1: The Troll in the Swamp

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Sunset Shimmer woke face down in the mud and muck of what she could only assume to be a bog. Struggling to lift herself onto all fours, she shook her mane, coughing and spitting as much gunk out of her mouth as she could. Sitting on her haunches and shaking off her hooves, she brought them to her face and rubbed the mud out of her eyes, opening them to test them and to make sure they hadn’t been damaged by the filth around her.

Blinking rapidly, Sunset at first assumed her eyes were indeed damaged, her hooves were curled up in front of her face and they looked different. For one they were black, but Sunset could feel fabric touching the fur and skin on her hooves, so that meant socks or stockings of some kind. Lifting the extremity closer to her face she turned her hoof over, noting the five bumps that extended off the edge of her hoof. She then experimentally tried to open those ridges, only for five extra limbs to spring off her hoof, surprising her and causing her to jump back a little.

If Sunset were any other pony she might have screamed, maybe even hyperventilated a little, but she wasn’t anypony, no! She was Sunset Shimmer and she was beyond such petty things, instead, she let her mind wander, turning her new body parts over and moving them in every possible angle that she could. She analyzed, hypothesized, and theorized.

The former student of Princess Celestia knew what hands were, after all, Minotaurs were incredibly proud of the hands they had. Sunset recognized them and after doing a quick check to make sure she hadn’t sprouted bull horns she finally allowed her mind to calm down for a second… until she realized her forehead was missing something.

‘My horn!’ she thought as she brought her… hands to where her horn used to be. She felt around her forehead hoping to find her horn right where it had been, she met nothing but smooth skin. This was when Sunset started hyperventilating. She had lived with magic all her life and not being able to access that well of power, in this Celestia-forsaken bog, was a nightmare come true for the young unicorn.

With this realization, and the rage she felt towards her old mentor, Sunset Shimmer raged.

She let loose a scream, a scream filled with her anguish that tore through everything in its path. Sunset didn’t notice that something akin to magic answered her call, it radiated around her and through her and shook the world around her. Trees were uprooted, the water around her parted and the ground beneath her began to concave as if a great weight was placed upon it. After what felt like ages Sunset stopped, her voice almost gone and with that, the power left her and she slumped to the ground in exhaustion.

It was only after taking deep breaths to refill her tired lungs that she noticed the water around her had begun to fill in the indent she had made, as well as the toppled trees that lay splintered around her. Sunset stood in the now waist-high water and was confused, no she was perplexed.

She shouldn’t be able to do magic, she had no horn, no focus, and no way to move the mana that made up a ponies living being out into the open world. Earth Ponies and Pegasi could use their hooves and wings to do something similar, but to cause a shockwave? One that blew away water, toppled stone, and lit trees aflame? Only a unicorn or Alicorn could do that, and again only with a horn.

Closing her eyes, Sunset took a calming breath and let her mind grow still, she reached deep within herself with her mind’s eye, looking for that glowing warmth that made up her magic. She knew she was close, she could feel it in her heart, looking within herself, she found it! The light that made up her hopes, dreams, and who she was. Reaching for it with her new-found hands she pointed toward a nearby tree and tried to cast a water spell.

Instead of creating water out of her fingertips like the spell was designed to do, she felt a pressure build up inside her mind, her magic faltered for but a moment and then was still once again. She could feel a weight on her shoulders but she attributed that to her fatigue from using such an advanced spell in an alien body, she opened her eyes only to find the tree she had aimed at was still aflame.

“Well, that didn’t work.” Sunset sighed sagging her shoulders slightly, it was then that she noticed something odd about the ground, she put a hand down onto the swampy floor beneath her and noticed it, the floor was dry. Looking around her, she noticed all the water that had surrounded her small muddy island was gone, the muddy island was gone, in its place was dry cracked earth.

“Did… did I do that?!” Sunset tried to stand but found that she couldn’t her body wasn’t used to this form yet, and her shoulders still felt heavy “But that was supposed to be a water-making spell! Not a drying spell!”

“Hmm, spell?” a raspy voice whispered from behind her, “No spell do I see here, only the workings of the Force, it is.”

This caused Sunset to jump and shout, crashing down onto the dusty floor and landing hard on her behind she cringed. “What the heck!?” She got to her knees and looked at where her resting spot had been “Who said that!?”

The weight on her shoulder shifted and a low laugh came from behind her. “Hehe, do not be afraid, my young friend!” The sound of light exertion could be heard and she felt the weight lift off her shoulders entirely. “No harm do I intend, surprised I am to find one such as you here.”

The voice had moved in front of her by now, and she didn’t know whether to scream or laugh at the creature that had managed to surprise her. Standing before her was what she could only describe as a troll, it was short, had pointed ears, and clawed three-fingered hands. It walked with a cane and had a very notable hunch, probably from age and living in such a desolate environment as the swamp.

Sunset opened her mouth to speak but found herself cut off by a thump to the head, “Ow! What in Equestria are you doing?!” she screamed, rubbing her brand-new bump.

“Troll, I am not, respect your elders you must, and keep your mouth shut when thinking, you should!” the little gremlin admonished. “Come to my home you do, make all this noise you do, and call me the troll? Ha!” With that, the troll turned and began hobbling away.“Follow, warm clothes and food do I have, tell your story you will.”

Sunset Shimmer growled a little and struggled to stand, taking her cue from the little troglodyte in front of her. She walked on her back feet and followed him deeper into the swamp, all the while rubbing her head, wondering if leaving her home was worth the hassle and danger she found herself in.

Yoda whose name she found out after they had arrived at his hut, had been out on a midnight stroll when he heard her scream. He thought it odd that someone would be screaming on Dagobah, as the world was uninhabited by intelligent life, excluding himself, but that was when he felt it, the power of her scream.

He walked up to her and handed her a small cup of liquid, she assumed it was tea, after pouring himself a glass he sat down across from her and began explaining. “That Scream, powerful it was, but steeped in the power of the Dark Side, it is.” He pointed his stick at her.

“What is this Dark Side? On Equestria we just have Magic, not dark or light just... magic,” Sunset hoarsely explained, sipping from her tea and rubbing her throat in pain.

“Hmm.” The troll rubbed his chin in thought “Let me start with the Force first, yes.” Yoda pointed his cane at the small table they sat at “Look to the pot, child.” He commanded softly, and Sunset Shimmer obeyed tactfully keeping her mouth shut about the child comment.

Yoda hummed and before Sunset could respond the tea kettle and cups began to float off the table on their own. Sunset normally wouldn’t be impressed by such basic displays of magic and was about to make a snarky comment when she noticed the subtle difference. There was no aura around the cups or kettle. When a magic-using species used magic on an object, an aura was shown around the foci that channeled the magic and the object in question. Scholars didn’t know why but they knew it was a universal constant among all magic-using species, from Unicorns to Draconequus. So why did this being in front of her not have one?

Noticing Sunset's perplexed look he set the objects down and began to explain. “The Force is everything,” he began “It surrounds us, it binds us, it holds the universe together.” He stood and walked around the table and poked her with his stick “The force is harmony, yes’” he smiled a little when she grunted at his jab “It is meant to guide, to teach, to help, and to nurture life, yes,”

He then turned away from her “A long time ago, there was a group like me that used the Force for great good across the galaxy.” he sighed “but those days are over, only a handful of us remain, the Jedi we were called, and bastions of the Light we were.” he turned back to her and she could see the sadness in his eyes even if he hid it well. “But the Empire rose, and when our brightest student gave himself to darkness, we fell with him.”

“What do you mean? Fell to darkness?” Sunset asked she barely understood what he was saying, Galaxy? Empire? Sunset knew about the stars and the sun and the moon and planets back home, but they were controlled by the Princess. How can there be more of them?

“Those who use the Force in anger, hatred, or fear use what is called the Dark Side of the Force” Yoda looked at her “What you used in the swamp though an accident was the Dark Side”

“The Force is life itself,” He continued “It should be used for safety and defense, never to attack, but the Dark Side is just that, using the Force and bending it to your will, the Dark Side makes you feel powerful, makes you feel stronger than you are, but it blinds you when the Force is supposed to naturally make you feel calm, at peace and more awake than you have ever been.” Yoda finished with a thump of his cane.

Sunset nodded her head slowly in some understanding “This Force, is very different from magic…” she began slowly chewing on her bottom lip before continuing “With magic, you can do almost anything, and certain emotions like anger can be useful in certain spells…”

Yoda just scoffed “Anger should never be used,” He looked at her “see what it did to the area around you did you not?”

Sunset said nothing and looked at him before nodding.

“That, is the Dark Side” his eyes gained a little bit of steel to them “It is powerful, but in return for that power it demands terrible prices, that is the nature of the dark, the nature of the Sith.”

Sunset's mind was brought back to her scream, and the destruction it had caused. She had to ask “Can anyone learn to harness the Force? To control it?”

The little green man turned away from her to stare into the fire while he contemplated her question. He paced the room, mumbling to himself, almost as if having a conversation before he finally returned to his spot in front of her at the table.

He nodded “Yes and no.” he hobbled over to her “A powerful ally, the Force is. Heed your call it will protect and guide you it will but it is never meant to be controlled, a will of its own the Force has, and follow its will, we should.”

Sunset looked perplexed at that wondering how a mystic energy field could have its own will, Opening her mouth the words slipped out before she could even think of them “Can you teach me?”

Yoda’s green eyes met her cyan and suddenly she felt like she was staring at her old mentor but in tiny green troll form, those wise eyes looked as if they were searching her very soul. “What would you do with this knowledge should I teach you”

Without hesitation, Sunset answered, “I’d find my way home.”

A small hum left Yoda’s mouth as he turned back to the fire “Very well,” he poked at the fire with his gimmer stick “Normally, I’d refuse to train you, you are too old, too world-weary and too angry though you try to hide it well.”

Sunset struggled to not snap a retort at him, and what did he mean by too old?

Before she could respond Yoda faced her, a small smile on his face “But that, I think, Is why you need me to teach you. I believe it is the Will of the Force that brought us together, so yes Sunset Shimmer I shall teach you.”

2: Training and Assignments

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Jedi Master Yoda watched the young girl and took in her features as she slept. She was around 13 standard years old, much older than Vader had been when he had come to the temple for training. She had anger, fear, and jealousy in spades though she tried to hide it behind a false wall of curiosity.

“Can you teach me?” Those words echoed through his mind and he wondered why he even agreed to teach her in the first place.

“She is too old” he had told himself as he paced the room delaying his answers to her many questions “Too angry and fearful,” but when he turned to reprimand her for these exact flaws, just as he had let the Jedi Council do to Darth Vader when Qui-Gon had brought the boy before them, he had to pause and keep himself from gaping at the young girl.

Strong force sensitives could see things others could not, this was a known fact. When he had told the council that the force was clouded on Coruscant he had meant it. Looking at anyone and trying to read them through the force was like reading a data pad without glasses, everything was fogged and clouded.

Here on Dagobah away from Palpatine's influence, he could finally see clearly and what he saw from Sunset Shimmer amazed him. At first glance, the child gave off the emotions he had originally condemned her for. Anger, fear, and jealousy, but then on a whim, he looked deeper using the Force to guide him to the hidden truths that the child held beneath. Something he now wished he had done with Vader all those years ago.

What he found astonished him, her strength in the force was immense, nowhere near as strong as Vader’s had been at her age, or as strong as the Skywalker Twins, but all the same, it was strong and while it was touched by the dark side it was not yet fully tainted, it even seemed as if that darkness was being cleansed, something that he had thought was unprecedented.

She shone like a beacon and while Dagobah hid her just as it did him, her raw power was causing the world’s presence so much strain. While Yoda could exist as a sole light within the darkness that was Dagobah and fade into the background, Sunset Shimmer refused to, her presence burned bright and pushed constantly against the shelter that Dagobah provided as if her very essence was offended by the darkness around her.

This wasn’t what cemented Yoda’s decision to train her though, what had done that was the presence that outlined Sunset’s very being. Around the child’s heart, he could see the roots of a crystal tree, its roots cradling the sun that was Sunset’s soul, nurturing her and keeping the darkness away.

At that moment the old Grandmaster knew, that the force had brought her to him, while she may not be the one that would eventually bring balance, she brought him something that he hadn’t felt in his heart since the birth of the twins those three fateful years.

She brought him, Hope.

3 Weeks Later

Sunset Shimmer was frustrated and failing miserably at hiding it. Her new Master, Yoda, was a taskmaster, with a Doctorate in slave-driving. Every day for the past week, he had forced her to do the most asinine things to have her focus on the Force and its flow.

She was drinking some water after what she assumed was a mile run with Yoda on her back. He told her that the force required not only a healthy mind but also body, and that exercise of the body could sometimes promote deeper reflection into the Force.

Before, more specifically the day after she had just arrived, she had face-planted multiple times into the muck of the swamp, still not used to running on two legs instead of four. Yoda just shook his head and told her to get up and continue at her own pace, and not to rush.

Now nearly 3 weeks later she was leaping over fallen trees and ignoring the mud in her shoes like a professional runner. If Yoda was surprised by her progress he didn’t bring it up.

He was currently letting her rest, so she used that time to think about all that she had learned in the week that she had been stuck on the swamp world she now called home.

From what she understood, the world she was on, Dagobah, Yoda told her, was a planet in what was collectively known as the Outer Rim Territories of the Galaxy. Yoda chose to live on this remote world because of its connection to the Force, specifically the Dark Side so that he could use that connection to hide from what he called “The Galactic Empire.”

Yoda had been in exile for nearly 3 years, alone in his vigil until Sunset was dropped on his metaphorical doorstep. 'Maybe that’s why he decided to train me,’ Sunset thought 'He was lonely.’

She stood up and continued her run, Yoda not speaking a word on her back as she did so. She thought about what he had taught her and tried to piece together why he would even bother training her.

He had recited the Jedi Code to her, had told her the original requirements to become a Jedi and she only met one, according to him she had a strong connection to the Force, but otherwise, that was it. She was angry, impulsive, and according to what Yoda had said during one of their conversations, too old.

Jedi were trained from as close to birth as possible. According to Yoda, they were given to the order by their parents once it was found that they were Force-sensitive. This was, from what she understood, to keep “attachments” from forming that could lead to the dark side.

Sunset had mixed feelings about that. On the one hoof, from what she understood, the Jedi were great scholars and warriors, something that she could respect, especially since some ponies back home such as Star Swirl the Bearded were the same, excellent warriors and scholars. On the other hoof, training from fillyhood and preventing attachments felt...wrong to Sunset.

Training from foalhood was fine, she was taken in as a filly after all by Celestia and she wasn’t one to form needless attachments, but even she knew that at least Equestrians were a social species and needed attachments, it’s why most ponies in Equestria no matter the race, had tightly knit family structures.

Then there was the Jedi Code, and that brought up a whole new can of worms for Sunset.

There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.

Sunset didn’t like the Code, she wouldn’t go so far as to say she hated it, but she greatly disliked it. She wasn’t going to bash on a code that according to her Master a thousand generations had followed, but to Sunset, the Jedi Code felt empty. Yes, it talked about serving the Force, and yes it talked about peace, harmony and so on but at the same time, it made no mention of protecting the innocent, of helping those that couldn’t help themselves, and other things Yoda had claimed the Jedi of old did.

Sunset Shimmer would be the first pony to admit that she had her own agenda and looked out for herself first, but she still found it fishy that an order that was known for “defending the weak” and “protecting the republic” had none of these things at the forefront of their creed.

On a less serious note though, Sunset had learned a lot in the three weeks that she had been stuck on Dagobah. Yoda hadn’t just been teaching her how to sense the Force or be a Jedi.

He was surprised that she already knew the Galaxy's language instinctively, but chalked that to the strange way she arrived. He taught her about the Galactic currency, how the Old Republic’s government worked, Galactic history, and anything else he thought she might need.

Finishing her run near Yoda’s hut and setting the small troll down she sat down on the dry patch of land that Yoda maintained around his home and waited for the next lesson to start.

Many light years away from where Sunset Shimmer was training in the Jedi Arts, Darth Vader marched towards the center of the Imperial Palace.

He had been recalled from his current mission of hunting down the remnants of the now-defunct Jedi order for reasons he had yet to understand. His Master, Darth Sidious, had just told him to arrive at Imperial Center, the new name for Coruscant that Vader personally detested, and be timely about it.

