Unity

by Kieva Lynn

Chapter Ten

Ponyville. With the ravenous predators chased away, the populace had emerged into the streets to celebrate. Pinkie had produced a working party cannon and filled the sky with streamers and confetti, much to the amusement of the humans present. Well, three of them anyway. Carl Harner wasn't sure what he thought.

On the one hand, these were still aliens with bizarre mental powers. On the other hand, they seemed genuinely grateful for the help. On the one hand, he could never trust such beings. On the other hand, he was starting to question their culpability in bringing Fallow Meadows here. On the one hand, he supposed he could manage to tolerate them, so long as they kept their distance. On the other hand...

"Absolutely." Bert Gumbal was saying. "At this point, I think both of our peoples will have less issue with merging the towns together."

"There'll be nervous ponies." Fluttershy said. "And nervous humans too, I'm sure... But it's the smart thing to do."

Rarity agreed. "Indeed. None of us needs to be so vulnerable again."

"And there goes keeping their distance..." Carl thought to himself, a sour expression coming over his features.

Noticing the look, not knowing the issues Carl was having, a grey pegasus approached him. "Is something wrong sir?" Derpy asked.

"Everything's wrong."

"Oh... Well, can I help?"

Carl shook his head. "No... Just..." He needed to get away for a minute to think, "Is there a restroom around here somewhere?"

"Oh sure, right inside the Hayloft Cafe!" Derpy answered, pointing to a building a short way down the street. Nodding, Carl headed that way.

Meanwhile, Bert and Twilight were discussing where the structures from Ponyville could be incorporated into Fallow Meadows. They had agreed that the room in the town park, along with some open space around the school could be repurposed, when Twilight's ears suddenly twitched up. "Do you hear that?" She asked.

"I don't hear... No wait, yeah... Is someone playing music?" Deputy Jackson asked.

"Whoever it is, they're coming this way." Pinkie said. "Maybe it's music for the party!"

"Doesn't sound like party music to me."

"I'll take a look." Fluttershy said. Flapping her wings, she flew up just far enough to get a look, then returned. "You're not going to believe this girls..." She said, but before she could tell them the source of the tune came into sight around the corner.

First, there appeared two ponies, one playing a flute, the other a lyre. Behind them came two more, brandishing spears, and behind them a group of four. The four were carrying a large wooden platform with a hastily-constructed chair atop it. And seated in the chair...

"Prince Blueblood!" Rarity spat out in shock.

Twilight glance to her side at Trixie. "This is what you've been trying to warn me about isn't it?"

"Eeyup."

"You had to put up with Blueblood?" Rarity asked.

"Illusionist bodyguard for awhile." Trixie answered.

To the showmare's surprise, Rarity hugged her. "Anypony who's so determined to make a new start that they put up with the likes of him has got to be serious. All is forgiven."

"Heh... Thanks..."

The procession pulled to a stop before the crowd of ponies, the lyre player announcing "Presenting his Royal Spendiferousness King Blueblood the First!"

"King!?" The entire crowd exclaimed...

Carl Harner exited the Hayloft Cafe, still not sure how he was feeling about things. Looking back towards the crowd, he saw that they were gathered around a pony he didn't recognize. Curious, he crept closer, into earshot, peering around the corner of a home. "Your King, the Inconquerable Blueblood, has come to you!" The new pony announced. "And you shall serve me as loyal vassals!" The King noticed the three humans in the crowd. "Oh, and what are these? Locals to subjugate for the glory of your Sovereign? Excellent..."

Carl spun around, back against the wall, out of sight. "I knew it!" He thought. "I was right all along!" Eager to warn Fallow Meadows, he raced away towards the human town...

"Is this guy for real?" Tim Jackson whispered.

"Only in his own deluded mind." Rarity answered.

Twilight stomped forward. "Blueblood! What in Tartarus do you think you're doing!?"

The self-proclaimed king looked down to her. "You will address me by my full and proper title as your Most Glorious And Perfect Lord High King, Magnanimous Everlasting Grand Potentate And Magnificent And Beloved God-Emperor Of Ponykind Blueblood The First and Only."

Twilight favored Blueblood with a flat expression and replied, deadpan, "No. I won't."

