//------------------------------//
// Scroll 14- Igniting the Spark Part 1 
// Story: Beyond the Skies 
// by FrostTheWolf 
//------------------------------//


Beyond the Skies- Igniting the Spark Part 1




        After his brainstorming session with the Cutie Mark Crusaders and also finding out that the girls wanted to make him an honorary crusader, the next thing that Calvin was personally trying to figure out with what to do next was a bit more complex. Despite the conversation with Master Eon on Imaginite Crystals and Cruger’s help in awakening the crystal and coming up with the idea on what he wanted to do, there was one thing that wasn’t properly explained to him about the whole thing… and that was how exactly he was going to do it.

        Despite all the helpful advice from the Skylanders at the Academy and the ponies that helped him, it didn’t tell him what he needed to do in order to make an Imaginator in the first place. So, it left him with not a lot of options in terms of what to do next… but he did know someone that he could be able to ask. “Hey, Spitfire? Are you busy right now?”

        It took a couple of moments in order to get a response, but thankfully, the fire Supercharger was able to get back to him. “Yeah, I’m here. Sorry about not responding sooner. We had an accident in the school’s cafeteria involving Flynn and his knocking over a salsa bar that wasn’t held down properly.”

        “How bad is it?”

        “Well, not too bad. We’re just thankful that he didn’t knock over the hot sauce that only Eruptor, Hot Head and Hot Dog can have. If that actually happened, we would be having problems,” he heard Spitfire chuckle for a moment, before asking a different question. “But more to the point… Is everything going alright down there? I didn’t expect for you to try and reach out to me so soon after you and your friends visited the academy not too long ago.”

        “Yeah… that’s the thing…” Calvin originally said, before thinking on something and asking you a question. “Did Spyro and Stealth Elf happen to mention anything the last time they were at the M.A.P.?”

        “Ehh, not really. All I know was that you were going to visit, but not exactly what happened while you were over there,” Spitfire explained, “Why?”

        “Well, while we were there, Spyro, Twilight and I met a Displaced that actually was able to help us out with our Imaginite shortage problem. Now, the crystal’s no longer asleep, and I spent most of the day with some of Spike’s friends, coming up with ideas on Imaginators…” the Skyshifter summarized for him in order to keep everything brief. “However, the obstacle that I’m at now is the fact that I don’t know how to use the Creation Crystal.”

        “Ah, I see what you mean…” he heard Spitfire tell him, shortly before taking a deep breath. “Sorry to break it to you, buddy, but I don’t know much about how that Imaginite or Mind Magic stuff really works. That sounds like something that Hugo or Eon might have a better understanding on, to be honest.” That… had Calvin feel a bit of disappointment, as well as some hope that there was someone who could possibly help him overcome his dilemma. 

        To which, he cleared his throat and replied back to the Skylander. “Hunh… alright then. I’ll go on over and talk to Hugo. Thanks for the help, Spitfire!” The Supercharger in question that he was talking to was thrown off guard by him saying that and tried to speak to him, but it was something that Calvin couldn’t quite hear.

        In any case though, before he could go wander off anywhere, he needed to make sure to talk to Twilight before going anywhere. Just to be on the safe side.



        “You want to go for what now?” the alicorn asked, wanting for Calvin to run everything by her one more time. Even though he had already explained it to her once, Twilight was still having trouble processing the fact that Calvin was wanting to head out the door again so quickly.

        For Calvin though, it seemed like trying to explain everything to her the easy way wasn’t exactly going to go well for him. So, he decided to try and backtrack it a bit. “Alright… remember when we originally went to Skylander Academy and got the Creation Crystal?”

        “Yeah, that was only a few days ago,” the princess replied back.

        “Then, we had our visit to the M.A.P. most recently to solve our problem with the crystal being asleep.”

        “To be honest, that Cruger person helping you was just… beyond me,” Twilight told her, still recalling the amount of confusion she was left in after meeting him then, “And that was only two days ago.”

        “And let’s not forget the afternoon with Scootaloo and her friends,” Calvin also added on to that, which had Twilight nod back in response. “But, out of all those things… there was one thing that wasn’t really… well… explained to us during all those times.”

        Now, that had even Twilight curious, causing her to raise an eyebrow in response. “And that is?”

        That had Calvin get the Creation Crystal from his pocket as he looked back at her and sighed. “How to actually use one of these… Think about it… We’ve been told that it was possible that I can use one of these crystals to make my own Imaginator, but they never really told us how to do it. It’s like trying to build a bookshelf without a set of instructions.”

        Twilight… scratched her chin for a minute with the edge of her hoof, thinking over what he had just said before looking back at Calvin and realizing what he meant. “You know, that’s… a rather valid point. But who would actually know how to use one of those?”

