12: A Dark Future
Princess Twilight Sparkle sat once again in the Harmony’s copilot seat as the vessel emerged from hyperspace. Reluctantly, she had invoked the spell to transform herself back into human form. It was uncomfortable and felt unnatural even after all her practice, and at least once she caught herself trying to walk on all four limbs. Her transformation spell, it seemed, was not accompanied by a set of instincts appropriate to a human body. Her body in the mirror world had been much more accommodating.
Spike sat comfortably in Twilight’s lap as the blue streaks of hyperspace faded into the black void of space. Near Equus’ galactic region she hadn’t wanted him seen, but this far away and into the Outer Rim, he was just another of a dizzying array of small reptilian species kept as pets on tens of thousands of worlds. She had even picked out a species to name if anyone asked: the Sellian Glimmer Lizard, an oft-bipedal species frequently bred for their beautiful scales.
Tens of thousands of miles away, but getting nearer with ever second was the planet Serenno. A pleasant world of lush forests and sparkling blue oceans, the noble families that ruled there had meticulously avoided spoiling their world with over industrialization. More important was the vast wealth and political leverage the planet's nobility controlled, even after backing the losing side in the Clone Wars. Though it had taken somewhat longer than expected to arrive due to a nerve-wrenching run-in with Imperial customs officials, here they were at last.
As a reminder of who this system now served, a Venator-class Star Destroyer hung in stationary orbit over Serenno’s northern pole. Smaller picket ships and fighter squadrons ran patrols around the planet, more as a show of force than any practical ability to cover such a vast amount of space entirely. Traffic along the standard spacelanes was busy, and the Harmony had little difficulty in joining the procession of ships headed for the planet’s surface.
It took a few minutes, but eventually the comm system crackled to life.
“Ship designate Harmony,” a female voice said. “This is Serenno System Control. Identify your destination.”
“Carannia,” replied Twilight, naming the planetary capital.
“Reasons for visitation?”
“Personal pleasure.”
“Acknowledged. Please hold your course and await further instructions,”
Twilight and Spike sat together in silence while their droid pilot maneuvered the freighter through the weave of incoming traffic. For some minutes, the planet grew closer and closer while the comm channel remained quiet. The disguised alicorn glanced nervously at an Imperial patrol ship – a brand-new VT-49 Decimator if she wasn’t mistaken – made its way slowly above the river of ships, almost certainly scanning them as it did so. But the craft flew overhead without incident, carrying onwards out into the black void.
At last, the voice came back.
“Harmony, you are cleared for landing at Carannia’s Nalju Spaceport, docking bay number 347,” the woman informed them. “Follow the designated flight path to the landing pad and remain in your ship to await the arrival of customs inspectors.”
“Yes ma’am,” Twilight answered her.
“Have a pleasant stay. System Control out.”
Serenno grew larger and large in the ship’s transparisteel viewport until at last the blue-green planet encompassed the entire thing. The Harmony dived at a slow, sedate pace through the atmosphere and clouds below it, revealing the planet’s landscape. Lush forests of tall, deep green deciduous trees stretched out for miles in every direction, broken by sparkling lakes and occasional elegant country estate. Tall mountains could be seen, their tips covered with snow at their sides with evergreens. Many played host to soaring palaces of the nobility. As they soared by, Twilight had acknowledge the landscape was beautiful. Though not, she felt, as beautiful as Equestria had been before the war. It was hard to imagine evil taking root in such a tranquil place.
At last, Carannia came into view. The planet’s ancient capital and largest city, its architecture combined a classical sense of elegance with the high-tech lifestyle of the modern era. Sprawling out for many miles in all directions, it was home to millions upon millions of humans and a small number of alien residents or visitors.
Twilight did not have much of a chance to observe the city, however, as very quickly her ship came upon the indicated spaceport. As promised, the skyward doors of landing bay were open, and platform within empty. The Harmony slowly touched down, and Twilight Sparkle arrived on Serenno.
