Practice Writing Entry I: Lightsaber Duel

Hey everypony, Gilded Crosshairs here with a nice little one-shot I made to help with Darasuum Kote. Enjoy! (I fixed it up a bit. Tell me what you think.)

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Twilight Sparkle looked around the room. From what little light there was, she could manage to see that she was standing in some kind of carbon freezing chamber used for transporting Tibanna gas. She looked at her gently levitating blaster pistol and tucked it into the holster on her belt. And then she heard it.

Deep, malicious laughter that made her soul shudder. "The Force is with thee, Twilight Sparkle." The holes in the grate floor suddenly lit orange. Twilight made a quick one-eighty and saw the black silohuette of Lord Sombra standing at the top of the stairs to the catwalk above. "But thou art not a Jedi yet." Twilight could almost taste the darkness radiating from the stallion's presence.

Twilight frowned determinedly. She would not be spooked, that much she resolved. The purple unicorn cautiously trotted up the stairs to meet Sombra. He was even more intimidating up close: the whites of his eyes reflected the floor's orange glow, and when combined with the fact that his irises were bright red, he looked positively demonic. His horn glowed that same shade of red, and a lightsaber slipped from his belt. Twilight drew her own saber with her magic—her father's saber—and turned it on.

Vzzzzzmm.

A soft blue blade sprung to life from her saber's hilt. Sombra took a half-step backward and ignited his own blade, which was colored harsh, bloody red.

Fwzzzzsh

Twilight stepped forward, her blade held vertically and toward Sombra. Sombra stepped back again, his blade pointed horizontally in front of his chest toward Twilight. They stood there for a moment, waiting to see who would strike ou first.

Twilight took the offensive. She made a couple quick slashes at Sombra; Sombra blocked her with the ease of a practiced swordspony. Twilight realized that he was. She brought an overhead chop, but Sombra blocked that as well and shoved Twilight away. The two combatants glowered at each other as they went back to their original stances. She attacked again, this time much more quickly; Sombra blocked her again. She went for his chest; he countered and went for hers. Twilight barely fended off the blow. Sombra attempted to chop off her horn, but she ducked and Sombra's weapon went through a pipe. Twilight tried an upward jab to get at Sombra's throat, but he blocked her again. When he tried to follow up on the parry with a swipe at her legs, Twilight blocked and reversed Sombra's momentum into a shove of her own. "Thou hast learned much, young one," Sombra rumbled. "But it is but little match for me."

Twilight scowled. "You'll find I'm full of surprises!" She slashed at Sombra's legs, missed, and brought her blade above her head to counter a chop from Sombra. Their blades locked, and the two duelists stared into each other's eyes. Twilight's expression was pure focus, her icy stare daring Sombra's demonic gaze to push back. Twilight broke the blade lock, attacked again, but Sombra parried and brought his blade down hard on Twilight's in an effort to break her grip. She held on, and they locked blades once more.

Sombra gave a great shove, and Twilight lost her grip on her weapon. Twilight rolled down the steps after her weapon, barely avoiding the larger stallion's blade in the process. Sombra leapt from the top of the stairs to the bottom, landing on his dinner plate-sized hooves with a loud clack in front of Twilight. As Twilight got to her hooves, Sombra spoke once again. "Thine destiny lies with me, Twilight. Celestia knew this to be true." He pointed his blade forward, barely touching Twilight's chest. He moved forward, inching her toward the carbon-freezing pit.

"No," Twilight hissed, not quite sure what she was going to do without her weapon. She could feel the heat from Sombra's blade, threatening to pierce her heart. Her eyes flicked around the room, searching for her father's weapon. Wait, there— She fell into the pit.

Sombra tutted. "All too easy." He turned and telekinetically activated a nearby control panel, starting the freezing process. Unbeknownst to him, Twilight had used the Force to leap from the pit into the jumble of cabling hanging from the ceiling. Sombra turned back to the pit. "Perhaps thou art not as strong as Nightmare Moon thought." One particular cable snapped under Twilight's weight, the sound drawing Sombra's attention upward. He spotted Twilight trying to hang on to a thicker cable, her back legs dangling a couple feet above his head. A wicked grin appeared on his face. "Impressive," he complimented, taking a swing at Twilight but hitting more cables and pipes. Sparks flew. "Most impressive."

A klaxon blared in their ears, but Twilight was too busy trying to locate her lightsaber to care. She jumped down from the cabling. Sombra came after her, but she telekinetically grabbed a steam pipe and shoved it in Sombra's face, momentarily obscuring his vision. She reached out into the Force, brought her saber back into range of her magic, and activated the blade in time to block Sombra from running her through. "'All too easy?'"

Sombra's toothy grin never faltered. It was the look some professional sabacc players had when they came across young, talented upstarts that needed to be taught a lesson. "Celestia has taught thee well. Thou hast controlled thy fear." He rapidly yet half-heartedly attacked, allowing Twilight a chance to block him. She did as he expected, and even followed up with a counterattck. Sombra decided to speak once again, and stopped the attack dead using his superior strength. Their blades to locked again. "Now, release thine anger; only thine hatred can destroy me!"

He swung his blade from his side, attempted a quick chop, and slashed at Twilight's chest: Twilight parried the first two strikes and dodged the third. She front-flipped over Sombra and swung her blade at his head, but Sombra blocked her. She attacked again, her vicious strikes catching Sombra slightly off-guard. She drove him to the edge of the carbon freezing platform, spun around, and delivered a hard buck to his chest, knocking him off. Twilight looked into the darkness below: she saw Sombra's glowing red blade move down a maintenance duct in the wall. This is for Tia, and my father, she thought. She deactivated her blade, jumped from the platform, and headed down the maintenance shaft.