76: A New Friend
Several uncomfortable, hungry days later the shuttle Bounty broke hyperspace above Dantooine, much to the relief of its occupants. Ahsoka piloted it towards the surface Dawn had indicated, feeling considerably better after spending most of the trip in a healing trance. Her stomach was seriously starting to get painful, though. As to her mysterious rescuer, the Togruta wasn’t entirely sure but it did look as though the stump of her arm had gotten slightly longer between her naps. Maybe there was something to it after all.
As the tri-winged shuttle soared over majesty, sunny plains, Ahsoka kept a wary eye on the scanners. This planet was sparsely populated and had no known Imperial presence, but whatever her master had become he was not one to be underestimated. It was entirely possible that he had discovered Dawn’s friend and tracked him here, or even taken his ship directly to rendezvous after tearing the location from Spike’s mind. That sounded like something Anakin might do. Ahsoka smiled briefly as she reminisced, then grimaced as reality sank back in.
Despite her misgivings, the skies around them remained clear of everything but birds. The clouds were light, white, and fluffy, and the sun was shining peacefully overhead. Even the Force here felt tranquil and soothing, seemingly almost exempt from the darkness smothering the galaxy. It wasn’t too long before the shuttle’s scanners picked up a freighter, and Hwk-290 by the looks of it, landed amongst the grassy plains. Its engines were primed and it didn’t seem armed, but Ahsoka kept the Lambda’s forward laser cannons pointed at it anyway as she slowly circled in for landing. After what had happened last time, she didn’t feel like taking chances.
When nothing untoward happened, Ahsoka guided the shuttle down nice and easy, again keeping its nose pointed directly at the other ship. She pulled a lever and lowered the landing ramp, but didn’t deactivate the engines. Instead, she looked over at Dawn.
“Can you sense him?” Ahsoka asked. “Is your friend on board?”
“Yes,” Dawn nodded after a moment. “Just him, no one else but the droid pilot. It’s fine.”
“People can conceal their Force signature,” Ahsoka cautioned, but the other woman was already getting up.
Ahsoka sighed and powered down the engines, grabbed the saberstaff just in case, and then followed the other woman down out the cockpit and down the landing ramp. The first thing that hit her, when she finally stepped out of sterile, recycled spaceship air and into nature was how beautiful it was. The cool breeze, with the it rich, earthy smells. The warm sun overhead, the soft grasses under her still shoeless feet. The second thing that struck her was that she was hungry. Very, very, very hungry.
While under Vader’s “care”, Ahsoka had been injected with just enough liquid nutrients to keep her body’s health from deteriorating, but not enough to maintain her athletic figure. She’d lost weight, a good deal of it muscle. Add to that the days spent in a shuttle with not a scrap of food from top to bottom, and the Togruta was fairly certain that she hadn’t actually eaten anything in more than a month. The sight and smell of grasslands, reminiscent of those on her homeworld of Shili, was causing her species old hunting instincts to kick in, reminding her of just how long it had been. What she wouldn’t give for a little meat right now. At the thought of it, her stomach rumbled painfully.
Ahead of her, Dawn was racing towards… well, someone very short judging by the ripples in the grass. Ahsoka chided herself for getting distracted when the freighter’s landing ramp had come down, then jogged lightly to catch up. The not-so-human woman gave almost girlish squeal of delight a second later, half reaching down, half catching a little purple figure in her remaining arm.
“Spike!” she said, hugging him close to her chest. “I’m so glad you’re alright! I’m so sorry I left you there alone!”
“I almost thought I lost you, Twilight,” the small, chubby, purple reptile answered back. “And… what happened to your arm?? Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, don’t worry,” she said as she squeezed him. “The arm will come back after a while. I’m just happy to see you made it here safe and sound.”
“But how did you lose an arm?” Spike protested. “Who hurt you? Don’t you need medicine?”
“I always knew the risks, Spike,” she assured him. “It’s nothing that won’t heal, given time. You of all people know how insanely resilient… my kind’s biology is.”
“Doesn’t it hurt you?” Ahsoka could hear the concern writ large in his voice, see it in his eyes. “That’s a really serious injury. Shouldn’t you have gone to a doctor or something before you came here?”
“Don’t be silly, I couldn’t take chances that you might get hurt.”
“Me?! What about you? I didn’t even do anything but sit in the ship and wait for you.”
“But the Empire could have traced the ship to me, I had to make sure you were alright before anything else. You mean the world to me."