"Oh please?"

"And neither will anypony else!" Twilight shouted, her raised voice answered back by numerous shouts of agreement. She continued "Prince or not, Blueblood, you are still a citizen of Equestria. That means Equestrian law applies to you no matter where you are! What you are doing is high treason against the Diarchy!"

Blueblood's guards and porters exchanged wary looks at this, but held their ground as the royal didn't budge. "So what? You'll arrest me? I highly doubt that."

Pushing in next to Twilight, Applejack whispered "He's probably right Twilight. I doubt the guard will be willing to arrest royalty, not without a direct order from the Princesses anyways."

"Yes. And where would we put him?" Mayor Mare asked from Twilight's other side. "I'd rather not spend our time here by keeping somepony in jail permanently."

"And we can't kill him." Rarity said, before mumbling under her breath "Unfortunately."

"But we can't just give in to him either!" Twilight said. Looking back to Blueblood, she said "Here's the deal: You are not a king and you never will be. Now, we're moving Ponyville for defensive reasons. If you want to come along, you're welcome to be a normal, productive part of society. If you insist upon making a flank of yourself though, you're welcome to leave."

"Hear hear!" Rarity exclaimed.

"Well I never..." Blueblood spat out, insulted.

The Mayor said "The offer is also open, independently, to anypony working for the Prince."

Blueblood let out a yelp as two of his porters and one of his guards, the one holding the left-front corner of his platform, instantly deserted, dropping the platform and the Prince to the ground. Picking himself up, Blueblood shouted "This is a royal proclamation from your King! Nopony is leaving this town! You will stay, and build me a worthy royal palace!"

As the fool who would be king began to go into temper tantrum mode the crowd waved him off and dispersed. As she trotted past, Rarity said "Don't take it too hard dear... We're leaving the Town Hall, you can have it for your palace..."

Back in Fallow Meadows another celebration was underway. The townfolk were cheering on each other and their pony friends for a job well done in securing the town from the attack. Of course, not everyone was able to celebrate. For one thing, the crew tasked with building the wall was now working twenty four seven until it was done. And friends and family of those injured or killed were obviously also not joining in. But all in all the death toll had been remarkably light.

"A cause for breaking out the good stuff!" Herbert exclaimed, producing a bottle. "You ponies drink?"

"You mean alcohol?" Sword Breaker asked. "Occasionally. Though, we're on duty so..."

"Say no more, I was a Marine for a long time. What about you Rainbow? You're not actually a Guard are you?"

"Hey yeah!" Rainbow smiled. "Guess I'll try a little. I gotta warn you though, that stuff'll have to be pretty bucking awesome to beat Big Mac's special cider..."

"Eeyup."

"Well here you go, enjoy!" Herbert pushed a shot glass, less than half full, in front of the pegasus.

"How about me?" Bethany wondered.

"Come back in three years kiddo."

"Oh come on! We're not even where the laws apply!"

"Don't worry, I'll slip you some cider when the season comes in." Rainbow said. "Besides, I can't imagine how this little is gonna do anything at all..." She swallowed the liquor in one gulp, then gasped as her eyes bugged out in shock. "Holy Faust what's in that!?" She exclaimed, coughing.

"Authentic Japanese rice-wine Sake my dear." Herbert answered, laughing. "Got a taste for it when I was deployed there. Hardest-hittin' stuff on Earth."

"I should hope so! I'd hate to see something even harder!" Rainbow answered.

Suddenly from across the room there came a loud thud as the front door swung open and Carl Harner barged in. "We're all in danger!" He exclaimed. "The pony things are evil!"

"Now Carl not this again!" Florence said. "We've been through it before enough!"

"Yeah! What's your problem with us anyway!?" Rainbow demanded.

Only just noticing the ponies in the room, Carl sneered. "Oh, I know all about you! I overheard your King, talking about how you were gonna subjugate us all!"

"Don't got a king." Macintosh said. "Jus' the Princesses, an' they'd never subjugate anyone."

"I heard King Blueblood-" Carl was cut off by uproarious laughter.

"Blueblood!?!?" Rainbow laughed so hard she fell over and rolled around on her back shaking. "Blueblood's not a king he's an idiot!"

