//------------------------------// // Book Five: Chapter Two // Story: Unity: A Tale of Arcadia // by Kieva Lynn //------------------------------// Book Five: Third Law Ascendant Chapter Two XXXXX When the battle began, Morgan was in the library of the high school, trying to catch up on a thousand years of history. Books on history, science, and technology were piled high, along with an aborted attempt to learn popular culture and fashion from a pile of old 'Cosmo' magazines now pushed into the corner. "The nation doesn't have a king...?" She muttered to herself, "How does that work?" Turning the page in search of answers, Morgan was suddenly interrupted by a loud boom and the rattle of gunfire. "What?" She wondered, and went to the nearest window. She swept the curtains aside and saw the portals in the sky and smoke rising from the ground. "It's started." She whispered, and raced for the front doors. By the time she got there, a small group of people were sheltering inside, two of them injured. Kneeling beside the closest casualty she used her magic to heal his wounds, then moved on to the second. But the third... A young girl who was suffering severe frostbite across the entire left side of her body. "What happened to her?" "We don't know what it was." Someone answered. "It just dropped out of the sky with this horrible wailing, passed right over her." "A Windigo." Morigan whispered, then seeing the confused expressions elaborated "An evil spirit of elemental wind and ice." "C...Can... Can you help me...?" The girl asked. Morgan nodded. "I'll do what I can, I can ease the pain at least. But Windigo cold is more than merely physical, and beyond the power of my magic to cure. You will need the love of friends and family to recover fully. In the meantime, if there are Windigos about I strongly suggest setting a fire... The bigger the better. It won't hold them off en-mass, but individual Windigos will be driven back." While several of the group rushed to find something flamable, another asked "What about you? Will you stay with us?" "No. I need to find-" "Morgan!" "-Master Merlin." Morgan allowed herself a slight grin before turning to face him. "Do we have a plan?" "Don't be absurd. Of course I have a plan." Merlin replied. "Gandalf and Starswirl are at the park, engaged in the true battle by now. We must join them, but we need to take a detour first." "A detour? To where?" "Allies, Morgan. As our enemy has gathered allies of darkness, so must we gather allies of light. Come." Merlin turned and strode away. "Is he always like that?" Someone in the crowd whispered. "Oh no, not at all." Morgan answered. "Sometimes he's worse." And with a grin she ran to catch up to the wizard who was already half way across the parking lot... XXXXX Aboard Durban's airship Tess had switched targets as soon as the Windigos appeared. The Mortax heat weapons were proving as effective as one would expect against beings of pure cold, and she didn't have to worry about accidentally targeting a friendly Changeling. But there were so many of the ice spirits, and once they had realized where the heat rays were coming from they focused on the airship, making suicidal runs in a hope of at least one of them getting through and inside the ship. "Keep firing Lass! Don't let up!" Durban exclaimed. "I know! But there's so many! one of them is going to get through sooner or later!" Tess shouted back. "Aye." From his pilot's seat Gillas asked "And have we given any thought to what we will do when that happens?" "The Light of Earendil can hold them off. But it doesn't really hurt them much and you know we can't keep that up for long." "Then it's time to consider landing the ship and evacuating." Gillas said, "We've done all we can from here." Before Tess could respond to that, Durban shouted "Hang on!" The ship shuddered violently, and half a second later Durban cheered "Gotcha!" "What happened!?" Gillas demanded. "One of the buggers got through... But it was moving so fast it must've went right through a part of the ship and kept going! Ha! I got him on the other side!" The ship shuddered again, and a warning light on Gillas' console started flashing. "Well it appears the part of the ship it passed through was the port engine nacelle. It's now frozen solid and off-line." "We're landing whether we want to or not then." Tess sighed. "Okay, let's do it!" "I'm aiming for a location just outside the south wall." Gillas said. "It's cropland, unplanted at the moment, and we can get back into town and help from the surface quickly." "Sounds good lad." Durban agreed. As they descended the airship continued to shudder and shake harder and harder. Tess and Durban both kept firing, all the way down, though at the last second the Windigos turned and fled, apparently afraid that the ship might explode on impact and take them all in a fireball. But Gillas was an excellent pilot and while the landing was rough they came through in one piece. "Okay, let's go." Durban said, clambering out of his gunner's seat and hefting his axe. He took point, heading towards the door, with Tess and Gillas close behind, each carrying miniature crossbows. Not that such weapons would be much help against the foes running about this day, but it still seemed better than nothing. Durban opened the hatch and they stepped outside. Just in time to see Orcs and Gumm-Gumms running at them from a gate in the wall, and Windigos swooping down from above. "Well muk." Tess swore. XXXXX When the orbs struck and Twilight vanished, Rainbow Dash was, of course, the first to act. Letting out a roar of rage and grief, she charged headlong at the Darkness. Before she got there, a portal opened in her path and she was going too fast to stop or turn, passing through and finding herself next to Claire. "What'd you do