Star Wars: Power of the Dark Side

Star Wars: Power of the Dark Side
Chapter XII: Paths of Knowledge

"Mmm..." Twilight groaned, her head throbbing in fresh and well known pain. She knew the source of which she was feeling this intense pain. The fiery pain intensified as she roused, a groan leaving her as she tried to move. Tried to, but got nowhere, as if she could not moved any limb at all she thrashed as greatly as she could but to no avail. She could still feel her hooves but they were motionless, even after her mind had sent the order to move. She sent them again and again but she remained in a suspended paralysis.

"Hugh? What!? Wha-What's going on!?" Twilight shrilled. Her voice sounded different, as if she was talking through glass far off in the distance. This was not entirely right, why did she sound like that?

She tried to tear open her eyes and see the greyed sky above her. But she could not. Every attempt coming up too short. She squirmed in her skin at the alien feeling of not being able to move. For minutes her muscles and tissue burning as she thrashed against the invisible restraints inside of her. Worry ran through her veins as she attempted to escape it.

Twilight tried to cast a spell but only emptiness appeared. She then realized that she could not cast a spell, after her deed to remove her horn. She shivered as she felt the empty feeling once more, like a void within her that had been filled with pain. Suffering. Hate. Vengeance. And darkness.

All of these so foreign to a Twilight she knew before, but not the one she was now. She growled as she tried to move but to no avail. She snarled as she tried to break free the bonds of which restrained her. She pushed with all of her might, clenching her brow and trying to lift her hooves. She was significantly weaker, due to the fact her magic was gone. She fell back down and stopped her groaning at the bonds. Her breathing drawing her emotions down and soothing her mind. Her hate blanketing her with a warm but fiery embrace.

She was not used to accepting such motivations as hatred or anger. It felt so alien and so foreign, but so familiar. She stewed in her deep emotions and writhed with need to break her bonds.

"My, you certainly are an extremist," She heard the cold and calculating voice of her master in her mind, "Calm, my apprentice."

Angered desperation took over her distant tone as she responded, "Master? What's going on? What is this? Where am I?"

He responded, his deep abyssal tone echoing off the walls of her mind, "Bring your wits about you, apprentice. You are not dead, at least know this. And you are not asleep, at least not entirely."

Her impatience welled within her, and her master had picked up on her feelings as he continued, "Do not worry, apprentice. You are acting hysterical, you must calm down. You are reacting negatively to your severance of your old life and now you are being reborn anew.

"Once you had severed your magic I could feel the raw power of the dark side swell within you, like a beacon in the night. I felt it, even beyond the grave I had felt it. You have proven your loyalty not only to the Force, but to me as well. For this I commend you."

She clenched her jaw as she listened to his explanation, "Your first lesson of loyalty is finished, and now that the Force has accepted you. You must accept it."

Her tone was more even as she asked, "What must I do?"

There was a slight pause in his next words, before they ran cold over her mind and it grew more numb as he explained, "Your capacity for knowledge never ceases to amaze...what you must do and what I promised you are things that you shall receive. But first, what have you learned thus far, my young apprentice?"

A twinge of anger grew within her, but she beat it down as she recalled what she had learned of the dark side up until this point, "I have learned that there exists a symbiotic relationship between master and apprentice. The apprentice gives loyalty, and in return the master gives knowledge. If either falters in their missions then the master or apprentice must be killed."

"Good," he replied coldly, "What else have you learned?"

Her anger boiled in her veins as she answered, "Magic and the Force are opposite forces, and therefore must be kept seperate. If I were to keep magic and gain the powers of the Force, they would resist each other and it would create...chaos..."

She choked down a lump and pondered what had come out of her own mouth. Her own voice had sounded harsher than it had before. It was of a slightly deeper pitch, likely from her anger and fury. It boiled her blood in her veins, it kicked up memories that she had long thought forgotten. Memories of hate, destruction, fear, anger, and dread. All of these rushed from her subconscious all the way into the forefront of her mind. It ripped and tore its way through her brain. Her mind felt as if it was slitting itself apart, unlike anything she had felt before. She had forgotten it, in her fit of resistance against her invisible bonds.

Twilight heard her master's vice like grip on her mind caused all the pain to go away and he said, "Do you feel that?"

