Unity

by Kieva Lynn

Chapter Nine

Fallow Meadows. With Reginald and Nigel Bakker in tow, Rainbow Dash and the Guard headed for downtown. It was slow going, owing mostly to the need to advance quietly in order to avoid unwanted attention. Once, at the intersection of two roads, they had to wait half an hour hiding behind a fence row until a trio of predators moved on. No one looked too closely at what had been holding the creature's attention, but from the carnage of crashed vehicles and the buzzing of insects it was clear enough.

Eventually they reached Main Street. "We're close to the Sheriff's office now." Reginald said. "It's a block and a half to the west."

"Excellent. We can meet up with the local constabulary and plan our next offense." Midnight said. He started to walk in the indicated direction, but stopped at an all-too-familiar sound. "Hide!" He hissed under his breath.

The group quickly ducked into the nearest building, a Mail-Service store which seemed to be abandoned. No sooner than they were safely inside, one of the creatures appeared from around a nearby street corner. It didn't seem to have detected their presence though; instead it continued straight across the road and out of sight around the opposite corner.

"I wonder where he's going in such a hurry?" Rainbow said.

"Let's find out." Nigel said. "I know this place, we can get to the corner without going outside..." He led the group through a door, down a long hallway, and up a flight of stairs, coming out on a second-floor balcony overlooking the street the creature had taken.

As soon as they got there, it was clear where the beast had been going. Half a block down was the Spoony Bard Diner, three of the creatures now lurking outside. They were agitated, confused, stomping their many legs and letting out small grunts of frustration.

"What the hell are they doing?" Reginald wondered.

"Well, that's the diner... There's gotta be people inside right?" Nigel asked.

Midnight said "They can't see right? The windows just 'look' like solid walls to them?"

Nodding, Nigel said "Of course... They can hear the people. They know that they're there. But they can't figure out how to get to them."

"Well then, we'd better move before one of them decides to charge or something and smashes that glass in." Rainbow said.

"Maybe... But where is..." Midnight stopped speaking, looked more closely. "Look there!" He said, motioning towards a vehicle in the street.

Following the line of sight Midnight had indicated, the rest of the group saw what he was pointing to: There were two people in the car. As they watched, a door opposite the creature's position slowly, carefully opened and the pair emerged. "Hey! I know them!" Rainbow said.

"Yes, that's Sheriff Tucker." Reginald agreed. "And I recognize the girl from school, though I've not had her in any classes and can't place her name... What are they doing?"

"Plannin' somethin'." Macintosh said. "We'd better get in position t' help."

But then, as the group watched, things went south for Tucker and Bethany. They tried to quickly run across the short gap between Bert's Hummer and the nearest building undetected. It didn't work. All three of the creatures detected them and charged to the attack, roaring as they came.

"Tartarus!" Midnight swore. "Attack!"

The Guard ponies moved quickly, jumping to the ground and charging. Years of training served Midnight Steel and Sword Breaker well, as they move in synchronicity, each knowing where the other would be, and what he was planning. They waylaid the second creature in line, distracting it away from it's intended prey with the temptation of a closer meal.

Rainbow snared the attention of the third beast, flying in a circle around it before zipping away as fast as her injured wings could manage. Arguably, leading the thing on a chase through town wasn't wise; it would be all to easy to round a corner into the open mouth of another. The pegasus judged that a risk that had to be taken.

This left Macintosh to handle the first creature, the one closest to the two humans. Galloping headlong as fast as his hooves could carry him, he closed on the creature from behind.

Meanwhile, John Tucker and Bethany Stanz were running for their lives. "No time... to stop... and shoot..." Tucker panted out between breaths.

"Yeah... Should we... split up...?" Bethany asked.

"Next corner... I'll go left..."

They reached the corner scant seconds ahead of the creature. Tucker broke left, praying it would follow him instead of the girl. It didn't. Swearing loudly, shouting for Bethany to RUN, Tucker leveled his gun and prepared to shoot the creature from behind. But before he could pull the trigger an enormous red pony, the biggest individual the Sheriff had yet seen, tore around the corner at full speed. As Tucker watched, the pony drew in close behind the creature, leapt into the air, and once airborne pulled the spear that was strapped to it's back.

