The Princess of the Rings - The Herd of the Ring

by ScarlettPeace

Chapter Eight

CHAPTER EIGHT

In the stairway the Fire Dragon, a massive creature rises from a chasm, a great forty foot dragon-beast, with a mane of flames. In one hoof is a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire. In the other, a whip of many throngs. Applejack leads the Herd to the top of a dizzying stairway, Twilight follows, limping heavily on her back hoof. Applejack looks at Twilight, concerned.
“Lead them on, Applejack.” Says Twilight. “The bridge is near.”
Applejack hesitates and Twilight looks at her.
“Do as I say, swords are no more use here.”
The Herd races down the stairway, Applejack picks up Apple Bloom leaping across a gaping chasm. A narrow bridge spanning a bottomless pit, Twilight yells to the others.
Applejack is about to throw Rainbow Dash across the Chasm when she stops her.
“Nobody tosses a Dwarficorn!” Rainbow shouts.
The Fire Dragon smashes through the wall and spreads its vast wings. It swoops down past the Herd, disappearing into a flaming pit. The Herd runs into a hall and the floor is split with fissures that spit flame.
“Over the bridge!” Twilight yells. “Fly!”
They race towards the slender bridge of stone, without kerb or rail at the far end of the hall. The Herd recklessly hurry over the dizzying bridge, but Twilight, who is the last, pauses in the middle of the span. She faces the Fire Dragon and her horn begins to glow. Apple Bloom looks back in horror:
“You cannot pass!” Twilight screams at the flaming beast.
“Twilight!” Apple Bloom calls.
“I am a servant of the Secret Fire,” Twilight continues to yell. “Wielder of the flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you!”
Apple Bloom watches as the Fire Dragon puts one foot on the bridge and draws up to Full Height, wings spreading from wall-to-wall. Twilight is a tiny figure, balanced precariously on the narrow bridge.
“Go back to the shadow!” she screams.
The Fire Dragon slashes at Twilight with its Sword of flame and she blocks it with a strange glowing white force field that appeared the moment his sword hit. There is a ringing clash and the Fire Dragon's sword shatters into molten fragments.
“You shall not pass!!” she booms.
The Fire Dragon places one foot onto the bridge. Applejack and Rarity race forward, swords drawn.
Twilight cries aloud as she summons up her last reserves of strength. She thumps the bridge with her hoof and a blinding sheet of white flame springs up and the bridge shatters right at the Fire Dragon's feet. The stone bridge drops away into the gulf from under the monster. For a moment, the great Beast remains poised in the air then it plunges down into the pit. Relief floods Apple Bloom's face but Twilight remains
trembling on the lip of the broken bridge. But…as the Fire Dragon falls, he lashes out with his whip of fire. The throngs of the whip lash and curl around Twilight's back hoof, dragging her over the brink. Twilight just manages to hold on by the edges of her fore hooves.
“Twilight!” Apple Bloom screams and looks deep into the sad indigo eyes of the unicorn.
“Fly, you fools!” Twilight says fiercely. She then let’s go of her grip and falls away...following the Fire Dragon into the bottomless abyss. Apple Bloom cries out and Rarity scoops her up and carries her away.
“No!” Apple Bloom screams.
“Twilight!” says Applejack.
They rush towards an archway and the Herd tumbles out of the Great Eastern Gate on to a grassy sunlit hillside. Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Pinkie Pie fall slowly to the ground, sobbing.
Applejack turns to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.
“Fluttershy, get them up!” she says urgently.
“Give them a moment...for pity's sake!” begs Rarity.
“By nightfall these hills will be swarming with Dogs!” Applejack continues. “We must reach the woods of Hooflorien. Come, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, get them up. On your feet, Sweetie Belle.”
Rarity glances towards Apple Bloom, then back at Applejack. Apple Bloom is walking away, as if in a daze.
“Apple Bloom?” calls Applejack. “Apple Bloom!”
Apple Bloom slowly turns and a look of numb shock is on her devastated face. The Herd marches on.
-
At dusk on the hillside Applejack scours ahead of the company, as they stumble on in the fading light. In the distance the shimmer of a large forest can be seen, Hooflorien. The Herd runs across the forest floor strewn with yellow flowers. Above is a roof of golden leaves, held up by silver pillars, the trunks of huge, grey trees. Rainbow Dash looks nervously around.