Ahsoka didn’t catch her reply. The passive echolocation of the long montrals atop her head alerted her to the movement of something small behind her, at the same time as her stomach gave another rumbling cry. It was obvious this fellow wasn’t a threat, so where was the harm? She stretched out her mind, calling on her species natural affinity for the living Force, and felt the presence of a tiny heartbeat not far away.
Ahsoka whirled around snatched up the little rodent in one swift movement. In a flash she buried her sharp canines in its neck, killing the creature almost instantly. Warm blood, tasting faintly of iron, trickled down her throat like manna from heaven. As she squatted there, hunched over her prey, the Togruta concluded that nothing had ever tasted better in her life.
“-and this is a new friend,” she vaguely heard Dawn – or was it Twilight? – saying. “She’s the one Vader had caught, and she saved my life on board his ship. Spike, I’d like you to meet Ahsoka…”
Hearing her name, the ex-Jedi looked up at the pair of them, still hunched over in the grass, dressed only in worn medical wrappings, mouth full of wild rodent, blood trickling down her orange chin.
“…Tano?”
The two were staring.
“What?” she mumbled.
Thunder crashed and lightning flashed on the graveyard moon of Kohlma. A torrential downpour swept over the lands, through the valleys, and over the mountains. It pounded on the roofs of the commandeered citadel’s many buildings and towers, sounding for all the world like the crack of gunfire. Inside the dark structure voices whispered from blackened corners and just beyond eyesight, the echoes of victims and villains alike now joined as one. They spoke a hundred languages, some long extinct, revealing a message only the insane would truly understand.
Luna ignored all of it, immersed deep in mediation before a glowing blue window. Once, the leader of the cult that had dwelt here had ordered the deaths of her enemies from this exact spot, and the dark side was particularly potent. Stretching out into its currents with her mind, the princess beheld a bewildering variety of potential futures twisting in every direction out into infinity. The sheer number of possibilities for even a lowly soul was enough to occupy one’s attention for a human lifetime, if not more. But she wasn’t here simply to observe.
Calling on her pent-up bitterness, frustration, anger, and hatred, the alicorn exerted her will. There were countless possibilities here, but only one reality, and she was determined that it would be the one she chose. Through the dark side it was possible not just to see the future to actively mold it, to force destiny down a desired path rather than blindly acquiescing to it. It might take years, decades, or even centuries for the full effects to be felt, but an immortal has patience like no other. She wanted fate to bring her to the delicious future that she had seen, and she was determined to make it whether it liked it or not.
But whatever progress she might have made that day, the alicorn never found out. The echoing sound of mechanical feet tramping along the stone floor broke her concentration, yanking her from the immaterial realm of possibility to cold hard reality. She opened her eyes to find EV-T3R walking towards her, mechanical mind entirely immune and oblivious to the lingering Force energies.
“What do you want?” she said, irritably. “I am occupied.”
“Pardon the interruption, mistress,” said the droid. “But Lord Vader has sent a message. He says that he would have words with you.”
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Thing are once more getting interesting... Luna might give some info to Vader, depending what the message is about... Also Ashokas "What?" was kinda funny.
Also:
Spike protested twice there... Typo or him being worried for a reason?
Methinks Vader has discovered something about Twilight's severed limb and is now a little put off... This will end poorly for someone.
Thank you for the update.
I think Luna will never reveal Twilight's nature because her priority is her planet and not Vader. i actually see her hunting Twilight down instead. Twilight and Luna will never let Equestria get involved into anything. i don't know about Celestia tho.
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I was referring to The Empire Strikes Back. And I use italics for titles.
Interesting first impression.
This doesn’t bode well.
Another satisfying Act. Looking forward to V.
Vader might indeed want to have one word or two with Noctis...
She might not enjoy the discussion, and Vader might find her lack of cooperation about the secrets of ponykind disturbing.
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Alright I can understand both counts, thanks for the clarification.
THANK YOU. Massive props to you here. I know you prefer the EU to cannon, but many writers, even in the old cannon forgot, that the Togruta were carnivorous, and thus it would be very easy for you to have ignored this fact. To choose to keep her race's meat diet will give the good guys some underlying tension and challenges Twilight to adapt to the universe in a way she has yet to really deal with.
Also, it amuses me that when everyone saw Twilight's lost limb they assumed 'OMG Vader has a link to Equestria.' I went, 'OMG Vader can clone Twilight for her magic.' He has cloned force sensitives before. With no success in the case of The Force Unleased II, but still.
Loving this chapter and still hoping we see Ventress one day. We have the beginnings of a rebellion here.
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1) Twilight is familiar with carnivores already from her own world.
