The Daughter Doo: Honorary Cutie Mark Crusader

Chapters

1 - You Call That Courageous?
2 - The Gas for That Has Just Run Out
3 - We've Been Dogpiled
5 - Go Go Go!
4 - I've Officially Decided That I Hate This Place

1 - You Call That Courageous?

Chapter One

You Call That Courageous?

Dinky wasn't crying; it was just the wind in her eyes. Wincing, the five-year old filly bowed her head. She clung close to her mother from where she hung in the left pocket of Ditzy Doo's saddlebag. The evening air over Ponyville billowed in little blistery gusts, but Ditzy's strong wings kept them both straight, even if her eyes weren't. All around them, the stars above Equestria twinkled with magical brilliance over a mellow blue countryside.

"Well, all in all, I’d say it was a pretty entertaining talent show this year," Ditzy said. Her voice was pleasant enough, though it trailed with the raspy stretch of a long day of delivering the mail. Dinky felt the words more than she heard them, relishing in the warm vibrations of her mother's voice through the saddlebag. "Even if it got a little wacky towards the end. 'Cutie Mark Crusaders?' I don't remember Miss Cheerilee labeling anything on tonight's program as a 'Comedy Act.'"

Dinky peeked one amber eye open, then the other. She glanced up, spotting the gray silhouette of Ditzy's wingfeathers against the night's canvas. Her jaw clenched tightly shut.

"Still, weren't those two roller skating ponies absolutely amazing?" Ditzy's voice took on a melodic tone as it danced along the breezy currents, shooting past Dinky's ears in mid-flight. "What were their names again...? Oh! Sunny Days and Peachie Pie! So adorable... Now there's a poetry recital I'll never forget! I bet their parents are so proud."

Dinky felt a sudden chill overwhelming her. Only, this time, she figured it wasn't the wind. It gnawed persistently at her heart, growing into a deep ache that throbbed harder and harder in her gut. She tried ignoring it, choosing instead to gaze at the rolling starlit landscape below.

The dim green fields of the Ponyville Park gave way to gold-thatched rooftops and two-story buildings. The sleepy town was even sleepier at night, with the occasional chimney spilling smoke into the crisp, cool air. Ditzy veered past the hazy columns with nimble grace, tracing the dirt paths of Ponyville to where the streets densely converged in the center. Their apartment waited for them only a few blocks away.

"You'll be starting kindergarten soon, Dinky," Ditzy hummed. She bore a silver smile in the moonlight. "In just a year or two, it'll be your chance to perform on stage! Now wouldn't that be exciting?"

The filly squirmed in the saddlebag. Her eyes pulsed, making it hard to concentrate on the dark lawns and patios blurring by underneath.

"Why're you so quiet tonight, my little muffin?" Ditzy cooed, giving her flank the tiniest of shakes. "Awwww... I bet you're tired. Mommy's tired too. Don't worry; I'll have you home and tucked safely in bed soon enough." The last words rang with a trailing giggle, something very warm that punctured the cold embrace of night.

Perhaps that's what finally did it. Dinky committed to her next breath. With jaw unclenched, the foal's voice came out in a high-pitched tone: "Mommy...?"

"Hmmm? Yes, Dinky?"

"Did Daddy do something mean to you?"

Almost instantly, Ditzy's wings stopped flapping. Her body turned colder than the night as she glided stiffly ahead.

Dinky's tiny hooves kneaded the edge of the bag. "Is that why he doesn't live with us?"

What followed was ten petrified seconds of silence. There was no response, only the gentle th-thumps of spry hooves as Ditzy Doo landed four blocks away from home. She simply sat there, in the dead center of an abandoned street, with such quietness that it began to scare Dinky more than silence had ever done so before.

Dinky pivoted in her saddlebag. With a gaping expression, she squinted through the veil of night at her mother.

Ditzy's head was shaking. This tremor spread through her body until it consumed her flanks and drooping wings. Dinky felt each quiver through the saddlebag, and it almost distracted her from the sudden gasps and whimpers coming from her mother’s muzzle. The filly craned her neck just in time to spot reflective beads of moonlight on Ditzy's eyelashes.

"Mommy...?"

"I'm so sorry..." Ditzy clenched her teeth. She turned to look at her daughter head on, an imperfect accomplishment with her stubbornly wandering eyes. "Oh, Dinky, I'm s-so sorry." She fell—a very slow collapse—until her body deflated against the rough dirt of the road. Her face hid between two outstretched limbs, and all she did was repeat the melancholic mantra: "I'm so sorry... I'm s-so sorry..."

"Mommy..." Dinky bit her lip. Fumbling with tiny foal hooves, she stumbled out of the saddlebag. She tripped once, falling awkwardly onto her side. Just as quickly, she got back up and waddled over to her mother's face. There, she leaned in and nuzzled Ditzy, careful not to poke the pony's gray coat with her tiny stub of a horn. "Why are you sorry? It's okay! You didn't do anything wrong!"

Those words were of little help; Ditzy only sobbed harder. Dinky felt a stab of guilt rip through her heart, and her blood ran cold with the thought of having done something to hurt her mother. Not knowing the reason for those tears was enough for her to start shedding three times as many herself. The stars dimmed overhead as the whole world shrank, and suddenly it was just the two of them. Dinky leaned in as close as she could possibly get, burying her face into her mother’s neck.

"Mommy... M-Mommy please..." She sniffled. "Whatever you're sorry for, I forgive you. Please don't cry."

A pitiful squeak found its way through Ditzy's lips. Eyes closed, she blindly felt a hoof forward, reaching. Dinky leaned into it, and Ditzy scooped the little foal up in the crook of her fetlock, holding her close and closer as she quietly wept there in the center of the road.

"Mommy loves you, my little muffin," Ditzy whispered, kissing Dinky lightly—repeatedly—on the cheek, ear, and horn. "To the moon and back..." She held the child close in the cold breath of night, as if afraid the wind might suddenly carry her off. "To the moon and back."

Dinky felt sad, scared, and more than a little bit confused. But she also felt warm, warm and safe in her mother's embrace. Somehow, half of her knew that nothing would ever be the same again, but the other half realized it didn't matter. So Dinky simply chose to stay there, in the only place she knew, until Ditzy Doo's crying spell ended and she quietly, calmly carried her tearful Muffin home and to a warm bed.

{-DD-}

Two years later, Dinky Doo stood on the crest of a hill, legs locked tight as the periwinkle pony gazed eastward into the rolling countryside of Equestria. A strong gust of warm wind came up from the valley, rustling at the tall grass on either side of the filly. Dinky's curly blonde mane billowed behind her stubby horn, and she felt like giggling from the chill, but chose instead to remain resolute in her stance, amber eyes firm as she glared into the horizon like a valiant and fearless bastion of—

"Dinky?" Sweetie Belle's voice ripped against the wind like a proverbial record scratch. "Diiiiiinky???"

The tiny filly winced, immediately ripped out of her tiny little world. "Uhhh..." She turned and waved with a guilty tremor. "Up here, Sweetie Belle."

"There you are!" Sweetie Belle galloped up the hill, which was no easy task. She came three feet short of Dinky, bending over and wheezing for breath. "Whew! Well I’m certainly not getting a cutie mark in mountain climbing!" Inhaling heavily, the older unicorn stood up. Because Dinky was on a higher part of the hill, it allowed the two fillies to look eye-to-eye, an adorably odd thing. "Somepony should put a bell on you! You slipped away just as we were getting ready to speed off for Manehattan!"

"Oh, I-I'm sorry." Dinky pawed at the springy grass, biting her lip. She had only been an Honorary Cutie Mark Crusader for an hour and a half and already it felt like she was messing things up. In truth, she wasn't used to having to impress three ponies at once, much less fillies just a couple of years older than her. "I do that to Mommy sometimes. I should know better."

"It's okay!" Sweetie Belle smiled, her snow-white dimples eating into her green eyes. "You don't have to be so hard on yourself!"

"Sometimes I feel like I'm half here and I'm half somewhere else," Dinky said with a shrug. "I'll try not to do it again."

"Try not to do what again?" Apple Bloom asked, trotting up behind Sweetie Belle.

"Yeah... just what were you doing right now?" rasped Scootaloo, not far behind. The wind kicked at her violet mane as she gave a devilish smirk. "You were standing all funny on the hilltop while you were alone!"

"Well... uh..." Dinky's blush chased the gray out of her cheeks. There was a persistent, knifing, yet playful tone to Scootaloo's voice. Dinky knew she couldn't hide things from her for long, or the other Crusaders for that matter. "We're about to go on a big adventure and all, and so I guess I felt like... well..."

"You were striking a heroic pose!" Sweetie did a little hop, beaming. "Weren't you?"

Somehow, Sweetie Belle saying that out loud gave Dinky a bit of relief. She smiled, nonetheless squirming a bit. "Maybe..."

"We're about to become Cutie Mark Crusaders Taken Twin Trackers, Dinky," Apple Bloom said with a confident smile, full of pride and country grit. "T'ain't nothin' wrong with feelin' heroic about it."

"Or looking heroic about it!" Sweetie Belle added with a wink.

"Pfft!" Scootaloo marched up the hilltop with a wry smirk. "Not if you're doing it wrong!"

"Buh?" Sweetie Belle blinked.

"Oh puh-lease." Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. "Go on and tell us, Prancealoo. Just how do you do a proper 'heroic pose?'"

"Not the way Dinky was doing it, I'll tell you that!" Scootaloo stared Dinky down. "Seriously, what was with the whole stiff-legged thing? Were you trying to be a crusader or a greyhound?"

"Uhhhh..." Dinky smiled up at her sheepishly. It was moments like these that she remembered just how tiny she was compared to her three older companions. "Neither?"

"Go on, Dinky." Scootaloo nodded with a grin. "Show me 'courageous!'"

"Okay... here goes!" Dinky inhaled the spring air and shot up, ears perking into the wind. In her head, she envisioned Ditzy arriving home from a long day of delivering the mail. There was always a limber step to her mother's hooves when she touched down from an enduring flight. Dinky liked to secretly watch her from the apartment's front window as she landed and strolled towards the household entrance, her stalwart body poised stiff and rigid, like a royal guard on patrol. So, naturally, Dinky tried emulating it. If she had wings, they'd be pointed skyward with their sharp feathered ends fully extended.

The last thing she expected to hear was a chorus of giggles. But, alas, she glanced down to see Sweetie Belle plopped back on her flank and chortling her heart out. Beside her, Apple Bloom was holding a hoof to her yellow muzzle. "Shucks... you do look like a greyhound, Dinky!"

"Yeah! A cute puppy one!" Sweetie Belle added, red-faced.

"Ugh..." Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "You call that courageous?"

"Errr..." Dinky slouched, relaxing her shoulders as she simpered. Perhaps looking "heroic" had to wait for when she was her mother's age. "Could I settle for righteously indignant?"

"What are you, a dictionary?" Scootaloo tapped the unicorn's chest, gently pushing her aside. "Move over, kiddo. Lemme show you how it's done." She jumped straight up, wings buzzing, and came back down in an agile squat, her front body low to the earth as she hiked her rear legs up along with her hips. "Now... see this? You wanna look fierce, like you're ready to spring into action! Grrrrrr!" Scootaloo's nostrils flared as her teeth showed from beneath her devilishly curved lips. "Then you gotta drag your hoof across the ground like this... see? That's 'Danger Horse 101.' It's how you tell the world 'Hey! Back off! I'm on a mission and you can't stop me!'" Her tail flicked vibrantly in the wind. "Then you give your tail a bit of a shake, y'know, like a war banner... of justice. Heheh—yeah, just to show everypony you mean business!"

Scootaloo's monologue was heinously cut short by the incessant giggles of her comrades.

The spry pegasus blinked at them, not once breaking out of her stance. "What's so darn funny? I'm trying to teach our Honorary Crusader something here!"

"With what?!" Apple Bloom snorted, red in the face. "Mud wrasslin' moves?"

"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle pointed, struggling to contain her tittering chirps. "Are you taunting foalnappers, or didja become a kitty cat overnight?"

“Reckon I’ve got a ball of yarn somewhere,” Apple Bloom winked at Dinky. The little unicorn giggled.

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well…” She trudged down the hillside and past them. “I wanna see you guys come up with an even cooler pose than that!"

"Oh! That's easy!" Apple Bloom stood up straight. "I'd just—"

"And I mean without boring ol’ hoofie kicks!" Scootaloo's voice barked up the hill. “We’re crusaders, not cheerleaders!”

"Awwwwww..." Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle deflated in unison.

Dinky smiled sweetly at the two as she stood beside them. "How about I help you save the twins first, and then we figure out an awesome pose?"

"Heh, now that's the spirit," Apple Bloom said with a smile.

"I like the way that you think, Dinky!" Sweetie Belle playfully fluffed the filly's mane. "With your head!"

"Come on, y'all." Apple Bloom trotted down the hill. "We've got everythang gathered in the wagon for our adventure trip."

"You know..." Sweetie Belle shuffled after Apple Bloom, followed closely behind by Dinky. "There's gotta be a better way to say that."

"Say what?"

"'Adventure trip.' It just doesn't roll off the tongue very well." Sweetie Belle licked the inside of her mouth, then brightened. "What if you combined the two of them?! Adventrip!"

"Are ya serious?"

"What in Tartarus is an adventrip?" Scootaloo blurted as the others joined her at the base of the hill.

"Scootaloo," Apple Bloom hissed upon the flagrant mention of the underworld. Her voice took on a curiously motherly tone as she stepped in between Scootaloo and Dinky, as if she could somehow block the exclamation with her earth pony body. "Do ya mind? Dinky's lil' ears!"

"What? She's like... only a year and a half younger than us." Scootaloo scratched her own head, face scrunched. "Two years?"

"Hey..." Dinky craned her neck, spotting a large cardboard box positioned beside the wagon that was hitched to the back of Scootaloo's scooter. "What's that?"

"Ask Sweetie Belle," Scootaloo droned. "She's the one who brought it."

"Yeah, what's with the box, Sweetie Belle?" Apple Bloom remarked, rubbing a hoof across her scarlet bangs. "You didn't pack half of Carousel Boutique into that, didja? I know we're tiny ponies n'all, but so's the wagon."

"Relax, girls!" Sweetie Belle waddled over and reached into the container. "I just brought a few necessary things! The box stays."

"Like what kind of things?" Scootaloo squinted.

Sweetie Belle spun about with three crimson capes dangling over her legs. "Crusader things!"

"Oooh!" Scootaloo's eyes brightened as her little orange wings buzzed. "Those are my favorite kind of things!"

"Woohoo!" Apple Bloom spun about, her flank facing Sweetie Belle. "What are you waiting for? Suit me up!"

"Hold still..." Sweetie Belle licked her pale lips as she fitted the first cape around Apple Bloom's neck and shoulders, tying it firmly, but not too tight. "There! Perfect!" She turned towards Scootaloo. "Scoots! Your turn!"

"This is so rad!" Scootaloo beamed as she let Sweetie Belle apply the cape. "We're going to look absolutely badflank as we burst in on the foal nappers while wearing these babies!"

"I know, right?" Sweetie Belle grinned wickedly as Apple Bloom stepped up to fit the third cape around her. "They'll never forget that it was the Crusaders who stopped them in their evil tracks! And neither will the rest of Ponyville for that matter! We'll be heroes all over the nation! They'll write songs about us and stuff! Well... I'll write songs about us. Heehee."

"Wow..." Dinky smiled, blinking at the velvet red capes bearing blue patches embossed with prancing golden ponies. Once or twice, Dinky had seen the three fillies wearing those outfits. Somehow, she'd always assumed they were just preparing for a performance, like a stage play. Suddenly, realizing that the capes were acquainted with something much dearer to the Crusaders' hearts, Dinky felt both a strange rush of pride and a bubbly tingle of amusement for something so delightfully absurd. She couldn't help but giggle. "They really are pretty!"

"You bet!" Sweetie Belle did a little twirl, allowing the undersides to flare. "I made them! Just like my big sister! I even lined the bottoms with this special gold silk that took so long to—" She froze in place, her pupils shrinking. In an instant, she hid her shameful, blushing expression behind her cape. "Oh Dinky," she murmured in a muffled tone. "I'm so sorry."

"Sorry?" Dinky practically saw stars from the concussive shift in Sweetie Belle's tone. "What for?"

"Erm..." Scootaloo fidgeted, one hoof resting on the scooter. It was strange seeing even the barest hint of guilt on the little pegasus' face. "Well, you see, Sweetie Belle made these two years ago. All this time, we've been the only Cutie Mark Crusaders to ever need them. Just the three of us."

"We weren't expecting something as awesome as a new member to come our way," Sweetie said. "Otherwise, I'd have another cape made especially for you."

"But Mr. And Mrs. Cakes' foals are being whisked away to Manehattan right as we speak," Apple Bloom added with a sad twang. "We really dun have the time for Sweetie Belle to stitch together a new crusader cape. Not if we wanna track 'em down in time, that is."

"B-b-but I'll totally m-make you one as soon as we save the day and we come back with the twins!" Sweetie's voice squeaked in desperation, as earnest as her bright green eyes. "Pinkie Pie Promise, I will!"

Dinky smiled at them all. In many ways, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were the same pony, if that pony had three mouths.. and maybe was an alicorn. They spoke with one voice, even when apologizing. It was a strangely adorable thing to behold, and it tickled Dinky even more to think that these ponies now considered her a friend. She was a Crusader now. Official or not, that was still a huge honor, and suddenly Dinky wondered if she too would one day be speaking in rhythm with these like-minded fillies. There was no conceivable way that she could not giggle at the thought of it.

"It's okay, girls," she said, shaking her head in the brisk wind. "I don't have to wear a cape to feel like I'm one of the Crusaders. Just being here with you is enough!"

"Awwwwwwww..." Sweetie Belle needed no greater excuse to lean forward and engulf the smaller unicorn in the sincerest of hugs. "That's so sweet! You're so sweet!"

"You're both sweet," Scootaloo groaned, already slapping a bike helmet over her head. "Now let's get to foal-saving already!"

"Erm... come to think of it..." Apple Bloom fidgeted, putting on her own helmet. "We don't have much in the way of headgear for Dinky either."

"Not to worry!" Sweetie Belle hopped back a step. "I have a solution for that! And for the cape problem!"

"You do?" Dinky blinked, her little heart skipping a beat. A part of her had feared that maybe she wouldn’t fit well into this group. However, the enthusiasm with which the three fillies inducted her was so palpable and mesmerizing. So long as they were charismatic about the whole process, Dinky reasoned there was nothing to be worried about. She waited with bated breath for what Sweetie Belle would present next.

After having plunged into the box, the older unicorn came back out, brandishing a long burgundy towel and a dimpled grin. "First, the cape!"

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Awwww now that's just silly." She face-hoofed while Apple Bloom giggled.

"Now, I know it's not much in the way of being fashionable..." Sweetie Belle turned Dinky around and began fitting her with the pastel length of terry cloth. "...but it's nice and thick and comfy and it'll keep you warm when it gets chilly at night!"

"That's so thoughtful of you, Sweetie!" Dinky exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. "Wow, will we actually be chasing the bad guys at night?"

"Of course! There's no telling how long this adventrip might take!"

"Uhhhh, Sweetie Belle?" Apple Bloom glared from underneath her helmet. "Tomorrow's Monday. If we don't bring the foals back by sundown, we'll get in trouble for not showin' up to school in the morning."

"Pfft! As if!" Scootaloo gave her own helmet a slap and leaned smugly against her scooter, forelimbs crossed. "We'll crush those foalnapping Haissanic creeps' dreams by suppertime!"

"R-right!" Sweetie Belle smiled nervously. "Like, how long can it take?" She bounced in place once more. "And! For the helmet..." She reached into the box once more and came out with a glittery metal bowl that was pockmarked all over with tiny perforations. "Ta-daaaaaa!"

"Oooh..." Dinky leaned forward. "Shiny."

"Sweetie Belle..." Apple Bloom winced. "Ain't that... erm... one of them thangs that adult ponies use to rinse out salads and pastas in the sink?"

"It's a colander!" Sweetie Belle chirped proudly.

"I thought Apple Bloom's dog was a colander," Scootaloo muttered.

"No, that's a 'collie.' This is a colander. I took it from Rarity's kitchen cabinet before meeting you guys here. The moment I thought of it, I realized what I could use it for! Look!" She reached forward and plopped the thing over Dinky's petite skull. "Voila! It fits like a—" Her grinning features deflated the moment she saw the thing resting crookedly on account of the tiny filly's horn. "—glove."

"Hah hah hah!" Apple Bloom slapped her knee, eyes tearing.

"Way to go, genius." Scootaloo smirked. "After all, she's only a unicorn. Like you."

"Ugh! How could I have forgotten about the horn?!" Sweetie's voice cracked as she stomped her hoof. "I mean—it's so... so..."

"Dinky?" Apple Bloom wheezed.

"Exactly!"

"Don't feel bad, Sweetie Belle." Dinky tilted the thing up with a sweet smile. "Sometimes I forget about it too." She shrugged. "Maybe I can sit on the bowl instead? Protect my tail?"

"Uh uh." Apple Bloom shook her head. "We ain't doin' this so long as ya risk bumpin' yer head!" She rested a hoof on the unicorn's shoulder. "We promised to keep ya safe, remember? Them two foals aren't the only ones we're fixin' to bring back to Ponyville in one piece!"

"That's really sweet of you girls," Dinky said. "I just know Mommy would appreciate the gesture, either way." She smiled warmly at them.

Dinky could sense that the three fillies only wanted what was best for her, which was especially charming considering that there was still a pair of foals that needed to be saved. Perhaps, Dinky reasoned, this was what it meant to be a Crusader. They looked after their own, even if Dinky had only been one of “their own” for the course of half-a-day.

They must have seen something in her, Dinky thought. Just what that was, Dinky hadn’t a clue. Admittedly, one of the reasons she decided to tag along with the three fillies on this quest was the chance to uncover it. Life was a beautiful gift full of self-discovery, and if the Crusaders were about to give that to Dinky—and still save foalnapped twins at the same time—then Dinky was totally and completely on board.

"Unnngh..." Sweetie Belle grabbed the colander from Dinky and turned it over in frustrated hooves. "Dumb metal! Guh... if only one of these gazillions of holes was a lot bigger, then it'd work! Oh well..." She shrugged. "Guess I have to go back into town and find something else that'll fit Dinky's head."

"Ohhhhhhhh no." Scootaloo shook her helmeted head. "Screw that noise. Here, gimme." She yanked the colander from Sweetie Belle's hooves, trotted over to a rock, and raised the metal bowl over her head.

Sweetie Belle squeaked like a high-pitched chipmunk in labor. "No, Scoots! Don't—"

Thwack! Whack! Wham! Smack! Finally, on the fifth consecutive impact of colander to rock—CRACK!—it split down the middle, leaving a huge gash in the side, big enough for a tiny-tiny limb to reach through.

"Hah! There we go!" Scootaloo trotted over and dropped the thing snugly over Dinky's head. Her little stub of a horn fitted through the fracture. Suddenly, a fully fitted metal-and-fuzz facsimile of a Cutie Mark Crusader stood amidst the veteran trio. "Sure, she stands out, but a rookie's gotta be broken in some way or another. It's like those flank-bugly Wonderbolt suits that the Academy Fliers gotta wear." Scootaloo briefly winced. "Erm... I mean that in the nicest way possible, Dinkster."

"No worries." Dinky smiled, her pearlescent yellow eyes peering out from beneath the rim of the metal dish-helmet. "I don't plan on flying anyways." She swiveled about, squatted low, and raised her tail like a certain little pegasus did on a hilltop just minutes ago. "Okay, crusaders!" she kitten-growled in an adventurous tone. "Let's go track those twins!"

"Uhm..." Apple Bloom smirked, pulling Dinky into a normal stance and leading her inside the wagon. "Let's just have a seat and psych-up during the journey, alright?"

"Meh..." Sweetie Belle lingered, her fuzzy face pouting as she slowly strapped her own helmet on. "I'm not a big fan of Dinky's headwear now. Rarity's gonna ground me for a century when she sees what's been done to her bowl."

"Oh please," Scootaloo groaned. "By the time your big 'I'm afraid of sweating' sister ever comes close to cooking pasta, we'll have saved—like—two dozen more foals. And maybe a baby hippo." She jumped onto the scooter and slapped her hooves over the handles. "Can we go now?"

"Eeyup!" Apple Bloom sat at the very back of the wagon, holding Dinky close while Sweetie Belle was the last to step aboard. "Onward to Manehattan! Foalnappers or bust! Giddyup, Scoots!"

"About time..." Scootaloo hiked her cape up, exposing her wings as they began buzzing. "Say goodbye to Ponyville, Dinky!"

"'Goodbye to Ponyville, Dinky!'"

Sweetie Belle covered her giggling muzzle. "This is gonna be the most adorable adventrip—"

Fwoooosh! Scootaloo rocketed forward, propelled by orange wings.

The wagon rattled after it, rolling along at a brisk rate and stretching Sweetie Belle's voice into a prolonged echo. "—everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"

{-DD-}

The verdant fields of Equestria glowed with an emerald sheen under the bright gaze of a noonday Sun. With each hilltop that the crusaders scaled, more and more rolling plains undulated eastward before the cruising quartet. Soft, dim shadows of clouds rolled over the continent in nebulous patches, which only served to further accentuate the beauty of the expanse that lay ahead. Every ten minutes or so, Scootaloo glided the group's wagon past an errant cottage, a cobblestone bridge, a crooked country fence—all beautiful and rustic structures of antiquity—lined with flowers that bloomed brilliantly with the full might of spring.

Dinky found herself absorbed in the blurring scenery. The world was a beautiful, natural stage, framed by ice-tipped mountains that faded into the haze of a clear blue sky. More than a few times, she leaned forward towards the edge of the wagon with a gaping expression only for the metal "helmet" on her head to slide forward, blocking her bright yellow eyes. Apple Bloom tilted the thing back, as well as the petite unicorn herself, holding her in place with protective hooves.

"You enjoyin' the sights, Dinky?" Apple Bloom shouted over the noise of whipping winds across the fillies' ears. "Equestria's really dazzlin' from the back of Scootaloo's wagon!"

"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle giggled, leaning back and lazily propping her hooves behind her head. "This is the only way to travel! It's one of the best things about being a crusader!"

Dinky took a deep breath, relishing the scent of flowers as Scootaloo drew them across a dirt road and right past a pond buzzing with dragonflies. Dinky had traveled long distances before, but always while riding inside one of Ditzy's saddlebag pockets. All of her life, she knew she enjoyed something few unicorn foals did: a chance to see the majestic landscape of Equestria from a bird's eye view. She never once considered bragging about it, but now that she was riding in the back of a blazing red bullet across Equestria’s navel, she realized she didn't have to. This trip was beautiful in its own right, a different kind of gorgeous. She reveled in the scents of the world that had often been lost to her in all those high altitude flights she took with her mother as a dinky... Dinky.

"I've seen it all before," she heard herself murmur. The next few words came out through a smile. "But it feels brand new somehow."

"That's because it's your first day as a crusader!" Sweetie Belle chirped.

"Breathe it in nice and slow," Scootaloo said from the front of the scooter, grinning into the wind. “It only gets awesomer from here!”

"Speakin' of awesome!" Apple Bloom spoke up. "What kind of cutie marks y'all suppose we're gonna get for stoppin' the foal nappers?" She grinned, immediately speaking at the end of her own query. "I'm thinkin' of a big ol' lasso! Y'know... for 'catching' them varmints in the act!"

"Oooh! Oooh!" Sweetie Belle bounced in her side of the wagon. "I'd absolutely die for a magnifying glass on my flank!"

Apple Bloom gave her a questioning look. "A magnifyin' glass?"

"Yeah, you know..." Sweetie Belle rubbed her front limbs together with a cute smile. "Like a sleuth or a detective would use. Sherclop Holmes, anypony?"

"But what if it means that yer just bad at seein' thangs with yer own eyes?"

