45: Twisted Reunion
Twilight, Janus, and Kersh were hustling quickly through one of the dilapidated spaceport’s many dark hallways, though not as quickly as they might. They had to make allowances for the old man’s limited stamina after all, and their ISB man knew exactly which route the inevitably incoming Imperial reinforcements would move to secure last. Despite that, they were making good time about it, having long since left the hangar bay behind them. The alicorn felt the cold night air, her discarded helmet undoubtedly having been annihilated in the freighter’s explosion.
It shamed her a bit, to have been so affected by those things. Yes, she certainly was a creature of harmony – or the light side as some called it – and thus subject to much greater pressure than a normal, non-magical being, but she still should have handled it better. Not only was it embarrassing and potentially dangerous in a combat situation, but it had allowed a normal man to somewhat pierce her cover. If he could do it, so could her enemies if they ran into this kind of situation again. Perhaps this Major was right, perhaps she did need some kind of-
It all happened so fast.
One moment the princess was jogging along briskly, mind half on retreat and half on how to prevent another slip-up. The next she was hit by a runaway freight train.
Twilight flew off her feet, hurled backwards through the air by a nigh-irresistible tidal wave of invisible energy. She was slammed into the duracrete wall with a force just short of spine-snapping, armor cracking under the strain. Blood, rich and crimson, dribbled down the back of her throbbing head. Two more bodies thudded against the wall next to her, and after a moment the pressure lifted and they collapsed to the ground in heap.
“How dare you?” a hiss emerged from the darkness.
Blinking and shaking her head, trying to clear away the pain and lingering nausea, the princess peered out in the vague direction of the noise. It took her a moment, head still swimming from the impact, but she spotted something. There, perhaps twenty-five yards down the dark hallway, a pair of yellow irises, burning like lanterns in the night.
“How dare you?” it repeated.
There was an uncomfortably familiar clopping sound, as hooves met the hard durasteel floor. Twilight blinked once more, just to clear away the strange aberrant colors, as Princess Luna stepped into a thin sliver of moonlight coming in from above. Even in such low light, Celestia’s sibling looked a wreck. Her coat was drenched in sweat and visibly matted in places, her once-regal mane a wild tangle thrown every which way, many feathers of her wings bent out of shape or snapped off altogether.
But the worst part was her face. The alicorn’s teeth were clenched like she meant to bite someone’s head off, the muscles of her jaw visibly straining to force them yet further together. The ruin of her horn crackled and sparked visibly, the air around it seeming to shimmer as if from heat. And her sulfuric eyes burned with a rage that made even Twilight’s blood run cold.
“How DARE you defy me?!” she exploded, the building rattling from the sheer force of her words. “I gave you an order, you whelp! A clear, direct, and very specific order! And what have you done instead of obeying?” Luna stamped a hoof, denting durasteel. “You stuck your nose in where it never belonged and putting the fate of all our kind at risk?!”
The princess strode forward, the sparks about her horn intensifying. “I am your liege and your ruler, and you owe me your unconditional obedience you brat! Your petty selfishness and idiotic desire to play the hero might just have set my plans back years! Decades! Our people will suffer for every day this goes on, and you have just made it that much longer with your ignorance and your ego and your stupidity! The blood of innocents is on your hooves!”
Twilight said nothing, allowing the natural healing processes of alicorns to work on her head wound while the seemingly-mad princess ranted.
“Answer me you accursed, meddling child! As your rightful ruler, I command you to obey me! I will not tolerate insubordination or insolence! Not in this matter!”
“Ugh…” Janus moaned, rubbing his helmeted head. “What… is she talking about?”
Yellow eyes fell on him.
“Perhaps,” Luna hissed, “you need to be reminded of the price of disobedience.”
Twilight barely had time to blink. She had no time to move. One moment, Janus was slumped over against the wall right beside her. The next he was flying through the air like a ragdoll, directly at the elder alicorn. The next there was a flash of light, and Janus hung there with a crimson lightsaber through his gut.
Both of them had time to scream.