        That had Calvin place the crystal back in his pocket first before looking back at Twilight. “That’s what I was asking Spitfire earlier… He told me that it was possible that Hugo might know a thing or two about it… but there was also something else that… kind of confused me. Something about ‘Mind Magic’.”

        “Mind… magic?” the alicorn asked. Despite knowing a lot of magic and reading about particular forms of magic like Mind Control or Mind Wiping, this was something she had never heard about before.

        “Yeah, but I’m not entirely sure what exactly it is…” Calvin shrugged, before looking back at her. “So… what do you think about all of this?” Twilight herself sighed for a moment before she looked at the Skyshifter and thought over everything that he said… before telling him her answer.

        “Well, I do think that a trip to see Hugo could be beneficial…” that got Calvin’s hopes up really high at first. But, what Twilight said to follow up on that soon brought him back down to earth. “But I would think that you should go tomorrow.”

        “Tomorrow?” he asked, sounding rather puzzled by Twilight’s statement as she trotted over to her seat at the Cutie Map while he followed her. “Why tomorrow?”

        “Because, after everything that had been going on for the last few days, you deserve a bit of a break from all your heroic endeavours,” she explained to him. “Some days, you are only here for a few moments before running out the door to go do something else. Personally, you’re just as bad as Rainbow…” hearing that… felt a little bit embarrassing to hear from her. But, it didn’t mean that she was wrong. 

        “S-sorry…” he sighed, sounding as if he was a foal who was caught trying to get cookies out of the cookie jar.

        “It’s nothing for you to apologize to me about, Calvin.” Twilight assured him, a warm smile on her face. “I just want to make sure that you knew about it. You don’t have to be in a rush in order to find out how to get this done. It’s not a race.”

        She was right about that, he had to admit. But… there was still something on his mind regarding all of this. “I know… but just what exactly am I supposed to do until then?”

        “No wonder. He’s just as bad as Rainbow. I feel like I’m talking to another version of her,” the princess thought to herself for a moment, sighing as she tried to compose herself. “Well, you could perhaps help me around the castle and such-”

        “Isn’t that Spike’s job?” Twilight’s original answer was going to be a flat out no, but the fact that the baby dragon had just brought her a cup of tea a few moments after he said that would not have helped her case.

        “What Spike does isn’t exactly a job, Calvin…” she explained, before looking back at him and thinking of a comparison that would most likely work. “He’s not having to work all day, like if you were a staff member at Canterlot Castle. He has his own room here, and he can do things in his free time.”

        “So… you’re saying that helping you out… is like doing some chores around the castle?”

        That was actually a rather valid comparison, Twilight had to admit, but hearing that also made her a little bit curious. Judging from Calvin’s tone, it sounded like it was something that he was familiar with, to an extent. “Yeah, you can say that… Did you do something like that back where you were from?”

        “Well, yeah, my mom and I was living at my grandparents house, so they had me make sure that I clean up my toys when I’m done playing, take out the trash, help with the dishes and a few other things while Mom worked during the day… I had to make sure I did homework and chores first before getting the chance to do anything fun,” he said to her. “We didn’t have a lot of the things that a lot of families had at the time, but we still had the four of us… well… three of us I mean.”

        That… did not sound good to Twilight. Not good at all. “Three?”

        That… made Calvin look down a bit, before looking back at her and tried to keep himself together. “A few months ago… my grandpa had breathing problems. I… thought that they would just get better, like a bad cold, but… mom told me that they got worse, that fluids in his lungs were swelling and making it hard for him to breath.”

        “D-did they take him to the hospital?” she asked him.

        Calvin sighed, trying to keep himself together on such a tough topic. “T-they did… but the doctors couldn’t do anything… When I went to see him one last time… it was when they were taking him to… hospice.”

        Immediately, Twilight’s eyes widened. She knew what that meant… but couldn’t believe that someone like Calvin would go through something like that at his age, especially with somepony that cared for him so much. And when she looked back at him, she noticed that a few of the tears that he was once trying to hold back were slowly coming down the side of his face. “Calvin, I… I’m really sorry to hear that…” she said, extending one of her wings and letting him come over to where she was sitting. The young boy did come over, trying to clear up his face a little after everything he just told her.

        But… there was still something else that was bothering him. Yet, how it was brought up was by accident. “You don’t need to apologize, mom-” Now, it was Calvin’s turn for his eyes to widen, almost causing him to trip and fall backwards onto the floor. “I-i’m sorry! I didn’t mean-”

        “Calvin, please… calm down for a moment,” Twilight ushered him, having him calm down a bit before she continued to speak. “You don’t need to apologize to me… but why exactly did you call me that?”

        “W-well…” he said, looking down for a moment before looking back at her. “Remember when I told you that ‘I’d prefer to listen to the Twilight that doesn’t sound like my adoptive mother’?” Twilight nodded her head at that, recalling those same words from him before Calvin decided to go on a trip with Rainbow and Pinkie to Griffonstone. “Well, I said that b-because my actual mother sounds a lot like you… however… it wasn’t really something that I wanted to talk about.”

