Princess Celestia soared through the air above Canterlot, dodging and weaving to avoid the intermittent bursts of blaster fire targeted at her. Ahead of the solar alicorn was her target: an enormous spider-like droid with four long legs, a metal orb for a central body, an enormous red photoreceptor, and two dish-shaped guns on its top and bottom. The weapons were unleashing a continuous red laser across the city and into the walls of Canterlot Palace, which were already starting to blacken and crack under the aliens’ weapons. The palace itself remained under heavy AAT bombardment, one of its towers listing badly.
The white alicorn swooped directly down onto the spider droid, dodging nimbly around its clumsy attempts to reorient its anti-tank weapons to fire at her. Celestia grabbed its upper gun with both hooves, and with a snarl on her face she tore it off in one move. As the droid struggled to throw her off, she pointed her horn directly into the newly-created hole atop its body, unleashed a furious stream of golden flame at point-blank range. The spider droid spasmed wildly as its delicate insides were cooked whole. The alicorn took flight again as the hollow, smoking shell of the spider droid swayed and toppled forwards, crushing several super battle droids beneath its bulk.
The B-2s lifted their arms and fired upwards at the princess, but she was already beyond their range. Not to say that stopped the slow-witted machines from trying for several seconds before they eventually gave up and resumed their ground advance. Celestia ignored them, her mind already fixed on her next target. Another spider droid was supporting the Separatist advance along one of Canterlot’s roads, its heavy lasers clearing the way through building, barricade, and soldier alike for the super battle droids marching forward underneath it. This one Celestia simply jammed in the photoreceptor, her long white horn punching directly through its red artificial eye. She unleashed another short burst of flame into its electronic insides, again simply burning it from the inside out. Blaster bolts from B-2s exploded against her armor in showers of sparks as she retreated into the sky once more.
Celestia landed on one of the palace walls, taking a moment to catch her breath and reassess the situation. With two of their spider droids removed from the equation, the Separatist bombardment of the castle’s walls had slacked off to intermittent attacks by super battle droids that did not significantly threaten the ancient and heavily-enchanted structure. Still, the palace itself was under serious threat, AAT blasts threatening to blow it to so many pieces. But the heavy tanks near the city’s edge were still surrounded by dozens of vigilant commando droids, and not even she dared to try a direct attack on them with what she had.
Celestia gritted her teeth. There was nothing for it, the towers of Canterlot Palace were going to have to be sacrificed. She just had to be sure that their inevitable collapse didn’t destroy any of the protective walls around it and then perhaps-
The solar princess’ train of thought was interrupted as she spotted the emergence of yet another threat to her battle line. Several blocks from where she stood, a caped figure was cutting through an entire barricade by himself, a glowing red blade in his hand and lightning flowing freely from his fingers. Ponies died left and right as the white-haired human’s lightsaber danced in elegant one-handed patterns. Behind him, a stalled line of B-2s resumed their advance, crushing the mangled corpses of those droids that had gone before them.
This, Celestia realized, must be Count Dooku.
With a hard look in her eyes, the solar princess launched herself from the castle walls and flew above her men. She took aim at the ruined barricade where the old man stood, droids marching around him in tight ranks. Celestia dived, again dodging around the clumsy efforts of the battle droids to shoot her down. As she passed the street where he target stood, she bathed the entire area in an enormous volume of supernatural golden fire. Buildings of wood and stone alike caught flame as the convection spread throughout. Droids burst apart in showers of sparks as their insides were pressure-cooked.
Celestia gave a satisfied snort and flapped her powerful wings, making to rise again into the sky.
Only, she wasn’t rising.
Princess Celestia strained her wings harder for half a second, struggling to fly. But she was caught in some kind of invisible grip, and her body stubbornly refused to go upwards. Then, before she had any chance to try and work a counterspell, the alicorn felt a harsh tugging sensation that yanked her from the air. She impacted roughly on the cobblestones, though her golden armor continued to hold up.
“Ah, you must be this Princess Celestia,” said a deep bass voice.
Celestia’s eyes widened. Somehow, impossibly, the count was striding out of her inferno, the golden flames parting around him. He had a smile on his face that seemed incongruously beneficent.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” he said, spreading his hands broadly. “Welcome.”
