Nyx's tour was off at a gallop. Now most adults would have focused on the expected; the throne room, the gallery of stained glass windows depicting the history of Equestria; the stately statue garden, and other sights that made the front of tour guides and the covers of magazines.

Nyx however was a child, and had rapidly gotten jaded with the standard attractions of Canterlot Castle. She was a child and saw the world from a knee-high angle, and had already figured out that if grownups were fascinated with something it was probably boring as dirt.... and that all the interesting stuff was where nopony wanted you to go. Anyone who knew anything knew that a palace was a lot like a swan on a lake; stately and serene above, but with a hell of a lot of activity going on under the surface. She'd done her own exploring of the castle (to the consternation of the guards) and knew where all the maybe-we-shouldn't-be-here,but-nopony-said-we-couldn't places were(1).

The tour had started with Celestia's private gardens. That was fairly boring, or it would have been if it hadn't started with a prompt detour ("but it was raining!") through the palace greenhouses. Things got a lot more interesting fairly quickly; the greenhouses weren't just used for the flowers out in the castle gardens but for the Princess's scholars, who used them to study some of the more unique plants of Equestria(2). They managed to nearly get into a batch of potted poison joke(3) and had a close shave with Gossamer and a rare carnivorous orchid before they were run off by the greenhouse staff.

They took a detour through the Guard's quarters. A few of the troops were off duty at the time... mostly bat ponies, as they normally were on duty at night. They thought it was a hoot having the kids trooping through gawking at everything and made them welcome. A few showed off their armor and weapons. The children oohed and aahed at the gleaming steel blades appreciatively.

The next stop was the great clock. It was a gigantic thing, a massive clockwork of glass and gilding and gears the size of a two-story building, that sat in the middle of the palace right where everypony passed by on their work day. Nyx had found the doorway into the inner workings on her first day and had marveled at the massive cogs and levers and gears working away, measuring out the day.. That stop off was a little disappointing; the enormous clockwork was being dismantled and maintenanced, and workponies were climbing in and out, hauling parts and shouting at one another, so there wasn't even a chance to sneak inside and look around. "No worries, though," the forepony said to the children cheerfully. "We'll have her back together in just a few hours and running the castle schedule right as rain."

Gossamer hovered in front of the stilled clock face. She had the look of somepony thinking very, very hard. One could almost see the smoke rolling out of her ears. "How do you know?" she finally said.

The forepony looked up at her. "Pardon?"

"How do you know that it'll be right?" she said. "The right time, I mean?"

The forepony scratched his mane under his hard hat. "I don't follow," he said, confused.

Gossamer fluttered down to hover in front of his face. "Okay, you said everypony in the castle sets their clocks by this one, right?" she said. "So how do you set this one?"

The forepony grinned, back on familiar ground. "We use the sun dial out in the courtyard, little lady," he said.

"But that's the thing," Gossamer said. "The sun comes up whenever Princess Celestia says it does! It reaches high noon whenever she says it does, too! She could sleep in late one day or something..."

"No, no, she gets up at the crack of dawn--" Nyx started to say. Then her brow furrowed. "Wait a minute...."

"Yeah, but dawn only cracks when she says it does," Killdeer pointed out. He looked at Adder and grinned. "Dude. That would be awesome. We could sleep in as long as we want!"

"Oh, she'd never do that," the forepony protested. "Princess Celestia is much too devoted to her duty to do that. Besides, her steward sets her alarm clock every day."

"And he sets it by what, again?" Gossamer said, pointing at the enormous, inert clock behind them. Brows furrowed, eyes went wide as realization set in. "Uh huh, you see? You see? Nopony knows what time it is! Nopony!" Gossamer threw her tiny forehooves wide. "It could be yesterday, or tomorrow, or tea time last Tuesday, right now, and nopony would ever know it!"

Nyx looked at Doubloon. "I think I wanna stop thinking about this," she said. Doubloon nodded. Fervent agreement went up from all the children. "Excuse us, Mister, we're gonna go... um... someplace else," Nyx said to the forepony. "Thank you for talking with us..." They all hastily trundled off, leaving the forepony there to dwell on his growing existential horror.

"Andherewehavethelegendarykitchenswheretheyprepareallthegoodiestheyserve---"

"Zut alors!"

"Totheleftyou'llseethestoneovensthattheyuseexclusivelyforallthebakedgoods--"

"Oy!"

