//------------------------------// // Perilous Pastures // Story: Equestria Ninja Girls: Skylanders Quest // by Mister V //------------------------------// Soon our heroes arrive at Perilous Pastures and land on a peaceful bit of land. Everyone else got off the balloon, while Flynn stayed on to fly it. "So hey I think we should find this Cali as soon as possible." He said, stating the obvious "It's just not fair to deny the girl the pleasure of meeting me. I'll scout out from overhead - meanwhile, you guys see if you can find her on the ground!" He then took off, leaving our heroes to find Cali. "Has he always been like this?" Sunset asked Spyro. "Yep, he even has a series of scrolls in honor of him called 'Meditations on 'Boom''". "Welp, we better go find Cali." Fugitoid said as our heroes when down the road. Along the way the fought many foes and solved many puzzles together. During all this time, Sunset and Fugitoid became curious as to how their 8 new friends came to be who they are. "So Spyro, when did you and the others become Skylanders?" Sunset asked Spyro. Everyone nodded and let him go first. "Well Sunset, I hails from a rare line of magical purple dragons that come from a faraway land few have ever traveled." Spyro began to explain. As he did the scene changes to a flashback of him fighting evil foes, saving other realms, and meet new friends. "It's been said that the Scrolls of the Ancients mention me prominently -- the old Portal Masters having chronicled my many exciting adventures and heroic deeds." The scene then changes to Master Eon meeting Spyro, and asking him to become part of a team called the Skylanders, facing new foes and meeting many more new friends. "Finally, it was Master Eon himself who reached out and invited me to join the Skylanders as its leader. Now calling Skylands my home, I remain one of its most valued protectors, with evil facing a new enemy -- and the Skylanders gaining a valued ally." "Wow!" Sunset said in awe as the scene changed back to Perilous Pastures. "That's some story." "Ha that's nothing to my Skylanders origin story." Gill Grunt said has he to tell his story, causing another flashback of Gill Grunt as a soldier. "I was a brave soul who joined the Gillmen military in search of adventure." The scene changed to him meeting a beautiful mermaid in a lagoon. "While journeying through a misty lagoon in the clouds, I met an enchanting mermaid, and vowed to return to her after my tour." The scene changed again, this time showing Gill Grunt return to the lagoon, only to find it in ruins, and his girlfriend nowhere to be found. "Keeping my promise, I came back to the lagoon years later, only to learn a nasty band of pirates had kidnapped the mermaid." The scene then changed to him searching everywhere for the pirates who took her mermaid, and joining the Skylanders, hoping to find her. "Heartbroken, I began searching all over Skylands. Though I had yet to find her, I joined the Skylanders to help protect others from such evil, while still keeping an ever-watchful eye for the beautiful mermaid of my dreams, and the filthy pirates who took her away from me. "Now that's what I call true love." Fugitoid said as Gill Grunt ended his story. "If you like that, you'll love my story." Trigger Happy said as another flashback showed an old western town. "I was born in a tough frontier town on the furthest reaches of Skylands." The scene changed to the people living poor lives, and bandits causing panic. "The town was dirt poor and had recently been beset by a band of bully bandits. One day, having grown bored of terrorizing the townsfolk with their bad breath and sheep-shearing jokes, the bandits were holding up the local bank. Outside, their dragon steeds were fired up for a quick getaway." The scene changed again to Trigger Happy, in a western getup, walking out to face the bandits. "Suddenly, I strolled out into the high street. And after taking one look at the bandits, I started shooting." The scene quickly changed to Trigger Happy shooting at the bandits lake a maniac "Gold coins sprayed everywhere, embedding themselves into the buildings and the behinds of the bandits, who promptly hightailed it out of there." The scene soon changed to Trigger Happy being praised as a hero, and Master Eon giving him a place in the Skylanders. "The town was made instantly rich and me a legend. my gold-slinging antics soon reached the ears of Master Eon, who immediately made me a Skylander. I remained true to his name, by shooting first and asking questions later. Actually, I never bothered to ask questions." "And I thought Pinkie Pie and Mikey were fun loving." Sunset said to Fugitoid following Trigger Happy's story "You should hear my story." Stealth Elf said, causing yet another flashback, this time taking place in a woodland. "I can't remember much about my family or from whence I came." The scene changed to Stealth Elf