"What? No!" Sweetie Belle frowned, pouting with red cheeks. "Only a supremely talented unicorn would be able to snoop out these creeps with the small amount of evidence available to her!"

Apple Bloom chuckled. "Sweetie Belle, don't ya think we oughta get to Manehattan first before we start sleuthin'?"

"Hey! A clever pony thinks ahead! Tracking these twin-takers down is just what I need to show I'm good at following tiny details!" Sweetie Belle tilted her nose up like a haughty fashionista. "Besides, it takes a lot more skill than earning a silly lasso for a cutie mark!"

"Hey! Don't diss the lasso!" Apple Bloom stuck her tongue out. "That would make for a real whizz-banger of a cutie mark!"

"Says you."

"Darn tootin'!" Apple Bloom smirked. "It'd mean I'm good at wranglin' up bad guys! Just like my sister Applejack bags up pests when they start nibblin' on fruit all across the orchard!" She grinned. "Her, Big Mac, and even Granny Smith back in her hayday—every member of the Apple Family has gotten good at hog-tyin' at some point or another! It runs in our blood! Makes sense I get a lasso for a cutie mark! And when it happens, you can put it under a magnifyin' glass all you want! Ha!"

Before Sweetie Belle could retort, it was Scootaloo's turn to bark. Somehow, Dinky expected no less. "You two can fight over your cutie marks all you want!" their driver said. "It doesn't matter! 'Cuz mine is going to be the coolest one of all!"

"Oh really?" Apple Bloom rolled her eyes under her helmet and smirked. "And just what is this mind-blowin' cutie mark?"

"Pffft! Duh! A scooter on flaming wheels set against a big fiery explosion!"

Apple Bloom chuckled while Sweetie Belle leaned forward, smiling. "That's... oddly specific."

"Don't you mean oddly awesome?" Scootaloo grinned.

"And just how are you going to get this specific cutie mark?"

"When I totally drop in on those two creeps and buck them across their ugly faces in one fell swoop!"

"All while ridin' yer scooter, I reckon," Apple Bloom said.

Scootaloo looked back. "How'd you guess?"

Sweetie Belle fidgeted. "Scootaloo, wouldn't you have to—like—start gliding from a really high up in order to drop kick these guys?"

"Yeah, so?"

"And wouldn't the foal-nappers pretty much have to be standing perfectly dead-still for you to be able to hit them both at once?"

"Errr..."

"You know they both have wings, right? Even one of them uses his wing as a fourth leg! Dinky's Mom said so! These bad guys have been flying for years and years—maybe even across the Big Blue! So what makes you think that they won't just take off before you so much as get a running start—?"

"Look, it doesn't matter!" Scootaloo grumbled. "One way or another, when we finally track down these bozos, I'm soooo going to kick their teeth in! And it will be totally radical!"

"And just what will we be doin' while you have yer moment of glory?" Apple Bloom asked. "Hmmm?"

“Good question.” Scootaloo shrugged, gliding the scooter down a grassy crest between two sloping hills. "Probably standing back so I don't accidentally hurt you guys with my killer flank-kicking moves!"

"And let you have all the glory to yourself?" Sweetie Belle exclaimed. "Then how will we get our cutie marks?!"

"Pffft. I dunno. I figured you'd get them already from your... magnifying glassing and lassoing. Whatever."

"Scoots!" Apple Bloom frowned. "Yer lookin' at this all wrong! Either all four of us tackle the foal-nappers at the same time or we don't earn our cutie marks!"

"Oh come on..." Scootaloo shook her head, smirking. "Now you're just being paranoid."

"We are not!" Sweetie Belle's voice cracked. "Remember what our sisters and their friends said! They all saw Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom when they earned their cutie marks!"

"Yeah!" Apple Bloom nodded. "And they all got their cutie marks at the exact same time!"

"Right!" Scootaloo beamed, her wings buzzing faster. "So, when we get to Manehattan, you girls can watch me be awesome like Rainbow and you'll get yours too!"

"Unnnnnnngh..."

"Oh come on, guys. Stop whining," Scootaloo said. "For crying out loud, this is the Crusaders' chance to finally shine! I mean, saving the Cakes' foalnapped twins is just too epic a thing for us not to get our cutie marks! There's no way we'll be coming home from this with blank flanks!"

Dinky spoke up for the first time in minutes. "And if we don't get our cutie marks?" She shrugged. "So what?"

And just like that, the whole world stopped blurring by. Scootaloo braked so hard that the wheels beneath them nearly caught aflame. The whole wagon jostled, and each filly bumped into one another, their helmets colliding like two coconuts and a school bell (on account of Dinky's colander).

Dinky winced. She rubbed her head through the makeshift headpiece and squinted her eyes. She half-expected the other fillies in the wagon to be glaring angrily at Scootaloo for the sudden and jarring stop. Instead, they were all staring at her... gaping at her, Scootaloo included. At first, Dinky was immeasurably confused. She felt like she had greedily eaten a sandwich in the refrigerator with another pony's name tagged to it, or accidentally drowned a baby foal's first puppy. Shrinking back from the weighted three-fold gaze, she hugged herself and shivered.

"Uhm... is something the m-matter, girls?"

"'So what?!'" Apple Bloom murmured.

"'So what?!'" Sweetie repeated in a squeaky tone.

Dinky half-expected Scootaloo to utter the same two words. In the next few heart-throbbing seconds, she scoured the sun-lit recesses of her mind. Dinky was a bright little unicorn, so it didn't take too long for her to experience an epiphany. "You mean... about not getting our cutie marks?"

"Dinky..." Scootaloo shook her head, muzzle agape. "Why do you even think we're going on this trip?"

"Adventrip!" Sweetie added.

"Same difference!" Scootaloo hissed.

"Uhhh..." Dinky nervously toyed with the ends of her terry cloth "cape." She suddenly felt guilty under their gaze, as if she didn't deserve the article, though she didn't understand why. "I thought we were doing this because Mr. and Mrs. Cake had their baby twins stolen overnight at Sugarcube Corner and we wanted to find them and bring them back to their family."

"Yes, that—" Scootaloo winced before she could begin her sentence. "I mean, you've got a very good... er... uhm..."

Apple Bloom cleared her throat. "Dinky, we want to take back the twins just as much as any pony!"

Dinky gulped. "Don't we?"

"Of course!" Apple Bloom smiled. "But the difference in us doin' it and—say—Rainbow Dash and Daring doin' it is that we get to earn our cutie marks in the process!"

"It's like this situation was especially made for us to find our super special talents!" Sweetie Belle said with a bright grin. "Finding the foals is our destiny! That's why we gotta go get them! If we can't, nopony can!"

"But..." Dinky fidgeted in the wagon across from them. "Daring and Rainbow aren't the only ones going after them. I mean, even Mommy flew off just yesterday for Manehattan—"

"Kid, do you really think she and Daring have any hope of working together?" Scootaloo chuckled. "I mean, for real."

Dinky's ears drooped from beneath her metal "helmet." She stared deep into the grassy soil on either side of the wagon as her mind's eye floated back to the startling events of yesterday. Within the span of an afternoon, she had discovered that not only did she have an aunt, but it was none other than Daring Do. The sudden joy of finding long-lost family had been quickly overshadowed, however, by her mother’s unexpected and explosive anger at the mere mention of the mustard mare.

"Because I'm ashamed of her!" was Ditzy's response when Dinky asked her mom why she had never told her daughter about Daring. Just thinking about the tone in her voice when she spat those words out sent a cold chill down Dinky's spine. Dinky was no stranger to witnessing anger in her mother. Between the insolent ways she had been treated by her co-workers at Hoover's Movers or the rough days she’d had as Ponyville's loyal mailmare, Ditzy had come home more than once with a frustrated frown lingering on her muzzle. But yesterday was the first time that something Dinky had said ended up setting her off, and so suddenly too—right in front of the Crusaders.

True, Dinky had never known about Daring, and it was clear that Ditzy had reasons for that to be. One thing that Dinky couldn't ignore was the unmistakable feeling that if Daring Do's relation was a complete mystery, what else did she not know that might set her mother off, and why didn’t she know in the first place?

"No, I guess Mommy and Daring wouldn't work well together," Dinky muttered, though she had half-forgotten the question that she was answering.

"Right," Scootaloo said with a nod. "And do you want your mommy dealing with that frustration forever?"

Dinky's head jerked up. "No!" she gasped. "Not at all!"

"That's why we gotta do this! Together!" Scootaloo grinned. "Cuz we're Cutie Mark Crusaders! We're as together as it gets!"

"We'll save the foals while the adults are too busy squabblin' with one another!" Apple Bloom said.

"And we'll earn our cutie marks!" Sweetie Belle added with a grin. "One for each of our talents!"

"It's basically a win-win-win** scenario!" Scootaloo said. "Don't you get it?!"

"Yes." Dinky nodded. Nevertheless, she imagined the poor little twins, crying as they were carried off somewhere in the foal-nappers' grip. A sharp pain scraped across her heart, but she chased it away with a warm breath, anchoring herself to the three bright grins being aimed her way. "Yes, I get it!"

"Thatta girl!" Sweetie Belle patted her metal helmet. "I knew you'd figure it out eventually!"

"Sorry, I..." Dinky bit her lip. "I didn't mean to make everypony angry."

"Oh please." Apple Bloom waved a hoof while Scootaloo kicked at the earth, pushing the scooter and wagon back into an easy glide. "It's yer first day as an honorary Cutie Mark Crusader. There're bound to be a few bumps along the way."

"Not on this journey!" Scootaloo said loudly. She smirked into the whipping winds as she coasted the group down a sloping valley of springy grass and wildflowers. "This is going to be a smooth, swift ride to Manehattan! From now on, we Crusaders don't stop for nothing!"

2 - The Gas for That Has Just Run Out

Chapter Two

The Gas for That Has Just Run Out

Minutes later, Scootaloo stood dead-still on her scooter, slumped over the handles as she glared into a thin patch of trees. Behind her, the wagon rested with Dinky and Apple Bloom inside, waiting patiently. After the umpteenth sigh, Scootaloo groaned loudly, then grumbled towards the trees: "Are you done yet, Sweetie Belle?!"

A squeaky voice wafted back. "Don't rush me! Just a little bit longer..."

"You should have taken care of that before we left Ponyville!" Scootaloo barked.

"I was too busy trying to find Dinky a cape and helmet!"

"Unnnnnngh..." Scootaloo buried her face in her forelimbs. She mumbled into her fetlocks. "Maybe if we're lucky, the foal-nappers stopped for Chineighs take-out a few times between here and Manehattan."

Apple Bloom chuckled a bit, then kicked back on her side of the wagon, resting her helmeted head against the edge as she squinted up at the white clouds rolling above.

Dinky, in the meantime, stood on the very end of the wagon, staring past the thin throng of trees sprouting up to their right. As the seconds wore on into minutes, she closed her eyes, instinctively raising a pair of hooves up before her face. Her lips pursed, and she blew into an imaginary flute, moving the edges of her little limbs over the appropriate spots where the various holes of the instrument would be.

She could always relax when she was playing the flute, allowing her mind to wander comfortably, sometimes to places that both surprised and enchanted her. That's why the music always came naturally, Dinky imagined. It was not a talent so much as it was a means of throwing her worries to the wind. Perhaps that's why she hadn't gotten a cutie mark for it yet. What was the use in earning something that she was already good at?

Soon enough, her mind wandered to half-an-hour ago. The Crusaders were absolutely flabbergasted that she had second-guessed their quest for cutie marks. All three fillies had looked at her as if she had contracted the pony pox. Dinky couldn't help but ask the question that she did; she simply didn't expect to be gawked at for voicing it. Surely, Sweetie and Scootaloo and Apple Bloom knew that there was more to life than just earning cutie marks...

As if reading Dinky's mind, Apple Bloom suddenly spoke up. "I'm sorry for the attitude we all gave you earlier, Dinky."

"Hmmm?" Dinky lowered the invisible flute in her hooves and looked over with a soft smile. "What attitude?" Even she winced at her own veil of "innocence."

Apple Bloom blinked at her. With a slight giggle, she smiled. "Yer too sweet, Dinky." She cleared her throat. "But, for real, we didn't mean to make ya feel bad."

"You mean about our earning cutie marks?"

Apple Bloom nodded. "Scoots and Sweetie Belle and I have been doin' the Crusader thang for years now. It's easy to forget that not all fillies our age are quite so dedicated." She smiled. "I'm sorry if we made ya feel bad. After all, yer just concerned for the foals. We all are."

Dinky nodded. "I just think they deserve to be back with their parents."

"Right. And so do I!" Apple Bloom sat up straight, staring at her. "Ain't nopony in Ponyville who knows how important it is for a family to be together than me! I mean, if it weren't for the strength of Applejack and Granny Smith and Big Macintosh, we'd never have a good apple harvest prepared ever!" She smiled, leaning her head to the side. "The best part of a family is bein' together. As much as you can manage to be. Ya feel me?"

"Uh huh." Dinky smiled. "I'm sure your family will be proud of you for bringing the Cakes back together."

"Heh... yeah, well..." Apple Bloom straightened her cape, staring out across the hilly landscape to the east. "Reckon bringin' a cutie mark on my flank to boot would just seal the deal all sweet-like."

"Don't you think everypony will be just as happy to have the foals back?" Dinky asked.

"Well, sure!" Apple Bloom blinked her way. "But if doin' this dun bring me a cutie mark, then what's the point in pretendin' to be strong enough to take care of my own family in the future?" She shrugged. "I mean, wouldn't you like to bring something back to make yer Momma proud too?"

Dinky exhaled, gazing past Apple Bloom. She thought of Ditzy, of how tired and exasperated she looked the previous day. All it took to bring her mother down was a single visit from Daring Do. She couldn't imagine what would cause her mom and her aunt to clash so miserably, even though Ditzy had tried her tentative best to explain it to her and the Crusaders over muffin-baking. Dinky sensed that there was still something missing.

There was always something missing. For all the wonderful and loving things that Ditzy openly said to Dinky, there was still a part of her that the little unicorn could never figure out. It was a sensitive, melancholic thing, hidden behind sighs and soft-spoken assertions. When she was younger, Dinky used to think that there was some heartfelt reason behind her mother’s wandering vision. Dinky had long assumed that it was mommy’s way of keeping a literal eye out for danger, always watching and searching. Ditzy was constantly looking to protect the two of them, and it explained how guarded she could be.

But there was still that part of Ditzy—a very quiet and somber part—that secretly called upon Dinky to intervene on her emotional behalf, as if it was her turn to return the favor and console her mother through the simple act of being there, nuzzling her close, proving that she was still within hoof’s reach and not being swept away by some errant wind. The dichotomy between Ditzy’s strength and her neediness had always been a curious, cryptic thing to Dinky. She often felt as though the adult pegasus’ soul was being tugged in two directions, and that her wandering eye was—in fact—flittering off in search of something else, something that was forever lost, and Dinky wasn’t sure that she’d ever be able to help Ditzy find it.

Someone or something had taken away something dear to Ditzy. Although the mare had Dinky—her little “muffin”—Dinky had the sneaking suspicion that nothing would ever be complete. Despite her best intentions, Ditzy would always have that mysterious part of her hidden, hollow, and wanting. It was the same abyss from which an angry mare had snapped at her and the Crusaders the previous day at the mere mention of Daring, an aunt that Dinky didn’t even know she had until the truth awkwardly presented itself. The more Dinky dwelled on it, she found herself uncovering cold, unsettling memories, such as one evening when—on the flight home from a stage play—Ditzy broke down crying and there was nothing Dinky could do to ease her tears. It was a rare thing when Dinky felt helpless around her mother, and she wasn’t willing to stand for it. She may not have had the ability to patch up all of Ditzy’s hidden wounds, but she could at least do something to make her proud of her… by restoring that which was broken before the two of them.

"If finding the foals would make Mommy's life easier, then that's a good thing," Dinky said at last to Apple Bloom. "But it's more than that." She looked up with a smile. "I believe Mommy thinks—like I do—that all lost things should be found. And bringing the foals back would do just that. Whether she or Aunt Daring or Rainbow Dash or we find the foals, it doesn't matter. Just so long as they're found."

"Well, there's a good reason for us to stick to the plan!" Apple Bloom winked. "The more the merrier, ya think?"

Dinky giggled. "Yeah. Sure thing," she said to Apple Bloom. At the same time, however, she sighed, her mind once again wandering back to Ditzy's angry outburst the day before. Perhaps some lost things were far too elusive to ever track down.

"Okay, guys!" Sweetie Belle trotted back, pausing to shake a rear leg before hopping into the wagon, tightening her helmet. "Good to go!"

"Whew!" Scootaloo stood up straight, flexing her wings. "Finally!"

"Did I miss anything while I was gone?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Eenope!" Apple Bloom smiled as Scootaloo began kicking the wagon into a swift, eastward glide. The landscape around them sloped into a wide-stretching valley, flowing gracefully eastward and flanked by farmlands. "But you did miss Dinky practicin' on an invisible flute."

"Huh?" Dinky jolted, blinking. "What?"

"Oh come on, Dinky." Apple Bloom chuckled, mimicking the little unicorn's gestures from earlier. "Why else wouldja be fiddlin' yer hooves right in front of yer face all funny-like?"

Dinky blushed slightly, wrapping herself halfway inside her towel-cape. "Playing the flute relaxes me." She gulped. "Even if it's a pretend one."

"It's a shame you left the real thang back in Ponyville," Apple Bloom said. "Reckon hearin' some of that sweet music of yers would have made this journey all the better!"

Dinky shook her head. "If Mommy knew I brought that expensive flute on a quest like this, she'd be mad."

"She'd be mad that you went on this quest, period," Scootaloo said, chuckling.

"Don't say things like that, Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle said. She leaned over and rested a hoof on Dinky's shoulder. "Don't you worry. We're going to get you back home before Miss Doo will have to worry."

"Oh, I believe you!" Dinky said with a nod.

"And besides!" Scootaloo smirked over her shoulder. "Once we bring the foals back, who could possibly be mad at us?"

"Heheh! Yeah!" Apple Bloom nodded. "What she said!"

"They'll invent a new word in the Haissanic dictionary!" Sweetie Belle said. "From now on, 'Crusader' will mean 'adorable little filly who eats foal-nappers for breakfast!'"

"Just where in tarnation is 'Haissan' anyway?" Apple Bloom remarked. "Don't sound like no place around here."

"Because it's not a place from around here!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed. "It's a country located across the Big Blue!"

"Like in Stirrope or something?" Scootaloo asked.

"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle nodded. "Rarity imports special silks and fabrics from that place all the time!" She smiled. "Apparently they make really good carpets there! Even magic ones!"

"H-hey! Like in Daring Do’s latest book!" Scootaloo twitched slightly in mid glide. "Not… n-not that I've taken a peek at Rainbow’s copy of it when she wasn't looking or anything. Ahem."

Apple Bloom chuckled. “Whatever the case, so long as we take the twins back from them before they take off for Stirrope, then the day is saved.”

“Sounds good to me!” Dinky chirped.

"So the bad guys are Haissanic pegasi..." Sweetie Belle tapped her chin, then grinned at Dinky. "Pegaissanic?"

Dinky giggled.

“They’re toast, if you ask me,” Scootaloo said with a smug grin. “Adult ponies who think it’s a cool thing to rob babies from their crib? Heh... not in our Equestria. Makes you wonder if all ponies from Stirrope are whack.”

“So, uh, how far is it to Manehattan anyway?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Cuz all I’m seeing are hills and forests and other petty non-city stuff.”

“Oh, I dunno.” Apple Bloom shrugged. “Five miles? Fifty?”

Sweetie winced. “That’s kind of a huge difference.”

“Whatever.” Scootaloo shrugged. “I’ll get us there in no time.”

“Are you sure?” Sweetie remarked.

“How hard can it be? We just head east and don’t stop for nothing!”

Dinky cocked her head to the side worriedly. “But Mommy, Rainbow Dash, and Aunt Daring all took trains. And that was yesterday!”

“Well, here’s hoping that ponies dumb enough to steal babies are dumb enough to stick around in Manehattan for a while!” Scootaloo tossed her mane back in the wind. “It’s a big city. We’re small ponies. We can easily snoop them out of whatever hole they've crawled into!”

“Well, so long as your wings can handle the distance, Scoots.”

"Hey! Just relax, everypony!" Scootaloo smirked devilishly as she hopped the group over a log and sped ever eastward. "There's no way I'd ever get tired of this!"

{-DD-}

Two hours later, Scootaloo was a wheezing, sputtering mess.

"Okay..." Her face drooped under a slick sheen of sweatdrops. "Getting just a little bit tired of this."

Apple Bloom was slumped over, her yellow face squished against the edge of the wagon. “I was afraid of this,” she grumbled.

“Oh Scootaloo…” Sweetie Belle peered at her friend with a sad expression. “Want to switch places?”

“What’s the point?” The little pegasus wheezed. “Without wings, you can’t possibly go as fast as me! No offense, but then we'd definitely never reach Manehattan by sundown!”

“I know!” Apple Bloom perked up, rubbing the hard wagon lines off her fuzzy muzzle. “How about Sweetie and I both stand on the scooter and kick our way there for a while!”

Sweetie Belle nodded emphatically. “Yeah! That would get us there just as fast if not faster, right?”

“I’m learnin’ how to buck apples back on the farm!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. “Kicking trees… kicking the ground… what’s the difference?”

“Only one of them gets you to Manehattan in time to save twins.” Scootaloo stopped the wagon altogether, leaning over her handles in a sweating, heaving heap. “And the gas for that has just run out.”

Sweetie Belle moaned into her hooves. “That’s it. We’re doomed.” She tossed her head like a melodramatic damsel. “Doomed!”

“The twins are doomed, ya mean,” Scootaloo wheezed.

Dinky gazed at everypony, her heartbeat quickening. She wasn't sure how, but everything felt like it was melting, and the sullen expressions on her friends' muzzles were the first to droop. "What's wrong? Girls, why are we stopping?"

"Not stopping, Dinky," Scootaloo wheezed. "Just pausing before I die of lameness."

"But... we're still going to Manehattan, r-right?" Dinky stood up straight, pressing her hooves against the edge of the wagon. "We've not given up, have we?"

"Heck no!" Scootaloo frowned.

"Scootaloo, face it," Sweetie Belle moaned. "You're pooped. And Manehattan is—like—a gazillion miles away!"

"So what?!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "I'll pull us there by my teeth if I have to!"

"Yeah, and just when would we arrive?" Apple Bloom sighed. "It's way further than any of us thought. If we had taken the train like Daring, Rainbow, and Dinky's mom did—"

"Apple Bloom, they'd kick us off!" Scootaloo said. "I mean, we're just foals! They totally would have told on our parents! It's not like we have the bits to afford tickets anyhow!"

"Don't you get it?" Sweetie Belle pouted. "We're behind in this journey no matter which way we shake it! We can't take a train. Scootaloo, you're wearing your feathers down to the quill. Odds are, the foalnappers would have found a way to make it across the Big Blue hours ago! If not a day before!"

"Assumin' Rainbow, Daring, and Ditzy haven't already tackled them," Apple Bloom said. "Which probably would have been hours ago as well."

"Unnnngh..." Scootaloo sighed, her miserable eyes plastered to the east horizon. "Then that means the day could already be saved. Ah well." She rolled her eyes. "Chalk another one up for Rainbow Dash being the hero." The filly gulped hard. "Again."

“Hey! Come on!” Dinky chirped, metal "helmet" rattling. “Who says we have to quit?”

“It’s not quittin’,” Apple Bloom muttered. “More like tree sap makin’ its mark again.”

“Huh?”

“You wouldn’t understand, Dinky,” Sweetie droned. “You’re cute and all, but you’re still new.”

Dinky frowned. It wasn't that she was angry at them, but rather she was frustrated at how swiftly they had suddenly and inexplicably given into hopelessness. True, it was a rather daunting task to find the foal-nappers to begin with, but that didn't matter. Dinky knew that the Crusaders were better than this; it was the reason she grew attached to them in the first place.

Dinky recalled their initial meeting. It was just an average day at recess, and she had quietly endured yet another bullying round of taunts from the likes of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. That in and of itself hadn't bothered Dinky so much. Those two fillies picked on every foal in the schoolyard, so it was hard for the little unicorn to take their words personally.

What stuck out, however, was the fact that three friendly foals had shown up to console her, whether she needed it or not. The gesture was simply so rich, so wholesome, and so kind, that Dinky was instantly enamored. After a short, pleasant conversation, she parted ways with them, feeling a strange warmth inside her chest that Dinky had only ever previously experienced from spending time with her mother.

The very next day, to Dinky's surprise, the Crusaders had come to talk to her at recess again, as if checking up on her to see if she was still being bullied or not. It was then that Dinky realized that they all had something in common. The fillies liked bringing out the best in other ponies and patching up the holes in the world around them. True, they sought their cutie marks from every endeavor, but there was no denying that the Crusaders valued progress and improving themselves, both of which were values that Ditzy inspired in Dinky on a regular basis.

Dinky and her three darling friends had a common ground, a foundation that connected them, and she wasn’t about to see the Crusaders collapse in on themselves so easily. They may not have been Ditzy, and a muffin meal likely wouldn't solve their problems in a wall-eyed blink. But Dinky learned from her mother just as much as her mother learned from her, and wisdom meant nothing if it wasn't shared.

“Girls, am I a Crusader or aren’t I?” the little unicorn suddenly chirped.

“Well, of course you are!” Scootaloo glanced at her. “It’s just that—”

“Why would you make me an honorary member just for us to quit my first adventure?

“Adventrip,” Sweetie blurted.

“Exactly!” Dinky smiled at the group. “And it’s not even about me! What about Pumpkin and Pound Cake? The twins? If we don’t do this, then they may never grow old enough to become Crusaders themselves! They'll never learn what their super special talents are!”

“Well…” Scootaloo winced. “When you put it that way…”

“Dinky, we wanna save ‘em n’all, but we’re so far away from Manehattan!” Apple Bloom gestured towards the hills. “And besides, yer Mom and Daring and Rainbow—”

“Are just three ponies!” Dinky exclaimed. “But we’re three more!”

“Four more.” Sweetie managed a tiny smile. “Don’t count yourself out.”

“I don’t mean to! I’m in! Don’t you see? We’re all in!” Dinky leaned against the edge of the wagon, propping herself higher so that her eyes met the other fillies’. “My Mommy has a saying that she tells me often. It's one that Grandpa use to say to her all the time.” She cleared her throat and spoke in as deep a voice as she could muster: “Everything you do matters.” She smiled. “And we’ve got the chance to do something here that really, really matters!”

“That’s just the thing, Dinky,” Sweetie sighed. “Every time we try to do something special…”

“...like earnin’ our cutie marks…” Apple Bloom added.

“...we always end up falling flat on our faces… literally.” Scootaloo finished with a sigh.

“And giving up now is somehow going to fix things?” Dinky shook her head. “Come on, Crusaders! Those twins are depending on us! Doing something is better than doing nothing!”

Silence hung over the grassy hillside. The three foals exchanged blinking faces. One by one, they smiled with renewed vigor.

“Y’know what, Dinkster?” Scootaloo grinned. “I understand now why we didn’t pack a map with us.” She pressed the scooter east. “We just brought you instead.”

“You got a second wind, now, Scoots?” Apple Bloom asked.

“And how!”

“Yeeeha!” Apple Bloom shook her hoof. “Then what are we waitin’ for?! We’ve got some twins to un-foalnap!”

“Heeee!” Sweetie leaned in, hugging Dinky tight. “I knew we inducted you for reasons other than your cuteness! Thanks for re-crusading us!”

“I’m just following what my Mommy taught me,” Dinky remarked, blushing slightly. “After all, like she always says—”

A loud, staccato barking noise lit the air. It tickled every filly's ear, making them look around with dazed, blinking expressions.

"Uhhhhh..." Scootaloo's ears twitched from beneath her helmet. "Ditzy Doo liked to make dog sounds a lot?"

