When a Sith Lord's apprentices and an astromech droid land in Equestra, but their master on a different part of this planet. As he reunites with his apprentices, he is forced to help the Equestrians from the brink of an inevitable war.
Before the Rebellion, before the explosion of the Death Star, there was another man who made his mark in both galactic history and the history of a certain planet. Kane Leumai, now Lord Deimos, a former apprentice of Darth Sidious and current fugitive, his apprentices, Arina Ferin and Verus Kahn, and his most recent partner, R3-B5, are on the run from Imperial authorities until a desperate decision forces them into the Unknown Regions, where their ship begins to splinter apart and land in different areas of the planet. Surprisingly Deimos' apprentices and droid survive as they crash land in the land of Equestria, where they are discovered by Equestrian authorities and brought to Canterlot. As for Lord Deimos himself, he is discovered by a band of slaveowners, where he is subdued in a weakened state and forced to fight for the amusement of the crowds from another part of the world. But as each event continues, Equestria is looming on the brink of war, and only these new arrivals can stop it.
Note: This is a reboot of my first story, Star Wars: Among Terror.
The Empire, a vast power that dictated the lives of the many, some saw it as a safe benevolent light to brighten the darkness, but others saw it for what it really was: a dark, evil government that oppressed it's people. There have been many who have tried to fight this darkness but most fail.
*Whoosh*
While others run to fight another day.
Kane Leumai, Jedi Master and citizen of the Galactic Republic, had been meditating in his chambers for several hours. It was the middle of the night as dread and short-term insomnia have been keeping him awake. He was thinking of a recent incident that had occurred in the library, one that would forever change his life and his views on the Jedi themselves.
Imperial ships, TIE-Fighters, rained hell upon the transport ship that carried it's passengers.
"Master, she's still unconscious," Verus Kahn, the Sith's apprentice informed him.
"That does not matter at the moment Verus, right now we must keep this ship flying if we want all of us to be alive, including Arina!" he snapped.
Verus nodded, "Yes Lord Deimos."
It happened in the middle of the day, a small group of adolescents disguised as Jedi padawans somehow sneaked their way into the Jedi library and managed to steal a holocron. Master Leumai was sent to handle the situation.
"We got it! We got it! Let's go!" one of them whispered to the other.
"You sure it's the right one?" he asked, holding up the holocron for the others to see.
"Yeah, we got it," he answered.
They turned around to face a Jedi Master standing inches from them.
"And what exactly are you doing," the Jedi asked in false curiosity.
One of the thieves gulped, "W-we're just looking around, ya know? Learning!"
"I see. Hmm," he said, looking up thoughtfully, but an air of mockery surrounded him.
"What's wrong? You don't believe us? We'll prove it!" he said with confidence in his voice, but that soon changed in a matter of seconds.
The Jedi looked surprised, "Really? Well... recite the Jedi Code, even the younglings must know it by heart."
Suddenly the confidence vanished as small beads of sweat began to quickly form on the thief's forehead, "I-um... RUN!!!" The thieves quickly made a break for it, the Jedi watched with a small mischievous grin on his face.
He watched as the three thieves were then stopped by a teenage girl, his apprentice, as she ignited her lightsaber, a purple blade, in front of them.
What surprised the thieves was partially the fact that she was surprisingly beautiful, but the real reason was that she sported a mammalian tail and animal-like ears.
The Jedi Master walked forward, "Good work Arina, you managed to catch the culprits," he said while nodding his head in approval to her.
"Thank you Master, although you would've easily have taken down these guys if you wanted to," she smirked playfully at him.
Kane nodded at her again, "I just wanted you to get involved, the sooner you become a Knight, the sooner I get rid of you," he said as he walked over to her.
She rolled her eyes, "Ha ha very funny-" she turned to the culprits, "-Okay, we can do this the easy way or the hard way: either you give us the holocron and accept the punishment from the council, or you fight us, lose, and then accept the much harsher punishment. Your choice."
The three boys looked at each other before quickly handing the holocron into Kane's waiting hand, "Take it, we were just paid to do this by some creepy old man with a large bag of credits."
Kane looked at them as he then turned to Arina, looking at the triangular-shaped object, "A Sith Holocron? Very well, tell Master Yoda that the conflict has been solved. I'll put this where it rightfully belongs: away and out of sight," he said, turning on his heels and walking toward the vault.
Arina looked at him before turning to the three boys, "Come on boys, let's go meet Master Yoda."
As Kane was walking back to the Vault, some of the Initiates ran past him, he momentarily lost his balance and the holocron suddenly opened up. Kane was astounded by the fact that holocron just suddenly opened up without the mass concentration in the Force. Was it damaged? He picked it up and continued walking back to the Vault.
As he walked into the Vault, the holocron suddenly lit up with a Sith Lord staring back at him.
It then spoke, "I am Lord Ruin, and these are the teachings of the Sith and it's philosphy," it announced.
Kane was curious at this sudden appearance of a Sith inside the holocron. He debated with himself whether or not he should learn from this apparition.
Well this was a once in a lifetime event, he thought to himelf.
I guess it wouldn't hurt to listen...
As the ship rumbled from the heavy fire it sustained, an astromech droid moved over to Deimos.
Deimos looked at the droid, then back at the screen, "R3, the emergency life support is failing, I need you to fix it now," he told the droid.
The black and red droid beeped as it whirled around and rolled off to fix what his master had told him.
Kane sat in his chambers as the words kept playing in his head:
"Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Peace is a lie, there is only passion..." the voice played over and over again.
As the words repeated themselves, he had begun to question the Jedi's motives: There is no emotion, there is peace.
Those words left a bitter taste in his mouth. Oh, the irony in those words, if there is peace, then how come the Clone Wars still rage on? How come the Separatists continue to slaughter millions and they still say there's PEACE?!?!
There is no passion, there is serenity.
If there's no passion, then how come THEY continue to act with their supposed "serenity"? Even if it's just droids that are doing the work.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
Kane actually burst out laughing at that load of hypocrisy, both sides of the war are in a state of chaos as soldiers die and both sides of the economy begin to crumble into nothing.
As he began harboring these dark thoughts, something snapped within him.
His sanity.
He lifted his hand so he could see it, it began to curl into a claw-like position.
And with his anger, a bolt of lightning sparked to life within his hand.
Verus ran over to back side of the ship and looked out the transparisteel windows.
"Six TIE-Fighters and an Imperial Transport ship!" he yelled to his master.
Deimos cursed to himself as he began thinking, "Damn..." he quickly turned on the navicomputer to search for any potential hiding places from the Empire.
He scoured throughout the planets: Balmorra was a possibility, but he searched for more lower-risked planets; Belsavis was already under Imperial control. CZ-198 was too far into the Unknown regions and they wouldn't survive the harsh, geohazardous landscape, what about-
He couldn't finish his thought as there was a crash that shook their vessel, causing the Sith to stumble.
What the hell was that?, he thought to himself.
His apprentice immediately entered the room, "The hyperdrive propulsion system is dead, master. What shall we do?"
"Get to fixing the damn ship!" Lord Deimos yelled in anger.
Verus looked at Deimos in cold frustration, "Master... we won't have time to fix the Hyperdrive. By then, our corpses would be floating in space."
Deimos growled under his breath, he had a point, "Any suggestions?" he asked his apprentice.
"You won't like it," Verus replied grimly, stumbling slightly and grabbing onto the railing due to the damage of the ship.
The Sith Lord looked at his apprentice with sudden realization: The Unknown Regions.
"You're getting smarter than your old self, but you'll have to do better than that," Deimos said.
"Do you see a better option, master?" he asked.
Deimos sighed, Verus was obedient but he had a mean streak of annoying him with his suicidal, yet rational ability to improvise when things go wrong. The boy was raised by Nightsisters after all.
He looked at Verus, "Secure Arina, have R3 continue his repairs and secure the supplies."
Verus nodded and walked back into the medical bay. R3 immediately left one of the rooms and started repairs on the ship's navigation system.
Deimos reached for the controls to their ship and moved the ship downwards toward the planet.
Every Jedi was alerted to the presence of the dark side in the temple as the Council members of the Jedi Order dispatch several Jedi Knights to handle the unknown situation.
The Jedi marched down the hallways, using the Force to find this danger. Eventually they saw the threat.
In the man's hands were two lightsabers, a hood concealed his identity and there were many fallen Jedi scattered around him.
He silently glared at each of them, knowing full well of their intentions, he growled under his breath as they readied themselves, "More Jedi," he said, activating his lightsabers, both blue and green lights glowing as the fallen Jedi edged away towards the steps.
Verus secured Arina's unconscious body onto a medical bed, watching as his master furiously attempted to save his crew.
The boy knew that his master was an infamous dark lord that wrecked havoc and stirred fear in his enemies, a monster that people must be wary of.
That's why he obeyed him, not out of fear, but respect. Verus was taught that murder was necessary, that it was not evil for a predator to kill it's prey just to survive, and thus, respected him for that.
Although they were in space, he could feel the ship lurch towards it's respected target: the planet.
He watched from a short distance as Deimos tapped at more buttons on the panel.
Verus could sense life from the planet, thousands of sentient inhabitants, not that his master would care.
He looked at Arina, who was still in a coma. The first time he met her, before she fell into this state of sleep, she was feral, a complete and utter animal, as if the Hutts on Nar Shaddaa had done something to her, as if her mind was shattered into pieces. Although she was completely devoid of reason, it was Deimos who put her to sleep, as if trying to find a way to fix her mind, knowing he may some use for her.
There was some hope for their survival, that they will live and repel the oncoming Imperial invaders.
That is until he saw the tear in the hull.
The fallen Jedi strode past each droid that had failed to stop him, one of his sabers in hand, ready for any oncoming threat.
Kane was aboard the Invisible Hand, a Separatist warship, he was searching for someone that could lead him to the true Sith that was pulling the strings to this war, he could sense his equally dark energy not so far away.
He waved his hand and the door quickly opened, revealing an aged man standing before him with a curved lightsaber hilt in his hand.
"I have been expecting your arrival, Master Leumai," his deep voice echoed throughout the room.
"You are a hard man to reach, Dooku. Although I am repulsed by your pathetic droids, I require assistance. One involving a... Lord Sidious," Kane said in an insulting tone.
The Count raised an eyebrow before activating his lightsaber and pointing it at him, "I am sure he will find no interest in you, and I will prove so by eliminating you."
Kane inhaled sharply before unhooking his lightsaber, activating it, and slamming it into Dooku's blade, "I beg to differ."
Verus' eyes widened as he saw it, the ship was beginning to tear apart in two! He looked over to his master, who was oblivious to what was going on around him and was focused on the matter at hand.
"MASTER!" he yelled, but his master was not listening to him.
It was just one blast, one blast was all it took to separate the ship. Unfortunately for them, an imperial L-s1 cannon fired and widened the hole in the ship.
The force of the blast spun the ship out of control as they entered the atmosphere.
The ship began to separate, and it wasn't until it was too late for Deimos to notice the gaping tear in the ship.
Deimos was too focused on keeping the ship afloat, but it was the cold air that got his attention. He quickly turned his head as he heard the air from the planet roar as it continued to ravage the ship.
Verus watched as R3 made his way towards his side of the ship, and before Deimos could make the jump towards him as well, the ship completely severed in half.
The Zabrak apprentice's mind raced thoughtlessly as he tried to process what was happening: the ship has been torn apart, there were Imperial TIE Fighters close behind them, and was separated from his master, forcing himself to stay with Arina and the astromech droid R3.
Kane and Tyranus glared at one another, both the Sith and the Dark Jedi sporting equally damaging injuries.
"You fight well for a Jedi," Dooku said, his emotions made up of half anger and half surprise.
"I am no longer a Jedi, Dooku. Take me to see Sidious and I will let you live," Kane threatened, but Dooku laughed and straightened himself up once more.
"You are an intruder and you must be dealt like one," Dooku finished as he activated his lightsaber once again.
Kane raised an eyebrow and activated both of his lightsabers as well, "Very well, I hope you led a content life, Dooku, because my blade will be the last thing you see."
Before the two former Jedi could run each other through again, a voice resonated throughout the room.
"Cease your fighting you fools!" a dark raspy voice yelled, both Dooku and Kane actually stopped what they were doing and looked up to see the newcomer who had entered the room.
The man was wearing a dark robe with a hood covering the majority of his face. Kane presumed that this was Dooku's master: Darth Sidious.
Dooku bowed as soon as he saw the figure, "My lord, forgive me. I was... busy removing a threat."
The revealed portion of Sidious' face remained unchanged as he looked at Kane, then at Dooku, then back at Kane.
"Leave me with the Jedi, Lord Tyranus," he said, Dooku opened his mouth, then closed it as he nodded and left.
Sidious then turned to look at Kane, who was uncomfortable with the fact that he and the Sith Lord were in the same room.
"Why are you here, Jedi?" he asked.
Kane answered immediately, "I have discovered the ways of the Dark side and I seek guidance from one who is... powerful in this form of the Force," he said as he lifted his hand, a ball of lightning formed in the center of his palm.
The Sith nodded slightly and walked over to him, "And what will you give me in return? How will I know you will not attempt to kill me?"
Kane took notice on the word 'attempt', "I will swear allegiance to you... my Lord."
"I sense that you are telling the truth. I will take your offer, Jedi, but you must prove your worth to me," Sidious cackled.
Kane looked at him, "And what might that be, sir?"
Sidious then quickly shifted his arm, suddenly in his hand was a lightsaber, "By testing you," he said as he activated the lightsaber, the glow of the red saber illuminating the room.
"As you wish, my master," Kane said, activating his lightsabers as well.
Deimos desperately tried to steady the ship and keep it online, but nothing was working.
"MASTER!!" he heard behind him, but he ignored it. Verus was probably afraid that something was wrong, but he needed the Zabrak to learn on his own.
The Sith lord then felt a cold gust of wind, he turned his head to see the hole that was sticking out of the hull. The hole told him two things: they had breached the atmosphere, and the ship was already damaged beyond repair.
He looked out the window to see that the TIE Fighters were still following them, if they continued to follow them, the crew would be dead once the stormtroopers found their half-living bodies.
Deimos could only think of one thing, he concentrated with the Force, using all his might. Slowly but surely, the ship then severed itself in two, both parts going off in different directions.
While the droid, Arina, and Verus were in one half, he was in the other. Even though it was a half-second decision to make, he carefully planned out what would happen: since the ship has been separated into two equal parts, the TIE Fighters would have to split off into two groups, making them weaker if he and his crew survived.
If they survive, he though to himself.
It has been almost a decade since Kane's conversion to the dark side. As the Empire was formed, he was given a new title: Darth Deimos; but complications arose in these manners. The newly dubbed Lord Deimos was given command by the Emperor himself to work under the lower title of Inquisitor to prevent the arousal of suspicion by the Sith Master's new apprentice: Darth Vader.
A man stood dressed in a black cloak, a hood covering his face, on his belt were two lightsabers. The doors to his bunk opened, revealing two individuals: his master and... Vader.
"Lord Deimos, rise," Sidious said as the Sith bowed to him, "There has been a... change in command. You must remember the first and foremost rule of the Sith: there can only be two, a master and an apprentice."
Deimos immediately understood, only he or Vader would have to be his apprentice while the other perished, the Emperor waited for this moment: to watch his acolytes tear each other apart for his amusement.
Vader activated his lightsaber, as did Deimos.
As much as Vader had the advantage over Deimos-
They clashed their sabers together, the crackling of plasma sound throughout the room.
-He would not go down without a fight.
Deimos dodged carefully as Vader's strikes smashed against his blade. He knew that Vader was a firm practitioner in Form V: Djem-So and Shien, meaning that the Sith focused on sheer brutality and the counterattacks after a defensive block.
Deimos brought up his own blade to block another strike, applying his own form of Djem-So to hold his own resistance against Vader. Deimos sent another flurry of strikes against Vader, who was actually fast enough to block each move.
Vader then pushed him with the Force in a wall, Deimos grunted in pain as he felt a shot of pain run up his back. He turned to see the Emperor cackling at his current situation. Deimos growled and shot lighting at Vader, watching as he lost his balance and was forced to get down on his knee. The pinned Sith Lord was free from Vader's grip.
Deimos laughed as he walked over to the cybernetic Dark Lord, "Oh, how the mighty Sith has fallen," he said as he raised his blade to strike.
Immediately Vader released a wave of dark energy, pushing Deimos away as he slid across the floor.
"You just don't know when to do die, do you?"
Vader stood back up as he reactivated his lightsaber.
Deimos reactivated his sabers as well, eager to tear Vader to pieces with his blades.
The Sith Lord felt the force of the blow as his half of the ship had made contact with the ground. Deimos was flung across the other side of the room as bits of dirt and wood had made its way into the ship.
Deimos waited for what seemed like forever. He finally opened his eyes as he looked at the landscape: looking at the blue sky and the pale sand that surrounded his ship. He rolled over on his stomach, pain immediately shot up his ankle. Deimos managed to sit up as he inspected himself and his surroundings: his ankle was broken and the whole ship was wrecked. Immediately he started formulating a plan on what he should do.
First, Deimos grasped his broken ankle with his hands and twisted it back into place. The pain quickly set in as Deimos hissed at the unfortunate agony.
He tried to look for any bits and pieces that he could use, the only thing that he could find was a roll of tape. Deimos tried again to look for anything that could serve as a splint, but again he found nothing.
Deimos slowly unhooked the lightsabers from his belt and held it out, he grabbed the tape and pulled as the plastic exceeded an appropriate length. He activated his lightsaber and tore off that piece as he placed the lightsaber vertically at his ankle and wrapped it around, creating a splint out of a lightsaber and tape.
The roaring of TIE Fighters sounded overhead as they flew over his ship. Deimos growled as he crawled over to the console and attempted to turn it on. The screen flickered to life as he saw the TIE Fighters through the screen. Deimos then proceeded to move over to the controls to the turret-mounted laser cannon, he steadily aimed and fired, striking one of the engines to the Imperial Transport ship,part of the ship immediately caught fire as it flew back off into the distance.
Deimos grinned at his achievement, then groaning as he forced himself to stand back up, the noise of the TIE's increased even furthers as he heard one of them finally descend onto the atmosphere. Deimos grabbed the other lightsaber and turned it on, the blade glowed red.
The Sith Lord ran, he ran for his very life as almost every trooper and guard aboard the ship were alerted to bringing him in. Deimos knew that he had to escape the Star Destroyer.
He quickly hid behind a pile of stacked boxes as he heard the sound of boots thumping beneath the metal floor.
Stormtroopers.
Deimos peeked over the boxes to see the stormtroopers with their backs turned against him. With a flick of his wrist, their heads turned with a sickening crack as they crumpled to the ground.
He continued his journey through the narrow twisting hallways of the ship, Deimos knew there was something to get him off of the ship.
As Deimos tried to concentrate, he heard the sound of mechanical breathing close by. It was Vader.
He knew he couldn't survive another fight with him, so he formulated a plan.
Deimos concentrated with the Force, creating a small noise in the distance, away from himself. There was a pause in the breathing of Lord Vader before hearing the footsteps of walking away. Deimos sighed in relief as he continued walking towards the hangar.
"BRACE FOR IMPACT!!!" Verus yelled as he saw the ground beneath the ship. He quickly grabbed onto Arina and secured her to the bed as R3 used a mechanical arm to hold onto a rail.
As soon as the ship crashed, the whole of the ship was tossed into anarchy as medical supplies flew around the room and water sloshed about, carrying on for a matter of minutes before ceasing.
Verus felt intense waves of pain as he was forced to check himself knowing full well that he took most of the damage: he was covered heavily in bruises and scratches, stabbed from the needles and scraped by loose metal; he then checked over to Arina, who was completely fine.
R3 beeped angrily as it shook off any liquids that had covered the droid.
The Zabrak apprentice heard the sounds of TIE Fighters, he used to force to concentrate on what they were saying.
"Should we inspect the crash?"
There was a pause.
"Negative, the renegade Sith Lord Deimos has been spotted near the desert landscape, sending coordinate."
