As she fell, Applejack removed her lasso from her bag and flung it towards a rocky outcropping about fifteen feet down from the top of the falls. There, it secured around a small brush oak. Applejack bit into the end of the rope as it became taut, and she was saved.
Pinkie Pie, ever the resilient pony even in the face of the impossible, removed several dozen balloons from her bag and rapidly inflated them as she fell, tying each one to herself as she filled it. Somehow, the balloons rose as if they were filled with helium rather than air. The dozen or so balloons somehow managed to support Pinkie’s weight. She floated into the air, eventually reaching Applejack’s rocky outcropping and grabbing onto the same tree so she wouldn't float away.
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash sped downwards and caught Rarity and Twilight, respectively. They carried them up to the level of the rocky outcropping. Now all six ponies were safe from falling.
“That was a close one!” Fluttershy exclaimed.
“Yeah, we just barely made it down there to save you two!” Rainbow Dash said.
“It’s a good thing that I brought my super-duper flight-tastic balloons! Otherwise I would’ve been toast, and then a ghost!” Pinkie giggled at her own rhyme.
“Pinkie Pie! You had balloons that could help you fly this whole time and you never told nobody!? That could’ve saved us the trouble of even having to row in the first place!” Applejack scolded.
“No, silly, these balloons only move in one direction, and that’s up! I would’ve just floated away; I could never have crossed the river like this!”
“Well, okay, I guess that’s point taken.” Applejack conceded.
“Well you could have at least made yourself lighter for MY sake!” Rarity scoffed.
“Sorry, Rarity, these balloons are for emergencies only. I’m sorry that I couldn’t use them to help you,” Pinkie said.
“Well, alright, I guess. And I’m sorry that I dropped you into the river, earlier. Moving heavy things with my telekinesis has never been my strong suit. I guess I need to practice.”
“Okay girls, let’s figure out a plan to get back up to the top and cross this river,” Twilight glanced over at the south bank of the river, now only about thirty feet from their present location.
“How about I just carry you four to the opposite bank one by one?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“That probably won’t work,” said Twilight. “Remember, Fluttershy can’t carry any of us, and you can’t carry three of us. Ahuizotl said that we couldn’t move north along the river, we could only move south.”
Rainbow murmured to herself. “Once a pony has… hmm…” She paused for a moment, “Wait a minute… that’s it!” Rainbow’s face lit up. “He said, and I quote, ‘Moving north on the river is not allowed. You may only progress towards the south.’ But we’re not ON the river anymore; we’re past it since we’re on the falls!
"When he said on the river, he only meant on the river! This is just like in Daring Do #18, The Endgame Stratagem, where Auhizotl told Daring Do that nopony on earth could pull the sword of Xenos from the stone. Daring Do just flew into the air and lifted the sword up while hovering, because she was no longer on earth while lifting it. Ahuizotl is always literal!”
“Well I should think he’s literal, Dashie, he is from a book after all!" Pinkie joked.
Rainbow Dash grabbed Twilight first, picking her up and flying towards the south bank, tossing her over the cliff to the grass above. She repeated this process for the other four, and Fluttershy flew herself over.
The five walked half a mile north to where Auhizotl had left them. As they had expected, he had a scowl upon his face.
“AAARRRGGGH!! I did not intend for that to be a way to solve my riddle!” Auhizotl slammed his paw into the ground, leaving a large indent. The six ponies shuddered. Dash, however, was stern with the azure behemoth.
“How is THAT? You gave us only one way to solve the riddle! That whole levitated rowing thing was the only way to do it!” Dash flew up to the monster’s face, pointing at him with her hoof.
“No, no, no, I did intend for the riddle to be solved with the rowing. That was my plan. You had the right idea, but you simply failed in its execution. What was NOT my plan was for you to fall off the waterfall but still get over here alive! Going over the edge is a failure, in my mind. I should have been more specific and said that any northern movement at ALL would not be allowed. A deal is a deal however, and I am a man of my word. But from now on, you can expect my riddles to have no loopholes in them whatsoever!”
“Wait, from… now on?” Fluttershy shuddered. A grin spread over the blue giant’s face. He cackled and twiddled his fingers together.
“Oh, yes. There are more riddles. You think I would just let you come into MY forest and take MY stone without MY permission? Absolutely not! To get the Nirucon stone, you must pass ALL of my trials!”
“Well sir, if you must put us through more of your ghastly tortures, you might as well do it now and get it over and done with!” Rarity scoffed.