On Korriban, in the Valley of the Dark Lords, Princess Luna was laughing. She had not felt this good in years – if ever! The power of the dark side of the Force flowed freely through her body, rejuvenating it with the stolen essences of the many souls that had perished here. Her muscled legs felt strong and sure, the wings that had atrophied from lack of use stood proud and regal, and her majestic mane once more blew in a wind that only it could feel. Luna could feel the ebb and flow of the Force as it surrounded her, empowering her and drawing strength from her emotions at the same time. She knew, without having to be told, that simply by giving in she had become more powerful than she had been in a long time, and she reveled in it.
Luna rejoiced in her surprise victory, relished the memory of General Grievous screaming his last as she enacted long-overdue justice on his miserable hide. Though she now understood it to have been merely an artificial monstrosity formed from her nightmares, sand, and sorcery, its death had been immensely gratifying. Moreover, she had realized that the “Celestia” she had seen had been nothing more than another trick – her beloved sister was not dead after all. It was a great relief for her.
For some time – she did not bother to count how long – Luna simply stood there and laughed. She rejoiced in the feeling of being powerful again after enduring helplessness for long, the satisfaction of a manner of revenge exacted on Grievous, and of course the increasingly-elaborate fantasies she had of punishment to be enacted on the Empire. At that moment the alicorn was on top of the world, full of the quick and easy power promised by the dark side, and she felt as though there were nothing that she could not do.
Of course, like all things, this too came to an end.
Luna was several minutes into an imagined public execution of Emperor Palpatine when things around her began to change. It started with the glowing red crystals that lighted the place. One by one, they flickered like worn-out bulbs and died into nothingness, plunging the room in pitch-black. Luna activated her looted lightsaber with a characteristic *snap hiss*, once more bathing the room in a red light. The alicorn reached out to the Force, preparing to call upon the powers of the dark side to defend herself against whatever this latest threat was to be.
A faint mist of purple and black began to seep upwards from between the flagstones of the tomb’s floor. Startled, Luna took an experimental swing at it with her crimson blade, but it passed through without ill effect. The attack did, however, allow the princess to notice that the antique weapon was reacting to this new force. For the first time since she had picked it up, Luna looked closely at the lightsaber. Its hilt was an archaic design, hand-crafted from silvery, lightsaber-resistant cortosis, with a golden electrum finish. Twin spiked crossguards flanked the red blade, while every inch of the hilt was coated with engraved sorcerous runes. These runes were now growing faintly with white light, some more so than others. The brightest light came from the rune lovingly carved into the activation stud. To her surprise, Luna found that she recognized the rune from data Inquisitor Cia had shown her.
This was the lightsaber of Darth Nox.
Before the alicorn princess had time to properly process this information, the flow of purple-black mist exploded. Pouring from the walls, floor, and ceiling alike, the thick fog enshrouded the tomb in short order, blocking most everything within from sight. To Luna’s surprise, the gas did not choke her or even attempt to hamper her breathing. For a handful of seconds, it simply hung static in the air.
Then, without warning, the mist flowed together and coalesced above the shattered slab that had covered the sarcophagus. Within seconds a towering figure emerged, formed from the mist. Its face and head concealed by a skull-like mask, its body wrapped tightly in armored robes, its skin covered completely by gloves and boots and thick clothing, it was impossible to make out the figure’s features, sex, or even species. Still, as it folded its arms across its chest, Luna could sense that this thing was angry.
“How dare you?!” a voice that was deep and unquestionably masculine echoed inside Luna’s mind. “How dare you violate this tomb, blasphemer?!”
This reverberating voice, in accompaniment with the man’s dramatic appearance and fearsome visage, was a powerfully frightening effect, but Luna refused to be intimidated. The alicorn stood her ground, fearlessly locking gazes with the empty skull eyes of the man’s mask.
“We do not fear thee, Darth Nox,” she replied. “We had need of thy resting place, and so we made use of it. If thou art wise, thou shalt allow us to leave now unmolested. We have no more business with this place and mean it no harm.”
“No harm?!” Nox’s voice sounded outraged. “You come here, violate my crypt, destroy my slab, damage my hieroglyphs, steal the lightsaber from my very hands, and you have the audacity to tell me that you mean my tomb no harm?!”
