A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…
It is a time of war, blood, and clashing of two ideals in the midst of the Clone Wars’ heated climax. The Galactic Republic, lead by the Jedi, paladins of justice and courage, and the Clone Armies fight tooth and nail against the Confederacy of Independent Systems, controlled by the Sith, malicious and conquering warriors of the Force and its seemingly endless Droid military.
As many planets filled with life are brought into the conflict, new force-sensitive beings are discovered, adding to the ranks of the Jedi and Sith alike. Though many, many new worlds are discovered, a great number that could possibly be inhabited by civilizations of different measures remain undiscovered.
One such civilization is found on the far secluded Equus, a planet inhabited by a huge variety of creatures of all sorts of shapes and forms. However, among these many civilizations, the name of one rings of cruelty and oppression: the Crystal Empire, under the iron hoof of King Sombra.
Amidst this cruel and dark empire, comes a beacon of salvation and hope, in one of its most unlikely of forms…
“Alright kiddo. You really should get going. The guards begin to patrol at this hour. And recently, they’ve been doing this more aggressively,” The old merchant, one of the few that was actually let into the Crystal Empire spoke hastily to his young customer.
“I’ll be okay, Shining Idol. Thanks for the fruit!” the small white pony waved as he trotted away.
“Be safe!” the elderly vendor’s words began to muffle out as the noise from the young customer’s hooves on the cobblestone drowned out the call.
Marble Hoof’s mother did know that heading out at this hour could mean interception by guards, as it was past curfew for civilians. However, the small and determined colt still decided to head out anyways to buy a fair amount of food from Mr. Idol to do his part while his mother was injured, despite his mother’s protests.
At that point, he saw a large line of Earth Ponies, the same species that he was, shackled and moving along a group of armored guards, spears fixing their points directly at the slaves so none would even think of stepping out of line. Marble quickly dashed for a hiding spot as the slaves and the guards trotted past.
Marble eyed the slaves as they weakly trotted past, noticing again that their bellies were deathly stretched thin, and their eyes held the dullness of a broken soul inside. The guards stomped past Marble’s hiding spot, a junk pile, as they continued down to start the slaves on night-time work.
Marble huffed a sigh, and silently galloped away from the guards, looking back to make sure none of them turn around.
“Oof!”
While he had his head turned around, Marble collided with something thick and plated, getting him onto his rump as he recovered from running straight into it. At first, he suspected that he ran into a street post, and mentally scolded himself for being so careless.
He soon changed his mind when the pole scowled at him and scooped him up from the ground, and shook him furiously.
“Damnit! You little shrimp, doesn’t your little brain remember that your parents told you it’s past curfew?!” the now extremely agitated guard pony shouted right into Marble’s face, his hot breath steaming over the little Earth Pony.
“I-I’m sorry! I didn’t realise!”, Marble panicked falsely, as he had done numerous other times with bad run-ins with guards.
“Didn’t realise? It’s bucking pitch-black dark at night!”, the guard snarled, extending his free hoof towards the sky.
“Please! I’m sorry! I won’t go out after curfew again! I promise!”, Marble tried to avoid the guard's blood red eyes as they pierced into his head. The armored pony narrowed his eyes at the small white colt, then dropped him straight down onto the hard cobblestone. Right as Marble had his uncomfortable landing, the guard smashed his hoof straight down onto the basket of food, flattening a good amount of its contents with a satisfying sound of fruit bursting.
“Get out of here.”
He didn’t have to be told twice, as Marble took the basket in his teeth, and hurried off from the guard. He rounded a building, and sighed as he patted himself for any other injuries than his bruised chest and possibly a swollen eye from running into the guard’s armor.
As he checked around, he became sure that his eye was in good condition, but his neck hurt a little when poked. This time, he was thankful that one of Emperor Sombra’s guards hadn’t dealt anything worse to him. Once Marble was finished, he headed towards the outskirts of the city, to where the poorer dwelled in their homes.
Marble walked around for a good fifteen minutes before he looked up at the complex that he and his mother called “home”. Instead of going up to the door, he looked around in all directions that he could rotate his body or head to look at, then trotted behind the building. Since not many guards bother to come in this district, it was still rather danger-free, but it didn’t hurt to be sure.
Walking around the complex, Marble looked for a small patch of discolored cobblestone on the building’s wall, pushed it with his hoof, and slid in the stone. He waited a little bit after doing so, and a tiny peephole, one so small that a pony would never notice if it had been opened up unless they were specifically looking for it, slid open to view who was outside.