The Sheriff didn't have time to wonder just how they held things with hooves before the pony rammed the spear into the creature's back, using it as a rod to pole vault up and over, landing out of sight in front of the beast.

Bethany, meanwhile, found that she had run herself into a dead end. Pressing against the wall, she turned and the creature was right there, mouth open, teeth gleaming. She closed her eyes and prepared for the end...

...Then just as quickly snapped them back open as the creature roared in pain and a pony dropped down from above, turned away from the creature, and bucked it hard in the head with his rear hooves.

Not wasting the opportunity, Bethany fired over the pony's head, striking the creature which now flailed backwards squealing and trying to turn it's head far enough to pull the spear that was sticking out of it's back. Of course, turning it's head meant that it's sensitive ears were now pointed directly behind, where Tucker took a shot of his own.

Though not seriously injured, the beast decided that there had to be easier prey somewhere else. It turned and lumbered away down the alley, back in the direction of the diner.

"Oh thank God!" Bethany exclaimed. She looked at the pony. "Am I glad you came along!"

"Jus' here t' help miss...?"

"Bethany. Bethany Stanz."

"Macintosh Apple. Most folks just call me Big Mac."

"I can see why." Tucker said as he joined them. "You're easily the biggest pony I've met so far..." He looked around and asked "So, did you meet up with Bert's team?"

"Sure did." Said another voice. Tucker looked around to see Rainbow, Midnight, and Sword Breaker approaching. "We managed to drive off the other two, but they'll come back I'm sure."

"Then let's get inside the diner where it's sort of safe, and figure out how to be ready for them." Tucker said. They hurried down the alleyway towards the back entrance...

Back in Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle was putting the finishing touches on the modified explosion spell that she and the other unicorns present would use to enhance the human's ammunition. Sighing, stretching out her legs, she turned to find Applejack and Rarity waiting. "We've got our part finished." Applejack reported, "Except for this..." She motioned to a plate of smoked herring. "What did we need it for anyway?"

"A snack." Twilight answered. "I missed lunch."

"Honestly dear, you'll get as bad as Pinkie at this rate..." Rarity said, though she was chuckling. "Still, we do have a concern..."

"Eeyup. What the hay is Trixie doin' here!?"

"It's a long story... And I don't think I've heard all of it yet, she keeps getting interrupted. But it boils down to, she's trying to do things right for a change and she really wants to help."

Rarity raised an eyebrow. "And you believe her?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I do." Twilight answered.

"Well, I shall give her a chance then, IF she can prove herself..."

"I'm sure she'll appreciate it." Twilight said. "Anyway..." She raised her voice "Trixie, Lyra, come here a minute!" With all four unicorns together, Twilight showed them how the spell would work, then they rejoined the rest of the group, unicorns pairing up with humans: Twilight with Bert, Trixie with Tim Jackson, Lyra with Carl, and Rarity with the second deputy, Vernon.

"Okay, does everyone know the plan?" Bert asked.

Humans, Ponies and Dragon all nodded yes, except for Fluttershy who asked "Um, when are we supposed to light the fuse on this... ...thing?" She motioned towards a bizarre conglomeration of three party cannons, thirty black powder charges, and a wooden scaffold holding it all together.

Twilight grinned. "Don't worry Fluttershy... You'll know..."

Four humans and an equal number of unicorns walked together through the streets. Though their ultimate goal was to attract the creatures, they first hoped to find a lone example to test the new magic ammo out on. The entire plan depended on them being able to not only scare the beasts with loud sounds, but also to actually hurt them badly enough that once frightened away they wouldn't readily return. And that meant being sure the enchanted bullets would work as planned.

And so they crept the empty paths of Ponyville, hunting. A strange activity for an equine, of course, but necessary. Luckily, the search didn't take long. Less than ten minutes after leaving Sugarcube Corner, they peered around a corner to see a mass of creatures, at least ten of them, milling about outside of a row of storefronts. One of them was wandering further away from it's fellows, and curiously trotted down a narrow alleyway.

"Perfect." Bert said when none of the others followed it. "Where does that alley come out?"

"This way!" Lyra said. She took the lead and led the group to another crossroads three streets over. "It should come out right up there." She said, pointing towards the gap between two nearby buildings.

"Who shoots first?" Jackson asked.