waking up from a bad dream. "My earliest memory is of me waking with a start and screech, following a nightmarish dream of stampeding sheep. But when I awoke there were no woolly warriors in sight - only woodland and a complete memory blank." The scene changed to her walking around like a child lost in the mall. "With a sniffle and a sigh, I picked myself up and set off in search of answers." The scene change to her watching a strange creature fight. "After several days, she stumbled on a gnarled, stumpy-looking creature with the lightning moves of a ninja master. It turned out the creature was the guardian of the forest and trained in the ancient art of stealth." The scene changed again to show the guardian training Stealth Elf in his fighting style. "Sensing the my skill for sneaking, the guardian immediately made me his apprentice. Sure enough, I was a natural and soon, ran rings around my increasingly ragged sensei." The scene changed again to Master Eon checking out my skills. "Master Eon was invited for a look, and was knocked out by my nifty ninja skills. I was made a Skylander on the spot and served not only guardian of the forests, but protector of the world." "Whoa! these are pretty cool origin stories." Sunset said in amazement. Just then, they saw Flynn's balloon come to them. They knew he must have found something. "HEY! Flynn said from his balloon. "I found Cali, and uh, she's not half bad. Oh yeah - and she and two other girls have been captured by a bunch of evil Drow!" That got Sunset's attention. "Wait, TWO other girls?" Sunset asked wondering if it's some of her friends. "Yeah, one of them has yellow skin and pink hair, and the other is dressed in black with armor." Flynn explained. "We gotta save them - so they can get on with more important things... like thanking me. BOOM!" "Fluttershy and Karai are here?" Sunset asked overjoyed to hear that they are OK, but knew they had to help them. "How can we save them?" She asked Flynn who pointed at a cannon. "Over there, that cannon looks like it could be useful." Flynn said before looking at the locks on the gate. "I'll bet if you climb inside the turret, you can shoot the locks off the gate!" Sunset went right to work, taking out the Drow, jumping into the turret and blasting the locks right off the gate. Karai and Fluttershy were so glad to see Sunset and Fugitoid again. The four friends from New York hugged each other as if they haven't seen each other for a long, long time. "It's go good to see you again." Fluttershy said. "Me too, but where did you guys go?" Sunset asked the two girls. "When we stepped through the portal, we got separated from the rest of the group. soon after words we got captured by those green guys." Karai explained. "But at least we met Cali here." Fluttershy said, pointing to Cail, who was staring at Spyro and the others. "You're guys are Skylanders, aren't you?" Cali asked, excited at what just happened. "This is unbelievable. We were just rescued by real Skylanders." "Let's not forget Sunset and Fugitoid, who led us here." Spyro said, making Sunset blush a little. Then Flynn's balloon landed on a dock nearby. "Ahem... and ME. I helped!." Flynn said before introducing himself. "Flynn the Balloonist here - that's me - at your service." Cali and Karai were unimpressed. "Charming" Cali said sarcastically. "I can just feel the might flowing through you." Karai added. "Yes, yes, I know." Flynn said with a grin, "It must be pretty overwhelming for you to finally meet the best pilot in all of Skylands." Everyone got on the balloon as it prepared to take off. "You know, we didn't need any help back there." Karai said "I had them right where I wanted them. "Sure you did." Flynn said. "Whatever..." Karai said sarcastically. "Well...'' Flynn said with charm and style. ”Yes, ma'am... You...are...welcome." "Fugitoid, where are the others?" Karai asked. "They must be in other places throughout Skylands." Fugitoid said. "So where are we going now?" Fluttershy asked Sunset. "To the Ruins, where someone is waiting for us." Sunset said before adding something important. "Someone who, according to Spyro, is scared of sheep." "Huh?" Fluttershy asked, totally confused. "You'll see what she means when we get there." Fugitoid said. When our heroes got there, Fluttershy really did see what Sunset meant when they saw Hugo up in a tree surrounded by sheep, as scared as a jack-rabbit that has heard the howl of a wolf. "Back, back you vile beasts!" Hugo yelled in a panic stricken voice. "Don't worry, I'll take them off your hands for you." Futtershy said before leading the sheep away. She and Fugitoid quickly put together a pen for the sheep to live in. "Honestly, Hugo!" Cali said when Fluttershy and Fugitoid were finished with the pen. "They're just sheep!" "That is where you are where you are wrong, my dear Cali." Hugo said before speaking about sheep. "These creatures may