        “Why’s that?” the princess then asked him.

        “Because the more that I think on it… and the more that I think about the fact that because of me coming here, I might not see her again…” as he was saying this, Twilight herself was trying to connect the dots on this puzzle in order to understand it the best that she could. And the final piece of that puzzle came when Calvin finished his sentence. “…like I can’t see grandpa anymore.”

        With that piece of information, Twilight was finally able to put everything together. And all it did was make her want to help the young Skyshifter even more, which prompted her to ask him something. “Hey, Calvin… if it’s alright with you… would you like to stay here tonight? I can let Fluttershy know, and I think she’ll be okay with it.”

        All Calvin did was nod his head, before going over to where Twilight was and gave her a deep hug. “Thank you.”



Meanwhile…

        Throughout the halls of Kaos’ new fortress of ‘Titanic DOOM!’, the troll butler named Glumshanks was busy walking through the halls of the new citadel that was now their… temporary abode, for the lack of a better term. Everytime that Kaos had to conjure up a new plan in order to take over the Skylands, he made it important that he and his armies could not reside in the same castle at any given time. Of course, with all of the plans that Kaos had hatched over the years, Glumshanks and his master were constantly moving, and only waiting to unleash their plans once Skylands seemed to be at peace.

        Of course, the only thing that was different this time around was the fact that they had Sombra this time. And even though he was wise and pretty evil looking at first glance, it seemed like he always had a habit of popping up out of nowhere, as was the case when Glumshanks was trying to sweep under the table. “Greetings-”

        “Wha-” Was practically the only thing that came out of Glumshanks mouth, before he hit the back of his head under the table and stumbled backwards. Flinching a bit because of the pain before noticing Sombra’s presence in the room. “Oh… Hello, Sombra. Um… Were you looking for Lord Kaos? Because he was in his personal study to try and think of something.”

        “Oh, he was?” Sombra asked. “Was it something in regards to the overall plan?”

        “N-no, it’s……” The troll paused for a moment, before looking back at the shadow king. “Did you give Lord Kaos any… advice recently?”

        Sombra paused for a moment, giving himself some time to think before shortly looking back at Glumshanks once something came to mind. “Well, the only thing I did suggest to him was that, when it came to thinking of a plan for how he wanted to prepare his evil doings, was to try and treat it like a campaign. Like when it comes to warfare,” he explained to Glumshanks, before asking the butler something. “Why do you ask?”

        “Well, that explains one thing,” the troll replied back. “Last time I went to check on him… he was trying to come up with campaign slogans to try and boost morale amongst the minions that serve him.”

        If Sombra had hooves… or limbs for that matter, he would be wanting to place one of them on the front of his face to show his disappointment. But, the only thing that he could do was deeply groan at that, before deciding to ask Glumshanks a question. “Right… I am curious though. What minions does Kaos actually use? I mean, for someone who has been beaten by these Skylanders over and over again, he seems to be rather resourceful.”

        Glumshanks, at that point, had to just look around the room for a moment in order to try and get his thoughts together on the subject. Yet… after a minute with no response, Sombra was slowly beginning to lose his patience. “Well?”

        “S-sorry… I was just getting my thoughts together,” the troll apologized, clearing his throat and grabbing what looked like a series of picture cards from a nearby drawer. “Well, to put it briefly, his abilities as a Dark Portal Master allow for him to summon numerous creatures from across Skylands. Some include cyclopes, trolls, drow elves and spell punks. Though, he does have backup plans for if his magic needs to recharge.”

        That… had Sombra seem a little curious. “Back-up plans?”

        “He been a subscriber to the ‘Minions Monthly’ catalogue for several years now. It’s a real pain though, since every year I need to change the mailing address,” Glumshanks sighed. “Aside from that, he’s been able to use numerous different spells in order to enhance the minions that he has in battle. But some of the people he has worked with before have been… diverse.”

        Now was when Sombra decided to speak again. “I see… would some of those former associates of his be those Doom Raiders I keep hearing about?” Glumshanks nodded at that, placing a few more cards on the table. One that looked like a queen made of gold, a werewolf in leather pants, a green skinned genius on metal legs with a crooked hat, a mage with the appearance resembling the ‘chompie’ creatures he had seen once or twice in this realm… and a walking pinata, which unfortunately reminded him of the hyperactive pink pony that he saw in the Crystal Empire before… well, getting ‘banished’.

        “Yes… Originally, one of Kaos’ plans involved breaking them out of Cloudcracker Prison so he could be the new leader of the Doom Raiders and have them help him in his plan to take over Skylands, but unfortunately, they had other plans for how they were planning to take over the Skylands… and mostly not involving him. Let’s just say he didn’t take it so well…” Glumshanks explained in brief and simple terms. “Also, I think he got mad at them because one of them called him short despite everything he did for them.”

