The vast regions of space, usually quiet and peaceful, were currently in the precipice of a Great War. The Galactic Empire that rules over space itself had been battling a growing rebellion against them for quite some time. The yellow planet of Tatooine emerges from a total eclipse, her two moons glowing against the darkness.
A tiny silver spacecraft, a Rebel Blockade Runner, fires its lasers from the back of the ship, racing through space and pursued by a giant Imperial Star-Destroyer. Hundreds of deadly laser-bolts streaks from the Imperial Star-Destroyer, causing the main solar fin of the Rebel craft to disintegrate.
<>
Aboard the Blockade Runner, Sunset Shimmer lay unconscious along the cold metal floor of the ships reactor room. Her teal aqua eyes slowly flutter open, as she regained consciousness. Sitting up, she clutched her aching head… only to realize its not her hoof she feels. She stretches her arm out realizing that she has assumed her human form, every portion of her body now humanized.
“The portal…” Sunset realized.
She looked around her surroundings, seeing nothing but metal walls covered in flashing lights and buttons. Sunset couldn’t help but feel panic and dread, having no idea where she was. Not only that, but she was alone… so very much alone.
“Twilight!” She called out. “Storm! Any pony!”
Just then she felt something press against the back of her head, making her feel stiff as stone.
“Don’t speak or move a muscle,” A voice ordered.
The voice, Sunset could decipher, belonged to a female. From out behind her stood a woman in her late twenties. A beautiful woman with pale skin and brunette hair tied up in a style consisting of two buns on both sides of her head. She wore an elegant white dress and held a strange looking gun in her hands.
“Turn around… slowly…” She ordered.
Without argument, Sunset followed her instruction till the gun was no pointing at her face. Sunset would’ve been fascinated by this gun and everything about this woman, if under better circumstances.
“Who are you?” The woman asked seriously. “What are you doing aboard my vessel?”
Sunset slowly got to her feet, as she stuttered and stammered to speak. Having a gun pointed at her didn’t exactly ease the extreme feeling of dread she was currently feeling.
“I-I-I’m S-Sunset S-Shimmer,” She stammered.
“Are you an imperial spy?”
Though terrified, Sunset quirked a curious eyebrow at the question. What was this woman talking about?
“An imperial spy?” She asked confused. “What do you mean?”
The woman only clenched the gun tighter; Sunset gulped in fear.
“I’m warning you,” The woman said. “I am not afraid to pull this trigger. Answer my question.”
“Okay, okay!” Sunset said fearfully. “But I swear I’m not a spy. I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
The young woman looked into the girl’s eyes, seeing no hint of deception or falseness in her words. Slowly but surely, she lowered the gun and Sunset released a huge breath of relief.
“What are you doing here Sunset Shimmer?” The woman asked again.
“It’s kind of a long story,” Sunset answered. “You might think I’m crazy when I tell you this. But basically, my friends and I were sucked through a portal. Somehow we got separated and I don’t know where they are or where I am.”
“There’s more of you?”
“Yeah… I guess you can say that.”
“What planet do you come from?”
Sunset grew more and more confused by the minute, especially with all these questions.
“Um—well—Equestria?” She responded.
The woman tapped her chin, contemplating that answer.
“How very odd,” She said curiously. “I’ve never heard of such a place before in this galaxy. What solar system does that reside in?”
“Okay, look miss—um—”
“Oh, how rude of me not to introduce myself. I am Princess Leia of Alderaan.”
Leia held out her hand, as Sunset hesitantly reached out to shake it.
“You’re a princess?” Sunset asked amazed.
“You seem surprised,” Leia responded.
*BOOM!!!*
All of a sudden, a loud explosion rang through the room. The force of the blast knocked the entire ship apart. Sunset and Leia both tried to maintain their footing, but ultimately fell to the ground.
“What the heck was that?!” Sunset yelled.
Just then, the reactor room door slid open and two of the strangest looking things Sunset ever saw entered the room. Clearly they were robots if their appearance didn’t already give that away, slightly old and battered. One is a short, claw-armed tripod. His face a mass of computer lights surrounding a radar eye. The other is a tall, slender robot of human proportions. He has a gleaming bronze-like metallic surface of an Art Deco design.
“Forgive the interruption Princess,” The humanoid robot spoke. “But it seems that the Empire has found us.”
Sunset stared wide-eyed and slack-jawed at the robots; add to the fact they could speak.
“What… in Celestia’s name… is going on here?” She asked in shock.
The tall humanoid robot walked toward her side, reaching out an arm to her.
