//------------------------------//
// Scroll 19- Major Explaining: Round Three 
// Story: Beyond the Skies 
// by FrostTheWolf 
//------------------------------//


Beyond the Skies- Major Explaining: Round 3




A few moments earlier…

“Well, despite the whole thing with the Crystal Empire almost getting swarmed by the fury of the arctic north, Flurry Heart almost destroying the palace and the fact that I didn’t quite give you a proper first friendship lesson, I think this trip has mostly been an overall success,” Princess Twilight Sparkle told Starlight Glimmer while on the train ride home. They had left from the train station of the Crystal Empire only a little while ago and right now were heading back home to Ponyville. “I’ll have to make sure to make it up to you once we get back to the castle.”

“Yeah, um... can I ask you something?” her student now asked, sitting across from the princess while some of her friends were still around the cabin. Yet, there was one slight change to all of them that she wished to ask Twilight about, since she had been to the Crystal Empire before. “How long does it usually take for this to… well… wear off?”

“You mean the crystalline form?” the princess’ question was followed by a brief nod from her student as she let out a sigh, “Well, the last time we went there when the Crystal Heart’s magic was activated, this only lasted for about a day or so. It’s likely that we’ll be back to normal by tomorrow. Why?”

“Well, it just… I don’t know… feels weird. I mean, it looks nice, but the whole reflective ‘see through’ thing makes me feel like I’m some kind of ghost pony,” Starlight nervously admitted as she looked at the rest of her newfound friends, before noticing one particular friend who didn’t undergo any particular change. “How come it didn’t affect Spike?”

Twilight, upon hearing that question, looked at her number one assistant while he was having a conversation with Rainbow Dash by a nearby window and eating some snacks. She took a moment to try and process the question, but all that she could really do was just give a shoulder shrug. “To be honest, I’m not entirely sure. My only guess would be that it's just something that affects ponies. He was present during both times that the Crystal Heart’s magic was activated, and he didn’t change.”

“Alright, I guess,” Starlight replied back, looking out the window as she began to think for a moment. Before asking a new question. “So, what do you think Calvin has been up to since we left for the empire?”

“If I had to take a guess, he might have noticed the note I left for him and decided to be with Apple Bloom and the Cutie Mark Crusaders today.”

“They’re the fillies that are the little sisters of Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow right?”

“The first two are, yes,” the princess corrected her. “Scootaloo see’s Rainbow Dash like an older sister, but they aren’t related by blood. Though, she wishes that they were, just because that would be ‘awesome’.” To add more emphasis, Twilight even used her wings to do the air quotes near the end of her sentence to prove her point further, which made Starlight giggle a bit, since she didn’t really think a princess would use them for that purpose.

“You think they probably behaved themselves while we were gone?” the unicorn now asked. But before her mentor could respond, an announcement began to play on the intercom of the Friendship Express.

“Attention, passengers, we are now arriving at Ponyville train station. Please wait in your seats until the train comes to a complete stop and make sure that you have all your belongings with you before you leave. If you are having trouble retrieving something that you brought on board with you, let one of our crew members know, and they’ll be more than happy to assist. Thank you for riding the Friendship Express!”

As Twilight heard that, she took a moment to look out through the window, seeing the town of Ponyville as the train was approaching the station. “Well, everything seems normal. So, perhaps they decided to go see some friends today.”

Starlight herself wanted to follow that up with something else, but the sound of the train’s brakes and the whole entire Friendship Express coming to a complete stop had her rethink that and decided that it would be better not to say anything. Now that they’ve come back, she and her friends can take the time to come back home and possibly take a break from everything that had happened in the Crystal Empire.

Or... so they thought… “Oh, thank Celestia, you’re all back!!”

“Where were you?! This place was a nightmare!”

“By the Stars, why didn’t you come back sooner!?!”

All seven ponies and one dragon were baffled by what they were hearing. When they left, the town was as peaceful as ever. But now, the civilians were acting like they had just escaped a haunted castle in Trotsylvania. It was so strange to the point that even some ponies were leaving the safety of buildings like they had retreated there for cover, reminding Twilight of when much of Ponyville did the same thing when they thought Zecora was nothing but an evil enchantress. Even her friends couldn’t quite make heads or tails of what they were talking about.

Luckily though, it was as the crowd was beginning to disperse and everypony else was beginning to return back to what they were originally doing that two other ponies caught their attention. “Princess Twilight!”

The alicorn turned around at the sound of her name, only to see Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were galloping over to them. “Diamond? Silver? What’s going on?”

“Yeah, why was everypony acting all weird all of a sudden? We weren’t exactly gone for long, so what happened?” Rainbow Dash asked now, with everypony else nodding their heads. Both fillies looked back at each other, trying to think of something to say before Diamond just let out a breath and began to speak.

“A lot of things happened. Some I’m still trying to process.”

“Could you be a bit more specific?”

Of course, it didn’t help any that as Diamond was trying to come up with a response, some of the children from Ms. Cheerilee’s class were talking amongst themselves pretty loudly, with some of the details of what they were discussing catching their attention immediately. “Hey, guys, did you see what happened earlier in town square?”

“Yeah, that green pointy-ear guy sent Discord flying! With one punch!”

“Who or what was that anyways?”

“No idea… do you think he’s like the new protector of Ponyville now that Rainbow Dash isn’t doing that anymore?”

“Hey!! I’m right here!” the rainbow maned pegasus retorted, catching their attention before they ran off.