The sounds of TIE Fighters ceased as they flew off.
Verus groaned as he forced himself to walk over to Arina and pick her up.
He shuffled over to the door and used the Force to open it, he was forced to squint his eyes at the sun that lay far beyond this planet.
With Arina laying limply in his arms and R3 at his side, he was forced to partake in this harsh journey for survival. He uttered a small prayer to the Twin Deities: the Winged Goddess and the Fanged God, as he started.
An Imperial TIE Fighter soared through the ever-expanding reaches of space, it's pilot thinking about it's next move in it's course for staying alive.
Deimos, wearing a life support suit that he had stolen knowing that TIE Fighters lacked these functions, looked at the holocomputer.
He knew that there would be a bounty on his head, he listed his crimes: Sidious would spread lies of him committing treason against the Empire, theft of Imperial property, impersonation of an Imperial soldier, flight to avoid Imperial prosecution, aggression against Imperial Armed Forces, murder of Imperial government personnel, and attempted murder of the Emperor and Darth Vader. His bounty would range between 200,000 to 250, 000 credits.
Damn, he would be in deep trouble if he was caught. He needed someone to assist him if he were ever in trouble with Imperial forces. He needed someone that he could trust someone-
A brief flash of light had then entered his mind, it was a young Zabrak child: black and orange covered his skin as he was surrounded by the witches of Dathomir. Deimos knew this was a vision and this boy would play some importance to him.
But first, he was going to need a bigger ship.
And a droid.
Verus' thoughts began to blur as his consciousness had began to fade slowly, his arms could barely hold Arina, and R3 was the only one who was holding him up.
He looked around to look at his surroundings: he was in a forest. He looked in the distance as he saw a small village around a few hundred meters away.
Verus felt through the Force as creatures began to approach him.
His eyes began to see red dots that had begun to cloud his vision.
The last thing he saw were six creatures in front of him as he collapsed onto the green grass.
Once again, I do not own Star Wars or MLP. And again, that belongs to Lucas and Faust.
Dathomir, a world inhabited by powerful beasts and strange individuals skilled in the use of magic. It's only sentient people were called the Nightsisters, a cult of witches who utilize magic and bend it to their very will, led by their elder witch: Mother Talzin; and their more questionable beast-like male counterparts, the Nightbrothers.
Among the Nightsisters was a young boy, a Zabrak around the age of thirteen. His skin was orange with black markings etched into his skin. In his hand was a stream of green ichor. His eyes were closed and his other hand above both the ichor and his lower hand.
"Concentrate, my child," he heard an elder voice behind him.
The boy felt his mental grip on the action at hand, he tried to concentrate more and more until he opened his eyes.
In his hand was a dull gray sword, it's blade was single-edged and serrated, the handle looked as though it was carved out of the finest wood from the trees nearby the temple in which he lived.
"I must congratulate you, my child, for there have not been many males to ever create a weapon from the spirits themselves," the elder woman exclaimed.
"Thank you Mother Talzin," he bowed to her.
"Do not thank me yet, you must still train with the sword that you now possess," she informed him.
The boy looked at the sword, feeling it's weight in his hands. Although he could look at the beauty that he had created all day, he still felt that something was off, as if this was not a weapon that was not truly meant for him. As if he could deal more damage with a much... lighter weapon.
But before he could speak, he was interrupted by a Nightsister who had entered his chambers.
"My lady! Somebody has entered this sanctuary, demanding that he must meet with you," she said as she knelt before her.
The boy looked at the aged woman's face as they were mixed with several different emotions, "Very well then, send this intruder to me."
The woman got back up and walked out of the room.
"What do you think this man wants?" he asked her.
"It seems someone is coming to visit our humble abode," she answered.
The child watched as the man entered the room. He was dressed in a black garb with a hood covering half of the mask that he was wearing under his hood, he wore a belt around his waist that contained an assortment of equipment as well as two handles hanging from both sides.
The man lifted his hood and removed his mask, revealing an aged man with the face that he could only describe as the human complexion of a hawk, along with deep yellow eyes, and black hair atop his head.
He nodded at the elder witch, "Mother Talzin."
"Lord Deimos, what a pleasant surprise, what brings you to Dathomir?" she asked.
"Just call me Deimos, I have been... demoted of the rank, and I come to this planet because I seek an apprentice," he explained.
Talzin's eyes darkened, "Be careful Deimos, for the last Sith who asked for an apprentice on this planet ended up tortured within an inch of his life with the power of control," she said as a wax figurine of a familiar Sith Lord suddenly appeared in her hand.
Deimos inhaled sharply, "Noted, but I have seen this one in a vision of mine, from the Unifyi-.... the Winged Goddess," he corrected himself, still unfamiliar with Nightsister religious terms.
"And who might this future apprentice be?" Mother Talzin asked.
"A Zabrak strong in the Force, his skin is tinted orange with black markings just like-" he glanced down at the boy for a second, looked at Mother Talzin to continue the conversation, then immediately looked back at the child.
"Just... like this one," he whispered.
Talzin looked at the boy, then back at Deimos with worry in her eyes, "Deimos, return to your ship, let me talk with the boy."
"As you wish, Talzin," he bowed in respect as he left for his ship.
The moment he left, Mother Talzin turned to the boy and lowered herself down to his height.
"I must speak with Deimos at his ship, stay here," she said as she left the room.
He sat at the edge of his bedding and closed his eyes listening with the power of the Witches. It was a jumble of words, only hearing that Deimos is a fugitive and a criminal and that he speaks the truth of the boy's future, to be his apprentice. He then shifted his hearing to Talzin, who's voice was filled with concern, explaining that she has raised the first only male in the complete presence of the Nightsisters and that this child was an anomaly and a gift from the Deities. He then heard Deimos assure that no permanent harm would come to him, he could feel Talzin's anger in his words but agreed to his compliance if and only if he chose for himself. He then felt a tinge of Deimos' anger as he 'reluctantly' agreed to her terms.
The boy then left the power of the Witches as he opened his eyes and heard Mother Talzin walk into his room with almost unnoticeable sadness in her eyes.
"My child, the Sith wants you to join him as you become his apprentice. I will not urge you to join him or refuse, for that is your choice," she told him.
He thought about his decision. Sooner or later he would have to leave the temple and take the role of an assassin, as most Nightsisters had to. This was just an early graduation, and he was prepared.
"If he has seen me in a vision, then it is no doubt that this is my destiny," he responded, Talzin nodded in confirmation.
"Very well, my child, fulfill your destiny," she said.
He stood up straight, made his way to the exit and looked back at her with sadness in both of their eyes.
"Goodbye Mother," he said.
"Farewell, Kahasn," she said.
He blinked. Kahasn meant, in the Nightsister tongue, Conqueror, for that was his future.
He nodded one last time and left for the ship. The boy looked up to see Deimos who was standing in the ship.
He stepped onto the cold metal floor and faced the Sith.
"I am here... master," he introduced.
Deimos looked at the boy, who was uncomfortable under his gaze, "Good, straight to the point."
The Sith walked over to a room and pointed, "This will be your new room," he simply said.
Suddenly a droid made it's way to his new master's side, "This is astromech droid designation R3-B5, while I am away for mission involving neither of you two, you must care to the needs of yourself and the droid."
He then looked down at the Zabrak, "There will be changes to your current training. They will be neither comfortable nor pleasant, there will be pain, discipline, and nothing less than victory, do I make myself clear?"
The boy nodded, "Yes master."
"Good, now... what is your name?" he asked.
The boy inhaled, "Verus master, Verus Kahn."
"Very well, Verus. Your training starts tomorrow, now remember these words, for your experience in the reaches of space is new and the cultures are harsh: Trust nothing but the Force."
Verus would remember these words for a very long time.
The first act of stimuli he sensed was sound.
Voices to be exact. As Verus concentrated, he knew that the majority of these voices were female, clops of hooves that sounded throughout the room, did the population keep livestock in their hospitals?
The second act of stimuli was touch.
He immediately knew he was in an infirmary and the population was tending to his wounds. He felt the soft bedding on his back, the gauze wrapped around his wounds, including his face, which explained why he could not see through the cloth.
The third act of stimuli was smell.
He noticed that the air was surprisingly clean by his sense of smell, no pollutants in the air nor chemical medicines. He actually smelled herbs and something... indistinguishable.
The fourth act of stimuli was the Force.
Deimos had taught him to trust his instincts, and that was what he was doing. He felt around the room using the Force, there were no force-sensitives in the area. This land was either cleaned of force-users by the Empire or there were none to begin with, so he decided to go with the latter. He could sense feelings of slight hostility, fear, and... curiosity.
He then heard more voices.
"I think it's awake," he heard in a hushed tone, he felt them give off a tinge of fear.
"What should we do?" one of them asked.
Talk to me, you idiot! he thought.
"Should we contact the Princess?" he heard.
Princess? At least they actually had a form of government.
"No, it was Fluttershy's idea to care for this... thing, we should confront it now," he heard this one talk with a sense of command in it's voice.
What kind of ridiculous name was Fluttershy? That was the-
"Now?"
No!!! You can do it when I begin dying! Verus thought sarcastically.
"Yes."
"What about the female?" one of them asked.
They had Arina!
"Keep her in her security cell even if she is still asleep at the moment. The last time she attacked, she maimed eight of our guards without even lifting a finger."
She woke up?!?!
"What about the construct?" an male older voice asked.
"It's currently being held in a separate cell imbued with several magic wards, that thing has broken through even the toughest locks in Equestria," the wise female said.
R3 is currently alive and Equestria is possibly the name of their country. They seek to contain him, not to extract information from the droid, interesting. A memory wipe will not be necessary... yet.
Verus heard the sounds of hooves as it grew nearer to him. He listened to each sound in their own rhythm, the sounds were off and did not belong to a bipedal organism.
"H-hello, are you awake?" he heard a nervous voice ask.
She received her answer in silence.
"I don't think he's awake," she asked, Verus then heard the soft flapping of wings.
He felt a hard tap on his forehead, "Hey! She asked you a question!" he heard the other voice yell.
She lacked discipline, and he was upset by her tone.
"Rainbow! You don't have to be so rude," he heard a voice with an accent similar to his master.
"You said he was awake!" she protested.
"I said I think, he's awake, we can't be too sure," he heard the wise female say.
"Well I'm sure, HEY! WAKE U-" her sentence was interrupted by his hand wrapped in a tight grip around her throat. At the same time he removed the bandages from his face.
The fifth act of stimuli was sight.
That act of stimuli then shifted from sight to shock.
He looked at a quadrupedal animal, that explained the sound. The creatures coat was cyan with a rainbow mane while the other seven, five females, a male, and a small bipedal lizard, were divided into other different colors. Their very appearance was enough to question the existence of natural selection and the fact that it completely ignored them and even gave them even more disadvantages to their environment.
Then it dawned on him that these creatures were the things that were talking to him.
He looked at the one called 'Rainbow'.
Rainbow looked back at him.
Without even thinking, out of pure instinct and the drive to employ violence. He brought his head back and slammed it into hers.
Both the Zabrak and the animal both had different reactions. Zabraks were naturally built to withstand intense amounts of pain, making them terrible candidates to perform interrogations on, his species was also born with two hearts, more blood is pumped and the reaction time is quicker, making the already dull pain fade even faster, and with the Force as a bonus to block the pain in a fraction of a second.
The animal on the other hand had no properties in Dathomir magic nor the Force and was possibly built with the same reaction and pain tolerance of an average human (as a guess).
The conclusion: an unharmed Zabrak and a cyan creature with a high possibility of a concussion.
Verus immediately shot out of bed, where an orange one with a ridiculous looking hat attempted to attack him, he responded with a blast of Sith Lightning, the orange female flew backwards and into a metal cart.
The purple one, who was the wise female, yelled to the lizard.
"Spike! Contact Princess Celestia immediately!" she yelled as Verus unleashed a wave of Force energy that knocked everyone into their own path of the Force energy. In other words, the walls behind them.
Verus reached for his belt and felt nothing, he suddenly realized that they had confiscated his lightsabers.
The male creature was nowhere to found, possibly calling for law enforcement, he was amused by the thought of these creatures in Imperial uniforms as they struggle to hold a blaster meant for a species with fingers.
But the Zabrak banished the thought, he needed information, not humor. So he walked over to the wise female, the purple one.
The female was unconscious, good. Verus placed his hand over her forehead and concentrated on the Force.
He felt the imaginary rush of wind as he entered the mind of the animal. Verus saw the threads of memory that this creature had contained.
The Sith apprentice learned that the creature's name was Twilight Sparkle and that they were a sentient quadrupedal race known as Ponies, which were divided into four subgroups: Pegasi, unicorns, Earth ponies, and the extremely rare breed Alicorns, each of them with different purposes and abilities. Verus made the right decision to peer at this one's memories, for she had almost all the knowledge of their country, Equestria. Verus then dove into her more personal memories: her friends, the Elements of Harmony, the Princesses of the Sun and Moon, the spirit of Chaos: Discord, the tyrant: Sombra, the Wrath: Tirek, and the Savage: Verus.
Verus frowned at his title, "The Savage". Was it because of his appearance or his recent actions today. He instead decided to dive deeper into the memory.
He suddenly saw the memory. Watching through her eyes, she woke up early and began her morning routine, and Verus had never seen someone with a library that big, and he saw the ruins of the Jedi Temple during his training! Her assistant, who was a dragon named Spike, who looked nothing like a Krayt Dragon. Twilight ate her breakfast and walked outside, where she was immediately met by the arrogant cyan pony, Rainbow Dash. Verus continued watching as she met more of her friends: Applejack, the orange mare; Rarity, the white unicorn who had the same accent as Lord Deimos; Fluttershy, the timid yellow pegasus who apparently save him; and Pinkie Pie, the pink pony who loved to throw parties.
Verus was disgusted in almost all of them. He then fast forwarded to when Twilight heard the news from a striped black and white pony that several strange creatures began emerging from the Everfree. She and her friends immediately ran to the scene, where they witnessed a horned creature carrying a human female in his arms while leaning against a metal construct. Verus used this opportunity to get a full view of the damage that he had sustained. By looking through her eyes, Verus watched as his past self had numerous deep scratches across his torso and legs, deep shards of glass and metal jutting out of his back. He looked at the bestial ferocity in his past self's eyes as he remembered the anger and rage to keep himself consciousness until finally falling to the ground.
They all looked at the fainted creature, skeptical on what to do with him. The idiotic Rainbow Dash suggested to leave him there, judging him by his appearance while Applejack scolded her for thinking like that. Rarity had absolutely no idea what to do and fainted out of shock, Pinkie was almost in a similar state of mind, except she did not faint. In fact, she was probably going to throw him a party if he survived his injuries. But it was Fluttershy who got the right idea. She trotted up to him and tried to lift him up with all the strength that she could muster. Verus watched as she tried to convince them that he needs medical attention, explaining that he needed professional doctors to examine and nurse his wounds, and after a long amount of arguing, they came to an agreement.
Verus moved the memory forward as he was rushed into the... Royal Canterlot Clinic on top of a gurney with an IV drip with Twilight explaining what happened. He saw that Twilight was watching as the doctors kept trying to secure R3 while he continued to defend Arina from the intruders until Twilight's broke her gaze from the two and concentrated on Verus. The Sith acolyte moved onto Twilight's memory of Arina's escape, watching as the animalistic female slammed against the wooden door, splintering to pieces; Verus' continued to watch as she attacked everything in sight, using her fists and the Force to deal numerous amounts of damage. It wasn't until a dozen unicorns cast the same spell to bound her in place as one of the doctors proceeded to inject her with a powerful anesthetic that knocked her out in mere minutes.
The memories began to distort and blur, Twilight was waking up! Verus immediately broke the link between the two as the purple Alicorn began to regain consciousness. The young apprentice immediately ran to the door, but coincidentally, guards entered the room and began to surround him, their spears pointed in his direction, the aging stallion behind them grinned smugly. The bastard had snitched!
Verus' eyes glowed in hatred as he brought his hand up and began squeezing it into a ball. The doctor's eyes widened as he felt his windpipe close and began to panic from the lack of oxygen. He watched as the doctor fell to the floor and began thrashing around in desperation as he tried to find something or someone to help him.
"Let him go," he heard a soft voice. Verus raised his eyes to see a tall white mare with both wings and a horn while displaying an air of royalty.
Princess Celestia.
"I said, let him go," she spoke once more. Her voice snaked it's way into his mind, attempting to prevent a death in her presence., but he quickly banished the honeyed words that tried to charm him.
"Why should I?" he spoke, the guards backed up in fear as hearing a 'monster' like him speak was new to them.
But the princess was persistent to keep the suffocating pony alive, "You're not a monster, I know that."
Alright, that was enough to get him to let go. But instead he just loosened his grip slightly on the stallion to allow him some form of breathing, but he was still choking.
"How would you define a monster?" he spat.
She only stepped closer to him as the guards began to timidly part, "Will you let him go if I answer?" she asked.
Verus thought about his options, "If you give me an appropriate answer, maybe."
"I cannot trust you on a 'maybe'," her gaze darkened.
"And I cannot trust you with my freedom," Verus said as he released the stallion, preferring to deal with the princess herself.
"I give you my word, I will even remove the guards," she promised.
"But Princess! He-"
"I will be safe, but I must ask you to leave," she told the guards.
There was a short pause, "You heard the Princess, move it!" one of them said, immediately leaving the clinic. That only left the Princess, the Element Bearers, Spike, him, and the doctor.
Verus then looked at the stallion, "I'm not finished with you," he said, reaching out with his hand, a scalpel flew into his hand as he continued to approach the old pony.
"Hey! Stay away from me!" he backed away as the Zabrak walked closer to him.
"I gave you my word, now assure to me that you will spare his life as I have spared yours," she warned.
Verus glared at the stallion and back at the princess, "Fine," the stallion then nodded at the princess and ran out the door for his life.
"Now we can converse in peace," she said.
He glared at the princess of the sun, "Do not get ahead of yourself, I would have killed everyone in this room with a single thought were I not merciful. So you should be the one thankful," he said, trying to sound menacing.
"Yeah sure," he heard the cyan remark sarcastically, but he ignored it.
"Ahem, anyway. Greetings I am-"
"I know who you are, Celestia," he replied, turning to the others as well, "And you seven as well: Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie... Fluttershy, Rarity... Rainbow, and Spike."
They gave a look of surprise.
"How do you know this?" Twilight asked.
"Your memories served as a perfect guide," he said, tapping at his head with his finger.
"My memories, ho-" the color drained from her face.
"Do not be foolish, I only copied your memories solely for the use of knowledge," he replied.
"Right, 'knowledge is power'," she said.
"Correct, but I only know some of your personal memories and the basics of this planet," Verus confirmed.
"And for now, I have no need for your planet and must take my leave," he said as he formally walked out the door, using his senses, knowledge, and the Force to track down the location of his equipment. Verus finally opened a door to see his armor and weapons partially hanging from a plastic bin.
He picked up his armor and inspected it. The breastplates were heavily scratch while the fabric underneath was torn to shreds, his pants had a few cuts and tears but nothing major, the plasteel gauntlets took the least damage from them all with nothing but a small scratch, his boots were slightly worn away but nothing too bad. Verus took note of his inspection and tossed the armor over the small hospital gown, serving as a substitute for the shredded clothing, clicking the locks together to be held in place while he then moved onto his gloves, boots and pants. The Zabrak then took his belt and fastened it around his waist.
Verus then reached down to pick up his lightsabers, which were, surprisingly, in their continued prime condition. He activated the first lightsaber, with the blade activating in a red color. Putting it away in his belt, he activated his second lightsaber, which gave off a yellow glow.
He turned to see the seven ponies (and one dragon) look at him as he put away his equipment.
"What do you plan to do here?" the Princess asked.
"Get the others and leave this rock," he simply said.
"What?!?" the pink one, Pinkie, exclaimed.
"Yes, I have no need to learn about all of your culture or whatnot," he said as he pushed past them, which upset Rainbow Dash.
