Beyond the Skies- Sweet Dreams are Not Made of These Part 3
Out of all the possible situations that Scootaloo would find herself in after falling asleep, this was not one of them. She would’ve been perfectly fine if she was relaxing on a nice warm cloud, on the beach with her friends or soaring across the skies alongside Rainbow Dash. Heck, she would’ve preferred finding herself in the middle of a lecture that Princess Twilight was giving her and her friends.
Instead, Scootaloo found herself in what looked to be a giant forest, one that was not like the Everfree at all and had a gentle, thin mist in the air. The trees were massive in size, covered in moss with vines that extended down towards the forest floor. The forest had a few creeks and running rivers that Scootaloo had to cross while she was looking around, trying to take in her surroundings a bit. Despite her original thoughts, this place seemed rather calm. Heck, it even reminded her of the jungles in Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone.
In Scootaloo’s mind though, something didn’t quite feel right. The whole forest seemed rather quiet and empty compared to something like the Everfree. In addition to this, some areas of the forest seemed bright and lit, despite the fact that no light should be shining in those areas of the forest. Given that it was dark out and the only source of light that she had was the glow of the moon, seeing this was rather unsettling.
It was as this was happening that Scootaloo also happened to notice something that caught her attention. Several flying bugs that looked a lot like fireflies began to drift past her, glowing yellow as they floated farther into the woods. She became curious, wondering if they were the reason behind some of the forest being lit up brighter than a Hearth's Warming tree and started to follow them.
“This can’t be too bad. I mean, they’re bugs for Celestia’s sake. They look rather harmless,” Scootaloo thought to herself, ducking low so that she didn’t hit a branch that was above her head. The farther that she went into the forest, the more of these glowing fireflies she began seeing. Past the trees and into what looked like an open clearing, she saw that they were flying towards what looked to be a hill in the distance, which seemed weird to her. She never heard of a bug that would just come together and disappear into a hill on the ground. If anything, she would’ve thought that they had some other place to call home that was in the trees.
As Scootaloo approached the bottom of the small hill, she tried to take a closer look at the grass that was there, running a hand through it to see if it would have the flies come back out. When nothing happened, she tried a different approach and began to pull out some of the grass that was on the hill, only for her to realize something.
The ‘grass’ that she had pulled from the hill was actually fur… and the hill that she was in front of was something else entirely, “Oh no.”
The ‘hill’ that she was in front of immediately began to stand up, with the fireflies that she saw earlier circulating around it. What stood in front of Scootaloo now was a towering quadruped wolf-beast that had fur that stretched over its front shoulders and back with dragon like skin and razor sharp claws. Its eyes were glowing yellow, and the horns on its head resembled that of a centaur with a massive tail as well. The fireflies began to glow brighter as a similar energy was crackling around the beast, before it let loose a shrieking howl that ringed in Scootaloo’s ears.
She wanted to run back through the way that she came and just leave this beast alone, but before she could even do that, the monster leaped towards her, forcing Scootaloo to jump to the left as she watched it barrel into the forest and knocked over several trees. Some were broken in half, while others had completely been torn out of the ground. She had little time to come up with a plan as the beast turned around and found where she was, charging at her while Scootaloo was trying to get as far away from whatever this creature was as possible.
“Okay, this place is bad!! VERY bad!! Somepony get me out of here!!” She thought to herself, doing everything that she could do in order to get as far away from the monster as possible, racing deeper into the forest as the mist was beginning to rise. At one point, Scootaloo thought that she had lost the beast, only to be proven wrong as it barreled through the woods behind her and sent broken chunks of wood flying everywhere, “Are you kidding me!?”
The beast could only roar before swiping its paws across the ground, sending the bugs that hid in its fur in two collective swarms that charged directly towards her as Scootaloo tried to avoid them at all costs, which was not easy to do since this monster was either trying to strike her with its claws, hit Scootaloo with its oversized tail or use its body like a battering ram. To try to get away from it even further, Scootaloo jumped off of a ledge and tumbled onto the ground, thinking that she would be safe if she jumped into the river that was nearby.
Upon getting up though, things only began to get much worse for her. Stumbling forward, she began to look around and see that the water from the river was gone. The river bed underneath was littered with skeletons of all sorts and recently wet rocks as she stared in horror. The water dripping off the bones fell at an unnatural angle, as if it was being towards the river receding into a hardening wall of mist in front of her eyes.
Realizing that this couldn’t be good, Scootaloo turned around and tried to flee another way, only to find herself surrounded by the mist. She attempted to push through, only to get shocked by the wall of mist as she fell to the ground. As she landed, she watched as the last of the waterbed was being sucked into the mist… before a new creature began to emerge from behind it.
This monster was a giant quadruped beast that resembled a jungle cat and had glowing orbs within the empty eye sockets upon its face, with tendrils of water wrapped around its entire body and a giant blade emerging out of its right foreleg. The moment that it noticed Scootaloo on the ground, it forced the girl to immediately get up and avoid its attacks as well as the giant blade on its forearm, dodging each one as she tried to run away.
At first, she thought that it worked… only to see that it actually made things worse. For every time the monster missed an attack, it shattered the skeletons that were in the dried up riverbed. From the tendrils around its body and its weapon, more tendrils began to grow outward to the ground as they began to pick up the broken bones and pull it in to add to its own body. The cracked remains of the perished that it had struck were now a second skin on the beast as it began to grow in size along with its blade.
“W-What in Equestria are you-?”
All it did was roar in response before attacking again as Scootaloo was forced to move. As this continued to play out, Scootaloo realized that she was inadvertently making her current situation even worse. Every time she avoided an attack from this monster, it would smash more of the skeletons in the dried up riverbed, which led to the bones getting absorbed by the beast’s tendrils, growing stronger by the second. When she found herself backed into a corner, the monster was towering over her, wearing the crushed bones of the dead as it drew closer and closer to her.
As it raised its right foreleg, it was ready to bring its bone enhanced blade down on Scootaloo and finish her off. Yet, just before it could do so, it was distracted by the sudden sound of electrical zaps from the mist wall that was the closest to the shore. At first, she could not tell what it was that was causing the disturbance, but then, a loud and familiar howl was heard throughout the forest as she realized what was coming.
Without warning, the giant scaled wolf-beast that she encountered earlier burst through the mist with brute force with the fireflies from earlier floating around it. Once it was through, it looked around a bit before spotting Scootaloo, and it immediately attempted to go after Scootaloo, only for the bone beast to hit it back with an extended free claw as the mist was returned back to its body and formed a pair of wings along its back that surged with electricity. But, when the bone beast tried to redirect its attention back to Scootaloo to finish what it started, that was when the bug-beast attacked the bone beast’s head, forcing the monster to focus less on Scootaloo as it avoided the bug-beast’s claws and hissed at its attacker. Growling at the invader, it swiped at the bug-beast with its bone blade as it struck at its foe’s muzzle.
Scootaloo herself was shocked at the madness that was unfolding in front of her eyes, watching two giant monsters trade blows with one another. But it was as they were fighting that she began to realize that they were more focused on each other instead of her. This could be the only chance that she had in order to escape without them noticing. Looking around, she noticed that there was a ledge that she could easily pull herself up on. Turning towards it, she stretched out her arms to grab the top of the ledge before using her arms to pull her upper body up along with her legs.
Once she was up, Scootaloo let out a sigh of relief, thinking that she was in the clear. With the monsters focusing so much on each other, there was no way they could-
SNAP!
Immediately, she looked down, seeing that she stepped on a tree branch that was now broken. Her eyes widening in horror, before slowly turning her head back towards where both of the monsters were. Because of her mistake, they were less focused on each other now and more focused on her. “Oh… come on!”
Before either the bone beast or the wolf beast could let out a roar and give chase, Scootaloo was already running. Trying to go deep into the forest to hide from the monsters that pursued her as she pushed vines out of her way and leaped over fallen trees, she sprinted as if her life depended on it. Scootaloo did not want to even think about what would happen if either of those monsters caught up with her, so she just kept on going.
Unfortunately for her, as she was trying to get away, she found herself in a harsh jungle thicket, with vines everywhere. There was no place for her to climb up to and going back the way she came would just lead her directly to what she was trying to run away from in the first place. The only thing that was different this time was that there was what looked to be a giant white flowerbud in the center, as if it had not bloomed yet.
