Beyond the Skies

by FrostTheWolf

Scroll 21- A Change in Plans Part 2

As Tessa and Cali lead Calvin and everypony else through the halls of the academy, there was a lot for the group to see, not just in how the academy looks or what was going on in some of the classrooms, but also seeing the numerous different creatures and individuals that were in attendance at the school. From seeing a workshop where some Tech Skylanders were hard at work at creating new inventions or upgrading their own equipment to seeing the Magic Skylander named Deja Vu give a presentation on the history of Skylands to a class of students, there was a lot of things to see and watch. Stealth Elf, Splat and Flashwing were also helping to answer any questions that the Cutie Mark Crusaders or their sisters as they traversed through the halls. 

Meanwhile, for Calvin, he was being brought up to speed on the element strengths and weaknesses that Tessa was asking about earlier. Of course, the whole system of what things were strong and weak against was pretty complex. The only things that he could really remember was that Dark and Light were both Strong against each other and Water was rather powerful against Fire, but not Life. The second one was easy to remember because it reminded him of some of the Pokemon games back home where you choose between a fire, water and grass starter Pokemon, but there were a lot of differences that set itself apart from how the Skylanders one works. Fortunately, Cali was going to provide him a small little guide on the subject after their meeting with Eon to help make understanding everything simpler.

Of course, at one point, the group passed by a huge open area that served as the training grounds for the academy. When Calvin had a glimpse of the arena, he saw two Skylanders doing combat against each other, with Buzz overseeing the match. The first one was the Earth Skylander named Terra Fin, while his opponent was the Undead Skylander named Cynder. The two of them were going to head to head as Terra Fin was trying to get up close and personal with his gauntlets, only for the dragon to use her Shadow Dash ability to move out of the way and summon a series of ghosts for the land shark to deal with.

Even though the battle between the two of them was fun to watch… one particular member of the group wasn’t enjoying it as much as she wanted to, that being Scootaloo. If there was anything in the world that would make her uncomfortable, it was ghosts. So, seeing ghosts being summoned from one of Cynder’s abilities was not exactly fun for her to watch. Luckily though, they didn’t stay around for too long, and when they got back to walking, she was glad to let out a small sigh of relief.

However, that was only temporary, because as they passed by the teachers lounge, she saw five skeletons performing music for the Skylanders that were inside. One was on the microphone, another on drums, two more were the guitar and the base, with the last one of the group operating what looked to be a spooky DJ table. The sign at the front of the stage said ‘The Skaletones’, and they were beginning to prepare for their next song, just before the arm of the vocalist fell onto the stage. “Oh, whoops. Hold on, folks. Need to give myself a hand here.”

Scootaloo did not want to stick around to see what would come next as she found herself racing over to where Rainbow Dash was in a heartbeat, something that definitely caught the pegasus’ attention. “You okay there, Scoots?”

“Y-yeah, yeah, totally fine! Nothing wrong here!” she hastily told her, not even allowing for Rainbow to have a chance to ask any follow up questions.

Soon, the group had arrived at the doors to Eon’s Chambers, shortly before Tessa knocked on the front door. “Master Eon, we’re back. May we come in?”

The doors to the chamber opened shortly after Tessa spoke, allowing for the group to come inside. Several different bookcases were spread out along the walls of the room, along with several other small treasures and trinkets. In the back of the room was an open window with a desk by it, almost similar to the one that Calvin had in his room at Twilight’s castle. As the Skyshifter looked around, he soon saw the exact person he was looking for standing in the center of the room.

“Well, good morning everyone,” they heard Master Eon address them. Though, even though Calvin, Tessa, Cali and Rainbow were familiar with the elderly Portal Master, this was the first time that everypony else had the chance to meet him, including the Crusaders, since this was their first time meeting him in person.

“Wait… You’re Master Eon?” Sweetie Belle asked, staring at the Portal Master in disbelief. “You look… much different than I thought. I thought you would be… a little bit younger.”

“Why, thank you for the compliment,” Eon chuckled a bit as he had a chance to look at everyone that had just entered the room before turning his gaze to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, “It’s nice to have the chance to see you and your friends in person, Sweetie Belle,” yet, after he said that, the Portal Master then looked towards both Rarity and Applejack. “Though, I’m afraid that I haven’t had the honor of meeting everyone that is present.”

