Chancellor Puddinghead's home was a cozy dugout carved into the side of a hill, with a chimney sticking out of the top. The door was standing wide open, so Celestia and Luna stepped in. Brocktree was about to follow them when he saw Chancellor Puddinghead climbing up the hill onto the roof.

"Hi there! What are you doing?" he called. "Can't you just go in through the door like the rest of us?"

"Maybe the rest of you can go through the door," Puddinghead answered. "But I'm a Chancellor, so I need to be smart and think outside the box. And that means I can think inside the chimney!" And she jumped down the chimney.

"Seems logical to me, wot," said Dotti and she jumped down the chimney too.

Brocktree sighed and just went through the door in the normal way. As he entered the dwelling there was a crash. He saw Dotti lying on top of Chancellor Puddinghead on the floor. Both of them were covered with pudding.

"I'm awfully sorry, old gel," said Dotti. "Was that my flippin' foot in your eye?"

"Nah, it was my fault. I didn't get out of the way in time," said Chancellor Puddinghead. "Here, let me clean that off for ya."

She bent down and started trying to suck the chocolate pudding off of Dotti's foot. Dotti began licking pudding off the Chancellor's frizzy pink mane. The sight was truly one to behold.

Brocktree gazed about wistfully. Lanterns of varying hues hung everywhere, shelves and cupboards were carved neatly into the rocks, the floors were strewn with woven rush mats, and a tiny alligator dozed close to the embers on the hearth, a household pet.

"Except for the alligator, this place puts me in mind of Brockhall, my old home. Hmm, don't suppose I'll ever see it again."

"Why not?" Celestia asked. "Why did you leave home?"

The Badger Lord patted her hoof. "I was restless, just like all Badger Lords before me. It grieved me to leave behind my young son. Boar the Fighter I named him. A badger's son is his pride and joy, when he is a babe. But he must grow up, and it is a fact that two male badgers cannot live together in peace, especially Badger Lords, for that is what Boar will grow to be one day."

"I'm glad alicorns aren't like that," Celestia said. "My sister and I will always live together in peace, isn't that right, Luna?" This was before Luna became Nightmare Moon.

"I had to observe the unwritten law," Brocktree continued. "I left Brockhall and began roaming, to follow my dream."

"What dream is that?" Luna asked. "I know something about dreams."

"A vision I see in my mind's eye, sometimes when I'm awake, or other times when I sleep. It must be the same picture that other badgers have dreamed. A mountain that once shot out flames and molten rock, older than time itself, its fires now gone. Waiting, always waiting for me on the shores of a great ocean. I could not describe the way to Salamandastron, for that is what I know the mountain is called, nor could I draw a map of the route. But something in my brain, my very heart, is guiding me there."

"I'm glad you know the way to your mountain," said Celestia. "I don't know how much longer we will be traveling together. We need to find Ungatt Trunn, who has stolen our Elements."

"You don't think he could have gone to this Salamandastron place, do you, sister?" Luna asked.

Brocktree and Celestia looked at each other. Neither of them had considered this possibility before.

"Well, we'll see," said Brocktree. "Right now we need to get some sleep."

"Slumber party!" Chancellor Puddinghead cheered.

So they all went to bed. Dotti climbed into Puddinghead's bed with Puddinghead, while Celestia and Luna curled up on window ledges and Brocktree stretched out on the floor, as there wasn't a bed in the house that could support his weight.

It must have been sometime before the dawn hours when the entire household was roused by Brocktree.

It was a nightmare, but clear as day: a swaying room, decked with cobwebs and spiders, and flies buzzing everywhere. Tossing and turning in his sleep, the Badger Lord tried to rid his mind of the unbidden vision. Then suddenly a great evil-looking wildcat appeared, wearing five necklaces at once, its voice grating through him like a rusty blade. An ominous shadow loomed behind the cat.

"Come, show your face to me, come to my mountain and meet with your fate. I am Ungatt Trunn the Fearsome Beast; you will die by my paw the day you look upon my face!"

Still in the grip of nightmare, the Badger Lord sprang up. Seizing his battle blade, he roared out in a thunderous voice, "It is my mountain! I am the Lord Brocktree of Brockhall! My sword will look into your mind and touch your heart on the day we meet, Ungatt Trunn! Eulalia!"

Celestia was knocked to one side as Luna hurled herself at her, shoving her out of danger in the nick of time. Brocktree's great battle blade whooshed past them a hair's breadth away, cleaving a rock ledge in two and plowing a furrow in the floor like a small trench.

"Back! Get back, all of ye!" Luna was up and waving her hooves and wings at Dotti and Chancellor Puddinghead, scurrying about, wanting to see what all the disturbance was about. The dark alicorn acted swiftly. Taking a jug of cold mint tea from a table nearby, she sloshed it accurately in Brocktree's face. The Badger Lord staggered back and slumped on the ledge. Freeing a paw from his sword handle, he wiped the liquid from his eyes. Then he looked at the creatures all about him in bewilderment.

"The room, it was moving from side to side, spiders, webs, flies, everywhere… every-"

Without warning the double hilted sword was in his paws again. He swung it up in a fighting stance, glaring at everybeast with dangerous eyes. "Where's the cat? Did any of you see him? Tell me!"

