After discussing things with Cadance, Shining, Thorax, and Pharynx, going over what their plans were for the guards that they were planning on gathering for the force that Ember and the Peace Keepers would be training, Spyro, Cynder, Spike, Ember, and the rest of their group spent some time exploring parts of the Crystal Empire, mostly to give the others a good chance to see the realm that Twilight's brother called home these days, since he originally grew up in Canterlot and moved to this place shortly after he and Cadance got married, since Spike was sure she was important to the Crystal Ponies, due to a prophecy or something, which required a visit to the library at some point in the future. For now, however, he and Ember did the same thing that they had done earlier, meaning Spike was the one revealing what everything was while the others looked around and stared at the other structures that were scattered throughout the Crystal Empire, even though Ember was silent since she didn't have all of Spike's former knowledge on the matter, but this allowed everyone to have a better understanding of this place and part of what it went through, before it was saved from the darkness and the one who tried to take it over was, of course, blasted out of the empire itself. Spike also noted that no one really knew what happened to the stallion that tried to take over the Crystal Empire, once more not referring to Sombra by name and only spoke about it when none of the Crystal Ponies were near them, but while some of the inhabitants were hoping he had been blasted to pieces, and his life ended, it was hard to know if he had retained a physical form or if that form had been destroyed after the Crystal Heart had been returned to its resting place, though in the end he decided it was best if they didn't think about it and focused on what he was doing right now, as they could ask him that question when he returned. Amelia did note how odd it was that most, if not all, of the villains of Equus, and that was the major ones since she wasn't counting the Flim Flam Brothers in that thought, had been displaced in some manner and Spike had to correct her a little, as the only villain who hadn't been displaced, based on what they had seen in the Tree's images, was actually Discord, but Fluttershy and the rest of her friends had reformed him some time ago, as per Princess Celestia's wishes, and since that point he renounced his villainous status and joined his new friends in learning about friendship, which impressed the rest of the group as they walked through the streets.
While that happened Spike was pleased about how the meeting went, as Pharynx had several Changelings that would be happy to leave the peaceful life they were enjoying right now, Cadance had a number of guards who could be spared from her own forces, and Shining also knew a few soldiers from Canterlot who would be interested in helping out, at least in the training sense since they were keeping the incoming invasion a secret for now, and the royals had helped them send out a few letters to the other kingdoms that rested throughout Equestria, to see just how many forces they could gather from those who hadn't been displaced by the spirit of their planet. Spyro, on the other hand, was pleased that the rulers of the lands that they had met so far were more understanding and very reasonable when they came to ask them for assistance in preparing for what the future held for them, even if that meant preparing for a demonic invasion that could supposedly wipe them all out if they didn't have a defense force, but even he knew that the forces of Equestria wouldn't be enough to stand against the coming darkness, even if they had the forces of his world helping the forces of Spike and Ember's home planet, and that was including the Deepcore Army that Spike could wake up. None of them knew if any of the other races or their leaders would agree with the idea of joining forces with Equestria and the dragons of the Dragon Lands, not to mention the Diamond Dogs of an ancient empire that no one knew about, something that was going to freak Daring Do out when she heard the news, something that Spike was sure was going to spread like wildfire, once some of the guards and other ponies discovered the truth for themselves, but they were sure that the Council of Three Paws were expecting such a thing and would be prepared for when the rest of their forces came to join Rover's group. All they could do was hope that the other leaders understood the dire situation that they would be facing in the near future, whenever their enemies arrived to attack their planet, and that they needed to be as prepared as they could be for that fateful day, even if that meant that the races of their world would be putting aside their differences and coming together to face a common goal, to save their world from the danger that threatened all of them, hence why Ember wanted to train them since the lessons of the Peace Keepers seemed to be far better than anything the other dragons had learned.
When their visit to the Crystal Empire was done, and the tour was finished as well, everyone returned to the Jupiter 2 and powered up the ship, where Hunter flew back to Ponyville and the Professor opened the portal back to Spyro's world, all so they could make sure that their plans for an off world training ground was ready for when the other races arrived in the near future, since all of them were sure that it would take some time for the various rulers to come up with the first group of soldiers that would be receiving Ember's training, and the training of Titan and the rest of the Peace Keepers, though it did give Ember a good idea how what to show the new recruits when the lessons actually started, given that there was a certain Peace Keeper she wanted to have a match with and never did get the chance to do that.
