Sector 1010, 14 years ago
"Welcome! Mares and Gentlecolts! Foals and fillies! And everything else in-between..." a resounding voice called out from the intercom system. "To the 24th annual Wonder-Dogs Fliiiiight shoooow!!"
It was a warm summer day at Canterlot Stadium. The sun was hot, with a cool breeze carrying much of the head away, packed full with ponies of each and every kind, cramming themselves into snack bars, the scent of everything, from overpowering ambrosia of the famous stadium popcorn, to the sweet and almost illegally decadent essence of the cotton candy. It really didn't help that the heat from the summer sun accentuated each and every aroma that filled the air.
To any other fan of the Wonder Bolts, from Manehatten to Cloudsdale, this place would be heaven on Equestria.
But, as Soarin' rode atop his father's shoulders, he didn't notice any of it. He was just happy to be with his dad.
"Here, you will see the greatest stunts any pony could ever perform! Performing death defying maneuvers not only not for the faint of heart, but hardly intended for the brave and stoic as well!" The stallion on the intercom system continued, the speaker well aware that one out of maybe thirty was paying attention to what he was saying, but doing his job any way. "As well the introduction of the new inductees to the Wonder Bolts themselves!"
"That's gonna be you up there, Dad!" Soaren' shouted, holding on to his father's mane to keep from falling for dear life, his tiny voice barely lifting itself up from the great mobs of ponies.
"Sure is, Kiddo!" He shouted back, looking up to the small foal that might as well have been a clone. It really was uncanny how much the two looked alike, from the green eyes to the blue mane. There were even some secret bets going on in the Wonder Bolts stables on if the kid's cutie mark was going to be the same as his old colt's; a single winged thunder bolt. "And one day, that'll be you up there, Squirt!"
"Cool," the foal muttered under his breath, thoroughly believing every word that his dad poured into his ear, them finally entering the tunnel to the interior of the great colosseum.
Then his dad smiled wryly. "You know, if you do all your school work, eat all your greens, and not just the pies, get plenty of exercise and all that good stuff."
Then the clone riding the stallion gave a disapproving frown. "Not cool."
The two were about as close as a father and son could be. Being a single father had always been tough for Glidin', even with him living with his aunt and uncle. But that never stopped him from seeing his son any and every chance he got. Even ditching flight practice on more than one occasion to make sure he was the father little Soarin' deserved.
And at eight years old, it was also the first time Soarin' was going to see his old colt airborne in show. And that's when he saw the blinding light from the inside of the stadium.
"Whoa..." the green eyed foal whispered, his dad shooting up a smirk to his kid. The tunnel began to end and the pure, Canterlot sunlight began to filter through the his wide-eyed wonder.
The pro-flyer's son was in pure awe, even bordering on some level of trepidation, of what his eyes were fixed upon.
Everything, from the great, emerald grass lawn that had to be at least half a mile long to the pure white marble columns supporting the giant structure in the middle of the city.
"And I'm gonna be doing that some day?!" Soaren' asked loudly, dipping his head directly in front of his fathers, making perfect, parallel eye-contact.
"Sure!" He answered, plucking his spawn from his shoulders, noticing the other Wonder Bolt walking towards him. "IF you do what I said earlier and listen to your aunt and uncle." The child was still not amused by that.
"Glidin' Highwind!" The wonder bolt shouted, the voice making it apparent that it was a mare. Her brown mane looked like no less than pure black when compared to the blazing brightness of the sun.
Oh, this'll be fun, Glidin' mused sarcastically to himself. "Wildfire! How's it going? Have the rookies killed themselves yet?"
"Don't give me that!" She shouted at him. "You know good and well that it's your job to lead the rookies up on their first showing! You were supposed to be here an hour-" then she stopped to look at the blue progeny of the flyer she was publicly berating at. "Who's this?" She asked, fully knowing what the answer was going to be.
"Wild Fire," Glidin' began, pride now beaming and replacing the earlier irritation. "This is my son, Soarin'." He looked down to his boy. "Soarin'? This is Wild Fire. My boss. Say 'hi'."
"Hi," Soarin' responded, not really sure how to react to the mare that had just been yelling at his dad.
"Hello," she answered back, the red rage in her voice subsiding as she began to understand why one of her squad leaders was late. "Look, Glidin', I'm sorry, but I need you to try and get here sooner in the future, alright? I can't keep pulling your fat out of the fire like this. You know they're talking about-"
"I know, I know," he replied, genuinely understanding the position he keeps placing her in every time he sneaks off to see his son. "Just... I'll be there in a few minutes. I wanted to give my boy something to remember today by, alright?"
Finally surrendering to the father's love for his son, she smiled with an air of understanding, knowing how much it would mean to the little guy. "You've got two minutes, Glidin'." And then left.
"Why was that mare yelling at you, Dad?" The foal asked, confused, holding on to his father's leg.
"Nothing, Kiddo," he lied. He already knew about how far deep he was in with his senior officers and how close he was to losing this job, but he needed to be there for his son. "She's just got a lot on her plate. Hey, listen," he knelt in front of his kid. "I wanted to give you these, Soarin'," with that, the ace flyer took out a pair of goggles that looked a lot like the ones his old colt was wearing.
