Over the next few hours, the population of the underground hide-away had doubled. The baby ponies sat together in a corner and watched as a variety of coloured ponies filled the room. While the other baby ponies watched a group of extravagantly dressed ponies, baby Sundance took notice of a group of ponies with large, delicate butterfly-like wings enter the room through one of the tunnels. One of the ponies looked very upset. Baby Sundance saw Paradise talking to the Summerwing ponies, then move over to the ponies of Dream Valley. Baby Sundance quickly stood up and moved over to where the adults of her herd were sitting so that she could hear what Paradise was telling them.
"One of the children from their herd was caught a few hours ago," Paradise explained. "He only needs one more now."
"Who's to say he doesn't already have three?" asked Twilight. "There are thousands of other creatures out there."
"Harragard targets baby ponies," replied Paradise. "According to my book anyway."
"Why only ponies," asked Ribbon. "Why are our young any different than the young of any other creature's?"
"I don't know," replied Paradise. "All of my information is coming from a book." She pushed the open book over to the others. There was a sketch of Harragard and a page and a half of information written about him. Baby Sundance looked at the picture of Harragard and cowered beside her mother.
"So, how do we know if he has three ponies?" asked Twilight.
"We don't," Paradise sighed. "But I'm sure we're going to find out."
"We can't just sit here and wait," said Magic Star. "We need to get baby Lofty back and somehow get rid of this guy. We've dealt with stuff like this before: Tirak, Grogar, the witches…"
"This guy is nothing like anything we've ever experienced before," said Paradise. "This isn't just getting kicked out of Dream Valley! This could mean the death and destruction of everything in Pony Land!"
The rest of the ponies were speechless. Death was not something that they'd had to deal with very often. Baby Sundance looked up at her mom. There was an awkward silence between the ponies. Finally, Magic Star broke the silence by standing up and walking away. Bowtie leapt up and followed her.
"What are you thinking?" asked Bowtie. Magic Star looked up at her and thought for a moment.
"We need to get to Harragard's castle somehow," replied Magic Star. "I'm going to find out if the Moochick knows anything about the castle."
"But he didn't even know that Harragard targets ponies," Bowtie objected. "Remember, he's here because he thought Habbit would be a target." Magic Star shrugged.
"Well, maybe Habbit knows something." Replied Magic Star. "He knows more than the Moochick."
The two of them walked over to where the Moochick and Habbit wer sitting. The Moochick had brought along a checkerboard and the two of them were in the middle of a game. Bowtie and Magic Star sat down beside them and began questioning the Moochick and Habbit, trying to get any new information possible.
"The only way to get into Harragard's castle is to be taken there by his henchmen and they only take foals." The Moochick explained. "You'd need to become a baby pony to get an adult pony in there."
Magic Star stared at him intently. "Is shape-shifting a possibility?" Habbit began bouncing around wildly. He twisted his ears together and stood on all fours. The Moochick looked at him questioningly then nodded.
"There have been some unicorns that could change shape," replied the Moochick. "But all unicorns seem to have one special power and all of the unicorns in your herd know about their powers."
Bowtie nodded. "Galaxy has a sixth sense, Gusty can control wind, Fizzy can make bubbles, Powder can control snow, Twilight can…" Magic Star looked over at her and smiled.
"Twilight!" Magic Star exclaimed. "She never did find out what her power was."
"Don't give your hopes up," said the Moochick. "It's a very rare power to possess."
Magic Star and Bowtie stood up and began running back to their herd. They shouted a quick 'thank you' back to the Moochick along the way. They approached their herd and explained what they had learned from the Moochick. Twilight looked sceptical, but agreed to try her magic to change her shape.
Twilight closed her eyes and put her head down. The other ponies stood silently and watched as Twilight began to change. Twilight opened her eyes and looked over at the other ponies who were all staring at her with amazement.
"Did it work?" asked Twilight.
The ponies began talking excitedly amongst themselves. They now had a way to get to Harragard's castle. They began creating a plan and preparing Twilight for what might happen in Harragard's castle. With a bit of coaxing, Twilight was ready to go. The ponies walked her through the tunnel until they reached the exit. Twilight turned and looked back at them.
"Good luck Twilight," said Bowtie. "Stay safe".
Twilight took a deep breath and walked outside. It was eerily quiet and there was not a soul outside. She wandered further out into the open and looked up at the sky. She was relieved to see the sky empty as well. She wasn't exactly the bravest pony and using herself as bait was not something she'd ever imagined herself doing.
"Where are they?" Gusty whispered from the entrance of the cave. She and a few of the other ponies were watching through the bushes to see if their plan was going to work. "With baby Lofty it was almost instant!"
"Shh," said Magic Star. "They're coming. Just wait."
Twilight wandered over to the nearby creek for a quick drink. It was refreshing to get out of the cave and get some fresh air. As she drank the water, she could hear the sound of wings beating behind her. She turned just in time to see a large dragon behind her. It grabbed her before she could run and lifted her into the air. She screamed and tried to squirm out of its grip, but it had a good hold of her. She was lifted high into the air and into the confines of Harragard's castle.
"I really hope we didn't just make a really big mistake," said Bowtie.