So Vader had to put his mission on hold for the whims of his master, and he rushed to the galactic core to see what Sidious had planned for his apprentice.

Pausing at the large double doors he waited for the Imperial guards to admit him, not wishing to upset his master by barging in unannounced.

The guards looked at the Sith Apprentice and opened the door, not bowing to him nor showing him the proper respect he deserved and Vader ignored them, making his way to the throne.

“Ahh, Lord Vader, on time as always!” His master crowed from atop his obsidian throne as Vader came to a stop and knelt before him.

“What is thy bidding, my master?” Vader’s low timber echoed through the empty throne room followed closely by the deep rasp of his respirator.

Palpatine smirked at his apprentice and stood “Raise your head Lord Vader, we have much to discuss,” with that the Emperor of the Galaxy stood and walked down the stairs of his throne to his rising apprentice. “It seems, there have been many a disturbance in the Force lately my apprentice, have you felt them?” He questioned his apprentice, as they slowly began to walk out of the throne room.

“No, Master, I have not.” The last time Darth Vader had felt a disturbance in the Force was three years ago, when his wife was pregnant... when he sold his soul, since then he had felt nothing of the sort, just cold and angry.

“Hmm, It is probably because of you're still recovering skill in the force, after all, Obi-Wan did do some damage to you on Mustafar.” Palpatine mocked, egging his student and hoping to get a reaction out of him, but Vader was used to these pokes at his failure and remained silent.

“That is in the past.” Palpatine continued “It would seem that the Outer Rim is just rife with disturbances, I have sent out the Inquisitors to...find the first of the disturbances, a small fluctuation in Dark Side energy, probably just a new Force Nexus but we can never be too careful after all.”

Vader looked to his master “And what of me, Master?” he asked “Why call me out here to tell me something that you could have relayed over holo communications?”

“Ah, yes, the second disturbance,” Palpatine shivered and Vader knew the reaction was fake and only put on for the soldiers and staff wandering the palace “It would seem that a recently colonized world in the Outer Rim has been experiencing many unforeseen complications.”

The Emperor handed his apprentice a data slate and continued “The colonists, all Human mind you, and non-Force sensitive, have been reporting back odd findings, missing gaps in memory, and odd fluctuation in mood.”

Vader looked from the slate to his master. “You believe this to be a Jedi?” his rage began to bubble to the surface at the thought that yet another of the Light side's servants had escaped from him.

Palpatine smiled “Your rage is well placed Lord Vader,” He clasped his hands in front of himself and continued “Yes, I believe this to be the work of a Jedi, and a sloppy one at that, go to this unnamed world and remove the Jedi by any means necessary if they can be integrated all the better but kill them if you cannot capture them.”

Darth Vader bowed slightly and rumbled a stiff as you wish. After this dismissal he made his way back to his shuttle, to begin hunting down his newest quarry.

3: Waltz of The Sith

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Darth Vader stood on the bridge of his ship, the Devastator, as it dropped out of Hyperspace. From the ISD’s¹ viewport the unnamed planet slowly rotated below and, from what Vader could make out, the world itself was unremarkable.

The world itself was almost completely submerged in water, with the only landmass being a supercontinent situated near the planet’s equator. Vader originally hadn’t understood why this world was to be colonized at all, with it being so far out on the Outer Rim that it was touching the Unknown Regions. The only value the planet held was deep within its oceans, which were to be set up for deep sea mining operations so that its metal could be used for the fledgling Death Star, another project that Vader didn’t understand or agree with.

Before Vader could muse on the world further, he felt one of his officers approach him through the Force, turning from the viewport to face the man he asked, “Have we made contact with the colony?”

The Officer in question jumped at the inquiry and stammered, “W-we have, my Lord. She has requested to speak with you at once.”

Vader didn’t respond for a moment and was about to move toward communications when the officer’s words registered. “She? The registry indicated that the leader of the colonists was a male.”

The still unnamed officer nodded his head “Yes, my Lord, that was the old head colonist, Captain Roy. According to this new leader he passed away of some illness recently and named her as his successor.”

The Sith Lord paused at that, a feeling of unease passing over him through the Force before he dismissed it. “Very well.”

Walking the short way from the bridge to the communication room was a hassle for Vader, even after three years he still hated the suit and armor that he was trapped in.

It made him taller than he had been as Skywalker, which was a plus, but even after three years of tinkering with it and trying to get the machinery to do what he wanted, he was still suffering because of design flaws.

It chaffed as he walked, and the gears and other bits of metal pinched at his charred flesh every other step. He ignored it though, as he had since his encasement within his suit, and waited for the hologram of the colonists to appear before him.

Within moments the hum of the holo projector filled the room, and before him stood the holo of a young woman, no older than seventeen and barely reaching his chest in height. The girl had long, curly hair that reached the middle of her back, fair-looking skin, and piercing eyes as well as a brooch tied to her neck, but none of that mattered to the Sith Lord.

Before she could open her mouth to articulate a greeting, Vader cut her off. “What is the situation on your world, colonists, why have I been called here?”

The colonist looked offended before she opened her mouth once more to say, “Excuse me, who are you? What happened to the nice man I was just talking to?”

If Vader’s throat could have produced an irritated growl at that moment, it would have. Instead, the Sith Lord’s right hand squeezed itself into a fist as if to choke the colonist where she stood, but he restrained himself, she was still important to his goals after all. Instead, he spoke once more, “I am the master of this ship, colonist. We have received reports of issues on this colony from your predecessor.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest, “Again, why am I here?”

Vader could tell that the girl was fuming from his less-than-kind way of addressing her, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. The telltale signs of annoyance flashed through the girl’s features before she smirked, something that nearly made the Lord reach out with the Force to snap her rail-thin neck.

Before the Sith Lord could fully contemplate a proper punishment for the insubordinate girl, she began...singing.

To Vader’s ears, it was a simple song, though not sung in Galactic Basic as one would expect. It was instead sung in a strange, foreign dialect that Vader could not place an origin or planet too. What really drew the Sith Lord’s attention though, was the compulsion the song tried--and tried was the keyword--to place him under.

Vader knew many different ways to affect people's minds using the Force. The Mind Trick was one of the more subtle ways, it wasn’t forcing someone to do what you wanted, not directly. You simply influenced the target’s mind to accept what you are saying as truth, as gospel, or as an order and they would do it because they would think they thought of it.

This wasn’t a Mind Trick, to call what this girl was trying to do to him ‘subtle’ would be an insult to all practitioners of the mind arts. Mind Tricks were precise, simple, and if one had the will to do so, completely ignorable. What she was doing was none of those things, The song was trying its best to overpower his mental shields and instead of suggesting he do as she ordered, it was TELLING him to do so.

Unfortunately for her, the song was not nearly strong enough to break through his mental defenses, but thanks to his full-body suit and rigid posture she hadn’t noticed that yet. Reaching out with his mind, he noticed that the stormtroopers within earshot were all under her thrall and he quickly crushed their windpipes with a mere thought, such weak-minded fools weren’t worth keeping.

Turning his attention to the girl, he managed to hear that the song had switched to Basic at some point, and he came to the realization that the song had two parts to it, one sung in what he assumed was her native language, to enthrall the mind of those listening and the second sung in a universally understood language to give the order.

Her song finally finished with a final “Come to me.” and the holo-projector cut out, the child’s cold smirk the last thing Vader saw before it did so. She assumed that her little battering ram had worked, that it had enthralled him, a Sith Lord, to come down to her trap and spring it.

Turning on his heel, Vader stalked out of the room, over the corpses of the two stormtroopers that had dared to fall for her tricks, and towards the current captain of his ship, not that he cared to remember his name and spoke.

“You are to shut down all communications with the world below, captain. Do not open them until you get the all-clear from me.” After giving that order, the Dark Lord turned to leave towards a shuttle when the captain spoke up.

“Yes, sir. But if I may ask, what is our mission? Shall we send troops to accompany you and protect the colonists from whatever seems to be the problem?”

Vader had to remind himself that the man was only asking logical questions, not questioning him, and turned slightly, “No, I will deal with the colonists myself. They have broken Imperial law and they shall be punished for it.” Hoping that was the end of the conversation and that he wouldn’t have to kill the fool, he began walking away only for the captain to stop him once again.

“What law sir?”

The Sith Lord turned once more, “They are harboring a Jedi. For that, they must die, no troops are to leave unless called for and the communications are to be locked down. Do you understand or do I have to replace you?” With that, he used the Force to put pressure on the captain’s windpipe to punctuate his point and after receiving a shake of the head from the officer, he turned and left for the hangar.

Sonata Dusk was bored. She sat on a lockbox and watched as the humans around her did whatever menial task Aria had assigned them to do earlier.

Some of them were busy gathering supplies for the colony from the surrounding jungle, while others were busy tinkering with the colony’s defenses. None of these things alleviated Sonata’s boredom though, so none of it was really important to her.

‘Why does Aria get the cushy fun job while I'm stuck here watching hummies just run around doing chores?!’

Aria was inside the nice, air-conditioned building the girls called their home, making sure everything was “up to code” as she put it. What Aria was really doing was sitting on her nice, warm bed reading a trashy romance novel on her datapad, while Sonata sat in the hot sun. It wasn’t fair!

Sonata would have kept pouting and mumbling, but she noticed that Adagio had come out of the communications building and was heading right toward her. She quickly stood up and assumed she was in trouble, but, luckily for her, that wasn’t the case.

Adagio had a huge smile on her face, one that Sonata only saw once before now, which was when they had woken up to find the previously uninhabited world Star Swirl had left them on suddenly inhabited after a thousand years of hibernation.

“Go get Aria quickly” Adagio ordered, absentmindedly ordering a human to gather everyone in the town square “I think I just found our ticket off this rock!”

That got Sonata’s attention and without saying a word she ran off to get Aria and hoped she didn’t catch her in the middle of something indecent.

Adagio watched Sonata and then began going over the plan in her head. She had no doubt that her compulsion had worked, after all, it had never failed before on a human and it would take powerful magic to break it, something that no human possessed if the one hundred colonists were anything to go by.

Using the fact that her compulsion worked, the fool in the mask would come down from his little starship, bring them a ship and they’d use that to get off this blasted world and into greener pastures so to speak.

Sonata and Aria wanted to go back to Equestria and get revenge for the unjust banishment that Star Swirl forced on them. Adagio though, was smarter, and from the information the lead colonist had told her, the universe was just ripe for the picking, with multiple different species to use as batteries for their power and nourishment for their hunger.

Adagio’s train of thought cut off though when she heard a string of curse words and apologies coming toward her and she sighed.

“How many times have I told you to knock on the damn door before coming in!” Aria Blaze raged at her younger “sister” holding her by her ponytail whilst dragging her towards Adagio.

“I’m sorry! It opened on its own I thought you wanted me to come in!” Sonata wined grasping at Aria’s hand trying to get her to let go.

Aria’s eye twitched and she finally dropped Sonata’s ponytail once they came to a full stop in front of Adagio “How many times do I have to tell you that the damn thing is an AUTOMATIC DOOR!”

Before Sonata could respond Adagio cut the argument off with a swift “ENOUGH!” and both girls looked at her, Sonata with apologies in her eyes and Aria with rage-filled embarrassment.

“Look, Apologize later,” Adagio turned to Aria “I had Sonata get you because we’re going to have guests soon, one with a ship to take us away from this hovel and into the wider galaxy.”

Aria’s rage left as quickly as it came with a smile replacing it. “Well, why didn’t Sonata just say so?”

“I did three times you were just a meany head and didn’t listen!” Sonata stomped the ground and pouted but Adagio once again stepped in.

“I said enough!” taking a deep breath she continued “I don’t know when he’ll arrive but it should be soon, we need to get ready for his arrival. It’ll be quick and easy, lay on the magic, get his ship and then go up to that bigger ship in the atmosphere and take it over like we did the colony, capiche?”

After receiving nods from both girls she turned around just in time to see a large grey shuttle heading towards the colony from the bigger ship. “Perfect here he comes, get the colonists into position just in case Aria, I doubt our spell won’t work since I was able to compel him to come down here with my magic, but we can never be too careful.”

Aria nodded and went to do as she was told leaving Sonata standing next to Adagio by herself. “Umm, what should I do?”

Adagio’s good mood didn’t falter at her “sisters” question, instead, she just smiled and said, “Come with me of course, we have a guest to greet.”

With that, the two girls walked towards the descending ship ready to meet what they both thought was their destiny.

With a soft thud, the shuttle came to a stop, the hissing of the ship decompressing reached Vader’s ears but he ignored it, instead focusing on the three Force signatures he felt standing outside the ship.

All three were strange to him. They were strong yes, around the level of a fully realized Jedi knight before the purge, but after some study, he noticed that something seemed odd about them.

He had used the Force to study the three girls while he was in transit, and in the ten minutes it had taken the shuttle to reach the Colony their signature had gone from being on par with his former Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, to that of just a generic Jedi Knight. That shouldn’t be possible, Vader reasoned. It was possible to lose power in the Force, primarily because your power in the Force came from the connection you had with it. Your mental state, your physical body, these things all influenced the Force and your connection with it.

Before he had been encased in his suit, Vader's connection to the Force was unrivaled by any Jedi or Sith, but once he lost his limbs to Obi-Wan that connection was forever lost to him. The Ocean of Power he had once grazed with his fingertips was now nothing but a salted dead sea. It was impressive, but not nearly as impressive as it should have been.

This was what confused Vader though, these girls had their living limbs, so why had their signature in the Force diminished?

Deciding that the conundrum could wait, Vader stood before the hatch as it opened and looked down upon the three once the steam had cleared.

They stood shoulder to shoulder around the same height. The girl who tried to use her powers on him stood in the middle, while two others he hadn’t seen in the holo stood on either side of her, denoting her to be the leader.

None of them carried weapons, and all of them had strange gems around their neck. The fact that none of them carried a lightsaber made Vader reevaluate his original thought that they were escaped Jedi and the one hundred enthralled colonists that he felt in the distance made him definitively kill that thought.

Jedi don’t enthrall, that was something the Sith or other Dark Side Cults did, and he felt the Dark Side coming off of the colonists in waves.

Vader marched down the ramp, his metal boots thumping with every step until he was finally standing before the three girls.

“Welcome to our humble abode,” the curly-haired one spoke her voice once more grating Vader’s ears. “I hope your trip was well?”

Vader didn’t respond, instead, he glanced at the other two girls, the one with the ponytails exuded fear just from looking at him and didn’t hide it well, while both the curly-haired one and the twin-tailed one felt fear, but hid it.

The curly-haired one took a deep breath before continuing her platitudes “Can we ask our Savior's name?”

Vader shifted his view back to the one in the middle, letting the sound of his respirator continue to unnerve them before answering “Darth Vader.” He had expected his name to finally set them over the edge from slight fear and mistrust to sheer terror at the mistake they had made, but he was wrong.

Instead, the twin-tailed one just laughed at him “Wow, your mom must have hated you, what kind of name is Darth?”

The pony-tailed one had the audacity to look sad while the curly hair didn’t even flinch.

Definitely not Jedi.

“Well, um Mr.Darth, I am Adagio Dazzle,” she gestured to herself before continuing “and these two are Aria Blaze,” she gestured to twin tails “and Sonata Dusk.” and then ponytail.

Vader once again said nothing to this, his patience with the charade wearing thin.

It seemed the newly introduced Aria felt the same, before Adagio could continue with her platitudes she had been cut off by a sharp whisper of “Can we just charm this guy and get going? His breathing is giving me the creeps!”

The Dark Lord’s fingers twitched, spurred on by the obvious threat, but he stayed his hand curious about the attempt they would make, so instead, he watched and waited.

With an exaggerated sigh Adagio nodded to the two girls before smiling up at Vader “Well Mr.Darth, we have one more use for you so if you would please, ♫ Give us your ship♫”

Suddenly, all three of them were singing “♫Give us your ship♫” the gems on their necks all glowing brightly, the song trying to overpower the Sith Lord with its order.

