//------------------------------//
// Scroll 20- Mixed Up Mishaps 
// Story: Beyond the Skies 
// by FrostTheWolf 
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Beyond the Skies- Mixed Up Mishaps




It had been a few days since Princess Twilight and her friends had come back from the Crystal Empire, and for them, things have mostly returned to normal, mostly being the key word in that sentence. Due to an incident involving Discord, a scrying spell gone horribly wrong and Hoot Loop not knowing any better, many of the townsfolk in Ponyville were still trying to move on from what happened while they were away. In fact, not only did it leave a bit of an impact on the citizens of Ponyville, but it led to the faculty at Skylander Academy drafting up a multi-page bullet point list of the ‘Things that the Skylanders are not allowed to do in Equestria’, just to be sure that something like this never happened again.

Of course, there were three ponies that couldn’t quite simply move on from what had happened, especially since they were caught in the whole mess and changed because of it. Those three were none other than Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Because of a spell that Discord used in his ‘tranced’ state and him being nearly depleted of all the magic he had when punched with enough force to send him flying to last week, the three fillies-turned-human kids were now trying to get used to their newfound bodies. Their friend Calvin had been helping them over the last couple of days with trying to get used to them, but today, he happened to be in Manehattan, helping Pinkie Pie find a gift for her sister Maud, leaving the three of them in Twilight’s castle as they all sat at the Cutie Map.

“Ah’m tellin ya, even though this body felt strange at first, ah’m kinda getting used to it,” Applebloom told both of her friends. “Even though trying to walk was a bit tricky, ah have been finding it easier to use some of the tools that mah folks have in the barn,” the former earth pony turned back to both of her friends now, “What about you girls? How are ya handling it?”

“Kind of the same way, really,” Scootaloo then added, “It’s a bit easier to hold onto my scooter to do tricks. Plus, it’s easier to play soccer on the playground, since I don’t need to worry about tripping over my forelegs now.”

Apple Bloom nodded in agreement with Scootaloo’s response, before turning to the one girl that had not spoken yet. “What about you, Sweetie-?” Of course, what Sweetie Belle was doing in that moment was somewhat different. She had a ball of emerald colored yarn at her side of the table and was wrapping the yarn around the fingers on both of her hands as they watched her. “Um… Sweetie? What are you doing?”

Sweetie Belle, upon hearing her name, looked up and turned her head back towards Apple Bloom. “Oh, sorry, girls. I was trying to do this cat’s cradle thing that Calvin taught me.”

“Cat’s cradle? Isn’t that something you would do with Opal back at your place?” Scootaloo then asked her.

“No, no. Nothing like that,” she told her friends, trying to think of a reasonable way to explain to her what she was talking about. However, when no solutions came to mind, she decided on something else. “You know what? How about I show you girls what I mean? Because it’s actually pretty fun.”

Her demonstration started with a long loop of string that she looped over her palms and under her thumbs. Taking both of her middle fingers, Sweetie slid them under the yarn that looped around her hands as it became a zig-zag pattern. “See? Calvin was teaching me how to do this when he and Pinkie were waiting for Rarity at the boutique this morning.”

“Huh… Can I try?” Now, both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were looking at her with puzzled expressions this time, as their friend tried to explain why she asked. “What? It beats just sitting around with nothing to do while Calvin’s out of town.”

Scootaloo’s comment alone was the best way to summarize the current predicament of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The three of them were wanting to see if Calvin was up for anything, but at the last minute, he told them that Pinkie Pie wanted his help when she and Rarity were going up to Manehattan with Maud Pie. Not to mention that with Twilight and Spike in Canterlot Castle right now, there really wasn’t anything for them to do aside from what Sweetie Belle was showing them.

Yet, even though she showed her friends how to do it step-by-step, it did not mean that they were going to get it right on the first try. “Um… help?”

As Sweetie Belle finished showing Apple Bloom how to successfully do the cradle, both of the crusaders turned their heads to find their friend’s hands all tangled up in yarn. Any attempts in order to try and pull her hands out were unsuccessful and led to the yarn tightening around Scootaloo’s wrists.

“Apple Bloom, go find some scissors. We might need to cut the yarn if I can’t untangle this.”

“Where should ah look?” Apple Bloom asked as she got up from her spot at the Cutie Map.

“You should check Calvin’s room,” Sweetie replied back to her as she got up and walked over to where Scootaloo was sitting as she tried to take a look at the mess her friend got herself into. “I think he still has the art supplies from when we were helping him try to come up with that Imaginator thingy a couple weeks back.”

Apple Bloom’s only response to that was a quick nod of the head, before making her way over to Calvin’s room. She had to take it easy though. Her newfound body had only grown accustomed to walking over the last few days, so the last thing that she would want to do was run and trip over something. Stairs were also tricky, because there weren’t exactly any handles along the side to help guide her up.

Once she overcame that obstacle, another one stood before her the moment that Apple Bloom opened the door to Calvin’s room. Despite the Skyshifter’s best attempts to organize it, a decent portion of the room was still a rather big mess. “Lands sake, Calvin! How hard is it to keep one place clean?” Apple Bloom thought to herself as she began to rummage through the supplies that ended up getting scattered in one corner of the room, having to move papers that had the sketches of the ideas they had for Skylanders to the side, along with a small pad of paper that said ‘Important Notes’ on the front cover.

Only when she got to the bottom of the pile did Apple Bloom find something that could possibly help. It looked like some kind of knife, but the blade itself was hollow in the center. It looked as if there was one attached to another, almost as if it was a pair of scissors. Yet, she wasn’t entirely sure.

