THE PRINCESS OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS
CHAPTER ONE
Over the Maney Mountains voices drift in from the surroundings.
“You cannot pass!”
“Twilight!”
“I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor!”
Closer to the mountainside the cries grow louder.
“Go back to the shadow. The Dark Fire will not avail you,”
Inside the mountain Twilight and the Fire Dragon are on the bridge. The Fire Dragon strikes down on Twilight with its flaming sword. Twilight parries the blow with a force field, shattering the Fire Dragon’s weapon.
“YOU… SHALL NOT... PASS!!!” She screams. Twilight strikes her hoof onto the bridge. As the Fire Dragon steps forward, the bridge collapses from under it and the demon plunges backward into the chasm. Twilight, exhausted, leans on her hoof and watches the Fire Dragon fall then turns to follow the others. At the last moment, the flaming whip lashes up from the depths of the abyss and winds around Twilight’s back leg, dragging her over the edge. She clings onto the bridge but is straining to keep her grip.
Apple Bloom rushes forward but Rarity restrains her.
“No! No!” Rarity shouts.
Apple Bloom screams. “Twilight!”
“Fly, you fools.” Twilight loses her grip and falls into the chasm.
“Noooooooooooooooo!!!!” Apple Bloom calls after Twilight as she falls into the abyss. The unicorn falls after the Fire Dragon and grabs hold of his sword on her way down. As they continue to plunge into the depths, Twilight hacks away at the Fire Dragon even as it thrashes and bounces off the walls. They continue to plunge at great speed, sometimes with Twilight clinging to the horn of the demon. The battling pair then falls into an enormous cavern and plunges into the water.
Just then Apple Bloom awakens.
“Twilight!” she shouts.
“What is it, Apple Bloom?” Sweetie Belle asks.
“Nothing. Just a dream.” She says as she lies back down.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle climbs over the rocky terrain. They look into the distance at the Mountain of Fire.
“Canterlot.” Says Sweetie Belle. “The one place in Equestria we don’t want to see any closer, and the one place we’re trying to get to. It’s just where we can’t get. Let’s face it, Apple Bloom, we’re lost. I don’t think Twilight meant for us to come this way.”
“She didn’t mean for a lot of things to happen, Sweetie Belle... but they did.”
Suddenly Apple Bloom feels and sees the Eye looking in on her. She gasps and pants as she backs away.
“Apple Bloom?” asks Sweetie Belle. “It’s the Ring, isn’t it?”
“It’s getting heavier.” Says Apple Bloom as she clutches the Ring by her chest and sits down, still panting. She then fumbles for her water bottle and takes a sip.
“What food have we got left?” She asks.
“Well, let me see.” Says Sweetie Belle as she takes out a package of bread from her pack. “Oh yes, lovely – bread. And look!” She digs deeper into her pack. “More bread.”
Sweetie Belle shows another package. She then breaks off a piece and tosses it to Apple Bloom, and munches on a piece herself.
“I don't usually hold with foreign food, but this Pegaselvish stuff, it’s not bad.”
Apple Bloom smiles. “Nothing ever dampens your spirits, does it Sweetie Belle?”
Sweetie Belle smiles back, and then looks ominously towards Canterlot.
“Those rain clouds might.”
They continue trekking through difficult terrain, often huddling underneath their cloaks.
Sweetie Belle looks around. “This looks strangely familiar.”
Apple Bloom is exasperated. “It’s because we’ve been here before! We’re going in circles.”
“Ah! What's that horrid stink?” asks Sweetie Belle. “I bet there's a nasty bog nearby. Can you smell it?”
“Yes. I can smell it.” She drops to a whisper. “We’re not alone.”
That night Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are sleeping on the rocks. A dark shape appears on top of the cliff. The creature Spike has appeared and is making his way down to the fillies.
“The thieves! The thieves!” says Spike. “The filthy little thieves! Where is it? Where is it? They stole it from us. My preciousss.” Spike creeps closer and closer. “Curse them! We hates them! It’s ours, it is... and we wantssss it!”