Vader was surprised at how much trouble he was having resisting the Order. The first girl’s compulsion back on the Devastator was easy enough to ignore, filtered by the distance between them and the simple fact that Vader was infinitely stronger than her, but now there were three equally powerful mind-benders singing to him, trying to get into his head.

As the singing intensified and Vader felt his anger growing at the effort he was having to put out to defend against these three, he decided that enough was enough. Reaching out with the Force he grabbed hold of their throats and lifted them off the ground, cutting off the song before it could finish.

Adagio’s eyes bulged as she clawed at the invisible hand gripping her throat, ‘How was this possible?! Humans don’t have magic!’

As Vader held the three suspended in midair a blaster shot impacted the side of the shuttle, causing Vader to realize that the thralls had moved closer to his position, blasters drawn. Releasing the three to their knees he unbuckled his saber and ignited the blood-red blade.

“Mistresses you must flee! We’ll handle him!” one of the thralls grabbed the girls and pushed them back towards the colony, as the others surrounded him and his shuttle, weapons drawn.

Over the hum of his Lightsaber he heard one of the girls asking “what the hell is that!” but he didn’t bother to identify which one, instead focusing on the weak-willed fools surrounding him as his main targets fled to what they probably assumed was the safety of their little colony.

4: Sirens and The Dragon

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Sonata and her sisters had managed to make it into the main command building of the colony, more a one-story bunker really, and locked the entire thing down before they managed to catch their breath.

Before the youngest of the Dazzling’s could begin to fathom what had happened or what was going on outside, Aria began shouting at Adagio.

“What the hell was that!?”

Adagio was still rubbing her throat from where the strange man had lifted them and scowled, “I don’t know Aria!” she turned and began rummaging around the command center, “Humans don’t have magic, or at least the ones on this colony didn’t, so why did this one?”

Aria knew Adagio was correct and sighed, “What are you looking for?”

“That walking tin can told me that the previous colonists had contacted him,” she began fiddling with the holoprojector, “I remember using my magic to force the old captain to contact someone to get us off this rock, but I never ordered him to get someone like this!” the projector came to life and Adagio filtered through the different messages sent and received until the date she was looking for came up and she gave the computer the command to play.

A hologram of a man in his mid-sixties appeared before the three sirens and his message began, “To any Imperials who receive this report,” he looked around the room before continuing “There is a disturbance on the colony, some of the civilians are waking up with gaps in their memory, while members of the militia we brought to defend against the local wildlife have been acting more aggressive when policing the colony.”

He once again let his eyes roam the room before continuing, “But now, I believe this to be the work of a rogue Jedi hiding among us.” He smirked, “one of the colonists has asked that I call for a ship to evacuate, but I won’t do that, I refuse to fail the Empire that way. Instead, I request that some reinforcements be sent to root out this Jedi before he damages our colony any further.”

With that, the transmit icon cut out, leaving Sonata confused, Aria annoyed, and Adagio furious.

“He kind of did what you asked…” Sonata started before trailing off as both Aria and Adagio glared at her.

“He betrayed us, and if he hadn’t died to that jungle flu I’d have killed him myself!” Adagio growled before going to the weapons locker and taking out two blaster pistols. She threw one to Aria and kept the other before turning to the security feed.

“What are these for?” Aria questioned, fiddling with the blaster while Adagio tried to get the security screen to turn on.

Adagio didn’t turn to face either of them, “A precaution. If he gets past the colonists we’re going to have to handle him ourselves.”

Despite the situation, Sonata couldn’t withhold a laugh at that, “Like he’s going to get past all of them! We sent like, everyone after him!”

Adagio didn’t get the chance to respond, because the moment she began the security system booted up and, while she couldn’t get the video feed to work, she did manage to get the audio, though she sorely wished she hadn’t.

One of the quirks of the Dazzlings’ magic was that the more often a person’s mind was dominated by them, the longer said domination would last.

The length of the domination was also affected by multiple other factors. In ideal situations, Adagio or Aria could maintain constant control of the colonists if they took the time to maintain the mental connection.

This required slight, but constant concentration from one of them. When the dark man outside had tried to kill them, Adagio’s concentration broke, but luckily Aria managed to hold onto hers long enough to call for help from their minions.

Said concentration snapped the moment they had fled though.

When the audio feed opened to the three, they at first couldn’t make out anything other than constant blaster fire and a few muted screams. Then the sound of blasters stopped as one of the colonists called for a cease-fire.

The Dazzling’s hopes soared! They didn’t have to worry about that strange man coming after them after all and, as a bonus, they would finally be able to leave this world with his ship!

Their celebration was killed before it could even begin though, as one of the colonist’s voices could be heard through the receiver.

“What the Hell is going on?! Why aren’t you all at your posts?!” a deep voice crackled through the security audio.

“S-sir, is that…?”

“Oh…Oh, Lord Vader, we weren’t alerted to your- No, wait! What are you-!?” that same deep voice was then cut down by the sound of the laser sword.

“W-what's going on!” a voice screamed, followed by another exclaiming

“Who cares? He’s trying to kill us! Open fire!” With that, the blaster fire began with renewed vigor and Adagio cut the feed.

The eldest siren turned to her two sisters and observed their reactions, all the while trying to formulate an escape plan.

Aria, on the surface, seemed unfazed by the wholesale slaughter going on outside, but anyone who knew her could tell that she was bothered. Her eyes were locked firmly on the door, and her index finger was tapping a nervous beat on the side of her blaster pistol.

Sonata, on the other hand, was not subtle about how upset she was about the Dazzling’s current situation, she was rocking back and forth on the heels of her boots, her cheeks streaked with tears from what Adagio assumed was fear.

Adagio hated to admit it, but she was terrified too. The entire predicament the three were in wasn’t something they had experienced before. Sure, Star Swirl had hunted them down, but he never tried to kill them with his magic. Honestly, no pony that the Sirens knew of had ever tried to do such a thing.

Adagio’s thoughts were cut short when Sonata suddenly screamed, “DAGI, STOP! I DON’T WANT TO HEAR THE SCREAMING PEOPLE ANYMORE!”

Adagio looked over at the scared girl, confusion and slight annoyance written on her face, “Sonata, what are you talking about? I shut the feed off.” She looked to Aria for support but instead, all she received was a look of abject horror.

‘No, she isn’t looking at me… she’s looking at the door!” Turning around, Adagio noticed it, the screams that Sonata thought were from the security feed, were coming from the door to the building they were now in.

The noise started with fists banging against the metal door at first, with people begging whoever was locked inside to open the door, to save them. Then those gave way to blaster fire, the colonists desperately using their cheaply made rifles and pistols to try and break through the door.

The screams began shortly after that until all that was left was the deep breathing of that dreaded man and the hum of his weapon creeping its way through the cracks in the door.

‘He can’t get through… the door has bought us some time.’ Turning around, she began giving orders, “Did either of you manage to absorb any of the human’s anguish before they died?” she cared not for the cattle that had just given away the girl’s position, but hopefully they had managed to give them a much-needed boost in power.

Seeing Aria nod was a relief, seeing Sonata shake her head wasn’t surprising, but was disconcerting.

“Alright, well, with the amount of negative emotions we’ve drained, that added boost between Adagio and I should be enough to handle this guy…” she inhaled softly, her gem glowing as she did so before she exhaled. “Once we handle him it’ll be easy pickings, ladies. Perk up and let’s get ready to get rid of this freak!”

Aria smirked a little at Adagio’s pep talk, “Yea, he probably tired himself out dealing with all the cannon fodder anyway.”

Sonata didn’t say anything, she merely stood up and wiped her eyes clear of tears before nodding to Adagio.

“Right, from what I remember, our song stunned…” Adagio began, but her plan was interrupted by a sudden groaning reverberating through the entire building.

All three of them turned to the source of the noise, the door in front of them, only to see it slowly being dented and crushed until it was finally ripped from its track and tossed aside.

No longer blocked by the door, the hum of the dark man’s blade and the rasp of his breathing echoed freely throughout the room, and the field behind him was littered with the bodies of the horrified colonists.

“Dagi, what do we do…?” Adagio heard Sonata’s voice, but for once she had no answer.

Darth Vader stepped through the bunker door and looked at the three girls standing before him. He chose to ignore the Ponytailed one trembling in the corner. Her presence in the Force was negligible and she was no threat to him.

The other two though intrigued him. All three had lost significant portions of their power when they tried to control him, and when he retaliated they diminished even further trying to defend themselves from his telekinesis. Now, though, they were near the level they had been when the confrontation started…

Vader weighed his options, these three obviously had some way to grow stronger in the Force. Perhaps they stumbled across Nihilius’ Holocron and learned his lost art. Putting that aside, they also had immense talent with Force Dominate, something that even Vader could grudgingly respect.

But could he afford to waste time training such undisciplined, power-hungry fools? He observed all three of them one more time. The one called Adagio Dazzle radiated fear, as she should, but looking deeper she also exuded cunning and a lust for power that would have made her the perfect Rule of Two apprentice… but not one that Vader would want for his plans.

His gaze fell to Aria Blaze, her lithe frame shaking in terror, waiting for him to strike. She would not do either, she was filled with anger and hatred for him, yes, but she too wanted more than what her station would allow and was thus a liability.

With the two stronger sisters out of the way, he finally let his gaze fall to the mouse in the corner, Sonata Dusk. She was nothing compared to her sisters, her power diminished because of fear and whatever was causing them to lose their powers in the first place. That didn’t dissuade the Sith Lord though, because if her sisters could raise their power in the Force, why couldn’t she? Instead, he let his gaze travel deeper, seeing the true self beneath the scared child.

She was not a good person. Just like her sisters, she had willingly enthralled and sent people to their deaths, something Vader didn’t judge them for. Unlike her sisters though she either did not realize the consequences of her actions or she did but ignored them to try and maintain her innocence.

She felt fear, she felt hatred towards him, but most important for Vader’s long-term goals, unlike her sisters who were ambitious and willing to do anything to get what they wanted, Sonata only wanted what was best for her “family.” And that would be her undoing.

Before Vader could even begin to implement his plans, a shot rang out from inside the room and a stunner round slammed into his shoulder, staggering him but ultimately doing nothing.

“Aria you had it set to stun!” Adagio admonished before she too began to open fire upon the Sith Lord.

Unfortunately for them both, Vader had recovered in time and began to deflect the blaster bolts, retreating outside as he did so.

“Ha! This guy isn’t that tough! Those humans must have just been too weak to handle this big wimp!” Aria began firing her own pistol after fixing its setting, joining Adagio in her pursuit of the fleeing Dark Lord.

Sonata slowly stood up from where she had been crouched and watched as her sisters pursued Vader out the door.

She was about to follow when she heard the deep baritone of the Sith Lord exclaim “All too easy.” Before the blaster fire ceased.

Sonata’s heart stopped and her feet planted themselves to the ground… were Adagio and Aria dead? ‘No, they can’t be! They didn’t scream like the people outside did…’ her train of thought was interrupted once more by that dreaded voice.

“Come out now, or they will suffer the consequences of your cowardice.”

Sonata knew she shouldn’t listen to him… her instincts, the ones left over from when she was still physically a Siren back on Equestria, told her to leave them, that they were weak, and they deserve the death they were being given. It told her to sneak out the back door and ignore the evil man, leaving the two fools to their fate.

The Sister in her though, the one that loved Adagio and Aria unconditionally, told her to save her sisters, to face down the darkness with as much bravery and power as she could muster.

Inhaling and drawing up whatever smidgen of power she could she walked out the door and nearly felt her courage leave her when she saw her sisters frozen in place, blasters raised and laser bolts still floating in the air mid-shot.

Vader looked at her, his saber now off and hooked back on his belt. “How nice of you to join us, Sonata Dusk.”

“L-let them go!” Sonata barely managed to get out, her legs were shaking, and her hand was pressed to her gem for comfort, but the small amounts of paranoia, dread, fear, and other negative emotions were just feeding into her own like a feedback loop, diminishing the small amounts of power she had managed to draw up.

Observing the girl and seeing how she held her brooch like a security blanket confirmed to Vader that the three’s power had somehow come from those trinkets, which meant he could confiscate them off their corpses if he so desired.

Instead, he asked, “What would you do in return for their safety?”

Sonata didn’t answer, instead, she glanced at her sisters once more before looking back to the dark lord, who merely stood there waiting for her response. When she didn’t give him one, he began to walk over to Aria.

“You hold onto this… trinket like a lifeline,” he used his right hand to turn the gem on Aria’s neck before removing it from its chain, he then did the same to Adagio’s before turning back to a now-ashen Sonata. “What do they do?”

“I… I can’t tell you that!” Sonata shook her head, clutching her gem even tighter now.

“I have ways of making you talk, Sonata Dusk,” He began making his way towards her, “Either tell me what I want to know, or your sisters suffer the consequences.”

Sonata backed up in terror, only to stumble over one of the colonist’s corpses and lose her footing. Falling to the ground, Sonata could only watch as the Dark Lord loomed over her.

“This is your last chance, child,” Vader glared down at her, “What. Do. These. Do?”

Sonata looked over at her sisters one more time, seeing their terrified eyes pleading with her not to tell him anything, so, using the last of her courage she remained silent.

Vader didn’t say anything for a moment before his saber flew to his hands and ignited once more.

‘This is it… he’s going to kill me’ Sonata thought, trying to close her eyes, but her body wouldn’t let her. Instead, she kept looking at the dark man above her and waited for the swing that would end her life.

To her dismay though, he did something that was even worse, at least in her opinion.

With his free hand, he tossed the two gems into the air and suddenly, as quick as lightning, cleaved them in half with his blade, destroying them.

“NO!” Sonata tried to get up and catch the falling remains of her sister’s lifelines, but instead, she felt a sudden pain in her back, before everything began to fade.

5: Anger, Fear, Aggression

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Sunset Shimmer woke up with a sharp inhale and her heart beating in her ears.

Taking a moment to collect herself the Equestrian tried to rationalize what her dream had meant or even what it had been, but to her dismay the nightmare had already faded from her mind before she could really ruminate on it.

Getting out of her makeshift bed of blankets and pillows that Yoda had scrounged for her when she first arrived, Sunset pulled out the data pad her Master had given her and looked at the time. Seeing that it was nearly four in the morning, Sunset sighed and knew she wouldn’t get back to sleep anytime soon.

Quickly putting her boots on and stepping out into the swamp, the Jedi Padawan shuddered as the moist cool air touched her, but began her morning jog early, without Yoda.

In the now four weeks that she had been on Dagobah, Yoda had taught her meditation techniques to calm her mind and connect with the Force. These techniques ranged from sitting still and reaching within yourself to just running until you lose yourself in the world around you, or as it was named back in Equestria, achieved a running high.

Sunset took to the running meditation quickly, which seemed to annoy Yoda, but Sunset paid him no mind. As she ran through the bog she let her mind drift and tried to let her issues flow into the Force as she had been instructed, and always failed to do.

Yoda, when she first started learning under him, had started preaching to her about “letting her anger go” and “releasing it into the Force.” What Yoda underestimated though, was just HOW much hatred and anger Sunset held within her heart.

She had a long list of ponies she disliked or hated on principal of interfering with her time with Celestia, but they were easy enough to let go of once she started her routine and started thinking things through.

Most of the ponies that interfered with her relationship with Celestia weren’t doing it on purpose, she had realized during her meditation. So, letting those feelings “go” into the Force was easy enough.

Forgiving Celestia and Cadence though? That was nearly impossible.

Cadence was everything Sunset had wanted to be, perfect, beautiful, a PRINCESS, and officially adopted by Celestia. They both started out the same in many respects. Orphaned at an incredibly young age and yearned for affection and knowledge; but Cadence was the one to randomly defeat a witch and be greeted by Celestia and awarded Alicornhood! While Celestia just kept pushing Sunset towards making friends and socializing, instead of having her gain the prestige and power Cadence had stumbled into.

Sunset inhaled sharply through her nose to try and calm herself down, she turned around the bend, leapt over a fallen tree and kept running.

Before Sunset could truly calm down however, her train of thought derailed itself on another point of her endless anger, Celestia.

Sunset abruptly stopped her run at that and clenched her fists as she thought about her mentor.

When the princess took her on a tour of the castle, Sunset had noticed the mirror, had noticed the reflection of herself with wings within it and being the excited student she was, she had asked Celestia what the mirror was.

