A day later, two moles were standing by the road when they saw a circus parade go by. "Where'm you going?" one of the moles called.

A tall squirrel on stilts handed him a flyer. "To Redwall Abbey, my friends. Many from Mossflower Woods will be there."

The mole read what was written on the paper. "'Come one, come all, boi Redwall Abbey this nightfall.' Ho urr, that we will!"

The circus continued on its way. But as the cavalcade passed by, two rats, Redtooth and Fangburn, jumped on the back of the last cart and stole a trunk.

The moles hid behind a log. "Rats!" one of them cried.

"Boi heck," said the other mole. "Cluny's still about."

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Matthias and Basil were up on the wall, putting the finishing touches on a catapult. They saw the circus approaching the Abbey.

"Someone's coming," said Matthias.

Basil looked over the ramparts. "It's not Cluny. It's a circus! Leaping, juggling, clowns and whatnot."

Matthias ran down the stairs. "We've got to get them inside before the rats see them!"

He went down to the gate and opened the door. A pretty girl mouse greeted him. "Hello, I'm Wild Ivy."

"My name's Matthias."

"That's funny," said Wild Ivy. "I had a dream 'bout somebeast called Matthias. 'Course, I come from a very psychic family. Is that a real Abbey, with a fat Abbot and everything?"

"Well, he's not fat, but yeah."

"Do you know the Abbot, personal like? Could you introduce me to him?"

"I suppose I could," said Matthias. "But we've got to get inside quickly. There's an army of rats lurking about."

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Redtooth and Fangburn brought the trunk back to Cluny, who was back on his feet now. "I sent you to forage for food!" he snapped.

"We were!" said Fangburn. "But then we found this."

"Must have been fifty of 'em guarding it, Chief," said Redtooth.

"It's treasure, Chief. Treasure, for you!"

Cluny swung his tail and broke the lock on the trunk. He opened it. "This isn't treasure!" he raged. "It's just a bunch of clown costumes! I ought to flay you both alive!"

"They must be from the circus," said Killconey.

"Circus, eh?" Cluny looked at Redtooth and Fangburn. "All right. I'll spare your lives for now. Here's what we're gonna do. You two will put on these costumes and pretend to be clowns. You can sneak into Redwall with the circus. Then you can open the Abbey doors and let the rest of us in. Redwall Abbey will be ours by nightfall!"

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The Mane 6 were in the Great Hall with the Abbot, going over battle plans. Matthias brought Ivy in.

"Everybeast, this is Wild Ivy," he said. "She's a circus performer."

Ivy curtseyed to the Abbot. "I've never met an Abbot before. Honored, I'm sure, your Abbotship."

"And I have never met a circus performer before," said the Abbot. "The honor is all mine."

Ivy looked around at Twilight and her friends. "I didn't know there were ponies and unicorns living in Redwall Abbey!"

"We don't normally live here," said Twilight. "We were just visiting when Cluny the Scourge attacked. We decided to stay and help defend the Abbey."

"Me and my troupe were hoping we could do a show for you," said Ivy.

Pinkie Pie cheered. "Hooray! Clowns and tumblers!"

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The rest of the circus entered the Abbey, caravans and all. Nobeast noticed Redtooth and Fangburn sneak in behind them, disguised as clowns. They set up their tents on the lawn.

Matthias was walking with Ivy. "So, what exactly is it you do?"

"I'm a knife thrower. Watch this!" She walked up to a target board that was standing nearby and pulled a knife out of her belt. She tossed it at the target and hit the bullseye!

"Wow, that was fantastic!" said Matthias. "I wish I could do that."

"I could teach you," said Ivy. "Here, take one of my knives."

Matthias tried to throw it at the target, but it hit the board handle first and bounced off.

Ivy laughed. "Not bad for a first try! Here, let me help."

She put one arm around his waist and guided the hand holding the knife with her other arm. "Try it now."

Neither of them noticed Cornflower watching them from behind one of the other circus tents.

"She's very good at throwing knives," Cornflower muttered.

Rarity and Applejack came up behind her. "What's wrong, darling? You look upset."

"Matthias is spending all his time with that new girl Wild Ivy and he's forgotten about me!"

Applejack put an arm around Cornflower. "Just because one of yore friends hangs out with people besides you don't mean they don't wanna be friends anymore."