Not long after she stumbled into the thicket did her pursuers storm in. Turning around to find that the wolf-beast crashed on through as its claws tore through the vines in its way while the bone-beast barreled through shortly afterwards. Scootaloo felt the hairs on the back of her neck begin to rise up as she looked back at them, afraid of what they might do now that she had nowhere to run and could only back away from both of the monsters.
At one point while she was backing away, both of the beasts stopped, before looking up. Scootaloo was confused at first, but as she turned around, she realized what exactly they were looking at. Several of the vines that were hanging were retracting from the ceiling and forming together directly behind her, extending from around the base of the flower that was once in the center of the thicket as it rose into the air as the petals began to open up. After it ‘bloomed’, the flower turned to face them, revealing the giant head of a viper with white scales and red eyes as it let out a loud hiss and stared them down.
“…Seriously?! W-Why did it have to be snakes?!” Scootaloo asked, trying to back away from the new monster, only for her to trip over a vine that was on the floor and fall to the ground. Right now, she was not liking what was happening. The girl was caught in the middle of what was essentially an Appleloosan standoff between a buggy wolf-beast, a bone cat monster and a viper made of vines, something that she desperately wanted to escape from, but did not know how.
Though, in the blink of an eye, everything changed. As Scootaloo turned her head to the left, she got a glimpse of what looked to be a spinning saw blade rapidly approaching her. Before she could do anything, she was picked up off the ground and taken into a nearby bush. Scootaloo was going to say something, only for a wing to cover her mouth.
“Sssshh,” she heard a voice whisper into her ear, “Don’t… make… a sound.”
Scootaloo wasn’t sure who they were or what she should do, but didn’t say anything. The temporary confusion between the monsters in the thicket soon led to the sounds of howls, growls and hisses ringing through the air. All three of the monsters were engaged in a furious three way clash, with her being a witness to their carnage.
“We can’t stay here,” the voice whispered again, slowly removing its wing from her mouth, “Follow me, but keep your voice low… whatever they are, they may not be the only things in this place.”
She could only nod, before turning around as she carefully followed the one who saved her. They looked familiar, but it was hard to tell because of the trees above them blocking the light of the moon. She could only make out a dragon like figure with strange wings and a curved horn on the front of its head. It was walking on all fours, with fins on his tail that looked like the feathers of an arrow as it took its time with surveying the surrounding area. They were making sure to watch their every step carefully, even went as far as to stop Scootaloo from stepping on something that could attract a monster’s attention.
At one point, they stopped, before the figure turned to his left and noticed something, “Follow me,” he spoke softly, before using one of his wings to move a curtain of plants and reveal a rather narrow passageway between two boulders, “Hey, can you squeeze through this?”
“I-I can try,” Scootaloo responded, trying to keep her voice low as well before walking over to the passageway and pushing forth with her left side first, slowly moving sideways and hugging the rocky wall in front of her for support as she tried to push through. It took her some time, but she was eventually able to make it through to the other side of the passageway. What was waiting for her was a small dirt clearing that was dried up and had very little grass. She could see everything a little more clearly, since the light of the moon was shining overhead, which she saw as a relief. “W-Well, at least this is better than h-hiding in the dark-”
Moments after Scootaloo said that, the girl turned around and saw a shadow creep under the passageway that she had just crawled through. Once the shadow had made it through, it began to materialize into the same figure that she had been following. Yet, now because of the light of the moon, she could now fully see who they were. “This should help us stay hidden… even if it's for a moment.”
The moment that Scootaloo saw who they were, she immediately put a name to a face as she looked back at them. “Y-You… You’re B-Blackout.”
Upon hearing that, the dark dragon looked back at her with a surprised look on his face, raising an eyebrow as he began to speak, “You know who I am?”
“Y-Yeah,” Scootaloo replied, nodding her head as she sat down on the ground, “My friends and I saw you when M-Master Eon showed us the Book of Skylanders.”
At first, Blackout was unsure about what she was saying. He didn’t recall hearing anything of that sort when he was last at the academy or hear anything about it from Master Eon, but she did not seem to be lying. Not to mention that Master Eon wasn’t the kind of person to just freely show one of the academy’s most important secrets to practically anyone. There must’ve been something important about this girl.
Of course, the dark dragon couldn’t exactly get far without knowing one thing, “What’s your name?”
“It’s Scootaloo,” the girl replied.
The Dark Skylander blinked for a moment, taking a second to compose his thoughts before saying anything, “Huh… and just when I thought Snuggles was a weird name.”
“Wha-”
“Nevermind,” he shook his head, before looking back at Scootaloo and asking her a question in an effort to change the topic, “So, Scootaloo… do you know anything about these crazy nightmares? Normally, they typically involve some kind of fear in the real world, but this isn’t like anything I’ve seen before-”
“I-i’m in a nightmare?” she asked, tilting her head in confusion.
That just had the dark dragon pause for a moment, before smacking himself in the face with his wing, “Right. Few dreamers pull off the whole lucidity thing.”
“Luci… what?”
Blackout just let out a groan as he looked back at her, “What I mean is that few dreamers can tell that they’re in one.”
“Really? Then, why didn’t you say that earlier?”
All that did was cause the Dark Skylander to smack himself again with his wing, before letting out a deep sigh. “In any case, as long as we stay low and figure out a way to overcome these monsters, we should be safe.”
At first, she let out a sigh of relief. Scootaloo thought that once she had the chance to catch her breath and wrap her head around things, she and Blackout could find a way out of this nightmare.
Unfortunately though, their temporary break was interrupted when a new voice can be heard around the forest, one that Scootaloo was all too familiar with. “SCOOTALOO! WHERE ARE YOU!?!”
“Oh no…”
“SCOOTALOO!!” Sweetie Belle called out again, hearing her voice echo and hoping to hear something that can show that her friend was okay. Yet, the dreary silence from around the forest wasn’t really settling right with her and the rest of her companions, “Nope, nothing.”
“Sweetie Belle, are you sure that we should be this loud in the first place?” Apple Bloom asked her friend, looking a bit nervous as she was looking to Princess Luna and Calvin.
“Well, how else are we supposed to let Scootaloo know that we’re looking for her, Apple Bloom?” her friend replied back.
“Your desire to help your friend is admirable,” Princess Luna now interjected as she looked at both of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, “But Apple Bloom brings up a valid point. It’s possible that you will attract the attention of the nightmares that plague this dream as well as your friend.”
“Luna’s right, girls,” Calvin added on to the conversation shortly afterwards as he looked back towards his friends, “We should focus on staying quiet. Chances are, whatever we hear, it could be either her or her nightmares, so we should be careful.”
Sweetie Belle could only just let out a small groan. She wanted to get out there and find her friend, but Calvin and Luna were right. There was no telling what kind of nasty nightmares were out there. They needed to be careful out here, considering that practically anything could possibly happen while they were in a nightmare.
Of course, that didn’t quite stop Apple Bloom. “Hey, guys, look over here!”
All three of them now turned towards where Apple Bloom was standing as she was looking at what appeared to be fireflies flying above their heads. Not just one or two, but several of them were flying by as she reached out and tried to grab them. “Don’t these look so pretty?”
“Umm… didn’t Luna say that we should be careful a little while ago, Apple Bloom?” Calvin now asked her, looking a bit puzzled as Apple Bloom looked back towards the others.
That just made Apple Bloom let out a groan before looking back at her friend. “Come on, Calvin. Do these look threatening to you?” she asked, gesturing her hand at the flies that were above her head.
Of course, after hearing that, Luna was not entirely enthusiastic about what Apple Bloom just said. “Apple Bloom, need I remind you that it would not be wise to say something like that while in a nightmare-”
Just as Luna was saying that, a giant was thrown through the bushes that were nearby Apple Bloom, barely missing her as she turned to see what it was. It was a giant wolf-beast with dragon like skin and fur on parts of its body, with some of the same bugs that were flying above Apple Bloom emerging from the fur on its body before forming a swarm above it. It also had a pair of horns, but one of them looked to have been broken off.
“What in the world is THAT!?!”
“The reason why I suggested for you to not say that,” Luna reiterated, magic beginning to flow through her horn. She was going to cast a spell, only to hear rustling from the same bushes that this beast had been thrown through as the magic began to fizzle and fade in her confusion. As she turned to look, Luna found herself staring at two monsters that emerged from the bush. A carnivorous jungle cat that had a bone blade on its right foreleg and was covered in bone armor that was all over its body, followed by a giant snake made out of jungle vines and plants with the petals of a flower around its head, “By the night…”
“Is it just me, or could this be why Scootaloo decided to stay quiet?” Calvin whispered.