“If thou hast a complaint, we suggest that thou takest it up with whoever conjured up General Grievous to attack us,” Luna retorted. “As for us, we have what we came for and have no quarrel with thee. Do not attempt to halt our exit and thou hast our word that no further harm shall come to this place by our hoof.”
“You shall die now, robber of graves,” declared the ghost of Darth Nox, raising one gloved hand. A sphere of inky-black energy took shape between his fingers, noticeably chilling the air in the tomb as it did so.
But Nox was not the only one able to call upon the dark side of the Force, and his time among the living had passed long ago. His power was old and worn as the tombs themselves, while Luna’s was fresh and undiminished by the withering effects of time. She lashed out at the gathering spell instinctually, sheer power breaking apart the delicate matrices and dispersing the energy in a bluish-purple wave. The dust of the tomb was flung about in great clouds, made visible by the lightsaber’s glow.
For a moment, Darth Nox and Princess Luna stared each other down, Luna’s expression cocky, Nox’s invisible beneath his impassive mask.
“Your power is impressive,” he acknowledged. “But your technique is unsophisticated, crude. How the Sith must have fallen to send an acolyte such as you to my resting place.”
“We do not serve the Sith! We are-”
“You dance to the Sith’s tune whether you know it or not,” he paused. “You might have had a great destiny ahead of you, Princess Luna of Equestria.”
“How dost thou know our-”
“But your story ends here.”
Darth Nox uncurled his right hand, reaching it out over the now-open sarcophagus in the room’s center, and made a small gesture. It was a little thing, really, neither long nor particularly dramatic, and for half a second it appeared as though nothing at all had happened. And then came the horrible sound of crunching bone.
Luna watched in disbelief and morbid, unnerving curiosity as a weathered, faded glove reached out of the ancient Sith coffin. The one glove was quickly followed by another, and then the rotten figure within pulled itself free from its tomb. The millennia-old corpse of Darth Nox was a wretched thing to behold, looking for all the world like a smaller, beaten version of the spectra that hovered above. The clothing was recognizably the same, but the fine purple robes decorating the ghost had grown rotten and threadbare in reality. In many places they had grown holes, exposing a yellowed skeleton with just the faintest scraps of black, dried flesh clinging on in a handful of spots. The body’s mask, unlike that of the spirit, sported a great crack down one side, exposing part of the crumbling yellow skull beneath. The thing smelled strongly of age-old rot and incense. Luna grimaced at the disgusting sight of the millennia-old carcass pulling itself from the sarcophagus, but remained undaunted.
“Dost thou truly think,” she said, brandishing the lightsaber at the body. “That we will be intimidated by some cheap necromancer’s trick? Ha! We have seen far too many-”
Suddenly and without warning, Nox’s lightsaber shuddered briefly in her telekinetic grip, runes glowing brightly. Just as Luna registered it, the ancient blade was torn free of her grip by an overwhelming force. It spun through the air to be caught surprisingly dextrously by the gloved hand of the skeleton.
“That is my lightsaber you stole, little thief,” Darth Nox’s voice gloated. “Did you truly think you could use it against me?”
With speed and agility belying its worn and rotten appearance, the body backflipped out of its coffin, flying several yards back to land directly in front of the tomb’s only exit. It spun the lightsaber in a dizzying array of sequences, moving fast enough that even to Luna’s eyesight the blade appeared as little more than a crimson blur.
“H-How?” she managed, taking a step backwards.
“The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities, some considered to be… unnatural.”
“That does not-”
Before Luna could complete her sentence, Darth Nox’s ghost made a two-fingered gesture at her. Instantly she was swept off her feet and directly backwards, smashing headfirst into the stone rear wall of the tomb. Dazed, she barely had time to blink before she saw the lightsaber-wielding corpse in mid-leap, descending on her position. Luna rolled to the side at the very last second, the crimson lightsaber plunging deep into the stone where her chest had just been.
Scrambling to her hooves as the skeleton pulled the blade out of the red-hot hole in the floor, Luna called once more on the power of the dark side. It came freely as it had before, filling her body with its merciless strength.
But before she could do anything else, a second voice, deep, rich, and bass, resounded through the tomb.
“Stop!”
From the way it echoed around the room, it didn’t seem to be in her head.
