Unity: One Year Later

by Kieva Lynn

Reunion

By the time the mysterious airship had settled to the ground, Sheriff Tucker and his unicorn second in command, Midnight Steel, were present, standing in between the ship and the reporters who were kept back to a safe distance. Mere moments after the ship landed, a door opened and a ramp extended down.

To everyone's surprise, the first passenger off the ship was Trixie, who trotted up to Twilight and said “New storm arrivals.”

A short, but heavily built and heavily armored being, humanoid, with a long thick beard then strode down the ramp and stopped before Twilight and the guard. "Well then!" He spoke in perfect English to the further surprise of the crowd, "What have we here?"

Before anyone from the town could respond, a second voice, female, spoke out of the airship. "What we have, Durban, is something I had never expected to see..." The speaker appeared at the top of the ramp. She was taller than the bearded male, and thinner, lithe even, though still somewhat short by human standards, and very beautiful with braided dark-blonde hair, and skin of that shade often called porcelain. A pair of goggles was over her forehead, and she was dressed in an odd mix of robes and more modern-looking clothing. She was also, quite plainly, an Elf.

"When did Tolkien start writing our lives?" Burt Gumbal muttered as he stepped in next to Twilight and the Sheriff.

"After the Mor-tax, we probably shouldn't be surprised." Tucker whispered back.

The Elven girl came down the ramp and stood next to her companion. As she did so, several other faces appeared at the top of the airship's ramp, both Elves, and what, based on appearance, had to be Dwarves, and also a couple of what Twilight (who had of course read Tolkien since the founding of Unity) was certain would prove to be Hobbits.

"My name is Tessindra Fairwind." The elf said, "And this is Durban." She shot a bemused glance back at the others looking out of the ship, "And we have other companions too."

Durban said "We departed from our homes in the Mines of Zeruhn in route to Rivendale. Instead, we strike a sudden storm, and now find legends and myths not seen since the Sundering at the end of the fourth age."

"Yes, is it true what Trixie has told us?" Tessindra asked, "Are you of the race of Man?"

"If by that you mean human, then yes." Bert replied.

Tessindra's calm stereotypical Elven facade crumbled, to be replaced by a wide grin. "Incredible! It's been over six thousand years since the race of man has been seen or heard from in Arda! Were you taken away in the Sundering!?" She looked at Twilight and Trixie. "And unicorns as well of course! It's been even longer since we heard even myths of your people."

Sheriff Tucker glanced sideways at Bert, then said "I... Think we need to talk..."

"Oh of course!" Tessindra agreed. "Shall we meet aboard our ship, or do you have a meeting place?"

"We can meet in the town hall." Twilight said. "Though, given that this is technically a first contact we should probably send runners to Shetland Crossing, Sylph Hollow, and the Longstop in case they want to send representatives too."

"Right." Tucker agreed. To Tessindra and Durban he said "Can you wait? We should be ready in a couple of hours."

"Absolutely." Tessindra agreed. "We'll be waiting..."

XXXXX

Shetland Crossing, former Equestria/Gryphonica border town, now located ten miles south of Unity. The town's Minotaur mayor, Steel Forge, stood by the town gates alongside his Gryphon assistant Gerolt, waiting for the third member of his team. She was running late, which was not like her at all. Just as the mayor was about to send Gerolt looking, a loud clatter of hooves arose and the Changeling Xix-xax galloped around a nearby corner and braked to a halt. "Sorry Forge." She said.

One eyebrow raised, Steel Forge asked "Everything okay?"

"It's just Nyma again..." Xix replied. "Always wanting to come with me."

"Let her." Forge said.

"Sure, why not?" Gerolt agreed.

"You both know why not." Xix answered. "We have to keep her safe. She's too important to the hive, now that we're here on this planet."

Forge said "Perhaps. You don't know for sure. If it were me, I'd be more concerned about life experience."

"We'll know in a couple of years, tops. There's plenty of time for life then. So, what's this about anyway? The comm windows?" Xix asked.

"No, there's been a new first contact." Gerolt explained. "Arrived in an airship I guess, three different species, all somehow known about from human fiction."

"That again?" Xix asked as the trio turned and started the long trip to Unity, "Is there anyone they haven't already heard about?" She failed to notice that the saddlebags over her back, which she had packed with three loaded pouches, contained a fourth as well...

XXXXX

The meeting took place in the Unity town hall an hour later. From the ship, Tessindra was present, along with two other elves, both male. The dwarf Durban came with two of his fellows, and a trio of hobbits rounded out the group. From Unity, there were Twilight, Rarity, Macintosh, and Fluttershy rounding out the ponies and Sheriff Tucker, Bert, and Roger for the humans. Steel Forge, Gerolt, and Xix were of course present for Shetland Crossing, the goblin Brayflox had come from their settlement at the Longstop, and a pair of Sylphs, Belle and Terrance, were also present. Finally, Spike was seated in a corner taking notes on the proceedings.

Sheriff Tucker spoke first. "As we begin, I think we should get something out of the way before it can cause any confusion with our new arrivals... Miss Tessindra-"

"Tess is fine." The elf said.

Tucker nodded, "Tess, then. You clearly have records, or for all I know, being an elf, memories, of humans from thousands of years ago. But, we don't have anything but myths and legends and stories about elves and dwarves and hobbits. Stories we thought were fictional."

"Ye had no idea we were real!?" Durban exclaimed. "How odd."

"Very odd." Tess agreed. "You have no records of the great war?"