Dinky shook her head, eyes wide. “It wasn’t me! I swear!”

"Sounds like Winona." Apple Bloom's face stretched. "If she swallowed a bunch of sawdust."

Meanwhile, as the barking continued, Dinky squirmed in her part of the wagon. She felt a gust of wind blowing down from the low-hanging clouds. It whisked past the other fillies, brushing against the unicorn's coat and giving her goosebumps. Shivering, the Honorary Crusader clenched her teeth. Gradually, the barking became louder, as if it was somehow being carried aloft in the breeze.

Dinky turned around in the wagon, scanning the side of the road. It didn't take long for her to see a mangy gray figure scurrying out of the nearby forest's treeline with rapid speed. It was an ugly thing, with a bulldog's scrunched-up face and a stubby tail. Nevertheless, Dinky couldn't help but notice a frighteningly bright glint in the canine's eyes. It slobbered and panted as it pitter-pattered closer on scurrying paws, its hairy ears perked up in an expression of distress and alarm.

"Apple Bloom's right," Scootaloo's voice muttered. "That's one sick sounding dog."

"Sounds worse than sick. It sounds frightened."

"What would a dog be doing this far out in the country?"

"Maybe it belongs to somepony. A farmer?"

"The heck kind of a crop would they be growin' out here? Acorns?"

"Oooh! Oooh! Walnuts!"

"I dun think so..."

All this time, Dinky found herself staring at the mangy mutt as it approached the wagon. With a nervous gulp, she reached back and tapped Sweetie Belle's shoulder. "Uhm... girls?"

"What is it, Dinky?"

"I... I dunno..." The periwinkle pony pointed at the canine. "But I think something's got it all scared."

"Got what all scared?" Scootaloo turned around, instantly flinching atop her scooter. "Gaah! Mad dog! Mad dog! Rabies!"

"T'ain't a mad dog, Scootaloo," Apple Bloom said. "I'd know an angry dog if I saw one."

"But... h-how can you be for sure?"

"Why don't we ask it?"

"Ask a dog?"

"Why, sure!" Apple Bloom smiled as she stood up. "Dogs got feelin's too! They just dun speak it like us ponies do!"

"Yeah, Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle beamed. "They woof instead of whinny."

"Ugh..." Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Gimme a break."

Apple Bloom stood at the edge of the wagon, leaning over to smile at the panting creature. "How ya doin' there, girl? What's the matter?!"

"Ew..." Sweetie Belle grimaced. "That’s a girl?"

"Heheh..." Scootaloo couldn’t help but chuckle. "Talk about havin' a face that only a mother could love!"

The dog barked loudly, darting backwards and turning with every other loud exclamation that escaped its slobbering lips.

"What is it, girl?" Apple Bloom blinked. "Are ya tryin' to tell us something?"

"Lemme guess." Scootaloo's eyes were like dull razors. "Somepony's stuck down a well somewhere."

"Scootaloo, this ain't funny!" Apple Bloom frowned. "Winona does this kind of stuff all the time! I think something might be really really wrong."

"Like what?"

"Will ya quit groanin' and lemme try n’find out?!" She leaned further over the edge of the wagon. "Is it your owner, girl? Is it somepony in trouble?"

The dog barked louder, its head and tail wagging in unison. It made a mad dash for the trees, stopped dead in its tracks, and spun around, barking some more. It repeated this motion, gradually making its way towards the tree line and the thick forest beyond.

"See? See?" Apple Bloom pointed. "It's wantin' to lead us someplace!"

"Oh no!" Sweetie Belle gasped, pulling at her worried facial features. "Somepony is in trouble somewhere!"

"Yeah... heh..." Scootaloo shook her head. "I don't buy that for a second.”

"But what if yer wrong, Scootaloo?" Apple Bloom gazed at her nervously. "What if there's somepony that needs savin'?"

"Apple Bloom, the foals need saving!" Scootaloo gestured wildly towards the east horizon. "Or did you forget Dinky’s motivational thingy just now?! We've got a date in Manehattan and we can't afford to be late!"

"But what if there's somepony who needs us here and we just let them be ‘cuz we're in such a big hurry?!"

"Yeah, Apple Bloom's right! Besides..." Sweetie Belle stood up. "What kind of Crusaders would we be if we just ignored the pleas of our fellow ponies?"

"Unnnnnghhhhhh..." Scootaloo drooped against the handles of her scooter. After a prolonged sigh, she muttered, "Where do you think it wants to take us, Apple Bloom?"

"Hold up..." Apple Bloom squinted at the tree line just north of them. As the dog kept dashing and barking, she caught sight of a dirt path winding through the first dense thicket of trees. "There! Over yonder! Ya see?"

Scootaloo squinted. "Yeah, I think so."

"Head on through there! I bet there's a cottage in the woods where the dog's owner lives!"

"It must be an old pony!" Sweetie Belle's voice cracked. She smiled at Dinky. "Old ponies just love woodland cottages."

Dinky didn't register Sweetie's statement. She was too busy watching the dog. From afar, something glinted around the animal’s neck. It took much concentration, but the trained eyes of a filly used to riding with her winged mother could spot a collar. It was studded all over with bright, sparkling diamonds.

Dinky's blood went cold. She trembled, murmuring, "Uhm... girls...?"

"What are ya waitin' for, Scoots?" Apple Bloom pointed wildly. "Get a move on! We gotta catch up to her!"

"Okay... okay." Scootaloo kicked hard at the earth, turning the scooter and wagon completely around. "I got it." She blurred her wings, and the group rocketed north, heading straight down a trench made out of thick tree trunks. "There'd better be more than dog biscuits for us at the end of this..."

"Just keep pushin' us along, Scoots!" Apple Bloom exclaimed. "Dun stop for nothin'!"

Ahead, the dog's sprinting body merged with the shadows. Dinky shuddered as she felt the dark forest close up around them.

"Erm..." The unicorn fiddled with her "cape" as her metal helmet rattled atop her head. "I really don't think we should be going this deep into—"

"Shhhh!" Sweetie squeezed her shoulders. "Not so loud, Dinky!" She craned her neck to see past Scootaloo's wings as the trees whizzed by. "We gotta listen for the thing's barks or else we'll lose it!" As if on cue, several woofing coughs echoed through the woods. Sweetie waved a forelimb wildly over her head. "Don't worry! We're right behind you! Keep barking!"

Dinky bit her lip and crouched low in the wagon.

{-DD-}

Five minutes passed, all the while the yipping canine in front of the group kept bounding deeper and deeper into the woods, darting through underbrush and low hanging foliage. The sky was impossible to see at this point; a thick canopy blocked all but a serpentine sliver of light that wormed over the fillies' heads.

"Yeesh," Scootaloo grimaced, squinting her eyes to spot loose branches and twigs along the uneven path. "Whoever these ponies are, they must live super deep in the forest."

"Well, it's a good thing we were nearby to help out in the nick of time!" Apple Bloom said. "Scootaloo, you seein' anythang yet?"

Scootaloo shook her head. "Not yet. What are the chances this dog is just lost?"

"It came out of the forest to grab our attention, didn’t it?!" Sweetie Belle said. “Why would it return to a place where it got lost?”

“I’m sure we’ll find its owners at any moment now!” Apple Bloom said.

"What if it's got nothing to do with that?" Scootaloo said, her muzzle twisting. "What if—like—it just found a royal squirrel burial ground or something and it wants to share the discovery?"

"Squirrels don't have royal burial grounds!"

"How would you know, Sweetie Belle?"

"Because crowns don't fit on their heads!"

"Ungh..." Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "That's it. This is stupid. I'm turning this scooter around before—"

"No, wait!" Apple Bloom stood up and pointed over Dinky's metal headpiece. "Look! We're here!"

Scootaloo skidded to a stop, blinking.

"Uhhhh..." Sweetie Belle chewed on the end of her lip. "Where's 'here?'"

Dinky's eyes twitched. Before her and the other ponies, a solid wall of compacted earth loomed, covered all over with vines and thorns. The dirt path that brought them all the way into the forest had come to an abrupt stop right against the mess of rocky soil. There, in the shadow of the thick branches overhead, the mangy bulldog squatted, panting at them before barking with an even dumber grin.

"It's... it's a dead end," Apple Bloom murmured.

"Yeah, I see that, Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "I knew this was a bad idea!"

"Wait, hold up." Sweetie Belle looked all around, fidgeting. "Maybe we just took a wrong turn."

"Sweetie Belle, we came through here in a straight line!" Scootaloo frowned over her shoulder. "There were no turns!"

"No, for real, though!" Sweetie Belle pivoted to face the path from which they came. Apple Bloom looker over her shoulder as the unicorn pointed at a sparsely dense pocket of bushes to the right. "Maybe that’s a branching path over there that we missed!"

"Yeah, I reckon for a bear, maybe. But for ponies?" Apple Bloom blinked in the direction Sweetie Belle was pointing. “Or a dog?”

"What difference does it make, guys?" Scootaloo squawked. "We're totally off track! We gotta get back onto the main road and continue heading towards Manehattan like I said!"

"But the dog—"

"Forget the dog! The drooling thing brought us all the way here for no friggin' reason!"

All three of the crusaders' heads were turned, leaving just Dinky and her blinking eyes to witness the bulldog as it suddenly stopped panting. With an eerily vicious grin, the creature then stood up on its hindquarters, flexing its arm muscles in a threatening manner. Only once it was standing completely straight did Dinky see the glittering red jewel hanging from the center of its diamond encrusted collar.

"Uhhh... girls?" Dinky whimpered. There was no response—the three fillies kept arguing, bickering. "G-girls?"

The bipedal canine made eye contact with Dinky. It snickered breathily, then made a slow "throat-slitting" gesture with its prominent paw.

"Cr-Cr-Crusadersss!" Dinky finally wailed, tugging on Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle's capes.

"Dinky, for pony's sake!" Apple Bloom turned with a frown. "What is it?"

"An ambush!" the dog rasped in a nasally masculine voice. "That's what!"

"Uhhhhh..." Scootaloo spun about, eyes blinking. "Did that dog just talk?"

"That depends..." The bulldog licked his blackened lips. "Can the ponies screeeeam?" He then cupped two paws around his flat muzzle. "Now, Jake! They're all yours!"

Th-Thud! The whole wagon shook. All four fillies spun, only to see an enormous shadow pouring over them from an even more enormous creature. A hulking canine with a pale-white coat loomed with his muscular arms held out wide, his leafy ears twitching in the dim daylight.

"Stupid... ssssstupid poniesss!" And the diamond dog reached in with a strangling hug.

The fillies were reduced to kicks and screams. Within seconds, the mutt's beefy arms surrounded the three ponies in the wagon. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom squirmed and struggled in his grasp, but Dinky was so tiny that she slipped through its clutches.

"Ooof!" She dropped hard onto the forest floor. Half a second later, her helmet plopped down onto her head and over her eyes. She lifted it up in time to see the monster lifting the two fillies up from the wagon, cackling victoriously.

"Good catch, Tonks!" The beast named bellowed. "These will fetch the gang plenty of jewels for sure!"

"So long as I get my share, Jake!"

"Yeah yeah..."

"Hey!" Scootaloo snarled. She kicked clear off the scooter and squatted low, dragging a hoof and snorting as she struck her heroic pose. "Leave my friends alone, ya fleabag—"

"Aaaaaaaaand..." The bulldog ran up and punted the filly right in the tail. "Goal!"

"Gaaaaaaah—" Scootaloo flew until she landed chin-first against the bigger dog's belly. "Ooof!" She slumped down, looking up dizzily. "Hooboy." A massive paw grabbed the pegasus by the tail and lifted her besides her shrieking companions. "Hey! Lemme go! I mean it! I'll bite your ears off!"

"Hmmmmf." Jake smiled, his yellowed fangs showing. "Now there's a nibble and a half!" He barked across the clearing as he reached behind a bush for something. "I'm gonna bag 'em! Grab the last one, Tonks!"

"Ruff! Sure thing!"

"Run, Dinky!" Scootaloo shouted, flailing as Jake grabbed a large black bag and began stuffing the crusaders inside, one by one. "Hurry! Go and get help—!" Her voice became a muffled squeak as she joined her friends inside the thick burlap sack.

Dinky didn't realize she was galloping until she heard the crunch of leaves and branches behind her. "Oh please... oh please oh please oh please—!" She nearly made it past the underbrush when suddenly her stubby hooves tripped on Sweetie Belle's terry cloth "cape." "Gaaah—Ooof!" She fell flat on her chest, wincing. Within seconds, a pitter-patter of hooves came up from behind, and she felt herself being lifted by the smaller dog's paws.

"Here ya go, Jake! This one will at least score you some topaz! Ha!"

"Meh, if not..." Dinky's face shrank away from the looming grin of the towering canine. His paw devoured the whole of her vision. "...she'd make for a nimble dirt digger."

"No... no, d-don't!" Dinky yelped into his smelly grip as she felt herself hanging up in the air. "I-I gotta save my friends! Mmmmrmmmfff... please!" She whimpered as she was yanked upside down and dangled before the bag full of screams. "Let us go! Mommy!"

Jake released her. She plopped inside the bag, collided skulls with the other Crusaders' helmets, and fell unconscious as the dim world outside was swallowed up in blackness.

3 - We've Been Dogpiled

Chapter Three

We've Been Dogpiled

Dinky Doo opened her eyes to find that she was alone. The filly squinted blearily across a woodland thicket. She sat up with a jolt, looking at the mess of branches and shrubbery all around her. When she spoke, the thick air sucked the breath from her lungs, so that only the tiniest of squeaks came out.

“Girls?”

The forest hung dead and dense around her. Up above, a dull gray sky loomed.

“Crusaders?”

There wasn't even the slightest echo.

She stood up on wobbly hooves, adjusting her metal helmet and towel cape. When she trotted forward, the twigs beneath her didn't snap or rustle.

“Is anypony there?”

She shuffled in a pensive little circle, fenced in by bushes and brambles.

“The dogs? Where did they take you?”

As hard as she gazed into the forest, she couldn't see beyond the third or fourth line of trees. Shadows closed in, and the air became nippy.

Shivering, Dinky hugged herself. She ran a nervous hoof through the blond bangs poking out of the front of the colander; each mane hair was icy to the touch. For some reason, she felt compelled to look at her own hoof. The pony examined her fetlock up close, but found it hard to concentrate. The gray of her own coat blended with the dull light pouring down from above, so that it looked like she was merging with the haze beyond the forest.

Just then, Dinky sensed shadows shifting behind her.

With a nervous gasp, she spun to look. Pallid branches and withered leaves waved back and forth in a straight line through the thicket. Thirty seconds of intense heartbeat later, Dinky felt a bitter wind blowing through the woods, shaking the leaves and branches even harder.

“Crusaders?” Dinky murmured. Timid, she trotted forward, following the waving branches. “Sweetie Belle?” She gulped. “Apple Bloom? Scootaloo? Are you there?”

Nopony replied. The woods unfolded soundlessly, even as its branches and twigs shook with greater and greater disturbance. Soon, the entire forest swayed and danced all around her, stirred on by a ghostly wind that urged Dinky forward like a kite.

The filly was trembling terribly by the time she emerged from a thick line of bushes. A warm halo of light illuminated a green patch of grass directly in front of her. Only by staring into the glow did she realize how incredibly thick the shadows had been everywhere else. As her eyes adjusted, two gray shapes materialized in the spotlight. She saw a tiny dull gravestone, and just to the right of it was a pegasus mare, hunched over with a saddlebag and weeping.

Dinky's lips quivered. “Mommy...?”

The mare did not move. Instead, an infant unicorn filly poked her head out of the saddlebag, looking Dinky's way with bright yellow eyes.

Dinky froze in place. She didn't breathe, she didn't shout. She kept her muzzle clenched tight as a dull expression paled over her face.

“Dinky...?”

The infant stared back, innocent and icy still, weathering each sobbing heave from the mare beneath her.

“Dinky Doo...?

Dinky finally exhaled. Her eyes glistened with tears as the infant blended with the fog of the melting forest.

A pale pair of forelimbs wrapped around Dinky from behind.

“...!” Dinky gasped and...

{-DD-}

...opened her eyes, blinking delicately into dull orange torchlight.

Sweetie Belle's warm face smiled down at her. “Finally... you're awake.”

Dinky exhaled. She looked past Sweetie, her eyes still locked on a ghostly pair of gray shapes. “Mommy...”

“No. I'm no 'Mommy,'” Sweetie Belle whispered with a tiny giggle. “I'd have to marry the colt of my dreams first.” She cleared her throat, breathing calmly. “But, still, I'm soooo glad that you're awake.”

Dinky rubbed her aching head and slowly sat up with help from Sweetie Belle. Her vision rippled black and unfolded once more, revealing a dark, dank cave with craggy stone walls. Her colander rested in a heap, along with the rest of the crusaders' helmets. She sat on an ice cold granite floor covered in dancing amber shadows. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were squatting a few feet away, fumbling to mend a banged-up scooter and a battered red wagon. Just behind the two ponies, a mountain of random junk and miscellaneous garbage occupied the bulk of the room, and just a few more feet away there stretched a gate of iron-wrought bars.

It was obvious to Dinky that the crusaders had been caged inside the dead-end of an underground chamber. Dinky peered through the bars to see a workbench, a butcher's block, and a pile of filthy rags lying just before an ascending set of granite steps. A quartet of dim torches stretched along a grime-stained wall on the other side, and the air was thick with the stench of decay and excrement.

“So...” Dinky bit her lip. “It really happened?”

“Yup,” Scootaloo droned. “We've been dogpiled.”

“How... how long...?”

“Maybe two hours ago? Three?” Apple Bloom shrugged, tilting the wagon up while Scootaloo struggled to fit a loose wheel back on. “Ain't no sunlight down here for us to tell.”

“Heck, there's probably no sunlight period.” Scootaloo grumbled, glaring into her futile task. “The sun's likely setting on Manehattan as we speak.”

“Manehattan!” Dinky gasped. “The Cakes' twins! Oh no!” She slapped her forehead. “They're helpless without us—Ow!” She seethed, clutching her bruised skull. “Ow ow ow ow...”

“Shhhh—Don't hit yourself!” Sweetie Belle patted her shoulder. “You took a nasty bump to the head when they tossed you into the bag.”

“Into the b-bag...” Dinky winced, staring into the heap of dusty furniture and moldy sheets piling up against the cave wall behind them. “So I didn't just dream all of that.”

“'Fraid not, Dinky,” Apple Bloom said. “We really did fall for the oldest trick in the book.”

“Mmmm...” Dinky squatted down in a depressed slump, her “cape” folding around her like a funeral shroud. “I'm sorry.”

Sweetie Belle leaned her head to the side. “For what?”

“It's all my fault.” Dinky sniffled. “You girls asked me to go get help, but I couldn't even outrun the creeps.” Her eyes watered as she kneaded the cold stone floor with her hooves. “Now look at us. Hmmmph... some crusader I am.”

“Come on, Dinkster. Don't be like that..” Scootaloo said, giving the wheel in her grasp a little spin. “Really, there was nothing you could have done.” Torchlight flickered across her eyes, and in an angry glint she frowned at the pony seated across the wagon from her. “After all, it's not like you made us chase after a stupid barking dog in the first place!”

“Hey!” Apple Bloom shrugged, dropping the wagon. “How did any of us know it was gonna be an ambush?! Real ponies could have been in trouble!”

“Yeah, and those real ponies were us!” Scootaloo gnashed her teeth. “You happy now?”

“No, Scootaloo, I ain't.” Apple Bloom stood up and walked across the cell with an indignant twirl of her cape. “And I reckon you ain't happy, neither.”

Scootaloo took a deep breath. Eventually her ears drooped as she said. “Look, Apple Bloom, I'm sorry for getting all riled up. I know you and Sweetie Belle only wanted to do the right thing, and I didn't mean to snap at you. It's just... just...” She rolled her eyes, groaned, and gestured at the overturned vehicle. “Look at what they did to the wagon!”

“Yeah, well...” Sweetie Belle stood up beside Dinky, smiling sheepishly. “At least your scooter's in one piece.”

“Yeah, well, no offense…” Apple Bloom started shifting lazily through the mound of garbage against the wall of the room. “But I think that's the least of our problems at the moment.”

“Well, if we break free from this place, we won't be getting all that far on our hooves!” Scootaloo said hoarsely. “Now will we?”

“Break out of here?!” Apple Bloom tossed several empty bottles aside and gawked over her shoulder at the pegasus. “Scootaloo, we dun even know how deep into the earth we are! Applejack dealt with these kinds of mud-mutts before, and she told me that the tunnels they dig stretch for miles and miles!”

“Hey, my sister was also in one of these places!” Sweetie exclaimed. “Even longer than Applejack was!”

“Oh yeah?” Apple Bloom returned to the junk pile. “What'd she do to get out?”

“She whined and cried a lot.”

“Yeah... that hasn’t been working so well for us.”

“Trust me! It’ll work!” Sweetie Belle squinted. “I've studied Rarity! I'm an apt pupil in Cryenomics!”

“Well, sure. Maybe you are. Me? I suppose. Dinky? She's young enough.” Apple Bloom pointed across the way. “But Scoots here? She never cries—”

“Hcckttt...” Scootaloo's eyes welled up with tears as she cradled another crooked wheel in her hoof. “My wagonnnn...”

Apple Bloom winced. “Then again.” She squinted into the pile of scrap before her, then brightened “Hey!” She picked up a grimy screwdriver and waved it around. “Look what I found, Scoots!”

“Huh?” Scootaloo looked up, and instantly she beamed, wings fluttering. “No way! That's perfect!”

“Then put it to good use!” Apple Bloom tossed it across the cell. “A fixed wagon is better than no wagon at all!”

“You bet it is!” Scootaloo caught the instrument and began tweaking the wagon. “Huh... I wonder what other useful things there could be in that pile?”

“What's all this junk lying around here for anyways?” Dinky asked.

“Reckon Diamond Dogs are all about hoardin',” Apple Bloom said, continuing to hoof her way through the mess. “Though, usually they collect gems and rubies n'such.”

“You mean like dragons?”

“Yeah...” Sweetie Belle fidgeted. “Only a lot hairier... and smellier.”

Dinky's ears twitched. “Uhm... are we alone down here?”

“The evil doggies dropped us in here hours ago,” Sweetie Belle said. “We haven't seen them since.”

Dinky looked her way. “Then whose footsteps am I hearing?”

Sweetie Belle merely blinked. In the distance, scraping claws and pitter-pattering paws echoed closer and closer. She gasped, flailing her forelimbs. “Girls! Quick! They're coming back!”

“Shoot!” Scootaloo hissed. She swiftly tucked the screwdriver and wheels underneath her overturned wagon.

Apple Bloom hopped away from the junk pile and helped Scootaloo shove the wagon towards the corner of the cell.

Dinky looked all around. “Huh? What's going—?”

“Dinky, come on!” Scootaloo dragged her over as the four collected in the middle of the room. One by one, they dropped to the floor in limp heaps, along with their wrinkled capes. “Curl up and get all 'sad and hungry!' Like this!” And she plopped down, curling her hooves up.

“Uhhhh... why?” Dinky's face scrunched up.

Sweetie tilted her head long enough to squeak, “Cryenomics, remember?” And she slumped back down. “If we play helpless, they'll bother us less!”

“Bother us less?” Dinky swiveled at the sound of thudding footsteps.

A tall, pale canine strolled into the room, claws clicking across the lifeless stone floor. A slobbering bulldog crawled after him, panting through a razor-toothed maw as his ravenous gaze met Dinky's timid face.

Dinky's eyes instantly rolled back as she draped a hoof over her teetering horn. “Ohhhhh Celestiaaaa!” Thud! She curled up into a fetal position, her moans and whimpers joining the collective wails of the quartet. “I want my Mommmmmmy!”

“Hey the fourth one made it!” The small one barked. “You owe me two bones and a hubcap!”

“Hrmmmf...” The taller beast smirked, his yellow eyes turning yellower in the dim torchlight. He leered close to the bars. “I’ll dig ‘em up once we make it rich off these little prissy pups.” He kicked the bottom of the gate, causing the bars to ring in a loud reverberating tone. “Ya hear that, ya little fertilizers? You’re gonna make the Slashers richer than every Diamond Dog this side of Tartarus!”

“Hey!” Apple Bloom tilted her head up, frowning. “Who’re ya callin’ ‘fertilizers?’"

Scootaloo slapped her across her pink bow.

“Ouch!”

Clearing her throat, Scootaloo clutched her stomach and wailed. “Ohhhhh help usss! Will somepony help usss?!”

“Soooo hungryyyyy...” Apple Bloom whimpered and sputtered. “...I dun wanna die down herrre...”

“Grrfff...” The bulldog sniffed and growled. “Do we really have to keep them here, Jake? Seems like such a waste to have the brats writhing around on the floor when there’re plenty of tiny holes that they could be digging.” He tilted his slobbering chin up to grin at his companion. “How about I chain ‘em together and send them down to the purgatorial basilisk mines?”

Dinky broke her act, involuntarily shivering.

“Give it a rest, Tonks,” the tall one grumbled. “Besides, we gave up on the basilisk mines after what happened to Spot.”

“Oh yeah.” The bulldog nodded, his cheeks flapping. “Poor Spot.” A blink. “Are you done using his skull for an ash tray? April’s here. I deserve my turn this month!”

“Shut your trap.” The sound of rattling keys lit the stale air just outside the metal bars. “Let’s just get this over with.”

“Why are we feeding them anyways? They did nothing to earn any meal!”

“We need them relatively ‘healthy,’ ya drool bucket!” The gate opened with a rusty squeak. “To ransom off for jewels! The prancing pony towns above ground will pay out their butts for these little puke-stains! How else do you think we're gonna build up King Bart's empire from a paltry scrap heap?”

“Pfft! All we are is just a gang!”

“The Slashers are more than a gang!” With a loud clatter, a round dish full of gray mush landed in the middle of the jail cell, splattering slimy dollops across the four fillies. “Soon, we'll have enough rubies to run this Piedra-forsaken earth!”

“Why does Bartholomew insist on bein' called 'King,' anyway?”

The door groaned then slammed back shut. “Lemme put it this way.” Jake locked the cage with a loud click. “With teeth like his, are you gonna try yanking that crown off him?”

Tonks whined slightly, bowing his head. “You have a good point...”

“Mmmmmm...” Sweetie Belle sat up, rubbing her puffy eyes as she stared into the food bowl. “What do you want us to do with this? Eat it or throw up in it?”

“The heck do I care? Do both!” Jake laughed, his dirty fangs flashing from beneath his curled lips. “Or rot in the corner like that stupid tricycle you were riding! So long as you're alive, we profit!”

“Hey!” Scootaloo shot up like a rocket, her crying face replaced with a vicious frown. “It's a scooter not a tricycle!” She stomped up to the cage, sneering. “And it's not stupid!”

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes while Sweetie Belle face hoofed. Dinky sat up, nervously watching the scene.

“And another thing!” Scootaloo dragged a hoof across the floor, growling. “Your King Bartholomew or whoever can go choke on his crown! 'Cuz he messed with the wrong ponies!”

“Heheheh...” Jake's eyes narrowed. “Is that so?”

“Yeah! We're the Cutie Mark Crusaders! If you knew the kind of friends we had, you would think twice about—gaaaaah!” Scootaloo's eyes widened. Her hooves flailed as she was held upside down high off the ground by her tail. “Hey! No fair!”

“Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom jumped up, galloping towards the dangling pegasus. “You put her down right now, ya big meanie!”

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Jake smirked, his arm rising up and down so that Scootaloo bounced from his hairy grip like an orange yo-yo. “Were you in charge here? That’s funny, seeing as how you’re on the inside of the jail cell and not the outside!” His eyes briefly narrowed above a row of sharp teeth. “How about we switch things around a bit, hmm? Let’s see a pony beg before a dog.”

“How ‘bout you go choke on a cat?” Scootaloo grumbled, flailing.

