As Thorin said, the company roused and readied before setting off through the Hidden Valley from whence they arrived from. Sunny had to be woken from an early nap, and just caught up after returning to retrieve Dagmor.

It was Pipp, who was at the very rear, who could see a growing shadow over her friend.

"I mean...what if-if this quest is not going to end well for us? What if we can't get back home?"

Pipp hesitated at her response, knowing Sunny was putting herself under way too much strain, and so early on in the quest.

"I hum to myself while thinking of the more pleasant things about life. The sunshine in the clear sky, the warmth of the fireplace during the winter season, the smooth grass under my hooves, and occasionally a light breeze through my feathers. Now you try."

Sunny found a tune of an old rhyme her dad used to sing, and while at first her remembering him felt joyous, it was short-lived as it became another moment of familiar sadness,

Bilbo heard her sorrows, and turned back to see Rivendell, like it might have been the final moment in his life where he felt well and truly at home.

And so, the company departed from their rest-up in Rivendell before continuing along their quest, taking them across vast plains upon fields, bypassing entire regions of forests, and up and across hilltops until the the sight loomed in the great distance.

"No laddie," Balin replied. "The Lonely Mountain lies farther east. We are about to cross through the pass of the Misty Mountains."

Hitch's mind became filled once again with the song of woe that the dwarves sung back in Bag End, looking up towards where the mist all gathered, constantly obscuring the tree infested view of the mountaintops.

After some time traversing up the mountainside, the company was hiking on a stretch overlooking a deep valley, and to make matters worse, they encountered a thunderstorm that rocked the entire range. At one point, Bilbo slipped on a rock, but Hitch grabbed him in time.

The company looked and ducked in time for a flying boulder to come crashing and smashing against the mountainside right above them, sending the remaining rocks to tumble down missing their very heads.

He pointed to a literal titan of a figure rising from the rocks of a nearby mountain right across the valley, emerging and tightly gripping the excess boulder, while the company looked on in fearful amazement.

"Well, bless me!" Bofur exclaimed. "The legends are true! GIANTS! STONE-GIANTS!"

No sooner had Bofur cried in amazement that the stone-giant in question hurled its boulder across the way right into another stone-giant that got hit back into the mountain rock.

Too late, the mountain pass they were traversing over began to shift and crumble right under them.

The rocks cracked, the rubble crumbled, and each half of the company was being risen on each leg of the stone-giant; Bilbo and Hitch stuck to Dwalin, Izzy with Bombur, and Zipp, Pipp, and Sunny with Thorin; Fili and Kili were the only ones separated. Unfortunately, another stone-giant head-smacked against the one that unknowingly had the company at tis mercy, sending sprawling back, and Thorin's group to a close enough to leap to a more stable landing.

The other half had more bad luck to endure, as the other stone-giants came crashing over in a gang-up, one clotted the first upside the chin, as the other hurled a boulder right to its head, instantly decapitating it and sending the head to crash right above Thorin's group. The others held firm while their stone-giant fell backwards in its final moments, its knee crashing into mountainside before falling deep into the valley.

In desperate hope they rushed around the bend to see them all sprawled across the stone path, alive but all unharmed. Sunny rushed forward and immediately embraced both her friends.

Bilbo had slipped a great deal, and was now dangerously dangling right over the valley. Once the company recognized his danger, his hands had slipped to a lower rock.

Thorin then slipped over the side and hoisted Bilbo to safety, only for himself to be in Bilbo's very predicament. Immediately, Zipp gripped his hand, and furiously flapping her wings along with Dwalin's added strength, hoisted Thorin back to solid stone.

"Never better," he replied. Though he was grateful to the pegasus, his mind was occupied to another member of the company.

"He's been lost ever since home," Thorin angrily stated, glaring at Bilbo. "He should never have come. He has no place amongst us."

Thorin turned away and followed his nephews into the cave they found, leaving Bilbo feeling more worse about himself, and Hitch worrying the most for him.

The company then all moved inside, soaking from the rain and some still shaking from the ordeal outside. Zipp followed Dwalin's torchlight as they searched the very rear.

The company was only so far put at ease, Sunny the least of all. Izzy was off in a corner putting together a small wooden trebuchet with Bifur, and Pipp was unsure about how to approach Sunny's troubled state of mind. Bilbo remained indifferent and to himself.