"As a representative of the Royal Equestrian Guard," Midnight said, "I cannot officially agree with Miss Dash's assessment of Prince Blueblood. Unofficially, 'idiot' is giving him far too much credit..."

"Eeyup."

"Totally. Even the other nobility won't let him have any actual responsibility. He could turn crossing guard duty into the apocalypse."

"You're all buying this aren't you!?" Carl shouted at his fellow humans.

"I've yet to see or hear anything that would make me think you're right Carl." Roger said. "Calm down man, seriously. We've got enough real threats to worry about."

"Real threats like them!" Carl shouted back. "Anyone who's still thinkin' straight, come with me!" He barged out the door, and to the dismay of both humans and ponies, a small group followed.

"Great. He's got disciples now." Roger muttered.

"This is not a good development." Nigel agreed. "But what can we do?"

"Little to nothing I suppose..."

Over the next twenty-four hours word spread of the decision, on both sides, to go ahead with the town merger. Among both species, reactions ranged from pleased to incensed, annoyed to afraid. A meeting was scheduled, all citizens of both towns welcome, to discuss plans and concerns. The High School auditorium would be the venue, as it was the only place both indoors and large enough to accomodate the large crowds expected to show.

"So what happened with the Prince?" Bert asked Twilight.

Chuckling, she replied "Believe it or not, he took Rarity's suggestion and has holed up in Town Hall, claiming it as his royal palace." Her expression became more serious as she added "I still can't believe he got anypony to follow him, but most of his staff stayed loyal and he picked up a few of the town's wealthier families too."

"You mean they're gonna stay with him out there!?" Bert exclaimed. "That's practically suicide!"

"I know... What about Mister Harner? I know he can't be too happy about this either."

"Take a look." Bert answered, pointing across the chamber to where a small group of humans was gathered, Carl at their head. They were brandishing signs with statements like 'Pony Go Home,' 'Better Dead Than Mister Ed,' and the especially hateful 'Take Me To Your Glue Factory.'

"What!?" Twilight grumbled.

"Try to let it go." Bert said. "People like that, it'll just encourage them if they know they've gotten a rise out of you." He glanced down at his wristwatch. "Time to start, I'd better get up there."

Climbing to the stage, Bert joined the other members of the provisional council. "Can we all come to order?" He spoke through the microphone, and gradually the crowd quieted down. Looking out over the assembled, standing-room-only crowd of humans and ponies he said "Thank you all for coming... I'll turn this over to Sheriff Tucker now."

Taking the mike, Tucker began "As you all know, there had been some discussion regarding the possibility of relocating Ponyville to be inside our fortifications. This had been dismissed originally, but in the aftermath of a wild animal attack, beaten back only through cooperation from both towns, the leadership of both our peoples has agreed that it is for the best to proceed."

The crowd roared into life, questions, and accusations flying back and forth, no sense of order and no way to tell what anyone was saying. Tucker beat his hand on the mike, trying to get attention back, but it took several minutes before the crowd calmed enough to speak over. "Now listen up!" He exclaimed when he could finally be heard again, "Lets do this one step at a time... First, I want one, and only one, human and one pony with complaints about the plan to come on up here..."

As expected, Carl was the human who came forward, while his followers chanted 'Pony Go Home' over and over. From the pony side, a yellow unicorn stallion named 'Loyal Vassal' stepped forth.

"All you ponies are in rebellion against his lordship King Blueblood!" the unicorn announced. "Return to the fold and he will be merciful!"

"There! You see!" Carl shouted, pointing to Vassal, "Their king wants to enslave us all!"

"He's not our king!" Rainbow shouted back.

"Our rulers are the Princesses." Applejack said from behind Carl. "Why would we lie about that?"

"Yeah! Why would you lie?" Carl spat... "I dunno, maybe it's like how you lied about only unicorns having magic! But what did we see in Ponyville? Huh? What did we see!?" He pointed at Pinkie Pie. "We saw that one doing all sorts of crazy magic stuff!"

As the humans in the crowd began to mumble again, Carl looked Bert in the eyes. "Are you gonna lie for them?"

Bert shook his head. "No. We did see it happen... And it does bother me... No offense Twilight, but it does raise some questions..."

