Beyond the Skies- Canterlot Crashers
Fluttershy’s cottage (A few hours before the gala)
It had been about a day since Calvin’s visit to the Carousel Boutique, and now, he was spending his morning talking with Discord about his experience with not just her, but also the Cutie Mark Crusaders and also Applejack. Of course, being the lord of Chaos that he is, explaining things to him wasn’t always so easy, but this morning, he actually took quite a liking to the boy’s little story about what happened.
“So, Applejack tried to hogtie you with her lasso, and you burned it? Boy, you sure have a lot of tricks up your sleeve,” Discord chuckled, “Then again, your clothes don’t have sleeves.”
Calvin sighed. “Point taken…”
“You would really be good as an escape artist with those tricks of yours there, Calvin. Either that or one of the stallions that gets shot out of the cannon at the circus.”
“Um… I don’t really think I would be able to do that.”
“Not with that attitude!” He cheerfully interjected.
“Right… So, would you mind if I asked you something?” Calvin asked. “I was wondering about Princess Celestia. The pony that Twilight and the girls are going to introduce me to tonight… What is she like?”
“Well… That’s… a bit of a tough question. My relationship with her has been a bit… bumpy over the years if you know what I mean.” Discord then pointed to a blue sign he made in the air, stating “Reformed Villain” in bright gold letters. While that was going on, a few bumps began to take form along his shoulders and serpentine body as he conjured a hammer with his Chaos magic and started to smash them back in. This caused the sign above him to crack a little with each smash of the hammer as the Draconequus looked back at the boy. “We're in a somewhat fragile state right now-”
Around the time he said that, the sign above him shattered into pieces, with parts of the sign taking form into glass as they fell to the floor. “-So, I really got to watch my step around her and Luna. Or else I’ll poke a claw out.” As he got up, he placed one of his feet on a shard of glass, giving the sound of what you would hear when a balloon would pop. He lifted it up, showing the deflated limb to Calvin.
“See what I mean?”
Crushing the glass pieces in a claw, he placed his mouth at a claw tip of his foot and blew, the limb blowing back into shape like a balloon.
“I guess…… Would one way of describing it be like trying to walk through a minefield?” Calvin asked, remembering when he had to tread through one when playing the first Skylanders game.
“That’s one way of putting it.”
The boy then breathed a sigh of relief. Conversations were never a strong suit for Calvin, so he was always trying to be careful with what he said… and anytime he messed up, he would be quick to apologize. “Still… back to what you were saying about Celestia?”
“Oh! Right…” The Chaos spirit replied back, using a small broom and dustpan to pick the glass off of the floor. “Well, Celestia is a kind pony, but she is also quite busy. She is the ruler of all of Equestria, and that comes with a lot of responsibility and a long to-do list. She’s a bit of a workaholic if you ask me.”
“A what?” Calvin asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Workaholic… You know… likes to keep herself busy with things to do… That sort of thing?” The boy still seemed confused as Discord only gave a deep sigh. “Well, are there any other questions you want to ask?”
“Well… How should I act around her? Should I try to be formal, like what Rarity told me at the boutique, or casual, since Rainbow told me it’ll be easier for me.”
Now, Calvin brought up a very good question. One that was tricky for even Discord to answer. “Well, the only thing I can suggest is for you to be yourself. Just act normal. Like when you met Luna and Cadence earlier today.”
“Yeah, but that was a surprise that caught everyone off guard,” he reminded him.
“True. But you should still act the same way. Just keep calm and carry on… For me though, I have other things to focus on.”
“Other things?” He asked.
“I’m a little concerned about a new friend that Fluttershy made yesterday while you were at the Boutique. Her name is Tree Hugger, and I get a weird suspicion that she’s trying to slowly take Fluttershy away from me.”
“That… just sounds really silly. You can have more than one friend, Discord. Don’t you think that she considers you as much of a friend as she considers Twilight and the girls as her friends as well?” He posed a very valid question... but Discord wasn’t quite so open to the possibility though, especially with the personal thoughts of her inviting Tree Hugger to the Gala instead of him lingering in his mind.
