The new king of the griffons and former captain of the Griffon Guard, Ulysses, was sitting on the throne, accommodating himself. For a long time, he wanted to know how it was like to sit on King Guto’s throne and now that same throne was his and no one else's.
The doors of the throne room opened and Arimaspi entered, saying:
"Almost all the guards are under my hypnosis, except the one that is keeping the idol, so we may not have problems now. But I suggest you to be in quick to get the Idol of..."
It was then that he noticed the scratch that Ulysses had.
"Wow, what happened?" Arimaspi asked. "Did Guto finally decided to get his talons dirty? Or don't tell me that it was your annoying subordinate. Wait, wait, was it the prince?"
"Actually, it was the princess" Ulysses replied.
Upon hearing that, Arimaspi started laughing in stitches, saying:
"I can't believe the great captain of the Griffon Guard was hurt by a simple female."
"You can say what you want, Arimaspi, but Princess Greta is much more than a simple female" Ulysses said, rising up. "After all, she will be my future wife."
"And judging by the beautiful gift she gave you, she is very excited for the wedding" Arimaspi joked.
"And if we stopped with this pointless conversation?" Ulysses asked, advancing. "I thought you wanted to treat the idol issue as soon as possible."
"Of course... Your Highness" Arimaspi replied, making a false bow, while Ulysses passed by him, but the one-eyed monster couldn't resist gicing a chuckle for a female get injured Ulysses.
Shining and Gael were taken by two guards to the dungeons. Once they got there, the guards began to direct them to one of the cells, with both trying to resist. Felix, attracted by the noise, approached the window with bars to see what was going on, getting confused with what he was seeing.
Despite their strength, Shining and Gael were no match for the subjugation the guards were making to them. Then they heard the sound of something hitting and the guard who was holding Gael fell unconscious on the floor, followed by the other guard, who was also beaten and put unconscious. Shining and Gael turned to their savior and saw it was Gustave, holding a frying pan:
"Dad?" Gael asked. "What are you doing here?"
"You could start by zanking ton pére, don't you think?" Gustave asked. "Zen I heard lots of noise and I came to see what was going on. Zen I saw guards bringing you to the dungeon and ozers taking King Guto and his nephew and neice in the direction of zeir quarters. "Qu'est ce qui c'est passé?"
"Ulysses just dethroned King Guto and took Griffonstone" Gael said.
"Non!" Gustave exclaimed, not wanting to believe. "But how?"
"I have a suspicion" Shining said. "What if Ulysses and Arimaspi are working together? That would explain the ease with which he may have been able to hypnotize my guard or as Felix managed to infiltrate to kill King Guto."
"Arimaspi?" Gustave repeated. "Ze monster zat used to attack Griffonstone for generations ago?"
"Yes, dad, it seems that he is who is behind this" Gael said. "He has hypnotized innocents to do his dirty work. I think the guards are under hypnosis.”
"And speaking of innocents..." Shining said, catching with his magic the keys of one of the unconscious guards.
After that, he opened the cell where Felix was and told him:
"You're free, Felix. After what happened, your innocence is proved."
"Thank you" he thanked, leaving the cell. "I only wished to be able to repay you."
"And you can" Shining said. "Put these guards in the cells. Despite the blow that Gustave gave them got them free from the hypnosis, it won't late until they come back to be overwhelmed and we need to contain as many guards as possible."
Felix nodded and took the keys from the other guard and began doing what Shining told him to do. The unicorn turned to Gael and Gustave and said:
"We need to stop Ulysses and Arimaspi before they get the Idol of Boreas. If they are succeeded, all griffons, including you, will be over their control."
"You’ll retrieve the idol, Shining" Gael said. "I'm going to save Princess Greta."
It was then that he received looks from Shining and Gustave, but he replied, blushing:
"It's not what you think, okay? But I can't let her prisoner to that creep. Moreover, Shining, my father and I were going to disrupt you, if we ended under the enemy’s control."
"Gael’s right" Gustave said to Shining. "You have to do it alone. We take care of saving ze royal family."