"What are these, Dad?" He asked, not really understanding the gift he'd just been given.
"Goggles, Genius," He answered back, ruffling his son's mane. "My own old colt got these for me when I was eight. First time he took me to see the Wonder Bolt's in action." He took the goggles and placed the over his son's head, them starting to go over his eyes involuntarily. "It only seemed right that you get 'em now."
"They're to big!" the blue pegasus foal complained, the goggles falling over his right eye.
"You'll grow into 'em, Squirt," He retorted, hugging his son one last time before he took to the skies. "Now then, Soarin'," Glidin' began with a wily smirk, letting his progeny go. "If you'll excuse me, I got a crowd to wow!" And then he left to go make sure the rookies didn't kill themselves.
Soarin' only walked a few more feet before stopping next to a small, red maned pegasus filly with a golden coat. "That's my dad in that flight suit!" the small colt said in wonder.
"Hmmph," the red head next to him prepared to snark at him. "My daddy owns this whole stadium."
That's when the stallion on the intercom system began to sound off again. "Mares and Gentlecolts!" As the trainee flyers finished their act and the hoops of all kinds began to fold down with the aid of unicorn magic. "Allow me to take you all on a quest to the days gone by!"
A squad of Wonder Bolts flew over head, leaving behind a techni-colored rainbow of explosions in the wake of their entrance. "Cool..." both the foals muttered, although the red-maned one was slightly embarrassed by it.
"A time when Equestria was not the united nation we all know and love, but a time of SAVAGERY!" Thunder sounded through out the stadium, all watching it placed in a position of awe. "Of HATRED!!"
Three bolts of lightning struck the earth from on high, following by more thundering. Soarin' could feel his heart beat faster and faster as he began to realize that really was his dad up there.
"And, perhaps most frighteningly of all..." suddenly, the entire stadium became as quiet as the grave. The lights were all out, evidently by unicorn magic, and it was as black as the deepest, darkest abyss in all of Equestria. Suddenly, interrupting the silence that would allow a pony to here a pin drop from a mile away, a small noise began to stir. "OF CHAOS!!!"
Mighty winds began to pick up from each and every corner of the stadium, creating a veritable hurricane; a tornado wrought from lightning and gale. A force of nature held in side an open ceiling arena simply by the force of will and pure skill of twenty pegasi.
"That's my dad up there..." he muttered once more to himself, still staring in disbelief that it was his father, HIS father, that was up there. There wasn't a more proud son in all of Equestria.
Really, Soarin' could hardly think with the all the weather going on around him. The only thing coursing through the foals mind was 'that's my dad out there'.
At least, that was until he looked to see the off-yellow filly pegasus mumbling something. Even Soarin' could read her lips as they uttered a warning of catastrophe. "Oh no..."
Then. even little Soarin' noticed something was off. "Dad?!" he shouted, still not able to hear his own voice. "DAD!" He shouted once more, his own voice coming off as a whisper. That's when he ran, then flew, head first into the storm, having no clear idea what the young foal was getting himself into.
...
"DAD!!!" Twenty two year old Soarin' Highwind woke up to the grating noise of his alarm clock blasting its torturous, ringing noise right into his right ear. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "Damn it, Soarin'..." he muttered as he got out of bed, irritated at the dream he'd kept having.
As he left the one bedroom of his apartment, he couldn't help but wonder if going for the Wonder Bolt training was the precise thing that was giving him nightmares in the first place. "Chances are," he answered himself, wiping the cool sweat from the night before from his blue brow.
He'd been having the dream for two weeks, ever since he'd sent in that application to join the 'bolts in the first place. His aunt and uncle said that his dad would have been proud, the fact that they kicked him out of their home for going into the job that killed his dad notwithstanding, but Soarin' wasn't sure if he was really up for the job..
But he'd never let them know that. He finished drying his mane and looked at his reflection in the somewhat fogged up mirror. "Colt without fear, remember?" He carefully put on his tie, the one his aunt had forced him to get, and grabbed his goggles, the ones his dad gave him just before the accident. "It's do or die time, Soarin'. Don't go bucking this one up."
And, with that, he left his small, one-bedroom apartment, apple in mouth, to continue on with his day and what would hopeful be the first day of the rest of his life.
Upon leaving his small abode, he immediately kicked it into the highest gear he had, flying past a lot of now agrivated Canterlot ponies along the way, only taking a moment to get breakfast at Donut Joe's Joe & Donut's. As he walked through the diners door, the powerful scent of powdered sugar assailed his senses, the aroma of the freshly ground and brewed coffee dancing with the nose. And of course there was always the ever present smell of the pie- "No, Soarin', now is not the time for pie," then he smirked. "That comes later."
It was then that a gruff and very off yellow unicorn sporting a 5 o'clock shadow greeted the potential wonder bolt. "So, todays the big day, eh?" He asked whilst polishing a coffee mug with his hooves.
