Morning sun broke cheerfully down upon the camp of Brocktree and his companions. The twittering of birdsong caused Dotti to poke her head out from the folds of the cloak she had wrapped herself in while she slept. Blue smoke rose in a thin column amid the dappled sun shadows cast by trees in full spring leaf. Brocktree, Celestia, Luna, Chancellor Puddinghead, and Smart Cookie were sitting around a breakfast fire. Cookie was turning oatcakes over on a flat stone.

Brocktree's great striped head shook reprovingly. "Dawn has been up two hours, miss. Are you going to lie there all day?"

Yawning and stretching, the haremaid lolloped over to the fire, muttering as she helped herself to hot oatcakes and mint tea sweetened with honey. "It's the confounded beauty sleep, that's what 'tis. My mater was always sayin' to me when I came down late for breakfast, 'Been takin' your beauty sleep again, m'gel.' I say, these oatcakes are spiffin' when they're hot. Well sah, which way do your voices say we go today, wot?"

Brocktree recovered his cloak and bundled it into his haversack. "I think we should follow the course of that brook. Sooner or later it'll bring us to a stream."

"Why are we lookin' for a stream, sah?"

Celestia answered for the Badger Lord. "Streams always run to rivers, rivers run to the sea. That way we find the shoreline and follow it south. Sooner or later we'll come to the mountain on the west shore."

By midmorning they had reached a ford- the same ford which Fleetscut, the unicorns, and the pegasi were searching for a pike, farther downstream.

Chancellor Puddinghead skipped down the bank. "Look, cranberries! There's scads of 'em growin' down here!"

Dainty pink flowers with curling petals stood swaying on wispy thin-leafed stalks; beneath them the small orange-hued berries grew in profusion. They were sweet but sharp to the taste. The friends gathered in the welcome addition to their supplies, sampling the fruit as they picked.

"Mm, nice 'n' tasty," Cookie said. "Ah wager we could make a batch or two o' cranberry tarts with these!"

But then a thing happened that was bad and not good. Dotti leaned over too far… and she fell into the ford!

"Gurgle! Help me chaps, I can't swim!"

But that wasn't the worst part. A big fish was gliding smoothly toward her, its rows of needle like teeth exposed as its jaws opened in anticipation, the dorsal fin near its tail sticking out of the water, dragging weeds along. It was a pike!

Celestia yelled out in dismay. "Look at the size of that brute. He'll crunch the little haremaid in one bite!"

Luna flew out over the water, trying to distract the pike. She managed to give the fish a kick with her hoof, but it leaped up and sunk its teeth into her wing! The pike began dragging her downward. Celestia rushed to defend her sister, using her horn to shoot a blast of magic at the pike and make it let go.

Meanwhile, Brocktree attempted to haul Dotti out of the water, holding the hilt of his sword out to her. But he overbalanced, and then he fell in! Fortunately, he was tall enough that he could stand up in the water, but the current was strong, and he had difficulty staying on his feet. Dotti clung to the badger's back as he swung his sword wildly, to fend off the pike.

Now it was total chaos. The pike twisted and writhed in the water, now turning toward Celestia and Luna, now back to Dotti and Brocktree, snapping and splashing all over the place. Chancellor Puddinghead was running around on the bank panicking. Smart Cookie had taken out a lariat and was looking for an opening to lasso the pike, but her friends were in the way.

Out of nowhere, a rainbow-colored streak shot out of the sky and hit the pike. It was Commander Hurricane! She knocked the pike backward, but then the pike leapt out of the water and made a snap at the Pegasus leader, barely missing her.

"Give 'em blood an' vinegar! Eulalia!"

Fleetscut, Princess Platinum, and Clover raced onto the scene. The unicorns started shooting magic blasts at the pike, and Fleetscut tried to throw stones and things at it.

"Take that, you ruffian!" Princess Platinum shouted.

This made the pike so angry that it actually flopped up onto the bank. It was thrashing around and snapping at any creature within reach. The ponies and Fleetscut fell back, out of the range of those sharp teeth.

While the fish was distracted, Brocktree pulled himself and Dotti out of the water, and Celestia hauled Luna to safety. The Badger Lord was readying his sword to deal the pike its final death strike, when a voice shouted, "Wait!"

It was Private Pansy. The yellow Pegasus flew over to the flopping pike, saying, "Shhh… it's okay. Oh, you poor, poor little baby."

"Little?" Commander Hurricane objected.

"Now this might hurt for just a second," Pansy said to the pike. She bent down over it and pulled a thorn out of its tail. This calmed the fish down instantly, and it rolled back into the ford and swam away.

"How did you know about the thorn?" Clover asked Pansy.

"I didn't," Pansy replied. "Sometimes we all just need to be shown a little kindness."

Then Commander Hurricane noticed something she hadn't before. "Those two ponies that were in the river… I thought they were pegasi, but they're alicorns!"