Celestia had LIED to Sunset, she had told her the mirror was nothing, that it was just an old mirror that Starswirl had tinkered with. Sunset had believed her at the time, but when their final explosive argument had happened years later, she had run to the mirror and the rest was history.

‘I need to calm down’ Sunset’s thoughts whispered, she was shaking, and she could feel the Force heating the area around her, the mud was starting to dry underneath her and the water around her was bubbling.

Sunset once again took a deep breath, she closed her eyes and tried once more to calm her volatile emotions ‘Peace, Sunset, Peace’

Opening her eyes once again it was then that she noticed something odd about the area she was in. This wasn’t the normal path she took when running, the trees were too thick, the fog pervasive. Looking around it was then that she noticed it, a gnarled tangle of roots and vines, with a slight opening that made it look like the mouth of a cave.

Walking up to it Sunset recoiled when she felt the temperature drop drastically near the cave mouth. ‘What is this?’

Swallowing her fear and letting her curiosity get the better of her Sunset stepped into the cave.

Sonata Dusk woke up with a muffled scream and the sound of beeping in her ears.

She tried moving her head to look around for her sisters, but she couldn’t. Her head was stuck between two hard clamps, her entire body tied down to a metal table that seemed to get tighter every time she moved.

Realizing that she was stuck, she instead made use of her eyes and looked at as much of the room as she could. It wasn’t much, the room was a gray, bare, metal thing. It was cold, much colder than the colony had been, and her sisters weren’t here with her, of that she was sure.

Sonata’s eyes widened, the image of that dark man destroying her sisters’ gems came to her mind, looking down she noticed her own gem was missing and her panic increased, as did the beeping in her ears.

Before Sonata could find any other reasons to panic though, the sound of an automatic door opening caught her ears, followed by the dreaded breathing of the bad man’s respirator.

She felt the table jerk underneath her and suddenly she was turning around to face him.

“So, you’re finally awake.” Darth Vader’s voice echoed through the room as he stood before Sonata, bigger than she remembered.

“Wmf!” Sonata tried to talk, tried to ask where Adagio and Aria were, but in her struggle to get free she hadn’t noticed the gag in her mouth. She looked back at Vader who just seemed to gaze at her curiously before crossing her arms.

“You worry for your sisters,” Vader walked forward, and Sonata flinched instinctively before she felt the gag lifting out of her mouth. With that out of the way Vader continued “Try to enthrall me again, Child and you will die.”

Sonata’s eyes must have shown that she understood because he continued, “Your… sisters are fine and are currently being interrogated.” He walked away from her before pulling out to her joy and dread a gem, and not just any gem, HER gem.

“They are surprisingly stubborn and refuse to answer any questions.” His gaze lingered on the gem a moment longer before he turned it once again to Sonata “You don’t have that luxury.” He took two steps forward and Sonata felt the rooms temperature drop with every step. “I wish to give you an offer Sonata Dusk, one you simply cannot refuse.”

With the Dark Lord looming over her Sonata said the only thing that came to mind, sealing her fate for the foreseeable future. “What… what kind of offer?”

Sunset had been wandering inside the cave for what felt like ten minutes now and she really wanted to know why she had even bothered to enter it in the first place.

It was cold, musky and dark, so why did she feel drawn here?

Turning a corner and pushing some vines out of the way, Sunset saw something strange out of the corner of her eye. It was bright and crystalline, but when she turned to see what it was, there was nothing.

Sunset stopped to rub her eyes, her exhaustion from before coming back and playing tricks on her. She turned around to try and leave the cave and head back to Yoda’s hut when something else caught her eye.

Walking a bit deeper into the cave she finally saw it, on top of a small pedestal about the same height as Yoda actually, was an ornate looking box. Sunset smiled and thought, ‘JackPot’ before runing forward to open it.

The box came open easily enough, it wasn’t locked or anything. The contents of it though surprised Sunset as she rummaged through it. First came diagrams of a body, with points outlined along the head, arms, chest, and legs. Putting those to the side Sunset then pulled out what seemed to be instructions for fencing? They had no writing, only detailed drawings of the movements and maneuvers.

Sunset absentmindedly put the drawings to the side, and without looking stuck her hand once again into the box, only for her hand to touch something cold and metal and voices to fill her head.

‘Into exile I must go, failed I have’

‘Master Yoda… You survived.’

‘the Dark Side I sense in you’

``I've become more powerful than any Jedi, Even you’

Sunset gasped lightly and shook herself out of it. ‘what was that?’, she thought pulling out the small metal object she touched, Sunset tried to understand what had happened and why this thermos had caused it. Turning the thermos around and running her fingers along its front yielded no results.

Then something amazing happened, her thumb must have hit a switch because the moment it did a loud snap hiss filled the air and a brilliant green blade extended out of the thermos and into the air in front of Sunset.

Once again voices filled Sunset’s thoughts.

’A toy, young ones, a Lightsaber is not.’

‘So, Lightsaber, not a thermos.’ Sunset snidely thought, wondering why Yoda had never taught her about these things during the time she had been stuck with him. Giving the small blade a few practice swings she noticed that it was lightweight and made a pleasant hum when it moved.

Sunset looked at the Diagrams she had put down next to the box, and suddenly it all made sense! ‘These aren’t for fencing they’re for the Lighsaber!’ before Sunset could even begin to start looking over the diagrams though and copying the movements depicted in them slow condescending clap filled the air.

“Oh bravo, Sunny you figure that out!” a deep distorted voice snarked from behind Sunset.

Sunset instinctively turned around and slashed at the air behind her, only for her blade to be intercepted by a longer red blade.

The being moved forward her red blade pushing the green blade towards Sunset and causing her legs to buckle under the strain. Her attacker was taller and stronger than her that much was obvious, but the light of the two sabers kept her from being able to see who her attacker was. All she could make out was a hood and dark clothing but not her face.

Using the Force Sunset pushed her enemy away from her and using her memory of the diagrams she skimmed over took up what she hoped was a defensive stance. Saber raised above her head, blade pointed towards her opponent and hand outstretched forward.

“HA!” her enemy cackled “Such a smart girl!” Her enemy took up a different stance, both hands on the Saber with it raised over her head. Rushing forward she brought the blade down like an avalanche and Sunset moved her blade to intercept the blow.

The two blades locked towards the ground away from both combatants and this time Sunset took the initiative. Pulling back her head she smashed her forehead into the dark girls’ nose causing the girl to stumble back and her hood to fall away from her face.

“Ow! You bitch!” the girl snarled rubbing her nose, casting a glare towards Sunset.

Sunset ignored that though, instead she felt the color drain from her body, and she took an instinctive step back as she finally got a good look at the person she had been fighting “No that…that’s impossible!” she screamed putting the lightsaber once again in front of her as if to ward off the image that this dark girl represented.

Sunset Shimmer scowled at her younger counterpart as she whipped the blood from her face, but then she smiled her yellow eyes burning like fire pits and her pale sickly skin stretching with the motion before she snarled “Surprise!” and once again launched herself at… herself.

6: Doppelgangers and Masters

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When Yoda had explained the Dark Side to Sunset, He had said that it was everything the Light wasn’t. He told her, in his toady voice and weird dictation, to think of the Force as an ocean. He explained that all living things were individual water droplets in the ocean, each drop flowing and ebbing with the currents that made up the Force.

If the Force was an ocean, and the “Light” was water, then “Dark” was oil. It would flow in whatever direction it wanted, it would corrupt the water around it, and it would dominate as much as it could. Yoda had told her that the Dark Side could and would change an individual if they gave themselves over to it.

She hadn’t believed him when he had explained all these things to her, after all, hadn't she touched the darkness and remained perfectly fine?

Before she had wandered into the cave, she resolved herself to master both the light and dark, to prove Yoda wrong and to show him, like she’d show Celestia that what they believed about her was wrong.

Now though, dodging and deflecting her alter ego’s laser sword, she realized that Yoda may not have been exaggerating the effects of the Dark Side…

Her doppelgänger’s attacks kept coming, each strike that she managed to block caused her arms to shake. When the false Sunset would bring her lightsaber down, Sunset would bring hers up to defend and each time she would feel her bones creak under the power of her darker self.

“What’s the matter Sunny?” Her shadow spoke, her voice thick and nasally because of her bleeding nose. “Not gonna strike back? Where’s the fire? The anger!?” with that she kicked Sunset in the stomach, sending her crashing into the roots that made up the cave and instantly knocking the wind out of her.

Her lightsaber dropped from her hands as she tried to catch her breath, but before she could, her enemies red saber pierced the root next to her head. The hum of the blade filling her ears and the shadow of her opponent overtaking her.

Sunset didn’t know what to do, she looked up to her phantom and even though she tried to put on a brave face she felt tears begin to fall as her adrenaline dropped and fear replaced bravado.

The shadow’s sneer turned into a small frown at the sight of those tears, instead of pulling out the saber and finishing her past self-off she bent down to eye level with her and used her hand to wipe away the tears causing Sunset to flinch at the unexpected touch.

“Shh, none of that now.” She spoke in a reassuring tone “I don’t want to kill you Sunny.”

Sunset felt her eyes widen at that and she felt a little bit of hope rise within her chest. “You… you don’t?”

Her shade shook her head, “No, I only wanted to… test you” she put a hand on her saber and deactivated it before standing to place it on her belt, “You are me after all, at least… a past version of me.”

Sunset couldn’t stop her response before it was barked out “I will NEVER become you!”

Where she thought her proclamation would cause her shade to once more begin its assault, she instead tossed her head back and laughed.

Looking down at her younger self, Sunset let the smile her laughter had brought fall from her face, “You will become me, Sunset one way or another.” With that the dark sider lifted her right hand and sent a torrent of electricity towards her.

Sunset’s screams filled the cave, fighting to be heard over the crackle of lightning and the mad laughter of her doppelgänger.

Sunset Shimmer woke up with a gasp, her body numb and her mind in a haze. She looked around in surprise, after all she woke up to the murky swamps of Dagobah once more but hadn’t she died?

‘If so the Fields of Elysium look an awful lot like Dagobah’

Turning her head away from the swamps and towards the cave’s entrance that she had fallen asleep in front of she was surprised to see Yoda standing there, little clawed hands resting on his cane and a look on his face that she couldn’t discern.

She couldn’t resist “And Faust looks a lot greener than the fairy tales…”

Yoda didn’t get the reference to Equestrian folk tales, but he did understand the jab at him and in return smacked her upside the head lightly with his cane. “wander the swamps alone you did.”

Sunset flinched at the hit but didn’t say anything in return, one of Yoda’s cardinal rules in the weeks that she had been training under him had been to never go out alone. Dagobah was a world with almost no sentient life outside of its two Jedi inhabitants and a group of scientists that never ventured far past their outpost near the equator.

Traveling alone was dangerous and Sunset knew Yoda must have been worried.

Instead of bringing attention to that, she looked to her side for the lightsaber she had found only to see it wasn’t next to her like she had hoped.

“Lost something have you? Hmm?” Yoda prodded her with his stick “Sense in you much trouble, Sunset Shimmer, Yes.” He walked around her “much trouble, and much conflict, come tell Yoda what ails your mind.” With that he sat in front of her his legs crossed and his stick resting on his knees as he waited for her to begin.

Sunset inhaled sharply through her nose, remembering the blood red blade, the amber colored eyes of her shade, the feel of the lightning as it crackled across her skin, the smell of her flesh as it cracked, burned and scarred. Her fingers twitched slightly, only for her to clench her hands closed and begin to explain to Yoda her experience in the cave.

Yoda was silent throughout the explanation, not once interrupting or cutting her off. From what Sunset could tell he was calm throughout the explanation, but just like Celestia his face was impossible to read, and she wasn’t in the right mental state to even try to touch his mind through the force, though she doubted she could even glean anything from him.

At last Yoda nodded and stood up before speaking “A strange dream indeed,” He rubbed his chin as if contemplating what he had told her “a strange dream, vision of the future, you believe this could be?”

Sunset shook her head in disbelief, after explaining everything to him, from the lightsaber to the evil version of herself, the conclusion he had come too was that it was a dream?!

Instead of voicing her rage though she clamped down on it, flashes of those sickly yellow eyes filled her vision before she once again tried to let that rage go, “Maybe…”

Yoda nodded to her and smiled “Worry not, my young padawan.” He tapped her knees with his stick “Your first lesson for today, this is.” Pointing to the water that made up the swamp he continued “Always in motion the future is.” he nodded “Set in stone, this dream of yours is not.”

Sunset didn’t say anything, instead she nodded her head and with that the “lesson” short as it was, was over and they started to make their way back to Yoda’s hut for breakfast.

As she walked along side Yoda, she felt something warm drip down her nose, she reached up to wipe at it thinking maybe she had gotten some swamp mud on her face again, she pulled back her hand only to see blood coating her finger tips.

She stopped for a moment in surprise, looking at her shaking, bloody hand and then to Yoda who had continued on his way.

Sunset scowled and muttered "Only a dream my flank..." grunting in anger and with that all to familiar pang of betrayal in her heart, she clenched her fist and continued forward.

Darth Vader walked into his communications room, took a knee on the pedestal and waited for his master’s form to appear before him.

When Palpatine’s head appeared before Vader the Sith Emperor was surprised at his apprentice’s shape.

His cape was nearly gone, singed from blaster fire or a saber blade Palpatine did not know. His left hand was gone, and his suit was covered in…something. Palpatine assumed it was gore or dirt, he didn’t care to ask which.

“Lord Vader, was your mission a success?” The Sith Master asked his apprentice before probing into their connection for the truth. He doubted that Vader would lie to him, but one could never be too careful.

“Yes Master, the Jedi and Colonists were eliminated as per your instructions.” Vader’s emotions never wavered, the truth was not embellished and Palpatine was greatly pleased or he would have been if not for the part about the slaughtered Colonists.

“When, pray tell Lord Vader,” Palpatine felt his apprentice’s fear spike, good he still knew his place, “did I tell you to eliminate the Colonists?”

Vader was silent for a moment before he finally spoke “They were harboring the Jedi, Master.” He bowed lower “they tried to pass off my visit as a routine check on the colony and denied any claim to putting out the call for aid that they had.”

Sidious let his anger at his apprentice cool after Vader had said his piece. His apprentice had followed his orders and used his discretion to hand out punishment to traitors… this was good, very good, perhaps Vader wasn’t as hampered by his injuries as he had thought.

Leaning back in his chair Palpatine smiled “Very good my friend, your dedication to justice and purging these Jedi scum must be rewarded.” He nodded “Yes, perhaps some time to rest would do you well, you look worse for wear after all.”

Palpatine felt a spike of pleasure shoot through their link, perhaps pleasure at being praised instead of punished? He didn’t dwell on it though instead focusing on Vader once more he gave his apprentice his orders. “Return to your palace on Mustafar and get repaired and rested. I have further holocrons and teachings waiting for you upon your arrival. You have greatly pleased me, Lord Vader.”

Vader bowed his head “Thank you, Master” and with that Palpatine cut the transmission before turning back to his own personal holoprojector and his smile turned predatory.

In front of him was a live feed from Vader’s ship, Palpatine could see everything that was going on inside the ship, hear everything and he knew that Vader had tried to trick him.

Instead of anger though, Palpatine felt pride and a thrill he hadn’t felt since the night of the Jedi Purge. His apprentice could learn, he had tried to deceive his master and if it wasn’t for his pride, he could have pulled it off.

Palpatine saw everything, he saw how Vader brought three unremarkable looking women onto his ship. He was watching when his apprentice offered Sonata their “deal” and he saw when Vader took his own saber and mutilated himself to make the ploy look authentic.

Such dedication required a reward, and while Palpatine would enjoy crushing such amateurish schemes, it meant that his apprentice was a Sith, that he had ambitions that the lava on Mustafar hadn’t burnt away from him.

Sitting at his desk re-watching the recording Palpatine let lose a mad cackle, he couldn’t wait to show Darth Vader his place once again. For now, though, he’d let his apprentice have his toy and play his games.

After all, Palpatine had Maul when he was apprenticed to Plagueis, why couldn’t Vader have his own?

7: A Call To Action

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Time dulled many things, it was even said to heal all wounds if old wives and flowery poets were to be believed.