“Well, at least they didn’t spot us yet,” Sweetie Belle responded, trying to stay positive about everything going on. Unfortunately though, her comment was followed by the bone beast to step forward and turn its head towards them, “Oh, come on...”
“Luna, do you have a plan?” Calvin then asked the night princess, turning towards her and waiting for her answer. Yet, before she can think of an answer, the wolf-beast let out a deafening howl. After having two swarms of bugs emerge from its fur, it sent the swarms directly at the other beasts, striking them directly in the face. Small pieces of bone chipped away from the bone-beast’s protections as it snarled back at its foe. As for the Viper, it hissed angrily at the wolf-beast, stretching out the vines around its neck as it prepared to attack.
In that moment, none of the monsters seemed to even notice the presence of Calvin and the others, as they all were too focused on fighting each other. Now, though, was when Luna decided to finally answer the Skyshifter’s question. “Perhaps it would be best for us to leave them be. They haven’t spotted us yet-”
Just as she finished saying that, they heard rustling from a bush behind them. Immediately, all four of them took up arms as Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were holding onto the same weapons that they had earlier while Luna was holding a sword within her magical grip and Calvin was in the form of his imaginator. They were expecting another monster to crawl out and try to catch them by surprise.
All four of them were definitely surprised… but only because what actually came out of the bush was not what they were expecting, “Woah, hold on a minute!”
Immediately, Calvin recognized who was speaking as they stepped out from behind the bush. All four of them were now looking at a dark colored dragon that walked on four legs and had a curved horn on the front of its head, its white eyes looking at each one of them while holding his wings up in the air. “Now, I know that you don’t me, but-”
“You’re Blackout.”
The Skyshifter’s response, followed by him changing back into his regular form, left the dragon rather confused, needing a moment in order to process everything before speaking, “…Okay, so you might know me.”
“Calvin, you know this creature?” Luna then asked, confused by everything that had just transpired as she looked towards him.
“Yeah, he’s a Skylander,” Calvin told her, “If I remember correctly, he and his clan used to craft nightmares for villains to dissuade them from doing evil. That was, until his clan became corrupt, and he had to stop them from misusing their powers for their own amusement.”
That was something Luna did not expect. In all of her time spent in the realm of dreams, she had not thought about the possibility of having nightmares be used that way, for doing good. After hearing his explanation, Luna dismissed her blade as she looked back towards the dragon, “My sincere apologies. We were unsure if you were a friend or foe upon first encountering you,” the princess explained, “My name is Luna, Princess of the Night and protector of dreams in Equestria. These three are my companions, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and Calvin the Skyshifter.”
At first, Blackout was processing everything that the princess just told him, yet it was as he heard the last part of his sentence that something clicked in his head, “Wait, the Skyshifter?!” he asked, before looking towards Calvin.
“You know about me?” he asked, a bit caught off guard by the dragon’s sudden reaction just now.
“To be fair, the only things that I have known about you up until this point were some memories from your perspective. I never knew that you had that title until your princess friend just mentioned it,” the Dark Skylander explained to him, before letting out a small sigh, “Now that I know though, there’s something I should-”
Before he could continue though, they all heard a small rustle from the bushes, followed by the sound of a familiar voice, “Blackout? Is it s-safe for me to come out now?”
“Scootaloo?” Sweetie Belle was the first to speak, “Scootaloo, is that you?”
“S-Sweetie Belle? You’re h-here, too?” her friend asked from behind the bush, sounding a little bit surprised while she was speaking.
“Yeah, we are,” Apple Bloom now added, “Luna and Calvin are here, too!”
Scootaloo herself, upon hearing that, let out a sigh of relief as she came out from behind the bush. Glad to see her friends again, she came out from behind the bush and gave Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle a hug. Calvin himself was glad to see that Scootaloo was okay, but honestly did not expect for him to be given a hug as well as he felt himself being pulled towards Scootaloo.
Of course, it was as Scootaloo let go of Calvin that Luna herself now spoke up, “It is a relief to see that you are unharmed, Scootaloo. Though, I believe we have a much bigger matter to attend too.” As she finished the sentence, she looked back towards where the monsters were as they can still see them fighting one another.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Blackout grumbled, “They’re still going at it?”
“You ran into them already?” Calvin asked.
“Yeah, I was the one that found Scootaloo stuck in the middle of their turf war,” the dark dragon replied back, “We were trying to lay low for a while, but then Scootaloo heard one of you guys shouting earlier and started getting worried.”
“I did mention to you that doing so would attract attention,” Luna said, looking towards Sweetie Belle as the young girl tried looking away.
Blackout just let out a small breath, only looking at Sweetie briefly before turning back to Calvin. “Guess I’ll tell you after these nightmares are dealt with,” he added, “Right now though, we have a job to do.”
“Wait, we’re actually going to fight those things? How?!” Scootaloo then asked. Only for Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle to look at each other for a brief moment before looking to Princess Luna.
“Could you give us a second, Princess? We promise it won’t take long.”
When the princess nodded, both of the crusaders took their friend off to the side, so they could tell her what the princess had told them earlier, teaching Scootaloo that whatever she could imagine could be a weapon to fight against nightmares as well as showing them what they were holding onto. It took her a couple of moments, but Scootaloo soon got an idea of what kind of weapon that she wanted to use.
Listening to her friends, Scootaloo took a calm breath and began to picture the weapon she wanted in her mind. She got the idea of what to use after seeing the two weapons that her friends were using as she thought of the crossbow that belonged to Punk Shock. Moments after she began to think about this, she found the crossbow in her hands, something that surprised her for a moment because she didn’t think it was that simple.
Now that they were all ready, the crusaders joined back up with Luna, Calvin and Blackout. Scootaloo herself looked towards Luna and gave her an affirmative nod. “Alright, I’m ready. Let’s let ‘em have i-”
Before she had the chance to finish what she was saying, the ground began to violently quake beneath their feet, almost knocking everyone off balance as the forest began to shake all around them. “…WHAT NOW?!”
As the tremors began to intensify, they all began to notice that many of the smaller creatures that called the forest home were beginning to flee. Yet, these weren’t the small critters that they would normally see in a forest. They were all smaller nightmares of various different shapes and forms. Yet, the expression of fear was over their faces as they did not even seem to pay attention to them. All they were focused on was trying to get as far away as possible.
With everything that was going on, Calvin found himself asking one particular question, “Luna, from your experience… what could possibly scare a nightmare?”
The question itself was enough to make Luna’s eyes widen as she realized what she was talking about before answering him. “A Night Terror… we need to hurry.”
Before anyone could ask about what she was talking about, Luna took off, prompting the others to chase after her and try to keep up. She was heading back towards the clearing where they saw the other three monsters earlier, only to find that each one of them were not only no longer fighting each other, but trying to make sense of everything that was going on.
It was as all of this was happening that a giant crack in the ground began to form by them, which had the bone-beast quickly move out of the way and leave the Vine Viper behind. It tried to catch up, but it started to fall between the cracks as cries of pain could be heard from it. The viper tried using the vines around its neck to push itself back onto solid ground, thinking that it could escape the gaping pit that was tearing open behind beast.
Then, a giant molten claw rose up from behind it, grabbing hold of its head as the viper began to cry out in pain as it was dragged down into the ground. Black smoke began to rise up into the air as the fissure grew in size. It was quiet for a brief moment, but then, the same claw that they saw drag the viper down came up to grab hold of the ground in front of it. Moments later, a second claw came up to grab hold of the earth as they began to pull itself up to the surface. Molten lava burned the ground as it stood up as the newfound terror proved to be much bigger than the other two as a pair of molten wings now took form on its back.
“What the hay is that!?” Sweetie Belle asked, thrown off guard by its sheer size and destructive power.
“A Night Terror,” Luna grit her teeth as she stared at the molten beast that was in front of them, “A monster that is much stronger than a normal nightmare and a lot more dangerous. It’ll attack anything indiscriminately, even other nightmares.”
As the lava dragon stood before them, they also noticed that the wolf-beast stayed where it was. It did not flee like that of the bone-beast earlier, but instead stood its ground as it let out a piercing howl as it sent out another swarm of bugs at the newfound terror. However, unfortunately for the wolf-beast, the attack had no effect on the Night Terror. When the bugs made contact with the dragon’s skin, they began to burn up until they were nothing but little clouds of ash.