"--andthesearethecoolingracksitlooksliketodaythey'remakingraspberrytarts--"

"Get away from there!"

"--andasyoucanguessfromtheincreasingnumberofkitchenstaffchasingustheyreallydon'tlikeitwhenyoutakefreesamples--"

"OUTOUTOUT!!"

"--andthatconcludesourtouroftheCanterlotCastlekitchenwehopeyouenjoyedyourvisit!"

The giggling mob of royal children came to a halt several twists and turns further up and into the palace later to finish scarfing their "pilfered" treats. None of them had missed that the tarts they'd swiped had been on a single suspiciously unguarded tray, right in their path and at placed at convenient hoof-height...    

"Brummm brumm put put put brrrrrrm..... errrk, Neighpon drift, here we are!" Spike had caught up with the group a ways back in the tour, and had taken command of pushing Doubloon's wheelchair-bowl about. The little dragon had gotten the hang of it quickly and was now eliciting squeals of laughter from the seapony filly by racing her watery chariot down the halls as fast as his little legs could go.

"Why Sir Spike, how nice of you to join us," Nyx said plummily. She handed Spike one of the tarts. Spike broke it in half and shared it with Peewee. "Why'd you follow us? I thought you wanted to spend time with Raaaarity." She smiled cheekily and made kissy noises.

Spike waved her off. "Quit it. Twilight asked me to keep an eye on you all," he said. "Besides, it was getting a little, well, weird, with Pele' around."

"Didn't Peewee want to meet the Firebird?" Nyx asked.

"We did. But we kept it short. It was... kinda overwhelming."

Killdeer-Adder nodded in agreement. "I know what you mean," Killdeer said. "It's like being next to a furnace, except instead of fire it's.... magicalness or something." The other winged members of the little group nodded.

"You know, to most ponies Celestia and Luna are like that," Nyx said. "Till you get to know them."

"They certainly have a neat castle," Doubloon said.  They had come to halt in one of the castle's many gilded rotundas. They could see the rain drumming on the domed roof high overhead. "It's funny though... in the royal castle of Atlantis, we could host a whole ball in this room right here!"

"Really?"

"Sure. Plenty of room for everyone to swim up and down and around... "  The others went 'oh' and nodded.

Songhili gave another bubbly chuckle. "Of course it would be full of water," he said. "Rather hard to serve your pony chef's flambe's like that."

"Shyeah. Tons more space when you can move in three dimensions," Killdeer said. He flexed his wings a bit. "Man, my wings are killin' me. I'd love to give 'em a stretch but Dad said 'no flying indoors...'

"Keep talking. I'd give anything to get out of this bowl and stretch my flippers." Doubloon arched her back uncomfortably.

Songhili nodded his round seal-like head in agreement. "I hate to admit it, but the land is less forgiving than the sea," he said, stretching his stubby legs and wiggling his toes.

"Why didn't they give you a shape-changing pendant?" Nyx asked Doubloon. "Or one of those magic wobbly water-ball things, like the guards have?"

Doubloon looked at her with wide eyes. "Are you kidding? magic pendants and water tridents are expensive! Crazy expensive! And there's a waiting list a league long."

"Water tridents?" Bright Eyes said.

"Those big fork thingies King Triton's guards carry," Spike translated. "So those are how they do water magic, huh?"

"Well, every sea pony can do some," Doubloon said. She levitated a globe of water the size of an orange out of her bowl, sent it on an orbit around her and then dropped it back in with a splash. "But to do bigger stuff-- like those blobs of water the guards walk around in-- takes a trident. I could do that... but I'd be exhausted in a minute. And then you'd have to mop your floor." Her expression was wry. "The royal guard have been passing down those tridents from generation to generation for hundreds of years. And landwalker pendants, well, only King Triton is powerful enough to make those."

"If we took you back to our place, we could let you get out and swim around our bath," Nyx said. The others looked at her. "Hey, it's a really big bath..."

Spike tapped his chin. "Hey, you know, I think there's a place where you all could stretch your wings and your fins and stuff. Hey Nyx, remember the Water Lily arboretum? The one with the viewing pool?"

Nyx brightened. "Oh hey, yeah. Follow me everyone!" She trotted off, the mismatch group in tow.