Soarin' took a seat, seeing that his usual, a powdered sugar and raspberry jelly filled with milk, had already been served up. "Yeah, Joe," Soarin' gave a nervous and unsure smile at the older stallion opposite the counter. "Yeah, it is."
"Well, good luck with that, Soarin'," Donut Joe replied, still not taking his eyes off his job, but not really needing to, there being only a precious few in his establishment this early. "I remember when yer dad came in here on his way to try-outs."
"Oh here we go," the blue stallion muttered under his breath, finding his glass and drinking from it.
"Glidin' was all puffed up with that big, stupid bowtie, heh," then he looked over to see if Soarin' was making the same mistake. "Glad ta see ya didn't inherit that style, eh?"
Soarin' just rolled his eyes, finishing the powdered donut and milk. "Well, thanks for that incredible insight, Joe. You got anything useful to say?"
"I look like a featherbrain ta you, Highwind?" the old cook asked sarcastically, then going to a smile. "Good luck out there, Soarin'. Knock 'em dead."
"I aim to please, Joe," Soarin' replied with a smile upon leaving the establishment. And, as he walked out, a new feeling of optimism washed over the blue pegasus. Soarin' wasn't sure whether it was the sugar from the donut or simply faith in himself, but he had a feeling that everything was going to be just fine.
Meanwhile, in sector 1011...
"Well you've told the guardians, right?" Sunset Shimmer asked her old mentor, Abin Sur, her normally haughty voice being over-ridden with something akin to concern. "I mean, they wouldn't believe you, but if you get the story out, maybe then-"
He soared through space at incredible speeds in a ship who's appearance was akin to a crystalline arrow of sorts, mainly black and silver but lines with green as well. It was a fitting vessel for the most legendary of all living Green Lanterns... and perhaps the most legendary of all time, as well.
The red alien's fingers danced across the control panel of his ship, his hooves resting upon the floor and at ease, but his mind never at rest. "The guardians are beginning to blind themselves from within their own light, Sunset," he remarked back to his old protégé. That was his way of saying that the guardians, an ancient and immortal race of stunted short, blue alicorns, had their collective heads sticking firmly within each and every one of their wrinkly anus's. "I fear that the worst may come to pass soon, my friend. And even I may not be able to stop it."
"Oh really? 'Even you', Abin?" the near golden unicorn mare responded, her coat turned to green from the holo-projection on the veteran green lantern's ship. "I don't believe your sector was deemed 'the most orderly in all of Guardian space'." With that, she lifted up her hoof and inquired her ring. "Ring, tell me, who has the most orderly sector of Guardian space."
"You do, Green Lantern Sunset Shimmer," it replied to it's master.
"And," she began again, even more arrogance creeping into the proud unicorn's tone. "Who is, by many, the guardians being no exception, known as the 'Greatest of all Green Lanterns'?"
"That would be you, Green Lantern Sunset Shimmer," it replied once more, the orange coated mare smiling triumphantly.
"I rest my case," she declared, her eyes closed and the confident unicorn pleased at how her role amongst the corps was secured.
The magenta hued alien smiled wryly, happy that his once-apprentice and found her way amongst the legendary band of ring-wielding warriors, but entertained as well by her utter lack of humility. That will bite her in the back one day, he thought to himself as he piloted his small ship. "One day, I hope you have an apprentice just like yourself, Sunset."
"Please, Abin," she replied, flipping her mane back and giving her old master her trade marked grin. "You should know by now. There are none like me." Then she paused, her jovial egomania taking a back seat to be serious for a moment. "You know the other lanterns think you're crazy for taking a ship with weapons, right?"
"I'm aware well aware of our fellow lantern's opinions, Shimmer," the red alien responded coldly, his eyes on the HUD as opposed to his student by now. "But five habited systems have gone dark within two weeks, each with a population of at least one billion. In addition, I must transport this beast back to Oa, who may know more about it." He was referring to the monster in the cell, held back only by the indomitable will of the legendary lantern corpsman.
"So why worry? The Green Lanterns have been undefeated for billions of years," she paused, try to examine his face through the green hue that he was presented as on her ring. "What's one rogue inversion gonna do to stop us?"
"It's not the inversion that frightens me, Sunset, it's what she speaks of. She has said that my ring will fail me when I need it most," he began once more, something creeping into his voice that Sunset Shimmer had never heard before. Something that was unfitting for any Green Lantern to have in there voice: fear. "And, if my ring fails me, I would prefer to have a contingency plan available."
"You're being paranoid, Abin," his former student began. Then her voice softened, which was something nearly as rare a frightened green lantern in the first place. "Be careful out there."
"Oh, don't you worry, little unicorn," a voice dripping with crimson rage and vengeance began to sound. "I'll take excellent care of him."
"ABIN!!" The last thing that Sunset Shimmer saw was a monster, crimson blood dripping from her beak. One that had been left to die upon a crucifix on the long dead world of Ysmault. A monster with such legendary rage it's said that no lantern, save Abin Sur and Sunset Shimmer could best in combat... but Sunset Shimmer wasn't here.
Her name was Gilda, sole survivor of Sector 666. The last of the five inversions.
