33: A New Factor
Princess Luna drifted silently through a land of mists. It was a cold and gloomy place, little more than fog and blackness for as far as the eye could see, lacking even a solid ground to put her hooves on. There was no discernable source for the weak silvery light that provided what little illumination that there was, and every breathe she took seemed to echo endlessly into the void. The princess was thoroughly unimpressed with it all. Even bereft of her magic, she knew a dream when she saw one. If someone or something was hoping to give her a nightmare, they had another thing coming.
“Not a nightmare,” came a deep voice. Luna pursed her lips.
The mists around her parted briefly, allowing a familiar semitransparent figure to rise up from the darkness. Well-groomed, handsome despite his age, and immaculately dressed, even in death the man cut a good figure. Luna simply looked annoyed.
“Tyranus,” she vaguely inclined her head.
“Lord Noctis,” he smiled pleasantly.
“Cease the theatrics if you would,” Luna said. “Amateurish attempts to look more powerful ill suit you. If you had any real power here you would strike Sidious dead.”
“I see that your time away has not rendered you any more respectful.” Dooku matched her annoyed expression with one of his own.
“I feign enough subservience in my waking hours. We are allied because I need your secrets and you need my flesh for our combined vision of Sidious’ death. I see little reason to beat around the bush about it. An alliance built on shared hatred is not a friendship nor any personal affinity.”
“You do realize that projecting my spirit so far from my tomb while remaining below Sidious’ detection is quite taxing, don’t you? If I feel that I am too unappreciated I might simply decide to cease.”
“And then what?” Luna snorted. “Stew in impotent hatred until insanity or hell claims you, waiting for another with even half of my potential to blunder into the Valley and not get taken by some other Sith spirit? Please. We both know that I’m as good an option as you are going to find.”
Dooku said nothing.
“However much I might irritate you, you hate Darth Sidious with an undying passion.” The alicorn smirked a bit. “Literally. There’s nothing you wouldn’t give to return the treacherous death he dealt you, and that includes putting up with me for as long as it takes. That’s why you’re going to tell me whatever you came to almost irrespective of what I say, because if you stirred yourself from your dusty grave half a galaxy away it must be important. So please, just say what it is that you have to say.”
“A well-argued point, Darth Noctis,” Dooku sighed. “I commend your analytical abilities once again.”
“I’m beside myself with joy,” she replied flatly. “The man who tried to wipe out my entire species is complimenting me. Oh however can I express my foalike giddiness?”
“Bygones,” the Sith ghost waved a hand dismissively. “Very well, we will get straight to the point. I am here to warn you that your current course is one of quick opportunity, but also considerable peril.”
“Much like the dark side itself, wouldn’t you say? I’d hardly call what I’ve been through so far particularly safe.”
“Precisely,” he nodded. “More specifically, I want to warn you about the man you are going to chase for Vader. He is more than just a criminal or collector. The Maul you seek was once a Sith.”
“A Sith?” Luna raised an eyebrow. “What of the Rule of Two? There can only ever be two Sith, or so you taught me.”
“He was Sidious’ apprentice before my tenure. He was defeated, cut in two and seeming killed, by the Jedi before my conversion. But he survived, and returned to make trouble for us during the Clone Wars. My former master and I… dealt with him.”
Several more figures rose up from the mists around the two. Luna let out a reflexive hiss when she recognized the loathsome cyborg General Grievous among them. Then there was Dooku himself, along with a cloaked man she presumed to be Sidious. Across from them were a horned Zabrak male with cybernetic legs – obviously this Maul. In front of him was pale, inhuman woman wrapped in deep red robes.
“The witch Talzin, Maul’s mother and most powerful ally,” Dooku informed her.
Sidious stretched out two hands, unleashing the same blue lightning that Luna used. Talzin raised her own clawlike hands and countered with green lightning of her own. Dooku added his own Force attack to that of his master, while Maul placed a hand on his mother’s back as if offering his strength. The strikes met in the middle and were for a while even, but slowly the two Sith Lords began to overpower Maul and Talzin. The witch transitioned smoothly frim lightning to a green shield covering herself and her son. Then, as the Sith attack continued to press home, she waved a hand and threw Maul backwards, into the mists. General Grievous pressed himself bodily through the glowing shield as the exhausted witch sank to her knees. The pitiless cyborg plunged two lightsabers through the woman’s chest without hesitation.
“And what exactly is this supposed to show me?” Luna asked as the figures faded away. “That Maul hates Sidious as much as you do?”
“And that he hates me as well, for the part I played in the death of his mother and the destruction of his army. Though he believes me dead and gone, it would be unwise of you to reveal our… working relationship to him. I cannot be sure how he would react.”