Both the unicorn and the earth pony looked at one another for a moment, just before Rarity began to speak. “Well, let us fix that then. My name is Rarity, Sweetie Belle’s older sister and the proud owner of the Carousel Boutique!” If that wasn’t enough, the unicorn went as far as to move one of her front hooves to dramatically flip her mane, followed with gentle eye flutter and confident pose. Yet, even though Sweetie Belle saw this as going overboard, someone in the room was rather captivated by the display.

“So, cool…” Flashwing said as she watched Rarity in awe.

Of course, that was soon followed up with the earth pony taking the chance to speak now. “And ah’m Applejack. Apple Bloom’s mah little sister.”

“A pleasure to meet both of you,” Master Eon replied back to both mares, “Now that the introductions are out of the way, what brings you to the academy? I believe you're here for another reason aside from making polite conversation.”

As soon as he heard the Portal Master say that, Calvin decided to speak up now. “Actually, now that you mention it, there is something that we did want to talk to you about,” the Skyshifter told them, “Do you remember when you helped us out when Discord had that… accident of his?”

Master Eon’s first response was to let out a sigh, before nodding his head. “Indeed. We’ve had to make a few changes of our own since then,” as he spoke, the Portal Master briefly looked over to where Flashwing was at, before looking back to Calvin, “Why do you ask?”

“Well, we have reason to believe that Discord did more than just change the appearance of Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo,” the Skyshifter explained a bit more, “We think that he changed them to be like me… not just in how they look, but in what they could do.”

At first, Master Eon was confused. The Skylanders in the room were also puzzled by what Calvin was saying, along with both Cali and Tessa, but it was the Portal Master who was the first to speak. “Could you explain a bit more about what you mean?”

“Well, what I mean is that we think that Discord not only turned the Cutie Mark Crusaders into humans, but also linked the three of them to the token you helped me create and gifted them with the same powers I have,” the Skyshifter began his explanation, “I know it sounds strange, but yesterday, the three of them got summoned by another Displaced and a draconequus in that world they were summoned to named Eris had the same theory.”

“All of this really seems a bit hard to believe,” Tessa now added.

“If ah may interject,” Applejack now spoke up, “Ah once though the same thing. Though, when mah sis and her friends were explaining it to me yesterday, ah can tell that it was true.”

“How exactly can you tell that?” Cali now asked.

“Ah can easily tell if somepony is lying or not, even if what they say is what somepony else told them,” the Earth Pony explained, “Ah admit, ah was a bit skeptical at first, since beings like Discord aren’t entirely known for being honest. But after Apple Bloom told me what they were told, ah knew that they were being truthful.”

“We’re still talking about the being that we classified as a force of nature, right?” Tessa’s comment was followed up with a blank stare from Calvin and the equestrians, shortly before realizing her mistake. “Oh. Right. They haven’t seen the list yet.”

“You mean the one that Stealth Elf had mentioned before?” Scootaloo now asked.

“The very same. Though, that’s a completely separate topic,” Stealth Elf herself now spoke up, “Though, there’s one thing I want to ask now that you mentioned it. If your friends have the same powers as you, then can they use them?”

That was met with all three of the Crusaders shaking their heads as Calvin looked back to the elf. “It’s not that simple, really… Master Eon told me that the Elementanium Crystal around my neck is the source of my power and what allows me to transform. If the girls have the same power as me, then they would each need one, too.”

“If it helps any, I said that it’s like trying to ride a scooter without wheels,” Scootaloo added on.

“Or if Jet-Vac tried flying without the Vacuum Pack on his back,” the comment from Stealth Elf soon attracted the attention of almost everyone in the room as she looked back and shrugged her arms, “What? Too soon?”

“Most definitely,” Master Eon now responded, “Though, you bring up a valid point. Your friends would each need an Elementanium Crystal in order to use the same powers you have, but-”

“Then, let’s go find them! Where do we start looking?” Scootaloo impatiently proclaimed, much to the Portal Master’s displeasure.

“That, I’m afraid, is the problem,” Eon explained, “Elementanium is very rare and rather difficult to find. The equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack, yet the haystack is the size of all the numerous islands in the Skylands combined together.” Hearing that comparison alone was enough to have Applejack’s eyes widen in response, alongside Rarity and everyone else in the room.

Calvin himself was just as shocked as everyone else, but he had a question to ask in response to what the Portal Master told them. “Um… is there any way that we could make that haystack… smaller?”

The room went quiet for a moment as everyone tried to think of a possible way that they could improve their situation, yet for a while, no one said anything. Then, after what felt like five minutes, Stealth Elf got an idea. “I think I might have an idea.”

