Beyond the Skies

by FrostTheWolf


Scroll 24- Molten Chaos

Beyond the Skies- Molten Chaos


Castle of Friendship, Ponyville

Inside the crystalline walls of the Castle of Friendship, the unicorn named Starlight Glimmer was reading through some of the different spell books that were inside the castle library. Today had already been weird for her for several reasons. First, most of her friends aside from Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy weren’t in Ponyville. Second, she woke up this morning to find none other than Princess Celestia in the middle of the castle, who told her that Twilight, Rarity and Spike were in the Dragon Lands of all places. Third, Celestia had a message that she wanted for Starlight to tell Twilight upon her coming back, a message that was about Calvin and some kind of trip that he was doing with the Cutie Mark Crusaders today along with Rainbow and Applejack.

It was a lot for her to wrap her head around, especially considering that most of it occurred early in the morning. So when she heard an all too familiar voice begin to echo around the castle, the unicorn fell off of the chair she was sitting on before putting the book away and leaving the library.

“So, despite all of this happening so fast, I think that trip was rather successful,” she heard Twilight’s voice first, before seeing her teacher with Rarity. Spike was sitting on her back, before they reached the table as he hopped up onto the closest seat. “Ember’s going to be busy with the responsibilities of being a dragon lord though.”

“I would think,” Rarity soon spoke up, “At least we were able to prevent that brute Garble from winning the Gauntlet. Who knows what he would have done if he actually won.”

Oh dear Celestia, please don’t tell me that they almost caused an international incident,” Starlight thought to herself. She did not have a lot to go on, but with what they were saying now, it really didn’t make her think so positively of what might have happened.

It was as Starlight was trotting towards the center of the castle that Spike soon happened to notice her. “Oh. Hey, Starlight.”

“H-hi,” she stuttered. Personally, she didn’t expect for somepony to notice her, considering how engrossed they were in their conversation. “Welcome back.”

Around now was when Rarity and Twilight also noticed Starlight’s presence as both of them looked back at the unicorn now, before realizing a mistake on their part. “Oh my goodness! Starlight, I’m so sorry! This just came up so fast, and-!”

“Woah, Twilight! Calm down for just a second,” Starlight quickly responded, trying to get the alicorn to stop for a moment so she could speak, “Princess Celestia already filled me in on everything shortly after I got up this morning. I’m already up to speed on why you had to leave, so there’s no need to apologize to me for anything.” Much to the unicorn’s surprise, her words were a huge relief to the alicorn as Twilight soon let out a deep breath.

“Oh, good. I was really worried about how you would see me as a teacher, since I ended up having to go to someplace without telling you at all,” the princess replied back. But before she could continue any further, that was when her student spoke up again.

“Speaking of going to someplace, before she left to go back to Canterlot, Princess Celestia wanted me to tell you and Rarity something,” Starlight took a moment to look at both the fashionista and the princess of friendship before continuing, “But let me ask, did you two happen to have something else planned today before your unexpected trip?”

“Why, yes, actually,” Rarity now took a turn to speak as Spike decided to get up and leave to go to his room, “We were supposed to help Sweetie Belle and her friends find some special crystals in the Skylands today. We did leave a note behind saying that we had to postpone our trip,” around now, Rarity was beginning to notice the look on Starlight’s face change. It didn’t look too relaxed, and instead, looked like she had some unfortunate news to share with her. “Starlight? Is everything okay?”

“Y-yeah, well...” Starlight said, taking a moment in order to sit down and look back at both of them. “How can I put this to you delicately? Hmm… you know what? Forget it. They still went over there. Celestia cast some kind of spell that they needed, and they went on over… without you. Oh, and Luna went with them, too.”

That answer triggered the exact same response from both of the mares that Starlight was talking to. “THEY WHAT!?!

“Starlight, why didn’t you do anything to stop them!?”

“I was asleep,” the unicorn deadpanned at her teacher, “I woke up five minutes or so after they departed, according to what she told me.”

That part made sense, but there was another thing that lingered in their minds that the two of them were having trouble processing. “Okay, but why would Luna go with them? I know that this matter was important for Sweetie Belle and her friends, but I really don’t think it’s important to the point that a princess needs to get involved,” Rarity asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe she wanted to say hello to the locals or something?”


“How long have those two been at it?”

“I don’t know, but whoever they are, they got Hoot Loop spooked. Did you notice how frantically he was trying to get away?”

THOU SHALL PAY FOR THE PART THY PLAYED IN TERRORIZING OUR SUBJECTS!!

“L-look!! All of this was an accident!! What more do you want from me?!!”

STOP RUNNING AND FACE THEE, COWARD!!

“You think we should help him?”

“Ehh, it probably has something to do with that ‘traveling circus’ incident that was in that list Buzz was handing out. Let’s stay out of it… although…”

“What are you thinking now?”

“If you want, we can make a bet to see how long he’ll last before getting caught?”

“And what exactly are we betting?”

“Hmm… how about the loser pays for the next upgrade that the winner gets from Persephone? What do you say, Cynder?”

“…You got yourself a bet, Spyro.”


“The point is, they are over there already. Sorry if I sound a bit rude, but I really just don’t know what all the fuss is about.”

That comment from Starlight did not do anything to help the current situation. If anything, it accidentally made things worse, prompting Twilight to go into full on lecture mode as she let out a breath, “Starlight, are you kidding me!? This is obviously a problem! Calvin is someone from another reality that was displaced into our timeline, while whomever did so somehow made our timeline more dangerous than it should! Yet, he’s not the only one! Many others like him were displaced to other versions of Equestria with each one being different from one another. Now normally, he and these other 'Displaced' are somehow able to call on one another to help against these dangers... but somehow, thanks to Discord, the Cutie Mark Crusaders can now be called instead of him!! Not to mention that right now, they have no way of accessing the new powers that come with it, making them sitting ducks for any horrors they may encounter if they don't do something to help them defend themselves! And now to do that, they're heading into an ACTIVE VOLCANO in the SKY with who knows how many other threats there waiting for them!! Who knows what exactly might be waiting for them up there!?!”

All Starlight could do was stare at Twilight as her brain tried to process the massive information dump that the princess just dropped on her. Once she was finished though, that led to her only saying one thing. “Well… when you put it that way, it DOES sound bad.”

“Bad? BAD!? Starlight, this is even worse than that!! If anything goes wrong, then this could be catastrophic!!” the princess snapped, “The Skylands don't work on the same logic that we're used to in Equestria. There's ghosts, undead and we even met a sapient dog made entirely of lava during one of our trips!! They're dealing with a complete unknown up there!”

However, both Starlight and Rarity were not prepared in any capacity for what she did next. “I can’t stay here in good conscience knowing that they’re in this kind of danger!!!!”

“Twilight, wait-!”

Unfortunately, before either of the two unicorns could do anything, Twilight had already teleported out of the room, followed by a massive slam of the door that led directly into the Mysterious Ancient Place, leaving Starlight and Rarity by themselves in the middle of the castle as both of them looked back at one another.

“Well, that was… unexpected,” the fashionista spoke up now, “Anyways, good to see you again, Starlight. I’m going to head back to my boutique right now. Hopefully, there isn’t too much cleanup I have to do there, since I put all my work away early.”

“Um… aren’t you worried about your sister at all?” Starlight asked, which had Rarity stop for a moment before looking back at the unicorn.

“Well, I am a little worried, but I know that Master Eon said something about getting a specialist to help them out,” the fashionista replied back.

“Who now?”

That had Rarity let out a bit of a sigh, before coming up with an idea off the top of her head. “How about you come to the boutique and I can fill you in over some tea? I could really use some right around now.”


Munitions Forge Volcano

“Yeah, I remember smelling this… b-before, b-but… it’s not a place that you want to go to.”

When the Cutie Mark Crusaders heard the fire dog named Digger tell them that, all three of them had mixed reactions to what the pup said. Scootaloo was thinking that if there was something that made the fire dog rather nervous, then maybe there was some kind of danger there that he was afraid of. Sweetie herself thought that there might have been some kind of monster that guarded the elementanium, one that was scary enough to make Digger act like this. Apple Bloom didn’t quite seem to get any of that at all as she looked back at the fire dog, knowing that there had to be some reason though.

“Why?” she asked, a question that surprised her friends and Digger as Apple Bloom looked back at him, “Why would we not want to go there?”

“T-the area is dangerous! There are monsters down there, and the lava river’s current is too strong to swim across,” Digger told them in response, “T-the rocks and ceiling are a-also unstable, too.”

“Meaning that it could collapse at any given time,” Hot Block now added on to the conversation as he walked over to them. Though, Hot Block also had a question for them now that he brought this up, “So, given all of that, why would the three of you want to take the risk in order to get some shiny stones?”