“N-No way,” Apple Bloom was the first to speak. She had seen the wolf-beast use the same attack before against other monsters and effectively hurt them. However, this time around, it didn’t do anything. It was something that even the wolf-beast was caught off guard by, but refused to give up. Without warning, more bugs began to emerge from its fur as they began to form around its body and claws, acting as both a protective coat of armor and an extension to its already sharp claws. Mere seconds afterwards did the wolf beast charge at the molten dragon as it leaped towards its target, ready to strike.
Unfortunately though, the Terror was anticipating something like this. As it raised its wings, it released an ear piercing roar as a pillar of fire rose from the ground, directly blocking the wolf-beast as it jumped at it. For a moment, it looked as if it was trying to break through, but a second roar from the dragon was enough to throw the wolf down to the ground like a ragdoll, its remaining horn breaking off upon contact with the ground.
Calvin could not believe everything he was seeing. The wolf-beast that was able to push back against the other nightmares it was facing earlier now laid helplessly on the ground. Not only that, but as the terror grabbed hold of the nightmare in its teeth, the wolf-beast’s size began to decrease, as if its strength was being stolen by this giant dragon while it was whining in sheer agony with its face full of pain.
“W-what is it doing?!” Sweetie Belle asked.
“It’s leeching it of its power,” Luna grimaced as she watched everything play out right in front of her, “Stripping away any resolve it has left and adding it to its own.”
“Okay, out of all the nightmares that I have seen before… that one’s freaky,” Blackout commented before looking to Luna, “So, do we have a plan to stop it, or-?”
Before Blackout could finish speaking, Calvin immediately changed into his Imaginator form and leaped into the fray, a move that caught everyone that was with him off guard as he ran towards the terror. When he was closer, the Skyshifter began to concentrate as he channeled his strength into a compact orb that glowed in his right hand. Looking towards the dragon, he held the burning orb in his hands, before pulling his arm back and throwing it forward as far as he could.
Yet, Calvin’s target was not the wolf-beast. Instead, he was trying to hit the terror, hoping that doing so would cause the terror to drop the beast. When the orb finally made contact with the terror’s left wing, it exploded and forced the molten beast to drop its prey as it fell over onto the ground.
Of course, it was only a few seconds afterwards that everyone else caught up… and the princess gave him an earful, “CALVIN, WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE STARS WERE YOU THINKING!?!”
Calvin just let out a sigh as he looked back at the princess, “I know it’s a nightmare, but even it doesn’t deserved to be drained like that,” he explained, looking back at the wolf-beast that was lying on the ground, “Besides, letting that terror finish would only make it tougher to defeat anyways, after it finished draining the wolf.”
As he looked at the wolf-beast, he heard it whimper in pain before turning back towards the dragon that was in front of him. Looking up, he smirked briefly before throwing a barrage of fireballs that hit the branches of the trees above them. As the branches began to collapse on the dragon, he rushed over to the wolf, dragging it over to a place where it was covered by greenery with his fire dash and set it aside.
“Go on now,” he told the beast, placing a hand on its head to comfort it, “I hope you learned what it’s like to be picked on. So... don’t do it again, alright?”
After he finished with the beast, he looked down on the ground to find that the wolf’s other horn had broken off, briefly pausing to pick it up and take it with him as he raced back over to his allies, “Everyone, get ready! Those branches won’t hold it forever.”
“Luna, do you have any ideas for how we’re supposed to fight this thing?” Scootaloo then asked as she turned towards the princess, hoping that she had some kind of play as to how they were going to face such a massive monster.
“We need to spread out and attack it from different positions,” she informed them, “A frontal assault from all of us would just be foolish and lead to our defeat.”
“So, we attack from multiple angles? We make it confused, so it’s harder for them to concentrate on trying to fight us individually,” Blackout asked, which had Luna nod her head as he smirked, “Okay, I think I’m liking this plan.”
“Same here,” Sweetie Belle added on, before asking another question that came off the top of her head, “Though, should we all just spread out everywhere or pair up with someone else in case we get separated-?”
Luna did not have much time to think on the matter, for they heard the dragon’s roar and began to hear the branches that were holding it down break apart. They did not have much time before it would fully break free from the branches as she looked back at her companions.
“Pair up and get into position, quickly!” she declared, holding her blades at the ready as Sweetie Belle prepared her bow. Calvin and Apple Bloom formed the second pair and took up position on her left side, while Blackout and Scootaloo raced over to her right. Once they got into position, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom readied their weapons, aiming at the dragon as it threw its head upward in an attempt to remove the last of the branches that were holding him down.
“Luna, it’s about to break free! What’s our target?” Calvin then asked as the last of the branches that were holding it down had burned away.
“Go for its legs! We need to hinder its movement so it can’t flee!!”
Free from the restraints that were holding it down, the Night Terror let out a spine chilling roar as it began to retaliate against them and lash out with its claws and teeth. Even though its wings were already broken and it could not attack from the air, the Terror was still rather agile on the ground. If that wasn’t already enough trouble, the fire that was bursting from its body made any attacks that did happen to hit the molten dragon barely had any effect against it.
Sweetie Belle was rather confident when the battle first began, but as the battle raged on, she was beginning to find her task to be rather difficult. She was following through on Luna’s instructions, attacking the Night Terror’s legs to try to stop it from moving. However, it was while she was shooting it that she came across two different problems. The first one was that a lot of her shots worked best against a target that was standing still instead of constantly moving. The second problem was that even if she was able to successfully hit the target, her shots would melt because of the overwhelming heat that was coming from the monster.
It was something that was beginning to annoy her with each passing moment. “How the hay am I going to help them if my attacks won’t even hurt this thing?!” she thought to herself, trying to get a better angle to shoot from while the dragon was swiping its claws at Luna, which had the princess cast a teleportation spell to avoid an attack that almost struck her head.
“Tch... it’s a persistent one,” the princess grit her teeth as she stared down the terror in front of her, lifting her sword as she prepared to face the dragon head on.
In Sweetie’s mind, she thought that Luna was crazy. There was no way that she could possibly face a beast like this head on, especially with the flames that were around its body. Unless they were put them out somehow, the princess would just end up getting burned-
Then, it dawned on Sweetie Belle. The only way that it was possible for them to really hurt this dragon was to extinguish the flames that it was conjuring. Taking a moment to step back from the battle, she began to imagine a new arrow type for her to use as they formed in her quiver. As Sweetie knocked one onto her bow and drew back the string, water began to spiral and swirl around the tip of the arrow as she aimed for the monster’s leg.
Yet, the only thing that she had to deal with now was that one of her team members was directly in her line of sight, “Blackout, get out of the way!!”
The Dark Skylander only had a few seconds to move as Sweetie fired her shot. The water that was surging around the arrow was enough to put out the flames that were around one side of its body as the arrow hit the terror in the leg and it roared in pain. “By the elements, how did you do that?!”
“It appears that the only way we can truly harm this beast is to extinguish its flames first,” Luna quickly added on, smirking all the while as she looked back at Sweetie Belle, “Clever girl.”
After he saw how successful Sweetie Belle’s attack was just now, Calvin thought of a different approach as he looked towards his partner, “Hey, Apple Bloom, I got an idea. Can you shoot the terror with something that can freeze it?”
“Freeze it?” Apple Bloom asked, “How would that work?”
“I remember something back home about what would happen if something faces extreme heat and cold rather quickly,” Calvin told her, before he began to focus and channel his power to form molten gauntlets around his hands, “If you can find a way to freeze it, then I think it’ll be easier for me to hurt it!”
Apple Bloom wasn't entirely sure what Calvin was talking about, but if this idea of his was going to help them possibly defeat this Terror, then the only thing to do was give it a try. She took a moment to imagine it in her head, picturing the front of her weapons being frozen over. When she looked back at her revolvers, the ice that covered her weapons were being held in place by runes that were etched within the ice itself. When she fired them, the coins that were being launched were covered in ice, as if she was firing miniature frozen frisbees.
“This is going to be fun,” she smirked, before looking back at the terror and began shooting. Every shot that hit the terror exploded into ice and metal, leaving shards scattered everywhere while also freezing its skin. This also provided the opportunity for Calvin to strike the terror using his newfound explosive magma gauntlets as he focused his attacks on the sections of the Terror that Apple Bloom froze in place.
After each successful attack by Calvin against the frozen sections of its body, the terror let out a painful roar as more and more molten lava began to flow out of its body like blood. From Scootaloo’s end, seeing the lava reminded her of something that happened while she was getting the Imaginite Crystals with her friends. When she shot the lava river with her crossbow, it was able to channel electricity. So, if Scootaloo could do the same thing here, then it was possible that she could hurt it from the inside.