For Sunset though all time did was bring her closer to her current goal, and allow old wounds to fester.

Sunset and Yoda had built up a routine over the three years that she had been with the diminutive Jedi Master. Every morning, without fail would begin with Yoda waking Sunset up with a smack to the shin and a sigh. Every time Sunset would grumble and the two would go about their morning exercise.

Sunset would heft the old troll onto her back and run the route she always did, avoiding the cave she had stumbled into and once she had done that, she would put Yoda down and begin practicing with the Force.

Every practice session Yoda would always go on about do or do not, and how try doesn’t exist but honestly Sunset tuned him out at that point, preferring to practice the Force the way she wanted, not the way he preferred.

Before the cave she would have grudgingly listened to Yoda, at least enough to follow through with any of his instructions before tweaking them. After the events of the cave though she gave him the same amount of respect she gave Celestia later in her studies, at least in her head, meaning none. Oh, outside she was always saying things like “Yes master,” and “of course” but in practice she was rebelling and rebelling hard.

Sunset hated liars and being told that her experience in the cave was a dream counted as a lie to her, and something that Yoda had found out over time was that Sunset Shimmer held grudges and she held onto them for a long time.

So, when he told her after returning from the cave that fateful night to not go inside it again, Sunset knew she’d be ignoring that order.

Once every month, for three years Sunset would sneak off in the middle of the night to once again attempt to defeat her shadow, sometimes she’d enter the cave and find her specter ready for a fight, and each time she’d try to rush past her shade to get to the saber and each time she’d be rebuffed and defeated, barely getting out of the cave before being electrocuted once again.

Other times she’d go to the cave and find nothing, just herself and the lightsaber where it belonged. At first, she thought the cave was trying to trick her, lull her into a false sense of security. Overtime though she came to accept that some nights her shadow wouldn’t appear and used those times of quiet to practice with the blade and learn some of the forms that were written down before her.

She had been doing this for three years, and even though Yoda had caught her after a few months, once again waking her up outside of the cave with a smack to her head and a stern frown he didn’t stop her from sneaking out, though this did bring about no end of arguments between the two.

Over the course of three years, Sunset came to realize that the “testing” days as she called the encounters with herself and the “training” days were the same each month she went. So, it was on one such training day, after another argument with Yoda, that she made her way to the door and left the hut, not even hiding her intentions from the Jedi Master, who just watched her go.

“You are too emotional Sunset Shimmer, you need to let go of your anger Sunset Shimmer, you can be so much more Sunset Shimmer! By the Sun it’s like Celestia but worse!” Sunset raged into the swamp as she marched once more to the cave for her bi-monthly saber training.

She didn’t even remember what the argument was about at this point, her anger at her “master” kept her from thinking straight and though she kept trying to calm herself it just didn’t work. She could feel the icy tendrils of the dark reaching up under her skin and she shivered.

Ignoring it she marched onwards towards the cave, slowly calming herself while whispering about letting off steam with her saber training. That thought brought a smile to her face, and honestly not even Yoda could put a damper on the idea of Lightsaber practice.

That was the one thing that Sunset had to look forward too, especially after three years of at least to her mind, basic force training. She always felt like she improved every time she practiced with the lightsaber. Each time she’d come to practice she’d learn a bit about the saber forms, read up on them from the manual and put the different katas into practice, with priority put on Djem So¹ and Soresu², the Perseverance Form and the Resilience Form.

Those two forms, while similar were the two that called to her the most when she looked at the manual and really studied it. The other forms she ignored or glanced over, but those two, when she looked at them, she couldn’t look away.

With the phantom hum of HER saber, not Yoda’s, Hers, in her ear she turned the bend into nest of trees that held her destination only to come to a surprised halt. a campfire sits in front of the cave entrance, a pot of what she assumed to be stew boiled above the fire and a man, probably within late 60’s early 70’s sat stirring the pot with a wooden ladle. He had shoulder length greying brown hair, a bushy beard and when he looked up at Sunset, he smiled at her.

“hello there!” he spoke with a soft, but deep voice, accented with the standard Coruscanti inflection. He sat up straight, adjusting his brown robes and beckoned to Sunset with his free hand “come, sit with me, would you like some stew?”

Sunset nervously walked to the fire and sat in the offered chair before declining, “No, thank you though.” She looked at him wearily, but the man just shrugged and served himself a bowl.

“More for me I supposed,” He smiled once more before asking “what brings you here my young friend?”

“I…I should be asking you that!” she exclaimed looking at him aghast “I thought Yoda and I were the only ones on the planet…” she scratched her cheek nervously “well besides those researchers a ways out, but you get what I mean!”

At that the man sat back in his camp stool a bit and chuckled, “Well, I’ve always been here, I just don’t always come around to places like this very often…” he frowned and glanced at the cave when he said that but turned his attention back to Sunset. “I’m sorry miss, I never caught your name how rude of me.”

Sunset didn’t miss the glance and felt even more guarded before answering “Sunset Shimmer…”

the man’s smile returned, and he stuck out his hand for a handshake “Well Sunset, you can call me Qui Gon Jinn”

Light years away on the fiery world of Mustafar, deep within Darth Vader’s monolith of a castle, Sonata Dusk shuddered. Today was torture day, she hated torture day.

Sitting in front of her, strapped to a table like she had been three years ago was a human Jedi. She looked to be in her mid-30’s and Sonata didn’t know her name, but that didn’t matter, names didn’t matter. All that mattered was doing what her master commanded, and Sonata had learned early on what displeasing her master looked like, she could still feel his magical…sorry… Force grip around her throat.

Putting on a false smile that didn’t reach her eyes Sonata began to talk to her assignment, hoping that the Jedi would take the hint and just give her what she wanted so neither of them had to suffer any longer than necessary. “So, it’s been a few weeks since we last talked…” ignoring her prisoners scoff she crossed her legs and continued, “Are you willing to at least work with me? I don’t want to try and force you again.”

The Jedi didn’t say anything for a while and Sonata was hopeful that she had gotten through to her, that she wouldn’t have to use her powers to try and make her talk, but those hopes were dashed when the trapped force user just laughed at her, “You really think I’ll fall for that Sith?” the woman spat at Sonata before continuing “You won’t get anything out of me!”

Sonata resisted the urge to sigh and let her smile fall from her face “Well that’s to bad… and you are right about one thing…” It was then that she grabbed a hold of the Jedi’s hair and forced the woman’s head still, using the Force to keep her from closing her eyes.

“I didn’t think you’d fall for it, but it’d have been easier if you did.” With that the song began, the screams followed shortly after.

A few hours later Sonata knelt before Darth Vader and relayed all that she had found during her…interrogation of the Jedi. She ignored the cold feeling being within his presence always gave her, especially now that she was aware of the Force and could feel the currents of it swirl around both of them.

She told him what the Jedi was doing in Imperial Center³, where her companions were hiding and that she had died under the stress of what Sonata had put her through.

If Vader was pleased, she didn’t get to see it, because all he did when given the news that the Jedi had perished under the torture his apprentice had laid upon her was nod, and motion for to go back to her quarters and await further orders.

So, she did, she went back to her room and when the doors slid closed and she was once more within the relative privacy that it provided her, she slumped to the floor and hugged her knees to her chest and began to bawl.

If her sisters were with her, they’d criticize her for crying. Telling her that it didn’t matter that the Jedi was dead, that it was what Sirens did and that she should be happy with the amount of energy she had saved up by doing what she did.

Her sisters weren’t with her though, they were off around the castle doing their own minor training and she barely got to see them anymore, and even if they had been with her, they wouldn’t understand what Sonata was feeling at all…

Adagio and Aria gladly gave themselves to the Dark, they relished the power it gave them and used it as a supplement for the gems they had lost.

Sonata knew the truth though, she was lucky to still have a gem to draw energy from even as she called upon the Dark Side each time she did so. Siren’s didn’t need their gems to survive, they had known that, otherwise they would have starved on the planet Vader had found them on long ago. A siren’s gem fed them power though, it fed them on the anguish and despair that other sentient beings felt, using that to increase the magical…or in this universes case Force potential of the Siren.

The problem Sonata seemed to hit that her sisters didn’t understand, no matter how many times she tried to explain it to them, was that the Dark Side and a Siren’s gem didn’t seem to work the way they’d think it would.

Both fed on negative emotions, the Dark side on Anger, Hatred, Pain and Fear to increase its power and hold on a being, while the gem used those same emotions to enthrall people under a Siren’s song. You’d think that the two powers working together would bring about great results, but all it did was cause a struggle within Sonata Dusk as well as causing unstoppable brain hemorrhaging in whoever she was trying to enthrall with both the Force and the Song.

A Jedi, like the one she had tortured earlier, could resist long enough to at least tell her what she wanted, A dark sider could last even longer, but a non-force sensitive would hear the song for barely a minute and be lost to the tug of war between the two powers trying to control them.

The Dark Side and the Gem, both powers built on domination and control would try to dominate each other, until the person being sung to just stopped functioning and Sonata felt every moment of it.

Adagio and Aria would have loved the feeling, they would have loved the torture, the tug of war between the two ruinous powers that Sonata now held, but for Sonata it just brought her misery and made her sick to her stomach.

With one more shuddering cry Sonata curled into a ball, all the while projecting unknowingly her emotions into the Force, the words she muttered to herself carried across light years, and any Force sensitive could have picked them up.

Luckily for her those words were in Equestrian.

Unluckily for her, Darth Vader was close enough to feel the call for help blast out through the Force, even if he didn’t understand the words projected.

Sonata’s cries for help and freedom would pick up in frequency that night, as Darth Vader’s anger descended upon her like an avalanche, and across the galaxy the hidden Jedi and even Palpatine himself would hear the call.

Palpatine would just cackle within his throne room at his apprentice’s rage, at Sonata’s suffering and ignore the calls for aid. The Jedi would feel for the lost soul that had gotten herself the attention of Vader’s ire, but refuse to aid her either, knowing that it’d be futile to try and save her.

In a small system near Mustafar, at least on the galactic scale the call was heard, and a small light answered back.

Sunset Shimmer and Qui Gon Jinn talked for what felt like hours. She would tell the old man about her experiences with Yoda, with Celestia and with the cave. He would just nod and give a bit of wisdom here or there, but otherwise let her rant.

Sunset felt herself smile a little bit as she ranted on, Qui Gon didn’t judge her like Celestia or Yoda did, he didn’t tell her to calm down or criticize her for her anger… after three years of dealing with Yoda’s lectures that was refreshing.

She finally let herself calm down and asked “why are you just letting me rant to you? You don’t even know me.” She accepted the café that he handed her and took a sip of it, the warm liquid soothing her sore throat.

“I have found, that letting people get what’s off their chest is sometimes better than criticizing them for their feelings.” Qui Gon rubbed his beard with his hand, his stew forgotten off to the side of his left. “I had a student, very much like you who had issues controlling his passions, he would wear his emotions on his sleeve.” The old man smiled at the memory before continuing, “He eventually learned that he didn’t have to just shove his concerns, his worries or his issues off to the side, that he could tell me anything that was bothering him and that I would keep anything he told me in confidence… that I think, helped him immensely in the long run.”

“He sounds like a lucky man, to have you has a teacher.” Sunset commented causing Qui Gon’s smile to grow.

“He is, and I was lucky to teach him…” Qui Gon was about to continue when something stopped him.

A cry of anguish reached them both, though Sunset didn’t notice Qui Gon reacting to the Force like she did.

‘help me…’ the voice whispered in a language Qui Gon didn’t understand, or at least wouldn’t have understood in life but as he was now, connected to the living force the language rang just as clear to him as it did to Sunset Shimmer who was looking around frantically trying to find who had called to them.

‘HELP ME!’ The voice once again screamed as if it had noticed their presence, causing Sunset to clutch her head and look up at the sky.

As if it was a sign from the Force itself a single red star shone in the night sky, or at least it did from Sunset’s perspective.

Standing up, Sunset used the Force to pull the lightsaber’s case from the cave and after retrieving the blade she would rush back to Yoda hoping that he had heard the call for help as well.

Qui Gon Jinn Watched her leave with a frown on his face, the cogs of destiny were turning yet again it seemed, and with one last look at the cave the man sighed and began to fade away, but not before muttering to himself “I hope you know what your doing.”

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the wait, got a new PC and real life caused some issues. again special thanks to my Patrons over on Patreon. for trying to ease my work load a bit. the story is going to pick up alot after this chapter so I hope you all enjoy what's to come.

Dictionary:

1: Djem So is the form Anakin Skywalker primarily Used, It is the Saber to Saber varient of Shien, together Shien and Djem So make up Form V of Lightsaber combat, which relies on deflecting blaster bolts back at a target, or in Djem So's case deflecting a lightsaber and countering with staggering blows. In Chapter 5 dark Sunset used one of Djem So's key moves which was an overhead swing that is meant to batter the lightsaber aside.

2: Soresu is the third form of lightsaber combat, and is the form Obi-Wan used, it relies on an unstoppable defense and has no offensive attacks, though Jedi did supplement it with other forms, normally Djem So or Ataru. Sunset instinctively used it during her fight against her dark self.

3: Imperial Center is Coruscant

8: The Journey Begins.

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Sonata Dusk cradled her broken arm and tried to hold back her tears as her master stood over her. She couldn’t tell through his mask but if she could see through it, she was sure he was scowling at her for her weakness.

Every test he had given her outside of torture and interrogation she had failed, and even those two skills caused to many casualties for Vader’s liking. She was sure he regretted having her as his apprentice instead of one of her sisters, but he couldn’t back down now, not without killing Sonata first.

His anger made sense, even to the target of that anger. She had called out for help through the Force but that hadn’t been what had made her master rage at her, it was the fact that her call could have been heard by HIS master that caused him to lash out at his apprentice.

It was this anger that bubbled to the surface when he asked her, “Did you receive a reply to your pitiful little call for aid?” Sonata still didn’t understand how he even knew what she had said through the Force, the call was in her native tongue not his.

Seeing the look on his face he scoffed, or did whatever his respirator allowed as a scoff “Your meaning, while in a language I couldn’t understand was clear nonetheless, now tell me,” he took a step forward “Did you get your reply?”

Before Sonata could answer the Sith Lord they both felt something hit them mentally through the Force.

‘I will’ came the reply they had both been dreading and hoping to hear. Vader couldn’t understand, it was once again a call in Sonata’s native language, but the meaning once again wasn’t lost to him and he felt slight relief that the reply wasn’t that of Palpatine’s cackling laughter or lightning.

Sonata felt her hope swell though, even though it was most likely a pony coming to rescue her, she and her sisters would be rescued! Or at least she hoped they would be…she couldn’t tell from this distance, but the force presence felt warm to her, strong, hopefully stronger than even Vader’s.

Vader looked at the pitiful creature beneath him before considering what he had felt, someone from her land obviously knew where she was now and would be coming to retrieve her. The Force, even from this had sung with powerful light, not strong enough to reach the Emperor's notice, at least, not from where it originated.

He couldn’t pinpoint its origin, but he knew it was close, at least on the galactic scale of things, but it was still far enough from the capital that Palpatine wouldn’t see any reason to investigate personally, not like with Sonata’s original outburst, which started at a point of interest for Palpatine.

The presence though was strong, at least as strong if not stronger than Sonata’s and her sisters, perhaps it was time to find a new apprentice and replace the faulty prototype…

“I have a proposition for you, Sonata Dusk.” His voice echoed through the room, “How would you like to buy your freedom?”

Sunset Shimmer came crashing through the wooden door with a shout of “Master Yoda!” only to find the Jedi Master already waiting for her on his bed.

“Felt that disturbance in the Force, did you?” Yoda glanced at her but otherwise his face was set in an unreadable mask.

“They were calling for help, how could I have not felt it?” Sunset sat down, the lightsaber hooked to her belt moved slightly but made no noise, but Yoda noticed it anyway. Once again if he had any reaction at seeing his old weapon, he didn’t outwardly express it, he just hummed and looked back at Sunset.

“Already prepared to go, are you?” he asked already knowing the answer.

Sunset didn’t know why, but that question caused her anger long forgotten in her conversation with Qui Gon Jinn to resurface once again “Of course I’m going to go!” she snarled “The call for help was in Equestrian, they might be one of my people!”