Spike reaches out his claw towards the girls. Suddenly the ponies spring up, grab hold of Spike’s arms and pull him down. Amidst the struggle, Spike wriggles loose and leaps onto Apple Bloom. As Apple Bloom falls back, the chain and Ring around her neck is revealed and Spike jumps straight for the Ring. Sweetie Belle tries to grab at him but is knocked away. Spike now jumps on top of Apple Bloom and tries to reach for the Ring even as Apple Bloom grabs his claws and tries to push him away. Spike’s cheeks puff with exertion as he struggles with Apple Bloom, his enormous eyes fixed on the Ring. Sweetie Belle grabs hold of Spike again and tears him away from Apple Bloom. Spike then turns around and bites Sweetie Belle on the shoulder. She screams. He wriggles around and clasps his arms
around Sweetie Belle’s neck and legs around her waist in a death grip. Apple Bloom unsheathes her sword and holds it to Spike's throat.
“This is Sting.” She says menacingly. “You’ve seen it before, haven’t you... Spike! Release her or I’ll cut your throat!”
Slowly, Spike loosens his grip on Sweetie Belle and as the latter disentangles herself, Spike wails.
Spike is being dragged with Sweetie Belle's Pegaselvish rope around his neck, wailing and writhing in pain.
“It burns!” Screams spike. “It burns us! It freezes! Nasty Pegaselves twisted it. Take it off us!”
“Quiet you!” Sweetie Belle tugs fiercely at the rope. Spike cries some more and collapses onto his back. Sweetie Belle turns to Apple Bloom in dismay. “It’s hopeless! Every Dog in Canterlot’s going to hear this racket! Let’s just tie him up and leave him.”
“No!” yells Spike. “That would kill us! Kill us!”
“It’s no more than you deserve!” Says Sweetie Belle.
“Maybe he does deserve to die,” Says Apple Bloom. “but now that I see him, I do pity him.”
“We be nice to them if they be nice to us.” Spike begs. “Take it off us. We swears to do what you wants. We swears.”
“There’s no promise you can make that I can trust.” Says Apple Bloom.
“We swears to serve the master of the preciousss. We swears on... on the precious.”
“The Ring is treacherous.” Apple Bloom says. “It will hold you to your word.”
“Yes... on the preciousss. On the preciousss.”
“I don’t believe you!” Shouts Sweetie Belle. Spike backs away, frightened, and climbs onto a boulder
“Get down! I said, down!” Sweetie Belle jerks strongly at the rope as Spike tries to get away from her. He crashes onto the ground, choking.
“Sweetie Belle!” Shouts Apple Bloom.
“He’s trying to trick us!” Says Sweetie Belle. “We let him go he’ll throttle us in our sleep!”
Spike lies panting and holding his throat. He backs away, frightened, as Apple Bloom approaches him.
“You know the way to Canterlot?” She asks.
Spike nods warily. “Yes...”
“You’ve been there before?”
He nods again. “Yes...”
Apple Bloom reaches out and takes the rope noose off Spike’s neck. Spike seems surprised and relieved.
“You will lead us to the Dark Door.” She says.
Spike scrambles off and the shetlands follow in his wake.
-
A band of Ponykai marches across the plain, with two shetlands bound to the backs of two disgusting creatures, half pony-half dog. Pinkie Pie tries to call to Scootaloo, who is unconscious with a gash on her right brow.
“Scootaloo. Scootaloo!” She receives no response.
Suddenly, a Ponykai puts up his hoof and signals a stop.
“What is it? What do you smell?” One asks.
He sniffs the air. “Pony-flesh.”
“Applejack!” Pinkie Pie says quietly to herself.
“They've picked up our trail!” One shouts. “Let's move!”
The Ponykai quicken their pace. Pinkie Pie struggles to reach her Pegaselven brooch with her teeth. She then tears it off her cloak and drops it onto the ground. A Ponykai hoof stomps onto the brooch but it remains unbroken and visible on the grass.