“Was that really necessary, sugarcube?” Applejack asked her as she used her hoof to adjust her hat.

“What?! I’m not letting ponies get away with sly remarks like that.”

“Darling, they’re just foals. They don’t know any better,” Rarity soon added on.

“Um… I think we’re getting a bit sidetracked here,” Twilight spoke up as she refocused her attention back to the two fillies in front of her. “What was that about Discord?”

“Yeah, um…” Silver looked back to Diamond for a moment, contemplating what they should do first before following up and finishing her thought. “Perhaps it would be a bit easier if we talked about this at the castle, because there’s a lot that we need to catch you up on.”

“Alright, but can I ask you something, dear?” Rarity now spoke up, “Where’s Sweetie Belle and her friends? Normally, they would be out and about around this time of day, so it’s a bit odd to not see them doing anything.”

Silver only had one response for that. “They’re back at the castle… and for good reason.”



“Do you have any threes?”

Calvin shook his head as the girl that sat across from him drew from the pile of cards that were in the middle of the Cutie Map. After coming back to the castle, all four of them agreed that they should wait for Twilight to come back first before trying to figure out if there was a way to reverse the transformation that was put on the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Though, to pass the time, the four of them now found themselves in what felt like the longest game of ‘Go Fish’ that was ever played.

Oh, and Discord was on a bench with a bag of ice over his face. That was a thing.

“Scootaloo, do ya have any queens?” Apple Bloom was next to ask, followed by her disgruntled friend handing one card to her friend, leading to her turning back to Calvin and asking her a different question. “Calvin, do you have any eights?”

“Nope, I don’t. Go fish.”

“Aww man...” Applebloom pouted, before drawing a card. Though, as it was now Calvin’s turn, he now thought of something different to ask.

“Hey, before I take my turn, I wanted to ask something,” the Skyshifter asked them as he looked back at his cards. “How do you think Twilight and the girls are going to react at your new… well… appearance?”

“Not well,” was the only thing that Sweetie Belle said. “My sister’s known for freaking out over any big changes. Heck, she freaked out after I got back from the market to find that I got ruby colored fabric instead of garnet. How was I supposed to know the difference?”

“Fair point,” Calvin retorted, “Who would you think would be the first to… well, overreact?” His follow up question lead to all three girls looking at one another for a moment before each of them gave their answer.

“Rarity.”

“AJ.”

“Rainbow.”

“Really? If anything, I think Twilight might be the first to overreact, all things considered,” Calvin added, before looking back to Sweetie Belle. “Sweetie, do you have any fives?” That led to her handing over two of the ones that she had in her hand, shortly before Calvin added those two to another set that he had and placed the stack of four cards on the table. “Scootaloo, do you have any kings-?”

Unexpectedly, the sound of the door to the castle opening up echoed throughout the place as all four of the players looked towards the door. Twilight, her friends, Spike and Starlight Glimmer had just gotten back from their trip from the Crystal Empire, and as they were coming in through the door, Twilight immediately noticed them and responded in the most appropriate way possible.

“WHAT THE HAY HAPPENED TO YOU!?!”

“Called it,” Calvin chuckled. Though, it was shortly afterwards that the rest of her friends soon followed up with their overreactions, some of them sounding more shocked than others.

“What in tarnations!?”

“Dear Sweet Celestia, what happened!?!”

“O-oh my goodness!!”

“S-scootaloo?! W-what in the name of-?!”

“Holy schnikes! You girls look just like Calvy! That’s so amazing!” For a brief moment, everypony just stared as Pinkie Pie as the party pony just stood in place. “What? It’s what I say when I’m super duper shocked, but also super duper surprised at the same time.”

Twilight herself, just let out a sigh, her eyes drifting back towards Calvin and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the gaze in her eyes looking less like that of a friendly pony that you were passing in town and more as she was trying to demand answers with her eyes. “Calvin… What happened?”

“Um. Would it somehow involve Discord laying down over there?” Spike’s question only just resulted in the girls looking towards where the dragon was pointing as they heard Discord groan out in pain. “And why is he laying down over there?”

Calvin let out a deep breath, putting his cards face down on the table as the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders put down their own cards, so no one could take a peak and cheat. “That is a LOT to explain,” he said at first, before looking back to Twilight, “It first started when I got up and found the letter you left behind. Taking your advice, I went to go find Apple Bloom and her friends-”

“Did ya go into the Everfree?”

“Did you fall into some poison joke?”

“Did somepony place a wicked curse on you!?”

“No, no, none of those things happened,” Calvin immediately shot down the questions that were fired from Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie before trying to continue with what he was saying, “We went over to Fluttershy’s cottage, because we thought that we would be doing a good thing if we kept an eye on her animals while you guys were away. Shortly after we got there, we met up with Discord, and while the girls were feeding Angel, Harry and all the other critters, he was talking to me about something that he had been thinking on for… I would guess a long time.”

“That being?” the alicorn now asked.

“He was getting rather curious about my pendant, my transformations, and all the things I can do with it. He wanted to find out more, and in my mind, lead me to think that he wanted to take a closer look at it,” As he said that, he pulled out the necklace that was under his shirt briefly, before putting it back inside. “However, since I promised a friend that I would keep it safe, I had to tell him that I couldn’t let him mess with it. But, at the time, I told him that I can tell him something that might answer whatever questions he might have.”

“I got a bad feeling about where this is going,” Starlight now spoke up as she looked back at Twilight.

