Scroll 11- Major Explaining: Round 2
Beyond the Skies- Major Explaining: Round 2
Skylander Academy
The moment that Master Eon had introduced himself to the newcomers that were at the academy, every one of them had a different thought on their minds. Calvin was blown away by the fact that this time around, he was able to meet Eon in his own home instead of in his dreams. Twilight was wondering who was he and was thinking about possible follow up questions to say afterwards. Celestia herself was curious about another factor… the words of the elder portal master were welcoming, but she was curious as to what this… Master wished to speak to them about. But for Rainbow, her immediate thought was if this old geezer was to be trusted. Like with most new ponies, she didn’t immediately trust anypony that she had just met, and Master Eon was exactly the same case.
Nevertheless, the four of them followed him inside, along with Stormblade and Spitfire, who were there with him at the time as they made their way through the inner hallways of the academy towards the center of the main hall, where Eon’s pedestal resided. Shards of crystal floated around him while the four newcomers saw ten different tapestries along the wall, each one with a different color and a different symbol for each one. There were a few new additions to the academy itself that Calvin himself wasn’t quite familiar with, but he didn’t let these things affect him. Soon though, someone had a question… and it wasn’t one of the ponies or Calvin for that matter.
It was Spitfire. “So, Master Eon… you said that there was some things that we needed to talk about?”
“Indeed there is… but I believe that our guests have some questions of their own that would like to be answered. Especially the Princess.” That… had surprised both Twilight and Celestia, causing them to look at each other for a brief moment before the Princess of the Sun then asked a question.
“With all due respect, how do you know that I’m a princess?” She asked out of curiosity. The answer that the portal master had for her was quite… surprising, to say the least.
“Other than the crown on your head and the brooch around your neck?” Eon then pondered, causing Celestia to realize she still had her attire from day court still on and forgot to take it off before departing to go investigate what was going on. “That answer may actually surprise you.” Calvin was a little bit curious himself. When he first met the Portal Master, he did seem to know a bit about where he was, as well as the fact that Equestria was directly beneath the skylands. Now, he was going to find out about how he knew about it in the first place.
Taking a moment, the portal master soon summoned a book that he soon opened as he began to flip through the pages. “Some time ago, we took some villains that used to be in the Cloudcracker Prison and had them… reformed, by fixing up the Academy’s library. It had gotten to be quite a mess over time, and it almost took a full two years for them to complete. But one of the things that was uncovered from the mess was a journal from one of my predecessors. And it was a journal that had entries about when he met someone from your world.”
All three ponies were confused, and they all had one simultaneous question to say afterwards. “Who?”
“The journal says that this pony called himself… Starswirl the Bearded,” Eon answered, only to see the shocked reactions from all three of the equines in the room. “Oh, it seems that you do know of him.”
“A-absolutely!! He has a very important role in Equestrian history and was Princess Celestia’s teacher when it came to the field of magic!” Twilight stated, shortly before Rainbow rolled her eyes at her friend going full blown egghead again. However, there was one main detail that he noticed in Twilight’s rambling that caught his attention… but waited for a pause in her explanation in order to speak.
“I see…” Eon mentioned. “But I just realized something… I forgot to ask all of you for your names. It’s only proper for you to introduce yourself in return after I introduced myself to you.” The Portal Master… brought up a very valid point.
“Well, I am Princess Twilight Sparkle,” The lavender Alicorn spoke up shortly afterwards. “This here is Princess Celestia, and this is my friend Ra-”
“Rainbow Dash! Fastest Flyer in all of Equestria!! No introductions required!” She boasted, which in turn caused Calvin, Twilight and Spitfire to simultaneously facepalm themselves at the same time. All while Stormblade looked rather… impressed.
“I’m liking her already.” The Air Skylander smirked. But what caught Eon’s attention more than that small remark was what Twilight was saying originally.
“I’m sorry, but did you say Celestia? As in, Starswirl’s student?” That caught the Solar Diarch’s attention rather quickly, almost ignoring Rainbow’s rambling that followed after Twilight’s reaction towards her.