In the normal route of things, it would have taken several long hallways, a number of grand flights of stairs and at least one spiral staircase up a rather skinny tower. But Nyx and Spike, as was their habit, had spent their time in Canterlot learning the ins and outs of the servant entrances and the service corridors. The work routes of the castle staff were far more practical in nature than those meant for the nobility, and after ascending some easy winding ramps and one ride in a lift normally meant for hauling freight, they reached their goal.

It was an enormous arboretum the size of a hoofball field. It was set in a courtyard up on the top floor, surrounded by a covered walkway and topped by a high arched roof of emerald green glass at least another two stories high at its peak. Gargoyles set in the rooftops all around poured water down in long arches into the enormous, lily strewn pool. There were signs of recent repairs; a few tools off to one corner, some cut marble tiles stacked next to them, but otherwise the place was abandoned.

"Sweet!" Killdeer said. He leapt into the air and began flying lazy loops under the high arched roof. Gossamer was right behind him, darting through the air around him in a zigzag game of tag.

Doubloon was all but wriggling in eagerness. "Are you sure it's okay?" she said anxiously, her eyes never leaving the surface of the pool.

Spike scoffed. "Sure, why wouldn't it be? It's just a rainwater pool." He pushed the wheelchair bowl closer. That was all the encouragement Doubloon needed; with an eager squeak she leapt from her bowl in a graceful arc and splashed down in the shimmering pool. She surfaced and began swimming laps.

Songhili was quick to follow her. He doffed the loose sash-like garment he was wearing and dove in, barely making a ripple. The moment he submerged he went a most amazing transformation; his body elongated and grew streamlined, his stubby limbs with their stubby paws stretched out into strong graceful flippers. In a moment he was completely transformed from a brown earless teddy bear into a sleek brown seal. With a wide grin he began doing leaps out of the water, hopping over Doubloon to splash down behind her. Nyx and the others couldn't help but clap, impressed.

"Oh wait!" Nyx squeaked. "This is freshwater! Seaponies live in salt water! Are you okay, Doubloon? What about you Songhili?"

Doubloon laughed. "It's okay, Princess," Doubloon said.

"-Notaprincess" came the automatic interjection.

"--Sea ponies can live in salt water or fresh. We used to swim up the mouths of rivers to trade with ponies and other races far inland. I hear there were even a few settlements in lakes and stuff."

"And I am the same," Songhili added. "We selkies are a versatile people."

"Really? Neat!" Nyx flopped down by the poolside, watching the seapony filly and her selkie partner swim in and out among the waterfalls. Bright Eyes and Spike joined her, Spike rolling up his uniform pants and dangling his feet in the cool water. Songhili finally gave up his antics and merely floated on his back, eyes closed, like a little brown pool toy, wherever the wavelets took him. Doubloon flipped over on her back and floated past them. "Thank you, Princess--"

"Notaprincess!"

Doubloon giggled. "Well thank you anyway," she said. "I was being a grumpy old stonefish. This is just what I needed." She floated past on her back just under the surface, an expression of bliss on her face, her golden mane pooling around her in shimmering waves. Nyx felt a little spike of envy for Doubloon's golden tresses; that was a look that would make even Princess Celestia envious.

"HEY, YOU KIDS!"

The group nearly jumped out of their skins. Standing on the far side of the pool was a workpony in a hard hat, waving his forehooves in agitation. "Get outta there, you kids! You can't be swimmin' in there!"

"Okay, okay, we're gettin'," Spike called back as everyone got to their feet. "What's the big deal anyway? It's not like we're gonna dirty it up or anything--"

"That's not the problem, kid," the worker shouted. "We just opened the sluice gates to drain it!"

"Omigosh," Nyx yelped. She realized that the seapony filly was drifting to the other end of the reflecting pool at a rapidly accelerating pace. "Doubloon! Songhili!"

Doubloon sat up and shook her head, clearing her ears. "What??" Then she looked around, realized that she was retreating from her friends at an alarming speed, and looked over her shoulder. Behind her she could see the open end of the pool, water gushing through and pouring down a steep stone gutter-- she yipped and began swimming against the current. To her dismay she continued to lose ground. Songhili became aware of the peril and swam over to her. He seized her necklace in his teeth and began swimming backwards-- but again, to little avail. The two began moving at a rapid clip to the waterfall.

"I'll get them!" Killdeer said. He dropped down out of the air, claws outstretched to take their paws and hooves.