It was as Scootaloo was thinking this over that she caught a glimpse of Blackout heading over to where Calvin was at, using his wings to strike the same weak point that the Skyshifter was attacking as the open wound from the terror began to widen and more lava began to spill out. This made her grin, for it provided her a much bigger target to hit as she aimed her crossbow and began to open fire, her shots landing in the exposed opening and sending a current of electricity through it.
The pain for the lightning had forced the terror to slow down its attacks, but it did not let up in its ferocity. When it wasn’t able to move its front leg, the dragon fought back by slamming its giant head into Calvin’s chest when he tried to attack even further, throwing the Skyshifter backward as he almost collided with Apple Bloom. When it turned its attention back to Blackout, the terror unleashed a giant fire breath that forced the Skylander to dodge as it ignited the surrounding area.
Yet, when the Skylander tripped over a rock that was by its feet, Luna stepped into intercept the fire breath as she stared down the terror, “I will not let you lay a claw on them while I’m here, you monster!!”
Blackout, who was lucky that he did not end up getting burned to a crisp, used the opportunity that Luna provided to get back to Scootaloo by channeling a black hole below his feet and one that was near her, hopping into the one in front of him to quickly get back over. The princess’ intervention also gave Apple Bloom the chance to help Calvin get back up his feet as the Night Terror was focused on going after Luna.
“O-oww… d-did anyone get the license plate on that truck-?”
“Calvin, come on,” Apple Bloom told him, getting him to refocus his attention back to the task at hand, “We need to hurry and help stop this thing before it hurts anyone else!”
The Skyshifter soon realized what she meant as he looked back towards the battle that was playing out. The terror had moved from its original spot earlier and was focusing its attacks on Princess Luna, while Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Blackout were increasing their efforts to try and weaken the monster even further. The problem was that the terror itself was a lot more aggressive and a lot faster with its attacks, which tested Luna’s resolve to keep up with the beast as she tried to keep its attention away from the others.
It was as the battle was going on that Calvin noticed something. Over on the opposite side of the battlefield, Blackout was using his wings to saw into some nearby trees, having them topple over onto the backside of the terror. This gave him an idea as he conjured more energy into his newfound gauntlets as he placed both hands on the ground and began to dig into the ground. After a few seconds, he pulled a large boulder out of the ground and threw it at the terror, which forced the terror to fall down once the rock made impact with its back leg.
“Calvin, what are ya doing!?” Apple Bloom called out as the Skyshifter looked back towards his partner.
“I saw Blackout trying to slow it down and decided to help,” he told her, “Now that it’s moving too fast for precise attacks, we’re gonna have to use bigger attacks that are harder to dodge if we want to harm it.”
After she heard that, Apple Bloom looked over to where Blackout was and saw him turn into a buzzsaw to cut down another tree, scattering pieces of the tree and the ground in his path at the night terror in an effort to slow it down. Apple Bloom wanted to help, but after seeing Calvin and Blackout attacks against the terror, she realized that she was going to need more than just her revolvers if she wanted to leave an impact on the dragon.
Calvin told her that they had to use bigger attacks that are harder to dodge, but there was only one potential idea that was on her mind that would fit that category. Apple Bloom took a moment to holster her weapons before she started to imagine what she had in mind. It was a cannon, and at first glance, someone could easily mistake it for Pinkie Pie’s party cannon. Yet, there was one major difference.
This one fired something other than confetti, “Calvin, move!!”
“Wha-? OH SHOOT!!”
The Skyshifter had only mere moments to react as Apple Bloom fired the cannon at the dragon as a giant snowball flew through the air towards the Terror’s back leg. When it reached its target, the snowball exploded and began to encase the monsters back leg in ice. The sudden attack caught Calvin off guard, which prompted him to look back at his partner shortly after that surprise attack, “Not that I’m complaining, but did you have to do that?”
“Well, ya told me to use bigger attacks that are harder to dodge,” she explained, before she took a moment to ready the cannon again.
“Alright, though... please give me the chance for me to move first before you fire,” Calvin suggested as he began to channel his power into his gauntlets, “It won’t do us any good if you hit me on accident.”
Apple Bloom nodded her head in response as she returned her focus to the cannon while Calvin got back to work on the same plan of attack from just a couple of moments earlier to channel his power into his gauntlets and toss boulders at the dragon’s legs. For a time, their attacks seemed to work, and they thought that they were actually making progress against the Terror that they were up against.
Unfortunately, that did not last long. With a powerful roar, the terror unleashed a wave of fire that forced Calvin and his companions to back away from the dragon before it lowered its head to the ground and opened its mouth. In an instant, the environment around the terror’s mouth began getting sucked in through its maw, flowing in as if it was being sucked through a giant straw.
When Luna realized what the terror was doing, an expression of downright horror appeared on her face, “N-No. T-This cannot be-”
“Luna, what’s wrong?” Sweetie Belle then asked, noticing that the princess' tone was the complete opposite of how she was acting earlier.
“T-The Terror… It’s feeding on the dream itself!” the princess proclaimed, catching everyone else's attention in the process, “If it continues to do this, then the entire dream will collapse!”
In Calvin’s mind, that was definitely a problem, especially since Luna told him earlier about how dangerous a nightmare could be if it escapes the dream it was from. If something like this was able to get out, then there was no telling what kind of havoc it would cause.
“W-What would happen if it… c-collapsed?” Scootaloo then asked, sounding a bit worried.
“When it comes to you, you would just wake up, dear Scootaloo,” Luna explained, before turning to the rest of their companions, “But… the rest of us would be lost in this realm, unable to return to our own bodies as we just linger here.”
“That… is too scary to think about,” Blackout commented.
“Which is why we can’t let that happen,” the princess grit her teeth, before looking back at the terror, “I know a spell that could counter it. I managed it before in a one-on-one fight, but barely. I was not able to fulfill my duties for the next few days afterwards.”
“What can we do to help?” Calvin immediately asked.
“Buy me as much time as you can,” the alicorn of the night told them, dismissing her blades as magic began to flow around her horn rapidly, “If you can protect me while I am casting the spell, I would greatly appreciate it. It would make casting the spell a lot easier knowing that you are helping me.”
“So, a ‘defend the objective’ mission… terrific,” Blackout shrugged it off, before looking back at the Terror and regrouping with the rest of his companions as they stood in front of Luna, “Well, let’s get started then.”
“Do you have a plan?” Apple Bloom asked the Skylander.
“Simple. Attack it and lure it away from Luna,” the dark dragon responded, “Sounds like a simple plan to me.”
“What about the bone monster we saw?” Sweetie then asked, “If we run into that and the terror finds it-”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” Blackout sighed. Instead of explaining any more, the Dark Skylander jumped into the fray, wings at the ready as he began to attack the dragon’s head. Apple Bloom and Calvin were the next ones to jump in as she fired her cannon at the terror to freeze its head, before the Skyshifter jumped in and punched it with his molten gauntlets. Lastly, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo joined the rest of their friends, but stuck to attacking from range instead of getting too close to the dragon’s maw.
It did not take long for the Terror to react from their attacks as it ceased what it was doing to retaliate against them. After releasing another roar, the dragon surprised its opponents by using its already damaged wings to shield itself from their attacks. It was a tactic that caught all of them off guard, because they thought that its wings were rendered useless. If that wasn’t enough, Calvin began to feel the ground heat up underneath him, before realizing what it was.
“Everyone, move-!!”
Without warning, a pillar of fire immediately erupted from each of their feet, forcing everyone to jump for cover as the flames began to spread. Luna herself had to stop her spell in order to move out of the way from the sudden attack. Yet, just as everyone was getting back up on their feet, they looked up to see that the flames that were in the air had now formed into orbs of fire. At first, they thought the orbs were something that the dragon was going to unleash at them. However, none of them anticipated for those orbs to start unleashing their own projectiles all over the battlefield.
“Oh, hay!” Apple Bloom spoke.
“Okay, that is going to be annoying,” Calvin thought to himself. It was one thing to anticipate an attack that he can be able to see coming, but another thing to prepare himself from an attack that can happen at anytime from beneath their feet. If anything, it was going to make their job of protecting Luna and distracting the terror much harder.
Though, it was as he looked at his molten gauntlets and looked back at the orbs that were in the air that he got an idea, something that he could do to not only make sure that Luna was out of harm's way, but also even the odds. “Luna,” he spoke, catching the princess’ attention, “Do you trust me?”
“Of course,” the alicorn responded, “Why-?”