“Please, my friends,” the voice continued swiftly. “Peace.”
“Peace is a lie!” Darth Nox snapped, speaking aloud for the first time.
“Be that as it may, please lay down your arms.”
“You know as well as I that she became mine and mine alone the moment she set foot in this tomb.”
“We do not belong to thee!” Luna hissed. “Nor anyone else!”
Darth Nox seemed to be ignoring her, his skull mask looking upwards at the ceiling, as if there were something only he could see.
“This whelp belongs to me,” Nox declared. “Body and soul. She will not escape here.”
“I do not deny your rights, Lord Nox,” the voice replied. “However, I do wish to remind you of our bargain.”
“You would invoke that merely to save a lowly tomb robber?” for the first time, Darth Nox sounded surprised.
“She will be of use,” the disembodied voice answered. “If you will release her and grant that which she requires, I will consider your obligation at an end.”
For some time, the tomb was silent save for the low hum of the lightsaber. The spirit of Darth Nox floated impassively over his sarcophagus, his mask making it impossible to read any facial expression. If, that is ghosts had such things. Luna did not know.
At last, Nox crossed his arms once again and gave a very slight nod. “So be it.”
The long-dead corpse tossed the lightsaber it carried to an astonished Princess Luna, who barely caught the ignited blade in her telekinesis. Slowly, at a shambling pace the alicorn thought more befitted a walking carcass, it made its way back into the coffin. One by one the piece of the shattered slab began to flow back, affixing themselves back into place through Sith magic. The ghost, meanwhile, began to dissolve way.
“Our bargain is fulfilled,” declared Darth Nox as his spirit once more faded from the ancient tomb. “Lord Tyranus.”
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WWWWWWHHHHHHHHAAAAAAATTTTT?????
Hope that Luna is not going to become the bad pony in the end.
And so Princess Luna became Lady Nocturna of the Sith.
I cannot tell if Darth Tyrrannus is still alive, or if it was his spirit.
Either way, I think we know who will be training Luna in the ways of the Sith.
5743290 To late for that, she has already given in. You don't come back after touching the power of the dark side, Gary Stu exceptions aside.
5743335 I don't know, last I checked Luna is still "a head" of him.
5743380
That makes the assumption that events in Revenge of the Sith played out according to canon. We cannot know that for certain. Tyranus may potentially be alive. Even if he's not, I don't think being dead will stop him.
lol sweet. I bet Duku clearly recognizes her and wants a little payback for Palpatine having Anakin kill him XD
5743410 Hmm, that actually would be an awsome way to take the story. I do hope things start to get better for everypony, it's getting a little too dark for my tastes though that's just personal preference.
Also if Luna gets a dark side journey, does that mean Celestia could get a light side journey as well, perhaps a trip to Dagobah is in order.
5743400 That's reassuring, no need for anyone to lose their heads over nothing.
5743449 yeah... the dark ones always seem just ... meh. but I trust this guy to do things well enough
5743359
To be honest, I'm totally expecting her to go the way of Revan eventually.
5743537 Yeah, as unfortunate as it is, I agree that it is likely.
I really hope the story goes for a slightly more realistic approach to the corrupting nature of the dark side however.
She doesn't get to return to the light now. The Emperor has her, now and forever. She dreams of putting down the Empire, but she will serve, searching for more power, feeding the need inside her, until it is all she knows. Thoughts of rebellion, old loyalties, morals, and everything else that makes her Princess Luna will die away as the dark side consumes her fully.
Or, she could just die along the way. That would be incredibly anti-climatic.
DOOKU?!....huh, payback's a bi!@#! Ha!
This time, the Emperor has not lost all of his apprentices.
Dooku has survived, and Vader is around at the very least. Perhaps now Dooku desires an apprentice of his own to use as a cat's paw against Palpatine- whether it's due to some betrayal of Palpatine's or merely the desire to supplant him.
5743751 Actually, if I had to guess, Dooku bit it up above Coruscant like normal. He's just doing the same thing that Nox was: manipulating the world from the great beyond. After all, as shown by Qui Gon Jinn, not all are absorbed by the force upon death. Some... can transcend.
This raises many questions. I am eager to see where it goes from there.