“What kind of idea?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Anytime we’ve had to handle something that’s rather ancient and has been around in the Skylands for a long time, it’s sometimes in a book that we find in the Academy’s library,” the Life Skylander began to explain as she looked to Tessa and Cali first before turning her gaze to Master Eon, “We’ve just had to return a whole collection of books that got scattered after Kaos’ attempt to take over Skylands with Mind Magic, so it’s possible that one of those books might have what we’re looking for.”

“So, wait… you’re telling us that our only hope to do the same stuff Calvin does… is by reading books?” Scootaloo asked, which only led to Stealth Elf nodding her head in response, “Why does that sound like something Twilight would say?”

“I don’t exactly think we’ll be reading books for the sake of reading them, Scootaloo,” Calvin himself added, only to turn to Stealth Elf a few moments later as he had a question for her, “We’re not, are we?”

“No, we’ll be going through them to see if there’s anything in them that could either relate to or is about Elementanium, perhaps even a place for us to start looking,” the elf explained carefully to all of them, “We went through the same process when we were first learning about Imaginite, since Kaos happened to steal the book on Mind Magic, and we needed to find another way to know where the Cradle of Creation was,” around now, confusion seemed to lurk on their faces, much to Stealth Elf’s dismay, “I could go all day, but I don’t think we have that kind of time. Besides, you would want to find those crystals sooner rather than later.”

“That, I believe, we can all agree on,” the Portal Master responded, “Tessa and Cali can show you where the Academy’s library is located at. I’ll come over to check on you later.” Both the mabu and the fox nodded, telling the others to come follow them as they all went out towards the door. But as Stealth Elf was walking, that was when she heard Eon say something else. “Stealth Elf, could you stay behind for a bit? There’s something I want to discuss with you.”

“This is your library!?!” everypony exclaimed from outside once they went through the doors of the academy archives. Out of all the places that they have been to where there was a library, this was undoubtedly the biggest library that the Crusaders, Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow had ever seen. It was much bigger than the one in Canterlot and all of the books were organized in a manner that, if Twilight actually came here, she would never want to leave.

As they were stepping foot/hoof inside, they went over to the front desk as Calvin recognized a familiar face that was sitting behind it. They were staring at the large book that was on the table, only lifting his head up when he heard the encroaching sound of foot and hoofsteps. “O-oh, hello! S-sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

“Was it because you were stuck in a book?” Rainbow asked, only to get jabbed in the shoulder by Applejack’s elbow, “What? It’s an honest question.”

“Hey, Hugo, can we get your help with something for a moment?” Tessa asked as she hopped up and sat on the left corner of the table.

“Sure, but… uh,” the mabu paused, shortly before looking at Rainbow and the handful of new arrivals that had just entered. “Aside from Rainbow and Calvin, I don’t think we’ve met before,” that comment was followed by him looking at both the Skyshifter and the pegasus now, “Are they your friends?”

“Yeah actually,” Calvin then spoke, before looking towards the others, “This is Applejack, Rarity, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. They’re friends of ours from Equestria.”

“N-nice to meet all of you,” Hugo replied back, just before introducing himself, “I’m Hugo, Master Eon’s assistant. Is there anything I can help you all with today?”

“Actually, there is,” Splat herself now decided to speak up. The faun entered the library last and had just caught up with everyone else before taking a chance to ask her question. “We were wanting to see if there were any books in the library that could help us find more info on the elementanium crystal Calvin has.”

At first, Hugo seemed a bit surprised by the request. It wasn’t exactly the most common request that he would hear from the students, but it was still one that he could assist with. “I would believe it’s within the research department of the library. We keep all the information with magical artifacts and such from previous events such at Traptanium and Imaginite, so it’s likely that there might be something there.”

“Thanks, Hugo.”

“No problem,” the scholar replied as he closed the book that was on his desk and got up from his chair, “Follow me, please. It’s right over this way.” They began to follow Hugo as they went down what looked to be a long hallway that was on the right side of the library. Several different paintings of various locations from across Skylands were hanging on the walls, some that Calvin was familiar with and some that he hadn’t exactly seen before. He could make out Woodburrow and Mount Cloudbreak, but some of the paintings were of places that he had once heard of, but had not seen in person, including the Golden Arcade and the town called Scholarville.

