//------------------------------//
// Scroll 9- When Worlds Collide... 
// Story: Beyond the Skies 
// by FrostTheWolf 
//------------------------------//


Beyond the Skies- When Worlds Collide…




Skylander Academy

        When the explosion below the Academy went off, it wasn’t just the people on the grounds of the campus that felt the blast, but also anyone that was coming towards it. Such was the case for a certain landshark that was on his way back to the island from a “business venture” with a few contacts of his, only to feel the shockwave of an unknown explosion almost knock his ship off course. He was lucky to not have it crash into the academy… but he was also upset at a certain tinkerer, as he soon saw her talking with the chief of security.

        As he got closer to Mags, he soon cleared his voice and looked back at her as he condoned her actions. “What did I tell you about attending the "safety in the workplace" seminar? You really NEED to attend it, for your own sake!!”

        “Sharpfin! Well, I’m glad you are okay… However, what happened was not me!” She snapped back at him. “In fact, Tessa was just telling us what it could be!”

        “Oh, really now?” The Landshark spoke up, sounding unconvinced. “If that’s true and what happened wasn’t because of Mags, then what exactly is going on?”

        “We don’t know everything right now, but what we do know is that there’s a tear in magic that is separating the skylands from, as it turns out, the land underneath the clouds,” Tessa started off as she began to explain everything she knew to Sharpfin. “However, my concern is that whatever caused it is really going to attract some unwanted attention. After all, this tear could be seen from a mile away… and if you’re thinking what I’m thinking… then we probably might know who might want to capitalize on that.”

        “Kaos…” Buzz grumbled, looking at everyone else before looking off at the clouds in the distance. “Just what kind of diabolical scheme is he trying to come up with now?”





        “Dear Diary... of DOOM!!!” The dark portal master said to himself as he took a fresh new quill and a vial of ink as he began to inscribe a new entry into his journal… or as he called it, his ‘diary of doom.’ “Entry 13. As of this moment, I am focusing on a new plan. Not just to take over skylands, but to also invade the land below, called Equestria. Despite some setbacks, I have been making significant progress. Not because I have much less of a reliance on Glumshanks now that he is only working for me part time after the darkness convinced me to fire him, but because I, for once, have an ally that has similar goals to my own.”

        For a brief moment, Kaos set down his quill and paused to think of the right words to say before coming up with the right details in his head. From time to time, he had to delay his thoughts, so the words he would write in his diary entries would sound… evil enough to satisfy him. “Unlike previous attempts to ally with other villains, some who recently have given up their ways and decided to reform themselves, my newest ally, Sombra, has been of great use to crafting my next sinister plot, even going as far as providing knowledge on the lands below the clouds. He has also given me a rather evil idea on how to take the fight back to the skylanders this time. Now, before I finalize my next demonic plot, I must dive into a new field of magic that is sure to be interesting. I’m going to give the Skylanders… and that meddling kid, a fair challenge this time around.”



        “Well, Buzz, I’m not sure what kind of scheme that varmint is planning, but we need to get to the bottom of this, and quickly,” Mags spoke up as she looked at the crack once again.

        “Maybe we can talk with Eon and ask if we can send a team of Skylanders to investigate,” Sharpfin suggested. “It’s worth a shot, right?”

        “Yeah… Hate to break it to you, but two of the Superchargers that were here earlier jumped the gun and sped off shortly after that crack was torn open in the sky,” Buzz told the landshark as he looked at everyone. “We should get a headcount of all the skylanders, just to be safe. I don’t want anyone else other than both Spitfire and Splat to be disappearing randomly like this. After that is done, we’ll see what our options are before we send a team.”

        “I don’t know, Buzz… Would it be likely that someone down below is probably thinking ahead of you on that subject?” Mags asked.

        “Oh, come on now, Mags. I’m the head of security... and secret ninja commando operations... for a reason. I highly doubt that anyone would possibly think of something like that… especially around something that dangerous.”



