Large rose trees stood near the entrance of the garden, and there were three lovely lady gardeners busily cutting the heads off the roses. They were pruning so much that Sweetie Belle thought the trees were dead, which she felt was odd.

"Watch out, Lily!" she heard one of them say as she approached them.

"I can't help it, Rose!" said Lily, in a sulky tone. "Daisy jogged my elbow!"

On which Daisy looked up and said, "That's right, Lily! Always blaming others for your mistakes!"

"You're one to talk!" said Lily. "I heard the Queen say just this morning that you deserved to get the axe."

"What for?" said Daisy.

"Tulip roots," said Rose.

"What?" Daisy shouted.

"For bringing the cook tulip roots instead of onions," Rose elaborated.

"Is that all?" Daisy asked. She threw down her clippers and added, "That's a mistake anyone can make!"

"Hello," Sweetie Belle said.

The three gardeners turned and looked at Sweetie Belle.

"Hello," they all replied a little timidly.

"Would you tell me," said Sweetie Belle, "why you are cutting the heads off the roses on these trees? They look like they're almost dead."

"Well, the fact is, Miss, this was supposed to be a dead rose tree," Lily began, "and we planted a live one by mistake."

"An easy thing to do!" Daisy added.

"But the Queen, she likes them dead. And if she was to find out," said Rose, "we'd all have our heads cut off."

"So, we're doing the best we can to put this right," Lily said.

"Before she comes," Rose finished.

Suddenly, there was a sound of many footsteps approaching, and Daisy, who had been anxiously looking across the garden, called out, "She's coming now! The Queen! The Queen!"

"The horror! The horror!" Lily cried.

Leading the grand procession was Angel Bunny, who said, "Left, right, left, right, left, right!"

He was followed by ten soldiers in dark blue helmets and armor (which were full of holes), with soulless blue eyes, who walked in two straight lines. Then, the Queen of the Changelings.

After that came the Knave of the Changelings, who carried a crown on a crimson velvet cushion, and a King in heavy, dark gray armor and a long red cape.

Next came the courtiers (ten of them), who walked two and two as the soldiers did. After them came the royal children (ten more), also in two straight lines. And finally, ten more soldiers brought up the rear.

When the procession came opposite of the three gardeners, they threw themselves flat upon their faces.

Sweetie Belle didn't know whether she should lie down on her face as well, but she did not remember ever having heard of such a rule at processions. So, she stood where she was and watched.

When the Queen saw Sweetie Belle, she shouted, "Halt!"

The procession stopped and looked at Sweetie Belle, and the Queen said severely, "Who is this?"

"I agree entirely," the Knave, who was named Thorax, answered.

"Don't be ridiculous," she said.

"Would I lie to you, Your Majesty?" he asked her.

"Yes," she replied.

"Oh, well, thank you," He cleared his throat. "Compliments are always welcome."

"You're an idiot,"

"That's right, Your Majesty," he replied with a click of his tongue. "Only you could spot that. Takes one to know one."

"A complete idiot!" said the Queen, tossing her head impatiently, and turning to face Sweetie Belle. "What's your name, child?"

"Sweetie Belle, if it please Your Majesty," Sweetie Belle said very politely.

The heavily-armored King stepped forward.

"Why have we stopped?"

He said it to the Knave of the Changelings, who only shrugged and shook his head in reply.

"And who are these?" the Queen asked, pointing to the three gardeners who were still lying on their faces.

"How should I know?" Sweetie Belle asked, surprised by her own courage. "I'm a stranger here."

The Queen became filled with fury and, after glaring at Sweetie Belle for a moment like a wild animal, screamed, "Off with her head!"

"Off with her head!" the entourage echoed weakly.

"Off with her—!"

"Stop losing your temper!" Sweetie Belle said. "It's vulgar."

The King laid his hand upon the Queen's arm and said, "Consider, my dear, she is only a child."

"You really think so?" she asked him.

He nodded in reply.

"Yes, that would account for it," she said. "Children have no respect for their elders these days."

The King shook his head in agreement.

The Queen turned angrily away from him and shouted in a shrill voice, "You three! Get up!"

The three gardeners instantly got to their knees and started genuflecting to her.

"Stop doing do that!" she commanded. "You're making me dizzy."