“In good time, my fair lady," he said, and then ran off into the forest.
Twilight Sparkle got out her map and examined it.
"Alright, here we are," she said, motioning with her hoof towards the falls, "and here is the entrance to the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters," she said, motioning towards the gorge in front of the palace.
"Let's get a move on; the sun's about to set!" Applejack said. The six ponies headed south for another two hours. Thankfully, they didn't run into any beasts. Finally, they reached a the gulch in front of the Palace, and found the rope bridge they crossed last time. However, the rope bridge had been destroyed. There were no planks left on the bridge, just two ropes which were tied to the near side of the bridge.
"Who did this? This bridge was in order the last time that we were here," said Twilight.
"Probably Ahuizotl," said Rainbow Dash.
"Correct," the six turned to face behind themselves, and they saw Ahuizotl.
"Let me guess: we can't teleport across here, either," said Twilight Sparkle.
"You're very perceptive. Yes, there is another riddle you must solve in order to cross this gulch."
Twilight Sparkle groaned, and said, "Can you at least be original with these? I mean, the last riddle involved us crossing something, too."
"Oh, you don't want crossing? Fine, the next riddle after this one will not involve crossing anything. But as I have already spent time designing this particular riddle, let it commence!
The rope bridge is out, it's fallen down.
How can you cross when your hooves can't leave the ground?
When crossing the gulch you may not fly;
You must walk on your hooves to the other side.
But be careful, do you hear their howls?
The beasts of the forest with hungry mouths,
Animated from wood, the beasts of timber
Stay out of their way; you best be limber!"
Ahuizotl jumped across the bridge to the front steps of the palace where he stood. A howl rang out as the ponies saw a pack of eerie, wooden beasts emerge from the trees, growling at them. The beasts' green eyes pierced the very soul of any who looked at them.
It was three timberwolves.
"Alright, gang, let's take 'em on!" Twilight said, charging up her horn.
One of the wolves rushed towards Pinkie Pie and Rarity. Pinkie Pie, thinking quickly, removed her party cannon and fired a burst of confetti at the beast, which stopped in confusion. Rarity bucked the beast square in its wooden jaw.
"Awoo!" It yelled in pain, before getting back up and taking a swipe at Rarity with its claws.
"AAAH!" Rarity exclaimed as it left a scratch in her side.
"Meanie pants!" Pinkie said as she gave the beast a left hook. Surprisingly, this was enough to take it down. Rarity used her magic to tear apart the beast so that it would not re-animate.
Another wolf lunged towards Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Fluttershy took two steps back and then stared the beast straight in the eyes, and it pasued in its tracks.
Rainbow Dash hovered in the air, remembering that she could fly, as Ahuizotl's riddle merely said no flying over the gorge specifcally. She soared a hundred feet into the air and then crashed back down to earth, shattering the paralyzed beast into hundreds of pieces.
The remaining timberwolf was a bit more cunning, sneaking up behind Applejack and grabbing her in its claws. Twilight, seeing this, used her telekinesis to free Applejack. The earth pony gave a powerful buck to the timberwolf, knocking it backwards several feet. Twilight ran over to it and used her magic to rip apart the animated beast.
With the three wolves defeated, the six ponies sat down to catch their breath.
"Rarity, are you okay?" Pinkie asked.
"I think so, it's just a surface cut. It still hurts, though."
"Ah, well let's get something on that. Good thing I brought my Super-Fun Disinfectant!" Pinkie reached into her saddlebag and removed a pink bottle with a picture of a microbe wearing a party hat on it. She dabbed some of it on Rarity's cut. The unicorn grimaced in pain, but the antiseptic did its job as it bubbled up, killing any potential germs.
"You know, I do feel kind of bad about killing these things," said Fluttershy.
"Don't feel bad," Twilight said, "They're not really alive; they're just magically-animated logs and sticks. It would be like if I used my magic to make a marionette dance around. The marionette is still just dead wood."
"So now we can try our hooves at crossin' this gulch," Applejack said, "Got any of those balloons left, Pinkie?"
"Yeah, but I think that counts as flight," said Pinkie.
"Well, shoot. Let's see what we got here," said Applejack. She walked over to the two posts which the rope was tied to, and then lifted the rope from out of the gulch. It was about 25 feet long, which was enough to span the 20-foot-wide gulch.
"Ah, well all the planks are gone. But I reckon I could at least get these ropes back across to the other side. They're still long enough."
