//------------------------------//
// The Eye Of The Storm 
// Story: The Witch of The Wind 
// by MagnetBolt 
//------------------------------//

Griffonstone was burning. The thatched houses blazed like torches and I saw griffons trying to escape the flames by flying into the air, but it was like they hit some invisible wall and exploded into fireballs, lighting up the sky like horrible fireworks.
I knew somehow it was all my fault, just like the fire tornadoes swirling around the plateau. Every step I took made the ground scorch and blacken. They were all dying because they’d counted on me. All I’d done was replace the wild winds with a firestorm and made everything worse.
“Stop right there!” somepony yelled. It was one of those dreams where you know who it is even before you look. I turned around anyway, because I had to, and there she was. Princess Twilight. There were other shapes behind her, less distinct, and I was vaguely aware that they were her friends. Our friends. They weren’t in focus, just suggestions of a presence being there, part of the background.
“Twilight,” I whispered. She was as big as Princess Celestia. A purple goddess that could defeat any evil.
“I can’t believe you’ve done this,” Twilight said. “I trusted you. You taught me so much, and you still turned to evil and destruction in the end.”
“It’s not my fault!” I protested. “I was trying to help!”
“So many griffons are suffering because you weren’t good enough,” Twilight said. “I’m here to set things right!”
She was wearing the Element of Magic. I don’t know if it had just appeared or if it had always been there or if it mattered in the dream logic. It started glowing with the most powerful magic in all of Equestria, and it was joined by a glow from the other elements.
A rainbow beam slashed through the air towards me, and I just knew in my heart that it was impossible to stop or dodge and even if I tried, it was what I deserved. I had to pay for everything I’d done.
“No,” somepony said, very firmly. The rainbow wave dissolved in midair. The fires burned down to embers. The chaos calmed.
Above me, the moon glowed brightly and opened like a portal, Princess Luna flying through and landing in front of me.
“You have rather distressing dreams, Sunset Shimmer,” she said. “Even if I were not an expert and the bringer of hopes and sorrows away from the waking world I would be able to tell with certainty what was troubling you.”
I blinked a few times, taking the last few steps to actual lucidity. The city was destroyed around us. Princess Twilight stood twice as tall as Luna, looming even larger than Celestia in my mind’s eye. A trail of destruction that led to me as the culprit.
“I guess my dreams aren’t big on abstract symbolism and just go right for the throat,” I admitted.
“Indeed. Yet most ponies would have dreams that reflect the real world. Failing tests at school. Arriving late at work. Running out of grape jelly.”
The last one caught my attention. “...Grape jelly?”
“Twas a private matter for the pony and it is not my place to speak of the circumstances, but let it be known that as absurd a thing to have night terrors about, it was far more dire and realistic than this.” Luna motioned at the dream around us. “May I?”
I nodded, and she spread her wings. Her horn glowed softly for a moment, and the whole world changed, not to the Griffonstone I recognized, but to one that must have come from her own memory, whole and lively and surrounded by green peaks and hardy trees that clung to the rocks. It was a far cry from the decaying city and barren rocks of the real thing. Even Twilight snapped back to her real size before vanishing like mist.
“That’s better,” Luna said. “The news I bear isn’t the type that should be given in the midst of a nightmare.”
“Does that mean it’s really good news and you don’t want to spoil the mood?” I guessed. Then I saw her expression. “It’s not really good news.”
“I am afraid not,” Luna sighed. “‘Tis a problem my sister and I should have found a way to forestall, but she was slow to act in hopes that it would resolve itself, and to my shame I was afraid to act on my own for fear of overstepping bounds in this modern age.”
“Just tell me,” I sighed. “Whatever it is, it can’t be worse than what went down with Typhon. I really messed that up.”
“You met Typhon?” Luna asked, changing the subject immediately. “I would love to hear that tale! What happened?”
“No, no, you first,” I insisted. “I need to know what kind of trouble is waiting for me. Some kind of old claim from former Griffonstone nobility? Somepony opening a Barnyard Bargains in Griffonstone and not paying minimum wage? Did they declare war against the Yaks?”
“Tis worse than all of those in some ways,” Luna grumbled. “You must take caution, Sunset, for this is a problem that attacks at your weakest point. You see--”





“Bugh!” I jolted awake at a sudden motion from the train.
“Calm down, dweeb,” Gilda scoffed. “There’s just some pebbles on the tracks or something. It always happens in the mountains.”
I rubbed my eyes and looked around. Nothing was on fire, so that was a good start. I didn’t need to start spontaneously combusting in my sleep again. Adrenaline had surged through me like a splash of cold water to the face, and I was wide awake in that blinking, confused, disoriented way you get after a nap that went on a bit too long.
“Uumph...” I rubbed my eyes again. “I was… never mind.” I didn’t need to worry her. She had enough on her shoulders and most of it was my fault to begin with. There was no point telling her I’d been woken up before Luna could finish her warning. At least I knew there was something I had to be careful about. Even if I didn’t know the nature of the danger, it was far better than thinking things were safe.
Gilda looked at me for a long moment. “Are you okay? You look kind of…”
“I’m just groggy,” I said. “I’m gonna grab something to drink from the dining car. Do you want anything?”
“As long as you’re paying, sure,” Gilda grinned. “Grab me some peanuts.”
“I’ll do you one better and get the fancy mixed nuts,” I joked, stepping out into the narrow train corridor and closing the door behind me on Gilda’s snicker of laughter.
I looked outside. We were getting close to Griffonstone, less than an hour away now if I had to guess. If there was some kind of danger on the train, it would have to be in the pretty immediate future or Luna wouldn’t have tried to change the subject and stall. From what she’d said I could guess it wasn’t the train derailing or the whole thing falling off a cliff. That wasn’t something she could have stopped in Canterlot.
My own train of thought was interrupted for a moment as I navigated the complex social dance of passing another pony in the narrow hallway, each of us apologizing, trying to go on the same side, and laughing awkwardly when we finally managed to coordinate not running into each other.
I didn’t think much of that, or the other pony I passed by, until I opened the door to the dining car. It was almost packed full of ponies, standing room only.
“What the buck?” I asked. On the first train I’d taken up here there had been absolutely no one else on the train with us. This looked practically like the commuter train from Ponyville!
“Is that her?” One of the ponies in the crowd whispered, pointing at me. I realized that most of the cutie marks I was seeing involved writing and newspapers and I had stumbled right into the danger Luna had wanted me to avoid, hadn’t I? There couldn’t be much worse than a surprise visit from the press. The ones that had gone home after that stormy night must have told their friends that a story was brewing.
“Oh no,” I groaned.
“Sunset Shimmer! Here, here!” One of the reporters reared up to be seen over the crowd. “Can you tell us where you’ve been and why you haven’t been seen in Griffonstone since the Griffonstone Gala?”
“The what Gala?” I blinked. I certainly hadn’t called the party that. “Look, I’ll be happy to answer questions later, I just came in here to get some tea.”
I gave the pony behind the counter a pleading look and they shrugged.
“Sunset Shimmer, what are your opinions on the current events in Griffonstone? Are they why you’re returning now?”
“I was investigating a lead regarding the abnormal weather conditions present in the city,” I said carefully. “I was able to get some answers, but I was out of contact because of the remoteness of the location. Until I know what’s actually happening, I’d prefer not to comment.”
“So you’re unaware of the privately funded venture to retrieve the Idol of Griffonstone?” one of the ponies asked.
“The what?!”





When we arrived, I looked up at the banners and signs and balloons and upgraded my statement slightly.
“What the buck?” I asked. “What is all this?”
Someone had decided it was time to have a whole festival in Griffonstone. Tents had been set up. Bits were changing hooves. The smell of cotton candy and hot oil carried on the breeze. I walked through the street in a daze. I was wrong. Luna hadn’t wanted to warn me about the reporters.
The whole thing was leading to a central stage and halfway there I started to see the cracks around the illusion. All the tents were cheap and threadbare and patched together. The prices listed were two or three times higher than they should have been. It was the kind of pricing you only got when you had a captive audience and no competition. The carnival games were the kind that were all transparently scams.
