//------------------------------// // 30: Twilight and Darkness // Story: Empire and Rebellion // by Snake Staff //------------------------------// “Who?” Twilight forced her voice to conceal her nerves. “I’ve never–” “Do you take me for… a fool, young princess?” Luna’s words were a little slurred, but Twilight was still surprised that she could talk at so soon after being shot in the head. “The magenta aura, the magical talents, the powers unknown outside our home… and of course the reluctance to simply shoot me dead. It all fits. You are Twilight Sparkle… Princess of Friendship.” “Well, I’m not giving my name to an Imperial agent,” she replied. “Now answer my questions! Why did you kill my friends? What are you after? Why are you working for the Empire?!” “Well… mystery woman…” the dark alicorn let out a wheeze that Twilight supposed was meant to be a chuckle. “I am here because I was sent here to recover… stolen property. I thought your friends… simple thieves. If I had known… yours, I would have found… another way. Didn’t know you were here.” “So in your mind,” Twilight’s pitch was rising along with her sense of outrage. “It’s okay to just murder strangers for the Empire, but not people connected to someone you know?!” “So… you admit I know you then?” Twilight paled beneath her helmet as she realized what she’d just said. “Should be… more careful with your words, young princess.” “I admitted to nothing!” Twilight snapped at her. “And I’m not the on trial here! You murdered people in cold blood! Why?!” “I feel your fear… your doubt… you worry I will betray you…. Never!” Luna coughed, her body wracked with the effort. “Everything I do, I do for our homeland.” “Those men were no threat to you and you killed them with lightning!” “I serve the Empire… same reason you are here… to save Equestria.” “You think murdering good men in the underbelly of Coruscant is saving Equestria?!” Twilight couldn’t quite contain her shock. “Princess Luna… what happened to you? What did they do?!” “Never… told you my name.” The purple alicorn felt her stomach seizing up. Was she really this easy to worm information from? “Fear not, your secret… safe with me. But… shouldn’t be here. Go back home to Equestria. I… will handle this.” “Handle it?!” Twilight couldn’t believe her ears. “You’re working for it! Princess, I don’t know where they took you or what they did, but the Empire’s clearly taken your senses! Wake up! You’re not protecting Equestria, you’re skulking beneath Coruscant with Stormtroopers and killing people for getting in the way! You tried to strangle me to death not a minute ago! You’ve lost it!” How could one mare be so insanely deluded? Here was Twilight, doing her best to help people resisting the Empire, and Princess Luna thought she was protecting Equestria by killing those same people with strange Force powers! The very first thing she had done was fling her lightsaber to try and chop Twilight in half, without even a demand to surrender! What had the Empire done to make Celestia’s sister lose all touch with reality?! “You’re trying to fight… Empire,” Luna wheezed. “Mistake. Empire… cannot be defeated… from the outside. Too vast…” “What, you’ve surrendered to despair, is that it? Surrendered your freedom and royal dignity to scrounge about for whatever scraps Palpatine will deign to throw a traitor?” “Stupid girl!” Luna hissed in a much harsher tone. “Empire… billions of troops… thousands of Star Destroyers… vast shipyards… industrial worlds… too big, too big to fight from the outside. Only be taken down… from within.” “You think you can defeat Imperial war machine by serving it? Princess, all you’re doing is furthering their goals! You’re here for Vader’s artifacts, aren’t you? He sent you after them!” Twilight nodded to herself. Of course, that made perfect sense. “Don’t you see? You killed my friends just to deliver Darth Vader artifacts that will only make him more powerful! He nearly strangled your sister to death! You’re being twisted, Luna, like when you were twisted into Nightmare Moon!” “Who said anything… giving them to him? Not the only one… use them.” “Your plan is seriously to betray and rob Darth Vader when he knows who are you and where you come from?!” And this mare thought she was protecting Equestria? “Get close…” she said. “Kill the Emperor. Kill Vader. Outsiders are short-sighted, full of hatred and greed… they’ll kill each other for the empty throne…” An Imperial civil war on that scale? Twilight blanched. It could last for years, decades even. Entire planets razed, billions of lives snuffed out before one warlord or the other eventually won and instituted their own brand of tyranny. To purposefully stoke one was madness, even if one was so cold-blooded as to condone death on that scale. “That’s your idea of a good plan?! Destroy half the galaxy and hope whoever wins is nicer to us? Princess, there’s no guarantee that whatever ruler emerged would be any better than Palpatine! What if it were Tarkin or the like?” “Then make a better one.” “What do you mean by that?” Luna didn’t answer, the strain of forcing a stunned body to work apparently getting to the elder alicorn at last. She slumped over, eyes closed and barely breathing. Twilight stared at her for a few seconds, mind racing, before turning around to pace nervously. What was she supposed to do? She had held out precious little hope of ever seeing her mentor’s sibling again – it was a very big galaxy, after all. Not while