Of course, it was not just paintings that were on the walls of the hallway that caught his attention. It was also the different rooms that they were passing through. For one thing, some of the rooms had books that were floating on their own, something in Equestria that’s not exactly common considering that most of the time, the reason for floating objects would be a levitation spell from a unicorn. Another was that there were floating platforms that would take anyone who stood on them to another section of the library, whether it was farther down or they were looking for a book that was much higher up than anticipated, something that they saw in action when they saw a platform raise a mabu up to the top of a bookcase to find what they were looking for.

“Let’s all agree that when we go back, we don’t tell Twilight about this place,” Applejack’s comment was followed by a quick nod from everyone else.

“And here we are,” they heard Hugo address them as the mabu guided them to a room that was on the far left side of the hallway. Like with a lot of the other rooms that they had glimpses of so far, there were floating books and moving platforms, but one of the things that was different was that there were numerous different mechanical contraptions on the back table, some that were set up to be workstations while one particular desk in the back looked to be where some things would get repaired. “This is the research department. Mags also uses a lot of the stuff in the back, since it’s her workshop, so please don’t touch anything back there.”

“Uh… who’s Mags?” Applejack now asked.

“She’s the chief inventor and architect at the academy as well as really smart,” Splat now spoke up in response to the earth pony’s question, “Trust me on that one. She asked Eon if she could include ‘inventor of every cool gadget at Skylander Academy and 87 million other things’ to her job description.”

The faun’s response just only led to the same kind of response everypony had earlier when Eon did his needle in a haystack comparison. Of course, Calvin and Rainbow weren’t entirely surprised this time around, mostly because the two of them have met her before the first time that they went over to the academy.

“So, where do we-?”

“Hugo,” everyone in the room now heard a voice that was strangely similar to Applejack’s echo from behind them as they found none other than Mags herself walking through the front door. “What the heck is going on in here? Ah hadn’t had the chance to properly clean up mah workstation yet.”

“M-mags! What a nice surprise,” Hugo himself responded nervously, “H-how did you know we were here-?”

“Ah passed by Cali in the hallway, and she asked if ah can give you a hand. She wanted to help, but Buzz asked for her assistance with team building exercises for the students at the last minute,” the tinkerer said, just as she noticed some of the new faces that were in the room right now along with two familiar faces, “Well, howdy there you two. Are these some of your friends?”

Calvin could only nod his head as he looked at everypony else, before they decided to introduce themselves. “Why, yes we are,” Rarity was the first to speak as she trotted over to where her sister was standing, “My name is Rarity, and this is my sister, Sweetie Belle.”

“Ah’m Applejack,” the farm pony introduced herself next, who was also standing not that far from Apple Bloom, “And this is mah sister, Apple Bloom.”

“And I’m Scootaloo. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are my best friends,” Scootaloo herself rounded out the introductions, sitting in between both of them. “The three of us back home are the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

“Pleasure to meet all of ya,” Mags smirked, before asking the first thing that came to her mind, “Though, if Bloom and Belle are yer sisters, how come they’re all… well…”

“Human like?” Calvin then asked, taking the words right out of her mouth.

“Yeah, that,” the inventor nodded as she looked back at everyone.

“Wait… are you saying you don’t know about what happened, Mags?” Tessa soon asked shortly afterwards, “Buzz had called a staff meeting on it and everything.”

“He did?” Mags asked, “Ah must’ve been outside of the academy at the time. Ah was working with Sharpfin and his crew to try and find some parts in an old scrapyard they found at one point. Besides, ah couldn’t have missed anything too big, right?”

“Oh, nothing much. Just the equivalent of what happens when you have our friendly neighborhood Spirit of Chaos put himself into a self induced trance and turn our hometown into a living Bridleway theater production,” Rainbow sarcastically told her. 

“Remind me to have Master Eon explain to you about the ‘traveling circus’ incident later,” Tessa let out a sigh as she looked back to Mags, “For now, we need your help. We’re trying to see if any of the books here in the research department contain anything about the Elementanium crystal Calvin has. Do you know where we can start looking?”

The tinkerer herself grinned, just before walking past them and heading to the center of the room. “Do I? Is that a trick question?” Taking her staff, she tapped the floor with the bottom of the staff. However, instead of hearing the impact of it hitting the floor, they heard what sounded like a loud clicking noise, almost as if a key had been inserted into a lock. Shortly after, a part of her staff popped up, resembling a handlebar as Mags looked back at them. “Fair warning, yer gonna feel a bit of movement. Ah suggest ya either hold onto something or keep yourself balanced.”