"That's right," said Rarity. "You can't be clingy and demand your friend's attention. I had a friend in Equestria, a dragon named Spike. One day I discovered that he had a new friend, a griffon named Gabby. I became angry and jealous and it almost drove a wedge between us. But then I realized that Spike didn't love me any less just because he was friends with Gabby. And I'm sure Matthias doesn't love you any less because he's made friends with Ivy."

"I guess," said Cornflower. But she didn't look too happy.

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That evening, everybeast gathered outside to see the show. There were mouse trapeze artists, squirrel jugglers, a weightlifting otter called Mighty Clodd, and a shrew who ate fire- or appeared to, anyway.

Wild Ivy did some tricks with her knives, to general applause. Then she called for a volunteer from the audience. Matthias came up beside her, much to Cornflower's consternation.

"Stand in front of the board," Ivy told him.

"What are you gonna do?" Matthias asked nervously.

"Don't worry. I won't hit you."

She blindfolded herself and then started throwing her knives right at the board! But none of them hit Matthias. They all landed beside him without touching him.

As everybeast was cheering, Redtooth stepped up behind Ivy in his clown outfit. He had a knife of his own, which he held to Ivy's throat.

"Um… this isn't part of the act," she said.

"Open the Abbey gates, or I'll slit her gizzard!" Redtooth commanded.

Applejack acted quickly. She grabbed a rope that was lying nearby, tied a noose at one end, and lassoed Redtooth, knocking him to the ground!

"Wow! That was some trick," said Ivy. "You should join our circus, Applejack."

Applejack bowed. "Thank ya kindly, marm, but Ah could never leave mah apple farm."

They took Redtooth inside and locked him in a spare bedroom. But Fangburn was still hiding in the crowd and hadn't been discovered.

Cornflower went to bring the prisoner some food. She could hear Redtooth making awful noises and throwing things around in there. She decided to just set the tray down in front of the door.

Then Fangburn came up behind her, holding a bunch of balloons. "Want a balloon? They float." He grabbed her with one paw and unlocked the door with the other. Redtooth burst out of the room.

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Matthias and Ivy were walking on the walltop when the two rats appeared, carrying Cornflower. "Open the gates now or we'll throw her over the side!"

"Don't you dare hurt her!" Matthias cried. He had one of Ivy's knives in his paw. He threw it at Redtooth, but it just bounced off his forehead, just like when Matthias tried to hit the target board.

Redtooth laughed nastily. "Don't you know anything? First rule of sword fighting is you stick 'em with the pointy end!"

He grabbed Matthias and threw him over the wall. Luckily, Rainbow Dash happened to be flying by just then and she caught him.

Fangburn leaped at Wild Ivy with his cutlass, but she blocked his attack with her knife. They fought all along the wall until Fangburn stumbled and fell on top of the catapult. Ivy cut the rope with her knife and Fangburn went flying.

"You saved my life!" said Cornflower. "I'm sorry I was jealous of you."

"No problem," said Ivy. She looked around. "Where'd that other rat get to?"

Redtooth had grabbed the fallen dagger and sneaked back down the stairs. He was approaching the gate when Twilight Sparkle landed in front of him. "Where do you think you're going, rat?"

"Out of my way!" Redtooth swiped at her with Ivy's dagger. The knife clashed against Twilight's horn.

Two squirrels from the circus came up behind Redtooth and threw a net over him. He fell down and dropped the knife. Rainbow Dash landed nearby with Matthias on her back.

Matthias hopped to the ground and picked up the knife. He stood over the fallen rat.

Suddenly he heard a voice in his head. I am that is. My sword shall wield for me.

"I hear you, Martin." Matthias set the knife aside.

Redtooth sniggered. "Too weak-hearted to kill me, mouse?"

"It'd be one thing defeating you in battle, but I can't kill you in cold blood," Matthias said. "I'm not like Cluny."

"Good decision," Twilight said.

Cornflower and Ivy came down from the ramparts. "Maybe it's a good thing you could never throw these the right way," Ivy told Matthias. "They were my father's. He told me if I ever used them to hurt anybeast, they'd hurt me. I'm proud to have met you, and you, Cornflower."

The circus animals stepped out through the gates, dragging the bound Redtooth with them.

Cluny and his army were standing outside, but Cluny said, "Let them pass. They will spread the story of the triumph of Cluny the Scourge."

The squirrels dropped Redtooth at Cluny's feet.

Redtooth untangled himself from the net and watched the circus leave. "You're just gonna let 'em get away? That seems a bit out of character for you, Chief."

"Well, I just want to get them out of the story as quickly as possible," said Cluny. "They're not in the book, after all."