“It’s me.”, Marble spoke silently, before the peephole closed, and a door painted very well to match the cobblestone wall slid open. He trotted inside, and as soon as he had entered, the door shut behind Marble. A grey stallion, just named “Whisker” trotted away from the door, a stallion that was accompanying Marble and his mother as they hid from the Emperor.
“I’m back, mom!”, Marble called out inside the underground complex.
Soon after Marble called out, tan coated and black maned Earth Pony trotted out from another room, looked at her son for one second, then limped on her broken hoof over towards Marble.
“Marble! What happened to your neck? I’ve been trying to look everywhere for you!”, the concern and worry in her voice clearly showed through her quick actions to check Marble and his possible injuries.
“I’m fine mom, it was just a grab.”, Marble smiled at his mother, whose emerald green eyes locked with his amethyst violet eyes.
“It isn’t fine, Marble. You could have gotten beaten by one of those guards. And I know that there are plenty who would do it to you if you were younger.”
Marble glanced down to the hidden scar beneath his coat resting on his shoulder.
“Yeah...I know-”
“And you still went out despite my specific order not to!”, his mother’s eyes began to water, “All of this for some food... Marble! Please don’t make me lose somepony else…”
At this point, guilt had burrowed into Marble’s heart like a sword. He bit his lip, shut his eyes, and put his head against his mother’s shoulder, embracing her as she began to hold back the tears that were welling in her eyes.
“I don’t want to lose you, like your father…”
Marble swallowed a sob, and met his mother’s eyes.
“I won’t go out again without your permission. I promise. And...I’m sorry, mom.”
His mom recovered a bit, and nodded.
“Okay sweetie. Just...please don’t do this anymore that this hour.”
In reality, Marble had gone around town many, many times on his own, but the closer it got to night, the more danger was presented for him. In addition, today was a day that held a troubling aura over the family…
On this day, it has been ten years since Marble’s father had died. His mother had promised to take up the duty to stir up change for the oppression of the Crystal Empire, and just maybe, get a revolution to occur. However, any thoughts of revolution are quickly snuffed out when they remembered who they were to rebel against.
His mother had taken up the alias as “The Rebellion’s Hope”, after her husband had died to push for the same goal. Even though she was the driving force of the secret propaganda to remove Sombra, in heart, she was a caring and loving mother that strived her hardest to raise Marble into a strong, healthy, and brave stallion.
Even when she still took up her husband’s duty…
Even the numerous rumors that she spread, or the letters she passed on to many ponies to stop Sombra’s cruelty couldn’t match the effort she made to raise Marble. Even though she risked her life and the entire plan to also care for her son, Marble knew that taking down Sombra was very important to all that lived within the Empire.
“Okay mom, I won’t any more. I promise.”, Marble smiled reassuringly at his mother, who smiled and squeezed her son again.
“Agh! Mom! I can’t-*wheeze*”
“Sorry!”
Marble stumbled back from the Ursa-hug, and patted his mane.
“Oh, and sweetie, remember what we were supposed to do today?”, Marble’s mother asked while she fixed the dimming light that hung above a table.
“Yeah...you wanted to give me something?”, Marble replied as he eyed the peephole, cautious in case a guard could have followed him back. Meanwhile, his mother trotted towards a table to pick up a small locked box. She eyed the small etching that the little wooden box had carved into it.
“To my dearest Emerald Shine. I shall always be yours.
-Diamond Hoof”, the engraving said.
“Marble Hoof, remember what I said about this box? How it means so much to me and how it’s one of the very few remnants I still have of your father?”
“Yes, I do remember…”, Marble turned around and slowly walked over.
“I think it’s time to pass down your father’s legacy onto you. Whether you can continue what your father fought for in the past like I have now, or if you want to be freed of this burden, I want you to keep this.”
The box opened with a tiny key that was taped underneath it, and sitting on top of a velvet cushion was a necklace, with the only piece of jewelry being a small purple crystal, cut and edged to perfection.
“Wasn’t that the necklace that dad made for when you two got married?”, Marble gazed over the necklace, as he hadn’t seen it a whole lot of times.
“Yes, it’s the very one. This gift given to me by your father was meant to be eventually passed down to our child. And remember, this tiny crystal here isn’t an amethyst, it’s one of the most rare in the Crystal Empire, possibly the most rare in Equestria…”, his mother kept her eyes on the small crystal, being able to see her reflection shining from the jewel.
The small white colt looked over the crystal with great, great interest. Not because of its value, but of the significance that it held in his family. With a sudden twinge of guilt, he stared at the jewel wondering if his irresponsible action that he performed before really still let him have the privilege of having been bestowed the heirloom.
