The small purple creature – an alicorn, Grievous found that she called herself – was proving as good as her word, at least so far. With her guidance, he and his droids were making even better time through the forest than they had been. The little “princess” was gratifyingly quiet along the way, although he often caught her staring at himself or one of his droids with an expression of awe and curiosity on her face. If she was royalty, perhaps she might be able to trade something that would help him get off of this world for one of his B-1s? That was a deal Grievous wouldn’t hesitate to make, should the chance come.
The cyborg’s estimate of his chances became far gloomier when he saw for himself the town she was leading him to. With wooden buildings and even thatched roofs on many of the houses he could see, Grievous immediately dubbed the place a worthless primitive mud-town, good only for a supply of human shields for use against the Jedi.
Or maybe not-so-human shields. There were few inhabitants out that Grievous could see at this time of night, but those that he could matched the general profile of Twilight Sparkle – quadruped equines of various ridiculous colors, with odd brands on their flanks. He did note that while some had horns on their heads, some had wings, and some had neither, not a one had both wings and horns, as Twilight did. Perhaps this place had a caste system? He filed that particular bit of potentially useful information away for later.
In any event Grievous had little time to study those equines he did see, because as soon as they saw him each and every one ran in the opposite direction as fast as their hooves could take them. This seemed to embarrass the princess to no end, and she kept giving excuses in a tone that suggested irritation. Grievous had no idea what she was upset about – his appearance had been designed to inspire fear, and it was only right and proper that lesser creatures with no business with him should flee before his coming. Soon enough the full village came into view, and Grievous noted that almost all of the buildings were of the wooden and thatched persuasion.
Save one.
Near the center of village rose an enormous dwelling of what looked to be pure crystal. For some reason, it had been molded into the approximate shape of a tree near its base, while higher up the “branches” melded with what looked to be an old-style castle. It was a very odd aesthetic choice, completely clashing with the environment around it, but it certainly showed wealth and power. Working with crystal to such a degree should have been impossible for primitives, though. Grievous considered it. Perhaps this princess had raised it with sorcery? He revised his opinion of her, slightly.
Twilight turned to face Grievous and halted, the cyborg signaling for his droids to do the same thing.
“Welcome, visitors from another world,” she said, a touch melodramatically. “Welcome to Ponyville!”
Grievous once more had suppress the urge to laugh at her.
Instead, he pointed clawed finger at the towering crystal palace. “That is your home, is it not?” he asked, for politeness’ sake if nothing else.
Twilight scratched the back of her head and looked a little embarrassed. “Yeah…” she looked at it. “A little ostentatious, I know, but…” she trailed off.
Grievous waved it off. “Think nothing of it. I’ve seen worse,” he said, truthfully, thinking of the palaces of the loathsome Viceroy Nute Gunray. In any event, it was important to keep her rolling along, at least for now. If she proved useless, he could always just raze this village even with the small force he had to hand. With the thrill of killing the forest creature beginning to fade, he was already tempted to, just for being annoying.
“Anyway,” Twilight continued. “We can sit down and talk there, and you and your friends can help yourselves to any refreshment I can provide.”
As they walked through the mostly-silent village towards the crystal palace, Grievous didn’t bother pointing out how she almost certainly had nothing capable of sustaining him in the first place.
Twilight hurried to make her alien guests feel welcome in her home. For one of the very few times in her life, she wished that she had a paid staff of servants. The crystal palace was quite large and she had to struggle to try and clear space out for her new occupants. Not to mention she had no idea of what their requirements were and really she should have asked that before leaving them waiting and oh Celestia what was she going to do now and-
“Calm down, Twilight,” she thought, catching herself before she devolved into a full-blown panic attack.
A few breathing exercises served to slow the princess’ heart rate enough that it occurred to her that she didn’t have to do everything by herself. Her number one assistant could undoubtedly be of… well, assistance.
Twilight teleported herself to the large bedroom Spike had claimed for his own, finding the dragon asleep as expected. What was slightly less expected was that he was clutching the very same comic book she had confiscated earlier. Normally she would be annoyed, but right now such concerns seemed trivial.
“Spike…” she shook him gently. “Time to wake up.”