Though, there was no time for her to go back through the pile in order to find an alternative. The girls were waiting on her, after all, and even though they have changed physically, Scootaloo didn’t change when it came to patience. “Hey, Bloom, what’s the hold up? I need help down here!!”

“C-coming, girls!” Apple Bloom replied back, pushing the rest of the supplies back to where they were and taking the tool that she found with her downstairs before setting it on the Cutie Map. “S-sorry... this was the only thing ah could find up there.”

“Really? The only thing you could find was an oversized sewing needle?”

“Well, it was not like ah had a lot of time to look-”

“Girls, arguing is not going to get us anywhere,” Sweetie Belle then interjected, picking up the blade with a free hand and bringing it over to where the yarn was wrapped around Scootaloo’s hands. She tried to move it like it was a pair of scissors at first, only for her attempt to be unsuccessful. So, she proceeded to move the edge of the blade back and forth, as if they were using a saw to cut through. Once the cut was made, the rest of the yarn came loose, and with it, freed Scootaloo’s hands.

“Aw man, it’s good to no longer have myself tangled up like that,” Scootaloo told her. “Thanks, Sweetie.”

“No problem, Scootaloo,” her friend replied back, setting the blade back down on the table as she began to pick up the yarn so she could throw it away. “I guess you would not want to do that again?”

“Probably not,” she sighed, placing her hands on her wrists as she looked back at her friends, “Let’s go put this away before Calvin comes back. He might not like it if we took something from his room.”

Both of her friends nodded in agreement, shortly before the trio went up the stairs and hurried over to the Skyshifter’s room. Both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were appalled by the arts and crafts clutter that was on the floor, but they couldn’t waste any time cleaning up the mess for him.

As they were turning to leave though, they heard somepony… no, someone speak. “Hello? Uh... excuse me? I know that you might be busy, but could you help me? I really need some assistance right now.”

Immediately, the Crusaders stopped, just before Scootaloo began to shiver a bit. “W-was that a… g-ghost?”

“Scootaloo, ah highly doubt that Princess Twilight’s castle is haunted.”

“You don’t know that!!”

As both of her friends were arguing over whether or not it was possible that there were spirits lurking around the castle, Sweetie Belle’s response to what she heard was much different compared to that of her friends. “Girls, do you really think that a ghost would be wanting our help? What if that voice belonged to somepony else?”

“Y-you mean like a spirit-?”

“Somepony that’s alive, Scoots,” Sweetie Belle was quick to correct her friend, “Maybe they’re just asking tele… tele…”

“You mean like speaking to your mind?”

“That’s EXACTLY what a ghost would do!!”

“Scootaloo, I’m talking about a spell here. Princess Twilight has it in one of her books,” Sweetie Belle replied back, shortly before turning around and having the girls follow her downstairs towards the castle library, spreading a book out on the table as she quickly flipped through the pages. “Aha! Here it is!” she proclaimed, putting a finger down on what she was looking for triumphantly as both of her friends began to read what she was pointing to.

“Telepathy, ah mid level spell that allows the caster to communicate with somepony by using their minds. Any conversations between the caster and the one they’re communicating with cannot be heard by anypony else watching them,” Apple Bloom read the sentence out loud as she looked back at Sweetie Belle. “That… sounds reasonable, ah guess.”

“Oh, come on, Apple Bloom! Don’t you think that what we just heard now was rather fishy?” Scootaloo complained, “I mean, all of those ghost stories that we hear Rainbow tell us have evil spirits luring somepony away before-”

“Scootaloo, this could actually be somepony who is really asking for our help, but they’re too nervous to tell us face to face,” Sweetie Belle told her, “Are we really just gonna ignore somepony in need because you’re scared?”

“I-i’m not scared!!” Scootaloo defiantly told her friends, even though she was still shivering a little and didn’t want to admit that she was mortally terrified out of her mind right now.

“Okay, then. It’s settled. Whoever or whatever they are, we’re helping them. No questions asked-”

In a matter of seconds, all three of them felt a strong pulling sensation tug at them as they felt something pull them away from the library, as if they were being pulled by powerful magic. It happened so fast that Sweetie Belle could only think of one thing before everything became a blur. “I feel like we’re under prepared for this.”



A few moments earlier...

In the town of Ponyville, everything was quiet. Which, under normal circumstances, would seem downright unusual, since some strange occurrence that would happen in their town was treated as something that occurred on a weekly basis. But, in one of the upstairs rooms at  Sugarcube Corner, somepony… no, someone was hard at work with trying to finish a project they were hard at work on, much to the dismay of those who were trying to help her.

“Ms. Faith, you’ve been hard at work for the last few hours. I advise that you take a break-”

“Remy, I’m so close to figuring out the solution for the problems I’m having. I can’t stop now,” the girl named Faith responded, turning her head towards a white colored drone that was on her right. One of her hands was on a holographic set of keys that were under a screen that had code scrolling all across the page while another was analyzing a crystal. “If I’m able to figure out how to use this properly, I can find a way to overcome my own limitations. I can-”

“Ms. Faith, we wouldn’t be telling you to stop unless we are absolutely sure that it’s necessary,” a second drone on Faith’s left hand side named Moby took the chance to speak now as Faith turned her head in Moby’s direction. “You still haven’t come downstairs yet, and Pinkie Pie wants to make sure you have breakfast.”

The white haired girl paused, hearing what he said and letting out a breath, shortly before having both the keys and the screen disappear with a swipe of her fingers and placed the crystal back on the table of her workstation. “Alright, I guess a break wouldn’t hurt.” She began to turn around, flicking the fingers with her left hand a couple of times to have the pajamas that she was wearing be traded out with a relaxed dress as Faith stepped out of her room, having both Remy and Moby transform into their standby form as a set of earrings while she closed the door.

