Beyond the Skies- Time’s Up
Some time after what happened during Nightmare Night, things were beginning to settle down a bit in Ponyville. Nothing really major was going on for Calvin aside from him visiting Skylander Academy every couple of days in order to learn new lessons from that of the sensei’s, and that only took a few hours. The rest of the time he spent either in Twilight’s castle or having fun with Apple Bloom and the rest of her friends.
Today though, he was just taking the time to find a way to rest a bit. He had just come back from another lesson with King Pen, this one being a combat exercise, and he needed to do something in order to pass the time. Yet, as he began to walk towards the room, that was when he looked at what appeared to be a rather tired out Spike walking alongside a rather cheery Twilight Sparkle.
“Oh, hi, Calvin!” she happily addressed him.
“Um… Hi?” the boy responded, confusion in his voice as he took a look at Spike, before looking back at the alicorn. “Why are you so cheery all of a sudden?”
“We spent the last three days over the weekend sorting out all the books in the library,” the dragon groaned. “Twilight told me that this was supposed to be relaxing. Now, I’m just glad its over. I feel like I got tricked into doing this.”
“Oh, come on now. We did relax during our book-sort-cation,” the alicorn replied back, “Hey, how about we go outside and head to Sugarcube Corner? That way, we can see the girls, have something to eat and get some fresh air.”
“I-I guess,” Spike shrugged, rubbing his eyes with his claws to wake himself up. “I could go for some hot cocoa right now. Would you like to join us Calvin?”
“No thanks,” the Skyshifter declined the offer. “I had lunch with King Pen earlier today, so I’m still kind of full. You two have fun though.” With those words and a spring in the alicorn’s step, both her and the dragon made their way out of the castle, leaving Calvin by himself as he began to look around and try to find something for him to do to pass the time.
A few hours and three Daring Do books later, that was when he heard both of them come back through the door of the Castle of Friendship. However, the cheery attitude that Twilight had earlier in the day was replaced by something else. “I’m not buying it. Not even for a second! There’s definitely something going on here, Spike!”
As Calvin placed the last book he read back on the shelf and stepped out of his room, that was when he saw both of them talking. But, he couldn’t quite grasp what exactly they were talking about. “Or maybe there isn’t, and you should just drop the whole thing and admit that you’re a little jealous?”
Before Twilight herself could be able to respond with a counter argument, both of them heard Calvin walk into the room as he looked back at them. “Um… welcome back? Did something happen while you were out?”
“Yeah. Apparently, my friends had some kind of fun and hilarious time with Discord to the point that I can’t even comprehend it! It just doesn’t make sense at all!!”
As for Spike, he just let out a sigh after Twilight spoke as he shook his head. “Twilight, you do realize that some of the things that Pinkie Pie can do can’t really be explained. You even tried experiments to understand her ‘Pinkie Sense’, and all that did was cause an anvil to drop on your head.”
“Yeah, but this is different! This is Discord we are talking about!” Twilight spoke up. “I mean, our friends having a great time without me while I was away? That’s beyond absurd. They must be under a spell of some kind!!”
Now, though, was around the point that Calvin decided to interject. “No, I highly doubt it was that.”
“Calvin?!” both Spike and Twilight said at the same time, startled by the boy’s words as he looked back at them.
“I might not know much about the entire situation, but from what I can gather, it just sounds like Discord and your friends decided to have some fun by themselves because you decided to lock yourself in a library for three days. You had other plans going on at the time, so he probably just decided not to invite you to come along because he didn’t want to disturb you,” he told her, placing his hands in his pockets. “Heck, you kind of do that with me, you know?”
That just caused Twilight to blink a little as she looked back at the Skyshifter, puzzled by what he just said. “W-what?”
“Remember my lessons with King Pen and the sensei’s? Well, Spike told me that there were a couple of times that you went to go visit some places and thought I could come along, but I had my lessons around the same time,” Calvin explained, looking back at her. “Besides, instead of trying to figure out if its some kind of spell or whatever, shouldn’t you just ask Discord yourself?”
“Pfft, like he would admit his secrets that easily,” Twilight rolled her eyes, going to the kitchen to get herself something to drink. “I mean, he’s got plenty of things to hide.”
“Okay, name one.” Calvin’s simple sentence led to the alicorn trying to come up with an answer for him, but anytime that Twilight looked like she was about to say something, the Princess of Friendship immediately backtracked. It got to the point that this began to last well over ten minutes, and Spike had gone to his room to get himself a Power Pony comic book before returning and taking a seat up on Twilight’s chair at the Cutie Map. But still, there was no answer from the alicorn...