5743768
There's also that possible answer, but one would guess that the dead don't get to claim favors from one another.
I'm betting Dooku followed Luna there, sees she's now strong in the Dark Side, and intends to poach her from the Emperor as his own. Luna would likely gallop merrily into full-blown Sithdom with Dooku pointing her at screwing with the people she blames most for Equestria's suffering- Palpatine and likely Vader to boot, since he's the Emperor's errand boy.
Knock knock "who's there?" Darth Nox "Darth Nox who?" Darth Nox on your door. But onto the chapter... DOOKU?! How?! When?! Where?! Who?! And other such but I am very curious. You have me hooked even more now than ever.
5743849
In a world where the dead can talk to people and even kill, I don't see why that's true.
Dooku? This just got a lot more interesting.
5743849 Dooku was one of the people that screwed Equestria.
5744714
He certainly was. He's also the most manipulative Sith alive next to Palpatine- and considerably more able to hide any of those sadistic impulses the Emperor is fond of indulging. He also clearly spared Luna from an agonizing demise, which sadly (in this case) moral people tend to think means they owe you something.
And he's got Grevious to lay the worst sins on, to boot as a scapegoat. Redirect the blame for barbaric acts towards either him or the Emperor, offer a Dark Side-drunk Luna precisely what those hungry impulses desire. Revenge. Slaughter. With a healthy side of wrongly justifiable homicide. Luna is quite capable of being all-the-way-down corruptible- and if anything, being Nightmare Moon prior to this only leaves her more open to that kind of persuasion...and she's in a freaking nexus of Force energy, for good measure. All it takes is someone to point out a direction that is even remotely excusable in Luna's mind, and people will die.
5744856 I was just saying that he took part in making her life worse than hell with a +1 bonus. And you do have a really good point on all this. Although I do have to ask, if you know the answer, why did Dooku become a Sith? He seemed like a reasonably powerful man with a planet to his name and basically being the best lightsaber duelist of his time. He doesn't seem to care at all for any of the CIS members and he already knew Sidious wanted Anakin for something, and if he didn't figure out it was to be his replacement then he must've had his brain replaced with a lightsaber at some point because that was painfully obvious. Really why did Dooku join with Sidious?
Dooku made a deal with Darth-fucking-Nox?!
Well, that's another reason for me to love this....
I also love that Darth Nox is canon. Gotta love that unlimited power.
I love the VT-49 Decimator, it's like an evil millenium falcon
I did always like that scene.
And that's one hell of a twist
WHAT THE BLOODY FREAKING HELL?! DOOKU?! He made a bargain with NOX?! OHMYGOSH! What suspense!
5745430 If I may be so bold as to answer your question, Dooku came to despise the Jedi Council for is repeated mistakes leading to the death of Jedi. He quit the Order in hope of changing the galaxy for the better, and came to the conclusion that the Sith wanted the same thing, so naturally he signed on when Palpatine, who had been his confidant for twelve years prior to his departure, came forward as Darth Sidious. Dooku, wether knowing it or not, didn't really have a say in the matter, the seeds of his recruitment had been planted near passively over a decade prior. As for his knowledge of Palatine's plans for Anakin, I don't think he knew, and if he did, he probably didn't grasp the significance of it until the fatal moment, perhaps viewing it as the corruption of the Order's rising star, over the reality of the situation. There's a lot more to this story, but that's it in a nutshell. Hope this helped.
Awesome chapter once more! :D
This was great! Luna is looking to be an awesome sith... heueueueu, for the good side.
GOOD SITH!
DATS DOOKUS SITH NAME!
6154055
*extremely audible and surprised gasp* I knew that was Dooku when he first started talking!
Wait... Wut. That's... *fangasm overload* Two of my favorite Sith Lords... Alive as bloody ghosts (or at least one of them still are)... I think I came a little.
I see you have heard of the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise.
Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis The Wise? I thought not. It’s not a story the Jedi would tell you. It’s a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create life… He had such a knowledge of the dark side that he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying. The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural. He became so powerful… the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew, then his apprentice killed him in his sleep. Ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself.
6214188
Me too! Yay! Dooku!