19: Teacher and Student
Inquisitor Cia came running back into the room half a minute later, sweating visibly and intermittently shaking with slight tremors.
“Line up!” she snapped in her most commanding voice. “Line up for Lord Vader’s inspection, you idiots!”
All around Luna, students of many species were scrambling over each other to do as bid. They were so eager, in fact, that more than one of them got tripped up over one another. Luna herself, moved half-consciously by the powerful will she could feel, was hit by a human woman and tumbled to the ground in a heap.
“Move!” Cia snarled, hands grasping Darth Nox’s lightsaber as well as her own. “Get up and put your best foot forward! Now!”
Luna pushed herself back upright and, with a little wiggling, some shoving, and more than a little cursing, managed to assume her place in the impromptu lineup. Everyone was standing at attention as best they were able, with only occasional fighting and jostling for position of one sort or another. It was a paradox: everyone wanted to be noticed, but at the same time everyone wanted to cower in a dark corner somewhere. All throughout the steady sound of mechanical breathing drew closer and closer.
And then the door slid open, and Darth Vader stepped into the room.
The cybernetic Dark Lord of the Sith was an enormous figure in more ways than one. Most obviously, he was nearly seven feet and covered from head to toe in a black, armored bodysuit. His chest and shoulders were broader, his limbs thick, and his jet-black caped flared. In the ethereal realm, the Sith Lord’s Force presence was an overwhelming shadow that swept over all who were near him. He felt even larger than he looked, and he was already the largest being in the room. All shrank back almost involuntarily, even the Inquisitor looking small and meek before the towering cyborg.
“So,” said Vader, his tone a deep synthetic bass. “This is what you have to show.”
“Y-Yes, my lord,” Cia stuttered slightly. “I a-assure you that they are quite advanced in their studies considering-”
“I” Vader cut her off. “Will be the judge of that.” Without further ado, he began to walk toward the lineup, long strides eating up distance very rapidly.
“Of course, m-my lord,” Cia bowed her head and followed him.
Vader started on one end of the line and began simply walking slowly down it, pausing every once in a while to stare longer at one acolyte or the other. To a man, they all shrank back and tried to look small when faced with the Sith’s full attention. Luna herself was sweating beneath her fur, ears flicking from place to place in agitation. She swallowed and licked her suddenly-dry lips, eyes stealing glimpses as often as they dared as the sound of heavy boots and mechanical breathing came nearer and nearer.
After several long, nerve-wracking minutes, Darth Vader loomed large over Princes Luna. She was large for her kind, but Vader towered over her easily in both physical and metaphysical realms. Darkness seemed to reach out to clutch at Luna’s soul, urging her to bow her head and keep her eyes on Vader’s boots. To look up at him, something suggested, would be a sure path to death. But Luna had surrendered enough to the Empire already, and the tenacity that had seen her through the vicious beating from General Grievous and the near-destruction of her world reasserted itself. Luna looked Vader in the eye.
Or, at least, she thought she did. The black lenses on his mask where the eyes should have been made it impossible to tell. And indeed, physically, Luna could not see the eyes of whatever the man behind the armor. Still, as she stared up at him, she got the distinct impression of sulfuric yellow eyes staring back out at her from within that pitch-black realm. Whether that was good or bad, the alicorn could not say.
And then the moment passed, and Darth Vader moved on.
The black-armored cyborg continued his examination of the Inquisitorial acolytes for some time to come. All stood there in silence as the Sith scrutinized each and every one of them step by step. Not once did Vader give his opinion or even speak aloud, merely staring at one student or another for varying amounts of time, as if peering into their souls. Inquisitor Cia followed him at a careful distance, hands fidgeting behind her back.
At last, once he had examined the very last of the acolytes in line, a blonde human man, Darth Vader turned to face the Chiss woman.
“Is this it?” he asked.
“My lord?”
“Is this all the progress you have to show, Inquisitor?”
“Lord Vader, you h-have only seen a brief glimpse of them. I can put together some exercises that will better showcase their-”
“No,” Vader again interrupted her. He turned and began walking back down the line, cape swishing behind him. “That will be necessary. Your progress has been substandard. These acolytes are weak.”
“My lord I have consistently-”
“Failed to match the pace of your fellows, despite the auspicious nature of this world,” Vader wasn’t even bothering to look at Cia. “I came to determine the quality of these acolytes, and now I find no wheat among the chaff. Every one of them is insufficiently advanced for my purposes.”
“Surely you-”
“Save one.”
Darth Vader stopped dead in front of Princess Luna and turned to face her, arms folded across his chest. She again felt very small before his gaze, ears folding back onto her head even as she barely managed to meet his eyes.
“This one is different,” said Vader, after a moment.
“H-How so, my lord?” Cia managed. “She was weak and restrained, so I sent her into the valley… She returned far stronger…. Do you believe she has become p-possessed?”