        “Why do I have the feeling that Kaos has a neighpoleon complex?” Sombra personally asked himself, before looking back at Glumshanks. “So, where are these Doom Raiders now?”

        “Well… most of them still reside inside of Cloudcracker prison,” Glumshanks replied back, while also making Sombra think that this prison is the Skylands equivalent to Tartarus. “But as of recently, Master Eon has had some of the former Doom Raiders become teachers at Skylander Academy… but only after they proved themselves to him.” The troll continued to explain a little more about this, filling Sombra in with as much information as he could in order to answer his questions.

        Of course, before Glumshanks was done, they heard a rather frustrated Kaos yell out throughout the castle. “MAKE THE SKYLANDS EVIL AGAIN-! AGH!! WHY DO I BOTHER COMING UP WITH SUCH A STUPID THING IF IT MAKES ME LOOK LIKE A MORON!!?!”

        Glumshanks… just groaned at that as he facepalmed himself and looked back at Sombra. “I… better get going. Whenever he gets stressed, he always-”

        As if it was right on cue, another shout from Kaos soon finished the troll’s sentence for him. “GLUMSHANKS!!!”

        That had the butler sigh deeply, before looking to Sombra and apologizing to him before running out the door. Though, as he left, he didn’t put away the cards of the Doom Raiders that he was using earlier, leaving Sombra to look at them for himself… and more specifically, at the card of one particular Golden Queen as she was holding a few gold coins in her hands.

        The shadow now grinned menacingly as he set the card back down, knowing exactly what he was going to do next.



        When the morning sun began to peak through the curtains of his room, Calvin was already up and awake. Despite the talk he had last night with Twilight, he still felt as if he was ready to get going. Yet, as he stepped outside of his room, he couldn’t exactly find Twilight anywhere… and he couldn’t find Spike in the castle either. It was strange, because Twilight didn’t tell him that she was going anywhere, and the Cutie Map didn’t light up like it did before, when Rainbow Dash and Pinkie had to go to Griffonstone. Though, it was as he was going back in the kitchen that he found a scroll sitting on the counter with a tag that had his name on it, which made him rather curious as he opened it up.

‘Dear Calvin,

        Sorry for surprising you at the last minute, but I have some matters that I need to attend to in Canterlot. Spike and I will be back later this afternoon, so feel free to make yourself at home for the time being. I hope you have fun today, but please don’t do anything reckless.

Sincerely,

Twilight’

        Of course, all that meant in Calvin’s mind was that Twilight wasn’t exactly home now, but possibly will be back later when he returned from the M.A.P. So, leaving the scroll on the counter, he proceeded down to Twilight’s basement and to the door that led directly to the Mysterious Ancient Place.

        However… there was one small detail on Twilight’s note that he unfortunately did not notice at all. That being the post scriptum, or P.S., at the end of the letter. ‘P.S. I’m having Rainbow and Pinkie stop by to check on you later, and maybe bring you a treat from Sugarcube Corner. Just please don’t have them make a mess. They always seem to do so whenever baking is involved.’



        Upon entering the M.A.P. again, it took Calvin some time in order to try and get adjusted with his surroundings and try to find out where he needed to go. The last time he was here, Spyro had told him that the Mysterious Ancient Place allowed for Skylanders to be able to travel to Skylander Academy rather easily while also being able to come back if they were on patrol.

        Yet, the only problem was that the last time they were here, Spyro didn’t exactly show him where it was at, leading him to think that he was left on his own to figure out things for himself. Or at least, that was what he was thinking about originally. He knew that he was able to communicate with Spitfire the last few times before because of the fact that he had transformed into him. So, with the fact that he had used his powers to turn into Spyro before, it was likely possible that he could communicate with him, too.

        “Well, what’s the worst that could happen?” he asked himself, taking the chance to sit on a nearby rock as he tried to concentrate. Though, before he could say anything, he happened to notice a particular signpost with arrows pointed in numerous different directions. Some of the signs were things that kind of surprised him at first glance, especially with what was put on each of the wooden blocks, how they were colored and also… the way they were angled. But in the center of this entire mess was actually a wooden plaque that had a message written on it to try and simplify things for anyone who was looking at it. Yet, to Calvin… what he was reading was seen as anything but simple.

        ‘We apologize for the lack of a layout here in this Mysterious Ancient Place, mainly because of the fact this entire place constantly changes all the time. The signs you see now are what we can recall of the layout, to the best of our ability, until we actually get a mapmaker out here to attempt to record everything… but what we do know is that the signs change direction if any of the floating islands that are around here do move to somewhere else in the M.A.P. In any case, we are sorry for the inconvenience. -Blobbers’

        That, of course, was followed by a list of the directional arrows that represented different locations on the M.A.P.



