A Green Lantern in Equestria, Part 10 (Lyra's Tale)

>Water splashes your face.

>You are Anon Ymous of Rann, Green Lantern of Sector 2828.

>And right now, you're chained to a wall in some psychotic pony's basement.

>Speak of the devil!

>There she is!

>Sitting right across from you on a stool...upright...

>Isn't that supposed to be impossible with their anatomy?

>CLICK!  WHRRRRR!

>Oh right...De-Atomizer...more important things to be concerned with.

>You try your ring again.

>...

>No luck, a fresh coat of yellow paint covers your ring hand.

>"Let's not try to make too much noise now...Bon Bon is sleeping and I think it'd be a good idea if we didn't wake up her up."

>She cocks the De-Atomizer again.

>"Don't you agree that it's a good idea."

>Crap.

>It was gonna be one of THOSE kinda interrogations.

Yes...I think it's a very good idea.

>"Great!"

>Her horn lights up.

>A bottle of whiskey and a small glass levitate over to Lyra.

>She keeps her insidious weapon positioned in her hooves.

>As she pours herself a drink, she talks again.

>"So...I'm a bit surprised that you're here, Green Lantern, I thought Lobo was the only one maintaining my bounty, and that he'd only pay to the person who brought me to him alive.  I imagined that such 'side' jobs wouldn't jive well with your masters."

No...such actions would not be approved by the Guardians in the slightest

>"I thought so.  So if you're not here for Lobo's bounty, then I can only assume that you guys captured Kanjar-Ro and he gave you my name..among others...to reduce his sentence.  How about now?  Am I hitting the mark?"

>Kanjar-Ro?  Lobo?  You've heard those names before...but how the hell are they connected to this unicorn?  Equestria supposedly has had no contact with the universe beyond.

>"Going by your confused expression...I'm gonna say that the answer is once again..."

No.

>"Okay then," she says, she's seems to be caught a little off guard, but she's maintaining her composure, "why ARE you here, Green Lantern?"

I crashed.  And I can't leave.  Something in the upper atmo.

>"...seriously?"

Seriously.

>"...you mean that's not just some horse-apple cover story?  You really are here by accident?"

Yes.

>She mulls this over for a minute or two.

>"...does that mean that..."

...You kidnapped an officer of the law for no good reason?  Yes.

>Lyra just stares at you for the longest time before taking a long swig straight from her bottle.

>"....shit."

>She puts the bottle and glass down on the ground before once more cocking her weapon.

>"Well this sucks..."

I'll say...

>"Not smart to sass someone with a weapon."

Not smart to kidnap someone on baseless grounds.

>"They weren't baseless!  There really are people after me!  You could by a small moon with the money that Lobo's offering!"

Which raises a good point, how the hell did you piss off a czarnian bounty hunter?

 

SOME YEARS AGO

 

Music: http://youtu.be/9idq3B9JyAI

 

>You are Lyra Heartstrings.

>Career musician.

>Professional space pirate.

>When you entered this asteroid-belt dive, you wanted two things, a drink and some pussy.

>You were not picky about the latter...all they had to do was fool filly's or at least fake like they fooled filly's.

>But the former...there was precious little liquor that tasted good to the pony tongue in the greater expanse.

>And this was one of the few places that you knew had the good stuff.

>You normally didn't drink a lot back where you come from.

>But you've been through a number of things in the intervening years.

>The liquor helps.

>You enter to the usual raucousness.

>People getting drunk.

>People getting stabbed.

>People getting shot.

>People getting sexed.

>People nursing stab wounds getting drunk while being sexed and shooting at other people.

>You wouldn't have it any other way.

>There's an unusual occurrence in the bar tonight.

>There's a large, chalk white man with back facial markings in the back, and he's challenging every musclebound cretin he can find to arm wrestle him.

>You recognize him as Lobo a.k.a. the Main Man, a bounty hunter of some skill.

>This concerns you somewhat, you're wanted on a few worlds for piracy.

>But you doubted he'd try anything, your bounty was insignificant compared to Lobo's usual fare.

>You go to the bar and order your drink.

>"C'mon you pieces of grot snot!  The Main Man demands a challenge!"

>The bartender come around with your order.

>"Found it.  Last bottle for the next three sectors in any direction."

Thanks barkeep.  Leave it here, I'll cover it.

>"Anytime."  He smiles at you.  Well, he give you whatever Xudarian's have that passes for a smile.

>You pour your self a glass and begin to take that blessed first sip...

>...when the unconscious form of a burly Thanagarian is sent hurtling across the bar, smashing everyone's drinks in the process.

>Including yours.

>It takes you a moment to process this.

>You'll need to decide how to respond to this situation.

>"YEAH!  The Main Man stays on top!  Anyone else ready to tussle with the last Czarnian and lose their zoggin' arm in the process?!"

>You've decided on a response to the situation.

>You've decided to not respond well.

Yeah, I'll take you on.

>"Huh?"

>You hop off your bar stool and make your way over to Lobo.

>He can barely contain his amusement.

>"You wanna go a round with me, little pony?"

Yeah...I do.

>"Your funeral lady, put 'em up."

Slight problem there, hooves ain't really suited for arm wrestling, mind if we play a different game?