“No.”
Vader did elaborate, and Cia did not attempt to press the point. There were long, drawn-out moments of silence as everyone nervously awaited the Dark Lord’s verdict. Then, out of the blue, Vader spoke up again.
“Duel her,” he commanded.
“My lord?” Cia looked confused.
“What is he doing?” Luna thought, but no answer was forthcoming from Dooku’s spirit.
“Duel her,” Vader repeated. “I wish to see you and this acolyte duel one another, Inquisitor. Right now.”
The Chiss blinked, looking puzzled, but quickly rallied. “As you wish, my lord,” she bowed at the waist.
Not knowing what else to do, Luna dipped her own head and replied. “Yes, Lord Vader.”
“Clear away,” Vader instructed the remainder of the class. “Make way to the dueling ring.”
Everyone hurried to do as bid, simultaneously relieved to be alive, excited to watch another combat, and somewhat disappointed not to be the one to have caught Vader’s eye. Vader himself made a casual gesture with two fingers, and the remains of the scrapped MagnaGuard were hurled unceremoniously from the ring. Luna and Cia both stepped down towards it, Vader close behind, and the remainder of the students following at a very careful distance. The Chiss and the alicorn duly filed into the small ring, taking up positions on either side.
“On your guard!” Cia drew her curve-hilted lightsaber and activated the blade in a single, theatrical flourish. Back in her element, a small smile was beginning to creep up one side of her mouth. “Lord Vader wants a show, acolyte! So don’t go down too quickly.”
“I’m not the one who is going down,” Luna retorted, telekinetically holding her lightsaber hilt in front of her head. She flared her wings and activated its crimson blade.
Cia folded her left arm behind her back and assumed the Makashi opening stance. “We shall see.”
“So we shall.”
Darth Vader’s voice boomed out. “Begin!”
Neither Luna nor Cia moved to attack immediately. Instead, they began to circle the ring, lightsabers brandished at one another, probing for some weakness or deficiency. Luna had seen Cia’s style of swordsmanship in her tutoring of students. Moreover, Makashi had been Count Dooku’s style of choice in life, and he had told her much of its strengths and weaknesses. Still, she was wary of simply rushing in.
The Chiss ultimately made the first move, crossing the ring in three deft steps and taking a stab at Luna’s face. She blocked with her own blade, and then Cia forced the locked swords downward in a surprising display of strength. The Inquisitor swiped upwards and sideways, aiming for the hilt of Luna’s weapon. She jerked it downwards to avoid the strike, the counterattacked with an underhanded power blow. Cia’s saber barely nicked the blade of Liuna’s, but it did so just enough to redirect the slash to cleave nothing but air.
The princess backed off a few steps. With telekinesis instead of arms, she had a longer reach and fully intended to exploit it. Luna directed her lightsaber forwards in series of quick jabs and slashes from wildly varied angles, meant to overwhelm Cia’s defenses with sheer speed. But despite being limited by her arm’s speed and range of motion, the Chiss ably deflected, caught, or dodged every blow. The exchange went on for some seconds, Cia apparently perfectly content to stand there and duel with a floated lightsaber. As the smile on her opponent’s face grew more and more self-satisfied, Luna began to get frustrated. Calling on the Force, she sped up her strikes and increased the power behind them. Inquisitor Cia sidestepped a particularly vigorous forward stab… and then snatched Luna’s lightsaber hilt right out of the air with her free hand.
The alicorn princess swallowed. She hadn’t considered that.
Dual blades in hand, Cia made a gesture with her right hand. A wave of dark side energy blasted Luna backwards and off her hooves. She extended two fingers from her left hand and mimed pressing it downwards onto something. Luna felt a corresponding pressure come down on her own back, pinning her to the ground as effectively as a thousand pounds of rock. To her credit, the Inquisitor didn’t stop to gloat. Instead, she brandished both lightsabers and rushed forwards, clearly intending to end the fight then and there. To her detriment, she had neglected to consider the third lightsaber still attached to her belt.
Luna reached out with the Force and jammed down hard on that lightsaber’s activation stud. Darth Nox’s crimson-bladed saber flared to life on Cia’s hip. The burning plasma blade just nicked the edge of the Inquisitor’s knee, burning through grey pants and blue skin alike. Cia cried out, but before Luna could angle the lightsaber to cut off her leg altogether she lashed out instinctively with the dark side, tearing it from her belt and sending it flying wildly away from her. Still, the pressure on Luna was gone and she regained her hooves, calling Nox’s weapon over to her.
“You shouldn’t have sent me after this,” said Luna with a slight smirk of her own.
Cia growled, delicately rubbing the skin-deep, cauterized lightsaber wound. “You’ll pay for that.”
“I don’t think so.”
