The Bridge of Khazad-Dum
Just like that, it was all over. The light faded, and with it the overwhelming sensations that seemed to be generated by it, as the ponies floated back to the ground, each one of them turning back to their previous selves, and each one of them looking fatigued like they'd just run a marathon. Not one among them wasn't panting or otherwise slouching where they touched down.
The Middle Earth half of the Fellowship could do little more than stand and stare dumbfounded at what had just been seen, finding it quite difficult to comprehend.
Even Spike, who had actually seen a similar display once before back in Equestria, was left awed by it all.
"Gandalf," Gimli spoke up, "what sort of devilry did we just bear witness to?"
"Harmony Power," Spike spoke up in response. "As Twilight explained it, she and the others were imbued with the magic of the Tree of Harmony itself."
That was hardly an adequate explanation as far as the others were concerned. But before any of them could press Spike for details on just what that meant, the rest of their party was coming in their direction.
"Whoo doggy! Ah feel like Ah've been run through a whole rodeo," Applejack stated.
"Having never been in a rodeo myself, I'll take your word for it, darling," Rarity replied, "right now I'd love nothing more than a relaxing trip to a spa. And perhaps a good night's sleep."
"I don't know whether to be tired or hungry right now," Rainbow Dash added, before setting down on her hooves and addressing the other half of the group. "What'd I tell you? We took care of it, no sweat."
"Yes. So I can see," Gandalf stated and glanced back at the Balrog's petrified form; a testament to what should've been impossible, and yet had happened.
It was at this point that Boromir touched Gandalf's shoulder to get his attention. "Gentlemen, a thought has just come to me. If our otherworldly friends are fully capable of doing this to an ancient demon, then what could they do to Sauron himself?"
To some of the Fellowship members, it was a legitimate question, and brought about thoughts pertaining to the war possibly being won with ease.
But to those that were more aware, those that had seen the list in Boromir's eyes whenever the ring crossed into his line of fight, they saw it for what it really was. Gandalf, Aragorn, and even Twilight could see the depths that were behind the question.
Before any of them could question him further about what he was suggesting, the sound of rock breaking apart echoed off the hall's walls.
"Um... w-what was that?" Fluttershy asked nervously.
Slowly, ever so slowly, all heads turned to face the Balrog's stone form, each of them fearing the worst, yet hoping that it wasn't the case.
It unfortunately was the case, as they could see the stone form starting to crack, with the light of the Balrog's fire beginning to shine through the breaches.
"What!?" Rainbow Dash croaked out in surprise. "But... but how!?"
"We hit him with everything but the kitchen sink! How'd it not work!?" Pinkie yelled.
"Different world, different magic, different rules of physics is the only thing I can think of," Twilight stated, her mind racing with how this had come to pass.
"Can you try again?" Legolas asked as the Balrog clenched its fist, shattering the stone that had encompassed the appendage.
Twilight shook her head in response. "Harmony Power doesn't draw on our magic to make it work, but it leaves us exhausted in the aftermath. I don't think we can use it more than once a day; we've never had to before," she stated.
Gandalf recognized the gravity of the situation, and turned to the direction of the Hall's exit and promptly commanded the Fellowship. "RUN"!
The Fellowship quickly reached the Hall exit; a narrow doorway of normal height that led into an equally narrow downward flight of steps. Boromir was the first to go down them. Gandalf and Twilight were the last to exit the Hall, with Gandalf having to drag a stunned Twilight as she tried to comprehend the more precise reasons on how their Harmony powers had failed to stop the Balrog.
Boromir raced down the stairs until he exited through yet another narrow doorway that led to a landing. The Fellowship had exited into a very large chasm that was traversed by a narrow stairway, a long drop waiting to greet anyone that strayed too far from the center. Boromir moved off the landing and down the stairway that commenced directly ahead of him. However, after running down only a few stairs, he had to suddenly halt as the stairs ended before a bottomless drop. As he struggled to regain his balance, he dropped the torch he'd been carrying down the chasm. Fortunately, Legolas and Applejack each grabbed one of his arms to steady his dangerous teetering, and pull him back before he could fall off the edge. The Fellowship members that had exited the Hall had to turn to their right and take a detour down an alternate flight of stairs that lead to the cavern's main staircase.