...which led to Spike finally saying something to break the silence as he opened up his comic book. “Twilight, just stop. I can already tell that you don’t have an answer, and I was the one who told you that you should just drop the whole thing. You’re just jealous, and you know it.”
“I am not!”
“Twilight, are you trying to say that you have never been jealous at all?” Calvin then asked as he took up another seat not that far from Spike as he looked back. “Because I find that even harder to believe.”
“I’m the Princess of Friendship for Celestia’s sake. I can’t be jealous! It would interfere with my duties-”
“Twilight, you do realize that jealousy is an emotion and not some kind of illness, right?” the Skyshifter interjected before the alicorn could go any further. “You can’t just get a vaccine that makes you immune to it. Besides, if anything, we should at least hear Discord out before you start accusing him of something he didn’t do.”
“Twilight, please… let’s not have a repeat of the ‘want-it, need-it’ incident and just try to not do anything without thinking it through first,” Spike’s words seemed to have a bit of an impact on Twilight. At least, that was what Calvin could tell. He didn’t quite understand what this incident he was talking about was, but from Twilight’s reaction to it alone, it was enough to make him think that it was rather important.
That was when Twilight let out a deep breath and looked back both of them. “Okay, fine. We’ll ask Discord.”
“You called?” As Twilight turned around, that was when all three of them saw the draconequus just standing in the room, wearing a black and white suit that had vertical stripes all over it. It was enough for Twilight to be startled by his sudden appearance and for Spike to almost fall out of his seat. But Calvin wasn’t really too surprised, because the Spirit of Chaos seemed to have a habit of showing up out of nowhere whenever somepony said his name a few times in a row.
“Just the person we needed to talk to,” Calvin smiled as he looked back at the draconequus. “Can you help clear something up for us? After seeing how you were interacting with her friends earlier, Twilight’s beginning to think that you put them under some kind of spell.”
“Are you kidding me?” Discord blinked, snapping his finger and having the suit disappear. “Why would I go back to the habits that the old me would do…?” For a moment, the spirit of chaos scratched his chin, trying to ponder everything that was going on, before realizing what the whole thing was about. “Oh, wait… is this because of the fact that everypony seemed to be having a good time and everything while you were on your book-sort-cation?” Even though Twilight was going to shake her head in a ‘no’ like fashion, Spike immediately answered yes before she could be able to do that, leading to Discord finally seeing what the problem is. “I think I see where the problem is now.”
“You do?” Calvin asked.
“Yeah,” Discord replied. “She’s trying to understand some of the inside jokes that I have between the rest of her friends because she wasn’t there to see it… Though, part of this problem might be my fault-”
“I knew it-!”
“Twilight, don’t assume,” Calvin told her, before looking back at the draconequus, “As you were saying.”
“Well, part of the whole debacle is kind of my fault because, originally, the girls wanted to to invite you to the get together that we had over the weekend,” Discord began to explain, “However, I was the only one that knew that you had something going on over the weekend that you really wanted to get done and not be interrupted by anything. So, I kindly suggested to the others that we shouldn’t invite you, because you had other things going on. I now realize that it was a bad choice, and I feel terrible about it.”
“So, you weren’t intentionally trying to make Twilight feel jealous or anything?”
“Dear chaos, no! What, are you crazy? That was an accident,” Discord replied back. “Look, how about I make it up to you and the rest of the girls next weekend? That way, we can be able to create some new memories, and you’ll be there to see them.”
For a moment, Twilight scratched her chin, before looking back at a calendar that she had in the kitchen, before looking back at Discord and letting out a sigh. “I got Sunday free. I’m going to be giving a lecture on Cutie Marks at Celestia’s school for Gifted Unicorns this Saturday. Does that work?”
“Any time works for me,” Discord replied back, extending his lion paw out as if he was asking for Twilight to shake on it “So, do we have an agreement?”
At first, the alicorn looked skeptical, but after a few moments, she extended her hoof forward as she looked back at the draconequus. “Yes, we have an agreement.”
“Wunderbar!” the spirit of chaos proclaimed cheerfully, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I got some planning to do!” With a snap of his talon, the spirit of chaos took off, disappearing and leaving the three of them in the middle of the castle as Calvin looked back at her.
“See? What did I tell you?” he said, “Not everything is what it seems to be.”