        → Mushroom River, Cradle of Creation, Thumpin’ Wumpa Islands, Gryphon Park Observatory, Enchanted Elven Forest

        ←Scholarville, Fizzland

        ↖Shellmont Shores, Dragon Temple.

        ↱Sky Fortress (Be on the lookout for Vultures), Battleship

        ⤦Ridepocalypse Demolition Derby (Closed indefinitely), Golden Arcade (Special performances by Sal after 8 P.M. every night), Abandoned Amusement Park (Also closed indefinitely, due to numerous safety violations and… tax evasion), 

        ↓Rat Kingdom (AVOID AT ALL COSTS!! -Softpaw)



        The list continued on and on, to the point that it made Calvin’s head spin, especially since it didn’t include any of the locations that he was familiar with… And the ones he was familiar with were very few on the list. For one thing, he remembered the Demo Derby that the so called ‘Pandergast, the Magnificent’ once held when the Superchargers had to rescue Glumshanks. So, based on that, he could possibly tell why it would definitely be seen as off limits.

        However, the only thing that was bothering him… was that there was no directional arrow for where Skylander Academy would be. He even checked the other side of the post, just to make sure if something there pointed out the direction for it. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to find anything, despite his best efforts.

        It didn’t help, though, that someone else was trying to talk to him while he was thinking. “Something troubling you, young lad?” When Calvin looked behind him though, he didn’t see anyone there. He looked to his left, his right, in front of him and also behind him just for good measure. But… there was one direction that he didn’t take into account.

        “I’m up here, kid,” he heard the voice speak to him again. Doing as he was told, Calvin looked upwards, only to see the Air Skylander he knew as Jet-Vac slowly descend from his position in the air and landing on solid ground. For the Skyshifter, he honestly didn’t expect to run into a Skylander out on patrol… but this could also be a good thing, because he might know the way to Skylander Academy. “You don’t look like you’re from here… are you a tourist?”

        Now, that… surprised Calvin. “Um… no. Why do you think I’m a tourist?” he asked the Air Skylander, raising an eyebrow as he turned around to face him.

        “Well, you look to have been staring at that board for a while now, and your clothes make me think that you’re looking for a beach,” the Sky Baron replied back to him. “Are you trying to find Shellmont Shores?”

        “Uh, no, I’m not,” the Skyshifter replied back, shaking his head and folding his arms. “I’m looking for something else entirely-”

        “Well, what are you looking for exactly?” Jet Vac asked him. He was going to label out a few locations that would be seen as ‘ideal vacation spots’, and by ideal, that meant not already invaded by Kaos on more than one occasion. Luckily for Calvin though, he did not have to hear any of this, as someone else soon spoke up.

        “Jet-Vac, what are you doing? I thought you were patrolling the skies back at the Sky Fortress,” he heard a familiar voice as he saw Stealth Elf emerge from behind a nearby tree.

        “Well, I was doing that, but this tourist here looked to be lost,” Hearing that made Calvin really want to facepalm himself and also try to clarify that he was not a tourist, because it didn’t seem like Jet-Vac was letting him have the chance in order to try and clarify things.

        Though, when Stealth Elf actually noticed him, she seemed surprised at first. Before deeply sighing as she looked back at Jet-Vac. “Hey, Jet… would you mind letting me handle this one? I think I spotted some vultures over-”

        That immediately got the Sky Baron’s attention, as he began to take off using his jet pack. “Vultures?! Where are they?! Nature’s greatest mistakes will not be doing anything evil on MY watch!!” With that, Jet-Vac took off, leaving Stealth Elf with Calvin… and leaving Stealth Elf to breathe a big sigh of relief.

        “That should keep him occupied for a while,” the elf replied, before looking back towards Calvin. “Though, I gotta ask… what are you doing here?”

        “Well, I was trying to find my way over to Skylander Academy, but there wasn’t any kind of sign to point me in the right direction,” he replied back. “I mean, there’s a sign for an arcade, but not the Academy?”

        “Well, here’s the thing… Chompy Mage was left to try and make it, but his chompies ate the sign before it could be finished,” Stealth Elf looked back at him. “Though, why did you want to go to the Academy? Is it for something important?”

        “Well… did Spyro tell you about anything the last time he was here?” the Skyshifter asked her.

        “Well, he told me about the fact that, somehow, you met a guy named Cruger, who was able to summon a train filled with Imaginite… however, I’m not really believing Spyro on that, unless you have some proof-” it was around that moment when Calvin actually took out the Creation Crystal that was now awake because of the Imaginite that Cruger gave him, making Stealth Elf blink for a moment before looking back to Calvin. “Wait… is that what I think it is?”