After returning to Spyro's world, even if it was for a short period of time, it didn't take them long to make their way back to the Skylands and return to where the academy would be built, where they found that Nestor and the others had made a good bit of progress since they had been gone, as it appeared that the walls were made out of smooth white stone, ones that were enchanted to resist crumpling over time and to resist all nine of the elements, not counting the Aether since that was the hardest element to create a resistance against, even though Malefor was the only one that knew the ins and outs of the Aether and Spike was catching up with him in that regard, which he wasn't even surprised by at this point, just like the rest of the group was no longer surprised by what Spike did. In addition to the walls there were hallways and rooms that had already been added to the main building that would become the center of the academy, where instructors would teach their classes about whatever subject they worked on, like how Cosmos would instruct his students on how to wield the various types of magic, with specific instructors being picked for the classifications, such as Teleportation or maybe Transmogrification, or how Titan would be one of the fighting instructors and the other Peace Keepers would focus on a specific set of techniques, or at least that was what they knew at the moment and that could change once they started the lessons. There was going to be a main atrium that would have a circular shape to it, combined with a domed roof and a pair of curved walkways that would lead up to the upper floors, which would be where they either kept the permanent instructors who retired from their own clans, as Spyro was sure that some dragons and some of the other races would want to change professions when the academy was completed, though the plan was for this place to be just as big and as wide as some of the arenas they had faced some of the villains in over the years, like when they faced Ripto for the first time or when they first engaged the Sorceress, just without the lava and the hazards. Outside the building Nestor and the rest of the Artisans were in the middle of setting up four statues in the courtyard of the academy, which happened to be of Spyro, Cynder, Spike, and Ember, while resting nearby, on the other side of where a grand fountain rested, happened to be the statues of Elora, Hunter, Bianca, and the rest of their heroic friends, as if they had been set there to motivate the next generation of heroes that would be following them, but it would be interesting to show Cadance, Shining, and the others all of this, and that wasn't counting the other islands that went into the Skylands, with the main one being the largest of all of the elemental islands.
One of the things that they planned on building at some point on this island, away from the rest of the buildings and under an intense amount of safeguards, was a structure that would maintain balance in the Skylands, something Spike had taken to calling the 'Core of Light' in the plans for everything that would be built in this place, even though he and Malefor had an idea of what needed to be gathered to make it work the way he was thinking about, though for now it sure seemed like all of the things that they had talked about had been built to their standards, including a training arena off to the left of the main structure, as to the left of it rested the Portal Nexus they were planning on building, though after discovering the rest of the displaced, and all of the worlds they had been sent to, the Professor was planning on moving the Portal Nexus over to a slightly smaller island that was near the main one.
"So, this is were we'll be training?" Smolder asked, because while she could have stayed in Ponyville, and let this be a bit of a surprise when the rest of the trainees and recruits joined them from the other provinces and cities of Equestria, the fact that they would be preparing to face demons, dangerous creatures that would wipe out their world if they weren't ready for their arrival, excited her and made her ready to do anything and everything that would give her a fighting chance when their enemies came to fight them, to which she turned and glanced at Ember for a moment, "Its a nice place, even if it has some work that needs to be done to complete it. So, are we going to start training now, or are we going to wait for the rest of the volunteers to join us?"
"Eager to start, are we?" Ember inquired, though that was good to see, as Smolder had seen her power and the skills of the rest of the group when they faced Garble and the rest of his group back in the Dragon Lands, to which she chuckled for a few moments as she headed for the arena, because if Smolder wanted to start her training she was more than willing to see if she was at the same level as her brother or if she was actually a level or two higher than Garble, as it would let her figure out what sort of training she needed for the future, even though she would be testing the guards and the rest of the recruits with Titan and some of the other Peace Keepers who would be helping them out, before she found that everyone else was following after her while she did that, "Well, then we'll take a few moments to see what sort of skills you have and where I'll have you start when the others arrive to start their training, though I'm sure that you have a few ideas on what to do after seeing all of us fight Garble and his friends earlier, so I'm interested in seeing what sort of tactics you decide to use against me during our little session."