However, she wasn’t able to take a few steps away from the door before Remy soon picked up something. “Incoming void signatures. Three of them.”

That had Faith stop in her place, just a few feet from the edge of the stairs as she turned her head. “Where are they-?”

“Well...” before he could finish, Faith felt something tingle from above her head. Yet, she did not have the chance to figure out what was going on before she felt three bodies crash on top of her. She couldn’t quite tell who landed on top of her, but the way that Remy finished his sentence did not help any. “... they seem to be on top of you at the moment.”

‘T-thank you, Captain Obvious,’ she thought, trying her best to move.

“O-oww… W-what the hay happened?” the moment that she heard that, Faith’s heart skipped a beat. She knew that voice. It belonged to Apple Bloom, the younger sister of Applejack. But she was supposed to be in Appleloosa with her sister today. So, why would-?

“D-don’t look at me, Bloom. T-this was Sweetie’s fault!” Again, Faith was caught off guard. The voice belonged to Scootaloo, but she was with Rainbow Dash in Cloudsdale. Something did not make sense here. Void signatures were the energy that Moby and Remy could sense if a Displaced were either calling for her help or coming here. So, why would-?

“Hey! We all heard that voice asking for our help! I did not expect anything like this to happen!”

‘Well, that pretty much just answered almost every question that I had in my head,’ Faith thought. These three girls, even though they were the Cutie Mark Crusaders, were not the Cutie Mark Crusaders that she knew. In fact, these three were strangely more human like in appearance. Of course, that still leaves the question of how did they end up here in the first place.

“Yeah yeah, we hear you, Sweetie,” Scootaloo soon let out a sigh as she tried to look around for a moment. “So, where is this pony anyways? That… whatever it was said that they needed help, so where exactly are they?”

Now was the time that Faith herself began to speak. “Maybe try looking at what you landed on top of?” All three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders paused, before slowly looking down at the floor as Faith turned her head to make eye contact with them, which was a bit hard to do with somepony sitting on your back, but she managed nonetheless. “Hi.”

Immediately, all three crusaders backed away from Faith. As the white haired girl immediately felt their weight no longer pressing down on her, she turned around and slowly got back up on her feet. “W-woah! Y-you’re human!”

At first, Faith felt the urge to correct the three crusaders. She was mostly human, but she was also part nasod, because of her displacement. But if these three were anything like the Cutie Mark Crusaders she knew, they really weren’t the kind of ponies to go deep into details. “That I am, yes,” Faith spoke, bending her knees in an attempt to get closer to the floor and be on the same level as them. “Though, you say that like you haven’t seen another one before.”

“W-what do you mean?”

“Well, aren’t you technically human?” she asked them.

“Hey! It’s not like we asked to be like this!” Scootaloo immediately quipped, taking offense to Faith’s question.

“Scootaloo, I don’t think she meant it that way,” Sweetie Belle interjected before looking towards Faith. “We’ve only been like this for a few days. Our friend Calvin back home is human, but we were our usual selves before-”

Before Sweetie Belle could finish, all four of them now heard a voice from the bottom of the stairs as the smell of pancakes and maple syrup began to drift its way upstairs. “Come on down, Faithy! Breakfast is ready!! Don’t have your pancakes get cold!”

“Was that… Pinkie Pie?” Apple Bloom now asked as she looked back at her friends, just before they heard Faith respond back. Yet, what she said left the crusaders with even more questions.

“I’ll be there in a moment, mom! I just had a couple of… friends drop in!”

“Ooh! Have them join us! I got pancakes for everypony!!”

Now, the Cutie Mark Crusaders just stared blankly at Faith, with only one question that’s on their minds. “Pinkie Pie’s your mom!?”

At first, Faith let out a small sigh, shortly before turning back towards the three crusaders. “It’s a bit of a long story. How about we talk about it over breakfast? You girls hungry?”

The three crusaders looked at each other, unsure how to respond to the question. Though, the fact that they did not have lunch yet, which was accompanied by the sound of Apple Bloom’s stomach growling soon had them make a rather quick decision. “That sounds like a good idea.”

With a small nod and a motion of Faith’s hand, all three girls followed her down the stairs. It was around this time that they began to realize that they ended up in Sugarcube Corner, but something seemed different. They first noticed it when looking at a few picture frames on the wall. They recognized the Cakes, the Cake Twins and Pinkie Pie in the pictures, but what was different was their appearance. They looked equine, yet they stood up on two legs and had hands like a human would have. It was much different from what they were familiar with.

As they finally finished coming down the stairs, they found Pinkie Pie herself behind the counter, wearing a short blouse with an apron that had the words ‘kiss the cook’ sewn in pink letters. “Oh my! Who do we have here? Are these friends of yours Faithy? Are they?!”

Faith’s first response to the baker was a simple nod of her head, shortly before adding on to that. “Mom, these are a couple friends that I just met-.”

“Oh? Then, why do they look so familiar?” she said, turning her head and trying to get a closer look at the girls by stretching herself over the counter.

“They’re Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo… just not our Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo,” Faith had to clarify so that Pinkie Pie did not stretch so far off the counter and scare the crusaders in the process. “They’re from another Equestria.”

“Ah, well, I guess that makes sense,” DING! “Ooh! Pancakes are ready now!!” Retracting herself, she turned around and began flipping some pancakes that were on the griddle as the ones that were finished cooking began to land on a few plates she had set on the counter.