Twilight said "You and Trixie go first... I wanna gauge the power level before I try."

And so they waited. The creature seemed to be taking it's time, and several of those present began to wonder if it had turned around, or gotten stuck. Then, after more than ten minutes, it finally strode into sight, turning it's head about to scan in all directions. It noticed the ponies and humans almost immediately, roared, and charged.

"Okay, here we go!" Trixie exclaimed. Her horn began to glow, and Jackson took aim and fired. The creature kept coming as the bullet slammed into it's body, but after a moment there was a muffled 'THUD' and a screech from the beast as it stumbled and fell to the ground, unmoving.

"Is it... ...dead?" Rarity asked.

"Only one way to find out." Bert answered. Gun at the ready, he carefully edged closer to the fallen predator. Reaching out, he poked it several times with his gun, getting no reaction. He observed closely, seeing no breathing movements. "I think you got it." He called back. "But damn, even then, the body still looks intact from the outside."

"Should we turn up the power a little next time?"

"Just to be safe, I would." Vernon said.

Carl said "Okay, we know it works. Now let's go find the rest of them..."

Lyra's ears perked up. "Do you hear that? I don't think we'll have to go looking."

Suddenly a hoard of the beasts began spilling out of the alleyway. "I guess that's why it took so long!" Twilight exclaimed, "It went back for the others!"

"Exposition later dear, right now we need to get to work!"

The next several minutes were chaotic, to say the least. 'Seeing' their fallen comrade, the first few creatures rushed to the attack, being felled by magic-boosted gunfire. As more of the pack arrived, they took note of how many had been slain and became more cautious. But the numbers kept growing as more and more arrived.

"Okay, that should be good." Twilight said. "They're going to attack in-mass soon."

"That's good!?" Carl shouted.

"Remember the plan." Bert countered. "Now we fall back to the bakery for phase two."

"And hope we've got all of them in town together." Rarity nodded.

Everyone turned and started to run. The creatures pursued, but at a distance, wary of these beings that could actually kill them. As they fled, they picked up another pony. "Pinkie!" Twilight exclaimed as the party mare appeared from a side street and ran alongside, "What happened to the one you were holding off?"

"Oh, he's a good five miles from here by now." Pinkie answered, "And still running like the Gluemaker was on his heels. He'll never bother us again."

"What did you do to it!?"

Pinkie grinned. "We partied like it was nineteen ninety-nine!"

"Ooookay...."

"Look! We're almost there!" Bert shouted. Ahead, they could see Sugarcube Corner and the contraption, which Applejack had hauled outside. She, Spike, and Fluttershy were standing at the door, watching in shock at the size of the pack pursuing their friends.

"Spike!" Twilight shouted, "Light the fuse now!"

The dragon nodded and turned to face the contraption. He belched fire, igniting the fuse which began to burn down rapidly. As humans and unicorns ran past the burning fuse, everyone huddled into the bakery and slammed the door shut behind them.

The creatures came to a screeching halt just outside of the bakery. They cocked their heads in confusion, and one smelled around the door. But before anything else could happen, the fuse finished burning down...

The eruption was spectacular. Three fully-loaded party cannons went off all at once. They were aimed straight down, so the shot acted as a rocket motor, propelling them into the sky, raining down noisemakers as they went. Startled by the sudden cacophony of sounds, the creatures quickly stumbled backwards, growling as they went. As the sound of the launch died down, they began to move back in.

And just as they reached the door again, the hot, rapidly moving cannons impacted the ground... Directly on top of the pile of black powder charges. The boom exceeded even the decible level that accompanied a rainboom, and it wasn't even up in the air, it was right. There. Two dozen predators shreaked in pain, shaking their heads, stumbling over each other and even their own many legs in the rush to get away.

Inside the bakery, everyone was too busy shaking off shattered glass to cheer. "Oops." Twilight said. "I should've thought of that... Good thing the bakery windows are safety glass."

"Mister Cake says they have to be, because of me." Pinkie explained. "Something about a Me clause in the insurance policy."

"Right... Well hopefully they're gone for good."

"Even if not, it'll take awhile to build their courage back up." Bert guessed.

Applejack said "And in the meantime, we can figure out better ways to be ready for 'em."