His cold rippling voice bursting and destroying the pain she had once known, and a cool wave of soothing renewal rippled over her mind. She had forgotten her physical pain, but her mental pain and strife had only just began to boil. She felt her emotions churn and bubble with unprecedented purpose. She felt anger, hate, rage, dread, and vice. All at once, her mind swirled with this. But where she should have been cringing with unpleasantness, she was calmed. She was more focused than she had ever been. She was stronger than she had ever felt imaginable.

Her gaze, intense as if the pain riled something within her. As if she was a sheltered beast ready to be released. She had never felt such exhilaration before. She never felt such a rush, this raw feeling. She loved it, and craved more.

As fast as it had come, it was gone. Once more the cold pain returned and tempted her with the returning quick waves of fatigue. She felt as drained as she was before what had changed her. Her master spoke again, "This power can be yours, if you so desire to have it."

"The first lesson of the Sith is, the Sith code." He spoke with great passion and his dark demeanor ever present in her mind as he recited,

"Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall set me free.

"Commit this to memory and there will be nopony to stop you. No force that can prevent you from your goals. No bonds to chain you to weakness."

His sharp and intense voice was so convincing and so confident. Twilight could not help but be in awe of how he spoke. All harshness in his tone had left when he recited the Sith code and explained its meaning. Twilight got the most of the code and knew its contents inside and out already. Thought she doubted that these mere words could hold such power.

Nevertheless, she did just lose the entirety of her magic for the Force. And while it is true that there are some ancient spells that require to be invocate rather than cast directly. A very archaic use of magic but it held its purposes all the same.

His vehement tone did not cease as he dictated, "Recite the code. Recite the code, and break the bonds of the old life that had chained you to weakness."

She offered no reply and bowed her head in silence. She felt within herself a deep spark, it flickered like a sparking flame of a beacon. A beacon far in the night, Twilight reached out and grabbed hold of it firmly. Her once proud spark of connection now ignited into a fire, and with it ignited she recited the Sith code,

"Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall set me free."

She believed in every parametric word and stanza. Nothing had been more truthful in her entire life. With all of her heart and soul she spoke these lines, as it continued on the burning fire of power rose within her and sustained itself. Her veins filling with great vigor and each time she progressed the end she felt her voice grow more intense and more passionate to the words. Her mind shifted and her pain grew irrelevant to what she was doing. She felt the invisible bonds quake and shatter into pieces as she broke them.

Twilight burst her eyes open and saw the room around her. It was wide and circular. Red and onyx like the holocron marked and colored the walls. She laid upon a stone table in the center of it all. She looked around the spacious room and her gaze finally fell to the pony no more than a few feet away from her. Her master, Darth Venator. Her blood ran cold and her very will froze under his dead like stare. But he was material, he was in the flesh.

Twilight questioned nothing else as she stood from the table and immediately thrust her herself into a kneeling position. Dropping to her knees, she felt unworthy under his powerful stance. Humbling herself to him, she bowed her head and her master walked closer and his voice sounded as if a cruel smile graced his powerful features, "Good, my apprentice, good. You are that much closer to becoming a Sith Lord. To mark your new life as my apprentice you will shed your name in place of a new one. To symbolize your birth into the Sith."

He paused before he drew closer and his laminate metallic boots covered his hooves and almost obscured it behind a black robe. After his pause he continued, "Henceforth, you shall be known as...Vesper."

Vesper. This was who she was, her thoughts black and clouded aside from this name. This name sang truth within her and was honestly the only thing that she trusted and believed in. Her attention drawing back to her master as he lectured, "Vesper, my young apprentice, I have dealt a great many pains to your former life. I have not dealt in any absolutes, I have only given you hypothetical answers and questions, thus you have provided trust within me, normally I expect more resistance and questioning. Which raises a question, why have you not questioned anything that I have done? Be honest."

There was suppressed anger in her tone as she answered, "Because...because I...Master I...the holocron holds a great destructive device."

"Indeed."

"I want to protect my friends and I will stop at nothing to achieve that goal. I will not be shackled by anything." Twilight answered honestly and cringed inwardly, expecting a harsh answer.

Surprisingly he answered, "A noble goal indeed. You are willing to sacrifice you and everything you stand for, to protect those you love the most. A normal Sith would kill you and set you as an example of other students. But I am no normal Sith, you are to learn both sides of the Force. Though, you will likely use the dark side because it will be the most familiar to you."