        “Technically… this would be called the ‘proof’ you needed to see,” the Skyshifter told her. “Everything with Cruger did happen… but now that it’s charged, I’m not entirely sure what to do with it. So, I was coming here in order to see if Hugo could help me… before being mistaken as a tourist.”

        “Right… Honestly, I would’ve expected for one of your friends to be with you, but I can still take you to Hugo,” she replied back, before getting an idea. “Wanna race me there?”

        That… had Calvin curious for a moment as he looked back at the elf. “What’s the catch?”

        “You and me… however, you can’t transform,” she suggested, “Consider it as basic training in preparation for making an Imaginator.”

        That just had the young Skyshifter look back at her with a smirk as he said two words before both of them began to race down the pathway. “Challenge accepted.”



Back in Ponyville

        “Yoohoo!! Anypony home?!!” was the sound of Pinkie Pie’s grand entrance into Twilight’s castle, even though the alicorn wasn’t currently home right now. She had asked for both Pinkie and Rainbow to check on Calvin while she was in Canterlot today, seeing some old friends from before she came to Ponyville. However, neither pony expected for the entire castle to be quiet, especially when there was somepony that was supposed to be home.

        “Calvin? Calvin, it’s Rainbow!” the pegasus called out… even though the two of them didn’t hear any particular response. “That’s… odd. He’s not one to take so long at responding to somepony.”

        “Maybe he’s taking a power nap like you do, Dashie!” Pinkie exclaimed, still bouncing around and trying to look around the castle, thinking that Calvin was hiding somewhere.

        “H-hey! I only do that when I get really tired, Pinkie.”

        “Oooh!! Maybe he’s trying to play Hide and Seek!! Let’s start looking!” the party pony told her friend, before disappearing down the hallway and leaving Rainbow to facehoof herself before she started searching for him. Though… Pinkie’s way of searching for Calvin seemed a bit… extreme, going as far as trying to look in pantries, closets, under beds, in Spike’s room, under Spike’s bed, in Spike’s closet and so on.

        As for Rainbow… she just stuck with the room that Twilight called her ‘guest room’ for the castle. It was where they had Gilda stay for the night upon returning to the castle, before she decided to return to Griffonstone… and right now, there were a few signs that Calvin could possibly be in here, those signs being the extra clothes that Rarity had tailored for him alongside the suit he had from the Gala… or what’s left of it. But there was no sign of Calvin anywhere. “Come on now, where could he be? It’s not like him to be taking off anywhere after his adventure yesterday-”

        When she thought that through… was when things began to click a little inside her head. “No way… He couldn’t have left to go through there again… could he-?”

        “Oh, wowie, Calvy’s very good at hiding!!” she heard from Pinkie Pie, which derailed her train of thought.

        “Uh… Calvy?”

        “Duh! It’s my nickname for Calvin! Like yours is, Dashie!” Pinkie giggled in response, which caused Rainbow to roll her eyes for a moment before thinking of something. Of course, it was like Pinkie to come up with nicknames for everypony she liked. “Do you have any ideas of where he might be hiding, Dashie?”

        Of course, Rainbow only had one thing to say in regards to that. “Well… I think there’s one possible place he might be…”



        “And with that, I think I win the race… even though it was a rather close one.” Stealth Elf chuckled, looking at Calvin as he was trying to catch his breath. The two of them had just finished their race, and even though he thought that he had beat her, he was surprised to find that Stealth Elf was actually waiting for him at Skylander Academy… and that he had been racing a copy of her the entire time.

        “Aw, come on… Did you really have to trick me with a decoy in order to make me think I beat you?” the Skyshifter asked her, thinking that Stealth Elf practically cheated and that he should’ve won the race.

        “You sound like Spyro when you say it like that,” she chuckled. “Besides… wouldn’t this be considered as good physical training for you? Outside of you turning into your forms, you still need to keep yourself in shape.”

        Calvin hadn’t actually thought about it, if he were honest with himself. With the amount of times that he had been fighting in different forms, he never actually considered what Stealth Elf said about keeping in shape. “So… you’re telling me to consider it like training?”

        “In a sense… though, I’m not a sensei like King Pen or the others,” Stealth Elf replied, before noticing something on the ground and picking it up. “Here, I think you should have this,” With that, Stealth Elf set something down in Calvin’s hands, and when he looked at it, he happened to find himself looking at what was a gold coin. “It may not be much, but every Skylander has to start somewhere if they want to save their gold for Persephone’s upgrades. They can be a real lifesaver, if you can afford it.”

        “Why, uh… thank you…” Calvin replied, scratching the back of his head for a moment before placing the coin in his back pocket. “So, do you have any idea where Hugo might be?”

        “The most likely guess is that he’s in the library… He almost panicked when the library got ransacked and some of the books he had got stolen by Kaos,” the elf told him as they both began to walk through the halls of the academy. “Fortunately, we were able to find the books that were missing and return them.”