“They’re not just shiny stones,” Sweetie Belle responded this time, “Those crystals can help us support Calvin. Getting those crystals can help us support him so that he doesn’t end up bruised and battered having to fight someone by himself again. He’s important to us, like how your siblings are important to you.”

“But what would you be able to do with them?” Hot Block countered, “How exactly would you be able to provide support-?”

“Because they’re special,” Hot Dog soon interjected as he walked over to where the girls were, “They can do the same things that Calvin can do! In order for them to do that though, they need those crystals to channel their power through, something that I can smell out.”

That had Hot Block and Digger look back to each other for a moment as they took a bit to understand what Hot Dog was telling them, before looking back to him. “So, what you’re saying is that with the stones you’re looking for, it will be easier for you to defend yourself from threats?”

“Yeah, and help others, too!” Scootaloo now added on.

That had Hot Block take a moment to compose his thoughts, looking to Digger first before looking back at them. “I guess that’s all I need to hear.”

“W-what? H-hot Block, I told you that it’s dangerous down there-”

“I know, but think about everything that Calvin had done and everything that he put himself through for us,” as he said that, Hot Block tilted his head in the direction of the Skyshifter, his torn clothes showing where he once had injuries before Skippy healed them up for him, “He helped us and turned the possibility of no longer living with Tribus into a reality. It would be rude to not help them with something in return after what he did for us, Digger.”

Digger wasn’t exactly too thrilled with what his brother just said. “Aw, man-.”

“However, it doesn’t mean that you’re doing this alone,” Hot Block cut him off, before looking to Hot Dog and the girls, “If we’re going to do this, then everyone is going to help.”

“Do you have a plan in mind, Hot Block?” Apple Bloom then asked him.

“Well, given the fact that Digger knows these tunnels like the back of his paw and how your friend here said that he could pick up the scent of what we’re looking for, I’m letting them take the lead. I need to see how bad it is like over there first before we figure out what to do next,” the fire dog replied back to her, “Now, before we-”

“Wait!!!” all six of them heard as they looked towards the main entrance to see the little lava pup named Smoky racing back over towards them rather quickly. Instinctively, Hot Block swiped his left paw across the ground as a wall of molten rock rose from the ground. However, the little fire dog was not able to stop himself in time, resulting in him colliding head first with the rocky barrier. The impact released an eruption of dust from Smoky throughout the cave as everyone began coughing until the smoke began to settle.

Once the smoke began to settle down though, everyone found themselves staring at Smoky as he looked back at them with a pair of puppy dog eyes. “S-sorry.”

Man, Rarity is going to freak out when she sees our clothes,” Sweetie Belle thought to herself as she looked back at the little pup.

“Smoky, what are you doing here?” Hot Block then asked, surprised to see the little fire dog in front of him.

“I want to help you out, Blocky!!” Smoky told him, eagerly wagging his tail as he looked at his brother.

However, when his sister Sheer heard this, all that she expressed was concern. “A-are you sure, Smoky? Y-you were always scared in the face of danger, and Digger said there were monsters down there-”

“Nothing that we can’t handle,” Hot Dog interjected, before looking back to Smoky, “In my experience, the more people that you have to help you out, the better the outcome.”

“Yay!!” Smoky cheerfully replied, jumping up and down as he looked back to Hot Dog, who just tapped the eager pup with a paw.

“Though, I suggest you save that energy you have for later,” the Fire Skylander suggested, before lowering himself to the ground for a moment. “Want to hop on?”

The only response he got was Smoky eagerly jumping onto Hot Dog’s back and rubbing his head against the back of Hot Dog’s neck as the Fire Skylander got back up on all four paws. “Alright, I think we’re ready. What about you guys?”

“Unless anyone else has any other objections, then I think we’re all ready to go,” Hot Block told him, before looking to Digger, “You and Digger lead. We’ll follow right behind you.” The Fire Skylander nodded, shortly before turning to the fire dog as Digger let out an anxious breath. The two of them soon began to make their way back inside the mountain, with Hot Block and the Cutie Mark Crusaders following not that far behind. Leaving Calvin and Applejack with Dusty, Sheer and Skippy.

“So… what do you think Twilight and Rarity are doing right around now, Applejack?” the Skyshifter asked the farmpony, just out of curiosity.

“Honestly, after whatever it is that they’re doing in the Dragon Lands back home, ah think the first thing that they’ll probably do is get some much deserved rest.”


“Calvin!! Calvin, where are you!?! Dear Celestia, I hope I’m not too late-”

CRASH!!

“Agh!! W-what the-!? Who are you-?”

HUZZAH!! WE FINALLY HAVE YOU NOW, YOU FEATHERED FIEND!!

“AH! PUT ME DOWN!! PLEASE, PUT ME DOWN!!”

“Well, looks like you owe me an upgrade Spyro.”

“Oh, come on! That was interference, and you know it!”


“Ehh, I guess you’re right,” Calvin shrugged.

“Um… Sorry, but who is this Twilight and Rarity you’re talking about?” Sheer then asked them.

“They’re friends of ours, Sugarcube,” Applejack took the initiative to explain to her, “In fact, Rarity was supposed to come with us here today, but she had something come up at the last minute.”

“Not to mention that she’s probably going to chew me out for… well, this,” the Skyshifter added, pulling at his shirt to show the tears that were on there from Tribus’ claws.

“Ah, come on, Calvin. Ya don’t know that.”

All that did was just leave to the boy giving Applejack a deadpan stare as he looked back at her. “We’re still talking about the same pony who said, in her own words, that my clothes ‘look SO ragged for a handsome young colt’, right?”

That comment made the earth pony blink, mainly for Calvin’s attempted impersonation of the unicorn that they were talking about. “Yeah, we still are-”

“As well as the same pony that Sweetie Belle said that she would have a massive freak out if she finds out that something was mismanaged in her closet?”

“Sugarcube, ah don’t mean to sound rude, but may I ask why are ya bringing this up?”

That had the Skyshifter let out a sigh as he looked back at Applejack, “Because some of those things that Rarity does remind me a lot of someone back home who went to the same school I went to,” the earth pony was caught off guard by that, but before she could say anything, Calvin began to speak again, “Her name was Raquel, and she… had a habit of taking something that might have been seen as a small problem and treated it like the world was ending. One time, she said that her life was ruined just because she got a ketchup stain on her shirt.”

“That… just seems excessive,” Applejack replied back to him.

“You tell me,” he told her, before taking in a deep breath and letting it out, “Though, unlike her, Rarity’s actually a lot nicer. Raquel is the kind of person who wants everything to be perfect, and if something doesn’t go right, she blames other people for it even though they had nothing to do with it.”

“Ah see,” the earth pony replied back, before thinking of a question to ask him, “Just out of curiosity, what were some of your classmates like?”

“Well, there were a lot of us and there were a couple of people that I did happen to be friends with,” he explained to her, “We liked to play games, had some similar toys that we liked to play with and such. Though, each friend was different in their own way. One guy that I can think of off the top of my head is someone named Trevor, who was into a bunch of different things, but he really liked a lot of things that involve fantasy, knights and such. Even played some games on that stuff.”

“Oh. So, like Big Mac?”

Hearing that had Calvin stop for a moment. He was going to respond to her question, but instead, all her question did was put another question that he wanted to ask her inside his head. “Wait… your brother… is into fantasy?”

“Ah know, right? Seems kind of strange, but it turns out that every time the girls and ah head out to do something important, they play some game called Ogres & Oubliettes. They try to keep it a secret, but Apple Bloom heard Mac and Spike talking about it the last time he came over to check on them a couple of weeks ago.”

That caught Calvin by surprise. Based on his only interactions with him, he did not think that he was into anything like that at all. “Is it weird to think that if some of the people that I know came here, Trevor and your brother would oddly get along with one another?”

“If that were to happen, then it might be possible,” Applejack told him, shrugging her shoulders as she noticed that Calvin was rubbing his eyes a bit, “You okay, sugarcube? You still seem kind of tired.”

“I-I’m not tired,” he shook his head, rubbing his eyes a bit more, “I-I think some of the dust from the volcano got in my eye. Just give me a second.”

At first, it didn’t seem like Calvin was getting anywhere. But after rubbing it some more, wiping what was on his hands on the side of his shorts and blinking his eyes a couple of times, he felt like he was back to normal as he looked back at Applejack. “There we go. Man, it’s irritating when you got something like that stuck in there,” he groaned, before asking a new question to Applejack, “So… you think Apple Bloom and her friends are going to be okay in there?”

“Trust me, Sugarcube… Ah have seen it first hoof. They can do anything that they put their minds to,” the earth pony smirked, “There’s nothing that they can’t handle.”


“How are we going to handle this!?!”