“Psssst…” Tonks leaned in, his bulldog face blanching. “She knows how Fido died!”

Jake kicked his yipping buddy in the side. “Awwww shuddup.” The hair on the back of his neck rose up. “This lame pony-sitting garbage is beneath me. What’d you call yourselves again? Cutie Mark Crusaders? Hmmmph… more like crap suckers. How about trading those puny wings of yours for a spine before you start trying to talk big, ya sissy!” And he opened his paw.

Scootaloo fell hard to the ground below. “Owch!” She instantly regretted the high-pitched exclamation, and she rolled over, glaring away from the captors with an iron-wrought frown.

“Hmmmph. Pathetic. The equine race is doomed.” Jake chuckled. “Good news for us.” He turned away from the gate, motioning to the bulldog. “Come on, Tonks.” Jake stomped back up the stairs. “We've got that west tunnel to finish digging.”

“Say... why'd we go with 'the Slashers' anyways?” Tonks wagged his tail as he clambered after his cohort. “I kind of liked our original name!”

“Hmmff. What? Dogs After Huge Rubies And Diamonds?”

“Yeah! DAHRAD! It rolls right off the tongue!”

“Tonks... you've got a filthy, filthy tongue.”

“Says you!”

As their clawsteps faded in the distance, Dinky looked over—shivering. “Is... is Scootaloo alright?”

“Well, she’s in one piece.” Apple Bloom said, trotting over along with Sweetie Belle. “Which is a good thang, considerin’ what these dogs could really do to us if we tick ‘em off enough.”

“Apple Bloom, please,” Sweetie Belle frowned at her friend, then turned towards the pegasus with a concerned expression. “Scootaloo?” Sweetie Belle leaned in, nuzzling the filly. “You okay? Did they hurt you or anything?”

“Hrmmmmf...” Scootaloo shook, clenching her teeth harder. “I'm... f-fine...”

“But that big goon dropped you so hard and—”

“I said I'm fine!” Snarling Scootaloo shoved Sweetie Belle back. She stood up and paced in a furious circle, seething. “Will you just back off, already?”

Apple Bloom frowned. “Look, Scoots, I know you nearly got yer head cracked open, but it don't mean ya gotta bite ours off!”

“I know... I know!” Scootaoo growled. “I'm just sick of smelly dogs and smelly caves and... and... st-stupid...” She clenched her eyes shut, hissing inwardly. “Stupid!” She shook, shook some more, then bowed her head with a heavy exhale. Her wings drooped as her sad eyes traced the cracks in the granite floor. “Sorry, guys. Just every second we waste here, the longer the Cakes' foals are spending in the clutches of those dirty Haissanic punks.”

“Er... r-right...” Apple Bloom nodded with a tiny smile. “We'll save them, Scoots. We will. Just... one thang at a time, okay?”

“Right.” Scootaloo took several deep breaths, slicking her mane back as she stared off with hollow eyes. “One thing at a time.”

“How 'bout we keep lookin' through this pile for more stuff we could fix the scooter with?”

“Yeah.” Scootaloo gulped, wings fluttering slightly. “Or maybe something we could use to dig our way out of here.”

“That's the spirit!” Apple Bloom smiled. She turned, briefly flashed Sweetie Belle a dull look, then trotted her way towards the pile of rubbish. “I'll see if I can find something on this end if you search closer to that side of the room.”

“Already on it,” Scootaloo said. “There's gotta be something in here that we could make good use of. Those bars look weak enough for us to saw through, I bet.”

“Yeah!” Apple Bloom said, fishing her hooves deep into the rattling mess. “These mutts are plum idiots to stash us inside with all this garbage! What are the odds we'll find a chisel or a hoof file in here?”

“I dunno, but keep looking.”

By this time, Dinky's breathing had started to calm down. She looked aside, squirming visibly.

“Are you alright, Dinky?”

“Hmmm?” Dinky's eyes fluttered open.

Sweetie Belle smiled at her. “It's going to be okay.”

“Sure! I know that.”

“I mean it!” Sweetie Belle said. “You’re with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the best little problem-solvers in all of Equestria! We’ll find a way out of here in a jiff! You’ll see!”

“Yeah.” Dinky nodded, gulping. “I believe in you guys!”

“Hehehe… believe in yourself!” Sweetie Belle winked. “You’re a Crusader too, y’know!”

“Honorary Crusader…”

Sweetie stuck her tongue out. “Same difference, silly.”

Dinky smiled bashfully, toying with her cape.

“Hey! Sweetie Belle!” Apple Bloom looked over her shoulder, yanking at something. “Could ya lend a hoof? I think I found something but it won't budge!”

“Uh... sure thing! Be right there!” Sweetie Belle gave Dinky a look.

Dinky nodded.

Sweetie swiftly trotted over to Apple Bloom's side. “Where should I grab hold?”

“Right here.”

“Okay.”

“Now give it a swift tug on the count of three. One... two... Three!”

“Nnnngh!” Sweetie Belle slumped back, gripping the handle of a rusted hoof-saw. “Hey!” She beamed. “Lookit! Lookit!”

“Right on, Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo waved from her side of the pile. “You guys keep digging!” As soon as she was done talking, she exhaled heavily, and a morose expression hung off her orange muzzle. Scootaloo wasn't particularly invested in her work; her hooves dug through the junk with repetitive motions, and her eyes stared ahead with a dull glaze, as if she was gazing at something a thousand miles straight ahead through solid earth.

Dinky noticed all of this with a keen eye. She heard herself murmuring as she walked over, "Are you okay?"

"Hmmm?" Scootaloo slowly blinked, turning her head with the urgency of molasses. It took her a full two seconds to register her new company, and she produced a thin smile. "Oh, sure thing, Dinkster!" A coy wink. "It'll take a lot more than a little roughhousing to crack my skull open."

"Still doesn't make what happened just now any more right," Dinky said.

"Look, it happened," Scootaloo grumbled. "So let's just forget about it, okay?!"

Dinky winced, immediately avoiding Scootaloo's scathing frown. She clutched her cape once again with a regretful shudder.

Soon, however, Scootaloo sighed and said, "Don't take it the wrong way, Dinky. You're super nice for checking up on me. I'd just rather work on finding us a way out of here."

"Oh, I understand," Dinky said, gulping.

"We need to get out of this mess," Scootaloo grumbled. "And it's all up to me."

Dinky leaned her head to the side. "Why just you?"

"Well, not just me. Just… y’know… mostly me."

"But..." Dinky blinked. "Don't the Crusaders work best as a team?"

“Huh? Oh, of course!” Scootaloo nevertheless fidgeted as she muttered, “But every team’s gotta have its ace in the hole.”

Dinky shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t play poker.”

“No, it’s not… nnngh.” Scootaloo sighed, briefly running a hoof across her face before leaning over to speak quietly into the little unicorn’s ear. “When push comes to shove, Dinky, it’ll fall on one of us to do the tough stuff that the others can’t.”

“Isn’t saving the foals on our lonesome tough enough?”

“But I mean really tough stuff.” Scootaloo leaned in further, weighed forward by a grin. She added in a hushed tone: “Stuff that only the most awesome of us can do.”

Dinky crouched. "Why are we whispering?"

"'Cuz I don't want to offend the others." Scootaloo winked with a smile. "Foals can be such cry babies, y'know?"

"What was that, Scootaloo?" Sweetie Belle asked from across the room.

"Uhhh... k-keep digging!" Scootaloo's voice cracked, shoving her limbs deeper into the rubbish pile. "We're bound to find something at this rate!"

"Oh! Okay!" And Sweetie resumed what she was doing, humming pleasantly.

Dinky glanced at the other two, then back at Scootaloo again. "I didn't realize we needed somepony who was ‘most awesome.’”

“Neither did I, until stuff got lame.”

“Huh?”

"Pffft. Take a look around us, Dinky," Scootaloo grumbled, her eyes reflecting the somber torchlight. "Would we even be in this mess if everypony had followed my advice and ignored the darn bulldog in the first place?"

Dinky squirmed. She remembered the first moment out in the field when she saw the four-legged creature approaching the wagon. She saw the collar around its neck and had instant reservations. However, when she tried to speak up, none of the other Crusaders bothered to listen to her, Scootaloo included. She thought about mentioning that, but decided not to, realizing that there was very little it would do to help the situation.

Thankfully, Scootaloo had decided to keep talking on her own. "I'm telling you, I could have gotten us to Manehattan by now. Heck... if it was just me on the scooter—and no wagon—then I'd probably have gotten there hours ago. I mean, I'm fast enough!"

"What about the other girls?" Dinky asked. "And me?"

"That's just it." Scootaloo winced, smiling nervously. "I couldn't just leave you guys behind. You're my friends, and we're all Crusaders. Besides, it'd be super lame if only I got my cutie mark for stopping the foal nappers."

Dinky stifled a giggle, smiling with warm dimples. "Which you would also have done by now, right?"

"Totally!" Scootaloo grinned, her wings buzzing as she shuffled through more junk and delapidated tools. "I can't help it if I was born this awesome." Her nostrils snorted as she briefly frowned. "Which makes it suck all the more that I don't have a cutie mark for it yet."

"You'll get one, Scootaloo," Dinky said. "We'll all get one."

"Not by standing around and chewing the fat, we won't!" Scootaloo squinted Dinky's way. "You wanna lend a hoof?"

Dinky shrugged. "Only if it won't take away from your awesome escape plan."

"Pfft! As if." Scootaloo pointed at a cluster of junk resting against the far wall behind them. "None of us have touched that section yet. Why don't you head over there and start scraping around for something else that we could use to bust the gate down?"

“Okay!” Dinky smiled and saluted. "Captain, my Captain!"

"Heh..." Scootaloo winked. "Now that's the spirit."

Dinky dashed off for the far side of the room. She passed by Sweetie Belle, who turned to look from the pile where she was rummaging. "Are you going to help us scrounge some tools up?"

"Uh huh!"

“Just watch out for loose stuff!”

“Don't worry!” Dinky chirped back, approaching a crooked stack of chairs and moldy newspapers. “I'll be careful!” She turned and stared up at a loose pile of metal and wooden knick-knacks. After a timid gulp, she nevertheless trotted forward and began pulling random trinkets out, one hoof-ful at a time. All of the sudden, the mountain of rubbish she was tugging from shifted dramatically. With a tiny yelp, the scared filly fell on her rump and crab-walked into a sheet-covered object that rattled behind her. Within seconds, the shifting stopped, and the tall garbage pile was still once again.

“Everythang okay over there, Dinky?”

“Y-yeah, Apple Bloom!” The unicorn filly stood up, brushing herself off. “It's just... really dirty down here.”

“My coat isn't liking this any more than yours is!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.” Don't worry! We'll find a way out of here soon!”

“Hey! Take a gander!” Apple Bloom reached deep into her section the pile and pulled loose a rusted red lantern. “Talk about a find!”

“If you say so,” Sweetie Belle droned, shaking her head. “The thing's busted.”

“How do you figure?”

“No lightning bugs inside. See? The glow's gone.”

“This ain't like a pony lantern.” Apple Bloom turned the thing around, squinting at the wick inside the glass. “I'm willin' to bet this runs on kerosene.”

“Then we just need something to light it!”

“Right, see if you can find somethang to make a fire with.”

As Sweetie Belle ran across the cell, Dinky turned to glance at the sheeted object that she had just bumped into. She moved to return to her junk pile, but something anchored her in place. Curious, she reached up and pulled the sheet off. With a flurry of dust, the fabric struck the floor, and suddenly Dinky was staring at herself. When she blinked, the image of her blinked as well. She reached a hoof forward until it came to a stop against a grimy cold surface. “A mirror...”

“Hey! Hey!” Sweetie Belle galloped across the thin space, sliding to a dull stop beside Apple Bloom. “Look at what I found!” She jubilantly cradled a tiny wooden box.

“Matches!” Apple Bloom grinned wide, swiping the container of sticks from Sweetie's grasp. “Hot dog!” She turned towards Sweetie Belle. “Where'd you find it?”

Sweetie pointed across the cell. “Inside a drawer in a collapsed dresser.”

“Well, this may be just the game changer we need.” Apple Bloom took one match out and struck it across the rough cave wall, to no effect. Licking her lips, she tried a few more times until a tiny flicker of flame was born. Then, with expert hooves, she lifted the glass off the lantern and ignited the wick. Adjusting the knob, she grinned in victory to see a steady flame burning. “Ha! Just as I thought! There's enough in there to burn!”

“But we have enough torchlight in here already!” Sweetie exclaimed.

“Right. But I'm thinkin' that maybe we could...” She turned, shrugging. “I dunno. Start a fire? Smoke our captors out?”

“You mean with us on the fire's side of the bars?” Scootaloo grumbled from the side. She fished out a box of screws from the hoard and knelt before the wagon once again, using the screwdriver to fasten the last wheels back in place. “Pffft... please. They'd just abandon us in a Neigh York minute.”

Sweetie Belle sighed. “She has a point.”

"Of course I do!"

“I reckon so.” In a slump, Apple Bloom reached forward and extinguished the lamp. “Still, hide the matches someplace in case we find a better use for 'em.”

“Sure thing. In the meantime...?”

“...keep looking.”

Dinky watched as the reflections of the fillies went darting off to separate parts of the scrap pile. The speed and dexterity with which they worked on the simplest of things—like digging through junk—was a testament to how long they had spent every afternoon of the past two years crusading together. They were a perfect trio of fillies, thinking alike and functioning like clockwork. Dinky found herself bearing witness to a well-oiled Crusader contraption, and suddenly it made her feel like a fifth wheel—when she should have been the fourth.

The little unicorn sighed... and then her right eye twitched. Something was twinkling in the torchlight, something bright and metallic. Blinking, she traced the edges of the mirror until her gaze narrowed on the reflection. She spotted something tiny and cylindrical hanging off a lopsided chair's leg.

Turning completely around, Dinky craned her neck up until she spotted the actual object in question. Her lips parted. On waddling little hooves, she snuck towards the lofty chair, tilted her body up, and slapped her fetlock against the dangling object until she successfully knocked it off its restraint. The thing fell into her hooves, cold and light to the touch. Dinky couldn't believe her eyes, even as the yarn-thin silver chain pooled over the sides of her forelimbs.

“It's... it's...”

“Wow, Dinky!” Sweetie Belle stumbled over, wrestling with the lid of a plastic jar. “I thought you said you left your flute at home!”

“I did!” Dinky smiled awkwardly, holding the instrument up. “This is a different one!”

“A different one?”

“Yeah! It's smaller and shinier!” Dinky dangled the thing from her horn and spun it around with a foalish smile. “And it's got this really cool chain!”

“You mean you found it in here?” Apple Bloom called from the other side of the room. “In this heap?”

“No kidding!” Scootaloo attached the last wheel, spun it proudly, and trotted over from the repaired wagon. “Heh! What are the odds?”

“I'd say pretty huge!” Sweetie said. At last, she opened her jar with a pop, and a flood of paper snakes leapt against her muzzle. “EEEEP!” She jolted, her mane sticking straight up in random places. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo giggled. Blinking, Sweetie Belle tossed the jar away with a sigh and bestowed Dinky a tired smile. “I wonder if the thing works, at least.”

“Yeah! Try it out!” Scootaloo leaned in, grinning. “For all we know, maybe it'll send the dogs running for the hills!”

“Well... alright.” Dinky shrugged. Plopping back on her haunches, she placed the tips of her hooves over the appropriate holes in the instrument and prepared to play a simple little tune. “Here goes.” She pressed her lips to the end and gave it a firm blow.

No sound was produced. Instead, a flood of moths poured out the end, spread their wings, and collided with the center of Scootaloo's face.

“Gaaaugh!” The filly flailedflailedflailed and—Thud!—fell flat on her back, legs sticking up.

“Oh!” Dinky instantly blushed, hugging the found instrument to her chest. “I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I had no idea!”

“Guh... h-hate... moths...” Scootaloo wheezed, eyes twitching towards the ceiling.

“Snkkkt... heeheehee...” Sweetie Belle yanked the pegasus back to her hooves. “It's okay, Scootaloo. You were such a polite audience.”

“Hrmmmm...” Scootaloo rubbed her muzzle and frowned at the flute. “Keep that darn thing on its leash.” She turned and trotted across the way. “I'm gonna go help Apple Bloom... where there'll be less bugs flying into my face.”

As she trotted off, Sweetie Belle looked at Dinky. She winked, giggling.

Dinky bore a sheepish smile. Sweetie trotted away, leaving her alone by her side of the cave. She glanced down at her flute, then peered—squinting—down its open end. She gave the necklace a little shake, littering the floor with fragments of insect wings. Once she felt it was significantly emptied, she took a deep breath and gave it one final blow. It resisted a bit, but soon a knotted cloud of dust and hair flew out, and the instrument made melody for the first time in untold years. Dinky celebrated the moment by performing the first half of the Equestrian National Anthem at double-tempo. She smiled at herself.

“Very pretty, Dinky!” Sweetie Belle said from a distance.

“Yeah!” Apple Bloom's voice added in a sarcastic drawl. “Reckon you can summon giant eagles with it?”

“Uhhh…” Dinky squirmed. “Should I?”

“Hey! Apple Bloom! I think I see a hammer back there!”

“Well, help me grab it, Scoots!”

“Sure thing! You heave and I ho!”

“Wouldn't have it any other way!”

“Heaaaave!”

“Nnnnngh... ghhh...”

Meanwhile, Dinky had hung the flute around her neck. The instrument's little silver chain was just the perfect fit for her tiny foalish size. She stood up straight, reveling in how closely it dangled to her chest. Reaching a hoof up, she batted it like a cat... then tapped it a second time. Her eyes followed the flute as it rocked to a stop, and she giggled.

But something hadn't stopped swinging. Once more, Dinky sensed a shifting of shadow and light in the peripheral of her vision. She looked aside and saw the flute settling to a stop in the mirror. The unicorn blinked hard, her eyes darting left and right. Just then, the reflection lifted a hoof up and batted the flute around her necklace a third time, which was somewhat dismaying, seeing as Dinky herself hadn't.

The filly did a double-take. Pivoting to face the mirror directly, she trotted closer, eyes peering quizzically in every direction. She looked all over the glass, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. But then her eyes wandered up. A breath escaped her lips. The reflection had no horn; a perfectly smooth forehead loomed just inches from Dinky's own. She was staring so close that when the reflection in the mirror winked, the fright of it knocked Dinky flat on her rear.

Dinky sprawled on the floor, shivering. She stared up at the mirror, but the figure before her was still standing like she had been just seconds ago. What's more, it smiled, a very warm and inviting expression. Dinky found that the longer she stared at it, the swifter her hyperventilating melted away into calm breaths. Nevertheless, as she persistently waved her forelimbs—and the reflection didn't—a nervous tick found its way into her mouth, clicking her tongue against her teeth. “G-g-girls?”

“Nnnngh!”

“We almost got it, Scootaloo! Just... grnngh... a little more!”

“What's this darn hammer made out of?! Moonstone?”

Dinky turned her head and stammered louder: “Girls?! Crusaders? Uhhhh... you m-might wanna come see this!”

“Just a second, Dinky! Come on! You guys almost got this!”

“It's caught on something! We just gotta... g-get it unstuck!”

“I'm... tr-trying... guh...”

Dinky bit her lip. In what was quickly becoming routine, she was being ignored. She was too numbly flabbergasted to register any ounce of frustration. Dinky looked at the mirror once again, and she jolted in place, for her periwinkle reflection was standing much closer to the glass now. The same warm smile was there, and the filly gestured at Dinky with a “come hither” hoof.

For some reason, Dinky was no longer nervous. She stood up, feeling the cold tap of the dangling flute against her chest. Soon, she had trotted up so that she was within inches of the mirror's surface. From the way she was panting, she figured her breath might fog the glass, but that didn't happen. The pony on the other side smiled wider, her teeth showing in a mute giggle. Next, she held a hoof up, then picked up the flute from around its neck.

Dinky blinked. Slowly, she mimicked the gesture, holding her own flute up as well.

The reflection nodded. Then, bringing the instrument to its lips, it performed slow and deliberate hoof-movements across the perforated top of the flute. Its eyes remained locked on Dinky's the whole time, as if knowing how simple the message would be.

And it was. Within the span of a minute, Dinky understood the movements in the mirror. She recognized the hoof-strokes as playing the soundless notes to a very popular Equestrian lullaby, just like her Mommy used to sing her to sleep with every night. Without delay, Dinky pressed her lips to the flute and performed the same movement across the top of it with her hooves, all the while blowing to make a delicate little melody. She even closed her eyes, concentrating on the timeless tune as it wafted through her young mind: “Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head...”

At that point, Dinky felt something, like the rush of air from a freshly-opened window in Fall. She opened her eyes to see that her hornless reflection was clapping its hooves in noiseless applause.

Dinky smiled curiously.

Immediately, the reflection performed a bow. Then, to Dinky's astonishment, it sprouted purplish-gray wings and flew up... gliding beyond the wooden frame of the mirror. As it did so, the gloss and torchlight faded from the glass behind its blond tail, giving way to deep blue darkness. Dinky's ears rang, as if the acoustics of the jail cell had suddenly changed. Curiouser, she trotted forward and pressed her hoof to the glass.

Dinky caught a gasp in her throat as her hoof sank through, the shimmering surface replaced with pure air. Wordless, the filly crouched low, peering beyond the mirror to see what appeared to be a long, winding tunnel of dark, dank earth that ran far out of sight.

Right at that moment—“Rghhhh—Got it!”—Apple Bloom and Scootaloo finally dragged the hammer out onto the stone floor with a heavy thud, scaring Dinky out of her skin. “Whew!” Apple Bloom brushed her hooves off and pivoted towards Dinky with a sweaty gaze. “Now, what is it you wanted us to see, Dinky?”

“Uhhhh...” The unicorn fidgeted, her flute still swinging to a stop. She turned from the now nonexistent mirror. “Uhmm...”

“Whoah!” Scootaloo's eyes burst wide. Wings flapping, she scuffled over to Dinky's side and gaped into the sudden and deep tunnel. “It's... it's a way out!” She spun to face Dinky, jaw agape. “Dinky, did you just find that all by yourself?”

“Er...” Dinky gulped, sweating. “Maybe?”

“Can you believe the dumb varmints who dug this place?!” Apple Bloom squeaked, hopping victoriously in place. “They forgot to bury all their holes!”

“Woohoo!” Sweetie Belle galloped in and hugged Dinky. “Way to go, Honorary Cutie Mark Crusader!” She grinned wide. “I knew you'd help us all out!”

“But it just appeared...” Dinky choked on her own words. “Wh-what I mean is, I didn't find—”

“Awwww... don't be so modest, Dinky. You blush too easily with that coat.” Sweetie turned and smiled at the other two. “Hey Apple Bloom! Bring that lamp over!”

“Already on it!” The earth filly nudged the thing over with her head, struck a match, and lit it.

In an instant, Scootaloo had snatched the thing in her hoof and was holding it before the wooden-framed passageway. The light barely reached its way down the neck of the tight tunnel. She squinted nevertheless, violet eyes darting left and right. “Huh... almost looks like it's going through the junk behind it.”

“Who cares?!” Sweetie Belle's voice cracked. “It's a way out! Anyplace has got to be better than here!”

All four fillies gazed into the hole. In the ensuing silence, they heard a gentle whistle of cold air from the cylindrical tunnel, coming and going, like an icy breath from the darkness.

“Where... uh...” Apple Bloom gulped. “Where do ya suppose it goes?”

“You're the earth pony,” Scootaloo grunted. “You tell us.”

Apple Bloom glared daggers at her. “My specialty is above the earth. If we were talkin' apple tunnels, then you'd be askin' the right mare.”

“Say Scootaloo,” Sweetie Belle asked. “Could your scooter fit through that?”

“Yeah,” Scootaloo nodded, peering past the lantern, “and the wagon too, I bet.”

“Maybe we should pack a few more of the things from this junk pile before we dive in?” Apple Bloom muttered, somewhat jittery.

Scraping footsteps echoed from the stairwell beyond the bars.

Dinky spun with a twirl of her new flute. “Uhhh... don't look now...”

“Horseapples!” Scootaloo was already dashing towards the scooter. She hung the lantern from one handle while flipping the wagon over and fixing it to the scooter's back. “Apple Bloom! The hammer!”

“R-right!” Apple Bloom rushed over to the heavy instrument, lifting the metal end with both hooves. “Nnnrghh... reckon we could use this somehow!”

“Dinky!” Sweetie Belle nudged the smaller unicorn across the cell room floor. “Into the wagon!”

“Okay!”

“Sweetie Belle?” Apple Bloom sweated. “A lil' help here!”

“Oh geez... oh geez...” Sweetie rushed over and picked the wooden end of the hammer up, helping the filly lug it into the wagon besides Dinky. “Scoots—!”

“Good to go!” Scootaloo hopped onto the scooter, gripping the handles. “Everypony on board—!”

“...for the last time,” Jake grumbled, shuffling into the room with a sniveling bulldog at his tail. “Bartholomew's the King! If he wants to wage war over a ham sandwich, then that's his prerogative—” Jake froze to a stop, claws scraping into the granite floor. Tonks bumped into his tail as the larger beast snarled through the bars. “What in Tartarus do you crud biscuits think you're doing?!”

“Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom jumped on the wagon, yanking Sweetie along with her. “Hit it!”

“Hitting!” Scootaloo gnashed her teeth and flung her cape aside, wings buzzing freely.

“Oh no you don't!” Jake thundered towards the cell door, fumbling with his keys.

“They're getting away!” Tonks grabbed the bars, shaking them and howling. “They're getting away!”

The sound of his warbling voice faded, for the Cutie Mark Crusaders had rocketed through the wooden frame and straight down the tight earthen corridor. The cold walls rippled past them, their dull blue surfaces illuminated by the kerosene lamp dangling from the front of Scootaloo's scooter. The air inside was less stale, replaced instead by a bitter, moist breeze.

“Where's that wind coming from?!” Sweetie Belle squeaked above the noise of the claustrophobic flight.

“I dunno!” Scootaloo squinted ahead, veering left and right as she sped down the winding passage. “From the other end, I hope!”

“Are the dogs coming after us?!” Dinky exclaimed.

As if to answer that, the bulldog's voice cracked far behind. “Where did this hole come from?!”

“Out of my way, Tonks!” Heavy breathing echoed down the corridor, accompanied with the rattling of metal bars. “Rrrrgh! Stay right here! I'll drag 'em out!” The tunnel next filled with clawing and scraping sounds, growing louder with each reverberation. “I swear, once I catch up to you little turds, I'm gonna skin your coats to make the Slashers a new banner!”

“Did you hear that?!” Sweetie Belle mewled. “I don't wanna become a coatttt!”

“Nopony's going to hang in a closet!” Scootaloo grunted, kicking at the tunnel's floor for extra speed. “Not if I have anything to do with it!!”

“You can't get far, you little manure stains!”

“I think he's getting madder!” Dinky stammered.

“Madder...” Sweetie Belle blinked, then gasped. “Scootaloo! Quick! Stop the wagon!”

“Huh?! You crazy?! He'll catch up to us!”

“He's a Diamond Dog! He's going to catch up to us in this tunnel no matter what!” As the wagon came to a screeching halt, Sweetie pointed up at the uneven soil of the corridor's ceiling. “Our only hope is to make it harder for the creep to reach us!”

Scootaloo blinked at the ceiling, then at her. “You mean like a cave-in?”

Loud barks and howls rolled down the chamber, shaking every filly to their core.

Apple Bloom looked at the dull walls in the lanternlight, then at the hammer. With a determined frown, she hopped out of the wagon. “Sweetie Belle! I need you to hold me in place!”

“I get what you're doing!” Sweetie Belle brushed past Dinky and leaned off the vehicle's edge, hugging Apple Bloom around the waist. “Be careful—”

Apple Bloom was already grabbing the hammer in her forelimbs. Pivoting up into a standing position, she swung the heavy metal end against the wall once—“Rrrgh!”—twice—“Gghh!”—a third time—“Come on, collapse!”