“Stay close, young Shetlands…” she says. “They say a Sorceress lives in these woods. A Pegeself witch of terrible power. All who look upon her fall under her spell...”
Apple Bloom hesitates as a strange voice whispers in her head.
“Apple Bloom...” she hears.
“And are never seen again!” Rainbow Dash continues.
“...your coming to us is as the footsteps of doom.” The voice carries on in Apple Bloom’s mind. “You bring great evil here, Ringbearer.”
“Apple Bloom?” asks Sweetie Belle.
“Well, here's one Dwarficorn, albeit winged Dwarficorn, she won't ensnare so easily.” Rainbow Dash says confidently. “I have the eyes of a hawk and the ears of a fox!”
Rainbow Dash turns to find an arrow inches away from her face.
The Herd is suddenly surrounded by armed Pegeselves. Deadly arrows aimed at their heads. What appears to be one of the Pegeselvish captains steps forward. He looks at Rainbow Dash with disdain.
“The Dwarficorn breathes so loud we could have shot her in the dark.”
“Sun Burst of Hooflorien,” says Applejack. “We come here for your help. We need your protection.”
“Applejack!” whispers Rainbow Dash. “These woods are perilous. We should go back.”
“You have entered the realm of the Mare of the Wood.” Says Sun Burst. “You cannot go back.”
Sun Burst's eyes lock onto Apple Bloom.
“Come,” he says. “She is waiting.”
-
Sun Burst leads the Herd onto a Hill Top. They look with wonderment at the vista spread before them.
Several miles towards the south, a large hill rises out of the woods. Upon the hill rise many mighty trees, taller than any others. Nestled high in the crown of the trees is a beautiful city. It gleams in the low rays of the late afternoon sun, green, gold, and silver. To the east, the woods of Hooflorien run down the pale gleam of the great river. Beyond the river, the land appears flat and empty, formless and vague, until far away, it rises again like a dark and dreary wall. The sun that lies on Hooflorien has not power to enlighten the shadows that lie beyond.
-
In a chamber the Herd steps onto a wide fleet filled with a soft light. The walls are green and silver, the roof gold and in its midst is the trunk of the mighty Mallorn tree, now tapering toward its crown. Vanilla Skies, the Pegeself, steps forward to greet the guests. His mane is long and silver, his face grave and beautiful, with no sign of age upon it. Next to him stands Cheerilee, the Mare of the Pegeselves. She has a mane of light rose, a coat of deep purple, and timeless, unsurpassed beauty. Vanilla Skies looks hard at Applejack.
“Eight there are,” he says. “Yet nine there were set out from Cloudsdale. Tell me, where is Twilight, for I much desire to speak with her.”
Apple Bloom looks at Cheerilee, standing silently beside Vanilla Skies.
“...she has fallen into shadow.” Cheerilee says softly and looks to Applejack.
“The Quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while the company is true.”
Cheerilee's eyes settle on Sweetie Belle.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Go now and rest for you are weary with sorrow and much toil.” Cheerilee's eyes turn to Apple Bloom and her voice fades.
“Tonight you will sleep in peace.”
‘Welcome, Apple Bloom of the Ponyville’ Apple Bloom hears the mare’s voice in her mind.
She looks at Cheerilee, who looks so powerful, divine, no longer of this world. In Apple Bloom’s eyes a
piercing white light surrounds her.
“...one who has seen the eye.” Her disembodied whispers continues in Apple Bloom’s head.
-
That night Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Scootaloo, Pinkie Pie, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are in a
pavilion set among the trees near the fountain. They lie on soft couches as Pegeselves leave food and wine for them. Mournful singing drifts down from the trees above.
“A lament for Twilight...” Fluttershy says sadly.
“What are they saying about her?” asks Scootaloo.
Fluttershy looks at her. “I have not the heart to tell you. For me, the grief is still too near.”
Rarity is sitting alone and Applejack approaches her.
“Take some rest.” She says “these borders are well protected.”
Moonlight catches the trace of tears on Rarity's face and Applejack sits down beside her.
“I will find no rest here.” Says Rarity. “I heard her voice inside my head, she spoke of my father and the fall of Bondor, and she said to me ‘Even now, there is hope left.’ But I cannot see it...it is long since we had any hope.”
