CHAPTER FIVE
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Pinkie Pie race into a ring of broken stones on the summit or weathertop. The ruined base of an ancient tower. The Shetlands stand back-to-back in the centre of the Ring, waiting for the first assault. One by one, the 5 Ringwraiths appear brandishing gleaming swords, they move slowly towards the young ponies. In the center is their leader the witch king.
“Back, you devils!” Sweetie Belle shouts and rushes forward with a cry. She swings her sword at the
Witch King, who blocks the blow with his own sword. Sweetie Belle's blade shatters and the witch king lashes out with his fist, sending Sweetie Belle flying. Scootaloo and Pinkie Pie, overcome with terror,
throw themselves flat on the ground. The Ringwraiths close in on Apple Bloom and a venomous whisper dances in her head. Apple Bloom shuts her eyes and staggers back, desperately resisting the wraith’s whisperings. her hoof goes into her pocket and pulls out the ring. The 5 Ringwraiths utter a chilling screech of excitement. Apple Bloom is unable to resist any longer, falls to her knees and slips on the ring. She disappears.
“No!” shouts Sweetie Belle.
Apple Bloom finds herself in the weird dark world. She looks upon the Ringwraiths, now visible in their true appearance. Five Ghouls dressed in grey robes, with white manes, empty eyes and pallid, ruthless faces. The witch king extends a haggard hoof towards Apple Bloom, reaching for the ring. Apple Bloom's
trembling hoof extends forward as if by the pull of the ring, she slides to the ground, unable to pull her hoof away. The witch king snarls and springs forward. He stabs at Apple Bloom with a wicked dagger! Apple Bloom winces as the tip of the dagger sinks into her shoulder. Suddenly, the orange mare charges at the ringwraiths, wielding her sword in one hoof, a flaming torch in her mouth. In Apple Bloom’s eyes, she moves in slow motion, visible through a sea of mist. Apple Bloom sinks to the ground. Behind her a Ringwraith flees, his head engulfed in flames. With draining strength, Apple Bloom manages to pull the ring off her hoof.
Appearing back in the real world, Sweetie Belle rushes over to her.
“Apple Bloom!” Sweetie Belle says horrified.
Another Ringwraith is burning and screaming, others screech fearfully at the flames and turn and flee from the Weathertop summit.
Sweetie Belle is panicking. “Apple Bloom!!”
Trotter kneels before Apple Bloom and snatches up the Witch King's dagger from the ground, staring gravely at the long, thin, blade.
“Help her, Trotter!” says Sweetie Belle.
“He's been stabbed by a Morgul blade.” Trotter says grimly.
The Morgul Blade suddenly melts, vanishing into the air like smoke. Trotter throws the hilt down in disgust.
“Do something.” Sweetie Belle insists.
“This is beyond my skill to heal.” Trotter lifts Apple Bloom onto her shoulders. “She needs Pegaselvish medicine.” She says urgently.
In the hills Trotter is jogging grimly, carrying an ailing Apple Bloom on her back. Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Pinkie Pie are running to keep up.
“Hurry!” Trotter yells.
“We are six days from Cloudsdale.” Says Sweetie Belle.
Apple Bloom groans.
“Hold on, Apple Bloom.” Says Trotter.
“She'll never make it!” Sweetie Belle says worriedly.
Apple Bloom’s head is lolling about, barely conscious.
“Twilight...” she says feverishly. “Twilight!”
-
-
At the tower of Hayengard, gleaming in the moonlight, the once beautiful gardens are now a pitted wasteland with smoke and fire billowing out of numerous tunnels and vent holes that litter the forecourt. Strange guttural chants echo up from deep underground. High up in the air a small butterfly flutters and flies towards the summit of the Tower. Twilight lies slumped against the wall at the very top, surrounded by a sheer 500 foot drop. She looks weak and frail and is seemingly asleep. The butterfly flutters close to Twilight and her hoof suddenly moves at lightning speed and snatches it. Twilight brings her hoof close to her face and sees the butterfly sit on the roof of her hoof.
The unicorn mutters strange words in a foreign tongue and the butterfly seems to be listening.
It suddenly flutters away off the summit. But far underneath it, in the pitted wasteland, there are fiery red
Tunnels. The dead trees of Hayengard are fed into roaring furnaces, molten metal pours into casts, red hot metal beaten by sweating Dog blacksmiths, armor and weapons are forged from the great furnaces.