The moment that Mags pushed forward, the entire floor began to shake. The bookshelves and platforms that were once there retreated behind the walls as the floor began to turn in a circular pattern. The workshop that was in the back also began to change too, as many of the mechanical parts and contraptions had either disappeared or were stored someplace safe.

“Alright, this was at magical objects. Now, if ah recall correctly, what ya might be looking for is this way,” they could hear Mags talk to herself as she continued to push. At one point, it looked like the inventions in the back of the room were replaced with what resembled a greenhouse, but that was only for a few moments.

“Not there, but the next subject over…” the tinkerer spoke to herself again, just as the greenhouse disappeared and was replaced with a series of mining tools, samples of different colored crystals and special ores. “Aha! Here we go!” Mags stopped, and with it, the bookcases that originally disappeared had returned, sliding back in as if they had always been there. “That should do the trick.”

“W-what was that?!” Sweetie Belle asked, “It felt like the whole ground was changing!”

“Technically, it was,” Mags replied back. “Given how vast and diverse scientific research is in Skylands, ah designed the research wing to where the contents of the research wing can change depending on all the different and vast subjects the Skylands has,” taking a moment, she pointed out to where all the equipment was in the back of the room. “Originally, we were on ‘magical objects’ and ah had a bunch of artifacts in the back, but since you all were wanting to find out more on Calvin’s crystal, ah figured the best place to start looking was in the geology section, since it’s the same kind of research we use for understanding Traptanium.”

Of course, that was followed by a new question from Apple Bloom as she looked back at Mags. “Ah’m sorry fer interrupting miss Mags, but why are some of the shelves in the back empty?”

It was then that Calvin noticed what Apple Bloom was saying. The last two bookshelves near the back of the room did not have their bottom shelves filled, unlike that of what they saw earlier. Of course, when Mags heard that, she didn’t shy away from responding rather promptly. “Well, that’s because sometimes, certain subjects happen to have more research than others depending on the field,” the tinkerer explained simply, “But enough about that, let’s get started. We won’t be getting anywhere if we’re just standing around and talking all day.”

“But where would we even start?” Tessa then asked her, “There’s like six bookshelves in here, and most of them are full.”

“Well, we got enough people here to divide and conquer,” Mags then proclaimed, “So, let’s split into groups. I’ll be with Hugo and Tessa, Splat can be with Calvin, Rainbow will be with Applejack and Rarity and the… Cutie Mark Crusaders can be our last group. Sound good?”

“Sounds good to us!” Apple Bloom declared with both of her friends nodding in response. Applejack and the others also liked the idea, too, since it would be easier for them to look through everything if they worked as a team. The same was said for the other two teams as they all gave confirmation to Mags that they were on board with the idea.

“Alrighty then. Let’s get started,” the tinkerer told them as she assigned each of the teams a bookshelf to start looking through what was on the shelves. At first, it was simple, since none of the books that they were going through were too big in order to handle as they tried to find anything on Elementanium. But after the first couple of shelves, Calvin noticed that his vision was getting a bit blurry, and at some point, he felt as if he wanted to take a nap on the table that Splat and him were sitting by.

Of course, this did not really go unnoticed by the Supercharger as she tapped him on the shoulder around the second time that he was about to drift off. “Hey there, are you doing okay?” she asked him, “You looked like you were about to doze off for a minute.”

“Huh?” Calvin blinked, not realizing what she said until after he shook his head as the Skyshifter rubbed his eyes. “Oh, uh, sorry… Applejack had us wake up rather early this morning. I think some of that leftover sleep is getting to me.”

“Well, it won’t exactly be doing good if you happen to fall asleep when we actually find something,” the faun told him, “How about we step outside for a bit and head to the cafeteria? Get something that can give you some energy back?”

Calvin could only nod his head as they got up. Anything that could help him be a bit more awake right now would be a plus right now. As they got up and headed out of the library, Splat led him towards where the school’s cafeteria would be. Since it was between the hours of when breakfast was usually served and just before lunch, there weren’t a lot of people at the tables in the dining hall, which felt like a good thing since it always seemed that, wherever he went, he always seemed to attract some kind of attention.

Unfortunately, as he was waiting for Splat to come back, someone else decided to sit across from him at the table. “Well, hello there, little guy,” the words of Captain Flynn prompted him to look up to see the airship pilot sitting across from him. “You doing alright? You look a bit sleepy.”

‘Why thank you, Captain Obvious,’ he internally thought to himself as he looked up at Flynn. “That I am… Woke up much earlier than normal today. Splat brought me here so I can have a bit of a wake up call.”

