"Sweetie Belle?" Dinky whimpered, trotting backwards from the beast that had split the southern forests open.

"Ohhhh what I wouldn't have given for a Jubjub bird instead," Sweetie stammered.

With what sounded like grotesque whale song being fed through a tree shredder, the dinosauric beast lifted its worm-like neck and marched straight into the clearing, one thudding claw-step after another.

“Holy fetch!” Scootaloo’s voice cracked. In a brave lunge, she snatched Dinky off the ground and planted the gasping unicorn onto the back of her scooter. “Everypony make like a library and book it!” She buzzed her wings from underneath her cape, instantly accelerating the scooter past the cottage.

“Guh!” Dinky flailed, nearly falling off the speeding vehicle. She clung tight, staring back at the thundering scene with chattering teeth. “Sweetie Belle! Apple Bloom!”

“Just hang on, Dinky!” Sweetie Belle shouted, already sprinting beneath the trees. “Whatever happens, Scootaloo, don’t stop moving!”

“Don’t have to friggin’ tell me twice!” Scootaloo yelled.

“Apple Bloom—!” Sweetie began yelping.

“I’m a-movin’! I’m a-movin’!” the earth filly’s voice cracked as the ground shook behind them.

Within seconds, the Bandersnatch had scaled half the clearing. Its pale head squinted after the fleeing ponies. Summoning a banshee shriek, it charged forward at a far more furious pace, on a collision course with the tiny house.

"Ohhhhh fie." Tweedledum whipped out an umbrella and held it over his fat head like a shield.

"Contrariwise, I much prefer the crow to this."

"Noho—!"

SMASH! The cottage was reduced to pebbles under the beast's ripping talons. As it tore through the forest, the ponies galloping ahead of it grouped together, panting for breath.

"Just what in Celestia's sweet shimmerin' mane is that thang, Sweetie Belle?!" Apple Bloom yelped.

"Yeah!" Scootaloo glided from side to side, pushing along in her scooter. "You're the one who waxes Wabe all the time! Tell us!"

"Tweedledee and Tweedledum were right!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, struggling to gallop evenly from the ground constantly shaking beneath them. "Nothing can stop it once it's hunting!"

"Stop what?!"

"The Bandersnatch!" Sweetie Belle yelped, eyes twitching. "If it weren't for the Jabberwock, it'd be the one true king of the Wabe's jungle!"

"Please tell me she's just makin' that up!" Apple Bloom wheezed.

"Look behind us!" Sweetie Belle said over the sound of snapping branches and falling tree trunks. "Does that look made up?!"

"Hey!" Scootaloo pointed at an archway in the center of a hedge of bushes directly ahead. "I see a bunch of water in the next square! Maybe we can lose it in the drink!"

"Let's hope so!" Apple Bloom made it through first. She helped Sweetie underneath the arch and motioned for the other fillies. "Come on, gals!"

Scootaloo passed on through with Dinky riding along with her. The other two filed through on scrambling hooves. The ground shook beneath them as the thunderous clawsteps intensified. It even caused Apple Bloom to stumble at one point. Sweetie Belle reached over, helping the filly back to her hooves.

“It’s gonna catch up to us!” Sweetie Belle’s voice cracked.

"Like heck it will!" Scootaloo screeched to a stop, swinging the scooter to the side. "I refuse to be eaten by something that stupid-looking!" Dinky watched as the pegasus swiped the lantern off the handle from which it dangled. Scootaloo gave the dial on the side of the lamp a swift twist, intensifying the flame until it flickered the brightest.

“Scootaloo…?” Apple Bloom began.

“Everypony, stand back!” Scootaloo shouted. Then, with a grunt, she swung the lantern back in a downward arc so that it shattered against the thick bushes. Almost instantly, a blazing flame engulfed the edge of the square behind them, fueled on by the spilling kerosene. The hooting shrieks of the Bandersnatch intensified, but its pounding steps slowed.

“Good thinkin’, Scoots!” Apple Bloom hollered, galloping by as she made her way down a steep, muddy hill lined with a thin wall of trees. “Now let’s move!”

“What, are you crazy?!” Sweetie Belle yelped. “You’re burning priceless Bluish Carol real estate!”

“He can slap a lawsuit on me later!” Scootaloo cackled.

“But Bluish Carol has been dead for centuries!”

“Exactly!” Scootaloo kicked at the earth, gliding briskly downhill. “Hold on, Dinkster!”

Dinky clung to her, wincing from each jostling bump they hit along the muddy slalom. Behind them, she saw Sweetie Belle turning from the blaze with an exasperated sigh, scrambling to catch up.

The Crusaders had barely pierced the treeline when suddenly it descended into a wide, shallow stream stretching east and west. Waiting at the river's edge was a wooden boat, complete with a pair of sturdy oars.

"Well!" Scootaloo wheezed as she skidded to a stop with Dinky on the scooter. The two of them dismounted "That's convenient!"

"'Convenient' she says!" Apple Bloom balked, already hopping into boat. She spun and held her hooves out. "Quick! Toss ‘er here!" She ended up catching a scooter. Frowning, she dropped the thing into the boat and snarled, "I meant Dinky, ya dodo!"

"Er... right..." With a grunt, Scootaloo tossed the little unicorn next.

"Eep!" Dinky landed in Apple Bloom's forelimbs. Seconds later, she stepped towards the furthest end of the canoe while Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle pushed the three of them off the shore.

"Nnnngh—There!" Scootaloo got into the back seat, grabbing an oar. Sweetie Bell sat between her and Apple Bloom in the center. "Okay!" Scootaloo looked back at the trees waving ever closer, one leaf-lopping canopy after another. "That flame slowed the creep down enough! We're a bit ahead of it! Do any of us know how to row a boat?!"

"I-I don't think we've ever tried getting our cutie marks in canoeing!" Sweetie Belle trembled, sitting across from her in the middle.

"How hard can it be?!" Scootaloo kicked the other oar into Apple Bloom's grasp and began rowing on her end. "You stroke on one side, Apple Bloom. I’ll stroke on the other! If we capsize, then we all swim to the opposite shore before we become giant birdsnakelobster food!"

Dinky gulped. "I-I can't swim."

"Wh-what?!" Sweetie Belle gasped.