“It's starting to g-give way!” Sweetie said, wincing from the trickle of dust and sediment.

“It's not breaking hard enough!” Scootaloo stammered. “Hit it harder!”

“I'm... gnnngh... trying!” Apple Bloom seethed with the next hammer strike.

Up above, a pale tree root poked free from the ceiling. Dinky saw it. With a gasp, she pointed. “There!”

“Huh?!”

“The soil's soft!” Dinky exclaimed. “Somepony tug on it!”

Scootaloo was already darting upwards. She bit onto the end of the root, her feathers buzzing for leverage.

“You can't run from me!” A pale face lunged through the blackness behind them, its white coyote eyes brimming. “You're all dead meat—”

Apple Bloom dropped the hammer into the wagon and jumped up, grabbing Scootaloo's waist. Together, she and Sweetie Belle used their weight, tugging.

Scootaloo brought the tree root down with her teeth, and the rest of the ceiling along with it. There was a flash of fangs beyond, and then all was buried with a roar of collapsing earth.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders fell back into their wagon. It rolled slowly away from the dark avalanche. Through the caving mess, they heard the Jake's yipping shrieks, growing more and more distant, accompanied by the panicked pounding of paws. Then, after a brief lapse of silence, a distinct shattering noise echoed far up the way they came.

“Was... was...” Apple Bloom panted, gulped, and winced confusedly. “...was that glass?”

“It could be accordion music for all I care,” Scootaloo wheezed, wiping her brow. She patted Apple Bloom's and Sweetie Belle's shoulder before giving Dinky a weary nod. “Quick thinking, Crusader.”

Dinky clutched the flute around her neck. “Just... y'know... pulling my weight as the fourth wheel.” She smiled. "Still, couldn't have done it without our ace in the hole."

Scootaloo blinked, then smiled.

“Awwwww poop.” Sweeie Belle pouted.

“What's the matter?” Apple Bloom asked.

“I got dirt and mud all over my Crusader cape!”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Sweetie Belle...” She limped to her hooves and climbed back onto her scooter. “We all got our capes dirty.”

“Yeah, but...” Sweetie Belle fidgeted. “...mine's shiniest!”

Apple Bloom chuckled while Dinky grinned.

“You can wash it later.” Scootaloo peered down the long, long tunnel ahead of them. “...as soon as we get out of here.”

“You don't think that we sealed our only way out?” Sweetie asked, shivering slightly.

Scootaloo shrugged into the torchlight. “Only one way to find out.” And she gently kicked the wagon forward.

{-DD-}

The next few moments passed in silence. The three ponies in the back of the wagon clung to each other, relishing each other's warmth as they kept their nervous gazes locked ahead. Scootaloo acted as point mare, her eyes tracing the circular edge of their lamp's penumbra around every turn. Finally, after ten minutes of muddled meandering, a light appeared at the end of the tunnel, insanely bright, almost hypnotically so. It instantly warmed them, so that the fillies exhaled with relief. Scootaloo kicked along steadily, heading towards the point of illumination.

Around that moment, Dinky felt something cold slither past her neck. She looked down to see that the flute was dangling from its chain straight past her neck. When she looked back, she saw that hers and the other fillies' capes and manes were doing the same thing. With a curious expression, she gaped at Sweetie Belle.

Sweetie Belle gulped and turned towards Scootaloo. “Say, Scoots.”

“Yeah, Sweetie?”

“Is it just me, or are we goin' uphill?”

“We totally are.”

“So... uhm...” Apple Bloom scratched her head. “How come we ain't slidin' backwards?”

The tunnel fell quiet.

Scootaloo shrugged. “I have no idea.” And she kept pushing, undaunted.

The three fillies in the back waited in anxious silence. As the light became so bright that it engulfed them, they all leaned forward, eyes squinting. Then, with a sudden flash, they pierced through. Almost immediately, the wagon jolted beneath them.

“Guh!” Scootaloo's whole body shook. She gripped the scooter’s handles tight as she felt both vehicles shifting forward a bit, then lingering to a stop. Her eyes fluttered, and she squinted across a bright green sunny expanse. “Where in Equestria are we?”

“Uhhhhh...” Sweetie Belle shifted nervously. She hugged Dinky from behind while her wide green eyes traced a bizarre landscape of rolling hills and undulating hills, all overgrown with intricately spiraling vegetation. From a distance, the world divided itself into impossibly perfect squares, like a giant calico quilt of shrubbery and brightly colored flowers. The sky was a pulsating thing, with an indeterminate sun hanging somewhere nebulously overhead. When the group looked behind them, they were startled to see no tunnel, no hole, no terrestrial exit of any sort whatsoever. Instead, a gigantic sundial sat on a conical hill, traced with swirling patterns of grass that met at the center, where a rectangular mirror with an immaculate glass surface also loomed. For curiosity's sake, Dinky raised her hoof and waved it beside the wagon. Everypony noticed it produced no shadow. Just then, something shrieked and warbled from a distance, shaking the crusaders out of their skins.

“Okay...” Scootaloo gulped. “...I stand corrected.”

5 - Go Go Go!

Chapter Five

Go go go!

"Sweetie Belle?" Dinky whimpered, trotting backwards from the beast that had split the southern forests open.

"Ohhhh what I wouldn't have given for a Jubjub bird instead," Sweetie stammered.

With what sounded like grotesque whale song being fed through a tree shredder, the dinosauric beast lifted its worm-like neck and marched straight into the clearing, one thudding claw-step after another.

“Holy fetch!” Scootaloo’s voice cracked. In a brave lunge, she snatched Dinky off the ground and planted the gasping unicorn onto the back of her scooter. “Everypony make like a library and book it!” She buzzed her wings from underneath her cape, instantly accelerating the scooter past the cottage.

“Guh!” Dinky flailed, nearly falling off the speeding vehicle. She clung tight, staring back at the thundering scene with chattering teeth. “Sweetie Belle! Apple Bloom!”

“Just hang on, Dinky!” Sweetie Belle shouted, already sprinting beneath the trees. “Whatever happens, Scootaloo, don’t stop moving!”

“Don’t have to friggin’ tell me twice!” Scootaloo yelled.

“Apple Bloom—!” Sweetie began yelping.

“I’m a-movin’! I’m a-movin’!” the earth filly’s voice cracked as the ground shook behind them.

Within seconds, the Bandersnatch had scaled half the clearing. Its pale head squinted after the fleeing ponies. Summoning a banshee shriek, it charged forward at a far more furious pace, on a collision course with the tiny house.

"Ohhhhh fie." Tweedledum whipped out an umbrella and held it over his fat head like a shield.

"Contrariwise, I much prefer the crow to this."

"Noho—!"

SMASH! The cottage was reduced to pebbles under the beast's ripping talons. As it tore through the forest, the ponies galloping ahead of it grouped together, panting for breath.

"Just what in Celestia's sweet shimmerin' mane is that thang, Sweetie Belle?!" Apple Bloom yelped.

"Yeah!" Scootaloo glided from side to side, pushing along in her scooter. "You're the one who waxes Wabe all the time! Tell us!"

"Tweedledee and Tweedledum were right!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, struggling to gallop evenly from the ground constantly shaking beneath them. "Nothing can stop it once it's hunting!"

"Stop what?!"

"The Bandersnatch!" Sweetie Belle yelped, eyes twitching. "If it weren't for the Jabberwock, it'd be the one true king of the Wabe's jungle!"

"Please tell me she's just makin' that up!" Apple Bloom wheezed.

"Look behind us!" Sweetie Belle said over the sound of snapping branches and falling tree trunks. "Does that look made up?!"

"Hey!" Scootaloo pointed at an archway in the center of a hedge of bushes directly ahead. "I see a bunch of water in the next square! Maybe we can lose it in the drink!"

"Let's hope so!" Apple Bloom made it through first. She helped Sweetie underneath the arch and motioned for the other fillies. "Come on, gals!"

Scootaloo passed on through with Dinky riding along with her. The other two filed through on scrambling hooves. The ground shook beneath them as the thunderous clawsteps intensified. It even caused Apple Bloom to stumble at one point. Sweetie Belle reached over, helping the filly back to her hooves.

“It’s gonna catch up to us!” Sweetie Belle’s voice cracked.

"Like heck it will!" Scootaloo screeched to a stop, swinging the scooter to the side. "I refuse to be eaten by something that stupid-looking!" Dinky watched as the pegasus swiped the lantern off the handle from which it dangled. Scootaloo gave the dial on the side of the lamp a swift twist, intensifying the flame until it flickered the brightest.

“Scootaloo…?” Apple Bloom began.

“Everypony, stand back!” Scootaloo shouted. Then, with a grunt, she swung the lantern back in a downward arc so that it shattered against the thick bushes. Almost instantly, a blazing flame engulfed the edge of the square behind them, fueled on by the spilling kerosene. The hooting shrieks of the Bandersnatch intensified, but its pounding steps slowed.

“Good thinkin’, Scoots!” Apple Bloom hollered, galloping by as she made her way down a steep, muddy hill lined with a thin wall of trees. “Now let’s move!”

“What, are you crazy?!” Sweetie Belle yelped. “You’re burning priceless Bluish Carol real estate!”

“He can slap a lawsuit on me later!” Scootaloo cackled.

“But Bluish Carol has been dead for centuries!”

“Exactly!” Scootaloo kicked at the earth, gliding briskly downhill. “Hold on, Dinkster!”

Dinky clung to her, wincing from each jostling bump they hit along the muddy slalom. Behind them, she saw Sweetie Belle turning from the blaze with an exasperated sigh, scrambling to catch up.

* * * * * * *

* * * * * *

* * * * * * *

The Crusaders had barely pierced the treeline when suddenly it descended into a wide, shallow stream stretching east and west. Waiting at the river's edge was a wooden boat, complete with a pair of sturdy oars.

"Well!" Scootaloo wheezed as she skidded to a stop with Dinky on the scooter. The two of them dismounted "That's convenient!"

"'Convenient' she says!" Apple Bloom balked, already hopping into boat. She spun and held her hooves out. "Quick! Toss ‘er here!" She ended up catching a scooter. Frowning, she dropped the thing into the boat and snarled, "I meant Dinky, ya dodo!"

"Er... right..." With a grunt, Scootaloo tossed the little unicorn next.

"Eep!" Dinky landed in Apple Bloom's forelimbs. Seconds later, she stepped towards the furthest end of the canoe while Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle pushed the three of them off the shore.

"Nnnngh—There!" Scootaloo got into the back seat, grabbing an oar. Sweetie Bell sat between her and Apple Bloom in the center. "Okay!" Scootaloo looked back at the trees waving ever closer, one leaf-lopping canopy after another. "That flame slowed the creep down enough! We're a bit ahead of it! Do any of us know how to row a boat?!"

"I-I don't think we've ever tried getting our cutie marks in canoeing!" Sweetie Belle trembled, sitting across from her in the middle.

"How hard can it be?!" Scootaloo kicked the other oar into Apple Bloom's grasp and began rowing on her end. "You stroke on one side, Apple Bloom. I’ll stroke on the other! If we capsize, then we all swim to the opposite shore before we become giant birdsnakelobster food!"

Dinky gulped. "I-I can't swim."

"Wh-what?!" Sweetie Belle gasped.

Dinky bit her lip. "I never learned, on account that Mommy doesn't like the idea of me swimming across any oceans."

"What in the hay is that supposed to mean?!" Apple Bloom remarked.

"I don't know." Dinky fidgeted. "Sometimes, when Mommy speaks, I swear it's just the muffins talking."

"Okay... so we just gotta do this without throwing Dinky into the drink!" Scootaloo rasped. She shuddered as the air ripped once again with an intense demon song. "Could use a little bit less of that on our tail!"

"If we take Bluish Carol’s stories seriously, then I doubt a tiny little stream is going to stop the Bandersnatch!" Sweetie Belle said.

“Do any of his poems say anythang about how to outrun it?!” Apple Bloom asked, rowing furiously.

“Uhm… no, not really.” Sweetie Belle shook her head. “I didn't even know what a Bandersnatch looked like until I saw it just now!”

Another roar warbled through the air, growing closer.

“For Pony's sake!” Apple Bloom wheezed, rowing and splashing at the waters with her oar. “What I wouldn't give for a tiny lil' cockatrice right about now!”

"Nnngh..." Scootaloo splashed wildly with each attempt at rowing. "How far have we gotten?"

"Uhm..." Sweetie Belle fidgeted in her part of the canoe. "Maybe about ten feet."

"Ten feet?!" Scootaloo's eyes rolled. "Ohhhhhhh!"

"Feather!" bleated a warbling voice from the middle of the boat.

Scootaloo squinted nervously into the water. "Okay, don't tell me the rivers in this place talk too."

"Look!" Dinky pointed.

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo collectively jolted at the inexplicable presence of a sheep in the middle of the boat.

"Whoah! Jeez!"

The sheep looked up from knitting a tiny sweater between its cloven hooves. Teeth clenched, it raised a pair of spectacles to its eyes and once again brayed, "Feather before you bury the blade!"

"Look, I don't know who you are or where you came from..." Scootaloo grimaced, splashing her oar wildly into the stream with frantic sweeping motions. "But we're a little too busy for your riddles!"

“It’s not telling us riddles!” Sweetie Belle’s voice cracked. “At least, I don’t think so. It’s just a sheep!”

“Okay, honestly, why do you read this guy’s stuff, Sweetie Belle?!”

"Scootaloo!" Apple Bloom yelped as the boat rocked wildly from the pegasus' struggles. “Can y’all keep her steady?!”

"Honestly!" the sheep bleated, glaring at Scootaloo. "You're like a four-legged drunken octopus!"

"I didn't know sheep could talk," Dinky stammered.

"Granny once said she heard 'em before." Apple Bloom gulped. "She don't like talkin' about it much though..."

Another roar rippled over the waterscape, growing louder and more ravenous.

"Look, if you're going to take up space in the boat..." Scootaloo gnashed her teeth, slapping ineffectually at the stream. "...the least you could do is help us row!"

"Baaah! You're skying too much!" The sheep tilted its scruffy chin up. "How do you even expect to get square?!"

"Oh no!" Sweetie Belle squeaked.

Just then, along the shore behind them, the Bandersnatch came bursting through, its hands pushing whole trees apart. As soon as it spotted the canoe in the middle of the river, it extended its neck three times its normal length and bellowed hellishly into the misty air.

Scootaloo's eyes bulged. "Alright, stuff it." She threw her oar forward.

“Ooof!” the sheep collapsed from the weight of the wooden pole, falling into a ball of fuzz in the middle of the boat.

"Scootaloo?!" Apple Bloom gasped.

"Just hold tight!" Scootaloo scrunched back into the stern and gripped the boat tightly with her every limb. Her wings buzzed rapidly. Soon, the boat picked up speed, being pushed across the width of the stream through sheer feather power. By the time the Bandersnatch had taken its first tremorous step into the splashing waters, Scootaloo had single-hoofedly shoved the craft to shore. She grabbed her scooter and urged the others forward. "Go go go!"

Apple Bloom grabbed Dinky and hopped off. With a bleating sound, the sheep rolled out of the boat and bounced indignantly across the shore. Scootaloo took the time to tug Sweetie onto dry land before procuring her scooter with a determined grunt. In swift order, the four fillies charged straight ahead...

* * * * * * *

* * * * * *

* * * * * * *

...and into the next patch of white soil. They covered much ground, and the roars of the Bandersnatch almost grew faint. However, before they were even halfway across the square, they stumbled upon a steep wall made of red brick.

"You gotta be kiddin' me!" Sweetie Belle whimpered. "Who would put a wall here?!"

"Less whining and more scaling!" Scootaloo stammered.

"Yer right!" Apple Bloom galloped up to the edge of the wall and squatted low. "Dinky! Quick! On my back!"

"What?!"

"I'll hoist you over! Now git!"

Dinky did as she was told, climbing onto Apple Bloom's back, slipping once or twice on the red cape. Once she was standing straight, Apple Bloom lifted up as high as she could, but Dinky still couldn't reach the top of the obstruction.

"It's too far!" Dinky yelped, forelimbs flailing. "I can't reach!"

“Here! Lemme help!” Sweetie Belle leaned in, pushing up against Apple Bloom and Dinky. Collectively, the group pushed Dinky higher and higher, but it still wasn’t enough.

“I’m… so... close!” Dinky hissed, her hooves barely brushing against the top edge of the wall. “If I just had a few m-more inches!”

"Grrgghh… Scootaloo?!" Apple Bloom grunted, legs wobbling beside Sweetie Belle.

"Nnngh!" Scootaloo was busy with her third attempt to heave and toss her scooter over the top of the brick structure. It bounced off, nearly falling on the pegasus' head. "Come on!" Scootaloo picked it up and tossed the thing again.

"Dag nabbit, Scootaloo, will ya help out the truly precious cargo here?!"

"HA!" Scootaloo grinned as her scooter miraculously landed evenly on the top of the wall with the last pitch. "Erm... Ahem. Sorry guys." She rushed over and slid in between Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Together, the three older crusaders hoisted the tiny unicorn successfully onto the top of the wall.

"Okay, Sweetie Belle!" Apple Bloom shouted, eyes locked on the open field behind them as the monstrous steps grew closer once more. "You're next! Hop to it!"

"Hopping!" With Apple Bloom giving her a boost, Sweetie Belle jumped and jumped some more. At last, she held her breath, leapt as high as she could, and clamped a hoof over the edge of the wall. “Got it!”

“Give her a boost!” Scootaloo hopped, wings buzzing as she headbutted Sweetie in the rear.

“Whoah!” Sweetie Belle gasped, eyes bulging as she was jolted upwards.

"Mmmmf!" Dinky reached down, clasping two of her hooves over Sweetie Belle’s outstretched limb. It was just the boost necessary to get the older unicorn atop the wall.

Sweetie Belle had barely stood up straight when she was already pivoting around and stretching her legs out to reach for Scootaloo. Light on her limbs, Scootaloo easily caught Sweetie’s grip and scaled the wall. Immediately, she spun about and reached down for Apple Bloom, along with Sweetie Belle. The earth filly leapt a few times, and on the fourth try her feathered friend caught her. With Dinky and Sweetie’s help, Scootaloo yanked Apple Bloom up so that the four fillies perched evenly on the brick structure.

Dinky lurched backwards one inch too far, and she felt her flank bumping into a dull weight behind her. "Alas, not again!" This voice was followed by a resounding crash from the north end of the wall. Curiously, Dinky blinked and glanced down, only to see what looked like a writhing mass of yolk and egg shells along the soft soil.

Shrugging it off, she turned towards the other ponies. "Okay. Good job! Now all we gotta do is hop down and—"

With the deathly crackle of split trees, the Bandersnatch charged out of the woods behind them. Its hooting maw opened wide, sending a vaporous burst of air rolling through the Wabe, turning tree branches black and green leaves pale. The violent scream was heavy enough to shake the entire wall, and—with a girlish yelp—Sweetie Belle went plummeting down the south side before the beast.

“Ooof!” she collapsed in the springy grass below. The Bandersnatch squatted low and came charging through the undergrowth, its jagged teeth scooping up weed and earth as it barreled towards her suddenly on all fours

“Sweetie Belle!” Dinky hollered.

“Get up! Get up!” Apple Bloom bellowed.

Dinky was already grimacing. "She won't make it up over the wall in time!"

"Hold onto my tail!" Scootaloo hollered, suddenly diving over the south side of the wall.

"Scoot—!" Apple Bloom lunged forward, grabbing two hooves full of violet hair. Dinky hugged the earth pony around the waist as both fillies anchored Scootaloo's weight.

Scootaloo dangled, reaching her hooves out towards the unicorn as she stumbled up onto all four hooves. "Come on, Sweetie!" she hollered above the banshee roar.s "Just don't look behind you!"

"I'm pretty sure it's not a bunny rabbit!" Sweetie Belle leapt up, latching her hooves around Scootaloo's.

"Pull!" Scootaloo hollered.

The two ponies did so. In the span of seconds, Apple Bloom and Dinky had pulled Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle up onto the wall. There was a flash of greasy fur; the Bandersnatch lunged straight at the wall, its gummy maw open wide with a whipping tongue.

"Whoah—!" The Crusaders flailed. Two of them got entangled with the scooter, tripped, and fell off the north side, grabbing the others as they plunged.

"Oof!" All four of them collapsed across the soft soil. They rolled to a stop, wincing, but were altogether fine.

From the other end of the wall, the Bandersnatch hooted, hooted again, then simmered down to a dull hiss. At last, all was silent in the Wabe.

"Whew... that was a close one." Sweetie Belle wheezed. She sat up, wiping the sweat from her brow. "I almost thought I wouldn't make it!"

"What matters now is that we're safe," Scootaloo wheezed, pointing at the red brick. "So long as that ugly creep is on the other side of—"

SMASH! The Bandersnatch came bursting straight through, its fingers catching clumps of mortar and earth.

"Oh come on!" Scootaloo bellowed, already scrambling onto her scooter.

"Dinky, move!" Sweetie Belle shrieked, shoving the smallest filly along as they outran the lunging neck of the beast.

"It’s no use!" Apple Bloom shouted in mid-gallop as the next garden hedge was already in sight. "The dang varmint’s too fast! And we already done used up our lantern!"

"Head northeast with Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle hollered above the pounding of massive stork-legs behind them. "We'll split up! Confuse it!"

"Split up?!" Scootaloo echoed.

"I dun like it anymore than you do, but Sweetie Belle's got a point!" Apple Bloom and Scootaloo jerked right, dodging the monster's lunghing jaws by inches as they made for the patch of soil east of that location. "Just dun stop movin'!"

"We'll meet up at 'E8!'" Sweetie Belle shouted as she and Dinky ran diagonally northwest into a thick cluster of jungle. "At the Red King!"

"Sweetie—" Dinky yelped, tripping on a jutting tree root.

Sweetie steadied her and urged the two faster. "Don't stop! It's right behind us!"

Dinky shivered, for she did in fact hear the Bandersnatch's talon-scrapes growing closer and louder. "Why does it want us more?!"

"I dunno! Maybe 'cuz we're the cute ones! We taste sweeter!" She shoved them through a throng of bushes. "Move!"

* * * * * * *

* * * * * *

* * * * * * *

Dense leaves and whipping branches flew past the fillies' faces. There was no sign of a beaten path; all was wild woods and thick undergrowth, polkadotted all over with nonsensical pastels and flittering lantern bugs. Nevertheless, Sweetie Belle and Dinky galloped through the mess, trying their best to maintain speed while the echoing thuds of the Bandersnatch's avian feet shook through the green earth directly behind them.

"It won't let up!" Dinky whimpered. "How are we going to move northeast?"

"Let's just try to lose it in the woods!" Sweetie stammered. "We'll hide and double-back if we have to! So long as we make it to the Red King, we should be able to wake him and get out of here before—"

Sweetie's hooves slipped out from underneath her.

"Aaaaaah!" she shrieked in a high-pitched squeal, sliding down a sudden steep ditch that led towards a lower level of dense vegetation.

"Sweetie Belle!" Dinky stood on the edge of the earthen cleft. She trembled, looking through the tree canopy for a sign of her friend. Though she couldn't see the ground, she could tell that it was far too great a distance to risk jumping. "Sweetie Belle?! Where did you go?!"

The older unicorn was too far gone for Dinky to hear.

Nevertheless, she cried, "Sweetie Belle?! Sweetie Belle, please—"

An enormous shriek penetrated the trees directly behind her. Dinky's eardrums popped. She spun around in time to see a stomping set of stork feet rip its way through the foliage.

"Sweetie, just go ahead!" Dinky hollered, already taking a sharp left and pushing her way through the undergrowth. "I'll meet up with you! Someway! Somehow!" She was trembling so much at this point that she barely registered the vibrations of the earth all around her. Against her better judgment, the panting filly threw a look over her galloping flank.

The Bandersnatch had stopped pursuing her altogether. At first, the unicorn was hysterically relieved, until she saw the frumious beast tilting its head up. Slowly, a thick lump rolled from its body to its throat, like a bulbous bubble being squeezed down a long rubber hose. When it finally reached its skull, all sound around the Wabe was drowned out—then suddenly exploded with a high-pitched siren that filled every niche within Dinky's ear canal. The forest melted outward from the Bandersnatch's howling throat, turning charcoal-black with random flecks of pale ash.

The Wabe turned mimsy in a wide swath, trailing after Dinky's hooves. Burnt tree branches and petrified leaves scattered across her path. The filly shrieked as she tripped over an exposed root. Rolling around, she scooted backwards, hyperventilating as she fought to out-shuffle the monochromatic miasma pursuing her. Dead birds and rodents fell around the pony like leathery hail, their plumage and coats burnt black by mimsy-song, bulging eyes and bloated tongues stained white as winter snow.

When Dinky at last felt the bitter cold of the exhale catching up to her tail, the soft earth gave out beneath her. She shrieked as she reverse-somersaulted, coming to a bumpy stop beneath the raised roots of a tall tree. In flash, she flattened her body, burying herself as deeply as she could in the powdery black earth beneath the tree roots. Dinky clenched her jaw shut, not even daring to breathe. The ground shook harder and harder. In the span of a minute, an enormous leathery foot slammed down in front of her, its rigid talons pushing soil in every direction as the weight of the Bandersnatch settled within three feet of the filly's hiding place.

Dinky shivered, her brow stained with sweat, dirt, and flakes of grass.

The avian foot pressed harder into the earth. Slowly, the crusty gray edge of a furry chin lowered into view. Two beady eyes twitched, staring to the left and right as the monster produced a frustrated purring noise. The air smelled of decayed flesh and ammonia. The eyes twitched again. The Bandersnatch lifted out of view—only for its weight to shift as it slammed a simian palm down into the earth, digging deep and ripping loose the roots of an adjacent tree. With one firm tug, the monster ripped the whole trunk out of the earth, giving it a shake and littering the forest floor with twigs, dead insects, and a liberal trickle of thick sap.

Dinky clenched her eyes shut, trembling beneath the tree that hid her. She imagined her mother's smile, those golden eyes swiveling as if they were always in orbit around her. Gray coat and bubbles: a love that would never pop. Together, somewhere, they were baking muffins, adding in all the right ingredients. But all that mattered was that they were there for each other, making their family whole. There was nothing more that Dinky loved than finding that perfection, tying up all loose ends in a dear, dear hug.

When next the Bandersnatch snarled, the hooting sound came from several dozens of feet away. Dinky opened her eyes, and all she saw was a gigantic footprint in the soil, exposing worms and beetles and other dank, skittering things.

Bravely, Dinky crawled out from her niche of tree roots. She stood up, clutching at her stained towel "cape" and trembling. After five blinks into this pensive stance, she gasped, then spun around. A second later, she spun around again... and again and again.

"Where am I?" she murmured to herself. With a trembling gulp, she took two steps forward, only to stop and once again stammer, "Which is north or south?"

A cold chill ran through Dinky's body, made worse with each punctuating shriek and animal cry rippling through the jungle. She tried looking straight up, but there was no sunlight. The sky above the Wabe was still a stormy gray malaise directly overhead. The clouds swirled in almost a cyclonic fashion.

"Sweetie Belle?!" Dinky started trotting in a direction, any direction. "Sweetie Belle, I'm lost! Please... tell me where I need to go!" She panted harder and harder, her vision fogging as tears built up in the corners of her eyes. "I'm an Honorary Crusader, r-right? Crusaders don't get lost! They wouldn't earn any cutie marks that way, w-would they?!" She galloped now, pressing forward through the whipping foliage as leaves and twigs bounced off her sweaty face and horn. "Please! I need help! I'm all alone!" Her breath fell into a lingering murmur that only she could hear. "I've never been alone..." She gulped. "Mommy..."

Just then, she heard a voice—a stallion's voice—echoing from the nearest row of trees. "Feather? Captain? Can you hear me?"

Dinky gasped. She spun about, pressing down several branches to squint through the leaves.