Yoda merely raised an eyebrow at her but nodded “Hmm interesting, this is.” He stood and hobbled towards her once more, “You are set on this path?”

Sunset only nodded, drifted to the lightsaber at her hip, almost daring Yoda to try and stop her but the Jedi master sighed and shook his head.

“If you leave, you may not return to this place.” He said with finality “The Emperor will know where you are, he and his apprentice will hunt you down like every other Jedi…”

Sunset stood “Are you saying I should be afraid?!” she shouted, “that I should abandon one of my people out of fear?”

Yoda chuckled “Remember my teachings young one, Fear is the path to the Dark Side.” He looked up at her once more “Why do you care for this person you have never met hm?” he questioned her poking her leg with his stick. “The Sunset Shimmer of three years past would have ignored this call, for it was not within her best interests.”

Sunset was about to angrily shout back at him when she stopped to concede that he was correct… three years ago she would have ignored any one from back home calling for help, hell she would have ignored them back when she was home in the first place.

Thinking back to all the times she challenged her inner darkness, to the inner reflection these encounters had caused, made her realize that she didn’t want to be that angry girl anymore, though she still struggled with her rage.

She hadn’t forgiven Celestia or Cadence, she still couldn’t, but now she at least understood why they were princesses and she wasn’t, and so she took at least what she thought was the first step towards being a better pony with her determination to help the one voice that called out to her.

Instead of articulating that though she looked at Yoda and said, “Because it’s the right thing to do, what kind of princess would I be if I let my people suffer?”

Yoda croaked out a laugh at that, the first genuine one she had heard in a while from the small Jedi master, “Very well then Sunset Shimmer, go and may the Force be with you.”

Sunset looked at him gobsmacked “That’s it? No argument, no give me back my lightsaber, no argument?”

Yoda shrugged “Chose you, the saber did, I do not recall moving it from it’s space under my house, and I doubt you could have found it without the Force helping you.” Sitting on his bed he continued, “You are not a prisoner here, child, While I would like to complete your training, or at least attempt to, I can feel the Force calling you elsewhere.”

For the first time in a long time the two had an understanding, she wasn’t the one he was destined to train, and he wasn’t the one to complete her training. With that she stood and walked over to the troll and enveloped him in a quick hug before turning and leaving the hut one last time towards her destiny.

Hours away, at least on foot even for a trained Force user was an imperial research facility, it was understaffed, had maybe two stormtroopers for guards and only had one way off the planet, a small imperial shuttle that remained unused unless emergencies were declared.

Sunset Shimmer surveyed the area through the tree’s noticing that the two stormtroopers weren’t even bothering with patrols, they just sat in front of the small facility, more a bunker really, helmets off, blasters to the side and playing cards in hand. From what she had managed to discern from both her datapad’s access to the holonet and Yoda’s own lectures, this station hadn’t been used for a year and a half, with the researchers heading back to the Capital to change shifts as it were, and catalog they’re findings. This left the two lone stormtroopers to keep the little science station running on their own, and make sure no critters made their way into the base.

Unluckily for them Sunset was more fearsome than any critter. Outside of the building on a makeshift landing pad was the shuttle she needed, she didn’t doubt that she’d be able to fly it or at least make one of the troopers fly it for her. First though she had to get to the shuttle.

“Oh, poor baby Sunset, can’t figure out how to get off this mudball?” the dreaded voice of her shadow whispered in her ear.

Turning around Sunset came face to face once more with her doppelganger and scowled “I don’t have time for you!” she whispered

“Oh, I know that Sunny, your off to go play hero and save the day!” Sunset’s sith red eyes narrowed “no more time to play with little ol me anymore, you’re moving to the big leagues!”

Sunset met her shades red eyes and growled out “What. Do. You. Want?”

The shade just laughed at her younger self’s anger, “Oh nothing, just here to warn you is all.” The shade stood and began to walk backwards to the forest “leave if you want, Sunset Shimmer, but there are worse shadows than I am waiting for you.” With that the shadow disappeared, and Sunset was again left alone to ponder her current dilemma.

Shaking her head the Equestrian turned back to the problem at hand, she could use force or even THE Force to get what she wanted, but she wasn’t as skilled in the mind arts as she wanted to be and while she was confident with a lightsaber she didn’t want to just kill the stormtroopers, that would cause problems for Yoda in the long run, unless she could make it look like an accident…

With her path set she used the force to enhance her speed, sprinting around the perimeter of the facility, fast enough to cause a disturbance around the stormtroopers that caused them to look up from their game, but return to it shortly after assuming the shift in the wind was just an animal or the weather.

The one closest to the forest was about to continue their conversation about how shitty the job they had been stuck with was, when something orange caught his and his partners eyes. Looking over they saw Sunset Shimmer waving at them, and instantly stood to get their blasters and threaten this unknown intruder, before they were slammed into the side of the building with a force push knocking them both out cold.

Dusting her hands off and smiling Sunset used the force to pick up the storm troopers and place them inside the shuttle, but not before stripping one of them down and putting his armor on herself and tying them both together with some rope she had found lying around.

Sitting down in the pilot’s chair, Sunset exhaled through her nose, and touched the controls only for her mind to once more be assaulted by visions like it had when she had found Yoda’s lightsaber.

‘delta 32 this is Shuttle S90 coming in, transmitting codes’

‘just take her in slowly’

‘I can’t believe we were stuck on swamp duty…’

Shaking her head, Sunset began pressing buttons like a girl possessed, using the navi computer she searched for the star system that she felt the disturbance originate from while the ship went through its automated preflight checklist. Looking at it one name stuck out to her, and she set the computers course to it, not even realizing or caring that she had found it completely by chance.

The ship lifted out of the swamp and proceeded to leave Dagobah’s atmosphere. Sunset placed the stormtrooper helmet in the copilot’s seat and once she was safely out of Dagobah’s gravity well, began the transition into hyperspace. Her course set for Mustafar.

9: Welcome to Mustafar

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Sunset Shimmer couldn’t breathe.

Every time she tried to take a breath, to allow her body it’s natural function her lungs felt like they were scorched by the very air she tried to give them.

Sunset Shimmer couldn’t move.

She had one arm and no legs, even with this handicap she tried desperately to crawl her way up to the beacon of light before her, the mentor that should save her, the teacher that betrayed her, the mother who maimed her.

Sunset Shimmer burned.

She burned not just because of the fire and ash that engulfed her body, charring her flesh and hair while her teacher watched, but she burned on the inside too. She burned with the fury and rage of a thousand suns as she glared up at the creature she once thought of as a mentor, a friend or even a mother.

Sunset Shimmer raged.

She screamed and yelled at the light with all her hatred. She desperately tried to crawl up to it, to grip it in her grasp and choke the life out of it, to make it suffer like she suffered.

Alas the light was forever out of reach.

Sunset came out of her meditation with a shout and began to probe her limbs and body to verify that everything was still in order.

Looking out the view port towards the planet she had just entered the orbit of, Sunset couldn’t help but wonder what the hell she had just seen, what she had just felt and experienced. Meditation was supposed to ward off the Dark, to help strengthen one’s mind and body against the Dark Side as a whole, but Sunset felt like she had been slammed into it at full speed.

Shaking it off she got off the floor of the shuttle and began preparing the ship to enter the planet’s atmosphere. Clicking everything she needed to click and typing in every code she needed too, Sunset slowly began her descent. She didn’t know why or how she knew how to pilot an imperial shuttle, but she chalked it up to the Force, thanked it and focused on the task at hand.

It had taken twenty-four hours to get from the Dagobah system to the Mustafar system, it was during that transitory time that Sunset had begun to both plan and freak out at how underprepared she was for the task she was running face first into.

While she was fiddling with Yoda’s saber…now her saber after she had extended the hilt, she realized that she had two live people in her cargo hold and she couldn’t do anything with them while she’s running around Mustafar looking for the Equestrian that called her to the planet.

Another problem she couldn’t fix at least while in hyperspace were the navigation logs in the shuttle’s computer. If she tried to purge the navigation computers logs while in Hyperspace, she’d delete the last coordinates she’d entered, that being Mustafar, and the ship would come out of hyperspace someplace in interstellar space between Dagobah and Mustafar.

To make matters worse, if she deleted the logs after landing, not only would it look suspicious to any imperials who may be on the planet who came across her shuttle, it would also hamper her return trip to Dagobah once she saved her wayward Equestrian.

Those problems were all minor though compared to the dragon in the room that was the Dark Side presence emanating off the planet. Normally, when a Jedi or a devotee of the Light Side meditates, they give themselves to the Light and let it rejuvenate them, focus them, as well as ward off the dark.

But this planet was so powerful in the Dark Side that just coming out of hyperspace near it had caused her to see things that weren’t real, to feel things that weren’t real, it was like being in the cave on Dagobah but multiplied by a factor of ten.

A beeping noise brought her out of her musings, and once more she drew upon knowledge that wasn’t her own to find the source of the noise. Pressing a few keys on the console, the ships radio buzzed to life and a sophisticated voice rang through its speakers.

“Unidentified Shuttle, you are entering the Private residence of Lord Vader, please send authorization codes and reason for being here or you will be shot down.”

Sonata stood next to her sisters and to the right of Darth Vader as they watched the surveillance officers work. She fiddled with her hands nervously, not looking at her sisters or the Sith Lord while they waited for the shuttle to respond.

In her head, Sonata knew what they were about to do to this intruder wasn’t fair. If she was being honest with herself, she would call what they had planned downright evil, but She needed to get her sisters and herself out from under Darth Vader’s grip, and this was the easiest way to do it.

Her musing was cut short however when the Comms officer removed his headset and looked in their direction “They have transmitted the codes, though it is… strange that this shuttle would even be here my Lord, it’s registered as a loan shuttle for a group of scientists.”

Darth Vader looked at the officer though his features were hidden by his mask and his voice altered by the voice modulator he couldn’t help but feel surprised, something that Sonata picked up on through the Force. “Scientists?”

The officer nodded “yes, sir, they apparently are on expedition, going to different planets across the outer rim and researching their biospheres.” The officer shifted uncomfortably “Because of its civilian nature, the group doesn’t make routine check ins with us, it’s last known location was Endor.”

Vader walked forward towards the Officer and leaned down to look at the data feed, after a moment of reading he stood straight and nodded “Let them land.”

The Officer couldn’t help but stare at the Sith Lord with shock in his eyes before sputtering out “I…Let them land sir?”

The Sith Lord didn’t even spare the man a glance, but the three Sirens felt his anger at being questioned ripple through the Force and he answered “Let. Them. Land.”

The officer, successfully cowed, nodded hastily and reached out for the intercom “Shuttle Craft S90 you are cleared for landing, proceed to Dock Three for inspection.” He didn’t dare look behind him for fear that Vader had glanced back his way and Sonata felt his relief flood through the Force when Vader gave a stiff nod and turned to leave.

Sonata felt the fear around her start to ebb as Vader left the command center and began to turn to leave herself when the loud thunder crack of anti-air turrets shook the room.

Sonata looked out the viewing port of the comms facility in shock as the Shuttle that contained her family’s ticket away from Vader began to spiral out of control towards the lava below.

In what seemed like an instant Vader had returned and grabbed the officer by his collar, lifting him off the ground with one arm.

“I told you to let them land, Commander.” The Sith Lord’s voice held barely restrained anger and Sonata knew He was moments away from ending the poor fool’s life.

“L…Lord Vader you heard me! I gave them permission to land; I didn’t order them shot down!” The man pleaded.

Vader looked into the man’s eyes before speaking “If not you, Commander, then who?” a growl could be heard even through his voice modulator.

The Commander stuttered for a few moments before slightly turning his head to one of his staff “Find out who is in charge of that Turret, I want them on screen now!” he yelled, trying to sound dignified in his vulnerable position.

Vader dropped the man and looked to the viewing screen, just as the face of an angry commander came into view.

“What the hell were you thinking Gerick?! Letting a ship with no prior warning or clearance to even be in this system get this close to Lord Vader’s palace is simply inexcusable why when Lord Vader hears about thi…” the commanders rant began to taper off, his eyes widening in fear at the sight of his Lord, arms crossed and finger tapping against his forearm.

Sonata felt sorry for the man, and with every move of Vader’s index finger she could see his throat give a little quiver, either out of fear or Darth Vader himself toying with the commander she didn’t know.

“Yes, Commander Roan, explain to me in great detail why you shot down a shuttle, given express permission by me to land, mind you,” Vader uncrossed his arms and began to slowly close his hand as if he was going to reach through the screen and manhandle the poor fool “And explain to me how you are going to remedy your…error in judgement?”

Roan instinctively reached for his throat but found that his air way had yet to be constricted by the Dark Lord’s invisible grip, with one last look of fear he turned to the nearest group of Stormtroopers, “Don’t just stand there looking like fools! We only hit it once and the shuttle should be able to withstand the heat long enough! Get a rescue crew out on a lava skiff immediately!”

He then turned back to Vader and spoke “I deeply apologize for this miscommunication Lord Vader, it won’t happen again, I promise you.”

Sonata flinched as the sound of Roan’s neck snapping echoed throughout the room, followed by Vader’s deep baritone.

“Your apology is accepted, and you were right, it won’t.” Vader looked at the comms commander on the floor, “Coordinate the rescue attempt, if you fail you will be next.” With that he made his way out of the room once more, followed by the Sirens.

Sunset Shimmer tried desperately to keep the ship stable as it spiraled closer towards the molten river below but to no avail. The ship crashed down hard onto the lava river’s surface and began drifting.

Heat warnings were blaring in Sunset’s ears as she stood, she needed a way out of the ship and back to safety. She ran towards the cargo hold where the stormtroopers were stowed to save them when her heart sank with realization.

She couldn’t take them with her, she only had two arms, no magic and no prior training in this situation, she couldn’t use the force to levitate them AND try and jump out, that would be nearly impossible for her even in a calmer mindset.

With a sigh, she ran into the cargo area where the two stormtroopers were awake, looking at her and terrified. Swallowing her fear, her worry and her doubt she looked them in the eyes one more time, and then unholstered the E-11 Blaster Rifle she had taken from them.

For a moment, Sunset just looked into their eyes, and on the inside a war raged, one side, her emotional side, her Equestrian side was screaming at her. Saying this wasn't her, this wasn't the Sunset that Celestia had basically raised, that this wasn't the student Yoda had trained for nearly three years! On another side though, something darker and more cynical whispered in her ear that a shot to the head, right between the eyes would be far more merciful than the molten rack and fire. That the vision she saw and the pain she felt in her vision would be felt by these stormtroopers ten fold before they finally died.

in the end and with a scream of rage, desperation and remorse she opened fire.

In any other situation, Sunset would have puked after taking another life, she would have curled into a ball and cried, screamed about how sorry she was, begged Celestia for forgiveness… but Celestia wasn’t there, and Sunset was on a timer.

Using the Force to calm herself, she crawled onto some spare boxes and pulled out Yoda’s…no her Lightsaber now and began cutting a hole through the roof.

Once that was done, she put the saber in the container normally used for thermal detonators and took one more calming breath before putting the stormtrooper helmet on. She then once more called upon the Force too help her, this time using it to assist her jump and leaping out onto the top of the ship.

The heat outside was nearly unbearable and the armor barely helped, but Sunset managed and squinted through the helmets poor visor to try and find an escape.

Luck was on her side, it would seem as in the distance two stormtroopers driving what looked to be a boat, came speeding down the rapids towards her ship, waving them down they nodded and increased their speed to get to her.

Once they were close enough, they slowly matched the speed her shuttle was drifting, and she dropped down onto the boat.

“Glad you guys got to me I’d be a goner without you.” Sunset spoke with faux cheer in her voice, glad the helmets awful voice modulator managed to hide how terrified she had been.

One of the troopers nodded and patted her on the back “yea that must have been rough, lucky you managed to get onto the roof though.” He looked at her “was anyone else in there with you? We were told that was a loaned vessel to some civi’s.”

Sunset shook her head, “Luckily no, I was doing a routine supply run for them, they’re back on Endor looking at dirt and collecting tree sap.” She lied easily, for once ashamed at how easy the lie came to her lips.

The driver snorted “Civilians…am I right? So, what’s your operating number? We can comm that we’ve picked you up and get you to Lord Vader before getting you back on your way.”