Twilight and Aragorn came out on to the landing with Gandalf behind them. Both Man and Alicorn noticed that Gandalf appeared to be struggling somewhat and moved closer to support him.
"Gandalf!" Aragorn said to the wizard with quiet concern. Gandalf put his right hand on Aragorn's shoulder and looked at both him and Twilight.
"Lead them on, the both of you!"
If Twilight did not know better, she thought what Gandalf had just said and the way he spoke sounded like what Princess Celestia would say to her. Before she had the chance to ask him what he had planned, Gandalf spoke again. "The Bridge is near!"
The two followed Gandalf's gaze to see in the distance a narrow bridge spanning a great chasm. That was supposed to be near!?
It was at this moment that the Balrog's roar echoed through the mines, reminding the Fellowship of the fact that it was free, and far more furious than it had been on the first interaction. At the Balrog's roar, Gandalf pushed Aragorn in the direction of the stairs the Fellowship had to travel.
"Do as I say!" he urged Twilight and Aragorn. "Swords, shields, and even your magic are of no more use here! We must retreat!"
Due to his natural athleticism, Legolas was in the lead as the Fellowship went down the staircase that led to the Bridge of Khazad-dum. Unlike Boromir earlier, Legolas had plenty of time to see to his front a gap in the stairway. This gap was 'only' about seven feet across, but its depth was still quite terrible. The Fellowship halted as each member prepared to jump the gap.
Legolas easily leaped across the gap to its other side, with Applejack quickly following him in excellent form. Gandalf was about to jump when he heard the Balrog's roar coming from behind the Fellowship. He looked around to see the Hall exit had a fiery red glow. Each step the enraged Balrog took shook the staircase as well as parts of the cavern roof to crumble down on it.
"Gandalf!" Legolas beckoned the Wizard with a wave of his arm. Gandalf refocused on the task at hand and jumped across the gap. When he landed, he heard an arrow whistle overhead from his left. He turned in that direction to see that a company of goblin archers had perched themselves some sixty yards away on a ledge overlooking the Fellowship. Legolas rapidly drew his bow and shot one of the goblin archers in the forehead. The archer let out a dying gurgle as it fell face down from the ledge and into the chasm depths.
Despite that fact, there were still plenty more to take his place.
Twilight rapidly erected a shield to cover the Fellowship from injury, with goblins arrows shattering against its outside. She really couldn't see any reason to engage them in a battle of arrows, if they could simply trick their opponents into exhausting their supplies, leaving them both helpless and harmless.
However this present the Fellowship with a problem. While they were safe from the oncoming barrage, there simply wasn't enough room on the stairs for Twilight to stand guard where she currently was, and let the others cross. And with the Balrog just short of literally breathing down their necks, time wasn't on their side.
"They're going to leave us pinned down!" Twilight stated.
"We could dispatch them if you would lower your shield," Legolas pointed out, his eyes picking up many easy to hit targets, but none easy to get to at the moment.
"If I lower my shield we'll be turned into pin cushions," Twilight retorted. No matter what, the situation wasn't good. "We need a distraction."
"Well then let's give 'em a distraction! Rainbow Dash!" Spike called.
"Right with ya, little dude," Rainbow Dash stated as the dragon climbed up onto his back, before taking off.
The way Rainbow Dash flew towards the ledge reminded Boromir of a shot launched from a trebuchet, as she flew past them. The next thing he knew the ledge was illuminated by Spike's green flames, and many goblins screaming in surprise as they fell -or were thrown- off the ledge. Some were on fire, while some weren't.
"Well that's one way o' taking care o' business," Applejack commented as she saw Rainbow Dash flying back, letting Spike jump down on their side.
"Alright, alright, let's get moving! Double time!" Rainbow Dash called as she hovered next to the gap.
