Gummy roamed dejectedly around THE PRETTY PINK THING’s chamber. Celestia’s Sun was sinking towards the west. Soon, the day would be gone, and Gummy’s hopes with it.

He fumbled through the bedroom’s clutter, searching for, if not a solution, then at least absolution, something would say to him, No, Gummy, this failure is not your fault. You did your best. You did all that anygator could ask of you.

Gummy found a ball of grass-green yarn and absently shredded it.

No more balloons. No. From now on, my claws stay firmly on the ground.

The cardboard box disguise almost worked. But almost wasn’t good enough. Some ponies still saw me, reacted to me. It’s not enough to be uninteresting. I must become invisible.

Gummy looked down at his claws, draped with grass-green threads.

Grass. Green.

Another idea hatched in his head. And this time, it was a double-yolker.

Gummy bit and tore at the ball of yarn, until it resembled nothing so much as a small, ragged clump of grass.

He burrowed a tunnel into the ball and clambered in. He presented himself to the bedroom mirror and was pleased with the effect.

A clod. Anypony that sees me will think, there’s a clod.

A perfect disguise. I will blend in. Disappear. Invisible.

But how to escape THE PRETTY PINK THING’s chamber? She had blocked the door with towels and closed and locked the bedroom window.

But not the little bathroom window! Ha!

Gummy reluctantly used a balloon to reach the tiny window ledge and hop onto the glass. Clad in his new ghillie suit, he couldn’t quite squeeze through the gap between the bottom of the window and the pane. Gummy threw his weight forward and back, trying to open the window a little wider. The window moved reluctantly, at first, then suddenly tilted down.

Triumph! thought Gummy, as he slid uncontrollably to the edge of the window pane, tumbled over and fell.

Gummy struck the sharply sloped roof of Sugar Cube Corner, rolled, caromed into a gable, bounced, dropped and finally came to rest in an awning that had been set up in front of the shop to a create a little bistro for late afternoon and evening customers.

Gummy shook himself and crawled to the edge of the awning. Looking down, he saw two ponies, drinking cups of brown liquid and nibbling key lime pie.

He looked down to his right. The flowerbed. Perfect. He gathered himself and leaped.

Gummy landed almost noiselessly in the soft earth of the flowerbed. Stealth. Patience. Observation. He huddled down into a ball and scanned the area around him.

So far, so good. The two ponies hadn’t noticed him. Slowly, carefully, he crept through the flowerbed to the edge of the street.

Gummy’s plan now was to dash from flowerbed to lawn to grassy verge, circumnavigating the Ponyville Marketplace by creeping through the protective greenery.

And it worked! It worked! Ha ha! This, this is the Claw of the Predator in action, he thought. Moving like a ghost through the forest primeval, sliding through jungle and swamp, approaching the unwary prey until the moment came to pounce!

Gummy huddled tightly in a ball as a group of pony children passed, laughing.

Ha ha! Little do they suspect their peril! thought Gummy, the fierce predator, as he shrank within his tattered ball of wool.

Once the children were gone, Gummy crept on, feeling a new pride swell in his breast, a new confidence in his abilities.

And if anypony noticed a clod of grass swaggering through the weeds, none of them did anything about it.

Up and over Gooseberry Hill, through the pavilions on the far side of town. Then down to the riverbank, where Gummy was unexpectedly stopped by a wall.

A wall? A wall? Really, A WALL?!

Gummy paced back and forth before the obstacle in disbelief. I just flew over this area this afternoon, he thought, with a slight shudder. There was no wall here then! Why is there a wall now? A WALL?!

Being cold-blooded, an alligator is slow to anger. But this, this was more than Gummy could tolerate. He could smell, could hear, could feel the River, achingly close. No wall, nothing, could stop him now.

He looked left and right. The wall stretched for yards in both directions without an opening. He looked up. A story or more. He examined the wall itself: solid, densely covered in bright purple tiles.

Calmly, deliberately, Gummy stripped off his ghillie suit.

Climb! Gummy’s claws, honed to needle sharpness after all his scrambling about, spread and gripped the tiles. I can do this! I will do this! Climb!

Patience. Observation. Cunning. Despite his anger, Gummy forced himself to test each grip before hauling himself upward. He was too close to fail now to some careless mistake. Grip. Test. Climb. Grip. Test. Climb. With relentless reptilian determination, Gummy made his way upwards.

Nearly there. Grip. Test. Climb. Almost there.

Then the wall stirred under Gummy’s claws.

The wall, which had seemed as solid as stone, now shifted like sand beneath him. Gummy clutched at the tiles for dear life as the wall rippled and moved like a living thing.

Like a living thing. Gummy looked at the tiles beneath his claws and, if his eyes could have grown wider, they would have.

Not tiles. Scales.

Uh oh.

“Why, hello there, little fellow!” boomed a voice as soft as a waterfall. “Here now. Let’s take a good look at you!”

Gummy looked up and found a vast draconic head, as large as a house, swiveling sinuously to focus on the tiny reptile. Eyes as broad as windows narrowed to gaze down upon him.

Sobek! Gummy thought. Father of Crocodiles, Lord of Rivers!