"Well you shouldn't just be a jerk about the whole thing!" she said to him in an angered tone.
"In my defense, you provoked me," he growled as he pointed to the orange one, "She was about to follow your example, so I made her follow your complete example," he said as a spark of lightning ignited in his fingertips.
The cyan mare turned a deep shade of red in frustration and was about to yell at him again.
"I am not in the mood for an argument right now, I need to search for Arina and R3," he quickly said, cutting off Dash in the process of her preparing to angrily spout off in rage.
"The others you were with? They are in one of the other rooms," Twilight said.
He turned to the purple pony, "Take me to them."
"Will you shut up back there!!?!" R3 heard one of the guards yelled as he rammed his metallic body against the door, which seemed to be made out of something that resembled metal but could not be sliced by his built-in fusion cutter, this was something otherworldly!
The little droid had the tendency to annoy these organics, but they were the ones that imprisoned him. R3 was a fairly impractical astromech and worked with many over the years. Well, at least only based on what he remembered, he never knows whether or not he had several memory wipes over his previous lives, the only things he remembers are his basic and advanced functions, the vendor from Tattoine, and his recent master: Lord Deimos.
Master Deimos was, as R3 could describe, hardened by war. As a machine built for war himself, he could assume that his master had fought in a war unknown to the astromech, he tried to search for any information regarding any recent wars according to his master's estimated age, but could find none, which puzzled R3 because of a certain war that some of the aged people talk about called "The Clone Wars".
The droid heard noises outside the room that he was trapped in, so he decided to move closer to the door until the voices were suddenly distinguishable from one another.
"It is fine, you may-" a feminine voice said to the guards until it was interrupted by a more familiar voice.
"You will let me through," the voice urged. R3 heard the sounds of bestial hooves walking away from the door.
The door suddenly opened, revealing his master's apprentice: Verus Kahn. For the Zabrak, he regarded him as his friend and equal as they both served their masters, although there was some rivalry now and then.
But it was at this moment when R3 was truly happy to see the man that stood before him.
Then he saw the animals behind him.
R3 immediately activated his built-in fusion cutter and blaster pistol and began to charge the creatures that dared to contain him. At first they had a look of fear on their faces, but the droid was stopped by Verus' hand, who halted his actions at once.
"////Idiotic animals+R3=anger////_///Kill order active////" the droid said in it's own astromech language, it also made it easier since Verus could understand his language.
"Do not waste your resources with them R3, where is Arina?" he asked.
Arina? The half-breed between human and animal, with the tail and ears of some quadrupedal organic with no higher function other than to eat, breed, and die. But the half-breed was much smarter than some lower species, she possessed the intellect that was similar to Deimos himself, but her most recent behaviors gave her animalistic features more meaning.
"///Affirmative///" R3 said as it turned to the next cell out of memory, purposely ignoring the creatures dubbed "Ponies".
The droid moved over to the iron door and opened his fusion cutter, he started to cut around the locks and pushed open the door with a simple nudge once the door was freed from the lock.
R3 then moved over to the cell that contained Arina, who was bound in a metal cage similar to durasteel. He watched as Verus activated one of his lightsabers and instantly severed a majority of the bars from the cage, the Zabrak Sith then proceeded to pick up the half-breed female and carry her to an infirmary bed.
Verus turned to the tallest one, the white one that sported both wings and a horn.
"It is apparent that I must stay here due to the recent conditions of my master's ship. Unfortunately for me, this will exceedingly delay my plans. In short," he sighed, "I must stay here longer."
The pink one then bounced up in joy as she then zoomed off to who-knows-where.
"What will you do in the meantime?" the purple one asked him.
"I will see to the recovery of my companion here," he gestured to Arina, "Wait for the arrival of my master, and, if absolutely necessary, I will learn more about this world and it's cultures."
The white one nodded, "If this need ever arises, I will assign Twilight to assist you."
Verus looked at her with only slight annoyance in his eyes, "Fine. R3, leave us."
The astromech paused after some thinking and decided to leave as the place was already getting boring, he proceeded to do some exploring...
Verus watched as the droid rolled away on it's wheels below the bottom of it's feet. He then turned to the princess.
"I will need someplace to sleep, if I am to stay here."
"Agreed, but I will have to give a speech to my subjects on the behalf of your presence. For your... appearance would surprise them," she said, trying not to sound offensive.
The Sith shook his head, "I am fine with that."
"Good, then follow me," Celestia said, Verus stood back up and looked back at Arina one more time before following the equine royal.
The boy looked around to the new room that he had entered: a medium-sized room with a large cylindrical stage in the center. He looked up as his instructor guided him and the students around him to the front of the stage.
"You are no longer younglings, you are to be an apprentices soon." he said.
Every former youngling watched as the Jedi moved to the side of the stage, "One of the most common ways to gain the attention of a Jedi Master or Knight is the sparring arena, also known as the Apprentice Tournaments," the man walked over to a room and pushed out a long rack holding many lightsaber hilts.
He picked one up and activated it, "Each year, the Apprentice Tournaments will be held for Initiates to be chosen by a potential master. These events consist of two of any of you entering this stage-," he pointed to the stage, "-And sparring. These duels are not just about sheer combat to show off in front of any future master, these contests will be used to demonstrate poise, discipline, and Force aptitude. Do you understand?" he asked them.
"Yes sir," every Initiate in the room said.
"Good, luckily for you the Tournaments are going to start next month, so I would suggest practicing for this event."
The Jedi teacher then walked back over to the front.
"Dismissed," he commanded.
As the students took their leave, one remained, the boy.
"Sir, will we really be assigned a master if we take part in this Tournament?" he asked skeptically rather than curiously.
"There are some exceptions besides using a lightsaber, Kane. But I think you will be assigned a master," the teacher said.
Kane nodded at the man's answer, "Thank you, sir," he said as he finally walked away with the rest of the students.
Deimos activated his lightsaber and met with full force against the Imperials. The seven soldiers were immediately aware of his presence and opened fire on the injured Sith Lord.
The aged man brought up his lightsaber and blocked with a Shien move, sending the blaster bolt back through the attacker's skull, the man was dead before he hit the ground. Deimos then made a fist and focused with the Force on his hands; immediately his hands burst into flames, he brought back his fist and swung, snapping the neck and burning the helmet of another pilot. Deimos turned and fired a chain of lightning at the next Imperial soldier until he crumpled to the ground. The Sith Lord stabbed the next man through the heart and beheaded the other. The next soldier aimed his blaster at the Sith's head and pulled the trigger, but Deimos turned and lifted his hand, before the shot could make it's mark, it ricocheted off his hand and flew into the soldier behind him.
Deimos used the Force on the last one's blaster hand, the Imperial watched in horror as the pistol slowly made it's way to the side of his forehead.
"Please," he begged.
Deimos turned his head to the right slightly in amusement before twitching his finger. The pistol fired into the man's head, who had a last look of horror.
The man was dead before he hit the ground.
Deimos looked at the undamaged TIE Fighters that lay around him, eager to use one and search for the rest of his crew. He hissed in pain as he remembered the pain in his ankle. Again, he limped over to the ship and ran his hand across one of the wings of a TIE Fighter, feeling the smooth cold texture.
He suddenly then heard small steps behind him, he turned to see several creatures behind him.
Some of them were a quadrupedal bird with a sword at it's waist, another was something similar to Kybuck, if it walked on four legs instead of two, with a spear on it's back; the only two bipeds were some sort of furred animal with a knife and some kind of primitive blaster that fires solid projectiles not unlike the energy bows by the Dathomirians, and a reptile that could've been the passive version of a Trandoshan, which possessed no weapon besides it's rather menacing claws.
The bird made it's way closest to him, making the animal either very brave or very stupid.
It cleared it's throat and spoke, much to the Sith Lord's surprise, "Ahem, by the order of the Griffon Emperor himself. I decree that you must surrender yourself for evaluation on Imperial territory."
Deimos took note of such words as 'Emperor' and 'Imperial', as well as 'Griffon'.
"Why?" he asked, the four creatures flinched by the fact that he could talk.
"So you are capable of speech? Impressive..." the four-legged Kybuck said.
"Shut yur trap pony! Yur only here fer the mission, not research," the furred biped spat, Deimos noticed that the creature spoke in an accent similar to a Corellian accent.
"Diamond Dogs lack the efficiency to plan ahead, of course you would say such a thing," the 'pony' mused.
"What did you say!" the 'Diamond Dog' yelled as .
"Idiots..." the reptile said before turning to Deimos, "Just come with us, we'll take good care of you."
Deimos raised an eyebrow, "You talk to me like I am some sort of animal, now explain why I should accompany you before I stain these sands red with your blood."
"Because you fainted during this conversation," the pony said as the horn on his head began to glow.
The Sith Lord suddenly felt as if he was in the process of blacking out, he activated his lightsaber and lunged forward before started fainting, managing to hack off the reptile's left arm.
He heard the creature scream in agony as Deimos collapsed onto the white sand around him. He was shocked by the fact that such a lowly creature managed to maneuver it's way around his mental defenses that protected him from Force manipulation.
This only lead to one conclusion: this was not the Force.
As he neared the edge of unconsciousness, he heard their voices speak.
"Hey, you okay? I got him," the pony said.
"Yeah I'm fine, my arm'll grow back in about two weeks," the reptile said.
"So what do you think of big ugly here?" the bird said.
"He's smart, skilled in swordsmanship, and he actually managed to hit Onyx, making him both fast and brutal, he'll be perfect," the pony observed.
"Then there's the problem with that magic that he used against the other of his kind," the reptile hissed in pain at his severed limb.
"Eh, putta blocker spell on him, that'll work," the diamond dog said.
"Good thinking Lore. Keep it up and I might take back what I said about diamond dogs," the pony smirked.
"You better," Lore growled.
"Both of you shut up! Just take this guy to the..."
The Sith Lord finally lost consciousness and blacked out before the bird could finish it's sentence.
It was the last round of the Apprentice Tournaments, Kane Leumai against Orun Nalus, a cocky human born on Corellia.
Kane looked for a new practice lightsaber, since his was destroyed during his last round. He searched through the shelves for a suitable lightsaber until he found what seemed to him was the perfect one.
It was in the far back section of the shelves, collecting dust. He picked it up and tested it's weight, the saber hilt had small spikes along the bottom and was colored black, as if it was a hilt for the dreaded Sith.
He walked back in front of his opponent and activated the blade.
Kane had a look of confusion as the boy backed up slightly. This look continued until he looked at the blade itself.
It was red.
He was very perplexed as to why the blade was colored this way, he even heard whispers from the some of the Knights themselves.
Kane merely shrugged and got into the recognizable form for all apprentices: Shii-Cho.
His opponent regained his sense of bravery and got into his fighting stance.
Orun struck first and the duel began.
Kane immediately blocked with his own blade rolled to the side as the tall initiate struck down, attempting to strike him on the head. He then raised his blade and blocked another strike, attempting to knock the blade out of his rival's hand and lunge for a strike.
Orun merely moved back as Kane attempted to swing at him and land a hit. But the Corellian had other ideas, he blocked another one of Kane's strikes and grabbed his hand, he then put hi foot behind his leg and pulled back, making the smaller boy land on his back. Kane grunted as he felt himself land onto the floor. He looked up to see Orun attempt to bring his blade down and stab Kane, but he rolled to the side once again and struck the larger one's ankle, scoring a hit.
Kane's rival hissed as he looked down to see a small red mark on his ankle. Orun growled and kicked Kane off to the side, sending him near the edge of the stage.
The smaller boy, Kane, grunted as he picked up his lightsaber and aimed before throwing it at his opponent, scoring a hit on Orun's shoulder.
"That's it!" Orun shouted as he picked up Kane's blade and ran at him.
Kane immediately dove to the side as Orun attempted to hit him. Without weapons, Kane had no choice but to raise his fists and fight with his hands despite his own disadvantage.
Orun grinned at Kane's apparent bravery. He ran at Kane and struck with both blades, but Kane ducked and uppercutted the boy.
As his opponent landed Kane grabbed both lightsabers out of Orun's hands and struck for the third time, winning the match.
Kane watched as Orun got up with a bloody nose, glaring at the younger one who had managed to beat him.
"Good match," Kane said, holding out Orun's lightsaber.
Orun growled and snatched the lightsaber out his hand and left to go put it back.
As the fight had finished, a Pau'an Jedi watched as Kane returned the lightsaber to where it originally was and left.
"Maybe," the Jedi Master said to himself, "Just maybe."
Deimos opened his eyes as soon as he woke up. He immediately sat upright and looked at his surroundings: stone walls and metal bars keeping him in this small room.
"Hey, there's a new guy here!" he heard a voice beside him, he then realized that the voices were coming from the cell next to him.
"Another one? Heh, betcha this one won't last an hour in the Pit," another said.
"Hey, leave him be, we don't know what this one's like!" one of the prisoners yelled out.
Deimos was able regain his senses and stand up. He walked over to the front of the cell to get a better view of everything.
Like his cell, the walls were made of solid dark grey stone, poorly constructed but strong enough to prevent escapes. The hallways were curved, which meant that the building must be circular in shape.
Moments later, one of those bird creatures walked over to his cell.
"My apologies about the spell, we had to do that in the event that you would attack us. We were right of course. But don't worry, we patched up any wounds that you had earlier," it was the same one that he had encountered in the desert.
"Who... what are you?" Deimos demanded.
"I am a Griffon, those other three were Onyx the dragon from the Dragon Kingdom, Lore the diamond dog from the Diamond Caverns, Oracle the pony from Canterlot, and my name is Thistle from the Griffon Empire," he said.
"You said you were an officer of that particular empire," Deimos said.
"I lied, I'm actually a fugitive. I just also happen to be one of the leaders of where you are," he said with a mocking tone.
"Who you are does not matter. It would be wise to let me go," the Sith warned.
"Or what?" Thistle asked.
"Or I will decorate the hallways with your entrails and paint the walls with your blood," he threatened.
The griffon backed away a little, "Ooh scary, why don't you try that now?"
Deimos grinned wickedly and sent out bolts of lightning at him, but they were blocked by the metal bars.
"Oh didn't I tell you? These things are enchanted to prevent any harm from any physical or magic damage, or whatever you are using. I am still surprised that you are using magic even with a blocker spell on," Thistle observed.
"Your confusion for mistaking the Force for magic amuses me," Deimos continued grinning despite his current condition.
"Whatever, it'll be your turn in the Pit in a little while, so get used to your new quarters," Thistle laughed as he walked off.
Deimos growled and reached for his lightsabers, which weren't there.
"Oh yeah, looking for these?" Thistle held out his claws, which were grasping his lightsabers.
"Give those back!" Deimos yelled.
"They're pretty fascinating, how do they work?" the griffon asked.
"You see that little button on the side?" Deimos said. Thistle turned the sabers around until he found the button.
"Yeah."
"Hold the hilt to your face and press the button," he growled.
Thistle hesitated before smiling, "Oh you almost got me, clever."
The griffon then left his line of sight.
"Just give up," Deimos heard a new voice.
"Excuse me?" he said, searching for whoever said that.
"When you enter the Pit, just give up and die," the voice said again, Deimos then found the source of the voice.
It was another pony in another cell, a young female by the sound of it's voice. She had dark grey fur with a secondary hair atop it's head and tail, which were dark blue. The female pony was considerably small and frail, her eyes were a deep blue and she was riddled with faint scars across her body.
"And why would I do that?" he asked her.
"Because there's no use, it's completely meaningless," she continued.
"If your going to say that, that's not a very convincing argument for suicide," Deimos mused.
"Very funny, forgot to laugh," the pony turned and sighed, "So you're new?"
He nodded, "Yes, but not for long. What is this place?"
"This is a prison of sorts, but not really a prison, those are only for criminals. I don't really know what to call this place," she said.
"That's not a reliable answer," Deimos said, annoyed by her answer.
"Well what do you expect?" she asked.
"Nevermind, what's your name?" he asked her.
"My name is Thea, but they call me other names," she got up and walked closer to the bars.
"Like what?" Deimos asked as he sat on the cot behind him.
"Filth, whore, freak, take your pick," she said, trying to fight back tears.
"And are you any of these?" the Sith Lord asked.
"I'm no whore, but I certainly am a freak," she said.
"And why?" Deimos asked.
Thea blushed heavily and turned away from him, "I-I'd rather not say."
"Suit yourself, I am Deimos" he said, getting up as he heard footsteps coming closer to him.
Deimos watched as a dozen guards of different species walked over to his cell and unlocked the door.
He grinned to himself as they led him to his next location.
"Good luck... Deimos," Thea said.
I'll let them think they have the ability to control me, but sooner or later I'll prove them wrong, Deimos thought to himself.
One other reason for his patience was that he did not know how big this place was or how many guards their were. Sith and Jedi could easily handle non-force-sensitives, but there were certainly exceptions that existed back in the Old Republic and a few today. Bounty Hunters for example or the occasional Stormtrooper that actually managed to make a killshot at a Jedi every now and then. No matter how ridiculous the enemy looks, never underestimate your opponent.
The guards eventually led him to a door almost literally covered in locks. The main guard trotted to the door and unlocked each lock and slowly opened the door.
Inside was an armory filled with an array of close combat weaponry.
"Choose one," the largest guards said.
As Deimos walked into the armory, the guards closed the door behind him.
He looked around to see each weapon. Maces, whips, swords, staffs, spears, and other weapons that Deimos could not recognize.
Eventually he picked up a sword. The blade was a straight, single edged, and as long as his own lightsabers. He felt the weight of the sword in his hands before deciding that it was a suitable weapon.
"Is this your weapon of choice?" a voice resonated through the room.
Despite the strangeness of the situation, Deimos agreed.
"Yes."
"Very well," the voice said.
There was a bright flash of light, causing Deimos to shield his eyes from the brightness.
When he opened his eyes, he saw hundreds, if not thousands of all species native to the planet that he was on: ponies, dragons, griffons, et cetera. in rows and rows of seats in a circular fashion around him.
It was at this moment where Deimos realized where he was.
I'm in a gladiator arena! he thought.
The arena was similar to Geonosis, only less rocky.
He then heard the same voice in the armory.
"Ladies and gentlemen, mares and stallions, welcome back once again to the Pit. Oh, it seems we have a new arrival, now what is your name?" the voice resonated through the loud cheers of the crowd.
Deimos would not give him the privilege of hearing his voice.
"Huh, not a talker... well everyone (and ponies), we have ourselves a silent one. What shall we do with him?" the voice yelled.
"KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL!" the crowd repeated as they cheered the one word that they wanted the Sith Lord to be.
"Well, let's appease the crowds shall we, let's start simple, release the Juggernaut!" the announcer yelled.
Deimos turned to see a gate lifting up as hulking mound of muscles and feathers walked out of the darkness of his cell.
The griffon was massive, with battered feathers and an expression that would be an understatement of the word "rage".
He looked at the human, in his talons was a heavy double-edged sword.
"You!" he yelled, "I will tear your head off and mount it on this blade!"
"That's the spirit! Now, begin!" the announcer yelled.
At once, the 'Juggernaut' roared in anger and began to quickly close the gap between him and the smaller human.
With eyes of almost pure flame, he watched as the human was just standing there, as if his very appearance did not frighten him.
As soon as the Juggernaut reached Deimos, he brought down his sword on the old man, expecting his arms to break as soon as he raises his blade.
Instead, Deimos raised his blade, but the blade held it's place as it darkened to that of a shadow.
"What!" the hulking monster said.
"Sith Alchemy goes a long way," Deimos whispered as he shoved the Juggernaut with the Force.
"Magic is not allowed in the Pit!" Juggernaut yelled as he slashed at him again.
Deimos merely ducked below the blade, "You people seem to forget-"
He raised his hand until it was pointing towards the griffon.
"-This is not magic," Deimos immediately let loose a spray of Sith lightning.
As soon as the lightning touched the griffon, he roared in pain as he attempted to endure the pain.
The Juggernaut slowly but surely began to make his way towards Deimos, his blade raised above his head.