“Yeah… I guess you have a good point. I’ll be at my study if you two need me,” Twilight replied back, before trotting down the hall towards the library and closing the door behind her.
Few days later…
By the time that Calvin had woke up and had to get breakfast, both Twilight and Spike were gone. They had already taken off to Canterlot for the lecture that she was giving in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, meaning that he was all by himself again. Part of him wanted to go check on the Cutie Mark Crusaders and see if they were doing anything today, but then he remembered that it was more than likely that they would be in the middle of doing their weekend chores before having to go out and do any crusading.
At one point though, as he was washing his dishes and putting them away, he began to walk back through the room where the Cutie Map was, only to realize that he wasn’t the only one in the castle. There was a mare sitting at the Cutie Map, one with a light lilac colored fur and a violet and cyan mane tied up in a ponytail that was just sitting with their back hooves up on the table, laughing to themselves as if they got away with something.
Of course, that was until the boy actually spoke and got the mare’s attention. “Um, excuse me? Is there something I can help you with?”
The comment had the unicorn almost fall off from her seat on one of the thrones as she looked back at him. “W-what the-? Who are you? What are you doing here?!”
“Uh, I live here,” he replied back. “And I don’t think Twilight’s supposed to have any visitors today. So, I would be the one who should be asking that last question.”
“Oh, I’m just an old acquaintance… I just wanted to drop by and say hello,” the mare replied, before looking back towards the door, almost as if she’s anticipating for the door to open.
“And just how do you know her exactly?”
“Long story, don’t have the time to share it all or how she ruined my entire life,” the mare said, the last part being muttered in a whisper like tone that he could barely catch, not to mention the fact that she was becoming a bit more agitated with each passing moment. “So please, can you oh so kindly, like… leave?”
That had Calvin look back at her with a deadpan expression as the Skyshifter looked back at her. “Look, I know that I’m only just a kid, but I’m not stupid. You can’t just convince me to leave. What do you think I am, a pet?” The mare now just looked even more agitated now, going as far as to stare down the boy and give him one final warning.
“Look, if you know what’s best for you, you would leave right now before-” Before the mare could finish her sentence, that was when the doors to the castle opened as they heard the sound of hoofsteps coming through the door, and an all too familiar voice spoke up.
“Yeah, now that you put it that way, it does sound kind of silly.”
“Or it’s totally true!”
“Well, there goes the grand entrance that I wanted,” the mare groaned, before facing the other mare as she looked back at the alicorn. “Welcome home, Twilight.”
“Starlight Glimmer… just what are you doing here?”
“I would tell you, but I think that would ruin the surprise.” As Starlight spoke, she used her magic on a piece of paper that she was holding. Calvin could briefly read the words ‘time travel spell’ on the top, before the mare crumpled the paper and looked back at the alicorn, magic channeling through her horn. “I won’t be needing this anymore.”
“Calvin, stay back!” Twilight shouted, before blasting a bolt of magic as Starlight dodged it, all before the unicorn began to channel a huge amount of magic as a giant gate began to tear open in the ceiling. Numbers were running along the edge like it was an ancient clock as the mare began to get up.
“Let’s save this for another time, Sparkle!”
However, there was one thing that the unicorn did not take into account, and that was the fact that the boy she encountered earlier was not one who would just stand back and watch. His amulet glowed purple as he looked back at her.
“Did that just happen?”
The violet magic began to take the form of a figure that now stood next to Calvin. To Twilight and Spike, this would be the first time seeing this particular Skylander. But to the Skyshifter, this wasn’t exactly the first time he met the Magic Skylander named Deja Vu. In fact, as of recently, she was one of the Skylanders that King Pen asked to help him in a few lessons. This, though, was the first time that he had summoned her on his own.
“Calvin, why exactly did you call me here? I was in the middle of-” the Magic Skylander, upon seeing what was going on, stopped speaking as she looked back at him. “Oh no… That’s not good.”
“Yeah, I think you might know the reason why I called you now,” Calvin replied now, “Some mare named Starlight Glimmer cast some kind of Time Travel spell before taking off. Given how the situation is, is there some kind of way to-”
“There’s only one thing that could be done before she attempts to change the past,” the Magic Skylander said, grabbing the hourglass at the end of the chain that she was holding. Around this time, Twilight and Spike were about to try and go through the gate that had opened. But before they could, they noticed both Calvin and the Skylander as she grabbed both ends of the hourglass and twisted it.
“Rewind!”