She examined the rose-tree.

"What have you been doing here?"

"If it please, Your Majesty," said Rose, in a very humble tone, "we tried—"

"Yes, you are, aren't you?" said the Queen. "They tried," she laughed.

She turned to look at the King, who started laughing with her.

"Off with their heads," she said, and the procession moved on.

"I won't let you be beheaded," Sweetie Belle told the gardeners as she helped them sneak out of the garden.

She was about to follow them when she heard the Queen shout, "Do you play croquet?"

The procession was silent as they looked at Sweetie Belle, as the question was clearly meant for her.

"Who, me?" Sweetie Belle replied.

"Yes, you! I am not in the habit of talking to myself!" the Queen shouted. "Although, that does seem to be the only way I can have an intelligent conversation around here," she added to herself before repeating her question. "Can you play croquet!?"

"Yes," she replied quietly.

"Come on, then!" roared the Queen, and Sweetie Belle joined the procession.

"Nice day," Angel Bunny said in a timid voice.

"Very," she replied. "Where's the Princess?"

"Oh, hush! Hush!" said Angel in a low, frightened tone. "She's due to be executed!"

"Get to your places!" the Queen shouted.

And people began running in all directions, tumbling against each other, and the game began.

Sweetie Belle had never seen such an odd croquet ground in her life: it was all ridges and furrows, and the balls were hedgehogs while the mallets were live flamingoes, and the Changeling soldiers had to shapeshift into makeshift arches.

The chief difficulty Sweetie Belle found at first was managing her flamingo: she succeeded in getting its body tucked away, comfortably enough, under her arm, with its legs hanging down, but just as she got its neck nicely straightened out, and was about to give her hedgehog a blow with the bird's head, it would twist itself around and look up at her face with a puzzled expression, while the hedgehog unrolled itself and crawled away.

And as if that weren't enough, the players all played at once, without waiting for turns, and quarreling all the while, and in a very short time the Queen was furious and went stamping about, shouting, "Off with his head!" or "Off with her head!"

It was a very difficult game indeed.

"I don't like it here," Sweetie Belle said. "She's too fond of beheading people."

It was then that she noticed a curious appearance in the air.

"Discord," she said. "Hello again."

"How are you getting on?" the Draconequus asked her.

"Not at all," she replied.

"How do you like the game?" he asked.

"They don't play very fair," she said in a rather complaining tone.

"Nobody does if they think they can get away with it. That's a lesson you'll have to learn,"

"Yes, I suppose I should,"

"How do you like the Queen?"

"I don't," she said in a low voice. "She's so extremely—" She noticed that the Queen was close behind her, listening, so she went on, "—likely to win, that it's hardly worth finishing the game."

The Queen smiled and passed on.

"Who are you talking to?" said the King, coming up to Sweetie Belle, and looking at the Draconequus's head with great curiosity.

"A friend of mine," said Sweetie Belle. "Discord, allow me to introduce King Sombra."

"I don't like the look of it at all," said the King. "but as you are in my presence, you may kiss my hand."

"I'd rather not," the Draconequus remarked.

"What? Don't be impertinent," said Sombra. "And don't look at me like that!" He got behind Sweetie Belle as he spoke.

"A cat may look at a king," Sweetie Belle said. "So, why shouldn't a Draconequus?"

"That sound immoral! It has undertones!" said Sombra very decidedly; and he called to the Queen who was passing. "My dear! How do we get rid of a floating... animal?"

"Off with its head!" she said without even looking around.

"Brilliant!" Sombra cried. "I know I could rely on you! I'll fetch the executioner myself!"

"Do you know where my hedgehog went?" Sweetie Belle asked Discord after Sombra had left.

"He rolled away over there," he said, looking behind her.

Her hedgehog was engaged in a fight with another hedgehog, which seemed to Sweetie Belle an excellent opportunity for croqueting one of them with the other: the only difficulty was that her flamingo had ran to the far side of the garden, where Sweetie Belle could see it trying in desperation to hide behind one of the dead rose trees.

By the time she had caught the flamingo and brought it back, the fight was over, and both hedgehogs were out of sight. So, she tucked it under her arm, that way it might not escape again, and went back to have a little more conversation with Discord.

