Book Five: Third Law Ascendant

Chapter Five

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"Twilight!" Voices cried out in joy at the sight of their friend alive, then shifted to confusion.

"A gift from a friend." Twilight answered. "But I'll explain later." She flapped her wings and rose shakily into the air, still facing down the Darkness.

"You'll have to do it post-mortem!" Twilight shouted, and cut loose on the Darkness with a blast of magic more powerful than any she had ever used before. Most of the power was absorbed, but enough got through to actually send Chrysalis' body sailing backwards, end over end, through a building and into a parked truck. Yet still the evil rose anew, laughing.

"Impressive." It admitted. "But I am entropy, emptiness, death. You cannot kill what does not live!" It unleashed a new wave of black orbs but this time as they homed in on Twilight she countered with a shield of light magic powerful enough to stop them. "Yes, yes, impressive indeed... Hmm... My soldiers have things well enough in hand here I think... Perhaps I should move on to the main course..."

A portal opened, on the ground beneath Chrysalis' body and the Darkness fell through.

Everyone rushed to the spot, staring at the ground. "The main course?" Toby wondered.

Gandalf said "Not so. As an alicorn, I expect Twilight now possesses power sufficient to teleport directly there. Though, only some of us should go. There is still the question of stopping the soldiers here."

"Without their leader the rank and file shouldn't be as tough." Merlin said. "We'll need the Element Bearers of course, and we should go. Everyone else should secure the town."

Gandalf laid a hand on the boy's shoulder. "You will fight, but your place is here."

"That sounds uncomfortably similar to Obi Wan's last living words to Luke..." Toby said, and everyone looked at the wizard uncomfortably.

"Fear not... All will be well. Twilight, we must hurry. What did Faust say to you?"

"Just that raw power alone wouldn't be enough... That the Darkness had unwittingly given itself a weakness by taking the ring... And something about 'ontological inertia.'"

"Excellent." Starswirl said. "Take us to Singularity Twilight." The alicorn's horn flared with magic, and they were gone a moment later...

"First you tactically coordinate with allies!" A voice called out. The Trollhunters looked to see Bert, Trixie, Tess, and several others approaching. "Can I assume Twilight and the others have gone after the big boss?"

"Yes. And we're supposed to stop things here." Jim answered. "When everyone was frozen, we overheard the Darkness talking about sending the soldiers to look for the shelters."

"Damnit!" Bert swore. "Okay, I think we need a distraction... Something so big the armies can't ignore it."

Everyone looked around, but there was nothing immediately obvious that would draw the attention of the entire enemy force. Then a smile spread across Tess's face. "I've got an idea... But we'll need pegasus and unicorn magic to make it work. And we'll need to be quick..."

Ten minutes later they were ready. "Okay, let's do this." Bert said, nodding to Trixie. The illusionist fired up her horn, and strained as she wove the largest and most detailed illusion she had ever created. A giant Gandalf, looming over the town, chanting and holding his wizard's staff out as if casting a powerful spell. All over town, enemy soldiers saw the illusion and were gripped in fear, terrified of what kind of spell the wizard might be casting that would cause him to grow so enormous.

Fear turned to a reckless determination to stop the wizard before the spell was completed. Nearly two thirds of the attackers, of all species, broke off their search for the shelters and charged the illusion. They never knew what hit them. Or, more accurately, what they hit. Trixie had been projecting the illusion onto a wall of clouds, created by pegasai and made solid by cloudwalking spells cast directly on the cloud itself. They were knocked unconscious and bound in magical ropes by Morgan.

"Okay, the odds are more in our favor now." Jim said. "Let's take the rest out one group at a time..."

Singularity. The Darkness had, of course, been waiting them to follow. The team had been forced to scatter instantly to avoid the evil being's onslaught. Twilight tried again to overpower it's defenses with the strongest attack her new alicorn magic could muster, but the results were even less encouraging than before. "Faust was right." She thought. "This won't be won with sheer power alone... But what else is there? What am I missing? What is it about the ring that creates a weakness?"