Unfortunately fate didn't seem to be on their side. A horrible commotion from above alerted the others to falling debris. And while they could all move out of the way to avoid getting crushed, there was no way to prevent the falling stones from breaking apart the stairs, and widening the gap past the point of where leaping across would be a viable option for everyone.
"Oh just wonderful! What now?" Rarity asked, knowing that she'd never be able to make the leap.
"Toss 'em!" Rainbow Dash instructed as she swooped to the halfway point and broke into a hover. "Toss 'em over and I'll catch 'em!" she stated.
With little discussion, as they didn't have the time for it, Boromir grabbed Merry first and lobbed the hobbit through the air as he screamed in surprise, before Rainbow Dash caught him, and turned to toss him to the other side for Legolas to catch.
Pippin was next to get a crash course in flying and relayed along, with much less dignity than his counterpart.
Pinkie didn't even give Rarity a chance to object before flinging her over to Rainbow Dash, a shrill scream accompanying her as she was roughly swung over the gap and into Applejack's waiting forelegs.
Sam's turn came far sooner than he was prepared for. But rather than being lobbed like he was a sack of potatoes, he found himself picked up by Boromir, who chose to leap the gap on his own, landing roughly in the process.
"You're next, Gimli," Aragorn stated as he moved to grab the dwarf, only to have a hand just about shoved in his face.
"Nobody tosses a dwarf!" Gimli stated indignantly before launching himself into a mighty leap with a determined cry. But despite his pride, his leap simply wasn't strong enough to reach the other side and he landed precipitously on the edge of the gap's other side. He would have fallen to his death, had it not been for Applejack quickly wrapping her forelegs around him.
"Don' worry there, pardner, Ah gotcha," she stated as she pulled him to safety.
Twilight turned to face Pinkie, knowing Aragorn wouldn't be able to toss her. But Pinkie was nowhere to be found. Fluttershy's absence was understandable, as she was already flying overhead. But Pinkie was-
"Hurry up you three!"
Turning around, Twilight saw that Pinkie was now on the other side of the gap. When and how that happened, she had no idea. But with the continual roars of the Balrog as it was trying to break through the opening to get to them, she didn't have time to consider the mystery.
That was if they didn't plummet to their deaths first. Before any of them could jump to the next side, the stairs they'd been standing on broke away, forcing them further back, and leaving the gap impossibly wide.
"Steady!" Aragorn warned.
And then the situation got even worse as more of the stone ceiling fell and destroyed the stairway behind them, leaving them stranded with nowhere to go.
"Oh just great! Now what're we supposed to do!?" Spike called from the other side.
"Alright. In the words of another world I've been to, "fuck this!" Hold on you two!" Twilight stated and pressed a wing to Frodo and Aragorn's back.
In one flash the three of them were gone. And in the next flash they were behind the rest of the Fellowship on the other side, with Frodo and Aragorn momentarily disoriented from experiencing teleportation for the first time.
"Move!" Twilight yelled as she took over the lead. They needed to make it to the bridge before the Balrog caught up with them.
"Over the Bridge!" Gandalf exhorted to all the Fellowship members who ran past him. "Fly!"
It was at that moment the Fellowship heard a deep, evil roar that sounded like a raging forest fire given a voice all its own. From the inferno arising from the pit behind them, the Balrog jumped onto the landing with a loud, shakin thud. The seven Equestrians joined Gandalf in looking behind at the Balrog, morbid curiosity driving them rather than intelligent thought; which would dictate running even faster at this point.
"We're all gonna be Balrog chow!" Rainbow Dash stated as they fled.
The Balrog apparently agreed with her assessment of the situation, as it effortlessly leaped over the Fellowship and landed in front of them, cutting off their avenue of escape over the bridge, as it slowly turned to face them; much like a cat toying with a mouse.
"We're all gonna die," Spike squeaked as the Balrog slowly began advancing toward them.
And then a glowing purple band appeared around the Balrog's neck, and it was yanked back with enough force to make it stumble. It tried to right itself, only to be yanked back again, closer to the edge of the chasm. A third powerful yank served enough to send it toppling backwards over the edge with a roar.