The Inquisitor snarled incoherently and charged the princess, bringing both lightsabers to bear. Her pain fueled her anger, which in turn bolstered her strength with that of the dark side. Abandoning the elegant precision of Makashi, Cia came at Luna with both blades flashing wildly. Having never seen the Chiss dual-wield, the princess was quickly forced onto the defensive. She backed up several steps, keeping Nox’s lightsaber close, doing her best to parry or dodge the frantic stream of blows that Cia was raining down on her.
It took Luna a handful of moments to analyze her opponent’s technique properly. Cia was favoring her own lightsaber and attacking with it more frequently, which was no surprise. The Chiss was almost certainly right-handed, more familiar with her weapon, and of course the miniscule hilt of Luna’s saber barely fit in even Cia’s relatively small hands. She was fast, and her strikes were powerful, but not so fast or powerful as General Grievous had been all those years ago.
Armed with knowledge, Luna commenced her counterattack. She caught a double overhand blow on her saber and, with a surge of strength, forced both of Cia’s blades to the side. She swiped upwards, but the Inquisitor leapt backwards to avoid the strike. Luna charged, delivering a series of rapid Makashi-style strikes to try and off-balance the Chiss. Cia stumbled a few steps backwards, and Luna pressed the offensive with and upwards power strike aimed at her chest. Cia caught the strike with both blades, and for an instant it was a contest of strength.
Then, with astounding flexibility, Cia bent dramatically over backwards, releasing her hold and allowing Nox’s saber to pass above her head. Quickly she darted in and under the swing, taking a swipe at Luna’s face with her own saber. The princess dodged, but cried out as she felt a burning sensation cross her left cheek. Luna’s saber came from behind at the Inquisitor, but she leaped over the alicorn herself to dodge it, taking the split second to deliver a boot to the back of Luna’s skull.
The princess toppled over forwards, hitting the floor with a painful thud. Luna immediately rolled to avoid an attempted coup-de-grace – Cia’s saber plunged deep into the floor instead. Luna continued rolling for a good distance before she resumed standing in one smooth, practiced motion. The two opponents regarded one another warily, each breathing heavily and sporting painful but minor wounds.
“Enough of this!” Inquisitor Cia snarled, and clenched three fingers of her right hand.
Immediately Luna’s throat felt as though it were caught in the grip of durasteel clamps. Her trachea seized up and sealed itself shut, denying her hungry lungs any air. Her lightsaber clattered to the ground, deactivated and forgotten, as the alicorn clutched at her windpipe on the physical and mystical levels alike. Luna called on the Force to try and break Cia’s invisible grip, but for once it betrayed her. The dark side was a weapon, not a shield. Killing one’s enemy with it was far easier than using it to defend oneself. The Inquisitor’s clamps remained in place.
Luna fell to her knees as the effects of oxygen deprivation began to ravage her body. Her lungs were screaming futilely for air, her vision beginning to go black around the edges. Her mouth repeatedly gaped like a fish out of water, to no avail. In her mind, the princess felt the burning sensation of shame. After everything she had done, everything she had endured and sacrificed, she had failed. And now she was going to die here ignominiously, having never even set eyes on Emperor Palpatine…
No! No, she would not die here! She could not! Too many were depending on their princess for her to just give up and kill over now! Her eyes cast about desperately, looking for something, anything that they could use even as blackness threatened to consume her sight altogether. Then, at the last second, she spotted something.
Desperation lending her strength, Luna reached out through the Force and seized the still-active lightsabers clutched in Cia’s hands. With what might have been the last of her strength, she tore the weapons from the Chiss’ blue fingers and spun the blades around on the spot.
Slicing off both of Inquisitor Cia’s hands.
The effect was immediate, the pressure disappearing from the alicorn’s throat just as quickly as it had appeared. Luna only half heard the Chiss wail in agony, too busy gasping for sweet, sweet oxygen to be bothered with it. Her lungs drew it in at a prodigious rate, very swiftly beginning to banish the worst of the effects of deprivation. After almost half a minute, Luna’s frantic heartbeat had calmed down and she pushed herself back to her hooves.
Luna beheld Inquisitor Cia sunken to her knees, charred stumps wrapped around one another across her stomach. The Chiss woman was moaning softly and weeping openly, rocking back and forth on her knees. The dark side was abandoning her, as it did all those who lost, and her presence seemed to be shrinking in an almost visible manner. Gone was the aura of fearsome instructor and cold-blooded murderer. She appeared… honestly, rather pathetic.
“As I thought,” Darth Vader’s voice cut into Luna’s thoughts. She looked up at the Sith Lord, who stared impassively down at her. “Kill her,” he ordered.
“W-W-What?” Cia managed, her voice weak and shaky. She managed to raise her face somewhat, tear-staining red eyes looking fearfully up at the cyborg’s expressionless mask. “P-Please, Lord V-V-Vader! I c-can do m-”
“Kill her now,” Vader commanded pitilessly.