The moment that Calvin heard Deja Vu say that, he felt as if his body was forcibly thrown backwards and across the hall. Everything around him was going in reverse as he found himself crashing back in his room, while the Magic Skylander herself landed softly on the floor.
“Oww… could you have given me a bit of a warning first?”
“There wasn’t enough time,” she simply replied, “The only real way to prevent any damage would be to go back and stop it before casting the spell.”
“Hang on just a minute,” Calvin asked, before looking at her. “What do you mean?”
“I turned back the clock as far as I can right now, which gives you half an hour at most,” Deja Vu then told him, “Aside from that, you would need to come up with a plan of how to stop her, because I can’t do this consecutively.”
That got Calvin to scratch his chin for a moment, just before realizing something. “You know… come to think of it, it seemed like this ‘Starlight’ mare only seemed to know the time travel spell after getting it off of a piece of paper,” he said, just before an idea came to him. “So, if the paper is taken beforehand.”
“Then, that could prevent her from casting it,” Deja Vu followed up on what he said, “I’m liking it so far. But who would be able to take it without her noticing?” Of course, all that did was just cause Calvin to look at her with a deadpan expression, before she realized what he was thinking about. “Oh, I see now.”
“Yeah, Stealth Elf,” Calvin nodded as he looked back at his elementanium pendant. “She’s the only one that can do it without getting caught.”
“True, but that would mean I would have to go back, since you can only have one Skylander present at a time. And if I’m gone, that means you don’t get any second chances.”
“That’s a risk I’m willing to take,” he replied back, “After all, you and King Pen were the ones who taught me that it's not always ideal to play things safe all the time.”
“That we did,” she said, watching a green aura fill the crystal now as she looked back at Calvin, “Good luck now. Get her this time.”
The Skyshifter himself wasn’t quite sure if that last part he heard Deja Vu say was either intentional or a pun, but that was not his focus now. Instead, he placed his power into summoning Stealth Elf as the Life Skylander landed before him, looking back as he greeted her.
“Hey, Stealth Elf. Are you up for pick-pocketing something valuable?”
“Welcome home, Twilight,” the mare named Starlight Glimmer greeted the Princess of Friendship and her personal assistant as they walked through the door. So far, everything with her plan had been perfect. She was able to enter in without attracting attention. She had everything that she needed in order to pull off this plan. There was absolutely nothing that could possibly go wrong.
“Starlight, just what are you doing here?” Twilight replied back, staring down the unicorn that had been lurking around in her home.
“I would tell you,” she said, using her magic to pull out something that was behind her as she looked back at Twilight with a evil look on her face. “But I believe that would ruin the surprise-” Of course, what she did not realize was that instead of the paper that she wanted to see floating in front of her, it was instead the list of buckball scores in the sports section of the Daily Hoof newspaper. “What the?! What’s this doing here?! I swear to Celestia that I just had it right here!”
“Oh? Really?” Every pony (and dragon) in the room heard a voice from one of the arches in the hallway as Stealth Elf soon walked over to Twilight. “Would this happen to be what you’re looking for?”
Upon seeing the paper that contained the time travel spell from Starswirl the Bearded in her hands, Starlight was shocked. “H-how did you-?! What do you think you are doing?! Give that back!”
“How about no?” Calvin now emerged from the other side of the room as he looked back at Stealth Elf with a smile. “I really don’t think that we should trust somepony like you with a time travel spell of all things.”
At that moment, Twilight was given the piece of paper from Stealth Elf, who looked it over, and not two seconds later, had Spike set it on fire and send it to Celestia with a note to have it be locked up tight, shortly before Calvin picked up right where he left off. “I mean, honestly, did you put any kind of planning into trying to pull this off?”
“Excuse you? Who do you think you’re talking to, kid?!” Starlight snapped, which had Calvin let out a deep sigh before he looked back at her and folded his arms.
“Look, if you really thought this through, then you would realize how much of a disadvantage you are at,” the boy told her as he looked back at everyone else next to him. “I mean, you got me, Stealth Elf: the same one who just pick-pocketed you without even noticing she was there, and Twilight: who’s a princess and knows more spells than you can count. Not to mention the fact that there are a few guards that are standing directly outside and Discord just so happens to be a good friend of ours, while also having the power to turn your horn into an ice cream cone. So, how about instead of doing all of this out of anger, you try talking out your problems and resolving it in a healthy manner?”
That last part had Spike look back at the boy with a puzzled look on his face. “Um… where did you learn about that last part?”
“Fluttershy said that to calm down another beast that was wandering around in the Everfree,” he told him to clear things up.