It wasn’t a festival with vendors and snack stalls. It was more like a theme park. They were all working for the same pony. No. Not the same pony. As I approached the stage I realized there wasn’t one pony behind it all.
There were two ponies.
“Welcome, one and all, to the veeeery first Grand Glorious Griffonstone Gathering!” the first pony proclaimed.
“The most amazing, stupendous, and value-filled festival that Griffonstone has ever seen,’ the second one continued.
“And it has been brought to you today by…” the first started. The two ponies took off their hats and posed.
“The Flim Flam Brothers!” they declared together.
It was going to be a long day. They had a whole song and dance routine but I was not in the mood to listen to it. I could smell the huckster on them from a block away and I needed to do something about this before they scammed the griffons out of every bit in Griffonstone or got themselves killed in the attempt. Ponies might just run them out of town for being scam artists, but griffons seemed like the type to throw them off the side of a cliff.
I scowled at them and trotted around backstage. A pony with a black shirt and sunglasses tried to stop me, and I very gently lifted him up and walked under him without listening to what he had to say about where I had a right to be.
Their backstage setup was really nice, I had to admit. The dressing room was just the way you’d imagine one as a foal. It was stylish and open and not at all like the cramped and functional spaces that you’d actually find in theatres that had spent more time as janitors closets and storage rooms than anything involving actors.
I was digging through a bowl of candy when the two brothers arrived. I looked up into the mirror and watched them come in having clearly known I was already in here. The security guard had probably warned them I was around.
“There are no blue pieces in this Rainbow Brittle,” I said instead of a real greeting.
“Blue is Flim’s least favorite flavor,” Flam said.
“We always ask for a bowl without the blue as part of our contract terms. It tells us if the ponies in charge are actually reading what we give them to sign,” Flim added.
“I suppose that is pretty important,” I agreed. “You need to know how careful everypony is before you start pulling off a scam.”
“Now, now, Miss Sunset, we’ve never been convicted of anything!” Flam joked. “The most terrible thing we’ve ever done is get ponies excited about our fabulous products!”
“Never convicted but even I’ve heard some stories. What you puled in Ponyville is basically nothing compared to what you tried in Seasaddle and Neigh Orleans. I have to admit that selling certificates of authenticity to various public buildings is technically legal, even if the ponies involved didn’t quite understand they didn’t get any real ownership.”
I turned around to face them.
“And then the thing with secret jewelry hidden inside bars of soap! Even the ponies who bought it knew going in that only one in a hundred bars had anything more valuable than a foal’s costume jewelry for playing dress-up, but everypony involved was absolutely sure they had the winner in their hooves.”
Flim and Flam doffed their hats politely.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Sunset,” Flim said.
“It’s also a pleasure to see some of the more extreme rumors about your temper and attitude are unfounded,” Flam added.
“Are you saying that because I didn’t set your guard on fire, or because I didn’t jump up on stage and shut everything down?” I asked.
“Oh, six of one and half a dozen of the other,” Flam said.
“Though I would like to note that you don’t have any more authority here than we do,” Flim said. “We at least asked permission before we set up our little festival. We’re told you didn’t ask at all before you took over the castle!”
“It was an abandoned ruin,” I said. “If any of the griffons have a problem with me staying there while I’m in town I’m happy to leave and find something else.”
“I’m sure they’d feel very comfortable coming over and ordering you to leave after seeing what you do when you’re upset,” Flam said. “The reporters had all sorts of pictures of your misadventure with the thunderbird.”
I sighed. “Look, you’re here for a reason. You’re running every sort of normal carnival scam there is. Fixed games, overpriced food, souvenir T-shirts that are going to fall apart the second anypony tries to wash them. I don’t care about any of that.”
“Is that so?” Flim asked.
“I’m sure your margins are as tight as possible and you’re going to pull a profit from this even if you walk away now,” I shrugged. “I’m a little peeved because you’re giving ponies a bad name as exploiting the locals, but I do recognize that at least some of your costs are higher coming out here. You must have reserved practically a whole train shipping all this junk out to Griffonstone.”
“It’s a very wise investment,” Flam said. “May I?” He motioned to the dressing room table and I stepped aside to let him and his brother pass. They sat in the chairs set before the vanity mirrors and pulled bottles of water out of a cooler.
“Would you like one?” Flim asked. “Free of charge, this one time.”
“We always pack plenty, because my stomach gets a bit fragile when I have to drink tap water,” Flam explained. “One of the many dangers of traveling as much as we do!”
“No thanks,” I said. “So what are you investing in? No, let’s call it what it is. What are you speculating on and trying to get other ponies to invest in before you pull the rug out from under them?”
“Griffonstone!” Flim said grandly, motioning to the world around them. “It’s the next big thing! All the papers can talk about these days is our neighbor to the east! We didn’t even have to stretch the truth to our investors to get funding to come out here. They were excited just to be involved!”
Flam nodded. “More to the point, we wanted to get in on the ground floor. More ponies are going to be coming out here, but there’s nowhere for them to stay and nothing for them to do!”
“We’re already working on building a luxury resort, but that takes time.”
“And there’s the other matter,” Flam said.
“The other matter?” I asked.
“The Idol of Boreas, symbol of Griffonstone! And the first pony to retrieve it from the Abysmal Abyss will become the new ruler--”
“--or rulers,” Flim noted.
“Of Griffonstone!” they said together.
“You think if you just go and pluck it out of that hole it means you’re the kings?” I asked. “I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works.”
“You’d be surprised,” Flim said. “A ruler is in charge because they’ve won the popularity vote! You’ve got us beat in terms of feats of power and I commend you for that! You’ve played to your strengths!”
Flam nodded. “But we can play to ours. You’ve avoided the press and we’ve embraced it! We’ve given them a show and spectacle they can’t ignore, and when we get the Idol back, we’ll ride that tide of fame all the way to fortune!”
Flim and Flam turned to each other and high-fived.
I rolled my eyes. “You don’t even know what you’re getting yourself into,” I said. “Have you even seen the Abyss? You can’t just stroll down there and find the Idol, and I promise that if you even try to pull a fake Idol out of your flanks it’ll backfire. The real one was a magical tool, not just some glit and glitter.”
The two grinned. “So you haven’t seen our arrangement, then?” Flam asked.
“I think it’s getting close to time anyway, brother, why not go down a few minutes early so we can explain our brilliant plan to her?”
“Oh yes, I’d love to see this ‘brilliant plan.’” I scoffed.





“You’ve got to be joking,” I said, when I saw it.
The two had somehow gotten an old steam crane up to Griffonstone. It must have been the largest thing they could fit on the train, but it also had to be close to a century old. It was so old it predated welding, and the riveted metal was obviously rusty and scarred under the fresh paintjob they’d slapped on it.
But that wasn’t the part that had me questioning their sanity. No, the real bow on the Hearth’s Warming present was what was attached to the crane. A metal bell with windows on the sides and just big enough to hold a pony or two. A submersible diving bell.
“Sunset!” Ruby ran up to me and slammed into my legs, hugging me. “You’ve got to stop them!”
“Beloved, I am glad that you’ve arrived back in time,” Shahrazad said. “I have been trying to tell Ruby that there is no great rush. It seems to my eye that events are on their way to playing out on their own.”
“Miss Shahrazad, this is exactly how…” Ruby lowered her voice. “It’s how King Guto died! He tried this exact thing and he never came back!”
“Yes,” Shahrazad agreed. “As I said, things are quickly resolving themselves. There’s no need for us to interfere.”
“I am sorely tempted to agree with you,” I sighed. “Part of me is half-sure the press would try and find a way to blame it all on me, though.”
Flim and Flam had gotten ahead of me, the security pony getting them through the crowd and onto the wooden platform holding the diving bell. The crowd went wild when they waved.
“One and all, you’re about to see the most heroic act of the century!” Flam called out.
“Somewhere below, the Idol of Griffonstone waits, the precious treasure that defines your nation!” Flim continued.
“With our amazing and reliable, time-tested technology, one adventurous and fearless pony will descend into the Abyss using our patent-pending reinforced environmental capsule!”
“This craft, the indomitable, invincible, incredible Excelsior II, will descend down, with the pilot able to see everything around him thanks to these armored windows made of the same real sapphire-style artificial mineral composite!”