Elsewhere… 

        Shortly after diving to rescue Rainbow from falling to the ground, Calvin and Twilight were tending to her on the ground and making sure she didn’t hurt herself. The good news was that she was breathing and beginning to wake up… The bad news? She had absolutely NO idea at all what she had just caused. “O-oww… My head…”

        “You okay there, Rainbow?” Calvin asked, trying to help the pegasus as she was regaining her senses.

        “Y-yeah… I feel like I got slammed by me performing a Sonic Rainboom though-” By the time she was finished saying that, she lifted her head and finally noticed what was in the sky. “Woah!! What in Equestria caused that!?!” Calvin sighed a little as he looked at Twilight, who was thinking the same thing he was.

        “Somehow… you caused that,” he said, trying to not make her scared in response to what he said. “Not intentionally though… Something reacted to you pulling off a Sonic Rainboom, and the amount of power caused that tear to happen. My crystal was surging like crazy when it happened, Dash.”

        “Then, what does it all mean!?” Rainbow reacted in a panicked and confused tone, unsure of anything that was going on or happening.

        “I don’t know… But something tells me that tear is going to cause a lot of attention… and not the good kind,” Calvin said as he looked back at them. “There seems to be a floating collection of clouds close to the tear. Let me transform real quick, and we can fly up for a closer look. It’s hard to tell what exactly is on the other side from this angle, but I have a feeling we’ll find out what exactly it is once we get closer.”

        “What about me?” Scootaloo spoke up as Calvin looked towards her.

        “Scootaloo… I need you to tell Spike of what happened and let him know that Twilight, Rainbow, and I are going to investigate. Make sure that nopony does anything crazy in the meantime… Right, Rainbow?”

        “Sounds about right… You get that, squirt?” The question was answered by Scootaloo nodding her head as she galloped off to go find Spike. Quickly, Calvin chanted to himself a new phrase as he let the magic in his crystal do the rest of the work as he transformed, now having wings with light blue feathers and mostly turning into a feathered dragon… except for the horn on the front of the head.

        “Twists of Fury!”

        “Okay, just what did you decide to turn into this time?” Rainbow asked.

        “An air skylander named Whirlwind. One part thunder Dragon and one part unicorn. She has abilities that are similar to yours, so I thought that it would be simpler to turn into an air skylander if we are walking on clouds.” he told her, hoping that his explanation was all that he needed to say in order to help keep things brief.

        “Good choice, Calvin. Now, I won’t have to worry about the cloudwalking spell I should’ve cast-”

        “Uhh... Twilight,” Rainbow interjected before she could finish. “Did you forget that Calvin’s transformations only last for five minutes at most? You’ll still need that spell.”

        “Oh… right…” she sighed, looking back at both of them. “So, Calvin, what exactly are we looking for right now?”

        “Anything on the other side of that tear that, to you guys, is out of the ordinary,” he told both ponies as he looked at the floating clouds on the other side. “Because from what I know… I think that’s the Skylands on the other side… However, I’m not sure. Therefore, I need to make sure that it is what I think it is before we try to go exploring anywhere, okay?” Both Twilight and Rainbow nodded in response, the Alicorn casting her spell on Calvin just in case for when his transformation ran out as they looked at the clouds. Soon though, they began to see floating islands on the other side of the tear and ships that navigated through the skies.

        “Okay, those… whatever they are, they’re not Equestrian. That’s for sure.” The pegasus pointed out as they saw them pass by. Only for Calvin to speak up as he looked back at her.

        “Just keep looking. One piece of evidence isn’t enough to confirm anything right now,” Calvin advised as he continued to scan the skies for anything out of the ordinary. “Besides, if any one of them notices this… or us for that matter, someone’s going to come down and investigate. Just be ready for anything.” Both ponies nodded their heads as they turned back to the open rift, still trying to find other pieces of evidence to add to what they already found. Unaware that on the opposite side… someone else was doing the same thing.



        Back at the Academy, Mags was trying to see if some of her equipment was still functional after the unexpected power surge that caused the entire school to shake. Fortunately, the technomancer was able to find a bunch of her patented inventions still intact after the blast. One of them being her scanner for signs of life in a general area… and it was picking up some readings that wasn’t like anything she had seen before. “Hey, everyone… come have a look at this. I think I found something.”