“Greetings and salutations stranger,” It greeted. “I am C-3PO, human-cyborg relations, a pleasure to make your acquaintance. This little Astro-mech here is R2-D2.”
The little droid on wheels spoke no words, only a series of beeping sounds. Sunset turned toward Leia, her eyes wide with fear and confusion.
“Do you not know a droid when you see one?” Leia asked. “This Equestria you come from must be of lesser technology if you don’t know what a droid is.”
“You can say that…” Sunset nodded slowly.
Leia then grabbed her gun back out, readied for a fight. She grabbed another from her dress and held it out towards Sunset.
“Looks like we’re fighting our way out of this,” She said determined.
“I’m not taking that thing,” Sunset shook her head. “I hate guns.”
“It’s either this or you die,” Leia warned.
“But I’ve never fired a gun in my life.”
“Then you better pray you never have to.”
Sunset looked at the gun in Leia’s hand, her mind abuzz over what to do. She really did not like guns, much less wanting to kill anything. Then again, she valued her own life greatly and didn’t want it to end here. Her hand shaking, she grabbed the gun from Leia and held it at the ready.
“Follow me and you’ll be fine,” Leia assured, turning toward the droids. “As for you two, find some place to hide. It is essential you are not discovered."
“You can count on us ma’am,” 3PO responded.
R2 gave his response in beeps, as the two droids made their way from the reactor room and slowly working their way down the hall. This left Leia and Sunset hiding behind the walls, waiting for what was to come next.
*BOOM!*
Another explosion rocked the ship as R2-D2 and C-3PO struggled to make their way through the shaking, bouncing passageway. Alarms began to blare, as a group of men, Rebel Troopers rush passed the robots.
“Did you hear that?” C-3PO asked. “They’ve shut down the main reactor. We’ll be destroyed for sure. This is madness!”
While the two droids continued down the hall, trekking toward where they needed to be, the Rebel troopers take their positions in the main passageway. They aim their weapons, single shot pistols, toward the door.
“We’re doomed!” C-3PO spoke.
The little R2 unit made a series of electronic sounds, that only another robot could understand.
“There’ll be no escape for the Princess this time.”
R2 continued making being sounds, as the tension began to mount. Suddenly, loud metallic latches clank and a scream of heavy equipment were heard moving around the outside hull of the ship.
“What’s that?” C-3PO asked, looking up.
The imperial craft has easily overtaken the Rebel Blockade Runner. The smaller Rebel ship was drawn into the underside dock of the giant Imperial starship.
The nervous Rebel troopers aim their weapons. Suddenly, a tremendous blast opened a hole within the main passageway and a score of fearsome armored space-suited Stormtroopers firing their way through the smoke-filled corridor. In a matter of minutes, the entire passageway was ablaze with laser fire. The deadly bolts ricochet in wild, random patterns generating huge explosions. Stormstroopers scatter and duck behind storage lockers, as laser bolts struck several Rebel soldiers, who scream and stagger through the smoke clutching shattered arms and faces. Those who weren’t shot made a hasty retreat down the passageway with the Stormtroopers in hot pursuit.
In the midst of all the chaos, Sunset Shimmer peered her head slightly out of the corner. An explosion sent her back as the robots appeared from another hall.
“I should have known better than to trust the logic of a half-sized themocapsulary dehousing assister…” C-3PO complained.
R2 countered with an angry rebuttal, as the battle raged around the two hapless robots. Soon as it was safe to cross, they worked their way into the other hallway where Sunset was hiding. The latter had already rushed back deep through the corridor, heading straight toward Leia.
“It’s chaos out there!” Sunset informed.
“I might have known…” Princess Leia sighed. “I hoped we’d at least keep them distracted so the droids can make for the escape pods; their numbers are more overwhelming than we thought.”
“What’re we going to do?”
“Move on to the next phase of the plan… but first I need one of the droids.”
<>
As the Stormtroopers cleared the passageways of the bodies of their fallen comrades and any other rebel prisoners, a heavy robotic breathing could be heard emerging through the smoke. All the troops stood at attention as the seven-foot-tall Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, made his way into the blinding light of the main passageway.
His face obscured by his flowing black robes and grotesque breath mask, which stands out next to the fascist white armored suits of the Imperial stormtroopers. Everyone instinctively backed away from the imposing warrior, as a deathly quiet swept through the Rebel troops. Several of the Rebel troops broke out into a run in a frenzied panic.
<>
Meanwhile, C-3PO stood in a hallway, somewhat bewildered. His companion R2-D2 was nowhere in sight. The pitiful screams of the doomed Rebel soldiers could be heard in the distance.
