In their light, thou shalt be darkness
In times of doubt, thou shall keep Faith.
In throes of Rage, thou shall hone your craft.
In Vengeance, We shall have no Mercy.
In the midst of battle, We shall have no fear.
In the face of Death, We shall have no Remorse.
Lord Vader Protects our souls.
As we giveth them to him.
-Oath of any human warrior upon selection-
Two small dogs played together, one after the other, jumping and chasing each other while barking and rolling, their mother watched them carefully, to separate them if they took their play a little too seriously, being attentive in case any predators approach her territory.
In these forests it is not uncommon to find scenes like this, families of animals living their daily lives, each with a different path and tragic endings, but this mother was at her peak, and being the dominant of the territory helped her in that aspect.
The little fluffy balls are well fed and protected, but it is always good to prepare and prevent a possible disaster.
And as if the world responded to that line of thought, a huge bad feeling passed through the mother's belly, sunlight seemed to start to fail in its dazzling way, while her sixth sense seemed to scream with a fervor that she had never felt before.
It wasn't like when she realized it had a snake around, it was worse, worse than a bear, or a manticore, it was like he didn't belong in the food chain.
It was like it was from another totally different league.
And whatever it was, it was fast approaching.
The mother quickly barked at her offspring in alarm, where they immediately stopped what they were doing and looked at her.
She quickly jumped at the pups and shielding them just in time for a massive shockwave to cut through all the trees in the vicinity.
The little puppies cried loudly as the mother passed her gaze around, everything was destroyed, opening a passage ahead, giving her a frighteningly impressive sight.
A multitude of white dots from what she could describe to be ponies surrounding a black dot that she couldn't decipher what it was, but her sixth sense screamed that whatever it was, it was extremely necessary to keep as much distance from it.
And as if to confirm her thought, small electric shocks seemed to circulate the black entity, and then, a huge pillar of lightning flew to the skies that dispersed and flew to reach the surroundings, practically frying everything around it.
Without thinking twice, the mother took her puppies and put them on her back, and immediately shot into the unknown, she had to gain as much distance as possible from the darkness before it consumed her and her cubs
"As far as our scouts have been able to identify, the rebel forces have control over here and here." He Explained to all the Royal guards surrounding the table with the map
"Possibly they can already control a moderate portion of the northeastern territories of the Crystal Empire, their expansion should be stopped if we want to prevent the countryside from becoming a lawless land for these barbarians." The Captains all nodded while one of them raised his hand.
The White Unicorn nodded to him giving permission to speak.
"Sir, It should be impossible for the slaves to expand so astoundingly quickly over the villages, I would understand if it were some of those without walls, but whole towns?? The Reports said a revolt of rabid slaves, this looks more like a well-armed militia!" He Exclaimed in worry while the other officers started to murmur among themselves
Before he could reply, he noticed that everyone's attention would no longer be on the table or in the conversations, everyone had gone into complete silence, and everyone was looking directly behind him.
When he followed the direction of their gazes, he recognized a figure in front of him, he bulged his eyes when he saw his condition.
It was absolutely deplorable, he was absolutely brutalized.
One of his hands was completely chopped, blood from bruises that had not yet been cauterized from the stump, still dripping, all around his face was marked with several deep cuts together with one of his eyes that had been cut out. His body was marked with several bruises and his golden armor was totally shattered with pieces holding on by a miracle while still having huge holes in the rest of his body.
"C-commander i-in c-chief S-shinning Armor!"
Everyone looked shocked at the newcomer who appeared to be extremely breathless, he fell to his knees while Guards nearby quickly help him to his feet, barely managing to complete his sentence.
Shinning Armor ran to try to help the disfigured guard, his horn shining green, he would cast a powerful healing spell, healing the lighter wounds and lessening the severest ones.
He placed a hand on the shoulder of the soldier to comfort him, who was leaning on two others to just stand.
"Soldier? What happened? Are you okay?"
"C-commander! T-the 4th S-sentinels o-of P-purity L-legion h-has been w-wiped out! C-commander Gallus P-PERISHED!"
All gasped by the news, the Sentinels of Purity were one of the most recently formed and deadliest of legions personally selected by Celestia, being considered the elite's of the elite. Discovering the complete destruction of that legion of approximately 20,000 Veteran Royal Guards with one of Equestria's most prestigious commanders. It was nightmarish news.
