The Lord of the Ponies: The Search for Harmony

Spike gripped at the sharp stone, which poked uncomfortably into his armored palm. He reached upward with one hand, wrapping his fingers around another. The rock then slipped from his grasp. He violently jerked, almost slipping before he pressed his entire body against the face of the sheer cliffside. Spike gave a cry, and his eyes wandered down. He focused on the ground far below, so far that an impenetrable white mist settled below him, as if he were above the clouds. He closed his eyes and hugged the rock wall with all his will.

"Quiet. Changelings are near," whispered Gollum with a quick glance to the dragon.

Spike opened his eyes and looked upward. Gollum practically bounded up the sheer cliff face with the skill and agility of a practiced acrobat. The emaciated stallion quickly reached the top, his hooves digging into the edge and pulling himself over.

The dragon's stomach lurched and he began to tremble. Sweat droplets slipped down his face, though through no fault of the heat. He could feel that it was almost unbearably hot, but he had faced worse. His sweating was for the same reason that his eyes were now locked on the edge of the cliff. Spike kept climbing, unconsciously scaling the cliff face as he dreaded the occasional noises which emanated from the cliff top. He expected a boulder to be fall upon him at any moment.

A sheet of dust and pebbles suddenly showered down from the clifftop. Spike almost screamed, one arm flying over his head. He looked down again, this time with eyes open, and looked to Apple Bloom. The filly struggled her way up the cliffside, forced to hop along a makeshift staircase of jutting rocks. Spike wanted to yell down to her, to tell her that Gollum was planning to kill them. But he felt something wrap around his free arm, like a snake coiling around his prey, and pull him straight upward.

The dragon landed hard against the top of the cliff, the wind knocked out of him. He gasped for air, his arms wrapping around his chest as shallow and short wheezes escaped his lips. The thing which had pulled him up pulled loose of his arm. He looked up, and saw Gollum standing over him, a look of concern on his face.

"Is the dragonses okay? We'd hate for precious dragonses to be hurt," said Gollum, a smile drawing over his thin cheeks, highlighting his skeletal body.

Spike stopped wheezing. Gollum reached a hoof out again, but the dragon waved it off. He stood up, whispering, "thank you", rather grudgingly. The stallion walked behind him, and Spike watched out of the corner of his eye as Gollum pulled Apple Bloom up.

With Apple Bloom safely standing on the cliff-top, Spike turned his gaze forward and was struck with awe.

High cliffs loomed upon either side of the dragon's vision, and jutting from the cliffs were two sheer hills, black and bare. Upon them stood the Teeth of Unicorn Range, two towers standing strong and tall. The watch-towers were garrisoned with Changelings. Stony-faced they were, armed with magic, swords, and spears. The sentries stood atop the towers and stared out from past great dark thorns, ceaselessly vigilant for intruders.

But across the mouth of the pass, from cliff to cliff, lied the truly awe-inspiring site. For between the two cliffs, the Dark Lord had built a rampart of stone. Inside it was a single gate of iron, and upon its battlement sentinels paced unceasingly. Beneath the hills on either side the rock was bored into a hundred caves and maggot holes; there a host of Changelings lurked, ready at a signal to issue forth like black ants going to war.

Day came and the fallow sun slowly rose over the lifeless ridges of the Unicorn Range. Then suddenly the cry of trumpets could be heard from the watchtowers. Far away from hidden holds and outposts in the hills came an answering call, and further still, remote but deep and ominous, there echoed in the fiery and desolate land beyond, the mighty horns and drums of Barad-dûr. Another day of toil had come. There was a great shift amongst the Changelings upon the battlements; night-guards were summoned to their dungeons and deep halls, and the day-guards marched to their posts.

Gollum rose slowly and crawled, insect-like, to the cliff’s edge. Very carefully he raised himself inch by inch, until he could peer over it. But the dragon behind him was far braver and equally naive. Spike stood high, gazing upon the great construct of Sauron, almost religiously so.

"The Black Gate!" cried Gollum, his head peeking over the cliff's edge. But his gaze only lingered on the structure for naught but a moment before he recoiled back as if bitten, curling into a ball and covering his face and ears.

Apple Bloom carefully stepped around the crying stallion, giving him a soft pat as she passed him and made her way to Spike's side. "Granny Smith would ‘ave a thin' or two tah say if she could see us now," said Apple Bloom with a smile.

Gollum regained his composure and crept behind Apple Bloom. "Master says to show him the way to the Smokey Mountain. So good Sméagol does, Master says so." It was impossible for Gollum to hide the fear in his voice.

"I did." She acknowledged, though only her words paid him mind. The filly crouched, her eyes just above the rock in front of her and her gaze transfixed on the Black Gate.