-
Applejack is lying with her eyes closed and ear pressed to the ground, listening for the sound of hoofsteps.
“Their pace has quickened.” She looks up. “They must have caught our scent. Hurry!” She says as she runs off.
“Come on, Rainbow Dash!” Shouts Fluttershy looking back at Rainbow Dash and then flies after Applejack. Rainbow Dash pauses in her steps and huffs, glancing down at her bandaged wings.
“Three days’ and nights’ pursuit. No food. No rest. And no sign of our quarry but what bare rock can tell.” She runs after her companions.
The Three Hunters run across rocks and plains, with Applejack in the lead, followed by Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. From time to time, Fluttershy looks back to make sure that Rainbow Dash is keeping up. Applejack suddenly bends down to pick up an Pegaselven brooch from the ground.
“Not carelessly do the leaves of Hooflorien fall.”
Fluttershy stops and turns to Applejack. “They may yet be alive.”
“Less than a day ahead of us.” Says the orange mare. “Come!” She says as she runs off again.
Rainbow Dash stumbles from behind some rocks and rolls to the ground.
“Come, Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy calls. “We are gaining on them!”
Rainbow Dash pants. “I am wasted on cross-country! We Dwarficorns are natural sprinters! Very dangerous over short distances!”
The trackers come over a hill and pause as they gaze across the plains below.
“Tohan. Home of the horse-lords.” Says Applejack. “There is something strange at work here. Some evil gives speed to these creatures, sets its will against us.”
Fluttershy runs ahead and looks out to the horizon.
“Fluttershy, what do your Pegaself eyes see?”
The Ponykai turn northeast. They’re taking the shetlands to Hayengard!”
“Luna” Applejack mutters.
-
The tower of stands amidst the smoking caverns of Hayengard. Luna stands in her chamber, communicating with the Dark Lord Celestia through the Palantír.
“The world is changing.” She says.
She sees in her mind the tower of Bartrottdur, with its huge Dog armies on a bridge.
“Who now has the strength to stand against the armies of Hayengard and Canterlot? To stand against the might of Celestia and Luna and the union of the two towers?”
She sees along the height of the tower of Bartrott-dur, the flaming Eye.
“Together, my lord Celestia, we shall rule Equestria.”
The trees around Hayengard are being ripped down, chopped up and used to feed huge furnaces. The caverns of Hayengard glow with the fires of industry, sounds of hammering fill the air and molten iron is poured into casts to forge weapons.
“The old world will burn in the fires of industry. The forests will fall. A new order will rise. We will drive the machine of war with the sword and the spear and the iron fists of the Dogs. We have only to remove those who oppose us.”
Luna stands in the midst of a gathering of rough, angry looking ponies.
“The Earth Pony took your land. They drove your people into the hills to scratch a living off rocks.”
“Murderers!” a pony shouts.
“Take back the lands they stole from you!” Luna yells. “Burn every village!”
The crowd roars with approval. They stomp off to destroy the villages of Tohan as Luna stands coldly still among the stampede.
-
A Tohan village is in pandemonium as people try to escape the on-coming pillage.
“It will begin in Tohan.” Says Luna. “Too long have these peasants stood against you. But no more.”
In the village a frightened mare calls out to her children. “You take your sister. You’ll go faster with just two.”
The mare puts her tiny filly onto the back of the older boy. “Listen to me. You must ride to Horse Shoe and raise the alarm. Do you understand me?
“Yes, Ma!” says the boy.
The filly starts to cry. “I don’t wanna leave! I don't wanna go, Mama!”
The mother looks her in the eye. “I will find you there.”
A pony in the village screams.
“Quickly!”
The children ride off. The mare looks after them. “Go child!”
The savage ponies and Ponykai Enter the village, burning everything in sight as the villagers scream and run in all directions. The two foals weep as they look back from a distance.
-
“Tohan, my lady,” says Luna. “is ready to fall.”