"H-how??! That's impossible! T-There is a massive army nearby??! Gallus would surely never fall without making the enemy bleed!"
The soldier would just start to cry in response.
"T-there h-had J-just O-one E-enemy."
Shinning Armor's mouth kept dropping with every word that came out of the soldier's mouth.
"A soldier, A single soldier did... All this....?"
The Royal guard would only face the Shinning Armor.
"N-not an S-soldier C-commander... A-a god."
Terror, that was all he could feel, in his entire life, Commander Gallus had already faced many obstacles and challenges that would have broken many Royal Guards; combating monsters and tyrants like Chrysalis, Umbra, Discord and Tirek.
But it was simply on another level, capabilities that he could never even imagine.
This was supposed to be his moment, Capturing the leader of the rebellion alone, who was alone on top of a hill just watching him and his Legion advance in fear.
He should have seen how obvious that trap was, but who could blame him?
His target alone, ready to be caught, was an offer he couldn't resist.
No human army in sight and nowhere to hide, he and just a huge plain.
What he did was far from what the Griffon could ever have imagined.
Every legend is created by stories passed by father and son, friend to friend and child to child.
Legends are and have always existed on every planet he has ever visited, terrifying and invincible monsters, powerful tyrants with horrifying power, crazy and bloodthirsty individuals or powerful and divine heroes.
Each story was modified and exaggerated as it was passed from mouth to mouth, but all have an ounce of truth, all have a beginning and an end.
Vader was one of those legends, but instead of being just on a backwater planet, his legend was spanned galaxy-wide, passed down from fearful officers and soldiers shocked by his actions.
But on this planet? They didn't even knew the Empire existed, Travel the Stars? Please, they were barely past the era of steam vehicles and gunpowder, with an outdated slave culture.
Even though it is an outdated practice, is still used on a large scale, being by the Zygerrians to the Hutt, Prosperity and power at the expense of others.
He would be a massive hypocrite if he denied that the empire he and his master created didn't use such disgusting practices, but his master justified it as 'necessary'.
Yes, Vader was proud of what he and his master had achieved in the Empire, unemployment was lower than the best years of the former republic, crime was almost nonexistent, and the war-ravaged planets were rebuilding and prospering better than ever before. And even thus, he never managed to get rid of the plague that was slavery.
And now, he could replicate all of that, end slavery and create a new legend for himself.
The Galaxy has never understood and possibly never will, that to change history, all it needs is the will and determination of a single being.
Sidious had proven that.
From the hill he was on, he could see the golden army of ponies marching towards him, the relief on their faces was very visible, believing that they were about to capture Vader and end the war before it even started, poor fools.
He walked slowly to the edge of his precipice, the same he used to observe the army that approached him, he could count at least 10 to 15 thousand combatants, a mixture of pony's of all types.
Their Discipline could be admirable in their synchronized gait and their silence and their expressionless faces that showed discipline and experience. Even though obviously outnumbering him from literally thousands to one, they did not show an ounce of arrogance.
He, in an act that surprised many, stepped false on the edge of the huge hill and he fell towards the ground like a missile, surprising many of the soldiers who marched and watched him, the suicidal act was clearly not expected.
When he hit the ground and raised a huge cloud of dust and snow, many already imagined the worst, their goal was to capture the target. Even so, the body would still please their princess.
Before the commander could order them to bring what was left of the body. A huge gale suddenly hit them, causing many to almost lose their balance with the strength of the winds that practically came out of nowhere.
But Gallus already noticed the discrepancy, where Vader had thrown himself into the crater, he created with the fall, he could see him slowly rising from his kneeling position.
'Impossible! Nobody could fall from such an absurd height without suffering any damage!' He thought with total shock present on his face.
The weather changed, black clouds approached and slowly began to settle and obfuscate the sun, being pushed by an invisible force as if being called.
Shouldn't it be possible, the only way for the clouds to move would be with the intervention of Pegasus or any other being with wings, but alone? This was only reported in the dark forests near Ponyville.
Vader channeled and called for the darkness from all corners across the planet. In side effect with his call to the force resulted in darkness manifesting in proportions never seen before.
Umbra, Tirek and Chrysalis were unable to do anything close to what the Sith was starting to manifest at that time in the recorded history of that planet, it has never been seen or felt something like this, neither by the creatures present with magic and neither from those absent from them, from the smallest unicorn baby in Equestria to the most magically resistant hyppogriffs.