"Right then," Gloin prepared, taking out scraps of wood. "Let's get a fire started."

"No, no fires," Thorin stopped. "Not in this place. Get some sleep. We start at first light."

"We were to wait in the mountains until Gandalf joined us," Balin said. "That was the plan."

"Alright uh, on it...Thorin," Hitch stammered, still worrying about Bilbo. "I may need to."

Later into the night, when Bilbo figured everyone else was sleeping, he slipped on his pack, picked up his walking stick and made his quiet way past the snoring company. He stopped, only for a moment, to look at where the ponies were all sleeping: the pegasi sisters were snug in their hooves, Izzy slept on Bombur's stomach like it was a pillow, with his arm comfortably around her neck, and Sunny off in her own distant corner.

Bilbo thought back to when he first met the ponies, and how they were all kind and friendly to him, regardless of the dwarves' nature. He would miss them.

"No, no, you can't turn back now, not after we've come so far. You're a part of the company. As are we."

"I'm not though, am I? Thorin said I should never have come and he was right. I'm not a Took, I'm a Baggins."

Bilbo sighed greatly with regret. "I don't know what I was thinking. I should never have run out my door."

Hitch could see the shadow of confusion was filled within his friend. "You know, this isn't the first adventure I've been on."

"Yeah. Back in our world, Equestria, the three pony tribes have long been separated, fueled only by anger and unruly hate for each race. But Sunny held strong to herself, despite so much backlash. One day, Izzy happened to wander into town and Sunny ran off with her, with myself in pursuit like she was a fugitive. Then we found the city of the pegasi, and then I officially became a part of it. I found that all those tales I was told since I was a foal, were nothing but hot air, and the ponies I met on that journey have become close to me, and I would do anything for their well-being."

Bilbo listened intently to Hitch, taking in the fluctuations in his voice. He could not help himself but see the very same Bilbo Baggins that he knew ever since his younger days, and right before him in the moment.

"I understand your reluctance on the journey as well, and...it, does get lonely in Bag End."

Hitch was caught in his mouth, especially at remembering how comfortable and pleasantly simple the Shire was. The prospect would have perfect to take, if he had been the pony he no longer wanted to know.

"Bilbo, understand me when I say this, I would like nothing better than to sit down in your parlor, and eat easy off your table. I would, if I had been the me that is long gone now. I'm done playing the reluctant hero. I want-no, have to go wherever my friends walk. I can't turn back without knowing they'll be safe. I've grown rather fond of them."

Bilbo could see and understand the loyalty his friend had to his other friends, and felt no more need to say another word on the topic. He as well had grown fond of the Equestrian visitors, and he wished them all the luck in the world.

A blue glow was emitting from inside Bilbo's sheath, and taking out his sword it was definitely the source of the glow. Hitch, wide eyed with terror, took out Anguirel and it too was glowing a shade of blue.

"...it will glow a shade of blue whenever orcs are nearby," he heard Gandalf's voice in his head, the warning clear in his face.

Thorin had been overhearing the conversation at the cave-mouth, and on top of the blue-glowing swords he heard falling sand, which appeared to be the cave floor giving way to visible cracks in the floor. Now it was his turn to be wide-eyed in terror.

"Thorin, what's the mat-?" Zipp began before she snapped to attention, right before the floor gave way.

The cave floor was nothing but a set of platforms prepared for in case of intruders that happen on the front doorstep to Goblin-town, as the company so unfortunately found out the hard way. The company was dropped to a long slide that led far underground, not exactly the most comfortable ride, but that did not stop Izzy from enjoying herself.

Eventually, the slide ended with a drop right onto a waiting platform, with Bombur coming last again, and Bilbo landing on Bombur.

"That might be my sword's end," Hitch replied, who had Dwalin lying right on his stomach. "Sorry about that."

Zipp was piled under Oin and Bifur, and when freeing herself something caught her ears. "I believe we have a more pressing matter!"

Right as she spoke an entire hoard of goblins came rushing right at the captured company: four for each dwarf and two for each pony, and all against the violent groans and beatings.

"Where are we even going?" Sunny asked amongst the constant manhandling from the goblin captors.

As the goblins led the company through the winding tunnels and across disheveling bridges to an underground citadel, wide walls, filled to the brim with the most ugly building structures, and right smack in the middle of it all was the fattest, biggest, and ugliest goblin in all of Goblin-town: the Great Goblin, sat upon his throne of wood and bone, and wielding a staff of similar make.

