• Published 6th May 2019
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Unity: A Tale of Arcadia - Kieva Lynn



Arcadia Oaks has been taken by Singularity. How will this affect humans, ponies, and trolls?

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Book Four: Chapter Nine

Book Four: Our Worlds at War

Chapter Nine

XXXXX

It was three days after the Element Bearers and Trollhunters had returned to Unity. All remained calm on Earth and Eqqus, the enemy armies holding thier original arrival sites like beachheads, not advancing but unable to be driven any further back as more and more troops filed in. On Earth, Shining Armor and Agent Marsh were taking the breather to plan a trap for when the inevitable resurgence began. Luna and General Morton were making similar plans on Equus, and the citizens of Unity were drilling daily for the dreaded day when the battle came to them.

It wasn't long after sunrise when a weary Twilight Sparkle trotted down the steps from her loft bedroom to discover the wizards already present in the library, closely examining the same book Twilight had, what now felt like ages and ages ago to the mare though it had only been a few weeks, shown to Tess when they were examining the odd magical current in certain tomes.

"Ahh! Twilight!" Starswirl called out. She didn't even heed his words, continuing on into the kitchen.

"Odd." Merlin said. "I thought she had some 'hero worship' thing going with you."

"Yes, very odd indeed." Gandalf whispered. He walked towards the kitchen and Starswirl followed, leaving Merlin and Morgan to continue working with the book.

"Twilight?" Gandalf stepped into the kitchen to find the mare listlessly preparing her breakfast.

"Gandalf? What is it?"

"That's what I wanted to ask you my dear." Gandalf replied.

"Indeed. Where is the obsessive filly I've come to know?" Starswirl added.

Twilight sighed. "I'm sorry... I just... I'm not feeling myself since Cloudsdale. Everything seems so pointless. It's like we're flailing against the wind. How can we win against an enemy so powerful?"

"Ahhh.... Yes I see." Starswirl said, giving Gandalf a meaningful look.

Gandalf nodded. "The darkness spoke didn't it? It spoke and you listened. I warned you against that, if you'll recall." Twilight nodded.

"What did it say?" Starswirl asked.

"It... It said our struggles were futile. That entropy would make the entire universe fall in time no matter what..." Twilight shook her head. "I know enough physics to be aware that that much is true."

"Always the darkness uses half truths to mislead." Starswirl said.

"Half...?"

"Oh yes." Starswirl said. "On earth, perhaps a century ago, there was a man named Barnum. To him is attributed this saying: 'No one will believe a half truth, but they just might swallow a whole lie.' Of course, there are many who think the attribution is false and someone else originally said it. But frankly that just plays into my point, which is that whoever said those words... they were wrong. Half truths are far easier to fall for than whole lies. After all, a whole lie is false through and through, but when you hear a half truth you recognize the bits of truth and are swayed by them to believe the whole thing."

Gandalf said "Still if the voice of darkness speaks of entropy, then we have gained a priceless insight into the identity of our true enemy. We must discuss this with you all, together. But first: Twilight. The darkness deceives. There is always hope. Always. Light is power, after all, and truth. And what is darkness? Not the opposite of light, but it's absence."

"I should gather the others, I suppose." Starswirl said after a few moments.

Gandalf nodded. "Please do. I'll stay here and continue speaking with Twilight."

As Starswirl trotted out of the kitchen, he was met by Spike. "Is she gonna be okay?" The dragon asked.

"I hope so lad... I do very much hope so..."

XXXXX

"Are you sure you're alright now darling?" Rarity asked.

"Gandalf helped me have a better view of the situation." Twilight said. "I think I am."

It was an hour later, and Starswirl had gathered everyone to the library, where Twilight confessed how she had been feeling. Not that any of her friends had failed to notice there was something wrong, but to understand now just what was bothering her took many of them by surprise.

"I don't get it though." Dash said, "How could just hearing that thing say 'oooo you can't win' upset you this much? I mean, every bad guy says that."

"I think there's more to it than that Rainbow." Claire said.

Starswirl explained "Quite. The truly insidous thing about darkness is how it can get into your head, into your thoughts, dragging you down even when you know better."

"But at least Gandalf fixed it now right?" Pinkie asked.

"Maybe. Honestly, you should probably all help me keep an eye on myself." Twilight replied. "I'm feeling better right now, sure, but..."

"But the doubt could resurface at an inopportune moment." Gandalf confirmed.

"Perhaps we should go ahead..." Rarity said, "Starswirl says you've come to some realization about our true enemy?"

"Yes indeed. Gather around everyone." The entire group sat facing Gandalf, and he began "According to Twilight, the darkness spoke of Entropy-"

"And that is?" Toby interrupted.

"It's the third law of thermodynamics." Twilight said. "Well, technically it's law number two, but there's a law number zero so it's the third in order. Anyway, the third law says that 'The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium.'"

Aja and Krel were nodding, but several pairs of eyes, five pony, three human, and one dragon, stared at the unicorn in confusion. Tess, for her part, sighed. "Hang on." She left the room and returned a few moments later, carrying a glass of hot water and an ice cube. "Okay, first, you know that cold is, scientifically, the absence of heat instead of the opposite of heat, right? The water in the glass is hot, because it has a lot of heat energy, and the ice is cold because it has very little heat energy."

