//------------------------------// // Reception // Story: Star Wars: The Old Republic- Conflicting Elements // by Barrobroadcaster //------------------------------// Ponyville, present day Wind whipped the side of Twilight Sparkle's library treehouse and buffetted it with rain. "I wasn't aware a storm was scheduled for today." Twilight said as she looked out the window. Lightning streaked across the sky and surged through the dark clouds above. Spike was hiding under her bed. "M-m-maybe it's a r-rogue storm? It c-could've gotten lose and now it's out of control!" Spike said shivering. "I'm sure it's nothing Spike. Maybe somepony needed some emergency rain." Twilight said, though as the lightning struck she found herself skeptical of her own reasoning. Outside, the storm continued to rage. The door to her house burst open and in came a soaking wet Rainbow Dash. Quickly she closed the door behind her as the wind blew more rain inside. "Twilight! Twilight where are you?" Rainbow called her friend, shaking off the water. "I'm right here Rainbow." Twilight said as she and Spike descended the stairs. "What's going on out there? The pegasi having some sort of storm making competition?" Twilight asked. "The Storm-brewing Stormoff isn't for another month Twilight. The pegasi aren't doing this! And we can't stop it!" Rainbow exclaimed. Voss-ka , same time "Again." the Voss councilor announced. The Sith and the Jedi meditated in the middle of the room, two conflicting elements side by side. The two Mystics and the initiate sat in the room with them. Brazon and Kess sat on opposite sides fo the circular room and watched the display. Again, the Sith and the Jedi visibly strained themselves while meditating and a spark appeared high above their heads. The two Voss councilors watched intently and talked quietly amongst themselves. The initiate looked to be in some sort of trance. The spark once again grew into a large ball of light and opened up, revealing images from the beyond. They changed quickly, each only staying visible for a few seconds before changing. Like a painting that altered based on the direction you viewed it, the image changed. Snow blew from it at one point and as it changed again, volcanic ash. Slowly, the Mystics stood and began to stabilze the hole in time and space with their own Force talents. The two councilors approached it and spoke to the initiate. "Show me... rain. A place with good parcipitation." the female councilor spoke. The initiate's face twitched and the image changed again. Light rain began to pour through the opening. Brazon had had about enough. He was tired of fighting, tired of sitting here doing nothing, tired of being watched, tired of worrying about bombs beneath his feet. He got up and strode over to the initiate. The councilors tried to stop him but he pushed them aside and picked up the young man. The image twisted and changed into a thunderstorm. "Show me... show me peace. You know what peace is? Show it to me! Now! Show me a world with peace! I don't care where, just show me peace!" The young man mouthed something in his native language but appeared to be asleep. "Peace... peace is a lie." The Sith said, still meditating with his head bowed. "There is no emotion, there is peace." The Jedi said back. A lightning bolt shot out of the hole and struck the wall hard, scorching it black. The hole began to grow larger, it bubbled like it was made of some sort of liquid as dark clouds and rain began to spill fourth. "Peace is a lie!" The Sith yelled angrily. "There is no emotion." The Jedi said again. "Peace is a lie!" "There is no emotion." "Peace is a lie!!" "There is no emotion." "PEACE IS A LIE!" The Sith screeched. "There is no emotion." The Jedi responded. As they continued this banter the rift continued to grow larger, the lightning around its edges chewed through and destroyed the edges of the ceiling. "Stop the ritual! Stop the ritual now!" the male Voss councilor shouted. The Mystics broke off but the rift did not disappear.The walls and floor began to shake, the building seemed to be crumbling around them. Parts of it were sucked into the vortex, others destroyed. The door leading out of the chamber fell and that was all Brazon really needed. He ran. Ponyville, same time The storm had gone mysteriously silent. The rain had stopped, no thunder could be heard and the wind had died down. Spike and Rainbow Dash were holding each other still. Twilight Sparkle looked out of her window. The sky was still dark but there seemed to be a light that was illuminating the other buildings. Curiosity got the better of Twilight and she opened her door to go investigate. "Wait, where are you going?" asked Spike. "I don't know but there's something out there Spike. Some kind of weird light, I'm going to go see what it is". "I'm coming too. It might be whatever caused this mess." Rainbow declared. "Hey, wait for me!" Spike called after them. The glow seemd to come from the main road into Ponyville. They followed the light while keeping a cautious eye on the sky. A few other ponies opened their doors to join them, a few of the more cautious stayed behind. A crowd soon formed behind them as excited murmurs and shouts filled the air. Twilight did her best to ignore the squabbling as she turned a corner to look down the main road. What she saw, she couldn't believe her eyes. She approached what looked to be a ball of light with a black hole in the center and silver aroune the edges. The crowd approached with her. Voss, same time The rift continued to expand, Sargent Brazon ran down the halls, the Jedi, the Sith, the Chiss and the Voss councilors, Mystics and initiate were close behind him. He didn't even turn around to look at them but he knew they were close behind. He seemed to be leading the way out of the crumbling capital building. The group rounded a corner and into the entrance hall. Debris rained down all around them, there was nothing they could do but run. They scrambled through the door and into a crowd. Brazon turned around and watched the rest of the building collapse. The portal through space and time that the Voss had forced the Jedi and Sith to open stabilized and then began to recede, leaving the four corners of the building and a pile of rubble where it used to be. The lightning storm that lined its edges had become calm, turning into a silvery band of an almost mirror-like quality. The group dusted themselves off. Brazon walked over the debris that used to be the doorway and up onto the hill. The others in the group followed him. Curiosity got the better of Brazon and he walked right up to the portal in the middle of the ruined building. He turned to the Voss initiate behind him and asked, "Peace?". The Voss nodded. "We... will be the first to crossover." The male Voss councilor stated, panting. Brazon looked around. The