"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…” Next Chapter: 5 - Go Go Go! Estimated time remaining: 39 Minutes