Sunset suppressed a shudder at hearing Vader’s name, she remembered what Yoda had told her, what She had found out through glimpses on the holonet, she wasn’t looking forward to THAT meeting.

Sunset didn’t know why she was receiving visions whenever she touched an object or was near a place of significance, though she assumed it was because of the Force. Either way she was thankful for it because without it she wouldn’t have even known what an operating number was, much less what the trooper assigned to this armor was supposed to be.

“ST-2156, though…my real name’s Cadence…” she lied once more.

“Well, real names are a bit out of protocol you know, but what the hell, I’m TI-452, though you can call me Randal in private,” he pointed at the stormtrooper next to her with his thumb as he drove “This tall one is KJ-3494, but he likes to go by Gus.”

“Nice to meet both of you.” She patted Gus on the shoulder “and again, thanks for the save.”

“No problem!” Gus gave her a thumbs up while Randal nodded “and hey maybe if Lord Vader likes you, you can transfer here! We can be squad mates.”

Sunset once more suppressed a shudder and gave a weak “yea…let’s hope…” before turning to look at the monolith of a fortress that they were making their way to, it’s darkness slowly reaching for her as if to snuff out her light before it even had a chance to fight back.

10: Prelude to Destiny

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Sonata walked slightly behind everyone else, not that they had noticed.

She was going over the plan once more in her head, the one that she had relayed to her sisters two days prior, the one Darth Vader had given her.

This force sensitive, whoever she was, was powerful, far more powerful than Sonata had originally sensed.

When she called out for aid two days ago, a small insignificant light answered her. When the light had answered It was like a star in the night sky, small, fleeting, and oh so far away but still noticeable in the shroud of darkness that permeated Mustafar. What she hadn’t expected though was that weak light to not be so weak or so small. As the Equestrian approached Mustafar her light pushed back against Vader’s darkness with a ferocity she didn’t know any pony could have. When she landed on Mustafar, ignoring the fact that her landing was forced, the darkness fled from her and kept its distance.

Sonata wasn’t dumb, though, she could see that the Equestrian had struggled with the darkness as well, be it her own or Vader’s. there were cracks within the light, specks of darkness that hid down underneath, but her light was still impressive, still enough to maybe save Sonata and her sisters…maybe even save herself…

It was that thought that gave Sonata pause… Vader’s plan was to trap the force sensitive and corrupt them into becoming his new apprentice. Even from the great distance they had first felt her at, they knew that the Equestrian was going to be at least marginally more powerful than Sonata was. So, the goal was to corrupt her, and after that Sonata and her sisters would be free to go.

Now though, Sonata knew that plan was a bust and Vader probably did as well. The Equestrian was strong, stronger than almost every Jedi Vader had brought for Sonata to torture. She was nowhere near Vader, no one was, but she wasn’t someone weak enough to be goaded to the dark side without leverage.

Sonata and her sisters were that leverage.

Sonata felt her anger bubble to the surface and her gem hummed with power, causing her sisters to glance at her nervously. Ever since they lost their gems, they had been rather subdued around Sonata. They treated her as the de facto leader of the Sirens, which wasn’t something she wanted at all. They knew she was more powerful than them, so they treated her with the same respect and fear they would Darth Vader…

It made her sick.

She took a deep breath through her nose and continued her train of thought, Equestrians we’re all about “Friendship” and “Fellowship” and generally cared greatly for others, even the most introverted of ponies like Starswirl the Bearded still tried to help his fellow creatures. Calling out into the void in Equestrian guaranteed that the pony on Mustafar had come… but it also guaranteed that the Sirens would be used to bait that very same pony to their downfall.

So, in the short time they had before they reached the hangar, Sonata began to plan.

Sonata was so deep in thought however that she never noticed Aria and Adagio’s mental probing, or their mental whispers back to Darth Vader

Sunset didn’t know what she should do about the two stormtroopers happily conversing with each other, if she was being honest, she didn’t know what she should be doing at all.

The castle was nearly dwarfing them as they started towards the dock that awaited their return from the lava river and the force had been silent the entire trip.

The two had been fine company so far, but Sunset hadn’t come to Mustafar for the company, she had come for a reason, but as the Castle began to draw closer and the darkness started to metaphorically lap at her heels, she couldn’t help but shiver.

On Dagobah her sins were laid bare to her only in the cave she had stumbled across and even then, it wasn’t nearly as overpowering as it was on Mustafar…

She had left those two humans to die. She could have saved them, she SHOULD have saved them, everything Celestia and more recently Yoda had taught her had screamed at her to save them but she didn’t, instead she focused on her own safety and thought she was giving them mercy by killing them before the Lava did.

She sharply inhaled as they took a sharp turn, the two with her probably thought it was because of the turn and Gus had put a hand on her shoulder to steady her, his helmeted face tilting as if to ascertain if she was OK.

Sunset was anything but OK.

Sunset plopped down on the floor of the skiff and closed her eyes, once more letting the Force wash over her as she began to try and calm herself.

If killing those two storm troopers was something Sunset considered to be her first mistake on her self-imposed mission, then Meditating so close to the castle that was practically oozing Dark Side energy was her second.

Before, when she had calmed herself on the shuttle, she had benefited from her previous mediation, interrupted as it had been. She didn’t have that luxury this time.

The moment her mind cleared itself, she was assaulted by the pure cold of the Dark Side. On Dagobah the sensation that she got from the cave was cold, like falling into the mud during a jog or like the rain that constantly hit the planet's surface.

The Cold that assaulted her on Mustafar was like being thrown naked into the ice and snow of Mount Canterhorn’s peak.

‘He sees you.’ A voice whispered, Sunset looked to the left, Gus wasn’t there.

‘He knows who you are…’ the same voice, Sunset looked behind, still nothing.

‘Forward, look forward!’ Sunset listened to the voice, her voice, her heart pounding as fear coursed through her veins.

She didn’t see Randal at the wheel, where he should have been, she didn’t see the castle that had once loomed over her. Instead, she saw a figure, a figure shaped like a man, encased in swirling fire and darkness with eyes like the sun. His arms and legs didn't hold the same fire... Sunset couldn't feel the dark side, or even the force from them at all, but that didn't matter.¹

Her heartbeat quickened as the sounds filled her ears, the breathing, the screams, the pleas for mercy.

‘The Jedi turned against me! Don’t you turn against me!’

‘You’re breaking my heart…’

‘YOU TURNED HER AGAINST ME!’

‘Henceforth…you shall be known as…’

“Darth Vader…” the words left her mouth as her eyes opened, and the metaphysical world around her became the physical once more. On the ramp stood the imposing figure of a man, clad in full body armor, arms crossed as if waiting for her arrival. Behind him stood no troops, instead three girls, all around her age and sporting the same pigmented skin that she had in this form stood at attention.

Sunset’s fist tightened as she took in the three girls, the three Equestrians. Mustafar’s Darkness…no Vader’s Darkness still tried to consume her, still tried to smother her light, but Sunset wasn’t listening to his voice anymore. Her eyes were focused on the three girls who radiated so much fear and pain that she had felt their cries across the stars.

For the first time since arriving on Mustafar Sunset felt the fear wash off her, but instead of being thrown into the Light, filling her with serene calm as she was taught, it was thrown into a burning Furnace of Rage.

The handrails of the skiff dented as if crushed by an invisible hand but Sunset ignored Randal and Gus’ cries of shock, instead her helmeted gazed locked with Vader’s and for the first time her Darkness which had been dormant since leaving Dagobah lashed out at another living being.

Vader’s head rose slightly, the saber on his belt moved slightly, almost called to his waiting hands in response to a coming threat…

As the skiff began to pull to shore, Sunset could hear the mad cackles of her future self echo through her ears, and for once she didn’t try to shut her out.

11: Situation FUBAR

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Have you ever had a moment, just a split second, where you contemplate your life choices and think that what you are about to do wasn’t worth it?

Sunset was currently having one of those moments, she had come to get her ponies out as quickly as possible, as quietly as possible, but everything was thoroughly bucked up now. Her rage would not subside, she heard surprised shouts as objects started floating and breaking around not only her but everyone standing on the dock.

She didn’t even wait for the skiff to stop properly; she leapt onto the dock, the moment she did every stormtrooper, excluding Randal and Gus, aimed their weapons toward her, but she ignored them. Her helmeted gaze was trained on the monster before her, the one that held three of her ponies captive.

The moment she had jumped, she saw that Vader had resisted the urge to call his lightsaber to his hand, which was strange to her. Obviously the Sith saw her as a threat, she felt that through the Force, she saw it in his body language, so what he did next surprised the young padawan. With a nod of his head he merely turned around and began walking away, the troops around her lowered their blasters and began going about their business and two of the ponies that she had come to save turned and followed the Sith, like a pair of lost puppies.

Sunset was so surprised by this turn of events that everything she had levitated came crashing to the ground, much to the chagrin of the stormtroopers who had to jump out of the way of falling objects and clean up the mess. Sunset looked over at the only other person standing with her, a nervous looking blue skinned girl, who merely beckoned for her to follow before turning around and waiting for Sunset to begin walking.

Taking a calming breath and soothing her nerves she walked up next to the girl and the two began to make their way after the Sith Lord. In the distance Sunset heard Randal’s confused voice ask Gus, “What the hell just happened?” causing the last of her nerves to filter away.

The two had walked in silence for a few moments, allowing Sonata to collect her thoughts regarding the Equestrian walking alongside her. She knew what was coming, what her master had planned for her would be savior, but she couldn’t bring herself to try and stop it. At least not right away, she had a plan, but her priorities were to her family first, so instead of focusing on that she opted for small talk.

“That helmet must be stuffy.” The Equestrian twitched in surprise, probably not expecting Sonata to start up a conversation.

After another tense moment the pony chuckled “I really don’t get why, you’d think the Empire would at least give it’s troops proper helmets! I can barely see in this thing!”

Sonata couldn’t relate, but before she could say anything else or make further small talk they had arrived. they stopped Infront of a sliding door, closed to the world as if waiting for them to arrive, which knowing Vader it probably was. He probably knew they were just outside and was having one of her sisters keep it closed for Dramatic effect.

Casting her mind into the force, looking for the forced bond that tied her to the Sith Lord, she tried to mentally tap his shoulder as it were, to tell him that she had arrived, but she found that she couldn’t. Frowning mentally, she looked closer at the “bond” and she nearly felt her heart stop when she realized that he was blocking it. Taking a deep mental breath, she tried to rationalize it. ‘maybe he doesn’t want the Pony to know…to maybe catch wind of their plan?’ she thought.

Ignoring her bond with Vader, she instead tried to contact her sisters, and this time her heart did stop…if only for a second. The bonds that had tied her to her sisters for their entire lives were gone. When she had first learned to tap into the Force, especially the Dark Side, the one thing that gave her and eventually her sisters when she taught them how to do the same, comfort was the bond they shared.

If it had a physical manifestation, it’d be a long red string, tying them all together, showing that even in the darkness of the Sith they found themselves subservient too, they still had each other.

Now that beautiful red string was cut, severed and frayed, with no way to repair it. How had she not noticed that it had been cut? When had it been cut? She at first wanted to blame Vader, but she knew he wasn’t to blame… Force bonds are nearly impossible for people outside the bond to cut, if Vader had severed the connection there would have been a struggle, the mental string would look pulled apart, not cleanly cut and there would be pain…lots and lots of pain.

That meant one of her sisters had cut it, Sonata growled audibly at that, causing the pony waiting with her to jump slightly at the noise. Her Gem glowed at her rage and she felt the darkness begin to form at the edge of her consciousness, and this time she didn’t bother trying to hold it back.

She turned her slowly yellowing eyes to the fake trooper before her and spoke “Do you have a lightsaber?” she grunted out. She felt the girl's shock echo through the Force and cut her denial off before it even began “Whatever plan you had, Equestrian, whatever rescue attempt you wanted to pull off? It’s Fubar now.” She turned to the door, thankful that it was soundproof. “We have five minutes before that door opens, and I don’t intend to be here when it does, so answer my question, do you have a lightsaber?”

Slowly the girl nodded and reached behind her to pull said saber from her armor’s thermal detonator case. Sonata didn’t bother smiling instead she turned around and began walking “Come on then, we have to find a way off this rock before HE decides he’s tired of the charade.”

As they began their run down the hall, Sonata let her rage stew, her sisters had betrayed her…

Her SISTERS had betrayed her.

Turning her head, she growled at the Equestrian who managed to keep pace with her “and Take off that helmet!”

She ignored the girls grumbling, instead she focused on getting them to the Hangar before Vader realized they weren’t outside the door anymore.

Darth Vader sat within the conference room; hands held together on the table while the two sisters behind him shuffled in anticipation.

Vader knew that Sonata had planned to betray him, She was going to try and get herself, and her sisters off Mustafar with or without the Jedi’s help. She had somehow surmised that he had no real plan of upholding his end of the “deal” that he had made with her. Originally when the two other Sirens had brought this to his attention through the Force, he had wanted to just turn and kill Sonata Dusk right then and there, but he stayed his hand, reminding himself that if he wanted a more powerful apprentice to take down his master, he’d need her alive for the moment.

He would continue with the original plan of capturing the Jedi, forcing it into his service and having it kill the very person it had come to save, or at least…he would have had the Jedi not committed two grave sins against him.

The First was somehow and from some great distance away, ripping memories from his mind like it was child’s play. Anakin Skywalker was never a great practitioner of the mind arts, but his Force Walls were strong and no mere Jedi Knight could have touched his mind so easily because of his latent power in the Force. Darth Vader, on the other hand, was a powerful mind reader and defender of his own mind by necessity, especially when he was on Mustafar. The Dark Side here was so in tune with his own inner darkness, so molded by his will that even his Master didn’t bother trying to glean information from his mind while on Mustafar.

Yet this girl had somehow done so easily, bypassing every defense he had. The other sin that she had committed was DARING to challenge his supremacy over the latent darkness that coated the world. Master and Apprentice Sith lords would almost never challenge each other in their own domains, it was unheard of, primarily because a world that a Sith had claimed, especially worlds coated in the Dark Side would not heed the call of the Sith that didn’t claim it. Vader would never challenge Palpatine on Coruscant, Koraban or Exegol, while Palpatine would never try to curtail Vader on Mustafar unless he absolutely had too.

So, when this Jedi had somehow managed to push back against his Darkness, and not with the Light at first but with Darkness of her own, that made Vader’s blood boil.

That was why Vader led the two Dazzlings away from Sonata and the fake trooper and why he didn’t bother dealing with them on the spot. The two would suffer for their insolence in thinking that they could challenge him.

No one challenges a King in his castle after all.

Reaching out with the Force he located the bond he shared with Sonata Dusk, reached out with a metaphorical hand and wrapped his fingers around it and he pulled. Ripping it to shreds in an instant.

To him the pain meant nothing, just a slight pounding in the front of his eyes and a ringing in his ears, but that was because he had faced far worse pain in his life than this and he merely ignored it.

For Sonata Dusk however, the pain would be excruciating, the first part of her punishment that was yet to come.

He didn’t bother looking at the two Dazzlings behind him, feeling their anticipation and impatience building when he finally spoke the order.

“11^th Sister, 12^th Sister, you have your orders.” He intoned, the sound of activating lightsabers echoed throughout the chamber “Search and Destroy.”

“As you command, My Lord” with that the two sisters sprinted forward and out the door, eager to prove themselves worthy where Sonata was not.

Alone within the conference Room Vader didn’t bother to move, but once the girls were out of sight the Sith Lord grunted out a short “all too easy.” Before turning his chair to watch the feeds from the hidden cameras on Sonata, Adagio and Aria’s uniforms.

12: All too Easy.

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One of the very first lessons that Celestia had given Sunset had been about how no plan, no matter how well thought out, worked out the way you imagined them.

She had drilled into her students the importance of backup plans, of contingency after contingency, and most importantly the ability to improvise when a situation goes “belly up” as she would sometimes say.

But as Sunset followed the Equestrian (who she still hadn’t learned the name of) she couldn’t help but feel that maybe she should have paid more attention in those lessons.