Twilight panted and slouched, the glow of her horn cutting out in the process. She'd drastically underestimated just how much weight the Balrog actually had to it when using her magic to send it falling to the bottom of the chasm; shadow and flame didn't have a tangible weight, but it sure had. And it wasn't just weight, the Balrog had unbelievable physical strength.
"That takes care of that. Let's get moving before more archers find us," she stated as she straightened herself back up again.
The others had very little to add to the conversation, still not sure of what they'd just seen, and experiencing far too much of an adrenaline rush to bother with being eloquent at the moment. So rather than doddle, they fell in line to cross the narrow bridge over to the other side.
"So do ya think the fall will be enough ta kill the Balrog where we failed?" Applejack asked as they made their way across.
"No. But the sudden stop at the bottom sure might," Twilight replied, not certain if she should be amused or not at that idea.
"Um... I think we might have a little problem with that..." Fluttershy said hesitantly and gestured behind them.
The others turned to look where she was gesturing, and saw the source of her concern; the Balrog was actually scaling the wall of the chasm, its flaming structure fully visible through the shadows. It must've been close to a mile away from the top, but it was still moving quite fast; they probably had three minutes before it got all the way back to the top again.
"Wow! He's more stubborn than a foal trying to peek at their birthday presents early!" Pinkie stated.
"However did it manage to do that? I thought for sure we'd seen the last of that brute," Rarity added.
"Never mind that, let's just get outta here! The exit's right over there! Let's just get out of here and leave it!" Rainbow Dash stated, not seeing why they were just standing around and talking about it.
"That would be most unwise, I am afraid," Gandalf stated solemnly. "If we were to leave now, the Balrog would not simply cease its pursuit of us. It would escape the mines of Moria, and be unleashed on Middle Earth, free to spread terror and destruction wherever it wished. The situation we face would only be made worse as a result, as Sauron would have yet another ally."
"Oh, wonderful. Just wonderful," Merry stated.
"We cannot win in combat, and we cannot leave the mines. What do we do now?" Pippin asked.
"Get the hay outta here," Rainbow Dash spoke up as she turned to face the others. "You go on and get out of here. I'll stay behind and lure the Balrog back through the mines until I can shake it, then I'll double back and meet up with you guys on the outside. I can fly, and I'm a lot faster than it."
"A noble intention. But a Balrog is not easily fooled," Gandalf stated. If Rainbow Dash attempted to execute her plan, it would know that something was up, and ignore the bait being dangled in front of it. "This foe requires a different strategy to defeat. Now quickly, across the bridge while it's still there. Move!"
The others quickly learned that it was a difficult feat to argue with Gandalf when he spoke in such a commanding tone, as they quickly crossed the stone bridge over to the other side, occupying different positions on the ramp that would lead them up and out. All of them except for Gandalf, who remained out on the bridge and waited.
And all the while, the Balrog was getting closer to the ledge, and able to pursue them all over again.
"Hey wait a second," Pinkie spoke up, "what'd he mean when he said while the bridge was still there?"
"I don't know," Twilight replied and shook her head, thoughts concerning Gandalf's inner strength interrupted. "But he just gave me an idea. When I pulled the Balrog off the ledge, it obviously wasn't at a steep enough angle to do us much good. But this time around, when it gets to the middle of the bridge I'm going to collapse it, sending it straight down, far enough away from either wall that it won't be able to grab onto anything and climb back up again," she explained.
"Now there's a right genius idea, Twi'," Applejack commented.
"Well it's certainly an ideal choke point for situations like this. A narrow area with no railings, the only way of crossing without scaling over the walls and ceiling... it just sort of presented itself really," Twilight pointed out.
All too soon, the Balrog finished its climb back to the top and moved to cross the bridge to get to them. But then it just stopped in its tracks, looking at the bridge, then at its foot, and then back at its quarry.
"What's it doing?" Frodo asked.
They received their answer shortly after, as they watched the Balrog demonstrate an ability they never would've guessed it had; the ability to change its form. In a flash of fire, it had reduced itself to half its original size, enabling it to more easily cross the bridge without risking falling over on such a narrow area. And in addition to the reduction of size came two large bat-like wings on its back.
