your will and that means your constructs will be weaker as well. In action, this could cost you your life." Fluttershy sighed. Even when she gets something right, she still manages to mess up. Kilowog didn't want to break her already fragile confidence even more, so he reached down to help her up. "Still, you managed to keep your construct up for long enough to pass this lesson as well. Congratulations!"
Fluttershy was surprised to hear this but nevertheless happy. She completed two Lantern lessons in a rapid succession and she started to feel like maybe she did have a place in the corps after all. Maybe this Green Lantern thing won't be so bad after all.
For the next exercise, Fluttershy found herself in a field surrounded by several metallic and rocky objects. The items looked perfectly unremarkable, they mostly looked like scrap metal to Fluttershy, though she was no familiar with alien technology, so who knew? Maybe they were highly advanced machines. But she quickly noticed a pattern among the ones that Kilowog gathered around himself, they were all yellow.
"OK, poozer! This next lesson is very important so listen carefully!" Kilowog said as he stood over the yellow items on the ground.
"The power ring is completely powerless against anything yellow. This is something even the weakest opponent can easily exploit against us, so every Lantern has to learn how to counter it." Fluttershy found it rather odd that such an almighty weapon could have such an easy weakness. It also seemed pretty random for that weakness to be a color of all things.
"Um... Why is that?"
"Because of the unique metal that charges our batteries." Kilowog answered, holding up his own power battery. "It has a yellow impurity in it that cannot be removed. Not without the battery losing it's power." Fluttershy didn't like the sound of that. If that was the case, she wouldn't be able to keep a canary at bay back home.
"There are a couple of ways to deal with this however." Kilowog said, raising her confidence back up. "First, you can use your ring to have another object do the job. Find something around you that you can use if I do this!"
"Do what?" Fluttershy got her answer when Kilowog picked up one of the metal blocks and hurled it at her. She could barely get out of the way in time.
"Quickly, poozer!" Kilowog yelled before picking up another one and sent it her way. "Use something!"
Now that Fluttershy knew what the exercise was about, she had an easier time dodging the yellow obstacles. Kilowog was strong enough to throw them at her with his bare hands, but not enough to throw them with great speed.
Still, she knew she won't be able to keep this up for long, so she quickly had to use one of those items Kilowog left for her but since the alien kept bombarding her with the yellow objects, she didn't even have time to use her ring to pick one up.
She then got an idea. Perhaps if she flew up higher into the air, Kilowog wouldn't be able to throw the obstacles far enough to reach her. This theory however was put to rest as Kilowog picked up another one of them and twirled around a couple times to give the piece of yellow metal a higher and it almost managed to reach the pegasus.
Fluttershy's plan still worked in her favor though, as Kilowog now had to put more time into gathering his strength for the throw and that finally gave Fluttershy enough to conjure up a construct. She was about to grab one of the large boulders lying around the field, but then she had another idea. Why grab just one when she could do so much more?
Her mind made up, Fluttershy summoned her next construct which turned out to be an octopus. The green cephalopod reached out with it's tentacles to pick up eight of boulders and hurled all of them at Kilowog. The alien barely had enough time to block one of the boulders heading his way by throwing the yellow object he was holding at it and summon a shield in front of himself before the rest could hit him.
Once the barrage of boulders was over, Kilowog lowered his shield to find Fluttershy, but the pegasus Lantern was nowhere to be seen. As he was looking around in search of her, he heard a low but sharp voice speaking right into his ear.
"Never let your guard down!" Before Kilowog could turn around, he felt something wrapping around him. Fluttershy managed to keep her octopus construct up for long enough to hide and ambush Kilowog from behind. After a few moments of struggling, she let the struggling alien go.
"Heh." Kilowog chuckled as he dusted himself off. "Turning my own words against me?" The alien mused. "I'm actually beginning to like you. Though if you ever tell this to anyone, I'll deny it violently." Fluttershy smiled, feeling both touched and satisfied at the praise.