Calvin sighed. “Well, I’m going to check on Rarity and see if my suit for the Gala is done. I’ll catch up with you later.” With that, he exited out the front door of the cottage and began to walk to the Carousel Boutique. It was a calming walk, despite the numerous amounts of eyes that were watching him as he made his way to the place Rarity called home. Soon, he made it to the front door and knocked a few times before he heard a voice.
“Who is it?”
“It’s Calvin,” he replied, “Can I come in?”
“Of course you can!” Rarity replied wistfully, using her magic to open the door and welcoming the boy inside before closing it behind him. “I’ve been working on your suit all day, and thanks to you, I’ve come up with a variety of options for you to choose from.”
“Wait… Options?”
“Why of course! You should always have a second set of clothes for any fancy occasion. So, I did a number of suits in different colors for you. Most of them based off of the colors of the elements that you mentioned the other day when explaining your powers.” The seamstress said, displaying a series of ten different suits. Two of them that caught his attention were the dark navy colored pair based on the Dark Element and the Purple suit based on the Magic element, so he decided to use those two for the Gala tonight.
“All of these look fantastic, Rarity. Hopefully, this gives a boost to my confidence.”
“Why’s that, Darling? You already look very confident to me.”
“Well, I’m a little bit nervous about meeting Princess Celestia,” Calvin admitted, “I tried talking to Discord for advice, but that really didn’t go so well. He’s acting a little… what's the term…?”
“Not himself?”
“I was going to say loony, but I think the proper term is senseless,” he replied, “You should’ve seen him after he mentioned the new friend that Fluttershy was bringing to the Gala.”
“Should I know?” She asked, a little bit concerned.
“He thinks that her new friend, Tree Hugger, would take Fluttershy away from him. I tried to reason with him… But… He wasn’t really… accepting of what I told him. Let’s just hope he doesn’t take things too far at the Gala tonight.”
“Darling, I think that’s something we can all agree on. Come along now…” She ushered. “Let’s get you suited up and ready. The train to Canterlot should be leaving in an hour.”
“Is Canterlot like another town or city?” The boy asked. He never had the time to look at a map of Equestria, so he was fairly new to the country's numerous locations. Rarity herself was surprised to hear the boy say that and began an explanation that made Calvin feel like he was being lectured by his parents.
Soon though, he and the girls were off, with Discord in tow. Spike ultimately decided to stay home, because he remembered his experience from the last Grand Galloping Gala, and it wasn’t exactly Grand. On the way though, a lot of things were going on inside Calvin’s mind. He was personally worried about trying to not disappoint Twilight’s “Teacher”, not to mention the ruler of the entire country, but also felt… alert, like something bad was going to happen tonight of all places.
‘Eon? Are you there?’ He thought to himself, wondering if he had some kind of way to communicate with the Portal Master in his mind. It didn’t happen immediately, but after a few seconds, a voice responded.
‘You said my name, young SkyShifter?’
‘Yeah. I wanted to ask you about something. Remember when you said about me needing to make that token to call upon help when I needed it?’
‘Indeed,’ Eon spoke softly to him. ‘You are ready to make it?’
‘Yes, I am. I got a bad feeling that after tonight, something crazy is going to happen, and I want to be ready for whenever I may need help, and I’m separated from the girls.’ Calvin told the Elderly portal master his concerns. ‘How does the process work?’
‘First, you need an item to serve as your token.’
‘Could the Traptanium Crystal around my neck work?’
‘If you believe so. Now, with that, you need to say something. A calling to others who might come across it and need your help in desperate times.’ Calvin thought about it for a minute, taking the time he needed to summarize the words, but soon, he spoke again to Eon.
‘Hello. My name is Calvin, but you may refer to me as the SkyShifter. Summon me, and I will assist you in anyway I can.’
‘Well done. I’ll take care of the rest from here. You might want to pay attention to your friends though. The Pink one thinks you’re dozing off.’
“Wait, wha-?”
“Wakey-Wakey, Calvy!!!” When Calvin snapped back to reality, Pinkie Pie’s face was way too close to his to be even considered… comfortable.
“Agh! Don’t surprise me like that!!”
“We’ve been trying to get your attention for a while, silly! We made it!”
“Wait, made what?”
“No, not what... here! We made it to Canterlot!!”
‘Well, that was quick,’ he thought mentally as he followed the dressed pink pony out of the train car and into the royal city. The city at night looked magnificently stunning as the two of them moved through the streets. They soon caught up to Rainbow, who was waiting for them just outside the castle doors.