Dinky bit her lip. "I never learned, on account that Mommy doesn't like the idea of me swimming across any oceans."

"What in the hay is that supposed to mean?!" Apple Bloom remarked.

"I don't know." Dinky fidgeted. "Sometimes, when Mommy speaks, I swear it's just the muffins talking."

"Okay... so we just gotta do this without throwing Dinky into the drink!" Scootaloo rasped. She shuddered as the air ripped once again with an intense demon song. "Could use a little bit less of that on our tail!"

"If we take Bluish Carol’s stories seriously, then I doubt a tiny little stream is going to stop the Bandersnatch!" Sweetie Belle said.

“Do any of his poems say anythang about how to outrun it?!” Apple Bloom asked, rowing furiously.

“Uhm… no, not really.” Sweetie Belle shook her head. “I didn't even know what a Bandersnatch looked like until I saw it just now!”

Another roar warbled through the air, growing closer.

“For Pony's sake!” Apple Bloom wheezed, rowing and splashing at the waters with her oar. “What I wouldn't give for a tiny lil' cockatrice right about now!”

"Nnngh..." Scootaloo splashed wildly with each attempt at rowing. "How far have we gotten?"

"Uhm..." Sweetie Belle fidgeted in her part of the canoe. "Maybe about ten feet."

"Ten feet?!" Scootaloo's eyes rolled. "Ohhhhhhh!"

"Feather!" bleated a warbling voice from the middle of the boat.

Scootaloo squinted nervously into the water. "Okay, don't tell me the rivers in this place talk too."

"Look!" Dinky pointed.

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo collectively jolted at the inexplicable presence of a sheep in the middle of the boat.

"Whoah! Jeez!"

The sheep looked up from knitting a tiny sweater between its cloven hooves. Teeth clenched, it raised a pair of spectacles to its eyes and once again brayed, "Feather before you bury the blade!"

"Look, I don't know who you are or where you came from..." Scootaloo grimaced, splashing her oar wildly into the stream with frantic sweeping motions. "But we're a little too busy for your riddles!"

“It’s not telling us riddles!” Sweetie Belle’s voice cracked. “At least, I don’t think so. It’s just a sheep!”

“Okay, honestly, why do you read this guy’s stuff, Sweetie Belle?!”

"Scootaloo!" Apple Bloom yelped as the boat rocked wildly from the pegasus' struggles. “Can y’all keep her steady?!”

"Honestly!" the sheep bleated, glaring at Scootaloo. "You're like a four-legged drunken octopus!"

"I didn't know sheep could talk," Dinky stammered.

"Granny once said she heard 'em before." Apple Bloom gulped. "She don't like talkin' about it much though..."

Another roar rippled over the waterscape, growing louder and more ravenous.

"Look, if you're going to take up space in the boat..." Scootaloo gnashed her teeth, slapping ineffectually at the stream. "...the least you could do is help us row!"

"Baaah! You're skying too much!" The sheep tilted its scruffy chin up. "How do you even expect to get square?!"

"Oh no!" Sweetie Belle squeaked.

Just then, along the shore behind them, the Bandersnatch came bursting through, its hands pushing whole trees apart. As soon as it spotted the canoe in the middle of the river, it extended its neck three times its normal length and bellowed hellishly into the misty air.

Scootaloo's eyes bulged. "Alright, stuff it." She threw her oar forward.

“Ooof!” the sheep collapsed from the weight of the wooden pole, falling into a ball of fuzz in the middle of the boat.

"Scootaloo?!" Apple Bloom gasped.

"Just hold tight!" Scootaloo scrunched back into the stern and gripped the boat tightly with her every limb. Her wings buzzed rapidly. Soon, the boat picked up speed, being pushed across the width of the stream through sheer feather power. By the time the Bandersnatch had taken its first tremorous step into the splashing waters, Scootaloo had single-hoofedly shoved the craft to shore. She grabbed her scooter and urged the others forward. "Go go go!"

Apple Bloom grabbed Dinky and hopped off. With a bleating sound, the sheep rolled out of the boat and bounced indignantly across the shore. Scootaloo took the time to tug Sweetie onto dry land before procuring her scooter with a determined grunt. In swift order, the four fillies charged straight ahead...

...and into the next patch of white soil. They covered much ground, and the roars of the Bandersnatch almost grew faint. However, before they were even halfway across the square, they stumbled upon a steep wall made of red brick.

"You gotta be kiddin' me!" Sweetie Belle whimpered. "Who would put a wall here?!"

"Less whining and more scaling!" Scootaloo stammered.

"Yer right!" Apple Bloom galloped up to the edge of the wall and squatted low. "Dinky! Quick! On my back!"

"What?!"

"I'll hoist you over! Now git!"

Dinky did as she was told, climbing onto Apple Bloom's back, slipping once or twice on the red cape. Once she was standing straight, Apple Bloom lifted up as high as she could, but Dinky still couldn't reach the top of the obstruction.

"It's too far!" Dinky yelped, forelimbs flailing. "I can't reach!"

“Here! Lemme help!” Sweetie Belle leaned in, pushing up against Apple Bloom and Dinky. Collectively, the group pushed Dinky higher and higher, but it still wasn’t enough.

“I’m… so... close!” Dinky hissed, her hooves barely brushing against the top edge of the wall. “If I just had a few m-more inches!”

"Grrgghh… Scootaloo?!" Apple Bloom grunted, legs wobbling beside Sweetie Belle.

"Nnngh!" Scootaloo was busy with her third attempt to heave and toss her scooter over the top of the brick structure. It bounced off, nearly falling on the pegasus' head. "Come on!" Scootaloo picked it up and tossed the thing again.

"Dag nabbit, Scootaloo, will ya help out the truly precious cargo here?!"

"HA!" Scootaloo grinned as her scooter miraculously landed evenly on the top of the wall with the last pitch. "Erm... Ahem. Sorry guys." She rushed over and slid in between Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Together, the three older crusaders hoisted the tiny unicorn successfully onto the top of the wall.

"Okay, Sweetie Belle!" Apple Bloom shouted, eyes locked on the open field behind them as the monstrous steps grew closer once more. "You're next! Hop to it!"