“The purple luster of this crystal symbolised hope, the exact thing that your father had lost his life for, and the same force that still makes this war against Emperor Sombra live on. Hope that things can change…”
Marble’s mother took her son’s hoof, then slowly placed the necklace inside. For a second, possibly even a minute, Marble’s mouth couldn’t open. He couldn’t say a word about the necklace that was just passed down to him. However, he did manage to speak in the end.
“Thank you mom.”, Marble smiled and hugged his mother. Though considering the significance of the heirloom being passed on, Marble’s mother truly knew what he meant to say.
“Attention all crew! Abandon ship! Repeat, abandon ship!”, a cloaked human shouted into his comlink as the clattering of battledroids echoed throughout the corridors of the Venator-class Star Destroyer. Alarms wailed and sounds of blaster fire sliced through the occasional short-circuiting of electronic panels around the hallways.
“Sir! enemies have cut off the crew at the escape pod stations! We’re trapped!”, another human running alongside the other informed him, this one instead wearing a white plastisteel armor and wielding a blaster.
“We’ll have to evacuate at whichever hangar bays haven’t been used to board this ship or destroyed.”, the cloaked human spoke after considering other alternate plans. As much as it pained the entire crew on the Temperance, the capital ship was lost having faced many Separatist destroyers in battle, something that even the well equipped Star Destroyer eventually would fail to fight.
“Sir! The hangar bay on level eleven is still operational!”, the clone soldier spoke up through the various chattering of communications.
“Very good, we’ll-”
“Argh-!”
The clone that was following fell to the ground with a blaster shot burned clean through his chest. Immediately, the other human turned around and came face to face with a squad of B-1 Battle Droids.
“Hey! That’s a Jedi!”
“Shouldn’t we wait for the general?”
“Just blast em’-”
The high-pitched, squeaky, and often very grating sound of the droid’s vocabulator was silenced when the hooded human thrust the palm of his hand towards them. Every single one was knocked down or bowled over as if they were all bowling pins by the invisible wave of energy generated from the energy field all Jedi could call upon: the Force.
“Should have shot me!”, the Jedi shouted back as he rounded the corner. Much to his dismay, he stumbled to a stop once he saw what lay in front of him. Far more droids, and this time, they immediately leveled their blasters at him. Cursing himself for being so arrogant before, his hand hovered above his lightsaber once the first droid fired at him.
Only they didn’t.
The sound of heavy machine talons stomped down the hallway behind the droids. One by one, the machines parted to let a massive cybernetic monstrosity plod towards the Jedi. Wearing a cape and sporting deathly yellow eyes, the war criminal, as well as one of the most dangerous assets of the Separatist forces was presented to the Jedi.
“Grievous.”, the Jedi kept his composure as the cyborg Kaleesh stopped his advance.
"Gideon Belarius..." Grievous chuckled. "At last we meet. Your reputation precedes you. I have heard much of how you have kept my forces from the Engolion Sector and your skillful command of this ship. Such wonderful stories. But now it is time for your story to end."
"Your reputation precedes you, general," Gideon retorted. "The reputation of a coward who hides behind machines and preys only on the weak and outnumbered. A true warrior can fight on his own." With his thumb, he pressed the activation switch on his lightsaber. A bright green blade of pure plasma held together in a force containment field sprouted out, ready to burn through anything it just so much as touched.
“Ahaha! You Jedi fool, I shall show you what a true warrior is, and prove so by slaying the filth that lays before me!”, Grievous let his cape drop to the ground, allowed his machine body to recalibrate and prepare for combat, and unlock the hinges that kept his arms together, now making four robotic arms split from the two.
Each of his arms took a lightsaber attached to his waist, weapons that he had looted from the many slain Jedi that he had combated before, and ignited each of them at once. A mixture of green and blue plasma shot out of the various hilts with Grievous taking his fighting stance.
“As if eleven to one odds in a space battle wasn’t enough, now it’s four against one in lightsaber odds.”, Gideon readied himself. Looking backwards, he saw a pair of MagnaGuard droids, each wielding a deadly electrostaff blocking his way of exit.
Gideon noticed something about Grievous’s saber in his lower-most left arm.
“That lightsaber…”, Gideon’s teeth began to bare, “...was my Padawan’s…”
“I know. Was.”
Immediately, Grievous’s arms craned in different directions, with two sabers being hoisted above his head, while the other two were positioned to the side of his body, hanging back and ready to stab and thrust. The two lightsabers that were positioned over his head began to rotate in a full circle, gaining speed and moving faster and faster until they became the image of two blurred propellers tearing apart the floor of the corridor as the warlord made his advance for the Jedi.
Through the agonizing screeches of the two spinning sabers, and Grievous’s massive insult to his former student, Gideon kept his composure and judged his target for an opening. It didn’t take him too long to figure out that his four hands, each holding a lightsaber were the best targets to aim for.