And on cue from the Great Goblin, the instruments began beating to the Song of Goblin-town.

"Great Goblin: Clap! Snap! The black crack!
Grip, grab! Pinch, nab!
And down, down to Goblin-town!

Goblin Chorus: Down, down to Goblin-town!

Great Goblin: You go, my lad!

Goblin Chorus: you go, my lad!

"Great Goblin: Clash, crash! Crush, smash!
Hammer and tongs! Knocker and gongs!
Pound, pound, far underground!

Goblin Chorus: Pound, pound, far underground!

Great Goblin: Ho, ho! my lad!

Goblin Chorus: Ho, ho! my lad!

"Great Goblin: Swish, smack! Whip crack!
Batter and beat! Yammer and bleat!
Work, work! Nor dare to shirk,

Goblin Chorus: Work, work! Nor dare to shirk,

Great Goblin: While Goblins quaff, and Goblins laugh,
Round and round far underground!

Goblin Chorus: Round and round far underground!
Below, my lad!"

The Great Goblin held out the last note the longest, and when he finished the entire cavern cheered with delight, apart from the captive company of course.

"That was some of the grossest music I ever heard!" Pipp spoke up. "If you even call it that!"

"Abominations, mutations, deviations; that's all you're ever going to find down here," the Great Goblin laughed, his flabby chin waggling something grotesque. "But now that we have acquainted ourselves we can get down to business."

He stretched out his great feet and placed them right onto a pile of goblins acting as a step stool, and balanced himself before the company. The goblin captors had removed and piled the weapons off to one side, visible within arm's length but out of current commission.

"Who would be so bold as to come armed into my kingdom?" the Great Goblin demanded. "Spies? Thieves?! Assassins?!"

The goblins then put there hands in wherever on the captured company would fit, taking out whatever was not attached, including but not limited to: Oin's ear trumpet, before squishing it flat, Izzy's saddle bag, and Nori's pack. Izzy's bag was dumped to reveal scraps of wood and unfinished models, while Nori's had been filled with many of the silverware from Elrond's dining table.

"It is my belief, your great protuberance," said the same goblin, holding aloft a candelabra. "That they are in league with elves!"

"Made in Rivendell. Second Age. Couldn't give it away," the Great Goblin said, before tossing it right into the chasm below.

"I'll flatten more than your trumpet!" the Great Goblin roared, smashing away a nearby build.

"If it's more information your wanting, then I'm the one you should speak too!" Bofur called, coming forward.

The Great Goblin looked like he was about to do something fierce, but the prospect of a new pair of voices stopped his eventual tirade, even if he was hard to humor.

"Well, it's not so much a road as a path," Izzy added. "Actually, it's not even that, come to think of it. It's more like a track."

"Anyway," Bofur picked up. "The point is: we were on the road, like a path, like a track, and then we weren't. Which is a problem...because we were supposed to be in Dunland last Tuesday."

The remaining ponies could see that the Great Goblin was losing his patience fast.

"SHUT UP!" the Great Goblin loudly and rudely interrupted, silencing the company back in line. "Very well," he continued. "If they will not talk, then we'll make them squawk!"

That brought out the excitement in the populace, much to the horror of the company.

"Bring up the Mangler!" he ordered. "Bring up the Bone Breaker!" He then pointed towards Pipp. "Start with the prettiest!"

She stared in blank fear, as Zipp and Hitch rushed to her side, horrified at the very conception. However, Thorin immediately raised his voice, "Wait!"

He then made himself known to the Great Goblin, much to his immediate delight and merriment.

"Well, well, well! Look who it is! Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror! King under the Mountain!" He then made a humorous bow, much to the joy of the watchful goblins about in the town. "Oh! But I am forgetting! You don't have a mountain, and you're not a king! Which makes you...nobody really."

Something caught a gleam in his eye, because he leaned forward right to Thorin's face. "I know someone who would pay a pretty price for your head," he smirked.

"Perhaps, you know of whom I speak of," the Great Goblin continued, reveling in Thorin's silence. "An old enemy of yours."

"Yeah, but we only have his word to go off from it, don't we?" Hitch whispered back.

"Azog the Defiler was destroyed," Thorin stated. "He was slain in battle long ago."