When the Cutie Mark Crusaders and the fire dogs all arrived at the place that Digger was talking about, they immediately began to realize that everything that Digger described was much worse than they originally thought. When they were told that there were monsters down there, they just thought it would be a decent amount that they could go through in no time. Instead, in the girls’ minds, it looked like the equivalent of a volcanic parasprite infestation. 

Hot Dog could tell what was the problem though. Chompy pods and lava chompies all over the place that were slowing down the flow of the lava in some parts of the cavern. Not to mention that there were two giant chompy pods that spawned the giant lava chompies that were over twice the size of the normal ones. It was not just that though. Some of the smaller ones were climbing up the cracks on the wall to chew on the rocks, with some stones falling into the lava.

“Yeah, this was much different than what I was imagining,” Hot Dog spoke up now.

“What exactly were you imagining?” Hot Block rhetorically asked him.

That had the Fire Skylander look back at him for a moment. He was wanting to answer honestly, but decided not to. “Fair point. So, now that we see how bad it is down here with the chompies everywhere, what’s the plan?”

“Chompies?” Hot Block asked, “You’ve seen them before?”

“Hundreds of times, but nothing like this,” Hot Dog responded back to the fellow fire dog, “To make it quick, those pods are the reason why the chompies are spawning in large numbers. If you get rid of the pods, then you get rid of the source of the problem.”

“Okay, but that also means that it restores flow to the lava river, too,” Hot Block then mentioned, “Meaning that it would make it difficult for crossing.”

“Do you have a better idea? Because if we try to cross now, the chompies will be onto us, and only a couple of us can actually fight.”

This kept on going for a while. Any time that Hot Block tried to make a point, Hot Dog would find a way to counter it. If Hot Dog tried to offer an idea, Hot Block immediately found a flaw in it that would make their plans crumble apart. The ongoing banter between both of them made Digger nervous and also had Smoky stutter. The girls were also trying to think of something, too, something that could still be possible for them to pull off without having any problems.

After a moment, Sweetie Belle soon asked something. “What if you beat the chompies, but leave the pods alone for a bit?”

Both fire dogs, upon hearing that, looked directly at Sweetie. “Leave them alone? That just-”

“I mean, leave them alone until after we got the crystals,” Sweetie Belle clarified a bit more, “If the pods are what’s preventing the lava from flowing, then leave them be.”

“Oh, ah see,” Apple Bloom began to realize what Sweetie Belle was saying and add on, “If ya leave them be, then the river would be easier for us to cross, right Sweetie?”

Sweetie Belle nodded, “Exactly, and once we get the crystals…”

“Then we can pitch in and help them clean up what’s left. Alright, I’m liking this plan,” Scootaloo added on, before looking back towards Hot Dog and Hot Block. “Only question now is what do you two think?”

Both fire dogs took a bit of time to think over what the girls just suggested. “It seems… plausible,” Hot Block admitted as he looked back to Hot Dog for a brief second, before looking back at the girls, “But do you think it would be possible to hold off that many with just the two of us-”

“M-Make it three...” they all heard a voice from the tunnel they just came through. Much to their surprise, they found Sheer Spot coming out of the tunnel as she was trying to catch her breath. 

“S-sheer? What are you doing here?” Hot Block asked, surprised to see his sister appear right now. “Weren’t you with Skippy and the others?”

“Y-yeah, but I got concerned and came over,” she panted a bit more, “Let me help you out. If two of us can keep… whatever those things are busy, then you can focus on getting them across. Once they’re over, you can help us.”

“Alright, I’m liking this already,” Hot Dog smirked, “Sounds like we got a game plan now. Hot Block gets Digger and the girls across while Sheer and I hold off the chompies. We save the chompie pods for after they come back over with the crystals they need in hand.”

“Hey! What about me? I want to help!” the little pup on Hot Dog’s back now spoke up. When his siblings heard that, both Sheer and Hot Block were not entirely sure if having the little pup join them in this battle was a good idea.

Hot Dog, on the other hand, was rather enthusiastic. “I like your enthusiasm, Smoky. You can help us, but make sure you don’t rush-” Before he could finish, Smoky immediately jumped off his back. The smoke coming off of his body reaching over to one of the areas where the chompies were, before the pup next to the Skylander disappeared and subsequently reappeared where the rest of the smoke was. “-in.”

Of course, how his siblings reacted to Smoky just manifesting over there was rather mixed. All this time, they thought that Smoky could only control smoke and ash, not do anything outside of that. Hot Block did not like his recklessness at all. The plan they were working on was supposed to work while they were all together in a group, yet Smoky jumped into the fray too early. “Smoky, what are you doing?!”

“I’m helping, Blocky! Watch!!” the pup cheerfully proclaimed, some of the ash that was around him forming around a nearby chompy. At first, it was confused by the smoke, but as it looked around, several rocks began to form around the chompy and strike them from within the ash cloud. The pup wasn’t done though as he formed a second ash cloud by him, conjuring another rock before throwing it towards the others, leading to an explosion on impact. “I did it!”

“Smoky, get out of there!!” Digger now shouted, eyes wide in shock and fear.

“W-why? I did something good, didn’t I-?” As the pup slowly turned around, Smoky began to realize what he did. Defeating one chompy soon led to all the other chompies in the room looking towards him, with many of the smaller ones charging at him. “U-uh oh.”

“Hot Block!”

“Way ahead of you,” the fire dog barked, sliding his paw around the edge of the lava bank river. Within moments, a wall of molten rock stretched over like a bridge. “Go! Hurry!!”

Sheer and Hot Dog did not need to be told twice. Immediately after the bridge reached the other side, both fire dogs took off, rRacing over to try to make it to Smoky in time before the lava chompies could take a bite out of him. As they were running over, Hot Dog noticed that Sheer’s body began to glow bright yellow. While he focused on reaching Smoky, she built up energy and used it to send the chompies that were coming at the little pup flying.

“You alright, little guy?” Hot Dog asked.

“Y-yeah…” he replied, looking back at the Skylander nervously, “D-did I do something wrong?”

“No, no... It’s just…” Hot Dog stopped for a second, trying to think of the right words for him to say in order to best explain it to him as Hot Block, Digger and the girls crossed over, “There’s a time and a place to be brave, but being fearless is not the same as facing fear without a plan. I know that you want to help, but let's do it together alright?” He offered a paw, which had Smoky take it before the Skylander threw the little pup back onto his back. 

Of course, they didn’t quite have the time in order to talk things out. “Will you two hurry up!?” Hot Block shouted, trying his best to avoid the chompies that were coming for him and hold them off while Sheer looked like she was enjoying herself. “Help give Sheer a paw, and I’ll back you up!”

“Got it!” Hot Dog nodded, looking to the pup that was by his head. “Ready, little guy?” Smoky nodded his head, excited to get into the fray. Hot Block himself nodded, the previous bridge exploding behind them as the fire dog caught up with the girls while Hot Dog and Smoky intercepted the chompies that were chasing him. The little pup let out a cloud of smoke, before Hot Dog released a fireball that caused the smoke to ignite, exploding as it took out several chompies at once.

As for Hot Block, he constructed the next bridge and ushered Digger and the girls to hurry over the other side. Once they were over, Hot Block refocused his attention to the Fire Skylander and his siblings. “Alright, they made it over. Everyone ready?”

“Yeah, we are!” Smoky replied for both himself and Hot Dog.

“I’m ready when you guys are,” Sheer replied, “But how are we going to make sure that they don’t reach the bridge?”

“I already got that under control,” he told them, blowing up the bridge as he looked back at the others, “I’ll rebuild it later. Right now, we got company!”


Immediately after they crossed over to the other side of the cavern, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were racing over with Digger towards the giant pile of rocks ahead of them. Of course, it was only moments after they arrived that they heard the bridge behind them exploding. “W-what was that?!” Scootaloo asked.

“Hot Block must’ve blown the bridge so those monsters can’t chase us,” Digger told her, “He can create magma rock walls for a bit, but can also have them explode after some time.”

“Do each one of you have some kind of special ability or something?” Sweetie Belle asked him, “I mean, Skippy hugged Calvin and healed his injuries, Hot Block created walls, and Smoky has… well, smoke.”

“You can say that,” Digger told them in response, “Each one of us have a special kind of talent or trait. I can form flame blades from my claws when I’m digging and sense the heat signatures of what’s above me when underground, Hot Block can create molten rock walls, Smoky can control the smoke and ash that he can emit, Sheer can release plasma from her body and Skippy can heal anyone she hugs.”