“Of course, at the time I said that, it wasn’t until a few seconds later that the girls told me that promising that might not have been the best idea.”

After Calvin finished, that was when Apple Bloom herself now took a turn to speak. “We told Calvin that we knew from experience that if ya try to help him out for anything, if his intentions were good, something always seems ta’ go wrong.”

“So, Calvin suggested that we listen in on what Calvin had to share, just so nothing bad happened,” Sweetie Belle now added, “Needless to say, it didn’t quite go the way that we wanted it to.”

“Could you clarify on what you mean, Sweetie?” Rarity now asked her little sister, raising an eyebrow at how Sweetie Belle finished that sentence.

“And what exactly did ya tell him, Calvin?” Applejack’s question made Calvin feel quite nervous, especially since the last time that he had told somepony about this, it led to the fiasco that they just pulled themselves out of fifteen minutes ago. Though, he knew that lying about it or trying to dodge the question would not help with anything at all. If anything, it would probably just make things worse.

“I told him something that Twilight, Rainbow and Pinkie already know by now,” He started his sentence, waiting to see their reactions first before continuing. “I told them about the fact that the Skylands were an actual place,” immediately, he saw the pupils in Twilight and Rainbow’s eyes begin to shrink. Most of their friends looked rather puzzled, while Pinkie looked like she knew exactly what he was talking about. But he was quick to retort. “But he didn’t believe me at first! In fact, the only way I was able to prove it to him was when I transformed into a Skylander that did not look anything like what could come from Equestria.”

“And with that, that’s when things began to go wrong,” Scootaloo said as well, all three of her friends looking at her now, “What?”

“Could you care to explain that Scoots?” Rainbow then asked.

“After Calvin changed into some skeletal knight guy, Discord began to freak out, trying to ask where the Skylands were, as if he was Pinkie Pie when she had not had sugar for a few days-”

The comment from Scootaloo had everypony look back at the party pony now as she was giving Scootaloo the equestrian equivalent of a 1000 yard stare. “Never again…”

“-Which soon led to him flipping out, asking questions like ‘Do you know how many centuries has it been since I’ve found something not created by myself, or something like that,” Scootaloo continued speaking, while also giving off what would be seen as her best impression of Discord, all while the Draconequus held up a judges score card from a dancing competition in his pain ridden state that read ‘5’. “Next thing we knew, he was trying some kind of spell in order to try and see this place for himself from the center of Fluttershy’s living room.”

“How did that go?” Spike now asked.

Calvin was quick in order to pick up the conversation after that. “Very bad.”

“How bad are we talking about? Like ‘want it, need it’ bad, or-” Now, it was Twilight that was giving off the same stare that Pinkie Pie had just mere moments ago as it sent a shiver down the dragon's spine. “I’ll stop talking.”

“Discord was using a scrying spell to see everything that was a part of the Skylands, but the more things that he began to see, the more excited that he became,” the Skyshifter continued to speak. “And with it, it got to the point that he was seeing so many things and speaking so fast that he put himself into a hypnotized state. Not to mention that when the girls made eye contact with him, they were also hypnotized as well.”

“D-did you try to get help?” Fluttershy now asked.

“I did… Yet, they did more harm than good,” he grumbled, “I tried summoning a Skylander named Hoot Loop, somebody who knew a thing or two about hypnosis, hoping that he could find a way to help snap them out of their trance. Yet, the first thing that he did was not help them, but instead had them dance in Fluttershy’s living room, which made things worse because he did not know anything about Discord’s magic, and he turned the dance Hoot Loop was having them do into an actual circus act.”

“Oh no,” Twilight now muttered, her eyes widening to the size of dinner plates at the implications.

“Ooh ooh!! Did he dress up like PT Barley? Did he?!” Pinkie Pie now asked, once again getting a few of her friends to stare at her as the party pony looked rather confused. “What? He was a legend!! I did my party cannon based off of the cannons from his shows when I went once as a filly!!”

“That explains a lot,” Applejack mumbled.

“Um… dear? I know that this is important and all,” Rarity soon spoke up as she trotted a little bit closer to the Cutie Map. “But how does this relate to Sweetie Belle and her friends?”

“That part actually came next,” he replied back to her, “Because it was during the circus act that he used some of his magic to turn the girls into humans. I think his reason why was because he thought that I was lonely being the only one of my kind here, so he wanted to try and help.”

“O-oh my,” the seamstress spoke again, “I-i didn’t even consider that.”

“Rares, ah don’t think-”

“No, no! We’ve been there for him since he came here, darling. Had any of us ever considered the possibility that he might have been lonely being the only one of his kind here?”

“Rarity, I think we’re getting a bit off topic,” Starlight then spoke up, “Besides, I’ve only been here for a couple of weeks, so I don’t really think I would know the answer to that.”

“Starlight’s right. Let’s hear the rest of what happened first before we jump to conclusions on anything,” Twilight added on to her student’s comment before turning back to Calvin, giving him a nod as a way to tell him to keep on talking.

“Immediately after the girls were turned into humans, Hoot Loop broke the trance on them, and they came back to their senses. However, Discord himself had left the cottage and was taking his show to Ponyville. By the time we got there, he had changed the water in the water fountain to cola, had flying cakes everywhere and literal cherry bombs were raining and exploding on the ground. That, and he had locked up Hoot Loop in a bird cage.”

“Heh. Serves him right,” Rainbow retorted.

