Just as Garth and the ponies are about to crash into the cliff, Garth turns it into mud, explaining that since he is a gnome he has powers over earth and stone. When asked why he couldn't do this to let them into the castle, he explains that it's magically protected and he won't be able to affect it until he's physically within it.
This still leaves the heroes with the problem of how to get into the castle, as the undine and salamander are still in the way, but Heart Throb comes up with a plan. After cornering the castle against the mountains, they fly down to it and taunt its defenders into attacking; through some skillful dodging, they get the salamander to boil away the undine's moat and the undine to douse the salamander, leaving the two helpless and allowing the heroes to walk in.
After navigating the castle's mazelike layout and traps with a magical guiding light, the group reaches the chamber where Ariel sleeps. Before Garth can wake her up, however, the defenders, who have recovered their powers, storm into the room. A fight breaks out, in which the heroes narrowly avoid being torched-
Locket: Oh really? I thought we had to stop them because they'll make baked Alaska out of us if we don't!
Only for her to calmly inform him that none of this was her idea and she was never interested in a relationship to begin with.
A further complication ensues when the breaking of the spell also causes the castles to plunge out of the sky — apparently, Garth was supposed to land it before waking Ariel up. The others implore Garth to turn the ground beneath them to mud to cushion their fall; Garth, however, still upset by his rejection, turns his nose in the air and refuses to do anything until the ponies grab him and dangle him in midair to get a good look at what he's getting them into. He relents and turns the ground to mud, giving everyone enough time to run outside before the castle sinks into the mire.
Once everything is settled, Garth seems to have come to terms with the situation, but the ponies, and especially Heart Throb, are very upset about having the quest been all for nothing and ask Ariel if she can't change her mind. Ariel admits to the possibility of being open to romance someday, and with that note the episode ends.
This episode contains examples of:
- Colony Drop: Once the spell is broken, the flying castle falls out of the sky — which is something of a problem for the characters, as they're all inside it.
- Deconstructed Trope: The episode deconstructs the fairytale classic where a hero braves a perilous castle and magical guardians to wake a fair maiden with True Love's Kiss and live with her happily forever after. The sequence mostly goes as planned, but hits a snag when it turns out that the fair maiden hadn't been in the market for a relationship when she went to sleep, has not had any chance to change her mind due to having effectively experienced no time since, and while grateful for being freed doesn't really feel like getting together with a complete stranger.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Garth, being a gnome, has innate power over earth and stone, and uses it twice in the episode. Both times, he does so to turn rock (first a cliffside, and then the ground) into mud, in order to soften otherwise fatal falls.
- Hopeless Suitor: Garth is besotted by Ariel, and goes through a number of perils to wake her and win her hand. When she awakes, however, she has no interest in him — she wasn't looking for a relationship before she was put to sleep, and she isn't now either.
- Rescue Romance: Zig-zagged, but largely subverted. At first, Ariel is thankful enough to Garth for waking her up, but has no interest whatsoever in getting into a relationship with him for it. At the end, she's still not really interested, but doesn't discount it as an option for the future.
- Tempting Fate: While walking through the castle's halls, Heart Throb confidently says that things are going well and everything is falling right into place. As soon as she finishes saying this, she walks right into a pit trap.