"Hopping!" With Apple Bloom giving her a boost, Sweetie Belle jumped and jumped some more. At last, she held her breath, leapt as high as she could, and clamped a hoof over the edge of the wall. “Got it!”

“Give her a boost!” Scootaloo hopped, wings buzzing as she headbutted Sweetie in the rear.

“Whoah!” Sweetie Belle gasped, eyes bulging as she was jolted upwards.

"Mmmmf!" Dinky reached down, clasping two of her hooves over Sweetie Belle’s outstretched limb. It was just the boost necessary to get the older unicorn atop the wall.

Sweetie Belle had barely stood up straight when she was already pivoting around and stretching her legs out to reach for Scootaloo. Light on her limbs, Scootaloo easily caught Sweetie’s grip and scaled the wall. Immediately, she spun about and reached down for Apple Bloom, along with Sweetie Belle. The earth filly leapt a few times, and on the fourth try her feathered friend caught her. With Dinky and Sweetie’s help, Scootaloo yanked Apple Bloom up so that the four fillies perched evenly on the brick structure.

Dinky lurched backwards one inch too far, and she felt her flank bumping into a dull weight behind her. "Alas, not again!" This voice was followed by a resounding crash from the north end of the wall. Curiously, Dinky blinked and glanced down, only to see what looked like a writhing mass of yolk and egg shells along the soft soil.

Shrugging it off, she turned towards the other ponies. "Okay. Good job! Now all we gotta do is hop down and—"

With the deathly crackle of split trees, the Bandersnatch charged out of the woods behind them. Its hooting maw opened wide, sending a vaporous burst of air rolling through the Wabe, turning tree branches black and green leaves pale. The violent scream was heavy enough to shake the entire wall, and—with a girlish yelp—Sweetie Belle went plummeting down the south side before the beast.

“Ooof!” she collapsed in the springy grass below. The Bandersnatch squatted low and came charging through the undergrowth, its jagged teeth scooping up weed and earth as it barreled towards her suddenly on all fours

“Sweetie Belle!” Dinky hollered.

“Get up! Get up!” Apple Bloom bellowed.

Dinky was already grimacing. "She won't make it up over the wall in time!"

"Hold onto my tail!" Scootaloo hollered, suddenly diving over the south side of the wall.

"Scoot—!" Apple Bloom lunged forward, grabbing two hooves full of violet hair. Dinky hugged the earth pony around the waist as both fillies anchored Scootaloo's weight.

Scootaloo dangled, reaching her hooves out towards the unicorn as she stumbled up onto all four hooves. "Come on, Sweetie!" she hollered above the banshee roar.s "Just don't look behind you!"

"I'm pretty sure it's not a bunny rabbit!" Sweetie Belle leapt up, latching her hooves around Scootaloo's.

"Pull!" Scootaloo hollered.

The two ponies did so. In the span of seconds, Apple Bloom and Dinky had pulled Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle up onto the wall. There was a flash of greasy fur; the Bandersnatch lunged straight at the wall, its gummy maw open wide with a whipping tongue.

"Whoah—!" The Crusaders flailed. Two of them got entangled with the scooter, tripped, and fell off the north side, grabbing the others as they plunged.

"Oof!" All four of them collapsed across the soft soil. They rolled to a stop, wincing, but were altogether fine.

From the other end of the wall, the Bandersnatch hooted, hooted again, then simmered down to a dull hiss. At last, all was silent in the Wabe.

"Whew... that was a close one." Sweetie Belle wheezed. She sat up, wiping the sweat from her brow. "I almost thought I wouldn't make it!"

"What matters now is that we're safe," Scootaloo wheezed, pointing at the red brick. "So long as that ugly creep is on the other side of—"

SMASH! The Bandersnatch came bursting straight through, its fingers catching clumps of mortar and earth.

"Oh come on!" Scootaloo bellowed, already scrambling onto her scooter.

"Dinky, move!" Sweetie Belle shrieked, shoving the smallest filly along as they outran the lunging neck of the beast.

"It’s no use!" Apple Bloom shouted in mid-gallop as the next garden hedge was already in sight. "The dang varmint’s too fast! And we already done used up our lantern!"

"Head northeast with Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle hollered above the pounding of massive stork-legs behind them. "We'll split up! Confuse it!"

"Split up?!" Scootaloo echoed.

"I dun like it anymore than you do, but Sweetie Belle's got a point!" Apple Bloom and Scootaloo jerked right, dodging the monster's lunghing jaws by inches as they made for the patch of soil east of that location. "Just dun stop movin'!"

"We'll meet up at 'E8!'" Sweetie Belle shouted as she and Dinky ran diagonally northwest into a thick cluster of jungle. "At the Red King!"

"Sweetie—" Dinky yelped, tripping on a jutting tree root.

Sweetie steadied her and urged the two faster. "Don't stop! It's right behind us!"

Dinky shivered, for she did in fact hear the Bandersnatch's talon-scrapes growing closer and louder. "Why does it want us more?!"

"I dunno! Maybe 'cuz we're the cute ones! We taste sweeter!" She shoved them through a throng of bushes. "Move!"

Dense leaves and whipping branches flew past the fillies' faces. There was no sign of a beaten path; all was wild woods and thick undergrowth, polkadotted all over with nonsensical pastels and flittering lantern bugs. Nevertheless, Sweetie Belle and Dinky galloped through the mess, trying their best to maintain speed while the echoing thuds of the Bandersnatch's avian feet shook through the green earth directly behind them.

"It won't let up!" Dinky whimpered. "How are we going to move northeast?"

"Let's just try to lose it in the woods!" Sweetie stammered. "We'll hide and double-back if we have to! So long as we make it to the Red King, we should be able to wake him and get out of here before—"

Sweetie's hooves slipped out from underneath her.

"Aaaaaah!" she shrieked in a high-pitched squeal, sliding down a sudden steep ditch that led towards a lower level of dense vegetation.

"Sweetie Belle!" Dinky stood on the edge of the earthen cleft. She trembled, looking through the tree canopy for a sign of her friend. Though she couldn't see the ground, she could tell that it was far too great a distance to risk jumping. "Sweetie Belle?! Where did you go?!"

The older unicorn was too far gone for Dinky to hear.