that for!?" "You can't touch that thing!" Claire said. "Look!" She pointed to the ground, where the darkness had trod; each and every place where a hoof had touched to soil, the grass had withered and died. "We've gotta fight smart Dash." "Smart nothing!" Dash exclaimed, tears pouring from her eyes, "That thing kill.... ki- It killed..." Claire grabbed Dash and hugged her tightly, the pegasus mare for once not fighting such a gesture, as Rarity and Fluttershy joined in. "How sickening." They broke the hug to find the Darkness standing over them. "You miss your friend? Fear not. I will send you all to join her." The evil being fired a surge of negative energy at them, but by the time it struck Claire had portaled them all away. Across the park the rest of the team had watched what happened in horror. Pinkie's mane was deflated, and everyone was in shock and denial, save for Gandalf and Starswirl who had seen too much over the centuries to be phased easily. A portal opened, delivering Claire and those with her, Jim running to the girl and holding her tight. "What do we do!?" He hissed. "That thing is stronger than anything we've ever faced and we can't even touch it!" "And Twilight..." Fluttershy looked straight at Starswirl. "Is she really...?" "I don't know." The old wizard replied. But the moment she vanished, I felt... Something..." "As did I." Gandalf added. "I know not what it portended. But we must not lose hope." "I know yer right." Applejack said, "But that still don't tell us what we should do." "We buy time." Gandalf said. "We buy time for the world to turn in our favor." "I hope that's not much time." Jim said. Gandalf nodded "As do I. Now, we cannot touch our foe directly, but we have ranged options for attack. So we move about, all around, at random, under cover as much as possible. We harry our enemy, keep it distracted and annoyed and not attacking anyone else. And when the right time comes..." "When the right time comes, we take advantage of whatever happens, push whatever advantage it gives us, and end this!" Rarity declared. "Then let's do it! For Twilight!" Applejack put out her right fore hoof, and all the others joined her. "For Twilight!" XXXXX In Arcadia, the battle had been, thus far, less intense. Humans and Trolls, backed up by Aja, Krel, the Doctor, and a handful of alien weapons from Stuart's shop, had fought off several waves of gremlins and a single small force of Orcs. Ophelia Nunez stood looking towards Unity, were the air was filled with smoke and the glow of flames. "Should we send them reinforcements?" She wondered. "I would advise against it." The Doctor said. "Only the Element Bearers and Trollhunters, and perhaps the wizards, can face the real enemy. The rest of Unity's defenders can handle the lesser attackers so long as they prevail. That being the case, we should hold the forces we have here. It's only a matter of time, after all, before something worse strikes Arcadia as well." "I suppose you're right. Still..." "Still your daughter is there. I do understand." Ophelia sighed deeply and turned as she heard someone approaching. It was Jim's mother, and the troll Aarrrgh. "Barbara. What's the word?" "No deaths so far, though we've got a lot of injuries, some of them severe. We're also going through antibacterial spray at an alarming rate; Gremlin scratches and bites are horribly septic and as as quick and agile as they are it's hard to take them on unscathed." "Aarrrgh?" "Trolls not hurt bad yet. Worried about Wingman." "Buck up my friend!" The Doctor said, "They're skilled warriors all of them. They'll be fine. And, aside from that, I expect we're going to need you here any moment... Look!" He pointed to where a portal had just opened in the middle of the town square. Armed townsfolk and Trolls surrounded the portal, though at a respectful distance of course, and waited to see if it would be more Gremlins, or a new wave of Orcs. It was neither. From out of the portal stepped a small mechanical creature shaped like an adorable rabbit. "Oh dear." The Doctor muttered. "What? What is it!?" Ophelia demanded. "A Foo-Foo." The Doctor explained. "Rapidly reproducing intergalactic bounty hunters. Aggressive and very heavily armed. And where there's one..." Several more of the creatures came through the portal "...There's an army... Well let it not be said our enemy doesn't conscript the very best." More and more of the enemy came, the front row speaking: "I am Foo-Foo the Mighty!" "I am Foo-Foo the Destroyer!" "I am Foo-Foo the Devastator!" "I am Foo-Foo the Miniscule!" "I am Foo-Foo the Ambivelent! ...At least I think I am..." And with no further warning they surged to the attack, and in seconds everyone was fighting for their lives. Even Aja and Krel were forced back, and the Trolls were quickly becoming overwhelmed. Not that the Foo-Foo's were all that tough one on one, but there were just so many of them, and the portal wasn't closing as more and more emerged. Gunfire rattled, alien energy weapons lanced out with rays of destructive force, and Trolls wielded fists and enchanted arms against the alien bounty hunters, who luckily were not equipped with the same armor the Orcs and Gumm Gumms wore, and were thus vulnerable. At last the portal closed, but there were now hundreds of Foo-Foos and the defenders were rapidly losing ground. Even Aarrrgh was overwhelmed. "Time to enact a strategic retreat I think!" The Doctor said. "Right!" Ophelia agreed. She pulled a flare gun and fired straight up into the air, the signal to pull back. Those who were able to began the retreat, in the direction of Trollmarket where it was hoped they could make a stand, but too many, far too many, were unable to break free to flee. "We may have waited a bit too long!" Ophelia screamed. The Doctor could only agree...