For a moment, Flynn remained silent as he processed what Calvin said, “A wake up call? Well, I can get that for you right now. Hold on just a moment.” As he got up, he immediately proceeded to head to where the drinks were at as Calvin closed his eyes for a moment to let out a yawn. When he opened them back up and rubbed his eyes to make sure he didn’t feel drowsy, he found that the pilot had come back, holding what looked like a medium sized disposable drink cup that would most typically be used for warm beverages. “There you go. One wake up call, just for you.”

At first, Calvin was hesitant. He was not exactly sure what Flynn just got for him and was definitely not sure if he should be drinking it, but if this was able to help him get his energy and focus back, then it meant that he could get back to helping the Cutie Mark Crusaders and everyone else back at the library. So, he cautiously took a sip from it… before taking another… and another. Each time he took a drink from the cup, he felt a jolt of energy surge through him. It got to the point that when it was half empty, he threw caution to the wind and drank the rest of it in one giant gulp as he looked back at Flynn.

“Thanks, Flynn, that’s definitely what I needed. If Splat comes back, tell her I’ll be back at the library!”

Before Flynn could even say anything, Calvin had already bolted out of the room, the door slamming behind him just as Splat had come back. She had got him a cup of hot cocoa to help him wake up, but by the time the Supercharger had come back, Calvin was not at the table. All that was there was an empty cup and Flynn.

That alone was enough for her to put two and two together as the faun looked at the airship pilot. “What did you give him?”

“What? He said he needed a wake up call, so I gave him one,” Flynn replied. Though, to Splat, that was not enough information for her to go on.

“What exactly is in your ‘wake up call’, Flynn?”

“Nothing too much,” yet, as Splat was about to realize, what Flynn was telling her was the complete opposite of that. “Just a grande sized cup of vanilla flavored coffee, along with chocolate and caramel syrup, whipped cream, half a bottle of regular vanilla creamer and about twelve sugar packets just to give it that right amount of kick.”

Splat, in that moment, did the only thing that seemed reasonable at the time… and threw the cup she was holding at Flynn, covering his head in Hot Cocoa as he scrambled to get a few paper towels to clean the cocoa that spilled all over him. “Hot! Hot!! HOT!! What was that for!?”

“What was that for?! You gave Calvin an overdose on caffeine & sugar and didn’t even check to see if he had coffee before or not!! He needed a bit of energy for him to focus, not for you to send him into overdrive!” the faun snapped at him, shortly before asking another question as she glared directly at her. “Where did he go?”

“Uh… I…”

“Flynn, I’m not in the mood for games,” the faun sternly spoke to him, the paint from her paintbrush touching the ground as a pair of inklings now jumped up on the table and stared him down. “Where… did he… go?”

“L-Library!! He said he was going to the library!!” Flynn pleaded, closing his eyes and waiting for something to happen. But just as soon as the confrontation happened, he opened his eyes to find that Splat was gone, and that the inklings on the table were gone. At first, he thought that it was all over. That he could just go back to his ship and pretend like it never happened.

Unfortunately for him, he turned around to find that those two inklings from earlier now had twenty more of them up on the table alongside a shade of pain that loomed over him, leaving him stunned as he could only find the words to say one thing.

“Oh, tater tots…”

By the time that Splat had ran back the library, she was solely focused on trying to find Calvin. If he had immediately went back to the library under the influence of whatever Flynn gave him, it was not going to be good if he ended up crashing into something or crashing because of the lack of caffeine. The likelihood that it was the first time that he ever had coffee only made the whole thought of what could potentially happen worse.

As she hurried over to the research department, the faun was only getting more concerned. How was she going to explain all of this to Hugo and Mags? Or for that matter, how exactly was she going to explain this to the people that he came here with? They already had one incident between both the Skylands and Equestria, and they most certainly did not need a second one.

Unfortunately, just as she made to the door, the faun found herself witnessing Calvin tripping over Hugo’s bookpack, shortly before sliding and crashing into a bookshelf as several books began to fall on him. “OW!!”

“Calvin!!” Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing to help him as Splat joined back up with them, which prompted Tessa to ask the faun something, “What happened while you were outside?”

“Flynn gave him some of the coffee that he uses to wake himself up in the morning, not knowing that Calvin has never had it before,” Splat told her, which had the fox facepalm herself, “Apparently, he calls it the ‘wake up call’, so when Calvin told him that he needed a wake up call, Flynn thought that he needed a cup of joe instead of something else.”