Nevertheless, she cried, "Sweetie Belle?! Sweetie Belle, please—"

An enormous shriek penetrated the trees directly behind her. Dinky's eardrums popped. She spun around in time to see a stomping set of stork feet rip its way through the foliage.

"Sweetie, just go ahead!" Dinky hollered, already taking a sharp left and pushing her way through the undergrowth. "I'll meet up with you! Someway! Somehow!" She was trembling so much at this point that she barely registered the vibrations of the earth all around her. Against her better judgment, the panting filly threw a look over her galloping flank.

The Bandersnatch had stopped pursuing her altogether. At first, the unicorn was hysterically relieved, until she saw the frumious beast tilting its head up. Slowly, a thick lump rolled from its body to its throat, like a bulbous bubble being squeezed down a long rubber hose. When it finally reached its skull, all sound around the Wabe was drowned out—then suddenly exploded with a high-pitched siren that filled every niche within Dinky's ear canal. The forest melted outward from the Bandersnatch's howling throat, turning charcoal-black with random flecks of pale ash.

The Wabe turned mimsy in a wide swath, trailing after Dinky's hooves. Burnt tree branches and petrified leaves scattered across her path. The filly shrieked as she tripped over an exposed root. Rolling around, she scooted backwards, hyperventilating as she fought to out-shuffle the monochromatic miasma pursuing her. Dead birds and rodents fell around the pony like leathery hail, their plumage and coats burnt black by mimsy-song, bulging eyes and bloated tongues stained white as winter snow.

When Dinky at last felt the bitter cold of the exhale catching up to her tail, the soft earth gave out beneath her. She shrieked as she reverse-somersaulted, coming to a bumpy stop beneath the raised roots of a tall tree. In flash, she flattened her body, burying herself as deeply as she could in the powdery black earth beneath the tree roots. Dinky clenched her jaw shut, not even daring to breathe. The ground shook harder and harder. In the span of a minute, an enormous leathery foot slammed down in front of her, its rigid talons pushing soil in every direction as the weight of the Bandersnatch settled within three feet of the filly's hiding place.

Dinky shivered, her brow stained with sweat, dirt, and flakes of grass.

The avian foot pressed harder into the earth. Slowly, the crusty gray edge of a furry chin lowered into view. Two beady eyes twitched, staring to the left and right as the monster produced a frustrated purring noise. The air smelled of decayed flesh and ammonia. The eyes twitched again. The Bandersnatch lifted out of view—only for its weight to shift as it slammed a simian palm down into the earth, digging deep and ripping loose the roots of an adjacent tree. With one firm tug, the monster ripped the whole trunk out of the earth, giving it a shake and littering the forest floor with twigs, dead insects, and a liberal trickle of thick sap.

Dinky clenched her eyes shut, trembling beneath the tree that hid her. She imagined her mother's smile, those golden eyes swiveling as if they were always in orbit around her. Gray coat and bubbles: a love that would never pop. Together, somewhere, they were baking muffins, adding in all the right ingredients. But all that mattered was that they were there for each other, making their family whole. There was nothing more that Dinky loved than finding that perfection, tying up all loose ends in a dear, dear hug.

When next the Bandersnatch snarled, the hooting sound came from several dozens of feet away. Dinky opened her eyes, and all she saw was a gigantic footprint in the soil, exposing worms and beetles and other dank, skittering things.

Bravely, Dinky crawled out from her niche of tree roots. She stood up, clutching at her stained towel "cape" and trembling. After five blinks into this pensive stance, she gasped, then spun around. A second later, she spun around again... and again and again.

"Where am I?" she murmured to herself. With a trembling gulp, she took two steps forward, only to stop and once again stammer, "Which is north or south?"

A cold chill ran through Dinky's body, made worse with each punctuating shriek and animal cry rippling through the jungle. She tried looking straight up, but there was no sunlight. The sky above the Wabe was still a stormy gray malaise directly overhead. The clouds swirled in almost a cyclonic fashion.

"Sweetie Belle?!" Dinky started trotting in a direction, any direction. "Sweetie Belle, I'm lost! Please... tell me where I need to go!" She panted harder and harder, her vision fogging as tears built up in the corners of her eyes. "I'm an Honorary Crusader, r-right? Crusaders don't get lost! They wouldn't earn any cutie marks that way, w-would they?!" She galloped now, pressing forward through the whipping foliage as leaves and twigs bounced off her sweaty face and horn. "Please! I need help! I'm all alone!" Her breath fell into a lingering murmur that only she could hear. "I've never been alone..." She gulped. "Mommy..."

Just then, she heard a voice—a stallion's voice—echoing from the nearest row of trees. "Feather? Captain? Can you hear me?"

Dinky gasped. She spun about, pressing down several branches to squint through the leaves.

For a brief instant, she saw a bluish streak of fur beyond the flora, followed by the sound of desperately pounding hoofsteps.

"Boots! Boots, are you close?"

"Hey!" Dinky sputtered. She pressed on through the undergrowth. "Over here! Help, please! The Bandersnatch is hunting us!"

"Hello?!" The voice grew distant, fading like a phantom. "Anypony? Please, I don't want to be attacked by a—"

"We can help each other!" Dinky burst through the foliage. "Just tell me where you..." She blinked. The forest clearing was completely empty. "...are." She looked all around, but there was no sign of a blue-coated stallion. "Was he..." She gulped. "Is any of this real?"

"Look, look!," cried the excited voice of a young filly, about Dinky's age.

With a jolt, the little unicorn stood up and looked across the clearing.

At a distance, she saw a pale-white pegasus in a pretty blue dress, her mane cascading in bright golden curls. "There's the White Queen running across the country!" she said, pointing a snowy hoof. "She came flying out of the wood over yonder—How fast those Queens CAN run!"

A stallion stood beside her, dressed in armored regalia. "There's some enemy after her, no doubt." He led the pegasus filly away. "That wood's full of them."

"No! Wait!" Dinky trotted after the curious strangers. "Don't go! I need to find my friends—"

THUD! A heavy clawed foot landed in front of her. Dinky shrieked, falling back on her haunches, but this didn't appear to alert the monster. Instead, the Bandersnatch tore off down the jungle, pursuing a lavender shade off in the distance.

"Stay with me, Pinkie," stammered a mare's voice from beyond the footstomps. "I'm sure this will all go away if we can just get back home."