"So you think his defiling days are done, do you?" The Great Goblin laughed hissing from his throat as he turned to his messenger goblin. "Send word to the pale orc. Tell him, 'I have found his prize.'"

The messenger scribbled on some paper, before ziplining out of sight, cackling like a madman. The Great Goblin then turned back to the company.

"And so, now that introductions have been issued, perhaps you can tell me about your traveling ponies, eh? They definitely seem foreign, otherwise they would be the feast of the goblin children already? Where do they come from?"

The entire underground erupted in echoing laughter, the Great Goblin laughing the deepest, loudest, and longest. The ponies looked back to their friend with looks of helplessness, and the dwarves remained respectively silent, while Thorin gave a look of disappointed appraisal.

"You don't understand! They three pony tribes had been separated, but I helped them reunite!"

She recoiled the moment the words left her mouth, stricken with fear of herself. The Great Goblin, though his was hideous in appearance, was also predatorial with those under his very mercy.

"You really are not of this world!" he bellowed. "Otherwise you know better, my dear!"

Sunny tried her best to avoid his ugly gaze, despite his eyes closing down. "What-what do you mean?"

"I suppose the dwarves haven't told you anything, hmm? Not even about their massacres?"

"The massacred and killed many of my people, but most of the time for sport rather than in battle. Of course that's nowhere near going to be the biggest surprise, or, should I say, would have been."

"You should never have left home, my dear," the Great Goblin sniggered. "You're off the edge of the map, and here, there be monsters."

The goblins laughed and cheered, then the Great Goblin broke into song at the sight of giant torture instruments being carried over under a gathering of goblins.

"Great Goblin: Bones will shattered, necks will be rung!
You'll be beaten and battered, from racks you'll be hung!
You will die down here and never be found!
Down in the deeps of Goblin-town!"

One of the goblin captors thought to take a peak at Thorin's sword, and immediately doing so hissed in disgusted anger and threw it down for all goblins to see and quiver at the sight.

"I know the sword!" he shook. "It is the Goblin-cleaver! The Biter! The blade that sliced a thousand necks! Slash them! Beat them! Kill them! Kill them all!"

The goblins began whipping at the company, doing the most damage to the unarmored ponies, despite the dwarves attempts to fend them off with their fists. Three goblins then shoved and held Thorin to the ground, one holding a knife above his neck.

A bright light suddenly shown, and a great wind blew through the cavern, sending the torture devices and their carriers over to unknown fates to the company. Once the dwarves and ponies regained themselves they looked upon their gray-bearded and shining sword gleaming rescuer, none other than the Gray Wizard himself.

The company riled together, took back their weapons, and fought against the vastly numbered but also greatly unexperienced enemies. Hitch stood firm beside Gandalf, wielding Anguirel as it shone like a brother to Glamdring, while the Great Goblin cowered ever more greatly at the elven blades of yore.

"He wields the Foehammer! The Beater! Bright as daylight!" he squealed. "And he wields the Iron-of-the-Fiery-Star! The Anvil! Stronger than rock itself!"

"Gandalf, look out!" Hitch cried, right after slicing a goblin head with cleanliness!

Gandalf took his warning in time to counter the Great Goblin as he swung his club right at the wizard, and from a swing of shining Glamdring countered the towering mass was sent reeling back and over the side.

Sunny was still feeling overwhelmed, even as she took back Dagmor for her own, then her eyes went wide with terror as she accidentally unsheathed it and the blade fiercely through a charging goblin, screeching its final squeals before slipping off the blade and dropping into the abyss, leaving black drops of blood on its tips. She stood frozen, dismayed and in shell shock, unaware and unresponsive to the closing danger.

Pipp took notice of her friend's condition, and wielding her elven shield that shone the morning sky, she charged a gathering of goblins ringing themselves around Sunny, and the moment they shot their eyes to the blinding gleam they were all greatly shoved and hurled over.

"No I'm not! I'm protecting..." she then held aloft her elven shield for all to see. "...with Anvil."

"Nice to see you've named your shield," Zipp commented. "But suppose we should all leave?!"

The company made good and followed right in the running footsteps of the Gray Wizard, making sure to slice their way through any charging goblin oblivious to their talent in their weaponry. Zipp, as the swiftest among the ponies, kept close the front firing Dailir wherever close behind Dwalin, when by chance rushing across a bridge a goblin-hoard was charging right for them.