As Faith took a seat by the counter, the rest of the girls soon took up a seat right next to her, with Sweetie Belle being the next person to speak up. “Pinkie seems pretty relaxed for finding out we’re not from this Equestria.”

That had the white haired girl look back at her for a moment as she let out a soft chuckle. “Yeah, she is. She even met an alternate version of herself and treated it like meeting somepony new for the first time,” she told them, just before Pinkie Pie placed a plate of pancakes in front of her along with a glass of water. “Though, that’s a story for another day. Why don’t we pick up where we left off?”

“Sure, uh…” Apple Bloom paused for a second, before looking back to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle as she was trying to process something. “Where did we leave off at again?”

“You were explaining how you ended up turning into humans.”

The new voice that spoke up startled the three newcomers as they looked back at Faith. Yet, Faith didn’t seemed put off by anything as she let out a small breath. “Moby, you could’ve introduced yourself first.”

The sentence was followed by one of the earrings that Faith was wearing transforming into a black circular drone that floated around Faith’s head. “My apologies, Lady Faith. I was just trying to be helpful.”

“W-what is that?” Scootaloo was first to speak.

“This is Moby. He’s one of two nasod drones that helps me from time to time,” Faith’s reply was followed by Moby turning back into his standby form as the earring was back on her ear, before pointing to the other one. “The other is named Remy, but right now, they’re on standby, since I don’t really need them for anything at the moment. But, he did bring up something important.”

“Oh. Right,” the crusaders soon realized what she meant as they looked back at one another, just as Pinkie Pie was setting down a syrup bottle and a small pancake decoration kit in front of the crusaders. With that in mind, Apple Bloom picked up where they left off. “So, back where we’re from, we’re ponies. The only human back home that we know is Calvin, who’s a boy around our age. However, we ended up like this after we got caught in the middle of an accident involving Discord and his magic.”

Yet, even though that explanation sounded simple enough on the surface, Faith was still puzzled by a few things. “Could you explain a bit more?” she asked, taking a knife and fork as she began to cut a piece of pancake to eat. “What kind of accident are we talking about here?”

“Um… well, where we are from, our friend Calvin can be able to transform into heroes called Skylanders,” Sweetie Belle now took the opportunity to speak up, “He even goes to their home in order to learn from them. Though, when he told us and Discord about where they’re from, he got a bit too excited and tried to use a scrying spell to take a look at the Skylands for himself.”

“How did that go?” the code queen asked her.

“Not too great. He saw so many things so quickly that he ended up hypnotizing himself… and then us when he looked at us,” Scootaloo now mentioned as Faith began to chew on a piece of pancake. “From what Calvin told us, he tried calling for help, yet all they did was make the situation worse, and when Discord was in that trance, he changed us into humans because he thought Calvin was lonely being the only human in our world. He broke Discord’s trance, but now, he doesn’t have enough magic to change us back.”

As she heard that, Faith took a drink from her glass and set it down on the table, before looking back at them. “So, what you’re saying is that you’re stuck like this until Discord makes a full recovery?”

“Pretty much. Though, some things back home leave us with more questions than answers,” Sweetie Belle nodded, just as Pinkie Pie had set down three more plates of pancakes, one for each of the crusaders as Apple Bloom and Scootaloo immediately began to dig in while the party pony was placing glasses of water out on the table. “Though, perhaps it should be us listening to you now.”

The code queen had finished her food by the time she heard that, drinking it down with some water before turning back to her. “Ah. Right. I did say we would talk about it over breakfast,” she said, before looking back at the Crusaders. “My family’s a bit… complex. It’s not just me that’s over here in Equestria, but many other family members I know. Though, I wasn't born here. My dad raised me for a long time on earth before I came here by accident.”

“Earth?” Apple Bloom asked, wiping some syrup off her face with a napkin. “What does this have to do with the ground?”

“No no, not that Earth. Where most humans are from, Earth is a planet. Kind of like this, actually,” Faith’s explanation was followed by pinching three of her fingers for a moment, before releasing it as a holographic sphere was seen with different shapes on it. “I lived here for the first part of my life, but… I lost my mom.”

“Lost? What do you-?” Apple Bloom’s question was interjected with an immediate realization. Faith was like her. She, too, had lost somepony that cared for her and her siblings back home, just like how Faith had lost someone that was important to her. “Oh, A-ah’m so sorry. Ah didn’t know-”

Faith just shook her head, waving her off as the sphere that was originally present now disappeared. “It’s okay… Don’t worry about it. It happened a long time ago, when I was just a child,” she insisted, before looking to Pinkie Pie and letting off a smile. “Pinkie Pie has known my father for a long time, and just recently, they decided that they were going to get married. So that makes Pinkie my new mom now.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Scootaloo explained to her, just before asking a new question as she was using her hands to spread some butter and syrup over her pancakes. “Though, how is that complex? If anything, that sounds rather simple.”

“Well, that’s only the tip of the iceberg. We still haven’t covered the rest of my family,” the statement from the code queen had all three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders look at one another with puzzled expressions on their faces, shortly before Faith began to speak again. “There’s my dad, my two uncles and who are with them, as well as my grandparents. Where would you like to start?”

“Um… your dad?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Well, he’s the easiest,” she chuckled, “My dad’s a warrior. There are numerous names for his job class, but his abilities remain the same. He can conjure multiple swords at will using his magic and use them when fighting opponents. He helps out Princess Twilight as well as Celestia and Artemis from time to time-”

“Who’s Artemis?”

That question led to an immediate realization by Faith as she now had a question for the crusader trio. “Does your Celestia have a sister named Luna?” The question led to all three of them nodding their heads as the code queen now had a proper way of explaining this to them. “Alright, think that… but in this world, Luna is a guy. His name’s Artemis and despite the fact that both of them are considered to be ‘retired’, they still help out Twilight and Cadance with their duties at Canterlot, and-.”