“How do you know that Starswirl was my teacher?” She questioned, curious but also sounding a little defensive.
“He talked about you in the entries that my predecessor recorded. He said that you were a brilliant and remarkable student… but was also concerned a bit about you following an… incident with your sister,” Eon said softly, “He wanted to talk to you about it, but was unsure about how to talk to you about such a… troubling subject.” He didn’t really want to continue on the topic, since he noticed the brief change in Celestia’s facial expression. “Nevertheless, I am honored to meet you in person… and for good reason, too.” The Princess herself was first curious why he said that, but that was when Spitfire, Twilight and Calvin soon explained about the brief encounter they had with Kaos… and the mentioning of the Dark Portal Master really caught her attention.
“So, let me see if I understand this correctly… after the rift in the sky was opened by Rainbow-”
“That was an accident!!! I swear!” Rainbow protested.
“…After the rift in the sky was accidentally opened by Rainbow, you three went to go through it to see if there was anything on the other side,” Celestia repeated herself after the protest from the pegasus interrupted her. “And after a short while, you found the same being that caused a ruckus at the Grand Galloping Gala several weeks ago.”
“Yep. Same bald midget, same prideful ego,” Calvin sighed, “However, there was one significant difference that Twilight noticed though that really made her worried and concerned.” With that, Calvin let Twilight speak up as she soon looked back at the Princess. Even if she was first really nervous in talking about it, the alicorn soon had the courage to tell her what it was.
“Princess… Somehow, Kaos has gotten his hands on the Horn that once belonged to King Sombra.” That… immediately caused Celestia’s eyes to widen in horror. The last that she had heard of King Sombra was that he was defeated when Cadence and the others had reclaimed the Crystal Empire. She was unsure about a lot of the details regarding this discovery, but just to be sure, the alicorn had one question to ask.
“Was it still intact?” That had Twilight and some of the others puzzled as Celestia cleared her throat before speaking again. “When you saw it, was the horn still intact?” Thinking it over had caused a long pause in the conversation, but it was then that Calvin remembered the encounter and answered his question.
“Now that you mentioned it, not only was it intact… but there was something that he said which was rather confusing.” Calvin spoke up as he turned to Rainbow. “Hey, Dash, do you remember when we first saw that and then Kaos saying something afterwards?”
“Yeah, that bald twerp said something like... “That’s for me and my… partner to know”, before taking off in that ship of his,” Rainbow replied, going as far as actually impersonating Kaos in order to get the point across. “But it was weird, because there wasn’t anypony right next to him when we saw him.” Now that Calvin had thought of it… he soon realized something. That horn strangely reminded him of how Traptanium crystals worked, if you were to capture a villain. Which only led for him to have one main conclusion.
“Princess Celestia… I may not be familiar with who this Sombra is or how come he’s such a big deal, but…” Calvin spoke before asking his question. “Are you trying to say that this guy is inside that horn that Kaos has?”
“Oh, come on now, Calvin. That just sounds silly-”
“Actually… He may not be fully correct, but he is on the right track,” Celestia spoke up, interjecting in the middle of Rainbow trying to blow the whole thing off and in turn, causing Rainbow’s and Twilight’s jaws to drop simultaneously. “Twilight, do you remember the report you sent me about the events in the Empire, and how just before the Empire was freed, Sombra took the form of a massive moving shadow?”
“Y-yes?”
“Yeah, that’s right! And it exploded after we saved the empire! There was nothing left of him!!” Rainbow Dash protested. “How could he still be alive then?!”
“The magic of the Crystal Heart is a powerful source to keep dark forces at bay,” Celestia began to explain as she cleared her throat. “When you liberated the Empire, the magic from the Crystal Heart was unleashed, and in turn, it drove Sombra out. But nopony knows the extent of the Crystal Heart’s full power, nor do we know Sombra’s full power, so there is a possibility that the magic may not have been strong enough to get rid of him. Based on what little is known of his origins, it may be possible that he could regenerate himself as long as he has a physical part of his body that isn’t broken. Which, in this case, is his horn… Not exactly what Calvin said before… but very close indeed.”