“And when he spots the Idol, he will be able to retrieve it using the patent-pending Extendo-Grab remote retrieval unit!”
“Get one for you or your foals today!” Flim exclaimed, holding up a hook on a stick.
“Okay, time to call this to a halt,” I sighed. “Step back, Ruby.”
I popped up on stage with a burst of teleportation. “Okay, that’s enough. I hate to break it to both of you, but this won’t work. It’s been tried before.”
“If ponies gave up after a single failure, we’d never have built a civilization,” Flam said.
“This operation will use the latest and greatest technology for exploring extreme environments!” Flim said.
“And our pilot is a trained and experienced adventurer!” Flam waved, and a pony walked up on stage in a red, white, and blue jumpsuit decorated with stars and stripes. It might have been dashing, if he hadn’t been wearing a beaten-up sailor’s hat, sporting a thick and snarled beard, and generally looked exactly like what I thought of when I pictured a rough fisherpony.
“Yar,” he said calmly.
I rolled my eyes. “You and I both know this is doomed,” I said. “If you really thought this was going to work, you’d be inside the diving bell--”
“We prefer the term ‘expedition craft,’” Flim corrected.
“You’d be inside the ‘expedition craft’ yourselves instead of sending this stallion in your place. You’re not willing to put your money where your mouth is because you know how risky it is and you don’t like taking risks.”
Flim and Flam actually seemed offended by that. They looked at each other and had one of those almost-instant silent conversations that two ponies could only have when they knew each other really well.
“You’re right, Miss Sunset,” Flam agreed.
“We’ll go down there ourselves!” Flim exclaimed, waving to the crowd. “It’s a brilliant idea! Twice as exciting, twice as many experts!”
“Though unfortunately, we don’t have the same kind of stylish expedition clothing as our expert pilot,” Flam sighed. “But such is the price of discovery! Not only will we find the Idol, but we’ll also be the first to go down into the depths of the Abyss and return!”
“Explorers, heroes, kings of industry!” Flim declared.
“And maybe kings of something else soon,” Flam whispered to me. “You might think you have the griffons wrapped around your hoof, but we’ll be the ones in charge soon enough. Our own little kingdom and tax haven!”
“Don’t do this,” I warned. “You have no idea how dangerous it could become at any time.”
“She might be right, brother!” Flim said. “If there’s anything we know about the weather in Griffonstone, it’s that it can do practically anything without warning!”
“Indeed,” Flam agreed. “And you know what that means!”
“It means we need to strike while the iron is hot and the winds are calm! Pilot, to the crane controls! You’re reassigned to engineering for the duration of this venture!”
The sailor grumbled, trotting back towards the crane. “Don’t even know how t’ use the derned thing. Wanted t’ go down in th’ bell…”
Flim pushed a door inward on the bell-shaped diving capsule, and held it for Flam. I got a glimpse of the interior, and I could tell it was going to be very, very cramped for the two lanky stallions. I wouldn’t care at all if it wasn’t starting to look more like an iron coffin than a safety vehicle. They managed to get inside and closed the hatch.
“Pilot, begin the ascent!” one of them declared boldly. I couldn’t tell which of the two had said it between the distortion of the loudspeaker they were using to communicate from inside the diving bell and my own dread starting to overtake my senses.
The steam crane roared and rumbled, the engine turning over with an uneven bass thump that made me think it was already on the verge of failure. The winch whined, and the capsule rose into the air, high over the stage and the crowd. Flim and Flam waved from the small windows. The ponies in the crowd went wild. They loved a spectacle. I couldn’t help but notice the griffons were mostly shaking their heads and making bets, probably about if the idiots would survive. From the bits changing talons some of them were even more pessimistic than I was and didn’t think it’d even get this far.
“Now, into position!” one of the brothers ordered. The crane’s boom swung wide over the Abyssal Abyss. The iron pod hung over the drop down into nothing, swinging slightly from the motion, the sheer mass of the metal making it act a little like a pendulum. I could practically smell the coming disaster in the air.
No, more than that. I really could feel something. It was a feeling that crept along my spine, like a voice whispering in my ear about all the things that were going to go wrong.
“The wind is going to change,” I said, before I even knew what I was going to say. I don’t know where the idea came from. It was like reading something out loud before you’d really parsed what you were doing, the words coming before the understanding.
The griffons nearest me heard it and frowned, looking up, not at the crane, but the sky. It took them a moment later, but they seemed to come to the same conclusion. I saw some of them start to back away, towards shelter, not wanting to miss seeing the coming excitement but wary that they might get caught in it.
The ponies were, of course, oblivious.
I groaned and looked up at the capsule, shouting and hoping they could hear me. “Flim! Flam! Stop being idiots and get back down here!”
“Flim, deploy the patriotic music to drown out the doubters and hecklers!” Flam ordered.
“Will do, brother!”
The loudspeakers crackled and the worst rendition of the Equestrian national anthem started. It sounded like a record that had been left in the sun, scuffed up by animals, and then somepony else dug it out of the trash and polished it and used it anyway because it was free. It was also being played loud enough to blow out the speaker and completely drown out any shouting I tried to do. I was going to have to find some other way to keep them from killing themselves.
“We’ve got to stop them!” I said. I ran towards the crane operator. “Hey! You! You have to get them back! Things are about to get bad and they’re in the middle of it!”
The old pony shrugged. “Ain’t my call to make, lady. I’m just here to fiddle the sticks.” He motioned to the controls, then pulled on one, yanking it back. The timbre of the winch changed, the entire crane rattling as brakes were released and the bell started sliding down into the Abyss.
“Are you deliberately trying to get them killed or is that just an extra perk?” I demanded. “Get them back up!”
“Hey, lady, I’m the hired help! I don’t do what they want, I don’t get paid!” he said defensively. He paused. “Darnit, might not get paid anyway. Operatin’ this crane ain’t in my contract.”
He adjusted his hat, grabbed a brown bag lunch from the other side of the chair, and stood up.
“All yours, lady. Me hooves are off the controls until I talk to the bosses an’ make sure I’m gettin paid.” He hopped down and walked away. I groaned and rubbed my temples.
“Okay, sure. I just need to know how to use the--”
The wind shifted. I heard a pop. Then another one. Metal started to groan.
“As we descend into the depths of the earth, we remain resolute, brave, unshakable!” one of the brothers said, the music fading to a more acceptable volume.
“We can see various rock strata that we are, sorry to say, completely unqualified to describe in great detail,” the other one continued. “They should have sent a geologist, but all they got were two poets!”
“Poets, gentlestallions, explorers, and entrepreneurs!”
“This may already be deeper than any living being has ever traversed into the Abyssal Abyss! Who knows what amazing discoveries and sights lie in wait for us?”
The wind started to pick up, the sinister breeze starting to blow stronger with every passing moment. I heard another ping from the crane. I’d been looking down, trying to trace the path of the bell. When I looked up at the crane, I could see the boom shaking. Another rivet popped loose, dropping into the Abyss.
“Oh no,” I whispered.
I had just enough time to feel the chill down my spine again and not enough to actually do anything about it. The line started swinging in the wind, and the poorly-maintained, improperly-braced crane shook. The tracks shifted, the entire crane leaning.
I tried to grab for it with my magic, but I only made things worse. I acted without thinking and tried to steady it at a single point, holding the tip of the boom and doing what I could to keep it from falling further. That put more strain on other parts of the weakened boom, and fatigued metal snapped and broke. I let go, but the damage was done. The crane’s arm collapsed entirely. There was a thunderous boom as the crane went nose-first into the dirt.
A cloud of dust exploded up, but the growing wind wouldn’t let it linger. I shielded my face against the blast of sand and dirt, and when it cleared, I could see the fallen boom, reaching all the way to the other side like a makeshift bridge, just barely holding itself together.
“Oh no, are they dead?” Shahrazad asked, walking up next to me to look. “Oh well. So, now that the excitement is over, should we get something to eat? I saw something called a deep-fried carrot dog on a stick that seemed interesting.”
“Do not worry! The invincible Flim-Flam Brothers are doing just fine!” the loudspeaker declared. “However, conditions do not seem to be entirely optimal for the descent! Pilot, raise us back up!”
