//------------------------------// // Eternal Archives // Story: Skylanders X MLP // by Skylander545 //------------------------------// At the time of the call, the letter stated that only four specific Skylanders would have to go on this mission and Blackout knew that it was going to be personal for him. He recruited Spotlight, Blades and Echo to go on this mission because Skylands is in great peril from the Nightmare Villains. But to Blackout, the worst to ever be released is the Dream Sheep...it was so long and he thought he would never see him again. But there’s always a next time when these things occur. Thankfully the four dragons were lucky to find out that Celestia was in town at Cloudcracker Base. She was getting to know a scientist and his spirit-possessed mask that landed here without warning. When they explained the situation to her, she notified her guard and sent a carriage to take them to Canterlot. Once they arrived at the capital city, the four Skylanders ran for the castle and into the portal chamber where they saw Princess Luna occupying it. She turned to the four dragons and said, “I am glad that you have come, Skylanders. But I believe time is of the essence.” Blackout nodded, “The Nightmare gang has been released from the Dream Realm and so was the Dream Sheep. He’s cast a spell which is causing everyone to go to sleep.” Luna replied, “That sheep appeared from the Eternal Archives. We have contacted Flynn to head there immediately.” Soon she looked at the portal and noticed that Flynn was standing at the entrance to the archives as he was looking around saying, “That Night Princess told me to come here...but everyone seems to be sleeping at the moment...usually Hugo would deal with this sort of stuff…” Echo noticed, “I guess Flynn has arrived at the archives.” Luna soon communicated through the portal, frightening the pilot in the process. He said, “Oh hey there… umm… Princess Luna…err... ma’am! This is really weird! Can you believe the mess these creature thingies made?” Luna understood the mess that they made around the archives as the pilot continued, “I know that you usually deal with Hugo but… well he’s kinda sleeping at the moment so… I guess I’ll have to fill in for him.” He pointed to the nearby portal, “On the positive note, the Eternal Archives have their own Portal of Power thingy which can link to your Power of Portal thingy in your world so the Skylanders can use it. Oh wait! Make that the other way around.” Luna spoke, “We are only sending four Dragon Skylanders to aid in the archives.” Flynn asked, “Four Dragons against whatever is going on in the archives?!” The Lunar Alicorn remarked, “These dragons are the best that we have in knowing thou enemy!” Flynn accepted, “Okay, okay. So let’s do this! I’ll try to activate the swirly stuff on my side and you can do the same in your world so we can send your team over to where I’m at.” Soon enough, Luna activated the Portal of Power as it linked to the Archives as she spoke, “Skylanders, proceed into the archives and find anyone that could help shed some light on our adversary and find Hugo as well,” Blackout nodded, “We’ll take care of it.” Spotlight replied, “You can count on us.” Blades spoke, “We won’t let you down.” Echo replied, “No enemy will keep me quiet.” Soon enough, the team of four dragon skylanders entered the Portal and were transported to the archives. When they appeared on the archives’ portal, Flynn saw the four dragons and declared, “Righty-o! Let’s get this show on the road! I guess you four could start by looking for someone … this place looks like a ghost town from one of those old movies.” Blackout nodded as he said, “Either way, we need to get into the archives and find the librarians.” Flynn pointed to a strange door with a face on it, “The archives are locked down since whatever happened here.” Spotlight saw the door, “Then that’s where we need to go.” The four got off of the portal and went for the door to the Eternal Archives as the face on the door examined them, “Hmmm, you four are not sleeping. Curious indeed!” Blackout approached, “We’re Skylanders that need to get into the archives.” The door looked at the dragon, “Well Blackout, Welcome back to the Eternal Archives, home of the Warrior Librarians, keepers of the most dangerous books in all of Skylands.” Blackout asked, “We need to speak to Wiggleworth. Do you know where he is?” The door replied, “I’m afraid that he’s fallen asleep deep within the archives. You must find him, Blackout. You and the rest of the librarians know that he is the only one who may know how to