>"What'd you have in mind, horn-pony?"

Oh don't worry, it's an easy game!  It's called "pick-up"!  Wanna know how to play?

>"Yeah, sure, whatever."

All you gotta do is pick yourself up off the floor after...

>"After what?"

This!

>Quicker than any species in the bar can blink you spin around and with the full force of your pony might (and a little TK boost, whose counting?) you buck Lobo right where it hurts the most.

>The girly shriek he gives as he collapses to the floor in pain causes the entire bar to roar in laughter.

>You walk out of the bar slowly and deliberately, no need to mess up the bar further.

>You knew that wouldn't keep him down for long, Lobo was famous for being quite durable.

>You doubted you could kill him.

>But you could keep him from chasing you.

>You whip out your trusty De-Atomizer.

>Best 500 zectrals you ever spent.

>You ramp up it's setting.

>As if on que, Lobo bursts out of the bar.

>"I'M GONNA WRING YOUR NECK, LITTLE PONY!"

>You spin around and take aim.

>You wait until you can see the red's of his eyes.

>And then you pull the trigger.

>Never knew Czarnians could fly like that.

>Impressive.

>Not long after, you hear that Lobo was offering to pay a hefty sum to whomever brought you to him alive.

>It was around this time that your thoughts turned back to home and the idea of finding a nice mare to settle down with.

>This was probably a better excuse than anything you'd ever think of.

 

BACK IN THE PRESENT

 

>You stare at Lyra for a bit.

You know...that story...

>"Yeah?"

Kinda raised more questions than it answered...

>Lyra makes and annoyed sound as she frowns at you.

 

EVEN MORE YEARS AGO

 

>You are Lyra Heartstrings.

>Freshly graduated Unicorn lyrist from Canterlot Conservatory!

>You're currently on your way back to Hoofington to live with your folks until you can get your own place.

>It wasn't your first choice of post-graduate activities...

>...but you were in no position to complain right now.

>You worked your butt off to get that degree, and when you were settled in you were gonna work your butt off again to find auditions.

>With any luck, you'd find a steady gig, and soon you'd be on your own!

>Yup!  That's what you're gonna do!  You're gonna keep your chin up, and nothings gonna get you down!

>Not even that loud Boom sound and that mysterious tube made of light that has just appeared in front of you.

>Wait, what?

 

WARWORLD CONTROL STATION

 

>"Seriously?  What is that creature?! It looks like it's made of marshmellow!  You expect that to even be a challenge to

 

the fighters in my arena?"

>"My Lord Mongul!  I beg your patience!  Look at these readings, her body is permeating with some sort of psychic energy, her deceptive appearance will give her an advantage!  She'll be a champioHRRK!"

>"Perhaps you'd be right, if she wasn't BAWLING HER EYES OUT AT THE MOMENT!  *CRACK*  Whatever, we can throw her into the pit, at least we'll get some amusement as she's broken and shattered by our gladiators.

 

WARWORLD HOLDING CELL

 

>Oh Celestia, where were you!

>You were surrounded by monsters that you had never seen before!

>Never even imagined before!

>A lot of them had these weird claws with these extremities, Celestia's mane, had you somehow died and were sent into the pits of Tartarus?!

>Why was this happening?!

>You sit there in the corner, crying to yourself, the other creatures barely acknowledge you.

>All save for one.

>It looks like a shaved ape.

>But it's face seems gentle somehow.

>It's mane...if it's kind even called it that...was jet black and slicked back, only a small curl fell in front of his face.

>It's also wearing strange garments, there's a symbol on it's chest, but you have no idea what it means.

>It approaches you slowly.

>"Shh...listen, it's gonna be okay.  I'll help you, I'll protect you, it what I do."

>He's a colt.

>You think.

>Anatomy was not your strong subject.

>Especially the Anatomy of strange creatures like this.

>You never really acclimated to guys, but right now, he was the only kind voice in this world of madness.

Y-you'll help me?  Keep me safe?

>"Yes...I will.  Don't worry, I'm going to get you out alive, I'm gonna get ALL of us out alive."

Thank you m-mister, I don't even know what's going on!  What is this crazy place?!

>"WarWorld.  The lair of a despot.  A madman who travels the universe abducting fighters from hundreds of worlds so that they will battle for his amusement."

>He sees the horror on your face and moves to diffuse the situation.

>"What's your name?"

L-Lyra.

>He sits down next to you and very gently hugs you, he strokes your mane as he talks.

>"Lyra.  I'm not going to lie to you Lyra, this isn't going to be easy.  We're going to have to fight, and we're going to have to win, because that's the only way we're going to survive."

>You let this info sink in.

>You knew life after school was going to be tough, but this?!

>This was insane!

>You were somewhere that you had no idea where it was and now you were going to have to fight?!

>Why would anypony...anyone do such things!

>And all these creatures...

>Didn't this guy say "universe" earlier?

>The scale of what was happening to you was just dawning on you.

>As was the realization of how alone you were.

>All alone, save your new friend of course.

 

Music:  http://youtu.be/8S-GbD6K67M

 

What's you name?

>"Pardon?"

Your name?  I told you mine, what's yours?

>"Oh, you can call me, Sup-"

>He pauses.

>"No...that's won't work here.  Call me Kal-El."