The Sith raised an eyebrow, "I'm impressed, there's only a few that can withstand Sith lightning, one of which being my most recent apprentice."
The griffon brought his blade down, but Deimos sidestepped and stabbed the giant bird in the ribcage.
He hissed in pain as he swung again, missing again.
Deimos then struck again, slicing one of the griffon's legs.
The griffon yelled in pain as he stabbed at Deimos, but once again, missed.
The Sith Lord then finally lunged forward and sliced off the griffon's sword claw and his throat.
The Juggernaut tried to scream from the loss of his claw, but blood was already trickling out of the neck wound. He fell to the ground, trying to do anything to save himself from the pain.
He looked at Deimos one last time.
"Mercy," he tried to say.
Deimos walked over to the griffon and plunged the sword into his heart, killing him instantly.
"And mercy you shall receive," Deimos said.
He looked up to see the crowds, sensing their shock, surprise, and amusement. Deimos gripped his sword and swung it towards the ground, the blood retreated from the blade, cleaning it.
As he saw a gate open behind him, guards emerged and surrounded him with spears aimed at his neck.
"Back to your cage now, slave," the guard shouted at him.
Deimos grinned as he simply dropped his sword and held out his wrists.
"Go ahead," he said.
The griffon looked at him, then the guards, who then started leading him towards the gate.
Kane was alone in his chambers, meditating through the Force. He stared in boredom as he moved several rocks in the center of his palm with the Force.
He heard a knock on his door as it slid open, revealing Grand Master Yoda.
"Master Yoda!" he immediately stood at attention.
"At ease you are, young Leumai. Tell me; troubles you, what does?"
Kane sighed, "I'm afraid I might have went a little too far with the duel."
Yoda shook his head as he slowly made his way to the boy.
"Control his anger, Orun could not. Your fault, it was not," he looked away.
"Forgive me for saying this master, but I know you came here not just to ask me about this incident."
Yoda looked at him once more, "Intelligent, you are. The light, I sense in you. Inform you, I must; given a master, you have been."
Kane was immediately stunned by the news, "How? Who? I mean, who is my new master?"
The aged green Jedi chuckled at his innocence, "Your master, Master Aouren Pala is."
As soon as he said this, a Pau'an Jedi walked in the room, towering over both Yoda and Kane.
"So this is my new padawan. Greetings, I am Aouren Pala," he held out his hand.
Kane raised his own hand and shook his, "Hello master, I would be honored to be your apprentice."
Master Pala looked content, "Good, good. I will make sure that this young one will learn the ways to becoming a Jedi."
"Good. Settled, our matters are. With you, may the Force be, Master Pala," Master Yoda said as he left.
"And with you, Master Yoda," he then turned Kane.
"Walk with me Kane, I shall show you to your new quarters," his new master said.
Kane immediately went over to Master Pala's side and began walking next to him.
As Deimos entered his cell, he was greeted by Thea.
"Why did you not give up!?!" she yelled.
"Last thing I heard you say was good luck," Deimos faced her.
"That was sarcasm. By Celestia... do you know what you have done?" she demanded.
"No, inform me."
"You are one of the only creatures to have beaten Juggernaut, and the first to actually kill him, do you know what you have done?" she asked in an appalled voice.
"No, remind me," Deimos said.
"With Juggernaut dead, you gained more attention from the crowds. Now they'll be focusing more on you, meaning they'll send you more and more to kill. Is that the kind of life you want to live?"
"No, but it will be entertaining before I leave," he grinned maliciously.
"You can't, no one has escaped from the Pit. What makes you think that you can escape this place?" she stared at him once more.
Deimos looked at her again for the last time before going to his bed.
Star Wars is owned by LucasFilms (and Arts) and MLP is owned by Lauren Faust.
The young Verus sat down on the cold metal floor of the ship.
"Are you aware of the Sith Code?" his master asked.
"No, my lord. I am not familiar with the Sith Code," he said.
"The code of the Sith is what represents the core beliefs of the Sith," Deimos said.
"The order in which this code presents itself is that-" he paused for a second.
""Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength; through strength, I gain passion; through passion, I gain victory; through victory, my chains are broken; the Force shall set me free," Deimos recited the Sith Code.
As Verus was an apprentice to Deimos, he was entitled to listen. And listen he did, as he was fascinated by this philosophy.
Deimos looked down at the young Zabrak, "I will give you time to try to understand these tenets, but if you do not understand or fail-"
The Sith fugitive activated his lightsaber.
"You will have an early lesson on the short-term effects of lightsaber exposure. Dismissed," Deimos deactivated his lightsaber and walked away.
"Master?"
"What is it?"
"What are you going to do in the meantime?" Verus asked out of curiosity.
Deimos froze for a split second, "I... will be searching for someone."
Verus was finally left alone to ponder the beliefs of the Sith.
The Zabrak Sith sensed Twilight's fear and curiosity as he levitated the lightsaber in his hands in boredom as she continued studying his ability.
"Incredible! I sense no use of magic whatsoever in your actions, this is something else," she exclaimed excitedly.
Ever since Verus had his first encounter with the Princess of the Sun, she offered him a room to stay in the castle while she prepares her speech for the citizens of Canterlot in accordance to his presence.
"So how are you lifting it without any use of magic?" she asked him.
"The Force," he said.
"Can you please elaborate?"
Verus glared at her before turning back to his lightsaber, "The Force is an energy field created by all living things, as my master describes it. It is separated into four different forms: the light side, the dark side, the unifying, and the living. Is that answer good enough for you?" he told her.
"What do each of them represent?" she asked again.
The Zabrak mentally groaned as Twilight bombarded him with more questions of the Force.
"The Light side of the Force was one form that was represented by emotions such as honesty, mercy, and compassion. The Light side was fueled by self-sacrifice and forwarding acts of helping the weak and helpless. The light was the main source of the Jedi's strength and power, allowing them to help others in need," he spoke almost as he though he hated explaining the Light side.
Twilight took note of the word 'Jedi'.
"I have a feeling that the Dark side is the opposite," Twilight said.
"Correct, the Dark Side of the force feeds on raw emotions such as anger, passion, and rage. The Dark Side is seen as evil by the Jedi and is the main power of the Sith. The Dark Side fuels the user and is more so as a power used for the improvement of the person using it," Verus explained.
Twilight also took note of the word 'Sith', "The Dark Side sounds a bit... evil."
"As said by the Sith Lord Darth Zannah, 'The Dark Side is about survival. It's about unleashing your inner power. It glorifies the strength of the individual'," he said.
"You also mentioned the word Jedi and Sith. What do they mean?" she asked.
When will she stop with these irrelevant questions?!?! Verus thought angrily.
"I will tell you later, but I must... take a break," he told her.
"Oh, I understand. Was I asking too many questions?"
Yes.
Verus sighed, "It is fine, I just need some air."
And with that, he left the room.
"Master?" young Verus asked.
Deimos turned away from the controls, standing at full height, "Yes, my apprentice?"
"I understand the code now."
The Sith raised an eyebrow skeptically, "Really? Let us see if you are ready."
He walked over to the center of the ship.
"Peace is a lie, there is only passion," Deimos said, waiting for the answer.
Verus paused for a second before answering, "Peace is a liability, that it prevents progress and change. Over the archives that I have read, every act of progress was out of conflict. That conflict is one of the few motivators for advancement. Only our own driven passions will help us in further progress."
Deimos nodded, "Through passion, I gain strength."
"Through this progress, we gain this strength."
"Through strength, I gain power," Deimos quoted
"With this strength we gain the power to make this change."
"Through power, I gain victory."
"Using the force, our power, we have the ability to gain this victory," Verus continued.
"Through victory, my chains are broken."
"Through victory leads freedom from restriction, to reach perfection."
"The Force shall free me," Deimos said, but instead of waiting for an answer, he nodded at Verus instead of having to explain the last verse.
"You have passed the first trial out of being an acolyte, congratulations," Deimos replied without any change to his expression or voice.
Verus continued to bow humbly, knowing something else would occur as well.
"Your next test will be much more difficult than learning of planets and the Sith Code. Follow me," Deimos said as he and Verus walked out of the room and into a new room surrounded by mechanical spheres lying around the room.
Deimos handed him a blindfold and audio blockers.
"What are these for?" Verus asked.
"Training, you will block blaster bolts while devoid of sight and sound," he snapped his fingers and each sphere sprung to life as they hovered roughly around the same height as Verus' master.
"Now put them on," Deimos ordered.
Verus nodded and wrapped the blindfold around his eyes and was about to put on audio blockers before being stopped.
"Your training for this trial will end when they stop shooting at you," Deimos barely grinned at his own statement.
Verus quickly picked up his training staff and put on the audio blocker.
Every droid opened fire.
The Sith apprentice took in the sights as he walked through the castle halls, watching as guards were at their posts trying not to look at him.
After several minutes of searching through these halls, he walked into a room: the barracks. An area to house the princess' royal guard. He peered through as he saw several bunks, lockers, another room storing weapons and armor, and finally a room with a square arena in the middle.
The sparring room.
Now, Verus saw these species as a peace-loving race. But even the guards obviously had to learn a little violence to know how to fight.
They seemed to gain some respect from him now.
"Hey, freak!" he heard one of them shout.
And now that respect was lost.
He turned around to see several guards all focused on him. According to his memory, these were the guards that he would've fought if Celestia had not given the order to retreat.
"So... Verus. Me and my buddies would've been given a promotion if I had been given the opportunity to protect the princess from a dangerous threat. So right now-" he looked at the other guards behind, "-we would like a little payback."
Verus backed slightly to the edge of the arena as they advanced on him.
"What, you scared?"
"No."
"Really? You're in a room full of guards trained by Captain Shining Armor himself," the leader said, smirking.
Verus unhooked his lightsabers and tossed them aside and waved his hand.
The door closed behind the guards and locked itself.
"No, you're locked in with me, Lord Khan, apprentice of Darth Deimos," he brought up his hands in a fighting stance.
All of them attacked at once.
Lord Deimos opened the door once the sound of blaster fire settled down to a halt. What he saw was no surprise.
Verus was barely standing, having to lean on his quarterstaff for support as dozens of seeker droids laid out across the entire room, completely destroyed by Verus.
Deimos removed the audio blockers and the blindfold with the Force and watched as Verus squinted from the light as it touched his eyes.
"You are finished with the second trial Verus. Now you must pass the third trial, follow me," Deimos said as he walked away from the room and to the controls, he looked at the navicomputer and turned the ship and activated hyperdrive.
Verus steadied himself and held onto a part of the wall as the ship was sent into hyperdrive for a matter of minutes before Deimos deactivated the engine and began to land his ship onto the planet, in the middle of a dense forest.
The Sith Lord let the ship hover a few meters above the ground as he opened the rear door.
"Do you know what planet this is?" he asked Verus.
"Kashyyyk, home of the Wookies, now under Imperial control as the Wookies are slaves in their own home planet. Like the Czerka Corporation from the times of the Sith Empire."
"And do you know why you are here?" the Sith asked.
"No."
Deimos exhaled and took a few steps backwards and stood behind Verus.
"This is part one of your third trial; Your only mission is to survive until then," Deimos said as he pushed Verus off the ship and onto a nearby tree.
Verus grunted from the force and free fell onto a tree below.
"R3, get us out of here," he heard Deimos say as he closed the doors behind him.
These were the times when Verus hated his master.
Twilight sighed as she strolled through the halls, "Was I being too pushy on him?"
The lavender unicorn continued to walk through the halls in hopes of finding Verus again and hoping he was in a better mood and would answer the questions that she had for him.
Despite the fact that she has been a princess for over 3 years, she was still unfamiliar with a majority of the castle's halls; it's almost as if they stretched on forever. They probably could.
As an alicorn, Twilight was not only given wings and a new form of magic, she was given heightened senses such as sight, sound, smell, and even taste. So there was one thing that concerned her was...
Why was she hearing a fight inside this castle.
Verus dodged another hoof as it tried to strike his jaw and delivered another jab to the neck, knocking the next one out.
Three down, nine more to go.
As each stallion attempted to strike, Verus always delivered a block or counterattack to his opponents every time. Verus once more used the force and pushed them all back into the wall behind them.
Three were knocked out cold, three others were stunned while the last recovered and picked up quarterstaffs and ran after the Zabrak Sith once more.
Verus reacted quickly and pulled a staff into his hands as well and swung. The end of the staff made contact with all three of their skulls at the same time and knocked them all back.
He twirled the stick around until he faced them once more in a fighting stance, "Care to try again?" he mocked.
The three stallions once again got back up and charged at him again. The first stallion swung, making contact with Verus' staff, but the Zabrak had a grip of iron; he lifted the stick and delivered a swift kick to the face, simultaneously slugging the second one across the jaw and kicked the third one with the quarterstaff, brought it up to the guard's neck behind him and began to suffocate him with the stick.
The other two got back up a little more slowly and tried to strategize on how to beat Verus, watching as the third one was still choking on the stick that was holding onto his neck.
Before they could react, Verus released his grip on the third, kicked him hard in the neck, knocking him out and began focusing on the other two. The first one struck, but Verus caught the staff and knee'd the guard in the face, possibly breaking his nose. Verus then knocked the staff out of the second one's grip and unleashed a furious whirls of hits from the quarterstaff towards the guard's face before finishing it off with a final hit across the jaw, snapping the staff in half and shattering the guard's jaw into fragments.
Verus tossed the stick aside just in time to see the last three guards stand up and face him in hand-to-hoof combat.
The first two guards ran at him and began to assault the Sith with a bombardment of punches. Verus parried each of these moves with a jab, punch, and kick every time. All three guards attacked him at once, forcing Verus to dodge and block each oncoming move and land a hit every now and then.
Verus twisted to the right in time for the guard to land a punch, into the other guard's face, knocking each other out. Leaving only one more.
This one was stupid enough to remain standing, so Verus pulled his lightsabers close to him and activated on of them, ready to interrogate the last man standing.
"ENOUGH!!!" shouted a booming voice that might've even echoed throughout the entire castle were the voice not inside the room.
Damn, Verus silently cursed as he turned to see a very angry Twilight.
"Let. Him. Go," Twilight glared. Verus looked at her, then at the guard, then back at Twilight again before deactivating his lightsaber.
"Alright, now I'm in the mood to answer your questions," Verus said as he followed Twilight, picking up his lightsabers and punching the last guard in the face on the way out.
Verus heard the sounds of blasters firing behind as Stormtroopers on speeder bikes chased after him. It was the hot and humid in the Shadowlands of Kashyyyk. Giant insectoid creatures nipping and clawing at his heels, Slavers attempting to kidnap him and the fact that he was a trespasser on Imperial Territory.
In short: he was having the time of his life.
The Zabrak felt the adrenaline pumping through his veins as he heard the cries of the beasts of the Wookie planet behind him along with the whirs of Imperial Speeders close behind.
The apprentice of Lord Deimos was in the dense ground floor of Kashyyyk, where the sun literally never shines. Under these trees were surrounding boulders with a small ancient holographic nearby. It had been three days since he had been marooned on the planet.
Verus quickly leaped over a rock as soon as a trooper was about to crash into him. He grabbed onto the bark of a tree and began to climb the trunk. He then heard the sounds die down.
"Shoot him down," he heard. As a feeling tugging at the back of his mind, he jumped off the tree and grabbed onto the branch of a lower tree, gritting his teeth as the hard bark ground against the palms of his hands, disappearing behind the leaves of the tree.
He quickly looked at the people below: over a dozen stormtroopers, while the denizens of the forest were waiting for him to reach the forest floor. Verus removed the hand-made spear that he had made from his back and held it in both hands, studying the movements of the soldiers.
Verus finally sprung into action, twisting his hand and snapping the neck of a stormtrooper from afar. He leapt onto another branch and uttered a small chant in the Dathomirian language.
Suddenly, all the animals that surrounded the only bright spot in the Shadowlands emerged and began to tear the soldiers apart, hearing their screams as their flesh was ripped from their bones and eaten by the beasts of the jungle.
As they had eaten their fill, they were still hungry and turned to face the one who called out to them, turning on their brief master.
Verus heard the growls of the mammals and clicks and hisses of the Kinrath insects as they began to advance towards the tree that held the Zabrak apprentice.
He gripped the spear in his hands tightly, ready to face the beasts.
The sound of a ship suddenly roared in his ears as said ship fired at the beasts that had attempted to kill him, causing them to retreat into the dense jungle. Verus looked up to see the ship's floodlights activate and temporarily blind him.
The ship turned around and it's rear doors opened, revealing his master, Darth Deimos.
They stared at each other for a split second.
"Jump, you fool," Deimos finally said.
Verus leaped from the tree with all his might and managed to grab onto the ledge before pulling himself up.
"I expected you to be dead within those few days," he nodded at Verus.
"Forgive me for disappointing you," the Zabrak said.
Deimos chuckled darkly at that, this was the first time Verus had ever heard his master display a sense of humor, or any sort of emotion at all.
"You did not disappoint me. In fact, you are going for another survival retreat; I'll even let you choose between these options: the poisonous atmosphere of Quesh, or the vast desert of Tatooine? Choose."
Although Verus did not show it, he was secretly excited for his next assignment.
He always wondered what a Krayt Dragon tasted like...
Twilight sat down on the chair opposite of Verus' as he sat down in front of her.
"So, do you have new questions or do we start where we left off?" Verus asked.
"What was that?" she asked, trying to restrain her own anger.
"What was what?" Verus said, although he knew full well of what she was referring to.
"The fight, the brutal beatdown that you gave those guards. Why would you do something like that? Much more the Princess' royal guards?" she asked him with a tinge of anger in her voice.
The Sith quickly inhaled and looked down at her.
"Those guards started a fight with me, they persecuted me just because they wanted a promotion for their 'honorary actions'. Those idiots were the ones who started it, and I was the one who finished it. Is that a sufficient answer for you?"
"But why like that? You could've crippled them, much more kill them!" she yelled at him.
"I was going easy. If I was not on a foreign planet who's laws I am not aware of, you would've smelled their lightsaber-burnt condition before you could even see it," he spat.
"That does not give you the right to just kill somepony just because they want to pick a fight," she scolded.
"I am a Sith, things like these are normal to me."
Twilight then snapped out of her feelings of anger and suddenly realized the question she was going to ask.
"I forgot to ask you Verus, what are the Jedi and the Sith?"
Verus paused for a second (mostly because of her sudden mood change) and looked at her, "If you insist, but this is a very long, LONG, story."
"How far back?" Twilight asked.
"More than thirty thousand years ago," Verus said to her, surprising the purple alicorn with the fact that these groups have existed for so long.
"Alright, tell me how it began?" she asked, sinking deeper into her seat.
The young man closed his eyes, "Where to begin..." he whispered until he opened his eyes.
"Let's start with the Rakatans and the Infinite Empire..." Verus cleared his throat.
"The Rakatans, from the planet Lehon, were a normal race like you and I. And like your planet, it was located in the Unknown regions. Their society was changed when an alien species from Dathomir known as the Kwa came to their planet using a device called the Infinity Gate. There, they began to teach the Rakatans how to use the Force," Verus said as he was lifting a wooden cube with the force.
"But something went wrong, obviously," Twilight said.
"Correct, the Kwa realized that the Rakatans focused more on the Dark Side of the Force and turned against the Kwa, making them slaves to their own creations. The amphibious aliens, the Rakatans, sought out to conquer planets all over the Unknown regions, forming the Infinite Empire."
"And they used the supplies given by the Kwa?"
"You are half right. As the Infinite Empire began to grow, the Rakatans built a space station near the star Abo. This station was called the Star Forge, a self-automated factory that built the ships and soldiers needed to conquer the worlds. But it was a barbaric species known as the Esh-Ka that matched them in strength, for a time."
"They were wiped out as well?" Twilight asked as she continued taking notes.
