Star Wars: Twilight of the Force

by Equestrian Defender

1: The Imperial March On Equestria*

*Pun not intended.

Equestria has long since been the shining jewel of our planet, Equus-G4. From its founding roughly one thousand and one hundred years ago, it has expanded from the original three tribes; the Earth Clans, the Pegasus Army, and the Noble Unicorn House, to the largest kingdom on the planet, stretching from the ocean to the Badlands. Through working together and combining the Earth Clan's knowledge of farming, the Pegasus Army's weather controlling abilities, and the Unicorn House's knowledge of the arcane arts, they drove away the vile Windigoes and transformed the previously frozen fields into a lush paradise.

In the years that passed the kingdom grew, settlements became towns, some towns became cities, and the capital of Canterlot was established, lead by the immortal sorceress and last of the Alicorns; Princess Celestia. Through her wisdom, teachings and leadership, Equestria has prospered for almost a thousand years.[1]

"Miss Shinespark?"

The teacher stopped, looking at the raised hand. She smiled and asked "Yes, Miss Sparkle?"

The student who asked the question was a 10 year old girl with indigo hair that bore two stripes, one pink and one mulberry. She had light purple eyes and was wearing light purple pants with darker purple sneakers, along with a lavender blouse.

Her name was Twilight Sparkle. "Is it true that Princess Celestia has the power to raise the sun every morning, and then raise the moon every night?"

She had to giggle at that, having heard that question many times before. "No, that was just a silly misconception from the first century of her rule. What had actually happened was that she had used her powerful magic to tap into Equus's own Sun, drawing on it to increase the power of her own Light Magic. She then used that power to destroy a dark curse that had been placed over Equestria at the time. While it did look like she was moving a star, it was not the same thing."[2] She smiled before adding "As for how and why that dark curse was placed over Equestria? That's a lesson you'll cover next year."

Twilight nodded, accepting that answer. The bell then rang and Ms. Shinespark said "And that's all for class for the year. Be sure to read some good books over the summer and don't forget to stay safe. Class dismissed!"

The class erupted into cheers before grabbing their backpacks and booking it out of the classroom, eager to enjoy the first day of their summer vacation.

The last one to leave was Twilight, who had carefully and neatly placed her books and papers in her backpack before slinging it over her shoulder. She bid her teacher farewell for the summer and left.

Once she exited Canterlot Elementary School (for the last time as she had just passed the 5th grade, and would be attending Canterlot Middle School next year) she immediately noticed a crowd gathering out front, all of whom were looking at something over the horizon. She turned to look...

...and immediately felt her jaw hit the floor.

Floating high in the sky, roughly ten miles out from the city limits, was a gigantic craft of some kind. It was roughly triangular shaped and was almost 1600 meters long, painted a dull white gray and looked to be made entirely out of metal. That automatically made it clear that this humongous monstrosity wasn't made in Equestria, as most Equestrian Airships were ships hooked up to blimps. This... gigantic metal ship was far beyond anything the Equestrians had ever seen on this planet. [3]

The scariest thing was it was starting to float down towards an empty field, maintaining its distance from the city.

What is that thing? Twilight tried and failed to suppress a shiver. And why am I so scared by it?

Standing on the bridge of the Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer Endeavor was a large man standing just short of seven feet tall, clad in jet black armor that was mostly covered by an equally jet black cape. A panel was visible on chest with several switches and lights. His face and head were entirely hidden by black helmet, the face of it fashioned into a skull-like design with dark crimson lenses over his eyes. He looked, in a word: fearsome.

It didn't help that his helmet's respirator amplified the sound of his deep, raspy breathing; a sound that almost everyone in the Empire (except for the Emperor himself) had learned to be very afraid of. It also didn't help that he seemed to emit an aura of hatred and barely contained rage, enough to make some of the Imperial Officers around him very, very hesitant to approach him.

But eventually one of the officers, the Captain, did. "Lord Vader?"

The man known as Darth Vader turned to the officer and replied "What is it?"

Doing his best to keep his fear in check, the officer answered "We've just finished analyzing the data from the Probe Droids we'd sent out earlier. We were able to put together a preliminary report of this world's inhabitants."

"And?"

"There appears to be no planetary government. The majority of the inhabitants are divided into several different... 'kingdoms' if you will. While there is some trade between a few of them, the majority of them are either isolated from each other or just haven't encountered each other."

"What of their technological prowess?"

"Very primitive, my lord. There has been no sightings of spaceports or energy-based weapons. Their military weaponry is mainly-" He couldn't help but chuckle as he continued "-wood and metal spears, metal swords, projectile weapons like crossbows and longbows. As of now we have yet to see a single blaster in use. Many of the troops are treating this like a joke."

"They would be wise not to underestimate our opponents."He still remembered seeing Clone Troopers and Battle Droids killed and destroyed by far more primitive and savage inhabitants during the Clone Wars. "What have we observed about the inhabitants of this kingdom?"