“AAAAAHHHHHH!” he screamed at the top of his lungs, throwing his hands up to protect his head. “Don’t dissect me! Don’t dissect me! Don’t di… Don’t…” Spike slowly lowered his hands as he noticed he was not, in fact, in an alien dissection laboratory. He looked up at Twilight, then back down at the comic in his hand. “Uh… I can explain…”
Twilight brushed it off. “No time! We have visitors, and I need your help getting some rooms ready for them!”
“Oh yeah?” Spike hopped out of bed with a yawn. “Who?”
“Aliens,” Twilight answered, completely seriously.
Spike narrowed his eyes. “Are you messing with me?”
Twilight shook her head. “Of course not! This is completely serious!”
“You’re messing with me!” Spike accused. “Trying to “teach me a lesson” or something like that, right?”
“No, Spike, I’m being completely serious. There are extraterrestrial visitors in Ponyville, and we’re hosting them. I need your help to get ready.”
The young dragon crossed his arms. “I don’t believe you.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Go down to the entry hall and see for yourself, then.”
“Riiight,” Spike walked out the door, Twilight following behind. “What will I see? A bunch of posters? Pinkie Pie in last year’s Nightmare Night costume? Or is it something more inventive this time?”
“Spike, for the last time, I’m not lying to you. Check and see if you don’t believe me.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Spike walked slowly down the hallway and grasped the door handle to the entry hall. “Last chance to admit you’re lying.”
Twilight frowned. “Just go in there.”
“Alright, I’m going, I’m going…” Spike pried open the door and stepped inside.
Twilight covered her ears. “Three… Two… One!”
“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!”
She chuckled. “Right on cue.”
Spike rushed right back out the doorway, screaming at the top of his lungs, and slammed it shut with as much force as his arms could generate.
“Twilight!” he panted, gasping from breath and holding on to her chest. “There’s… There’s…”
“Aliens in our house,” she finished his sentence. And she couldn’t resist adding in a little “I told you so.”
“But they’re… they’re…”
“They are beings from another world and thus we must not judge their immediate appearance with our own standards, lest we inadvertently cloud our scientific perspective with undue bias,” Twilight declared firmly.
Spike panted a bit, finally managing to catch his breath. “But that big white one-”
“General Grievous,” Twilight interrupted her assistant. “If this first contact is to go over well, it is imperative that we address our guests with their proper names and titles. The big white one is their leader, General Grievous.”
Spike paused for a second to think. “Let me get this straight: you went into the Everfree alone, and you found aliens?”
“Yep!” Twilight nodded briskly.
“They look like big scary killing machines?”
“I saw Grievous kill a manticore,” Twilight admitted. “In self-defense,” she hastily added, upon seeing Spike’s eyes bulge.
He swallowed. “You know they’re big scary killing machines?”
“I know one of them is scary, and can kill, yes.”
“Their leader is named General Grievous?”
“Yeah.”
“So you invited them into our house?!”
Twilight paused. “I don’t see what’s wrong with that," she answered, a little defensively.
Spike facepalmed.
General Grievous and his droid squads mulled about the entry hallway to Twilight Sparkle’s palace. Or, more accurately, the droids stood at mute attention while their general paced impatiently up and down the hall, hands folded behind his back, deep in thought. Immediately he decided that this was the most pathetic palace he had ever seen. No guards, no servants, not even any walls. He’d wager even a miserable squad of B-1s could take this place.
Far more importantly however, were his concerns about how advanced this civilization was. Altogether, what he had seen of this planet’s technological level suggested that it was incapable of any kind of powered flight at all, much less space travel, and even less of producing a hyperspace-capable craft.
Which left the question of what to do next.
Grievous had nothing but short-range communicators on his person. He could speak to anyone on the planet or in low to mid orbit above it, but without a much larger transceiver that was carried aboard CIS warship, none of his equipment would be able to reach other worlds. The only real chance he had, Grievous decided, was to somehow slap together something capable of multi-lightyear communications. And the only source of technology he could think of that was likely to be able to do that…
Grievous looked out the window at the moon above, and the Star Destroyer that had surely crashed somewhere upon it. It was a slim bet, he realized, but it was the only thing he could think of. If he did not cobble together a longer-range communication device, he would simply have to hope blindly that someone, somewhere would find a way to locate him. And of course that that someone was not affiliated with the Galactic Republic. Elsewise he would most probably spend the rest of his life with primitive equines.