Luna strides among the Dogs and stands looking on a new born pony-kai as it escapes its birthing membrane. A gray, mutilated pony with a deformed face. This is Lurtz, who rises up to stand before his master.
-
In the forest Apple Bloom’s eyes flicker open, clouded, red-rimmed, her brow, beaded with sweat.
“Is she going to die?” Pinkie Pie asks.
Apple Bloom's breathing is getting shallow. Trotter looks out into the darkness.
“No.” she says. “She is passing into the shadow world, she will soon become a wraith like them.”
A distant cry of a ringwraith carries through the air.
“They're close.” Scootaloo says nervously.
Apple Bloom gasps in sudden pain. Trotter is thinking hard.
“Sweetie Belle, do you know the Athelas plant?”
Sweetie Belle looks blank.
“Athelas?” she asks.
“Kingsfoil.”
“Oh, Kingsfoil.” Says Sweetie Belle. “Yeah, it’s a weed.”
“It may help to slow the poison.” Totter says. “Hurry!”
Sweetie Belle and Trotter desperately search the dark forest floor for the Athelas plant. The orange mare soon spots a small, white flower. She drops down low, carefully pulling it from the
ground with her teeth.
Suddenly, Trotter freezes as a sword blade touches her neck.
“What is this?” a soft but very male voice says. “A Ranger caught off her guard?
Trotter slowly looks up.
Apple Bloom is breathing hard, desperately ill. She’s half-conscious, in a surreal impression a shimmering figure with a blinding white coat steps towards her.
An ethereal vision of a male white unicorn with a blue mane appears.
“Apple Bloom,” he says. “I’m Shining Armor. I have come here to help you.”
Apple Bloom’s eyes close.
“Hear my voice,” he says urgently. “come back to the light.”
“Who is he?” Pinkie Pie asks.
“Apple Bloom?” Shining Armor says worriedly.
“He's a Pegeself.” Says Sweetie Belle.
“I thought only Pegasus were Pegeselves.” Scootaloo whispers.
“Not necessarily. Shh.”
Outside of Apple Bloom’s feverish eyes, Shining Armor appears in his earth bound form, a young Pegeselven stallion with tousled hair, dressed in mud-splattered riding clothes.
“She's fading...” he says. “She's not going to last. We must get her to my mother.”
Trotter quickly lifts Apple Bloom and places her on her back.
“I have been looking for you for two days.” Shining Armor says.
“Where are you taking her?” asks Pinkie Pie.
“There are five Wraiths behind you,” Shining Armor continues to say to Trotter. “Where the other four are, I do not know.”
“Stay with the Shetlands.” Says the orange mare. “I'll send someone for you.”
Shining Armor takes Apple Bloom from Trotter’s back and puts her on his own.
“I'll take her.” He says. “I'm the faster rider.”
Trotter puts her hoof by Shining Armor's face.
“The road is dangerous.” She says.
“If I can cross the river,” says Shining Armor. “The power of my people can protect him.”
Shining Armor looks deep the mare’s eyes.
“I do not fear them.” He says.
It’s difficult for Trotter to let him go. “Shining Armor, ride hard, don't look back.”
The stallion looks down at Trotter as Sweetie Belle asks. “Wait, what are you doing? Those Wraiths are
still out there!”
Shining Armor springs away, bearing Apple Bloom into the night.
Through the forest from the back of the white horse Apple Bloom lifts her head weakly. She sees trees sliding by and the moonlight flicker through them.
As morning comes Shining Armor emerges from the trees and gallops across the open land as the sun rises.
The white unicorn charges then through a Pine Forest. Suddenly two galloping Ringwraiths emerge from the trees behind, their jet black hooves thundering closer. Two more Ringwraiths slide in from different directions to join the chase. Shining Armor grits his teeth and urges on to greater speed.
Shining Armor speeds out of the pine trees as the four ringwraiths close behind. Two more ringwraiths suddenly gallop down the hillside and three more come from different directions making a total of nine, now pursuing Apple Bloom and Shining Armor.
Shining Armor is panting and races towards a wide river. Without hesitation, the white horse leaps into the shallow water and thunders across the Ford. The nine Ringwraiths pull up short of the river, clearly nervous of the water. The white horse reaches the other side and pulls up and turns to defiantly face the Ringwraiths from across the waters.