lift the Dream Sheep’s Sleep Curse!” Blackout cringed when the door mentioned the Dream Sheep, “Don’t worry, we’ll find him!” The door opened as the four dragons ran across the magic bridge and into the archives. When they entered the archives, they found a sleeping librarian which looked like a robot, but as soon as they approached it, the librarian woke up as he was shaking the sleep off of him, like the door he recognized the dark dragon in front of him, “Zzz...huh? Oh, Hey Blackout! Am I glad to see you back in the archives once again! Maybe you can help.” Blackout asked, “What happened?” The librarian replied, “Ever since that mean old sheep cast that sleeping curse, these poor researchers have been stuck asleep.” The librarian pointed up to the sleeping Mabu researchers on the platform, “I’ve tried everything I could to wake them up, from shaking them to dumping a bucket of water on them and they still wouldn’t wake up until I fell asleep as well.” Blackout nodded, “We’ll get these researchers up and about in no time!” The librarian replied, “Thanks Blackout and it’s good to have you back.” The fact that the librarians know Blackout made his companions raise an eyebrow, but that would be for later as the four dragons split in two and woke up the two sleeping mabu. Although the two mabu were partially dreaming as they talked in their sleep before waking up completely in the presence of the four skylanders. They soon shook off the sleep from their eyes as the mabu realized that they were standing in the presence of the four as they tried to act like they weren’t sleeping until Blackout spoke, “You two were clearly sleeping...but we will find a way to lift this curse.” Soon enough, the librarian approached the four as he said, “You Skylanders could wake up anybody affected by the sleep curse by just walking up to everyone.” Spotlight responded, “That would require a whole army of Skylanders and Princess Luna only sent us four.” The librarian realized the flaw in his idea, “You’re right...but the Head Librarian knows how to speed things up. He’s been looking forward to seeing Blackout again.” Blackout asked, “Where’s Wiggleworth?” The librarian pointed to a book door on the far left side of the archives, “Last I heard he was in the Underhalls to stop the commotion.” Blades realized, “If that’s where he is, then we should get to the Underhalls!” The four dragons acknowledged this as they made their way over to the door, only to be stopped by the door itself, “Halt! You are not clear to enter here!” The door soon recognized one of the dragons, “Wait? Blackout? Is that you?” Blackout asked with a joke, “Are your eyes playing with you?” The door chuckled, “It is you, Blackout! You and your companions may enter, but be careful. Ever since the Dream Sheep escaped, there’s been no one left to protect the Archives. Well until you and Spotlight arrived to investigate.” The door opened as the four walked across the bridge as they entered the portal to the Underhalls of the Archives. As the four dragon Skylanders entered the Underhalls, they saw Princess Luna appear in a hologram as she spoke, “This is not well, Skylanders. The Archives are overrun by the minions of that Dream Sheep. Everyone in the archives are asleep because of the Sheep’s curse. You need to find the Head Librarian as quickly as possible.” Blackout nodded, “Understood, your highness.” Princess Luna’s hologram faded as the four dragons moved through the underhalls only to come to an open gap with a small nightmare chompy on the other side. This chompy soon screamed in shock as he saw Blackout and ran towards the opposite direction as the four crossed the magical bridge of books to catch up to that chompy. The four soon woke up a mabu that wanted to challenge them to a game of regular Skystones, Blackout spoke, “The choice is up to us, we could either refuse and go after those chompies or accept?” Echo spoke, “You won’t have to choose. I’ll stay here and play Skystones.” Blackout, worried about leaving one of his friends behind asked, “Are you sure, Echo?” The water dragon nodded to the beat of her headphones, “I’ll be back with you guys like the DJ gigs in Manehattan.” Blackout sighed, “Okay, make sure it’s quick. I don’t want us to get left behind.” Echo replied, “I’ll be fine, it’s just a simple Skystones match. So Just Go!” At the water dragon’s voice, the three dragons moved on after that nightmare chompy that they saw before and woke up a librarian who was explaining that a group of evil chompies have overrun the next room and are led by the largest and most fiery chompy