Dinky was hyperventilating at this point. "Twilight...?" She scooted backwards on crab legs. "Pinkie?" She shook her head. "None of this makes sense. I don't understand!" She bumped up against a tree and clutched her head, trembling. "I'm c-coming apart!"

A purring sound lit the air, followed by a warm voice unraveling directly above, "How are you getting on?"

Dinky looked straight up. All she saw was a crescent moon of teeth. "The Cheshire Cat!" She hopped up, grinning wide, as if to emulate the feline. "Oh, praise Celestia!" she exclaimed, her voice still breathy from the tugging weight of her panicked hysterics.

"You believe in the strangest things," the Cat said, tilting its head around in a perfect circle. "No wonder you're finishing forwards."

"Huh?"

"I don't believe that's the advice I gave you."

"Please, Cheshire Cat, you have to help me." Dinky shivered. She trotted forward, but the cat kept drawing away, appearing on a further tree branch in each progressive blink. "I've lost my friends! I need to find them before the Bandersnatch eats us all up!"

"I've already given you something to grow on." The cat examined its paw with swirly eyes. "But I do suppose a smidgen more would cover the horn."

"Please! Anything!" Dinky nodded, trotting faster towards him. "Anything could help!"

"Help you? Oh no, dear, I cannot help you. But Boots can."

"Huh?!"

"Listen to Boots. Brilliant fellow. By now, he's positively the maddest of us all."

"That's it?! What is that even supposed to mean?!" Dinky frowned, her cheeks turning red. "Not all of us here are mad, you know!"

"How curious." The cat tilted its head aside, the grin growing impossibly wider. "And do you actually think you're quite all there yourself?"

"Huh?" Dinky blinked, and then she fell. The floor of the jungle gave way underneath her. And, much like Sweetie Belle did earlier, Dinky slid...

...down a greasy hill, tumbling over and over more than once. At last, she cleared the forest's colorful edge, emerging on the furthest square.

"Ooof!" She collapsed in dark soil, wincing, her cape shredded in multiple places. "Nnnngh..." Slowly, Dinky pressed against the earth, pushing herself up on all fours. "Guh... how..." She blinked. "Where...?"

Before her stretched a patch of dark soil pressed tightly against a solid barrier of trees. Behind her, a steep earthen ridge loomed, overgrown with bushes and shrubbery and all manner of looping vines. It looked perfectly unscalable, and the landscape stretching up against it was barren and sparsely vegetated.

“I… I’m…” Dinky slowly stood up straight, wincing. “I’m more lost than ever before."

She trembled on her lonesome. Her dirtied cape hung behind her, limp and tattered at the edges. Everything was deathly still, save for the dull gray clouds that churned and bubbled overhead. The entire Wabe was a dark malaise, twirly slowly over the shivering filly’s head.

“Sweetie Belle?!” she hollered into the air, quivering. “Scootaloo?!” Panting, limbs a’shiver, she twirled about. “Apple Bloom?! Please! Somepony help me! I’m alone!”

The world turned duller. The clouds above rolled to a stop, turning dead and stationary high above.

“Please… I’m so alone…” Dinky hung her head, sniffling.

She buried her tearful face into her hooves, gnashing at her teeth. As she rubbed her eyes, she saw white flashes, and out from the mental haze there emerged sporadic images of smiling fillies, blurring countrysides, and wagon wheels. Then everything turned black, illuminated by a dim amber flame. Surly Diamond Dogs glided past her in the murky ether, followed by rust and stone and heaps of garbage. In the center of the mess, a dirty old mirror lingered. Dinky’s reflection stood at a distance, looking at her. She thought it was her reflection, but the longer she stared, the more distracted she was by the distant sobs of foalnapped infants, babies she had barely gotten to know.

Pound Cake. Pumpkin Cake. Who was who? The more Dinky thought of it, the more she realized she couldn’t even mentally tell the two apart. They were victims in name only. For all Dinky cared, she could just as well have been chasing after a pair of puppies, kittens, or goose eggs. She should have invested more of her heart and mind before getting involved in the first place. Dinky had the capacity to know better than that. As a matter of act, somepony had taught her better than that.

“Mommy,” the filly whimpered into the darkness. “Mommy, I’m so sorry.”

She rubbed her eyelids harder, wincing, trying to dam the tears in. Everything had all started out so deceptively simple: a wagon ride, a silly new “helmet” and a “cape,” new friends who believed in her and her talents. The only risk there ever could have been was not being able to make it back home by sundown.

“I should have stayed in Ponyville,” Dinky stammered, shaking her head harder and harder to get the images of the exciting day out from mind, for the memories were swiftly becoming branding marks of guilt. Dinky had allowed the Crusaders to induct her on impulse, and now she was paying the price for such wild ambition. Her mother was paying the price for it. Even if Dinky was to somehow make it out of this crazy mess, there was no telling if Ditzy would ever be capable of putting the same trust in her little muffin ever again. Regardless, try as Dinky might, she couldn’t stop a tender voice that was sputtering from deep within, “It’s just that… the Cakes need to have their babies back. They bring so much joy to their lives, and… and…”

Dinky gnashed her teeth. There were few things in life that she hated, but at the top of such a short list was doing things to make Ditzy sad or unhappy. Even here, in an eerie world beyond worlds, the weight tugged on her, haunted her. Normally, Dinky would have pushed the thought aside, or, at the very worst, collapsed in a quiet pile of sobs. This time, however, something else bubbled to the surface—pointed, sharp, and boiling—ushering every other stray thought and desire to surrender away.

No matter how much she detested the idea of Ditzy being engulfed in worrisome sorrow, the possibility of being separated from her mother forever was a far too abominable thought to stand.

“All families deserve to be together,” Dinky growled, resolute. A brisk, warm wind kicked at her curly bangs. “I will make it back!” She yelled, proudly. “And the Cakes will get their foals back too!” She was hyperventilating at this point. The wind had grown heavier, thicker. Ditzy’s tearful face flashed across her mind’s eye, and she shattered it with a shout, sailing beyond it like she had her mother’s wings in addition to her horn. “Mr. and Mrs. Cake are gonna get Pumpkin and Pound back! I know it’s risky trying to make that happen, but it’s gotta be done! And if taking that risk makes you upset, then… then so be it!” Dinky stomped her hoof with finality, but it was hard to move it afterwards. The wind was blowing too fiercely now.

