• Published 1st Feb 2016
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Star Wars: A Second Chance - Dorath



Shipwrecked on Equestria, Revan Vao, agent of the Jedi Council, tries to adjust from dealing with the nastier parts of galactic civilization to living in a land built on Harmony and Friendship.

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Ch. 6; Meeting The Neighbors, Part 2

A beeping alarm brought Revan to her crippled ship’s cockpit to check the sensor array, ‘Hmmm … three signatures, coming from the direction of AJ’s farm and the rest of Ponyville -- still think that’s a silly name -- radar and thermal signatures are smaller than those of an adult pony, and they aren’t moving as fast … younglings maybe? Well, let’s go get setup to greet them.’

Slipping out the main hatch, Revan settled herself on the broken stump she had rough-smoothed into a stool with her lightsaber and turned to face her soon-to-be-arriving guests. “What can I do for you?” she called out as soon as the newcomers reached the edge of her clearing, which caused the three small ponies to come to a startled halt, ‘Hehe, I don’t think that will ever get old. Now let’s see what we have here, a white unicorn, a yellow earth pony, and an orange pegasus, all definitely younglings, and that pink bow is adorable.’

The three younglings shuffled forward, “Umh, howdy, Miss Revan, Ah’m Apple Bloom, Applejack’s sister, an' these are ma friends Sweetie Belle an' Scootaloo. We was wonderin’ if we could ask ya a few questions?”

“Questions?”

The unicorn, Sweetie Belle, nodded eagerly, “It’s a school assignment for Miss Cheerilee, we’re supposed to ask somepony about their history, and well, since you’re new to town, we thought we’d ask you.”

“Please?” the three younglings begged together, looking at Revan with wide, pleading eyes.

‘Oh chaos, it’s even worse than when the adult ponies do it! Must resist! Must … frell it, I’m done for …’ “Fine,” Revan yielded, her shoulders slumped in defeat before the unspeakable cuteness of the three younglings, “I’ll answer what I can, but I don’t know how much use to you it’ll be.”

The younglings exchanged confused glances as they dug paper and pencils out of their saddlebags, “So, where do ya come from?”

“Ah, starting with an easy question. Go back far enough and all twi’leks hail from one of the original clan-holds back on Ryloth.”

Apple Bloom nodded as she scribbled away, “Is that where ya grew up? At this Ryloth place?”

“Me? No, I’ve never even been to the mother world. I grew up on Ord Barris, a real shithole of a planet, the whole world is just one big cesspool of corruption, abuse and misery. Place should have been bombed into oblivion a few millennia ago, but every time a major war rolled through, somehow it got passed by,” Revan frowned broodingly, “You know, thinking back on it, the whole damned planet felt like the Valley of Tombs on Mar Kaas …” the Jedi shook her head to clear it of her dark thoughts as she turned back toward her young visitors, “Let’s move on, please.”

“Oookay … the next question is where did you go to school, and what was it like?”

“Actually, I never went to school, as such.”

The three younglings gaped at the Jedi in scandalized disbelief, “How could ya never have any schoolin’? Ya have ta have schoolin’ if ya want ta make somethin’ of yerself, Miss Cheerilee an’ Twilight are always goin’ on about it bein' fundi mental!”

Revan grinned down at the agitated little earth pony, “Fundamental. What you said is something else entirely,” her smile quickly vanished as she explained her upbringing to the three younglings, “When I was small, I wasn’t a citizen, or a resident alien, or whatever terms they use here in Equestria. I was property, and my owner saw no reason to waste time and resources on educating his slaves, especially when he didn’t plan to use me for anything more complicated than spreading my legs.” She reached over to gently push at Apple Bloom’s shoulder as a crooked half-smirk returned to her lips, “Besides, I don’t think I’ve done so badly, all things considered.”

The younglings scribbled down her response, and then it was apparently Scootaloo’s turn to ask a question, “Did … did you have any idols growing up?” The little pegasus practically flinched, clearly expecting another grim answer.

Revan’s cheerful laugh eased the younglings’ minds as she propped herself on her good arm and grinned at them, “An idol? Oh, yes, when I was your age, I loved my mother’s stories about Mission Vao, my ancestress. Just a street rat from the lower levels of Taris, but she fought alongside the Jedi warlord Revan, my namesake, the second time he saved the Republic!” she leaned back so she could hold up two fingers in emphasis.

“Twice? Wow! Well Rainbow Dash, Twilight and their friends have saved Equestria two times too!” the little pegasus declared proudly.

‘Is that a bit of hero worship there, Scootaloo?’ “Did they, now? Then I guess we’ll have stories to trade,” Revan winked at the younglings, “But best we get your assignment out of the way before we get too distracted. Do you have any other questions for me?”

The trio of younglings consulted quietly for a minute, pointing at their papers as they conferred, then Scootaloo stepped forward again, “Do aliens have cutie marks? And if they do, how did you get yours?”

Revan blinked in confusion, “What in chaos is a ‘cutie mark’?”

“Cutie marks are tha pictures that show up on colts an’ fillies flanks when they learn what their special talent is,” Apple Bloom explained.

“What, the but-tattoos I’ve been seeing on ponies? I thought it was just a cultural affectation … and they just appear?” the Jedi rubbed at her temples, “More magic,” she groaned, her disgruntled tone obvious, “Fine, whatever, aliens don’t get ‘cutie marks’, not that I’ve ever heard of, anyway. Sorry, younglings.”