“There you guys are. Where the hay were you?”
“Well… I kind of… dozed off.” Calvin said with an embarrassed smile on his face. “Must’ve been thinking too much, honestly.”
“Oh, come on, rookie! You’ll do fine!! There’s nothing for you to worry about.”
“That’s because you’re a pony while I’m… well, me. I stand out too easily.” Calvin did make a good point. Amongst all of the ponies, he and Discord were the two that stood out the most.
“Hey, kid. Just play it cool and things will work out just fine.”
Calvin rolled his eyes as he looked back at Rainbow Dash. “You make that sound like it’s easy.”
“That’s because it is,” Rainbow patted him on the back with a hoof as they walked on in. “Twilight was going to get the Princess ready, so she could introduce her to you.”
Calvin gulped a little at what Rainbow said. Nervousness still gripped him like a boa constrictor. “Ooookay. That’s some good information… But, could you be a little more specific?”
“What’s there to be specific about? She’s right in front of you.”
‘Uh oh...’ Calvin thought. He now stepped into the same room that had the tall white Alicorn in the room, and his nervousness began to spike. Twilight was next to her, but that didn’t really make him feel any more comfortable, especially when Rainbow pushed him into the room before she bolted for the door.
“Good luck, kiddo.”
‘So much for MORAL SUPPORT!!’ The boy mentally shouted, only turning around to look at the two alicorns in front of him.
“So… you must be Calvin, I assume?”
“Y-yes, that’s right…”
“There isn’t a need to be nervous,” Celestia spoke with a soft tone. “I just would like us to talk. Twilight has told me some very… interesting things about you.”
The human boy now raised an eyebrow. “Define interesting?”
The princess cleared her throat, covering it with a hoof. “I believe it was your… abilities? She said that you had some sort of… transformation spell?”
“It’s… a little bit more complicated,” Calvin said, “Plus, I’m worried that I’ll destroy this suit if I even try it, and I don’t want Rarity to have a fit with me over it.”
“Your other clothes weren’t destroyed though-”
“That’s because they were light, Twilight. This is a lot more layers and if I tried transforming into something, like from the fire element for example, it’ll burn to cinders.”
“Element? Is this ability elemental based?”
“Well, it’s a little more complicated than that. You see, back where I’m from, there is something called Skylanders, composed of heroes that range from 10 different elements. Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Magic, Life, Undead, Tech, Light and Dark. I can transform into them by saying a phrase they would normally say because of the gemstone around my neck, but I can only transform for a short amount of time before turning back to normal.”
“So, it’s less of an ability and more of a magical artifact?”
“One that only I can use,” Calvin pointed out, “Trust me, Twilight was eager to try, and all that did was cause crickets to chirp.” However, it was during this moment that the hallway began to echo with the sound of hooves and many ponies panicking and running for the door.
“Okay… does anyone know what the heck is going on?”
“Not me… Unless something happened outside, then we don’t know-” Around then was when a familiar face from the Royal guard bashed through the door. It was an orange pegasus stallion, and right behind him was Twilight’s brother, Shining Armor.
“Twily!”
“Shining!”
“Um… What?” was the only thing Calvin could say before Applejack entered the room as well. The only recognizable difference was that her gala dress, once originally smoothed, was now wrinkled and dirty.
“Alright, everypony come on!! We gotta get ‘cha all out of here!”
“Applejack, what is going on!?”
“Some crazy bald varment is unleashing monsters onto the courtyard. Rainbow Dash stayed to fight them off, but I’m worried for her safety.” Looking back at Twilight and the others, Calvin looked towards the door where all the noise was coming from and sighed. Rarity was going to kill him for ruining her suit.
Ignoring the voices that followed from his friends, Calvin pushed himself through the door and ran towards the sounds of chaos. Soon, he saw exactly what was going on… and who was causing it.
“YOU LITTLE TWERP!! DO YOU THINK YOUR WINGS CAN HELP YOU AVOID THE WRATH OF KAOS!!!?”
Now, Calvin was able to see everything. He was personally scared at first, seeing the actual Kaos himself and not the one from the games he played back home. But, he also saw that Rainbow Dash was beginning to tire out. She couldn’t last much longer in this current state, due to the amount of close calls from not only Kaos, but his minions as well.