“Give up the Halfpony, Pegeself.” The witch king whispers.
Shining Armor yells. “If you want her, come and claim her.”
The Witch King screeches angrily and leads the Ringwraiths across the Ford. The water starts flowing
Faster and a distant rumble can be heard. Shining Armor waits until they are halfway across when he closes his eyes and whispers something in a foreign language. The whispers begins to get louder and the ground suddenly trembles, a mighty roar fills the air.
Apple Bloom looks up weakly to see a vast torrent of Water flooding down the river towards the ford as if a dam had burst. The Foaming water seems to form the shape of dancing white horses with frothing manes. The Ringwraiths scream in terror as they are swallowed up in the flood. Their Piercing cries are drowned in the roaring of the river as it carries them away.
Apple Bloom slowly begins to lose consciousness...
“No, no...Apple Bloom, no!” Says Shining Armor upset. “Apple Bloom, don't give in...not now!”
Shining Armor looks at the filly on his back, feeling her life slip away.
“What grace is given me,” he whispers. “let it pass to her. Let her be spared. Save her.”
-
A bright light suddenly flares and Apple Bloom squeezes her eyes shut, gasping.
“Where am I?” she says frightened.
A familiar voice cuts through the swirl of sound.
“You are in the House of Photo Finish, and it is ten o'clock in the morning on October the twenty-fourth, if you want to know.”
Apple Bloom's eyes flicker Open. She is lying in bed next to an open window, dappled sunlight plays on richly carved timbers and the sound of a nearby waterfall drifts through the vista of Fir Trees.
“Twilight!” Apple Bloom says in a weak relief.
Twilight is sitting next to Apple Bloom’s bed softly puffing on her pipe, she smiles at the filly.
“Yes, I'm here and you're lucky to be here, too. A few more hours and you would have been beyond our aid. You have some strength in you, my dear Shetland.”
Apple Bloom sits up, looking at Twilight questioningly.
“What happened, Twilight?” she asks. “Why didn't you meet us?”
“I'm sorry Apple Bloom.” Says Twilight, troubled. Her eyes drift away.
“I was delayed.”
-
Twilight recalls to a night on the summit of the tower, where Luna stands over her gloating.
“Get up! So much for the power of the Ring or embrace your own destruction!”
With the power of her horn, Luna raises Twilight from the ground, then sends her crashing to the floor.
“There is only one Princess of the Ring.” Says Twilight. “Only one who can bend it to her will and she does not share power.”
Suddenly, Twilight lurches to her hooves and throws herself off the tower. Luna watches Twilight fly away from Hayengard on the back of a giant Griffon.
Luna whispers in a chilling tone. “So you have chosen death.”
Over the dawn in the mountains the Griffon soars majestically, carrying Twilight towards the rising sun.
-
Apple Bloom raises herself up and looks at Twilight.
“Twilight! What is it?” she asks.
Twilight returns her attention to the filly.
“Nothing, Apple Bloom...” she says.
Sweetie Belle runs to Apple Bloom's bedside and is overjoyed to find her awake.
“Apple Bloom!” she shouts. “Apple Bloom, you’re awake!”
“Sweetie Belle has hardly left your side.” Says Twilight.
“We were worried about you--weren't we, Miss Twilight?”
“By the skills of Lady Photo Finish,” Says Twilight. “You're beginning to mend.”
Then Photo Finish, Lady of the high Pegeselves, steps up to Apple Bloom’s bedside. Her face is neither old nor young, though in it is written the memory of many things both glad and sorrowful.
“Welcome to Cloudsdale, Apple Bloom.” She says in a strange accent.
Apple Bloom sits up, looking at Photo Finish with awe.
Outside of her window, Cloudsdale appears to be a small cluster of elegant Pegeselven buildings sitting in a Shangri-la like valley below towering cliffs and snow capped mountains.
“You have found your way to the last homely house east of the sea.” Photo Finish continues. “The Pegeselves have dwelt within this valley for three thousand years through few of my kin now remain.”
-
In the Cloudsdale gardens, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle walk together. Suddenly, the voices of Scootaloo and Pinkie Pie can be heard as they bound up to Apple Bloom and throw
their arms around her.
“Apple Bloom!” shouts Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle looks past Apple Bloom smiling at a bent figure sitting alone on a bench, in the Sun.
Apple Bloom turns, following Sweetie Belle's gaze...
“Granny Smith!” she says excitedly.
