Unity: A Tale of Arcadia

by Kieva Lynn

Book One: Chapter Five

Book One: Gremlins and Gumm-Gumms

Chapter Five

Twilight, Trixie, and Tess ran as the mob of gremlins pursued close behind. As often as they could safely do so, both unicorns fired off magic blasts back towards the creatures, and Tess did what she could with the small crossbow she carried. They rarely missed, but there were so many of the gremlins that the mob never seemed to get any smaller, and never gave up. Twilight's original plan, to retreat to the library, had been busted rather quickly when a second mob cut them off, and with the creatures absolutely everywhere in town teleporting carried too great a risk of arriving in the middle of a mob, so now they were just running, hoping to find some kind of shelter.

"I'm... Getting... Weak..." Trixie breathed out.

"Stay with us!" Twilight said, though between Trixie having come under attack sooner and having some nasty wounds on her back from said attack Twilight could hardly blame the mare for wearing down. "We'll lose these things and get you some medical attention."

Tess said "If we can lose them! I've never seen anything this determined before!"

Twilight fired another blast back towards the monsters. "I know! We need a plan!"

A little help came as the trio fled past a narrow alleyway. There was a blue glow of some kind coming from the alley, but they were by too fast to see what it was and of course couldn't go back for another look. But as the mob of gremlins reached the alley, they too saw the glow and about half of the group turned to investigate. It would be some time before Twilight learned what had actually happened; All she knew was that as she looked back, there was a sudden blazing burst of light from the alley, and all of the gremlins that had gone that way now poured back out as goo. She thought she heard a deep voice bellow out the word "Glorious!!" But that didn't make any sense.

In any event, all that mattered pragmatically was that half the mob was gone, most of it the front half, buying a little breathing room. "Okay! I think I have a plan!" Twilight said a few minutes later. "We're getting close to an old Fallow Meadows department store, 'Wal-something-or-other.' Most of the interior space has been used for storage since we've been here, so there's only one set of entry doors that work! If we can get there far enough ahead of them, I can switch the door off once we're in and hopefully clear out most of the mob by them slamming into the doors when they don't open."

"And if they do get in?" Tess asked.

Trixie said "I've seen the place, it's a huge maze of corridors... Hundreds of places to hide if we need to." She was breathing hard, on the verge of giving out.

"Can you make it?" Twilight asked.

Trixie nodded. "I'm not falling this close to the finish line..."

They got to the former store just a couple of minute later, the gremlins perhaps thirty seconds behind. The automatic doors opened to admit the trio, and once they were in, Twilight used her magic to flip the switches setting the doors to 'closed and locked.' Trixie fell to the floor, panting heavily, but Tess said "Not yet, we need to be out of sight." Twilight nodded and lifted Trixie in her magic.

"Thanks..." Trixie sighed as they retreated around the nearest corner aisle, just out of sight of the doors, and watched through the holes in the steel shelving.

The plan half-worked. The gremlins, being accustomed to modern technology from having lived in and beneath Arcadia, did indeed expect the doors to open for them and therefore slammed into them full speed, pulping the first wave of creatures between the doors and the rest of their fellows piled up behind. The glass doors gave way from the weight piled against them, and the surviving gremlins, about thirty in number, rolled in, slipping about in the remains of their pack mates.

"Nuts!" Twilight hissed. "Run! If we can get to a fire door at the back we can run out and slam it shut behind us!"

As they ran, Tess whispered "Twilight, you said that loud enough they'll have heard!" Twilight gave her a smirk. "Ooh... That's good."

They ran through the aisles, Trixie recovered enough to be back on her own hooves after the brief rest, looking for a place to hide. Before they could find such, they had to clamber to a stop as a swirling black void suddenly opened up before them...

XXXXX

Sweet Apple Acres. With a variety of pots and pans as weapons, Applejack and the Crusaders were attempting to hold their gremlin attackers at bay. It was working. Kind of. Sort of. Okay not very well at all. They were being backed into a corner as the creatures just kept coming down the chimney. "At least none of them have thought to open the front door." Applejack thought, considering the even larger numbers still outside.

"We've got a plan here right?" Micheal asked.

"Not as such." Apple Bloom said.

"Yeah I got nuthin.'" Scootaloo agreed.