        Hearing all of this kind of puzzled Calvin, for one particular reason. “Why would Kaos want to steal a book exactly?”

        “Well, when this was going on a couple of months ago, Kaos was trying to dwell deeper into Mind Magic in order to create his Doomlanders to try and stop us,” after Stealth Elf said that, she happened to see a look of confusion on Calvin’s face, shortly before trying to clear up some of the confusion. “Think of Doomlanders like Evil Skylanders.”

        “Well, that makes sense, given the fact that he says Doom a little bit too often whenever he tries something new,” Calvin replied back, “But what did the book have to do with it?”

        “Well, the specific book that he took involved not only secrets regarding Mind Magic, but it also involved collecting Imaginite, making him think that with those he would have what he would need to try and stop us with his Doomlanders…” Stealth Elf replied, just as they passed a couple of students that were at the academy and walked up a set of stairs. “Fortunately, we were able to get the book much later on, but the whole thing involving having to stop him with his Doomlanders is an entirely different story.”

        “I’ll… just take your word for it,” Calvin said in return, looking around the academy and taking in everything he was seeing. That was... before he thought of something else to ask. “Though, can I ask you about something?”

        “Sure. What is it?” the elf asked, raising an eyebrow for a moment.

        “Well, Spitfire told me that the Senseis help teach the Imaginators,” the Skyshifter first began to explain to her. “But I never really got the chance to find out more about some of the Senseis other than King Pen and Ember, since I met both of them in person.”

        Stealth Elf took a moment to sigh to herself before looking back at him, going as far as taking off her mask and having it hang around her neck like a bandana, something that Calvin thought he would never see happen. “Well, I’m not sure where to start there… because honestly, it depends on the battle class that you choose for the Imaginator you make. Not to mention that Master Eon offered some of the Doom Raiders a chance at reformation and let them become Senseis once they were done with rearranging all the books in the Academy library, something that took them two years to do. Almost drove Wolfgang nuts, and the Golden Queen was in dismay because the task had nothing to do with… well…”

        “Gold?” Calvin asked, finishing Stealth Elf’s statement for her.

        “Exactly,” Stealth Elf replied back, just as they arrived at a familiar set of doors. “Well, here we are. The entrance to the library.” Taking a moment, she walked up to the door for a moment and looked back to Calvin, before just knocking on it once. The Skyshifter personally thought that one knock wouldn’t do the trick… but was surprised when the doors immediately opened up mere seconds afterwards.

        “How… did you do that?” he asked, dumbfounded by what just happened.

        “Secret knock,” Stealth Elf chuckled, before putting her mask back on and stepping inside, with Calvin following not far behind her. “Hugo, are you in here? You got yourself a visitor.”

        “If it’s Flynn, tell him that I do not have any recipe books that’ll create the best enchilada in the Skylands! I’m a scholar, not a chef!!” Both of them heard what sounded like an exhausted Hugo call out from the back of the library.

        “Um… should I even ask… or does this involve that cafeteria spill that Spitfire told me about the other day?” Calvin asked.

        “If you’ve been around Flynn for as long as Hugo has, some of the things you hear him say and ask can drive you crazy…” Stealth Elf told him. This made Calvin wonder if the same thing could be applied to that of Twilight and her friends… but before he could really think on that, he then heard Hugo speak up again and walk over to them.

        “Ah, hello there. You’re… Calvin, right?” Hugo asked for clarification.

        “Yeah, that’s me,” the Skyshifter nodded his head, “I came on by because I wanted to ask you something.”

        “Oh?” the Mabu scholar asked in response. “What did you want to ask me?”

        “Well… the last time I was here, Tessa found a Creation Crystal that was asleep and gave it to me. According to what Master Eon told her, I needed to use Imaginite in order to wake it up,” around then was when Calvin actually got the crystal out of his pocket to show Hugo. “I was able to get the crystal to wake up… but I’m not entirely sure how to use something like this, and when I asked Spitfire, he told me that it was possible that you could help.”

        “Huh… I see,” Hugo replied back, going to a nearby desk and opening a particular book that was on there. “Well, based on what this book says, creating an Imaginator is based on Mind Magic… which is what the Ancients once used to create everything in Skylands. And according to one of the passages in here, Mind Magic allows anyone who’s using it to do pretty much anything as long as they have the imagination and Imaginite to do so.”

        Calvin nodded his head in response… but also was puzzled by what Hugo was telling him. “Okay, but how does that relate to an Imaginator though?”

        “What Hugo means is that if you think it in your head and channel the crystal’s power, the Imaginator can be made,” Stealth Elf described for him. “A few of us have done it before, but there’s something that I’m wondering about though.”

        “What is it, Stealth Elf?” Hugo asked her.