the Empire held sway, at any rate. She had half-expected to dig the location of some horrible laboratory or anonymous execution site out of an Imperial database after years of fighting. That she would meet Princess Luna, out and about and murdering for the Empire only a few months after she’d begun was a possibility the Princess of Friendship had never even considered. This was a matter that had to be handled delicately, Twilight decided. She couldn’t just execute a diarch of Equestria out of hoof, no matter how crazy and evil she seemed. Luna obviously needed help, and she equally obviously wouldn’t get it where she was at that moment. She needed to be brought home, perhaps to be cleansed by the powers of Harmony again. So the question was: how to do– “Oh, and Twilight,” Luna’s soft voice interrupted her thoughts. “Huh?” the younger alicorn turned around – to be immediately bowled over by an invisible shockwave. It was like being hit head-on by a locomotive. One moment she was standing there, the next she was flying through the air like ragdoll. Twilight hit a wall painfully hard, cracking a few of her grey armor plates, but that was the last thing on her mind. Even as she was flying, the small lightsaber clipped to her belt tore itself and burst into life. The crimson blade swung upwards, shooting straight for Twilight’s head of its own accord… And stopped, the instant before it impaled her through the face. Twilight stared cross-eyed at the burning blade of red plasma, held in check by some invisible hand merest centimeters from her helmet. Heart racing wildly and massive torrents of adrenaline flooding her veins, it took the princess a moment to realize just how close she had come to being killed on the spot. Her whole body was pinned stock-still against the wall, held in place by great pressure that seemed to spring from nowhere. “Watch your back,” Luna finished. The younger alicorn was held in place a moment longer before the lightsaber retreated back into its hilt. Simultaneously, the power holding her in place slackened and she dropped to the floor. Twilight stumbled and went her knees, struggling not to hyperventilate. “Against any Inquisitor but myself,” Luna continued calmly, her lightsaber floating gently back to her. Twilight noticed she had regained her hooves. “That would have been your last mistake, young princess.” “You nearly killed me!” Twilight gasped, shakily getting back on her feet. “Nonsense. I was in total control. It was merely a… visceral lesson.” “Lesson?! To teach what?!” “That you are too soft to be here, Princess Twilight Sparkle. You are too young, too naïve, too… inexperienced to face the full evil of the Galactic Empire. Had I meant to kill you, you would now lie dead, and whatever mission my sister sent you on would have failed. This is not our world, and you will not solve these problems by blasting them with friendship rainbows.” “Didn’t think it would be so easy.” Under her helmet, Twilight was eying the blaster she’d lost, now lying behind Luna. “Yet you thought me an enemy agent, and turned your back on me. That would have been a fatal mistake, had I actually been the traitor you presumed me. That you yet breathe is proof that my loyalty is where it has always been: to Equestria and her ponies.” “Then you have a funny way of showing loyalty, princess.” “Would you rather I have captured your friends?” Luna countered. “And turned them over to Darth Vader, my superior? I know much of Imperial interrogation procedure for high-priority suspects… like those trying to steal from a Sith Lord.” Luna’s blue eyes were hard. Twilight swallowed. “I did what I had to do then, just as I will in the days to come. As for you…” “I don’t recall falling under your authority. We’re equals now, in case all this time serving the Empire has made you forget.” “You will return to Equestria,” Luna continued. “Inform my sister that I am well, and that our problems with the Empire will soon be dealt with. Meanwhile, you will cease playing the courageous rebel and instead use that prodigious mind of yours to prepare the nation for the day the Emperor is no more. There is much rebuilding to be done, and there are none better to oversee the upgrade of our technological infrastructure and its integration with our magical traditions. Your talents are wasted out here, and it is my order that you will cease this damned fool crusade and return home at once.” Luna paused and flared her wings, looking royal and imperious. Twilight stared her down. “Further you will immediately break off your attempts to recover the stolen Sith artifacts that belong to Lord Vader.” “Oh, he’s ‘Lord’ Vader now?” “For the sake of our planet and people it is vital that I get close to Vader and his master, and those are a necessary step along that path. I cannot kill the Emperor if I cannot get near him, and Vader is the best path. You will therefore cease your hunt, and if you place any value on the lives of your rebel friends you will convince them to do the same.” “Is that a threat, princess?” Twilight’s eyes briefly shone. “Will you murder more good men for your lunatic scheme that only empowers evil?” “I’ll do what I have to do. Always.” Luna took a few steps backwards, towards the door. “I will return to my men and inform them that I found no one. You will call off your friends and return home immediately.” “And if I don’t?” “Then next we meet, I may have to be more… persuasive.” Her eyes flashed a burning yellow.