“Hold on a second,” Scootaloo interjected as she looked back at Faith. “What do you mean by ‘retired’? Back home, our princesses are still running things like normal.”

The statement from Scootaloo had Faith realize something. Something that she should’ve asked earlier but completely forgot about. “What year is it back in your world?”

“What?”

“Back in your world, what’s the year?” Faith repeated herself.

The Crusaders looked at each other again, puzzled by what the code queen was asking for, just before Apple Bloom responded. “Around 1006 CE?” Faith’s eyes widened immediately at that, shortly before the former earth pony added on. “Is… something wrong?”

“Girls, right now for me, the year is 1011 CE,” the code queen’s words were followed by another thing she told them that had the gravity of what she was saying begin to set in. “My world right now is five years ahead of you.”

“Woah, woah, woah. Hold on a minute,” Scootaloo now interjected. “You’re telling us that not only did we somehow find ourselves in another world, but we also found ourselves in the future? That’s a lot of info to just tell somepony about.”

“No, it means that there are some things that I can’t tell you, because they probably have not happened yet,” Faith corrected her, “So, forget what I mentioned just a couple of moments about Celestia and Artemis, okay? I don’t want to accidentally cause something if you tell somepony you know back home everything I told you.”

All three of the crusaders nodded in response as the code queen picked up where she left off before that point. “So, aside from what I mentioned about my dad, there’s not really much else that I can explain. Though, my uncles are a bit of a different story, especially Uncle Nicko.”

Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow at that, just as she finished her drink. “How so?”

“Well, for one thing, Uncle Nicko knows magic. Not just any magic though, but rune magic. It’s a form of magic so ancient that it was once considered as forgotten, because the only other pony who used it was Starswirl the Bearded,” it might have been a simple explanation, but what Faith told them was something that was eye opening to the girls. Unlike Calvin, who could only be able to access his powers and abilities through the magic of his necklace, the person that Faith was describing was able to channel and control magic directly, without having to use something else to access it.

“Wow! That sounds amazing!” Sweetie Belle asked, “Do you think we could meet him?”

The question led to Faith expressing a bit of uncertainty. “I’m not sure. If I remember correctly, he’s kind of on his honeymoon with Eris and Moondancer-”

“Eris? Who’s that?” Apple Bloom now asked, which led to Faith taking another drink of water as she looked back at the trio.

“That’s… complicated,” the code queen told them. “She’s what Discord calls his daughter. A draconequus that he created with his chaos magic, so he did not have to be lonely during his original imprisonment. Of course, she actually had been with my uncle for the longest amount of time, and… well, now they’re married.”

“Wait… so your uncle is married… to two-?”

“Like I said, it's complicated,” Faith cut off Scootaloo before she could even finish.

“Fair enough ah guess,” Apple Bloom now spoke up as she thought of a different question to ask. “What about your other uncle and grandparents?”

“Well, to summarize him up, he has a mechanical arm and also is engaged to Applejack. My Applejack,” she specifically explained, before looking back at the trio. “As for Grandpa Luke and Grandma Ciela… well, they help out around Canterlot, and they don’t really come by that much. Both of them are part demon, so they try to keep their distance so they don’t accidentally scare anypony.”

As the rest of the crusaders finished their dishes, Faith brought out Moby and Remy and had them pick up the empty dishes and bring them to the sink. “Now then, I know that you might have some more questions, but I think it would be better if you followed me upstairs.”

“What? Why?” Scootaloo now asked.

“Well,” she said to them as Moby and Remy returned to her side. “You did say that you were going to help me after all. It’s time to get back to work.”

“B-but, we still have some questions.”

“That I can answer while you’re helping me,” the code queen insisted, “Also, mom might try to give you a lab coat and say that you need it, but it’s not required, unlike that alchemist shop in Rainbow Falls.”



Out of all the possibilities that Faith took into consideration for how the Cutie Mark Crusaders would come across her token, mistaking it for a pair of scissors and using it to break Scootaloo loose of a cat’s cradle gone horribly wrong was not one of them. If anything, she would think that her token would be mistaken for a spearhead instead of a pair of scissors. But explaining what tokens were and how someone would use them was only a side piece to what Faith was trying to work on.

Similar to what the Crusaders heard before coming here, the Code Queen was working on trying to overcome her limitations. Those limitations in particular being with regards to her power and what she was capable of. When an invasion of demons swarmed her Equestria in hopes of overtaking it, Faith had to use every ounce of what she could do in order to keep them from overrunning much of Equestria. She didn’t want to find herself in the same position for whenever there was another threat, especially one that could be far greater than what they have faced before.

Of course, there was a different question that was on her mind now. “So, let me get this straight. This Calvin is the one who is Displaced?”

“Uh, yes?” Sweetie Belle replied, “Why-?”

“Then, how exactly were you three able to hear me? Matter of fact, actually come here?” Faith now asked, “All of my previous interactions with other Displaced over the time that I was here suggest that only other Displaced can respond to a summoning. It shouldn’t have worked for you three.”

“I don’t know, maybe something with what Discord did?” Sweetie Belle shrugged in response, looking back at her friends for a brief moment, “It was my idea to come help you, but we honestly don’t know how chaos magic works.”

There was a pause in the room. The four of them found themselves at a question that they couldn’t possibly be able to answer on their own. Though, it was around this time that one of the drones that was with Faith had an idea. “Chaos magic is only used by a draconequus, correct?” The question was met by a nod from all four girls, shortly before they heard Moby’s proposition. “Then, why don’t you ask one?”