building's gaurds were in position around them already and had weapons drawn. They were still captives. Slowly, the two Voss councilors and the initiate walked over to the portal. Holding hands, they stepped inside. Were they a family? Brazon thought. The two Mystics moved to either side and drew pistols themselves. As the Voss family was about to step through, Brazon decided he'd once again had enough. Here was a portal to another world, supposedly a peaceful world where he wouldn't spend every waking moment wondering if he was going to make it through the day. He ran towards the family and grabbed the initiate, picking him up over his shoulders just as he'd done when he'd saved his life the other day. Without even turning around, he ran into the portal. Reconciled Spacial Anomaly "Ponyvoss", Equestria side, now Brazon and the initiate tumbled through the portal and out onto solid ground. They got up, brushed themselves off and stood, staring at the large group of strange four-legged creatures before them. He noticed there were multiple colors, some flew and apparently there were houses which told Brazon they were intelligent. Brazon looked out across the crowd at the many eyes gazing at him. One of them, a purple one with a horn stepped forward. "My name is Twilight Sparkle. Do you... do you speak English?" the creature asked. "No?" Brazon said, shaking his head. "My name is Brazon Exter. Do you speak Basic?" "I'm speaking English and so are you apparently." "No, we're both speaking Basic." Brazon said, confused. "Can you understand me?" the two asked simultaneously. "Yes." Twilight said nodding. "Answer me one question. Are you... is this planet at war?" Brazon asked. "Not that I know of..." Twilight said, looking around confused. "Listen to me, you have to close this opening behind me right now!!" Brazon yelled. "I don't-" Twilight began but Brazon interrupted her, kneeling down and saying, "If this world has peace then you have to close that portal and you have to do it now." "Peace." the Sith spoke from behind them. The initiate's legs kicked at the Sith as he held him in mid air, crushing his throat with a bare red hand. A cracking noise was heard and the initiate's body went limp as the Sith continued, "...is a lie". "You...I recrognize you. You were the one who saved this worthless child the other day weren't you?" The Sith said, gesturing to the body. "Useless filth. We were planning on holding him hostage in order to force Voss to join the Empire but this..." the Sith said, looking around. "This changes everything." he declared. "My operative should already be taking care of the problems on the other side of the portal. That leaves you as the last loose end to tie." "You just think the Republic is going to let you get away with this? Or the Voss?" Brazon said to the fiend. "Your Republic will think you perished alongside the rest of your pathetic squadron and the Voss, as cowards will want to keep things underwraps. Niether of you will be missed." The Sith said, reaching out a hand to grip Brazon's throat. Brazon felt nothing though. Behind them, the strange creatures were attending to the young Voss who had been hurt by the Sith's strike. The purple one and a few others though simply watched the exchange before them. The Sith reached out to choke Brazon again with the Force, to no avail. Brazon watched the Sith continue to try to conjure various Force moves without success. Brazon grinned. He charged the Sith quickly and delivered a headbutt straight to his nose. The Sith staggared backward, Brazon didn't let up, wailing on the red villain with a blow to the stomach. The Sith was a bit larger though and recovered quickly, smashing Brazon's jaw with an elbow. He then snatched Brazon's throat with his free hand and began applying pressure. Dark edges appeared around Brazon's perspective as he grasped the massive hand at his throat. Virko Sav had endured a lot in the last week. He'd been shot, nearly blown up, almost crushed by his parents' house collapsing and then the brutish Sith had tried to break his neck. He lay on his back and looked around carefully, rubbing his neck. The Sith seemed to be saying something to the Republic trooper who had saved him days ago but he couldn't make out a word. A few of the colorful creatures from his dreams had gathered around him. Suddenly, a light lit up around his neck, like some kind of glow from an energy field. The pain he'd felt melted away and he noticed one of the creatures had a horn on its head that was glowing. He mouthed the words 'thank you' in his native language and then looked back up to see the Republic soldier charge the Sith and the two of them began to fight. The Sith started to get the uppper hand and then started choking the trooper just as he'd done with Virko. Virko got onto his feet and rushed the Sith, tackling him with his small frame. The three of them were knocked back into the portal. As his world spun, Virko was happy that he'd experienced a few moments of real peace, real friendship once in his life. If he never saw it again, he hoped that he would see it in his dreams. He closed his eyes as he tumbled into the portal. Voss, two weeks ago "It will be all right. All of this is for a great purpose, I assure you." Leuko and Virlan Sav comforted their son over the hololink. He was a Mystic-in-training but unlike other Mystics, he'd had visions of another world instead of another time. After a few experiments, it was discovered he could not only see other worlds but he could use the Force to open rifts in space that lead to them. But in order to do so, it required both light and dark side forces colliding, the presence of conflicting elements to create friction and literally rip open a hole that he could then control through his dreams. This presented the Voss with a great opportunity. An opportunity to escape the war tearing apart the galaxy. Their son nodded, they exchanged one final goodbye and closed the hololink. Virko was away at a training temple now but he was scheduled to be back in a week. Since the discovery of his abilities, it was decided by the Mystics that he required escort. A Republic squadron had been ordered to make sure he arrived safely. Virko had been told that he was coming home so that the Mystics could better understand his unique abilities. They had left out a few key details. Lesuko gave her husband a set of Republic comm codes on a datapad, the ones the Republic squad escorting their son would be using. She'd obtained them by telling Republic officials she only wanted to keep in contact with her son on the journey. She handed the datapad to her husband. "For peace, my love." "For peace." Virlan walked off to deliver the codes to the family's mercenary contact. From there, the codes would be delivered to Imperial Intelligence without leaving any trace back to them.