Cutting the ropes, they and some of the dwarves behind them heaved up and shoved off many a goblin all at once before continuing through the caverns. Pipp stayed close to her sister, while the other half of the company was rushing across bridges as Hitch stayed close to Gandalf's stead, shoving aside a goblin that crashed and fell a wooden bridge below.

Zipp looked right across the chasm to see arrows flying with such close accuracy.

"And you underestimate as your sister handles Belthrongding that twangs Dailir?!"

Stretching their wingspan they leapt around the flying arrows catching the undivided attention of the goblin archers. Pipp kept Anvil giuarding her sister, as she twanged Dailir into one goblin after another, falling into the chasms with only the pierce of Dailir but not the arrow in question. Pipp kept her movements in the air flawless and smooth, as Anvil obeyed its mistress' intentions and kept the rotten arrows of the underground scathing only but the elven shine, leaving naught even a scratch.

The sisters rejoined the escape as Thorin led the Biter swinging across the wooden pathways, Balin, Bofur, Oin, and Dwalin following close in his steps. At however one point Zipp made familiar with some swinging goblins heading right for their necks above.

Slicing through the ropes the structure above swung down and the goblins got roped and stuck.

Goblin archers were now approaching, and Kili and Anguirel could only do so much against the arrows. Thinking fast, they took and nearby ladder as a makeshift plow and with the strength of the gathered dwarves pushed the goblins back and over, then using the ladder as a bridge crossed the very gap, before Izzy launched back to the pursuing goblins in a shower of magic.

Now the company became whole again, rushing behind Thorin and Gandalf, slicing past the goblins with the shine of the lucky blades of elven make, and making it to a bridge suspended only by overhanging ropes. Thinking fast, Thorin sliced at one of the ropes sending the bridge in a swing. However, Sunny lost her hoofing but Pipp caught her, using Anvil as the guardian of its mistress. Fili sliced the remaining rope, sending the bridge with the goblins down, down to the darkness, leaping as Zipp caught him in time.

The goblins charged at the company from all sides, coming down from overhead on all angles, especially on poor Bombur, who fell through two layers of bridges before Izzy blasted the goblins like leaves in the wind, leaving not a scratch of blood.

They caught up behind the company as Gandalf sent a boulder ahead of them for the oncoming goblins, tumbling a clear pathway for the company to round the corner and rush for the closest bridge, and had been home free had the Great Goblin not jumped them from right under the bridge before them, facing down Gandalf.

"You thought you could escape me?" he snarled as he swung his staff at Gandalf, just shy of ripping his robes. "What are you going to do now, wizard?"

Gandalf responded by poking his staff at the Great Goblin's eye, and slicing a scar open on his belly, while he yelped in pain.

"That'll do it," he nodded, as Gandalf sliced at his neck, slumping him forward.

The strain on the bridge was too much to handle, and the bridge of broken three-layers with company gave way and began scrapping down the chasm. Izzy held tight to Sunny, while Hitch screamed from the topmost of the bridge, and the pegasi sisters holding firm to each other. The dwarves either screamed in terror or stared wide-eyed in horror at the depth of the chasm. After a long ride of a rollercoaster, the bridge came to a crashing stop, with all the occupants alive and unharmed.

Gandalf and Hitch were the first to stand back up, Hitch sheathing Anguirel the moment he caught back his breath.

"Well, that could've been worse," Bofur said, right before the carcass of the Great Goblin fell right onto the bridges remains.

Zipp helped her sister and friends up, before noticing the coming danger from up above.

Climbing down in hoards, the hellbent goblins were rushing with all their delight and ugliness.

"Only one thing will save us, daylight!" Gandalf declared. "Come on, on your feet! Follow me!"

He rushed them through the winding passages of the Misty Mountain tunnels, turning this way and that, the goblin war-cries never once leaving their earshot. The dwarves found a few tight squeezes, and the ponies were beginning to become dizzy, until Gandalf pointed towards the streak of the sunset, shining in through the unguarded and open backdoor. The company wasted no time making for the exit, not daring to look back or beside them, and thinking only about seeing the sunshine after such an extended period.

The company of Thorin Oakenshield had escaped Goblin-town, and passed through the Misty Mountains themselves.

The Hobbit: Third-Age Generation

by PlymouthFury58

Chapter Five: Over Hill and Under Hill