With great courage, Luna stepped forward, placing herself in the path of the monstrous blade. "Put up your weapon, friend. 'Twas only a dream."

With a dazed look Brocktree lowered the sword and sat down. "I don't understand. He was here, his name is Ungatt Trunn, and he wanted to do battle with me."

"Ungatt Trunn!" Celestia gasped. "That's the beast who stole the Elements of Harmony!"

Puddinghead was jumping up and down frantically. "I can't follow any of this!"

Celestia explained the quest for Salamandastron to the earth pony, as well as her and her sister's reasons for needing to catch up with Ungatt Trunn. When the Badger Lord recounted the details of his nightmare, Puddinghead had something to say.

"Hang on a sec! I'll be right back!" She dashed out of the house, leaving a cloud of dust behind.

A little while later she was back with another earth pony, who was orange with blond hair. "This is Smart Cookie, my assistant," Puddinghead said. "Tell 'em what you saw, Cookie!"

Smart Cookie had a distinctive southern twang in her voice that made the other beasts feel instinctively that they could trust her. "Pleasured to meet ya. Well now, 'bout three moons back Ah was roamin', southwest o' here. Ah woke up one morn an' saw a big ole army o' varmints, all painted blue, trampin' west to the seashores. They was a-chantin', like this. The leader shouted… Ungatt! An' t'others shouted back three times… Trunn! Trunn! Trunn! Ah watched till they vanished in the distance, trampin' an' a-shoutin' all the way. Ungatt!... Trunn! Trunn! Trunn! Just like that! Whoa Nelly, Ah said to mahself, there's somethin' to tell the ponyfolk back home. But Chancellor Puddin'head said to keep silent about it. So Ah did till now."

"Thank you for your honesty, Smart Cookie," said Celestia. "This proves that Ungatt Trunn is at Salamandastron. I guess we have a common goal after all, Lord Brocktree."

It took a lot of persuading to stop Brocktree following the vermin instantly. In the end, he agreed to wait to set off until after breakfast.

Chancellor Puddinghead and Smart Cookie were surely masters of victuals, unequaled at baking, boiling, grilling, or cooking any edible they could find.

"What I always say is, when a chap's getting hungry, she likes some good old vittles," Dotti said as she shoveled oatmeal into her mouth with her paws just as Fleetscut had done back in Chapter 3. "I've never tasted honeyed oatmeal like that in m'life. I say, Puddinghead, how the dickens d'you make it taste so jolly good, wot?"

The Chancellor chuckled. "I chop in lots of hazelnuts an' chestnuts, cover it with sprinkles of apple 'n' pear flakes, and then I bake it slow in the oven."

"Food is kinda our specialty," said Smart Cookie. "We spend our days cultivatin' goods to sell to other tribes."

"That reminds me of a riddle!" Puddinghead exclaimed brightly. "When is a pony not a pony? When she turns into a pasture!"

Brocktree scratched his striped muzzle. "What does that have to do with-"

"I say, super wheeze!" Dotti cried. "Hey, what kind of pony only comes out at night? A night mare!"

Once the two of them got started, they couldn't stop.

"How much money does a bronco have? A few bucks!"

"Oh, oh, oh, I've got one, I've got one!" Dotti shouted. "What goes buhurr ouch?"

"Buhurr ouch?" Luna interjected. "This is getting ridiculous."

Chancellor Puddinghead supplied the solution. "Two moles fightin' over a damson pudding, everybeast knows that one!"

"Here's one my Uncle Septimus told me," said Dotti. "What d'you call a hare who can balance four pints of barley beer on her head?"

Puddinghead was puzzled.

"Minton!" Dotti declaimed.

"That makes no sense. Why would you call her Minton?" Luna demanded.

"Well, actually, you don't really call her Minton. The way old Uncle Sep told it to me, her name was Beatrix. Sounds a bit like Beer Tricks, wot. But I thought it was funnier to call her Minton!" Dotti and Chancellor Puddinghead dissolved into shrieks of laughter and collapsed to the floor, where they remained for quite some time.

"I'm not sure how much more of this I can take," Luna muttered to her sister.

"Ya get used to it after a while," Cookie said.

"Oh, leave them be, Luna," said Celestia. "Laughter is one of the Elements of Harmony, after all. And they're not doing us any harm."

Brocktree levered himself away from the spread and shouldered his sword. "Come on, Dotti. Are you going to sit there feeding your famine-stricken face all day?"

"I bally well wish I could," Dotti said, sitting up. "But I suppose we have to get goin'."

Chancellor Puddinghead was gnawing her lip, staring off into space, when Celestia nudged her. "Go on, Chancellor, say it. You want to go with us, don't you?"

The pink pony stood up and stretched before answering. "I've been for too long in one place now. I need somethin' to do. If you'll have me, I'm with you all the way."

"Ah want to come too," Smart Cookie declared. "Ah like to travel."

Brocktree liked the earth ponies in spite of their odd ways. "Excellent," he said. "I have a feeling we're going to need all the help we can get."