Spyro and the others knew that Smolder was eager to start learning all of the skills that Ember had learned and this was a good start to her lessons, even though starting early was the more interesting part about this, but instead of taking a few seconds to think about everything they just followed Ember towards the circular structure she was heading towards, as it had a few rows of seats, for students who needed a visual lesson and could watch someone practice a technique or a set of attacks they were stuck on, an armory full of practice gear, Nestor insisted that they change that part of what Titan and the other Peace Keepers had planned so any recruits weren't harmed in the process, and even a washroom so the future students could clean themselves off after a hard day of training, though in the center of the arena rested a large ring that was where the lessons would be held, which was where Ember and Smolder stood as Spyro and the others remained in the ringed stands for now.
"Come whenever you're ready, Smolder," Ember said, where she raised one of her hands and beckoned for the dragon to be the one to start this fight, given that she was the eager one out of the two of them, before shifting her stance to show that she was ready for what was coming her way, even though she reached for none of her weapons since this was just a test and not a true battle, especially since the Bloodstone Scepter was back in the Jupiter 2 for now, as she knew that its power wouldn't work in this world and could rely on her weapons if she needed them, though for now her focus was on Smolder as the rest of the group waited to see what happened next.
After she did that Smolder shifted her own stance a few times, mostly because she recalled what Ember had done to her foes back in the Dragon Lands and knew that anything she did was going to result in defeat, if Garble's beating was a sign of what was to come, before she sighed and rushed through the space that was between her and her foe, even though it was more flying than anything else, and spun forward so the back side of her left leg could come down on her opponent, to smash her into the arena floor and possibly crack it, possibly even put a dent in the armor that Ember was wearing at the moment. What actually happened was that Ember raised her right arm for a moment and used the side of it to block Smolder's attack, kicking up a bit of dust in the process as the two dragons stared at each other for a few seconds, as one wasn't surprised by what they were seeing right now, because Smolder had been anticipating this, while the other was just standing there as she waited for the next attack to come her way, which was obviously Ember given what was going on at the moment, before Smolder continued with her assault and brought her right leg down on her foe was well, intending on knocking her opponent into the ground for real, only for Ember to shift her stance and hurl Smolder into the air, stopping her attack from hitting its target. It didn't take Smolder long to spread her wings and correct herself, though she wasn't at all surprised by what was going on at the moment and suspected that Ember had many more tricks up her sleeves, even if she took her armor off and found her without that on, before she rushed back down to where her opponent was standing and threw a few punches at Ember, to knock her in the side of her head or in her chest to stun her for a few seconds, but what she found was that her opponent just dodged her attacks like they were nothing, as if she would see them coming ahead of time and knew when to move her body to avoid her blows, though what she suspected was that this was all of her combat experience coming to the surface and she was reading her body language to determine everything that was coming her way. After a few seconds Ember switched things up and alternated between using her fists to block the couple of punches that were coming her way, just dodging them outright and with little effort in the grand scheme of things, or she used the palms of her hands to parry the punches that were coming at her, though Smolder found that this was more like fighting an immovable object, as her power was insufficient when she considered everything she had seen back in the Dragon Lands and when her brother fought Ember, and it made her wonder what would happen when she learned all of the techniques and tricks of the Peace Keepers that had taught the Dragon Lord how to fight.
Her thoughts, however, allowed Ember to bypass her defenses for a moment and lightly grip her head, to force her back towards the edge of the ring and and rolled a few times before coming to a stop at the very end of the area they had been righting in, to which Ember raised her hand and beckoned for her to come at her again, to which Smolder sighed and did something that would surprise the watchers, she jumped out of the ring and walked over to the room that was labeled as the Armory, as she wanted to see what was inside it before trying her hand against Ember again, though it only took her a few seconds to find something she liked and rushed out with a pair of wooden daggers in her hands, which she brought down on her opponent's location, only for Ember to stop her with what appeared to be a pair of metallic daggers that just appeared out of nowhere.
