Star Wars, Episode Pony: Friendship is Magic

by Kendallonian

Chapter 10

Twilight slowly began to regain an awareness of her surroundings over the course of a few minutes. Reality was cold, dark, and univiting, and after a few moments of it Twilight wished to go back to sleep; maybe there she might dream of something other than the terrible reality that had just occurred.

Spike, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, Rainbow… all of them were gone.

For a millisecond Twilight thought she might have heard their voices shouting to her from just beyond the walls of her tiny cell, but she soon realized that the voice calling her name was older, and perhaps more familiar.

“Twilight? Twilight can you hear me? Are you all right?”

“Celestia?” Twilight said feebly. “Is that you?”

“Yes! Yes it’s me!” Celestia’s voice came again, shot through with relief. It was heavily muffled, but Twilight could hear it as well as a soft, metallic thumping past the right wall of her cell. Twilight pushed her ear up against that wall so she could discern Celestia’s speech better.

“Twilight, are you all right?” Celestia said.

Before she could answer, Twilight was overcome by a burst of tears, both of relief that her master was alive and well, and of sorrow at the reality of the current situation.

“Wait… Twilight… are those… tears?” Celestia’s voice said through the bulkhead.

Twilight leaned her back up against the wall, continuing to sob.

“Yes. Yes they are.” Twilight was eventually able to choke out.

There was a long pause where Celestia was apparently unable to think of anything else to say.

“What’s wrong, Twilight?” Celestia asked, concern leaking through the bulkhead. “Listen; we could still figure something out-”

“Why? Why did you ask me to make some friends?” Twilight asked, accusing her master through her own sobs.

“Oh.” came Celestia’s voice, much more muted. “Did you… did you try, at least?”

Twilight squeezed her eyes shut, wringing more tears from her sockets. “No. No I didn’t; but I guess in the end it doesn’t even matter. They made friends with me, and now.. They’re all dead because of it.”

A long silence passed between the two before Twilight heard a soft “I’m sorry.”

Twilight let out a long sigh. “No, you’re not.” she said plainly.

Celestia’s voice returned shortly, bringing with it an unwavering resolve.

“You are partially right, Twilight. I’m not sorry that I asked you to make friends with these ponies, I’m only sorry that it ended so badly.”

Twilight, in a sudden burst of anger, slammed the wall, hoping in the moment that it rang in Celestia’s ears and gave her tinnitus.

“How can you say that?!” Twilight shouted. “It doesn’t even matter when they died! maybe I could have died first; or maybe I would have had to watch each of them die one by one, for some reason or another. Maybe I would just have to leave and never see any of them ever again! Why did you ask me to make friends when it was all doomed from the start?!”

One last ear fell from Twilight’s eyes, marking the moment that her eyes ran completely dry.

Another long silence followed, leading Twilight to believe that her master had retreated back, leaving them both in solitude. After a few minutes, however, Twilight heard Celestia’s voice again.

“Twilight, are you still there?”

Twilight couldn’t bring herself to speak any more.

“Twilight, please let me know that you’re listening.” Celestia eventually said.

Twilight bumped her hoof against the wall twice in a row.

“Okay, that’s good.” Celestia said. “There are many reasons I wanted you to have friends, Twilight. Foremost among them is that I love you, and I want you to be happy.”

Twilight felt a frog in her throat. What is this nonsense? Jedi aren’t supposed to feel love!

Celestia continued her speech; “Twilight, I meant what I said when I sent you to Mos poni; there is more to a Jedi’s life than looking inward. I made the same mistake, many, many years ago. It is a Jedi’s duty to help those in need, but more importantly, it is a Jedi’s duty to love those that she helps. I was hoping to show you that.”

After a moment to see if Celestia had any more to say, Twilight slumped further onto the ground.

“Well, I guess I was right the whole time; Why couldn’t you just believe me when I told you about my dreams?”

Celestia gave a muffled sigh. “Twilight… I always believed in you.”

Twilight’s eyes shot wide open. She placed an ear firmly against the wall so she could hear better.

“You what?”

“I’ve always known that Darth Nightmare was returning; I’ve been having visions of my own for years now.”