“So,” General Grievous said with undisguised malevolence. “The traitorous bitch finally arrives to receive her reward.”
“Finally?!” Princess Luna snorted. “We have been in combat since the beginning! It is thou who cowerest behind thine armies!” she pointed a hoof at the nearby war machines. “If thou hast a shred of warrior’s courage about thee, then fight us thyself!”
The cyborg’s eyes narrowed. “Back away!” he commanded the droids behind him. “I will deal with this equine vermin myself!”
Luna lowered her body and ran one hoof along the ground. “Do thy worst.”
Grievous growled as his hands began to spin on their wrists, moving with such speed that the blue and green lightsabers appeared to be blurry disks rather than blades. With a snarl of hatred, he charged full out at the dark alicorn.
From the lunar princess’ horn emerged a powerful jet of mystic blue fire, which hurdled through the air directly at her enemy. Grievous put one shoulder forwards with a spinning blade held out in front of him and didn’t slow down one step. Though the lightsaber’s blade had some ability to disperse them, the flames engulfed the cyborg regardless. Grievous used one arm to shield his eyes, counting on the thick armor built into his body to protect him from the intense heat that surged around him. His body’s temperature control systems were pushed close to their limits, but his was a form designed to survive the shuttle crash that had almost killed him or volleys of blaster fire or even the vacuum of space. In the end, he made it through.
Grievous burst from the fires with both blades spinning wildly. He took a flying leap from the road, his powerful cybernetic legs propelling him high into the air. As he fell back to the earth, Grievous brought down both blades in a double overhand power stroke, intending to sheer his opponent in twain. His aim as accurate as ever, the burning plasma blades fell directly on where the alicorn was.
Or, rather, where the alicorn had been.
The moment that Grievous had barged through her fire, Luna’s body had dissolved into so much fine black mist. The lightsabers passed through it without harm as it faded away into nothingness, instead burning a pair of gouges into the marble of the palace walls behind. Grievous roared in outrage.
“Get back here and fight!” he screamed out, looking this way and that, his senses picking up nothing of the princess.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha!” mocked a voice that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. “Whatever is that matter? Canst thou not fight a foe that dost not hold herself back for thee?”
Suddenly, a chunk of ruined building hurled itself through the air at Grievous. The cyborg leaped nimbly to the side, allowing the marble to smash itself to pieces against the palace walls. One of his arms split, the newly-formed limb seizing his blaster pistol from his waist. Rolling over before landing on his feet, Grievous pivoted on the spot and snapped off three speculative shots in the direction that the projectile had come from. They disappeared into a ruined building without effect.
“Thou wilt need better eyes than that, general!”
The road at Grievous’ feet suddenly exploded into life. The heavy grey cobblestones ripped themselves free and rose up to pelt the cyborg by the dozen. His lightsabers whirled, cutting many to pieces, but still pummeled themselves to rubble against his armor. His blaster pistol fired frantically in all directions, but none of the red bolts seemed to hit anything more than rubble or corpses.
Grievous returned the pistol to his belt quickly as his other arm split into two. Both free hands grasped a lightsaber and immediately started spinning, forming a whirling shield of plasma blades around the Kaleesh warrior. Pieces of road were hacked apart into pebbles as they tried to throw themselves at him, but there were hundreds and they kept coming. More relevantly, Grievous still could not make out where any of this was coming from.
Without warning, the cyborg felt a great quaking under his feet. In a flash, a huge chunk of dirt and stone that he was standing on pulled itself out of the ground. Grievous leaped from the enormous thing before it could rise too high, landing on both feet, talons scraping the cobblestones. The rough orb immediately threw itself after him. Grievous swung two lightsabers at it like baseball bats, slicing it into thirds and letting the pieces break themselves against him.
“You speak of warrior’s courage,” said Grievous as he shook off the dirt and looked around. “Yet you attack me from where I can neither see you nor fight back.”
“Thou didst not seem to have a problem with that when it was thou who wast bombarding our helpless nation from space!” Luna’s voice answered indignantly. “Now answer for those deaths and receive a dose of thine own medicine, villain!”