If Grievous could have shuddered at a thought, he would have done so at that moment.
So, he decided, the course was clear. He must find some way to get to the wreckage of the Fateful on the moon, and work from there. Hyperspace travel he had already ruled out, but perhaps somewhere on this planet existed something capable of at least moving him to the moon. It was his best chance.
Some time passed before a door leading out of the entry hall opened up again, revealing Twilight and the same fat-looking purple lizard that had fled screaming from Grievous earlier. That had been a momentary source of amusement, at the very least. Gratifyingly, it still looked very nervous to be near the cyborg. That was good, Grievous decided.
“So…” Twilight began, somewhat awkwardly. “Sorry to have to have kept you waiting.”
Grievous grunted, but said nothing.
“Anyway,” she cleared her throat and motioned the little lizard forward. “This is my dragon assistant, Spike. And he has something he’d like to say to you.” She nudged him once again.
“S-S-Sorry,” he managed, through teeth clearly struggling not to chatter. “F-For running a-away like that. It was r-rude.”
Grievous once again resisted the urge to laugh. The insincerity was so obvious it would undoubtedly have caused a diplomatic incident if he had bothered to care for such things. As he didn’t, he decided to amuse himself instead.
“Apology accepted, little Spike,” he said, lowering himself all the way to the so-called dragon’s level. “I hope in the future we can be the best of friends,”
Spike, who had backed up right into Twilight and was manifestly sweating, merely nodded mutely. Grievous wished that he could smile at the sight. It always felt good to command the fear of lesser beings. He rose back to his feet to a slight frown from Twilight, who quickly suppressed it.
“So,” Twilight continued, while Spike hid behind her legs. “We’ve got some rooms for you and your droids. I’m sorry, but I didn’t expect so many houseguests and all the stores are closed so we only have so many spare beds and we had to set out mats and I’m so sorry and-”
Grievous cut her off. “Neither myself nor my droids require beds to rest on.”
Twilight wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead. “Thank Celestia! I was so worried that you might be angry!”
Celestia? That must be the god these locals worship, Grievous decided.
“There’s one more thing,” Twilight bit her lip nervously. “I hope you don’t mind… I was going to let you rest for the night and try and arrange something tomorrow, but a certain someone,” she glared down at Spike. “Wanted me to contact the others about you tonight.”
“The others?”
“The other two alicorn princesses in Equestria. I mean, there’s one more, but she’s further away and wouldn’t be able to come as readily.”
Grievous’ eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, come as readily?”
Twilight looked sheepish. “I mean they’re on their way right now. They want to meet you.”
5506763
Uh, the very first chapter featured Grievous fighting, and killing, a Jedi Master. The second pitted him against a manticore. So I think it's fair to say there's been some bloodshed.
I wonder how Luna and Rainbow are gonna respond meeting someone even more egotistical and aggressive then both of them combined?
Oh that will make an interesting conversation. Can't wait. I hope you bring Grevious's full back story into this fic (not many people know the full story). Being a war hero of his planet and having his people massacured by the jedi (yes that happened) would be interesting. Expecially if jedi show up and start attacking Grevious to "protect the ponies. It you be awesome (nad hilarious) to see the jedi as the "bad guys" from the perspective of the ponies. And the best part would be that he wouldn't even have to lie once to do this (again, war hero and jedi douch bags killing his people).
Wouldn't it be fascinating if this actually went off without a hitch? Luna teleports him and company to the moon, they rig up a beacon, and the Count finds him. Of course, we can count on anything but that happening can't we...
This is really good. The characterization of the General is fantastic, and so far all the interactions seem in character. This is well written, and very entertaining. I eagerly await more.
I'm pretty hyped for the engagement between Grievous, Celestia and Luna. Keep up the good work!
Are you going to be uploading these chapters as fast as your doing currently? Thanks in advance!
