//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: Castles 
// Story: The Redemption Arc: Grievous Reborn 
// by Eternal Samson 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 2


The 2 large equines had flown off towards their so called “friendship school”. Apparently there was a large gathering and they wanted to quell any concerns that may have arisen. They wouldn’t tell them that an alien had arrived, or aliens as they thought, he hadn’t yet explained the droids were just machines. Honestly the less they knew the better. Instead they would tell them of an assembly tomorrow in which he would be introduced. He was currently marching with his droids alongside the 6 ponies and the spiked creature, apparently actually called Spike. Twilight was using her force-magic to float the pod with them. The six ponies had gotten over their trepidation and after about 10 minutes started bombarding him and his droids with questions as they walked, but none of them responded. After a minute the blue one finally flew over to one of the commandos in its face. “Hey, why are you ignoring me?!” she said. Although she wanted to make friends with these new creatures and win teacher of the month, she hated people ignoring her. It just kept walking and she had to fly around it to avoid crashing into it. 

Grievous finally spoke up. “They don’t answer to anyone but me.” He said.

“Well can you answer our questions?” Rainbow asked.

“No.” He replied.

“Why not?” She asked a bit ruffled due to his rudeness.

“Protocol.” He lied. “I don’t know a thing about any of you. And after that stunt your leaders pulled what reason would I have to trust you? The only reason we are being cooperative at all is pure necessity, which does not extend to answering your questions.” 

Twilight got an edge in the conversation. “Come on, our society is literally based off friendship, how bad can we be? Besides your going to be learning at our school anyway so might as well start now.” 

“Going to your school and learning there are two very different things. There are only 2 beings I listen to, and none of them are on this world. I only agreed for your leaders aid.”

“You lied to em?” Applejack asked.

“They did not specify that I had to learn, only that I go. You will find that I am very resistant when people attempt to manipulate me.” Grievous responded confrontationally.

Twilight did not like Grievous saying the alicorns were manipulative. It was just so… not true! “They weren’t trying to manipulate you, they were encouraging you to get some friendships lessons because you obviously need it!” She shouted.

“Need? How do some primitive force horses have any knowledge or authority to  know or administer what I need? I am not under their power nor do they know anything about me.” He countered.

“Well they know that your incredibly rude and careless of others' feelings.” Rarity said haughtily.

“I am only rude by your cultural standards, standards my species culture does not share.” Grievous shot back. While it was true, the standards were different, he was probably being rude by most cultural standards, even his. Not that he would voice that to them. Nor did he care for that matter either. 

Twilight decided to push her advantage while she could. “And what species is that?”
She asked.

Grievous paused. Although he was trying to give as little away as possible, It’s not like they would know what the Kaleesh were anyway. Plus it might get them to shut up. Making up his mind he spoke. “Kaleesh.”

Now it was Pinky’s turn to edge her way without being ignored this time . “Whats a Kaleesh? Do they like parties?” She asked.

“No.” He replied.

Pinkie immediately ceased bouncing and her mane deflated. First she had felt this weird darkness around him, and now he didn’t like parties?! Her enthusiasm at meeting an alien was quickly evaporating. Rainbow was also feeling similar. At first glance they looked really cool, but now, it was only the competing desire to win teacher of the month that kept her from giving up on making friends with them entirely. 

“No parties?” Pinkie asked in a classic fluttershy voice. “Do kaleesh even have fun? Do you even smile?”