“We took shelter at Sugarcube corner while everypony else was running into their homes and locking up the doors. From there, we met Diamond, Silver and Rumble and explained the situation with Discord. I tried talking to Spitfire-”

“Wait, Spitfire? As in the Wonderbolt?” Starlight blinked, honestly surprised to hear that.

“No, no, different Spitfire, Starlight,” Rainbow commented, “He’s a skylander who we’ve met before… He also ran over Discord one time, but that’s not important. Keep going, Calvin.”

“I told him what was going on and how Hoot Loop made things even worse, so he went to go get Master Eon,” as he said that, he looked back at Starlight and added on something to help her understand, “He’s like their version of Princess Celestia.” Once he made the clarifying statement, he then went back to what he was speaking before, “Eon himself talked with us… and yes, I say us, because the girls were somehow able to hear him, too-”

“What did he say?” Twilight asked.

Now though, Calvin seemed a little bit irritated by the amount of times that he was getting cut off. But, he tried to be as calm as possible and not let that show. “He told us that Discord’s chaos magic was, in his words, a sub-variant of mind magic, and that I could possibly beat him if I were my Imaginator,” for a brief demonstration, Calvin used his necklace and said the catchphrase of his Imaginator to turn into Kai Chi to provide a visual reference, before changing back a few seconds later. “That, and he kind of gave some advice that I followed through on.”

“That advice being shooting himself out of a cannon was usually the best way to surprise villains… and a few seconds later, Calvin followed through on that,” Scootaloo added, “We were all helping him as he used Pinkie Pie’s party cannon to launch himself at Discord,” Now everypony was staring at the four of them, even Pinkie Pie, though her stare was accompanied with a small smile. “And the crazy thing is, it actually worked.”

“Worked… how?” Applejack now asked, a little bit puzzled, but also wanting to learn more.

“Well, getting launched helped me get up to his position in the air, and once I got close enough, I hit him with the most serious punch I can possibly throw,” Calvin explained, “It sent Discord flying into the lake outside of ponyville and also had everything in Ponyville go back to normal… well, everything except Discord.”

“S-should I even ask-?”

Twilight’s question was met by the sound of a loud groan as Discord seated himself upright as he had to adjust his jaw, since it was a bit crooked. Some of his teeth were missing, and he had ice over what looked to be a black eye on the left side of his face. “Ugh… m-my head…”

“O-oh my goodness!!” Fluttershy immediately rushed over to the draconequus after seeing his bruised and beat up state. “A-are you okay!?”

“A-aspirin…” the draconequus groaned, having to hit the other side of his head with his lion paw so that his right eye was not twitching all over the place as he looked back at Fluttershy and the rest of her friends that were standing in the castle. “D-does anypony have any a-aspirin? M-my head f-feels like a volcano right now.”

After he asked that, Spike looked back at Twilight, before the dragon walked upstairs for a moment. When he came back down, he was carrying what looked like a box of medicine and a glass of water as he handed the aspirin to Discord for him to swallow, followed by the glass so that he had something to wash it down with. “Thank you… so where were we-?”

“Ya got a LOT of explaining to do, mister!!” Applejack now took a turn to speak as she trotted over to where Fluttershy and Spike were. Yet, instead of trying to help, Applejack’s first action was to go over to the draconequus, stare him dead straight in the eye and tell him one thing. “Change Bloom back. Now!”

“Applejack, stop! He can’t-” Apple Bloom tried to tell her sister, getting up out of her chair. Yet, she was only able to walk a few steps before she fell forward. Luckily, Calvin was able to catch her before touching the ground.

Applejack though, remained unfazed. “He can, and with Celestia as my witness, ah will make him use that darn magic of his if ah have to-!”

“That’s the problem!! He’s out!!!”

Calvin’s outburst immediately made the whole room silent, and with it, had Applejack back off from Discord before the farmer turned to face him, “What… did ya say?”

“He’s out. He’s out of magic,” Calvin tried to tell her, while helping Apple Bloom back up onto the seat she was sitting on.

“How the hay can he be out of magic though? He’s Discord for crying out loud!” Rainbow now retorted.

“If I may interject,” everypony turned back around in order to look back at the draconequus that they were talking about, “Perhaps you should let me explain why.”

It took Discord a couple of tries to properly be able to snap his paw, but when he did, something new appeared over the heads of every creature in the room. Mostly everypony aside from Calvin had what looked like a green and blue bar over their heads, while the Skyshifter only had a green bar above his with a circle next to it on the left, and Discord had a green bar that was half filled with the bar underneath being almost empty and colored red instead of blue. In fact, they reminded Calvin of some mechanics that he might see in other role playing games. “You see, my magic works differently for one key reason,” he then looked over to Twilight and then gave her a request. “Twilight, can you teleport as far as you can and then come back? There’s something I want to show that relates to this.”

The alicorn herself was a bit puzzled by the request, but begrudgingly followed through on it. Teleporting to the other side of Ponyville before coming back. “Discord, what did you have me do that for?”

“The reason why I had you do that is because of the visual,” he said, pointing to the bars above Twilight’s head.  Everypony in the room noticed that a portion of the blue bar that Twilight originally had was gone. Yet, as she felt more rested and relaxed, it started to come back to her. “Whether it’s earth pony magic, unicorn magic, weather magic or magic from another species, the amount of mana that they happened to use slowly returns to them while they rest,” the draconequus then let out a sigh, shortly before looking back at everypony. “Mine though does not work in the same way because I’m not fully a pony, at least not to the same effect. I’m only half.”