At last, with a startled gasp, Dinky opened her eyes. Her tears instantly dried from the hurricane force gale.

“Wh-what…?!” She gnashed her teeth, feeling her body being pushed backwards as the torrent of billowing air pushed at her body, mane, and flesh. “Where did this breeze come from?!”

Calling it a “breeze” was an understatement, for even now it was intensifying, hurling at such a degree that it picked the little filly completely off her hooves.

“Aaaugh!” Dinky shook, flailed, and slid back several feet. She stumbled on the ground, grinding through the dirt and grass. “Gnnngh… what’s… what’s going…?!”

Her flute spun around her neck from its chain three times. Her ears rang from the sheer force. Soon, Dinky was being picked off the ground again, only this time there was no coming down. She shrieked and kicked at the air, turning over multiple times as she was shoved off like a kite.

“Help! It’s taking me…!” She didn’t even know how to finish that sentence, much less if she could. “Somepony! Anypony! Help! I don’t know where I’m going!” She reached down, grasping in vain at tall stalks of grass sailing past her. “I don’t know where–!” And before she could complete a thought, much less shout, she found herself soaring off in a random direction, blurring over trees, bushes, and a thick line of hedges.

Within seconds, Dinky was sailing over a dry patch of pale white sand. Her world spun, but nevertheless she spotted a field, in the center of which stood a lone tree, bent and barren. Beneath it, a blood-red stallion with a regal crown sat huddled, asleep, and snoring loudly. But he wasn't alone. A grimy earth pony paced madly around, balancing a dusty brown book on his back. And then, standing by the tree next to the other two—

"Dinky!" Sweetie Belle gasped, eyes wide, then turning wider as she spotted the filly sailing overhead. “Are… you flying?”

“I… don’t… knowwwww!” Dinky shrieked, sailing overhead. She reached for the branches stretching above Sweetie’s head. “Guhhh! Please! Please help! The wind!”

“Wind?!” Sweetie Belle blinked, gawking up at the filly. “What wind?

“Huh…?!” Dinky Doo blinked. Sure enough, there wasn’t even the slightest breeze in the air. Her face scrunched up in confusion. “That’s… that’s weird. Then how did I…?” Her eyes bulged, and she fell straight towards the earth like a dead weight. “Aaack!” Thud!

"Omigosh!” Sweetie Belle galloped over. She raised the trembling little filly up “Dinky, are you okay?”

"I… I-I…” Dinky shook the brief throb of pain out of her senses and gawked at the gray sky. “I saw the Cheshire Cat again! Then I took a tumble! And… a-and I cried a little! And then this strong breeze carried me here, and..." Dinky stammered between panting breaths. "And I then I saw you right beneath me and—" She froze in place, blinking at the pacing earth pony. "Who's this?"

"A ghost amongst the borogroves and trees," the earth pony rambled, his eyes large and frenzied as he trotted furious figure eights. "Lost in the Wabe since I ran from Toasted Cheese."

"Beats me," Sweetie said. "But he won't stop talking in rhyme."

"Have you tried waking the King yet?" Dinky asked, catching her breath.

"No!" Sweetie squeaked. "I wanted to wait for you and the other girls first!"

"Just where are Scootaloo and—?"

"Gals!" Apple Bloom hollered, galloping out of the east hedge, followed shortly by Scootaloo. "Bless my bow! You made it!"

"Holy cow!" Scootaloo grinded her scooter to a stop, giving Sweetie a hug, which Apple Bloom swiftly joined. "That Bimbosnatch didn't gobble you up! That's so awesome!"

"Somehow we lost it!" Sweetie leaned back, pouting. "Though I lost Dinky too." She swiveled about, eyes glistening. "Oh Dinky, I'm so sorry—"

Dinky leaned forward, nuzzling the filly. "It's okay. We're together now, right? It all worked out!"

"In the time it'll take you all to reunite, the frumious one will have burned you day and night," rambled the pacing pony.

Scootaloo squinted aside. "Who the heck is this melon fudge?"

"I don't know..." Sweetie Belle rubbed her chin. "But... the more I look at him, he kinda seems a little familiar—"

The clouds overhead suddenly split with a flash of sunlight, then closed back up like congealed mush. By the time the thunder had cleared, all four fillies' were alerted to incoming footstomps due south.

Dinky spun, gasping.

Sweetie Belle gulped. "Okay... so maybe we didn't lose it like I thought we did..."

"Uh... gals?" Apple Bloom trembled. "Let's do what we came here for."

"Right!" Scootaloo fell on her knees, slapping the Red King's face repeatedly. "Hey!Heyyyyy!"

"Scootaloo—" Sweetie Belle reached out to her.

Scootaloo held her back with wings outstretched. "Wake up, ya lazy bag of tomatoes!" She slapped the Red King's whiskery muzzle once more. "Come on! Nap time ends at the Burtonsatch's snack time!"

"Why isn't he waking?!" Apple Bloom yelped.

"I... I-I dunno!" Sweetie Belle yelped. "Unless he's having a really... really intense dream!"

"Waking in the Wabe only works in reverse," sputtered the pacing stallion. "Not that I've slept once since the start of my curse."

"Look, buddy!" Scootaloo hissed at him. "If you're not going to help us out, keep your mumbo jumbo to yourself!"

"Maybe if we splash water on him?" Dinky remarked.

"Dinkster, we left the river two squares back!"

Dinky squirmed. "Maybe if we all spit on him really hard?"

"Look!" Apple Bloom cried, pointing south.

The other ponies didn't need to turn to see. They each heard it, smashing through the hedges on heavy claws. Soon the entire square rumbled with the cumbrous breaths of the looming creature.

Sweetie Belle gulped. "This is anything but a frabjous day..."

"Please say you've got another bright idea, Sweetie Belle," Apple Bloom whimpered.

The unicorn slowly shook her head. "Checkmate."

With a furious hooting cry, the Bandersnatch came thundering towards them, neck outstretched like a rabid crane's.

"Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo yanked the earth filly over and squatted her before the Red King. "Keep shaking him!"