“What about the one that’s with Calvin? ...Dusty, right?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Dusty’s powers are… a bit of a touchy subject. Mostly because when she saw Tribus as her master, he ordered her to use them on us,” Digger looked back at her, “She has an ability that can not only harm those who are hit by it, but also disorients them. When she used it on Hot Block, he was disoriented and couldn’t tell friend from foe. When Skippy was hurt by it, she couldn’t see. When I was harmed, walking felt like I was pulling a bunch of rocks behind me. The effects are temporary, but thinking back on those memories is still painful.”

Apple Bloom was shocked to hear that and just as stunned to see how Digger was acting when recalling all of this. “A-ah’m sorry. Ah didn’t know-”

“You don’t need to apologize. That’s kind of behind us now,” the fire dog told her as he moved a few rocks with his paws, “Now, ready to give me a paw here? The crystals you want aren’t going to find themselves.”

“What do you need for us to do?”

“Well, moving these rocks out of the way first,” Digger told them, “Those crystals were supposed to be here, but I think those monsters that were chewing through the roof buried them under a pile of rubble. Only way to know for sure is to get these stones out of the way.”

Hearing that really did not ring well with Sweetie Belle. Rarity was already going to chew her out for her clothes, so in her head, she did not need another lecture involving staying clean. But she also knew that they were so close to being able to get what they need for their powers now. So, without hesitation, Sweetie Belle began pulling rocks off of the pile and throwing them aside along with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. Digger was also helping
 as well, having blades of flame take form from his claws to tear several huge boulders down to size.

“Come on! Just how many rocks does it take to hide these things?!” Scootaloo asked impatiently, throwing a few more rocks behind her, with some landing in the lava.

“Easy there, Scoots. Ya can’t just rush this. Ya might throw a crystal into the lava river by accident.”

“I know, Apple Bloom. But Hot Dog and the others are counting on us to find them! We can’t stand here and-” It was in the moment that Scootaloo was speaking that a colorful glow could be seen from her end as her eyes widened a bit. “Girls, over here! I think I found them!”

Quickly, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Digger quickly hurried over to where Scootaloo was as they began to pull some more rocks off to the side as the glow began to shine brighter. When they finally got all the rocks away, they found three crystals that were the same size and color as Calvin’s while also pulsing with energy. Scootaloo was the first to pick hers up, feeling a pulse from the crystal for a moment before holding it in her hands. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle also felt the same thing as they looked at one another, before looking back to Digger.

“Alright, this is perfect! Exactly what we’re looking for,” Sweetie Belle told him, “Thank you, Digger!”

Digger nodded and was going to say something. But before he could, he was cut off by the voice of Hot Block, “Hey, did you three find what you’re looking for yet?!” When they turned to look at him, they found that he, Hot Dog, Sheer and Smoky were still fighting against the chompies, but they were starting to get overrun by the sheer numbers.

Scootaloo was the first one to respond, as well as the first one to act. “We just did,” she told him, before grabbing onto the Cutie Mark Crusaders cape that she brought with her and tying down the crystal into the palm of her hand. “Get the bridge up! It’s time I help pitch in, too!”

“Wait, Scootaloo, you want to do this now? Shouldn’t we-?!”

“There’s no time!” she told her, just as she saw Hot Block form the bridge. Quickly, she jumped onto it, before running and joining up with Hot Dog, her crystal glowing bright and saying the first Skylander catchphrase that she could think of, “Alright then. Amp it up!

In Scootaloo’s mind, she thought that she did everything right when it came to changing forms. She said the catchphrase right, held onto the crystal and everything. However, instead of fully changing into the electric eel Skylander named Punk Shock, something different happened. Her normal human appearance remained mostly intact, but there were a few key differences. The first difference was that there were a pair of fins on her wrists that would resemble the fin on Punk Shock’s head but smaller in size. The second one was that she had the Skylander’s crossbow in her right hand. The third difference was with Scootaloo’s skin, which was now the same slippery and slimy texture as that of a frog. The final difference took a moment for her to notice, but after looking behind her, she noticed a jagged tail with the center of it looking like a lightning bolt.

The first to comment on the changes was Hot Dog. However, his tone didn’t really come off as excited and instead came off sounding a bit concerned, “Uh oh…”

At first, Scootaloo looked behind her to see the electric eel tail that was behind her, before returning her attention to the fire dog. “What do you mean ‘uh oh’?”

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I think something happened with your transformation,” the Fire Skylander replied back to her, “It only looks like you turned halfway into Punk Shock.”

“I was trying to tell you that we should wait first,” Sweetie Belle said once she finally caught up with Scootaloo and the others, with Apple Bloom and Digger following right behind her, “but you ran in before I could finish!”

“Hey, they looked like they were in trouble! I was acting on instinct!”

“Well, arguing is not going to get us anywhere,” Hot Dog brought up, before looking over to Hot Block and the others, “I was hoping that the transformation would come out differently, but with this, I might need to rethink our original plan. Hot Block, can you form the next bridge?”

“I can. What are you planning, though?”

“We’re going to focus solely on the pods, but not destroy them yet,” Hot Dog explained, “Once it’s close to being destroyed, we’ll hurry over to the entrance we all came in at, and we’ll have Scootaloo take over from there.”

“Wait, what? Why me?”

“Even if the transformation’s not… fully done, you still have Punk Shock’s crossbow,” the fire dog explained to her, “Weirdly enough, lava’s a good conduit for electricity. So, if you shoot the lava that’s flowing around the chompy pods…”

“Then, the electricity would hurt the chompy’s coming out and where they’re spawning from,” Sheer spoke up now, realizing what Hot Dog was thinking about, “I think I have an idea of what you’re getting at.”

“Hey, wait a second,” the group now heard Apple Bloom speak up now, “If Scootaloo’s doing this, then we’re going to help her!”

“We are?” Sweetie Belle asked, caught off guard by Apple Bloom’s sudden answer.

“We are,” Apple Bloom confirmed for her, “She’s our friend, and ah’m helping her.”

“I like your enthusiasm, you two,” Hot Dog addressed both of the girls, “But if you’re going to do the same thing as Scootaloo, then we’ll need you to transform into something specific.”

“What do you have in mind?” Apple Bloom now asked.

“It would be good to pick a Skylander who fights from a distance and that is either a Water or Tech Skylander, with Fire being weak to those now,” Hot Dog told them, just as he noticed Sheer attacking a few chompies that were getting too close to him, “Outside of that, I’ll let you two decide who you want to be. We’ll hold off the chompies in the meantime.”

With that, Hot Dog jumped back into the heat of battle with Smoky on his back, giving Sheer a helping paw. Hot Block himself was racing back and forth, forming new barriers for each area that he spotted Chompies trying to get through to Digger and the girls. Digger, though, stayed beside Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle.

As for Scootaloo, she wanted to help Hot Dog and provide him some support. But when she aimed her crossbow and fired a bolt at a chompy that was trying to get the jump on Sheer, the shot that was fired did not move as quick as lightning. If anything, the shot was moving at the same pace as a shot from the toy crossbows you could buy at the toy store. Even if the shot hit the chompy, it didn’t do much aside from squeaking in pain, allowing for Sheer to turn around and to beat it herself.

When the Fire Skylander noticed the crossbow bolt, he immediately turned towards Scootaloo. “Stay with your friends! They need someone to watch their back before they can join the fight!”

Scootaloo nodded as she backed up, getting closer to where her friends were and keeping her crossbow at the ready. Although, given everything that had been happening so far, she was beginning to think that Rainbow Dash was having a much better time than she was right now.


“So… mind explaining to me why you’re smacking the heads of this guy with your hammer?” Rainbow asked, idly flying in the air as she was talking to Rubble Rouser. The golem was right now standing nearby the unconscious lava hound named Tribus while they were waiting for some Trap Masters to come by and pick him up, though she was puzzled as to why the Skylander was hitting one of the heads with his hammer just now.

“Well, you can’t be too careful. Rather not have one of his heads waking up on us while we wait for the Trap Masters to haul him away.”

That was one thing that made sense. Yet, she had another question to ask as Rubble was paying attention to the three heads, “Yeah, but isn’t that kind of going-”

WHACK!!

“-overboard?”

“Hey, at least it’s working,” the golem told her after smacking the head in the center with his hammer, “It’s like playing the ‘Whack-a-rat’ game that’s at the Golden Arcade.” 

Noticing the head on the left move, he took a moment to walk over there and smack it next, “Only difference is that you have a bigger hammer.” 

Then, he noticed the third head looked like it was going to move, before whacking it shortly afterwards, “As well as a bigger target.”

Rainbow could only watch as every few moments, Rubble would hit another one of the heads.  She knew that this was important, but just waiting for when the Trap Masters arrive here was making her bored. If anything, it was more than likely that Scootaloo was having a better time in the volcano than her right now.