There was a significant pause.
“Pilot?” the brother asked, more meekly.
“These idiots,” I mumbled. I reached out for the line with my magic and tried to pull them up. With the cable in my grip I could feel the strain on it, and the moment I put any real tension on the line it immediately began failing.
“Can you get them?” Gilda asked,  landing next to me.
“Not like this,” I said. “The cable is too weak. It was never intended for anything as heavy as that diving bell. Maybe if conditions were perfect and we went really slowly I could lift it out that way, but…” I shook my head.
“This is about as far from perfect as it’s going to get,” Gilda mumbled. “So what are you going to do?”
That was when I became aware of just how many ponies and griffons were all looking at me. It was the same kind of look they’d give Celestia. Something terrible was happening and they needed a leader and I’d been elected as the only adult in the room.
I cleared my throat and pretended I wasn’t starting to sweat. Not from the danger, but the attention. I was going to mess this up and get them killed and everypony was going to see it happen!
“Hey!” Gilda snapped. “Come on! You’re a pony, and the one thing ponies are good at is showing up out of nowhere and being big dumb heroes!”
“I’ll cast repair spells on the crane to keep it in one piece!” Ruby volunteered, running out of the crowd and raising her hooves.
Even Ruby had more of a plan than I did. I took a deep breath and started thinking out loud. They needed help from a Princess or something but there wasn’t one of those on hoof except Shahrazad and she was more likely to push the rest of the crane off the cliff and call the problem solved.
“I can’t lift them out by the main cable, and for some reason there’s no safety line.” It probably would have cost a few extra bits, so they’d gotten rid of it. “I can’t reach the diving bell from here either or I’d just lift it out directly to avoid putting more strain on what’s left of the cable.”
I looked down into the Abyss, and put a hoof on the boom. It absolutely wasn’t sturdy at all, but my weight wasn’t much compared to what it was already dealing with. I had to hope it wouldn’t be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
“I’m going to follow the line down and have them evacuate the bell,” I said. “If I cut it free, it should stabilize everything, and the winch might be able to work well enough to lift us out.”
Gabby flew up out of the mass of ponies. “I volunteer to get the crane working again!”
“Just be careful with the boiler,” I warned. “Some of them don’t like being tipped over like that.”
“Will do, Miss Sunset!” Gabby saluted and flew over to the crane, perching on it and starting to examine it like the curious bird she was.
“Everypony else, the weather might only get worse from here. I strongly suggest finding some shelter. There’s some room in the palace for those of you with nowhere else to go.” I hopped up into the fallen crane’s boom. “Wish me luck.”
“Good luck, beloved,” Shahrazad said. “I would tell you not to do this, but you already know it is foolish.”
“No kidding,” I mumbled, so the crowd couldn’t hear me. I nodded to her and started out on the narrow walkway towards where the cable hung, swaying in the wind. I couldn’t even see the bell from here. It had to be really far down, or else something else was blocking my view. A hard gust slammed towards me, and I could see the leaves and sand caught in it, but at the last second it deflected away, like a wild animal scared off by something.
I blinked in surprise, and it happened again. The boom rocked in a hard wind, but the gust never actually reached me.
“Typhon’s gift!” I realized. Even if I had no idea how to actually command the wind he’d supposedly given me, it was protecting me. “Maybe I really can do this,” I said, suddenly less unsure about myself. Then I slipped and almost fell right off the boom, which would have been a terrible way to die.
I steadied myself and took the last few steps over to the cable, grabbing it with my hooves and easing myself down, the whole thing rocking with the pendulum motion of the heavy weight somewhere below me.
“This might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever done,” I said to myself, as I started inching down. “But there’s still plenty of time left today to beat that record.”
If there’s one things hooves are really great at, it’s holding on to a steel cable that was swaying side to side in the wind, with the occasional very exciting jolt of sudden motion that made me wonder if it was coming from above me and the rest of the boom was about to give up or below me and I was going to find a broken and frayed cable at the end of this trip because I was too slow to save anypony.
Then the wind picked up and my hooves slipped and I fell a full body length and learned that rope burn was a secret third option also here to ruin my day. All I wanted right now was to be somewhere warm, with no responsibilities, no one counting on me, no disasters. I could have been on a beach right now. I could have decided to run away to Maremuda or Manaco, or, heck, just gone to Las Pegasus and had some strong mixed drinks at poolside.
Maybe that’s what I’d do after all of this, as a treat to myself for living through another huge mess.
The air around me roared, and I knew another blast of wind was coming at me, with the sound and fury and strength of a freight train. I winced as I felt it near and-- it just went around me. The protection was still working, even against hurricane-force winds.
“I am going to send a letter to Typhon and apologize for doubting that his gift was going to be useful at all,” I said to myself. Just being able to hear my own voice over the wind was a surprise.
A breeze circled around me, warm and gentle and pushing some of the chill away. It was like a warm breath, like the soothing feeling of warming your hooves on a cold day, the kind of wind that didn’t have any force behind it but fought off the stuffy doldrums of a room and made things feel alive.
“I sure wish I knew your name,” I said quietly, looking around. Even if it had been brightly lit I wouldn’t have been able to see the air moving, but I could feel it twist in ways the wind didn’t do on its own. “I know I can’t just give you a name. I have to learn it. I just hope you’ll be patient enough with me to give me a chance.”
The cable rocked, and my breath caught in my throat. I could self-levitate, sure, but could I get out of here that way without being smashed against the stone?
“It doesn’t matter if I can or can’t,” I grumbled. “The problem is if I come out of this alone I’m going to look like a huge idiot.”
I didn’t have time to faff about and play with the wind like it was a pet. The more I delayed, the bigger chance something was going to go wrong.
I slid down inch by inch, wishing I had a better way to do this. The cable started to chafe at my skin where I was holding it, and the constant strain was taking a toll on me. Around me the absolutely gloom was oppressive, with no sign of the sunlight from above. I cast a light spell and pointed it down, trying to see how close I was.
And that’s when I saw the problem.
The cable was obviously caught on an outcropping, pinching it in place. I looked to the other side of the tunnel and found a ledge. A brief moment of self-levitation put me over there, because I didn’t trust the rock where the cable was caught. It looked like a recently-dislodged boulder and I could guess what had done the dislodging.
Just on the other side of the outcropping, I could see the diving bell dangling at a slight angle.
“Hey!” I called out. “Are you two alive?”
I moved my light to shine into the windows. I saw the two inside, and they waved frantically.
“Ah, a rescue party!” Flim said, his voice muffled by the steel walls of the capsule. “We’ve arrived at a small bit of trouble because of Flam, I’m afraid!”
“Don’t push the blame on me, Flim! This is clearly your fault for not taking the weight of two ponies into account when coming up with the safety margins for our expedition!”
“I admit, we should have expected a need to come down ourselves,” Flim conceded. “After all, our hired help is so unreliable!”
“Perhaps that’s the real nub on the pencil there,” Flam said. “It’s not your fault or my fault at all! It was that pony we hired who was behind the controls of the crane when it went bad!”
“By golly you’re right! We’ll have to make sure to dock his wages for the cost of any damaged equipment!”
“Don’t forget emotional damages!”
I groaned. “I’m the one getting emotional damages. Can you two be quiet for a second? I’m trying to see how to unstick you so we can get back to the surface.”
“The wind kicked us into the side of the cliff and there was a minor rockfall,” Flim said, looking up. “We tried clearing it with the grabber, but…”
The short metal claw extended out of the bottom of the diving bell and tried to reach around, but it couldn’t even get halfway up the capsule. At least they’d tried something. I took a close look at where the line was caught. Maybe I could break the rock? I tossed that idea when I saw the condition of the cable. It was fraying, rubbing against the rock with that much tension on it was snapping the strands.
“Okay, we need to get you two out of there,” I said. “I don’t think we can safely free the capsule. If I put any real pressure on the cable it could break.”
“There are two very real problems with the standard escape procedure for the Excelsior II,” Flam said. “First, we would be escaping into the open air over quite a long drop.”
“And second, perhaps more relevantly, the door is facing the wrong way and we can’t get out. The space is too narrow.”