“Pfft, like that would be so easy,” Scootaloo shot back with a detested look on her face. “Who would we even ask?”

“There are three options,” Remy himself now explained to the trio, “The first one is Discord himself, but right now, he’s on a royal holiday with Celestia. The second is Eris, but like Lady Faith mentioned earlier, she’s on her honeymoon with Nicko. The third one is Chaotic, but he is with Celestia and Discord.”

“Who is Chaotic, anyways?”

“Discord and Celestia’s son,” the drone responded to the question as they noticed the trio’s shocked reaction to the statement, “Unlike other worlds we’ve been to, in ours, Discord and Celestia were able to overcome and accept their differences. They’ve been married for the last few years.”

“So, no matter who we choose, they would somehow be unavailable?” Sweetie now asked.

“Not… entirely, per se,” Moby corrected her, “Eris is known to be rather flexible if she’s needed in more than one place. It would not hurt to ask for her help.”

“So, what? We just say her name, and she’ll appear? Just like that?” both of the drones and Faith nodded in response to Apple Bloom’s question, which in turn had Apple Bloom raise an eyebrow, “Just Eris? Not ‘Eris, we need your help’, or-”

FWOOSH!!!

Only mere moments after Apple Bloom said that, she found herself covered in salt water as a female draconequus that almost looked exactly like Discord stepped through what looked to be Faith’s closet door, wearing a haywaiian shirt and a luau around her neck as she looked at everyone in the room before pulling off a crab that landed on Apple Bloom’s head and throwing it back through the door and slamming it. “Somepony called my name?”

“We did,” Faith replied, “Sorry about interrupting your little getaway, but we need some help with something.”

“No, no, don’t worry bout a thing. We were going to be coming home soon, anyways-” Eris was going to continue speaking, but it was in that moment that she turned her head around and looked at the Cutie Mark Crusaders that were in front of her. “Oh boy… What did you three do-?”

“Actually, Eris, they’re not our Cutie Mark Crusaders,” the Code Queen told her, which had the draconequus pause for a moment before asking a new question.

“So, what? Are they a trio of Displaced or-?”

Faith just shook her head and folded her arms as she looked back at Eris. “They aren’t that either. They’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders that know another Displaced, but somehow, they were able to respond to me and come here.”

Just that statement alone had Eris pause for a moment, snapping her talon as the shirt and luau disappeared before looking at each of the Crusaders. “So, let me get this straight. These three are not Displaced… but they know a Displaced… and they somehow were able to answer your summons and come here anyway?” All Faith could do was nod her head, followed by all three of the other girls doing the same thing, “What’s next? A bunch of Sweetie Belles running around in the void?”

“I’m not sure if I want to think about that,” Sweetie Belle mumbled to herself.

“We needed you here because we want to figure out how exactly they could be here in the first place,” Faith now took a chance to fill the draconequus in on what was going on, “They wanted to help me out with something I was working on, but I wanted to get to the bottom of this first. Because for starters, they say that their Discord is the reason why they’re human right now.”

That statement alone just had Eris roll her eyes. “Of course it’s due to him. If anything unusual occurs in the world, it’s often caused by him.”

“Right. Though, I’m pretty sure that turning somepony into a human doesn’t automatically have them become Displaced,” Faith pointed out to her.

“Umm… Can I say something?” Scootaloo now asked the two of them as both the draconequus and the code queen looked back at her. “Back in our world, Discord did something to explain how his magic recovers by showing some magic bar thingy,” now, she looked back to Eris, “Could you do something like that-?”

SNAP!

“Already got you covered,” the draconequus smiled as the same visual that the Crusaders saw last time appeared. The crusaders had a health bar that was similar to the one that Calvin had when Discord did the same thing back in their world, while Eris had a full green bar with a blue one underneath. Faith’s was similar to Eris, but hers had what looked like three red beads that were on the left side of the health bar. “Huh… Yours looks different from what I thought it would be like.”

“Yeah, that’s what we noticed, too,” Sweetie Belle added on as she looked back at the draconequus. “The only other one that we know back in our world that would have the same thing was Calvin.”

“Who?”

“That’s the Displaced I was mentioning. The one that they know. His name’s Calvin,” Faith clarified for Eris as the draconequus began to scratch her chin, “Their Discord tried to make them like him because he thought that he was lonely being the only human in his world.”

That statement soon had Eris opening her eyes up as she looked back at the girls as well as Faith. “Make them… like him…” she mumbled, pondering something as she looked back at the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “Girls, this Calvin person… is there anything special that he could do?”

“Well, he has this special necklace,” Sweetie Belle began to speak, moving her fingers to try and draw out a loop for them, “It’s magical, and only he can use it. But, by repeating certain phrases, he can transform into a series of heroes that he calls Skylanders. However, he can only be transformed for a short amount of time,” that was soon followed by a new question for the draconequus as she looked back to her. “Why do you ask?”

“Well… hear me out when I say this,” the draconequus began to speak, “What if your Discord… tried to make you like him? Not just change how you look physically, but also allowed you to do the same things that he could do.”

“That doesn’t explain the summoning though-”

“I was getting there, Faithy,” Eris teased, before going back to her explanation, “When I mean make you like him, I don’t just mean power wise. I mean making you just like what he is. A Displaced,” for a moment, Faith was going to try and respond back to the draconequus, but once again, Eris cut her off. “I know what you’re thinking… ‘That doesn’t make any sense. A Displaced can only have one token for themselves’. Let me remind you that there really isn’t any set rules as to how that one token works. If anything, their Discord could’ve just connected all four of them to the same token.”

