Book One: Gremlins and Gumm-Gumms
Chapter Two
The late spring morning dawned bright and sunny, without a cloud in the sky and all across Unity grumbing children rose to prepare for school. In more than a few cases, the grumbing was intensified by the knowledge that students in the newly arrived town were still out of class. Naturally, parents attempts to point out that they still had no power in Arcadia had no impact on the kids insistence that it was "no fair."
So with no options, Sweetie Belle ate a breakfast of oats drizzled in honey (which miraculously didn't catch fire, explode, or disintegrate into ash) then slipped on her book laden saddlebags and trotted out the door. Scootaloo was already there waiting for her. "Ugh..." The pegasus complained. "Look around Sweetie Belle. It's gonna be a beautiful day and we're stuck in school."
"I know. But school's out for summer in a month." Sweetie answered.
"Yeah yeah... And at least we've got a new friend!" Scootaloo pointed to a filly who was trotting towards them. "Mythril Wind!"
"It's actually Nyma you know." The disguised Changeling said.
"Yeah we know. But we like Mythril Wind." Sweetie Belle said. Looking the filly over, she asked "You're staying in your pegasus disguise?"
"My sisters all insisted." Nyma answered. "If I have to be outside, I have to at least not be an obviously different 'target' for anything bad that might happen."
Scootaloo frowned. "Yeah but, didn't Xix say they were gonna have a soldier drone close at all times anyway?"
"Yeah, about that..." Nyma trotted up to an innocuous looking lamppost, turned, and bucked the base of the post, which to the surprise of Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle cried out in pain.
"Oww, right in the shin..." The lamppost exclaimed as it turned back into an adult changeling. "Nyma, why would you do that?"
"Just making a point." Nyma said. "If I could spot you..."
"I thought it was pretty good." Sweetie Belle whispered to Scootaloo, who nodded agreement.
"Let's go!" Nyma motioned for the others to follow. "I can't wait to get started! School! Fun!"
"Boy is she ever in for a let down..." Scootaloo whispered, and Sweetie Belle could only chuckle.
XXXXX
Big Mac couldn't stop glancing in the direction of Arcadia as he worked the orchards. Something just didn't seem right, and by that he meant far more than just the possibility of a dangerous enemy hiding deep beneath the town. No, check that, he thought, not merely a possibility but a near-certainty. Mac had been there the previous night, under the bridge, when the troll Blinkous had briefly opened the hidden magic door, confirming that Trollmarket was still there. A fight was coming, and soon. Mac bucked hard against the next tree in his line, apples dropping perfectly into the pre-positioned baskets. Yes, a fight was coming, and not an easy one by any measure. At least they didn't have to worry about an attack during the daylight. Though, for daylight creatures like ponies and humans that might actually be worse. He moved to the next tree and bucked. To be honest, though, what was bothering him was the placement. It was just too odd that Arcadia had been dropped so close to Unity. All of the other new towns were at least a few miles apart from each other. And now this, right on their doorstep.
So involved was Mac in his thoughts, his body basically moving from tree to tree on autopilot, that by the time he realized someone was calling out his name there was an undercurrent to the tone of voice suggesting they had been calling him for quite some time. "Mac! Y'all in there!?" Applejack shouted right in his face.
"Who what!?" Mac fell flat on his back.
"Thinkin' hard?" Applejack asked as she helped him to his feet.
"Eeyup. Not sure what 't think of this new one."
"Yeah, Twilight said we might need 't be ready 't fight again." Applejack shook her head. "Anyhow, that's not why I'm botherin' ya. Ya got company." She pointed across the field to where Bethany was waiting.
"Eeyup." Mac trotted over to where she was waiting. "Kinda early aint'cha?"
"A little... Um, so, my parents will be back at the window tonight. They want to meet you."
"An' do they know?"
Bethany crossed her right arm across her body, gripping the left elbow. A sign Mac had learned to interpret as nervousness. "Yeah, I told them everything. Including one thing I still need to work up the nerve to tell you."
"A'hm listenin'."
"You know what? I'm just gonna blurt it out because I know I'll chicken again if I don't: Mac... I'm pregnant."
"Hoo boy."
"Eeyup."
They looked at each other, and couldn't help breaking into giggles. "Never saw this a year ago." Mac said.
"Eenope." Beth agreed.
"You know I'll be a good father..."
"I know you'll be the best father."
"Seen the doctors yet?"
"Just to confirm. I've got another appointment next week." Beth answered. "They want to do a couple of scans, machine and magic both, to make sure the baby's healthy. Twilight says it'll probably be human, at least mostly."
"That's how it works." Mac agreed. "So, how you wanna handle the meetin'?"
"I was thinking that coffeehouse south of Sugarcube Corner. They can't really eat or drink anything from here of course, but if I know my folks they'll both have a mug on them already, we can just sit, drink, talk..."
"Sounds good 't me. 'Round eight I'm guessin'?"
"That'll be perfect." Beth gave Mac a kiss. "Gotta get back to work. See you tonight!"
Mac nodded, and returned to his work. He was still worried about the Arcadia situation. But at least he had something positive to think on too...