“I warned you.” Luna snarled as the impaled man went through his final, hopeless struggle. “I told you back in the depths of Coruscant that if you placed any value on the lives of your little alien friends, you would convince them to call off their hunt for Vader’s treasure. Yet in your arrogance, your selfishness, and your naivety you have led them right to their deaths! Princess of Friendship, hah!” She beheaded the dead man with a flourish of her red blade. “Look at what you’ve done and tell me how this is friendship!”
“I didn’t do that,” tears trickled down Twilight’s cheeks, her fists curled into balls. “You did that!”
“He had heard too much of our home,” she said, extinguishing her lightsaber. “He had to die, lest his knowledge should bring Equestria to ruin.”
“He heard that much because you screamed it out at him!” Twilight roared at her, rising to her feet.
“You took his life into your hands the moment you defied my warnings, whelp.” Luna shot back. “His death here is your doing, and yours alone. If you had obeyed me like a good little filly, he would still be alive!”
“Listen to yourself!” Twilight screamed even through the furious flood of tears. “You just murdered a man in cold blood with your own two hooves, and now you’re blaming me! Open your eyes princess, the Empire’s twisted you! Made you into a monster! Snap out of it before it’s too late!”
“One alien had to die to preserve the safety of our lands,” Luna answered. “If doing whatever it takes to shield our ponies from harm makes me a monster, then so be it. My loyalty will ever lie with Equestria, never the Empire. I will never stop until she is safe and free once more, and forever after protected from these wretched alien filth!” The princess narrowed her eyes as they fell on another figure now slumped behind Twilight. “Speaking of which…”
“NO!” Twilight roared.
Luna’s horn flashed with deadly lightning, arcs of it crackling through the air at the prone form of Kersh. The old man threw up his arms in futile effort to defend himself. Twilight stretched out her hand, and there was a flash of purple. The lethal energies expended themselves against a wall of brilliant violet that sprang up in front of the human. Kersh looked up at Twilight the awe in his eyes matching the blazing purple in the princess’ own.
“Run!” Twilight yelled at him. “Get out of here just like we planned!”
“But you-”
“I’ll be along! GO!” the alicorn commanded in a voice that brooked no dissent.
Kersh took one look at the raging electrical storm outside the barrier, the snarling Inquisitor behind that, and the stoic determination on the face of the woman he’d thought he knew something about. The next moment he jumped to his feet and took off like a man half his age, ducking down a side hallway not far behind Twilight. He vanished from sight, footsteps soon drowned out by the continuing crackle of lightning.
Soon after he was gone, Luna allowed the flow of energy to fade away. Twilight’s protective spell evaporated not long afterwards, and the two princesses stared another eye to eye. There was a brief moment of silence.
“That was quite cruel of you, Princess Twilight.” Luna spoke again first. “To give that old man false hope. Now, instead of a quick death, he’ll spend the last few minutes of his life in misery and terror, attempting futilely to escape an inevitable doom that comes stalking through the night.”
“Do you even listen to words that come out of your mouth? There’s nothing inevitable about you trying to hunt down and murder a harmless old man. “
“As I recall, that ‘harmless’ old man just helped you to prolong the misery and suffering of Equestria by interfering so greatly with my plans. His actions will cause yet more of our kind to toil miserably and die for the Empire’s profit. As princess, I deem that such an enormous crime can only be justly repaid with death.”
“As princess, I deem that you’re out of your mind!” Twilight hissed at her. “You’ve wrought murder and mayhem in the name of the Empire you say you oppose! I felt those abominations… those treasures you were going to deliver to Vader. They were filled with more evil than anything I’ve ever felt in my life! And you were going to hand them over to one of the most powerful and evil men in existence! The same man who almost strangled your sister to death when she tried to get you back!”
“Your weakness in the face of simple inanimate objects is neither my fault nor my problem, young whelp. I too felt those treasures, and I saw their potential. They could have been a boon to me, a boon to Equestria! Instead I must contrive a way to appease Lord Vader, lest he kill me for your actions! You play with the life of your liege just because you cannot resist playing the hero!”
“You think this is about my ego?” Twilight sounded flabbergasted. “I can make a difference out here! I’m where I am because it’s the right place to be! It’s the right thing to do!”