Faith blinked for a moment, wrapping her head around everything that she just heard from Eris before coming up with something to say. “So, you’re saying it’s all likely possible that even though I thought I intended to summon Calvin, I ended up summoning Sweetie and her friends instead? And it's all the more likely that they have the same powers that he does?”

“Correct-”

“Well, honestly, it sounds really cool… but part of me thinks that it also kind of sucks.”

That had everyone, including Faith, look back towards Scootaloo. Even both of her friends, who were beyond excited at the possibility of what Eris just said, looked back at the former pegasus in shock as the Code Queen began to speak. “Why exactly would you think that the possibility of going on numerous adventures would suck?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m just as excited at that possibility as the rest of the girls. I just see a slight problem,” she replied back, while also pointing at her neck, “We don’t exactly have the necklace Calvin would have in order to do the things he can do. It’s like riding a scooter without wheels.”

“Come on, Scootaloo. It can’t be that bad! Think of the kinds of people that we could meet!”

That just had Faith let out a sigh. “Sure, I can introduce you to a few. There’s a dragon with enough power to cause a planet wide cataclysm, a pair of wolves considered as god like deities, a couple of Persona’s, also known as demonic personification of personalities, with one of them dragging a series of coffins behind him, a Displaced Nightmare Moon, a human with dragon dna and enough power to level a continent that’s the teacher of my Uncle Nicko, a frost spirit urban legend that you need to believe in in order to see named Jack Frost, an alternate Pinkie Pie named Blood Cleaver, a reaper of souls that looks like he’s wearing pajamas, a high tier undead dragon known as a dracolich, two digimon, also known as digital monsters, with one of them having a complex for if they’re called ‘short’, a monkey guy named Sun, some dude named Craig and that is only the tip of the iceberg considering that I’ve only met a few of them, and they turned out to be friendly.” 

At first, the girls were liking the things that Faith told them. But the expressions on their faces immediately begin to change once the last sentence began to sink in. “N-not all of them are friendly?”

“Oh, most definitely not! There’s still ALL of the numerous different horrific monsters and threats that human society has in fiction. Fiction that many displaced tend to get themselves involved in without knowing that what happens to them remains permanent. We’re talking undead, monsters that would devour other creatures for breakfast and has an unending hunger, creatures that like to harm others just for fun, vampires that can stop time by shouting ‘Za Warudo!’, beings that can suck the soul out of your body while you remain helpless and taunt you about it afterwards, animatronics possessed by vengeful spirits, living bug shadow knights, living infections that spread, control and mutate uncontrollably, dead corpses forced into an endless cycle of living, fighting, dying and repeating all over again on a prison like island, nightmares that can continue to plague those who are affected in both the living and dream worlds, creatures that can be spawned by erupting out of someone’s body, turning inanimate objects into mobile monsters, even food, monstrous living plants, beings that can bend space and time at a whim, creatures who turn whatever they devour into part of their bodies, a living swarm that have such a hive mind that they form into a larger living monstrosity and individuals whose physical might is enough to create canyons without even meaning to do so. Not to mention various horror monsters where their very presence can distort reality into a living horror house. Anything is fair game,” she let out a breath as she looked back at the three of them. “Also, those who can meddle with other people's souls and minds. I think I forgot to mention that.”

“I don't know what's worse. Worlds where there are swarms of monsters, or worlds where the monsters work behind the scenes to control and turn the public and one's loved ones against them, no matter what they try to do,” Eris then added as she shrugged her shoulders, “Like what Faith said, anything’s fair game really.”

That just had all three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders just stare at her with widened eyes, shocked and scared out of their minds at some of the dangers that she happened to mention. “Um… O-on second thought, w-we might want to wait first before going anywhere, even if we do happen to find something to channel our power through.”

At first, both Faith and Eris were a bit relieved to see that the Crusaders were taking everything seriously. But for the Code Queen, what she just heard had given her an idea. Something that could possibly help her overcome the dilemma she was facing right now. “Something to channel power through… That’s it!!”

“Wait, what’s it? I was just saying that-” Sweetie Belle’s words were cut off the moment that Faith had used her fingers to open up a holographic screen with multiple different buttons and contraptions, all at the same time. “Faith? Faith, what are you talking about?”

“That’s probably not going to work,” Eris told her, reappearing alongside the girls now, “Whenever Faith gets an idea, she immediately gets to work on it and doesn’t stop until its complete. Personally, its something I think she picked up from Twilight.”

“That makes sense,” Scootaloo added on, “As strange as it might be.”

“Girl, strange is just the bare minimum of what goes on around here. We know a Displaced around here that did whatever she wanted, including make Canterlot Castle look like a crime scene, because she was ‘having fun’,” the draconequus remarked, watching the Code Queen as she was hard at work, her drones bringing her what looked like a magical crystal as they began to siphon the magic inside. “If anything, despite Faith’s… antics, she’s a bit of a genius. Even though it doesn’t always show-”

“That’s it!! Almost… There… THIS IS SO EXCITING!!!” Faith’s words were followed by the sounds of laughter, almost as if she was a mad scientist, which made the Cutie Mark Crusaders shiver a bit, but just had Eris facepaw herself,  “Come on! COME ON!! I will NOT allow myself to BE HINDERED BY MY PREVIOUS LIMITATIONS!!!”

“Told you it doesn’t always show-” Before Eris could finish speaking, she had to snap her talon and conjure a barrier spell as a powerful surge of energy set off around Faith, shielding them from debris as Faith’s overall appearance began to change. Her clothes from before were replaced with a set that looked like battle armor than actual clothing, complete with a black crown that covered her forehead. The Code Queen’s hair, once cut short, now stretched past her waist and her two drones had their appearances change too.