"You wouldn't be talking about the ring would you?" Twilight asked. Tess nodded and Twilight explained "There is a novel, I've read it. But it was written less than a century ago, and like the Sheriff said it's supposed to be fiction." A thoughtful expression came over her face. "Then again, Tolkien's notes did indicate he based his work on a translated copy of Bilbo and Frodo's writings..."

"The red book!" One of the hobbits said. "Yes, even after all this time, several pages of the original are intact back home. They're carefully preserved in Rivendale."

"Perhaps it has something to do with the Sundering..." Tess mused.

Bert said "You mentioned that before. What does it mean?"

"Maybe, if it's okay with you, you should tell us your story first." Fluttershy whispered.

"A fair request." Durban agreed.

"Very well." Tess said, and began her tale: "The fourth age began ten thousand years ago, after the ruling ring was destroyed. Most of the Old High Elves, the immortals, heard the call of the sea and departed for Valinor, the undying lands, where all true immortals must go sooner or later. Those who remained, who never heard the call, became mortal and the ancestors of my people..."

"And I have a question or two there." Twilight interrupted. "What is this about immortals having to leave? Our pony rulers, Celestia and Luna, are immortal and they've not gone anywhere."

"How old, exactly, are these princesses?" Another elf, Gillas, asked.

"About fifteen hundred." Twilight replied.

"And they have magic?"

"Oh yes, very powerful magic."

"Then there is your answer." Gillas said.

Tess explained, "Immortality and entropy... Don't play well together. You can get away with it for awhile, a couple of millennia, even five or six with strong enough magic. But sooner or later you have to leave, for a place like Valinor where things work differently, or become mortal, or else you... fade. Your princesses are young enough, in immortal terms, to have a long time yet, but eventually..."

"I also have a question then, before you continue." Nigel Bakker said. "Tolkien's book records both Elrond and Galadriel as being certain that any elves who didn't go would regress back to a primitive rustic life. Yet, you've clearly advanced instead."

Gillas spoke, "Indeed... What you need to understand about the immortals is, they hated change. Despised it even. So much so that the first three great rings, the rings made by the elven smiths before Sauron's betrayal, were in essence proof of concept prototypes for what would have become, had it not been for the One, a network of such artifacts forcing the entire world into an unchanging stasis."

Tess added "Because accepting change was so contrary to their ways, the High Elves couldn't conceive of any elf thinking differently. Elves embracing change was unthinkable to them. Yet they knew that those who stayed would become mortal, and lose most of their magic, two factors that would require accepting change as a part of life to survive. We would need to change, yet they were sure we wouldn't actually do so. So they didn't see any way for us to survive."

"But you did and here you are." Twilight said. "What about the others? The ents, the orcs, trolls, goblins, (Not your race Brayflox, different people by the same name,) What about them?"

"The male ents never found the missing entwives." Durban said. "They slowly died away over the centuries."

Gillas said "And as for the others, during the fourth age they were pushed back. Out of Mirkwood, out of the Misty Mountains-" (Here Durban interjected, "Even out of Khazad-dum eventually!") "-Yes, that as well, until they controlled naught but the shattered remnants of Mordor itself. But there they remained ensconced, until the Sundering."

"And that," Tess picked up, "Brings us to your original question. The Sundering. At the end of the fourth age the world was shattered. The territories of men, Rohan, and Gondor, and several others, simply vanished from the face of Arda, taking all of the race of man with them. Mordor vanished as well. We never figured out what had happened, or why, though we had assumed, falsely I now see, that both had gone to the same place."

Burt said "And from there, you kept going, over the centuries, and now Singularity has kidnapped your ship and brought you here.."

"Yes." Gillas said. "But what is Singularity? Have you learned what bought us here, and why?"

Twilight smiled. "I think it's time for our story..."

Author's Note:

Apologies to any hardcore Tolkien fans that might be annoyed by this development.

While it's not a perfect match, this image on DeviantArt ('Elf Archer' by user Costurero-Real) is pretty close to what I imagine Tessindra looking like:

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

Steam-punk Tolkien? Sure, why not? So long as you don't drive the narrative off a cliff, this setting allows for just about any sort of oddness that could be imagined.

That said, if Singularity is now poaching from alternate universes now, who knows who or what will show up. I am hugely excited to see what becomes of this now multi-dimensional community of castaways.

[KeePony]

Might start poaching Planes Walkers. No want a Nichol Bolas or Shadowrun dragon in the mix. They are way to politicly smart

[BestinDworld]

I was expecting tempest shadow at first

[badninja]

Well this should be fun. Now I really want to see if any survivors of Krypton show up. They would be nigh invincible but with what happened to them they should be on a similar location.

[Silentwoodfire]

And now things get more intriguing

[aponyforthebooks]

9406685
No,to over powered. Maybe some aliens from Star Trek, Star Wars or a book that would fit the permits of this story.

[RazDelacroix]

Just wait till the humans sit the new arrivals down to a 16-hour marathon viewing of dramatized historic documentaries!

[Paulon]

9406978
Vulcans after their planet got destroyed could be interesting if this story goes down that route. Imagine the their thoughts on being shown both the original series and the Abrams movies.

[aponyforthebooks]

9411395
Yes, they would be a interesting choice for the story, but I think the aliens would have to have had no contact with human to fit in the story perimeters. Sorry.

[Vutava]

9406641
Honestly, with all the crap that happens to those worlds, I wouldn't be surprised to see some settlements stolen from some of the planes of MtG.

9407028
16? Is that all? Could've sworn it was a full 24.