"Like not being here." Twilight said. "I'd say this has been a really good example of why we should go ahead with relocating..."

Back in the Diner, Herbert, Florence, and their patrons were watching out the front windows, keeping an eye on the now-empty streets. They knew that something had happened to draw the creatures away, but what that something was eluded them. "Look!" Someone exclaimed, pointing. Across the street, a door opened and two men rushed out, heading towards the diner.

"Is that the Bakkers?" Florence asked.

"I surely think so."

The brothers traversed the street as fast as they could, and ducked into the front door. After the obligatory period of 'are you okay's' and 'what the hell are you doing out there's', Reginald was able to explain what had happened while Herbert put his combat-medicine training to work on Nigel's arm.

"And that's the story." Reginald finished. "We don't know what happened to the Sherriff, or the young lady, or our equine friends for that matter. But we both decided that we should get somewhere with more people while we had the chance. So here we are."

"And here he is to." Florence said, motioning to the window. One of the creatures was back. It now had a spear in it's back and blood draining from it's nostrils, as well as from gunshot wounds, but it was still up and moving, on the hunt.

"You don't think it got someone do you!?" A young woman asked.

"Nah... It can't have eaten this quickly... If it caught someone it'd either still be there, or have the body with it."

"Oh thanks, that's a charming image." the woman shot back.

"Hey! I was trying to help!"

"Now listen!" Herbert shouted, "Enough of that! We've got to figure out some sort of plan here!"

"Exactly." A new voice entered the conversation. Everyone looked in surprise to see Sheriff Tucker entering from the back, followed by Bethany and the ponies. "We need a plan. And you were a marine Herb, so we'll listen to whatever thoughts you've got."

"Well, way I see it, we've got two things to do..." Herbert mused, "First of course is simply running them out of town... Second though, is makin' sure they don't wanna come back, at least until the wall is done."

"They don't like loud sounds." Tucker said, "How can we use that?"

Nigel said "What about the tornado sirens? If we could get power to those..."

"No, we wouldn't be able to run the whole network with what we've got." Someone in the crowd said.

Herbert looked at the ponies. "I've heard what one of you did to help get my heart beatin' again... Could you do that with a siren?"

Sword Breaker said "If Miss Sparkle was here, she might be able to. I'm not in her league though..."

"And besides, what good would one siren do?" Tucker asked.

Herbert smiled "Gather round... Here's what I'm thinking..." As many humans and ponies as would fit crowded in around the countertop, and Herbert explained as he drew out a simple diagram, "Okay first, you, Colorwheel..." He pointed at Rainbow who chuckled and gave her name, "Rainbow then, how high can you fly?"

"I've hit eleven thousand hooves. Oh, a 'hoof' is about like this." She spread her forehooves apart the requisite distance.

"And can you see the ground well from up high?"

"Well enough. I could pick out individual ponies from that height, though I couldn't identify them very well."

"Good, the first step of the plan is yours then. I need you to get high enough to see the whole town, and count up exactly how many of these buggers we're dealing with."

"Can do!" Rainbow saluted, before flying out the back door and straight up.

"Good, once we know what we're dealing with, we'll take one storm siren, preferably near the edge of town, and get power to it somehow. Then we'll lure all the creatures near it, however we can, making sure from Rainbow's count that we don't miss any..."

"...And then we blare the siren and scare them off." Bethany finished. "I like it."

Midnight agreed. "A good plan. Though without any other reason to be afraid, they'll return more quickly."

"Yeah. Afraid I don't got any ideas there." Herbert admitted.

"We'll just have to double-time the wall." Tucker said. Looking across the crowd he saw Harold Smith, the wall foreman. "Can it be done Harry?"

"I can shave a few days off maybe, but we're still looking at a couple of weeks."

Macintosh said "Beggin' yer pardon, but if the siren works, why not just switch it on every so often? Give 'em a reminder of why they ran in the first place."

"Bert's not gonna like this," Tucker said, "But we could run a siren off the engine in his Hummer..."

"Then let's do it."

"Sure thing... As soon as we get rid of him." Nigel said, pointing to the waiting creature beyond the window.