Gummy noticed a movement to his left. He froze in fear as claws like massive but infinitely delicate boat anchors caught the tiny alligator and uplifted him, until Gummy could see nothing but the River Dragon’s fixed gaze.

Gummy shivered. Who am I, Great Sobek, that thou art mindful of me?

The Dragon appeared to consider for a moment. Then: “Perhaps introductions are in order,” said the Dragon, agreeably. “I have been known by many names in my long life. Recently, in the last millennium or so, I’ve been called Stephanos Eridanos Magnus.” The Dragon grinned impishly. “’Steve.’”

“What is it, Steven?” came the voice of Rarity the unicorn from far below.

“An unexpected guest, my dear,” said the Dragon. “Do you know him?”

The Dragon lowered a steam shovel-sized claw and delicately deposited Gummy on a linen-covered table. Gummy found himself gazing at his reflection in a shining silver tea service. His expression read: Wow. Just wow.

“Why! It’s Gummy!” declared Rarity. “Pinkie Pie’s dear little… creature.” Rarity turned to her white Persian cat, crouching on the table. “Opal, say hello to your playmate.”

Opalescence arched her back and glared. “MEE-ROW! Spitt-spitt! Hisss…!”

“Opal says, ‘Good evening, Gummy,’” explained Rarity, primly.

Gummy spun around, trying to make sense of his situation. There was the MAJESTIC WHITE PONY and her ANGRY WHITE KITTY. The MAJESTIC WHITE PONY, clad in billowy summer apparel, was nonchalantly sipping tea from a tiny cup.

Gummy was standing on a clean, linen-covered table covered by a festive umbrella.

Sobek (Steve), Father of Crocodiles, Lord of Rivers, loomed over the table. A teacup, the size of a soup tureen but still absurdly small in his enormous claws, was lifted to his mouth. He sipped delicately. “Oolong, of course,” he sighed, happily.

“Of course, Steven, what else for you for our little summer tea party?” said Rarity. She turned her regard to Gummy. “But I’m certain that Pinkie Pie must be so worried about her friend. Excuse me, Steven, but perhaps I should take him back to Sugar Cube Corner right now.”

Gummy felt his claws leave the table as Rarity’s magic raised him up. Gummy slumped, despondent. No, not again, he thought.

Rarity got up to leave but discovered the River Dragon’s claws blocking her path.

“If you will permit me, my dear,” said the Dragon, apologetically. “Perhaps I have a better solution.”

The Dragon plucked Gummy out of the air, raised him up and studied the tiny alligator, eye-to-eye.

In the westering light of evening, something burned in the eyes of the great serpent. Memory glowed, ancient beyond reckoning, preserved in dark amber.

We walked together in those Old Lands, you and I, the serpent’s eyes said to Gummy. We strode the earth as kings. We chose to share our world with the small, fast, warm-blooded ones. A mistake, perhaps. But we love and honor them. And they, in turn, must honor us and our ways. The relentless and unforgiving ways of the Predator.

The great serpent opened his jaws. His long teeth glowed red and wet in the dying light.

Then, in a voice as soft and kind as the trickle of a creek through a stand of rushes, the serpent breathed, “Down there, beyond the bridge, in the muddy place where rock and wood, earth and water join: the fair ladies are waiting for you, my child."

The great serpent made a graceful sweeping gesture, and deposited Gummy gently into the River with a quiet ker-plunk!

“Steven, will he be all right there, do you think?” asked Rarity, worried.

Gazing downriver, the corners of the serpent’s moustache arched upwards. “Oh yes, my dear, I think he will be fine.

“Now then!” he said, rubbing his claws together and turning his attention to the alabaster unicorn. “Tell me more about your Fall line!”

“GUMMY! GUMMY! GUMMY!” squealed Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie clutched the tiny alligator to her chest and danced around Sugar Cube Corner.

It was the middle of the night and the entire household was up and excited. Pound and Pumpkin giggled as they bounced off the walls. Mr. and Mrs. Cake dashed about, struggling to collect their children out of the air.

Rarity stood in the doorway looking apologetically at Pinkie.

“I knew you would be worried, darling, but Steven was so insistent that Gummy had to go for his little… swim.”

“SWIMMING!” cried Pinkie. “Oh, Gummy! That’s what you wanted to do all day! Swimming in the River! Of course! I’m so sorry.”

“Swimming. Yes. That’s what he wanted. Swimming,” said Rarity, looking askance.

Pinkie Pie looked at the unicorn quizzically, but Rarity just batted her eyes.

“Swimming,” she said, firmly.

“Well, then, that gives me the BEST IDEA EVER!” exclaimed Pinkie. “A picnic/pet playdate by the river! You and me and all my pals and their pets having a good old time by the river! Boats! Yes! Believe me, Gummy, there is nothing half so worth doing as messing about with boats! Ha ha ha! Three ponies in a boat, to say nothing of the alligator! Hee!

“Doesn’t that sound great, Gummy? Doesn’t it? Doesn’t it?”

Gummy just smiled dreamily, snuggled against THE PRETTY PINK THING and went back to sleep.