“Girls, have you thought of anything yet?” Scootaloo asked Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, watching out for them as she was firing off electric crossbow bolts at any chompy that would try to approach her friends. Despite the limitations that were put on her current form, she was trying her best to work with what she had at her disposal.

Her crossbow was just one of two things that Punk Shock was able to do. The other thing she was capable of was throwing out a Splash Bomb that could leave a puddle on the ground and when she shot it with her crossbow, the water would become electrified. Of course, the only catch was that she could only throw out one of them that was the size of her hand and the puddle it left behind wasn’t rather big. But, it still was enough to at least keep some of the chompies back, since they ran directly towards the puddles on the ground. 

“Sweetie? Apple Bloom?” she then asked, not sure if her friends heard her as she fired another shot at the puddle that was on the ground to try and hurt a couple of the chompy’s coming towards them, “Girls, come on. I need a little bit of help here!”

“Hang on, Scoots! Ah think we’re ready!” Apple Bloom spoke up now. Scootaloo, despite hearing that, seemed to be a bit too focused on the chompies that were coming towards her and trying to keep them at bay, throwing out a splash bomb and electrifying the water could only do so much to keep back the ones that didn’t already get defeated.

Luckily, just as she was preparing the next crossbow shot, she heard Apple Bloom speak again. “No gold, no glory!!

Like with Scootaloo’s transformation, Apple Bloom’s transformation into the Tech Skylander named Trigger Happy was not a fully complete transformation. She still had her body, but orange fur was running along her arms and she held a pair of golden pistols in her hands. Another noticeable change was that she had a new pair of ears that stood up straight and looked almost like that of a rabbit.

The last main change, and probably the most noticeable one out of all of them, happened when Apple Bloom began to speak. “Alright, now-” she stopped for a moment, realizing that the tone and her pitch was different and much squeakier than before. “O-okay, why do ah sound like one of Winowa’s chew toys?!”

It didn’t help any that when Scootaloo looked at her form, the only thing that she could do was laugh at her friend. “Oh dear Celestia, you look like a bunny rabbit with those ears!!”

“Scootaloo!”

“What? It’s true!” Scootaloo told her friend, before asking her a new question, “Isn’t Sweetie Belle also doing this, too-”

Compute and Shoot!

It was shortly after the two of them heard those words that Sweetie Belle joined up with both of them. She was trying to turn into the Tech Skylander and Bowslinger Sensei named Ro-Bow, but like with her friends, there were some differences. Mainly, Sweetie Belle’s body looked more like a robot, mechanical limbs and all. She had the Sensei’s bow, but one of her eyes was now red instead of green and her voice sounded like it was from an arcade game, with her eye particularly visible under the shadow of the green leather cape and hood she gained as well.

“Okay… we did it,” Sweetie Belle said, before looking at her friends, “Now what?”

“Ah got an idea,” Apple Bloom told her, “Sweetie, stick with Hot Block just in case some chompies get past his barriers, helping him where ya can. While you do that, help us try to attack some of them from a distance like Hot Dog said earlier when you can spare a shot.”

All Sweetie did was nod her head, before her newfound body curled into a drill spike covered ball and began to roll over towards where Hot Block was standing, having her bow soon at the ready upon arrival. Both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom prepared to take aim at the chompies that were spawning around the pods, with Scootaloo going as far as to shoot the lava behind the pods so that any that do happen to spawn end up getting shocked, doing their part to pitch in and help Hot Dog and the others.

However, their assistance in the battle did not go unnoticed. At this point, one of the larger chompies noticed the girls, before barking at the others. Some of the smaller ones stopped in place and started to run towards the girls instead of Hot Dog and Sheer. “Uh oh. Everyone, they’re going for Scootaloo and her friends! Stop them before they get too close!”

Upon hearing that, both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked to each other before doing the first thing that came to mind, which was to run towards where Sweetie and Hot Block were standing. Even though this strategy was supposed to help them regroup with their friend, there was one problem with it, that being that the chompies were still pursuing them and that they were leading them right to Sweetie Belle and Hot Block.

“What are you doing?!” Sweetie Belle shouted at them.

“We thought it would be easier to be with you. Why?”

“Are you crazy?! You’re leading them straight towards us!!” Hot Block snapped, which had both of them turn around to realize their mistake as they saw a swarm of chompies closing in on them. 

Yet, before they could act, something unexpected happened. As the chompies were getting closer, they were blindsided by that of Digger, who had flame blades form from the claws on his paws as he swung his paws forward. The blades came off of his paws and headed straight at the chompies, taking out several of them as they redirected their attention to him, chasing after Digger as he led them away from the girls.

“That… I did not expect at all,” Hot Dog admitted honestly, before getting an idea as he looked at Sheer, “Still, we can work with this. If we take down the bigger chompies, then the smaller ones won’t have anyone to get orders from.”

“Works for me!” Sheer replied, charging up another attack as she, Hot Dog and Smoky began to focus on the much bigger enemies in the room. Digger was still running around, taking some moments to attack when he was a good distance away to get rid of a few more of the smaller chompies, while Hot Block continued to use his barriers to prevent any chompies from coming nearby, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were trying to focus their efforts on the pods. 

As the fight was going on though, the girls began to realize something. Despite their transformations and everyone in the room doing everything they can to take down all of the chompies, their attacks were barely making a dent in the Chompy Pod that they were coming from. Even when Scootaloo shot the lava with her arrows, the electricity seemed to affect the chompies more, but only just tickle the pod, which was definitely not a good sign. Even if they kept defeating all the chompies, more of them would just keep coming.

For a moment, it looked like they were making some progress, especially when they all saw Hot Dog and Sheer land the final blow on the big chompies. “Yeah!! Take that!!” Scootaloo cheered.

“Nice! At this rate, we’ll be out of here in no time-!!”

Unfortunately, mere seconds after Sweetie Belle said that, Scootaloo found herself changing back to her normal form as she looked back to her friend and let out a groan. “Oh, come on… seriously?”

“W-what? It’s not that bad. Just gotta beat a few more, and we can get out of here-” As Sweetie was trying to convince her friend to keep calm, the chompy pods spat out two more big chompies to replace the ones that Hot Dog and Sheer had just defeated a few seconds ago. “Oh, COME ON!! Seriously?!”

“Hot Dog, do ya got some kind of plan B?” Apple Bloom then spoke up as the fire dogs began to make their way back around to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, “We’re tryin’ our hardest, but we can’t make a dent in that pod!”

Hot Block was the next one to speak shortly afterwards. “At this rate, I won’t have enough energy to keep holding them off,” he told the Fire Skylander, “We need a plan to get out of here, and fast!”

Hot Dog himself was trying his best to come up with a plan as he looked around the room. There was no way that they could take on this many, especially in their current state. They needed to come up with an escape plan and come up with it quickly. It was as he was looking around that he happened to catch a glimpse of a few rocks falling into the lava from the ceiling, which gave him an idea.

“Hey, Digger, quick question,” he asked, looking towards the lava dog that was on his left, “How unstable does the ceiling look to you?”

“Honestly, it looks like it could collapse at any second,” Digger told him, before throwing out another set of flame blade claws at a few chompies.

“Okay, next question,” the Fire Skylander began to speak, before asking something that caught everyone off guard, “What do we have to do to make it happen right now?”

That had everyone just stare at the Skylander, followed by Digger asking the first question that came to mind. “Y-you want to make it collapse!? Are you NUTS!?!”

“Sometimes, nuts works,” the Fire Skylander told him, “If we have the roof collapse, it will allow for us to focus less on fighting on the chompies and more on getting out of here.”

That had Hot Block soon catch onto what Hot Dog was thinking as he smirked, “Not to mention that if any of them try to come through the tunnels, it just makes them sitting targets, since they’re all just condensed in the tunnel and not so spread out.”

“Plus, the big ones can’t even fit in the tunnel we came through!” Smoky added, wagging his tail happily.

“You can’t be serious,” Digger said in disbelief.

“Digger, ah don’t think we really have any other options,” Apple Bloom commented, firing a couple more shots from her revolvers, “We need to get out of here before we’re overrun!”

That had Digger nervously look towards his siblings, before looking back at Hot Dog. At first, he was nervous, unsure if he really wanted to follow through on this, but after a bit of thinking, he then let out a sigh. “Okay, but I still think that this plan is crazy. If anything, how are we going to pull this off?”

“I have an idea actually,” Sheer spoke up now, “Can you do your flame blades on your claws for me? I want to try something.”

Digger had no idea what his sister wanted to do, but still did what she asked as a new set of flame blades began to wrap around and cover his claws. Shortly afterwards, Sheer began to channel plasma all around her body, before touching Digger’s claws. At first, the fire dog thought that his sister was going to hurt herself. However, much to his surprise and the surprise of everyone that was watching, Sheer was actually applying her plasma to Digger’s claws. The claws now glowed bright yellow as Sheer breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Good. I’m glad that worked,” she sighed in relief, “Now comes the hard part.”