appear to be friendly, cuddly, piles of fluff, but turn your back on them and they turn into suspicious looking lint-balls with beady little eyes staring at your every move!" That even made Fluttershy look back at the sheep for a second, but just nodded it of as evidence of his fear of them. "Sorry for the lint-balls Hugo, but we were able to rescue Cali and some of Sunset's friends." Flynn said. "Actually... it was the Skylander who rescued-" Cali started, but Flynn interrupted her. "Oh...oh Cali" Flynn said with a chuckle. "Stop with the praise! it's embarrassing. Entirely appropriate...but embarrassing." Hugo was getting impatient. "Hey!" he said a bit tensely. "Could we please get on with important things?" "He's right, we should focus on the important things." Karai said to everyone before turning to Hugo. "So what's up?" "Well, you see, while you were away, I found the old blueprints for the Core of Light." Hugo said while walking to where it once stood. "The ancients used them when they first built it." At this point, Cali was confused. "Wait a second... I thought you said YOU built the Core of Light." Cali said "Well, yes and no." Hugo said embarrassingly. "Yes I said I did... but no, I really didn't." "What does this Core do exactly?" Fluttershy asked. "I'm glad you asked my dear." Hugo said before he explained "The old Core was used to repel the forces of darkness. So, if we rebuild a new Core of Light, it should stop Kaos and his elites from their wicked plan to rule Skylands, then we can focus on taking those villainous sheep to a place where they can't be a problem." Fluttershy was wondering where to put them where they can be happy. "So where do we start?" Karai asked. "Well Karai, the Far Viewer will help us find the parts we need to rebuild the Core but this cursed, overgrown bramble is blocking it off." Hugo said before turning to Sunset. "Could you assist us, great one? Clearing this bramble could give us a clue to the whereabouts of the Eternal Sources we need." "Okay here it goes." Sunset said as she and the others clear the bramble. Soon they found a strange thing starts to move around and suddenly turn into a telescope, launching three sheep into the air, making everyone but Hugo worried about them. "You did it!" Hugo said. "And wow, not only will the Far Viewer help us see distant lands, but it also functions as a sheep-launching device! It's marvelous!" Spyro went up to see where they landed. "And it looks like they landed in a rather large island with lots of grass, and they seem to be okay." Spyro said, causing Fluttershy to give a sigh of relief. "Here, I'll show you how to use it." Cali said before approaching the Far Viewer. "It's pretty much a telescope, but a lot more magical. This one's a little rusty, but it should be able to show us exactly where we need to go next. That's the magic part." "Yes!" Hugo said as he looked through the Far Viewer. "I see it right now! The very first Eternal Source we need - Air! The Core of Light was powered by all the Eternal Sources, so if we can acquire the Eternal Air Source, we will be well on our way to rebuilding it!" "Great, then let’s go get it!" Sunset said before realizing that she doesn't know where it is and asks the obvious question. "So, um, where is it?" "It's at the Stormy Stronghold!" Hugo said. "Tony Thunder and the evil Drow must have recovered it, but something's gone wrong. The whole place is being blown apart!" Flynn soon looked at what Hugo saw and had an idea. "My balloon's gonna need something..." He said. "Something that will PUSH me... THROUGH the storm!." "Um, like a propeller?" Fluttershy asked. "No, no, nothing like that. Oh you are so cute when you're flirting with me." Flynn said, causing Fluttershy to blush a bit. Then it hit him. "I got it, what we need is some kind of propeller!" "Really? REALLY?!" Cali asked before regaining her cool. "Fine! Everyone knows the drow patrol the Sky Schooner Docks. Their Elite Airship will have the propeller we need. Tell you what, brain-trust, you get back to your balloon, and i'll mark it on the map with a big crayon." "HEY! I LIKE CRAYONS!" Flynn said before heading off to his balloon. Hugo turned to our heroes. "This is a very important mission!" Hugo said. "Go find Flynn when your ready to depart." "Okay Hugo." Sunset said before getting an idea. "Maybe some more of our friends are at the Sky Schooner Docks." "It's worth a shot." Karai said before our heroes met Flynn. "Ready to take off into the wild blue with Skylands' greatest pilot?" Flynn asked. "Yep let's go get that propeller." Spyro said. "Aces!" Flynn said before going to his balloon. "Let's go!" He soon took the balloon up and away, but not before hitting that rock again. "Oh yeah that's two for me! But who's counting. Oh yeah... I am." Sunset chuckled just a bit but then started worrying about the rest of her friends and where in Skylands they are.