“You might want to hold on,” Without warning, Calvin placed both his hands on the ground and began to channel his energy into the ground as it formed a molten ring around Luna. Before the princess could ask what he was doing, the area around her rose up into the air as Luna found herself standing on a molten platform that was high above the ground.
“Calvin, what the hay are you doing?” Sweetie now asked, caught off guard by the sudden actions of her friend.
The Skyshifter himself just simply let out a breath as he turned back around to face the rest of the group, “I’m improvising.” Once more, he placed his hands on the ground and channeled his power as three spots began to glow in front of him. From the ground, three birds that looked to be made out of pure fire emerged from the ground, before they landed on both of his hands, with each one of the birds having something that set themselves apart.
“Woah,” Scootaloo said, “That… was awesome.”
After looking at the birds, he then let out a small breath to compose his thoughts before he began to speak, “Alright. I’m going to need all three of you to help us,” he said as he motioned his head to where Luna was standing, “We need to keep Luna safe,” now he motioned over towards the terror, “from that, but in order to do so,” his eyes now looked up towards the orbs in the sky as the Skyshifter finished his sentence, “We need your help in distracting them. Are you up for it?”
All three of the birds chirped happily in response, before taking off as they flew into the air towards the orbs that were in the sky. As the first orb was about to launch a salvo of burning missiles, the first of the birds that Calvin summoned flapped it’s large bushy wings and sent out some of the feathers that were on its wings to intercept them mid-flight. When the second orb began to release its flames like a flamethrower, the second bird used its giant sized beak to suck it in as its throat inflated like a frog’s stomach. Lastly, the third orb unleashed a barrage of burning bullets at Luna target, only for the shots to be caught and extinguished by the tar like wings that the third bird has as it intercepted them, dropping whatever was left over onto the ground.
It was as Calvin turned back around that Sweetie Belle now spoke up to ask the only question that was on her mind. “Okay, mind explaining to us why you did that?”
“Well, first, I wanted to make sure that Luna did not get hit by any of those attacks that can erupt from the ground,” he began to explain, “Secondly, for the birds, I was thinking about something that could distract those orbs while we focus on that Terror.”
“Which would not only drain away at the Terror’s energy, but also its attention,” the Dark Skylander now spoke up, “It would be too focused on us and the birds to even pay attention to your Princess! By Eon, you’re a genius!”
Calvin wasn’t quite expecting a compliment of that nature to be heard about him. If anything, that would be something that he would hear about Twilight. “I just thought that we needed to take a different approach,” he replied back, “Now, let’s go. We can’t beat that terror by just standing around here, right?”
By that point, everyone else nodded in agreement as they redirected their focus back to the Terror that was in front of them. Blackout and Calvin led the charge into battle as they attacked the molten dragon head on while the Cutie Mark Crusaders were providing ranged support. This time around, everyone did not stay in one spot and constantly kept moving to avoid being roasted by any more fire pillars that would erupt from the ground.
As they attacked the Night Terror, everyone in the group used everything that they had at their disposal to weaken the beast. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were focused on extinguishing the dragon’s flames by soaking it with a combination of Sweetie’s water arrows and Splash Bombs that Scootaloo threw into the air, followed by a shot with her crossbow while they were in flight. As for Apple Bloom, her focus was to use the snowball cannon she had and her revolvers to freeze sections of the dragon for Calvin to strike with his gauntlets. Any exposed openings would be followed up by a combination of attacks from Blackout shortly afterwards.
Yet, despite their new gameplan, the Terror was persistent. Despite their best efforts to distract it, the dragon still found moments to feed on the dream before fighting back. The injuries that it received would end up being healed as if nothing happened, something that greatly irritated Calvin and the rest of his companions.
“Okay, this is getting to be annoying,” Scootaloo growled, “What are we not doing right here? We’re avoiding everything that its throwing at us, and yet, we’ve barely scratched it!”
“Luna’s counting on us to buy her time for the spell,” Calvin reminded them, “We can’t give up now.”
“You heard him! Let’s get back in there, girls!!” Apple Bloom motivated her friends, before all three of them simultaneously cheered, “Cutie Mark Crusaders, Monster Hunters! YAY!!”
That just made Blackout blink as he turned to Calvin, “Is… that normal for them?”
“Honestly, what really is ‘normal’ in here?” he asked the Skylander, which led to Blackout being silent for a few more moments before only coming up with a simple response.
“You… bring up a valid point.”
Without anything else to say, both Blackout and Calvin jumped back into the fray to engage the Night Terror once again. The five of them followed with the same strategy as before to go toe-to-toe with the beast and keep its attention on them and not focus on Luna. Even if they did take a different approach to try and weaken it, the beast would still find a way to patch itself up and have the entire process of fighting it repeat itself all over again.
Though, it was after Calvin and his friends fought against the terror a third time and it went down to feed that something much different happened, “That’s FAR ENOUGH!!!” they all heard Luna proclaim from the molten platform she was standing on as magic was swirling around her horn, “I WILL NOT ALLOW FOR YOU TO UNRAVEL THIS DREAM ANY MORE!!!”
Immediately, a wave of energy was emitted from the unicorn’s horn that began to spread everywhere. The spell had created a visible layer of energy across the environment of the dream that they were in. It did not look like much at first, but to the Terror, it was as if an iron gate had been placed over the ground that blocked any attempt that it would make to try and feed on the dream, as it learned firsthand when it broke its teeth attempting to drain the ground.
“Ah, heck yeah!! You did it, Luna!” Scootaloo proclaimed.
“Indeed, young Scootaloo,” the princess let out a breath, before looking towards the Night Terror, “However, our work here is not yet done.”
“At least fighting it will be much easier now that we can actually hurt it,” Blackout smirked as he readied himself for another round.
“That I can agree with,” Calvin added as he prepared his gauntlets once more, “It’s time we finish this.”
“Are you going to join us, Luna?” Sweetie Belle then asked. Yet, the princess’ response to her question was rather different from what she thought it would be.
“Unfortunately, I can’t,” she told them, “The spell that I had just used isn’t one that you just simply cast and not worry about. It’s one that has to be maintained after casting it. If I were to join you in battle, I would not have any magic left to keep this dream stable. It is why I had to expend myself so much last time I fought one of these alone.”
“Well, you’re not alone now,” Apple Bloom told her, “Ya got all of us here to help ya. If we’re going to stop this Terror, then we’re doing it together,” before she could continue with what she was saying, everyone heard the terror let out another ear piercing roar as they looked back at the molten dragon. “What’s the plan?”
“Same plan,” the Skyshifter replied back, “Let Blackout and I get up close while you three attack from a distance,” as he finished his sentence, he looked back at all three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders as he added another piece to the plan, “This time though, it will be up to you three to make sure that this Terror doesn’t get to Luna. Think you can handle it?”
“Heck yeah we can!” Scootaloo proclaimed as she readied her crossbow.
That had Calvin smile as he looked back towards Blackout, before both of them charged towards the Night Terror one more time. As they raced towards the molten beast, the Cutie Mark Crusaders started to attack the Terror from range, which provided an opportunity for Calvin and Blackout to attack once they got closer. The two of them relied on every possible technique that they knew in order to break away at the Terror’s defenses, while also capitalizing on any chance they had to expose weak points for their companions. Now that it was cut off from the source that it used to mend its wounds, they could hurt it without having to worry about its injuries being restored.
As the battle raged on though, Sweetie Belle began to notice something when Calvin and Blackout were breaking away at its molten skin. At first, she thought that her eyes were playing tricks on her, but it was when a couple of arrows that she fired missed their intended target that she decided to ask, “Hey, girls, is it just me… or does it look like the Terror is… shrinking?”
“Shrinking?” Scootaloo asked, “The hay are you talking about?”
“Now that ah think of it, ah’m seeing it too,” Apple Bloom pointed out as she fired a shot from her revolvers at the beast’s head, only for the coin to fly over it and miss as she turned to the princess that was with them, “Princess Luna, do you know what’s happening?”
It took a moment for the princess to process what was going on, but after a moment or two, she had an answer for the Cutie Mark Crusaders, “It’s… rearranging itself. Taking what’s left of its body and changing into a smaller form.”
“So… is that a good thing?” Sweetie Belle nervously asked.
“While this may be a sign that the beast is weakening, there is another problem,” Luna continued to explain, “With it being a smaller target, it’ll be harder to actually harm it, not to mention that you might end up hitting either Calvin or Blackout on accident.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound good at all,” Scootaloo groaned, “How are we supposed to help them if we’re going to end up hitting them in the process?”