"Almost, they were placed in storage units on a planet called Belsavis until thousands of years later. Anyway, the Infinite Empire continued growing until it reached the planet Korriban, where they met the Sith, as a species, not as the Sith today. The Sith won the war against the Infinite Empire, but at the cost of their planet, forcing them to relocate to Ziost. Years later, the Empire reached a planet strong in the Force called Tython, where they were met by the Je'daii."
"Jedi?" Twilight perked up at the name.
"No, Je'daii. Much older than the Jedi Order today, or was. Anyway, Xesh, the force hound, a force-sensitive slave, made his way to Tython, but his completely one-sided allegiance to the Dark Side created a planet-wide storm, but was later confronted by the Je'daii themselves. As for the Infinite Empire, the Rakatans were struck with a disease that both killed and rendered them incapable of using the force. This made them weak and were unable to control any and all uprisings and revolts, dissolving the Infinite Empire to ashes," Verus finished.
Twilight was stunned by the fact that an Empire had risen to power over such controversial ways and ended just as badly as it had began.
"Their Empire lasted for over ten thousand years, although I am impressed by their rule, they only used their power simply to conquer rather than improve upon themselves and become more powerful."
"Can you tell me more?" she asked.
"Later, but I must rest. Perhaps I will tell you of the true creation of the Sith if you don't pester me tomorrow," Verus said.
Twilight groaned at the fact that the man was annoyed by her presence, "Fine, good night Verus."
"Same for you," Verus replied as he walked back to his chambers.
As he walked over to his bed, he heard his stomach growling but decided to ignore it until tomorrow.
Right now he had other things to worry about, like how he was going to wake Arina up and/or contact his master.
I hope my master is faring better than this, he thought to himself as he fell asleep.
"Alive, wounded: broken ribs and possible internal bleeding," the man coughed out.
"Officer Rotasha, status?"
"Alive, unwounded," the woman said.
"Lieutenant Seraf?"
"I'm fine."
"Status, Lieutenant Karref?"
"Same as Seraf."
"Inquisitor Nakura?"
There was silence.
"Damn, I remember he's not here anymore. I still wonder what happened to him..."
"Corporal Pierce?"
"Good as always, Commander Yahn!"
"Status of current vessel?"
"Like something finally came out of the other end of a Sarlacc," joked Seraf.
"Great," Commander Yahn replied sarcastically.
"Current objective?" Rotasha asked.
"Search for General Darth Deimos of the Terror Legions and confront," Yahn said.
"Secondary objective?"
"Survive what's outside," Commander Yahn said as he kicked open the door to face the sunlight that beat down on him.
5th day in Equuus.
Deimos woke up to the sound of a gladiator guard knocking on his cage doors with a baton, "Wake up slave, it's lunchtime!" he yelled.
The aged Dark Jedi rose from his cot and walked over to the door as the guard opened it.
"Call me slave again and I will rip out your tongue and force feed it to you," Deimos threatened. The guard gulped slightly at his threat, unaware that the man would do it if given the opportunity.
He walked through the stone halls, watching as each prisoner and slave was woken up ad sent to the mess halls. Deimos kept staring at the filth-ridden floors and the occasional cobwebs on the ceiling.
Eventually after several minutes, they reached a door. The guards then pushed Deimos with the end of their spear, telling him to enter.
Lord Deimos opened the door to see a large room with hundreds of prisoners being served their own meal.
"Get in line, fresh meat!" he heard one of the prisoners, a tall dragon, yell at him.
This caused the Sith Lord to turn around and face the creature, "Why don't you say that to me up close you worm."
The whole room went silent as the dragon stood up and slowly made it's way towards him. Deimos took the time to investigate this creature and find it's vulnerabilities.
The dragon was female and was colored green-grey, but that made no difference. Scales make it reptilian, claws and canines means it needs no weapon.
She finally stood just inches away from him, "I said, get in line fresh-"
Deimos suddenly slammed his own head into hers, knocking her backwards and into group of eating prisoners.
"You're dead!" she yelled as she swung her claws at him. Deimos immediately blocked her hand and delivered a right hook to the jaw, sending her to the floor. He walked over to her, picked her up and pushed the dragoness forward, "Get up and fight!" he yelled as a crowd around them started to form.
The female shook her head as she got up and raised her fists again and struck again, this time faking a left punch and aiming straight for Deimos' face with a right sucker punch.
Unfortunately for her, this did not come to a success as the Sith grabbed her fist and pulled her closer, sidestepped and struck her again with his right elbow. The dragon stumbled backward slightly and was pushed back to Deimos by the crowd, she attempted to "clothesline" him by stretching out her arm and aimed for his neck.
Deimos caught the arm and twisted it back, a wet pop sounded out from her arm.
She yelled in pain as she grabbed her dislocated arm and fell to the floor.
"Finish her! Finish her! Finish her!" they crowd chanted as Deimos stood over his beaten opponent.
"ENOUGH!!!" a loud voice yelled throughout the room.
Everyone turned to face the one who had spoken.
The crowd parted to reveal Thistle, the Griffon that abducted Deimos.
"Both of you, cease your fighting! You, Emerald. Just because you are the champion of the Pit does not mean you alone can harass the newcomers... you have to give some of the more seasoned members a turn," the Griffon smirked.
"And you, Lord Deimos. Just because you killed the Juggernaut, you're not the bigshot in this arena. In fact, far from it," he said as he motioned to the guards, informing them to keep a more careful eye on the prisoners.
Deimos glared at Emerald as she picked herself off the floor and glared back at him. He moved over to the serving tables with a tray in both hands, watching as he was served some sort of strange-smelling slop from the server.
"What is this?" he asked.
"Dunno, eat up."
The Sith grimaced at the whatever-it-was on his tray, but he walked over to a table and sat himself down. Moments later another slave sat next to him.
"Hey Deimos."
"Hello Thea," Deimos said.
"So... I heard about the fight," she said.
"That was just six minutes ago."
"I was late," the mare explained.
Deimos ignored her until he looked down at his tray, "What exactly is this?"
"I've been here for four years and I still don't know what this stuff is," Thea giggled lightly, then sighed for some reason.
He looked at the goop and shrugged, he picked up a spoon and speared it into the stuff, where the utensil slowly sank into the slop before a bubble formed at the top and popped seconds after. Deimos raised an eyebrow before bringing up the spoon to his mouth and closing his jaw.
That's when the Sith's eye twitched at the taste. It was as if somebody skinned a rancor, made boots out of the skin, and boiled it until it became this monstrous meal.
Deimos managed to swallow the disgusting 'food' and exhaled.
Thea stifled a laugh as she watched him suffer, "Same thing with me the first time I was here, but it was okay, I swallowed worse."
He turned to her, pausing for a second, "I bet you have," Deimos said without making a change in his emotion.
Thea looked at him for a second before her eyes widened, she slugged him in the shoulder, "Oh shut up."
"Hit me again and I will skin you alive," he threatened.
The grey mare raised her hooves up in protest, "Sheesh I'm sorry, sensitive much."
Deimos rolled his eyes, This is going to be a long day.
He then turned to her.
The pony looked at him again, "What?"
"If I am to get out of here, I'll need you to do me a favor," he said.
She shrugged, "If it get's me out of this place, I'll do it."
"Good, here's the plan..."
Later that day...
It was still midday and the Sith Lord sat in his cell, thinking of his way to escape, not knowing the size nor dimensions of the arena.
He formed a ball of lightning in his hands and began forming shapes out it in boredom. Deimos remembered his time as a Jedi Master, the adventures and action during the Clone Wars, the respect he earned as a Commander, experiencing his apprentice fight alongside him.
But then he was introduced to the Dark Side of the Force, where he experienced one new and complete thing: freedom.
Under the tutelage of Darth Sidious, Deimos quickly grew with power and was a force to be reckoned with.
As one of the former Emperor's bodyguard and assassin, he carried out assassinations against political targets and the occasional rebels. As a fugitive, he was forced to make an necessary sacrifices to survive, losing several acquaintances was a part of that; then there was helping those that he formerly fought against, assisting rebels such as Mon Mothma, a Jedi called Kanan Jarrus, his apprentice Ezra Bridger, and a former close friend of his: Ahsoka Tano.
Deimos stood up at the sound of a guard drawing closer to his cell.
"Yer in for another fight, get to the armory and get ready," he said as he opened the door.
The Sith Lord got up and pushed past the guard, familiar with the location of the armory. With the guard's spear at his back, he reached the door and pushed it open, revealing a dangerous assortment of weapons. Deimos reached for the most familiar one: the sword he used in the first fight.
The sword smoked in an inky black aura from the Dark alchemy placed by Deimos.
The reason why he applied the spell so quickly was because of his fascination with the old Sith. Unlike Palpatine, who Deimos knew of his progress to achieve immortality; Palpatine looked forward to changing the Sith where only he ruled, while Deimos had brimmed with curiosity on history, even going so far as to stealing several of his master's holocrons to study on what the Jedi hid from him. As for the alchemy that he learned, he focused on the past and used their secrets to his advantage, such as enchanting the sword with remarkable resistance to bending, breaking, or dulling while increasing its state of condition to beyond "prime". As for history itself, he felt to honor and base his works to Darth Revan himself.
"Is this your weapon of choice?" The voice said.
"Yes."
And once again, a bright flash of light surrounded him and he was back to the hated arena.
"Ladies and gentlemen, mares and stallions, welcome back to the Pit. Once again we will be starring the one and only Lord Deimos!!!" The announcer yelled.
Deimos glared at the fact that both Thistle and the announcer found out his name, it was probably the guard that heard the conversation between he and Thea the first time they met.
"Now everyone (and pony), we shall make his challenge a teensy-weensy bit harder. SEND OUT THE CHANGELINGS!!!!" the announcer yelled out once again.
When the gates opened, a constant clicking was heard from the shadows. Deimos brought up his sword in an offensive stance.
What emerged was something completely different. Black bugs with a slightly similar build to ponies, but with both wings and horns, or what was left of the horn.
Thea told him earlier that the Changelings communicated with their queen through the horn on their heads, without the horns, they are just mindless savages bent on barbarism. Exiles and the "severed" Changelings are the only ones of their kind to feed on living sustenance. Preferably meat.
Their mouths foamed with clear green ichor as they stared at the Sith Lord. The only thing on their mind was rage and bloodlust.
Deimos watched as each of the abominations charged him, baring their fangs as they closed the gap between he and them.
The first one lunged at him, eager to tear the flesh from his bones. But mindless drones had no thought to consider their prey's offensive capabilities. Deimos lifted his sword and stabbed, watching as the black and silver blade entered the exoskeletal cranium of bug and exited as easily as it entered. The second and third met their fate as Deimos beheaded one and bisected the other at the same time in one slash. But as each changeling fell, more and more would take their place.
Deimos did everything he could to survive as he hacked and slashed at the monstrosities, watching as blood, muscle, and sinew oozed out of his victims. He sensed the crowds shock at his abilities as a warrior and marveled at his astounding endurance.
But that was just the tip of the iceberg, for he was about to give them the "shock" of their lives.
At that moment, when hundreds of changelings began to overwhelm him, he stretched out his hand and unleashed a storm of lightning from his fingertips, watching as each and every changeling began to writhe and screech as unstable electricity courses through both their muscles and veins, boiling their blood and frying whatever was left of their brain.
After half a minute had passed, Deimos lowered his arm to stop the flow of lightning. The bugs simultaneously dropped to the ground, their bodies twitching with whatever life was left inside of them.
Deimos stood motionless, his coat dripping with green blood and scattered bugs and missing limbs everywhere.
The crowd broke into applause and cheers as the Sith Lord stood amongst the dead. Deimos took no pleasure from the attention. But he could sense from the Annoucer's emotions that the battle was far from over.
"SILENCE!!!" the Sith Lord heard, he looked up at the voice to hear what more it had to say.
"That was only a taste of what the prisoner here had experienced. DO YOU ALL WANT MORE?!?!" the voice yelled.
"YES!!" they screamed.
"Then release the Praetorian!"
Another gate opened. Deimos listened to the sound of the chains rattling as the entrance was lifted to introduce another beast of the Pit. He readied his blade for what was to come next.
Another creature similar to the Changelings emerged. It was much bigger than the Juggernaut and looked even deadlier. Compared to the Changeling clicks to intimidate, it sounded like the beating of a war drum readying itself into battle.
"The Praetorian, a subclass of Changelings acting as the Queen's personal guards. Lobotomized and prepped for the Pit!" the voice said.
It's head constantly twitched to the side every so often and charged at Deimos. Despite it's size, it moved quickly and closed the gap between the two.
Deimos then sliced at the creature, attempting to behead it, but the blade stopped at it's neck with a loud 'clunk'.
So the bug can resist the sword. Clearly augmented to resist physical attacks. Deimos thought to himself.
"Absolutely no one has won the battle between this thing. It has taken the lives of dozens, if not hundreds of slaves in the ring," the voice explained to the crowd, almost taunting the Sith Lord.
Nothing can penetrate the bug on the outside. So what about the inside?
He grabbed onto his sword in a reverse grip and took a few steps closer as the Praetorian readied itself.
Deimos inhaled as much as he could and roared at the creature as loudly as possible.
The bug looked at him in curiosity, then changed to rage as it galloped to him, roaring at him as it got closer.
This was his chance, he picked up his sword and threw it as far as he could, using the force to guide the direction. The blade got closer and closer with the monster's mouth gaping open in a roar. Deimos only watched as the blade forced itself into the bug's throat and into the rest of it's internal organs. The Praetorian tried to scream in pain, but to no avail, it's vocal cords were torn to shreds as well.
The Sith raised his hand and moved it in a sweeping motion, making the sword tear apart the rest of it's organs. The bug stopped it's attempt to stay alive and slumped over, the life drained from it's eyes.
Deimos walked closer to the bug and raised his hand into the air. The bug raised off the floor and began shaking until it's back split apart, revealing the sword that killed it. The blade floated back into Deimos' hands and removed itself of any blood and gore.
He sheathed the sword and walked back, listening as the crowd was silent behind him. The guards emerged and were to escort him back to his cell.
On a planet in the Outer Rim...
Aouren Pala blocked several blaster bolts as pirates kept firing at him. He briefly smirked at their futile attempt to murder the Jedi Master. His yellow blade connecting with each direct bolt and redirecting at the attackers.
He lifted his wrist as he spoke into the comlink.
"Report, Padawan Leumai, report. Was the mission successful?" he asked.
The Pau'an Jedi heard the sound of rapid footsteps as he saw his apprentice leaped over his head carrying a metal box in one hand and his green-bladed lightsaber in the other.
Kane ran over to his master and began to assist him with dealing with the pirates, deflecting blaster bolts back at the offensive forces.
"Yes master, but there was a slight problem."
"What kind of problem?"
"You said that stealth was needed in this particular mission, correct?" Kane asked.
"Yes, what about.... oh no," Aouren trailed off as more pirates began to swarm and surround the two Jedi.
"And the council said that this was a mission needed for a minimum of two Jedi," Kane sarcastically remarked.
"Shut it. This is a mission that can only use two Jedi," his master said as he reached into his belt and pulled out a second lightsaber. The saber ignited, giving off a purple glow.
Kane also took out his second lightsaber, an elongated hilt that emitted a blue blade.
Every pirate had their guns pointed at them.
"Soresu?" Kane asked.
"Djem-So, we want the fight to be over quicker. We will also have a lecture on why you should pay more attention to details."
"Agreed master, but we should focus on the task at hand," Kane said.
"Agreed. On my mark?"
"Sync."
"Mark."
Both the master and the apprentice sprung into action as they leaped at their opponents, their blades poised to strike in their hands.
The next day...
"I would like to know more about you, Thea," Deimos said as he looked down at the floor.
"Why would you want to know? Last time you asked, I didn't want to answer. So why would you want to ask personal questions now?" she spat.
"I may be a Sith, but even I am curious."
"Alright alright. Quit being so ominous. I'll answer your questions if I ask you questions. Information for information, alright?"
"...fine. You start first," Deimos sighed.
"Who were your parents?" she asked.
"My father was a smuggler from Corellia and my mother was a Jedi Padawan exiled from the Temple. What about you?" Deimos asked.
"My parents were both nobles from Equestria. My father was the Captain before retiring into Lordship, my mother was rags-to-riches Duchess from Canterlot," she explained to the Sith Lord.
"How does someone like you end up in a place like this?" he asked.
"Migration. A recent Parasprite swarm invaded the place and created one heck of a famine. My mother and father were moving before being attacked by the pirates. I was 17 when I watched as the barbarians slaughtered the nobles in cold-blood, my parents included. I was then abducted by them and was tortured until I was finally 'broken'; physically, mentally, and emotionally," Thea had to wipe away a growing tear.
"W-what about you?" she stifled a sob.
Deimos put two of his fingers between the bridge of his nose and sighed, not wanting to see the mangled Unicorn in her current condition.
"You know what? We can talk about this later, most likely after we break out of here," he said as he looked around the dimensions of his cell.
"Escape is impossible. So far, no one has escaped this place," she whined out loud.
The Sith Lord glared at her, "How about we make a deal. If we manage to break out of this place, you tell me more about yourself. Deal?" Deimos proposed.
Thea considered his proposition, "It's a deal. Besides, it's impossible," she said a little too loudly.
"Not if you have the right ideas," he said as the guards began making their way to his cell again.
He watched as the door opened and was escorted by prison guards into the barracks. Hearing the familiar lock, he picked up the blade that he had used in his previous fights.
"Is this your-"
"Yes! Now hurry up!" Deimos yelled at the voice.
"Very well," Deimos felt the familiar flash of light as he once again appeared on the arena.
"Ladies and gentlemen, mares and stallions. We have given this challenger all we had against him, but is it enough?" the announcer said.
"NO!!!" the crowd cheered on as they were eager to see blood.
"Well, we have a new arrival," one of the larger gates began to open. Deimos readied his weapon as he prepared his nerves for what was to come.
A large creature stomped into the ring; it's skin was that of leather, it had three clawed fingers, black, beady eyes, and razor sharp teeth jutting out of it's jaws.
Deimos immediately knew this creature.
The Bull Rancor, a native predator in the fungal forests of Felucia.
As confused as the Sith was at the fact that a Rancor was on this planet, he was more surprised when a giant hand shot out of the darkness and dragged the Rancor back inside. All he heard were crunch-like sounds and the screeches of a dying Rancor.
What emerged barely fit the gates. An enormous red beast emerged from the shadows, it's horns curved backwards to give a more demonic appearance. Four claws jutted from each finger, it's eyes glowed orange as it's expression was that of rage. The monster reared it's head back and gave a deafening roar to the crowd.
"We have given a chance for the challenger to give up and die a quick death, he gave him a chance to surrender. But no, he decided to push forward to victory, but we say, 'Let the games go on!!!'. May I introduce: the Scourge of Nightmares, the King of Monsters, a beast caught by Thistle himself. May I present, The Nebilus Wyvern!!!" the voice yelled in enthusiasm.
The crowd did not bother to yell as the beast approached Deimos, lowering it's head to face him.
It's face was only meters away from his own. And like every other challenger he faced, it roared.
But unlike the previous opponents, the beast delivered an ear-splitting roar that could shatter metal itself, even Deimos himself swore his sword almost cracked.
The wyvern lifted it's hand and brought it down in an attempt to crush Deimos, but the Sith leaped out of the way to avoid becoming a bloody smudge on the sand floor. The beast swiped at Deimos with both of it's hands, but he used the force and pushed it back into the other side of the arena.
The red monster roared in anger. It then proceeded to open it's mouth and aim it at him, it's gaping maw then began to spew out a large column of fire.
Deimos reacted as soon the flames reached him, he brought up his hands and concentrated with the force. The flames attempted to burn the Sith alive but were forced to move around him as he created a bubble of protection around him. The wyvern continued exhaling the deadly flames, unaware of the Sith Lord's act.
When the flames died down, the wyvern staggered back as it saw Deimos, still alive and untouched by the flames.
The Dark Jedi looked at the crowd and observed the animal's behavior. It was enraged, threatened, and... afraid; it was aware that he was a being of great power. It was a shame that the best option for ending this battle would neither long nor bloody.