"So, did I pass the lesson?" She asked hopefully, only to be shot down by Kilowog's smirk. She learned it by now that that never meant good for the cadets.
"Only the first half, poozer. I only showed you one way to deal with yellow stuff. There's another one." Fluttershy helped Kilowog gather the yellow blocks around himself again, but she kept her eye on the alien throughout the process. She didn't want another surprise lesson from her instructor. Fortunately, this time he had none. Once the training field was reassembled, Kilowog began the next part of the lesson.
"Alright, the other way to deal with yellow objects is to find a way to make them another color." He explained. "Can you guess how to do that?" Fluttershy looked right to glance at her ring.
"Umm... I can use my ring to paint it in a different color perhaps?" She guessed. Kilowog chuckled.
"Good guess, poozer, but I'm afraid that's not possible. Even our rings have limits. We can't conjure anything that's not green. No, once again, you have to use your environment to do that." He then put one of the yellow blocks in front of Fluttershy. "Here, try to find a way to turn this block into another color!"
Fluttershy looked around, helplessly trying to find a way to complete the exercise, but he couldn't find anything useful for the task. As she pondered, she started to wander around the training field until she felt her hoof sink into the dirt beneath it. She looked down to see that she stepped into a pile of mud.
Normally, this would have grossed her out, but this time it gave her an idea. Fluttershy quickly spun around and used her ring to create a giant hose. She aimed it at the ground and unleashed a large steam of green water. The water shot into the ground and created a fountain of mud that covered the yellow block in front of her and turned it completely brown.
Kilowog was satisfied to see her student succeed, but Fluttershy immediately knew what came next and this time she wanted to be a step ahead of him. Before Kilowog could sneakily throw one of the yellow blocks at her, she spun around and used the hose to use the same tactic she used on the first one and turned them all brown with mud. She then summoned her octopus construct again and used it to swipe all of them away with it's tentacles. Fluttershy then floated up in front of him with her ring ready at the end of her wing in case the alien wanted to try anything else. But Kilowog just smirked.
"Not bad, poozer! Not bad at all! I'd say we can consider this lesson completed as well! You're slowly but surely mastering your ring, but during our next exercise, we'll see just how crafty you are without it." He said with a sinister laugh. Fluttershy's eyes widened.
"With... Without it?" She became so confident in her ability to use the ring that she completely forgot about how helpless and meek she used to be before she got it. And now she was gonna have to complete a lesson without it? How would she be able to do that just by herself?
"Look, poozer! If you don't feel like you're enough without the ring, you will never be enough with it." Kilowog told her assertively. "Follow me! This lesson will be learned at another location."
Kilowog was true to his word. For the next exercise, Fluttershy was stripped of her ring and she was once again just the shy little veterinarian pegasus from Ponyville. She was standing in front of the entrance of what her trainer described as a arena. She couldn't imagine why was she here so she turned to Kilowog for an explanation. The alien saw the confusion on her face and began explaining the exercise.
"Even the finest lanterns can sometimes find themselves being seperated from their ring. Or having their ring run out of power at the worst possible time. This exercise will consist of two parts. Your ring is hidden inside this arena along with it's power battery. It has also been drained of it's energy, so you're gonna have to find your ring and then get it to the battery to charge it." He instructed. "Now, for this exercise you'll be allowed to take advantage of anything you have you you can use your wings. I'll be watching and evaluating your performance. Good luck!" And with that, he flew away, leaving Fluttershy to enter alone.
As expected, she was very nervous. This was the first training exercise she'd have to complete without her ring and she had no idea what to expect. She slowly entered the arena and saw a forest terrain with trees and several other alien flora she didn't recognise. The arena looked humongous and she had no idea where she should start the search for her ring.
Her nervousness only increased when she noticed a green light coming from behind her and she turned around to see three Green Lanterns floating behind her. One of them was the one who greeted her on Oa, Tomar-Re, the second one looked like a squirrel and third one was a bipedal creature that looked like he had a one eyed broccoli for a head.