ever seen. He also explained how they are not putting the books in the correct location after using them. Blades asked, “How is it that an incident like this reminds me of the time where Twilight went crazy over all of the books not being arranged properly?” Blackout remembered, “Spike had to use his ice breath just to calm her down until Ali did a little bit of therapy to get her sister’s mind back in order.” Spotlight nodded, “Not one of our finest days.” The three soon moved across the bridge, smashed some crates, collected treasure and they also found a scroll on a podium near the door as Blackout noticed the description of the chompy that was leading the others, “Boris Blisterbottom…” He read,”No one knows where Boris Blisterbottom came from. Some say he was found in a batch of particularly spicy chili. Others claim he was spat out of an active volcano. Either way, his hot temper is legendary.” Blackout closed the scroll as he used his messaging breath to send it to Princess Luna. The trio soon progressed on through the underhalls as they saw a locked gate and a path on an elevated position blocked by a barricade. They got the key by using a bounce pad to get to the upper level, but they didn’t go to the gate since Blackout wanted to see what was behind the barricade and destroyed it. It revealed a path that led up to a podium that held another scroll similar to the one that they just had. Blackout held the scroll in the magic from his horn as he opened it and read, “Untouchably hot, Boris leaves a trail of fire wherever he goes. And though normally not a problem, he rarely gets invited to many snowball fights.” Blackout closed the page and sent it to Luna as he and his group moved on towards another blocked barricade where the path was split. The right side led to an Air Gate while the left side led to another podium with another Nightmare Page on it. Blades looked at the gate and decided, “I’m going to check out that gate.” Blackout nodded, “Be careful, Blades.” The armored dragon nodded, “I’m always careful when it comes to these situations.” Soon enough, Blades left for the gate leaving Spotlight and Blackout to check out the third page that was on the left side. The two dragons approached the scroll as Blackout held the scroll in his magic as he read, “Boris once went swimming in the Nightmare ocean. And while going was fine, his hot temperature soon brought the sea up to a fine boil - turning the lagoon into fish stew.” They were shocked at this until they heard a familiar voice say, “Not the type of chompy that I would go swimming with.” They turned around and saw Echo standing behind them as Blackout asked, “How long have you been standing there?” The water dragon replied, “Long enough, Blackout.” The Dark Dragon rolled up the scroll and sent it to Luna as he sighed, “I wished that these guys wouldn’t return to to the waking world. But I was wrong...We need to find out what caused the Nightmare villains to return...especially the Dream Sheep.” Echo asked, “You have a history with this sheep?” Blackout nodded, “Yes, but not here. We’ll explain once we find Wiggleworth.” The three dragons soon regrouped with Blades, who was done with the gate and busted down the barrier that was blocking the way and woke up another librarian as he noticed them, “Beware, Skylanders, The last time I saw Wiggleworth, he was trying to fight the largest chompy I have ever seen!” Blackout and his companions nodded as they used a super bounce pad to jump over to the lower areas of the archives as they saw the chompy from before as it shrieked again after noticing Blackout. But instead of running, the chompy decided to fight as all four dragons got into battle position as Blackout said, “We meet again, Boris.” Boris Blisterbottom charged forward as he attempted to use his pearly whites on the dragoons, but they dodged his attack only for the chompy to get peppered with music notes, swords, light beams and shadow balls. Boris moved closer to the four as he started to grow and expand as his fiery temper built up until he exploded, but the four dodged the explosion in time as the chompy summoned small fire chompies to help him out. Echo moved in on Boris and his helpers as she said, “Time for a little musical beatdown!” Instantly, the water dragoness bopped her head up and down as a powerful music shockwave hit the chompy as his helpers were blown to oblivion. It left Boris open to a multi-sword attack by Blades when he used his bladed wings to Boris, knocking the chompy to Spotlight as she fired her rings at the chompy followed by a beam attack