Revan glanced around the clearing as the clearly crestfallen younglings debated what question to ask her next. ‘Wait, what was that? Something is watching us …’ She hissed at the little ponies and motioned to them for silence as she rose from her stump and scanned the trees, her hackles rising, ‘Where is it? Movement! There … oh frell me,’ a massive canine shape, easily two heads taller than Revan, slowly stalked out of the shadows of the forest, revealing its … wooden form? ‘It’s a bunch of logs and branches? But I can feel the hunger coming from it … Focus! Kill it now, ponder about it later!’

Igniting her lightsaber, Revan stepped in front of the ponies, “Alright little ones, I’ll get its attention, and then, once it’s concentrating on me, I want you to get your asses back to the farm and safe inside, hear?”

“Yes, Miss,” the younglings answered anxiously, Revan nodded and then advanced on the plant-beast, her lips peeled back to show off far more teeth than the fillies were comfortable with.

“Here! Over here, you walking bonfire! Come and get me!” she punctuated her shouts with a telekinetic strike that smashed into the creature’s muzzle, drawing an angry snarl from it.

Incensed, the ravenous plant-beast pounced on Revan, only for her to slip aside and lop off a foreleg with a single slash of her saber. Shifting its weight, the creature growled at the Jedi as its limb reassembled itself from the fallen branches, leaving her gaping in shock.

Her dumbfounded daze very nearly cost Revan dearly, but she twisted aside as the creature lunged at her again, ripping her shoulder and lek with its claws. Her savage smile contorted further by pain, Revan lashed out again with her lightsaber, but the angle was wrong for her to land a solid blow, and her blade only managed to pass a few hand-spans into the plant-beast’s torso.

Shifting back onto her guard, Revan’s eye narrowed as she saw that her last blow wasn’t healing, ‘So damage to the body remains …’ She turned to keep her blade on the creature as it circled to her left, when suddenly the beast sprang to her right and rushed past her, ‘The younglings!’ Whipping around, Revan flung her lightsaber at the plant-creature, if her aim had been true, she would have bisected the plant-thing, but all she managed to do was sever one of its legs along with a sizeable chunk of the creature’s flank.

Landing amongst the three shrieking younglings, the plant-thing lashed out with a paw, silencing one of the screams and provoking a roared “No!” from Revan. Pointing her hand, she unleashed bolt after bolt of lightning into the creature, shattering and igniting its wooden body. Knocked away from the ponies, the plant-beast clawed at the ground, whining pitifully as it vainly tried to regain its feet. Unmoved, Revan merely shifted her aim as she furiously stalked toward the creature, pouring a continuous barrage of electricity into its face until the beast’s head finally detonated, spraying the twi’lek with burning shards of wood.

Revan barely paused to confirm that the strange, predatory plant’s assorted logs, branches and vines had separated and collapsed before she turned and sprinted to the younglings, her hand reached out automatically to call back her lightsaber as she knelt beside the mangled unicorn. “Sweetie Belle,” the Jedi moaned, as she took in the four great gashes that ripped across the youngling’s barrel, the exposed bones, the erratic, gasping breathing and the blood that poured from the little pony’s mouth.

Placing her hand on the injured unicorn’s barrel, Revan took a deep breath, then swayed where she knelt as she felt her strength surge out of her. Shaking off her light-headedness, Revan checked Sweetie Belle again, grateful to find that her bleeding had slowed, her breathing had evened out, and the edges of the lacerations looked less ragged. Gathering the youngling into her arms as best she could, Revan surged to her feet with a howl of agony, tottering for a moment before she glared wild-eyed down at the other two ponies and rasped out a single word, “Hospital!”

Her harsh voice snapped Apple Bloom and Scootaloo out of their horrified stupor and the two merely nodded, before spinning around and running for Ponyville as fast as their legs would take them, Revan pounding along behind them with her grim burden.

In their headlong rush, it wasn’t long before the trio left the shadows of the Everfree for the more open lands of the Apple family orchards, where Revan and the two ponies immediately took advantage of the clearer ground to push themselves even harder.

Revan knew that the jarring run was aggravating Sweetie Belle’s injuries, but they couldn’t afford to slow down, not when every second lost could be the difference between the little unicorn’s life and death. They needed more time … her vision blurred and Revan lurched as she ran as she forced more of her own strength into Sweetie Belle’s broken body.

As Revan followed the two younglings up the path to Ponyville, her sight cleared enough to see the grey pegasus that dropped from the sky to match pace with the little band’s mad dash, “What happened?” Ditzy demanded, her yellow eyes wide with alarm.

“Youngling!” the Jedi gasped out, her voice ragged from exertion, “Hospital!”

As her face hardened with resolve, Ditzy shot ahead of the trio of runners, calling “This way! I’ll get help!” over her shoulder as she sped away.

Finally reaching the edge of Ponyville, Revan continued on her desperate run, ignoring the distraught ponies that scattered from her path as Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, no longer able to maintain the brutal pace, collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.

Plunging deeper into the town, Revan could see Ditzy and another pegasus approaching with a stretcher, ‘Help,’ but was it enough? She was covered in blood and she could no longer tell if Sweetie Belle was even breathing, ‘Need more time …’ Her vision went dark and she stumbled along as Revan plundered her reserves, recklessly ripping away at her own strength in order to ram it into the limp filly clutched in her arms.

Steadying hooves caught Revan as she lurched, while more hooves pulled Sweetie Belle from her arms and a distant voice said, “We’ve got her.” Revan felt herself falling, and then the darkness claimed her.