"They seem to be able to speak Basic, but their writing system is different. This kingdom from what the droids gathered is known as Equestria. The inhabitants appear to be humanoids, and are split into three subspecies. The 'Earth Equestrians' appear to have enhanced strength and stamina, though they're mainly farmers with very few of them being in their kingdom's military. The 'Pegasus' have bird-like wings that allow them to fly. One of the droids managed to clock one of them reaching a speed of Mach 1. And then there are the 'Unicorns.' From what the droids overheard, many of them have access to some form of what they call 'magic.'"

Remembering the Night Sisters of Dathomir and how they used their connection to the force to create their own 'magic', Vader assumed it was something similar. Though considering he had yet to see a single lightsaber or someone dressed like a Jedi, perhaps it was something different?

Just to be sure, he reached out into the Force.

What he found was astonishing.

The world below the Endeavor had a strong connection to the Force. Very strong. It was mostly light, though he could feel small pockets of the Dark Side. In fact he felt two particularly strong concentrations of the Dark Side; one came from the frozen north and the other was surprisingly coming from this world's moon.[4] Interesting. Perhaps this world might require my attention after all.

Looking to the Captain he said "Prepare your troops. And tell them to exercise caution. These Equestrians may have something hidden up their sleeves."

The Captain nodded. "As you command, my Lord."

In the almost two thousand years she'd been alive, Princess Celestia had seen many things. Some were amazing, some were horrifying, others simple boggled her mind to the point that she had to question what she was seeing. Before today, she'd probably say she had seen it all.

The gigantic metal... "ship", for lack of a better term, destroyed that statement. "Captain Stone Wall, what are we looking at?"

The current Captain of the Royal Guard, a forty year old unicorn named Stone Wall, clad in the golden armor of the Dawnguard, replied "I'll be honest with you, your Highness; we have no idea. No craft like this has ever been seen in our history, and none of the neighboring kingdoms have come up with anything as advanced. Even our most advanced airship is merely a wooden ship hooked up to a dirigible with metal plating on the outside. Our best guess is..." He sighed. "As ridiculous as it may sound, our best guess is that the craft is not of this world."

Celestia couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at that. "So you believe we're dealing with an alien race?"

"Considering how advanced their technology is, it's the only explanation that makes sense. The engineering that would go into a craft that gigantic would take a quantum leap from our current standpoint. I mean, our biggest airship is an ant compared to that behemoth."

She couldn't refute that fact, and when she thought about it that explanation made sense. "Have we figured out what they want yet?"

Captain Stone Wall shook his head. "Not yet. As of now they have made no moves to communicate with us nor have they done... well, anything at the moment. So far they just seem to be floating ten miles out and-"

At that moment, the door to the room was flung open and another member of the Dawnguard rushed in, panting and out of breath. "Captain," he managed to choke out while forcing himself into a salute. "Your Highness!"

Recognizing him Stone Wall asked "What is it, Lieutenant Armor?"

"Outside! You need to see this!"

Seeing the look of panic on his face, both the Captain and the Princess followed him outside. Once they were there he pulled out a pair of binoculars and handed them to the Captain. "It was just standing there for a moment before it... well, see for yourself."

Stone Wall looked for a few minutes at the ship, then Celestia saw him angle them down lower. "By Faust," he muttered.

Knowing only something very bad or shocking would get him to invoke her name, Celestia took the binoculars and looked.

The ship had landed on the ground (part of it scraping and breaking some of the nearby trees) and had extended a large metal ramp from an opening on the side. Out of the opening came a few other flying craft, but also a few other odd vehicles.

One such vehicle was what looked like a rectangular block of metal attached to two long legs. They walked awkwardly, kinda like a chicken, and had what looked like two small cannons mounted on the front. They looked kinda silly, honestly, but still somewhat menacing. Especially since it was roughly the size of a house. [5]

What was far more menacing was what she could only describe as a large metal beast, with a rectangular body and a cube-like head, standing on four long, thick metal legs that ended in large circular feet. While the main body itself was roughly the size of a train car, factoring in its legs it was tall enough to peer over Canterlot's defensive wall. [6] "What kind of alien race are we dealing with that can create war machines like this," she mused.

"That's not the worse of it," Stone Wall said solemnly. "Look at the ground around them."

She did, and her eyes widened.

Coming out of the ship, marching in formation, were thousands of what she could only assume were soldiers. Each one was clad in a suit of full body armor that was snow white with the space between the plates black, along with the lenses over the eyes. Each soldier was holding a shiny black weapon of some kind, what she assumed was some type of projectile weapon judging by the lack of any visible blade. All in all she counted roughly three thousand troops marching in a tight formation, along with however many troops were inside the transports. [7]All in all it was quite a force.

"It's a dominance display."

Both Celestia and Stone Wall turned to Shining Armor and the lieutenant explained "They're trying to scare us into agreeing with their demands, whenever they make them."

"And considering the force they have and the fact that they more than likely have a lot more soldiers onboard the ship," Stone Wall replied. "It's looking more and more like an invasion, where they'll want our unconditional surrender."

"They won't have it," Celestia immediately stated. "If they want this kingdom, they'll have to take it from our cold, dead hands." Looking to Shining she said "Initiate Emergency Protocol C7."