"Too steep, too steep--" Adder yelled. He was right; with an awkward splash Killdeer-adder ended the misjudged dive right into the drink. He surfaced, sodden limbs thrashing, his eyes wide.

"Help! I've forgotten how to swim!!" he hollered. Songhili and Doubloon tried to buoy him up; He quickly became entangled with his intended rescuees as they accelerated toward the end of the pool.

"I got 'em!" Nyx shouted. An indigo beam of magic reached out from her horn and snagged the trio.

Those not versed in unicorn magic might not know that telekinesis can be rather more complicated than it looks. There are multiple ways to use quintessence to move an object, and the heavier the object gets the more complicated it gets-- for something as light as, say, a ball of paper, it's no big deal, you simply throw out a loop of magic and lift it. For larger, heavier things, you have to use more advanced methods that take into account leverage, mass, and linear momentum, such as infusing the object with lifting force, or anchoring it against a counterweight.

Nyx hadn't used any of those advanced methods. It went about as well as one might expect. She was yanked off her hooves like she'd taken a rope around Killdeer's waist and tied it to her horn.

At the last second Spike and Bright Eyes grabbed her back hooves. Peewee grabbed Spike's headspikes, while Gossamer grabbed Bright Eye's mane. This also went about as well as one might expect. With hollers of dismay the lot of them were yanked out into the water. Before any of them could get their bearings, they were washed out of the end of the pool and into the enormous stone flume. Squawking, shrieking, thrashing and yelling, they shot down the flume and vanished around the bend.

"Ah horseapples," the workpony said. "I'm getting blamed for this, I just know it."

The band of wayward nobles' children were better off than it seemed. The reflecting pool and its unfortunate drainage were actually part of the system built into Canterlot castle for handling rainwater. In addition to the mountain springs that fed into the city, any building as vast as the royal palace of Equestria had a lot of rooftops, and that added up to a lot of runoff from rain. The architects who had built Canterlot had foreseen the need to control this influx of water to the royal architecture and had added ponds and reflecting pools all around the castle to make use of it... and a system of waterfalls, gargoyles and rain gutters that rivaled the Roamin aqueducts in sheer scope and complexity.

The foals had fallen into the system at about the upper third, where the stone gutters became large enough to pass for log flumes and the accumulated water formed a steady torrent. Centuries of rainwater and mountain springwater had worn the stone chutes as smooth and slippery as oiled glass, so they were unlikely to be injured; on the other hand, it also meant they were unlikely to come to a stop any time soon.

At this point they were all aware they were in a pickle. The fliers among them had their wings too sodden to fly. The unicorns among them were too rattled by their sudden inexplicable inclusion in a whitewater rafting trip without the raft to even begin pulling up any magic. And the only natural swimmers among them, well, it was all they could do to keep themselves pointed in the direction they were going. They hurtled down through the castle architecture like a family of otters on a mud slide, swerving around and between towers, down walls and through culverts like they were shooting the rapids, whooping and hollering the whole way.

"Where does this let out?? I can't see where we're going!!" Doubloon panicked. She was at the lead of the pack, sliding on her belly like an otter, but she couldn't see further than the next bend in the flume.

Adder was raised up like a periscope, facing backwards, trying to keep from drowning. "Well it can't look any better than where we've been!!" He shrieked. The next moment they plunged into darkness. They had entered one of the castle's many towers, a spiral staircase without any stairs, and were now spiraling down the inside at heartstopping speed. All there was room for was one final howl as they all plunged into a vortex of water and darkness.

For what had to be no more than a few seconds but felt like an eternity, they swirled downward, then gushed out into open air and daylight in a wide, flat, and thank the Maker tranquil mirror pool. All of them floated on their backs-- Peewee and Gossamer flopped across the nearest buoyant belly-- and panted as their heart rates slowed. "Are we done yet?" somepony moaned.

Adder looked up, just in time to see the waterfall off the end of the balcony. "I'll tell you when," he said glumly. Then they were swept over the falls.

Right below, Celestia was having a "casual chat" with some of her guests as they caught some fresh air on a garden balcony.

And thus it was that Celestia, King Triton, Emperor Eagle-Cobra of the Gryphons, and several other notables of the convention were on site to witness as the various offspring of several very important dignitaries splashed down in the royal koi pond.