“How does that explain everything you did before then? Even before being reformed?” Rainbow asked as she folded her forelegs.

“Have you girls ever noticed that when I use my magic for anything, like a cup of chocolate milk, that it explodes a few moments later?” Each one of the mane six looked back to each other at that. They did happen to remember that happening in some cases, but not too often. “That is how my magic functions. Sure, how it works might not make any sense to most ponies, but one thing that does is that the more that I conjure, the more mana I use up. Since I can’t be able to have my mana come back to me as naturally and as quickly as most of you, I have to destroy the creations that I make in order to have my mana restored quickly.”

It was then that Discord turned his head, now looking directly at Calvin. “When I was in that trance that Calvin mentioned, I don’t remember a lot of what happened. But based on what he and the girls told me, I can say this. Because of the fact that I was not able to end the spells myself and I did not destroy what I created, when Calvin defeated me and everything disappeared, none of that mana returned back. I can’t even go back to my home in the Chaotic Void because of the amount of mana I lost.”

That had Rainbow and Applejack look back at each other for a moment as they were trying to contemplate what they heard, before somepony else had a new question. “I guess that kind of makes sense…” Starlight replied back, before noticing something with Calvin’s that was kind of different. “Why does Calvin’s have that circle on it though?”

“Hmm?” Discord himself, looked back at Calvin’s bar shortly before scratching his chin. “Calvin, can you-?”

“Transform?” he asked. His question was followed by a nod from the draconequus as Calvin turned back into his Imaginator again. As they looked at his bar now, the grey circle that was originally there now had the symbol that represented Skylanders that were of the fire element. And after he had stayed in it for a few moments, they noticed that the top half of the symbol was beginning to shrink down. When he changed back to normal, the symbol was gone. “So, did you figure out what that could mean?”

“From the looks of it, it seems to be that what’s on it changes when you transform,” Discord mentioned, before looking back towards everypony else. “I think there’s something else to it, too, but I can’t really put my talon on it.”

“Ooh! Maybe it’s like a scented candle or something!!” Again, everypony turned back around to look back at Pinkie Pie. Since her comment came out of nowhere, they were waiting for an explanation. “What? Didn’t anypony else see it slowly disappear?”

Of course, it was after that when one of her other friends soon spoke up. “N-now that I think of it, it did kind of make me think of one,” Fluttershy herself admitted.

“Yeah, but what is it supposed to mean?” Rarity soon asked as she looked back at her friends, scratching her chin with a hoof. “Is it a metaphor? A reference to something-?”

“Umm… girls?” everypony now looked back to Calvin again after hearing him speak up, looking as if there was something that he wanted to say. “Maybe what you’re seeing is some kind of timer?”

“A timer? Why would-?” Twilight’s question was soon met by a sudden realization as she looked back at her friends, remembering a key detail about Calvin’s pendant and also the power that came with it, “Oh yeah! I see it now! Because you can only stay transformed for so long before you change back!”

“Aww, phooey! That was going to be my third guess,” Pinkie Pie muttered as some of her friends looked back at her.

“What was your second?” Rainbow now asked.

“…Birthday Candles?”

“Hey uh… girls?”  they all heard Spike now speak up as he pointed towards Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, “I’m not sure if I’m seeing things or not, but they also have the circles, too.”

As everypony looked back at the Cutie Mark Crusaders now, they looked up to see that they did have the same grey circle that was to the left of their bars, too. They were a mirror image of the one over Calvin’s head, aside from the blue bar under the green one. Even Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were just as shocked and surprised at seeing this, too. Though, they weren’t entirely sure what it meant or why it was actually there.

Before they could ask about it though, another pony decided to speak up as Starlight looked back at everypony. “Um, I know this sounds great and all, but what exactly are we going to do now?” The unicorn then asked. “I mean, as of this moment, your sisters have been turned into a completely different species, Discord can’t change them back because he’s out of magic and I have so many questions about practically everything regarding what you were just talking about that it’s enough to make my head explode-”

“Woah there, Glimmy!!” Pinkie interjected. “This story has an E10 rating! Let’s not try and imply anything over that.”

Starlight just stared back at Pinkie for about two seconds, before shaking her head and returning her focus back to what she was talking about. “My point is still the same. Does anypony have any idea as to what we’re going to do now?”

The question from Starlight soon had the entire room be silent. Even Pinkie Pie, a pony who would usually be seen as the most chatty amongst her friends, was rather quiet. Everypony seemed to try and think of something that they could possibly do, but they seemed to be having trouble with finalizing what those ideas consisted of. The Cutie Mark Crusaders themselves were unsure about what to do, mostly because they were not entirely familiar with their newfound bodies. Yet, they still felt that they should do something to at least be able to help, since they were in this mess, too.

Though, after some thinking, Calvin had a different question to ask. This time, it was specifically for Discord. “Hey, Discord… can I ask you a question about your magic?”

“Go ahead.”

“I know that you can use your magic for visuals, but is it possible that you can do sounds?” the question was met by Discord scratching his chin, before nodding briefly as the Skyshifter picked up on that cue and continued to speak. “Could it be possible that you replay a piece of what you were saying when you were looking into Skylands?”

“Now, why exactly would you have him do that?” Scootaloo asked. “Most of the things that he said was just gibberish.”

“Okay, but I think there was something at the end that might actually be important. I just want to make sure.”

Within seconds, Discord was able to actually properly snap his paw carefully now as a tape recorder landed in his paw a few seconds later. “I’m going to have to start from the beginning, so tell me when to slow down.”