Rarity looks at Applejack in despair.
“My father is a noble man,” says the unicorn. “but his rule is failing and our…our people lose faith. He looks to me to make things right...and I would do it, I would see the glory of Bondor restored. Have you ever seen it, Applejack? The White Tower of, glimmering like a spike of pearl and silver, its banners caught high in the morning breeze...have you ever been called home by the clear ringing of silver trumpets?”
“I have seen the white city…” says Applejack. “long ago.”
Rarity feels Applejack's love for Minas Faustis and takes heart.
“One day our paths will lead us there,” she says. “and the tower guards shall take up the call ‘the Lords of Bondor have returned."
Applejack returns Rarity's smile, betraying her disquiet sadness only when Rarity looks away.
-
Later the Herd is asleep on their beds. Rainbow Dash is snoring loudly as purple hooves tread soundlessly across the lawn. Apple Bloom's eyes flicker open, as if by instinct. Cheerilee, her White dress glowing in the moonlight, glances at her. Apple Bloom follows her as if drawn by an invisible force.

At Cheerilee’s glade upon a low stone pedestal, carved like a branching tree, sits a shallow Silver Basin. Cheerilee leads Apple Bloom into the small clearing.
“Will you look into the mirror?”
Apple Bloom looks with apprehension at the silver basin.
“What will I see?” She asks warily.
Cheerilee pours water into the basin from a silver jug and a glow rises from the water.
“Even the wisest cannot tell…” she says softly. “For the mirror shows many things, things that were things that are, and some things that have not yet come to pass.”
Apple Bloom slowly steps up to the pedestal and peers into the glossy surface. The night sky is reflected into the water and suddenly in the pool an image flares, burning in to white. The vision shifts, Apple Bloom gasps in horror. Ponyville is in ruins. Buildings burning, bodies strewn about, dark shapes of Dogs looting and destroying and Sweet Apple Acres, billowing in flames. Apple Bloom reels back as the mirror seems to grow and the nightmarish image sweeps past her head, engulfing her entirely.
Ponyville, now an industrial wasteland. The fields and trees destroyed, replaced with brick factories billowing smoke. Dogs brutally herd manacled Shetlands into the factories. She sees Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and even Pipsqueak. Soot-stained and sobbing, they disappear into the factory hell-hole. Suddenly, the mirror goes dark and out of the black abyss a single eye grows. Apple Bloom is frozen. Unable to move or cry out. The ring dangles from her neck, inches above the water, shimmering with curls of steam. Suddenly fire erupts around the eye and with a yell, Apple Bloom pushes herself
away from the pedestal and collapses on the ground. Light instantly fades from the mirror and Apple Bloom comes to her senses, she is shocked. Cheerilee stands still as a statue, unmoved, untouched by the horror.
“I know what it is you saw...” she says. “for it is also in my mind. It is the future, Apple Bloom. It is what will come to pass if you should fail.”
Cheerilee looks at Apple Bloom intensely and Apple Bloom looks down in her hoof she is clutching the ring. Apple Bloom looks back up at Cheerilee.
“The Herd is breaking.” Says the Pegeself. “It has already begun. She will try to take the ring. You know of whom I speak. One by one, it will destroy them all.”
“If you ask it of me,” Apple Bloom says. “I will give you the One Ring.”
“You offer it to me freely...” says Cheerilee “I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired this.”
Cheerilee suddenly seems to rise in stature before Apple Bloom's eyes. Apple Bloom is suddenly afraid of her. Her eyes suddenly empty and a white glow radiates from her body.
“In place of the Dark Lord, you would have a Queen, not dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Dawn.” she yells. “Treacherous as the Sea! Stronger than the foundations of the earth, all shall love me and despair!”
Apple Bloom takes a step away from Cheerilee...
But then the purple pony suddenly laughs, a slender Pegeself-mare once more, clad in simple white, her voice soft and sad.
“I pass the test.” She says gently. “I will diminish and go into the west and remain Cheerilee.”
Apple Bloom's confidence drains away.
“I cannot do this alone...” she says.
“You are the ring-bearer, Apple Bloom...” says Cheerilee. “to bear a ring of power is to be alone. This task was appointed to you, and if you do not find a way, no one will.”