While Twilight was thinking (and dodging) her friends were busy with their own problems. Rarity was forced to take a leap of faith off a high platform to avoid the dark orbs zeroing in on her. As she fell, wondering if perhaps the wizards had included a parachute in the armor, she was caught by Rainbow Dash. "That's two times I've saved you from going splat now!" Dash boasted. "Why'd you do that!?"

"That's why." Rarity answered and pointed, Dash looking back just in time to see the platform Rarity had leapt from disintegrate as the orbs struck it.

Applejack took shelter behind a large pipe, peaking out from behind to get her bearings, then galloping hard across an open area, spinning, and kicking hard against a tall narrow antennae tower. The tower creaked, groaned, bent, and finally fell directly onto the Darkness. But it was all in vain as the metal, when exposed to the aura of decay around the enemy, simply rusted to dust in moments.

Fluttershy was hiding behind Gandalf as the wizards focused all of their power into defensive wards to slow the spread of the dark power. Pinkie was rushing to and fro, setting up a crossfire of party cannons loaded with banana cream pies, on the Pinkie logic that the best bet was to blind it.

For it's part, the Darkness wasn't even trying to avoid any of the attacks, confident in it's own invulnerability. It hovered overhead, arrogantly mocking their efforts while firing off more and more orbs and other dark magic attacks, the ring glowing as it's power was tapped more and more.

"Think Twilight." The alicorn thought to herself. "It's the power of decay... entropy... If we can't overwhelm it..." Twilight shook her head and maneuvered around several attacks. "How do you stop entropy? The only place where it doesn't exist..."

And with that, a memory intruded into Twilight's mind, a voice, something she had heard months before when she'd first seen the interior of the Doctor's Tardis...

"It's..."

"Yes, yes, bigger on the inside... Twilight, be a dear
and don't try to replicate this effect with magic. I'd
rather the planet didn't vanish into a magical black
hole..."

And Twilight smiled, and began to charge a spell in her horn. It wasn't a true attack spell. She poured magic into her horn, charging stronger and stronger, two full orders of magnitude more magic than this spell was meant to be cast with, then three. And with a shout she unleashed all the power at once, casting the spell not on the Darkness, but on the ring.

It was a gravity spell, and as the magic resolved the ring was forced to shrink, smaller and smaller. The plan was working, but even as an alicorn Twilight's power still wasn't enough. "Everyone!" She cried out, "Help me! I need more power!"

Reacting swiftly, all three of the wizards focused their power on Twilight, as did the Bearers with their elements. And as the new wave of magic was added to the spell Twilight redoubled her assault. "What!?" The Darkness exclaimed, "What are you doing!? Stop! Stop!" The ring shrank smaller and smaller, too small to see. Further, further, smaller than a dust mote, smaller than an atom...

Twilight collapsed to the ground in exhaustion just as the Darkness let out one final scream. It's essence was pulled out of Chrysalis' body as the ring vanished, the Changeling queen's unconscious body falling from the sky. A few seconds later, there was a massive explosion far overhead.

"Twilight appears to be indisposed for the moment. Perhaps I can explain." They looked to see the projection of Pazu, Singularity's A.I. controller, hovering nearby. "Twilight compressed the magic artifact sufficiently to turn it into a small black hole. As soon as it collapsed, its momentum also spiked and it flew up and away at nearly the speed of light. And a good thing, that, for black holes eventually evaporate explosively from quantum radiation and the smaller they are the quicker and more explosively it happens. The detonation you saw was the destruction of the artifact, at a range far further away than this world's moons."

"Ingenious." Gandalf said. "Destroying the ring destroyed the Darkness' hold on Chrysalis' body, and destroying it in such a way means the constituent particles the ring was made of are also destroyed. It is well and truly beyond recovery now."

"Then let us bind Chrysalis, that we might return to Unity once Twilight recovers." Merlin agreed.

Rarity asked "But wait a moment... What is happening back home with the armies...?"