"My word!" Princess Platinum exclaimed. "So they do exist!"

"Glad to meet you, friends," said Celestia.

Introductions were hastily made. Celestia and Luna filled the newcomers in on their quest to regain the Elements. Then Fleetscut told about how his party was traveling to the court of King Bucko Bigbones.

That day Lord Brocktree, the alicorn sisters, and the tribe leaders Princess Platinum, Commander Hurricane, and Chancellor Puddinghead made a pact. Between them they would gather a great army and take Salamandastron; free it from the claws of Ungatt Trunn.

"The lands our creatures live on should not be tainted by vermin hordes," Celestia said. "No matter what our differences, we are all ponies. We need you all. Earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi."

"And hares," Brocktree chimed in. "We will go with you to the realm of this self-proclaimed hare king. He must be challenged and defeated. Then he and his followers must be persuaded to join us. They will all be fine fighting hares."

Smart Cookie stared up at the badger's massive form. "Well, if'n anybeast kin beat the king, that'll be yew!"

Brocktree was looking straight at Dotti as he replied, "No, Smart Cookie, 'tis only fair that a hare challenges a hare. Now tell me, Fleetscut, what is the next clue to the king's whereabouts? Is there anything special we must search for?"

The old hare repeated the lines he had committed to memory.

"Discover then a streamwolf's ford,

Tug thrice upon the royal cord,

Then my honor guard will bring,

Loyal subjects to their king!"

"Well, we're at the streamwolf's ford," said Brocktree. "We just have to find the royal cord. But let's have lunch first."

"I second that!" Dotti and Fleetscut both said at the same time. Then they started laughing like lunatics.

The noise irked Luna. She decided she needed a break for a while. She went off down the bank by herself. Soon she came to a hornbeam tree, on the leeside of which hung a red tasseled rope, its length going up, off amid the foliage. Could this be the royal cord?

Luna hurried back to the group. "I think I've found what we're looking for!" she said. Everybeast looked up in surprise. They had not noticed that she had gone.

"Jolly decent of you, old beast," Fleetscut called back. "Y'mean you found the royal whatchamacallit? Where was it?"

"It's nothing too impressive, just a big thick red cord hanging from a great hornbeam tree," Luna said.

Brocktree reached out and shook her hoof. "Well done. Lead us to it!"

Luna led them to the tree. "That's the one, though I haven't tugged on the rope yet."

Brocktree performed an exaggerated bow to Dotti. "Would ye pray do the honors, milady?"

The haremaid curtsied prettily and fluttered her eyelids. "Why, thankee, m'lud. Methinks I'll give it a jolly old tug once or thrice, providin' the blinkin' tree don't fall on me bonce, wot wot!"

Dotti took firm hold of the cord and gave it three hefty tugs. The thin boughs in the hornbeam crown shook, dislodging a colony of jackdaws. Flapping angrily into the air, they set a din of harsh cries ringing into the quiet woodlands.

Commander Hurricane watched the birds settle back onto the tree. "Ha ha ha! You'd think he could afford proper bells if he's supposed t'be a king like he says he is. What do we do now? Shall I give the rope a few more tugs?"

"No, I think we should sit and wait," said Brocktree.

It was well over an hour before Smart Cookie leaned close to Brocktree and whispered, "Ah hear somebeast a-comin' this way, sir!"

The Badger Lord sat causally, eyes half closed. "I see them too, friend. Everybeast sit still now, be calm."

The air hissed, and a light javelin buried its tip in the ground, not far from Celestia's hoof. Twoscore rough-looking mountain hares, some still showing white fur patches from last winter, marched up armed to the teeth.

Their leader's voice, like his companions', had a strong burr of the far northern mountains about it. "Arrah weel now, laddys, whit've we here?"

"Why don't you ask me that, instead of the laddys?" Brocktree replied, his eyes still half closed. "They've only just arrived with you."

The leader pulled his javelin point from the soil. His voice had an insolent tone to it. "Hearken t'me, stripedawg, ye're en noo t'be saucy wi' me. Mah hares are upright an' armed ready, ye an' these beauties o' yourn are settin' doon unprepared, d'ye ken?"

Brocktree rose to his full height, sword in paw. "Oh, I ken all right, hare. I ken if you give impatience to Lord Brocktree of Brockhall you'll find your ears dangling from yonder alarm rope. So keep a civil tongue in your head!"

The hare was visibly cowed, and his tone became more reasonable. "Mah apologies, lord, 'cept have t'be careful o' strangers aboot these parts. Whit was it ye were wantin'?"

"Take us to the one who calls himself king," Princess Platinum commanded.

"Look fit enough, don't they, wot?" Fleetscut remarked as they followed the hares on a torturous path through the woodland. "Touch o' trainin' an' discipline should bring those laddys up to the mark!"