“Wonderful,” I sighed.”There’s only one thing we can do, then. I’m going to very gently nudge your stupid iron coffin and try to turn it around so you can get out. I can lift you with my magic and put you over here on the ledge, then we’ll send a signal up to the surface and they’ll lift us out. Easy.”
It wasn’t actually easy and there were a bunch of places where it might fail, but they were sitting in a ticking time bomb that might send them down into the depths at any moment, so they didn’t have a huge amount of room to complain. They really, really found a way to fill that space, though.
“That doesn’t seem terribly safe, my dear,” Flim said. “I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but the light draft running through this canyon wants nothing dearer than to push us around, and that ledge you’re on seems awfully narrow and significantly less armored than this pod.”
“If you stay in there, the line will break and you’ll fall and that’s going to turn into a giant can of pony jelly,” I said. “If you don’t want help I’ll leave.”
I shrugged and turned around, taking two steps before one of them called out to me to--
“Stop!” Flam yelled. “You’ve made your point. You can imagine that we’re simply not excited by the prospect of taking on further risk.”
“I’m sure,” I said, trying to keep my voice level. I reached out with my magic and tried casting some repair spells on the cable to keep it together, but it wasn’t going to matter much. It wasn’t designed to carry anywhere near the amount of weight it was bearing. If they’d actually done calculations about safety margins, somepony had misplaced a decimal point somewhere. All the repair spells in the world weren’t going to hold the rigging together if it was constantly breaking from the strain.
I very gently gripped the iron diving bell and tried to turn it. The mass wasn’t a problem. I could heft it easily enough. The problem was that much mass combined with sudden movements. Something perfectly still was easy to lift even if it was the size of a house. Something twisting in the wind, fragile, and as heavy as a house but packed into a smaller space? Much harder.
The bell started twisting, and the cable suddenly had slack in it. My repair spells had only reached so far. Somewhere far above us, the cable had given way. The diving bell slipped, and coils of steel cable fell past me.
I tried to get a better grip, and the wind caught the Excelsior II, breaking it away from my magic. I jumped for it, clinging to the bell and trying to keep it in that tiny eye of the storm around me. Everything came loose at once, and we started falling.
The cliff faces loomed, the rock rough and ready to tear us apart. I cast a shield spell and a bubble appeared around us. We hit the wall and bounced like rubber, from one side to the other. Flim and Flam were screaming. I was yelling in a more dignified and less terrified way, and no one was having fun.
We bounced from one side to the other over and over again like being in a pinball machine down into the dark.





When we finally hit the bottom my first thought was that I was very thankful there was a bottom. My second thought was that I was sore, cold, and wet.
I sat up and re-cast my light spell. I was sitting on soft sand, but not the kind of beach I wanted. It was the silty, dirty, pebbly sand that you’d find at the bottom of a river. Glacier-cold water soaked through it and slowly filtered its way through.
The diving bell was lying on its side next to me, having narrowly avoided crushing me when we finally landed.
“Not dead yet,” I groaned. “That’d be too easy.”
I trotted over and knocked on the side of the bell, which rang in a pleasing way.
“Are you two alive?” I asked. “Sorry for the rough ride.”
There were groans from inside.
“We’re going to have to find a way out of here,” I said. “With all the bouncing I’m not sure where we ended up or how to get back.”
“We could use a little help,” Flim sighed.
“Neither of you are hurt, are you?” I asked, trying to look through the portholes. I couldn’t get a good view of the inside.
“No,” Flam said. “But we’ve managed to come to rest with the only hatch facing down into the sand.”





It only took a few moments to set it upright and help the two out, and it was a distraction that I missed a few moments later because anything was better than looking around at where we’d ended up, and three light spells only made it more obvious how bad the situation was.
The caves around us must have been carved by water, but not in any directed way. Tunnels snaked in all directions and the whole place looked almost melted, the dampness turning every surface into a slick, slimy mess. The wind whistled through the darkness, those tunnels acting like the pipes of a pipe organ and turning the sound into deep moaning coming from all around us.
“Well, brother, I didn’t think we were going to end up in Tartarus,” Flam joked, trying to lighten the mood.
“Who knew that we’d end up here just for some light tax evasion and a bit of exaggerated advertising,” Flim agreed.
“I’ve seen Tartarus,” I said. “It’s not as bad as this.”
“All we need is a little ingenuity and common sense,” Flam decided.
“Indeed, brother, a calm head and steady heart does more to help a pony escape a bad situation than anything else,” Flim agreed.
“You’re right,” I added, nodding. “You’re both idiots and this whole thing is your fault, but you’re right that the best way out of this is to think out way out.” I cast my light around, trying to decide what to do.
“We’ve had to survive any number of potentially deadly encounters,” Flam said.
“Some of which were admittedly of our own making, but others where nopony would find us anything but victims,” Flim conceded.
“Angry mobs, monster attacks, being lost in the woods after taking a shortcut…”
“Sometimes multiple dangers at once!”
“The usual wisdom when a pony is lost is to stay in one place, but that’s never worked well for my brother and me.”
“It assumes that ponies are looking for you.”
“Indeed. Flam, and as we typically travel alone, ponies don’t know to go looking! We’ve stepped off the trail more than once seeking a shortcut. Sometimes it doesn’t work out.”
“When a pony is lost, and no one knows to look, or no one can look as in the current case, they must find their own way.”
“And fortune of fortunes, we have some direction already!” Flim said. He motioned at the ground. “Running water!”
“Streams lead to rivers, and those lead to the sea,” Flam said. “Ponies almost always build their towns near water, so following a stream can often get you back to civilization.”
“Not that it’s likely we’ll find a town this far from the surface,” Flim mumbled, much more quietly.
“No, but your theory isn’t wrong,” I said. “Come on.” I started following the direction of the flow. “The water has to go somewhere. It probably leads outside at some point. I mean, look at how much water must go through here during the rainy season!”
I motioned to the carved and eroded rock walls. It would take a massive torrent to wear down the rock this much.
“Since it has to lead outside, we should be able to just walk out of a cave somewhere and then start finding our way back,” I said. “The only trouble might be tight passages and underwater spaces, but I’ve got spells that will take care of both if they come up.”
“That does sound something like a real plan!” Flam agreed, smiling.
“Certainly it’s hopeful that we won’t spend too long in this pitch-black pandemonium,” Flim said. He looked back, as if the howling, wailing wind whistling through the tunnels might turn out to be from some beast stalking us.
It would be nice if it was a monster, just so I could relieve some stress by blasting it with fireballs. Instead, we were alone, just waiting for things to go wrong. Again. What would happen? A rockfall? A sudden flood that gave no time for a water-breathing spell? Some kind of ancient evil slime monster?
“So you two are pretty infamous,” I said, trying to stop the torrent of my own thoughts before I was jumping at shadows and throwing fire around because I was spooked. “I happen to have some friends in Ponyville, you know.”
“Ah yes, Ponyville,” Flam sighed. “Not our proudest moment.”
“It was a nice town, until we were run out of it for just pursuing a legitimate business opportunity,” Flim said. His tone still seemed light but there was some grumbling behind it.
“Why don’t you tell me about it?” I asked. “I got one side of the story, I might as well hear yours.”
“The fair and honorable Judge Shimmer,” Flam joked. “It would have been nicer to be tried by somepony who would listen to our side of the sordid tale.”
“Instead we were cast unjustly into the court of public opinion, a place where even the most upstanding and decent ponies can find themselves with no defense and presumed guilty at every turn,” Flim continued.
“If you know a bit about what happened, then you must be aware we came to town with a marvelous invention, a terrific business opportunity, an amazing chance for everypony to come out ahead!”
“Our Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 was one of the most advanced devices ever created in the realm of self-propelled agricultural processing equipment!”
“It made darn good cider, too!”
“Even the Apple family maven had to agree that our cider was in the same realm of quality as their hoof-pressed method. It could have changed their lives!”
“So what happened?” I asked.
“They wouldn’t bite the apple,” Flam said bitterly.
Flim scoffed. “Every pony in that family refused to even consider our offer of buying the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. We ran demonstrations, we showed that it did exactly what we said it did! Say what you will about some of our other ventures, this was just good, honest, door-to-door sales.”