"Ah guess I can follow that." Applejack said, and most of the others also nodded in understanding.

Tess continued "Okay, so, if I drop this ice cube into this hot water, what will happen? The ice will melt of course. Technically, what's happening is the heat energy is flowing from where there's more to where there's less, until the two are in equilibrium."

"I'm still following you, but I don't see what this has to do with anything." Toby said.

"Wait, let me, if you don't mind." Twilight said to Tess. She looked at Toby and asked "Is there any possibility, any possibility whatsoever, that the opposite would ever happen? Is there any chance that dropping that ice cube into that glass would make the little bit of heat in the ice flow into the water making the water hotter and the ice colder?"

"No way."

Twilight said "Well, strictly speaking small scale self organizations can occur, but they're quite simple, and only happen as a side effect of bigger energy transfers so energy is still being lost to the system as a whole even if it appears otherwise when you're just looking at one small area."

"And that is the deal." Krel said. "The universe is a closed system, with only so much energy to go around. And because the fourth law says transferring energy at one hundred percent efficiency is impossible outside of a specific condition that is itself also impossible, the amount of that energy that is still usable gets smaller and smaller over time. Left to it's own devices, the universe as a whole will eventually, after trillions upon trillions upon trillions of years, reach a state called heat death, in which nothing else can ever happen, because there's no energy left to do anything with."

"The creation is winding down." Gandalf said. "Not that such worries me. I know there is a greater Good at work behind the scenes, I do, after all, work for him, and I am convinced things will not be allowed to go that far south so to speak. But yes, barring outside intervention this creation is eventually doomed."

Starswirl said "And that brings us to our great enemy: One who is, in essence, the personification of the third law, and who is determined to bring about the end of all things sooner. It calls itself by many names, Necron, Fade, Pale, the Quiet Darkness, and so forth, though it's true name is _______."

"Um, you didn't say anything."

"Exactly."

"But wait..." Applejack said, "When it took Usurna, that voice called itself _____ and said it worked for the Quiet Darkness."

"A lie?" Jim suggested.

"Partially." Starswirl answered. "We contend with foes that cannot speak whole truth. Yet, there is more, for the darkness has no real creativity of it's own. Everything it does is but a debased counterfeit of something good."

"Okay you lost me again." Dash said. "I don't see how that answers the question."

"You will in time Miss Dash." Starswirl answered.

Applejack said "This is all well and good, but what are we supposed to do about it?"

"I'm wondering the same thing." Twilight admitted.

"There's only one keystone left." Claire said. " I still think it's our best bet to try to deal with that in a way that shuts it down without killing it, keeping the door or whatever shut in the big guy's face."

"But isn't that just delaying the inevitable?" Twilight said.

Gandalf said " Delay can be a valid tactic. It can buy time for new insights, the arrival of reinforcements, or unexpected developments."

"Which is not to say that what you are planning will be easy." Said Merlin, who had remained mercifully silent this far. "I know that you have to try. But be prepared for the likelihood that you will have to destroy the third keystone as well, and then deal with the consequences."

"The consequences bein' a fight with the big bad." Applejack said.

"Indeed."

XXXXX

Mordor. Chrysalis paced back and forth, ranting to Usurna as she did so. "This is absurd! Twilight Sparkle's convictions are weakened! We should be pressing the attack! Yet instead here we sit, doing nothing! Nothing! The Darkness doesn't even have the armies moving!"

"You know the reason as well as I." Usurna said. "The plan is tactically sound."

"Yes, yes... Weary them out with the waiting, strike when they least suspect it.

"You disagree?"

Chrysalis shook her head. "Against the humans? No. But you don't know ponies as well as I do, and I suspect the Darkness doesn't either. They're... Buoyant. Emotionally I mean. Buoyant and quick to recover. If we wait too long Twilight will recover and with her back in the game we'll lose our greatest opening."

"Perhaps. Though, I wonder..." Usurna looked Chrysalis in the eyes. "Has it occurred to you that this plan does involve your own defeat? I know you cannot refuse to obey, any more than I can, but why so eager?"

"Yes of course. But not all defeats are permanent. I know certain details of the plan which you do not."

"Oh really?"

"Don't ask. I can't tell you."

Usurna sighed. "Very well." She had her own suspicions about what Chrysalis meant. Her own suspicions about what it would really mean for the Changeling, as opposed to what Chrysalis thought it would mean too. She said nothing, given there was no changing things even if she were right. For her own part, Usurna had accepted the reality of the situation: She was no longer a queen and never would be again. So, the pragmatic choice, was to serve as well as she could, and perhaps gain some measure of power and influence in the process.

Leaving Chrysalis to her continued rants, Usurna walked down a wide empty hall, and opened the double doors stepping out onto a balcony overlooking the massed Armies of Mordor. Armies which now included not only Orcs and Changelings, but also Gumm Gumm Trolls and Gremlins from the Darklands, Windigoes from Equus, and a half dozen other dangerous types of beings from many other worlds. The army was ready, and the final battle would soon be joined...

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