"Where are you goin'?!"

"Just stay behind me!" Scootaloo charged up ten feet, then spread her wings wide. Despite her trembles, she stood tall and snarled at the charging beast from afar. "That's as far as you go, creep! You want my friends?! You're g-going to have to go through me!"

"Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle yelped, limping forward. "You can't be serious?!"

"I said stay back!"

"You silly turkey!" Sweetie Belle outstretched her hoof. "You're supposed to have your cutie mark on a gravestone! Not the other way around!"

"Well, there's nothing else to freakin' do!" Scootaloo hollered over the thundering footsteps.

"Sheer courage here will accomplish the least," said the earth pony, suddenly standing beside Sweetie Belle and Dinky. "Only music will tame this savage beast."

Dinky blinked. She spun towards the emaciated stallion. "Wait... Boots?"

He gave her a blank stare.

She squinted. "Is your name 'Boots?'"

He nodded. "At a time, before backwards I began, ponies called me Boots in a distant land."

Dinky looked at him, at the book balanced on his flank, then at his crooked face again. "What did you say... about music?"

"If all your right turns end up wrong, then the one escape is a song."

Dinky gazed off into the cloudy Wabe. She brought a hoof up, tapping the flute that hung from her neck. With a sudden gasp, she burst forward through the soil.

"Dinky—!" Sweetie Belle hollered.

Dinky galloped up and stood at Scootaloo's side.

The pegasus glanced over while the Bandersnatch closed in. "Kiddo?! What are you—?"

Without saying another word, Dinky played the same lullaby she did when they first made their exit from the Diamond Dogs' lair. She performed the song swift and solid, blowing expertly through the flute so that each note wafted perfectly into the air. When she was done, she inhaled, then opened her eyes. Her face went pale.

The Bandersnatch was still charging, shrieking. It was within twenty yards now.

"Is that the result you wanted?!" Scootaloo stammered, sweating profusely.

"But... but Boots said—" Dinky squinted. In her mind's eye, she envisioned a glint of light off a reflective surface. She imagined the bangs of her mane hanging off the opposite side of her horn. "Of course!" And she brought the flute once more to her lips.

"Dinky, I don't think—" Scootaloo instantly winced, her ears folding in pain. "Aaaugh! What are you—?"

The notes came out at seemingly random bursts, jarring in their pitch and completely unmelodious. Dinky's brow was tense with concentration as she forced herself to perform at a slow tempo.

"I dun get it?!" Apple Bloom hollered, still shaking the Red King. "What is she—?" She stopped in mid-sentence, muzzle agape.

The Bandersnatch had stopped in its tracks. Its limp arms hung below its fuzzy torso while its head bobbed listlessly. A curious purr emanated from deep within its greasy fur.

"It's... it's stopped!" Scootaloo sputtered.

"Because Dinky's playing it backwards!" Sweetie Belle hobbled forward until she stood beside the other two. "The lullaby!"

"She is?" Scootaloo exclaimed.

"Who cares?!" Apple Bloom stood up, pointing. "Look! It's workin'!"

The Bandersnatch's eyes dimmed, the mucus glazing over to almost become cataracts. Slowly, its serpentine neck and bumpy spine swayed left and right as its stork legs began to buckle.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo exchanged glances. Desperately, the unicorn took a step forward and sang as harmoniously as she could: "Bed to go to time it's now quiet now hush! Head sleepy your lay to time it's now quiet now hush!"

With a gurgling sound, the Bandersnatch's head nodded. Soon its whole body deflated, falling slowly towards the soft white soil.

Dinky played softer, more precise. Sweetie Belle squatted beside the smaller filly as she breathed the lyrics out in a cooing tone. "You find dreamland of joy the let. Sleep to off drifting. You behind day the leave. Sleep to off drifting..."

At last, with a firm thud, the Bandersnatch slumped down. It lay still, its gangly limbs slack. Its eyes closed above a pale face, and it snored duly, evenly, into the mists of the Wabe.

Almost instantly, the gray heavens parted, giving way to the perpetual shimmer of a bright sky. In the distance, jubjub birds and momerathes warbled in ecstasy. Then all was silent.

"You're kidding me..." Scootaloo panted, falling on his haunches. "That would have conked the freak out the whole time?!"

"Who cares?!" Apple Bloom jumped in place, her cape flailing as she cheered. "It worked! It worked! Yeehaa!"

"Callooh! Callay!" Sweetie Belle whooped. Almost instantly, she blushed, kneading her hooves together. "Erm... s-sorry. I couldn't help myself."

Dinky lowered the flute from her mouth, giggling. She felt an orange hoof ruffling her mane.

"That's some fast thinking there, Dinkster." Scootaloo grinned. "Forget 'Honorary.' We should promote you all the way to 'Legendary.'"

"Well, she’s practically the White Queen now!" Sweetie added with a slight chortle.

"Hrmmmf... the White Queen?" spoke a stallion's voice through a tired yawn. "Nyeaaughh... I-I should say not!" The four fillies turned to see the scarlet-red monarch standing up, stretching his stiff muscles. "I would recognize that bleating shriek of hers from across the eight squares!"

"What in tarnation?" Apple Bloom gawked. "You're awake now?"

"I would certainly say so!" He frowned, his crimson beard twitching. "Some boorish plebeian was playing an insufferable racket!"

"You mean..." Apple Bloom squinted. "The lullaby?"

"Hahahaha!" Sweetie Belle laughed madly, teetering a bit. "Heeheehee... of course..."

"Yes! What's the big idea?" The Red King's eyes narrowed. "I was dreaming up fresh strategies to trounce that pallid patriarch into surrender when you hooligans showed up!"

"Look..." Scootaloo grabbed her scooter and drifted forward. "So terribly sorry to ruin your... er... nap. But now that you're awake, maybe you can tell us where we can find—"

"The mirror!" Apple Bloom gasped, pointing.

Beneath the tree, a broad rectangular sheet of glass sat in its frame. A king-shaped fog was evaporating from its glossy surface.

"You mean..." Scootaloo did a double-take. "You mean to tell me that this whole time he was sleeping on the stupid thing?!"

"But of course I was!" The Red King stood up proudly. "That way, I know I'll only ever have my back to myself! I'm a clever king, after all!"