"Kilowog asked us to assist in this exercise." Tomar explained. "While looking for your ring, you're going to have to evade us and make your way out of the arena once you've found it. We are giving you a one minute head start. Good luck, Fluttershy."
The pegasus needed no further encouragement and bolted off between the trees. She counted the seconds as she tried to put as much distance between him and the trio of Lanterns as possible. In the meantime, she tried to keep her eyes open and look around in a vain effort to find her ring.
After looking around for a minute with no result, she gave up flew between the leafage of one of the trees. She cowered on one of the tree's branches as she looked around, trying to spot the green lights that signaled her pursuers searching the arena for her.
She had no idea what to do. Ever since she began her training, she finally started to finally feel some confidence in herself. With that ring, she felt like she could do anything and stand up to anything. But without it, she was just the very same meek, timid pegasus she always was.
She buried her head between her forelegs to cry. Maybe if she just stayed here, Kilowog would just fail her and send her back home to pick another pony who was much more worthy of being a Green Lantern than her. But then she remembered Kilowog's words.
'If you don't feel like you're enough without the ring, you will never be enough with it.'
Fluttershy's expression hardened. No. She wouldn't break down again. She will complete this exercise, she will complete her training and she will become the Green Lantern of Sector 1996. Now she only had to find a way to do it.
She then had an idea. Hiding was always her first solution to everything, but maybe she could use that to her advantage. If she stayed hidden atop the trees and tracked one of the Lanterns, she could avoid them and survey the area to find her ring and her battery.
Luck also seemed to be on her side as Tomar-Re just floated past beneath her hiding spot. Fluttershy waited until he was at a safe distance and quickly leaped at another tree. The rustling of the leaves briefly attracted the attention of the Lantern, but he only gave the tree a few suspicious glances before carrying on.
Fluttershy swept her forehead and sighed in relief before continuing to track the Lantern. This idea worked out even better for her than she expected. The glow of Tomar's ring was an excellent light source for Fluttershy to see between the darkness of the trees. She looked at every tree and every corner but she couldn't find any trace of her ring.
Then suddenly from the corner of her eye, she noticed a hole in one of the trees that she never would have spotted had it not been for Tomar's ring. She carefully flew over to the tree and waited for Tomar to leave and snuck down to check out the hole and her face split into a huge grin when she saw her battery.
She took the handle of the battery into her mouth and hurried back to the top of the tree. That's one part of the exercise down, but she still had to find her ring. And that still begged the same question as finding her battery: how is she gonna do it?
One of the first thing Kilowog taught her was to make sure her ring was always charged. The way to do that was to place the ring against the battery, so with the battery, she should be able to find the ring easily. If she managed to evade the other Lanterns that is.
Fluttershy furrowed her eyebrows in thought. Where should she start looking for the ring? 'If I was Kilowog, where would I hide that ring?' She pondered. 'Think, Fluttershy, think!' A ring could be placed onto one of the tree branches. Maybe if she searched them with the battery she'd eventually find it.
But there were like a hundred trees in this arena. That would take forever. No, she needed to narrow the area of her search first. Kilowog surely told the other Lanterns where he hid that ring if their task was to keep her from it. Maybe if she'd stay out of their sight long enough, they would lead her to it. With her mind made up, she looked for one of the green light sources between the trees.
Eventually, she managed to track down the Lantern with the broccoli shaped head and stayed behind him as long as she could. She has been tailing the Lantern for so long that she lost her track of time, but apparently she managed to stay out of sight for long enough for her pursuers to suspect something because they decided to meet up in the middle of the arena.
"Did you find her, Medphyll?" Tomar asked the broccoli headed alien, which shook his head in reply.
"No. What about you, C'hp?" The squirrel also shook it's head with a series of chirps. Tomar frowned.
"She managed to evade us, but as long she doesn't retrieve her ring, she didn't complete the exercise."
"What if she managed to find them during our discussion?" The alien called Medphyll suggested.