“You are a reckless fool and arrogant beyond measure,” Luna pronounced. “You play at being some glorious rebel, a brave hero, when in reality you do nothing but lead your alleged friends to their deaths and interfere with the efforts of your betters! You will never defeat the Empire from the outside! You will be crushed the moment you attract their attention and put all our people at risk by your stupidity! Only from the inside can it be brought crashing down, and I alone seem to understand this!”
“Because you alone have been corrupted,” said Twilight, a little sadly.
“Nonsense. I control this darkness, it does not control me.”
“You’re delusional. What would the Luna I met for the first time that fateful night have to say to you?”
“Nothing, because she understood nothing, and yet even she understood when to hold her tongue!” Luna shook her head. “But now I am enlightened. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me.”
“I don’t see anything about Equestria’s freedom in there, princess.”
“That’s because you’re an ignorant fool. When I am free, Equestria will be free. And the Empire, the Emperor, Vader, and all our enemies… they will burn.”
Twilight’s eyes flicked to the side, just for a moment. Luna caught the gesture all the same.
“Ah…” she gave a sly grin. “Now I see your game, young whelp. By keeping me standing here, talking to you, you hope to give that surviving fool time to flee. It will only prolong his suffering. I will find him no matter where he goes, and I will destroy him before his knowledge can threaten the only world that truly matters.”
“You’re sick,” Twilight hissed. “But you’re not going anywhere.”
“And who will stop me?” She laughed darkly. “You?”
“If you think I’ll-”
Twilight was cut off as her body was flung upwards at the ceiling with the enough force to concuss an ordinary human, if not much worse. She hit the durasteel head-first, matting her fine black hair with crimson. The next instant she was hurled rapidly into one of the duracrete walls, cutting her exposed cheek open along its rough surface. Then she was flung backwards into the opposite wall. Then back to the first wall. Then the second again. First. Second. First. Second.
By the time she came to a harsh and abrupt stop in the middle of the hall, the princess was dazed, bleeding, and half-blind from concussion, her armor riddled with cracks and small chunks falling off. But that wasn’t the end – Twilight caught a face full of Force Lightning while she was too stunned to defend herself. She screamed as lances of agony raced across the entirety of her body, driving away the dulled senses with the malevolence of the dark side. The barrage continued for only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity of its own. The skeleton of her transformed body flared briefly into view.
Then the telekinetic hold was released, and her smoking body hit the floor with a painful thud.
“Your naivety is your greatest weakness,” she vaguely heard Luna say.
Despite the continuing agony that wracked every part of her body, what was left of Twilight’s focus forced her to shakily open one eye. Princess Luna loomed over her, face contorted into a contemptuous sneer.
“You simply do not know what you’re getting into. You rely far too much on your active magic – that requires your focus and time you simply don’t have. You have no passive telekinetic barriers to protect you from a surprise attack. You have no foresight, enabling you to wield a lightsaber or dodge attacks. Your only choices are to fight in an entirely mundane manner or break cover and reveal your magic. And even if you do the latter a serious opponent will still best you easily. You simply are not cut out for fighting.”
The only response Twilight could manage was a low moan.
“Pathetic. And you think you can fight the Empire?” Luna’s lightsaber flared to life. “I could end you right this moment and all you could do would be scream.” The tip of the blade leveled itself just a few short inches from Twilight’s head. “Come to think of it, why should I not?”
The air seemed to chill noticeably.
“Not only have you defied a royal command. Not only have you led those you profess to call friends to their deaths. Not only have you neglected your duties to your homeland to go gallivanting off into the galaxy in the name of your own ego…” Luna hissed. “But you have endangered Equestria with your foolishness, with your refusal to obey! Your little ‘adventure’ puts our homeland at risk, and you have demonstrated that you will not heed the wisdom of your liege when ordered to turn back. So…” the red glow of her saber framed her face. “Perhaps you have outlived your usefulness to Equestria.”
“I…”
“What is it, whelp?” Luna looked down.
Twilight met her gaze.
“I beg to differ, princess!”