“We didn’t want the cider press ourselves,” Flam said. “We don’t have a farm or aspirations of starting one. We thought we had the perfect client, but they didn’t want it.”
“Towards the end, we tried a bit more of a high-pressure sales tactic. I’m not particularly proud of trying to corner them, but…”
“Was that when you forced them into a competition with the farm on the line?” I asked.
“Forced is a stronger word than I’d use,” Flim said. “Even if we’d won, we wouldn’t have taken the farm. As I said, we didn’t want it. It’s a booby prize for ponies who want to stay on the road!”
“We would have traded them the farm for a few bits or sales percentage until the cost was made up and, wonder of wonders, we’d even throw in the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 as collateral!”
“Essentially we’d just force them to buy the thing,” Flim shrugged. “Still not terribly honorable but we just wanted to wash our hands of the thing. It was supposed to be an easy sell! They had no equipment, we help them modernize, they enjoy a life of leisure!”
“And we make bank on maintenance and future sales to them and other ponies around them with custom device solutions,” Flam sighed.
“The Apple family was the wrong place to start with that,” I said. “You have no idea how stubborn Applejack is. Well, it’s not just stubborn it’s…”
“It’s what?” Flim asked.
I debated if I should tell them or not. It was something deeply personal to her, and these ponies weren’t exactly on good terms with her. Still…
“She tries to run the farm the way her parents did,” I said eventually, deciding it was better to explain it. “The way she remembers her parents doing it. They won’t get a new plow because the one they’ve got is the one her Dad always used to use. They don’t need help during harvest season because Mom and Dad never needed help. Sure, the farm is twice as big as it was back then, but in their mind’s eye, two ponies were enough to run the place and when you’re a foal… the farm probably seemed even bigger then than it does now, when your perspective is that much closer to the ground.”
“I have to admit that doesn’t make one half-bit of sense to me,” Flam said.
“Nor I. I admire the working spirit, but why not aspire to more?” Flim put in.
“Don’t ask me. I helped on their farm for years and the only reason they ever let me even touch the trees with magic was because I was a family friend. I’ve been trying for ages to get Applejack to at least hire seasonal workers during applebucking season.”
“We ended up having to sell the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 to a cherry farm down south,” Flam sighed. “At much less profit. It wasn’t optimized for cherry juice, so we had to tinker with it for ages to get it working right.”
“I’m still not sure we made any profit on the whole enterprise. Even counting cider sales!” Flim griped.
“And now you’re running some little scams here and there?” I asked.
“We learned a valuable lesson,” Flim said.
“We learned never to risk our own money in the game,” Flam clarified. “Always get investors, and always be ready to cash out.”
“If you stopped cutting corners like with the crane and pod, you could do good work,” I said. “I’d love to see what you could come up with if you tried making something else with the same quality as that cider press.”
“Find us a few investors willing to pay in advance and we’d be happy to show you,” Flim joked.
“If you two give up on this idea of trying to rule Griffonstone I might do that,” I said. “Maybe they do need a new leader but it shouldn’t be ponies coming in to turn them into Equestria’s newest conquest. Besides, wouldn’t you rather be on the road?”
Flam laughed. “You do have us there!” he admitted. “Still, being able to give the idol away for tax considerations and a large cash reward would have been nice.”
The flow of water under us was getting stronger. Instead of just a trickle through sand, other streams from other caverns in the twisty maze caves joined together, the stream getting larger as we went on, and now we were really walking along the banks instead of down an almost dry riverbed.
“The tunnel widens out up ahead,” I said, casting my light around. “We might really be getting somewhere!”
“Thank the stars and sun!” Flam groaned.
Flam nodded. “Yes, after that rough tumble down here, it will be comforting to see sunlight again.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “We just have to go a little… hmm. Um.” I stopped and looked out ahead. I’d been hoping we’d start to see a way out, maybe a nice cave mouth leading to some woods outside. What I was looking at was, instead, a small underground lake.
“At least if we’re stuck down here for a while we won’t go thirsty,” Flim joked.
Flam looked less sure about it. Flim patted him on the shoulder and they gave each other a brave smile.
“Let’s go around to the other side,” I said. “There has to be an outlet that goes further.”
They nodded, and we started walking along the shore, sand and silt crunching under our hooves.
“I see something!” Flam said.
“Where?” I glanced at the wall, but after a moment I realized he was looking out onto the lake.  His hornlight stretched across the pitch-black subterranean waters and just barely caught some rocks in its beam. It was some kind of small island, right near the center of the lake.
And there was something on it. Something with the glint of gold, obvious even in the poor conditions.
“No way,” I said, casting my own beam over to get a better look. There, on the barren rocks in the middle of the underground lake, was a trophy of twisted and flowing gold, surrounding something that caught the light and glowed from inside like embers.
“The Idol of Boreas!” Flim gasped.
“We actually found it!” Flam squeaked.
“Look at the marks on the wall,” I said. “This room must be flooded for half the year. The rainy season, when the winds aren’t so bad. In the dry part of the year, the waters recede, the Idol gets exposed to the air, and the winds kick up…”
“We can’t let this opportunity get away from us!” Flim declared.
“We’ll retrieve the Idol, and all three of us will be heroes!” Flam stated proudly.
“Or lucky fools, but there’s nothing quite like victory that turns foolhardiness into courage and makes ponies speak of a plan as bold instead of desperate!”
“We should take it back with us,” I agreed. “We’ll figure out what to actually do with it once we get to the surface, okay?” I gave both of them stern looks. “Don’t screw this up.”
“Of course not, Miss Sunset,” Flim said.
“Perish the thought,” Flam ageed, nodding solemnly.
“Say, do you know any water walking spells?” Flim asked.
“Not really,” I shrugged. I’d never felt a need to bother. Water breathing was one thing, but water walking wasn’t as useful as cloudwalking or self-levitation. I was about to explain the various faster methods we had to get over there when the two brothers grinned.
“We do!” Flam said. “Wonderful spell, many amazing uses!”
“Most ponies with pitchforks and torches won’t follow you over a river!” Flim added.
“Except for pegasus ponies,” Flam admitted.
Flim nodded. “But they usually stop when the rest of the herd does.”
“Okay?” I shrugged. “But--”
“And the most important thing in all of this is to always act quickly and to have a plan!” the two yelled together, sprinting off towards the Idol.
“Once we have it, we’ll be as rich as a pony that’s got being rich as a special talent!” Flam cried out.
“Or maybe we’ll have godlike power, which will also lead to said riches,” Flim concurred.
They both grabbed for the Idol, each of them taking it in a hoof and trying to pull it towards them.
“Give it to me!” Flim yelled. “I got here first!”
“I’m older and more responsible!” Flam retorted. “Give it to me!”
“Older by two minutes! I’ll split it with you once we sell it!”
“Then you won’t have a problem if I hold onto it!”
I rolled my eyes and watched them try to shove each other away from the idol, slap it out of each other’s hooves, cast a few little spark balls at each other that couldn’t do more than sting like a bee sting, and generally act like two foals fighting over a new toy.
I teleported over and yanked it out of their hooves.
“Good work not screwing this up,” I said. “What are you two thinking? If you want to fight, save it for when we’re outside and I’ll put on a striped shirt and act as referee! Don’t fight in here or else I’ll find my own way out and leave you behind!”
They both had the good sense to look ashamed.
“Yes, Ma’am,” they said quietly and almost in sync.
“I swear, the Cutie Mark Crusaders are better behaved than you.” That was a lie. They’d have already wandered off in three different directions trying to get spelunking cutie marks and I’d end up having to rescue them from various flavors of ironic danger. At least these two stuck together.
“I suppose you’re going to hold onto the Idol then?” Flam asked meekly.
“Until we get back to Griffonstone,” I said. “At which point I’m going to find the first trustworthy griffon I can and shove it into their talons and make it their problem.”
“The reason he asked is, he seems rather upset that we’ve woken him up,” Flim said quietly, pointing into the darkness behind me.
Son of a mule, there was a monster right behind me and I could feel it in my bones. A dozen better ideas than just turning around popped into my mind. Blast a fireball back behind me. Cast a shield spell. Teleport away.
But it was just impossible to avoid the simple instinct to follow a pointing hoof and see what they were scared of.