"It raises the question!" Someone from Carl's group shouted. "Why should we trust them if they lied about this!?"

Louder and louder the human part of the crowd grew, throwing accusations at the ponies around them. Luckily no one on either side was throwing punches yet, but it was quickly building in that direction. "Should I put a shield between them?" Twilight asked.

Tucker shook his head no. "That could just incite things even worse... Bert?"

Knowing what the Sheriff wanted, Bert nodded, stepped to the mike, turned the volume all the way up, and pulled out the same airhorn he had used the last time the crowds had threatened to go out of hand.

BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMP!!!!!!!!!!

All across the auditorium humans and ponies clutched their ears, shaking, and as the sound stopped someone was yelling "-mn it Bert I'm gonna shove that thing so far up your #@&#..."

"It worked didn't it?" Bert answered back. "Pinkie, come on up here for a minute."

The Pink mare trotted up to the stage. "Let's give them a chance to answer the question..." Bert said. He held out the mike, which Twilight took in a magic aura and pulled to herself.

Twilight began "First, we never said that only unicorns have magic. Pegasai use magic to fly and manipulate the weather. Earth Ponies concentrate magic in their hooves to make plants grow faster and stay healthier. Unicorns are just the only ponies who can control magic in ways that allow us to generate constructed spells with it."

"That's true, they did tell us that the first day we could talk to each other." Roger added.

"Okay okay, technicality." Carl shouted. "It still doesn't explain her! Pink here pulled solid objects out of nowhere! Explain that if you aren't lying!"

"Well, I can't really-" Twilight was interrupted when Pinkie grabbed the mike out of her aura.

Seeming uncharacteristically subdued, mane and tail deflated, the pink mare said "I'm sorry if what I can do is scary. I don't even understand it really, I've just always had this funny power to do impossible things... But, it's just me. Other ponies can't do what I can do... So please don't be afraid and ruin everything just because of me..." A single tear gleamed in her left eye.

Taking the mike, Macintosh looked out over the crowd and said "I know y'all are scared of us. But we're more than a little scare a' you too."

"You're scared of us!?" Someone from the crowd shouted incredulously.

"Well yeah... See, we've got magic, sure. But you're bigger than us... And there's more of you, and you've got the better machines and the better weapons..."

Pinky and Mac's words had a powerful effect. Some people seemed less standoffish but still uncertain. Others were convinced by Pinky's sincerity, or Mac's honest admission, and still others still believed it was all an act. Carl Harner's anti-pony party lost a couple of members, and gained a few more.

Disturbed by all they had seen, there were even a few ponies who went to Loyal Vassal, seeking to join Blueblood's group.

By and large though, the majority were willing to be rational and give each other a fair chance. It was nearly time to begin discussions on where the structures of Ponyville could be transplanted to, once just one more issue was left to be sorted out: "We're not taking this!" Carl exclaimed, "Are we!?"

His followers cheered in agreement, and began waving their signs and chanting again. "You can have this foolishness if you want!" Carl addressed the crowd, "But we're leaving!"

"And going where!?" Reginald demanded. "You'll get yourselves killed out there alone!"

The chanters switched to 'Better Dead Than Mister Ed.' Carl grinned. "What they say. We'll take our chances." Still chanting, the group paraded out the doors, and continued their chant until they were out of earshot.

"Good riddance." Rainbow grumbled.

"Yes, well..." Sheriff Tucker took the mike again. "Let's discuss how we can integrate the towns shall we?" As a map of Fallow Meadows appeared on the screen behind him, the Sheriff handed the microphone off to Roger, who began using the map to illustrate how the towns could fit together. The center of Fallow Meadows held a large public park, directly adjacent to both the High School on one side and the Library and Town Hall on the other. Combining the park with the open spaces all around the school left plenty of room for Ponyville's residential buildings. The commercial buildings were more of a problem. It was eventually decided that they could be situated beginning two blocks away, in the large parking lots of a pair of strip malls, seeing as how there wouldn't be much call for parking spaces.

"Any questions?" Roger asked as he finished.

"Just one." Pinkie shouted.

"Yes?"

"Who exactly is Mister Ed...?"