Spike turned his back to the spanning construct, tearing his eyes from the gate, and lowered himself, squatting till his head lay below the ridge of the rock which Apple Bloom still peered over. The dragon turned to her, hopelessness clear in his gaze. "I guess that's it then. We can't get past that."

The filly turned to him, and she saw his expression. It wrapped her in short, spiked chains with ends wrapped around anvils. It forced Apple Bloom to her haunches and to look at the ground. The chains dug into her skin and brought pain, terrible pain, pain capable of bringing tears out of the filly.

Spike laid a claw on her shoulder and held her chin in the other, bringing it up so her eyes met his. He smiled weakly, and she smiled in return. "We'll find a way."

Just then, a great trumpet blasted from the West. It rose across the fold of shuffling Changelings and roar of Ursa Minors. Like an earthquake, it strangled the earth in its shaking grasp. There was no symphony to it, no inspiring or frightening notes, it was simply a brash wave of sound flooding over the barren landscape before the Smokey Mountain.

Treading over the slight hill in the West, within sight of the Black Gate, a fleet of Griffons appeared. They were dressed in gold and brass which overlaid their steel lamellar armor. Along their legs, above and below their knees, golden rerebraces and vambraces lay, with brass poleyns covering their patellas. Their paws were adorned with red leather gloves, only leaving room for the sharp talons poking through. Each Griffon wore an undercut, brass helmet which was comprised of a head piece along with two molded mouth pieces for the upper and lower beak. Beneath the helmet, the Griffons wrapped a black headscarf, and mounted on the helmet's top were two front-facing horns.

As their trumpet died, Black Speech replaced the instrument's cry. The alien language was harsh, like the gnashing of the teeth of a great beast. And the Griffon were lined in the most complex of formations; it looked like a dragon. And with the slight movements of their uncovered wings, the Griffons created a slithering, winged serpent of shimmering gold. And as Apple Bloom, Spike, and Gollum looked down upon the pressing army, they began to quake, the primitive form of psychological warfare being terrifyingly effective against them.

"Za dashu snaku Zigur, Durbgu nazgshu, Durbgu dashshu!" roared the Griffon army. As their battle cries fell upon Gollum's ears, they burned him. The emaciated stallion whimpered and curled into a ball. He beat his skull, attempting to drown out the insanity-inducing reminders of past tortures.

Apple Bloom granted Gollum a cursory glance, before turning again back to the Black Gate. The horror in her gaze returned as she was astounded by the great and evil powers of the enemy.

And from the Black Gate came an answering horn. Changeling Bear-Masters scuttled across the black wrought-iron expanse, herding themselves to the Ursa Minor pens concealed behind the gate. Their whips cracked as other drones opened the gates to the cages, and on both sides of the gate, two Ursa Minors strode forth, their roars and monstrous proportions overbearing their Changeling masters. But the vampiric insects simply wouldn't have any of it, as they lashed their whips across the Ursa Minors' maws. The Ursas submitted, giving out pitiful cries as they were forced into restraints and their paws were placed upon a thick wooden beam. The Bear-Masters' whips cracked behind them, and to avoid their sting, the Ursa Minor's pushed forward. The force enacting on the wooden beams, which were attached to the Black Gate, leveraged the structure open, and the Griffon army strode in like honored guests.

Spike's features were thrown into astonishment. "Look! The gate is opening!" he cried.

And Apple Bloom not only looked, but pressed forward against the rock, as if starting for the Black Gate. But Spike's claw quickly caught her. She looked with a frown to the dragon behind her and said, "Ah did not ask for you t' come with me, Spike."

Spike looked back at her and smiled again weakly, like before. "I know."

Apple Bloom turned her gaze back to the Black Gate. "Okay. Three... Two... One... G—"

That's when the sky grew dark.

The world exploded around Apple Bloom as the rock she vowed to leap over violently shattered, shooting out chunks of stone as a plume of dust erupted around them. Recovering, the filly violently gasped, her diaphragm hammering as she vied to regain her breath through the cloud. She sat up, her hoof beating her chest as she hacked each breath. But as the dust plume cleared, Apple Bloom looked to the spot where she once stood. And as the blurred, swinging shapes in her distorted vision came together, her hoof shot to her mouth, for the filly feared that the creature which stood where she once was had heard her ragged coughs.

The monster's leg was like the trunk of an ancient and engorged tree; it's height reached to the heavens, and its thickness was like the Princess' tower in Canterlot. But instead of rough bark lining its outer layer, a sea of overlapping ruby scales and jutting jewels and gold coins, dull in the shadowed land of the Unicorn Range. And ending the beast's legs were claws; like roots they stabbed deep into the earth, each of the four spears as long as Apple Bloom herself.