"I don't need to kill this creature, I only need to fill it with such great fear it would intimidate even the one who had captured the beast in the first place," he said to himself.
He lifted up his hand and shot out a bolt of lightning, hurting the creature and backing further into the walls away from Deimos. It roared at him to intimidate him.
First intimidation, now instill the fear, he thought to himself, using the force to reach deep into the creatures mind. There he found it's fears, desires, what makes it angry, happy, sad. He focused on the spot that controlled fear and focused using the force.
What the crowd saw was a wyvern screeching in terror at the Sith Lord as it approached him. It did everything in it's power to escape until it reached the gate where it was let out. Immediately, the beast quickly crawled into the cell, wanting the fear to end.
The gates were forced to close. The crowd stared at Deimos in shock.
The guards once again entered to escort him back to his cell, but this time, they kept their distance as they were aware of his abilities.
This was the day Deimos ended a fight without bloodshed.
The Sith Lord sat in his cell, wondering when Thea would be back with the first part of the plan.
Immediately on cue, the guard that Thea was with pushed her into her cell. The guard grinned smugly at her as he left their lines of sight.
Thea quickly dug out the papers that she hid in her mane, "The magic field only blocks brute force and magic. Here you go."
She used both of her hooves to hand them to Deimos, who used the force to levitate it to him.
"This isn't magic, so I am the exception," he said as he looked through papers, nodding in approval.
She glared at him, "This plan better be worth it, I probably won't be able to walk straight for a week."
Deimos looked up at her, raising an eyebrow at what she was hinting at.
"Did he-"
"Yeah, he did," she said as laid down on her cot and closed her eyes.
"It will work. Just one more day and we'll be free," he said as he lowered himself onto the cot.
Minutes passed before Thea spoke.
"Good night Deimos," she said.
Deimos merely grunted ambiguously, causing Thea to roll her eyes in slight annoyance and amusement.
Ever since Verus traveled with his master for the past year, he had grown in his ability with the Force. Although he learned his abilities from the Nightsisters, his power flourished under Lord Deimos' guidance. He learned what it was like to truly have power.
He sat in meditation, his master advised that he must meditate regularly, "Although we are part of the Dark side and that we rely on anger and passion, we must act with a clear mind. Otherwise we would be no different than animals," he would say, so he took that advise by heart and would always remember it.
The apprentice felt ship rock back and forth; they had entered the atmosphere. He opened his eyes and stood up, we opened the door and stood by his master as he concentrated on where to land.
Verus studied the landscape from the windows. The terrain was almost completely covered in ice while the sun began to rise. He knew this was not Hoth because of it's lack of more severe snowstorms. He knew this was not Belsavis, because there was no sign of spots lacking snow.
So this only meant they'e at-
"Welcome to Ilum," Deimos said as he landed the ship somewhere away from Imperial trade.
"Here begins your final trial," Deimos said as he stared off at the vast white horizon.
"This is where you begin the construction of your lightsaber."
7th day on Equus.
The next few days were the same as the first, staying in the castle. But that changed when Celestia finally game her speech on the presence of Verus, he then revealed himself to the crowd. Some despised him, others were fascinated, while a few just really didn't care.
After the speech, he was to relocate to Ponyville for 'specific reasons', as Twilight had said. Arina was moved to the clinic in Ponyville while R3 stayed with him at Twilight's castle. As soon as Verus got off the chariot, he walked back with the other six to the ship to scavenge what was left of it: the crates, the medical kits, and supplies.
Recently, Verus found out that the woods, this... Everfree forest, housed wildlife. Most likely primary consumers, and since he was a carnivore, he told Twilight that he had to go outside for some fresh air.
Verus growled in annoyance as he felt pain shoot out again in his stomach. He had to eat something!
Now Zabraks are built only as carnivorous creatures, obviously meaning that he only eats meat.
But that was a problem in a nation full of vegetarians. That's why he was here.
He finally grabbed onto the top branch and hoisted himself up. He closed his eyes and focused on any signs of life he could sense. It only took a matter of seconds for him to find. He spotted an animal slowly walking through the forest, munching on grass peacefully.
The Sith apprentice reached out and grabbed the bow hanging off of his back. Drawing an arrow out, he pulled the string back and took aim. Steadying his shot for several seconds, he let go.
The arrow sailed through the air and pierced the animal's abdomen. The creature let out a cry in pain and attempted to flee it's attacker, but to no avail. Because in order to run away from the attacker, the animal had to know where it was in the first place.
Verus now took his chance, he unsheathed his vibroknife and jumped off the branch, the blade pointed directly at his prey's neck. The blade entered cleanly and severed the major arteries around the throat, guaranteeing a quick death.
The animal slumped to the ground as it's life extinguished from it's eyes. He then picked up the animal's carcass and began to drag it to a more private spot so he could clean and cut the animal.
But someone was watching the whole seen unfold, and it only took Verus a matter of seconds to notice.
He spotted the two mares in front of him: the violet-colored Twilight and the yellow pegasus Fluttershy.
For the next few minutes, there was silence. Shock from the ponies, and surprise from the Zabrak.
"Y-you killed it!!" they both yelled at the same time.
"Yes, is there a problem?" he asked.
They both stared at him and the carcass for several seconds before bolting back to their homes as quickly as they could.
Verus then shrugged his shoulders and began to drag the body closer to his chosen spot.
Hours later...
Verus opened the door to Twilight's castle and closed the door behind him. As soon as he turned around, he saw Twilight just several meters away from him, anger and disgust in her eyes.
"Is there a problem?" he asked her.
"Why did you kill that animal? It was a docile creature and you killed it in cold-blood. Is that what your species does? Hunt for sport?" she yelled at him.
The Sith groaned in annoyance, "You are an idiot."
Twilight was taken aback from his statement.
"Did I stutter? You are supposed to be the smart one of your Elements group, and yet you failed to notice these?" he opened his mouth to reveal fully developed canines adorning his mouth.
It took just seconds for her to realize what he was, "You're a carnivore."
"You don't say," Verus replied.
"All this time I thought you may have been at least an omnivore. Lyra told me humans are-"
Verus stifled a malicious laugh at what she said, "I'm not human, that title goes to my master."
"What are you then?"
"I am a Zabrak, born on Coruscant and raised on Dathomir. At least according to what my master said... wait, how is your species aware of humans if none have ever been to this planet?" he asked her.
"It's just a theory that she just came up with. Some sort of conspiracy that she thinks Princess Celestia is hiding from the citizens of Equestria, it sounds ridiculous but-"
Verus suddenly walked off towards the door.
"Wait where are you going?!?!" she yelled.
"I'm going to see Lyra," he responded.
She then pulled him aside, "Oh no you're not, you're not getting away that easily. I had direct orders from Celestia to give you a tour of Ponyville. Starting with the rest of my friends, I believe you owe them an apology."
"If you do that, I'll withhold any knowledge on our galaxy's history," he said.
"If you do that, I won't give you access to this planet's history," she responded.
"I don't care about your planet, I won't be staying on it for very long. Besides, your history books are most likely a biased source from a pony's point of view rather than any other species."
Twilight then knew she couldn't convince him otherwise at that point. Besides that, she was shocked by the fact that she lost this debate to the him of all ponies- er, people. It was at that point when she finally remembered her adventures and misadventures in the human world, she mentally slapped herself for forgetting.
"Fine, do what you want, but don't expect me to help you anymore," she said angrily.
"I don't need your help," he closed the door before she could respond.
This was the point where he knew he won the argument. But he decided to take her advice on one thing.
"If I'm going to stay here any longer, I might as well familiarize myself with this nation's local population."
Young Verus knew that to get to the crystals, he had to get past the Imperials.
Since the beginning of the Galactic Empire, the Emperor decided to enact a strict embargo on all kyber crystals throughout the galaxy. Anyone found with such a mineral would be arrested or publicly executed. He told the crowds that they were worthless and served no purpose, but both he and his master knew the true reason behind that.
The Sith apprentice peeked over a chunk of ice and surveyed the area: almost forty Imperial stormtroopers and several other miners. His master had told him that his public presence must be kept a secret. That meant either hiding your identity or ridding any witnesses; and since this was Imperial territory:
No witnesses.
Verus leaped over his cover an began his descent down the ridge. He stopped behind the wing of a TIE Fighter.
Another piece of advice his master had given him was that he must make his removal of any threats look like like they were caused by something else. Verus' current idea on what the media should assume? Sacked by pirates.
The Zabrak looked over to see a stormtrooper with his back facing him. Verus force pulled him closer and sliced his throat with his vibroknife. He pulled the stormtrooper away and scavenged his weapons: an E-11 blaster rifle and three thermal detonators.
Knowing of the threat he faced, he decided to put his faith in the force. Verus inhaled and revealed himself. Before the Imperials realized his presence, he closed the door to the mine shaft, locking the miners inside, he had already killed five stormtroopers with his blaster and continued to kill more. Each stormtrooper opened fire on him, their mind set on killing the intruder.
Verus dodged every shot made by the soldiers and continued his assault. Shooting each trooper within his vicinity until he ran out of ammunition. He pulled out his vibroknife and charged at his opponents.
With one direct move, he slashed the throat of an Imperial and used his body to block the bolt of another, he tossed the dead body at the attacker and used a blaster pistol to shoot the trooper in the head, killing him instantly. Verus dodged another shot and fired at the attacker, killing him as well.
He then sensed something coming at high speeds to his right, he sidestepped and saw this new attacker: an Imperial shock trooper with a PTL model rocket launcher. The enemy fired again, but Verus dodged, avoiding the explosion, but resulted in the deaths of other troopers around him. Verus quickly formulated a quick plan and decided to put it to the test. The shock trooper then took aim at him and fired.
"Here goes nothing," he said as he stretched out his hand. The rocket quickly closed the gap before something strange began to occur.
The rocket began to slow down.
Verus focused on the rocket using the force and quickly rotated it until it faced the attacker. He then released his grip on the rocket and let it fly. The shock trooper could only watch in horror as the rocket made contact and blew him apart into pieces.
The Zabrak stood among the battle that had ensued and surveyed how it looked.
Bones broken, blood spilt on the snowy grounds, mangled bodies strewn across the place, perfect.
He walked over to the dead shock trooper, his body blown to pieces, except for his helmet. He picked up the mask, inspecting the blast marks on the front. He put on the mask and opened the doors to the mine shaft. The door began to open and the people slowly walked out to see Verus, his face hidden with an E-11 blaster rifle in his hands. They were afraid and confused by his presence, but they knew he was there to help.
"Is there anyone else in there?" he asked.
"We are the only ones, the rest died," one of them said.
The masked man quickly glanced at an Imperial shuttle.
"You're free, get on the ship and get out of here," he told the people. They all quickly thanked him as they boarded the last remaining Imperial shuttle and flew off.
Verus finally took off the mask and tossed it aside. He looked at the dark mine shaft.
"Master Deimos told me that Ilum was forgotten by the people of the Empire, so why would the Empire want to control Ilum?" he asked himself.
That mystery would have to be solved later as he began his trek into the caves.
Verus' first stop was Rarity's clothing shop. He walked inside to see an assortment of clothes that would most likely be royal on either an Outer Rim world, or at least Naboo. The Sith caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. His clothes were battered and damaged but otherwise in an adequate condition.
He finally heard the sounds of clops coming nearer.
"Oh, a new custom- AH!" he heard the white unicorn scream as she spotted Verus.
It would probably take more time for the residents of Equestria to adjust to the presence of a creature not from their world, but it could take time, be it weeks, months, or even ye-
"Your clothes are absolutely horrendous!" she shrieked.
...what?
Verus could barely process what just happened. He, Verus Kahn, apprentice to Lord Deimos, the embodiment of terror and dread; he, who had led many battles against war-hardened soldiers, was being ridiculed by a civilian because of his clothes?!?
...WHAT!?!?
"No, no, no, no. Rarity, I believe your name was. I was informed by Twilight that I should get comfortable with this nation, starting with this town, the town's civilians; and by my option, starting with you," he explained.
She looked at him in slight confusion before resuming her average look of vanity.
"Well, in that case I'll reserve your need for my services later in the week, I just had a lot of customers lately. So, what was it you wanted to talk about?" she asked him, trying not to break her gaze at him.
He inhaled sharply, "Just for today's subjects, I need to know about who you are, what you do, and what I should know about Ponyville and Equestria."
"All right, My name is Rarity, as you may already know. I was born here in Ponyville, I am a fashion designer and the Element of Generosity-"
"Element of Generosity?" he raised an eyebrow.
"Of course darling, the six Elements of Harmony, I'm surprised you have not heard of us...oh," she suddenly realized her mistake as soon as it left her mouth.
"If you may know, I'm not really from here," he sarcastically replied.
"Well you don't have to be so bitter about it, I would talk to Twilight about the Elements, she should provide more clarity on these subjects," she answered.
"And for my last request?"
"Hmm? Oh yes, Equestria is ruled currently by three princesses: Celestia, Luna, and Twilight; there is a fourth: Princess Cadence, but she rules over the Crystal Empire, a separate country near Equestria," she answered.
"Was there a Queen?"
"Excuse me?" she asked, confused by the question.
"A queen, a monarch. A ruler who was of higher ranking than a princess," he explained.
"Not that I would be aware of, but there was a story that told of a time before Celes- never mind," she said as she turned away.
"What is it?" he demanded.
"It's just an old foals tale. Just a story to persuade children to not misbehave," she said.
"But I never really heard the tale, I would ask Applejack. She seems to have more knowledge on that subject. If not, again, ask Twilight."
Verus had thought about it, "That is all. It was... insightful to make your acquaintance, miss Rarity."
"Thank you..."
"Verus, call me Verus," he said.
"Well, in that case, thank you Verus. I hope to see you again soon," she said as she turned around and got back to working on her designs.
The Sith apprentice left the shop and moved onto his next objective.
He continued walking, noticing how the civilians stared at him until he took notice of them, at that point they turned their heads forward until he stopped looking at them. Then they would stare again.
At that point, he noticed a multicolored shop with bakery assortment decorations on the building.
This must be the lair of Pinkie Pie. It is recommended I stay awa-
"HELLO!!!" he heard a high-pitched voice yell into his ear. Verus jumped back in shock and fell on his back.
How could she sneak up on him? There were not many creatures who could do such things, and yet she was able to accomplish such a task. Verus was trying to process more of this information while Pinkie was singing and dancing to some unrecognizable tune.
"WELCOME TO PONYVILLE!!!" she yelled.
"Can you calm down!" Verus yelled back at her, which seemed to have worked as she stopped with the crazed mental atrocities, but was still grinning from ear to ear. How were they able to do such a thing?!?!?!
"So... howda you like Ponyville???" she asked excitedly.
Verus did his best to maintain his calm composure, "It is different from the other worlds I have been to."
"Huh? How so?" she asked as if she was a child asking questions on a story some adult was telling that particular child.
"Nothing was trying to kill me as soon as I arrived on this planet. Oh wait..." he replied sarcastically through clenched teeth, trying to get a message through to Pinkie. Which, surprisingly, seemed to have worked.
"Wow! Re- oh... sorry about that, Rainbow Dash is really, really protective over us. She is the element of Loyalty after all!" she said with a smile.
"Loyalty?" he said.
"Yup, and I'm the Element of Laughter!" she jumped three meters into the sky.
"How did I not figure that out?" Verus replied coldly, but Pinkie didn't seem to notice.
"I know right!?!? I just though I was just the greatest party pony the world has ever seen, and BOOM!!! It got better! Ever since we defeated Nightmare Moon, Discord (even though he's such a nice guy now!), Sombra (oh wait, that didn't count), and Tirek (technically it was Twilight)..."
"Pinkie," he tried to get her attention.
"And even though your trying to get my attention, I still talk and talk and talk until-"
"PINKIE!"
"You get my atten- oh wait what? what happened?"
"Nothing, I just want some directions to Applejack's location," he replied.
"Okie dokie loki," she said as she pointed in the direction of the farm.
"Thank you, that was all I wanted," Verus said as he walked away.
Pinkie also turned around in the opposite direction to hop away until she realized one major detail she left out.
"Omigosh! I forgot to tell you about your par... ty," she said as she turned around, only to see no one behind her.
"Huh, what a weirdo ," she shrugged as she bounced away to Sugarcube Corner.
Luckily, Verus was fast enough to hide behind a building, out of her view.
"I never want to go through that again," he breathed out, he finally straightened himself up and made his way to Applejack's farm.
As Verus traveled down and down into the mine shaft, he took notice of the age of some things in the location. For example, he found several artifacts that could be considered thousands of years old, even into the age of the Old Republic and the Sith Empire.
The zabrak also walked over ancient skeletons in reminiscence to Talz corpses, possible working for the Republic, and Kaleesh mercenaries. He kept on venturing on until he saw a faint red glowing in the distance. Verus unholstered his pistol and unsheathed his vibroknife and he crept closer and closer.
When he finally reached the glowing, it dulled faintly as it presented itself to the Sith warrior.
The object turned out to be a crystal. A red kyber crystal.
"I have heard that red crystals can be formed naturally, but they are extremely rare," his master had once told him.
Verus unsheathed his knife and started to cut away a sliver of the large crystal.
The large mineral suddenly lifted itself off the ground, revealing a large tendril connected to the rock. It slid and retreated into the head of a waking monster.
The creature was in similar size to a rancor at it's full height as it slowly rose on it's two hind legs. With bulbous eyes and large scythe-like teeth jutting out of it's gaping jaws. It's legs were short in comparison to it's body, it's arms covered in spines that ran all the way to it's shoulders.
Master Deimos had told him of these creatures. The ancient Sith from the times of Sorrzin Syn were capable of creating these monstrosities.
This was a Sith Spawn.
The creature gave off a low clicking sound as it quickly swiped at it, despite it's actual size. Verus quickly jumped over it and grabbed onto one of it's spikes. The monster attempted to crush him with it's other hand, but it ended up breaking some of the spines on it's arm and impaled it's hand on one of the larger spikes.
The Sith Spawn hissed in anger as Verus climbed higher and jumped off one of it's shoulder spikes. He unsheathed his knife and stabbed it into it's forehead.
Then the monster roared. It's roar was unlike anything, the sound was pain and anger incarnate, it's voice filled with rage as it was consumed with the desire to end the life of it's prey.
But that moment wouldn't come. Verus dodged another swipe aimed for him, but he ducked and reached for his belt. He pulled out a thermal detonator and removed the vibroknife. With inhuman speed, he jammed the grenade into hole and jumped off the Sith creature.
Verus then unholstered his blaster pistol and took aim; directly at the detonator.
Unbeknownst to the monster, it cried out and began to progress toward him. It watched as Verus fired a single shot at it.
And Verus watched as the detonator exploded, tearing apart the monster's head and destroying it's brain.
The creature lurched backward as it stopped in mid-cry and landed on it's back, the life extinguishing from it's giant angler eyes. The zabrak Sith walked over to the dead creature with his knife in hand, focusing on the crystal still attached to it's mangled head.
"It may be a Sith Spawn, but it's still a saber crystal," he said to himself as he severed the tendril that attached to the head, and cut away a crystal shard.
He then heard steps behind him approach him from a few meters away.
"Well, what do we have here?" he heard.
Verus suddenly turned around to face his new opponents. Two people, a zabrak and a Twi'lek, dressed in black Imperial uniforms with lightsabers hanging from their sides.
Inquisitors.
"So we have a rebel here to stop the Empire from there operations on Ilum, do we approve of that Legger?" the female said with a malicious grin.
"No," the man said in a deep, booming voice.
"That's a shame. With such potential, you could serve the Empire as an assassin, you did manage to kill our Sith spawn meant to keep our workers in order and reduce the population of Jedi intruders," she said as she began to approach Verus.
"Thanks," he said, raising his Vibroknife in a combat stance, "But no thanks."
"Sad that I couldn't convince you. Legger, kill him," she said sadistically as she walked over behind the other zabrak.
"With pleasure, Inquisitor Eaera," he said as he advanced towards Verus, activating his lightsaber in the process.