“R2-D2, where are you?”
A familiar clanking sound attracted 3PO’s attention, the roboto spotting little R2 at the end of the hallway in a smoke-filled alcove. A beautiful young girl, about sixteen-years-old, stood in front of R2. Surreal and out of place, dreamlike and half-hidden in the smoke, she finished adjusting something on R2’s computer face, then watched as the little robot joined his companion.
“At last! Where have you been?” C-3PO asked. “They’re heading in this direction. What are we going to do? We’ll be sent to the space mine of Kessel or smashed into who knows what?!”
R2 scooted past his bronze friend, racing down the sub-hallway. 3PO chased after him.
“Wait a minute, where are you going?”
R2 responded with electronic beeps. Princess Leia and Sunset Shimmer looked on as they fade deep in the smoke.
“You sure they’ll be okay?” Sunset asked.
“They need to be,” Leia answered. “The fate of the entire galaxy rests upon them now. Come with me.”
Princess Leia turned a corner, as Sunset Shimmer followed closely behind.
<>
The evil Darth Vader stood amid the broken, twisted bodies of his foes. He grabbed a wounded Rebel Officer by the neck, as an Imperial Officer rushed toward the Dark Lord.
“The Death Star plans are not in the main computer,” The Imperial Officer informed.
In response, Vader squeezed the neck of the Rebel Officer, who struggled in vain. Vader slowly lifted the Rebel off his feet by his throat.
“Where are those transmissions you intercepted?” Vader interrogated. “What have you done with those plans?”
“We intercepted no transmissions, aah…” The Rebel Officer choked, gasping for breath. “This is a consular ship. We’re on a diplomatic mission…”
“If this is a consular ship… where is the Ambassador?”
But the Rebel refused to speak, eventually crying out as the Dark Lord squeezed the officer’s throat, creating a gruesome snapping… choking… till the solider went limp. Vader tossed the dead soldier against the wall, turning toward his troops.
“Commander, tear this ship apart until you’ve found those plans and bring me the passengers,” Vader ordered. “I want them alive!”
The stormtroopers scurried into the sub hallways as the Sith Lord ordered. Vader turned back toward the doorway, as another man approached from behind him. The young man appeared to be in his mid-twenties with dark buzzcut hair. He wore a strange type of gear consisting of a dark tunic, gloves, and boots. This young man was Vader’s apprentice, Galen Marek a.k.a. Starkiller.
Vader looked at him through the dark-red receptors of his helmet before walking down the hallway with Marek following close behind.
“You truly believe the Death Star plans are here, my master?” The young man asked.
“Of this I have no doubt, my apprentice,” Vader responded.
Just then, Vader stopped mid-stride and Marek stopped as well. He looked at Vader as if he could sense a very strange energy aboard this vessel, one he had not felt in so long.
“What do you sense master?” Marek asked.
“I sense the presence of the force aboard this vessel,” Vader answered.
“That can’t be possible. We have hunted any and all force sensitives across the galaxy. None should remain.”
“It would seem we have not found them ‘all’. The Consular of this vessel must be harboring them. I want you to search the ship and find them. When you do, bring them to me immediately.”
The young man bowed before the dark lord, going off as his evil master commanded.
<>
Meanwhile, Leia huddled along a small alcove as the stormtroopers searched the ship. The fear in her eyes slowly gave way to anger, as the muted crushing sounds of the approaching stormtroopers grew louder. Just then, one of the troopers spotted her.
“There’s one! Set for stun!”
Lei stepped from her hiding place and blasted a trooper with her laser pistol. She broke off for a fun, only to fall prey to a paralyzing ray. The troopers inspect her inert body.
“She’ll be all right,” The Trooper confirmed. “Inform Lord Vader we have a prisoner.”
<>
Elsewhere, Galen Marek slunk slowly and quietly through the halls of the consular ship, searching for the force sensitive aboard the vessel. How any could still be thriving in the galaxy? Even Marek had no idea. For years, his master has had his inquisitors combing the galaxy. Hunting down and killing any force sensitive beings as was their mission from Vader. Surely none could still be alive right now… but apparently, there is.
Suddenly, he felt something in his very being. He could sense the force around him. Looking up, Marek sees a loose grate into the ceiling above. He lifted a hand to the grate, using the force to reach in, and pull whoever was in there…
“AAAH!!!”