“Why do ah have a feeling that this ‘Flynn’ guy causes a lot of trouble unknowingly?” Applejack asked.

“He sometimes doesn’t realize that his solutions to something only cause more problems until after he does it,” Hugo told the earth pony as another book fell on top of Calvin’s head before falling onto his lap, “Now, we have to stop what we’re doing to clean this up this whole mess, and-”

“Forget about the mess! Calvin, are you alright?” Scootaloo snapped, before getting close to Calvin as he scratched his head, coughing a bit after everything that had just happened.

“Whatever Flynn gave me… I’m not having that again,” he groaned, looking around for a moment as he tried to readjust himself. His head was beginning to hurt a bit, but as he looked down towards his lap, the Skyshifter looked at the book’s cover. The title said ‘Ancient Minerals and More, A Reference Guide’ and something about it… got him thinking.

“Oh, you never know, silly Calvy… and be careful of falling books.”

“Hey Mags,” he then spoke up as he slowly tried to get up, handing the book over to her. “Could you take a look at this one?”

“Uh, sure… why this one in particular though?”

“I just… had a feeling,” the Skyshifter replied the best that he could as Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo helped him back up to his feet. Rarity began to channel a levitation spell to start organizing the books that fell on the floor while Splat began to explain more about what happened with Flynn to Hugo and Tessa. 

Of course, everyone was thrown off guard again a few seconds later. But this time, instead of Calvin, it was Mags that caught everyone by surprise. “Hot buttered toast! Ah found something!!”

“Uh… what?” Apple Bloom asked.

“I think that’s her way of saying ‘dear sweet Celestia’, Bloom,” Sweetie Belle told her friend, before looking to Calvin as his only response was just a nod.

“You actually found something, Mags?” Tessa then asked, which was followed by the inventor nodding her head as the fox got curious, “What did you find? A sentence, a paragraph, a page?”

“Ah found more than that,” she replied back, “In fact, it might be short, but there’s an entire chapter in here about it.”

That definitely sounded promising, especially considering that aside from the name and knowing little to nothing about it except that it allowed Calvin to transform, they knew nothing about Elementanium. “Does it say anything about where it could be found?”

“Gimme a second, and let me see what I can find,” Mags told the Skyshifter as she began to skim through what was on the pages, carefully combing through as the inventor patiently analyzed the text. For a moment, Calvin thought that it would take her some time in order to try and find something, but just as he thought that, she made a breakthrough. “Eureka!”

“Sounds like I arrived at just the right time,” everyone turned to the front of the room to see Master Eon himself walk on in, “Did you happen to find the answers you were looking for?”

“I believe so, Master Eon,” Splat then spoke up, just as she turned to see Mags looking back at Calvin now.

“Just what exact kind of feeling did ya have that led to you picking this one?” the inventor asked Calvin as he looked back at the inventor. He only had one kind of answer for her, and it was one that Rainbow Dash and the others understood all too well.

“A ‘don’t question Pinkie Pie’ feeling.”

“Really? You mean the pink pony that was chasing Pain-Yatta around with his own lollipop axe the last time Rainbow Dash was with you?” she asked in response, which just led to the Skyshifter nodding his head, “Now ah’m beginning to wonder just how her mind works.”

“Here’s a suggestion. Don’t,” Rainbow bluntly stated, “There are times that even we can’t understand her. Even Twilight, the smartest out of all of my friends, couldn’t even figure anything out either. Just trust me here.”

At first, the inventor looked a bit puzzled. She didn’t consider taking Rainbow’s words seriously, but the look on the faces of Applejack, Rarity and the Cutie Mark Crusaders told her otherwise as she decided to refocus her attention on something else. “Well, alright then. Now, getting back to what ah was looking at, ah found a place for us to look into. In this book, it says that Elementanium was first discovered deep in the mountain caves that were by the Munitions Forge. Since we haven’t found anything else that could tell us otherwise, ah say that’s our best shot.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound too hard,” Applejack replied, “So, we just go there, find the crystals and come back-?”

“Woah, slow down there,” Mags insisted, interrupting before Applejack could finish what she was saying, “There’s more to it than just that. For one thing, it says in the book that Elementanium only reacts to specific individuals who have the ability to use the magic stored in it. Secondly, ah’m pretty sure that the mountain they’re referring to is the active volcano that’s by the forge. ”

The expressions of all three equines changed immediately when they heard the words ‘active volcano’. Though, that didn’t quite seem to change the mood of how Calvin and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were treating all of this. “So, if we go there, what’s the plan gonna be?”