        Tessa was the first one to rush over and see what she was holding as she looked at it with a curious glance. “What did you find, Mags?”

        “There are a couple of lifeforms that are nearby that crack that have very powerful magical signatures… Buzz, remember what you said earlier?” Mags pointed it out to him. “About how you think someone wouldn’t think ahead of you on the subject of sending a team to investigate? Well, according to this… someone did think ahead.”

        “Boomsticks!! It must be some kind of recon squad trying to gather intel on us! We need to deal with this, pronto!” The head of security immediately declared.

        “Uh, Buzz… That’s probably what Mags is talking about,” Tessa tried clearing things up for him, but her words had fallen on deaf ears, because Buzz was too busy talking to himself in that moment in time. “Well, great… let me take Whiskers and see what’s going on out that way before Buzz tries anything crazy.”

        “Alright. Stay safe and use the radio transmitter to report back anything you find. The more on the situation that we know, the better.” The Technomancer informed her as Tessa got back onto Whiskers and took off before Buzz could even say-

        “Boomsticks!! Where did Tessa go!?” All Mags could do right then was personally groan to herself. Somehow, in her head, this was going to be one of those days…



        “Oh, come on! How much longer are we going to be looking at this strange crack for?!” Rainbow protested, crossing her front hooves before letting herself fall back on a cloud like it was a sofa chair. They had only spent ten minutes looking at the crack that she accidently had created, and now, this whole thing was beginning to bore her. Calvin personally had thought of something, but he was unsure if it could be possible for that to be achieved.

        “Not anymore…”

        “Oh good,” Rainbow breathed a temporarily sigh of relief.

        “Because we are going through it-”

        “Are you insane!?!” The pegasus and alicorn both looked back at Calvin in shock from saying that, but the boy still held true to his decision.

        “Look, the only way we know if there is anything in there for certain is if we try to go in and take a look. It doesn’t need to be long, but I don’t think we have any other choice,” Calvin explained. “Besides, how else are we supposed to explain to your friends, let alone the princesses for that matter, how in the world this happened?”

        “Calvin makes a fair point, Rainbow,” Twilight added on after a pause, “Plus, if this is the same place where that Skylander that was with Calvin the other day comes from, then maybe it won’t be that bad up there.”

        “Ugh… I can’t believe you are actually deciding to go along with this crazy idea. And I thought you would be the safety freak, like the time you decided to have Spike be covered in inner tubes from head to toe when he wanted to go swimming with Pinkie,” Rainbow groaned, causing Calvin to laugh upon picturing that in his head. “And this is coming from the same mare who thinks she can learn how to swim from reading a book.”

        “Hey, I don’t feel like I need to swim unless I absolutely have to! We don’t know if the next villain we’re trying to face is going to flood Equestria!” Twilight snapped, only causing Calvin to facepalm himself from what was happening. In that moment, the boy saw a medium sized island with what looked like a forest of trees up there as he tapped Twilight on the shoulder.

        “Hey, Twilight, you think you can teleport us to that ledge over there? I think that might be a good place to start looking.”

        “Doesn’t seem that difficult in order to reach. Rainbow, you coming or staying?” Twilight then asked, only to be followed by a deep groan from the cyan mare as she trotted over to her. “Yep, she’s coming with us. Hang on just a second…” The teleportation was quick in itself, but the after effects shortly came next. It caused Calvin's head to be a little bit dizzy and almost caused Rainbow to slam her head into a tree, even though Twilight was still perfectly fine afterwards.

        “O-oww… A word of warning next time before trying to teleport and accidently turning my brains to mush!”

        “Oh, you’re fine. Quit exaggerating.” Twilight said to her friend as she looked up. “Uh… Problem?”