“W… What?” Twilight’s mind raced to fit this into her view of reality. “Then… then why didn’t you do something?”

“I did.” Celestia said. “I sent you to Mos Poni.”

“But- but why?” Twilight stammered, struggling to see the logic behind Celestia’s actions.

“I sent you to find friends, Twilight. I sent you to bolster them, and hopefully for them, in return, to bolster you. And eventually, you all would be strong enough to wield the Elements of Harmony in a way that I could not.”

“Wh-what?” Twilight said.

“Understand, Twilight; The Elements of Harmony are not fully understood by anyone, even I. They select their own wielders, and they cannot be used by those who have been deemed unworthy. Even I, with all my years of experience, could only manage it once. No one pony can wield them all indefinitely; but potentially six close friends...”

When Twilight finally understood what Celestia was saying, she drooped slightly.

“Oh. well. I guess that’s out the window now, too. The elements have been destroyed, and the only ponies who might have wielded them are all gone.”

“Oh, Twilight.” Celestia’s voice said. “There is always hope. Please, promise me now that no matter what, you won’t give that up.”

Hope? Hope for what? For a life of servitude or imprisonment to a Sith Empress? What was there left to hope for?

Despite these doubts, Twilight spoke back.

“I’ll try.”

A few moments later, the door to Twilight’s cell opened, revealing a trio of armed guards.

“We’re to bring you to the Empress.” the one in front said.

Twilight took a long, deep breath, then stood. It was best not to keep a Sith waiting.

---

Earlier…

Ponies rapidly piled into Rainbow’s new ship, Spike still riding Fluttershy’s back. Applejack accompanied Rainbow to the cockpit, which contained two seats and more open maintenance hatches than closed ones. Wires were splayed out everywhere; some had been twisted back together, some had been torn out entirely, and some were flinging sparks dangerously around the interior of the control panel.

“Whoa- how’d you manage to fly this thing?” Applejack asked.

“Very carefully.” Rainbow responded. “Do me a favor and crawl into that third hatch from the right.”

Applejack crouched and shunted her head into the sparking hole Rainbow had indicated.

“Okay, now what?” Applejack said.

“When I say, I want you to grab the orange wire and touch it to the purple one.”

Applejack moved a hoof towards the orange wire, but flinched when it let off a small firework display into the surrounding frame.

“Applejack!”

“Er, right.”

Applejack generally liked to work with machines while they were turned off for this exact reason, but she swallowed her fear and grabbed the wire, shoving it into its counterpart. Immediately the ship lurched upward pressing everypony into the floor, Rainbow snatched the controls and hit the accelerator.

“Whoa, whoa whoa!” Rainbow said. “You can stop now!”

It was another second before Applejack registered Rainbow’s meaning and detached the cables again. Gravity switched back to a somewhat normal rate, then reversed for a split-second while Rainbow wrestled to regain control. As she strangled the wheel in front of her, she pulled a hoof from beneath herself and pounded the controls on the co-pilot’s side, stabilizing their altitude and allowing her to point the front end of the ship in a generally upward direction again.

“Okay.; which way did they take her?” Rainbow asked.

“I dunno; I don’t even know which direction we’re facing anymore!” Applejack replied.

“Go right!” Fluttershy said as she burst into the cockpit. Rainbow promptly banked the ship, throwing everypony else into the port-side bulkheads. A few seconds later, Pinkie pie burst into the cockpit again.

“Pull up!” Pinkie shouted.

“What? Why?” Rainbow said.

“I dunno but it’s a doozy of a twitch! Pull up!”

Rainbow Dash yanked her controls and pointed the ship almost straight upward.

“Punch it!” Pinkie said. “I’m still twitching!”

“These engines can’t take much more!” Rainbow shouted.

Pinkie dove past the pilot’s seats and slammed the accelerator, which pushed Rainbow back into her seat and flattened everypony else against the back wall.

The cockpit window was momentarily obscured by dark maroon fog, but soon enough it passed, leaving only an endless expanse of stars. Yet, Pinkie still didn’t let go of the accelerator.