Gideon’s lightsaber was held at the ready, and Grievous struck. The two lightsabers were slammed down onto Gideon’s one, sparks and energy cracking out of the collision. The Jedi avoided the general’s thrusts of the other two lightsabers by letting his other two sabers fall by releasing his strength on his own. He sidestepped the downwards strike and brought his saber around to slice the warlord’s chest. Grievous had caught on rather fast by slamming his lower-left saber into Gideon’s, stopping the strike.
“Argh!”, Gideon recoiled from the strength of Grievous’s slam. His lightsaber hummed with energy as he matched his opponent’s blades with as much accuracy as he could possibly gauge. The air began to heat up from the clashing of plasma, and the droids still had their blasters and electrostaves at the ready. Gideon once again attempted to make an advance on the general, but was stopped by one of his many lightsabers springing out and forcing him on the defensive.
At this point since Grievous hadn’t slain his target in the first minute of the battle, he ordered his MagnaGuards with a signal implanted in his brain to approach the Jedi from behind. Activating the deadly current into their spearheads, the droids walked towards the Jedi’s exposed back and whirled their electrostaves, ready to make Grievous’s kill come to him a lot easier.
At once, Gideon broke his engagement with Grievous to deal with the MagnaGuards that were approaching him. The droids’ advanced combat programing matched the Jedi’s attacks, countering Gideon’s thrusts and jabs with a whirling staff, making it extremely difficult to pierce their defense.
“And you use your bodyguards to fight for you! Yet you call yourself a warrior!”, Gideon yelled as he continuously switched targets between the Kaleesh and the MagnaGuards.
Furious at this insult, Grievous suddenly sprinted towards Gideon, every one of his lightsabers spinning and creating an extremely loud humming noise that pierced every other sound in the hallway, tearing up the walls and floors with melted out slash marks as he ran towards his adversary.
Gideon turned around just in time to meet every one of Grievous’s sabers, slamming down onto his own throwing sparks and energy everywhere. The massive strength of the machine-enhanced cyborg began to clearly show as Gideon’s muscles strained and strained to keep the sabers from pushing him down into the ground. He tried his hardest to channel the Force into his aching and tight muscles the best he could, but he, as well as Grievous knew that this stalemate would not last forever.
And Grievous’s MagnaGuards decided that they should break it first.
“Grievous, you won’t- GAHHHH!”
Both of the MagnaGuards whirled their staves and jabbed them straight into Gideon’s back. Too occupied by trying his hardest to stop Grievous from overpowering him, he couldn’t do a thing as the droids stabbed their charges into him, thousands of volts of electricity were dumped into him, a number that would have killed other human beings outright, but Gideon’s power of the Force keeping his body from failing allowed him to survive.
Gideon took a knee from the voltage that coursed through him, screaming in agony as his muscles protested from the abuse and his brain overloaded with electricity. Spots filled his eyes as he gritted his teeth and still managed to keep Grievous's sabers over his head.
Then, the MagnaGuards jabbed again, sending another agonizingly painful course of electricity through the Jedi, now falling to both of his knees and his back smoking with every hair on his skin, save for his sweat-drenched head stood on its end. Grievous took his lightsabers away from Gideon’s and shot his foot out to clamp around Gideon’s neck, hoisting him off of his feet. The warlord then held a lightsaber’s point to Gideon’s throat in between two of his talons.
“Ahahaha…! Any last words you Jedi scum?”, Grievous cackled as he brought his lightsaber up to decapitate Gideon.
“Arrraaaagh!”, the Jedi shouted as he threw his hands in two directions, one at the ground, and one at Grievous’s foot, the same one that held his neck in a vice-grip. When Grievous thrusted forward, his foot that was keeping him balanced on the ground suddenly uprooted against its will due to the Force, and instead of beheading the Jedi, he stumbled forward and stabbed one of his own MagnaGuards right in its central processor, causing the machine to go limp and shut down.
Grievous didn’t take too kindly to this move, of course, and once he regained his composure, he noticed the Jedi somersaulting over him and the other remaining MagnaGuard towards the other end of the hallway; the end where there were no droids.
“Kill him!”, Grievous pointed a clawed finger at the Jedi. Every battledroid at the other end of the hallway marched in front of Grievous and opened fire with a full salvo of blasterfire, red laser bolts flying down the hallway and scorching the walls as they impacted. Gideon quickly levitated the fallen MagnaGuard’s body up in front of his as he channeled the force, creating a makeshift shield in front of him. Bolts impacted the dead droid left and right, and Gideon utilized his saber to deflect back any stray bots that would have missed the MagnaGuard shield.
