After a few minutes, the group disperses. You are left alone in front of the caves. “Oh well,” you loudly announce, “I guess this isn’t where the boggies are camped after all. I guess I’ll just lie down here, near the cave entrances, and take a nap. Since there aren’t any boggies around, I know that nothing will disturb my rest!” You cringe a little at your delivery; you were never much of an actress. Then you lie down and pretend to go to sleep, cracking one eye open so you can see the leftmost cave.

For a few minutes, nothing happens. Then, you hear voices coming from the cave:

“Do you think she’s really asleep?”

“I don’t hear anyone else, she must be alone!”

“This is great, now we can bring back two ponies!”

Then you see a grotesquely obese boggie step into sight. You have no doubt that he’s their leader, for he wears a lopsided crown and carries a scepter made of an old pipe. In an imperious voice, he announces, “Alright, you lazy slobs! Let’s all get this pony tied up and hauled away!”

You are quickly surrounded by about two dozen boggies, who swarm from the cave at their leader’s instruction. As they gather around you with ropes and bindings ready, the other ponies begin phase two of the plan.

From the brush, Applejack, Winona, and Rainbow Dash leap out and run at the boggies. Not expecting an attack, they forget all about you and quickly begin to run back towards the safety of their cave. Before they can reach it, however, a massive boulder tumbles down from the top of the ridge, blocking off the entrance completely. Your part in Twilight’s plan complete, you open your eyes and stand up. From the top of the ridge, Big Mac gives you a wink.

Meanwhile, the other two ponies (and Winona) have herded the boggies all together on a large stone slab. Their leader yells, “There’s only a few of them ponies, lads! Stand and fi-WOAH!”

At that moment, he is unceremoniously thrown on his bottom as the slab of stone he and the other boggies are standing on jerkily rises up off the ground. Twilight steps out of the bushes, her horn aglow with magic and a smile on her face.

Rainbow Dash flies up to the stone slab, now floating high above the ground. Addressing the boggie leader, she says, “Okay, here’s what’s gonna happen. You’re gonna come down and let Applebloom out of your cave without any tricks, and then you’re going to promise that you’ll leave and never come back. Once you do that, maybe Twilight here will think about letting you go.”

The fat boggie stands up and thrusts out his gut. “How dare you make demands of the Ceanntighern! You will release my people and I, or else you will face my wrath!”

“Actually, it’s ‘my people and me!’” Twilight calls up.

Dash makes a show of considering the offer. “Well, when you put it that way… no. I guess you guys can just hang up here, then.” She begins to fly away.

“Wait!” calls the boggie. As Dash turns to face him with a smile on her face, he continues, “I… suppose I might be willing—of my own free will, mind you!—to go down and release the foal. As a gesture of goodwill, that is.”

“And after that...?”

The boggie visibly deflates. “And after that I… I suppose that it’s probably about time to head back to the mountains. There’s nothing here worth taking, anyway,” he adds hurriedly. “That foal we took would probably have made a terrible worker in any case. Yes, we’ll definitely be better off without her.”

Twilight smiles as she lowers the boggies back to the ground. You go help Applejack push aside the boulder blocking the cave; it looks like everything’s going to work out alright.

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