"Nnnngh... whatever." Scootaloo glanced aside. "Dinky, Sweetie Belle, anypony... please tell me we've got a way out now."

"Well..." Sweetie tapped her chin in thought.

Dinky trotted forward, squinting down at the mirror's shiny surface.

Her reflection peaked beyond the frame, but it didn't come to a stop. On fluttering wings, the filly in the mirror streaked by. Behind her, the Wabe's sky was replaced by a dank alleyway looking onto a crowded city street. It was crystal clear, and Dinky could even sense the pungent smell of garbage and sewers.

"Yes! Yes!" Dinky squeaked, pointing at the frame. "This is it! This is our way out!"

Scootaloo shivered from a sudden gust of wind blowing at the fillies' manes. "Are you sure—?"

"She’s right!” Sweetie Belle said, not even hesitating. “Follow me!" With that, Sweetie Belle dove in, cape billowing.

"Sweetie Belle, wait!" Apple Bloom reached out. But the older unicorn disappeared through the mirror as if it was a hole in the ground. Trotting over, Apple Bloom pressed a hoof in. When it went through, she looked back at the others, shrugging.

Scootaloo motioned her along. As Apple Bloom left, Scootaloo pushed on her scooter. "Let's go, Dinky. I may not understand all this, but that doesn't change the fact that I want to end all of this."

"Hrmmf!" The King marched off with an indignant rise of his chin. "Fillies these days! No respect for the crown!"

Dinky chuckled at him. She turned to give the Wabe one lasting look. From behind, she heard Boots rambling:

"Through the Looking-Glass, you appeared..."

Dinky turned towards him.

He gazed at her with a dazed expression. "Was there anything you found here?"

Dinky bit her lip. She stared up into the shimmer sky. Though the breeze was long gone, her sweat-stained face felt as if it was being kissed by a cool breeze. She ultimately nodded. "Plenty."

"Where you go, I can no longer follow. A boojum saw to that, today, tomorrow." With a listless breath, he picked the book off his back and held it in two grimy hooves. "For years, I had only one light to guide me through this weather. And it pains me to no end that I never once thanked Feather."

Dinky Doo leaned forward. "Who?"

"Perhaps you can give it back, since I cannot." He held the book out to the little filly. "Not all lost things deserve to vanish or rot."

Hesitating at first, Dinky finally reached out and took the book. She flipped through the pages, seeing images of birds and waterfowl in brief shutter-glimpses. "I... I-I don't know how soon I'll be able to give this back to whoever it belongs to, but I promise that I'll try my best. Lost things deserve to be found, after all." She smiled warmly, hugging the book to her chest. "It's the least I can do in return for the wise words you gave us when we needed them."

Boots blinked, and for once he smiled. Crooked teeth. "'Wise Words.' And thusly my legacy sticks." His eyes closed peacefully shut. "Now I shall go the way of Beatrix." At the end of his last breath, his body unraveled, much like the Cheshire Cat's, only—deep down—Dinky could sense that there was no returning from that void. A sad lump formed in her throat.

Her eyes were watering by the time she heard Sweetie Belle’s rasping voice. "Come on, Dinky! Don't stay there!"

Spinning about, Dinky hobbled over on three legs, holding the book close to her tiny chest with the fourth. When she finally took the plunge into the mirror, she was surprised by gravity tugging her forward...

...and plopping her hard onto a wet concrete floor.

"Oof!" Her squeaking voice echoed against the steep brick walls of two tall apartment buildings on either side of her. The other Crusaders helped her to her hooves. She turned around, breathless, spotting a grimy mirror behind them that was propped up against mounds of cans and garbage bags. "Is this it? Are we out?"

"We're out and a half." Scootaloo smirked. She craned her neck, squinting. "Say, what's with the book?"

"Yeah!" Apple Bloom nodded. "Did that 'Boots' feller give it to you?"

"Uh huh." Dinky nodded. She hoofed the book over to Sweetie Belle, who began flipping through the illustrations of avian species. "I think he wanted to give this back to somepony. I figured it was the least we could do for him helping us in the end!"

"Dinky, we've still got two foals to rescue!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "We don't have time to play librarians! We didn't even have time for all that junk that just happened right now!"

"But Scootaloo, she’s trying to do that stallion a favor!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

As the other three argued, Dinky—in the meantime—turned and trotted towards the tall mirror. She pursed her lips, staring at her reflection.

Her reflection smiled back. A soundless gust of wind blew at the hornless filly's mane. With a giggle, it waved, then flew up until it was out of the mirror's frame. Seconds later—SMASH!—an air conditioning unit fell from a fifth-story fire escape, smashing the mirror to pulverized pieces.

"Gaah!" Dinky fell to her haunches.

"Dinky!" Sweetie Belle dropped the book as she and the others rushed over. "Are you okay?!"

From up above, a mare and a stallion could be heard arguing with one another. "Oh great! Wonderful! That's just perfect! Why not toss out the rest of the junk I've bought for you while we're at it!"

"That you've bought for me?! Listen here, ya little cheapskate! All of this is ours because of my Celestia-forsaken dowry! If I had listened to what my mother said about you—"

"Oh, not this again! I've had about all I can take from you, ya dumb broad!"

Apple Bloom frowned at the looming apartments. "Sheesh. Talk about grumpy!" She looked at the others. "What kind of a city is this anyways?"

"I was just thinking about that," Sweetie Belle said. Slowly, she rose up, then trotted out onto the sidewalk of the street directly outside of the alleyway. "Where are we, exactly?"

The other fillies joined her, along with Dinky, peering about with bright eyes. The sound of carriage horns and shouting voices rose in volume, and soon all four Crusaders found themselves staring at a densely packed downtown square, lined with skyscrapers and pavement and glass windows as far as the eye could see. In the far distance, through a gap in the urban divide, the group made out an enormous blue expanse, in the middle of which stood the copper-green statue of a mare holding a lantern up against the oceanic currents.

"No friggin' way..." Scootaloo turned towards the others. She gulped. "Did we really just end up where I think we did?"

"I reckon so," Apple Bloom said, twitching nervously. "And so quickly too."

Sweetie Belle nodded. "And that, girls, is what you call a 'Neigh York Minute.'"