The filly moved her gaze, following the monster's legs all the way up to its chest. The darkened sky further blotted by the beast's hide, the area around Apple Bloom was nearly pitch-black. If she focused, though, she could see a expansive wall of knotted muscle lowering to meet her. The wall moved closer and closer, so much so that Apple Bloom sucked in her gut, and placed the side of her head to the ground, silently hoping it wouldn't touch her.

The wall of muscle rose as the monster exhaled, and a tumultuous noise escaped its lips. It reminded Apple Bloom of the thunder storms back home.

"Don't worry, Apple Bloom," comforted Applejack. "It's just a bit of thunder."

The filly kept her eyes closed and hid beneath the covers of her bed. Her earlier scream had brought her sister to her beck and call.

"Don't let it get me!" screamed the then-small Apple Bloom. "Please don't let it get me!"

Applejack gently rubbed the filly's head beneath the blanket, smiling as she remembered the days long past when she too was afraid of the thunderstorms. Her hoof trailed down the blanket and eventually came across the chain around Apple Bloom's neck. Upon touching it through the blanket, Apple Bloom felt a sharp pain.

Applejack returned her hoof to the top of the blanket, and pulled it off her sister. Apple Bloom looked up, the fear of thunder and the pain in her neck leaving as she looked at the inspiring smile of her sister.

"Shut up, ya’ little brat!" yelled Applejack.

Applejack's mouth twisted into a scowl, and her forehooves pressed on Apple Bloom's throat. Her hooves felt like ice as they closed in a vise-like grip around the little filly's neck. The crazed look in her eyes terrified Apple Bloom as the pressure steadily grew and her breath was stopped. The filly fought back instinctively, her hooves pushing against Applejack's legs, but the older sister's grip was unyielding. Apple Bloom's lungs began to burn from emptiness, and she began to see dark spots across her vision, her strength weakening.

"What are you doing, Applejack?! Stop it!" cried Apple Bloom, the last bit of air escaping her lungs. And in her final moment, she felt her arms go limp, lungs burning ever so painfully as darkness overcame her sight.

Then, Apple Bloom could see again.

It was still dark, as far as she knew. But she could feel a hand over her mouth and hear the heavy breathing of two individuals beside her. She looked around, frantically, her pupils dilating as her vision adjusted to the darkness. She saw Spike, his claw pressed over her mouth, his other hand curled into a fist with the index claw upright and pressed to his lips. A light shh managed to reach her ears.

Relieved, her gaze turned to Gollum. The emaciated stallion was curled into a ball, rocking back and forth, weeping pitifully through the words, "Sounds like thunder! Isn't thunder! Protect us, Precious!"

Then came the thunder.

Another great exhale from the beast above brought the thunder back to the Black Gate, and Apple Bloom was once again reminded of why she had a terrible feeling in the back of her mind. She looked up again and saw the monster's chest rise.

"What is it?" whispered Apple Bloom, quieter than a mouse.

Spike slowly crawled to her, putting his ear near her mouth. "What?" he asked.

"What is it?" repeated Apple Bloom.

Spike turned his gaze back to her, and she met it. "That, Apple Bloom, is a dragon."

This dragon was possessed of a muscular, broad body with a long neck and tail. Its scales were the color of burning flames, shading to darker on its back and getting much thicker around its head. It had powerful limbs with four closely-mounted digits on each foot, and long and thin, frill-like wings running from its shoulders to its lower back. Sharpened protrusions, like giant teeth ran from the base of its skull, down its back, to the tip of its tail. The dragon's head was narrow with large, slitted nostrils at the helm and huge, pointed ears covering the sides. And finally, its searching eyes were as black as midnight.

But unbeknownst to Spike, Apple Bloom, and Gollum, the dragon was not ordinary. And while its form resembled many of its mature kin, this dragon was the steed of the Witch-King of Angmar, the black wraith who stationed himself atop a saddle along beast's neck. This powerful agent of Sauron watched as the newest recruits into Sauron's dark army completely entered the gate, and with a ear-rupturing screech, he signaled the Changeling sentries to close the Black Gate.

A sudden cry escaped Apple Bloom's lips, echoing along the underside of the dragon's chest until it exploded into the open sky beyond.

The dragon stopped breathing.

Spike shot his hand to Apple Bloom's mouth, his eyes bulging as he stared out to the dragon's front, expecting the serpent to curl its neck beneath itself and see them. And while Spike’s focus was drawn from her, Apple Bloom cried. She mashed her teeth against each other, and closed her eyes, wrinkling her brow with the exertion. Tears were drawn from her eyes, and her hoof found its way to her shoulder. She pressed against the stab wound, seeking to force the beating heart that sat there to find its way back into her center.