"Unlikely, but we should nevertheless check it." Tomar replied. "Go check her battery!" He then turned to C'hp. "And you go check her ring! I will keep searching for her." On the top of a nearby tree, Fluttershy smirked.
'Gotcha!' She thought. She ended up trailing the squirrel creature for the following few minutes until she saw it stop before one of the trees. C'hp looked around to see if he was followed or not, but even with the light from his ring, Fluttershy was able to hide between the leafage.
C'hp looked around for a few seconds but couldn't see anything so he flew up to one of the tree branches to check something. Fluttershy narrowed her eyes and saw that indeed, her ring was placed around the very same branch. Once C'hp was certain that the ring was still there, he looked around once again before floating off.
That was all Fluttershy needed. She flew over to the tree and quickly charged her ring with the battery before placing it back on her wing and transforming back into her Lantern uniform. Now all she needed to do was leave the arena, but surely that wouldn't be a problem anymore. The top of the arena was completely open, she should be able fly out with no issue.
And yet, for some reason, a gut feeling prevented Fluttershy from doing just that. She knew Kilowog well enough by this point and knew that he probably has some nasty surprise for her if she thought things were finally getting easy. She had to make sure.
She used her ring to conjure up that was big enough for her to see but small enough that her pursuers wouldn't see it, a bird. She sent it flying up into the sky until it crashed into an invisible green barrier and puffed out of existence. Fluttershy narrowed her eyes. She knew it.
As she thought about what her next move should be, she came up with an idea that was very unlike her. Sometimes the best way to tackle a problem was head on. This, Fluttershy supposed, was one of those times.
She closed her eyes and gathered all of her willpower into her ring before summoning another bird construct onto the branches of the tree she was sitting on. She then proceeded to do the same with the branches of every single tree around her. Tomar-Re, Medphyll and C'hp all jumped in surprise when they saw the flock materialise out of nowhere before they all took off into the air.
Once the last of them took off, Fluttershy followed suit and followed them into the air. The green birds all crashed into the barrier and Fluttershy could see that they were weakening it. By the time the last of the birds crashed into the barrier, Fluttershy knew the time was right. She pushed her ring upwards and summoned a huge whale construct that crashed through the barrier like it was a piece of glass.
Fluttershy flew out of the arena triumphantly, only to crash into her training officer, Kilowog. And no matter how confident and courageous Fluttershy had become recently, the stoic gaze of the large alien always made her shrink back like a school filly. That was until Kilowog's expression changed into an approving smile.
"Not bad, poozer. Not bad at all. I think we can consider this training exercise completed as well."
Fluttershy broke into a huge smile and beamed with pride. She was almost there! Her training was almost complete and after this exercise, she felt Kilowog won't be able to throw anything at her that she won't be able to face...
She was wrong. She was horribly, horribly wrong. The next trial Kilowog was putting her up against was none other than the dreaded obstacle course she saw the very first time she came to the training field. As she looked at the deadly instruments swinging from left to right and slamming into the ground from above, her body completely froze.
"Ah, come on, poozer!" Kilowog groaned as he noticed her fear. "You have all but mastered how to use your ring. You'll make through this thing no problem!" Fluttershy gave the training officer a small, nervous smile before slowly approaching the starting line. She breathed heavily as she closed her eyes and tried to calm herself.
'Come on, Fluttershy! You can do it! Just use your ring and it will be a piece of cake, right? Right?'
She finally managed to convince herself that she will be able to do this and opened her eyes. The first obstacle in her path was the saw blades. Every time they swung from left to right then right to left, Fluttershy felt them chopping away more of her already slim courage.
She thought about what would be the best way to get past them and eventually she settled on conjuring up a giant log that stopped the blades. Fluttershy hopped onto the log and walked across it until she reached the end of the blades. Her steps were slow. She had to use every bit of focus she had to keep the log construct up.