“After him! Don’t let him escape!”
Grievous’s order was soon thrown to waste as numerous clone soldiers rounded the corner and opened fired on the droids, blue blaster bolts now being exchanged against red.
“What are you doing?! The ship should be evacuated!”, Gideon shouted through painfully grit teeth at one of the clones.
“It doesn’t matter to us! We’ll buy time for you! Go!”, one of the soldiers replied back as he continued to fire on the droids.
Gideon hesitated, then raced down the hallway. He would have to remember these men, but the situation happening at the moment made that a difficult task.
“The Republic shall remember you!”, Gideon shouted back as he caught a glimpse of the clone’s personal engraving on his armor: Crystal Squad.
“For the Republic!”, the clones shouted as they advanced towards the hallway. At the other end, Grievous instead stomped away from the scene. The droids shall deal with the clones. All he cared about was the Jedi.
“Get my ship to the hangar on the eleventh level! Do not let the Jedi escape!”, Grievous ordered through his implanted comlink.
“Roger, roger”, a droid commander responded in their signature fashion.
“Did you hear that?”
“Hmm? What is it?”
Marble’s mother was just cleaning a dusty pot when she heard her son speak up.
“It...it was nothing.”, Marble looked back and shook his head.
“Are you sure? I mean...this wasn’t the first time you’ve ‘heard something’ now…”
Marble’s mother was referring to something odd that Marble, in one’s words was “gifted with”.
When Marble was very young, still having the age of a foal, his mother had noticed very, very odd things that would happen around him. Sometimes, she would walk into his room, and find that a ball was levitating just slightly off of the ground. Being an Earth pony with very little magical values whatsoever, she immediately took him to a friend that she knew, a doctor that was a part of the revolution movement. She wanted to see if Marble had been deformed as a unicorn, and possibly could not have born as an Earth pony.
However, the doctor confirmed that due to his structure, he was indeed, an Earth pony.
She wasn’t entirely convinced though, as these odd events kept happening even more when Marble grew up. Eventually, Marble managed to gain greater awareness of his “power”, and in his free time he would levitate objects. Sometimes, this lead to a pot or a glass broken, as Marble didn’t have complete control of it.
However, what Marble’s mom meant about “hearing things” was that Marble had an odd experience when he dreamt. Not that it came to him when he was asleep, but he would describe it by saying that when he “heard things” that he said that he dreamed while he was awake.
In short sense, Marble described having visions. But often, they were blurry.
“Are you sure it wasn’t a vision Marble?”, his mother set the pot down.
“I...I think it really was. This time, it was really clear!”, Marble exclaimed suddenly, “It was in...in space! And there were things flying around! Spaceships-!”
“Okay, okay. Calm down there.”, his mother took his shoulders, “Can you explain to me in detail? If you said your vision was clear this time, it could be extremely important with fighting Sombra and- wait...did you say space?”
“Yeah, and there were spaceships, huge spaceships.”, Marble calmed down and told his mother.
“Ah...I see.”, Marble’s mother sighed, “No...it’s okay. Your first vision couldn’t have told me about how to reform the Crystal Empire. It’s fine- oh, somepony’s at the door?”
Marble shifted himself around, “I’ll look.”
He trotted up towards the peephole, squinted his eye to peer outside, and was met with a familiar shape.
“Mom! It’s Pearl!”
“What? In this hour? Well...let her in.”
Marble pushed the door open with his hoof, and outside stood a very light pink and blonde maned filly. This was Marble’s only friend, Lavender Pearl.
“Hey Hoofie!”, Pearl greeted Marble with her made-up nickname for his last name “Hoof”.
“Argh...I told you to stop calling me that and- what in the name of Equestria are you doing here at this hour?”, Marble let her inside and shut the door.
“Well, I just wanted to stop by and see if you guys needed anything.”, Pearl eyed the run-down hideout, “And it always seems you guys do…”
Being in the upper class, Pearl had a habit of sneaking away from home to go and visit Marble, and this also explains her occasional discomfort around the lower districts and especially Marble and his mother’s hideout.
“Well, I couldn’t get any food-”, Marble was quickly silence by Pearl dropping two small saddles that were fixed to her back.
“Gotch’ya on that one!”, Pearl giggled.
“Won’t your parents get worried once they find that you’re gone?”
“You always ask me that. And again, I’ll be back before they wake up, and no guard will stop a little filly like me. Especially not one that belongs to the ponies that are higher than the rest.”
Immediately realising what she had said wrong, she quickly waved her hooves and piped up again.
“But my parents are still spreading the word about taking down that awful pony Sombra!”, she quickly countered her previous insult.