“So you suggest I refrain from revealing my source of knowledge to him?”
“And that you decline to use, for example, lightning near him. If you wish to negotiate, of course. The power is uncommon, he is not foolish enough as to not wonder where you might have acquired it.”
“That could complicate matters.”
“Those things most worthwhile are seldom simple.”
“Aye, tis true enough.”
“If handled correctly,” Dooku crossed his arms. “Maul might prove useful to us. But I would caution you, Darth Noctis. In all dealings that you might have with Darth Maul, remember one of the very first lessons that I taught you.”
“And which one would that be?”
The ghost smirked. “That treachery is the way of the Sith.”
Hours later, Luna was gingerly awakened by a young man in a Navy Lieutenant’s uniform shaking one of her shoulders. It was impossible to tell the hour in her windowless cabin, but she got the sense that it was still far too early for sane people to be up and about. Which meant this had to be important.
“Yes, Lieutenant… Hayes, I believe?” she looked sleepily up at him. “Why are you disturbing me?”
“Begging your pardon, mistress,” the young man tugged at his collar. “But you said to come to you right away if anything change. It took a little bit of dropping Lord Vader’s name, but the ISB handed over those case files that you wanted. My lady… I think we may have a lead.”
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Maybe, if Noctis manages to get Maul as a temporary ally, they could defeat Vader and Sidious... At the rate this is going, I'm afraid Luna might be beyond saving from the Dark Side by the time the other ponies meet her again.
7674816 Once Celestia finds out about Luna... First the Nightmare Moon incident and now this. Must be nice to have a sister that gets "constantly" taken over by darker powers and taken away.
7674957
That, and there is a wide gap between NMM's way of dealing with those opposing her, and Luna lightsabering and lightninging them without hesitation... I am worried about what she'd do to Twilight next time they meet, if the younger princess isn't ready for this by then...
7675014
One of Nightmare Moon's only attacks was to lightning blast some guardsin the series premier. Naturally this just knocked them down, as it's a kids show, but lightning is nonetheless a power she has always been familiar with.
Mmmmm... I wanna write some delicious Star Wars, but I lack the confidence.
Nice job man!
7674950
Well she's friendly and grateful for the emperor helping Equestria. I associate the emperor as the representative for the empire tho
Luna you poor diluted fool. So who else will she drag down besides her sister during this fall I wonder?
Luna....
The one who is destined to destroy the Sith, that destiny is not meant for you...
Look towards the Twin Suns.....that, is the key to destroy the Sith.....
7675642
The prophecy is about destroying the Sith and reestablishing the equilibrium in the Force.
Since Luna is going Sith herself and considering she plans to create a galactic civil war (unless she chooses to take the throne), this isn't that destiny...
I can't wait to see Luna's meeting with Maul. Maybe we'll get a short fight from him thinking Luna is just another inquisitor out to kill him.
7661513 I know but if the cybernetics afforded to Grievous could give him overwhelming speed, why would Vader's cybernetics turn him into a turtle?
7679313 Because Grievous was almost entirely mechanical, while Vader is still largely whole just with missing limbs, plus a suit that Sidious specifically designed to be bulky, slow and painful as a punishment for Vader's failure to destroy Kenobi.
Expect nothing less from Christopher Lee.
I caught up! FINALLY I won't have anymore sleep lost by binge-reading this story.
7724502 Imagine unicorns being trained as Sith, oh the possibilities. Their already adept at the force or "magic", I'm getting goose bumps just thinking of a story about it.
7735028
I think I tried to rhyme.
7680428 Christopher Lee x Luna..... I can see that
Greetings from 2017, please come back to life at your earliest convenience
7858638 It is too late, Necromancy is a magic unpractised by authors.
Is Cassian Andor going to appear in this story? It would fit in with the timeline, since Fulcrum was established two years after ROTS. And Cassian was trained to fight since he was six. Even if he is supposedly in his teens, he could theoretically still help. It's just that K-2SO can't appear yet. Since his official age is 12 years since his reprogramming.
(Of course I'm overthinking this, I'd much rather have Twilight meet someone like Chirrut and Baze, maybe as a short cameo when Twilight is down on her luck and Chirrut gives her renewed vigor)
I really hope Snake Staff won't abandon this awesome fic, does anybody know why he stopped showing up here? The last time I spoke to him was on April 15 when I contacted him about giving me permission to translate both of these fics into my language.
8200853
8200853
I'm more worried about the writer himself. It's not like he just stopped writing, he is offline for more than a couple of months.
8354047
That is very true, very true.