Outside, a garden party was in full swing. Rarity's parents were mixing and mingling with the parents of their daughters' friends while the Changelings helped Mr. and Mrs. Cake serve the food.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were petting and scratching Winona, who was enjoying the treatment she was getting. Doc Time Turner was trying to teach Derpy Hooves how to play chess (with mixed results) while Lyra Heartstrings, Sweetie Drops/Bon Bon, Octavia Melody and Vinyl Scratch/DJ Pon-3 played a game of Go Fish.

Fluttershy and Discord dined on cucumber sandwiches while Rainbow Dash politely refused to try a pie that Chiffon Swirl (Mrs. Cake) had offered her. Lady Ember was chatting with Gabriella "Gabby" Griffon, and Spike and King Thorax were flirting with Applejack and Sunset Shimmer respectively.

Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich were enjoying their cake while Princess Twilight Sparkle was playing dolls with her niece, Princess Flurry Heart. And while Starlight Glimmer was enjoying a cup of peppermint tea with Trixie and Sunburst, Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadence were playing a game of doubles croquet with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna (which Celestia and Luna won).

Sweetie Belle creaked open the door and peeked out at the multitude of guests.

"How can they expect me to sing in front of all these people?" she thought to herself.

She quickly shut the door and ran out the back. She ran and ran until she reached the edge of Sweet Apple Acres.

Then she stopped and sat under a tree.

"I'll go back later when it's all over," she told herself.

Just then, an apple broke free of one of the branches.

But instead of falling from the tree, it seemed to float down until it stopped in midair, hovering in front of Sweetie Belle's face.

While this was happening, Sweetie Belle began to feel sleepy. The long run, coupled with the hot day, had tired her out. Then suddenly, Fluttershy's pet white rabbit, Angel Bunny, ran close by her.

There was nothing very remarkable about Angel, at least not at first glance when Sweetie Belle asked herself what he was doing there and without his owner.

So, she didn't think very much about it.

But when she saw him take a silver watch out of his waistcoat pocket, looked at it, and then say to himself, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I'll be so late!", Sweetie Belle got to her feet and ran across the field after him, and just in time to see him hop across a brook, into the forest, and pop down a rabbit hole under a tree.

Sweetie Belle went down after him, never once considering how she was going to get out again.

The rabbit hole when straight like a tunnel for a while, then dropped down so suddenly that Sweetie Belle didn't have a moment to think about stopping before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well.

Sweetie Belle's dress caught her midfall like a parachute and she floated gently down. She had plenty of time to look around as she was going down, and to wonder what was going to happen next.

First, she tried to look down and see what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything. Then she looked at the sides and saw that they were filled with cupboards and lamps, bookshelves, a rocking chair, clocks and mirrors. And here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs.

"Well, I won't be afraid of falling down the stairs after this," she thought. "I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got to? I have no idea what Latitude and Longitude are, but they're grand words."

Down, down, down she went. Would the fall ever end?

She began to think that she might fall right through the center of the Earth. Then suddenly, she landed upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves in another long passage. And she saw Angel Bunny hurry down it.

"Oh, my paws and whiskers, look how late it's getting!" he said as he ran through a door at the end of the corridor.

Sweetie Belle jumped to her feet and continued to chase after him.

"Perhaps I did fall through the Earth and came out the other side. I shall have to ask somebody the name of the country. 'Please, Ma'am, is this Zanzebra or Yakyakistan?'"

Sweetie Belle was right behind Angel when he'd ran down the long, low tunnel, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof.

"That's strange," she said.

The hallway seemed to get lower and lower as she got closer to the door. She opened the door at the end of the passage and found herself in a round hall, full of doors. She tried them all, but they were all locked.

"Now that I'm in, how do I get out?" she wondered.

She spotted a little table, made of solid glass, in the middle of the room. There was a tiny key upon it and Sweetie Belle thought that it must belong to one of the doors in the hall. But which one?

Suddenly, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed the first time around and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high. She tried the little key in the lock and, to her delight, it fit perfectly.

Sweetie Belle opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rathole. She knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden she had ever seen, full of bright flowers and cool fountains. But alas, she could not even get her head through the doorway.

"If only I were smaller," she said out loud.

She closed the door and turned back to the table, half hoping to find another key on it. Instead, she saw a little glass bottle and tied around the neck of it was a paper label with the words "DRINK ME" beautifully printed on it in large letters.

"Okay. That wasn't there before," she thought as she picked up the bottle and started looking it over. "I wonder if it's alright to drink. If you drink much from a bottle with a warning label on it, it's bound to disagree with you sooner or later. This bottle's not marked."

Sweetie Belle ventured a taste and, finding it very nice (in fact, it had a mixed flavor of cherry tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffy and hot buttered toast), finished it off, and she shrank to only ten inches high.

Her face brightened at the thought that she was now the right size to go through the little door and into that lovely garden.

But then she remembered that she had left the little key on the table, and very far out of reach.

She tried to climb up one of the table legs, but it was too slippery. And when she tired herself out from trying, she sat down and looked up at the key (she could see it quite clearly through the glass).

"Oh, great. Now what?"