Verus charged at the man with his vibroknife in hand, as soon as Legger swung his blade, he ducked. The Sith apprentice faced off against the Inquisitor in a flurry of stabs and slashes with his blade, the vibrating knife holding it's own against a blade made of pure plasma. Verus delivered a quick jab to the brute's side, but the monstrous Inquisitor looked down with a slight malicious grin as he kicked Verus away.
With anger, Deimos' apprentice's training finally took hold. He quickly got back up and ran towards his attacker; Verus extended his hand and concentrated with the force.
Inquisitor Legger felt the force as it pushed him back into the hard rock wall.
"Eaera, he's force-sensitive!" he coughed out, but the Twi'lek Inquisitor only watched as Verus began to approach him.
The large zabrak clumsily swung at the smaller, but Verus parried and stabbed him in the arm. Legger cried out in pain as he lashed out with his other hand, but Verus caught it and broke his hand, sending intense pain throughout his entire arm. He knelt to the ground, Verus now towering over him. With one last attempt, he grabbed his lightsaber and tried to stab him. Verus quickly reacted by dodging the blade and slicing the man's throat.
Legger lifted his only unharmed hand to his throat. Pain shot out throughout his neck with blood pouring out of the wound, he looked up to see Verus with a look of triumph on his face but no expressions of pride. The Inquisitor finally fell to the floor as whatever was left of his life left him.
Verus knelt forward and picked up the man's lightsaber and activated it, he studied the yellow blade and before looking back at the Twi'lek.
Inquisitor Eaera extinguished the look of fear in her eyes when the young zabrak looked at her. Luckily, she came up with a plan to escape from Verus.
"So you're strong in the force? You would make a Inquisitor, far better than that dead weight behind you," she said as she walked closer to Verus, her hips swaying in an alluring fashion.
She was just inches from Verus, she placed a hand on his shoulder, "You are powerful. How about you satisfy my need for your... importance, and I could satisfy anything you desire?" she said in her own honeyed voice, her lips approaching his.
Eaera heard the sound of a lightsaber unsheathing from it's hilt, she looked down to see a yellow blade in her abdomen.
"As I said before, thanks," he then deactivated the saber, "But no thanks."
She crumpled onto the cold ground. The zabrak Sith got down and laid a hand on her forehead, applying the force.
"You'll live, but you won't remember me. All that you remembered was the cave collapsing and you were the only survivor after your friend turned against you. You will give up your life as a pawn for the Empire and take up a new life under a new identity. Trust me, this is better than death and far better than punishment from the Emperor," he said as she finally fell into unconsciousness.
Verus picked up her lightsaber and studied it. Shame, he wished that they would've fought, it would have been a spectacular display. But why did he spare her life? Her life was no use to him if she wasn't there to kill him.
In short, mission accomplished.
He attached their lightsabers to his belt and began his trek back to his master's ship.
Verus observed the farm that the orange mare lived at. A large red barn with a white picket fence along with rows and rows of trees with red apples hanging from the branches. He walked past the gate and into the acres to see Applejack kicking a tree, resulting in a majority of the apples falling into the basket, the rest landed on the grass.
He was on the verge of beginning their conversation before he felt something bit his leg, he immediately look down to see a small creature biting down on his ankle.
"Let go of me!" he yelled, reaching for his lightsaber. The animal growled in response.
The Sith finally activated his lightsaber and was prepared to turn the small mammal into sliced meat.
"Winona, let 'im go!" Applejack yelled at the creature, this "Winona" whined through it's teeth around the Zabrak's ankle before finally letting go.
Verus deactivated his lightsaber and put it back on his belt, "Thank you, you must be Applejack, as memory serves," he looked down to see a bite-shaped outline on his right ankle.
"It's alright, she tends to get bite-y with strangers," she said as bucked another tree before moving onto the next one.
"What is that creature?" he asked as he walked closer to her.
She paused for a second and looked at him, "Ya don't have dogs where your from?"
"Dogs? I know what dogs are, but they look nothing like the one I met just now," Verus said, thinking about that 'dog's' reptilian counterpart.
"So... Verus. Howdy and welcome to Ponyville," she said in an emotionless voice, still remembering about the Incident.
"To explain why I am here in the first place, Twilight suggested that I get to know more of the inhabitants, so the best way to start was to know the more... popular residents," he explained.
She looked back at the tree and decided to move the basket onto the next one, "So how's that workin' fer yah?" she asked.
"Twilight is more curious than my abilities-"
"The ones ya used to beat us," she mumbled, Verus stopped in mid-sentence.
"Your friend provoked me, the rest of you took action rather than assume that I reacted out of instinct," he argued, Applejack was silent throughout his argument.
"As for 'how it's working out for me'; Twilight is more interested in my abilities, history, and technology rather than me in general, it'll be a matter of time before she takes the sudden interest to study my anatomy," he said uncomfortably.
"Well that's Twilight for ya," she chuckled lightly.
"I briefly met Rarity, but she is more displeased with my own apparel than my actions, so we were fine on what happened earlier."
"She has a habit of doin' that, her bein' a fashionista and all that."
"I also had the misfortune of meeting the one known as Pinkie Pie."
"Oh boy, how was your experience?" she said with a slight grin on her face, though she didn't want him to see it.
"She just appeared out of the blue as soon as I got within range of her shop, I swear that she just haunts the place," he said.
"She'd have to be ghost to do that," she then proceeded to buck the next tree and watched as the apples fell into the basket.
"That's not what I meant."
"Well what did you mean?" she asked.
"I- well, it's hard to explain," he tried to explain to the orange mare.
There was a moment of silence. Verus did not want to bring up a long past portion of his training, it was a memory that he had tried to repress many times throughout his life as an apprentice of a powerful Sith Lord.
"Wanna talk about it?" she asked him again.
"No," he responded.
"Alright, well I think you should go see Fluttershy, I saw her earlier today and she looked a bit shaken, and I feel that you had something to do with it."
"I will consider it, goodbye Applejack," he said, beginning to walk away.
"See ya later Verus," she said, moving the basket to the next tree.
Verus knew that he had to ask Applejack about the tale of this unknown monarch that Rarity advised that he ask her. But he had other things to worry about.
Like having to get through with this meeting-the-inhabitants chore, then he could ask her once he had the time.
Deimos opened the rear door to see Verus walking to the ship with two lightsabers strapped to his belt and a crystal in his hand.
"I see you have returned, my apprentice. The supplies are in the boxes, make good use of them," he said darkly.
"Yes master," Verus responded, walking past his master and into the next room.
He saw several boxes in the supply room, they were placed parallel to each other as though it were sectioned for different uses.
Verus opened the first box, which was filled with many different lightsaber hilts, waiting to be taken apart and reassembled into something new. The second box was filled with weapons other than lightsabers such as vibroknives, blasters, and several other things, used for missions of reconnaissance. The last box was filled with miscellaneous things that could be used in the creation of such lightsabers, but they would turn out much more unorthodox than any others.
He immediately picked up several lightsabers hilts and set them at the center of the room, he returned to the third box and picked up several random objects from said box.
The Sith apprentice raised his hand to mid-level, the other lightsabers floated into the air. With one twist of the wrist, the lightsabers pulled themselves apart and landed as disassembled pieces of metal. Verus decided he would start from the bottom and work his way up. He took pieces from the other hilts and, with the blueprints in his mind, decided to piece it together into something new. Verus proceeded to open up the hilt and insert three materials needed in lightsaber construction: the power insulator, the power vortex ring, and the diatium power cell, a self-recharging battery.
The next part would be more tricky, he had to imbue the crystals with the force. The problem was that it would take days for it to happen. He removed the lightsaber that had belonged to Legger and removed the crystal, since it was already imbued. He picked up the primary crystal mount and set it atop the power cell. Verus then removed the focusing crystals, the activator, and it's chamber from some of the other lightsabers and put them into their new home. He was halfway finished.
He then inserted the blade energy channel, although this would do nothing without the rest of it's parts, so he then surrounded it with the cycling field energizers. Verus now picked up the activation button, the blade length adjust, and the power adjuster; he then connected the wires to each button and knob and set them into their places where they would be more accessible.
Finally he moved the final piece into place, the stabilizing ring. The ring was finally set onto the lightsaber, which finally finished the legendary weapon. Since Verus had used this process with the force, the saber's parts were bonded together on a molecular level, making them almost impossible to remove unless either broken or removed by the force.
With a sigh, he set the weapon down and opened his eyes to see his creation. The lightsaber was colored silver on a majority of it's parts, the bottom was smooth and rounded while also colored black. Some of the pieces were larger in width while others were more precise and comfortable in accordance to actually being held. The top part as standard, being circular and flat.
He activated the saber, it glowed to life and engulfed the room in yellow light as the saber gave off an ominous humming sound before turning it off.
Verus picked up the hilt and frowned, although the blade was perfect in appearance, it felt too... off, like it was meant to be improved somehow. The hilt felt too metallic and synthetic. He picked up one of the objects he had gotten from the third box: a long strip of rancor leather, Verus began to wrap the handle in the leather tightly, no overlapping other parts or revealing and spots of metal, the only parts of metal that were concealed was the center, which was where the saber was most held.
The handle finally felt more comfortable to the touch, but he knew something was missing.
In the event that he should lose his lightsaber, a spare must be built.
He then looked at the rest of parts on floor, and idea popping into his head.
Time to get to work once more.
Verus had finally arrived at Fluttershy's cottage, if he could call it an actual house. In his eyes , it looked as though half of the house was made from the forest itself rather than built all by itself, but he guessed that that was what she was probably going for.
He stepped forward closer to the door and knocked on it, listening to the echoes that reverberated into the house. The door creaked open for literally a split second before it slammed shut.
It seems that she peeked through the crack just to get a look at me, he observed.
Verus knocked on the door again, "Fluttershy!" he yelled.
"Leave... please," the man heard the whisper.
"I'm not here to hurt you, I'm here to explain something."
"Are you going to eat me like that poor doe that you killed?" Fluttershy managed to squeak out. Verus was unsure of whether she was asking a legitimate question or if she was mocking him.
She sounded too innocent to him, so he went with the former, "No, just open the door," he answered.
A minute passed before the top door slowly opened, revealing a teary-eyed yellow pegasus.
"W-what did you want to tell me?" she asked him.
"I'll explain... may I come in?"
Fluttershy was almost taken aback because of his rather polite manners, "Um, alright. Let me just clean the place up a little bit," she then closed the door.
Verus listened from outside to the sounds within. Some of the sounds comprised of crashes and things being tossed around before coming to a stop; other noises were made up of squeaks, whimpers, and various animals noises inside the cottage.
It was until that time when he heard a conversation take place in the cottage.
"Angel, please behave. I-I know how you feel about strangers, but-" there were squeaks interrupting here own dialogue.
"Yes, I know. I think it's wrong too, but he probably has a perfectly good reason... I think," she explained.
More squeaks, "He'll be here soon. If he comes back and if he finds out if he's bad or good, he'll make him go away. But right now, we have to hope that this stallion's good," she whispered. Verus resumed his normal posture as soon as he heard her coming to the door.
Fluttershy opened the door once more, "O-okay you can come in now."
The zabrak nodded and took a step inside. The house smelled of plant life and animals, but it was neither pungent nor filth, the smell was more clean. It was that moment when he knew what this small creature was: a veterinarian.
He looked around to see the rooms neat and orderly, as if the place was never messy to begin with, as Fluttershy briefly unconsciously described.
Verus took a seat on the couch with Fluttershy sitting adjacent to him, but backed slightly away in case he was actually a threat.
"So Fluttershy-" she flinched at the mention of her name.
"-I have quickly come to understand what you do here. You are a veterinarian, correct?" he asked the pegasus.
"Oh, well I guess you can say that," she whispered.
Verus paused for a second, "That will have to suffice then. If that is the case, then you have taken care of many animals throughout your life, correct?"
"Yes, you're right," she said, more curious to what he was getting to.
"Then you should understand why I killed that animal," he asked, but he almost regret the words ever leaving his mouth. Because the butter-colored pegasus immediately broke down in tears from the memory.
"But why did you do it?!?" she almost yelled. Verus sighed and facepalmed.
"Take a closer look, you should understand by now," he commanded, lifting his upper lip with his index finger, revealing a jagged, if not serrated row of teeth. Fluttershy's crying came to a full stop as the realization dawned on her.
"You're a carnivore..." she whispered, blushing furiously.
"Now you understand?" he asked her, giving her an extremely rare grin, albeit a small one.
"I just thought you just killed for fun. I-I, um... oh boy I feel like such a dummy," she buried her face into her hooves.
I can't believe I'm actually going to say this, Verus thought to himself as he began to talk.
"What you thought does not make you unintelligent, it means you were assuming the wrong thing. You had your assumptions, but they were brought to light, I hope this clears your conscience," he tried to comfort her, laying a hand on her shoulder.
She wiped away a tear and smiled at him, "T-thank you," was all she said before outright hugging him.
Verus almost jumped in surprise at her action. As a Sith, he usually kills whenever something is this close to him, but he had to make an exception with her. He wrapped his arm around her, his eye twitching in annoyance as he does so.
"You're... very welcome, but I must take my leave back to the clinic," he said as got back up and walked to the door.
"Goodbye Verus," Fluttershy said.
Verus turned back to look at Fluttershy, who was much less shy, "Goodbye, Fluttershy."
He closed the door behind him and began his journey to the clinic that was caring to Arina.
Deimos heard the sound of footsteps approaching from behind, he turned to see Verus with two lightsabers in his hands.
"You never cease to amaze me, my apprentice. I expected you to take longer with your construction. Much longer," he told the zabrak Sith.
"Nothing less than perfection, my lord," Verus said, holding out the sabers.
"No need to gloat yet Verus, you're not a Lord yet," he said, picking up the lightsabers and studying them.
"Yes... exquisite design, my apprentice," he activated the first saber, the yellow blade grew from the hilt.
"A yellow blade? Not very common for a Sith, where did you get such a crystal?"
"I stole it from a pair of Inquisitors on Ilum," Verus explained.
"Inquisitors? Did they put up much of a fight?"
"No."
"Then they were either weak, or you are becoming much more powerful. Now let's see... the handle is bound in leather, was this design in your own mind?" the Sith Lord asked.
"Not exactly, it was but an ordinary hilt, but the saber felt off. The leather was what completed the design."
Deimos then shifted to the next saber and activated it, the blade glowed red. But he noticed that the frequency he sensed was different.
"This crystal gives off something... strange. Where did you find this one?" he asked.
"I killed a Sith Spawn, it used a large kyber crystal chunk as a lure possibly for curious Jedi. Since it was made with the creature, it would count as natural crystal."
"Both a natural red crystal and a Sith Spawn, this is quite intriguing," Deimos said, turning back to the controls.
"Return to the training room, we will put those sabers of yours to use soon," he said.
Without warning, the comms on one of the panels suddenly came to life.
"Mayday! Mayday! Reporting to all Rebel ships, this is Bail Organa and Fulcrum sending out a encrypted distress signal aboard the Tantive IV, we are in the Dantooine system and are requesting immediate aid!" the communications system declared.
Deimos looked at Verus, then back at the controls. He was surprised that this was secretly a rebel ship this whole time! This could have an advantage.
"R3, set a course to the Dantooine system," he told the astromech droid, who immediately began got to work on his master's command.
"Master, may I ask what you are doing?" Verus said as the ship finally went into hyperspace.
"If we want the Empire off our backs, we will need to gain a few allies to keep us out of their hands," Deimos explained.
"But the Rebels are in favor of rebuilding the old republic, including the Jedi," Verus exclaimed.
"They will come to understand our intentions. As for you, do you understand the idea, 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'?" he asked the young man.
"The idea that two opposing adversaries would put aside their differences to eliminate a threat that could destroy both factions?"
"Exactly, I am an outcast of the Empire, and so are they. The only difference that they loath is that fact is that we utilize the Dark Side of the Force, but they will put that aside to fight off an entire Empire that utilizes the Dark Side, if you don't come to terms to this-" R3 finally stopped the ship, revealing a large battle between a Corellian Freighter and it's X-wing fighters against an Imperial Super Star Destroyer.
"R3, the star destroyer will focus on the offensive units, you will need to board the Freighter, they will need our assistance," he then turned to face Verus once more
"-then consider this practice," he said, picking up his lightsabers and strapping them to his belt.
"R3, stay with the ship in case we need a fast escape," he commanded the droid.
Darth Deimos felt the ship's magnetic seals clamp onto the ship and waited until the boarding tunnel finally merged with the ship.
Verus followed his master towards the back exit and opened the door.
"Ready to put those lightsabers to good use?"
"Yes master," Verus answered.
"Good," they walked through the tunnel and began to open the doors.
"Remember your training," Deimos reminded his apprentice. He activated his lightsabers and forced open the doors, where they were greeted with stormtroopers that began to open fire on the new hostiles.
When Verus felt the impact, he finally knew there was someone missing. The brute force of the hit sent him hurtling several meters from his original spot. He groaned as he rolled over and got back up, ready to face his attacker.
Before he could get a glimpse, he caught the next hoof ready to strike him. This time he looked up to see his enemy.
"Rainbow Dash," he growled in annoyance, "Leave me alone, I have better things than settling a childish grudge."
"Where are they?!" she yelled at him. Verus stopped.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, a rock suddenly pelted him on the back of the head.
"Yes you do, I know you do," she said, eager to fight him.
Verus sighed and turned around. Rainbow suddenly saw the rock she threw at him suddenly float into the air.
"I'm warning you, if you don't leave, I will have no choice but to deal with you personally. You wouldn't want to lose those wings of yours, would you?" he threatened.
The rock suddenly zoomed towards her and clipped her left wing before she could even react. She cried out in pain and glared at him in fury.
Verus lifted another rock with the force, "Leave or the next one goes in between your eyes."
She growled under her breath and began to walk away, "I still know it was you, I'll be back."
"What did I do?!" he yelled at her.
"I realized Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom haven't returned from their next 'tryout' for earning their Cutie Mark, and I think you had something to do with it," she explained, pointing at him with her hoof. Pain shot throughout her wing.
"I can assure you, I am innocent of your accusations. If you wanted me to help you, all you had to do was ask," he said with hidden humor in his voice.
"I don't want you to help me! I can handle these things on my own," she spat.
Verus had formed the idea minutes ago. Out of six that he had met, regaining trust was fairly easy with most of them. Rainbow was the exception. She was brash, arrogant, and extremely egotistical, but she wanted to find these three ponies. Meaning that she was an element of... devotion? He would have to ask later.
"If you can handle things on your own, how will you heal that wing of yours?" he asked.
"Hey! That was your fault, you injured it!"
"And I can fix it just as easily," Verus said, that got her attention.
"Really? No, you're lying."
"I can, on one condition," he said.
Rainbow sighed, "Alright, what is it?"
"You stop assuming that I am evil. I may use powers that may seem questionable, but they are without evil intent."
"I'll think about it, bub," she said, spreading the wing out for the zabrak to see, wincing in pain as she did so.
"You gonna use your force, or whatchamacallit?" she asked.
"No, medicine," he said, opening one of the pouches from his belt and pulling out a small syringe.
The cyan mare sighed, "Just make it fast."
Verus then stabbed the needle into the wound and injected the fluid. He then then put the syringe back in it's spot for recycling purposes.
Rainbow watched in shock as her wing began to heal, her skin and feathers began to regrow and replace the old wound.
"This," Verus pointed at the wing, "Is a miracle drug known as Bacta, a popular medicine used to speed up tissue and, in your case, keratin regeneration."
She looked at her wing and flapped it several times before lifting off the ground, "Huh, good as new. I guess were cool then."
Verus knew of her dilemma on finding the three little one. So why did this next idea suddenly pop into his mind? We may call it foreshadowing.
"Show me where the three that you were talking about went."
"Wait what? You're really helping me with this?"
"Yes, the sooner that we get this over with, the faster your arrogance disappears from my life," Verus remarked.