Water dripped from the thing’s form. It was a tangled, shambling mass, like a pile of garbage that had gotten up and started moving, all rotting feathers covered in mold, long and filthy hair, and way too many eyes, all of them bloodshot and blinking horribly at the light from our horns, nearly blinded even by the dim light they cast.
The thing coughed wetly, and I saw a mass of beaks in there, like a bunch of barnacles stuck in the mess, with dangling bits of raw flesh hanging around them. They clicked and struggled to form words, and it took the horror a half-dozen attempts to speak.
“Give… it… back!” it screeched between clicks and coughs.
“Is that a crown?” Flam asked, pointing. Indeed, his eye for anything shiny and potentially valuable was correct. There was a small crown enmeshed in the stumbling, slithering pile. I took a step back and flared my light, getting a better look at the whole mass. If I didn’t look closely at the details, I could see the outline of broken wings. Talons. Beak. A body that looked like it had been shredded by time and abuse and grew back wrong, refusing to stop moving.
“Is it… King Guto?” I asked, shocked.
“I thought he was dead!” Flim wailed.
“So much for our plan of becoming kings,” Flam said. “It seems the position is filled!”
“He’s welcome to it if this is what the Idol does to you,” Flim concurred.
“Give it back!” Guto screamed, a massive talon was far too many misshapen claws reached for me, and I grabbed Flim and Flam, teleporting us to the far side of the cavern along the shore. The shambling thing took a moment to find us, but it had eyes all over its body and it didn’t take long for it to spot us, just letting itself fall off the rocks and into the water, splashing towards us.
“The Idol must have kept him alive down here for a hundred years, even when this place is totally flooded,” I said. “The chaotic winds… is it really the idol, or is it this monster using it deliberately?”
“Does it matter?” Flim asked.
“Probably only in an academic sense,” I admitted. “I’d just like to think he’s a monster on the inside, too, because I don’t see how we’re getting out of here without blowing him away.”
“Maybe we could try talking to him and not causing a cave-in that will kill us all?” Flam suggested.
“It’s one of the most important skills of any salespony!” Flim agreed. “And we’ve heard rumors about the property damage you cause and don’t want to be in the middle of said damage. No offense.”
“None taken,” I mumbled.
Flam cleared his throat. “Oh, brave King Guto, who risked his life in pursuit of the Idol of Boreas, we greet you in your new home!”
“We didn’t expect you to be here, or we would have prepared tribute,” Flim continued. “We beg of you not to think less of us for our ignorance.”
“Like you, we came here to retrieve the Idol for… ah…” Flam hesitated. They’d come down here to retrieve it for themselves.
“For the good of Griffonstone,” I said, kicking his leg and leaning in to hiss. “And don’t you dare try asking him for a cash reward!”
“For the good of Griffonstone,” Flim repeated, nodding. “Where the griffons still remember and respect your name!”
“So for all those griffons counting on us to save them, we ask only that you allow us to return with the Idol to save the nation you rule!” Flam finished.
“Not bad,” Flim muttered. “Makes us sound practically heroic.”
Guto shambled almost all the way to the shoreline and I could see how the whole misshapen mass struggled to breathe, every part of it moving with each breath. The many eyes fixed on us and I thought I saw something almost sane in that gaze for the briefest moment before he roared loudly enough to shake the cavern.
“My Idol!” he screamed. “Mine! All the winds are mine!”
He grabbed for the golden Idol with a long, wasted claw with too many joints. His grip was like iron, trying to pull it out of my magical grasp. I felt the air pressure increase, the wind starting to pick up around us and swirling into a tornado. Something warm inside me flowed, lightly pushing the deadly gale away.
Guto looked shocked at that, like he could see the wind.
“What… you have… one of my winds?! One of my winds! Mine!” He let go of the Idol and screeched and wailed in a dozen voices, chattering and clicking and enraged beyond anything resembling reason. When he let go, I instinctively grabbed the golden totem in two hooves, pulling it to my chest. Broken wings flared out in every direction and he lunged for me.
The smart thing would have been to blast him with a spell, but the Idol reacted first. I felt power flow through me, primordial, ethereal power the likes of which I’d never experienced. I could channel any amount of magic and it would never feel the same way. It had a different timbre to it, a different flavor, something hard to put into words.
I felt connected to the whole world. No, not the world. The sky. The air around me. The breath in the lungs of the ponies next to me. The wind cascading through the pipe organ of caves and tunnels carved out by seasonal rains. The clouds some impossible distance above.
It was all connected, and I was connected to all of it.
I blasted Guto away from me, not with a spell but with a simple burst of air pressure. He flew for the first time in almost a century and slammed into the far wall, skipping right over the lake and hitting the stone. He wasn’t dead. I could feel his breathing. I could have sucked the air out of his lungs or crushed him into paste or cut him apart with jets of razor-sharp wind, but--
I could feel myself drifting away. This was too much power. Everything that was me was starting to dissolve around the edges. It was like pouring tea into an ocean.
It took everything I had to pull myself together. I dropped the idol and stumbled back, only stopping when I hit the rock.
“Okay, that was a bit much,” I said, my throat dry.
“Do you need a drink?” Flim offered. “We’ve got a whole lake.”
Flam cautiously nudged the Idol with a hoof, clearly expecting it to go off like a bomb.
“Thanks, but I don’t feel like drinking Guto’s bathwater,” I groaned. I forced myself to get up. When the Idol’s power left me, all my very mortal aches and pains had instantly returned in full force. I’d almost forgotten how sore I was -- it reached all the way down to my bones like a filly going through a growth spurt.
“What do we do now?” Flam asked. “I don’t relish the thought of staying down here for a hundred years like the good king over there.”
“It seems like a rather poor retirement plan,” Flim agreed.
“I sensed a way out,” I said. “While I was holding the Idol, I felt where the winds escape this place. I think I can still find it.”
A warm breeze surrounded me.
“Especially if I have some help,” I said with a small smile.





We left Guto there in the dark, and I held the Idol with my magic and kept it as far from my body as possible while we walked. It seemed like it was safe as long as I didn’t actually touch it.
“With all the winds together, it’s practically like being a god,” I said. “But even in the couple of seconds I had it, it almost had me. You’d need to have a real iron will to avoid losing your mind if you tried to use the Idol’s power.”
“Why is it that all the exciting things in life are so dangerous?” Flam asked.
“They wouldn’t be very exciting if it was safe!” Flim joked. “But fear not, brother! I spy something up ahead to lift even the darkest spirits!”
It had been less than a day since I’d last seen the sun, but even so, it was so warm and almost blinding in those first few moments when we stepped out into the open that it practically took me into another world.
“So,” I said after taking a deep breath. “Do either of you know how to get back to Griffonstone from here?”





It was a rough couple of days, but you know what? It turned out Flim and Flam were actually extremely resourceful and good at wilderness survival. I had no idea pinecones were edible until they showed me, and aside from one minor case of mistaken berry identity that ended with us all vomiting our breakfast back up, it was relatively uneventful.
I mean, uneventful for somepony whose major point of reference is the Everfree. The wilderness around Griffonstone was just regular wilds, and there weren’t even any decent monsters.
“It was one peryton,” I sighed. “I don’t know why you’re complaining.”
“Just one peryton,” Flim scoffed. “You mean it was a half-deer, half-eagle flesh-eating monster that wanted to devour our hearts!”
“And it very nearly succeeded!” Flam added, nodding in agreement. “We could have been lunch for a terrible beast of the black forest!”
“It’s like a three or four out of ten at best,” I said with a shrug. “I read they’re not all that dangerous outside of mating season. They need to eat the beating heart of a prey animal to reproduce. Some kind of magical thing, it’s not all that important.” I waved a hoof dismissively.
Flam shook his head. “It’s easy to say that when you’re not staring down a ravenous fang-filled maw!”
Flim nodded at his brother and pointed. “Not to mention the grasping talons and goring antlers!”
“I’m not going to rate it anything higher than a four until it can turn me to stone, shoot lightning from its eyes, or its blood turns into snakes,” I said firmly. “It’s not any more dangerous than an angry bear.”
“I’d hate to see what rates a ten on your one to ten scale,” Flim said.