"That... that didn't just happen," Spike stated in disbelief as the Balrog began advancing toward them.
Twilight was beside herself over this development. So much for that idea. "Oh you motherf-"
Gandalf was aware of what was going on behind him, but he paid it no mind. His focus was on the Balrog itself, and its dark trickery. It would be of no use here.
"You cannot pass!" he emphatically stated to the Balrog, which responded by standing to its full height, and igniting its whole body into an inferno. The Balrog then drew with its right hand a long flaming sword from under its newly formed wings.
"Gandalf!" Frodo yelled in horror at the sight before him and the rest of the Fellowship.
Gandalf held Glamdring in his right hand, and his staff in his left as he blocked the Balrog's path across the Bridge. "I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor."
To Twilight, the way that Gandalf spoke to the Balrog sounded like he was chanting a spell. This assumption appeared to be correct when Gandalf's staff emitted a bubble of blue-white light that surrounded the wizard.
Gandalf continued to speak his defiance to the Balrog in front of him. "The dark fire shall not avail you, flame of Udun!"
The Balrog responded by a powerful swing of its sword down towards him. However the sword appeared to disintegrate when Gandalf blocked it with Glamdring within the bubble of light, which quickly dissipated from the clash of swords.
The Equestrians were completely dumbfounded by the unfolding duel between Gandalf and the Balrog. Even the Changling invasion appeared somewhat mundane to the sight before them. Twilight couldn't help but think the battle between the wizard and the demon was the equal of Princess Celestia's battles ever recorded.
Apparently enraged by the loss of its sword, the Balrog stepped forward onto the Bridge wielding a long fiery whip above it's head. Gandalf remained steadfast nonetheless, "Go back to the shadow!"
Gandalf raised his staff and Glamdring before declaring to the demon in a firm, unyielding tone, "YOU! SHALL NOT! PASS!"
After he had said this, Gandalf slammed his staff down hard on the Bridge that resulted in a loud cracking noise being heard throughout the chamber. After giving a derisive snort at the wizard's display of power, the Balrog took another step forward. The rest of the Fellowship looked on in awe as the Bridge under the Balrog's feet crumbled, and the demon plummeted into the abyss, unable to latch onto anything with the now sizable gap between the Bridge and the corridor it was previously connected to.
Gandalf gave an exhausted grunt at the Balrog's seeming demise before turning to join the rest of the Fellowship.
At this moment, the tail end of the Balrog's whip snapped up and wrapped around Gandalf's right ankle, dragging him down. Glamdring and his staff slipped from his grasp into the abyss, while he was left to cling to the ledge and avoid joining them.
The first thought that came to Twilight's mind was how great minds thought alike. But that thought was quashed at the sight of Gandalf hanging from the ledge. The only thing to concern themselves with now was pulling him back up to safety.
And then an arrow came out of nowhere and struck the ground in front of them, deflecting off the hard stone flooring.
"What the?"
Another arrow came, striking Spike in the head, but thankfully deflecting off his hard skull. That didn't change the fact that it was painful enough to earn a few impolite words from him in response.
"More archers!" Aragorn yelled, bringing their attention to the other side of the gap to where a number of goblins had amassed, and were trying their best to do what their fellow archers had failed at.
"They got us pinned down!" Applejack stated as more arrows started raining down, with some landing closer than others. "Ah don' think they're gonna let us get anywhere near Gandalf."
Rarity readied her bow to return fire, but the lack of a clear line of sight, not having eyes like Legolas, and having so few arrows left, she knew that engaging the goblins at this distance wouldn't be a wise decision.
Frodo, at hearing Applejack's statement, immediately leaped into action and moved to rush to the edge where Gandalf was hanging on for dear life. Or at least he would have, had Boromir not immediately restrained him to keep him from going anywhere.
"No! Gandalf!" Frodo yelled as he struggled to get loose.
Pippin was the next to make a foolhardy decision to rush forward, but he was quickly yanked back by Legolas.