A young girl screamed as she emerged from the grate and crashed to the ground before Marek’s feet. Sunset Shimmer desperately held out a laser gun, pointing it toward the man’s head. But with a raise of a hand, the gun slipped from her hand in mid-air. The fiery haired girl looked on in shock as the gun flew toward his grip, he examined it briefly, then tossed it aside. He slowly stalked toward the young girl, who backed herself against the wall.
“Very unwise of you Jedi scum,” Marek spoke coldly. “I don’t know how you managed to slip from our radar so long, but it was a matter of time we’d find you.”
“Jedi?” Sunset questioned, with confusion. “What’re you talking about?”
“You’re tricks won’t work against me. Now, you will come along with me quietly… or I ‘will’ hurt you, if I have to…”
Marek reached a hand toward the girl, who could find no means of escape.
“No—wait!!!” Sunset called out. “Please—”
Desperately Sunset Shimmer gripped the man’s arm before he could touch her. All of a sudden, her eyes started to glow brightly, and a vision flashed in her mind…
<>
Sunset’s eyes found herself in an unfamiliar place, a wooden shelter on some unknown planet. Suddenly, there was a crash before her eyes and a body burst from the wall rolling against the floor. All at once, a figure in a black cloak and helmet emerged through the smoke and debris, approaching the hooded man and somehow lifted the man high in the air. The figure gasped as if he were being choked, his throat cracking as if bones were breaking.
“I sense someone far more powerful nearby,” The black warrior spoke. “Where is your master?”
“The Dark Side has clouded your mind,” The man gasped. “You killed my master years ago…”
“Then now, you will share his fate…”
The man in black raised a glowing weapon of sorts, its blade a bright red. Suddenly, the weapon was thrust from his grip and the figure in black turned. The weapon ended up in ‘her’ hands… except they weren’t her hands. The being looked down at the weapon clutched in their grip, before turning back toward the dark one.
“A son?” The Dark One spoke, seemingly surprised.
“RUN!!!” The man shouted desperately.
*SNAP!*
The Dark One’s hand gripped tightly, the man’s neck was snapped, and his limp body fell to the ground to her horror. The Dark One slowly approached the mysterious figure, who raised the figure’s own weapon against him. Suddenly, a man in uniform with three white suited soldiers entered the room.
“Lord Vader!” The man shouted, turning toward ‘her’.
The moment they saw the figure, with ‘Lord Vader’s’ weapon in its hands, the man in uniform made a gesture signaling the white suited soldiers to aim their weapons ready to fire. Suddenly, the Dark Lord used his power to summon his weapon back and the figure watched as the Dark Lord hacked and slashed his own troops right before their eyes. With his soldiers dead, Lord Vader loomed over the frightened figure, his face completely covered by a breathing mask.
“Come with me… more will be here soon…”
<>
Galen Marek drew his arm away, just as Sunset’s vision came to an end. The man stepped back and stared in shock toward Sunset Shimmer, who’s eyes teared after going through such an ordeal. She stared toward the man, greatly shocked by what she saw.
“He saved you…” Sunset Shimmer gasped.
“What trickery was that?” Marek questioned. “How did you do that?”
“Lord Vader… he… he…”
Quickly, Marek made a quick gesture and used the force to knock out Sunset Shimmer before she could finish her sentence. The woman sighed and dropped to the floor; her entire body completely shut down… but not to the point of death. Galen Marek stood over the fallen body, looking at the girl very closely. It was hard to believe that this girl was a Jedi… yet how could she?
Eyeing her closely, she was dressed like a Jedi… but that power he experienced was unlike anything he felt in a while. He had heard of the Jedi possessing such power, but never experiencing it the way like this. Sensing a great strength in her, Marek lifted the unconscious girl over his shoulders and carried her away to make his return to his master.
<>
R2-D2 stopped before the small hatch of an emergency life-pod. He snapped the seal on the main latch, as a red warning light started to flash. The stubby astro-robot worked his way into the cramped four-man pod.
“Hey, you’re not permitted in there!” C-3PO called out. “It’s restricted. You’ll be deactivated for sure…”
R2 beeped something toward him.
“Don’t call me a mindless philosopher, you overweight glob of grease! Now come out before somebody sees you!”
R2 whistled something toward his reluctant friend, regarding the mission he’s about to perform.
“Secret mission? What plans?” C-3PO questioned. “What are you talking about? I’m not getting in there!”
R2, unhappy with 3PO’s stubbornness, beeped and twanged angrily.
*BOOM!*
A new explosion, this time very close, sent dust and debris through the narrow sub hallway. Flames lick at 3PO; after a flurry of electronic swearing from R2, the lanky robot jumped into the lifepod.
“I’m going to regret this,” C-3PO muttered.