“Um… I’m not sure if I can throw the dagger’s far enough...” Digger commented.

“Leave that to me,” he then heard Hot Block say, while also moving one of his paws underneath him, tracing a line in the ground from where his front paws were all the way to where his back paws and tail were.

“Hot Block, what are you-?” before he could finish his sentence, Hot Block stomped his front paw into the ground, having a wall immediately emerge from under Digger’s paws that launched the pup into the air. “ARE YOU INSANE!?!”

“It’s the only thing I can think of! Now, throw it before you start to fall back down!!”

“You can do it, Digger!!” Sweetie Belle then added on to try and encourage the fire dog that was in the air.

Digger himself, despite being a bit terrified, did his best to try and wait until he was at the highest point before throwing the plasma infused blades on his claws as they collided with the rocks in the ceiling. On his way down, he didn’t feel himself hit the pavement, but instead landed safely on a smoke cloud that Smoky prepared for him.

“That was amazing! Well done, Digger!!” Apple Bloom congratulated him, before turning to Smoky, “Nice job with catching him, too.”

Smoky just happily looked back at Apple Bloom, just before Scootaloo asked Sheer a new question. “Alright, what happens now?”

“Now…” the moment that Sheer said that, the blades began to sink into the rock as several boulders began to fall from the roof and land into the lava, shaking the ground a bit as the fire dog finished her sentence. “We run.”


“Do ya think we should go inside and help them? They’ve been in there for a while,” Applejack asked Calvin, looking outside at where Rubble Rouser was at with Rainbow Dash. By now, the Trap Master of the Water Element named Lob Star had arrived and was already in the process of encasing Tribus in traptanium, which was a bit of a relief, but also a bit disappointing since Calvin could no longer watch Rubble hit Tribus’ heads like he was trying to play drums.

“Maybe. Though, we should probably wait for Rubble to come back first before-”

Before he could finish, the ground suddenly began to shake, startling both of them along with Dusty, who began clinging to Calvin’s face and muffling him in fear as they tried to make sense of what was happening.

“What the hay-!?” Applejack asked, “What in the name of Sweet Apple Acres is going on?!”

Calvin tried to say something, but couldn’t get a word out because of Dusty clinging onto his head. So, he had to carefully remove Dusty off of his face, stumbling a bit in the process because of her size as well as the ground shaking. He was lucky enough to get her a few inches away from his face, enough for him to say something to Dusty. “D-dusty, p-please loosen your grip. T-that’s an order.”

Dusty was hesitant at first, given the present situation, but still followed through on the order her new master gave her and loosened her grip just a bit. Even though it wasn’t much, it was still all that Calvin needed as he gently removed Dusty from his face before he wrapped his arms around her and began to hold Dusty close to his chest. 

The Fire Dog herself was shocked at this. No one had treated her so sincerely before, not even Tribus. The first response that came to her mind, despite being partially uncertain about it, was returning the favor and hugging him around the chest. Her actions, despite being small, did not go unnoticed as Calvin smiled, squeezing his hug back to her.

Before either of them could say anything though, somepony else beat them to it as the shaking began to slowly subside. “Err… Ah hate to interrupt yer moment, but do ya hear the sound of somepony screaming?”

Sweet Celestia, RUN!!

Calvin heard that one, but he had a bit of difficulty trying to determine who it was as he looked back at the earth pony. “I-I can hear them, b-but I can’t tell who it is-.”

I TOLD YOU THAT THIS WAS AN INSANE IDEA!!!

“Great. What mess has he caused now?” Dusty groaned a bit, recognizing the voice of Digger before turning towards Calvin as a new question formed in her head, one that she wanted to ask her new master. “... Do I actually need to clean up after him out of the cave as well?”

“Uh… depends on the mess,” he said, before looking up towards where the sound of the voices were coming from, “Let’s hope this isn’t such a mess to deal with-”

Unfortunately for them, they were all caught off guard by a massive cloud of smoke that blew past all of them. Leaving them momentarily blinded as Calvin and Applejack coughed in response, the rumbling from earlier began to stop as they tried to make sense of what was happening. Dusty, though, was not quite too thrilled by this. She was hoping to not have to clean up any messes, yet it was now her master that was a mess.

“Guys, what the hay is going on?!” they all heard Rainbow Dash holler. 

“Ah got no idea, Rainbow!” Applejack coughed, looking back towards her friend, “One moment, we were sitting here, the next we were covered in dirt and dust!”

“Something must’ve happened inside! Did you see anyone come out of there?” Rubble shouted, worrying that something had gone wrong.

“I can’t see anything right now!” Calvin told him in response, “Dusty, do you see anything?”

“I-I remember hearing Digger, b-but this is too much dust, even for him,” the fire dog replied, which had Calvin look back to the entrance of the cave as they waited for the smoke to clear. At first, everyone was worried that something had gone wrong inside or that there was someone trapped inside the volcano that they needed to rescue.

Instead, when the smoke cleared, they happened to find a much different scenario playing out. “... Okay, what part of helping me involves yanking my tail!?!”

At the edge of the cliff that was near the entrance to the cave, Hot Block was hanging off of the edge with his face pointed at the ground. The only thing preventing him from actually falling was Smoky’s powers, similar to what he had used on Tribus, holding his brother in place. However, with the rocks cracking and beginning to give way, everyone else that was up there was beginning to grab hold of him. Sheer and Hot Dog were holding onto the pup’s tail, while Digger and what looked like a robot and some kind of two legged rabbit were holding onto his two back legs. Calvin could also see Scootaloo, too, yet she was holding onto Smoky so that the little pup did not get dragged down by his brother.

Of course, the Skyshifter was the first to notice one thing that seemed out of place. “Is that a rabbit up there?”

“What in tarnations-?”

“O-oh. H-hi, sis-!” Just as the bunny spoke, two simultaneous flashes of light went off, the bunny and the robot no longer there as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were seen holding onto him.

Which only made Hot Block groan in embarrassment... “...This cannot get anymore embarrassing,” his comment was followed by an immediate yip of pain as he turned his head to find that a chompy had landed on and was chewing on his rear, “I was wrong!! Get it off!! Get it off!!!”

Calvin was going to transform, but before he could, one of Lob-Star’s traptanium throwing stars flew past them and hit the chompy that was gnawing on Hot Block’s behind before returning back to Lob-Star. Once the chompy was knocked off, everyone else was able to safely pull up the fire pup as Rubble looked back to the Trap Master. “Thanks for the assist, Lob-Star.”

“No problem. Glad I was able to help you out in a pinch,” the lobster replied back, “Now, I got to make sure that I get this back to Cloudcracker Prison. Stay safe out there!”

With that, the lobster began to leave and make his way back to Cloudcracker prison. Though, as everyone else was catching their breath up on the cliff’s edge, a particular question was asked, one that was directed at both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle.

“So… what the heck was with that rabbit form that we saw a moment ago?” Calvin asked, a question that had all three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders look back at one another, before letting out a combined sigh.

“It’s a lot to explain.”


Out of all the things that the staff at Skylander Academy expected to see upon their arrival, metal plates covering a massive hole in Flynn’s airship, a pack of lava puppies and Calvin looking like he escaped from a battlefield was not one of them. Even if you include the fact that two princesses from Equestria were also here, seeing the Skyshifter and everyone else that went with him arrive at the academy left them with a lot of questions that they wanted to know the answers for.

Of course, it didn’t help that when Calvin and the others were beginning to recall the story for everyone and got to the point where the Skyshifter recalled beating Ironbeard that he heard Twilight interject and look back at him in disbelief. “So, you’re telling me… that before you even had the chance to go to the volcano, you had to fight a crew of air pirates, by yourself?”

“Well, Hot Dog helped me out, too, and Rubble helped out both of us when we were fighting Ironbeard,” Calvin added on.

“I… find that a bit hard to believe-”

“Actually, he’s right,” Hugo interrupted Twilight before she could finish, “We had received calls from Rubble shortly after the fight was done, so that we could have a Trap Master take them back to Cloudcracker Prison. The names of the two convicts they put in new cells are the same names that Calvin just said.”

Twilight just looked at Hugo, surprised by his intervention before looking back at Calvin. “So, what happened afterwards?”

“Well, if I remember correctly, Mayor Dapper and the big guy that was with him, Bang, led Calvin and the others to the mountains while Flynn and I had to repair the damages that happened to his ship,” Tessa replied, folding her arms as she looked at the pilot, “Though, it was mostly me who was doing the work, since he was mourning over the loss of the enchilada’s that he had in storage.”