That question had Apple Bloom look back at the weapons that she had, before turning her gaze to Scootaloo. An idea had formed in her mind of a way that they could help, but there was something she needed to confirm first. “Scootaloo, if you throw your splash bombs on the ground, how big does the puddle get?”
“Um… pretty big,” she responded, puzzled by her friends sudden question, “Why-?”
“I think I have an idea on how we can help Calvin.”
While Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were coming up with a plan, Blackout and Calvin were at a standstill in their fight against the Terror. When the battle first started, they had no trouble in fighting against the beast. Yet, with each weak point that they exploited and broke off, the beast began to change. Taking what was left of its body, the Night Terror was able to morph its appearance as its form began to change.
If that wasn’t enough, its first move after its transformation was complete caught the Skyshifter off guard. The Terror swiped its claws around itself, a move that had the three orbs that it summoned earlier come down from above them and combine into one, before swallowing it whole.
“D-did that Terror just eat fire?”
“It did,” the Dark Skylander replied, just as the Night Terror let out another roar. As they looked towards it, they watched the beast take on a different appearance as molten cracks began to form on its face as its eyes glowed a dark red. Shards of molten rock began to grow from its arms as the Terror now had razor sharp scales that covered its entire body, going as far as to suck in its rear legs for extra sustenance as it began flying in the air, “And that’s definitely not good.”
“You think!?”
Before Blackout could think of a way to respond, both of them had to move as the Terror took the molten rocks that were growing from its arms and threw it towards them. Upon contact with the ground, the rocks glowed the same color as the cracks on the Terror’s body and exploded shortly afterwards.
“Okay, what exactly is the plan now?” Calvin asked Blackout as he rolled out of the way of another rock that was thrown at his feet.
“We need to get egghead down to the ground before it ends up wrecking the place,” Blackout retorted.
“Can’t you just use your black holes to pull it out of the sky?” the Skyshifter asked him.
“I could, but it would only be effective if it’s closer to the ground,” the Dark Skylander responded back.
In Calvin’s mind, that wasn’t good. The Terror’s new form made it a lot faster than the one that they were fighting on the ground, possibly fast enough in order to avoid any attempts by the Cutie Mark Crusaders in order to strike it down from afar. They had to find a way to ground it fast, before the battle spiraled out of control.
“Blackout, we need to come up with something before Luna runs out of magic. I’m open to any ideas at this rate-” the Skyshifter told him.
“Calvin!! Blackout!” they both heard, before turning around to see Apple Bloom and Scootaloo try to get their attention as they pointed to the ground on their right hand side, “Try to knock it down on the ground over here! We got an idea on how to hold it down!”
“I’m up for anything at this rate-” Calvin remarked, ducking his head at the sound of another explosion that was not far from where they were, “What do you need us to do?”
“Well, Apple Bloom and I are working on a surprise that can stop it in its tracks,” Scootaloo took the chance to speak up now, “The only thing we need you two to do is lure it over.”
No less than five seconds after hearing her say that did Blackout respond, “Wait… so you… want us to be bait?!”
“Well, if you want to be blunt about it… sure,” Scootaloo retorted, “Besides, we don’t have the time to come up with a plan B.”
“She’s got a point,” Calvin added, “We’ll do what we can to bring it over-”
“One more thing,” Apple Bloom interjected, before motioning to the flaming birds that Calvin had summoned earlier, “In order for this to work, we need ya to have ya birds move over there. We need someone to protect Luna while we get this ready.”
“I can do that,” the Skyshifter nodded, before he clapped his hands and had the birds come back to him. Shortly after they arrived, he briefly explained to them what he needed for them to do. After he finished, all three of them gave him a friendly chirp before they flew over to where Luna was standing at.
As Blackout and Calvin got closer to the Terror now, the Skyshifter asked a question. “So… what’s the plan for making this thing angry?”
“Well, right now, it looks pretty mad because Luna is preventing it from healing itself,” the Dark Skylander pointed out as it continued to do its best to float out of their range and attack her, “Your birds can only do so much to protect her, given how powerful it is. Yet, I’m willing to bet that something like this fire night terror has a very short fuse.”
“Meaning?”
Blackout let out a small breath, before looking back at the Skyshifter, “Meaning that if we keep stopping any attempts it makes to harm Luna, it’ll be irritated it to the point that it would focus its attention on us instead.”
“That’s not fast enough,” Calvin countered as he looked back at the Dark Dragon, “We don’t know how much time Luna has left with her spell.”
“Okay, then what do you think we should do?”
Calvin looked towards the Terror in the distance, before he took out the horn from the wolf beast that he still had on him. He took a moment to focus as he put some of his energy into the base of the horn and made a sturdy grip, turning the broken horn into a makeshift dagger, “We strike it harder to get its attention, then we taunt it to get it to keep its attention on us.”
“You do realize that plan sounds insane, right?” the Skylander then asked him.
The only thing that Calvin did was just grin as he gripped his newfound weapon, “Sometimes, you just need to get straight to the point.”
After he heard that, Blackout blinked as he stared at the Skyshifter, “…Did you just-?”
“Come on! Less talking, more fighting!” Calvin insisted before he jumped into the fray as he left Blackout behind, leaving the dragon to facepalm himself.
“Geez… even in my dreams, I can’t get some rest,” the dragon thought to himself before going after Calvin.
As for the Skyshifter, he was already beginning to think of a plan to reach the Terror that was in the air. With his newfound weapon in one hand, Calvin began to focus his energy into the other hand’s gauntlet. As they got closer, he placed his hand down on the ground as magma cracks began to form around the ground in front of them in the shape of a rectangle, before the front of it was raised up to form a molten ramp.
For a moment, Blackout wanted to ask about why Calvin did this. Yet, when he looked up to see that the ramp was aimed towards the Terror itself, the Dark Dragon could only grin as he ran towards it. As the Skylander got closer, Calvin watched as Blackout curled up his body like when he used the buzzsaw form from earlier when he was cutting down trees. Yet, the only thing that was different was that the blades weren’t extended outward and kept closer to his body, which made him look less like a buzzsaw and more like a somewhat sharp runaway tire.
It wasn’t until Blackout had reached the very end of the ramp that he extended the blades, which pushed him further into the air as he flew towards the beast. Calvin joined him shortly afterwards as he raced towards the ramp and used his fire dash to accelerate into the air and fly towards the beast.
Fortunately, their opponent didn’t even seem remotely interested in them. The beast was more focused on Luna instead as it launched a series of molten rocks at the princess, which were intercepted by the molten birds that defended her. This gave the two of them a window of opportunity to strike while its back was turned.
As they got closer, both the Skylander and Skyshifter prepared themselves. Blackout was the first to strike as he hit the left shoulder blade of the beast with the blades of his buzzsaw as he sped up the rotation of the blades around him, while Calvin followed up with crashing onto the opposite shoulder like a burning comet. The flames exploded everywhere upon impact as Calvin had to grasp onto one the Terror’s sharp scales with his empty hand, the magma gauntlet preventing the scales from harming him.
Once he had a good grip, Calvin took the makeshift dagger that he made and attempted to cut through the scales. Yet, his first attempt to do so was unsuccessful, and he had a hard time trying to break through them. He wasn’t sure what the problem was, but the scales just couldn’t budge at all.
It was as he tried to cut through them that Calvin heard the sound of something cracking above him. As he looked up, the Skyshifter saw the scale that he was holding onto breaking under pressure as he tried to grab hold of it with his gauntlet. Seeing this happen gave him a new idea as he channeled his energy into the dagger to overheat it and slashed again. This time, he was able to cleanly slice through the scales, cutting deeply through the terror’s arm as the beast hollered in pain.
Even though the Skyshifter was able to harm the Terror, there was one thing he forgot to take into account. For a few seconds after he successfully cut through the scales with his knife, the scale that he held onto now broke. Calvin tried to grab hold of another, but he missed his chance and now began to fall straight towards the ground, “Oh, come on-!”
As he fell, Calvin turned himself around in mid-air in an attempt to land on his gauntlet and have it take the hit for him. And take the hit it did… with a heated burst, the gauntlet shattered upon impact as the Skyshifter hit the ground. The remnants of his gauntlet felt like super hot sand on his face as it took him a few moments to get back up on his feet. The landing itself was rather unpleasant, but he was at least thankful that he had no broken bones.
“Calvin!”
As he got up, Calvin turned to his right to see Blackout racing back over to him. “Are you okay?”