"What in the... where did those come from?" Smolder inquired, because while she knew that hand to hand combat was the wrong way to go about things, against Ember anyway, she thought that using a pair of weapons might be better and that using the daggers might give her an upper hand against the one she was training with, though she was surprised by the rather sudden appearance of the weapons that were currently in Ember's hands, which were rather elegant for a pair of daggers and she had to wonder where in the world they had come from, as the only weapons that Ember had, to the best of her knowledge, were the odd blade that she hadn't seen removed from its sheath and the Bloodstone Scepter, where the latter was missing and the former was still sheathed, so this was quite the surprise.
"My bracers, to be exact," Ember remarked, though at the same time she shifted her stance and knocked Smolder back for a moment, where her opponent landed on the ground not a few seconds later, but that was when she spun her blades as she focused on the young dragon and channeled a bit of her power as the weapons changed form, where they changed from the pair of daggers and became a pair of broadswords, a pair of tonfa, a pair of metallic claws, a set of axes, and a few other weapons that could come in pairs if a warrior wanted to do such a thing, before returning to their dagger form as she stared at Smolder, who seemed confused about something, "These are the Fangs of Felinia, a powerful creature that Malefor fought and defeated a long time ago, who proceeded to fashion a pair of fang-like daggers from a pair of the large creature's teeth, though they were empowered by his power and the power that had resided inside Felinia, though that gave these blades the power that I just demonstrated, the ability to change form according to what the wielder wants, but they also contained another power, one that allows them to disappear into whatever armor the user happens to be wearing at the time, such as my bracers... truthfully, I wasn't expecting you to go for some weapons, but since you have I figured that I'd do the same, as using my runeblade would be rather unfair for you."
Smolder thought about that for a few moments, as while she knew that Ember and the others carried special blades that, according to Spike, contained the power to wield the elements of this world, like Fire, Water, Earth, and so on, she hadn't seen one of them in battle yet, though she suspected that all of them had been made by Malefor as well, as he seemed to be the strongest dragon in this world and also seemed to be a weaponsmith who created all of the greatest blades that all of the heroes used against their enemies, meaning that even if the Fangs of Felinia only had the powers that Ember just told her about, and there weren't any secrets, her chances of winning were still zero, based on all of the skills that her foe had shown off since her return to the Dragon Lands. In the next few seconds, however, she decided to get it over with and rushed back over to where Ember was standing, where she swung the daggers at her opponent and watched as her attack was parried instantly, even though the air moved a bit in the process, and then unleashed a small flurry of attacks on her opponent in an attempt to tip the scales in her favor once more, though, as she suspected, Ember just stood there as they clashed and made sure that her daggers met Smolder's in the process, without moving backwards at all, which was just a display of her skill and power at this point. It was easy for her to see that Ember was definitely stronger than what she had thought at first, now that she was experiencing the Dragon Lord's power for herself, even though she hadn't questioned what she had seen when her brother and his friends fought the group, and it wasn't long before her foe broke through her guard and kicked her right in the chest, something that caused Smolder to stagger for a moment as she realized that she was at a severe disadvantage and that she really needed the training of the Peace Keepers if she wanted to catch up to her Dragon Lord, even if it would take some time and effort to do that. What was interesting was that Ember only lashed out at her to knock the daggers from her grasp, making sure not to cut into her hands while she did it, and it only took a couple of seconds for both of the weapons to fall to the ground that was around them, which was around the time that she took a moment to banish her own daggers and then punched her in the chest, causing her to stagger once more, before Ember took out her legs from under her and knocked her to the ground, lightly since this was only a practice session, and then held a hand towards her, sort of like what she had done against Garble, meaning she was looking for Smolder to tell her that she was surrendering, which she did not a few seconds later.
Ember smiled as she helped Smolder back up onto her feet for a moment, as while her skills left much to be desired, even though her skills seemed to be better than her brother's skills, she could see a decent Peace Keeper inside Smolder and knew that she would excel when the training started, and she made sure to tell Smolder that she was pleased with what they had done and that her skills were good, which only made the young dragon excited for what they would be doing as soon as the rest of the recruits were gathered and they started the training program that Ember and the Peace Keepers had created for everyone that would be coming to the academy.