“That’s good to know...hey, wanna see what I’ve been practicing?”, Marble waved his hoof, getting Pearl to instantly know what he was talking about.
“You can make more things float?! Without a magic field?”, Pearl’s eyes brightened up.
“Yeah! C’mon!”
The two young ponies trotted away, with Marble’s mother smiling as she walked away.
“Marble, Pearl can sleep over. I know how her parents always sleep in. If they don’t, they’ll understand where you are! I’ll just send a letter to them!”, Marble’s mother called from across the hallway.
“Alright!”
The two ponies entered another room, filled with all sorts of object ranging from pots, stuffed animals, a bed, drawings on the walls, a dresser with two pictures framed on top of it, and a tony desk.
Marble told Pearl to sit down and remain silent as he concentrated. He shut his eyes, and extended a hoof. Marble inhaled, and exhaled.
Then, a pot began to slowly float up from the ground, resting in the air as Marble held out his hoof. He waved his hoof to the side, and the pot followed. He did so again, this time to the right, and the pot flew across the air to match its position in front of him.
“Marble, I’ve already seen you do this…-not that it isn’t cool or anything!”, Pearl still was amazed by the sight that was presented in front of her, as an Earth pony, like her, was getting a pot to float in front of them, something only a unicorn should be able to do.
“Just warming up…”, Marble said as he set the pot down, “This is what I wanted to show you!”
Marble quickly turned around, sat down, pointed both of his front hooves at Pearl, and concentrated with all of his might and mind.
“Hoofie, what are you- woah, woooah!”, Pearl’s legs dangled underneath her as she slowly rose into the air. The feeling for her was very strange, but it felt exhilarating at the same time.
“Woah-wooah! I-I’m flying!”, Pearl giggled excitedly as Marble had to keep his eyes closed. He breathed slowly in order to keep Pearl suspended in the air.
“A-Am I really doing it? Please don’t tell me that you’re teasing me about this!”
“I’m not! I swear!”
At that moment, Marble opened his eyes to see what he was doing. For a split second, he was able to see Pearl floating above him, laughing in excitement.
At that point, he lost concentration.
“Oof!”
“Agh!”
Pearl suddenly dropped from the air like a rock and smacked into Marble who couldn’t have enough time to roll away. She fell on top of her friend, giggling and laughing the entire time.
“That was so much fun! Can you do it again? Please Hoofie? Pleeease?”, Pearl begged Marble with gigantic “puppy eyes”.
“I...I can’t. I really only happens once…”, Marble sighed while smiling.
“Well...thanks Hoofie! Hope you can make me fly around the Crystal Empire when you’re older!”
“Pearl! It’s bed time now!”
Marble’s mother called out from the house, and Pearl departed after saying goodnight to Marble. The colt tucked himself into bed after visiting the bathroom to brush his teeth, and look over the necklace that was recently given to him.
He decided to wear it often now. Maybe, all the time.
“I know that mom keeps telling me what dad was like...but...I wish I could know for myself…”
And with that, the light shut off as Marble waved his hand to pull the cord of the lamp, sitting several feet away from him.
Gideon raced down the hallway of the ill fated Temperance, dashing as fast as he could to reach the hangar bay on the eleventh level. His back now stung and burned with pain from the previous electrostaff injuries, but something else hurt a great deal more that the shock injury that he received.
“Urrgh...what the-”, Gideon muttered to himself when he had found that his cloak was burned around his waist section, and his skin was charred a good amount around the same location. Grievous had to have nicked him with one of his lightsabers.
“Great, another injury. Hopefully my shuttle is still intact.”, Gideon thought to himself as he continued to fight his pain to get down to the hanger as fast as he could. It took effort to avoid the squads of droids that would seemingly never end, but at last, he managed to arrive at the rather small sub-hangar of the Temperance.
Glancing inside, he found that his Eta-class Shuttle was still intact, with a familiar droid rolling out of it.
“R-4! Get the ship ready! We’re leaving now!”
“Ooohhh-rooohh”
The astromech droid pitched its drony voice as it rolled back up the ship’s ramp, heading inside to prep the ship’s systems. Gideon stopped running to the ship, and looked back.
“Going somewhere, Jedi?”, the hulking figure of General Grievous stomped into the ruined hanger bay, the lightsaber of Gideon's former Padawan clutched in his metal fist.
Immediately, Gideon raced inside the shuttle just as the engines flared to life. With R-4 at the controls, the transport shuttle raised off its it landing gear, hovered for a few seconds, then zoomed out of the hanger into the mess of fighters and spacecraft that lay outside.
Just then, Grevious’s personal starfighter entered the hangar, opened its cockpit for Grievous to climb in, and blasted out once its one passenger was inside at the controls. Grievous frantically used all of his arms to calibrate the ship, activate the weapon systems, and give full thrust in pursuit of the Jedi.