“Hey, there’s a time and a place to grieve, and that was the right time!” Flynn replied, leading to Tessa rolling her eyes in response.

That left a bit of a silence in the room, shortly before Hot Dog was the next one to speak. Most of the fire dogs, aside from Dusty, were near him as he started speaking, “Well, once we made it there, Calvin and Rubble helped set up the climbing gear that we had and started going inside to see if we could find any signs of Elementanium. Though, that was also when we first met Sheer,” he paused, before looking at her for a moment and getting ready to speak again, “She told us about how her and her siblings were living under Tribus and asked for us to help her.”

“Apologies for interrupting,” Luna now spoke up, “But who is Tribus?”

“Think something like Hot Dog, but like three times his size and with three heads,” Rainbow responded.

“Plus, each head had its own voice,” Calvin added.

“You mean like a Cerberus?” Twilight then asked, remembering the time when a Cerberus was in Ponyville.

“Sort of… but different. You would get what I mean if you actually saw him,” Rainbow replied, before looking back at Hot Dog, “Sorry about that, keep going on.”

Hot Dog nodded his head in thanks before picking up where he left off, “So, when we got there, we met Hot Block and Skippy while they were trying to find Digger. Since he wandered off, Tribus picked up on that and had Dusty bring their little brother Smoky over to him to try and get him to talk. By that time though, Calvin was already set on fighting him and making sure that Tribus couldn’t hurt them anymore.”

“Would it be safe to assume that it did not entirely go so well?” Luna asked, pointing a hoof towards Calvin’s torn shirt.

“You can say that,” Calvin sighed, “Tribus was a much different opponent than anything else I’ve faced, because he was fast enough in order to harm me before I had the chance to change forms. I was lucky to hold him off long enough in order for Rubble to take over afterwards while also getting Dusty out of there,” for a moment, Calvin looked down at the fire dog, unsure if he should go any further in explaining given why Dusty was in her current state after Tribus as her master for so long. So, he decided to simplify it. “Point is, I’m still alive and Rarity’s going to chew me out for what happened to my clothes.”

“You and me both,” Sweetie Belle added on, dreading the thought of what her sister would say if she saw them right now.

“So, what happened to Tribus?” Cali now decided to ask as she stood next to Hugo. She had been mostly quiet and was taking the time to process everything that they had been saying, but it was now that she actually spoke up.

“Rubble beat him, and with Smoky and Rainbow’s help, they were able to get him outside so that Lob-Star could pick him up to bring to Cloudcracker Prison,” Calvin added.

“Hold on there,” Mags now asked, looking to Smoky for a second before redirecting her attention back to Calvin and the others, “How exactly did this little fella help ya out?”

“If I may,” Sheer now took a moment to speak as they all looked to the fire dog, “My siblings and I each have different special abilities that we possess. Smoky himself has the ability to control smoke and ash, before turning it into rock. We were all there when we saw him use his power to restrain Tribus and carry him out of there, with Rubble and Rainbow helping him.”

At first, some people in the room found that hard to believe. Though, it was then that Hugo mentioned Lob-Star’s report and how he saw the rocky restraints on the lava hound as well as Smoky being with Rubble at the time that he picked them up.

“Yes. It would seem you have found quite the collection of gifted individuals, Calvin,” the sudden voice of Master Eon spoke as he walked in to their gathering.

“Oh… H-hello, Master Eon,” Calvin replied, caught off guard by the Portal Master’s sudden appearance as he nervously scratched the back of his head. “We were just… uh, bringing everyone up to speed.”

The Portal Master smiled in response as he walked around, before standing beside Hugo, “It seems like all of you had quite the adventure, based on what I heard already. Though, were you able to find what you were looking for?”

“Yes, we did,” Scootaloo told him as she began to untie the cloth that was wrapped around her hand, holding out their own Elementanium Crystal to show the Portal Master as both of her friends got out their own crystals too. Of course, it was a couple of moments afterwards that she mentioned something else to him that was important, “Though, we might have come across a problem.”

That caught Master Eon’s attention rather quickly, along with everyone else who was listening. “A problem?”

“Well, at the time we found the crystals, Hot Dog, Sheer, Hot Block and Smoky were fighting some of those chompy monsters that were in the same cave the crystals were in,” she explained to the Portal Master the best she could, “In my mind, I thought that since I had the crystal, I could transform like Calvin could and help Hot Dog out. Though, it didn’t happen how I thought it would.”

Hot Dog was the next one to speak as he looked at Master Eon, “I saw her attempt at transforming. From what I could tell, it was like their transformation stopped halfway through. They had some of the features of a particular Skylander like weapons, abilities and physical appearance, but did not fully become that Skylander. Apple Bloom tried to transform into Trigger Happy, but she did not shrink down to match his size.”

“Oh, so that’s why you had the rabbit like ears,” Calvin now realized, recalling when he saw Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle outside the volcano before they were turned back to normal.

“Did doing that make her as active as one-?” Flynn asked, before he got an elbow to the chest from Tessa. “What? What did I say?”

“You KNOW what you sai-” Tessa paused for a moment, before letting out a sigh, “Actually, knowing you, probably not,” she then turned back towards Apple Bloom and Calvin, ignoring the subsequent blush that was on their faces before speaking, “Please, continue.”

“Was there anything else that you noticed at the time this happened?” Hugo now asked them out of curiosity. 

“Yeah. When we tried to help fight off the chompies with Hot Dog, our attacks didn’t really do much to help,” Sweetie Belle was the next one to speak as she looked at Hugo, “We were trying to get rid of a chompy pod that was in the cave. But when we tried attacking it, we couldn’t do much to hurt it.”

“Hang on a second,” Twilight interjected as she looked at all three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, “If what you say is true, then how did you guys get out of there?”

That had all three of the girls look towards Hot Dog, who was looking at the other fire dogs and noticed that Digger himself was trying to hide behind Sheer. “Well, with a bit of help from Sheer, Hot Block and Digger, we found a way to have the ceiling collapse on them-”

“YOU DID WHAT!?!”

The outburst from Twilight was ringing around the room, startling almost everyone in the room and having Digger look at Sheer nervously. Though, the one who seemed to be rather calm in this instance was actually Luna as she looked back to Twilight, “Ease yourself, Twilight. There must be a reason for their actions.”

Hot Dog nodded his head, taking a moment to clear his throat before he began to explain why, “Since we could not destroy the chompy pod in the room, we could not effectively lower their numbers. If we took down one, two more would spawn shortly afterwards, and the two giant chompies that were also in the room would be ordering the little ones around and have them go after Apple Bloom and her friends. Since Rubble and Rainbow were busy making sure Tribus was on his way to Cloudcracker Prison outside and with Calvin resting after his battle earlier, we couldn’t exactly call for backup. So, at the time, this seemed like the only option that we had.”

“Even though I told you that it was an insane idea,” Digger grumbled.

“Insane or not,” a somewhat familiar voice was now heard as Twilight turned around to find the academy’s head of security standing directly behind her, startling her because she knew for a fact that there was nopony behind her when she entered the room originally, “You’re all still in one piece, and that’s what matters!”

Of course, his sudden appearance triggered the same reaction from both Digger and Twilight while several people in the room were caught off guard by this. “AHH!! Where did you come from?!”

That had Hot Dog let out a sigh as he looked back at both the princess and the pup, “Don’t mind Buzz… He usually does things like this.”

“Are you crazy?!” Rainbow then spoke up, “This guy is like if Pinkie Pie was a ninja!”

That had the mabu scratch his chin as he looked at the pegasus, “Pinkie Pie, huh? ...Based on the reports, she could be a good candidate. I am always looking for new talent.”

“Rainbow, what have ya done?” was the only thing Applejack could say as she facehooved herself.

“In any case,” Tessa replied, trying to get the conversation back on track, “We might have gotten the crystals we were looking for, but it’s not going to help us out a lot if they can’t fight at full strength,” the fox then stopped for a moment, an idea coming to her head as she looked back towards Buzz, “Hey, Buzz, have you seen Mags anywhere? Maybe she can figure out what the issue we’re having is.”

“Apologies for interrupting, but who is this ‘Mags’ that you are referring to?” Luna now took a moment to ask.

“She’s the academy’s chief architect and inventor,” Calvin clarified for the Princess of the Night, “Mags helped us out with finding the location we needed to go to in order to find the Elementaniun Crystals in the first place. Maybe she happened to uncover some additional information while we were away?”

“If it helps make sure that we don’t have any more hiccups happen, then I’m all for it,” Scootaloo spoke up now.

Of course, just as Scootaloo said that, they all heard footsteps come in as everyone turned to see Mags. Though, from the looks of it, it looks like smoke was coming off of her clothes. “Sorry for running late. Had a problem in the botany department with a rapid fertilizer outbreak. Needed to literally torch the whole project.”