The next day and a half was spent making sure the building structure of the academy was fully ready for the forces that would be training and getting ready for the upcoming invasion, whenever it happened, but once they were sure the work was done, and that none of the Artisans dragons needed any help taking stuff back to their homeworld so they could rest before the next big project Nestor wanted to work on, Spyro, Cynder, Spike, Ember, and the rest of their group made their way over to the island that was going to be the Portal Nexus, where several portal structures had been prepared ahead of time and several of them were connected to all of the lands on this world, with one being linked to Ponyville. At one point they were going to have to figure out a better place for the portal that was near Ponyville, since it was still in the plains between it and Canterlot's mountain, but the Professor was sure they would be able to come up with a new position for it at some point in the future, or better yet share technology with the ponies and races of Equus and create a portal network for them at some point, their own Nexus that was linked up with this world, something that they would have to talk to the other leaders about in the future. With the group coming to that decision in a matter of seconds, and there was nothing else in this area for them to do for the time being, Spyro and the others headed through the portal that would take them back to Equus and allowed it to teleport them back to Spike and Ember's world, where it only took them a few seconds to appear in the plains near Ponyville, which was where Cadance, Shining, Thorax, and everyone else would be gathering in the near future, as they planned on regrouping here and meeting the recruits that would be learning from Titan and the rest of the Peace Keepers, where they knew that the dragons in question happened to be back at the academy, readying themselves for when their new students arrived. Based on everything that the group knew the leaders and their recruits would be arriving at some point in the early morning, technically before Discord was supposed to raise the sun and lower the moon for the rest of the world, as Spike determined that letting the rest of Ponyville see a force of soldiers, ones that were from Canterlot and the rest of Equestria, would probably freak everyone out and cause unnecessary panic in the grand scheme of things, hence why they were doing this in the early morning and not during the day, though they headed over to the train station, where their allies would be arriving in due time.
Of course, as they did that, Spyro noticed a force of Diamond Dogs, off to the south of the town, who were walking over to where the group happened to appear, with Gruff Bronzepaw leading the pack by the looks of things, which made sense due to the fact that he seemed to be the leader of the warriors who called Diamondia home, before they noticed a group of twenty to thirty teenage dragons, who had Garble as a temporary leader, since the group assumed that Torch wanted Smolder to be the leader of the pack that was being sent to Ponyville, and it wasn't long before the dragons landed near the Diamond Dogs, where Gruff nodded to the group as Garble merely crossed his arms. Before anyone said anything the train rolled into the station, which was perfect timing on the group's part since they had only just arrived and had been expecting that they would have to wait for some time before their allies arrived to join them, but this meant that no one would have to wait all that long to do anything and the group was eager to see who would be arriving first, even though Spike noted that the train was longer than it had been when they first returned to Ponyville, meaning that there might be more ponies coming than what they were originally thinking. It wasn't long before the first group emerged from the train and walked over to where Spyro's group and the first two forces were standing, where they found Shining Armor, who was wearing a purple set of armor that had a golden trim around the body and a helmet that turned his mane into a short cut mohawk, which Spike knew had to be an enchantment of some kind, leading a force of guards off the train, guards that were wearing a golden version of Shining's armor, though there appeared to be a fair number of Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi mixed into the Royal Guard of Canterlot, where some had a white coat and others had a light gray coat, where once more Spike had to assume there was a spell or an enchantment on the armor since it seemed odd to have so many individuals with the same colorations, to preserve their identity he guessed, in case someone wanted revenge on one of them for some reason. Joining the guards in golden armor were another sect of guards who were wearing a set of armor that was dark blue and seemed to have an eye in the center of the body piece, as opposed to the star that the golden sets had, though these ponies had dark gray colored coats, darker than the ones who were in the golden armor, and they had bat-like wings and their ears ended in tuffs, or at least that what was it looked like from where they were standing, but as Shining walked over to them Spike noted that he was bringing with him the Solar and Lunar Guards, so named since the former protected Princess Celestia during the day and the latter did the same with Princess Luna during the night, but at the moment they were left without much to do since both Princesses were missing.