"Very well, but be careful" Shining said. "I just need you to tell me where the Idol of Boreas is."
Ulysses and Arimaspi were advancing to the highest part of the castle, where the Idol of Boreas was saved. Once they got there, they found the last guard who was not yet under Arimaspi’s control.
"Captain Ulysses, but what's going on..." he began.
But before he could say anything more, Arimaspi used his eye to hypnotize him.
"I don't have time to talk, soldier" Ulysses said. "Open the door."
"As you wish, master" the guard said.
And he then unlocked and opened the door of the room. Ulysses and Arimaspi entered and then saw it: the Idol of Boreas. It was even more beautiful than the pictures in book described.
"So beautiful" Arimaspi said. "So that's the reason why I've been fighting the griffons for centuries."
"And it is as powerful as it is beautiful" Ulysses said approaching. "Guto never used it because he didn't have to, since he had the loyalty of his people. We have to be grateful, because if he had used the idol, I wouldn't be helping you."
And so the evil griffon took the idol and said:
"Oh, great Idol of Boreas, listen to my commands. Give me the loyalty of my people and make them bow down before me."
After he said this, the idol began to shine brightly. After that, all griffons in Griffonstone that had not been hypnotized began to feel an immense headache momentary that ended with them under the same hypnotic state that the guards.
Gael, which was heading to Princess Greta’s quarters, began to feel the same headache that the griffons were feeling and also felt his will to be repressed. That should be the power of the Idol of Boreas. However, he could not let it control him. He had to save Princess Greta, he had to save the griffin that he loved. When he found himself, the pain was decreasing and his will was recovering the strength it had. Gael realized that love and loyalty were the key to defeat the control exercised by the Idol of Boreas. With this, he advanced.
In the Idol of Boreas room, Arimaspi approached Ulysses and said:
"Okay, now you have the idol, you can help me rescue my brother in Tartarus."
It was then that Ulysses giggled and turned around, showing his evil smile and saying:
"Do you really think that, now that I have all the griffons under my power, I will help a freak like you? Forget it."
The guard who was outside entered in the room, blocking the only exit and trapping Arimaspi. However, the one-eyed monster seemed not to care.
"You don't seem very worried, Arimaspi" Ulysses noticed. "Don't you understand what I'm about to kick your ass."
Arimaspi giggled and asked:
"Do you really think I would ally with you if I didn't know who I was dealing with? I knew you'd betray me. You say that ponies are not reliable, and you're right. But you, griffons, also are not. I know that from experience."
"So you shouldn't have helped me to get the idol... idiot" Ulysses said.
"Wrong" Arimaspi said. "You're the idiot. You know me, Ulysses. Do you really think I'd risk this way if I didn't have a plan?"
And, having said that, Arimaspi snapped his fingers and the guard who had cornered him began to move in the direction of Ulysses, much to his shock.
"What are you doing?" he asked, while retreating. "Stop. I command you."
"You don't command anything, Ulysses" Arimaspi said. "You may be a griffon, but you don't know the power of the Idol of Boreas. The idol can give you control over griffons, but, if they are already under the control of others, so the story is completely different."
Ulysses tried to attack with the talon that was free, but the guard grabbed it and made him trip, making Ulysses fall to the ground and drop the idol. The guard grabbed it and then handed it to Arimaspi who took it and said:
"Finally, now I can have what I want."
Ulysses got up and said:
"So you're doing all this for a brother who was stupid enough to let himself be caught. I don't understand why you want to save your bother."
"Clyclops and I completed each other" Arimaspi said. "He was the strength and I was the brain. If I want to achieve something in this world ruled by ponies, I can't depend just on my intelligence and my hypnotic powers. So that Cyclops is by my side, nothing and no one will stop us. But for that to happen, first I have to release him and that's where you and your kind get in. Don't worry, you’ll have your war. After all, my master wants it."
Raising the Idol of Boreas, Arimaspi said:
"Idol of Boreas, give me the control over the griffon race!"
And the idol started to shine once again. Shining Armor, when he came to the room where Arimaspi was, couldn't believe it. He had arrived late, because Arimaspi had achieved what he wanted.