Of course, it was also around then that Starlight snapped back. “S-shut up! You wouldn’t understand how I feel!! None of you would!!!”
“Would that be because you didn’t actually tell anypony how you feel?” Calvin retorted, which only caused Starlight Glimmer to get even more angry and blast a bolt of magic past his head. “Okay, fair enough.”
“Look, you would not even begin to comprehend how much effort to took into getting this plan ready. It took me months! Months of looking through old tomes, spying on Twilight at restaurants and making sure I had enough magic to pull this off!! My plan was perfect!!” Starlight snapped again, even catching Twilight off guard when the alicorn heard about the unicorn spying on her.
Yet, it was as Starlight was speaking that she got a response from someone else. That being Stealth Elf. “So, explain your plan then.”
The unicorn just blinked, before blankly staring at the elf as she tried to comprehend what she just heard. “I-I’m sorry… what?”
“You heard me,” the Life Skylander retorted as she walked over to a crystalline pillar and began to lean against it. “You said that you had been planning this for months, so it shouldn’t be that hard in order for you to explain what your plan actually was. Besides, based on how you’re acting, you don’t really seem to have any kind of fallback plan here.”
What Stealth Elf brought up was indeed a rather valid point. Even though Starlight had said she was planning this whole revenge plan of hers for months, she never really said what exactly that plan was supposed to be. All they knew was that it involved a time travel spell that was originally created by Starswirl the Bearded, but nothing else aside from that. Twilight also thought that it would be rather difficult to actually get Starlight to tell them anything, because of how rigid she was acting right now.
So it was much to her surprise that, after what was about almost ten minutes of nothing but silence, Starlight actually began to say what her plan was. “Look, all I had to do for my plan was to use the time travel spell… go back into the past… and prevent Rainbow Dash from performing her first ever Sonic Rainboom. After that, Twilight and her friends would not be able to awaken their cutie marks, and-”
“I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to stop you right there,” Twilight immediately interjected. “Do you even realize what would happen if my friends and I never got our cutie marks in the first place?”
“Um… you would never have come to my village and messed everything up.”
“No, outside of that,” the alicorn countered “Why, yes, if you did stop the rainboom, you would stop us from obtaining our cutie marks. But that would also mean that your actions would prevent us from becoming the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. And if there were no Element Bearers, then Equestria would’ve already been conquered, taken over, or completely wiped off the map by any villains that we had already defeated before.”
At one point, Starlight was going to interject, only to be cut off again by the princess as she continued to speak. “While I will admit that I am not certain of my own importance beyond how important it is to my friends and I, you can’t deny the importance that the elements had in regards to stopping the numerous villains that we’ve encountered over the years. As bearers, we prevented Nightmare Moon from making night eternal, we stopped Discord from making Equestria his chaotic playground and later reformed him, prevented Chrysalis from tricking everypony in attendance at the Royal Wedding and the invasion that followed suit, brought the Crystal Empire back while also having Sombra no longer be in control of it and lastly, sending Tirek back to Tartarus after he had stolen almost all the magic in the entire population of Equestria. Without our friendship leading us to become chosen as bearers of the elements, Equestria would’ve been lost years ago. Maybe longer.”
At first, Starlight was a bit baffled by everything that the Princess of Friendship was saying. But she was still not backing down just yet. “Couldn’t the elements have chosen other bearers?”
All that did was cause Twilight to let out a sigh, before facepalming herself with one of her wings as she began to speak again. “We don’t know how the elements choose their bearers. They’re a series of magical artifacts, not a fortune teller you meet that tells you that you are ‘destined for great things’ in exchange for you paying some bits.”
It was after this, though, that Twilight trotted closer to the table, staring directly at Starlight before asking her one question. “So, after taking into account everything that I just said, is one personal vendetta against the friendship between me and my friends really worth the risk of ruining the lives of countless innocent others?”
Once again, more silence began to drift around the main hall of the castle. Starlight didn’t even respond to Twilight’s question, mostly because of all the information she still needed to process from the princess. Though, much to the surprise of everyone in the room at the time, Starlight was not the next person to say something.
Instead, it was Calvin who actually began to speak now as he first looked to Twilight. “Um… Can I step in and ask something here?” the Skyshifter’s question was followed up by him turning back to Starlight, “I don’t really know much about what’s going on or what kind of troubles you two had in the past, but there’s something that just bugs me. Why exactly are you against the concept of friendship? I mean, don’t you have any friends?”