On the terrace, Granny Smith breaks into a broad grin as Apple Bloom rushes forward to embrace her. Granny Smith has aged significantly since she last saw her.
“Hello, Apple Bloom, my dear filly!” she says.
Later, Apple Bloom is turning the neatly inscribed title page of a red leather bound journal.
“There and back again:” Apple Bloom reads. “A Shetland's tale by Granny Smith.”
Granny Smith smiles proudly. She is sitting with Apple Bloom on a terrace overlooking a Waterfall. Apple Bloom looks at Page after page of beautiful Hoofwriting, with intricate Maps and Drawings.
“This is wonderful.” Apple Bloom says.
“I meant to go back...” says Granny Smith. “wander the paths of Manewood, visit Laketown, see the Lonely Mountain again...but age, it seems, has finally caught up with me.”
Apple Bloom turns a page, there before her, is a map of Ponyville.
“I miss Ponyville...” Apple Bloom says quietly. “I spent all my childhood pretending I was off somewhere else...off with you, on one of your adventures...”
She looks at Granny Smith. “But my own adventure, turned out to be quite different...I'm not like you, Granny Smith.”
“My dear filly...” the old pony sighs.
-
In the evening, on a Cloudsdale terrace Sweetie Belle busily tries to stuff more and more things into her
already full pack., pots and pans, blankets, cooking utensils, provisions, clothes.
“Now, what have I forgotten?” she says.
Apple Bloom watches her. “Packed already?” she asks.
Sweetie Belle looks up, startled.
“No harm in being prepared.” She says slightly embarrassed.
Apple Bloom strolls to the edge of the Balcony.
“I thought you wanted to see the Pegeselves, Sweetie Belle?”
“I do...” Sweetie Belle replies.
“More than anything.” Says Apple Bloom.
“I did. It's just...we did what Twilight wanted, didn't we? We got the Ring this far, to Cloudsdale...and I thought... seeing as how you're on the mend, we'd be off soon. Off home.”
Apple Bloom looks at her. “You're right, Sweetie Belle.” She says. “...we did what we set out to do.” Apple Bloom lifts up the ring with her hoof and looks at it.
“The ring will be safe in Cloudsdale. I am ready to go home.”
-
Inside of Photo Finish’s chamber, Twilight and Photo Finish see Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle from her balcony,
“Her strength returns.” Says Photo Finish.
“That wound will never fully heal.” Says twilight. “She will carry it the rest of her life.”
“And yet to have come so far still bearing the Ring...the Shetland has shown extraordinary resilience to its evil.”
“It is a burden she should never have to had to bear.” Says the Unicorn. “We can ask no more of Apple Bloom.”
“Twilight, the enemy is moving. Princess Celestia's Dogs are massing in the east. Her eye is fixed on Cloudsdale. And Luna, you tell me, has betrayed us. Our list of allies grows thin.”
“Her treachery runs deeper than you know.” Says Twilight. “By foul craft, Luna has crossed Dog with Earth Pony. She is breeding an army in the caverns of Hayengard. An army that can move in Sunlight and cover great distance at speed. Luna is coming for the Ring.”
Photo Finish turns and walks away...
“This evil cannot be concealed by the power of the Pegeselves. We do not have the strength to fight both Canterlot and Hayengard...Twilight...the ring cannot stay here.”
Twilight turns and looks out the window.
Sounds of arrivals, Twilight watches as a white unicorn mare with an indigo mane rides through
Cloudsdale’s gate, followed by pale yellow Pegasus. And another Pegasus, although from the way she carries herself clearly from the Dwarficorn region, with a rainbow mane and a bandaged wing comes forward.
“This peril belongs to all Equestria.” Says Photo Finish. “They must decide how to end it. Not just for themselves but for those who come after.”
Photo Finish approaches Twilight.
“The time of the Pegeselves is over. My ponies are leaving these shores. Who will you look to when we have gone? The Dwarficorns? They hide in their mountains seeking riches. They care nothing for the troubles of others.”
“It is in Earth Pony that we must place our hope.” Says Twilight.
“Earth Pony?” Photo Finish says. “Earth Pony are weak. The race of Earth Pony is failing, it’s pride and dignity forgotten. It is because of Earth Pony the Ring survives. I was there, Twilight...I was there three thousand years ago when Golden Delicious took the ring. I was there the day the strength of Earth Pony
failed.”