which knocked Boris towards Blackout as the nightmare chompy shrieked in fright upon realizing that he was getting close to the Dark Dragon. Blackout soon whipped his wings at the nightmare chompy and trapped him in an orb of shadow before moving at a Rainbow Dash-like speed, dealing a critical hit to Boris and finished him off with a tail strike, sending the chompy sprawling towards the ground. At that moment, Luna appeared in a hologram as she said, “The fight is won, Skylanders. But now, we shall do exact justice on Boris Blisterbottom.” When she said that, a vortex appeared just above the nightmare chompy as he was sucked in. The chompy tried thrashing around to try and get free, but it was all for not. He was sucked into the vortex as it closed. Luna appeared in a hologram once again, but before she could say anything, the sleeping librarian soon jolted awake as an aged, wise voice spoke, “ZzzZ… Where’s my quill... ZzzZzzz…” Blackout recognized this voice, “Wiggleworth… Head Librarian Wiggleworth!” The librarian recognized the dragon, “Blackout? Is that you? It’s been so long since we spoke to each other.” The dragon replied, “It was, old friend.” Wiggleworth remembered, “Anyway, I was battling with a mighty chompy that showed up - seemingly out of nowhere - and then…” Blackout replied, “You were hit by the sleep curse and fell asleep...but we managed to defeat him and capture him.” Wiggleworth realized, “Now that’s truly interesting! He even seems friendly now.” He noticed Luna, “And If I didn’t know better, you must be Princess Luna, the Princess of the Night.” Luna replied, “That is correct, Head Librarian. On some occasions when we make ourselves visible, the others would fall down to our presence.” Wiggleworth chuckled, “Young mabu always faint when in the presence of someone like you and your sister.” He wanted to try something, “About the chompy that you captured, since he is inside the traptanium shard at your castle next to the portal itself, why not take this opportunity to interact with him.” Luna asked, “Anything we should do to interact with this redeemed villain?” Wiggleworth added, “You can use your abilities to poke him, spin him, create wind and even tickle him.” Luna was curious at first until she used her magic on the shard in the portal chamber and created such entertaining things with the captured villain. She used her magic to tickle the chompy as the chompy’s laugh seem to be amusing as the little guy was enjoying it. If anypony or anyone thought of the Princess of the Night tickling a chompy, they would’ve been crazy to think that. It wasn’t until more chompies showed up as Wiggleworth spoke, “Your highness, you need to summon Boris to fight alongside the Skylanders. But be mindful when you summon a captured villain, they will need to return to you so they could rest.” Soon enough, Luna summoned Boris into battle as he did a powerful fire attack on the chompies, obliterating them almost instantly. After that, he returned to Luna to rest as the portal back to the archives opened and the four dragons led the Head Librarian out of the Underhalls. Once they were back in the archives, Wiggleworth removed his helmet as he revealed himself to be a small scholar worm driving the robot body as he breathed, “Finally some fresh air! Thanks again for coming to my rescue, Blackout. I am once more in your debt.” Blackout asked, “What happened to the archives?” The bookworm replied, “This is what happened when your friend, Hugo read that book. I had doubt on its powers, but I never tried to read it myself.” The dragon asked, “I thought that book would never be read again? Didn’t you label that book?” Wiggleworth nodded, “I did, and I thought that no one would want to read ‘The Most Boring Book Ever.’ But it seems Hugo’s curiosity got the better of him.” Spotlight spoke, “Flynn said that Hugo was sleeping.” The librarian replied, “He fell asleep just before the invasion. I tried to wake him up, but I was locked out of the Nightmare Wing.” Blackout realized, “The Nightmare Wing possesses books on the Nightmare Realm! It was considered a storage area for the most dangerous of books concerning the Nightmare Realm!” Wiggleworth finished, “And that book was the portal to the Nightmare Realm.” He soon went to the task at hand, “All of Skylands will remain asleep until the curse is lifted. But I know a way to lift the spell.” Blades asked, “How?” Wiggleworth stated, “The Three Bells of Waking, of course! The legends state that these bells were created by the Magic Crafters in order to lift any spell that fell upon the individual