On all continents, darkness has shown itself with an abundance of negativity, not physically, but as a cold, gloomy and terrifying sensation.
For the Legionaries of the Sentinel of Purity it was a sensation that words could not describe neither the feeling, the black aura that surrounded the monstrosity of iron made it look like a dark swirl surrounding it, its red visors had a yellowish glow underneath.
One step
Two steps
Three steps.
The sounds of his metallic boot touching softly on the icy surface.
Some gushed dry while others began to prepare, one begun to pray asking for Celestia's light to protect him from danger, sweat poured down their faces.
The inner column was silent, only their breathing could be heard together with the visible air that came out of their mouths.
The steps slowly increased their rhythm, legionaries prepared their shields while others positioned their spears, some were unable to keep them stopped by their trembling.
The veterans could not contain their fear, even though most did not take the rumors seriously about the commander of the rebellion. They could feel in their own skins, that being whatever emanated power, together with it emanated darkness, like a black hole that swallowed all the light that flew around you and letting nothing escape.
That black hole was now running towards them, closing the distance more and more with the army.
The more novices, no longer taking the pressure and confident that the numbers could overcome that single warrior started to scream while breaking ranks and charged to hit head on the Sith, discharging a chain reaction from the rest of the soldiers in the line who, even though hesitant, were forced to follow their comrades.
Gallus could not do anything, his shouts of orders reaching deaf in the roars of charging soldiers.
It was almost comical, a black spot going to meet a golden tide.
Upon contact, the first soldier thrust his spear in an attempt to impale the Sith Lord with monumental optimism, thinking in possibly ending right then and there the war.
"AAAAAHHHHH!"
Upon contact, ponies and their armor flew everywhere along with huge explosions of sand and snow, many flying screaming while others were already killed by the impact.
Vader was just a huge black trail that caused troops to be thrown in all directions, his speed was impossible to track with the naked eye.
A soldier then received a powerful punch in the belly causing him to spew blood as his armor sank with the power of the Sith's fist.
Another guard seeing a chance standing on Vader's back tried to hit him with his sword by the back, only for the Lord to duck under the sword and give a spinning kick to the guard, throwing the same to two other guards and drop them like bowling pins.
Then, with a notion with his hand in the air, a huge percentage of the snow on many of the other guards was launched into the air, taking them all together with it and dirt at their feet while screaming in terror.
Rushing to a shocked soldier, he gave the guard a right hook making him stagger backwards with some teeth flying along with blood coming out of his mouth, Vader jumped and used the shoulders of the soldier who lost his balance as a jumping platform.
Using the force to propel his jump, he passed over many more soldiers and fell like a meteor in a group of unlucky ones, immediately destroying many more groups with blows and kicks.
The Commander was horrified at how the battle was going, the entity simply broke the first lines with a power he had never seen before, destroying entire platoons with only HIS HANDS!
He was not using any weaponry, and with movements with his hands, he created explosions that destroyed groups very easily. Flinching when he saw the dark being punched another guard with such force that he cut the pony in half.
He had already lost 1/4 of his legion in a matter of minutes, and the monster continued to tear apart group after group.
Vader should not have that much mobility, his master had made him have a rigid and very limited motion in the armor, but now that he had modified it with lighter fabrics and without cybernetic restrictions to him, nothing stopped him anymore.
He couldn't contain his smile as he continued to destroy pony after pony, he remembered when he was at his peak, how he destroyed entire armies with ease and at speeds that no blaster shot could keep up with.
He missed it, he missed the power.
By grabbing a guard by the neck, he could see the terror of it as he lifted it and pressed its air channel.
"You all disappoint me, I expected more from the Equestrian 'Elite'."
He paid no attention to a figure flying furiously towards him, noticing only at the last moment when he turned to the side, receiving a powerful punch in the face and being thrown away.
Regaining his balance, Vader managed to put his feet on the ground, crawling a few meters until he came to a complete stop, he noticed a crack in his visor, and poked in surprise, but returned his attention to the opponent who had managed to hit him.
"That's enough, you noble bastard!" The commander would roar with hatred in his voice.
Vader lowered his stance and looked at the Griffon with curiosity and then amusement.
"Commander Gallus, what a surprising pleasure."