Grievous burst out with a bitter laugh. “Not anymore. You can thank the Jedi and their Republic for destroying our people, our economy, forcing us to live in poverty and squalor merely for attempting to defend ourselves from selfish, murdering invaders. We didn't have time for the luxury of parties, smiling, or fun. Even now, despite...others help, we have lost far to many of our people to be able to smile.” At this statement however Grievous become noticeably sad and hunched over with a sigh. The sigh of course sounding to the ponies like a sigh and a growl combined. Grevious of course merely labeled it as unhappy; he would never admit to being sad. He didn’t get sad. Not anymore. Only angry. Angry at the Jedi, angry at the droid army’s lack of competence, angry at failure, angry at the galaxy. It had been awhile since he even spared a thought about his people. Sure he had some monuments in his lair, but to actually give a real thought about his people? He knew that the depression had been alleviated by the banking clan’s assistance shortly after the attack on his ship that forced him to become a cyborg. After all the pain he had experienced in his homeworlds’s war he had left, not really looking back, using his emotions to fuel his survival. Which is what brought him to Dooku. After the attack and subsequent meeting of Dooku, he used his emotions to fuel his revenge-crusade against the Jedi and The Republic. He trusted the confederacy to take care of his people while he took care of their enemies. He thought that all the pain of his peoples death and suffering, and of losing her, had faded. But at the mention of what happened to his people for the first time in years, he found that it was not so. The ponies noticed his change in his demeanor, and put 1 and 2 together. The fact that he could seem sad dispelled the theory a few had that he was emotionless, and they came to the conclusion that his rudeness and aggression were rather side effects of his past. They continued on in silence; the mood somber, no one really wanting to speak now.

Fluttershy began to work up her courage as they walked along. After another 15 minutes or so, she flapped her wings rising a bit. She floated over to Grevious, careful not to get in his face. Fluttershy may have been terrified of Grievous, but she had worked a lot at building confidence and her concern for Grievous slowly eroding her fear. She wasn’t a Rainbow Dash by any means but she could do this. “Umm, Grievous,” she spoke up quietly. He didn’t respond “I am so sorry to hear what happened to your people.” She moved closer until she was above Grievous’s shoulder and laid a consoling hoof on it. “If you need a friend or want to talk about it, I'd be willing to listen… if you want of course.” She added. 

Grievous gave a long deep growl. This… pony...was giving him pity. He didn’t get sad or hurt anymore, and he didn’t need their pity. He only got angry. He was about to grab that force horse and yeet it into a nearby tree to show her what he thought of her offer, but at his growl, she backed away quickly out of reach, and he allowed his anger to slowly taper off as they continued on. As much as he would love to bash and slice these ponies up, by now what he wanted even more was to reach their destination so he could be alone and not have to deal with them. Attacking them probably would only make it take longer to get there. After Fluttershy's bold action, quiet befell them again. Twilight was just slightly miffed she couldn’t ask what the Jedi or the Republic were now, it being rude to do so after what Grevious just shared. These feelings were soon overcome however with sympathy for the hulking cyborg. 

At this point they had reached the edge of the Everfree forest and Twilight's castle was in sight. They all walked up along the path to the entrance and with a lavender glow encasing the door and opening it, they entered. They had only walked a few steps before Twilight spoke. “Spike can you show Grievous's friends their rooms?” She turned to Grevious, “what are your friends names?” She asked. 

“They have none. And multiple rooms will not be necessary. They can stay with me.” He replied curtly. He. Knew this would raise questions and give clues that the droids were machines, but as incompetent as they were, he wanted them all at arms length to assist him should he need it. He was also confident he could avoid revealing that they were machines outright.

“But where will they sleep?” Twilight asked incredulously just as Grievous predicted. 

“They do not need sleep.” Grievous responded.

“What kind of creature doesn’t need sleep?” She asked, hoping that he would let slip more knowledge about him and his company. She was especially curious, as were they all, why two of them had tiny heads melded to their chests. It was one of the many questions they had asked on the way here before Grievous had finally began talking.

Grievous was no fool however, and he responded guardedly. “Droids.” He guessed with what he observed as their probable lack of higher tech meant the wouldn’t know what a droid was. He also assumed that their force powers could detect lies, and without any power of his own to obscure it, he decided to tell the truth, but giving as little detail as possible. He didn’t know that the ponies couldn’t deduce lies from their magic, though Applejack probably would have noticed any lie anyway. He was right about them not knowing what a droid was, though Twilight was also very intelligent and knew he was keeping something from her about the strange, silent,  bipedal companions. Usually she would have argued until he relented to giving the droids there own room or explained sufficiently why they didn't need it, but this wasn’t some pony, but a strange alien, so she decided to let it go. For now. 