“We need to prepare a direct hyperspace jump to friendly territory! When you get one, let me know!”, Gideon talked over the sound of laser fire streaming past his shuttle towards the Temperance. The Jedi and the droid worked in tandem to prep a hyperspace route to the nearest allied territory.
“Have one yet?”
“Orrrohhh…”
“Okay, I know you’ll still tell me-”
*KA-BAM*
The shuttle lurched as a torrent of laser fire struck it directly in the bow. Looking on the sensors, Gideon could see a lone fighter attempting to zero in on the shuttle. Since all the droid fighters were busy with the already lost Temperance, the Jedi suspected only one person who would want to pick out a lone shuttle: Grievous.
“That cyborg sure doesn’t know the meaning of giving up. In that case, neither does a Jedi. Let’s give our 'general' friend a little suprise, shall we R-4?”
“Rooahhh!”, the droid piped up with agreeance, and held a machine clamp over a custom built switch.
The big mistake that Grievous had made was to not realise that the Eta-class shuttle was indeed, modified. Gideon decided to use this shuttle instead of a traditional Jedi interceptor after modifying it extensively. Calling it the Redemption, he would certainly get the ship to live up its name this moment by battling Grevious’s very well equipped fighter.
“Time to see you die, Jedi…”, Grievous growled as he unleashed another salvo of laser fire into the shuttle. Instead of seeing the ship explode into a massive fireball, odd fluctuations of energy rippled around the area where Grievous had shot.
The shuttle was coated in a shield.
The warlord howled in anger as he overshot the slower shuttle. Once he was in front, he noticed something else about the supposed shuttle. It was far bulkier than others he had encountered, and a twin laser turret was mounted on the underbelly, with two fixated cannons on the front of the ship.
“Open fire R-4!”
The droid acknowledged delightfully and filled the general’s ship into the crosshair. The satisfying sound of the laser cannons firing their load pulsated through the ship and space as green lasers streamed towards its target. Unfortunately, the general’s ship was far too agile for the fixed cannons to track, as the Redemption was multitasking with fending off the bloodthirsty cyborg, and calculating a hyperspace route.
“Here he comes again!”, Gideon glared at the incoming ship, giving another rapid blast of laser fire. The shields were now being hammered, and they strained to remain operational through the abuse that they were being put through.
“Oooh, wooooh?”
“No, don’t fire back. Let him overshoot again. Let’s give him our other ‘surprise’, shall we?”
The astromech droid clambered to another lever, and readied itself to pull it at its master’s signal.
“Not yet...not yet…”
“Die, you Jedi slime!”, Grievous shouted as laser fire, again slammed into the shuttle, this time depleting its shields and scoring its along its hull. Once the general was past Gideon’s ship, Gideon smiled and spoke.
“Now.”
R-4 hoisted the lever down, and the bay compartment of the shuttle opened up, and jettisoned an odd looking device. This large black pod was found to nearly be outlawed by the Republic due to its destructive qualities, but now, Gideon couldn’t be more thankful that he kept one stocked onboard.
The seismic charge floated out into space where its timed detonator was ticking away until its explosion. Grievous knew well too much about what this device could do, but it didn’t stop him from trying to claim his now unshielded kill. He swerved his fighter around, aimed at the Eta-class shuttle, and poised his finger over the trigger.
Then, the seismic charge detonated.
At first, all in space was quiet. Even the laser fire being shot by the other ships in the distance was silence by some sort of invisible wall created when the seismic charge’s timer counted to zero.
Then, came a massive, blinding, and harsh flash of blue light. Seismic energy surrounded the device’s last location with tremendous force.
Finally, one of the most ear grating and horrible noises was made when all of the energy finally released into a massive ring, expanding at tremendous velocity and slicing apart the chunks of debris that had drifted away from the larger ships’ combat. Energy raced around in a circle decimating anything that came into contact with it. Both Gideon’s ears and Grievous’s antenne ached with strain as the noise pounded against their eardrums.
“I have a route! Prepare for the jump to hyperspace!”, Gideon shouted as he began to prepare the shuttle.
“Leaving so soon?”
Laser fire slammed into the hull of the shuttle, knocking it off center as the gyro stabilizer malfunctioned, turning the ship away from its initial course. At that moment, the ring of seismic energy slammed into Grievous’s fighter, tearing the frontal section of the fighter clean off.
“Now! Enter hyperspace!”
The shuttle’s engines gave a massive flare, and the Redemption blasted off at incredible speed, far faster than the speed of light.
Gideon slumped back into his seat, thankful that the fighting was all over.