"Let me go!" Pippin yelled and kicked Legolas in the shin, causing the Mirkwood prince to yelp in pain and relinquish his grip in order to cradle his now-throbbing shin.
"Pardon me."
Boromir felt himself being roughly relieved of his shield by an unknown party, who was quickly revealed to be Fluttershy. A quick, muttered apology was offered before she flew after Pippin with it in tow, the two of them racing toward's Gandalf's position.
Pippin was as fast as his legs would carry him towards Gandalf's position, desperate to keep the wizard from falling to his doom. He didn't even register that Fluttershy was there with him, intercepting the oncoming arrows that could've struck him down where he stood, while the rest of the Fellowship that was able worked to cover him. All that mattered was getting to Gandalf.
He tripped, hitting the ground hard with a thud, scraping up his palms and knees something fierce, but he was too focused to register the pain. He crawled and scrambled the rest of the way over, practically throwing himself the last little bit of the way to grab hold of the sleeve to Gandalf's robes, wrapping his fingers tightly around the fabric.
"I have you!" he stated triumphantly.
The triumph turned out to be short lived, however, as the ledge on which they were perched began crumbling and breaking, Pippin's weight serving to be more than it could withstand after Gandalf had weakened its structure to send the Balrog falling down the chasm. Before either of them could react, the rock gave way, sending the both of them falling down the chasm.
Rainbow Dash had seen everything transpire. Without even a second thought she took off, flying up high above the ground. Fluttershy had managed to get a hold of Pippin, wrapping one foreleg around him while holding the shield with her other, but Gandalf was nowhere in sight. Even she knew it didn't take a genius to conclude that the sharp stop of the hobbit being grabbed had jostled him enough to send Gandalf falling down the pit. That left her to go after him by herself.
She was vaguely aware of Twilight yelling for her to come back. But she had already descended into a steep dive into the chasm, far past the point where returning could be considered a viable option.
The darkness of the chasm was an all-encompassing sort as she descended, the only real illumination being the flames of the Balrog itself as it plummeted helplessly. But it served to be enough to let her eyes pick out Gandalf in all of it.
Through one way or another she couldn't understand, she saw that Gandalf had managed to retrieve his sword, and was actually using it to engage the Balrog in battle as they both dropped. There was no way she could deny that the old wizard was hardcore. Even among those that were hardcore, he was hardcore; to think he was actually battling it out with the demon as they both plummeted to the bottom, that was determination and dedication on a whole new level she'd never seen before.
Unfortunately there was still a considerable gap that had to be covered to actually get to him. Their midair fight wasn't slowing their fall, so she was stuck playing catch up; something made all the more difficult by how fatigued she currently was. Fighting the goblins had been bad enough, but add their using Harmony Power on top of it -and all for no reason it turned out- and she was left having to flap her wings as hard as she could just to close the distance between them, and actually get in range of catching Gandalf. And she'd have to do it all without getting grabbed by the Balrog, as it seemed intent on continuing the fight to the bitter end, slamming against outcroppings of rock the whole time, and sending debris flying.
Her eyes burnt from all the smoke she had to fly through; apparently an unfortunate side effect of pursuing a flaming demon as it hurtled towards what might've been the center of the earth for all she knew. Her eyes watered and her nose ran, and by now her lungs were hurting from the lack of oxygen they were getting. But despite all of that she couldn't stop, she had to keep going in order to save Gandalf before they landed.
"Gandalf!" she yelled down at him, hoping to get his attention as she got closer.
Her wings ached horribly right now, burning with strain as she forced them to keep flapping, to keep closing the distance between them. What had seemed insurmountable just a little while ago had been drastically shortened, but it still wasn't good enough. She was running on pure fumes right now, devoid of the stamina she'd need to swoop in, grab Gandalf, and fly back out before the Balrog could grab either of them.
"Gandalf!" she yelled again as she strained to reach him. "Jump!"
She was so close. So close. She just needed a few more feet of distance closed to pull off the rescue. Then they could both watch the Balrog go splat against the bottom of the chasm.