Click!

“Um… Discord? What exactly are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m using scrying magic to see the Skylands for myself… Oh my… Is that… a land of food creatures? With a unicorn that has a churro horn!? Why did I not think of that sooner?!”

In that moment, Rarity turned to Pinkie Pie, who looked to be staring at her horn. “Don’t even think about it, darling.”

“Oooooh… Ghost possessing machines! Machines controlling the dead?! A skeletal Jazz band, complete with my list of greatest hits?! A dancing undead mariachi city!?”

“He has a list of them?” They all now heard Calvin’s voice on the recording, shortly before going back to Discord’s rambling.

“My goodness, a gravity distorted prison? Land of the Tikis? A shrine on the back of a mountain dragon? Magical artwork coming to life?!! Floating eyeball fortune teller!? Robots that know archery? A city where Time Distortion is strangely normal, even amongst the townsfolk?! Solar systems that flash to the sound of music? Sand rivers?! Deadly ammunition races that are legal!?! A library where books come to life and pull in the readers!!?!”

“And just when we all agreed not to tell Twilight of that one,” Apple Bloom mumbled, just as they heard her voice on the recording stressed that they should not tell the princess about it.

“Living Statues?! Machines flying with just mechanical wings!? A dragon that flies because of a robot suit?!! Talking trees?!!? Tree Fire Fighters!? ALL THE TREES!?! Giant floating eyeball and a ghost possessed headless armor joining forces!? Mechanical wings to help young ones fly?!!!”

“I want that.”

“Scoots.”

“What? How exactly am I going to be able to learn how to fly using these?!” As she heard that and saw Rainbow Dash looking at her direction, Scootaloo began slumping in the chair she was in, trying to avoid eye contact as the recording kept playing.

“Museum where the world is like living shadows?! Orbiting wishing stars housing ancient wish granters?! Vortex Sheep Tossing is a sport!? A place where musicisactuallyinasolidphysicalform!?-”

“Right there! Slow it down!” Calvin told the draconequus.

Click! Click!

“A couple of villains scrying us as I scry them!?!” the recording played, sounding as if it was spoken rather slowly as Calvin’s eyes widened at hearing that.

“Okay, I think we might have a problem,” Calvin looked back towards Twilight and Rainbow, who were both equally shocked by what was said on the recording, “I got a bad feeling that one particular villain we’ve seen before tried spying on us while Discord was trying to see the Skylands for himself.”

“Wait… are you telling me that it’s the same bald midget from the gala that somehow had Sombra’s horn with him-?”

“HE HAD WHAT?!!” Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie and Spike shouted at the same time. Fluttershy herself just shivered at the sound of the name of the former king. Yet, one pony in the room was kind of puzzled at what was going on.

“Uh… who’s Sombra?”

“It’s a bit of a long story,” Spike looked back at Starlight as he did his best to try and find a way to simplify explaining to her. “He was the former ruler of the Crystal Empire, who tried hiding it from the world. We kind of beat him like… a year and a half ago, I think. Let’s just say that many of the crystal ponies are thankful that he’s gone now.”

“That’s not what we should be worried about, Spike,” Twilight was quick to intercept the conversation after her assistant finished explaining, “When we told Celestia about it, she told us that since his kind of magic is unknown, there’s no telling if he’s gone for good or not. But the thought of him following the orders of somepony else and working for them? That in itself is worrisome.”

What the princess herself didn’t expect to hear, though, was Calvin actually chuckling a bit as she turned around to face him. “What’s so funny, Calvin?”

“Uh… I wouldn't be so sure about that.”

“Why not? Giving orders to others sounds exactly like something he would do,” Twilight tried to reason with him.

“Twilight… let me fill you in on something,” the Skyshifter told her. “Kaos’s moments of genius and stupidity are kind of interchangeable, unless somebody else gives him the idea first… Then again... knowing how often Kaos isn’t alone without Glumshanks…”

“Glumshanks?” the princess now asked.

“His servant, personal butler and full time voice of reason,” Calvin sighed, “Think of him like Spike… except he’s rather timid, always gets shouted at, gets his ideas claimed as Kaos’s own, is used to being tortured as his master’s whim and isn’t really appreciated for his services.” Shortly after he said that, everypony seemed to notice Spike letting out a small sigh or relief and wiping his forehead, almost as if he was glad that this Glumshanks characters was not like him.

“Moving on… ah have something I want to say. Is it just me or does it seem a bit concerning to ya that everything we heard on the recording might sound like something that Kaos fella might make use of?” Applejack now asked.

“Maybe,” the Skyshifter replied back with a small shrug of his shoulders. “I mean, I’m familiar with most of those things. But there are some things like the wishing stars that I haven’t heard about before. Yet, something about wishes was mentioned as part of the backstory on a Skylander named Flashwing.”

“What about Sweetie Belle and her friends?” Rarity now spoke up as she looked back at the three of them. “What are we going to do about that?”

“Well, personally, I would ask Discord to check what he did to them, buuuuut…” he looked back at the draconequus, who still had the ice bag over his face as Calvin looked back to Rarity, “I think he’s out for the count right now.”

“So, what exactly can we do right now?” he heard Rainbow then ask, “What’s our Plan B?”

Calvin folded his arms, taking a couple of moments in order to try and think of a proper response to the question. A couple of moments later, he had thought of something. “Well, I have a couple of ideas. One for right now, and one for a bit later.”