XXXXX
Tessindra Fairwind, 'Tess' to friends, sat in the Golden Oaks library studying a copy of Tolkien's works along with Twilight Sparkle. "I must admit, this is remarkably accurate." She finally said. "Even the Old Sindarin runes are spot on, and you would be hard pressed to find an elf these days who could manage that."
"Which is weird." Twilight said. "Even with a copy of the Red Book to work with, after ten thousand years there should be significant errors!" She sighed. "Another mystery..."
"Another?"
"Yeah... You've not seen yet, but... Humans have Christmas, and Ponies have Hearthswarming. Two totally different holidays celebrating totally different things. But observed on the same day of the year, with the same kind of decorations and traditions!
And it's not just that one: Our Nightmare Night and their Halloween. Our Hearts and Hooves Day and their Valentine's Day. Same date, same theme, same decorations, same traditions, no possible connection in their origins."
"There has to be a connection, though. That is far too much similarity for there not to be." Tess mused.
Twilight quoted "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action." At Tess' raised eyebrow she explained "Human military expression I learned from Bert Gumbal."
"It does seem applicable, though I hope the 'enemy' part is inaccurate." Tess chuckled. She pulled the goggles down from over her forehead and examined the book through them.
"If you don't mind me asking, what's up with those? I noticed all of the elves and most of the dwarves and hobbits wear them." Twilight asked.
"My people have very little magic." Tess explained. "We're not totally devoid of it; we are still elves after all, but compared to our immortal ancestors... The most powerful spell an elf of my race could cast, would have been a meaningless trifle to even the weakest of the High Elves. So, technology is our magic. The goggles, for example, have a number of vision enhancements built in: microscopic and telescopic magnification, infrared, ultraviolet, night vision, there's even a mode for scanning magic fields."
"I see..." Twilight clopped her front hooves together, "I don't suppose-"
"We have some extras." Tess laughed. "I'll see about finding you a pair."
"So what can you do magically?" Twilight wondered.
Tess shrugged. "We can create light when we need it, though not for long. We can sense the use of magic by others, the range varies from elf to elf. And some of us can imbue minor enchantments into the machines we make, for example there's an enchantment on these goggles that makes the batteries last about twenty percent longer than they would otherwise... Speaking of which..." She removed her goggles and held them out to Twilight. "Take a look at the book through these, I've got them set on the magic field sensor."
Curious, Twilight took the goggles and looked. "What the-?" She exclaimed. The book had a very low level magic current running through it, too weak for Twilight to have sensed with her own gifts. She looked around and saw that every copy of Tolkien's writing had a similar field. None of the other books did. "What could that mean?" She asked, returning the goggles to Tess.
"I have no idea. The surviving pages of the original Red Book in Rivendale have the exact same current, they always have. No one knows why."
"Curious..." Twilight pondered. "There's something more connecting all of this together... What you said before was right, just because we can't see it doesn't mean anything. There has to be a link. In fact, I wonder... Wait here a minute."
Tess waited as the unicorn trotted out of the room. She could hear Twilight rummaging around in what was apparently a 'off-limits' section of the library used to store potentially dangerous magic texts. When Twilight returned, she was levitating a large ancient book which she laid down on the table. "I'm very curious if this has that same field." She said.
Tess examined to book through her goggles. "It does." She said after a moment. "What made you suspect this particular book? Is it a pony translation of the same information?"
"No, but it does contain the complete text, or at least what we still have of the text, of the prophecies made over a thousand years ago by the greatest pony wizard of all time, Starswirl the Bearded. I wondered about it specifically because of that... Bilbo and Frodo's writings have the current, and the both of them were close friends of a wizard. And here, another wizard's writings show the current... Maybe that's all there is to it."
"Maybe." Tess agreed, though she suspected there was more, and honestly was pretty sure Twilight did as well...
XXXXX
All through the day, the Gremlins prepared. They spread out, traveling through caves, through sewers, through any safe-from-sunlight passage they could find. The creatures didn't really care about Queen Usurna's plots, nor even Gunmar's for that matter. They just loved to make mischief and be violent and weren't about to turn down a chance to do so. As they fanned out, to cover the entire town of Arcadia, some of them found new paths they were sure hadn't been there before. Paths that led out from under Arcadia, and to a new town entirely. They decided to attack there too. Why not, for one thing, and besides that Usurna would surely squash them all if they didn't make a big enough mess of things.
Below the city center of Unity, the gremlin leader (Identifiable as the one who had drawn a mustache on his upper lip with a sharpie; as noted before, they weren't terribly bright,) cocked his crossbow and peered out of a storm water drain. The sun was setting, but it was far too early to be safe. Gremlins, like trolls, turned to stone if exposed. And as he watched, selecting the best targets from the limited number of buildings he could see from the drain, the leader saw something unusual: talking horse creatures. He picked up an ancient 'Speak and Say' toy his predecessor had acquired and pushed a button. "U is for Unicorn." the toy said in it's electronic voice. The gremlin smiled a wicked toothy smile. "Horses." He mumbled. This would be fun...