bell’s people. The bells themselves remained hidden during the first War with Malefor and have surfaced when the war ended.” Blackout realized, “And if all three bells are rung, the sleep curse would be lifted from the entire world.” Wiggleworth chuckled, “Still as sharp as ever, Blackout. Our scholars would lead you and your friends to the bells if the Archive’s doors were open.” Blackout asked, “Let me guess, that grey patch of wool made off with the Gem Keys?” Wiggleworth nodded, “He did…” He realized, “Wait a minute! Your new ally might be able to get them for us!” Blackout asked, “What do you mean?” The librarian replied, “The Dream Sheep will be unaware of Boris changing sides. He could deceive him, infiltrate his base and retrieve the stolen Gem Keys.” Luna soon summoned Boris as he stood by the portal as it shifted to a villain bootcamp. Blackout asked the chompy, “Are you going to be all right, Boris?” The chompy replied with several chomping noises and nods. The dragon replied, “Good to see that your time in Luna’s presence has changed you.” The chompy nodded as he entered the portal to the bootcamp. Boris Blisterbottom appeared in the villain bootcamp as he looked around and saw other fire chompies waiting around the camp. Soon enough, the platform in front of the chompy opened up as a loudspeaker attached to a statue of the Dream Sheep rose up from its hole as the chompy could hear the Dream Sheep’s voice echo through the loudspeaker towards Boris himself, “Hello my tiny yet rabid minion! I am speaking to you through the magic of this tiny rather ravishing statue of myself! Beautiful isn’t it?” Boris didn’t need to answer because the sheep spoke again, “Now that everyone’s asleep in Skylands...well if it weren’t for the barrier of the Equestrian Isles, but it will follow soon, but I prepared a series of tests to validate who’s worthy of being in my army.” He described the challenge, “In this challenge, you need to use your fire attack to light all the candles on the cakes you see in the room and then eat it after lighting the candle.” He soon discussed the next step, “With your belly full, you must hurry and throw yourself at the UGLY Mabu statues - and watch them go BOOM!!!” Thee Dream Sheep explained, “You see, there’s nothing in the world I hate most than the despicable Mabus! Well there is one that I hate most than Mabus and that’s the dragon, Blackout...Oh I hate him so much after he and those blasted Dream Weavers sealed me into that book!” The sheep calmed down as he finished, “Anyway, if you succeed, I will reward you with a SHINY GEM I stole from the Eternal Archives. I don’t know what it’s actually for, quite frankly, but I am sure you will MARVELOUS! Bombs away!” Soon enough, the statue retreated as Boris went through the training area of the boot camp. He also noticed several patches of water throughout the rooms that he has to go through to get to the gem. If he would set foot in water while ignited, he would be extinguished and he would have to start over. The challenge felt relatively easy as the chompy always heard the soothing voice of Princess Luna echo through his ears. He heard her say, “The sheep is unaware of your defection as expected. Watch your surroundings. Boris and please be careful.” Boris understood this as the chompy continued down the path of the arena as he lit p birthday cakes, ate them and hurled himself at the statues of mabu villagers. Boris knew from his ‘conversation with the Dream Sheep’ that the sheep himself hates Blackout more than he does the mabu. But he didn’t have a Blackout statue in his arena. The chompy knew that the real Blackout is too strong, so if you can’t beat them, join them. Boris walked along a path that had moving platforms moving across a puddle of water as he lit another birthday cake and went to the platforms, avoiding the water in the process and hurled himself at the last mabu statue. He completed the fifth room and entered the sixth room which revealed the Gem Key that the librarians were talking about. Once the chompy obtained the gem, he heard Princess Luna’s voice, “You have done well, Boris Blisterbottom. Do not worry about not returning to the Archives, we will transport you back.” Soon enough, Boris soon entered a portal as he was transported back to the archives with the gem in hand. Upon returning to the archives, Wiggleworth lead Blackout and his three friends to the door where the gem that Boris found fits into. After placing the gem into the slot, the door spoke, “Thank you, Blackout. You did it! I can open again! Here, I’ll let you access this