Princess Luna, still surprised at the intervention of the second voice to protect her, watched as the ghost of Darth Nox faded away into whatever place it resided. She hadn’t expected anyone in this horrible place to care about her fate, much less call in a favor to cause a spirit to back down. Still, she wasn’t foolish enough to believe that this Lord Tyranus had done it out of the goodness of his heart – he had even admitted as much.
“So,” Luna said, holding the still-active blade of Darth Nox’s lightsaber close, looking around suspiciously. “What is it that thou desirest of us, Lord Tyranus?”
“Observant and insightful,” the voice responded, still apparently disembodied. “Good.”
Luna snorted. “Hardly. Thou hast said thyself that thou thinkest we are “of use” to thee. Do not expect us to feel indebted to thee merely because thou didst not wish to see a tool destroyed.”
“I would hardly hold such a low opinion of your intelligence, Princess Luna.”
“Thou canst see us, nay?” she asked.
“I can.”
“Then show thyself,” Luna demanded. “If thou wishest to bargain with us, come forth and let it be done face-to-face. Otherwise we leave at once.”
“You are interested in such a bargain, then?”
“Do not take us for a fool. If thou hast sufficient influence to indebt an ancient ghost thee, thou surely hast something of worth. We may have use for it. That thou hast used that debt to call off Darth Nox meaneth that thou must wish something from us. We may be amendable to a trade.”
“You are very perceptive, princess. My compliments.”
“Cease thy flattery and come into the open,” Luna said. “We will hear what it is thou wishest, and what it is thou hast to offer. No more.”
“Very well.”
The red crystals that lit Darth Nox’s tomb flickered back into life, once again lending their light to that coming from the crimson lightsaber. Another cloud of mist began to emerge from the floor, but far faster than before. The thin, silvery substance swirled in the air before coalescing together and manifesting from itself the form of a tall, unmasked human male, arms folded behind his back. Luna had never met this particular individual in person, but she instantly recognized him from the description she had received from Celestia as well as numerous holograms the man had recorded in life.
She hissed and held the lightsaber up pointedly. “Thou art Count Dooku.”
“That was my name, yes,” he nodded politely.
“We heard on the holonet that thou had perished over Coruscant.”
“That is true,” Dooku nodded again, a dark expression coming into his eyes. “I was betrayed. And murdered.”
Luna couldn’t help it. A feeling surged up from her chest, overwhelming any self-control or diplomatic tact, emerging from her mouth in a frenzy of noise that echoed throughout the confined space of the Sith tomb.
She burst out laughing.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!” she roared out, throwing back her head to give full voice to her amusement. “Aha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
Dooku’s ghost hovered there, his expression growing steadily darker.
“Are you quite finished?” he said during a lull, as Luna paused to catch her breath.
“No!” she snapped back, before tilting her head again. “Aha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha HA HA HA!”
Dooku glared in undisguised irritation as Luna’s laughter finally subsided to chuckles. Tears streaking down her cheeks, she reached a hoof up to brush some of them away before allowing her last few giggles to escape. When she looked back up again, the alicorn’s mood had considerably improved.
“Was that truly necessary?” asked the count.
“For what thou hast done?” Luna snorted in amusement. “Yes. Thou had more than earned a miserable death, and we sincerely hope it was painful.”
“That is hardly a good way to start a negotiation, princess,” he replied. “And in any case, you needn’t worry about that. I can assure you that my last few moments among the living were most unpleasant.” Dooku rubbed his neck with one hand.
“Thou needest us far more than we need thee, count,” Luna pointed out. “Else thou wouldst not have squandered a limited commodity merely to get the chance to speak with us. As it is, we see little reason to negotiate with the murderer who ravaged our fair Equestria.”
Meaningfully, the princess turned her back on the count, deactivating her new lightsaber and placing it gently in what remained of her side bags. She started towards the tomb’s exit.
“What if I told you,” Dooku’s voice came after her. “That I was not the one ultimately responsible for the destruction unleashed on your world?”
Luna did not even bother turning her head back around to answer. “We would remind thee that thou wast the leader of the Separatists and Grievous’ superior. We also know that thou didst fight our sister Celestia personally in Canterlot, and thus have no reason to believe thy protestations of innocence.”
“I did not claim I was innocent,” Dooku countered. “Merely that the ultimate responsibility did not lie with me. It was Grievous who executed the attack on your planet, and it was I who offered your sister an opportunity to surrender. Surely she told you as much.”