When she got back to him, she was surprised to find the entire procession collected beneath it. There was a great dispute going on between Pharynx, the executioner; the King and the Queen, who were all talking at once, while all the rest were looking very uncomfortable.

The moment Sweetie Belled joined them, she was appealed to by all three to settle the question, and they repeated their arguments to her. But, as they spoke all at once, she found it very hard to make out what they said.

"One at a time, please," she told them.

"I'm sorry about my altitude," Discord apologized.

"It sparks a revolution!" Sombra shouted. "You're above us!"

"My argument is simple," Pharynx said. "And based on irrefutable logic," he added. "I am an executioner. But I can't cut off a head unless there's a body to cut it from. This, creature, floating up there, large as life and twice as repulsive, doesn't have a body! Ipso facto, I can't separate it from its head!"

"My argument is, I venture to say, overwhelming!" Sombra stated. "Anything that has a head can be beheaded!And don't forget, I'm also a justice of the peace!"

"There's too much talk and not enough action!" Chrysalis shouted. "And if something doesn't happen in the next minute, I'm going to have everybody executed!"

It was that remark that made the whole party look so anxious.

"You choose!" Sombra told Sweetie Belle.

"To behead or not to behead?" Pharynx said. "That is the question."

"What's the answer?" Chrysalis asked her.

"You have to tread with care when dealing with a Draconequus," she advised. "They have influence and are seen in all the smart places. You remember the great Draconequus Massacre?" she asked.

"Yes!" Sombra gasped. "I had almost forgotten."

"Catastrophe," Thorax nodded in agreement.

"I would think carefully before acting rashly," Sweetie Belle concluded.

"Sound advice," Chrysalis said.

And the entire entourage broke out in applause.

"And another thing," Sweetie Belle added. "He's also friends with the Princess."

"She's in prison," Chrysalis said to the executioner. "Fetch her!"

And Pharynx went off like an arrow.

Discord's head began to fade away the moment Pharynx left, and, by the time he had come back with the Princess, it had entirely disappeared.

"It's your fault!" Sombra shouted at Pharynx. "It was in your custody!"

"It wasn't official, so it has nothing to do with me!" Pharynx defended himself.

"Help me find it! Everybody!" Sombra shouted.

And they ran wildly up and down the garden, looking for it, while Sweetie Belle and the Princess slipped away from the party.

---

"You have no idea how glad I am to see you again," the Princess said as she tucked her arm affectionately into Sweetie Belle's and they walked off together.

"Thank you," Sweetie Belle replied.

She was glad to see the Princess in such a pleasant temper.

They looked back and saw how the game was going, and they could hear Queen Chrysalis's voice in the distance, screaming with passion. The game was in such confusion that nobody knew whose turn it was.

"I can see you're wondering why I let go instead of put my arm around your waist," the Princess said. "I'm doubtful of the temper of your flamingo. He might bite."

Sweetie Belle didn't mind being so close to Cadence: firstly, because she stood much taller than Sweetie Belle; and secondly, the Princess was very beautiful.

"You look worried, my dear," the Princess observed.

"I don't want to go back and sing that song," she said very politely.

"The show must go on," the Princess replied in a pleasant tone.

There seemed to be a bit of affection to everything that she said.

Well, she was the Princess of Love after all.

"Why?"

"Life would be very dull if it didn't,"

It was then that the Princess stopped in her tracks, and when Sweetie Belle looked up, there stood the Queen in front of them, with her arms folded, and frowning like a thunderstorm.

"A fine day, Your Majesty," the Princess began in a low, weak voice.

"I gave you a fair warning," Chrysalis began quietly. "Either you, or your head, must be OOOOOFFFFF!"

The scream on the last word lasted ten seconds. And as she screamed, the Princess took her choice and was gone in a moment.

"Now, my dear," Chrysalis said to Sweetie Belle, "we can finish our game before you leave."

"I'm frightened of going back," she said. "They want me to do things I don't want to do."

"To stay, you have to know the password,"

"I don't know it,"

"Guess,"

"Honeycomb,"

"Good. Can you write that word down? Blindfolded?"

Sweetie Belle didn't respond.

"I thought not," said Chrysalis.

The other guests had taken advantage of Chrysalis's absence and, and were resting in the shade. However, the moment they saw her, they hurried back to the game.