“Pinkie! We’re out! Pleeease! Stoooop!” Rainbow struggled to form words with the craft Applying G-forces that threatened to peel her lips from her skull.

In that instant, a massive green laser streaked past the viewport, threatening to blind anypony who looked at it for too long. Rainbow had to pull to the side to avoid hitting the briefly sustained beam. The maneuver Threw Pinkie off of the accelerator and Rainbow was finally able to reduce their speed as the ship flipped around to face the planet they had just come from.

Only there was no planet; just a massive, expanding cloud of red-hot debris.

Rainbow’s hooves were shaking, so she momentarily took them off of the controls.

“Good news, everypony! I’m not twitching anymore!” Pinke announced cheerfully.

“Well that’s good; ‘cuz I don’t think I could take another minute like that.” Applejack said.

“Hear, hear.” Spike said, still slumped against the wall.

“What was that?” Rainbow finally managed to say.

‘I don’t suppose it would have anything to do with the massive, moon-sized space station outside our port-side windows, hmm?” Rarity ventured from down the hall.

Applejack crawled over the control panel to get a good look out of the side of the cockpit window. “Might.” she said resolutely.

“That’s where they’re taking Twilight.” Fluttershy said. “I just… I just know it.”

“Then that’s where we’re going!” Rainbow announced as she renewed her grip on the controls and spun the ship around. “Hang on! And Pinkie… keep those two wires connected!”

---

Later…

Twilight arrived at Darth Nightmare’s personal chamber accompanied by four guards and with her hooves cuffed together. When the door opened Twilight could see the Sith Alicorn’s silhouette against a massive window that looked out upon the quickly deteriorating remains of Everfree II. Other than the window and several decorative pillars flanking the walls, the room was strikingly empty; the only control panel in the entire space was next to the door; presumably in order to close and lock it.

“Ah, it’s about time you got here.” the black alicorn said. “Guards… leave us. I do not wish to be disturbed for any reason.”

The chrome-clad troopers seemed to hesitate, but soon ducked out of the room, locking the door behind themselves.

“You will no longer need those.” Nightmare said, her horn momentarily glowing before Twilight’s restraints fell off of their own accord.

Twilight flexed her hooves experimentally before eyeing Nightmare with a suspicious glare.

“You seem quite confident that I won’t try to kill you while your back is turned.” Twilight said.

Nightmare gave off a short cackle. “On the contrary, little pony. I am quite certain that you’ll try.”

Twilight understood what the Sith was implying, and while she didn’t like it, her analysis had come to the same conclusion; Twilight hadn’t been able to beat Nightmare with her lightsaber. Without it, unprovoked attacks would do more harm than good; so Twilight stood her ground.

After a few seconds of Nightmare staring out of the window she turned to speak again.

“Really? Nothing? I’d have expected the death of your friends to cut you deeper than that. Don’t you want your revenge?”

“It’s not the Jedi way.” Twilight said resolutely. “That, and I’m unarmed.”

“Oh, is that all?” Nightmare said. She pulled a small object from her armor and threw it at Twilight’s head. Almost reflexively, Twilight grabbed it with her telekinesis and found that it was a lightsaber. When she turned it on, it’s blade glowed a deep red; the color for a sith.

Twilight looked back at Nightmare, noticing that that dark alicorn’s own lightsaber was still clipped to it’s spot on her belt. She made no move to retrieve it.

“Consider it a gift from master to apprentice.” Nightmare said with a fiendish grin.

“Thanks, but it’s not my color.” Twilight said dryly as she sheathed the blade and tossed it aside.

Nightmare gave another short cackle.

“You are most unwise to lower your DEFENSES!”

At the last word, Nightmare ripped her lightsaber from her belt, activating it and throwing it, spinning, across the room. Twilight ducked beneath it, and looked back just in time to see it returning. Twilight rolled to the side, allowing the saber to come back to its master like an obedient dog.

“What is this?” Twilight shouted.

“This is your training, apprentice.” Nightmare said coldly.

“You ‘train’ me by trying to kill me?” Twilight asked, aghast.

“I have no use for a spineless incompetent, apprentice. Defend yourself.”

Another blow arced across the room, Forcing Twilight to dive for cover.