“She did,” Luna acknowledged. “But it means nothing. Thou couldst have called off Grievous if thou had wished to do so.”
“No, I could not have.”
Luna halted on the spot, turning her face slightly to look back on the ghost with one eye. “Thou were the head of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. There was none above thee.”
“In public, that was the truth. But behind the scenes…” Dooku paused. “Tell me, how much do you know of the Sith?”
“Little. Nor do we much care.”
“You should,” Dooku smiled faintly. “I take it you have never heard of Darth Bane, or the Rule of Two?”
“Should we have?”
“On this planet? Yes, if they were bothering to give you any real education,” Dooku took a few steps forward, sounding conversational. “In any case, the Rule of Two states that there may only be two Sith Lords at any one time: a master and an apprentice. One to embody power, the other to crave it.”
“Let us take a guess,” Luna said drily. “Thou wouldst have us believe that thou wast the apprentice, correct?”
“Very perceptive,” Dooku nodded. “I knew I made the right choice. Yes, I was the apprentice, Darth Tyranus. Above me was my master, Darth Sidious. It was he who ordered your planet be wiped out. And it was he,” his face darkened again. “That betrayed me and ordered my death. After the war, he had my remains secreted away to this place, hoping to bury my spirit beyond sight and memory.”
“And why should we believe that this phantom master ever existed, much less ordered thee to do as thou didst?”
“You know Lord Sidious by another name,” Dooku replied. “These days, he calls himself Emperor Palpatine.”
Luna froze on the spot, carefully considering what had just been said. She wasn’t sure whether she believed the spirit’s words, but the idea that Palpatine would be ruthless enough to sanction such an act was hardly outside the realms of plausibility.
“Say we believe thee…” Luna muttered. “What is it that thou wishest us to do about it? We wanted him dead regardless for the enslavement of Equus.”
“You will never defeat him on your own, you know. Darth Sidious possesses a mastery of the dark side that is second to none. He knows many ancient Sith magicks and is a master of all manner of lightsaber combat. He is cunning, and his foresight extends far into the future. If you attempt to destroy him, he will crush you like an insect and wipe out your planet as retribution.”
“Hmph!” Luna looked disdainful. “And thou knowest better? By thine own words, he killed thee and thou never saw it coming. We will become stronger than he, stronger than any other. We defeated Grievous here, and we will defeat this Sidious on our own.” Once again, she turned to leave.
“You defeated a puppet of dust and sorcery, hardly a worthy approximation of Sidious. It was nothing more than a tool pulled from your own psyche.”
“And how wouldst thou know that?”
“Because I made it.”
Luna turned halfway around, teeth clenched into a snarl. One hoof pawed the ground. “Thou didst what?!” she hissed.
“I made it,” Dooku repeated. “As an aide and as a test for you.”
“Thou wast the one who made us go through-”
“You emerged from the other side of this trial far stronger than you were before,” Dooku interrupted. “Do you deny it?”
Surprised, Luna hesitated.
“…No,” she said after a few seconds had passed.
The count smiled. “You see, even when you don’t know you’re being trained, my methods are effective.” The ghost took several long, ethereal steps through the air to stand directly before Luna. “Here is my offer: join me. Learn what I have to teach, and embrace the full power of the dark side. Become what you were always meant to be.”
“…And in return?”
“I ask only that you help me to claim my revenge. Help me to slay Palpatine, who ordered my death. Help me to slay Darth Vader, who killed me. Agree to do this, and I will teach you all I know.”
For some time, all was silence. Luna stared at the floor, contemplating all that she had just heard and considering her options. It was many minutes later when she looked up again, meeting the count’s gaze with her restored blue eyes.
“No.”
Dooku looked genuinely surprised. “What?”
“We said: no,” Luna turned her back on the spirit. “We refuse thy offer. We will shall find our own way to power. We do not believe thy words, for thou art a liar and a murderer of our people. Thou canst rot here for all we care,” she took a step out through the tomb’s archway and back into the darkened hallway. “We will not trust thee.”
“So don’t.”
“Huh?” Luna glanced back at the count’s spirit, which had not move. “What didst thou say?”
“Don’t trust me,” Dooku repeated himself. “Such mundane things as trust hardly matter on the path of the Sith. Simply take what I offer freely and use it to your ends, Princess Luna. I will make no attempt to bind you to any oath or promise,” a smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. “For you will inevitably attempt to slay the Emperor with or without my prompting. I can sense it.”