For a brief instant, she saw a bluish streak of fur beyond the flora, followed by the sound of desperately pounding hoofsteps.

"Boots! Boots, are you close?"

"Hey!" Dinky sputtered. She pressed on through the undergrowth. "Over here! Help, please! The Bandersnatch is hunting us!"

"Hello?!" The voice grew distant, fading like a phantom. "Anypony? Please, I don't want to be attacked by a—"

"We can help each other!" Dinky burst through the foliage. "Just tell me where you..." She blinked. The forest clearing was completely empty. "...are." She looked all around, but there was no sign of a blue-coated stallion. "Was he..." She gulped. "Is any of this real?"

"Look, look!," cried the excited voice of a young filly, about Dinky's age.

With a jolt, the little unicorn stood up and looked across the clearing.

At a distance, she saw a pale-white pegasus in a pretty blue dress, her mane cascading in bright golden curls. "There's the White Queen running across the country!" she said, pointing a snowy hoof. "She came flying out of the wood over yonder—How fast those Queens CAN run!"

A stallion stood beside her, dressed in armored regalia. "There's some enemy after her, no doubt." He led the pegasus filly away. "That wood's full of them."

"No! Wait!" Dinky trotted after the curious strangers. "Don't go! I need to find my friends—"

THUD! A heavy clawed foot landed in front of her. Dinky shrieked, falling back on her haunches, but this didn't appear to alert the monster. Instead, the Bandersnatch tore off down the jungle, pursuing a lavender shade off in the distance.

"Stay with me, Pinkie," stammered a mare's voice from beyond the footstomps. "I'm sure this will all go away if we can just get back home."

Dinky was hyperventilating at this point. "Twilight...?" She scooted backwards on crab legs. "Pinkie?" She shook her head. "None of this makes sense. I don't understand!" She bumped up against a tree and clutched her head, trembling. "I'm c-coming apart!"

A purring sound lit the air, followed by a warm voice unraveling directly above, "How are you getting on?"

Dinky looked straight up. All she saw was a crescent moon of teeth. "The Cheshire Cat!" She hopped up, grinning wide, as if to emulate the feline. "Oh, praise Celestia!" she exclaimed, her voice still breathy from the tugging weight of her panicked hysterics.

"You believe in the strangest things," the Cat said, tilting its head around in a perfect circle. "No wonder you're finishing forwards."

"Huh?"

"I don't believe that's the advice I gave you."

"Please, Cheshire Cat, you have to help me." Dinky shivered. She trotted forward, but the cat kept drawing away, appearing on a further tree branch in each progressive blink. "I've lost my friends! I need to find them before the Bandersnatch eats us all up!"

"I've already given you something to grow on." The cat examined its paw with swirly eyes. "But I do suppose a smidgen more would cover the horn."

"Please! Anything!" Dinky nodded, trotting faster towards him. "Anything could help!"

"Help you? Oh no, dear, I cannot help you. But Boots can."

"Huh?!"

"Listen to Boots. Brilliant fellow. By now, he's positively the maddest of us all."

"That's it?! What is that even supposed to mean?!" Dinky frowned, her cheeks turning red. "Not all of us here are mad, you know!"

"How curious." The cat tilted its head aside, the grin growing impossibly wider. "And do you actually think you're quite all there yourself?"

"Huh?" Dinky blinked, and then she fell. The floor of the jungle gave way underneath her. And, much like Sweetie Belle did earlier, Dinky slid...

* * * * * * *

* * * * * *

* * * * * * *

...down a greasy hill, tumbling over and over more than once. At last, she cleared the forest's colorful edge, emerging on the furthest square.

"Ooof!" She collapsed in dark soil, wincing, her cape shredded in multiple places. "Nnnngh..." Slowly, Dinky pressed against the earth, pushing herself up on all fours. "Guh... how..." She blinked. "Where...?"

Before her stretched a patch of dark soil pressed tightly against a solid barrier of trees. Behind her, a steep earthen ridge loomed, overgrown with bushes and shrubbery and all manner of looping vines. It looked perfectly unscalable, and the landscape stretching up against it was barren and sparsely vegetated.

“I… I’m…” Dinky slowly stood up straight, wincing. “I’m more lost than ever before."

She trembled on her lonesome. Her dirtied cape hung behind her, limp and tattered at the edges. Everything was deathly still, save for the dull gray clouds that churned and bubbled overhead. The entire Wabe was a dark malaise, twirly slowly over the shivering filly’s head.

“Sweetie Belle?!” she hollered into the air, quivering. “Scootaloo?!” Panting, limbs a’shiver, she twirled about. “Apple Bloom?! Please! Somepony help me! I’m alone!”

The world turned duller. The clouds above rolled to a stop, turning dead and stationary high above.

“Please… I’m so alone…” Dinky hung her head, sniffling.

She buried her tearful face into her hooves, gnashing at her teeth. As she rubbed her eyes, she saw white flashes, and out from the mental haze there emerged sporadic images of smiling fillies, blurring countrysides, and wagon wheels. Then everything turned black, illuminated by a dim amber flame. Surly Diamond Dogs glided past her in the murky ether, followed by rust and stone and heaps of garbage. In the center of the mess, a dirty old mirror lingered. Dinky’s reflection stood at a distance, looking at her. She thought it was her reflection, but the longer she stared, the more distracted she was by the distant sobs of foalnapped infants, babies she had barely gotten to know.

Pound Cake. Pumpkin Cake. Who was who? The more Dinky thought of it, the more she realized she couldn’t even mentally tell the two apart. They were victims in name only. For all Dinky cared, she could just as well have been chasing after a pair of puppies, kittens, or goose eggs. She should have invested more of her heart and mind before getting involved in the first place. Dinky had the capacity to know better than that. As a matter of act, somepony had taught her better than that.

“Mommy,” the filly whimpered into the darkness. “Mommy, I’m so sorry.”

She rubbed her eyelids harder, wincing, trying to dam the tears in. Everything had all started out so deceptively simple: a wagon ride, a silly new “helmet” and a “cape,” new friends who believed in her and her talents. The only risk there ever could have been was not being able to make it back home by sundown.

“I should have stayed in Ponyville,” Dinky stammered, shaking her head harder and harder to get the images of the exciting day out from mind, for the memories were swiftly becoming branding marks of guilt. Dinky had allowed the Crusaders to induct her on impulse, and now she was paying the price for such wild ambition. Her mother was paying the price for it. Even if Dinky was to somehow make it out of this crazy mess, there was no telling if Ditzy would ever be capable of putting the same trust in her little muffin ever again. Regardless, try as Dinky might, she couldn’t stop a tender voice that was sputtering from deep within, “It’s just that… the Cakes need to have their babies back. They bring so much joy to their lives, and… and…”

Dinky gnashed her teeth. There were few things in life that she hated, but at the top of such a short list was doing things to make Ditzy sad or unhappy. Even here, in an eerie world beyond worlds, the weight tugged on her, haunted her. Normally, Dinky would have pushed the thought aside, or, at the very worst, collapsed in a quiet pile of sobs. This time, however, something else bubbled to the surface—pointed, sharp, and boiling—ushering every other stray thought and desire to surrender away.

No matter how much she detested the idea of Ditzy being engulfed in worrisome sorrow, the possibility of being separated from her mother forever was a far too abominable thought to stand.

“All families deserve to be together,” Dinky growled, resolute. A brisk, warm wind kicked at her curly bangs. “I will make it back!” She yelled, proudly. “And the Cakes will get their foals back too!” She was hyperventilating at this point. The wind had grown heavier, thicker. Ditzy’s tearful face flashed across her mind’s eye, and she shattered it with a shout, sailing beyond it like she had her mother’s wings in addition to her horn. “Mr. and Mrs. Cake are gonna get Pumpkin and Pound back! I know it’s risky trying to make that happen, but it’s gotta be done! And if taking that risk makes you upset, then… then so be it!” Dinky stomped her hoof with finality, but it was hard to move it afterwards. The wind was blowing too fiercely now.

At last, with a startled gasp, Dinky opened her eyes. Her tears instantly dried from the hurricane force gale.

“Wh-what…?!” She gnashed her teeth, feeling her body being pushed backwards as the torrent of billowing air pushed at her body, mane, and flesh. “Where did this breeze come from?!”

Calling it a “breeze” was an understatement, for even now it was intensifying, hurling at such a degree that it picked the little filly completely off her hooves.

“Aaaugh!” Dinky shook, flailed, and slid back several feet. She stumbled on the ground, grinding through the dirt and grass. “Gnnngh… what’s… what’s going…?!”

Her flute spun around her neck from its chain three times. Her ears rang from the sheer force. Soon, Dinky was being picked off the ground again, only this time there was no coming down. She shrieked and kicked at the air, turning over multiple times as she was shoved off like a kite.

“Help! It’s taking me…!” She didn’t even know how to finish that sentence, much less if she could. “Somepony! Anypony! Help! I don’t know where I’m going!” She reached down, grasping in vain at tall stalks of grass sailing past her. “I don’t know where–!” And before she could complete a thought, much less shout, she found herself soaring off in a random direction, blurring over trees, bushes, and a thick line of hedges.

* * * * * * *

* * * * * *

* * * * * * *

Within seconds, Dinky was sailing over a dry patch of pale white sand. Her world spun, but nevertheless she spotted a field, in the center of which stood a lone tree, bent and barren. Beneath it, a blood-red stallion with a regal crown sat huddled, asleep, and snoring loudly. But he wasn't alone. A grimy earth pony paced madly around, balancing a dusty brown book on his back. And then, standing by the tree next to the other two—

"Dinky!" Sweetie Belle gasped, eyes wide, then turning wider as she spotted the filly sailing overhead. “Are… you flying?”

“I… don’t… knowwwww!” Dinky shrieked, sailing overhead. She reached for the branches stretching above Sweetie’s head. “Guhhh! Please! Please help! The wind!”

“Wind?!” Sweetie Belle blinked, gawking up at the filly. “What wind?

“Huh…?!” Dinky Doo blinked. Sure enough, there wasn’t even the slightest breeze in the air. Her face scrunched up in confusion. “That’s… that’s weird. Then how did I…?” Her eyes bulged, and she fell straight towards the earth like a dead weight. “Aaack!” Thud!

"Omigosh!” Sweetie Belle galloped over. She raised the trembling little filly up “Dinky, are you okay?”

"I… I-I…” Dinky shook the brief throb of pain out of her senses and gawked at the gray sky. “I saw the Cheshire Cat again! Then I took a tumble! And… a-and I cried a little! And then this strong breeze carried me here, and..." Dinky stammered between panting breaths. "And I then I saw you right beneath me and—" She froze in place, blinking at the pacing earth pony. "Who's this?"

"A ghost amongst the borogroves and trees," the earth pony rambled, his eyes large and frenzied as he trotted furious figure eights. "Lost in the Wabe since I ran from Toasted Cheese."

"Beats me," Sweetie said. "But he won't stop talking in rhyme."

"Have you tried waking the King yet?" Dinky asked, catching her breath.

"No!" Sweetie squeaked. "I wanted to wait for you and the other girls first!"

"Just where are Scootaloo and—?"

"Gals!" Apple Bloom hollered, galloping out of the east hedge, followed shortly by Scootaloo. "Bless my bow! You made it!"

"Holy cow!" Scootaloo grinded her scooter to a stop, giving Sweetie a hug, which Apple Bloom swiftly joined. "That Bimbosnatch didn't gobble you up! That's so awesome!"

"Somehow we lost it!" Sweetie leaned back, pouting. "Though I lost Dinky too." She swiveled about, eyes glistening. "Oh Dinky, I'm so sorry—"

Dinky leaned forward, nuzzling the filly. "It's okay. We're together now, right? It all worked out!"

"In the time it'll take you all to reunite, the frumious one will have burned you day and night," rambled the pacing pony.

Scootaloo squinted aside. "Who the heck is this melon fudge?"

"I don't know..." Sweetie Belle rubbed her chin. "But... the more I look at him, he kinda seems a little familiar—"

The clouds overhead suddenly split with a flash of sunlight, then closed back up like congealed mush. By the time the thunder had cleared, all four fillies' were alerted to incoming footstomps due south.

Dinky spun, gasping.

Sweetie Belle gulped. "Okay... so maybe we didn't lose it like I thought we did..."

"Uh... gals?" Apple Bloom trembled. "Let's do what we came here for."

"Right!" Scootaloo fell on her knees, slapping the Red King's face repeatedly. "Hey!Heyyyyy!"

"Scootaloo—" Sweetie Belle reached out to her.

Scootaloo held her back with wings outstretched. "Wake up, ya lazy bag of tomatoes!" She slapped the Red King's whiskery muzzle once more. "Come on! Nap time ends at the Burtonsatch's snack time!"

"Why isn't he waking?!" Apple Bloom yelped.

"I... I-I dunno!" Sweetie Belle yelped. "Unless he's having a really... really intense dream!"

"Waking in the Wabe only works in reverse," sputtered the pacing stallion. "Not that I've slept once since the start of my curse."

"Look, buddy!" Scootaloo hissed at him. "If you're not going to help us out, keep your mumbo jumbo to yourself!"

"Maybe if we splash water on him?" Dinky remarked.

"Dinkster, we left the river two squares back!"

Dinky squirmed. "Maybe if we all spit on him really hard?"

"Look!" Apple Bloom cried, pointing south.

The other ponies didn't need to turn to see. They each heard it, smashing through the hedges on heavy claws. Soon the entire square rumbled with the cumbrous breaths of the looming creature.

Sweetie Belle gulped. "This is anything but a frabjous day..."

"Please say you've got another bright idea, Sweetie Belle," Apple Bloom whimpered.

The unicorn slowly shook her head. "Checkmate."

With a furious hooting cry, the Bandersnatch came thundering towards them, neck outstretched like a rabid crane's.

"Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo yanked the earth filly over and squatted her before the Red King. "Keep shaking him!"

"Where are you goin'?!"

"Just stay behind me!" Scootaloo charged up ten feet, then spread her wings wide. Despite her trembles, she stood tall and snarled at the charging beast from afar. "That's as far as you go, creep! You want my friends?! You're g-going to have to go through me!"

"Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle yelped, limping forward. "You can't be serious?!"

"I said stay back!"

"You silly turkey!" Sweetie Belle outstretched her hoof. "You're supposed to have your cutie mark on a gravestone! Not the other way around!"

"Well, there's nothing else to freakin' do!" Scootaloo hollered over the thundering footsteps.

"Sheer courage here will accomplish the least," said the earth pony, suddenly standing beside Sweetie Belle and Dinky. "Only music will tame this savage beast."

Dinky blinked. She spun towards the emaciated stallion. "Wait... Boots?"

He gave her a blank stare.

She squinted. "Is your name 'Boots?'"

He nodded. "At a time, before backwards I began, ponies called me Boots in a distant land."

Dinky looked at him, at the book balanced on his flank, then at his crooked face again. "What did you say... about music?"

"If all your right turns end up wrong, then the one escape is a song."

Dinky gazed off into the cloudy Wabe. She brought a hoof up, tapping the flute that hung from her neck. With a sudden gasp, she burst forward through the soil.

"Dinky—!" Sweetie Belle hollered.

Dinky galloped up and stood at Scootaloo's side.

The pegasus glanced over while the Bandersnatch closed in. "Kiddo?! What are you—?"

Without saying another word, Dinky played the same lullaby she did when they first made their exit from the Diamond Dogs' lair. She performed the song swift and solid, blowing expertly through the flute so that each note wafted perfectly into the air. When she was done, she inhaled, then opened her eyes. Her face went pale.

The Bandersnatch was still charging, shrieking. It was within twenty yards now.

"Is that the result you wanted?!" Scootaloo stammered, sweating profusely.

"But... but Boots said—" Dinky squinted. In her mind's eye, she envisioned a glint of light off a reflective surface. She imagined the bangs of her mane hanging off the opposite side of her horn. "Of course!" And she brought the flute once more to her lips.

"Dinky, I don't think—" Scootaloo instantly winced, her ears folding in pain. "Aaaugh! What are you—?"

The notes came out at seemingly random bursts, jarring in their pitch and completely unmelodious. Dinky's brow was tense with concentration as she forced herself to perform at a slow tempo.

"I dun get it?!" Apple Bloom hollered, still shaking the Red King. "What is she—?" She stopped in mid-sentence, muzzle agape.

The Bandersnatch had stopped in its tracks. Its limp arms hung below its fuzzy torso while its head bobbed listlessly. A curious purr emanated from deep within its greasy fur.

"It's... it's stopped!" Scootaloo sputtered.

"Because Dinky's playing it backwards!" Sweetie Belle hobbled forward until she stood beside the other two. "The lullaby!"

"She is?" Scootaloo exclaimed.

"Who cares?!" Apple Bloom stood up, pointing. "Look! It's workin'!"

The Bandersnatch's eyes dimmed, the mucus glazing over to almost become cataracts. Slowly, its serpentine neck and bumpy spine swayed left and right as its stork legs began to buckle.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo exchanged glances. Desperately, the unicorn took a step forward and sang as harmoniously as she could: "Bed to go to time it's now quiet now hush! Head sleepy your lay to time it's now quiet now hush!"

With a gurgling sound, the Bandersnatch's head nodded. Soon its whole body deflated, falling slowly towards the soft white soil.

Dinky played softer, more precise. Sweetie Belle squatted beside the smaller filly as she breathed the lyrics out in a cooing tone. "You find dreamland of joy the let. Sleep to off drifting. You behind day the leave. Sleep to off drifting..."

At last, with a firm thud, the Bandersnatch slumped down. It lay still, its gangly limbs slack. Its eyes closed above a pale face, and it snored duly, evenly, into the mists of the Wabe.

Almost instantly, the gray heavens parted, giving way to the perpetual shimmer of a bright sky. In the distance, jubjub birds and momerathes warbled in ecstasy. Then all was silent.

"You're kidding me..." Scootaloo panted, falling on his haunches. "That would have conked the freak out the whole time?!"

"Who cares?!" Apple Bloom jumped in place, her cape flailing as she cheered. "It worked! It worked! Yeehaa!"

"Callooh! Callay!" Sweetie Belle whooped. Almost instantly, she blushed, kneading her hooves together. "Erm... s-sorry. I couldn't help myself."

Dinky lowered the flute from her mouth, giggling. She felt an orange hoof ruffling her mane.

"That's some fast thinking there, Dinkster." Scootaloo grinned. "Forget 'Honorary.' We should promote you all the way to 'Legendary.'"

"Well, she’s practically the White Queen now!" Sweetie added with a slight chortle.

"Hrmmmf... the White Queen?" spoke a stallion's voice through a tired yawn. "Nyeaaughh... I-I should say not!" The four fillies turned to see the scarlet-red monarch standing up, stretching his stiff muscles. "I would recognize that bleating shriek of hers from across the eight squares!"

"What in tarnation?" Apple Bloom gawked. "You're awake now?"

"I would certainly say so!" He frowned, his crimson beard twitching. "Some boorish plebeian was playing an insufferable racket!"

"You mean..." Apple Bloom squinted. "The lullaby?"

"Hahahaha!" Sweetie Belle laughed madly, teetering a bit. "Heeheehee... of course..."

"Yes! What's the big idea?" The Red King's eyes narrowed. "I was dreaming up fresh strategies to trounce that pallid patriarch into surrender when you hooligans showed up!"

"Look..." Scootaloo grabbed her scooter and drifted forward. "So terribly sorry to ruin your... er... nap. But now that you're awake, maybe you can tell us where we can find—"

"The mirror!" Apple Bloom gasped, pointing.

Beneath the tree, a broad rectangular sheet of glass sat in its frame. A king-shaped fog was evaporating from its glossy surface.

"You mean..." Scootaloo did a double-take. "You mean to tell me that this whole time he was sleeping on the stupid thing?!"

"But of course I was!" The Red King stood up proudly. "That way, I know I'll only ever have my back to myself! I'm a clever king, after all!"

"Nnnngh... whatever." Scootaloo glanced aside. "Dinky, Sweetie Belle, anypony... please tell me we've got a way out now."

"Well..." Sweetie tapped her chin in thought.

Dinky trotted forward, squinting down at the mirror's shiny surface.

Her reflection peaked beyond the frame, but it didn't come to a stop. On fluttering wings, the filly in the mirror streaked by. Behind her, the Wabe's sky was replaced by a dank alleyway looking onto a crowded city street. It was crystal clear, and Dinky could even sense the pungent smell of garbage and sewers.

"Yes! Yes!" Dinky squeaked, pointing at the frame. "This is it! This is our way out!"

Scootaloo shivered from a sudden gust of wind blowing at the fillies' manes. "Are you sure—?"

"She’s right!” Sweetie Belle said, not even hesitating. “Follow me!" With that, Sweetie Belle dove in, cape billowing.

"Sweetie Belle, wait!" Apple Bloom reached out. But the older unicorn disappeared through the mirror as if it was a hole in the ground. Trotting over, Apple Bloom pressed a hoof in. When it went through, she looked back at the others, shrugging.

Scootaloo motioned her along. As Apple Bloom left, Scootaloo pushed on her scooter. "Let's go, Dinky. I may not understand all this, but that doesn't change the fact that I want to end all of this."

"Hrmmf!" The King marched off with an indignant rise of his chin. "Fillies these days! No respect for the crown!"

Dinky chuckled at him. She turned to give the Wabe one lasting look. From behind, she heard Boots rambling:

"Through the Looking-Glass, you appeared..."

Dinky turned towards him.

He gazed at her with a dazed expression. "Was there anything you found here?"

Dinky bit her lip. She stared up into the shimmer sky. Though the breeze was long gone, her sweat-stained face felt as if it was being kissed by a cool breeze. She ultimately nodded. "Plenty."

"Where you go, I can no longer follow. A boojum saw to that, today, tomorrow." With a listless breath, he picked the book off his back and held it in two grimy hooves. "For years, I had only one light to guide me through this weather. And it pains me to no end that I never once thanked Feather."

Dinky Doo leaned forward. "Who?"

"Perhaps you can give it back, since I cannot." He held the book out to the little filly. "Not all lost things deserve to vanish or rot."

Hesitating at first, Dinky finally reached out and took the book. She flipped through the pages, seeing images of birds and waterfowl in brief shutter-glimpses. "I... I-I don't know how soon I'll be able to give this back to whoever it belongs to, but I promise that I'll try my best. Lost things deserve to be found, after all." She smiled warmly, hugging the book to her chest. "It's the least I can do in return for the wise words you gave us when we needed them."

Boots blinked, and for once he smiled. Crooked teeth. "'Wise Words.' And thusly my legacy sticks." His eyes closed peacefully shut. "Now I shall go the way of Beatrix." At the end of his last breath, his body unraveled, much like the Cheshire Cat's, only—deep down—Dinky could sense that there was no returning from that void. A sad lump formed in her throat.

Her eyes were watering by the time she heard Sweetie Belle’s rasping voice. "Come on, Dinky! Don't stay there!"

Spinning about, Dinky hobbled over on three legs, holding the book close to her tiny chest with the fourth. When she finally took the plunge into the mirror, she was surprised by gravity tugging her forward...

{-DD-}

...and plopping her hard onto a wet concrete floor.

"Oof!" Her squeaking voice echoed against the steep brick walls of two tall apartment buildings on either side of her. The other Crusaders helped her to her hooves. She turned around, breathless, spotting a grimy mirror behind them that was propped up against mounds of cans and garbage bags. "Is this it? Are we out?"

"We're out and a half." Scootaloo smirked. She craned her neck, squinting. "Say, what's with the book?"

"Yeah!" Apple Bloom nodded. "Did that 'Boots' feller give it to you?"

"Uh huh." Dinky nodded. She hoofed the book over to Sweetie Belle, who began flipping through the illustrations of avian species. "I think he wanted to give this back to somepony. I figured it was the least we could do for him helping us in the end!"

"Dinky, we've still got two foals to rescue!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "We don't have time to play librarians! We didn't even have time for all that junk that just happened right now!"

"But Scootaloo, she’s trying to do that stallion a favor!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

As the other three argued, Dinky—in the meantime—turned and trotted towards the tall mirror. She pursed her lips, staring at her reflection.

Her reflection smiled back. A soundless gust of wind blew at the hornless filly's mane. With a giggle, it waved, then flew up until it was out of the mirror's frame. Seconds later—SMASH!—an air conditioning unit fell from a fifth-story fire escape, smashing the mirror to pulverized pieces.

"Gaah!" Dinky fell to her haunches.

"Dinky!" Sweetie Belle dropped the book as she and the others rushed over. "Are you okay?!"

From up above, a mare and a stallion could be heard arguing with one another. "Oh great! Wonderful! That's just perfect! Why not toss out the rest of the junk I've bought for you while we're at it!"

"That *you've** bought for me?! Listen here, ya little cheapskate! All of this is ours because of my Celestia-forsaken dowry! If I had listened to what my mother said about you—"*

"Oh, not this again! I've had about all I can take from you, ya dumb broad!"

Apple Bloom frowned at the looming apartments. "Sheesh. Talk about grumpy!" She looked at the others. "What kind of a city is this anyways?"

"I was just thinking about that," Sweetie Belle said. Slowly, she rose up, then trotted out onto the sidewalk of the street directly outside of the alleyway. "Where are we, exactly?"

The other fillies joined her, along with Dinky, peering about with bright eyes. The sound of carriage horns and shouting voices rose in volume, and soon all four Crusaders found themselves staring at a densely packed downtown square, lined with skyscrapers and pavement and glass windows as far as the eye could see. In the far distance, through a gap in the urban divide, the group made out an enormous blue expanse, in the middle of which stood the copper-green statue of a mare holding a lantern up against the oceanic currents.

"No friggin' way..." Scootaloo turned towards the others. She gulped. "Did we really just end up where I think we did?"

"I reckon so," Apple Bloom said, twitching nervously. "And so quickly too."

Sweetie Belle nodded. "And that, girls, is what you call a 'Neigh York Minute.'"

4 - I've Officially Decided That I Hate This Place

Chapter Four

I've Officially Decided That I Hate This Place

"Apple Bloom, be careful," Sweetie Belle stammered, wincing. "Who knows if it's safe to touch the ground here?"

"Oh please," Apple Bloom grumbled while climbing out of the wagon. "Am I an earth pony or aren't I? Besides, Scootaloo already done kicked against the grass with her naked hoof, so what's the worst that could happen?" That said, she nevertheless clenched her eyes shut as she was the first to plop down onto the soft soil with all four hooves. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, and soon she was bouncing up and down, feeling the springiness of the verdant grass beneath her legs. "Hmmm... feels normal enough to me. Still, creeps me out that I ain't castin' no shadow."

"None of us are," Scootaloo said, stepping off her scooter and trotting lengthwise around the curved line of vegetation that spiraled up and down the bosomy green hill. All around, the countryside rolled with undulating bands of wild shrubbery. Hundreds of yards away in the lower distance, a wall of enormous trees stretched, marking the edge of an inconceivably large coniferous forest colored with every shade of the visible spectrum. The thick prismatic foliage surrounded the four fillies in all directions, stretching so far and wide that it was difficult to define a barrier between the luscious canopy and the blurry vanishing point upon the horizon. "And the sky's all…” Scootaloo looked straight up, squinting into a pea soup atmosphere that was glazed vomit green. High above loomed a stationary pale orb of fluctuating gray light. “I dunno. The sky’s super bright and super not-bright all at once. It's the freakiest thing I've ever seen!"

"Well, something here casts shadow!" Sweetie Belle pointed to the top of the hill from where she sat pensively in the wagon beside Dinky. "Look!"

The ponies spun around, and all four sets of eyes fell onto an immense sundial erected in the center of the grassy mound's peak. The steel needle's shadow twirled rapidly around the sundial face's many notches, even though the sun itself was static at perpetual high noon. Around the concave neck of the redundant timepiece stretched a complex mosaic of engravings, depicting monsters both absurd and horrific, not to mention plants, bacteria, insects... and alicorns.