part of the archives! Isn’t it exciting?” The door opened as Wiggleworth pointed to the portal beyond the door, “The first Temple of Waking is on the Stoneshrine Islands. A peaceful and most ancient lands before Malefor’s first rise to power. The mabu preserve the ruins on the isles and the Temple as well.” Blackout nodded, “If we ring that bell, the mabu of the Stoneshrine Islands will wake up.” Blades noted, “There is no doubt that the Dream Sheep will take notice of our actions.” Echo understood, “He will know that we’re going after the bells.” Spotlight decided, “Well, let’s not keep him waiting.” Before the four dragons set off for the Stoneshrine Islands, Wiggleworth stopped them, “Before you set off for the islands, you must know how we know Blackout and Spotlight.” Blades realized, “Of course, it’s been on my mind ever since we arrived.” Echo asked, “What’s your history with Spotlight and Blackout?” Wiggleworth brought out a book and presented it to them. He opened it as he stated, “This book was given to the archives by a dragon known only as ‘The Chronicler’ He told us that sometime in the future, we would need to read the book.” Blades and Echo looked into the book as they saw several pictures that showed Blackout when he lived in the Dream Realm as Wiggleworth narrated, “Blackout lived in the Dream Realm for a time when he was a hatchling. When he was older, he was drafted into a dragon clan called, ‘The Dark Stygian’ their goal was to conjure nightmares for villains to dishearten them from committing any more evil deeds. The clans nobility in their cause was something that was seen as a weakness. The Dream Sheep saw this and exploited this weakness. He soon had the entire dragon clan under his control as he sent them to spread nightmares to everyone he sees fit and eventually opened a rift into the waking world, attempting to terrorize the lands in the glory of his master, Malefor. Blackout saw the clan’s fall from honor and decided to fight the many nightmares that was summoned by the clan. One of the dreams was that of a hatchling of the Dream Weaver dragon breed. Blackout was disgusted of seeing nightmares enter the mind of a hatchling and prevented the hatchling from having a bad dream. When the parent dragons searched the hatchling’s dreams, they saw Blackout’s heroics in saving their hatchling. The Dream Weavers were aware of the Dream Sheep’s presence in the waking world, so a group of these mystical dream weaving dragons performed a summoning ritual. When that happened, Blackout appeared before them as the Dream Weavers explained the situation in the waking world as the Dream Sheep’s chaos was spreading far and wide. Blackout was determined to stop this sheep, but the dragons said that he would need the Crystal Orb of Light which the Dream Weavers keep in the Prismatic Palace. They determined that the power of light and dark combined would cast the Dream Sheep back into the dream realm.” The image soon changed to an image of Blackout and Spotlight meeting for the first time, “Blackout journeyed to the palace to obtain the orb while accompanied by one of the Dream Weavers. But when Blackout approached the orb, he stopped when he noticed that it requires a Dream Weaver’s touch as the dragon accompanying him touch the orb. The orb soon flashed so bright that they had to shield their eyes with their wings. Until the light faded, Blackout and the Dream Weaver lowered their wings as Spotlight stood before them in a respected bow. The Dream Weavers knew that the ancestors sent her to them to assist Blackout in stopping the Dream Sheep.” There was soon an image of the duo battling the Nightmare Villains and sealing the Dream Sheep into a book, “So they fought his minions and confronted the Dream Sheep himself and used everything they could to defeat him. But instead of sending him back to the dream realm, Spotlight and Blackout used ‘The Most Boring Book Ever’ to banish him to the Nightmare Realm. It was in these very archives which the duo fought the Dream Sheep. But now he’s back and has brought some new friends with him.” Blades and Echo were shocked by this revelation as they realized that this happened once before. Seeing the Light and Dark Dragon approach, Blades approached Blackout, “You never told me about this, but no matter what, we’ll stop this sheep together!” Echo spoke, “We’ll give this sheep something to count himself to sleep no matter what!” Spotlight smiled, “Thanks guys for believing in us.” Blackout nodded as he said, “Let’s go guys, we got a sheep to chase.” The four dragons soon ran into the portal.