“We are not some puppet following a preordained path, Dooku,” Luna huffed indignantly.
“Of course not. But search your feelings, you know it to be true.”
“…”
“I’m right, aren’t I?”
“Aye,” Luna admitted with a heavy sigh. “Tis the truth. The Emperor and his Empire must be bested if our ponies are to breathe free again.”
“And I will help you to do it,” Dooku said. “For you know as well as I that you will confront Sidious eventually. Simply agree to hear my instruction,” he spread his hand wide in a magnanimous gesture. “And you will gain the power you need to triumph.”
“We still do not trust thee.”
“It doesn’t matter. Your ends and mine are the same. To help you is to help myself.”
Luna eyed the spirit warily. Dooku simply smiled and waited patiently with his hands behind his back. At last, the princess of the night let out a long sigh and nodded.
“Thou hast a bargain, spirit.”
The count smiled broadly. “I’m glad to hear it. It is my pleasure to formally induct you into the Order of the Sith Lords.”
“We said nothing about that.”
“You are becoming my apprentice, no?”
“In a certain sense,” she admitted.
“Then you must take a new name, in accordance with our traditions. It will represent you rebirth into the power of the dark side.”
“We like our name just fine.”
“Nonetheless, it is unfitting for a Sith Lord to lack a proper title. Henceforth, you shall be known as Darth…” he paused, considering. “Noctis.”
Oh dis gon' be gud.
YES! The Sith name I was hoping for!
*Claps* Called it!
cdn.meme.am/instances/50283454.jpg
Shit got real when this whole thing started. Now it's becoming 3-D.
Now comes the fun part. Watching Luna's second decent into darkness and seeing what the consequences will be for Equestria because of her next actions.
nice idea of tyranus getting revenge from the grave
Great chapter once more! Sooner or later, Cia and her Inquisitors won't know what hit them...
5745525
5745520
Likewise here.
I like this Tyrannus and the way he just gave both middle fingers to the Rule of Two.
Bane was a jerk anyways.
Hmm. I was close. I still like "Nocturna" better simply because it sounds more feminine to me.
And as Tyrannus and others have said, there are many paths to the Dark Side/Sith. Pure evil, backstabbing need not be one of them. Just as an example I play my Sith in SWTOR as an "honorable asshole" She's not a nice individual, but she has a moral code/code of honor that she follows. If she gives her word about something she will honor it, etc. I am hoping Luna/Noctis will be similar. She's not going to be nice but she'll stick to her sense of morals on certain things.
I am curious. Is Luna going to stay in the tombs to train? If so how will she get food and water for herself? I cannot imagine she's going to train with the Inquisitor. With Tyrannus's spirit be able to follow her beyond the tombs (and Korriban)? Many things I am curious about.
damn so much s*** hitting the fan i am loving this all so much i kinda hope luna becomes like revan at the end master of light and dark kinda wondering if twilight becomes a jedi heck maybe even meet the crew of the ghost from star wars rebels & ashoka tano trains her to be a jedi
though personal i think i would have said this instead
"Nonetheless, it is unfitting for a Sith Lord to lack a proper title. If thou must insist but thou shall NOT call us "Darth nightmare moon" that part of our life is over. dooku laughs in amusement hahahaha no of course not... but considering both your personas... yes. Henceforth, you shall be known as Darth…” he paused, considering. “Noctis.” "
this is just my thought
OOOOOOO Can't wait!!!! Dis Gone Be Good
I rather like how this kinda 'completes' the line of force spirits extending from Yoda to Luke (If you go into the extended universe).
5745623 There are many techniques used by both jedi and sith that allow one to sustain themself far beyond what is normally possible for them. Not to mention, physical suffering is often used to help break and retain sith acolytes.
5745623 If you have played the Inquisitor storyline in SWTOR, you know that Sith Spirits are way more powerful than their jedi counterparts. They don't really have limits on when or where they can appear, but they have to have a 'bond' of sorts with the person they are appearing to. Usually that person has to visit their tomb or place of power first. They are also able to affect the world physically, but it's limited away from where the body of their power resides.
Tyrannis isn't going to have any problems following her around the galaxy.
Darth Noctis? NICE!!!
sweeeeet
This is going to be awesome.
I'm starting not to be amuse with this story now.
Something about Sith force ghosts does not sit right with me.
They had to do cheap tricks to avoid merely blending into the living force, it's why plagieus was so obsessed with immortality.