Adder surfaced like a periscope and spat out a stream of water. "When," he gargled.

The first to escape the deluge were Peewee and Gossamer. Peewee, being a bird of elemental fire, had finally had enough of the wet and  dried himself off in a single burst of flame. He grabbed Gossamer by her tail and hoisted her out of the water and over to a sheltered perch.

Songhili surfaced next, wading ashore as his flippers rapidly changed back into legs. His enormous chocolate eyes looked guilty enough for the whole group.

Next to surface was Spike. Dragons had much in common with sea serpents and could handle being submerged well enough. Being covered in pond lilies and wrapped in a ruined dress uniform, not so much. Even then things would have gone better for him, but unfortunately it seems that carp and dragons are mortal enemies(4), and the pond was the dwelling place of at least one hundred year old curmudgeonly goldfish with a chip on its metaphorical shoulder. Spike was just about to climb out of the water when he felt a fishy mouth close on his foot. With a yell of outrage he was yanked back into the water. A great deal of splashing and thrashing ensued.

All around adults were moving to fish foals out of the water. Killdeer-adder thrashed his bedraggled way to the edge of the pond. An enormous eagle talon reached down and picked him up by the scruff of his neck. Killdeer found himself beak to beak with his family patriarch, who was wearing an expression of mingled confusion, annoyance and disappointment. "What do you have to say for yourself, Grandson?" the golden-winged Emperor said. His tail, King Cobra, arced over his back and added his own silent disapproval.

Killdeer gave a meek and pitiful grin. "I... " He bumbled and wrung his claws together, hunching up in a ball. Adder did his best to curl up behind him and look like an unimportant appendage.

The Gryphon Emporer seethed with indignation. "Blast it and pluck it, boy, can't your father and I take you anywhere without you making a scene??" Killdeer just curled up further, a kitten in the clutches of an angry cat.

Nyx felt a surge of pity; it was obvious that Killdeer-Adder was petrified of his grandfather. It was heartbreaking; the casual, easy going personality was gone and all that was left was a cringing, knock kneed teenager.

Doubloon popped up. "It wasn't his fault!" she said, radiating indignancy despite the lily pad draped over her head. She retracted a little when Emperor Eagle-Cobra's stern gaze met her own. "It was an accident, really."  She turned to face Princess Celestia, who was magically hoisting a very penitent-looking Nyx out of the pond.

Nyx was mortified. The fact that Celestia's face was completely impassive just made it worse; Nyx had no idea how much trouble she might be in.  "I'm sorry, Princess Celestia," she said to the towering princess. "It was supposed to be a tour of the castle and...it's all my fault."

To Nyx's surprise, Doubloon waved a hoof. "No, wait!" she yelled. That got Celestia's attention, and everyone else's. Everyone fell silent (save for Spike and the koi fish who were thrashing up a rumpus in the water.) Nyx saw Doubloon visibly gulp. Then the sea-filly raised herself up and addressed the grownups as formally as if she were a tiny empress... and humbly as a penitent. "I want to apologize to everypony present," she said. "Please, shift any blame you'd put on your own foals to me....This was my fault. I told Princess Nyx--"

"Notaprincess." "Shush."

"--I told Princess Nyx that I hadn't had a chance to stretch my fins, and she was kind enough to lead us to an unattended pool. We didn't know the workers had opened the sluice gates on it. Killdeer-adder dove in to try and catch me before I got sucked down the drain and... um, well here we are. We apologize for interrupting your meeting, and we'll be on our way to clean up and--comb the pond moss out of our manes." She pulled at an aquatic weed stuck in her mane, making a face. "Again, we... I'm... very sorry."

"Indeed," Songhili said. He looked to Celestia with his melting chocolate eyes. "If you would please be so gracious as to forgive  this misstep..."

"Graciously spoken," Celestia said with a slight smile and a nod. "Well, no harm done and-- Spike! Stop punching that koi in the face!"

"He started it!"

Celestia rolled her eyes and magically hoisted the dragonling out of the water.  Spike glared down at the angry fish and smacked his fist into his palm. "Next time, pal-- I'm bringin' my sautee pan," he said.

"Ahem. As I was saying, no harm done," Celestia concluded. "Triton, she does your people credit."