"I kind of wish it cast more shadows," Apple Bloom said, gulping. "Not exactly the prettiest thang to look at, now is it?"

"And what's with the mirror?" Scootaloo pointed at the tell-tale rectangle of glossy glass situated a few feet beneath the sundial. The object was of obvious antiquity, and yet its surfaces were spotlessly clean, immaculate and devoid of any impurity. Not even a speck of dust or a droplet of water marred the glass. A golden frame surrounded it, or maybe it was brass. None of the fillies could tell; the fluctuating daylight played constant tricks on their eyes. If a steam cloud suddenly turned into a mound of gelatin, they’d be inclined to believe it. Scootaloo scaled the hill. Her brow furrowed as she studied the strange object up close. "Who would put a perfectly good thing like this out in the middle of Celestia-knows-where?"

By this point, Dinky had caught a huge lump in her throat. She fiddled with the small flute hanging around her neck. She realized that they wouldn’t have even escaped the Diamond Dogs if it weren’t for the mirror she had found inside their junk pile. What’s more, the mirror would have stayed an ordinary mirror if Dinky hadn’t played the lullaby in the first place. While it was nice to be somewhere safe for the time being, Dinky knew that they were in that strange wilderness because of her and her alone. It wasn’t right to drag other ponies into unknown places without owning up to it. Her mother, at least, would know better.

"Uhm... girls?" Dinky looked up from the wagon where she was still perched alongside Sweetie Belle. She fiddled slightly before producing the next breath. It was barely a day, and they had all been through so much. She didn’t want to get on their bad side. At least not this early on in their adventure. "About that hole I discovered. Uhhh..."

She hesitated too long, for soon Sweetie Belle spoke up.

"Just where did that tunnel go?” Sweetie glanced at the others. “The one we came out of, I mean."

"Didn't you see, Sweetie Belle?" Scootaloo took a few seconds to extinguish the lantern still hanging from her scooter's handle. "It disappeared as soon as we exited!"

"No, I didn't see!"

"Duh! Because it disappeared!"

"I don't think it was a tunnel at all," Dinky said, squirming. "I think it was actually a mirror."

Sweetie Belle gave her a double-take.

"A mirror?" Scootaloo smirked. "Dinky, you're a clever little pony and all, but I think those Diamond Dogs hit you a little too hard on your head."

"I'm telling the truth! Honest!" Dinky exclaimed. "One moment, I was looking into the mirror, and then I saw—" Dinky bit her tongue. There was a major difference between owning up to one’s responsibilities and dealing with inexplicable mysteries. She figured the others wouldn’t understand. After all, it was her reflection she saw, not theirs. Clearing her throat, the young unicorn chose to simply say, "I saw the mirror turn into that tunnel!"

"But that doesn't even make the slightest bit of sense!" Scootaloo sputtered.

"And just what makes more sense, Scootaloo?" Sweetie Belle blurted, her tone suddenly defensive as she stood beside Dinky. "That a tunnel would let a wagon roll up into this place and just disappear?"

"Besides," Apple Bloom added, trotting up to stand next to the mirror. "After we caused that cave-in, and we sealed that big Diamond Dog off, we heard a whole bunch of glass shattering, didn't we?" She blinked. "I know I did!"

Scootaloo stirred uncomfortably. She took a moment to gaze down the hillside, ultimately staring out at the geometric jigsaw geography that stretched endlessly in all directions, only to be swallowed up by an encircling layer of vibrantly colored trees. Sometimes there was vegetation, and sometimes there was water, and sometimes there was a little bit of both—or neither—to the point that it looked like that the landscape couldn't make up its mind about anything.

"I think I need somepony to slap me," the pegasus ultimately muttered.

"I'd much rather figure out why there's a mirror out here," Sweetie Belle said, finally hopping out of the wagon. “Doesn’t look like a cozy place for a beauty pageant.”

“And just where exactly is ‘here?’” Scootaloo gestured emphatically. She and Apple Bloom walked past the wagon to join Sweetie Belle halfway down the hill. "So we escaped out of a tunnel from the Diamond Dog lair. Even if they did burrow super deep, at the rate we ascended we couldn't have gotten far from where we were all bagged up in the forest."

"Yeah, so?"

"So..." Scootaloo hesitated. "This should be somewhere in the East Fields of Equestria!" She spun, flailing a hoof towards the luminescent horizon in every direction. "Does this look anything like Equestria to you?"

Apple Bloom shook her head and said, "We're not going to get anywhere looking at something that makes no sense."

Scootaloo arched her eyebrow. "Oh, and freaky mirrors do?"

"Maybe!" Sweetie Belle smiled. "You can see yourselves in them! That's a good place to start, don’t you think?"

"Except that one ain't reflectin' nothin'," Apple Bloom said, pointing up the hill.

"What do you mean? Of course it's reflecting!" Sweetie Belle's voice cracked. "It's a mirror!"

Apple Bloom pointed. "See for yerself."

Sweetie Belle fidgeted the moment Apple Bloom called her bluff. On squirming hooves, she padded up the grassy hill, standing before the object. After a few blinks, her green eyes widened and her lips parted. "Whoahhhh..."

"What? What?" Scootaloo scampered up to the top of the hill. Apple Bloom joined her as they both clamored to get a better look at the mirror’s shiny surface. "Lemme see!"

Curious and quizzical, Dinky adjusted her towel cape and climbed out of the wagon herself. She trotted up towards the mirror, squeezing between the other girls to see better.

All four fillies gazed into the looking-glass, but not a single one of their faces gazed back. Instead, they saw what looked like—

"A... a dressin' room?" Apple Bloom made a face. She glanced behind her, seeing nothing but wild unkempt wilderness. Looking back, she squinted at the inexplicable interior setting. She spotted photo collages, makeup cases, and a potted fern in the corner of the well-lit room. "What business does this mirror have lookin' in on a dressin' room?"

“I dunno.” Sweetie Belle shrugged. “Maybe it suffers illusions of grandeur. My sister has that happen to her all the time.”

“Sweetie Belle…” Scootaloo groaned, face-hoofing.

“Well…” Sweetie huffed, red-faced. “If half-chicken/half-dragons can turn ponies to stone, who knows what else the world is capable of?!”

“I dun think this is the normal world,” Apple Bloom said. She absent-mindedly adjusted her bow while thinking aloud. “At least, not as we know it.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Sweetie Belle turned from the mirror, glancing down past the wagon at the calico chaos of sporadic vegetation. “And, I know this is going to sound weird, but there’s something about all of this that feels… strangely familiar.”

“Yer right.” Apple Bloom chuckled dryly. “That does sound weird, Sweetie Belle.”

“Hmmmmm…” Sweetie Belle closed her eyes tight, clenching her teeth. “I just wish I understood what it was.”

Meanwhile, Dinky leaned a little too far forward. She slipped past the larger fillies with a gasp. Her hoof reached forward, and she grazed the edge of the mirror’s frame in a desperate bid to support herself.

A flicker of light emanated between the ponies and the polished glass.

"Hey!" Apple Bloom gasped, eyes twitching. "It just changed!"

"Pfft! It did not," Scootaloo droned.

"No, I see it too!" Sweetie Belle remarked. "It's like things got a bit foggy all of the sudden."

"What, did moisture get on it?" Scootaloo reached a hoof forward, touching the surface. "Feels like just any other mirror." She stroked her hoof across the glass.

Then, like the flipped page of a picture book, the image changed completely, as did the shape of the mirror's frame altogether. All of the crusaders jolted back, yelping, save for Dinky. The smallest pony stood in place, her amber eyes widening above a gaping muzzle.

"It did change." Dinky blinked, then smiled in pure wonder. "Girls, look!" She pointed at the hexagonal frame. "It's the deck of a sea ship now!"

"Noooo waaaay," Sweetie and Apple Bloom simultaneously cooed, stepping forward.

"Hey... that's actually kinda cool." Scootaloo looked at the rain-soaked deck of a ship churning through foamy waters at night. "Can we do that again?"

"Huh?" Dinky blinked.

"Go ahead, Dinky!" Sweetie Belle encouraged the filly with a pat on the shoulder. "Give it a swipe, just like Scootaloo did!"

Shrugging, Dinky reached forward and ran her hoof once more across the cool polished surface.

The mirror took on an oblong shape, looking in on a royal Canterlot balcony at night. Moths danced around flickering torchlight while clouds drifted across a hazy cosmic horizon.

Curious, Sweetie Belle reached over Dinky, running her hoof across the glass.

It shrank to a tiny circle. The fillies gawked at the bird's eye view of a building in the shape of a "T" that stood on an island of rocky bluffs.

"Plum crazy, I'm tellin' ya..." Apple Bloom reached in, her turn to give the mirror a swipe.

At this point, a tiny town appeared, doused in white snow. Ponies wandered from street to street, bundled up in coats and scarves. They smiled, carrying on mute conversations while night fell over the flicker of Hearth's Warming lights.

"Girls, look!" Sweetie Belle's voice cracked. "It's Ponyville!"

"It is?" Dinky gawked.

"Hey! Heeeeey!" Scootaloo shouted, pressing her muzzle up to the glass. "Can anypony hear us?! Hey!" She banged on the glass with a heavy hoof. "We're trapped here!"

"Scootaloo, don't!" Sweetie Belle insisted. "You might break it!"

"Uhhh... it's obviously a magic mirror, Sweetie Belle," Scootaloo said. "I don't think we can actually break it."

"And I don't think we can speak through it either," Apple Bloom said. "Look." She pointed towards a quartet of merry carolers singing their muzzles off at a nearby street corner. "If we can't hear them, then what makes us think that they can hear us?"

"I've got an even better question," Scootaloo said, her orange face scrunched. "What's with all the snow? It's the middle of spring!"

"She... does have a point," Sweetie Belle stammered, shivering slightly.

"But how can that be?" Apple Bloom gawked at the others. "Even mirrors that work like normal are always reflectin' what's happenin' now!"

"Girls." Dinky gulped, pointing up at the mirror image's sky. "Look."

"What is it, Dinky?" Scootaloo asked. Just then, her eyes widened while Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom gasped.

The moon was full, and yet it had a noticeable blemish on it. The unmistakable mark of Nightmare Moon blanketed the lunar surface.

"That shouldn't be like that," Dinky said in a sullen tone. "Not anymore."

With a shudder, Apple Bloom looked back down the conical hill. "I'm gettin' a very bad feelin' about this."

"You're not alone, sister," Scootaloo muttered. Brow furrowed, she reached up and pressed her hoof to the glass, swiping it one more time.

In a flash, the landscape turned to a plastic green sheet under a pastel blue sky. Vibrantly colored pastures stretched far and wide, spotted occasionally with stone-blue castles as well as two-dimensional houses and skyscrapers.

"Well that's certainly..." Apple Bloom blinked. "...bright."

"Where's the sun?" squeaked Sweetie Belle.

Everypony's eyes trailed up the glass, until they spotted a glowing pair of letters—"K" and "B"—hanging luminously over the comic book landscape. Then, in a calcified blur, an emaciated skull popped into frame, waving a bony hand while grinning a mouth full of razor sharp teeth beneath a pair of mischievously bent eye sockets.

"Gak!" Scootaloo exclaimed, practically punching the glass. "What the fetch?!"

The suited anorexic figure disappeared in a blink, replaced by the blissfully dull interior of a lavish manor's banquet hall. Scootaloo and the other fillies trotted away from the mirror, attempting to catch their breaths.

"Okay..." Scootaloo wheezed, nevertheless gritting her teeth in a vigorous show of frustration. "I've officially decided that I hate this place."

"You have my vote." Apple Bloom nodded, reaching back to straighten her cape, bow, and mane. "Reckon we should just pick a direction and start wagon-rollin'?"

"Girls, I really don't think that's going to help us!" Sweetie Belle said. "Remember what Dinky said? The tunnel that brought us here was originally a mirror too! So maybe another mirror would take us back!"

"To the diamond dog's lair?!" Apple Bloom cackled incredulously.

"No! I dunno. Someplace else, at least!"

Scootaloo sighed and stared up the hill. "Dinky, do you remember what you did to get the 'first mirror' to… uh… open?"

The tiny unicorn didn't respond. She was too busy squinting at the looking-glass on the hill. To the left of the banquet hall in the mirror, a tall and richly attired earth pony with a haughty expression spoke to what looked like a uniformed police officer. But towards the right—and creeping slowly—was a little orange pegasus, slowly and soundlessly sneaking her way towards a pedestal in the middle of the chamber where a golden, gleaming horseshoe stood on full display. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew at the pegasus’ back, knocking her into the pedestal so that the horseshoe rattled loosely to the floor of the hall.

"Dinky—?"

Dinky jumped in place, twirling around. "Uhhh! Uhm... the mirror? I..." She gulped. "I played the lullaby... you know... 'Hush Now, Quiet Now.'"

"That's right!" Sweetie Belle nodded, grinning. "I remember hearing it!"

"And then what, Dinky?" Scootaloo blinked. "The mirror just... opened up?"

"To a lullaby?" Apple Bloom added in an incredulous tone.

"I... guess?"

"You think you could open it again?" Scootaloo asked.

"Uhm..." Dinky reached up and tapped her hoof against the hard glass. There was no reflection to be seen, hornless or wingless. She felt cold, lonely, and helpless. She backtrotted until she felt that she was once again surrounded by the warmth of her companions. "I'm not sure."

"Well, naturally, she can't get the mirror to perform it's morning yawn," echoed a sultry voice as if it emanated from all around the fillies at once. "It's already awake!"

The crusaders froze in place, looking every which way across the shimmering greenscape.

"Okay..." Scootaloo dragged a hoof across the grass, frowning. "Who said that?"

"That depends on who heard it," the voice pleasantly growled.

"We heard it! We heard you!" Apple Bloom exclaimed. "Just now!"

"Are you sure of that?"

"Are we sure of—?"

"Could it be that your ears took an offer under the table just to fool you? I know I would." The voice fluttered around them as the air above the hill turned fuzzy. Everypony's noses tickled. "Such cheeky organs, ears. Never playing music for themselves and always lowering right after a fresh haircut."

"Is..." Apple Bloom trembled. "Is this hill haunted?"

Scootaloo looked bored. "If so, then it's a really lame ghost."

"A ghost?" The voice purred louder. "Nay, for nopony ever dies here... or body... or phony. Which of those are you? I suspect all three and then some."

Scootaloo groaned. "Look, we're confused enough as it is, and we don't need—"

"But really, to make a ghost lame?" Something materialized atop the mirror behind them. The fillies turned to see a glinting beam, curved, like a crescent moon. It widened—smiling—a mouth that was full of teeth and teeth and more teeth. Before the phantom molars had even finished forming, several furry stripes bristled backwards into being, ending in a limp tail that twisted and twirled to life. Soon, an abnormally large feline with an even larger smile perched on the very top of the looking-glass above them. Seconds into this magical entrance, the teeth kept going, as if they had no actual end, or if they did it was somewhere deep inside the fuzzy brown beast. Somehow, someplace, it still possessed the lungs to say, “That about makes as much sense as no sense, which is a very rich sum indeed, you some. So here you are, somewhat."

"Uhhhh..." Scootaloo's wings drooped, as did her chin.

"Is that..." Apple Bloom squinted. "...a talkin' cat?"

"When it fits," it said in a distinctly masculine voice, its pinwheel eyes falling on the four. "Sometimes I prefer to be a tac, and walk backwards over myself just to see if it flushes the manxome mome raths out of hiding, the silly knaves."

Scootaloo slumped back on her haunches. "My cutie mark is going to end up a question mark, I swear."

"Wait a minute..." Sweetie Belle exhaled in a melodic tone. The edges of her muzzle curved upwards, as if in faint mimicry of the garishly grinning phantom before them.

Dinky actually managed to wrench her wide-eyed gaze off the creature to blink at her. “What is it?”

“I think I’m starting to understand!” Sweetie Belle squealed inwardly. Her body shook and squirmed while her face hung wide and gaping. She flung Dinky a euphoric look. “It’s all starting to come together!”

Apple Bloom glanced over. "It is? Since when?"

"About two minutes from now, if I recall," the Cat remarked.

“You’re the Cheshire Cat!” Sweetie Belle grinned wide. “Aren’t you?!”

“The Cheshire what?” Scootaloo’s voice cracked.

“It isn’t all that proper to toss names around,” the Cat said, pausing to lick its paw. “They take ever so long to get out of one’s fur.”

“The Cheshire Cat!” Sweetie Belle gawked at the other Crusaders. “You know! From Bluish Carol’s written stories and poems!”

“Buh?” Scootaloo blinked, cross-eyed.

“You're going about this awfully face-forward." The Cat uprighted itself, growling happily from the top of the mirror. "When the answer to all your troubles is quite obviously behind you."

"What answer is that?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Why, 'eleven,' of course."

"'Eleven?'" Scootaloo stood up, frowning again. "That's a number, doofus!"

"I would very much hope so."

"And just how does 'eleven' help us with a magic mirror?"

"Once again, it’s always about you." The Cat shrugged, its eyes darting towards each paw, bouncing back and forth with each ensuing phrase. "Nevertheless, eleven has not been with me as long as I don't remember. The first and last moment I didn't see it, I didn't realize that I could never rely on putting one before another, that way I am always without."

"I... can't tell if you're trying to confuse us or if you're just featherbrained," Scootaloo said.

"What's to be confused about?" The cat stood up only to sit back down. "Eleven is a pair of two ones, which are both very odd, like me. But put them together and you have two too. Either way, I am always at odds with myself, evenly."

"So..." Apple Bloom rubbed her head. "...knowing about the mirror..."

"Doesn't even matter." The cat winked. "So I shall be the odd one out and help you."

"Yes... please do," Scootaloo said, rolling her eyes.

"Ahem..." The Cat crawled down the looking-glass, descending one paw at a time along its vertical surface. "...you cannot make this mirror yawn from a lullaby, for it is already awake. Therefore..." It stopped halfway to the ground, waving a paw in front of its expectant grin.

"We..." Scootaloo grimaced to even say it out loud: "...have to find a mirror that's asleep?"

"Indubitably."

"And where would we find this... sleepin' mirror?" Apple Bloom asked.

"By following the dream," the cat said.

"Dream? What dream?"

The feline examined its claws in mid descent. "Less of a what and more of a whose."

"Somepony dreams in this place?"

"Occasionally."

"Who?"

The cat continued its way towards the ground. "Why, the Red King, of course."

"The Red King?"

"He's asleep right now. It's his job, you see."

"How is sleeping a job?"

"With much earnest, I would imagine." The cat reached the earth, and its sharp grin cut through the spiraling grass of the hill. "After all, who is going to give the Wabe its soundtrack?"

"What soundtrack?" Dinky remarked. Just then, a loud roaring sound rippled across the shimmering heavens like thunder. Every filly flinched, gazing across the bright skies.

"Why so surprised, half-pint?” The Cat twirled across the grass, winking. “You follow that." It pointed towards both horizons at once. "The sound of dreaming."

"Dreaming?" Scootaloo's face twisted. "Sounds more like snoring."

"Loud snoring!" Apple Bloom added.

"Every vehicle has its exhaust, does it not?" The cat brushed past their wagon and scooter. "A steam engine its roar, and a dream its snore. It's really that simple, and yet it isn't."

"But... b-but..." Scootaloo gestured all around. "It sounds like it's coming from everywhere! How do we trace it back to the Red King and the sleeping mirror?"

"It’s actually quite brilliant,” the Cat said. “Just go North and South at once!"

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were positively reeling from whiplash. “Huh?!”

“Sorth!” Sweetie Belle said in a giggling tone, as if it was obvious to everypony. Dinky couldn’t help but titter a little as well.

“Ah, yes. ‘Sorth.’ Such a lonely word,” the Cat purred. Inch by inch, the feline began to vanish, spiraling into brown ribbons from its tail to its head. “It really ought to get out more often. Bask in some sunlight before winter."

"But… b-but…?" Scootaloo almost wretched. “How do we go ‘sorth?’”

“Simply promote yourself, Like a good pawn.” The Cat’s mouth was all that remained at this point. Its teeth lingered like flies in the shimmering air. “Then serenade the Red King until he wakes, and the mirror will yawn, for the Board will be quite bored without.”

"Hey! Wait!" Apple Bloom waved after the nebulous feline. "Don't leave now! Are y’all mad?!"

"Alas, I had always hoped." And it ribboned off in several disintegrating directions. "And now I shall do so in several odd places, evenly." There was a lasting glint of teeth, and then it was gone with the flicker of the bizarre landscape.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo slumped mutually to their haunches.

"I think I want back in with the Diamond Dogs," Scootaloo muttered.

"Eeeheeeheeee!" Sweetie Belle was busy prancing around in a happy circle.

"Alright, I give up." Apple Bloom glared her way. "Is it your birthday or something?"

"No!" She grinned wide. "More like my unbirthday!"

"Spill the beans already, Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo stood up, waving her forelimbs. "How do you know about this… ‘Cheshire Cat?’ And who in the hay is Bluish Carol?"

"You mean you don’t know about the Wabe?!” Sweetie Belle gawked at Scootaloo and Apple Bloom collectively. “You don’t recognize the Cat, the Looking-Glass, the sundial, the Wabe?!"

“Bluish Carol… Bluish Carol…” Apple Bloom scrunched her yellow face in thought. At last, she lifted her bright eyes towards Sweetie Belle. “Wait, ya mean that ol' stallion who wrote all them classic foals’ books about fantasy and all sorts of nonsense?”

“Yes!” Sweetie’s grinning teeth resembled the spectre who had just left them. “Including Through The Looking-Glass and What Surprise Found There!”

“Hey!” Dinky grinned wide. She felt a sudden surge in her heartrate as she remembered cozy nights nestled up on the sofa. Ditzy would be cradling her and a dusty old book in both hooves, squinting through one eye in order to read her daughter whimsical lines from a timeless classic. The warmth of that memory washed over her, chasing away her trembles in that otherwise alien place. “I remember now! Didn’t he write Sylvie and Brunoats?”

“Mmmhmm!” Sweetie Belle nodded. “I’ve borrowed The Complete Works of Bluish Carol from Cheerilee’s bookshelf tons of times! It has all the stuff we’re seeing and hearing about in it! The looking-glass! The Cheshire Cat! Even the Red King!” She spun and shouted triumphantly into the pulsating sky. “We’re in the Wabe!” Her voice even echoed for a short burst, and then all was drowned out once more in stunning silence.

"So... hold on a second..." Scootaloo gestured at the patchwork landscape looming downhill. "Are you trying to tell me that some crazed fan of Bluish Carol came out here and built this place?"

"Scoots, take a good look around." Sweetie Belle stared at her with rigid eyebrows. "Do you really think that somepony or ponies actually built something like this?"

"Would have to have been some sort of crazy wizard," Apple Bloom said with the slightest chuckle.

"Nnngh..." Scootaloo face-hoofed then shook her hooves. "Okay okay okay... assuming all of this is true... how do we get out of here?"

"Duh!" Sweetie exclaimed. "The Cheshire Cat just told us!"

"It did?"

Sweetie spun towards the Honorary Crusader. "Dinky, did Ditzy ever read you bits out of The Looking-Glass??"

Dinky's brow furrowed as she thought aloud: "Follow the dream of the Red King... by following the sound of it: his snores." She remembered Surprise’s fanciful trip across the garden landscape in Carol’s classic book. It all began with a lesson on movement that Surprise was directly given by the Red Queen. She blinked brightly at the rest. "The Red King is 'across the Board.'” She suddenly gasped. “A chess board!’"

"Exactly!" Sweetie lightly pushed Dinky into the wagon. With a twirl of her red and gold cape, she faced the opposite end of the hill. "Come on, crusaders!"

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom exchanged glances, then blinked at her. "'Come on,' where?"

"We gotta go Sorth! Pronto!"

"Excuse me?" Scootaloo belched.

"You heard me!" Sweetie pointed at the scooter. "You get on and start pushing forwards! Apple Bloom, you’ll join me as we go backwards. Scootaloo will drag Dinky in that direction. We'll go North and South at the same time and then meet up at the Board!"

"Yeah!" Dinky giggled. In an absurd landscape, doing something spontaneous and foalish—such as Sweetie Belle’s suggestion—felt strangely comforting. It had been a long time since she ever bothered putting faith in something completely nonsensical. Since nothing else seemed like a viable option, Sweetie Belle had Dinky’s complete and charismatic support. “Come on, Scootaloo! Sorthward ho!"

"Apple Bloom, you're level-headed." Scootaloo glanced aside. "Help me out here."

"Hey." The filly shrugged with a smirk and crawled over to join Sweetie Belle’s side. "I gave up thinkin' the moment we got here."

"Oh come onnnnn..." Scootaloo slumped. “How do we even know what North or South even are in this place?! The sun’s directly overhead! If you can even call it a sun!”

"That’s not the point, Scoots!" Sweetie Belle chirped, beginning to trudge away from the wagon. She tugged Apple Bloom along. “The Cheshire Cat said that the ‘pawn needed to be promoted!’ Trust me! This will work!”

"Mrmmf..." The pegasus shuffled forward, mounting the scooter with a dull hop. "Fine. I'll play along."

"Better close your eyes, though!" Sweetie Belle insisted. "You too, Dinky, Apple Bloom!"

"Huh?!" Scootaloo blanched. She yelped over her shoulder. "What in the hay for? That makes no sense!"

"Exactly! That's how we know it'll work!" Sweetie Belle said from a distance as she and Apple Bloom trotted out of sight from beyond the hill’s crest. "Because we won't be following our senses!"

"Guhhhhh..." Scootaloo sighed, eventually shutting her eyes in defeat. "The only good thing about being in a place like this is that Rainbow Dash won't be around to see me do something so stupid."

“Well, look at it this way!” Dinky grinned, leaning towards the front of the wagon with a twirl of her flute. “At least you get to go your way for once!”

“Ugh. Don’t rub it in, Dinkster.”

"You're not pushing yetttt!" Sweetie sang from a distance.

"Keep your tail on! I'm... heading Sorth! Frickin'..." And with that, Scootaloo reluctantly pushed her hoof against the hilltop, shoving the scooter—and the wagon—further away away from Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom’s shuffling hoofsteps. “I don’t like this.” She nevertheless clenched her eyes shut as she gave into momentum and let gravity do the rest of the work. “Last time I did something this stupid, I wore a cast on my left front leg for a week.”

“I won’t tell anypony if you won’t!” Dinky said, holding her tiny hooves over her eyes.

“I knew I could count on you.” Suddenly, Scootaloo’s voice took an undulating tone, as if she was coasting the peak of a ramping roller coaster. “Wuh oh… that’s certainly… f-fuzzy…”

“Guh!” Dinky suddenly flinched, though she kept her eyes shut. It was no easy feat. From the way her inner organs shifted, she knew she was going downhill, but the wind was whipping past her ears in the opposite direction. Something grumbled in the distance. At first, she thought it was the snores of the Red King which the Cheshire Cat had foretold. But this sound had texture to it, such as the scraping and crackling of dry wood.

Then, the two ponies hit a sudden bump. Dinky felt weightless, fragile. Instinctively, she reached a hoof out, hoping to brush across something familiar, like her mother’s soothingly soft coat. Instead, she felt the tickle of grass blades. They shrank out from underneath her, then disappeared altogether, replaced with soft sandy soil that grinded by slower and slower. Curious, the little unicorn opened her eyes...

* * * * * * *

* * * * * *

* * * * * * *

...and watched as Scootaloo’s scooter coasted the two of them evenly across a flat field. They slid to a stop, and they weren’t alone. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom stood dead ahead, facing the wagon. The two crusaders’ eyes fluttered open, and they looked just as surprised to see Scootaloo and Dinky as the other two were to see them.

Collectively, the group spun about, studying their bizarre surroundings. The hill was gone, as was the Looking-Glass. Instead of an enormous valley with sporadic wildlife, they sat dead-center in a patch of dark soil. The plot of land was perfectly, geometrically square, at least as far as Dinky could guess. She stood tall in the back of Scootaloo’s wagon, gazing in a full circle. The patch of soil that enveloped them ended in a solid line of thick green bushes, like those of the Canterlot Hedge Maze that the little unicorn had once read so much about and seen in pictures.