Luna took a few steps forward, calling two lightsabers to her. One was her own, small, regal, and familiar. The other was the curve-hilted lightsaber that Cia had used for herself. As she ignited both into a pair of crimson scissors about the Inquisitor’s neck, Luna saw what Grievous had seen in collecting the weapons of his foes. It was more than a trophy of victory; it was an expression of absolute superiority and simultaneously one of total contempt for one’s defeated enemies.
It felt… good.
Luna peered into the eyes of her tormentor, remembering that behind those sobbing red orbs lay the mind and soul of a sadist and murderer. She remembered the acolyte Cia had beheaded, remembered the prisoner she had tortured to death. She remembered the pain and humiliation of her abduction. And, as Luna and Cia stared into one another’s eyes, the princess could honestly say she would not regret this.
“Do it!” Vader demanded.
“P-Please,” Cia begged. “P-P-Please…”
The scissors closed.
“Well done.”
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YEAH!
EDIT: Dark luna is best luna.
:D
yay murder!
Awesome!
Is anyone else here still hoping that Luna and Vader team up to kill Palpatine and then decide to rule the galaxy together?
good
th09.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2014/167/3/2/sith_luna_by_ncmares-d7ml1yf.jpg And so it begins...
I bet Vader knows Luna has some extra Dark Side connection. Luna may not be possessed but she is a dangerous threat and Vader knows it. Cha received her reward for her failures and Vader gains another hidden apprentice. So will Starkiller be showing up or will Luna be going Hand like Mara Jade?
Well, Luna's fall from grace has completed.
Dark times ahead, friends. Dark times indeed.
I see a reflection of Anakin's duel against Count Dooku here. Vader in the place of Palpatine, Luna as Anakin, and Cia as Dooku.
Edit: I wonder if Luna will take on the appearance of Nightmare Moon again?
ALL OF MY YES!
Darth Noctis got her revenge. I wonder if Vader intends to take her as his apprentice ? This would a be a double-game, allowing the alicorn to get, bit by bit, closer to the Emperor.
Cia was a bitch, that's a fact. But what Luna did is nothing to be proud of.
Oh... This felt good.... It felt so very good to watch Cia suffer...
Sexy.
Awesome job once again!
Luna got some payback, oh revenge... a dish best served cold with a side of ketchup... because ketchup makes everything good.
Good show!
That felt good, but I'm afraid Luna's gone now.
No surprises here but then again doingsomething unexpectable with this sory arc would be pretty hard.
5894631 so much agreement!
AWESOME CHAPTER! I can't wait for the next one! I can't wait to see what Luna does next!
Damn I almost thought Vader would kill Cia himself, but beheading by one's own student is surely way more... flashy. I wonder where will the flow of the force carry Darth Nox next?
And to all who claim Luna is gone... I believe not. At least not yet. But I see the potential for Nightmare Nox being strong with this one.
WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
5894940
"Kill this pony," Vader said
Luna kills the pony, turning into a full fledge Dark Side Adept
You do realize that is the only thing Vader has to do to keep Luna in line. If Luna kills the pony, Equestria would hate her. If she doesn't Equestria is burnt to the ground if they haven't found out Twilight's involvement in the rebellion!
I love this line. It shows the dark side with so little words.
EXCELLENT!
And so, Vader gets a new apprentice. In case starkiller comes up in a later chapter, I'll just say it now. LunaXStarkiller
5894905
Well done!
My god please no starkiller. Those games were so bad...
Good Chapter!
Jew it!
5895100 That kind of situation is very probable, but I want to wait and see it for myself rather than theorycraft all day. If it happens, it would certainly force the plot's advancement a lot, either way.
5895100 I'd say that this would never happen, but knowing how I thought the prequel to this would turn out... You just might be right. That's what I love so much about this story: It smashes my expectations and surprises me without anybody breaking character.
5894465 Agreed. She's my newest Sith waifu.
5897160 You are right! I mixed up Nox and Noctis
silly me...
5896543 Luna might be sent to kill Twilight and 'oversee' Equuis, preparing the new slaves for the Death Star
If Celestia dies then Luna is going to basically be a pony Grievous with the Force
5969226
...yeeesh.....
Awesome... finally, Cia gets her punishment. And better yet, Luna's an awesome Sith... and Vader was there!
Dis... gonna get better and better.
Count Dooku mirror death scene.... I see what you did there!
That will be necessary. Your progress has been substandard
She jerked it downwards to avoid the strike, the counterattacked with an underhanded power blow
Cia’s saber barely nicked the blade of Liuna’s
1. That will not be necessary.
2. Then.
3. Luna's.
7664338
OH good I wasn't the only one to see it