"Indeed," Triton said. He leaned forward and pulled the lily pad off the filly's head. "Though noble speeches are delivered better without water weed on one's head," he murmured in Doubloon's ear. Doubloon blushed a furious red but said nothing.

At that moment princesses Twilight and Luna came trotting out onto the balcony. Twilight was levitating the book she had been given and chatting quietly but frantically with the lunar diarch. "I wanted to speak to you and Celestia about this book I received today... the implications in just what I've read--"

Then she glanced up. There stood a good dozen royal and noble dignitaries of the assembly, looking alternately amused, annoyed, and discomfited. A handful of children of mixed races were strewn about, half in, half out of the koi pond. In the middle stood Celestia, with her most enigmatic smile yet on her face.... levitating two very familiar sodden lumps in her magical grasp.

She wasn't raised by Celestia for nothing. The frozen half-smile never left Twilight's face as she leaned over and murmured in Luna's ear. "Inside... I'm already flinging myself off the balcony."

"To no avail," Luna murmured back. "They'd catch you ere you hit the ground."

"Princess!" Twilight said cheerily as she didn't feel. "What seems to have happened here...?"

"It seems a few foals took an impromptu tour of the castle... and an accidental tour of the rainwater collecting system," Celestia said, amused.

"Oh dear. Wast anyone hurt?" Luna said, concerned.

"Nah," Killdeer said, getting to his feet and shaking off some of the water (to the sputtered outrage of those standing near and the facepalming exasperation of his grandsire.) He half laughed. "Was a ride and a half, though. Heck, you oughta charge five bits admission!"

"Truly..." Luna deadpanned.

Killdeer nodded, grinning. "Shyeah. Like the best slide ever, times ten. In hot weather it'd be totally mackin'!" He leaned toward Luna conspiratorially. "So long as you remember to duck before that tunnel on the fourth turn." He gave her a surfer kahuna salute-- then caught his grandfather's expression and shriveled like a raisin.

Bemused, Luna nodded politely in return. Nyx might have been imagining it, but she thought she saw Luna give the waterfall overhead a very speculative look...

Twilight plowed ahead. "Well then, um... back to business at hand, I guess," she said. She started to lift up the book. "The Firebird gave us... something of a gift, Celestia," she said. "I really wanted to take time to discuss it with you."

From her levitated position, for the briefest moment Nyx saw a look of... of alarm flash through Celestia's eyes as she caught a glimpse of the book's cover and title. The look of alarm was echoed in Luna's eyes as well. "Ah, that," Celestia said with a cheerful tone only those who knew her well-- like Nyx-- would recognize as false. Celestia set Nyx and Spike down and hastily plucked the book from Twilight's magical grasp. "Ahh, mmhmm," she said. "This is something I've been meaning to discuss with you, in private." she closed the book firmly and floated it back to Twilight before Nyx could read the cover. Celestia looked at Twilight meaningfully. "But for now... could you do us a favor and take these children back to your quarters so they can clean up a little and rest up from their little misadventure? I will be in to see you after the banquet."

"Yes. As will I," Luna interjected. Twilight started to speak. "In private." Twilight caught the hint. Nodding, she tucked the book under one wing and levitated her wayward children onto her back. They settled in with a squelch.

"Sorry, Mom," Nyx said meekly.

Twilight sighed. "Never mind. Come along, children," she said. "We can't have you running around all soaking wet, you'll catch... aheh. Well, most of you might catch cold," she amended, glancing at Doubloon with an apologetic smile.

"What about her bowl?" Bright Eyes said. "Doesn't she need it?"

"It's okay, I can stay out of the water for a little while," Doubloon said. "They just didn't want me flopping around the floor like a brain damaged seal."

"Well we have a pool large enough to rest in," Twilight said. "One without any pony-sized drains." The foals giggled weakly. Come on."

Killdeer and Adder picked the seapony filly up and draped her over their back. Meekly, and somewhat squishily, the herd of royal foals followed after the Princess of Friendship.

Celestia turned back to her guests with a (what else?) sunny smile. "Now that that is taken care of," she said. "Where were we...?"

1)The trick of course was to never ask.

2)Unique as in 'recovered from the depths of the Everfree.'

3)They weren't ignorant of what the plant could do... but Killdeer had seen the prankster plant and, as Adder put it dolefully, 'started getting IDEAS.'

4)Something to do with an ancient bet about swimming to the top of some waterfall in Neighpon....