"Ha ha, very funny. Come on, let's just go," she said leading the way.
Verus began to follow her to the Everfree forest, but he stopped and looked back at the original path that lead to the hospital.
Let's hope this does not take long, he thought as he turned back to follow the rainbow-maned mare.
He unhooked his lightsabers from his belt, ready to face the dangers in the forest.
"There seems to be a problem in the Pit, is there not?" A voice asked.
"Yes, there is. It's Deimos, our most recent addition to the arena, but that's not the problem," Thistle explained.
"Deimos...... and what is that problem?"
"Well, when we captured prisoners and slaves and let them fight, they are reluctant to do so, regardless of species," Onyx said.
"And?"
"This creature, Deimos, craves it. He enjoys the thrill of the arena and the murder of his opponents," Oracle explained to the voice.
"I have come here to retrieve this man, regardless if he is dead or alive."
"Well whaddaya expect us tah do?" Lore asked, crossing his arms.
"I tracked and found you four immediately after his capture and transportation to your petty arena. We agreed that once Deimos is dead, I claim his body and bring it back to my master for proof of my... our success. Going so far as to destroy every other source of flyable transportation so that he does not leave."
"But the problem is that he's winning, and we're running out of challengers," Oracle said.
"Then you improvise, send out your challengers," the voice continued.
"But we're running out!"
"No, you are just foolish and afraid to do the unthinkable. Lie and they will kill him without a second thought."
"And if you're wrong?" Thistle asked, extinguishing his cigar and unsheathing his knife.
The figure moved out from the shadows, revealing a young man with black hair, orange eyes with dark side corruption forming around them.
"Then the Galactic Empire will ensure that you do not encounter this problem ever again."
The four natives pulled back and debated on what they should do. Eventually, they came to an agreement.
"We agree to your terms. Thank you, Naero."
"The pleasure is all mine."
"So business is settled?" Thistle asked.
"Yes, I will report my findings to the Emperor."
Deimos knew he was in a dream, he had remembered every dream that he had ever since he became a Jedi Master. In his dreams, he relived his old memories on the battlefield, Clone troopers firing at their mechanical rivals while they fired back. His apprentice high upon the rooftops with his snipers taking out enemy fire.
This was a memory that he remembered the most. The recolonization of Makeb. A planet that had become inhospitable due to Hutts mining a powerful material known as Isotope-5. The Republic evacuated the planet's population while the Empire did it's best to stabilize the planet. Now the planet is more or less stable but with a toxic atmosphere, giving the separatist droids an advantage over them: lack of lungs. Fortunately, the Kaminoans had coincidentally created a suitable rebreather for the mission, making their advantage obsolete.
Today, the Republic pooled in it's resources in a an attempt to make Makeb livable again.
"As important and taxing as it was to bring an dead planet back to life. The reward would be in the form of a near-limitless energy source," Chancellor Palpatine had said.
Deimos found his younger self on the battlefield, cutting down droids and making his way towards the CIS command center. He continued to watch as his younger self continued to fight his way into the compound, destroying everything in his path.
The memory shimmered, revealing Kane finding his apprentice in an interrogation chamber, recently tortured by droids. She was strong and did not reveal a single word of the Republic's plans. Another shimmer occurred, showing Master Leumai fending off General Grievous, who was unable to get through the Jedi's Soresu defenses.
But something strange happened. The memory began to distort and blur, fast-forwarding to the conquering of Makeb, another victory to the Republic. To his horror, he encountered a memory in his dreams that he had never seen before. Usually, he always dreamt of the same dreams; of battle, of practice, failure, honor, and just life itself. But when something new is in his own dreams, he had become truly afraid.
His first vision was of him, but he was roughly the same age as when he became a Jedi Master. Behind him were a number of children dressed in attire similar to both the Jedi and the Sith. While some were aliens that he was familiar with, some were ponies, griffins, dragons, and even changelings.
The vision continued on, showing himself welcoming a new 'student' to this academy.
"You have been selected for the Temple, welcome to the academy of the Je'd-"
The vision suddenly faded and showed him a new one. He was on Hoth, fighting against the Empire with both his apprentices at his side. Watching as snowspeeders began to loop around AT-AT walkers. What caught his eye was a pilot exiting a downed speeder and climbing up a walker with a grappling hook, the pilot then activated a lightsaber and opened the bottom hatch, tossing a detonator inside and leaping off the machine.
His next vision showed a grave, his grave. With his apprentice and masses of ponies surrounding his tombstone, giving their respects and mourning him. What they said next actually surprised him.
"He gave his life for save us all, and he will be missed. Let us pay our respects."
The next vision was darker. A giant castle on a mountainside, flying the banner of the Galactic Empire. Star Destroyers flying in it's skies and Imperial troopers watched the streets with malevolent eyes.
Finally, the last vision. Instead of the Empire, it showed the castle flying a bloodied Imperial flag, as if mocking it. On a throne in that castle sat a man, his face concealed by his hood. He was introduced to a courier.
"Speak, messenger. Is the Griffin Empire finally annexed into our own government?" he spoke, his voice all too familiar.
"Yes my liege, but a complication had arose," the messenger spoke quickly.
His eyes glowed through his hood, a burning orange, "What complication?" he hissed.
"The fugitives, Verus Kahn, Arina Ferrin, and the Elements of Harmony, have acquired allies."
"What allies?!"
"M-my lord, it may seem ridiculous. May we discuss this somewhere else?" he asked.
"Very well. Leyard, clear my schedule and make sure the 'princesses' lower the sun and moon at the appropriate times," he spoke to the guard at his right.
"Yes, Emperor Deimos," he said obediently.
Deimos finally came to a realization.
These were not just visions.
"These are my futures!" he yelled out.
Day 7 on Equus.
Deimos jolted awake as soon as the light touched his face. He sat up from his cot and looked across the hall, where Thea was sleeping peacefully. Well, as peacefully as a slave could.
He pushed himself off the bed and stood upright. He picked up his robes and proceeded to put them on, still not eased by his dream.
Suddenly, a 'thump' sounded through the halls. Deimos turned his head to notice that Thea had fallen off her bed.
"Who-what!" she shrieked, scrambling to stand back up on all four of her hooves.
"Wake up Thea, today is the day we are free," he said.
She groaned, "Can I just have five more minutes?" she said as she tried to drift back to sleep.
Unfortunately for her, Deimos picked up a rock roughly the size of his palm and tossed it hard through the bars of his cell. The rock's kinetic energy resulting in it's disintegration, creating a spark of light.
A loud spark of light.
Thea jolted awake once more, screaming in fear. Causing her to run forward and, out of her fear, slammed into the bars of the cage, resulting in an electric shock, which flung her backwards into wall.
She got back up and coughed extensively, "WHY!" she whined.
"Do you want to get out, you idiot?!" he hissed at her.
"Yes but-"
"So shut up and stop complaining!"
"Right! Some of us are trying to get some shuteye, freak!" one of the prisoners said, causing Thea to flinch at his insult.
As soon as the inmate's words left his mouth, a prison guard smashed his sword against one of the metal bars.
"Everyone! Wake up, it's breakfast time!" he yelled out. The slaves and prisoners groaned in annoyance as Thea's rambling kept them all awake.
Deimos watched as the guards proceeded to open the doors and lead them out. But the guards hesitated to open his cell, trying his best to carefully open the door and lead him out.
He sensed the guards fear, remember what happened with that red monster. The people around him were finally aware of his power, and they were afraid.
Something bumped against his back, he turned to see Thea being roughly pushed by a guard, but the stallion stopped as soon as he took one look into Deimos' eyes.
"Leave her alone," he continued to glare, the guard quickly nodded and backed away from the mare. Thea quickly caught up to him.
They entered the mess hall. As soon as Deimos got into the line, the gladiators took notice of him and parted for him so he could receive his meal. When the server finally gave him his food, he walked back to his bench and sat down with Thea as soon as she arrived.
"So Deimos, how do you know this plan will work?" she asked the Sith, who continued to reluctantly eat his meal.
"I don't, but I always have a plan B," he said, feeling as though he was being watched by someone.
"And that is?"
"Improvise."
As soon as he said that, Thistle barged into the mess hall. The griffon had a look of arrogance while his gaze nearly bore itself into the Sith Lord's skull.
"Today!-" he shouted, every eye turned to him, "-Will be the fight of the century. Our champion here will be none other than Emerald."
Emerald stood up from her seat, saluting with her fist to her chest.
"And Deimos," he finished. The green dragon felt a twinge of dread as she heard the name of the Sith in the same sentence as hers, but she it was at that moment when she realized that she had finally found someone worthy to take her on.
The Sith Lord looked at her, the memory of her arm dislocating still fresh on her mind, but she shook it off. She was about to kill the most dangerous prey she has seen.
For the Scorekeeper.
Deimos was lead back to the armory as usual, the guards opened the door and closed it, as usual. But this time, there was something different.
"Choose your weapons," the announcer spoke.
He said weapons, plural.
The Sith Lord grabbed his trademark sword and was about to enter the Pit until he saw something rather peculiar. It was at this moment he finally took notice of a small box, he continued walking and looked at it. He lifted the box off it's pedestal and opened it. Inside were both of his lightsabers.
He took them and strapped them into his belt, "Thank you Thea."
"Are these your weapons?" he asked.
"Yes," Deimos smiled maliciously.
As always, the light surrounded him once more and he was back in the enclosed battlefield.
"Ladies and gentlemen, stallions, and mares. This will prove to be the the battle of the century. Our champions are Deimos the Terror-" the announcer stopped to let the crowd cheer for him.
Deimos was never fond of thousands of people watching him in one place, so he was to make this fight quick once more.
"-And our most famous champion: the Green Death!" Deimos looked up to see Emerald walking into the battlefield, dressed in battle armor. She held a sword and shield in her hands with a spear strapped to her back. She finally stopped, just several feet away from him, just waiting to run him through with her sword.
They only stared into each others eyes. Deimos saw rage, anger, and a desire to end the creature before her. It was most likely because of their fight two days ago, but it seems that she has a tendency to hold a grudge.
Emerald looked into his eyes to see... emptiness, he kept looking at her with those emotionless eyes. As though she meant nothing to him, which further enraged her.
"May the fight commence!" the announcer finally said.
This plan requires timing. I must make the fight take as much time as possible, he thought, unsheathing his sword and holding it out straight in front of the dragon.
Emerald ran towards him with her sword raised above her head and her shield covering her body, she brought it down only to be blocked by Deimos' blade, as expected. She continued to stab at him, but he continued to play on the defensive. Her anger began to rise higher and higher as he denied her the privilege of an actual fight, but she kept it from turning it into blind rage.
"Fight me!" she yelled.
Deimos sensed her anger and decided to mess with her much further. The aged Sith Lord pulled back and began to dodge each strike. Emerald was infuriated by his tricks and schemes. Deimos then caught the sword with both hands and snatched it out her own, a look of surprise on her face. The man grabbed the sword by the blade and knocked the dragon onto the ground with the handle of sword, he finally tossed the sword at her, which then landed beside her head.
She groaned in pain as she got back up, recovering from the damage. She picked up her sword and shield and ran at him once more. But Deimos decided to send her back to the ground again; he closed his eyes and concentrated the force into his right hand, shifting the sword onto his left. He waited until Emerald finally got close, then he struck. Deimos pulled back his fist and shot out at her, Emerald instinctively raised her shield, but was not prepared for the impact. The force strengthened him and he put all that power into his right hand, sending out a shockwave on the point of impact, launching the girl halfway to the other side of the arena. She slid on her back, still shocked by his power.
As she began to get back up, Deimos concentrated and searched for Thea in the crowd, but he found her in the battle gates, along with... every other slave and prisoner. What was going on in the prison? Wha-
Emerald finally made her way to him. Noticing the large fist-sized dent in her shield, she tossed it aside. The green dragon ran faster towards him, her sword poised to strike. Deimos noticed this and tried to move away, only to be sliced across the side with her blade.
Deimos looked at his minor injury before turning back to look at her.
The plan was already foiled, why bother with her anymore?
She charged at him again, and swung down with her sword. Deimos caught the blade in mid-swing and pulled it out of her grasp, he kicked her away, watching as the man snapped her sword in half over his knee. Emerald crawled away and stood back up, pulling out the spear and tried to stab him again.
Deimos caught the spear as well and snapped off the spearhead, grabbed the rod and smashed it against her face. He then took the spearhead and threw it at her, lodging itself into her shoulder.
"Ahh!!" she cried out, but tried to manage through the pain. She pulled out the blade and tossed it aside.
This time she brought her hands up in a fighting stance.
"Do you really think that I would give you an honorable fight if I just dropped my weapons?" Deimos asked, twirling his blade.
"Would it hurt to please the crowds?" she mocked.
"So you want me to kill you?" Deimos said, popping his knuckles.
"I want a worthy fight!!" she yelled, running at him once more, attempting to strike him. Deimos smirked, catching her fist with his left hand and backhanding her in the face with his right, sending her back onto the yellow sand.
"Do you let your enemies hit you until they get tired, just so you can finish them off during their fatigue? If so, the force prevents me from tiring out. He said, picking up his sword.
"The sooner you're gone, the faster I can come up with another plan," he said, raising his sword to finish her off. The crowd cheering as they began to witness this event.
Deimos turned around at the sound of the cages opening once more, ready to fight what came through those gates while ignoring the injured dragoness behind him.
The gates opened, revealing every prisoner and slave in the Pit prisons. Hordes of ponies, griffons, dragons, exiled changelings, and other species that couldn't be made out, carrying weapons. Each of them as confused as he was, until the announcer spoke.
"Gladiators! Slaves! The leaders of the Pit plan to make a deal with all of you, whoever kills the man known as Deimos, will be guaranteed complete freedom!" he said, they all turned to him. Deimos dropped his sword and reached for his lightsabers, remembering the feeling of the metallic hilt.
The first one, a large pony charged after him, screaming obscenities. Deimos merely sidestepped and snapped the ponies neck with the force.
That was when the rest of the crowd charged at him, eager to tear him apart. Deimos activated his lightsabers, cutting down those closest to him with the red blades.
After the first few deaths, they got the hint that he and his sabers were dangerous, so they all began to circle him. Deimos carefully studied their intent.
Then one of the gladiators, a young griffon, spoke up, "This is a bad idea. He said that whoever killed him would be free, that means they are referring to only one of us. So they will just choose one of us and let us go, going back where we were before. As slaves."
"You're right," one of the slaves turned to him.
"Only one can be free and the rest will be imprisoned. You're better off dead!" he said, stabbing him in the neck with a knife.
Before Deimos knew it, the slaves began murdering each other for the sake of not wanting to be imprisoned again, and if they are lucky enough to kill Deimos.
But the Sith had other ideas on his mind. If he wanted to escape this place, he would have to improvise.
Another charged at him, he stabbed the slave with his lightsaber without even looking. But unbeknownst to him, another gladiator was sneaking upon him with a rather large dagger, waiting for his moment to strike.
*CLANG!*
Deimos quickly turned to see the gladiator unconscious, with Thea standing over him with a large silver plate.
"Sorry I took so long," she said sheepishly.
"You're late," he said.
"Well I had to improvise," Thea smirked, handing him the explosives.
The gates continued to open, releasing more and more prisoners upon them. It was as if an entire army was unleashed upon the arena, all aimed for him.
Deimos watched as hundreds of slaves surrounded both him and Thea once more. Every gladiator doing their best to intimidate, as though they were mindless beasts.
"Well, it's been nice knowing ya," Thea said.
"Likewise," he said, holding up his lightsabers, waiting for his last fight. The first wave ran straight for them.
But that fight never came. Emerald jumped in the way and sliced through them like they were made of air. She turned to the Sith Lord and bowed in respect. Deimos noticed that she wielded his sword.
"You better give me one good reason why I shouldn't gut you right here, right now," Deimos said, shooting lightning at another prisoner.
"Because you have beaten me in combat. I have faced almost everyone in this arena and I have never lost," she said, slicing through another prisoner.
"So?"
"So you come out of the blue and begin beating your enemies like it was nothing to you. I thought you would be my greatest challenge, my one ticket out of here," Emerald continued.
"Get to the point," he said.
"The point is that you have beaten me in combat. I wish to help you, champion of the Pit, to escape this place and help you whenever I can, including escaping this wretched place," she said.
"So in a way, you're swearing a life debt to me?" Deimos asked. He was curious, he had heard of wookies swearing life debts to others. Like Zaalbar swearing the debt to Revan. But it was also not uncommon for Trandoshans to do the same, and she seemed to fit the description of the species, more or less.
"Yes, that is a much easier explanation," she said, impressed by Deimos' success for simplifying her explanation.
"Thea, is the charge set?" Deimos asked.
"That's the problem, the explosive needs to be manually charged. It's like it was meant for suicide runs. What kind of idiot makes these kinds of things?"
"Stand back," Deimos said, preparing to improvise once more.
He took a step back and held out his hand, immediately firing a bolt of lightning at the bomb. The charge exploded, creating a giant fireball that engulfed the wall, sending bricks and rocks that pelted everyone within the vicinity. Deimos kept his hand up, repelling anything that comes in range. The smoke cleared, leaving a crater and a missing part of a wall.
Thea was on the verge of both cheering and crying in joy, but that stopped when prison guards emerged from the gates. Four creatures: Thistle, Oracle, Onyx, and Lore; each of their faces filled with rage as they saw the prisoners' opportunities for freedom.
Deimos turned to the other two as they began to run, "We must leave while they are caught up in the anarchy."
"I may know a way out of the desert," Thea piped up, Deimos stared at her.
"How?"
"I have a good memory. When I was brought here, I memorized the path. I was captured near Dodge Junction. So if my memory serves as correct, then we must head in that direction," she said, pointing slightly to the north.
"What will we expect there?" Emerald asked as they continued to run in that direction.
"Right now, we're on a small spot between the Griffon Empire and Equestrian Kingdoms borders. We'll expect buffalo on nomadic travels, dragon caves, monsters of many shapes and sizes, griffon and pony military camps, and, unfortunately, the changeling hives," she explained.
"Quite the dilemma," Deimos remarked.
"So Thistle chose the most dangerous spot on Equus and everything here will want to kill us, just great," Emerald grunted.
"You didn't know?" Deimos asked.
"Never been outside these walls, I was born in the Pit," she explained, slowing down to a walk.
"You think they're following us now?" Thea asked.
Deimos closed his eyes and searched through the force, sensing little to no life, except underground animals burrowing in the sand.
"They didn't follow us, at least not yet. It won't take long for one of them to track us down," he said as they continued walking.
And so they began their journey back to civilization, and Deimos' mission to meet with his apprentices again.
Nightfall...
Naero stood before the four creatures, "You followed the plan, and he escaped. You had every prisoner released and they turned against one another. How Deimos is still alive, I wonder."
"He was unpredictable, I promise we won't fail again," Thistle said.
"That's correct, you won't. That's why you all are tracking him down," Naero commanded.
Oracle's eyes widened, Onyx hissed in anger, while Thistle and Lore didn't mind.
"Why us?" the pony demanded.
"Us four are the leaders of the Pit. We gathered all these prisoners, we'll have no trouble capturing a mere fugitive," Lore boasted.
"Good, but you have one problem," Naero said.
"And that is?"
"He's a Sith. And better yet, human. Kidnapping a man may be easy, But capturing a human that is a Sith? This will be most challenging task you will ever take. And I'm not letting you back out," Naero smirked.
"And why aren't you going?"
"Oh I am going, I will make sure you are doing your jobs. If you don't, well..." he activated his lightsaber, then the second blade. Naero then pressed a button on his blade, making the saber's blades begin to spin increasingly faster until it became a circle of red plasma.
"You will suffer terrible consequences," Naero explained, shutting off his lightsaber.
The four nodded in fear.
"Now get moving!" the man yelled, the four walked off to begin their mission.
Naero turned back and left the Pit and climbed into his ship, taking off into the air.
"I will hunt you down, Deimos, and bring your body to the Emperor, dead or alive," he said with an evil grin on his face.