Over the next few minutes, a plan was finalized. Midnight and Macintosh, together with Tucker and Herbert, would lure the creature outside the diner away. Bethany, Sword Breaker, and the Bakker brothers would run to the Hummer, drive it to the southernmost storm siren, and do whatever they could to get it running. Rainbow Dash and several armed humans would fan out and lure the creatures there. Hopefully, the blaring siren would drive them off.

They had only to wait for the pegasus to return with intel, which she did soon after the plan was finished. "Twenty-seven." Rainbow said as she flew in the door. "Most of them together in two big groups with just three on their own."

"Excellent. Let's get to work!"

Bethany stood by the diner door, gun in hand, watching out the window. The creature was still lurking about in the street, directly between the diner and Bert's Hummer. "I hope they know what they're doing..." she muttered.

"Midnight Steel has been a guard for twenty years." Sword Breaker said. "And you've seen firsthoof how strong Macintosh is. I'm sure they'll be fine, and if your Sheriff and the other fellow have experience they should do well too."

"It still seems quite dangerous though." Reginald said.

Outside, the creature suddenly turned it's head, roared, and stomped off out of sight. "That's our cue." Bethany said. She threw the door open and stepped out, quickly looking around in all directions. Seeing no other threats, the girl ran for the vehicle with the rest of the team close behind. Scrambling into the driver's seat, she was pleased to see the keys still in the ignition. "Everyone in!?" She asked.

"We are all secure." Sword Breaker replied.

"Good, let's hope I can handle driving this thing!" Bethany said as she turned on the engine and threw it into gear, stomping the pedal to the floor.

"WHOA!!" All three of her passengers exclaimed together.

"Is this normal for these things!?" Sword Breaker screamed.

"Lead foot driver." Nigel answered. "Turn south at the next intersection."

"Right!" Bethany swerved around the corner, barely letting up on the gas.

"How do you still have your license!?" Reginald demanded.

"...License?" Bethany grinned. "Never actually got one..."

Given the speeds achieved by their driver, the group reached the siren quickly. Bethany slammed on the brakes, screeching to a halt next to the pole the siren was mounted on. Her passengers wobbled out on unsteady legs, Reg and Nigel heading to the control box mounted six feet off the ground.

"There are test controls mounted here." Nigel shouted. "So we won't have a problem switching it on. The question is how to get power up there."

"Can't we use Bert's jumper cables? Route power through the control box?"

"No. that'd just short out the controls. We need to get power up there."

"Is there any way I can assist?" Sword Breaker asked.

Nigel said "We need power cables long enough to reach from the vehicle to the siren."

"With the power out, couldn't we cut the regular cables from the poles and use them?" Bethany asked.

"That'd take too long." Nigel answered.

"Maybe not." Reginald countered. He looked at Sword Breaker. "Could you use your magic to pull the cables from that pole?" He asked, pointing at the nearest pole too where the siren was mounted.

"Absolutely." The unicorn replied. His horn began to glow, and moments later the lines tore lose from the farther pole while remaining connected at the siren end. The free ends floated down to the ground next to the Hummer.

"Perfect." Nigel said. "Bethany, turn off the engine until we're ready."

Engine off, the cables were quickly stripped and connected to the Hummer's electrical system. "Are you sure this will work?" Bethany asked, eying the jury-rigged connections.

"We'd better hope so." Nigel answered.

Everyone looked up at a shouting voice, to see Rainbow approaching full speed, several humans behind her. "Tell me you're ready, 'cause they're coming!" She shouted.

"Ready as we're gonna be!" Nigel replied. "Everyone, take shelter in there!" He pointed to the nearest building.

From behind the crowd came a rumbling as over two dozen angry predators rushed ahead. As the last of the crowd pressed into the building the creatures ran straight past the Hummer and the siren, so focused on what they were already chasing that they didn't notice the group huddling inside the vehicle.

"Oh that's perfect." Reginald whispered. "They're past the siren, it's between them and the rest of the town. We shouldn't have to worry about the sound chasing them back into town now."

"What are you waiting for then!?" Bethany whispered back, "Do it!"

With a nod, Nigel turned and threw the switch. The siren blared to life, almost unbearable at such close proximity. Humans and Pony alike covered their ears, wincing at the volume. Yet as bad as it was for them, it was even worse for the targets. With roars that rapidly diminished to whimpers they fled, rushing off into the forest...