An even MORE elaborate ruse by papa sheev palpatine?
Also sith luna does not sit right with me either.
still, I wish to see how events progress.
So someone may nor may not have been a bit influenced by the influx of Darth Noctis.
5746045
Aye, I've started the Inquisitor storyline but haven't finished it yet. My Inquisitor is a bit more... ruthless than my Warrior, but still follows her own code of ethics/honor/morals. Khem Val is awesome.
5747153
Because....?
5747341
Luna become bad again. I don't like seeing the one who turned good become bad again.
If this is happen in the real world and I know, I'll order that bad guy to get hanged or beheaded or impaled alive.
5747377
Good and bad, light and dark are matters of perspective. The world isn't a shiny clean place. It's dirty and grey. The world of the Galactic Empire especially.
Jedi does not automatically equal "good" and Sith does not automatically equal "evil". Now I'm not saying there aren't evil bastards amongst the Sith because there certainly are. I would point out though that the Sith order grew from the Jedi order first, from Jedi who grew disenchanted with the way of the order.
You need to think about what you're doing here. You have no idea what Luna is going to do next. None. Yet you're already going "oh she's Sith now. She's evil! I'm not interested anymore." Don't judge a book by it's cover, my friend. Let's wait and see what actually happens to our dear Princess Luna/Darth Noctis. I'm sure it'll prove interesting.
5747340 Khem is by far my favorite companion, his class quests tie in with the main story and are absolutely the best. My sorc is evil as shit in that game however... that character has kept a solid lv 5 dark side rating since around lv 30. Glowing red eyes under a black hood really enhances the dialogue and cut-scenes in my opinion. The corruption lines don't hurt either.
5747457
Well... many did that to a few of my stories. Like in my story about the fight between students of Canterlot High about religions.
They didn't see the point that hidden in the end of the story. They're just read a few first and then go away and don't appreciate it.
5747495
So you're going to let said individuals get to you and do the very thing that you, yourself, dislike? That seems unwise.
5747501
Just said that those people did that to me, why I can't do back?
5747459
My Warrior shifts back and forth between Dark 1 and Dark 2. She is an "honorable asshole".
My Inquisitor is a bit darker. Goes with her backstory of having been a slave. She's typically around Dark 2 to Dark 3. Not so nice, but not a bitch just to be a bitch either. Khem Val is awesome though. "Eat them both, Khem." Khem: "With Pleasure."
5747527
Because if you don't like it when something it done to you, and then you turn around and do it to other people that would make you a hypocrite. Are you saying Snake Staff specifically was one of those "did it" to you? Or are you unfairly venting at someone who was uninvolved with your own issues?
5747572
I don't like admitting it but it's "second spot" that you had told me.
5745490 what she said.....but won't anything positive happen?
Now go kill Inquisitor Cia.
Blaah! Need more Twilight chappies!
I, for one, welcome our new Sith Lord, Noctis!
5747547 He says the greatest things.
When he meets your master, the first thing he does is call her a witch and ask to eat her. When I found out he was right all along I decided he was my favorite.
5746045
5747177
Sith ghosts are more attuned to the material realm than their Jedi counterparts, due to the fact that it is their overwhelming obsession with flesh and life and power that allows them to cling on. Consequently, they find interacting with and influencing the land of the living easier and do it more frequently. There is, however, a downside:
The Sith spirits cling to a wretched half-life by marinating in their own hatred, hunger, and misery, which is not conducive to mental health. No Sith is a particularly happy individual, but their ghosts have it even worse.
So, bets that Luna goes back and slaughters the entire academy?
Holy...shiz! Totally awesome! Man oh man! Loved this! Please keep up the great work! You got my attention!
Darth Noctis... sexy~ 8'D
Awesome job once more dude!
Loving how this is going.
Oh shit.
Dark... night?... really ??
Dark Noctis? EVEN AWESOMER!!!!
I knew Luna was eventually going to become a Sith, but having Count Dooku as her mentor, now thats badass.
Damn Dooku, why you so smoooooth? If anyone else besides Christopher Lee(god rest his soul) played him, I doubt he'd be such a great villain.
Rest in Pepperoni Christopher Lee
F
6154065
A dark night, in a city that knows how to keep its secrets. But on the 12th floor of the acme building, one man is still trying to find the answers to life's persistent questions:
7750884
Well George Lucus had a different style of character in mind for Dooku but changed it for Christopher Lee. Also Dooku and Saruman why does he always have to play the number two villain