“Well, we’re all ears, darling.”

“First, since Discord can’t exactly change the girls back, we should take the time in order to help the girls feel… what’s the word… comfortable with this new form,” he first explained to Rarity, Rainbow and Applejack. “Help them with the basics. Knowing how to walk, run and also using their hands, since they’re going to be doing a lot of things on two legs instead of four.”

“What’s the other one?” Applejack asked.

“Well, once they know how to walk on their own without somepony needing to help them, I think it would be best to have them come with me to see Master Eon,” Calvin told them, looking briefly at Twilight for a moment to see if she had any kind of reaction to that idea before continuing. “He might know what exactly is going on, since he had helped us out before and knows quite a bit about magic that’s not native to Equestria.”

Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity looked at each other for a moment before heading off to the side. They looked to be discussing what Calvin had suggested, because every couple of seconds, one of them would look back towards Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. So for the moment, Twilight took the initiative to speak up. “Calvin, if you do plan to take the crusaders with you to the Skylands when they’re ready, I’m going to come with you.”

Calvin was kind of surprised with Twilight saying that, mostly because it did not sound like her asking if she should come and instead, coming off as she was boldly declaring that she was coming with him. “Um… may I ask why?”

“Well, there’s the fact that you always seem to be a magnet for some kind of trouble. Who knows what would occur if you went there alone?” she told him in response.

“But I won’t be alone. I can have Spitfire be with us,” he replied back to the princess, puzzled by what Twilight was trying to say to him.

“T-there’s still the fact that you need an adult-”

“Twilight, we would be going to an academy that can best be described as a literal home for heroes. I don’t see what the problem is there,” Calvin countered, looking at the girls for a moment to see if they knew possibly what she was trying to do. Of course, as they looked at Spike, all he did was roll his eyes and face-claw himself before walking over to them, getting up on the table and speaking up.

“Twilight, just tell him why you really want to go up with him. It’s already painfully obvious that there’s something you want up there that doesn’t involve foalsitting Calvin.”

The alicorn now was looking a bit flustered, before letting out a small breath and beginning to speak once again. “O-okay, okay. I just… well, I just wanted to learn more about the Skylands. I thought that the more I knew about it, the more that I would be able to help you.”

“See? That wasn’t so hard now, was it?” Spike chuckled, before getting a glare from the princess.

Calvin’s response was a bit different from Spike’s. Though, the message was clear. “Well, why didn’t you say so? I’m fine with letting you come along, Twilight. Just… don’t do anything like what happened last time.”

“What happened last time?” Sweetie Belle then asked, something that made the princess shiver a bit.

“She saw two Skylanders that were snakes and jumped into my arms a few seconds later. Celestia said that it’s a fear of hers.”

The crusaders, upon hearing that, just giggled amongst themselves for a moment, with Spike soon joining in, confusing both Twilight and Calvin as the girls looked back at them a few seconds later. “I-i’m sorry Calvin, but the thought of you holding onto a scared princess just sounds so cute.”

“I was terrified for my life!” Twilight’s remarks didn’t really help any. For now, Pinkie Pie was rolling on the floor in an uncontrollable fit of laughter, and Spike was now giggling alongside the crusaders.

“Snakes can be heroes?” Fluttershy now asked, not sounding scared upon hearing it. In fact, she seemed a bit interested at the possibility, shortly before noticing Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow returning back to the group.

“Alright, we made a-” Rainbow was going to say something, but upon noticing everything going on, she turned to Fluttershy and then asked a question. “Um, Fluttershy? Do you have any idea what’s going on?”

“Calvin mentioned that he met some heroes in the Skylands that were snakes and how terrified it made her,” Fluttershy summarized, looking back at her friend now.

“Heh, if you think that’s strange, I met a skeletal dog and another one that was made up of lava.”

“A-actually, I-i don’t think it’s strange,” she shook her head, surprising her friend. “In fact, I-i actually would like to meet them. Maybe even be friends with them, and all the other animals, too.”

That just had Rainbow, Rarity and Applejack all look at each other with nervous expressions before looking to see if they could talk to Twilight. “That’s… uh, very nice, sugarcube,” Applejack spoke up as she looked to where Twilight was with Calvin. “Hey, uh, Twilight! Ah believe we made a decision.”

That immediately had Twilight whip back around, facing her friends now as she let out a sigh of relief, seeing this as an opportunity to get out of a rather embarrassing situation with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “Yes, girls? What did you decide?”

“We think that Calvin’s plan is a good one,” Rarity was the next one to speak as she looked towards the princess, just as Calvin himself was turning back around, “Though, we have one condition.”

“What's that?” Calvin then asked.

“Applejack is a bit unsure whether or not she and Rarity can really be able to trust Master Eon and everypony at the academy,” Rainbow soon took the initiative as she looked back at both Twilight and Calvin. “So, they want to come with you when we go over there, just to determine if Master Eon is as trustworthy as we say that he is.”

Both Calvin and Twilight looked back at each other for a moment, surprised by the condition that the girls had placed, all before he looked back and smiled. “Sure, I guess. Geez, at this rate, it feels like we’re all going to be taking a field trip up there.”

“Mind if I come too?” Starlight now asked, “You know, since pretty much everypony else is going?”

“Count me in, too!!” Spike added on.

“Guess we might as well have everypony go at this rate,” Twilight then muttered.