“That...that was close...wasn’t it R-4?”
“Rooo! Rooo!”
Immediately, Gideon sat up and looked at the navicomputer. What was presented before him definitely wiped any sort of relaxation from him. The navicomputer had malfunctioned, not knowing where the ship had gone into, or where they will exit out of hyperspace. To make matters worse, R-4 had informed Gideon that they were knocked off-course due to Grievous.
“Oh no...no, no, no! We might as well collide with a star at this point!”, Gideon buried his face in his hands, “Ugh...please, may the Force be with us…”
Gideon could only watch the interior of the blue wormhole as their destination was still a mystery to the two.
At this point within the Crystal Empire, midnight had fallen on the giant city. Citizens slept, guards stood at their posts, and the slaves worked through their aching muscles. One citizen was still awake, and was packing up his cart.
This citizen was Shining Idol, the same merchant who sold Marble the fruit before it was squashed by a sour-tempered guard.
What a coincidence that this same guard, accompanied by about three others were approaching him. The armored ponies walked up, and stopped in front of his cart, swords holstered and ready to be drawn at a moment’s notice.
“Alright citizen, your information better be correct regarding the whereabouts of “The Revolution’s Hope”. Tell us. What is it that you called for our attention?”, the highest ranking guard, sporting a more decorated armor stepped forward and looked down at the elderly shopkeeper with a superior aura.
“Well, you won’t be disappointed. I can point you in an accurate direction to where she may be hiding.”, Idol smiled and nodded.
“Where is it? Tell us, now.”, one guard stomped his hoof on the cobblestone.
“Well, it isn’t as simple as that…”, Idol eyed the guards, who were beginning to glare at him, “...however, I know something for a fact. Her son visits my shop on a regular basis. And most recently, he’s been doing so at night. Tell me, did one of you run into a small colt about *this* high with a black mane and a white coat?”
One of the guards nodded, “Yeah, the shrimp that walked right into me. Wait...that was her son?! I should have beaten him until his legs were in a condition to be amputated!”
Idol laughed.
"Oh, I'm sure that would have been lovely."
"Enough with the talk. What's your information?"
"Well...", Idol stroked his beard with a crooked grin, "I know for a fact that the colt heads not to the center where the upper class live..."
"Impossible. For notice of a so-called 'revolution' to circulate so well, 'The Revolution's Hope' had to be based near the higher city. There are transmitters, messaging spires...", the captain spoke in objection.
"On the contrary, captain, the colt heads down to the far southwest of the Empire. The far, far southwest."
"That's where the poorest live...how could the revolution leader give messages so easily?!"
"Easy, through passing on messages, and taking advantage of the small guard force there. Plus, I've even managed to find the building they live in."
The guards stepped closer.
"Tell us. Now."
"Of course, of course. There is a small cobblestone building that has a torn-up roof. It's seemingly abandoned, but I've seen the colt through the corner of my eye walk around the back, and disappear. My guess is, you'll find the hideout somewhere by the back walls."
The guards looked over each other and nodded. Then, the captain inched forward.
"Thank you dearly, Mr. Idol. You truly have done your God-Emperor Sombra a true duty this night.", the captain smiled, while the other three guards began to circle around Mr. Idol as he was occupied.
"The pleasure is all mine...and I have to bring up another subject. There was mention of a 'reward' about information leading to the whereabouts of 'The Revolution's Hope.' So...how many bits are we talking about- OOF!"
In the end of his sentence, Shining Idol was forcefully interrupted as one of the guards gave a powerful buck to his frail back, sending him straight down onto the hard and unforgiving cobblestone road.
At that point, the captain drew his pure crystalline sword, glistening in the moonlight.
"H-Hey! What are you two doing?!", Idol panicked, as his back was now crippled from the other guard's kick.
"Well...all outside information needs to be silenced in the glory of the God-Emperor. In this case, you fall right under that category. The story will say: We found the hideout..."
"N-No! You can't do this! This wasn't part of the deal!", Idol stammered and his eyes grew wide, watching the captain's sword rise above his neck.
"It's Sombra's decree. What he says, will be carried out."
The captain's sword made short work of the merchant's neck. The cobblestone was now drenched in blood as another pony that was beheaded joined the list of the others under Sombra's tyranny.
“Ahh! What? Huh…?”, Marble burst awake after having a flash come inside of his brain.
“What…? Who’s there?”, he asked around as his eyes fixed themselves to the darkness of his room. He blinked twice, then fell back into bed.
He had the oddest sensation. He felt that something was coming. Something was going to happen.
He didn’t know what, but he felt it. He knew that he felt it, and he knew one thing:
He was a part of it.