Apple Bloom realizes what her message is.
“Then I know what I must do.” She says. “It's just...I'm afraid to do it.”
Cheerilee kneels down to Apple Bloom's height, staring at her intently.
“Even the smallest pony can change the course of the future.”
The Ring lies in Apple Bloom's hoof and she grips it tightly.
-
In Luna’s tower, Lurtz the Pony-kai’s eyes follow her and alight with a mean intelligence.
Luna smiles. “They were Pegeselves once. Taken by the Dark Powers, tortured and mutilated, a ruined and terrible form of life. And now...perfected. My fighting Pony-kai. Whom does thou serve?”
Lurtz responds in a guttural grasp. “Luna.”
In the caverns below Hayengard Lurtz is quickly armored. Breastplate, Leg guards, Helmet and a sword is thrust in Lurtz's hoof. The Pony-kai are smearing themselves in white paint. An eerie ritualistic ceremony and the white hoof of Hayengard is smeared on bodies, faces, and armor. Luna addresses a crowd of two hundred fully armed Pony-kai.
“Hunt them down.” She says. “Do not stop until they are found. Thou does not know pain. Thou does not know fear. Thou will taste pony-flesh.”
Luna turns to Lurtz and says coldly. “One of the Halfpony’s carries something of great value. Bring her to me...alive and unspoiled...kill the others.”
Lurtz is leading two hundred Pony-Kai out of Hayengard. They run fast, their powerful legs carrying them at speed.
-
On the river bank at dawn the Herd is in small Pegeselven boats. They row away from the Hooflorien Shore into the river. Pegeselves quietly watch them depart. Cheerilee gives Apple Bloom a small Crystal Phial.
“Farewell, Apple Bloom.” She says. “I give you the light of Earentail, our most beloved star.”
As the Herd's boats drift past, Cheerilee stands alone, watching from the banks of the river. In her head, Apple Bloom still hears her voice...
“May it be a light for you in dark places, when all other lights go out.”
The boats pass into the great river carry them steadily southward. Green trees
slowly give way to a brown and withered land.
A flock of birds circle high above, Black against the pale sky. Applejack watches them with concern.
The Three Pegeselven boats drift slowly through the steep rocky gorge in the Pre-dawn light with Applejack slowly paddling in the stern.
“Apple Bloom.” She says quietly.
Apple Bloom slowly looks up, her eyes widening with amazement. Two enormous rock statues, towering like 300 foot pinnacles on either side of the river are carved images of Bondorian pony kings of old. They loom over the boats with power and majesty.
Applejack is strangely moved by the beauty of the silent sentinels. She speaks, almost as if to herself.
“Long have I desired to look upon the kings of old...” she says deeply moved. “my kin.”
The Herd stare in stunned silence as the current takes them through the narrow gap between the Statue’s hooves.
Up past the statue’s vast crumbling heads is a large lake only a mile down river.
The ponies leap out of the boats and clamber onto the wooded shore.
“We cross the lake at nightfall,” says Applejack. “hide the boats and continue on hoof. We approach Canterlot from the North.”
Rainbow Dash looks gloomy. “Oh, yes, just a simple matter of finding our way through an impassable labyrinth of razor sharp rocks. And after that gets even better...a festering, stinking marshland, far as the eye can see.”
“That is our Road...” says Applejack. “I suggest you take some rest and recover your strength, Miss Rainbow Dash.”
“Recover my...” Rainbow Dash begins to say indignantly but Fluttershy turns to Applejack with urgency.
“We should leave now.” She says.
“No. Dogs patrol the Eastern shore.” Says Applejack. “We must wait for cover of darkness.”
“It is not the Eastern shore that worries me.” Continues Fluttershy as she casts a glance around into the forest.
“A shadow and a threat has been growing in my mind. Something draws near, I can feel it.”
Applejack looks at Fluttershy, knowing full well what she means.
Sweetie Belle has slumped asleep and Scootaloo dumps a small pile of kindling at Rainbow Dash's hooves.
“Where's Apple Bloom?” asks Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle sits up with a start and Applejack's head snaps round. Her eyes fly to Rarity's shield which lies abandoned by her camp bed. Applejack realizes Rarity has gone.