The siege had been going on for weeks now. Cluny had been preventing food from being delivered to Redwall. Supplies were low and so was morale.
Matthias joined Rainbow Dash and Jess Squirrel up on the walltop one day. "Any sign of Cluny?"
"Nope," said Rainbow Dash. "This long-range warfare is so boring. I wish we could just go out and fight Cluny face to face." She sighed. "That rat has got us trapped like rats. I'll say this for him, he's a clever general."
"Maybe you'd be happier fighting on his side!" Jess snapped.
"What?" Rainbow Dash got up in the squirrel's face. "Are you questioning my loyalty? I'm the element of loyalty!"
"Element? What does that even mean?"
Matthias stepped between them. "Look, it's no use quarreling among ourselves. Come on, you two, stop sulking and be pals again."
Smiling sheepishly, Jess and Rainbow Dash shook hands.
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Down in Great Hall, a mouse and a mole were arguing.
"That's my acorn!"
"Hurr, Oi saw it first!"
"Did not."
"Reckon Oi did."
"Did not!"
"Reckon Oi did!"
Applejack walked over to them. "What's all this fussin' an' feudin' about?"
The mole turned on her angrily. "Oi can't stand the sound of your voice!"
Twilight and the Abbot came over. "What's the problem here?" Twilight asked.
"Oi freaking hate 'ow this guy talks!" The mole pointed at Applejack. "You can't unnerstan' a wor' she says."
"That's rich, comin' from you," said Applejack.
The Abbot spread his paws. "Please, everybeast! No more of this fighting. No more shouting. This is not how Redwallers behave."
Basil was sitting nearby. He couldn't take all the arguing anymore. He had to get out of there.
He walked outside. Rainbow Dash fluttered down beside him.
"It feels like everybeast wants to bite each other's throats, wot," he said.
"I know!" Rainbow Dash agreed. "Even Jess Squirrel just accused me of being a traitor."
"This is all because of Cluny," Basil said. "Y'know, it strikes me that it'd do the mice's hearts good to see their tapestry back in its rightful place."
"Yeah," said Rainbow Dash. "If we could get it back for them, it'd prove I was still loyal."
"And what a blow it would be to that feller Cluny and his filthy band of robbers."
Rainbow Dash flexed her wings. "Well, what are we waiting for then? Up and at 'em! Forward the fur!"
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Cluny's rats were doing some drills in the churchyard. They marched around in military formations while the weasels, ferrets, and stoats practiced digging attack tunnels. But the rats kept falling into the holes.
Cluny harangued his officers. "Killconey, tell those morons of yours not to tunnel into the parade ground. Darkclaw, look at the way those rats are marching! They look like a flock of lambs at a village school outing! Haven't you taught them anything?"
Basil and Rainbow Dash sneaked up to the churchyard fence and watched the antics.
"Cluny's not very good at getting his creatures to do what he wants, is he?" Basil observed.
"If he was nice to them, like Twilight is to her friends, I bet he'd get a lot more cooperation," Rainbow Dash said.
Cluny cracked his tail against a tombstone. "Left wheel! I said left wheel, you buffoons. You there, don't you know the difference between your left and your right? Which eye am I pointing at?"
The rat he was talking to, a particularly stupid specimen, said, "Oh, Chief, ain't this here your left eye?"
Cluny hit him with his tail. "Blockhead! That was my right eye!"
"But it's got to be your left eye. It's the only one that's left!"
Basil called out, "Tut, tut, officer striking an enlisted creature! Bad form, old chap, thumping bad form!"
Cluny whirled round and saw him. "Get him! Grab that spy! I want his head!"
Basil chuckled. "What's the matter? Isn't your own head good enough?" He hopped over the fence and the rats started chasing him all around the cemetery.
The pole with the tapestry on it was sticking in the ground. While everybeast was distracted, Rainbow Dash swooped in and grabbed it.
"Get that Pegasus!" Cluny yelled.
The vermin surrounded Rainbow Dash, but she just tossed the tapestry to Basil. Basil jumped back over the fence and headed for a big tree. He climbed up.
Cluny climbed over the fence himself. "Get my tapestry, you fools!"
"Get the hare, get the Pegasus, get the tapestry," Basil mocked. "Don't you ever get tired?"
The vermin gathered around the base of the tree. Rainbow Dash flew over and landed beside Basil.
Killconey tried to bargain. "Sure, why don't ye just toss that bit of cloth down to us an' we'll let you go free."
Basil waved the tapestry cheekily. "'Fraid I can't do that, sir- or is it madam? I can't tell." (This is a reference to how Killconey ended up being referred to with both male and female pronouns in some editions of the book.)
"Kill the dirty little swindlers!" Cluny cried.
"How you gonna do that when we're up here?" Rainbow Dash called down.
"You might be safe up there for now, but you can't get away either," Cluny said smugly. "Maybe you can fly away, but your friend can't!"
"Run for it, Dash," Basil whispered. "Take the tapestry back to Redwall. I'll keep this mob occupied."
Rainbow Dash ducked to avoid a stone a rat threw up at her. "Not likely! If you stay, then so do I."
Basil aimed a kick at her flank. "Ye stubborn beast," he yelled. "Will you get going?"
Rainbow shook her head. "I'm the element of loyalty, remember? If we go down, we'll go down together."
Just when the situation looked hopeless, they heard a roaring noise in the sky. A hot air balloon was floating their way, and inside was another hare.
"I say!" cried Basil. "It's my old dad, wot!"
The hare in the balloon let down a rope and tied it to the branch Basil was standing on. "My name is William David Truman Joshua Stag Hare an' I'm a wizard," he said. "But you can call me Joshy."
"We don't care what your name is!" Cluny howled.
"Or what gender you are," Killconey added.
Joshy held out a paw to his son Basil. "Goin' up?"
Basil and Rainbow Dash climbed into the balloon. Joshy undid the rope and they flew off back to Redwall. The tapestry was safe!