        “Well, I’m just wondering about how the magic inside of Calvin’s necklace would react in response to using the Creation Crystal,” the elf then told him, “It is one of a kind, and the only thing we know about at this point is what it can do, based on what Calvin has already shown us.”

        “That… is true,” the scholar replied before looking at the Skyshifter. “What was the name of that kind of crystal again?”

        “Well… Master Eon told me it was called Elementanium,” Calvin recalled from the first conversation that he had with the elderly portal master. “Think Traptanium, but replace Trap with Element instead.”

        “So, instead of containing villains… it contains elemental magic instead?” Hugo asked him in response, “It would explain how you can be able to shift between the forms of Skylanders with different elements so easily… Anything else?”

        “Umm… that’s all that Master Eon actually told me about it… I’m still learning new things about it myself from time to time.”

        That made Hugo a bit curious as he looked back at Calvin. “Can you give me an example?”

        “Well, I’ve learned that I can turn into a Skylander by repeating the catchphrase of a certain one,” he said, demonstrating by saying ‘All Fired Up!’ and transforming into Spyro for a brief period of time, before having to revert back to his original form. “However, whenever I turn into a form, there’s a limit of how long I can be in that form for. Five minutes at most.”

        “I see…” Hugo replied, looking like he was jotting down some notes on a piece of paper with a quill before looking back at Calvin. “Have you been able to do anything else besides that?”

        “Well, after being in Griffonstone, Spitfire and I found two stones that had different energies. Both of them were absorbed by the crystal,” he added on, pointing at it. “According to what Spitfire told me, one felt similar to that of the Core of Light, while the other was similar to that of the energy in a Rift Engine. And with it, it’s allowed me to call on Spitfire to help me out in certain situations while also being able to summon vehicles, too… but I think the vehicles part only comes into play if I take the form of an actual supercharger.”

        That… surprised Hugo and made him think a little bit, before looking to Stealth Elf as he was beginning to speak. “Huh… Well, from that alone, it sounds as if anything that could be a form of magic or power from Skylands can be stored in there… Then again, I haven’t seen how magic works from the other side of the crack, so I wouldn’t know…”

        “Well, my pendant hasn’t really acted strange around Twilight or the others, despite everything that has been going on,” Calvin replied back, “And Twilight is an expert in that kind of thing. Heck, she would geek out just from seeing this collection of books alone.”

        “Right… though, the point that I was trying to make is that Mind Magic may not be so different when it comes to your crystal,” the mabu replied back to him, “However, it is important to keep in mind that this is something regarding the Ancients. Creation Crystals like the one you have are extremely rare to find, so it’s the reason why you don’t see many other Imaginators roaming around the halls of the academy. And since the magic of the Ancients is rare in itself, we don’t know how it would react to your own crystal.”

        “If that’s the case, then how exactly should we proceed with this?” Stealth Elf asked him.

        “Well, I’m glad you asked,” he told her, before adjusting his glasses. “Stealth Elf, since you were able to create an Imaginator before, it may be a good idea for you to show Calvin how to do it, since he’s new to the process. If anything does happen though, do feel free to abort if things get out of hand.”

        That… only just confused Calvin as he looked back at Stealth Elf. “Hold on… you did this before?”

        “Yeah, I did, but it was a while back… I’m still familiar with how the process works though,” she assured Calvin as he got out his Creation Crystal. “The crystal I used was much different from yours though, now that I think about it. But it shouldn’t play that much of a role.”

        “Alright… So, how should we get started?” the Skyshifter asked out of curiosity, wondering what exactly was next.

        “Well, first, you’re going to need to activate your crystal. Once you do that, the creation process can begin,” the Skylander instructed him, leading to the Skyshifter following what she told him precisely. It took a while at first, but after some time, the magic from the crystal soon began to activate. “Place your hand on the crystal, Calvin… Hugo, can you watch over us from here?”

        “You got it,” Hugo nodded. Just as Stealth Elf placed her hand on the crystal though, the coin that was originally in Calvin’s pocket fell out and rolled behind a stack of books on the floor, hiding from view as the mabu scholar took a deep breath. “Alright… at least things are going to be calm for a while now.”

        Unfortunately though, it was just as the scholar thought he had a break when he heard Stormblade enter the library. “Umm… Hugo. Is it just me, or is there some pink bubblegum pony chasing Pain-yatta across the courtyard?”

        All that did was make Hugo fall face first into a neatly stacked pile of books that he had only straightened out just mere hours ago, falling headfirst into them. “Why is it that when I think I get myself a break from the craziness, something else happens to take its place?” Hugo groaned, before looking back at the Supercharger. “Hang on. I’m coming.”

        As the scholar and the supercharger left the room though, that was when the coin that was rolling around on the floor earlier disintegrated… and the shadow known as Sombra began to take form. “Now… what secrets do you dare to keep from me?”




End Part 1