Then, when all seemed faded, there came a commotion from outside. The sounds of fighting: A booming cannon, someone screaming "Haiiii Yaaaa!" like an old karate movie, and many, many gremlins growling and screaming. There was silence for a moment, and then the door was kicked open, revealing Pinkie Pie and Rarity. Both were dressed in black and purple spandex, Pinkie wheeling a party cannon to the door while Rarity held a gremlin in her magic.

"'C' is for cannon creep." The unicorn said to the gremlin, then she stuffed it into the muzzle and Pinkie fired. The resulting shot took out three additional gremlins.

The remaining monsters were almost willing to press the attack, until Pinkie smiled at them and said, simply, "O.o! More ammo!" They fled as quickly as they had come, pulling the door closed behind them.

"Y'all are cleaning that up." Applejack said flatly while looking at Pinkie and pointing at the nasty mess the cannon fired gremlin had made on the wall. Then she smiled and hugged both her friends. "Land sakes that was close!"

XXXXX

Tess and Trixie were going to run, but Twilight called out "Wait! I recognize this! It should be-" Before she could explain, a young girl appeared out of the swirling portal, which stayed open behind her, and landing on her feet. "Claire!" Twilight said.

"I hope you don't mind me using you as an emotional anchor." Claire said, "I couldn't have opened a portal straight to you otherwise. There's a problem in Arcadia, a big one, and we might need some more help to cover it..." She turned at the sound of growling, to see the remaining gremlins approaching. "Aw man! They're here too!?"

The gremlins rushed forward, and as they jumped at Claire she opened a portal that the entire group flew into. "Where did you send them?" Tess asked.

"If I open a portal without choosing a destination, the other side will be in the shadow realm... It's a prefect prison for them." Claire explained, then noticed Tess' ears. "Oh. My. Gosh! Are you an Elf!?"

"Fangirl when there aren't things trying to kill us Claire." Twilight chuckled.

'Sorry."

Smiling slightly,Tess said "So if I understood, Arcadia is under attack too?"

Claire nodded, but before she could explain further Jim and Toby also appeared through the portal, the former in full armor, the latter carrying his warhammer. "So can they help, or-" Toby saw the look on Claire's face, the wounds on Trixie's back. "Okay, this is bad."

"Bad doesn't begin to cover it Tobes." Jim said. He looked at Twilight and Tess. "There's never been an attack like this. Gremlins are everywhere and it doesn't make any sense. Even the Gumm-Gumms want to keep things secret from humans until they're ready to attack. And the gremlins take their orders from them, so they mostly hide out too. Why would they suddenly launch a full scale attack?"

"And especially such a wide, unfocused attack?" Twilight wondered. "I mean, it would make sense if they had an objective... But just attacking everything... It's almost like-"

The eyes of everyone present went wide as they all said together "-Like they're trying to distract us!"

"But distract us from what?" Tess asked.

"Dictatious!" Jim exclaimed. "Claire, my house now!"

Claire nodded and closed the first portal, opening a new one in it's place. The trio of Trollhunters jumped through, and Twilight followed. Tess and Trixie looked at each other, and in spite of Trixie's condition she too jumped in alongside the elf.

"Who or what is Dictatious?" Twilight asked as soon as they arrived inside the Lake home. She noticed the other arrivals. "Trixie! What are you doing!?"

"Blinky's evil brother." Jim explained while Twilight tended to the other mare. "He worked for Gunmar until he lost his sight trying to kill us. Now Gunmar wants him dead so he came seeking asylum in exchange for information. He's here, hiding in our basement."

"Jim?" A voice called out, and a moment later Barbara Lake came around a corner. "What's going on?"

"There are probably more gremlins coming here. If not worse. You need to get out of here. Now!"

"Jim I'm a doctor I can help-"

"You're a doctor!?" Twilight swung her head around to face the woman. "Trixie needs help!"

Barbara rushed to the mare's side. "Oh my, some of these are pretty deep... But, I don't know anything about your physiology, I don't want to make things worse."

Twilight shook her head. "That's a big deal for surgery and medicines. Not so much cleaning and dressing wounds, that's the same for us as it is for you."

"I'll get my bag." Barbara said, but she had only gone three steps before they all stopped and looked towards the front door. From outside, came the sounds of very heavy footsteps.