Twilight’s hands shot up, and this time it was a startled Luna who flew upwards, away from the other alicorn and into the ceiling. She thrust out her arms, and the princess of the night went sailing down the hallway like a bullet. Luna hit the ground roughly more than a hundred yards from where she’d startled, rolling along yet further until she hit an errant chunk of ceiling lying on the floor. Acting on some unseen instincts, she reached up, curled her hands into fists, and pulled down hard. The already weak ceiling shuddered, and vast chunks of it rained down along the length and breadth of the hallway, a spectacular avalanche of rubble and dust that swallowed all sight.
Twilight paused, rose on shaky legs, and allowed herself to take one deep breath.
Then she turned and ran.
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Celestia’s sibling looked a wreck
directly at elder alicorn
your naivety you have lead them right to their deaths
Now, instead of quick death
1. Celestia's sibling looked like a wreck.
2. Directly at the elder alicorn.
3. Led.
4. Now, instead of a quick death.
Monologuing, Luna? Really? Truly there is no depth to which you will not sink.
Twilight used the force and Luna has officially gone mad with power.... what an eventful chapter.
I just hope Lulu lives...
Whooo! Finally! Luna wielding the dark side of the force has been pretty badass and all, but I've been waiting for Twilight to use the force for what feels like ages!
That was definitely the most dramatic and intense chapter I have read on this website for a long time.
Luna... you truly are lost. The Dark Side has enslaved you.
Pity for Janus, he was a nice man. I guess Twilight will keep going with Celebraine. I wonder if she will reveal her true form to her 2 remaining allies. Now I have a feeling Twilight and Luna will be up for a fateful lightsaber duel in the future.
Twilight has thus started her training on the Jedi ways...
Wonderful chapter there, Snake Staff. You really are among the best fanfic writers on this website!
Well on the bright side Luna has done better than Vader and a number of other sith and hasn't yet killed someone she'd deeply regret later in a bout of dark side madness... Yet or forced Twilight into a position of having to kill her... yet.
Also its just as well Starswirl the bearded is still stuck in limbo given he'd likely not give Luna a chance for redemption given his apparent views on villainy.
8673125
Though, it seems to me she WAS about to end Twilight, had the younger princess not reacted...
8673117
With what lightsaber on Twilight's part?
And with what teacher? The holocron's due to be destroyed by Maul after he intercepts Kersh.
8673133
Rightly.
8673174
With a lightsaber Twilight might get in a future chapter and with a teacher (live or holocron) in a future chapter too, depending on what the author plans to write. Only Snake Staff knows yet if Maul will catch Kersh.
8673174
8673253
Where are you guys getting the idea that Maul is going after Kersh or would have any interest in doing so?
Ahh Luna... even as you fall darker and darker, you're still best princess in my book
8673253
Well yes, but "the story will proceed according to how the author writes it" is a truism that 1) hardly needs to be said and 2) is not useful in making predictions when one is not the author. Speaking of which . . .
8673271
Maul's whereabouts are currently unaccounted for, he has not been shown to have anything better to be doing, as a Force-sensitive he should know the whereabouts and significance of Kersh's Jedi Holocron, he has a vested interest in keeping his new ally alive and providing her something to give Vader to replace his artifacts should help with that, and Kersh has no hope of evading anyone or anything at his age and in his state. It's only natural that he be captured, and likely that it be by Maul; other outcomes would require extraordinary though not unbelievable circumstances to arrange.
8673328
Ah, but you're forgetting several important details:
1)Maul's mobility is severely compromised after his cybernetic legs were damaged with lightning. There's no telling how fast or far he can push them without them giving out - only a few minutes ago they couldn't even bear his weight.
2)There is something else he could do, as Luna suggested: check the hanger to see if anything viable is left before the Imperials arrive to lock it down. Perhaps there's still some personal profit to be made from this.
3)The Jedi Holocron, either because of the light sight being in a bit of a dormant state or simply because it's intelligent enough to hide itself in the presence of darkness, appears difficult to detect via the Force. Maul didn't sense it after Yorrick's death and Luna didn't appear to despite standing mere yards from it. Certainly, her chosen murder weapon risked destroying it.
8673271
Sorry for being unclear. I meant to say we didn't know if Maul would try to catch Kersh.
Twilight just learned Combat Rule #1...
Combat Rule #1- Never assume that an enemy will let you finish talking.