        “What is it?” Calvin then asked. Judging from the looks of things, Twilight and Rainbow were by a road sign that branched off into two separate paths. Both of them looked rather the same, but the troubling part for the mare was that she could not understand what was on the sign. Calvin could only make out bits and pieces of it, but after pondering on the subject with them for a while, he came up with an idea. “Hey, Twilight, how ‘bout you and Rainbow take the path to the left, and I take the path to the right? If anything seems out of place, we can retrace our steps back here.”

        “Yeah, but wouldn’t you need some help if you’re in trouble?” Rainbow asked.

        Calvin thought this through for a minute, before twirling the crystal around his neck. “If anything does happen, I can transform or summon Spitfire for help. Right now, let’s just go see what’s inside.” Without even getting the chance to hear Rainbow’s protest, Calvin went inside the forest on his path, leaving the pegasus with an overexcited mare to go along the lefthand side.

        Five minutes later, two other figures showed up. Faced with the same dilemma, they made a rather quick decision on how to proceed. “Okay then… Whiskers, you take the left path. I got the right.”



        As he traversed through the twisting pathway, Calvin did not have many things crop up on his side of the path. To be honest, he was not quite sure what exactly he would find when he reached the end. One thought in his head was that there was something at the end of this pathway, while another thought was that maybe it was a side path that led to some sort of treasure or reward, like in the Skylander games he was familiar with. Truly, it felt like there could’ve been something interesting for him at the end of the path, but what he found at the end was… surprising, to say the least.

        What he found instead was what appeared to be a small crystal, buried in the ground, only being noticeable because the light of the gem was reacting to the magic of the Elementanium crystal around his neck. However, shortly after he picked it up, the aquamarine gemstone soon melted in his hands as it soaked into his skin, disappearing without a trace before he was actually able to get up and look back at the patch of dirt he found it in. “Well, that was weird… Felt kind of good, but still really weird-”

        However, all that turning around did was give him an unexpected surprise as something rushed by his face, like it was trying to perform a sneak attack. However, who would try something like this was still an unanswered question in the matter… Until he heard the same attacker speak. “How did you dodge so fast?!” That voice was one that he was familiar with for sure, and when he turned back around, he was able to see the one and only Tessa herself. He had no idea that he would run into her in the middle of a random isle like this… but her tone was anything but friendly right now.

        Especially with the angry look on her face. “Who are you?”

        “Woah! H-hey! Take it easy-” Calvin pleaded with her before Tessa tried lunging for him again, only to duck in the process. “My name is Calvin-!”

        Just as he said his name, a crossbow bolt went zipping past his head and into a tree behind him. With Tessa holding the contraption in her left paw and a makeshift knife in the other. And boy… she was still mad at him for his quick thinking. 

        “Tessa, can you read me?” A faint and static like voice could be heard, causing Tessa to trade out the knife for a communication device.

        “I hear you, Mags…”

        “Just what in Tarnations are you and Whiskers doing over there? We’re picking up the same energy readings of those three lifeforms from earlier and Buzz is flipping out like crazy over his theory from before, but now adding that they may be ninja’s from a rival clan that want to invade us, or some crazy story like that. In fact, one of them is said to be right in front of you.” That changed things for a moment involving Tessa, but now, she was dead on with trying to get answers from him.

        “Hang on a second,” she said, cutting off the mic as she looked back at Calvin firmly. “That crack below us… are you from what’s below?”

        “It’s complicated, but yes. We honestly did not think that something like that could happen-” He was interrupted, though, when Tessa looked at him again and her eyes narrowed.

        “Wait a second… who’s we?”

        “My two friends and I… They took the path on the left while I took the path here.” Calvin tried to explain. “Did you happen to see them by-”

        “WHAT THE HAY IS THAT THING!?! AN OVERGROWN CHICKEN?!!” Calvin then turned his head in the direction in which he heard Rainbow shouting as he looked back at Tessa. He sighed, realizing that anywhere she would go, her pet bird Whiskers was not that far behind. 

        “I think that just answered my own question,” Calvin replied as he looked at Tessa. “Come on, we should get over there before this situation gets any-”

        “AGH!! ZOMPONIES!!!”

        “-worse.” He groaned, running back the way he came in a full on sprint, leaving Tessa in the dust by how fast he was going. Taking the left path this time, he was hurrying towards where they were… but then heard something that explained what was happening.