Twilight lead the way to one of the empty rooms. They all stopped in front of the door. “Well, here we are.” She said lamely.

Grievous spotted the door knobs, stooped down, and opened the door. He and his droids filed in. He took his surroundings in. A large bed, some useless furniture with surfaces he could put stuff on, and another set of doors. He turned back to face Twilight. “Put the pod there.” He said pointing to wall on one side of the room. He did appreciate the size of the room that allowed him, his droids, and the pod enough space. 

Twilight moved the pod to where he had pointed, choosing to ignore his direct and rude demand. He stared at them standing outside the door, waiting. 

“Well, goodnight I guess. You should probably wake up around 6 if you want to make it to school on time. Clocks right there.” She said pointing to one of the surfaces of a piece of furniture by the bed. 

Grievous continued staring. He then spoke. “Fine.” The whole concept of school and him being there was still boggling his mind. He, General of The Confederacy of Independent Systems and largest droid army in the galaxy, slayer of Jedi, stepping foot for any reason inside a local education facility. To learn. The six ponies and spiked creature turned and walked away. Waiting a few minutes he turned and spoke to his droids. “You two,'' he said pointing to the commandos, “stand guard outside the door.” They moved to obey and took positions on either side of the doors. Grievous walked over and closed them behind them. He moved over to the bed staring. He hadn’t been in one since before becoming a cyborg. He climbed onto it, his back to the headboard, his legs bent in front of him. He sat there any finally began turning off his mind and cybernetics. Before he did so he ordered the droids to alert him if anyone came.







Applejack was the first to speak up as all 7 of them walked away from Grievous’s room. “Well it's gettin late. I better be headin back to the farm.” 

“I should go back to my animals. They have been alone for a long time already.” Said Fluttershy.

“See ya tomorrow!” Said Rainbow Dash, zipping away.

“Goodbye Twilight dear.” Said Rarity.

“Bye!” Said Pinkie bouncing away. 

Twilight looked on as her friends left. She couldn’t help but think of all that had occurred tonight. “Oh Spike, I have a bad feeling about this.”

“You and me both.” He responded walking to his room leaving Twilight standing alone in the hallway. 

She made her way to her own room and jumped into her bed. She tossed and turned for an hour but couldn’t fall asleep. To much had happened today and she just couldn’t find the elusive sleep that she sought. Finally she made a decision. She simply couldn’t sleep without knowing something more about their strange visitor. She teleported away, appearing in one of her research rooms. She grabbed some items with her magic and poofed back to her room. She set down the bowl on top of her nightstand and poured a few ingredients into it. She then pulled a chip of crystal from the wall and added it. The mixture complete, her horn lit up and with another audible poof the ingredients became liquid and murky. She quickly recalled a customized scrying spell that Starlight had made and shown her the other day. The piece of the castle wall made the spell more specific, easier, and safer for viewing anything in the castle. Twilight thought hard about the visitor and his room as she charged up the second part of the spell. She aimed it at the bowl and fired. The murky liquid instantly became a clear image of inside Grievous's room. She could see the scary, dark, glowing eyed, “droids” standing around holding their black objects. They were standing close to the door facing it. The four spindly tan "droids" were by the bed, but compressed. She honestly had no idea how they managed to compress their bodies into such a small tight manner. She couldn’t see the faceless gray ones or the other two scary darker versions of the spindly droids however.  Grievous was sitting on the bed, knees bent towards his chest, his back straight, his eyes closed. Even they way he slept was strange. She sighed. It seemed that was as much as she would learn. Some of them can apparently fold into the size of a rocks, don’t sleep, and Grievous doesn’t seem to know how to sleep on a bed, treating it more like a glorified chair with a leg rest. Her horn glowed as she ended the spell, the liquid turning murky again. Fully expecting a restless night she returned to bed to go and chase elusive sleep once again.