He balked out that. "Shouldn't we try to negotiate first?"

"Judging by the fact that they immediately started deploying troops and those war machines instead of sending out an ambassador or negotiator, I doubt they're the negotiating type, Lieutenant," the Captain replied. "Now go sound the alarm. Quickly!"

He nodded and ran off, leaving Stone Wall and Princess Celestia to watch as the troops and machines began advancing towards the city. "So, what are the chances that we can repel an invasion of this magnitude?"

She sighed. "Not great. Sad part is we haven't been engaged in a war in centuries, so aside from the occasional monster extermination and training exercises, the Royal Guard have zero actual wartime experience. But hopefully we'll be able to buy our citizens enough time to get to the underground shelters. Keeping them safe and out of the crossfire is our top priority."

"On that we agree." Hardening his gaze he said "This could very well be the end of Equestria."

She nodded before smiling despite the situation. "Then let's end this story with one hell of an exclamation point." Seeing the army and machines began to advance towards the city wall, she said "Ready the troops. Activate the barrier runes and prepare the cannons. If we are to go down, I want to take as many of those soldiers with us as possible. Make their victory as hollow as we possible can."

Stone Wall nodded. "Yes, your Highness."

With that they separated, going about their own preparations for the coming battle.

Twilight didn't know what was happening. Shortly after seeing the giant flying triangle she rushed home to tell her parents about what was going on.

The moment she got inside of the house the city alarms started going off, along with the voice of a Royal Guard coming on the loudspeakers and saying that "Emergency Protocol C7" was now in effect, not that she knew what that was.

Fortunately her parents were able to quickly explain it to her as they led her to a section of the city that was built into the mountain. The Emergency Protocol C7 was one of the procedures for the civilians to follow during the events of a citywide emergency. Some of those emergencies included things like viral outbreak, natural disasters, blackouts, et cetera.

C7 was the protocol that would be used in the event Canterlot was invaded by hostile forces. And considering the giant triangle outside of the city, it couldn't have been a coincidence.

As they got closer to the mountain she soon saw large groups of people moving to what looked like large metal elevators. When she asked where they were going her father replied "Shelters. Thick metal bunkers that will protect us until the fighting's over."

Once it was their turn into the elevator, Twilight turned around to look through the door as it closed.

Beyond the groups of civilian people she saw several members of the Royal Guard running towards the City Gates, all armed with spears, crossbows, or swords. Remembering her brother, she looked at her parents and asked "Is Shining going to be okay?"

Obviously seeing her shaking body her mother pulled her into a hug and replied "Twily, I'm sure he'll be perfectly fine."

Twilight wanted to believe her, really she did.

But nothing could shake the feeling that something really, really bad was going to happen today.

A few hours later the army eventually reached the front gates, the AT-AT leading the way while being flanked by the AT-STs. They stopped a few feet away from the main gate, and a group of Stormtroopers pushed a large mobile holographic projector out in front of them. Once they did, they activated it and a large electric blue holographic representation of the Captain (who was still back on the Endeavor) appeared. Looking up at the wall and seeing the members of the Royal Guard standing at the ready he said (with his voice amplified by the speakers) "Hello! I am Anaro Zeon[8], Captain of the Imperial Star Destroyer, the Endeavor."

Captain Stone Wall, maybe possibly hoping there was a way to settle this peacefully, amplified his voice and replied "Captain Stone Wall of the Equestrian Royal Guard. May I ask what you and your... soldiers, want with our fair kingdom?"

Anaro's hologram allowed a small smile to appear, before he said "Under orders of Emperor Palpatine, our supreme leader-"

"We kinda figured that when you called him an Emperor."

Ignoring that he continued "-this kingdom, as well as this planet, are hereby annexed into the Galactic Empire. We strongly urge you not to resist, fight us, or attack us. Accept the Imperial Doctrines, and we can end this without any bloodshed."

"And if we don't?"

Captain Anaro looked at him, his face hardening as he said "Then we will have no choice but to use lethal force. And I assure you, our weapons and technology are not for show."

He gestured to his Stormtroopers and the walkers, the AT-AT even stomping one of its feet down in a clear attempt at intimidation.

Stone Wall sighed, before sending a signal to one of his men. He then looked at the hologram and the soldiers and said "Captain Anaro, I appreciate your olive branch. But as the Captain of the Royal Guard it is my duty, as well as the duty of every man under my command, to defend this kingdom to our last dying breath. So if your Emperor truly wishes to annex our planet and occupy our kingdom, then you will have to take it from us."

As he spoke, Captain Anaro and the troops saw several glowing runes appearing upon the walls and on the ground in front of them. From the runes glowing purple energy rose out and spread, until a dome of solid purple light surrounded the city.

Sighing, the Captain said "Troopers, move forward and claim this city. IN THE NAME OF THE EMPIRE!"

Every Stormtrooper immediately yelled "IN THE NAME OF THE EMPIRE!" and started walking forward...

...right after the AT-AT and the AT-STs walked forward and aimed their weapons systems at the energy shield.

Captain Stone Wall sighed. "And so it begins..."

-To Be Continued-