They had come across a few Stormtroopers and other imperials milling about the hallways as they sprinted full-bore away from where Sunset assumed Vader and the other two Equestrians were, but they hadn’t been stopped, nor had they stopped when asked why they were obviously breaking procedure and running away from something.

They weren’t heading back towards the Skiffs, Sunset recognized that, they had run in the opposite direction from them, so Sunset assumed they were heading towards a hangar or shuttle bay, but she couldn’t really be sure and she couldn’t ask as she was to focused on keeping her breathing even with the Force.

Running down a few more corridors, the Equestrian took a sharp left causing Sunset to overshoot, cursing her impromptu partner's lack of communication; she managed to stop and turn back towards where the Equestrian girl had gone.

Jogging this time so as to not miss the turn, Sunset came to a quick halt upon entering the room her companion had turned into. Glancing around, Sunset noted with satisfaction that they had managed to enter a small hanger, perhaps the girl’s lack of communication could be forgiven this time. She was about to voice those thoughts when she finally noticed her companion.

Her eyes widened at the sight of the girl on her knees, her hand on her head as if fighting back a headache or bad memories. She was rocking back and forth; mouth open as if to scream but no sound would come out.

Sunset quickly moved to the girl’s side and immediately went to grab her “Hey are you…” the moment her hand contacted the girl's shoulder it happened. Everything zoomed out as if brought out of focus, a ringing entered her ears that she felt more than heard.

She could taste blood in her mouth…_{was that her blood?} Her eyes felt like pits of fire…_{or was that ice?}

Sunset knew it didn’t matter

Did she?

She felt…cold…

No…hot

She could hear the breathing…the laughter of those she thought would never betray her.

But they did…

“You have failed me again.” The Dragon said, gazing down upon Sunset with his cold lifeless eyes.

“P..please...I tried…I tried to do what you asked!” That response only earned her a sharp backhand from him.

“Trying is not good enough,” _{There is no try} “you either succeed or you fail, there is not an In between.” The Dragon felt…annoyed, he wasn’t angry…not yet but Sunset knew that was only a matter of time.

She bowed her head and mumbled a quick yes master _{He’s not my master… This is wrong} hoping to avoid further punishment from him, but alas it wasn’t meant to be.

“Stand, Sonata Dusk” _{That’s not my name} “ Since you cannot seem to find the proper motivation to draw upon the Dark Side on your own,” He pushed her across the room, using his Magic _{the Force}slamming her against the metal wall. “I will be forced to motivate you.”

With a flick of his wrist, she was lifted off the wall and slammed into the ceiling face first, her nose breaking and her ribs cracking at the sudden impact. He then dropped her, causing her to crash and shatter her shoulders, she couldn’t even scream, all she could do was whimper and groan as the Dark Lord slowly stalked towards her.

“Pain is one of many paths to the Dark Side my apprentice” If the Dragon could spit the word through that mask of his he would have. “Stand, use that pain to bolster your powers!” he commanded, but it fell on deaf ears, and only her whimpers of pain followed the order.

Growling the Dragon reached out his hand and forced her to him, grabbing her by the throat and lifting her off the ground. He began to slowly squeeze her windpipe, causing her body to react as she began to hit his arms with her fists and kick at him with her legs…albeit weakly “Ah, perhaps it’s not the pain that will motivate you towards the Darkness…but Fear…survival is a powerful motivator after all.”

Again though, she didn’t show her aptitude for the Force. For the abilities that he had seen when he had confronted them. So, the Dragon let her drop…and pondered.

“Perhaps,” he began “I should just kill you all and be done with it,” He began to unhook his lightsaber. “It seems that trying to train you has been nothing but a waste of time, consider our arrangement finished.” With that, his saber sprang to life and he glanced down at her one last time “Any last words, my failure of a student.”

Sonata _Shimmer just looked at him through broken teeth and a shattered nose. Her fear gave way to a broken grin, she didn’t answer with words, she just weakly raised her hand and pointed behind him.

The Dragon turned just in time to see five Stormtroopers from his 501rst Legion break through the door and begin opening fire on him. He made his way across the room quickly and easily cut down the troopers, but not before noticing the slight taint of the dark side upon their minds, though that didn’t stop him from killing them.

After they were dealt with, he turned to Sonata and saw what he was looking for. There was anger in those eyes. A hatred for him and for the situation she was in…perhaps he was wrong about her after all.

Get out!

Sunset’s sisters hated her.

She knew that because she could feel it in the Force.

So why didn’t Sonata know?

As they stood in Infront of Vader for their daily lessons, Sunset could feel the hatred and jealousy rolling off her sisters (though she didn’t know their names) While Sonata remained ignorant.

The Yellow one was a jealous anger. Jealous that Sunset and Sonata still had their gem, that they were learning things that neither of their two sisters were given a chance to learn. That they had been spared.

The Purple one was just…angry. Angry at the Yellow one, angry at Vader, angry at Sunset and Sonata.

How had Sonata not noticed?

I SAID GET OUT!

Sunset gasped as she was thrown across the hanger. The girl she had been trying to help glared at her, the gem around her neck glowing bright hot red as the Dark Side rolled off her like a wave. “Why were you in my head!” She growled hand outstretched and nose bleeding.

Sunset ignored her own nosebleed, and instead pushed back against Sonata with her own power, easing the pressure that held her against the wall, allowing her to breathe again “I just wanted to help you! You were on the floor in pain!”

Sonata scoffed “You just wanted to help me!?” She growled “Does helping include rummaging through my thoughts? My memories!?” she hugged herself tightly with a shiver, the pressure in the room easing slightly as the stress and fatigue hit Sonata all at once.

“I…” Sunset paused walking slowly to her “I really don’t know how that happened…”

“How can you not know how you did what you did?” Sonata looked at Sunset, both in confusion and irritation “Ripping someone’s memories out? Reliving them? That’s a very advanced skill in the Force. I’ve…never heard of it being something passive…”

Sunset Shrugged “yea well…I’ve always been kind of weird when it came to the mystic arts, be they the Force or Magic back home.”

“No, Seriously” Sonata slowly uncrossed her arms and whipped her nose bleed away before continuing “That is something that takes effort to do…Trust me I’ve been tortured enough by my mas…by Vader to know what invading a mind feels like and how much effort it takes for a powerful Force user to do it to another.”

Sonata tapped her gem “My gem powers me up in the Force, at least a little bit, so I’m at least somewhat powerful and even then, I’ve learned to protect my thoughts by necessity, you shouldn’t have been able to just slip in as you did.”

After a moment of staring at Sonata, her eyes roaming around Sonata’s body for a few moments, making the siren blush before Sunset grunted “maybe it’s the giant hole in your shields that let me do it…” she smarmily remarked.

“W…what.” Sonata’s embarrassment slipped away with that comment, instead, it was replaced by white-hot fear.

“Yea, I never noticed it before, because we were in such a hurry, but there’s a giant…I want to say wound in your shield. It’s like someone took a battering ram and smashed through them, was that why you were in pain before?” Sunset rubbed her chin as she spoke, her mind going through other possible scenarios before Sonata interrupted her line of thought.

“No…no one broke my shields…” Sonata mumbled, “The only thing I remember before collapsing was the sound of breaking glass and then pain…”

Whatever Sunset said in response was drowned out as Sonata closed her eyes and began searching herself. Lo and behold there was the hole the Pony…no Sunset had talked about. She still felt the pain, but it was dulled, at least for now. Inspecting the hole, she noticed the remains of two bonds she used to share with her sisters drifting in the metaphysical wind.

She tried finding the bond with Vader for a solid minute before she realized that the hole in her mind was the bond with Vader. Vader had obliterated it and with it any hope she had of hiding from him, at least until the hole closed naturally.

Opening her eyes, she was about to relay this information to Sunset when the pony tackled her to the ground. She was about to scream out at the betrayal when a dual-bladed lightsaber flew over them from behind her.

It was then that Sonata noticed Adagio dropping down from a vent above them, kicking Sunset off her. She pulled out her own crimson blade and blocked Adagio’s oncoming swing, using the force to push her sister away so she could stand.

Adagio grunted and smiled “You were supposed to aim for the head Aria.”

Sunset’s own lightsaber snapped to life as Aria Blaze made her way down the opposite end of the hanger, her blade spinning back into her hand with a call from the Force. “Well, I thought you’d be upset if I stole all the fun.”

Adagio laughed as the two slowly began to circle Sonata and Sunset. Sunset followed Adagio while Sonata did the same for Aria.

“Why…” Sonata growled out, “Why would you break our bond?!” She cried out “We’re sisters!”

Aria laughed a cackling laugh “Sisters? You betrayed us!” She didn’t make a move to attack; she just twirled her blade once before getting into the standard double-bladed stance.

“I betrayed nothing!” Sonata growled getting into the aggressive stance of Form VII, the floor denting as the Dark Side answered her call

Adagio kept her yellow eyes on Sunset while she spoke, “You betrayed us by not dying on that planet traitor.” She brought her lightsaber up into the Makashi salute “You traded our gems, our power, for your own safety, privilege, and greed” her voice was apathetic, her anger reserved and coiled, waiting to be released.

Sunset instinctively raised her saber above her head, her left arm loose and pointing at Adagio with two fingers but she didn’t speak, she just waited for someone to make the first move.

She didn’t have to wait long, as Sonata rushed Aria with a flurry of swings, with an intensity and anger that even surprised Aria. “HE DESTROYED THEM!” she screamed through her swings.

Aria back peddled, her twin blades blocking blow after blow, but the defense was clumsily, poorly timed, and only successful because of Sonata’s own shoddy blade work. She dodged as Sonata swung too wide and kicked her sister away before shouting back “AND YOU LET HIM!”

Adagio took that as her queue to strike, thrusting towards Sunset with the tip of her blade. Sunset knocked the blade out of the way with ease, something that shocked both her and Adagio. Using the momentum, she swapped to Form Four, flipping over Adagio and swinging at what she thought was her unprotected back, only to be intercepted by the siren's crimson blade. Jumping back to avoid a follow-up swing, she was surprised when one never came.

Instead, Adagio quickly turned towards Sunset and once more took up the Makashi defensive stance “Kitty's got claws.” Adagio nervously chuckled, Something Sunset picked up on immediately.

‘These two’ Sunset glanced over at Sonata’s fight which was devolving quickly out of basic lightsaber forms and into angry swings and force powers ‘No these three, they’ve never been properly shown how to fight with a lightsaber’ With that Sunset quickly closed the gap between Adagio and herself going for a quick upwards swing that was hastily blocked.

“You’ve never held a lightsaber before have you?” Sunset mockingly asked as their blades locked.

Adagio growled at her “Yes, I have!” she tried to Force Push Sunset away, but only caused her opponent to brace herself slightly.

“You were probably just handed one and told to practice, weren’t you? Maybe given a book or data chip with instructions on the forms but never shown them or put them into practice?”

“BE SILENT!” her opponent roared, her command making its way into Sunset’s ears, but it was quickly ignored.

Sunset just rolled her eyes at the weak attempt at dominating her mind, and instead reached back with her hand and gave her opponent a Force Push of her own. This caused Adagio to fly backward and crash back first into one of the shuttles, knocking her out immediately and probably breaking a few bones as well if Sunset had to guess.

Turning back toward Sonata’s fight, her guess had been correct about neither of them really knowing how to fight with a lightsaber. Sonata’s own saber lay split in half on the floor, while Aria’s was knocked out of her hand with a quick Force Push from Sonata, who then proceeded to tackle her sister and angrily pummel Aria in the face with her fist.

“I DIDN’T DO IT!” She shouted, fist after fist landing on her sister’s face “I DIDN’T BETRAY YOU!” Her eyes were yellow, and her gem and the Dark Side were all but telling her to keep going, to destroy her sister for her insolence. She pulled back a fist for one last punch, to hopefully end her former sister's lies forever when someone stopped her.

Looking up she noticed that the girl… was Sunset holding her hand, a frown on her face as she slowly pulled Sonata off the blood form of Aria Blaze.

“Bring it down, Sonata.” Sunset whispered, “Come back, don’t let it control you.” She ignored the dark voice in the back of her head calling herself a hypocrite. “look at her.” Sunset pointed to Aria, who Sonata looked at out of the corner of her eye “She’s beaten, she’s done, just let it go, and let’s get out of here.”

Sonata’s eyes didn’t return to their normal purple color, but she did nod, and begin to calm down.

Sunset was about to try and talk her down some more when the sound of boots on metal and heavy breathing reached her ears. Turning she saw the Dark Lord make his way into the hanger, surprisingly no contingent of troops or other dark acolytes with him, just himself, lightsaber already in hand.

He glanced at the still form of Adagio and the still groaning form of Aria before looking at the two girls standing in defiance of him. “Such disappointments.” He glanced at Sonata, who Sunset had instinctively pushed behind herself. “You, most of all, Sonata Dusk.”

“Leave her out of this!” Sunset growled her green saber held at the ready.

Vader didn’t even look at Sunset as he spoke “You could have had your freedom, your sister’s freedom.” He slowly began to circle the room “But instead, you chose to harbor thoughts of rebellion, of betrayal.”

Sunset didn’t notice Sonata’s face paling, though she did feel her panic spike through the Force.

“You did the first half of your job marvelously, leading her here.” Vader pointed the tip of his saber at Sonata, “But then you had second thoughts, like a coward.”

Sunset growled “What the hell are you talking about!”

If Vader wasn’t wearing a mask, she’d probably see his smile “Why, the fake distress call.”

Sunset felt her heart stop. ‘The what’

“I made a deal with her,” The Sith began, ignoring Sunset’s rising panic and fury “That if she sent out a call through the Force, Something that would lure the last remaining Jedi to me, I’d let her and her sisters go.”

“W…. what!?” Sunset’s arms were shaking, her hands clamming up.

“Isn’t that right Sonata?” Vader slowly started walking forward “Her…for your sisters.”

Sonata backed away from the shaking form of Sunset Shimmer and the slowly advancing form of Darth Vader. “but…You…you lied…”

“Did I?” Vader asked, “I merely said bring her to me, and you’d be free, I never said what form your freedom would take.” He looked directly at Sunset for the first time since entering the room. "As for you, I know for a fact you are no Jedi Knight, you're barely even a Padawan." He mocked her, "But thanks to your recklessness and your ship's flight logs, we know exactly where your master is. Congratulations, are in order, you've doomed not only yourself, but you've also doomed your master as well."

Sonata knew what he was saying was a lie, she was there when Sunset arrived, and no information was given that could have given away the location of Sunset's Jedi Master. Sunset didn't know that though, and that statement, along with Sonata's betrayal was too much for her.

With a feral scream, she unleashed the same Force Repulse she had done on Dagobah. Flinging Sonata and Aria across the room and ripping apart the metal floor underneath her. Vader stood his ground, his Force Wall protecting him from much of the attack.

Sunset then launched herself at Vader, their sabers locking, causing the Sith to take a step back for the first time in a long time.

He didn’t need his helmet off to know that Sunset’s eyes had bled yellow.

And as the fight began to really pick up speed with blow after blow being exchanged between the wannabe Jedi and the Sith Lord, all Darth Vader could think was…

All too Easy.

Author's Notes:

3/28/2023: Edited the chapter after noticing some errors

Once Again, Sorry about the Delay. Also Sorry for having the Dazzlings get shitstomped, they aren't supposed to be super strong...yet, they'll return later.

Power scaling wise, Since someone asked me in a PM,

If I was using a 10/10 Scaling, Yoda and Palpatine would be a 10, Vader is an Eight (raising up to a nine by the time A New Hope Starts) Sunset is a 7 unless she's enraged, Sonata is a 6 even when Enraged, and the other Dazzlings are a 4 without their gems, if they had their gems they'd be around a 7, with Sonata just being naturally weaker than the other two.

Keep in mind, the power scaling really doesn't do anything, it's just here to kind of help me when writing fights and keeping characters consistent.

A Sunset Across the Galaxy

by Professor Donger

1: The Troll in the Swamp

2: Training and Assignments

3: Waltz of The Sith

4: Sirens and The Dragon

5: Anger, Fear, Aggression

6: Doppelgangers and Masters

7: A Call To Action

8: The Journey Begins.

9: Welcome to Mustafar

10: Prelude to Destiny

11: Situation FUBAR

12: All too Easy.