What surprised Spike was the fact that it looked like nearly every guard in Canterlot, or at least the vast majority of them, were following Shining towards the area they were standing in, meaning they were either volunteering due to wanting to get brownie points with their leaders, when Celestia or luna returned from their own adventures, or they knew about the danger their world faced, kept a straight face when they were told that piece of information, and offered their aid as soon as Shining was done telling them what was coming their way, more in the sense to save their world from the danger that was coming and less in the sense that they wanted to get some praise from their leaders then they returned, and by his count there were a hundred ponies, at least, between the two sets of guards that followed Shining. In addition to that they found the Crystal Guards, who had purple coats, that had to be enchanted due to the armor they were wearing, walking behind Princess Cadance as she walked off the train as well, though her guards had what looked like silver armor that had a crystalline shine to each of the pieces, be it the body armor, the helmet with the mohawk enchantment, or the shoes that were over the pony's hooves, and, interestingly enough, the Crystal Guards also had the crystalline shine they had when the group visited the Crystal Empire a few days ago, something Spike would have to look into at some point since he was sure the shine had been tied to the Crystal Heart and that being away from it would have taken the shine away, so some research would allow him to correct his thoughts at some point. In addition to all of the ponies there were other groups who walked off of the train, some stretching due to the fact that they must have been asleep and only just now woke up as the train came to a stop at the station, as there were a number of Griffons walking behind Shining and Cadance, who were quadrupedal creatures, like the ponies and the young dragons of Spyro's world, whose front half was that of an eagle with the claws, wings, and beak for example, while the back half of their bodies were that of a lion due to the tail and paws, but the group found that the colors of their fur and feathers differed from Griffon to Griffon, as one had white feathers while also having moderate gamboge fur, though another had two versions of arctic bluish gray for their colors. Out of the entire group of Griffons that were in front of them, which were between twenty to thirty based on what Spyro could see, two of them were familiar to Spike, the first being the white feathered Griffon he had spotted, who was Gilda, one of Rainbow's old friends, while the other was the arctic bluish gray Griffon, who happened to be Gabby, though there was one with a brilliant blue color to his feathers, as he was built slightly differently from the two girls Spike had thought about, whose talons were a brilliant amber color, though he assumed this was Gallus, someone who wanted to join the Canterlot Guard, Solar Guard to be exact, and he must have jumped at the chance to join their task force.
After the Griffons stood a slightly smaller force of individuals, mostly in number since these creatures were a bit taller than the rest of the races, who were quadrupedal, just like the rest of the races that they had called upon to train for the future and prepare for the incoming invasion, and had a bunch of fur or hair covering their bodies, though it looked like most of them were wearing what appeared to be blankets on their backs, or in the cases of some armored blankets that went with their helmets and whatever other pieces of armor they happened to be wearing, though Spike realized that these were the Yaks of Yakyakistan, and one of them had a grayish amber undercoat, a grayish vermilion overcoat, and had a pair of pink bows that were attached to her hair, meaning she had to be Yona according to the letter he read earlier. In addition to the Yaks there was another group coming after them, a race that looked an awful lot like ponies at first glance, but the light heliotropeish gray coat with dark bluish gray stripes and black colored hooves, with Cutie Marks that seemed more like the tribal markings than actual marks that most ponies had, revealed that they were Zebras, from Farasi, and many of them had golden rings around their necks and golden hoops in their ears, in whatever number they desired, not to mention a few rings around one leg, sometimes two, though they had mohawks that had white and dark gray sections, though one of them carried a staff on her back and nodded to Spike, who had to be Zecora, the Zebra who lived in the Everfree Forest and was an excellent herbalist. Behind the Zebras marched the Hippogriffs, who were quadrupedal creatures who had the head, claws, and wings of an eagle while possessing the hind legs and tail of a pony, where the colors of their manes, tails, and their coats were similar to what Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth Ponies had, though according to one of the legends that Spike had read over the day and a half break that lead to this point some of the Hippogriffs could actually transform into Seaponies, who were half pony and half fish based on everything he had discovered before this point in time, and there were two areas that they called home, one being Mount Aris and the other being Seaquestria, the latter being an area he had to read about at some point as well, and one of the Hippogriffs had a light magentaish gray with a light grayish orchid beak, and her mane and tail was a light cornflower blue with bits of light bluish gray, meaning she had to be the one that was called Silverstream, based on the information they had.