“F-For now,” he groaned as he wiped the sand off of his face, “D-Did we-?”
Before he could say anything else, the Skyshifter looked up and was started by the sight of the Terror that floated above the two of them as it menacingly stared down, seething with anger as black smoke began to rise from its body.
“Yeah,” Blackout said, “We did.”
Without warning, flames began to erupt from its injuries as the terror howled an ear-piercing roar. In mere seconds, it used those flames to accelerate straight towards them and pinned them to the ground. As it prepared to strike, Blackout created a pair of black holes and slipped out of there before sending an orb of darkness to the hole that was under the Terror’s hand. Upon contact, the black hole exploded and provided Calvin enough space to slip out before it could attack again.
“Come on, is that all you got, smoky!? I know Mabu that fight better than you!!” the Dark Dragon taunted the Terror, much to Calvin’s surprise. When he first suggested his plan, the Skylander thought that it sounded insane. Now though, he was going along with it.
So, the Skyshifter decided to join in as well. He first conjured a molten orb and threw it at the Terror’s face, watching as it exploded, “Hey, Chimney stack!! I know you can do better than that!! Or are you too much of a coward to face us?!”
The molten beast fixed its gaze on the two of them, gritting its teeth as the flames on its shoulders began to surge again. This time, Calvin and Blackout began to run as they avoided the next attack from the Terror. Afterwards, the Skyshifter threw another molten orb at the terror as it exploded upon contact with its chest, a move that prompted the beast to continue its pursuit.
In quick succession, Calvin and Blackout took turns in attacking the Terror to keep its attention on them, for the goal was not to defeat it, but to keep it fixated on them instead of Luna. That way, they could lure it into the trap that Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were preparing and finally finish this fight.
As they were chased, the Terror’s arms began to morph and change shape. The left arm took the form of a hammer that it used to smash the ground around them, while the right arm had turned into a sword. When the Terror attacked them with the hammer, it tried to smash the ground from above them and prompted Calvin and Blackout to dodge. As for the sword, the terror would swing its blade and aim low, which prompted the two of them to jump in order to avoid it.
“Geez, this Terror’s not giving up!” Calvin thought to himself as he narrowly avoided another hammer strike and launched another molten orb in response. He would’ve thought that, by now, the Terror would show some kind of sign that it was somehow weakened, but that did not seem to be the case at all, especially if it had the strength to transform its arms into weapons. “I just hope the girls have a plan for once we arrive.”
Ever since Calvin and Blackout had ‘volunteered’ to get the Terror’s attention, all three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders began making preparations in order to stop the terror in its tracks once it was lured over. Originally, the idea was to try and use ice as restraints to hold the terror in place. However, given that the terror was now floating in the air and had no legs now, Apple Bloom had to make a few massive changes to that plan.
The preparations that they had to make for their plan consisted of two things. The first preparation was to create a massive puddle using a lot of the Splash Bombs that Scootaloo had at her disposal, while the second was to have more than one of the frost cannons around the puddle and have each one of her friends control one. As for the plan, once Calvin and Blackout lured the terror over and it was knocked into it, all three of them would fire their cannons at the terror and the ground to freeze it from all sides. After it was frozen, Calvin can use one of his gauntlets to destroy the terror all at once.
At this point, most everything was in place. Sweetie Belle herself was now on lookout as she looked out into the distance to try and see where Calvin and Blackout were going. Both of her friends were busy figuring out the final details for the plan, so it was up to her to inform them when their allies were about to arrive.
“Hey, Sweetie,” she heard Apple Bloom speak up behind her, which had her turn around for a moment to see her friend, “Did Calvin and Blackout get that Terror’s attention?”
“Well,” Sweetie responded. As she turned back around, she looked through her binoculars again, only to witness Calvin and Blackout avoid another narrow attack from the terrors sword arm, “Since they are right now being chased by a giant molten monster that now has weapons for hands… I’m going to say yes.”
“How much time do you think we have before they arrive?” Scootaloo now asked her.
Sweetie took a moment to look through the binoculars one more time, before she realized that they were approaching the trap a lot faster than she anticipated, “Not long… Girls, get ready! They’re almost here!!”
“Wha-?! Already!?” Her friends responded, before they had to hurry and take up their assigned positions at the cannons. Sweetie, though, did not take up her position at the cannon by her just yet, for she had one additional task that she had to perform if their plan was going to work, and one that needed to happen in order for the rest of Apple Bloom’s plan to be successful.
When the Terror was lured in by Calvin and Blackout, it was her duty to knock it onto the ground. It sounded simple, but it was a crucial step. One mistake could put the whole plan in jeopardy. As the target got closer, Sweetie began to picture a different weapon to use for this task, since her bow and arrows were not going to be enough to knock it down. This time, she needed a weapon that would have a bit more impact.
Her final choice was a large metal sphere that was attached to a chain that materialized in Sweetie’s hands, a weapon that resembled the same one that was used by the Supercharger Skylander named Smash Hit, with its metal bands and crystal spikes. Gripping the weapon she saw in the Book of Skylanders, Sweetie gripped the chain firmly with her hands, before she started to spin the ball at the end in a circle as she waited for the right opportunity to release it.
That opportunity came when Sweetie saw Calvin and Blackout racing towards the trap, with the Terror dangerously close behind them. Its attention was only focused on the two of them and didn’t even notice Sweetie as it passed her, which she saw as the only chance that she had to act as she threw the ball and chain at her target’s back once it was above the puddle that was set up.
The Terror itself did not even know what hit it as the weapon struck its upper back and forced it down to the ground, which prompted Calvin and Blackout to get out of the way so they weren’t crushed underneath. As it hit the ground, Sweetie quickly bolted towards the cannon that was stationed by her and aimed it at the downed beast along with her friends. Immediately, all three began to fire their cannons at the same time as giant sized snowballs struck the puddle and the terror from all possible angles with enough firepower to have the target freeze over at it became nothing more than a giant block of ice in mere minutes.
Even Calvin himself seemed shocked by the sudden turn of events, though Sweetie didn’t really think he was informed about what they were doing while he was being monster bait. “W-woah… What just h-happened?”
“That… was our trap working,” Apple Bloom let out a sigh of relief, “Ah remembered what ya said earlier about how freezing it will make it easier for ya to hit and thought that it would be easier on all of us if we froze all of it instead of just a section at a time.”
“Huh… I have to admit, that was pretty good,” Blackout told them.
“Well, it’s not over just yet,” Scootaloo told them, “There’s still one more thing we need to do before we get rid of this terror for good.” She then turned towards Calvin as she continued, “Are you up for it?”
“Up for wha-” Calvin asked, before he began to realize what she was referring to, “Oh, you want for me to-?” After seeing all three of the crusaders nod, he let out a small breath before getting back up on his feet and looking back towards the frozen terror. “Hang on a second.”
Before the girls could ask, the Skyshifter brought up what looked like a makeshift knife as he began to channel his power into it as the blade was lit ablaze. With his weapon in one hand at the ready, Calvin then redirected his power into his other hand to create another magma gauntlet. With his blade, he started to cut the frozen husk down to size until the terror’s body was just a pile of frozen pieces before he incinerated the whole pile with one strike from his gauntlet. No traces were left of the terror as the Skyshifter let out a sigh of relief.
“Man… I’m glad that’s over,” he spoke as the Skyshifter dismissed his makeshift gauntlet. He felt like he wanted to just collapse on the ground and take a breather after that, “Is everyone alright?”
“Thanks to you, we are,” they all heard Luna say to them as she flew down from the platform she was on to join them, “All of you were able to face a Night Terror and defeat it together. I am grateful for your bravery.”
“Thank you, Princess,” Calvin told her, before looking at the rest of his friends, “I’m glad that I could help.”
“Uh… I hate to be ‘that guy’,” Blackout spoke up as he got everyone else's attention, “But don’t we have one other monster running around in the woods?”
“Well, I’m pretty sure that is something that you can handle now,” Luna replied back to the Skylander, “Besides, it’s almost time for Calvin, Scootaloo and the others to wake up in the real world, and I need to rest after everything we just endured. Surely, you’re capable of such a task right?”
Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but giggle to herself as Blackout began to process everything he just heard. It took a little bit, but after some thinking, he let out a small sigh. “Well, I don’t really have anything better to do. I guess I can take care of it.”
“Splendid,” Luna smiled, before her horn lit up as she turned to Calvin and his friends, “Now then… It’s time for you to wake up.”
End Part 3