5505557 Grievous was IMHO was of the few good things about the prequels purely because he's such a cool character
5506996 I'll agree with you that as a concept and design, he was awesome. As a character? Well, when you require two separate novels and an official Star Wars Episode 3 dictionary to even figure out where the heck he came from between the two movies, he's terrible... but he's got four arms, so who cares?
The story is written OK, however I ignore most stories anyway even if it's written good or not, I don't focus on the quality of the writing grammar, no I focus mainly on the content and context, and I love what you've done with the story so far. General Grevius will not request from Luna for help on getting to the moon do to his distrust of magic so he will be stuck planet side for quite some time yet. plenty of time for the ponies to change his opinion on things, as well as help give sentience to his droids. anyway looking forward to how the next chapter goes.
Well done on the minor details with the CIS tech and droid specifications. They can get very technical.
I was gonna say that I dont think Twi would ever go out alone knowing that there were bound to be extraequestrials, so that seemed to be out of character a bit.
I for one love General Grevious (can you tell?) and the cover art is great even if you may or may not be the artist.
I do think though that Grevious' patience would be running thin at this point, so it might not be long before he starts demanding stuff. After all he is a General of the Droid army and these primitives should know their place and who they are dealing with.
Some B-1 conversations could be added for humor if need be. you could have pinkie make friends with one.
roger roger
An interesting fic so far. I'm noticing a lack of spelling errors which always is a good sign. Also a pretty interesting story i hope that you will continue working on it.
This is just too amusing, second chapter and I'm already laughing.
Well so far so good I'm really liking this story let's see where this goes
Go on...
5506956
He was being also manipulated by Palaptine and that Dooku guy right?
I'm not really familiar with his character. The only fanfic I ever read featuring Grievous was Secret of the 327th by Fergus Flamacron. Google it, it's fucking awesome. Bit of a door stopper though. The premise may seem silly as it's a Digimon/StarWars crossover, but it works.
Awesome read keep it up
YES! another Grievous in Equestria fic. I haven't seen one in years.
So..yeah...still early. Gonna flag this under tracking, but I like it.
I see the groundwork being laid for the Sith to invade Equestria. If that happens I'd like to see Celestia weaponize the sun, and maybe Luna could weaponize the moon.
Since the sun orbits the planet rather than the other way around, if a fleet of ships get's close enough, all Celestia would have to to is swing the sun around like a hammer and bash 'em with it. It'd be like that time Discord made the sun and moon rise and set very rapidly.
Holy shit! I just remembered...Discord would be free and reformed at this point in the story. The Sith don't stand a chance.
Read all the chapters so far and I like it! I don't know much about Star Wars, as I haven't seen any of the movies, but the story so far is great. Keep up the good work
5506705 There are a couple amazing Star Wars crossovers on this site. Check out All Hail the Dark Lord by RainbowBob (I might be a bit off on the title)
Also, I would absolutely love it if the General gave Twilight a B-1 in exchange for her continued cooperation. That could make for a hilarious spinoff.
5507481
Check out the original and underknown "Star Crossed Ponies", in which the Mane 6, Spike and the two sisters go to a far away galaxy.
Something tells me that Spike knows more about Grievous than he'd like him to...
Anywho, I'm trying so hard not to laugh(since school and stuff)!
Grievous is going to meet Celestia and Luna......................Things just got interesting
I like it, please moar :3
This will end very well.
5507321
Yes Sidious and Dooku manipulated Grevous's hatred for the jedi and the republic for their cause, but it was the jedi who pushed him in that direction. His people were invaded by a technologically advanced insectoid speciece known as the Huk (who were part of the republic). Grevous (who took on the name after the death of his wife) was able to turn the tide of the war and was regarded as a war hero and demigod among his people. When the Huk started losing, they went crying to the republic senate and told them that Grevous's people were the invaders and need to be stopped. Without investigating the matter, jedi strike teams began massacuring Grievous's people. Seriously this is almost exactly what happened with the Sith race. Do the jedi just enjoy comiting genoside on the whim of the republic?
Yeah, okay, I enjoy that story. Might even slap a tracking charm on it.
This is an amusing story. I like it keep going and don't keep us waiting!
Can't wait to see how the general will respond to the other Princesses. "Hey Luna, can you send me to the moon?" I can see it now....