Upon hearing his question, the expression on Starlight’s face began to look like she was remembering something that she wanted to forget. But, even so, she found the strength in herself to speak as her tone began to change. It was no longer that of a hostile mare that was bent on trying to enact revenge, but more of somepony who was being honest with herself. “I had one once… but they left me. His name was Sunburst. We were very close friends. One could say we were even like family. But the moment that he got his cutie mark, he took off to Canterlot. Leaving me alone, without a friend and with the fear of losing potential friends I meet in the future the same way.”
“Wow… what a jerk,” Calvin said.
“What happened back then made me who I am now… My friendship with him was torn apart because of his stupid cutie mark. He got his before I did. He left; I stayed behind. Because we were different, I only thought that if everypony were the same, then nopony would be separated from one another!” she told him, getting emotional while glaring at Twilight, “Of course, you and your friends had to ruin everything!”
That was when Calvin let out a sigh and looked back at the mare. “You do realize that friendship is more than that, right? I’ve only been here for a few months after being taken away from the place that I call home, only to have Twilight and her friends welcome me into their lives with open arms… or forelegs… or however its phrased. The point being that friendship is more than what you think it is. And if it didn’t work out the first time, then you shouldn’t just give up on it altogether.”
“He’s right,” Twilight then added on. “Try making friends again, meet some new ponies, and if something happens that you don’t have control over, find a way in order to be able to work out the problem together, because that’s what friendship is. And it’s not just my friendships that are important. It’s everyponies’. Think about all the ponies that are waiting out there for you to meet if you gave them the chance.”
“I had friends-”
“Not ones that you tricked, lied to or deceived,” the princess countered. “We talked to Sugar Belle and the others when we visited there. You put them through emotional turmoil that they hid from you. They told us about it, and they were too afraid to tell you.”
“T-they… what?” Starlight blinked, almost staring in disbelief. “B-but they were happy. We were happy!”
“Only because they wanted to make you happy. In reality, they were sad and in pain. All they ever wanted was to be able to be themselves again, but they didn’t want to make you upset,” Twilight then explained to her. “Just because you treat everypony equally does not mean that they would all equally feel the same about it. And taking away their cutie marks? That’s not the problem. That’s a part of who they are. Their cutie mark is a reflection of their talents and who they are as a pony. It’s a summary of everything they can do and everything that they feel. Taking that away takes away everything that’s unique about them. Just because one pony did something horrible as a colt doesn’t mean that’s what everypony else is like.”
“She’s right, you know?” Calvin added on as he placed his arms in his pockets. “If only some people knew that back home and not put the world at risk.”
Hearing that just caused everyone, including Stealth Elf, to look back at Calvin with a shocked expression on their faces, all before the elf just raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry… how does that relate right now?”
“Well, back where I’m from, conflict between other countries has happened before, to the point where a war would expand across the entire globe. But in one case, there was a leader of another nation who thought that a group of people were the source of all of humanity's problems and blamed them for anything wrong that other people did,” around that point, Calvin looked at everypony else and, based on their overall expressions, decided to not go any further. “Let’s just say that it wasn’t really good for anybody involved.”
Of course, that just led to Twilight letting out a sigh as she redirected her attention back to Starlight. “More to the point though… Do you realize now that in your pursuit of happiness, you only caused suffering to everypony else you saw as your friends?” To the alicorn, it seemed like everything else that they had said up to this point was not really getting through to her. So this time, she hoped that spelling it out to Starlight would lead to her realizing the severity of what she had done.
Luckily, just a few seconds after saying that, things did begin to change. Starlight, the composed and sinister mare from only a few minutes ago, was undergoing an emotional breakdown, fully realizing what she had done as her pupils began to shrink. “Oh dear Celestia… what have I done?”
Her realization was followed by another moment of silence, until Stealth Elf herself decided to speak now. “Maybe I can help a bit here,” she said, taking a seat on the Cutie Map that was not far from the unicorn. “Back where I’m from, I knew a couple of people, including myself, that were rather… self-centered. One of them is even a purple dragon that’s my best friend. However, the difference is that all of us realized that we have these flaws of ours. We realize the kind of mistakes that we make and in doing so, work even harder to atone for them.”
As Stealth Elf spoke, Starlight looked up to the elf. Instead of trying to shut her out and ignore her, the unicorn actually chose to listen to her as the Skylander continued to speak. “Even though it may take some time, as long as there is no permanent damage and you put the effort into making amends, you can be forgiven for anything.”