Unity. Bert, Trixie, Tess, and the Trollhunters looked around. Without warning there had been a massive burst of light high in the sky, and then all at once the Orcs, Gumm-Gumms, Gremlins, and Windigos faded from view, as if they had never been there.

"It's what Twilight said Faust told her." Tess said. "The ontological inertia thing... They must have beaten the Darkness, so the armies it gathered are fading back to where they belong."

Morgan added "Yes, it's fairly common with powerful evils. They don't expect to lose, but they also can't stand the thought of someone else using the armies they labored to build if they do. There's always a curse to prevent it."

"I'm right here Princess!" Celestia turned, eyes wide, at the sound of Twilight's voice, and faster than anyone could follow was hugging the smaller mare tightly in her wings.

"I think maybe I was, for a bit." Twilight said. She smiled. "Your mother says 'hello.'"

On Earth, the battle had ended in the nick of time. The machine burrowing into Yellowstone's magma chamber (And such was indeed what it was doing) had proved to be so heavily armored that even magic enhanced missiles and bombs had no effect on it. It faded, along with it's defenders, mere minutes before reaching what would have been the point of no return.

Things were similar on Eqqus, where the horror unleashed on Canterlot Castle had effortlessly smashed through the castle gates and devastated the lower floors before fading back to wherever the Darkness had taken it from. Manehattan was in ruins that would take years to rebuild.

Arcadia fared better, thanks to the Doctor and others. There were barely any Foo Foos by the time they vanished, and only a few buildings had been totaled. Below, Trollmarket was undamaged and it's forges and smiths would prove instrumental in the rebuilding of both Unity and Arcadia's damage.

Unity fared better than one might expect, yet there were still nearly a hundred structures beyond repair and hundreds more in need of extensive work, most worryingly the city wall. Of greater concern, a quarter of the croplands were burned, and while it was early enough in the season to replant, unless winter held off things would be very tight.

The final death toll, for all three worlds, was over four million; In Unity that meant seventy-two humans, forty-one ponies, three gryphons, eight sylphs, and ten goblins. The mood would be subdued for the rest of the year, though this was mitigated somewhat by the knowledge of how much worse things could have been.

Two days after the battle, Unity was filled with journalists from both Earth and Eqqus, visiting through the window facilities. They were there for a press conference, featuring leaders from both worlds. Celestia spoke first, followed by the American President Whitmore, then Luna and several others. They praised the work of those who had fought the enemy, and reassured the frightened people of both planets that the foe was indeed truly beaten, and that supplies for survival and rebuilding were indeed on their way. "This day," Celestia had said in closing, "Shall be in Equestria a holiday, but not merely a holiday of memorial for those lost. No, for while we must honor their memory we must also remember and celebrate their sacrifice for the survival of all that live..."

New Mordor. From a high balcony on the rebuilt fortress of Barad-Dur, Queen Usurna stood looking down on the Orcish armies encamped in the plains below. She was free. The Darkness had actually fallen, and contrary to all her expectations she was free again. Free, and in charge. Of course, with all the forces the Darkness had gathered sent back to their own realities she had no Gumm-Gumms or Windigos, just the Orcs. But that was a far larger force than she'd had before, and they had already pledged to follow her. And they still had the technology for opening portals, so she might well be able to recruit those others again eventually.

If, that was, they could get the things working properly again. They'd been on the fritz since the Darkness fell. Usurna turned and asked the Orc technician who had just arrived "Well?"

"Apologies Dark Mistress. We can view other worlds through the portals now, but not pass through them."

"Yes. The Equestrian princesses took her back to Canterlot. Her body lives, but she has not awoken and unicorn healers suspect her mind may simply be gone. They are still keeping her under heavy guard in a warded cell, though."

Usurna nodded and dismissed the servant. It really was too bad... She had liked Chrysalis; as much as someone like herself could at any rate. But it was also no matter. Mordor was hers, and as a Troll she had centuries if needed to bide her time, and lay her plans...

Unity: A Tale of Arcadia

by Kieva Lynn

Book Five: Chapter Five