5507321 Here's a short bio from Wookiepedia, to help understand his character.
Hope this was found useful.
A similar story with the same premise came out like a year and a half ago... I think. It was alright, but I don't really like Grievous so i'm probably not going to read this
5507790
Great summery. Good to see there are other people who know how great the character Greveous really is. The movie did him no credit and while the animated tv show made him appear more badass; they still protayed him as just a brute and a coward. He was also a genious in the sence that he actually designed the magna guard droids (much to the viceroy's dismay as the construction of such advanced droids were very expensive) and personally trained each one in the art of combat.
5507790
This raises many questions. Will the ponies learn about Grievous' past? Would they, then, defend Grievous if Republican forces and Jedis barge in?
Will Twilight become a Sith apprentice? ... Kidding on that one.
Grievous has barely landed and there's already a plan to get him off-world. And it's not just "wait for Twilight to figure out some magic."
it's a plan he's made and he is going to execute. It's a plan with steps and action ready to be taken.
This is very good for the story. It lets us know that something is going to happen, and soon, rather than just let the general sit on his assistant for 10 chapters. This keeps readers interested and keeps me specifically coming back.
I wanted this to be one of those stupid nonsense one-shots where an evil character comes to Equestria and blows shit up, but this is better than I ever anticipated.
Keep it up.
5507060 another thing i liked was the paint job on the Destroyer Droids
i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn41/Launchpad-2251/2632153830_cb86ef26d0_o.jpg
In fact the droids in general were awsome
5508308 a thing that comes rolling, stops, and unfolds into a robot with a shield and twin gattling guns?
yep, awesome in my books
5508390 Lots of people hate on Star Wars prequals, but i think it's good for the CGeye candy, and for visualising the story of what happened before the original trilogy
5508411 I was never a fan of star wars, I think I saw all the movies except for the last one, and I can't remember sh*t
but the designs are truly awesome. I also watched the clone wars cartoon only for grievous, he is too epic on that one. his apparition in the movie was undeserving of him...
5508408 that are no brakes
CHOO CHOO MOTHER FUCKER!!!
5508308 Definitely agree on the designs. I'll never say that the prequels didn't look amazing visually. The destroyer droids were especially cool because the jedi couldn't fight them. Sadly, every other droid in the series they waste with such ease and blinding perfection that any semblance of threat or suspense goes right out the window. They actually manage to make fights boring at times!
5506772 Twilight obliviusness is oblivious it seems -_-.
Why you so dumb Twilight?
And now the other two alicorns are on their way.
Oh how freaking great.
The more I read Grevious wanting to destroy this place just cause of annoyance is starting to be really funny XD.
... *facepalm*
God dammit twilight this is why your my least liked pony and quite frankly the one I hate the most
I mean really twilight your "apparently" a incredibly well educated pony and a living tome of knowledge, but you still can't see the most obvious things even when their right in front of you!
Why the HELL did celestia make you her student?! You are so damn stupid at times !
Now excuse me while I go listen to some music while I punch the ever increasingly huge dent in my wall
After having read these first three chapters, I'm glad to say I'm very pleased with this story.
I simply love your interpretation of General Grievous. What I consider a perfect blend of an infamous unorthodox commander, who is calm and calculative, makes sport out of his battles, whose very appearance and presence invokes terror/intimidation, and has a morbid sense of humor.
Truly a worthy adversary.
There's not much else for me to say sense it has been so long since I've encountered such a vividly pleasing story with both sets of characters in character.
I read on with great anticipation.
okay, i think i have pretty good idea of how this is going to go about. all the ponies are thinking that he's like E.T, but in actuality, he's more like invasion of the body snatchers, and OF COURSE spike is the only one who knows this, but no one believes him. so when the hammer drops, he gets a hug and an apology. that's my idea of what's going to happen. al i know is that's what Hasbro would do.
5513532 Thank you for saying it.
I'm hoping for an epic confrontation with Celestia. And maybe even a fight.
Oh boy.
I had a stroke when Grevious said the word "friends" and "hope" in the same sentence.
5523840 I had this and more, to the point of waking the whole house with my laughter.
I had a stroke, a heart attack, a seizure, and got cancer.