“Y-you really think so?” Starlight asked her.
“Of course,” the elf nodded her head.
It was around this time that they heard the doors to the castle open, and they watched as the rest of Twilight’s friends began to trot inside, prompting the princess to turn back around and look at them. “Could you excuse me for just a moment? I promise this won’t take long.” That just had both Calvin and Stealth Elf nod their heads in response as Twilight trotted back over towards the others, with Spike joining alongside her.
As they walked back over, Calvin redirected his attention back to Starlight as he asked her a question. “So, how do you feel now?”
“A b-bit better,” she responded back. “I’m just trying to think about what’s next. I really don’t think I’m just going to get off scot-free for all of this.” For a moment, Starlight briefly looked back towards where Stealth Elf was, before returning her gaze to the boy. “But if I’m to make amends, then I guess I’ll just take whatever punishment that’s in store for me.”
“I… don’t really think Twilight’s the kind of pony to do something like that,” Calvin responded, scratching the back of her head.
“Well, how else do you think I’ll be able to make amends?”
“I don’t know, community service?” Stealth Elf shrugged. “I don’t entirely know how things work down here.”
That just had Starlight pause for a moment, before looking back at the Skylander as a new question began to form inside her head. “Wait, what do you mean by ‘down here’?”
“Oh… right,” the Life Skylander realized the problem as she looked back at Calvin. “She doesn’t know yet, does she?”
“The subject never really came up,” the boy told her, “But I guess now is a good time to bring her up to speed. Something tells me that it might be a bit before Twilight comes back.”
“So, let me get this straight… you live up in the sky?” Starlight asked. Over the last fifteen minutes, Calvin and Stealth Elf were trying to explain to her more about the Skylands as well as the Skylanders themselves. Now, the unicorn was trying to understand and comprehend everything that she heard them say. “And you’re not talking about Cloudsdale?”
“Not at all,” Stealth Elf replied. “Trust me. Many of my fellow Skylanders originally had a bit of difficulty trying to comprehend that there is indeed a civilization under the clouds and not just a landfill of unwanted items like tax collections or sheep.”
“But if what you say is true, then how in the world have the pegasi not found it?” The unicorn asked a follow up question.
“The Skylands and Equestria are separated by a invisible web of magic that acts as a barrier that looks exactly like the blue sky,” Calvin now spoke up, taking his turn into answering this question Starlight had for them. “Of course, the only real way that we actually knew about it was when Rainbow accidentally performed a sonic rainboom too close to the barrier, and the resulting blast caused a tear in the barrier to open. That’s how we found out about the Skylands, and in turn, how the Skylands found out about Equestria. The tear has patched up since, but there’s another way that we can travel to the Skylands.”
That had Starlight raise an eyebrow, a bit curious by the Skyshifter’s words. “What’s that?”
Stealth Elf was the next one to answer her question as she looked back at Starlight. “We found out that the basement door in Twilight’s Castle here is linked to the M.A.P. Short for ‘Mysterious Ancient Place’ and what allows us as Skylanders to travel to other parts of the Skylands quickly. The M.A.P. even has a doorway to Skylander Academy, what some would consider as our base of operations. But I’m not sure if we have the time right now to go there, all things considered.”
“Yeah, I think it would be best for me to stay on the ground for a little while,” the mare replied back. “Try to work more on redeeming myself first.”
“Fair point,” Stealth Elf replied, “Is there anything else you want to ask?”
“Well, there is one thing I’m kind of curious about, now that you mention it,” Starlight responded, turning around to look towards Calvin and pointing a hoof towards the pendant on his neck. “I’ve been kind of wondering a bit about that necklace you’re wearing. I can feel magic from it, but I can’t tell what its supposed to be. Is it some kind of charm?”
All that did was have Calvin shake his head for a moment. “Actually, it’s a bit more important than that. The crystal on the necklace is a rare one that only I can use, and it allows me to transform into any Skylander for a short period of time by saying their catchphrase or summon them here. It’s the reason why Stealth Elf’s here, since I summoned her earlier.”
“And what happens if somepony… else tries to use it?” Starlight then nervously asked.
“Personally, I haven’t met anypony that tried that, and I probably don’t want to know what would happen if they did,” he replied back, scratching the back of his head and turning around a bit, before noticing that Spike was walking back towards the three of them as he made his way to the table.
“Hey there,” he spoke up, sounding a bit surprised. Either that, or he was still trying to get used to the fact that Starlight was now a good pony instead of one who wanted revenge on Twilight. “Am I interrupting anything?”