Applejack tied the end of one of the ropes into a lasso, which she threw across the gulch and landed on the post where it had originally been tied to before Ahuizotl cut it loose. She pulled the rope taut and secured it in place, and then repeated the process for the other rope.
"Well, now we have two ropes but no planks to cross them. And I don't feel like balancing on two ropes above a thousand-foot-tall gulch!" Fluttershy gulped.
"What? Of course we have planks. We have all of this timber here to work with!" Rarity said, pointing to the scrap wood pile which once constituted three timberwolves.
"Yeah, that's not really planks, though. Those are just logs and sticks and twigs," said Rainbow Dash.
"But with a touch of magic..." said Rarity as she charged up her horn. The logs glowed for a brief moment, and then they instantly transformed into planks.
"I didn't know you could do that!" said Applejack.
"Of course, Applejack. Remember at the slumber party when I turned that tree into carved statues? Well, that spell can be used for more than just ornate carvings! Or, rather, used for less than ornate carvings."
"Well I'll be a monkey's uncle," she responded.
"Okay, but how will we fasten the ropes to the planks?" asked Fluttershy.
"With more rope, of course!" Applejack said as she removed a long, thin coil of rope from her saddlebag.
"Allow me," said Twilight Sparkle. She levitated the planks and rope with her magic and connected the planks to the bridge all the way to the other side of the gulch. Since the gulch was only about twenty feet wide, her magic was able to reach all the way across.
"Alright, let's cross this bridge!" Rainbow said. The six ponies walked across the bridge in a single-file line. Thankfully, it was enough to support their weight.
Fluttershy was the last pony to cross, as she was walking rather slow. By the time all of the others had reached the other side, she was still on the bridge about five feet from the other side.
"Come on, Fluttershy, you're almost there!" said Twilight.
"Yeah, but..." Fluttershy looked down below her and saw the gulch. She shuddered at the height.
"Fluttershy, darling, don't be so frightened. It's not like these planks have been here for years and will snap under your hoof or something. I just made them a few minutes ago!" Rarity said.
Fluttershy took another step forward. However, she accidentally placed her hoof in a gap between two planks. This caused her to trip, and she fell into the gulch.
"FLUTTERSHY!" The other five ponies yelled.
"What?"
They looked over at her and saw her fluttering back on to the bridge.
"Bu-but... how did you FLY? Ahuizotl said no flyin'!" Applejack asked.
"Weren't you paying attention? He said we couldn't fly to CROSS the gulf. He didn't say anything about flying straight up," Fluttershy responded.
"Now you're getting the hang of it!" Rainbow said.
Fluttershy crossed over the remaining part of the bridge with no issue. Now the mane six were at the front steps of the palace. They looked up to where Ahuizotl had stood watching them, but the blue beast was gone.
"Where'd he go?" asked Applejack.
"I don't know, I wasn't watching," said Twilight, "Were any of you?" The other four shook their heads.
The six ponies walked up the cobblestone steps and through the arch where the door used to be, and they were inside of the grand foyer of the castle.
"Now, be careful, girls," Twilight warned, "Ahuizotl might still send more timberwolves to attack us."
"We aren't out of the woods yet," said Fluttershy.
“Yes we are, Fluttershy, because now we’re in the palace,” Pinkie said.
They entered the chamber where Celestia and Luna had sat upon their thrones hundreds of years ago, and where Nightmare Moon had returned a little over a year ago.
“Ah, remember when we defeated Nightmare Moon here? That was awesome!” Rainbow Dash recalled gleefully.
Rarity said, “Never thought I’d lay eyes on this dreadful place again. It could use an interior redecoration for sure. The feng shui in this room is completely off, for one. For two--”
“Um, y’all… where’s the rest of the palace? All that's left is just this room. Unless there's a basement or somethin' like that," Applejack said.
Fluttershy sighed and leaned against a wall, “Girls, I don’t know if we’ll ever find it in this…” She jumped back, startled, as the brick her wing was touching embedded itself further into the wall, and a door-shaped segment of the wall fell away. Behind it was a secret staircase leading down.
“Fluttershy, you’re a genius! That brick was a button opening a hidden tunnel!” Rarity exclaimed.
Twilight said, "The books mentioned treasure hidden below the palace. If it's anywhere, it's probably through here."
“Then let’s get a move on!” Pinkie yelled, running into the dark of the opening in the wall. The other five quickly followed.