At the risk of gushing... Excellent fic- easily in my top ten list of favorites (even if you include published fan fiction like Zahn's Thrawn books).As you might guess from my username, I'm a huge Tolkien fan (have been for nearly a quarter century). So the title is what drew me in. I mean, how could I pass up something that promised to mix my oldest and dearest fictional love with my newest fandom joy? The funny thing is, it turned out to be such a wonderful story in its own right that anytime a Tolkien reference raised it's head, it actually broke my immersion. Just a little bit, mind, but those turned out to be my least favorite parts- even though they were incorporated skillfully and, in many cases, subtly enough that some newer Tolkien fans might even miss them entirely.That aside, the story was epic, the writing was high quality and the character development felt like a natural growth on top of the characters from the show- rather than the forceful twisting into completely different characters you see in some fanfics. I can partially judge how faithful a fanfic is being to a character by whether or not I can hear the voice actors from the show in my head when reading the dialog, or if my brain has substituted a different voice. This is one of the few fics I've ever read where I never heard anyone other than Tabitha St. Germain and Ashleigh Ball voicing the three main ponies. (Except, maybe, when AJ was being a grammer nazi, but I was cheering her on so I forgave that bit.So yeah- Iliked it.