Vesper inclined her head, "I understand master."

Venator nodded, "Good."

He paused as he took a step forward and inspected her while she was knelt. Her breaths were controlled and significantly calmer, her mind still racking the teachings together. She formed a wrapping of iron upon what he had taught so far. Vesper did not lift her head, as she was not ordered to. She had always felt like this when she was a student of Celestia, but she never did this. She never had her kneel before her, even though she was a goddess. Celestia was always like a second mother to Vesper, Venator was exactly what should have been expected in an instructor. Straight forward and give direct orders. She still has to get used to this method of teaching.

Venator dictated in a voice that shook the room, "Rise, my apprentice."

Vesper rose slowly and looked to her master. She stared into his hood of shadows obscuring his face, but i never lost the sense of mystery about him. A stallion that hides his face does not want attention drawn to themselves. It was a simple little thing, and this was likely a piece of himself that he has sent from the great beyond. Her fear of him was real though, standing a full head taller than her and more muscular than she had seen any other stallion.

Venator spoke again, "Your next lesson. A physical trial, to test your willingness to get what you want. Within the chambers of the old castle, you must find texts describing all forms of lightsaber combat and return to this space. You can return to this space with merely focusing on the holocron and meditating near it. Be quick and be discreet, my apprentice."

Vesper nodded her head, "Yes, master."

"So what's this all about?" Rainbow asked the Wonderbolt's coach with a hint of worry in her tone. She had a sneaking suspicion something was wrong. She was not called in to take the spot of a Wonderbolt unless something was wrong, like one of them had some sort of injury or had to attend to some family matters. There was an air around Thundercloud as he guided her down the familiar hall to the gym that the Wonderbolts had reserved all to themselves in Cloudsdale Wonderbolt's Training.

Thundercloud gathered his words and answered, "Something...happened to the Wonderbolts."

"What kind of something," Rainbow countered, "Are they okay?"

She did not like the way that Thundercloud never made eye contact. Thundercloud was always somepony who always looked at ponies when talking with them. Always so cheerful and willing to share a good laugh. But something had him spooked, she could see it plastered on his face. He knew exactly what was wrong but was withholding information. Rainbow Dash could take any sort of news.

Thundercloud answered apprehensively, "I...they...they were in an accident."

Rainbow rolled her eyes, "Shoot straight, Thundercloud."

Thundercloud stopped them and looked at her straight in the eyes and gave the scariest stare she had ever seen a pony give. She felt like one of Fluttershy's animals when she used the stare. Rainbow shrunk slightly and when he answered, she regretted hearing it, "The Wonderbolts are...they are dead."

The hall grew dim as the information was broken to her, she could barely process what he said. Her eyes grew wide and she looked on in disbelief. Thundercloud swallowed hard and seemed to take the news no different than her. How could they be dead? They were barely any older than her, what could have happened that they were killed? She felt sick, her stomach churning and turning in on itself. These were the ponies that she immortalized more than herself, ponies she believed were immortal.

Was immortal, now she thought less of her head for thinking of such things. She kept her emotions bottled up. She had vowed many years ago to never cry in front of another pony unless they are her friends and even then she might only shed a tear or two.

Thundercloud idly scratched the back of his grey furred neck and said, "Listen...I know that, they were great ponies at what they did. And I hate to do this, but there has to be replacements for the Wonderbolts. I cannot see a more qualified pony to take one of the spots."

She felt no better than she had before, but she kept a face of bravery and loyalty and Thundercloud seemed to buy into her lying face. This news shellshocked her to say the least. She thought that being a Wonderbolt meant that you were invincible. And now...now she wasn't so sure.

Thundercloud blinked his light blue eyes and shook his head, trying to clear his emotions, "Alright. Today you are being shown the facilities and tomorrow you will receive your first work out schedule of your routines as a Wonderbolt. Allow me to be the first to welcome you to your position."

Thundercloud left her after he clapped a hoof on her shoulder and tried to reassure her with a fake smile. In truth she was stunned. She looked down at her hooves and mourned secretly for the loss of her favorite Wonderbolts of all time. She was conflicted, as to feel excited or to feel terrible about her new position as a Wonderbolt.

Rainbow Dash muttered to herself, "Welcome to the Wonderbolts Rainbow Dash..."