<>
Inside the Imperial Stardestroyer, the troops capture the image of a life-pod on the main viewscreen. They are unaware of the terrified robots inside, speeding away from the stricken Rebel spacecraft.
“There goes another one,” The Chief pilot informed.
“Hold your fire,” The Captain ordered. “There are no life forms; it must have short-circuited.”
<>
Inside the lifepod, R2-D2 and C-3PO gazed out toward the receding Imperial starship. Stars circled as the pod rotated through the galaxy.
“That’s funny, the damage doesn’t look as bad from out here,” C-3PO remarked.
R2 beeped an assuring response.
“Are you sure this thing’s safe?” 3PO questioned.
<>
Meanwhile, Princess Leia was led down a low-ceilinged hallway by a squad of armored stormtroopers. Her hands are bound, she is brutally shoved, and is unable to keep up with the briskly marching troops. They stopped in a smoky hallway, as Darth Vader emerged from the shadows. The sinister Dark Lord stared hard at the frail young senator, but she doesn’t move.
“Lord Vader, I should have known,” Leia remarked. “Only you could be so bold. The Imperial Senate will not sit for this, when they hear you’ve attacked a diplomatic…”
“Don’t act so surprised, Your Highness,” Vader interrupted. “You weren’t on any mercy mission this time. Several transmissions were beamed to this ship by Rebel spies. I want to know what happened to the plans they sent you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m a member of the Imperial Senate on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan…”
“You’re a part of the Rebel Alliance… and a traitor. Take her away!”
On command, the troopers march Leia down the hallway and into the smoldering hole blasted along the side of the ship. An Imperial Commander addressed Vader.
“Holding her is dangerous,” The Commander warned. “If word of this gets out, it could generate sympathy for the Rebellion in the senate.”
“I have traced the Rebel spies to her,” Vader assured calmly. “Now she is my only link to finding their secret base!”
“She’ll die before she tells you anything.”
“Leave that to me. Send a distress signal and then inform the senate that all aboard were killed!”
Another Imperial Officer approached Vader and the Commander. They stopped and snapped to attention.
“Lord Vader, the battle station plans are not aboard this ship!” The second officer informed. “And no transmissions were made. An escape pod was jettisoned during the fighting, but no life forms were aboard.”
Vader turned to the Commander.
“She must have hidden the plans in the escape pod,” Vader inquired. “Send a detachment down to retrieve them. See to it personally, Commander. There’ll be no one to stop us this time.”
“Yes, sir,” The Commander nodded.
No sooner did the Commander leave when his apprentice, Marek, made his return before his master. Vader could see he did not arrive alone, noting the unconscious young girl over his shoulder. The young man laid the young woman down before his feet, and the Dark Lord could see she looked to be no younger than in her late teens.
“Master Vader,” Marek spoke. “I have found the force sensitive as we expected. Found her hiding out in the ship; subdued her before she could escape.”
Darth Vader leaned down toward the young girl, his breathing echoing along the hall as he silently examined her.
“The force is strong with this one,” Darth Vader confirmed. “Very powerful…”
“What do you propose we do with her, master?” Marek asked. “Do we slay her now before she has a chance to awake?”
Darth Vader kept his gaze toward the girl, his sight studying her through the rims of his helmet.
“No…” Darth Vader answered. “No, this power is far too great to extinguish… and we cannot allow her to just walk away either.”
Darth Vader then turned his attention toward the Second Commander.
“Set up a holding cell for the new prisoner,” Darth Vader ordered. “Then inform the crew to set a course for the Imperial City of Coruscant. The Emperor will need to see this girl for himself, and under no circumstances is she to be harmed till then.”
“Yes, Lord Vader,” The Second Commander saluted.
He proceeded to lift the unconscious girl onto her feet, the girl moaning and groaning a bit. As the second commander carried her back to their ship, Marek turned toward Darth Vader.
“And the rebel prisoners?” Marek asked. “What’s to become of them?”
“The distress signal has been set to inform the senate that all aboard are terminated,” Darth Vader informed his apprentice. “See to it that there are no rebels left aboard.”
Galen Marek stood silently before his master, his expression never faltering. He understood very well of his master’s intention and knew well than to disobey an order.
“It shall be done… master,” Marek bowed.
Darth Vader turned to leave for the ship, as Galen Marek turned back toward what remained of the rebel’s ship. Then, opening his hand, a handle is thrust from his hilt to his grip and inside a crystal ignites, shimmering in bright red. The man stares coldly with his lightsaber in hand, marching down the hallway… to cleanse the ship.