Silence followed, not even the light breeze willing to disturb it. The Witch-King of Angmar studied the sky beyond him, keen, but paradoxically absent, his eyes scanning for the source of the echo. Minutes passed in this silence. Finally contented that whatever had cried was not in his presence, or that the tingle along his body was nothing more than his cloak rustling in the breeze, his hoof kicked at the dragon's neck. Below, Apple Bloom, Spike, and Gollum felt the wind strengthen and transform into a sequence of gusts, a rhythmic thump courting each rush of air. Soon, the light flooded back over the three companions, as the dragon lifted off, its rider bearing it to a dark purpose southeast of the Black Gate.

Minutes passed again, the three companions laying low. It was Gollum who raised his head first, checking the earth beyond for anyone else. He saw nothing but the dirt and spires of the towers along the Black Gate. He reached out for Apple Bloom, and his leg was grabbed quickly by Spike. Gollum looked to the dragon, and found Spike matching his gaze, his determined stare getting across that Gollum was not permitted to lay a hoof on her.

Spike then looked to Apple Bloom and tapped her shoulder with his free hand. Apple Bloom jumped, looking about frantically. She scanned the skies and the ground beside her, and only found Spike and Gollum. She sighed, adamant in her safety as she rubbed her stinging shoulder.

"It's safe, Apple Bloom," he whispered, holding out his open claw to her.

Apple Bloom placed her hoof in Spike's claw, with Gollum warily maintaining a distance from the two. The emaciated stallion then left their side, scurrying over to the edge of the cliff, looking out to the Black Gate.

Spike pulled Apple Bloom up, and she stumbled into him. "You okay?" he asked.

Apple Bloom peered along her body. "I think I'm alright."

She fell back to the dirt, suddenly crying again, and Spike kneeled to catch her. She embraced the dragon, continuing to cry on his chest. Spike placed his arms around her, a comforting gesture. "I saw her. I saw Applejack."

Now Spike was threatened with tears. "It's all right, it’s over."

"And I felt him, Spike. I felt his blade," cried Apple Bloom. "I was so terrified, I felt so helpless."

Spike looked up to the sky, cursing under his breath, the demon — The Witch-King of Angmar — riding his kin like a pony rides a carriage. He then looked back down to the filly, hugging her ever more tightly, a vain effort to protect her from the evils of their world. "It's okay Apple Bloom. I will never let him hurt you again."

And with the sounds of Apple Bloom's cries reaching his ears, and the comforting responses of her draconian guardian, something in Gollum stirred. It wasn't a clear memory — just a feeling. Not a strong feeling either, but it was enough to make him turn back to the embracing pair. And upon seeing them, their compassion for one another evident, the same feeling, stronger this time, tugged at him. And for one moment, while he looked back at Apple Bloom, he did not think of the Ring or his hatred of her kin who had stolen the Precious from him; instead, his thoughts were filled with empathy. And as his empathy willed him to Apple Bloom and Spike to tell them of the other way to the Smokey Mountain, as planned, he did not consciously do so to further his schemes, but to return hope to the crying filly.

"Don't lose hope, Master. There's another way. More secret. A dark way," stated Gollum, reaching out for Apple Bloom.

The stallion's hoof was once again intercepted by Spike. The dragon forsook embracing Apple Bloom, his curses to the Witch-King and his blade forgotten as he gripped Gollum's leg in one claw and focused his anger, once again, on the gray stallion. And both Gollum and Apple Bloom, now looking at Spike, could see the dragon seriously consider striking the emaciated stallion, as his other claw curled into a fist and raised to the height of Gollum's muzzle.

"Why didn't you tell us this before?!" yelled Spike.

With fear in his eyes, Gollum responded, "B-because Master did not ask!"

Spike threw the stallion from his grasp, shaking his claw in the same way he would've done if he had some remnants of filth stuck to his hand. He removed himself from Apple Bloom's side, walking around her until he was the only thing between her and Gollum. Then he looked to Apple Bloom, conviction in his eyes and tone. "He's up to something."

But Apple Bloom was looking past him to Gollum, the faintest glimmer of hope in her gaze. "Are you sayin' there's another way t'th' Smokey Mountain?"

Gollum recovered, looking back to Apple Bloom. "Yes," he hissed with eagerness. "There’s a path...and some stairs...  and then a tunnel."

Now Apple Bloom looked to Spike, and the dragon matched her gaze. "He's led us this far."

The dragon lowered himself to her level, shaking his head left to right, desperate to convince her otherwise. "Apple Bloom, no."

Apple Bloom sighed, saddened to be forced to throw away her friend's counsel. "He's been true t'his word." She then turned to Gollum. "Lead the way, Sméagol."

And for the first time in her life, Apple Bloom caught the faintest glimmer of Sméagol in Gollum's eyes as he looked to her. "Good Sméagol always helps."

Gollum leapt away with a grin. Spike stared at Apple Bloom, lightly shaking his head in disbelief. And as the pair slowly followed Gollum, Apple Bloom tried her best not to meet Spike’s gaze.

Spike, my dearest friend... I hope you can forgive me.