After the saw blades, the falling sandbags came next. There were three of them in a row, one descending immediately after the other. Fluttershy tried to find the perfect time to run through them, but suddenly, she came up with a much simpler solution. She used her ring to create three springs under the sandbags and when they descended, the springs shot them back into the air long enough for Fluttershy to ran past them.
She ran so quickly that she nearly ran into the flame of the fire jets. She was only saved because her instincts kicked in in time to summon a hose and shoot water at the jet she was facing, but she still felt the hotness of the fire against her face. Managing to put out the flames long enough for her to get pest the first jet, she repeated the process with the next ones as well until she reached the end of the course. She didn't have time to sigh in relief though as she ended up crashing into Kilowog.
"Ha! Ha!" The alien beamed with pride. "Great job, poozer! Great job!" He bellowed joyfully as he smacked Fluttershy on the shoulder, making her fall over. "Now you're ready for the final exercise!" Fluttershy looked up in alarm.
"Final exercise?! Wasn't this the final exercise?!" Kilowog shook his head, causing Fluttershy to drop her head and groan. "What could possibly be worse than going through that?!" Kilowog's trademark sadistic grin returned.
"A sparring match against your instructor."
Before Fluttershy could scream "What?!", Kilowog created a hammer construct and brought it down on top of her. She saw that she won't be able to get out of it's way, so she created a shield above herself to block. She managed to keep up the shield until she could fly out from beneath the hammer and immediately turn to attack Kilowog herself.
She created a cannon over herself that fired at the alien, but he had just the thing for that. He created a bat and knocked the cannonball right back at the construct, destroying it in the process. But it turns out, this was exactly what Fluttershy was banking on.
The cannon distracted Kilowog long enough for Fluttershy to attack him from below. Kilowog felt a sharp pain in his legs as a green bear trap closed around them. She then tried to take advantage of that by taking away his ring, but Kilowog got over his stun quickly and knocked the rookie Lantern away, breaking her construct.
"Sneaky, poozer! But you're gonna need more than that!" He said before creating a bola and shooting it at Fluttershy. The pegasus quickly created a sword and cut the bola in half before charge at Kilowog. The alien created a shield of his own, stunning Fluttershy as she crashed into it. Kilowog then turned the shield into a club and started to bring it down, but Fluttershy jumped out of it's way in time.
Kilowog kept trying to hit Fluttershy with his club construct but to no avail. Fluttershy managed to evade it every time, but she knew she couldn't keep that up forever. When Kilowog tried to bring the club down again, Fluttershy created a squid and had it shoot the alien in the eye with ink.
This caused Kilowog to stumble back and covered his eyes and Fluttershy slammed the squid construct into him, knocking him to the ground. But when she saw the alien lying motionless on the ground, her usual, kind self came forward and she ran up to the training officer to check on him.
"Oh, gosh! I'm so sorry! I think I got a little carried away and..." She never got to finish as Kilowog sprung up from the ground and rammed into Fluttershy with a boxing glove construct, sending her flying several meters away.
"Are you crazy?!" Kilowog demanded. "Don't concern yourself with the welfare of your enemies! It'll let your guard down and they're gonna get the drop on you!" His anger grew to concern when he saw that Fluttershy was still lying on the ground, unmoving. "Hey, poozer! You hear me?!" He asked as he walked up to her. "You OK?"
Fluttershy still dint move but Kilowog jumped in surprise when he felt something wrap around him. A giant snake construct lifted Kilowog into the air and hissed at him before plunging itself down on top of him and slamming him into the ground.
When Kilowog finally recovered, he was about to jump back into action, but then he noticed something. He wasn't wearing his Lantern uniform. He then looked down at his hand and saw the reason why. His ring was gone.
"Looking for this?" He heard Fluttershy ask. He looked up at the pegasus and saw her levitating his ring inside a green energy bubble. "My trainer told me not to concern yourself with the welfare of my enemies! It'll let my guard down and they're gonna get the drop on me." Kilowog couldn't believe it. This rookie managed to turn his own words against him twice. Be couldn't recall anyone who managed to do that before.