I thought for a second about that. “Typhon or Nightmare Moon, if they were trying to seriously kill me. That’s a ten.”
“I see something else that’s a ten out of ten, but on the ‘thank goodness’ scale instead of the absurdly weighted scale of a pony with no proper sense of danger!” Flam said, excited. He pointed ahead of us. I took a few more steps up the path and saw it myself. Griffonstone. We’d finally gotten over the last ridge between us and the city.
“Finally,” I groaned. “Thanks for helping me navigate.”
“Never underestimate the usefulness of a simple magnetism spell!” Flim declared.
Flam smiled. “Turn anything into a compass! Trick vending machines when you’re out of bits! Organize your workplace!”
“Amazing that only one of those suggestions was criminal,” I quipped. “Come on. We’re almost there. I’m hoping I can get a hot bath.”





When we finally got onto the path, thanks to a few quick teleports, I thought for a moment that the festival had continued in our absence. I was sure the vendors Flim and Flam had brought along could manage without them, but I’d assumed there would have at least been a moment of silence after we fell to our apparent deaths in the Abyss.
My last teleport put us just off the main city street, just behind the line of tents that had been set up for Flim and Flam’s carnival of values. I didn’t want to risk appearing right in the middle of a crowd.
“I think there are more ponies here now than when we left,” Flim said.
Flam gasped and pulled his brother behind a tent. “Look!”
I followed his gaze. Two ponies in the golden armor of the royal guard walked down the street. They definitely hadn’t been around when we’d left.
“What the heck is going on?” I asked.
“Well, Miss Sunset, this is where we must part ways,” Flam said. “It’s been wonderful.”
“Especially the part where we didn’t die!” Flim agreed. “But we’d also like to avoid imprisonment for crimes which we have never been convicted of.”
“They’re not here for you,” I scoffed. “They couldn’t arrest you here anyway. They don’t have jurisdiction.”
Flim and Flam looked at each other and straightened up. “Well, that is true,” Flam admitted. “It can be difficult to convince a dedicated officer of that when they’re in hot pursuit.”
“I promise not to let them arrest you,” I said. “For anything I’m aware of, anyway. If you robbed a bank in Reino you’re on your own.”
“We’d never rob a bank!” Flim said, sounding offended.
“Then you’ve got nothing to worry about. Let’s go see what all the commotion is about. I need to let Ruby and Shahrazad know I’m not dead, and you two can tell everpony about your amazing adventures in not dying.”
I walked out into the street and followed the general flow of the crowd towards the palace. I was sure my student would be there, unless she’d been shipped back to Equestria, in which case I was going to need to send an immediate letter to let her know I was safe.
“Wow, this really is a lot of ponies,” I said. Whatever was going on, it seemed to be centered in the palace. It wasn’t even this busy when I threw the party!
I let myself get lost in the crowd and just walk in with them, and that’s when I saw the reason why there were Royal Guards, and why there were so many ponies.
“Thank you all for coming here,” Princess Celestia said, standing head and shoulders above the crowd. “We are still awaiting some construction materials before we can begin the rescue operation, but it is wonderful to see how many of my little ponies have come to help.”
I raised my hoof. “Who’s being rescued?”
Everypony turned to look at me. The ponies that had been standing next to me in the crowd blinked several times in what I had to assume was shock.
“Sunset?” Princess Celestia asked, confused. “But… you… the Abyss?”
“There was another way out,” I said, shrugging. “If everypony here just came to save me, I’m really sorry for wasting your time! It took a while to get back.”
“She even saved us from the terrors of the abyss!” Flam declared.
“Though the Excelsior II protected us during the descent. With some magical assistance from Miss Sunset,” Flim said.
“I should have known there was no need to worry,” Celestia sighed, and I saw relief wash over her face. “Some of the reporters and ponies that witnessed the accident immediately returned to Canterlot and petitioned me for aid.”
“It looks like you brought most of Canterlot with you,” I joked, walking up to stand next to her. It wasn’t polite to shout across the room at her.
“Only half,” Princess Celestia joked. “I left Luna in charge with the rest. She practically chased me out when she saw how worried I was.”
“I’ll have to thank her when I see her,” I said.
“Sunset!” a voice squealed, before Ruby slammed into my legs with the kind of strength only a foal moving at terminal velocity could manage. It almost knocked me right off my hooves. “You’re okay!”
“As I said she would be,” Shahrazad said, standing sedately and lounging against a sofa in a way that said she definitely had never been worried. With what I knew about her, that meant she’d been absolutely terrified that I might be dead.
Princess Celestia nodded. “I am sorry that your efforts were in vain, but at least your survived. In the end, that is far more important.”
“In vain?” I asked, confused.
“You went out to find the Idol,” she said.
“Yeah, I have it here.” I pulled it out of the bundle of cloth I’d been holding it in to avoid accidentally activating it. The gold gleamed unnaturally, catching light that wasn’t there, countless sunrises and nightfalls moving along the curved surfaces from windows that didn’t exist, giving the gold an orange tone and glow like it came from another world.
Gasps filled the palace.
“Tah-dah!” I said lamely. “Sorry, I probably should have planned out some kind of dramatic reveal, but I was more worried about just getting back here.”
“She brought back the idol!” a griffon yelled. “She’s saved Griffonstone!”
“Does this make her our new queen?” another one asked.
That started a heated discussion. I groaned and cleared my throat. Then cleared my throat more loudly. “I’m not taking over!” I yelled. “It’s never been a good idea to make anyone a ruler just because they have some trinket, and it’s definitely not the plan now. Besides, this Idol has done more harm than good for Griffonstone.”
“What do you mean?” Princess Celestia asked.
“The Idol of Boreas was granted to King Grover the Wise by Typhon, a primal elemental immortal of the winds. Half the winds of the world are bound to it. King Grover was supposed to use this to help every griffon, but he kept it as a weapon for himself. It wasn’t supposed to be used that way, any more than using a book as a bludgeon.”
Grandpa Gruff stepped out of the crowd. “Then what was it supposed to be for? He defended Griffonstone for generations using the Idol!”
“I’ll show you,” I said.
I took a deep breath and steadied myself before taking the Idol of Boreas into my hooves and calling on its power. This was the part I’d sort of planned, but I hadn’t really gotten any practice with the Idol. If I wasn’t half afraid that it’d end up stolen or locked up, I might have put it off for a day or two, but it was important to strike while the iron was hot, and while Celestia was there to bail me out if I started to explode.
The primal magic washed through me, and I had to focus on keeping myself together. I dove deep into the magic, down to the core of the Idol’s enchantment. There was so much power here, the kind of power that could do anything. Part of me was tempted to just hold onto it, to try and swallow it all down and become something more, to reach for that foalhood dream that had almost destroyed my life.
The rest of me was so ashamed of the thought that it was like poison.
The Idol’s enchantment had never been designed to stay together this long, and even though it was only loosely knotted together, the magic was burned deeply into the fabric of the world. I tugged at it in a few spots, and finally found where it would give.
I pulled on the loose thread with all of my might, and everything erupted around me, like I’d opened up a dam or smashed a beehive. If I’d felt like I was diving to the bottom of a sea of magic before, I’d just set it to boiling.
It took all of my focus and concentration to keep myself from getting caught up in it. I still felt myself bend around the edges, the primal force leaking in, seeking out everything attached to it.
I let go of the idol, and it fell to the ground, that magical glow gone. It was just worthless gold now. Everything felt woozy and strange, and I started to collapse. A golden aura caught me, and then Celestia put her wing around me and helped me sit more gracefully.
“The idol!” Grandpa Gruff gasped, picking it up. He looked dismayed. “All the magic is gone!”
“What did you do?” she asked.
“The magic in the Idol of Boreas was supposed to be shared with all the griffons. King Grover didn’t want to do that because he wanted it all for himself. I just… gave it all away. I shared it with every griffon alive, and… I don’t know where the rest went. I think those winds are waiting for griffons that haven’t been born yet.”
“Really?” Celestia raised an eyebrow.
“Hey, look!” Gabby yelled, flying above the crowd. She had a tiny tornado between her talons, and she was starting to juggle it. “Check out what I can do!”
“Of course she’d be the first to figure it out,” I mumbled.