Jim opened the door, and Twilight peered around him and laid her ears back at what she saw. "These are Gumm-Gumm soldiers, aren't they?" She asked. Jim merely nodded.

The creatures in question were nearly ten feet tall, massively built, and heavily armored. Given that they were made of living stone, Twilight had little doubt that they probably weighed several tons apiece. Each carried a huge battle axe. If there was any saving grace, Twilight thought, it's that at least there were only two of them.

The Gumm-Gumms made no effort to negotiate, no offers of diplomacy. As soon as they saw Jim clearly, they let out a roar and charged. axes held high. Jim moved more quickly than Twilight would have thought possible, bringing his sword up to block one's blow, and then the other's. Toby and Claire rushed in to help their friend, and the battle was truly joined.

"We're going to help, right?" Tess asked.

"Right, but Trixie..."

"I'll be okay Twilight. I've got a doctor now." Trixie looked up at Barbara, wincing in pain. "Tylenol also works the same on us if you have any."

"How do you fight these?" Twilight wondered. "I don't see any weak points."

"That's because there are none." Twilight looked over her shoulder to see the troll Blinkous had come up from the basement, along with his blind brother.

"Then how...?" Tess asked, motioning towards the Gumm-Gumms.

"Good old fashioned brute-force breaking through it." Blinkous said. "This should help." He stepped onto the porch and produced a pair of stones, which he shook, causing them to begin glowing green. "Let's see how you like dwarkstones!" He threw the glowing rocks, which exploded rather spectacularly on impact with the ground at the Gumm-Gumm's feet. Sadly, it had little effect.

"Brute force eh?" Twilight said. "I can do that."

As one of the Gumm-Gumms turned away from Jim to focus it's attention on Toby, it suddenly found itself trying to rise into the air. It thrashed about, and crashed back to the ground.

"Okay, maybe I can't do that... Ugh, I knew they'd be heavy but I've lifted an Ursa Minor! They're way bigger than this!"

"But was your ursa minor covered head to foot in magic resistant armor?" Dictatious asked.

"Magic resistant. Of course." Twilight groaned.

Meanwhile, Tess had been trying to take shots with her crossbow, but the bolts were just glancing against the armor and falling away. "This isn't working." She sighed.

Out in the street, Jim struck a fatal blow against the first of the Gumm-Gumms. As his blade of sunlight cracked through it's armor, exposing the troll within, the creature was turned to stone and crumbled.

"Sit this one out?" Trixie suggested from the sidelines.

"We may have to." Twilight admitted. Then a thought occurred to her. "Tess, how many bolts do you have left?"

"Three, why?"

"Let me see one." Tess held out one of the bolts, and Twilight infused the tip with magic. "An explosives spell. This worked once before." Tess nodded in understanding as she loaded the bolt and fired. It struck home and blew, but while it did penetrate the Gumm-Gumm's armor the hole was only an inch across. "Still not enough!"

Not enough to do appreciable damage, but more than enough to get the evil troll's attention. It lunged towards Twilight and Tess, roaring in anger. Claire portaled herself, Toby, and Jim directly into it's path, which led only to the three of them being driven back slowly as it just kept coming.

"Let's try to upgrade that idea!" Blinky said. He took one of Tess's two remaining bolts, broke off the tip, and tied a small dwarkstone in it's place. "Twilight if you please?" He said holding it out, and she added the explosive spell. Looking at Tess, the troll said "You'll need to be quick, after I shake this you have five seconds to fire it... Master Jim! Claire! Toby! Get out of there now!"

In the space of seconds, Claire made a portal beneath herself, Toby, and JIm and they fell in. The Gumm-Gumm barely slowed down as it kept coming. And Blinky shook the bolt, activating the explosive dwarkstone before Tess fired it at the gigantic menace. Blinky pulled Tess and Twilight back into the house. And then there was a very, very big boom...

Author's Note:

For anyone who hasn't read the original Unity story or doesn't remember it in detail, Trixie here is somewhat different than in canon, further along the path of reform, less of a jerk, and genuinely friendly with Twilight and the others. (I don't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure I wrote the original story before the Starlight/Trixie friendship even happened in canon.)

Comments

[badninja]

Well that went well. Now I wonder if a snow plow would be more effective?