And then a flash or purple entered her vision, and then nothing. It was like looking into a camera flash and being blinded by it, leaving her unaware of anything until her vision finally cleared.
When it did, she found herself back where she'd started with the others, with Twilight holding her around her midsection.
"What happened?" she asked. But the next question that came to her mind was even more important, as there was no sign of the answer that she could see. "Where's Gandalf?"
No one had any words to offer up for explanation to the question. An uncomfortable feeling started to form in her chest, and she turned to look at Twilight in hopes of getting an answer; a gesture that caused the Alicorn to flinch in response.
"Egghead, where's Gandalf? Didn't you teleport him out?" she asked, her voice just short of sounding frantic.
"I... I couldn't," Twilight admitted as she looked down at the floor.
"Whadda you mean you couldn't?" Rainbow Dash asked, her tone hostile. But she didn't even wait for Twilight to answer before responding. "Outta my way! I can still reach him!"
"Stop it! Just stop it already!" Twilight snapped, her tone far more commanding than it had been just seconds ago. The change had been so swift and unexpected, it made Rainbow Dash freeze in place. "If you hadn't gone rushing off like you did, I could've saved Gandalf, rather than being forced to choose who to save over the other!"
"You chose wrong!" Rainbow Dash yelled back, finally managing to find her voice again. "I could've gotten out of there on my own! You didn't have to worry about me! You should've saved Gandalf instead!"
"There's no way you could've gotten out of that dive on your own! Not at that velocity!" Twilight roared furiously, her eyes momentarily flashing bright red as she did. "By the time I caught up to you, if I'd hesitated even one second longer and tried to grab you both, you would've slammed into the ground right behind Gandalf, and broken every bone in your body! They were ten feet away from hitting the bottom when I finally managed to reach you! So if I chose wrong it's because you made me choose wrong in the first place!"
Rainbow Dash couldn't remember the last time she'd seen Twilight this furious before, and that fact scared her. This wasn't her friend, this was a demon that had replaced her and taken her form to fool them!
"Gandalf is DEAD right now, because you put yourself in a stupid position by not even thinking before you acted! If you'd just stayed behind I could've saved him!" Twilight shouted in her face, hostility unbound by any sense of proper decorum.
That in turn pushed Rainbow Dash over the edge, driving her to unleash her own fury right back.
"Then you should've just let me die!" she shrieked, her voice cracking under the strain of her words. "If I'm so stupid that you had to save me, then you should've just saved Gandalf instead! That's your fault, not mine! So tell me something, if I'm so bucking stupid, why'd you even bother with me anyway!?"
"Because you're my friend and I couldn't bear to lose you!" Twilight shouted back, no longer able to stem the flow of tears that the rise in emotions brought with it. "Why? Why do you always have to try to be the hero? Why do you have to put yourself in so much danger!?"
Rainbow Dash didn't know what to say in response to this. She was experiencing deja vu, back to when they went to Isengard to face Saruman, except their positions were reversed; Twilight had come up with the stupid idea, and she'd gone along to keep her from dying or being captured. Now here they were, with Twilight torn up over the idea of possibly losing her. The sight of her friend crying like she was proved to be too much, and she moved to pull her into a hug, just as had been done for her weeks back.
"Ah hate ta break this up, but we've got more archers on the way!" Applejack stated.
"Make for the exit!" Aragorn called, assuming the leadership role of the group.
They'd had enough trouble dealing with the last batch of goblins across the chasm, struggling to hold their ground while waiting for the others to get back safely. It was only through a combination of all their effort that they'd managed to triumph again, and he seriously doubted that they could do the same once more.
Applejack nodded in agreement, before more or less crawling under Twilight for the purpose of picking her up so they could get to moving, figuring it would be far easier than trying to take their distraught friend back down to emotional stability.
All around the Fellowship, everything was collapsing in on itself. They had just lost a companion, and that loss was working its way through their ranks in quick succession. Despair and fury was quickly consuming them all, necessitating their escape all the more. The shouting match between both Twilight and Rainbow Dash would've been bad enough under even ideal circumstances, which they didn't have to begin with.