        Skylanders of the Undead element are stronger in this zone.

        “Oh, brilliant…” Immediately after he got there, the Skyshifter found Twilight and Rainbow not fighting, but terrified and holding onto Whiskers, like it was straight out of a Scooby Doo cartoon. He couldn’t just leave them there and had to do something, so quickly, thinking about what he had heard earlier, he chanted a phrase of an undead skylander quickly, just as Tessa soon caught up with him.

        Your time is up.

        Seconds after saying that, a cold chill could be felt in the air as a light blue glow began to shine from Calvin’s new form… Grim Creeper. Both equines, as well as Tessa and Whiskers, were equally surprised when seeing Calvin transform, but they were also surprised when they saw him disappear, only to reappear behind the undead monsters. “Time to cut and run!” Using the newfound scythe, he slashed and cut through the monsters for a short bit, but then stopped as he heard something. But this something… was actually pretty good. 

        Reverting back, he soon barreled out of the way once a blazing path was made, courtesy of Spitfire crashing in with Hot Streak out of nowhere. “There you are! I had a feeling I would find you out here, Calvin.”

        “Same to you.”

        “Wait, you two know each other!?” Tessa asked in shock before turning to Rainbow and Twilight. “Both of you, please get off of Whiskers.”

        “Wait… You named your bird Whiskers?” The pegasus questioned before barreling over in a fit of laughter. “Oh, dear Celestia, how hysterical is that for a pet name!?”

        “This, coming from the mare who named her turtle Tank,” Twilight reminded out her, sighing in the process.

        “Tank is an AWESOME name, thank you very much! Whiskers would more likely be a name for a cat… No offense… uh, who are you?” Rainbow asked out of nowhere, annoying Tessa as she was still trying to wrap her head around what’s going on. Shortly though, another skylander landed by Spitfire, as she too looked at everything that was going on.

        “Next time, warn me before you are going to pull off an emergency maneuver like that, Spitfire.” The faun named Splat sighed as she looked at the others, but she soon noticed the human that met the description of the individual that Spitfire was talking about.

        “Yeah, not to try and break up the fun here, but we should get going before we run into something-” Tessa’s advice was cut off by a very familiar laughter coming from outside the small forest, as all of them stepped out to face what appeared to be Kaos in his newest and “awesome-est” warship. Looking down over them with a menacing glare. “-unpleasant.”

        “Oh, great, it’s the overconfident bald midget that tried to ruin the Grand Galloping Gala, and yet he complains about getting hit in the head with an apple,” Rainbow groaned as everyone else that wasn’t from Equestria was looking in her general direction. “What? It’s true!”

        “SILENCE!!! It is I!! KAOS!!” All that was heard afterwards was the sound of crickets chirping in the distance. “Oh, come on?! Seriously!? ...Well, enough about that. I’m just glad that you’re all here… Because I’m betting you’re interested in wanting to know what sort of surprises I have in store for you-”

        “Dark villainous army.”

        “...Wow, just… kill all the fun…” Kaos groaned, “Put all the fun in prison cells, why don’t you?”

        “Yeah, like you are a ‘fun villain’.” Calvin snickered.

        “Can you just GET TO THE BUCKING POINT ALREADY!?!” Rainbow snapped, really not liking how Kaos was wasting their time.

        “Well, what you have yet to understand is that I have a bunch of surprises in store… Which reminds me… I have a question for the two equines,” Kaos smirked as he lifted a hand, holding something that caused Twilight’s eyes to widen as she stared in shock. “Would you happen to recognize… this?”

        “T-that’s… Sombra’s horn. B-but how!?”

        “That’s for me and my… partner to know. Now, if you would excuse me,” Kaos snickered, returning the horn to his robes. “I have things to do. But I’ll be sure to see you again… on your world, that is.” With it, a deep and menacing laughter echoed across the Skylands to the point where it could be heard across the planes of both worlds… and that was only the beginning… The worst has yet to come.




End Scroll 09