“Villain?!” Grievous snarled as he leapt over a flying chunk of what had once been an ornate classical pillar. “I am here because you betrayed me!”
“We had to forfeit thee to the Galactic Republic lest we suffer their bombardment! We had no choice in the matter!” Luna sounded bitter.
Grievous blinked. That didn’t sound like something Kemobi would do. The next moment he dismissed the thought with a shake of his head.
“Then you are all pathetic cowards! You bent before the first showing of force and betrayed all laws of hospitality without even a fight!” he growled at her. “And now you will suffer for your base treachery!”
“We have no love for the Republic,” Luna’s voice answered from somewhere. “But we hate thee far more, thou despicable hypocrite!”
“Hypocrite?!’ Grievous’ tone was one of outrage.
“Aye, hypocrite! Thou sayest that the reason for thine hatred of the Republic is the fate of thy people at their hand,” the voice accused. “But here thou art inflicting far worse on an innocent land for a far lesser offense! Tell us, did the Republic ever do this to Kalee? Did they attempt the utter annihilation of thy people for the actions of two? Thou madest no attempt to seek redress, or even to seek us out for revenge! Nay, thou began at once with genocide against our ponies!”
“I’m going to gut you like a-”
“The Republic should have wiped out thee and thy wretched people when it had the chance!” Luna’s voice snarled.
Grievous blinked and said nothing. For a moment, all was stillness in the ruined street, the only sounds those of the battle around them. The cyborg’s yellow eyes were clenched tightly shut, all four hands curled into fists around their lightsabers. A man looking closely could have seen that they were trembling.
Without warning, Grievous looked up and screamed to the heavens above. “I’M GOING TO BUTCHER YOU!!!”
The cyborg then turned on the spot and stomped right back up the street, slicing apart another large chunk of masonry that hurled itself at him. Grievous loomed over the downed form of Shining Armor. The unicorn was still suffering badly from the magical backlash resulting from his horn’s amputation, and as a result hadn’t even managed to regain his hooves. The general seized him once more by the neck, holding him up high.
“Come out and face me!” Grievous demanded, holding a lightsaber across the unicorn’s chest. “Or we’ll find out just how much of him I can cut off before he dies screaming!” He looked around the ruined Canterlot street. “How long do you think he can last?”
“Don’t… do it… princess,” Shining managed, only to get a metal fist into his gut.
“Shut your filthy equine mouth,” Grievous snarled at the captive, continuing to look around. “Five…” he said, moving the glowing blue blade closer to Shining’s right foreleg. “Four… Three…”
Black mist rose up out of the shadows of one of the building, coalescing quickly into the wrath-filled form of Princess Luna.
She gritted her teeth. “Thou despicable murderer.”
Grievous laughed. “Your kind are so predictable,” he tossed his unicorn prisoner to a pair of his MagnaGuards. “Hold him!” he commanded, before turning back to the princess. “Time for you to die.”
“I take it that you are Count Dooku,” said Celestia as she rose to her feet.
“Very good,” replied the old man.
Celestia narrowed her eyes. “Then you are the one responsible for this atrocity.”
“I suppose one could say that.”
There was no further need for words then. Celestia’s horn lit up and unleashed a beam of golden energy directly at the human’s head. It ate up the distance between the two faster than a blaster bolt, but somehow the red energy blade of Dooku’s lightsaber rose to stand before it. The magic dissipated against the plasma blade in a bright flash.
“Before we go straight to the unpleasantness,” Dooku said, brushing some ash from his sleeve. “I have a proposal I should like to make.”
“You have nothing I want, murderer,” Celestia answered, unleashing another stream of fire. The old man simply leaped over it, landing nimbly on his leather boots.
“Really?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “What if I told you that you do not have to perish here?”
“I would ask what you mean by that.”
“It is simple. Surrender, and your life will be spared.”
“What of my subjects?”
“Well, I can hardly guarantee their survival if they continue to resist. Of course, if you convince them to stand down I could certainly see about halting my general’s assault,” Dooku looked around and gestured at the burning city. “He is quite angry at you, as I’m sure you have noticed.”