"So?" Fluttershy asked almost teasingly. "Did I finally complete all your exercises?" Kilowog looked at his ring still inside Fluttershy's bubble until his sour expression eventually turned into a smile. But this wasn't his usual sadistic smile he donned when he was about to put his trainees through a particularly torturous exercise. This was something that Fluttershy could have sworn was pride. And that was confirmed a few moments ago when the alien finally spoke again.
"Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps!"
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I have some questions:
1) Will there be a version of Sinestro or Atrocitus in this story?
2) Will Fluttershy meet the Guardians in the next chapter?
3) Is Ch'p the same one that appears in the movie "DC League of Super Pets"?
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1. Sinestro and Atrocitus will be mentioned in the next chapter.
2. Yes.
3. I don't know. Haven't seen that one.
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While littleman001 already answered the first two questions, I'll answer the last one: No. Because THAT version of Ch'p/Chip was an EARTH squirrel that got electrical powers before getting a proper power ring. The comics version of Ch'p was very much an Extra-Terrestrial from a world of sapient anthro-rodent type beings. I didn't see the movie either, but I DID read about it on Wikipedia and YouTube.
Hey there. Thanks very much for getting the next chapter to this up as well as the effort going into the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up. REALLY appreciated Fluttershy's first look at Oa as well as meetings with some of the veteran Lanterns as she began her training but, even though she doesn't know it at this time, her world HAS seen AT LEAST ONE alien race (Koltronian) even if it will still be a while before she meets said alien. . The tricks she learned AND used were great to see Yeah, Kilowog had a point about compassion being used against you if you aren't careful, but he was wrong that it shouldn't be shown with sensible precautions taken and I DID love Fluttershy turning it around on him. .
REALLY looking forward to more of this.
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As always, thank you very much for the comment!
This chapter was a pain to write. I tried to fill it with content but I really started to struggle towards the end. As the days went by I just wanted to get this over with.
I also started feeling weird that this chapter features actual aliens from the DC Universe yet the kryptonians were ponified.
Still, it feels good to know that I did a good job.
Stay tuned for more!
Heh! Fluttershy is quite the Clever Girl!
tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.KReHYMpKVH9uHKne8s3PeAHaJG&pid=Api&f=1&ipt=b58c0a2d40f8fdecf4385396c2dd27d78f38a509d390b33db32367aa021ed4d2&ipo=images
Imagine this scene with Applejack and Filthy Rich, and this paragraph invented by me:
Filthy Rich meets Supermare again and gives him an ultimatum:
"Kill the Bat...and the beloved Apple Family...will live"
Totally furious, Supermare flies off to the place where Batmare (who has also been tricked by Filthy) is, determined to protect her family (Applebloom, Big Mac and Granny Smith).
What do you think? Cool, right?
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While Filthy will return to be a headache for Supermare, That won't be happening here.
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But it would be cool, right?
You know, it just occurred to me, but another way Fluttershy could score a win:
*Fluttershy removes her ring*
"
Kilowog: "WHAT HELL ARE YOU DOING, POOZER!?"
Fluttershy: "I'm yellow. Remember, 'poozer'?
Kilowog: "fuck!
"
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I take it The Emerald Mare was your favourite story so far.
I like Killowog getting mad about Fluttershy's anger. Red Lantern Corps best Lantern Corps.
I liked Fluttershy using animals a lot as constructs, makes sense.
Still no villain? That's an interesting choice.
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As always, thank you for the comment!
Yes. I figured Fluttershy would mostly use animal constructs. And as we saw in the show, she does have an angrier side to her which tends to come out when she's pushed far enough.
If you think about it, in the previous Volumes, the villains didn't appear until Issue #3. But if that bothers you, in the next Volume the villains will actually appear BEFORE the hero.
See you in the next one!
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Not so much bothers me, I just think the more time you get to develop a villain the more... robust they are.