That had everyone in the room fall silent for a moment. Splat herself was looking around the room for a moment first, before deciding to say something. “Well, first, let’s figure out how many are going, because I definitely think that we can’t take everyone here with us to the caves.”

“Calvin, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom will have to go, since they are perhaps the only ones that the Elementanium will react to,” Hugo began to brainstorm as he looked around the room. “We need a Skylander to go with them though, just in case something goes wrong.”

“A Water Skylander would be most preferable,” Master Eon then decided to speak, “Something that could help combat the heat from the volcano.”

“Only problem is that when I hear that, my first thought that would come to mind would be King Pen, since he’s the one that’s been training Calvin,” Hugo responded to Eon’s suggestion, “But he might be busy, since he’s a sensei here. Outside of that, I don’t know what other Skylanders of the water element he has met.”

“Not to mention that most of them have come from places where they mostly lived in areas with a lot of water around and even under the sea,” Tessa added on to the Skyshifter’s response as she looked back at everyone in the room, “Take Echo and Zap for example.”

“Let’s also not forget that not a lot of them have met him or know about what he could do,” the comment from Splat did not help any at all with the brainstorming as the room soon grew quiet. Master Eon himself was not sure how to help them, especially considering that it was him who suggested that they should have a Water Skylander come with them in the first place. If they couldn’t make a choice now, then how exactly were they going to move forward?

Fortunately though, by this point, the Skyshifter had realized something. Something that could potentially work. “I… think I might know someone else. Someone that I turned into, but haven’t met yet in person.”

Hearing that alone was enough to get their hopes up, even if it was for a little bit, but it was enough for Hugo to ask one simple question. “Who?”

“Snap Shot,” he simply told them, “I have transformed into him before early on when I first came to Equestria and had to demonstrate my abilities to Princess Luna and Cadance, but unlike that with Spitfire or Stealth Elf, I have not actually met him yet.”

“Even so, that might be a problem. He’s the head of the Trap Masters, and currently the Warden of Cloudcracker Prison,” Eon interjected, which unfortunately flattened the sense of hope that Calvin started having a few seconds ago. Seeing the Skyshifter’s hope fade gave the Portal Master an idea though, as he turned towards the entrance of the room to leave, “But I might have a better idea. Calvin, could you follow me please? And have Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo come as well.”

Calvin himself, sounded rather curious as to what the Portal Master was talking about. The same could be said for the Cutie Mark Crusaders as well, but one pony wasn’t exactly sure about what Master Eon just said. “Hold on there, partner,” everyone in the room now heard Applejack speak up as she looked directly towards the Portal Master that was almost outside of the room. “What exactly is this idea of yours? And why does it involve them following you?”

“Applejack, what are you doing?” Rainbow asked her, “Surely, he’s trying to help them, right?”

“If that’s the case, then ah think he should explain this idea of his,” the earth pony retorted, before trotting out in front of Apple Bloom and looking back at Eon. “Because ah really don’t like it when somepony is not telling us the whole story, especially when it involves mah sister.”

Eon was silent at first as he looked back at the Earth Pony, but after taking some time to look around the room, he let out a sigh. “The academy has a special book in the library, one that is enchanted. The book can grant certain advantages to Skylanders, but it also comes with great risk if anything were to happen to it. So, its location is kept as a carefully guarded secret,” the Portal Master began to explain to everyone in the room, “But the contents of it should not only prove useful to Calvin, but also teach your sister and her friends more about the Skylanders themselves and learn the phrases that they say. It’s something that should be kept in mind if the need to use their power arises after getting the Elementanium Crystals.”

Applejack, for a moment, looked like she understood what Eon was talking about. Though, her words were something else. “Ah still don’t like it-”

“Oh, don’t even think about trying to be stubborn, AJ,” Rainbow Dash interjected as the farm pony turned to face the pegasus, “Plus, friend to friend, you and I both know that you’re terrible when it comes to lying.”

“She has a point, darling,” Rarity agreed with what Rainbow was saying as she trotted over to where Applejack was standing. “Besides, we came here in order to help Apple Bloom and her friends, after all. They should at least know more about what they can do and who they can be before trying it for themselves.”

The farm pony herself felt the need to say something. Anything. But after being stopped by her friends like that, all she could do was drop her head down and let out a defeated sigh, only to feel a hand touch her shoulder as she looked up to see Apple Bloom in front of her. “Hey, sis, everything’s gonna be fine. After all, what harm can one book cause?”