Of course, even though everypony was excited for going, one of Twilight’s friends soon had to ask a different question. “Everypony, I know that going to see this place is exciting and everything, but when should we actually go? Some of us might have things going on, so we should figure out a time to go when everypony’s not so busy.”

That was a rather good question, something that Calvin didn’t even take into consideration until it was brought up just now. “That’s… a valid point,” he said, looking back at the three of them now, “That, and it would take us a while to help make sure you can handle your new bodies without needing help.”

“Come on, Rarity,” Sweetie Belle now spoke up, “I know for a fact that you’re not always working. Can’t we choose a day where you don’t have anything going on?”

“Sweetie Belle, it might not be such a good idea to try and rush things,” Twilight told her in response, “Heck, when I was a filly in Canterlot, it took my brother and I about two weeks to help Spike get to the point where he can walk on his own.”

“That’s when I was a hatchling, Twilight,” Spike pointed out to her, “The girls are much older. There’s a pretty big difference there.”

Everything seemed to grow a bit quiet again… though, it was after some time that Starlight herself began to pitch in. “How about we take a week or two to see how far we’ve come along with helping the girls first before we plan traveling anywhere?”

For a moment, Twilight was going to say something. But as she let her student’s words sink in, the princess began to realize that what she was saying might possibly be a good idea. In fact, Calvin actually agreed with what she was saying. Everypony else seemed to like the idea as well once they had the chance to think on it, including the Cutie Mark Crusaders themselves. “Alright, I guess we’ll go with that, then.”

“Brilliant! Nicely done!! Now, there’s one last thing that I think we need to discuss,” They all looked now to Discord, who still had the ice over his eye. Yet, this time, he seemed to have a small suitcase by where he was sitting. “Would you be so kind as to let me stay here? Without my magic, I’m… kind of locked out of my home.”

That question alone was all Twilight needed to hear before she fell forward, landing face first on the ground and groaning at the question, prompting Calvin to turn to Spike. “Hey, Spike? Would you like to join us? We were playing Go Fish earlier, and I was thinking about starting a new game, since our last one got interrupted.”

“Count me in,” the dragon smirked.



Meanwhile…

“So, let me see if I get this straight,” the dark portal master named Kaossandra now spoke as she looked at the room where Kaos’ portal of power was as well as her son. “You tried a scrying spell to spy on the boy, which led to Sombra getting hypnotized… and now, you’re using him as a set of curtains?”

“What? There was too much light in here to begin with, mother!! I needed to dim the room in here in order to focus!!” her son snapped, which caused her to roll her eyes as she looked back at Glumshanks, who seemed to be sitting in a corner.

“Glumshanks, dear, please look after him. I need to take a moment to rest my head in my private quarters,” she said, walking away with a disgusted look on her face and slamming the door behind her, leaving Kaos with just his butler and a set of Sombra-curtains.

Of course, Glumshanks himself now looked back at the dark portal master, who looked to be deep in thought as he tried to get his attention. “M-master? Can I-?”

“What is it, fool!?” Kaos snapped, “Can’t you see that I’m busy with something-?”

“I-i might have an idea for you regarding our… partnership,” Glumshanks told him, motioning his head in the direction of the curtains to see if he could pick up on the cues.

Yet, it was only after a few seconds did his master suddenly display his impatience again. “Well? Spill it out already!!”

“W-well, sir, I was thinking… S-sombra is a powerful ally for us, with a lot of insight on what’s below the Skylands,” Glumshanks paused, before gulping down what was in his throat. “M-maybe we can use this… state he’s in to make sure that he doesn’t b-betray you?”

“Oh, really now? What would make you think that he would betray the likes of Kaos?!” He now asked.

“He might have his own reasons for h-helping us… W-we don’t want to have a repeat of what happened with the Doom Raiders, right?” The mentioning of the Doom Raiders was something that didn’t exactly thrill Kaos at all. The dark portal master still remembered all the trouble that he went through to steal the Fork of Infinite Resonance in order to break open Cloudcracker Prison in the first place, and even after setting them free, the raiders did not even give him so much as a ‘thank you’ for freeing them in the first place.

“How dare you think that I would allow a different no-name villain to humiliate me again with a disgusting act of BETRAYAL! Never again, I say! NEVER!!”

“O-of course not, Lord Kaos,” Glumshanks told him.

“After all, I shall use this predicament of ours to make sure that doesn’t happen!!”

Glumshanks just blinked for a moment, trying to process what had just happened. “Uh, wasn’t that what I just said-?”

“SILENCE!!” the Dark Portal Master snapped at him, before giving his butler a new order. “If you want to make yourself useful, prepare some of our troops to start looking for those so called ‘wishing’ things that chimera like creature mentioned earlier in his nonsense rambling.”

“W-what are you going to do though?” Glumshanks then asked his master.

“What else do you think I’m going to do, fool!?” his master asked him, “I’m going to pry as much information from him as possible, including anything that their kind might see as ‘legends’. Both of us know by now that there’s always some amount of truth to legends. You never know what could be useful.”

There was a moment of silence as Glumshanks was trying to process. Though, he could only get so far before his master soon shouted once more. “Why are you STILL HERE?!!” Immediately, the butler ran for the door, closing it behind him as the Dark Portal Master now looked back to the curtains in the back of the room.

As Glumshanks stood outside the door though, part of him felt a bit sorry for Sombra. But not because of what Kaos was doing now, instead of what he was about to do. “Did I tell you to stop being my curtain!?! KEEP THAT WINDOW SHADED!!”




End Scroll 19