Once those races were off the train the group watched as a group of Changelings, lead by Thorax and Pharynx, walked off the train as well and it appeared, based on what they were seeing right now, that they were the last race that was leaving it and that there was no one else on the train, save for the ones that operated it in general, and there was one among them who had a light grayish arctic blue color to their chitin and a light amaranth color to their neck fins, with a brilliant version of the latter color to their wings, where Spike determined that it was Ocellus, another one that they had been told about in the letter... though before anyone said anything an Earth Pony, stallion by the build, with a light grayish spring bud coat and whose mane and tail were a light cyan with moderate opal fusion, rushed over and joined them, who Spike also knew was Sandbar, a resident of Ponyville, and he must have been told about this and came rushing as soon as he heard the train roll into the station.
"So, um, how many recruits did we end up getting?" Amelia asked, because this was far more than what she was honestly expecting when she heard what Ember and the others were planning on doing once they learned of the incoming demonic invasion, as she was expecting a handful from each race, maybe five or six to start with, but from the looks of things most of the races had either learned of the threat they faced in the same manner as the Council of Three Paws did, by the spirit of Equus talking to them in some manner, or each of them were told that information by Cadance, Shining, and Thorax, which could have prompted more guards to join the cause, but her question was directed towards Spike, since he had to be counting all of the individuals that were in front of them.
"Three hundred recruits, at the very least, with four to five hundred being the upper limits," Spike replied, as he had been counting the individuals that were in front of them and had an accurate idea of just how many guards and volunteers the leaders were bringing together for the upcoming invasion, which gave them roughly a thousand total when combined with everyone that was back in Spyro's world, or at the very least that was the number since he hadn't counted everyone that had been assembled for the war with Gaul and his dark forces, before he chuckled for a moment as they stared out at the force that was in front of them, "its a good thing Equestria and the other lands don't have that many natural enemies, or have none based on what I remember... I'll need to read up on that again... otherwise I'm sure someone would notice the disappearance of so many guards and come at us, but we won't have to worry about that happening at all."
Spyro, instead of saying anything to that, made sure that Cadance, Shining, Thorax, Pharynx, and the other leaders that were present were ready for things to get started, which was around the time that the Professor informed everyone of the fact that they would be passing through a portal between worlds and that their training would take place in an entirely different place, in case anyone was thinking about Ponyville being where they would be spending their time, which wasn't a bad thought since it was a hot spot of monster attacks and misfortunes, though while it would have been a good idea, even if a bit low based on the rate of events, training with the Peace Keepers was still the better idea. Instead of wasting any time the Professor opened the portal and beckoned for everyone to head through it, where it was easy to see that all of the recruits were unsure of what to do, before Gallus, Silverstream, Sandbar, Yona, Ocellus, and Smolder stepped away from the rest of the group and marched through the portal, which was a happy coincidence given the fact that it looked like Smolder had done that mostly to help everyone understand that the portal was stable and that nothing bad would happen, but the other five stepping forward at the same time just made things interesting, as it caused the races to nod to each other and start marching through the widened portal the Professor had opened. When they stepped through the portal Spyro and the others found that everyone was surprised by what they were seeing at the moment, in terms of the academy structure, the statues that were scattered around the area, the portal structures, and then, when they glanced out at the area that was around them, they found that they were floating in the air and discovered that the portal wasn't connected to a landmass like Equestria, rather it was connected to a floating island that surprised Cadance and Shining, as this was their first time seeing something like this, and it didn't take them long to spot the other floating islands off in the distance, which was where Spike welcomed them to Skylands and, more importantly, the Skylanders Academy, which was where they would be receiving their training. It was also around that time that they found Titan and the rest of the Peace Keepers standing near the entrance of the academy structure, even though all of the adult dragons were a little surprised by the amount of recruits that had appeared and were walking out of the Portal Nexus, though he wasted no time as soon as they got close to the statues and welcomed them to the Skylanders Academy, so named after the fact that this place was built in the Skylands and that it was a place to train the next generation of heroes, or train all of them in the various Peace Keeper techniques that Ember used.