“No, not really,” Calvin shook his head, briefly looking back at Stealth Elf and Starlight before returning his gaze back to him. “Why do you ask?”
“Well, Twilight said that she wanted to speak with Starlight now, so she asked for me to let her know,” the dragons words prompted Starlight to get up from her seat and back on her hooves as she turned to look back at both the Skylander and the Skyshifter.
“I guess it's time for me to make amends. Wish me luck,” she said, before following the dragon back to where Twilight and the rest of her friends were. Though, instead of just sitting at the table and waiting, both Calvin and Stealth Elf decided to actually follow her. They wanted to hear about what Twilight decided as well, after all.
When the unicorn approached the bearers of the elements, she swallowed any doubt that she had, exhaled and began to speak. “Twilight, I know that there’s no excuse for what I did as well as what I had planned to do, but I want all of you to know that I’m ready for whatever punishment you think is fair.”
For a moment, Twilight just raised an eyebrow, before letting out a low giggle that confused the unicorn that was talking to her. “Actually, I’ve been thinking about it and about what you said earlier… I want to make you an offer.”
The unicorn blinked, caught off guard by what she was saying for a brief moment. “An offer?”
“If you are really committed to change and you are willing to learn, then I am willing to teach you what I know about friendship and take you on as my student,” the alicorn’s words were a shock to the system for Starlight. No less than a few hours ago did Starlight see Twilight as her sworn enemy, but now, she has a chance to be the student of a princess? “Equestria can use somepony like you. You have the power to make it an even better place.”
Starlight, in that moment, was shocked and surprised beyond belief. But with all of this, she still had another question to ask her. “H-how do I start though?”
“Starting’s easy! All you have to do is just make a friend,” Twilight smiled, pointing a hoof to her friends as they waved to her. “And if you include Calvin, you got eight of them right here.”
“Don’t forget about everyone up in the Skylands either,” Stealth Elf then chimed in, “I betcha you’ll fit right in when you come visit the academy one day.”
“I-I don’t know what to say,” the unicorn said, overwhelmed by everything that was happening as Calvin walked over to stand next to Twilight. “T-thank you… All of you. Y-you don’t know how much this means to me.”
“Well, don’t be thanking me just yet,” Twilight chuckled. “We still have to introduce you to everypony around town first-”
“-And throw you your first ever, super duper ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party!! Ooh ooh! In fact, let’s do that right now before the baked goodies at Sugarcube Corner get cold!” Pinkie interjected, confetti flying out of her mane as she began cheerfully jumping for joy. That was followed by everypony else, including Spike, quickly making their way back down towards Ponyville, leaving Calvin and Stealth Elf behind as the two of them just watched.
“Well, I guess everything is done here now,” the Life Skylander broke the brief silence as she looked back at the Skyshifter, “Prevented the timeline from getting changed, having a pony see the error of her ways, and now, she’s reformed, all without having to have her prove herself by having to re-arrange all the books in the academy library for two years. I call that a success.”
“Yeah, I can agree,” Calvin nodded his head as he looked back at the elf, “Besides, with everything going on having to deal with Kaos right now, it’s good to see that we have somepony else that can help us out.”
“Indeed,” Stealth Elf spoke, shortly before stretching her arms and looking back at the Skyshifter. “Though, I guess it's time for me to go back now. If I stay around here for two long, Spyro and the others get a little antsy.”
“If you say so,” the boy replied, shortly before remembering something as he placed one of his hands on the necklace around his neck. “Oh, and when you get back, can you let Deja Vu know that everything down here’s okay? I think she would wanted to be updated on everything by now.”
“Don’t sweat it,” she chuckled as the light from his pendant began to surround her. “I’ll make sure to let her know. Just don’t do anything reckless in the meantime, alright? You deserve a break after everything today.”
With that, Stealth Elf disappeared a few seconds later, leaving Calvin by himself as he stood in front of the Castle of Friendship. The boy began to wonder if he should head back inside the castle or not, but after a little bit, he heard something from in town that made him change his mind.
“Wait, Pinkie, don’t do-!!” SPLAT!!
“Pinkie!!!” he heard Rainbow holler out as Calvin noticed that the windows of Sugarcube Corner looked to be covered in vanilla frosting now.
Which was later followed by him immediately sprinting into town and hurrying over to the bakery as fast as he could. “Oh, what the heck? Save some for me please!!”
End Scroll 17