“And where exactly would that put us vis-à-vis the Republic fleet in orbit above our planet? As I understand it, your forces in space are already on the run. To submit to you would mean invoking their wrath against us.” Celestia looked Dooku in the eye. “And I’m sure you’re aware that we have no need for a further orbital bombardment.”
“For that you may thank General Grievous, whom you betrayed into our enemy’s hands,” Dooku replied. “But in any event, I am willing to overlook such minor incidents and welcome your planet into the Separatist Alliance on condition of your surrender, and your turning of your weapons against the Republic.”
“I-”
“And of course, one other minor concession. In compensation for the forces lost engaging your troops in battle, I would require that you personally join a certain organization of mine.”
He bombarded her nation, invaded her city, slaughtered her subjects with his own hand, and now he expected her to pay for it? What madness was this?
Celestia fought to keep the fury from her voice. “What organization?”
Dooku smiled. “A simple group of like-minded individuals with talents like yours working together to make the galaxy a better place.”
The solar princess didn’t believe him for a heartbeat. This Confederacy of Independent Systems had shown no qualms about attempting genocide against an entire species for a single hostile act. Even if the Galactic Republic’s Admiral Tarkin seemed no better, Master Kenobi at the very least had shown a moral compass. He and his men were here in Canterlot, shedding their blood to protect her nation from the very man who stood before her now. Even though they now stood nothing to gain by defending Equestria, they did so regardless. That showed character, and willingness to back up his words with his deeds and to risk his own life to do so. With that in mind, it was clear to the white alicorn which side had done anything to earn her trust or loyalty.
“No deal, Dooku,” she declared. “I simply can’t trust you not to kill us all.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way,” he said with a sigh, his eyes looking downwards. His lightsaber blade ignited. “Then I’m afraid you must die.”
Grievous once again charged the black alicorn, this time with all four lightsabers spinning in a flurry of blades. Debris picked itself up from the streets to fly at the charging Kaleesh, but he was having absolutely none of it. He sliced, hacked, batted away, or jumped over the rubble as it came, ignoring the dents it made on his armored shell. There was no pain, of course. Such a thing might be distracting.
The cyborg general finally came within range of his hated foe, bringing all four lightsabers down on her from different angles with a great cry. To his infinite frustration, the blades were stopped, one and all, by the sudden appearance of a dark blue bubble around the alicorn princess’ body. Sparks flew wildly and crackling sounds echoed as Grievous pummeled the magic with all four lightsabers in a dizzying series of randomized and unpredictable blows, devised to overwhelm even the Soresu defense of the Jedi. Luna’s face strained with the effort of warding them off.
And then, she smiled.
Luna’s protective orb exploded outwards into a mighty shockwave of blue energy traveling in all directions. It leveled storefronts, tore the much-abused cobblestones from the street, and far more importantly, bowled Grievous over. The cyborg general bounced roughly against the pavement, skidding back a good fifteen feet or so before his talons and lightsabers could dig into the ground hard enough to bring him to a halt. Before he even had a chance to regain his feet, he was engulfed once more in blue flames.
His white armor scorched and blackened, with a pair of his arms protectively warding his squinting eyes, Grievous pushed himself upright with his remaining limbs. Only to be immediately staggered again by a sizable hunk of marble exploding against his armored chest. Driven to one knee, the cyborg looked up to see that the alicorn had taken flight and was hovering high above the city streets.
“That is the way, knave!” she taunted him. “Kneel before thy princess!”
Grievous snarled and began pushing himself back up, only for a destructive beam of dark blue energy to emerge from Luna’s horn. Four lightsabers moved at once to form a protective X over the cyborg, catching and dispersing the attack. But the sheer kinetic force of it made him falter again, sending him right back to his one knee. Two more similar attacks followed, each caught on the blades of his lightsabers, but each forceful enough to push him back and downwards anyway. His talons grasped tightly against anything they could reach, working hard to ground him.
“Thou art no warrior true! Thou art nothing more than a cowardly thug, General Grievous!” Luna mocked him. “Aye, coward we name thee! And hypocrite! And murderer! Thou art unfit to even-”
Whatever the night princess had been about to say was cut off as a sizable chunk of marble impacted against her armored head. While she had been attacking him, one Grievous’ feet had gotten a grip on a decent-sized piece of rubble for support. When the magical attacks had lulled for a moment, the cyborg took advantage of his flexible form to spin his entire body around on the other foot, releasing his improvised projectile at just the right moment to sending it directly into his foe’s face.