2) What's off-putting about the impression Ahsoka is making is not that she's eating meat - it's that she's barely clothed and tearing into a raw and bloody carcass with her teeth. It makes her seem uncivilized, which is dramatically ironic (and thus funny to the audience), because we know it to be false. So does Twilight. Spike, on the other hand . . .
Why would Vader clone Twilight? He had Ahsoka for weeks and definitely wanted her as an apprentice - if he clones anybody, it will be her. To Vader, Twilight is just some girl with the chutzpah to defy him and the training to surprise him with (what he believes to be) a Force trick of which he is ignorant. She is someone he has to punish, to wound, to put in her place. Getting to her through her planet accomplishes that.
One of the things that I adore about this series is that you made the effort to make sure that we understand why everyone think or act as they do. One of the best aspects of this is Luna's fall to the dark side, and is probably one of the best journeys to the dark side that I have ever read.
From her acceptance to the dark side to how she believes that she needs to stay within the system to damage it. Watching her fall to the dark side and chapter sizes you use made me read deep into the night until I finally got to the bottom of the bag. While my main draw to this story is to watch Luna's journey I have to say that I'm deeply enjoying all of the other subplots here. 
I know I've asked about Luna's lightsaber style earlier but after reading the story I can see how Luna can't really use any of the classical forms of lightsaber combat. Sure she can integrate some of their principals into her telekinetic style, but the entire point of it is that she isn't limited to them. Oh but I do love the fact that Dooku is forced to train another alien who uses multiple lightsabers. When you said that Sith are incapable of being happy and their ghosts are forced to unlive in perpetual misery you really meant that for him.
Also, are you ever going to explain what Dooku did for Darth Nox for him to owe Dooku? Nox owing that favor to him is important in that a lot of story progression is based off that.
Is this the end of the common updates and a return to the wait? If so, it will just make act 5 oh the more rewarding. Great work.
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I'd equally like if he went back on "Xenos and War" or "Celestia's Rocket Adventure" after this break.
More please
Is this going to continue?
I just finally got around to catching up with this and I have to say YOU DID NOT disappoint! Snake Staff, you’re a legend! Utterly incredible, from start to finish. This blows The Last Jedi and the new Solo movie completely out of the water! You, my good sir, are an inspiration to me. I just love everything about your writing style; from story telling, and character developerment to rich Lore. Truly remarkable! Do you have a patreon? Because I will totally donate to you to bribe you to continue this story! I just love it, love it, LOVE IT!
I wonder what’ll happen when after the Empire dies the first order just goes to equestrian and says
“Hey. Join plox?”
When the next chapter show up
?
9099639
When it's ready.
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Is bernama long God damn
9184661
Fanfic authors have a life too, and said life comes first.
The story is becoming very intriguing and fun so far. Really enjoyed the prequel of this story. Hoping to see more of this story soon :)
9220043
Hoping to see more "Of Xenos and War" first.
Hope you come back soon
9710654
I'm well aware now, lmfao
It's been four years, and I finished reading this
RIP
Awesome job is there gonna be anymore to this story I would like to know what happens next.
Periodically, I return to this story hoping to find that it has been completed, or at the very least, continued for a few chapters more. Oh, well. Even if it never gets updated, it is still an amazing read every time.
Bless you, Snake Staff. You‘ll always be a literary inspiration to me no matter what!
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“Your leaders and founders are ostensibly evil from my point of view. Therefore, your nation is evil irrespective of any actions, inactions, and reasons of said nation” is all I heard. When your argument is simply that the Sith are evil and so the Empire is evil, you have not given an argument. Even worse that the fact the Empire dresses like Nazis causes you to assume their evil. The Sith and aesthetics are not arguments against the Empire.
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He took 2 missiles to the face and survived. But a lightsaber to the robot parts kills him? You could tekneckly have him still alive.
Well The chamber 75 dark Vader and princess Luna
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media.giphy.com/media/glmRyiSI3v5E4/giphy.gif
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Please don't reply to comments from TWO AND A HALF YEARS AGO!
It's been over three full years since the last update to this story... is it cancelled or on permanent hiatus? Did The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker kill any interest you had in Star Wars? I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, although it'd suck to see the story end like that. I do hope you continue it at some point.
10930543
And it's been 6 full years since this one's last update.. I don't think the Disney's SW films are related, for Snake Staff has an habit of doing streaks of updates between long absences. I for one would really like to see this SW crossover, the W40K crossover and the Pokemon crossover, all three great fanfics, to be continued and finished.
Damn... it's been at least four years now since the last update. Is this story still alive? or die? or maybe just dormant?
Two years later, and still no update?
That's fine. I'll come back later.
(Please update soon, though.
)
I'll wait as long as i breathe