As luck would have it, Calvin had the perfect way to distract Kaos. Or as he heard many times back home, a pre-emptive strike. Grabbing an apple from a nearby table, he threw it at full force like he was pitching at a baseball game, knocking Kaos upside the top of his head.
“What in the-? WHO DARES HIT ME WITH THE EVIL SPAWN OF TREES!?!”
“Over here, baldy.”
Kaos now turned around, surprised at first to see Calvin as he tore off his suit jacket to where he only had his undershirt on. “You’re going to pay for messing with my friend!”
“Oh, really now? You look too… weak to be able to fight,” Kaos snickered before turning back to the battle with Rainbow and the exhausted solar guard, “What are you going to do, turn into something that actually could stop me?”
“… You can say that.” With that, blue fire roared around Calvin’s hands as he prepared himself for what was to come. “Fuel the Flames!”
“Oh, you are so going to get it now!!” Rainbow Dash yelled in support. Kaos himself was distracted only for a short bit as he turned back around to see the human boy turn into the one thing that he dreaded most.
A skylander.
“W-wha-!? HOW-!?!”
“That’s for me to know only? Now then, Rainbow?”
“Yes?”
“Sick ‘em.” That verbal cue had the pegasus change her tactics. Instead of dodging and weaving in and out of cover, she was now going on the offensive. Using her blinding speed to cause Kaos’ minions to lose track of where she was before she smashed her hoof in their face. The same went for Calvin, who focused on sticking with Melee combat against his opponents while dashing out of the way of incoming rockets that were being fired at him from some nearby trolls. Seeing as all of them were close by one another, Calvin used his powers to unleased a fire tornado on the small group, causing them to start floating helplessly in the air by the flames. Again, he heard “Level up!” inside his head, but he ignored that in order to focus on the fight he was in, assisting Rainbow in another close call with a few troll fighters.
But with Kaos being the persistent little pest that he was, he was far from calling it quits with these two. Before using his magic to disappear, he summoned two battalions of drow elves and two life spell punks, which in turn, confused Rainbow when she saw that her attacks weren’t hurting them. “Why isn’t this working!?!”
“The spell punks back there are healing these guys! Attack them first!! I’ll deal with the others.”
“Roger!!” She saluted as the two friends attacked in unison, Rainbow using her blinding speed to blindside both spell punks as Calvin ripped and tore up what remained of the battalions. Around then was when Twilight and Celestia herself teleported into the room, just as Calvin was turning back to normal.
“So… this is why you ran back?”
“Yes. Rainbow was in trouble, and I had to help her.”
“That is very brave of you.” The Princess replied, before turning to see the collateral damage that was left behind from the clash. “However, who had the audacity to attack Canterlot during a peaceful gathering such as this?”
“Some bald doofus who called himself Kaos,” Rainbow replied. “He had a VERY big ego and was able to summon a lot of bad guys. He did seem shocked though when Calvin transformed though.”
“Why’s that?” Twilight asked.
“That… might take a while to explain.” Calvin cleared his throat, taking a deep sigh. “Remember when I said that Skylanders were heroes? Well, Kaos is the villain that the Skylanders have to handle on an occasional basis. He may be small, but what he lacks in size, he makes up for in power and magic. He’s what is considered as a “Dark” portal master, where the light portal master is the person that calls upon the Skylanders whenever someone needs help. But… something about him just now felt… off.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well… for one thing… how exactly do you think he knew about the Gala?”
“I don’t know, but it’s one thing we need to keep an eye out for. If he had the guts to try and attack us on our home turf, there’s no telling what he might do next.” Calvin agreed with Rainbow’s statement. Now though, he decided to follow up with Rainbow and her friends and enjoy the train ride back to Ponyville.
Some time later…
The boy that was the SkyShifter woke up later in the evening, only to find himself not on the bed in Fluttershy’s cottage. Instead, it looked like the cloudy void that was what the Skylander games had when you needed to place a Skylander on the portal of power. He was confused as to why exactly he was here, but soon, his question was answered when one voice caught his attention and had him turn around.
“Hey, kiddo. Over here.”
It was Spitfire. The Fire Skylander himself.
End Scroll 5