Princess Luna’s lightweight form, not anchored to anything in midair, took the full measure of the stone’s kinetic force. She went flying backwards a considerably distance before plummeting back towards the earth. The night princess went down beyond the scorched white walls of Canterlot Palace, vanishing from view.
Grievous grunted in mild approval before activating his wrist comlink again. “Cease bombardment of the palace complex,” he ordered the AATs, not wishing to walk straight into a danger zone. “You two!” he ordered the MagnaGuards bearing the slightly-struggling Shining Armor. “Follow me! The rest of you spread out and secure the area once we get in. But leave the princess to me!”
With that, the fire-blackened cyborg stomped forward down the street and plunged all four of his lightsabers into the marble walls of the Canterlot Palace. The ancient structure had been enchanted to resist almost any type of attack, but the burning plasma and the sheer strength of Grievous pushed them through it one inch at a time. Once they had emerged from the other side in four separate points, the general pulled them slowly through the abominably tough material, carving a crude circle of red-hot marble. With one powerful kick, he sent the section of wall he had carved out flying into the palace courtyard.
Without hesitation, General Grievous stormed through the breach and into the palace of Equestria’s diarchy.
Princes Celestia didn’t waste any more time bandying words with the murderous nobleman. She raised both her front hooves, and then brought them down onto the road with enough force to crack the cobblestones. Immediately ten spikes of stone erupted from the earth at Count Dooku from all directions. The old man leaped into the air as the spot he had just been standing in was impaled by several of the lethal fragments.
Dooku flipped and landed atop one of the angled, spiked pillars, his expression now one of neutrality. He reached out with three fingers of his left hand, and Celestia felt a sudden pressure through the flanks of her armor.
“Come here, little princess,” he said, jerking his hand back towards himself. Celestia yanked from her feet and propelled at extreme velocity towards the human. “I have something to show you.” His red lightsaber stabbed upwards, directly at Celestia’s heart.
Or rather, where her heart would have been, if the white alicorn hadn’t already dissolved into so much golden mist. The ethereal substance passed through lightsaber and count alike without harm before reforming into the princess’ body a good distance away.
“A clever trick,” Dooku acknowledged, raising his hand. “But I’ve seen it before.” A blue lightning storm emerged from his fingers and hurdled through the air towards the princess.
Golden flames shot out from Celestia’s horn right back at him. The two streams of energy met in between the two combatants, and for a moment there was parity as both sides strained at each other. But Celestia had already endured prolonged combat, while Dooku was comparatively fresh. The lightning pushed its way through the fire and coursed through the solar princess’ majestic frame.
Celestia went flying backwards through the air, smashing straight through the glass window of some store that had once sold breakfast pastries. She crushed a table beneath her armored form. Groaning, she resumed her hooves, small crackles of electricity still leaping here and there on her golden armor and white fur.
“Come now, Princess Celestia,” said Dooku, striding casually towards the ruined shop. “You disappoint me,” he let loose another round of lethal electricity. A golden shield enveloped Celestia, deflecting the bolts and sending them instead into the café around her. Much of it simply caught fire under the assault. “I had heard such tales of your strength.”
“I have plenty of strength, Dooku,” Celestia retorted, breathing heavily.
“Yes…” he said, smiling slightly. “I can sense it. You have anger… you have hate…. But you’re not using them.” The count gestured with two fingers, and Celestia was sent flying back. She crashed into the shop’s counter and fell over the top of it.
Dooku stepped in through the smashed oak door and Celestia regained her hooves.
“That way lies a dark fate, human,” she said. “Strength perhaps, but also ruin of oneself and all that one holds dear. I would sooner perish than permit myself to embrace such corrupt magic.”
“Now that is a shame,” he said. “Because only your hatred can destroy me.”
“I beg to differ, count,” interrupted another voice from outside.
Count Dooku turned his head slightly. He his brow creased into a frown.
“Master Kenobi.”