Scootaloo tilted and craned her head around, lips pursed. She gawked at an inexplicable ridge of tree-speckled mountains behind them, and then at a wall of rainbow-colored flora looming far ahead. From a distance, the forest at the extreme edge of the square-shaped plain appeared topped off with brilliant pastel yellows, reds, and pinks, as if it was actually a garden of impossibly large flowers.

"Okay..." Scootaloo gulped, gripping the scooter's handles so hard that her fetlocks turned white along the edges. "...maybe that was just a teensy bit awesome."

Dinky realized something tall was standing right in front of them. Her head looked up, spotting an ornate sign marked with the figure: "E1" "Huh..." Dinky blinked while the flute finally dangled to a stop around her neck. "That certainly looks out of the ordinary."

"What doesn't in a place like this?!" Scootaloo balked. "For real, I don't get Bluish Carol!"

Apple Bloom leaned forward. "But you heard Sweetie Belle! Cheerilee let us borrow his book all the time!"

"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle nodded. "We even had to do an assignment on his poem: The Jabberwocky!"

Scootaloo glanced back at them. "Yeah, and if I could make a career out of writing nonsense, I would have gotten a quill on my flank years ago!"

Apple Bloom smirked. "So why don'tcha?"

"Pfft..." Scootaloo glared ahead. "You think I want a cutie mark about writing little fillies getting lost in fever dreams? How about showing me an epic poem where Surprise ramps over an exploding deck of cards on a rocket scooter? Then I'd be all in!"

Sweetie Belle giggled.

"So, is this it?" Dinky asked. "Is this the Board?"

“And just what kind of ‘Board?” Apple Bloom asked.

“A chess board!” Sweetie Belle said, grinning wide. “Like the garden that Surprise explored in Through the Looking-Glass,” she said proudly. “And just like Surprise, we’re all chess pieces! Well… pawns, specifically. Er… wait.” She rubbed the side of her head, face scrunching. “Or maybe we’re queens. It’s hard to tell. Bluish Carol wasn’t always sensical with his… nonsense.”

“How do you figure?” Scootaloo said, her eyes twitching from the sudden headache.

“Well, the Cheshire Cat told us to ‘promote ourselves.’” Sweetie Belle paced back and forth as she thought aloud. “Pawns only move forward across a board. Unless, of course, they reach all the way across to the eighth square. Then they get promoted. They become queens!” She spun to a stop, grinning wide at the group. “Now they can move in any direction!”

Dinky smiled proudly. “Going North and South at once!”

“Right!” Sweetie turned and pointed at the sign marked “E1.” She said, “That means we’re on the white side side of the board! The White King’s square, more specifically”

“So… uh…” Dinky fidgeted, her knowledge of chess not as good as her knowledge of checkers. Not once did she imagine that contemplating the rules would become helpful in something resembling a life-or-death scenario. “The Red King… would be…”

“...all the way across the board!” Sweetie Belle said with a proud grin. “If we just advance seven more full squares, we’ll be right on top of him!”

“Then we can wake him from his dream!” Apple Bloom piped up. Almost on cue, a loud wheezing roar rippled across the colorful canopy ahead of them. She pointed into the pulsating atmosphere. “And if all else fails, we just follow that!”

“Precisely!” Sweetie Belle giggled again. “We take out the Red King, we win the game! Then the mirror will be ours!”

“Take him out by waking him up,” Scootaloo droned.

“Yup!”

“Whatever.” Scootaloo sighed, pedaling forward so that the wagon stopped between Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. “I’m just gonna roll with it from now on. It’s doing a number on my head.”

“Heeheehee!” Sweetie Belle giggled as she climbed into the wagon.

“What’s so funny now?” Apple Bloom asked, boarding the vehicle beside her.

“‘Eleven!’” Sweetie Belle winked. “The Cheshire Cat is always at odds with himself, evenly!”

Dinky let out a merry laugh while Scootaloo rolled her eyes.

“Okay, yer Wabe-Fu is one thang,” Apple Bloom said. She squinted. “But since when were ya such an expert at chess?”

“From watching my sister play.”

“Rarity plays chess?” Scootaloo asked, pedaling the scooter forward.

“Hmmhmmm!” Sweetie nodded. “She says it’s the only sport where she doesn’t have to sweat.”

“Alright, so we’re all pawns slash queens in a garden slash chessboard,” Scootaloo muttered as she accelerated the scooter and wagon. “How exactly do we go forward?”

“Uhhh…” Dinky leaned forward. Straight ahead, due north in the garden hedge that bordered the square plot of earth, there loomed a wide arch large enough for four elephants to pass through, much less four adventuring little fillies. “Through there, maybe?”

“Hey.” Scootaloo shrugged, aiming the scooter for the glaring gateway in question. “Works for me. This couldn’t possibly go wrong.”

“And a-Wabe-ing we will gooooo!” Sweetie sang with a lasting chortle.

* * * * * * *

* * * * * *

* * * * * * *

From outside, the patch of land beyond the hedge almost resembled an opaque bamboo forest with incredibly dense stalks. But from within, the crusaders found themselves overshadowed by enormous, jaw-droppingly gorgeous flowers of impossibly huge scale. Roses, marigolds, lavenders, and tiger-lilies the size of stagecoaches bloomed overhead, filling the tree canopy with pastel colors of every conceivable shade. They were incredibly fragrant too, filling the crusaders’ nostrils with scents so sweet that they felt like were gaining cavities with each inhalation.

“Will ya take a gander at the size of them buds?” Apple Bloom murmured. She stood up on the edge the wagon, her bow and cape billowing in the pungent breeze through the stems. “Land’s sakes, how I’d love to find an apple tree amidst all of this! Why, if I could grab just one seed and take it back to Equestria with us for plantin’, I bet I could single-hoofedly double the farm’s profits!” She grinned at the others. “Couldja imagine nibblin’ on fresh juicy apples the size of refrigerators? I bet Applejack and Big Mac could feed an entire household for a year with just one pickin’!”

“Sorry if I’m not nearly as jazzed as you are, Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo muttered. As she glided the wagon along, she kept her upper body perpetually hunched over, as if expecting something to dart out from behind the wide blooming petals at the drop of a hat. “With flowers this big, I’m not willing to stick around to see what kind of bees they attract.” The forest grew darker from the dense vegetation, to the point that it was getting harder and harder to spot a single slice of the Wabe’s shimmering sky. Anxiously, Scootaloo re-lit the lantern dangling from the scooter’s handles, using it to cast a spotlight against the wild vegetation undulating dead ahead. “Funky mirrors. Giant flowers.” She called back over her shoulder. “What’s next, Sweetie Belle?! Talking walruses?”

“Hmmmm…” Sweetie Belle was in the process of twisting about, examining her left flank beneath her cape. “...nope.” She contorted her body the opposite way, staring at her right side. “Uhhh…” She pouted. “Still nothing.”

“Hey!” Scootaloo barked. “Equestria to the Wabe-Whisperer!”

“Huh?” Sweetie Belle looked up.

“You got any clue what’s next on this crazy psycho safari?” the pegasus asked.

“Uhm… well… it’s been a few months since I last read Through the Looking-Glass, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we ran into a few other chess pieces. Like the White Queen…” She resumed squinting at her snowy-white flanks. “...and stuff.”

“Jee, thanks.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Not like I could have peeled off a better tour guide from underneath a table at Sugarcube Corner or anything.”

Apple Bloom giggled. “Well, look at it this way.” She glanced up at Scootaloo. “So long as none of them livin’ chess pieces try talkin’ our ears off, then we’re free to make a beeline for the Red King.”

“That’s fine in my book,” Scootaloo said, nodding towards the winding path that she was navigating straight ahead. “I don’t wanna be stuck in this place any longer than we have to. There’re still two foalnapped twins out there waiting for us to rescue them!”

“Darn tootin’.” Apple Bloom pointed at an illustrated marker sticking suddenly out of the earth on a tall pole. “Oh, lookie! Another sign! This one here says ‘E2.’”

“Hey! Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo called back again. “We just passed ‘E2!’ Are we making progress or what?!”

“Guhhh…” Sweetie Belle was too busy fussing. She rubbed a hoof across her flank. “Maybe it’s just too dark to see right now…”

“Sweetie Belle!”

“Huh?! What?!” The filly jolted in place, clutching her cape. “Er… yeah! ‘E2!’” She nodded emphatically. “Just six more squares left! Keep moving forward!”

“‘Keep moving’ she says.” Scootaloo sighed and resumed pushing the scooter cautiously through the oversized garden.

Dinky squinted at Sweetie Belle quizzically. She scooted over until she stood closer to the fidgeting unicorn. “Uhm… is something wrong, Sweetie Belle?”

“Huh?”

“You keep looking at yourself as if something’s stuck on you,” Dinky said, her golden eyes blinking. “Did you catch some sand spurs? I mean… we are in a giant garden, after all.”

“Oh. Oh no no.” Sweetie Belle smiled bashfully, still fussing with her cape to get a better look at her haunches. “I was kinda hoping that I might have gotten my cutie mark just now.”

Dinky stared at her, blinking innocently. “For what?”

“For what?!?” Sweetie Belle gaped in Dinky’s face. The outburst even caused Apple Bloom and Scootaloo to glance back momentarily before continuing on with the forested glide.

Dinky leaned back, wincing awkwardly from Sweetie Belle’s exclamation.

Sweetie Belle swiftly cringed. Perhaps it was the look of hurt and confusion in Dinky’s face, but the older filly took a deep breath to compose herself. At last, she folded the crusader cape neatly around herself, covered her haunches entirely, and sat daintily down in the back of the wagon. “Ahem... I dunno, Dinky, I was sort of hoping that maybe my knowledge of Bluish Carol was actually, like, my super special talent or something. I mean, if we can make it out of the Wabe all because of me, then that’s awesome enough of a thing to earn a cutie mark for, isn’t it?”

“We haven’t made it out of this place yet,” Apple Bloom said with a smirk. Scootaloo snickered.

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes, then smiled Dinky’s way. “It’s not everyday that something comes together in my head as well as it did just now! While we listened to the Cheshire Cat, I realized exactly when and where I could be useful! That… just doesn’t happen often.” She grinned wide. “Besides, wouldn’t it be super cool if this place got me my Cutie Mark?! It’d almost explain why I can never get one in normal Equestria! I mean… talk about a fabulous souvenir!”

“I dunno, Sweetie Belle.” Dinky smiled, fiddling with the length of her terry cloth “cape.” “Earning your cutie mark in a place like this would be nice and all, but wouldn’t you rather discover your talent in Ponyville?”

“Or in Manehattan?” Scootaloo spoke up, smirking. “While saving the foals?”

“Right!” Dinky nodded. “That way you’ll have discovered something you can apply in daily life to ponies all around you!”

“Ughhh…” Sweetie Belle slumped against the back of the wagon with a prolonged groan. “But then it would be so… so…”

Dinky perked up. “Helpful?”

Sweetie Belle pouted. “Normal.” She made a wretching expression. “I swear, if all I get from taking back the twins is a boring old horseshoe or a baby’s rattle, I’m going to lock myself in a dark room somewhere and cry forever.”

“I don’t know.” Dinky shrugged, stifling a giggle. “I think a shiny horseshoe would look nice on you.”

“But it’s so dull and average!” Sweetie Belle tossed her mane in flamboyant exasperation. “Just take a look around you!” Her eyes briefly sparkled at the glittering flower petals and oversized leaves breezing over the wagon. “This place is so wondrous and curious and magical! Everything here is large and alive in a different, unique way!” She glanced back at Dinky with a soft smile. “Imagine what it’d be like to carry something like this around with you for the rest of your life? Like it was a part of you?”

“Wouldn’t it be better to become part of how you live?” Dinky asked. She spoke plainly, with honesty and concern. “Over time, I mean? After all, Mommy wasn’t always a mailmare. She once tried her hoof at moving furniture around. And, just yesterday, we all learned that she was an adventurer! Like Daring Do!” Dinky couldn’t help but feel a pleasant shiver of excitement upon allowing herself to remember that fresh, titillating reality. She was still recovering from the revelation, and it added to the warmth in her smiling cheeks. “And guess what?” She chirped, a swelling sense of pride now filling her voice for having come up with a good point. “Not a single one of those occupations has a thing to do with her cutie mark!”

Sweetie Belle sighed. “Dinky, you just don’t get it yet. And y’know what? That’s okay.”

Dinky’s smile faltered.

Sweetie Belle continued, “Not to make light of what your mother does—she’s a super special pony, after all—but there’s more to a pony’s cutie mark than just a cute little design on their rump! I mean… it’s a symbol! Like a superhero’s crest, y’know? It announces to everyone in Equestria, bold and in huge capital letters: ‘THIS IS WHAT I’M GOOD AT AND I’M PROUD OF IT.’ And it’s not like a dress you can just put on and shimmy out of when the mood fits. You only get one shot at earning this mark! And once it’s yours, you’re stuck with it, and everything you do or say is, like, defined by wearing this thing!” Sweetie Belle leaned back, gazing off into the passing shrubbery. “Well, I dunno about you, but I won’t settle for something boring or plain! I want what I earn to show everypony that I have a wonderful gift inside me! There’s a special talent out there waiting for me and me alone to unlock, because nopony else can do it like I can! I mean… how else will I leave a huge mark on the world? Or become popular?”

Dinky’s muzzle scrunched in thought. “Is finding such a rare and special talent that important to you, Sweetie Belle?”

“Pfft… of course it is,” Sweetie Belle muttered. “It’s what I obsess over every day.”

Blinking, Dinky stared into the rattling bed of the wagon. She thought back to all of the times in recent memory that she had caught glimpses of Sweetie Belle, or—at least—all the times she had seen her without the Cutie Mark Crusaders. On almost every such occasion, Dinky had spotted Sweetie Belle in or around the Carousel Boutique, trotting side by side with her older sister Rarity, even trying to help with anything she could while the two siblings shopped downtown. A sudden epiphanous vision flickered across Dinky’s mind, highlighting the similarities in both siblings’ appearance, mane hygienics, and even their general daintiness. The little filly couldn’t help but smile at the simplicity of her own realization. Without hesitation, she turned towards Sweetie Belle and spoke up.

“Ahem. Don’t worry, Sweetie Belle.” Dinky grinned proudly. “After we save the foalnapped twins, I just know you’ll earn a cutie mark that will make Rarity proud!”

Sweetie Belle had no answer to this. Instead… she frowned, glaring into the passing scenery with such silent sullenness that it startled Dinky.

The honorary crusader blinked, leaning away from Sweetie Belle with a nervous shudder. She glanced at the other two ponies, but both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were focused on traversing the scenery ahead. A deep knot formed in Dinky’s throat. She had never seen Sweetie Belle quite this brooding before, nor had she been the one to instigate it. With a guilty sigh, she shrank against her corner of the wagon, hanging her head as the group passed through a final wave of gigantic flower stems.

“The woods are starting to spread thin,” Apple Bloom said. “Look! Scootaloo, up ahead!”

“I see it,” Scootaloo said, kicking the scooter and the wagon towards a cobblestone gateway. Beyond it loomed a much thinner, far more normal forest canopy of regular-sized verdant trees and springy overgrowth. “Looks like the next patch of land.”

“Or the next square.”

“Call it what you want. Here goes…”

* * * * * * *

* * * * * *

* * * * * * *

The Crusaders emerged from the huge floral overgrowth. However, it was just as dark in the clearing as it had been in the previous, densely-forested patch of earth. Scootaloo squinted across the verdant landscape, her ears twitching worriedly.

“Something’s not right here.”

“Reckon ya ain’t kiddin’,” Apple Bloom said as they passed a marker labeled “E3.” “Feels real somber-like all of the sudden.”

“Sweetie Belle…?” Scootaloo called back.

“Uhhh… I don’t mean to freak you girls out or nothing, but look up!” Sweetie Belle said with an audible gulp.

The crusaders did so, filling the wagon with a collective shudder. Dinky also glanced up, squinting. It was hard to see any sign of the shimmering orb of light that had illuminated the environment when they first arrived in the Wabe. Now, the sky was awash in dark, churning clouds of stone gray and dull blue hues. Sometime during the trip through the forest of enormous flowers, a thick overcast sheet had been drawn across the heavens. A bitter chill hung in the air, and the trees shifted and bowed in the distance.

“Talk about the creeps,” Scootaloo muttered, grinding her scooter to a halt atop a springy mound of curly green grass. “This place could really use some weather fliers to kick the clouds clear.”

All of the sudden, a flash of worry flickered across Sweetie Belle's face. She was about to say something, but as soon as she opened her mouth, a loud ringing sound emanated from nowhere and yet everywhere all at once. The other Crusaders exchanged confused glances.

“Uhm…” Apple Bloom stirred.

“What gives?!” Scootaloo stammered. “Is it the Wabe’s alarm clock or what?”

“Hey, I know that sound!" Dinky exclaimed. She turned towards Sweetie Belle with a twirl of her flute necklace. "It's just like Ponyville Grand Station!"

"Ponyville Grand Station..." Sweetie Belle pursed her lips in thought, and then she blanched. Just as the weight of the wagon shifted from underneath, she leaned forward and stared straight down.

Two railroad tracks had appeared, rising up out of the earth.

Screeching metal-against-metal pierced the air.

Sweetie flashed a look behind her.

Dinky stood innocently, her body silhouetted by bright gold lantern light, growing brighter.

"Dinky, everypony!” Sweetie shoved Dinky in one direction, then grabbed Apple Bloom as she dove off in the other. “Move out of the way!"

“From what?!” Scootaloo hollered, only for her cracking voice to be devoured by the phantom squeals of a thundering locomotive. “Ah jeez!” She jerked her scooter to the side while the wagon rattled in the middle of the tracks. Within milliseconds, a screaming train blistered by on the tracks, shattering the wagon to crimson scrap.

"Ooomf!" Dinky fell on her haunches, wincing alone in the grass. She looked up, gasping at the inexplicable train roaring by. "Sweetie Belle?!" She called out, but the mechanical tumult was too loud for her to even hear her own voice. So she stood up, shrieking. "Apple Bloom! Scootaloo! Are you okay?!"

Dinky's voice was cut short as her eyes were entranced by the coaches sailing past her. She blinked—and in those blinks she saw the faces of the various passengers in the brightly-lit windows. A horse head, a pony wearing paper armor, a goat's nostrils, and the wriggling mandibles of a giant beetle pressed up to the windows, gazing out at the tiny unicorn. When finally the last car passed by, Dinky spotted a pair of stallion guards hanging onto the caboose's railing. One shouted as the car zipped by: "No ticket, no ride! Our time's worth a thousand bits a minute, you know!"

And in a lasting bell chime, the train was gone. The tracks sank back into the earth, sealed up by the springy grass, leaving Dinky and the other Crusaders lying about in a breathless stupor. Between them, the shredded bits of a once-legendary wagon lay scattered abroad.

"Dinky!" Sweetie Belle instantly hobbled over to the smaller unicorn, grasping her shoulders. "Are you okay?!"

"Yes, thanks to you." Dinky nuzzled the filly's chin. She smiled awkwardly at Apple Bloom. "For a moment there, I almost lived up to my last name!"

“Where in tarnation did that thing come from?!” Apple Bloom cackled.

“Never mind that!” Scootaloo hollered, rushing over and cradling the shredded bits of her wagon. Everything, including the wheels, the axles, and the metal hammer that they had pilfered from the Diamond Dog’s lair had been rendered to brittle shrapnel. “Look what that darn thing did to my wheels!” She gritted her teeth, eyes pained and glossy. “Celestia on a bike! I hate this place!”

“Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle just saved our lives,” Apple Bloom grumbled. “We dun have to hold a funeral for the dag-blame’d wagon!”

“I know! But… but…” Scootaloo stumbled backwards, leaning on her scooter as she shuddered. “It was the wagon, y’know?” It took a sizable amount of effort for the filly not to sniffle. She steeled herself with a determined scowl. “Besides, now it’s gonna be all that much harder to chase down the friggin’ foal-nappers.”

“Yeah.” Apple Bloom sighed, fidgeting with her cape. “I reckon so. But still.” She stared firmly across the ruined clearing. “We’ve got bigger things to worry about right now.”

“Let’s keep moving!” Dinky said, nodding her tiny head. “The less we wait around in here, the less likely we are to get run over by something else!”

Scootaloo sighed. “You’re right. You’re right.” Clinging hard to her scooter, she tilted the thing around and began kicking limply at the ground. “Besides, how worse could it get in this place?”

Even before Scootaloo had finished saying that, a tremendous roar echoed from the woods behind all four fillies. They twirled about, watching in a nervous panic as several hairy creatures and colorful, flightless birds came floundering out of the bushes, rushing past them as the dark sky overhead turned darker.

“Alright, I give.” Apple Bloom arched an eyebrow. “Are we late for the critter convention?”

“Girls?” Dinky gulped. “I think the silly snoring just turned into not-so-silly roaring.”

Scootaloo gulped, doing her futile best to remain perfectly still. “Maybe the Red King has got a cold?”

“That’s one heck of a cold!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, flinching as a broad-beaked dodo streaked past her, warbling loudly. “Let’s get a move on. Sweetie Belle?”

“Awwwwww poo,” the older unicorn muttered from up ahead.

The fillies spun about to face her. They found Sweetie Belle standing before a pair of short wooden hoof posts.

“Sweetie Belle?” Dinky craned her neck. “What’s the matter?”

“Meh. Just my least favorite part of the book, is all,” Sweetie Belle grumbled.

“Huh?”

Sweetie Belle looked back. “Come on, girls.” She motioned ahead as she trotted towards the next square beyond a line of thick shrubbery. “Whatever happens next, just let me do the talking.”

“Hey, whatever you say,” Scootaloo said, gliding along with the scooter.

As Dinky followed up the rear of the group, she lingered by the signs, squinting at each post. They were marked with the words “Tweedledee’s Cottage” and “Tweedledum’s Cottage” respectfully.

“Come along, Dinky!” Apple Bloom called back.

Fumbling, Dinky galloped after the other three on short, shuffling legs.

* * * * * * *

* * * * * *

* * * * * * *

The four fillies came upon a gold-thatched house in the middle of the forest, and the first thing Dinky noticed was a pair of fat stallions standing on the front lawn, facing out. With each progressive step the ponies took, the stallions only grew more and more obese to the naked eye, until Dinky realized she was staring at two grotesquely rotund equines with chubby faces more akin to bloated infants' than full-grown adults.

"Unnngh..." Sweetie Belle's ears folded atop a sagging expression. "They’re even grosser for real."

"Huh?" Apple Bloom blinked aside at her.

"No filly has ever favored either of us, nohow!" one stallion grunted. He and his companion wore colorfully striped jackets, worn tight, to the point that their pastel buttons nearly came to bursting.

"Contrariwise." The other tilted his head about, which seemed an impossible feat until Dinky saw it. "We haven't been favored since that one filly dressed us up for battle."

“The hay are they goin’ on about?” Apple Bloom’s face scrunched up. “Battle?”

“Don’t encourage them, Apple Bloom,” Sweetie Belle began.

"Why, a battle over that which was spoiled by Dee!" the first fat stallion growled again.

The second yawned. "Though there was no spoiling, contrariwise."

"Nohow!"

Dinky squinted. On the collars of each stallion, she saw the names "Dum" and "Dee" embroidered, alternatively.

Scootaloo blurted, "Are these ponies ten years old or ten tons?"

"They’re neither" Sweetie groaned. “Though they might as well be both.”

Scootaloo glanced aside. "Then why are we talking to them?"

"Contrariwise, only two hundred and fifty pounds on our last unbirthday."

"They didn't serve any pudding, nohow!"

"Look." Red-faced, Sweetie leaned forward. "We just want to make our way to the Red King. Have you heard him? Or seen him?" She pointed north past the cottage. “We’re hoping he’s about four squares in that direction.”

"We've seen no kings nor reds nohow!" The stallion marked "Dum" spat.

His companion raised a hoof. "We've only seen the air mismied, for its season to hunt has arrived yet again."

“Huh?” Scootaloo blinked. “‘Air mimsied?’” She glanced aside at Sweetie Belle. “Please tell me they’ve just got ‘stupid-mode’ engaged.”

Sweetie Belle squinted curiously at the round horse. "Who or what mimsied the air, exactly?"

"Why, the frumious one, of course! Are you lobeless?" the other stallion cackled, his fish-eyes reflecting the somber clouds above the forest. "It glares at the sky until it turns dank and greasy, like its fur! That way the only thing that stands out is the blood of its prey!"

"Contrariwise," spoke the other. "Not all it hunts can bleed. Sometimes they just gyre and gimble on phlegm alone."

"A most slithy suggestion! Want to fight about it?!"

"After dinner. Three hours ago."

"Brilliant."

"Hey!" Sweetie Belle stomped her hoof. "I'm serious! We're not from around here! We don't want something to..." Her pupils shrank as she gulped. "...to eat us dead."

"Nopony dies in the Wabe nohow!"

"They simply live a lot faster in less time, which—contrariwise—is no time."

"Grrrr..." Sweetie Belle clenched her teeth.

Dinky pressed a hoof to her friend's, then stepped in between the crusaders and the fat stallions. She leaned forward, her bright yellow eyes gleaming. "Please, Mr. Dee and Mr. Dum, would you tell us what's out there? What's so dangerous in the Wabe today?"

As she said this, a wheezy shriek roar once again wafted through the air. It was the closest that the four fillies had heard it yet. Sweetie Belle spun about, ears twitching. "That rattling is almost here, I know it!"

"Rattling?!" Tweedledum gasped, flailing.

"Unless it's a crow or a like-crow, we care little." Tweedledee gestured. "Contrariwise, you beamish creatures would do well to galumph back from which you came!"

"Why?" Dinky asked. "What could it do to us?"

The cottage windows shook. Leaves fell from the trees overhead. The thundering footsteps of something dark and dismal reverberated all around the clearing. A bitter chill hung in the air as a dark shadow passed over that tiny patch in the Wabe. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo glanced nervously about, their manes billowing from a sudden, foreboding wind.

"Right, then," Tweedledee slurred. His bulbous eyes rolled up towards the peak of his round skull, reflecting a long, gangly neck in the gray forestlight. "You are about to find out."

"There's no escaping the Bandersnatch, nohow!" Tweedledum sputtered. "Too fast and flighty it is!"

"Like hungry lightning out of a glass jar!"

"That's been starved for a red winter!"

"Brilliant!"

Against their better judgment, the four fillies slowly turned around with no small amount of trembling.

The forest behind them had split down the middle. Slithering through like a fuzzy gray cloud was an absurdist spectacle standing two stories tall on two massive stork legs, curved at the end with wicked sharp talons that kneaded into the pliable earth.A pair of noodly arms hung from its fuzzy torso, the scaled skin striped green and gray from its hooked elbows to its bony wrists. Simian hands with gnarled fingers flexed in the air, stained with a dozen different shades of dried blood. As if that wasn't ominous enough, an angular head loomed at the end of a pendulously long neck. Ridiculously tiny eyes—laced with crusty mucus—hung widely over what appeared to be a mouthless muzzle, until its pale skin rolled outward like a sphincter. A gummy maw opened, causing the head to increase in size three times through sheer jawspace. Its massive, drooling orifice was lined with three rows of jagged shark teeth, and a poison-purple tongue lashed wildly in the air while the beast let loose a salvo of soul-shattering hoots. The sound coming from deep within its salivating throat resembled a stampede of shrieking jackrabbits, being crushed to death at the bottom of a deep well by a rampaging elephant.

Dinky’s body slumped around a frozen, shivering heart.

“Sw-Sweetie Belle?” Apple Bloom leaned aside, trembling. “Do you know what that is?”

With a dull shudder, Sweetie Belle nodded, her glossy eyes reflecting the hellish beast’s maw. “Something very frumious indeed…”