The most noticeable change though was one that the girls never expected to see. But it was the first thing that Scootaloo commented on. “Oh, come on! How did you get wings!?”

At first, the Code Queen did not notice what Scootaloo was talking about. But as she turned her head, Faith found herself looking at a pair of jet black wings, made out of the same metallic materials as her drones and the rest of her equipment as she tried to move them. Though, because of their sheer size, she could only stretch them as far as the length of her room. “Well, this is unexpected.”

“Wasn’t this what you were trying to go for though?” Sweetie Belle then asked.

“I was seeking a way to overcome my limitations, yes. Though, I did not think that completing such a feat would lead to me having a complete overall change,” the Code Queen told them. As she moved her wrist, a newfound weapon was conjured in her hands, one that was shaped like a spear that had formed from the blades she had used in her ‘Code Nemesis’ form. A second wave of her hand had the spear disappear, shortly before looking back to Moby and Remy. “How do I look?”

“Do you mean appearance wise or physically?” A deadpan stare from Faith was the only thing that the drone got as an answer as Remy began to do some calculations. “Alright. Well, according to these readings, you were successful in breaking through your limitations. Using the energy of the El that reacted to your will, a new code was formulated, and with it, you have a whole new set of capabilities to add to your already expansive arsenal. Though, it lacks one thing.”

“And that is?”

“A name.”

Hearing that, the girls could only just look back at the drone as Sweetie Belle began to speak. “You’re telling me that you were able to come up with the ultimate power boost for her, yet the only thing that you’re missing is a name?! How exactly is that important!?”

“More than you might think,” Eris now interjected. But before she could explain further, the draconequus was interrupted as Faith now took a moment to speak.

“Ultimate…” she said, looking in Sweetie Belle’s direction now, “That’s what I’ll call it. Code: Ultimate.”

“Heh, looks like we did help out after all,” Scootaloo snickered, elbowing Sweetie Belle’s shoulder as she just stared blankly at Faith. “Now, if only we could be able to figure out how to get back to our world without ending up in someone else’s by accident.”

The Code Queen looked back towards her desk for a moment, picking up a particular crystal that was on the table as she looked back at them. “I think I got that covered. Tell your friend that I would like to meet him sometime, alright?”

“Wait, what-?”

“Our contract is complete.”

POP!

In the blink of an eye, all three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders were gone. Leaving both the Code Queen and the draconequus by themselves… and the latter kind of disappointed. “Wait, that’s it? I thought their exit would be a bit more dramatic than that.”

“Perhaps that would happen if we actually summon Calvin next time,” Faith replied back as she looked back at Moby and Remy. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have some tests I need to conduct.”



By the time Calvin finally had returned to the castle, he was greeted with the sound of silence. No one seemed to be around or waiting for him to come back, which was odd because he was expecting for Apple Bloom and her friends to still be here by the time he returned from Manehattan. Yet, it was once again just as quiet as an undead sensei realm-

CRASH!

Calvin did not have enough time to react as he was knocked to the floor. Falling to the ground as he felt something pin him down when he tried getting up. At first, he thought it was some kind of villain that broke into the castle as he tried to grab his necklace. However, just as he was about to transform, he heard an all too familiar set of voices.

“O-ow… S-she could’ve given us ah warning before doing that.”

“N-never mind that. Did we at least make it back? Where’s Scootaloo?”

As Calvin turned his head, he immediately came face to face with Scootaloo. Who’s eyes were closed and whose face was smashed against his. What’s worse… was that she was kissing him. And in his head, he was freaking out. “Oh, DEAR ELEMENTS!? WHAT IS HAPPENING!?”

At this point, Scootaloo herself was beginning to slowly come to her senses… and realize where exactly her face and mouth were in that moment. Quickly, she tried to retract herself and get off of Calvin before anyone saw her or the blush that was on her face. “W-what-?!”

Unfortunately though, she was too late, because as both of them were trying to scramble to their feet, they both saw Rainbow Dash standing in the doorway. “Oh man, I am so proud of you two!!”

A few things came up in Calvin’s mind right around now, just as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle both extended a hand to help him and Scootaloo get back up on their feet, both of whom had mixed expressions on their face after what they had just witnessed. Of course, he only had one question to ask as he turned to face Scootaloo. “Did we just-?”

“Heck yeah, you did! You two are growing up so quickly,” Rainbow spoke up again as she trotted inside, the blush on Scootaloo’s face becoming a lot more noticeable the more that her idol continued talking.

“Rainbow, that was an accident. Scootaloo didn’t mean to fall on him like that,” Sweetie Belle tried to reason with the pegasus, only to fail horribly and for her expression to stay the same.

“Didn’t mean to, my flank! This is exactly like all those cheesy romance books your sister has, Sweetie!”

“… well, she’s… not wrong-”

“My novels are NOT cheesy, Rainbow!” the voice of Rarity could be heard from outside as she and Pinkie Pie now entered the castle, “And can somepony please explain to me what’s going on?”

“Well, you just missed-”

“Nothing HAPPENED!!!!”

In a matter of seconds, the whole room immediately went silent as everypony stared at Scootaloo, including Rainbow, who was just as puzzled as she was shocked by Scootaloo’s outburst just now. “Hey uh… why are you so angry, Scoots-?”

A glare of seething rage was the only thing that Rainbow got from her as one of her friends decided to speak up instead. “Perhaps it would be better if we did the explaining. It’s… kind of a long story.”




End Scroll 20