"Before we begin, I have to ask all of you a question: how many of you know why we're here?" Titan asked, because while everyone in this world knew of the danger that Equus would be facing in the future, and were already making their own preparations for the demons in question, he and the others had no idea if any of the leaders had told their guards and the volunteers why this was happening in the first place, even if they knew that Spyro, Cynder, Spike, Ember, and the others had tried to make sure none of the civilians knew about the demonic invasion, least they panic due to the fact that every powerful being, excluding Discord, was gone and they had no defenses against such a powerful force, which was when he took a moment to consider something as he focused on the group, "Go ahead and raise a hoof, claw, hand, or wing if you know what's going on."
"Should we have said nothing to them?" Cadance inquired, though her words followed the rising tide of everyone raising their hooves, wings, claws, and hands in response to what Titan had asked, even though the question worried her since, in preparation for this, she and Shining made sure to tell everyone from the Crystal Empire and Canterlot what they would be getting themselves into if they took on Ember's training, just like she was sure many of the other leaders had done for their own forces, and based on the fact that everyone acknowledged that they had been told what was coming their way, and that they were still standing here, this told her that all of them were willing to stand against the coming darkness and do everything in their power to bring the demons down.
"Well, we were planning on telling them anyway, but this saves us some time, given that we have no idea when the peace of your world will be broken," Titan replied, as while he would have preferred to tell everyone the news here, and not have it be revealed back in Equus since there was a chance someone could spread the news about the invasion, he was going to accept this since it appeared that no panic had happened on the other side of the portal, otherwise Spike, Ember, and the rest of the group would be cleaning it up while he and the others focused on training, though that was when everyone that was in front of him, excluding Spyro's group, dropped whatever they had brought with them and braced themselves for what was coming next, "Oh, am I correct in assuming that all of you are ready for our training?"
"We are well aware of the threat our world faces, and we are willing to do anything and everything to gain the power to protect our homes," Smolder stated, where Spyro, Cynder, Spike, Ember, and the rest of the group found that five others nodded their heads as soon as she said what was on her mind, those five being Sandbar, Silverstream, Yona, Ocellus, and Gallus, before the rest of the force nodded their heads and waited for Titan, Ember, or one of the other Peace Keepers to start the first of many training sessions, and she was even more determined after the training session that she had with Ember before everyone gathered for this day, "We might not be the displaced, who will turn the tide against the demons, but we will do everything in our power to make sure no innocents suffer and make the demons pay for targeting Equus in the first place!"
Titan smiled for a moment as he heard that statement, because it reminded him and the other Peace Keepers of the days when they started to teach a young Spyro, Spike, and Ember the ways of fighting, when everyone had witnessed Ember's drive and desire to be the strongest warrior in the entire world, even if that meant having to surpass Malefor, before he called for everyone to pick up their stuff and start picking their rooms inside the academy, as there was a dorm area for those who wanted to stay here, even if they weren't going to force them to stay in this world and they could leave at any time, even if the main six individuals seemed to be picking rooms near each other, before they gathered in a large open area as he, Trondo, and several of the Peace Keepers started to display the skills that the recruits would be learning, just like they were teaching young dragons all over again, before having them replicate what they were seeing.
"All we can do now is train and ready ourselves for when the demons come, all while keeping an eye out for when the rest of the displaced arrive," Spyro stated, as while he'd rather do more to find the rest of the displaced, to get them and all of their allies to Equus faster, there was nothing more they could do right now and that meant all they could do was continue honing their skills and making sure they were ready for whatever came their way in the near future, even though he knew that it wouldn't be long before Ember and the others, including him, joined Titan and started to train their recruits for the incoming invasion and the greatest battle of their lives.
Spike, Cynder, Ember, and the others nodded their heads, as they understood what Spyro was talking about and they were ready to do everything in their power to make sure their forces were ready for the demons, in case they arrived before the displaced returned, before they glanced towards the sky for a moment and knew that it was only a matter of time before they were in the middle of a war again, this time for the safety of multiple worlds based on what the images showed, one that they intended on winning, before heading out to join the training session, leaving any thoughts about the invasion for later as each of them focused on the here and now, even though they knew that they would make the demons regret even attacking Equus in due time.