That just had Rainbow stare blankly at the inventor, with one thing coming to her head, “Please tell me you're joking.”

“Nope. Needed to have Torch torch the whole project before it would torch everything else,” she said, coughing a bit as she brushed some dust off her clothes, “Man, that's a tongue twister. Though, now that I’m here, what did I miss?”

That had Calvin look around the room for a moment, trying to think of what to say before looking back to Mags. “Well, to keep things simple, my friends found what we were looking for at Munitions Forge. Yet, when they tried using the crystals, they were coming across some technical difficulties.”

That seemed to get Mags attention as she looked back at him and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “What kind of difficulties?”

“They tried transforming, but it seemed that they weren’t able to fully change into the Skylander they tried turning into and only gained part of that Skylander’s appearance,” Hugo added on as he adjusted his glasses and began to recall everything that was mentioned earlier, “In addition, based on what Sweetie Belle mentioned earlier, it’s entirely possible that this affected their abilities when it comes to combat, too.”

That summary from Hugo made Mags a bit curious, before looking back at the four of them as she began to think. At first, she was scratching her chin while processing all the information that she had just heard from both Calvin and Hugo. Though, not long afterwards, she got an idea as she looked back at the Skyshifter and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “Well now, let’s have a looksee and see what the problem is,” she said, before extending her hand out and gesturing for the Cutie Mark Crusaders to hand her the crystals.

It took a moment for the girls to pick up on what Mags gesture meant, but once they did, all three of them gave her the crystals that they were holding onto. Once they were in her hand, she flipped down the eyeglass that was above her right eye on her helmet and began to examine each of the three crystals closely. “Hmm, can’t seem to notice anything off about these. Though, now that I think of it,” after saying that, she then turned to Calvin, “Calvin, mind if I borrow your pendant for a moment?”

“May I ask why?” Calvin asked.

“I wanted to see if there was any noticeable differences between the crystal that you have and the ones that the Crusaders just gave me. If there is, then maybe we can figure out what’s causing the problem they’re having.”

Hearing that was enough to convince the Skyshifter to take off the pendant that was around his neck and to give it to Mags, who held it in her other hand as she inspected all of the crystals at once. At first, things seemed rather quiet. But just as Tessa was going to say something, the architect came across something. “Well, hot buttered toast! I think I found your problem.”

“You did?” Apple Bloom asked, leading to Mags nodding her head, “What is it?”

“The crystals that you three happened to have are right now unrefined. Unlike Calvin’s, the disjointed surface on the ones you found cause sparks of magic that weaken the power of the magic flowing through the crystals,” she explained, having everyone come take a closer look so she could point out the details of what she noticed before handing back Calvin his pendant and giving the Crusaders their crystals back. “Unless you get those crystals reshaped and refined, then you’re going to be having this problem for a while.”

“Aww man...” Scootaloo pouted.

“Come on, Scoots,” Apple Bloom spoke up, “We should be used to this by now.”

“I know that! Doesn’t mean I have to like it!”

Unlike her two friends right now though, Sweetie Belle decided to say something different. “Do you guys happen to know anyone who could refine these?”

“Well, one particular Skylander comes to mind, since we’re on the subject of crystals,” Buzz spoke up, “Hugo, would we happen to know where Prism Break is?”

That had Hugo look at Master Eon for a moment, before letting out a small sigh. “He’s currently busy at the moment. He’s gathering what Skylanders we can to form a search team-”

“Search team?” Calvin now asked, thrown off guard by what Hugo said, “Did something happen?”

There was a bit of a pause for a moment, before Master Eon let out a sigh as he looked back at Calvin and his companions, “Yesterday, when you and your friends were leaving, I had assigned Stealth Elf to assist a Skylander in trying to gather any information we could on Kaos. Unfortunately, we have not heard back from her or the Skylander that she was working with since.”

“Hang on,” Hot Dog now spoke up as he looked back at the Portal Master, “Are you saying that it’s likely that she… got captured by Kaos?”

“We don’t want to assume that just yet,” Master Eon replied back, “But the fact that they have not responded at all by any means worries me. So, we’re preparing a team to look for their whereabouts and determine where they might be.”

As the Portal Master finished speaking, that was when Buzz chimed in, “In the meantime, why don’t you girls hold onto those crystals, and we’ll send you a message when Prism Break’s available? I know that you’re eager to help out, Calvin, but from the looks of it, all of you look like you need some much needed rest.”

“That sounds like a good idea to me,” Applejack replied.

“What about Sheer and her siblings?” Sweetie then asked Buzz.

“We can let them stay at the academy and figure out who they’ll be staying with,” Buzz replied back, before looking to notice Dusty, “Now, who’s the little one right next to you, Calvin?”

Calvin looked back at Dusty for a moment, before looking back to Buzz, “Well, this is Dusty, and due to some… complications, she’s not entirely comfortable around anyone except for me. So, I’m letting her stay with me.”

That had everyone, including the princesses, look back at one another. They were a bit surprised by what the Skyshifter was saying, including Buzz and Master Eon as both of them looked at each other for a moment before the Portal Master began to speak, “Alright, I’ll allow Dusty to stay with you, but under one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“If there happens to be any problems at all, inform us about them immediately,” Master Eon told him, “Since Dusty would be the first one from the Skylands to be living down below in Equestria, we don’t know what kind of possible complications that may bring. So, if something does come up, report it to us at once.”

“Yes, Master Eon,” Calvin nodded, looking back to the Portal Master as Twilight and everyone else that was from Equestria began to head on back. Before he left though, the Skyshifter had one last thing that he wanted to say to the Portal Master, “If you need my help with anything, just let me know. Stealth Elf’s a friend of mine too. If she’s in trouble, then I want to help.”

With that, the Skyshifter left, with Dusty following not that far behind him as they went to go join back up with their friends and head back over to the other side. As for everyone else that was in the room, they had a different matter that they had to attend to now. “Alright, so who’s gonna stay with who-?”

“I call dibs!” Skippy immediately declared, before tackling Hot Dog to the ground.

“Well… that takes care of one of them I think,” Buzz replied, before looking back at the others and coming up with an idea, “Why don’t we give everyone the grand tour of the academy and see if we can find anyone that’ll be open for letting you stay with them? That way, you can be familiar with everything that the academy has to offer.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Tessa nodded in agreement.

“Alright then, let’s-” Buzz was going to lead the fire dogs out on a tour of the academy, but then happened to notice something that was off, “Wait a second… one of you is missing.”

Hot Dog soon caught on as he began to look around the room and realized what Buzz was talking about, “Wait… where’s Digger?”

The other dogs were looking at each other for a moment, sounding completely quiet as they looked around to see where their brother went off to. Fortunately, after a couple of moments, that question soon answered itself as they saw the fire dog walk back in, dirt all over his body as he looked back at his siblings while dragging something inside. “Hey, guys! Look what I found!”

Immediately, someone recognized what exactly the fire dog was carrying in, that someone being Master Eon. “My staff! Where did you find it?”

“I found it under some statue outside,” Digger replied eagerly as the Portal Master began to walk towards the fire dog.

“Well, it seems ‘dibs’ is common today, so…” the Portal Master replied, bending over to pick it up off the ground as he looked back to Digger, “… Dibs.”

At first, there was a small bit of silence. Though, once Digger joined back up with his siblings, that was when Buzz soon spoke up, “Well, now that everyone’s here, why don’t we get started on the tour?”


“Hey, Dusty, are you alright?”

The sudden question from Calvin caught the Lava Dog by surprise as she looked towards her master, shortly before adding on something in addition to that. “Dusty, please answer my question. That’s an order.”

She shivered happily a bit after hearing the order, before following through on the order her master had given her. “I-I’m just… o-overwhelmed. E-everything’s just so n-new and d-different.”

“I hear you,” he told her in response, “I felt the same way when I first came here. Learning about it is one thing, but seeing it in person is something else entirely.”

“Y-you aren’t from h-here?” She asked, hesitantly.

“It’s… complicated,” the Skyshifter told her, scratching the back of his head, “Let’s just say that like how the Skylands were far from your home, my home’s much further away.”

Right now, Dusty was a bit puzzled. She would think that he would snap at her if she asked any questions, since that was what her previous master did. Instead though, he actually answered them calmly and did not get mad at her for asking. It was something that she had never experienced before, but it strangely made a part of her feel comfortable.

It also had her ask one other question as they were walking through the M.A.P. towards the door that was not that far ahead. “W-where are we g-going?”

“Well,” Calvin took a moment to find the right words to explain it to the fire dog, before looking back at Dusty, “Let’s say that where we’re going is what I call my… home away from home.”


End Scroll 24