“And of course, someone has now found it…” Calvin sighed, groaning a little bit to himself. “And just when things weren’t already complicated enough with the rift in the sky.”
“I apologize for interrupting, but what is the Crystal Heart?” Spitfire then asked, catching Celestia’s attention in the process.
“It’s the heart of the Crystal Empire, a kingdom that resides in the north that is ruled by my niece, Princess Cadence.” Princess Celestia replied. “The heart keeps the kingdom safe and wards away any form of darkness.”
“Oh, so you mean like the Core of Light?” Stormblade then asked. But it was in that moment that her question… actually confused Celestia and the other ponies. “It’s an artifact that helped protect Skylands long ago, by warding off the Darkness… Granted it did get destroyed by Kaos… twice. And we did have to rebuild it… only for it to get destroyed when we learned it was incomplete and tried to fix it.”
“Hunh… it seems like our two realms might have some similarities between one another…” Celestia pondered, only causing Spitfire to chuckle a little.
“Oh, trust me… with all due respect, Princess… the Core of Light is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to those kind of things around here,” he informed her, “The first skylanders, the giants, date back as far back at 10,000 years ago. There are a LOT of places here that you can’t even collectively place on a map.”
Spitfire was indeed right about this. In fact, the skylands itself was so big that the mapmakers in the old days were only able to make maps of certain regions in the sky and never found a way to piece it all together. Mostly because all the mapmakers back in the days were actually trolls, and no one could decipher the scribbles that was their handwriting.
“We should discuss about that later. Right now, until we actually figure out what he’s trying to do, our main priority is to see what we need to do to get ready… along with finding the right amount of imaginite to awaken Calvin’s creation crystal-” It was in that moment that the doors soon opened… and the fur on Twilight’s neck began to stand up once she heard a familiar hissing sound. Things only got worse when she turned around to see one of her worst nightmares right in front of her.
A talking snake… matter of fact, two talking snakes. “Oh… I’m sorry, Masssster Eon. Are we interrupting sssssomething?” That comment by the apparent cobra of the two immediately caused Twilight to spring up into the air and caused Calvin to catch her like it was one of those old Scooby Doo cartoons. Just… with Twilight being Scooby that is. She was actually shivering in Calvin’s arms, and her teeth were chattering like crazy. And he had only one response to her in that moment.
“Really?”
“S-snakes… Why d-did it h-have t-to be s-s-s-snakes!?!” She said softly… not expecting to hear Spitfire say something afterwards.
“Actually, that’s Cobra Cadabra and Rattle Shake… ” Spitfire said, until he noticed the Alicorn in Calvin’s arms. “Is she going to be okay?”
That was when Princess Celestia personally chuckled herself. “One of Twilight’s fears from her fillyhood is snakes-”
“NOT HELPING ME HERE!!!” The outburst caused her to still shake as Rainbow was beginning to laugh to herself.
“Shouldn’t we be more concerned about what problems this Sombra guy teaming up with Kaos may bring?” Stormblade asked.
“Oh, so you’re worried about a bald dummy teaming up with a dead/not dead spirit that we don’t know if he’s alive or not?” Rainbow asked, amused about the seeming ‘threat’.
“Well, this dummy that you are mentioning has attempted to take over Skylands multiple times, had a hydra as a pet, turned into an arkeyan robot, took control of the magic of all Skylands for a short while with Crystallized Evil, helped us before backstabbing us when going after the Doom Raiders and their traptanium doomsday weapon, sent a sky eater to try and EAT THE ENTIRE SKYLANDS and also created Doomlanders using Mind Magic… Oh, and should I mention the part where his mother got sealed away in a magic mirror and she was proud of him for sacrificing her as a decoy for his own plans?”
All three Equestrians were startled by Kaos’ track record. However, right now, Twilight’s fear of snakes was still getting a hold of her, as her forelegs were wrapped around Calvin’s neck. Celestia was still wondering how in the name of Faust was someone as small as him was able to do such disastrous things, while Rainbow was still trying to process a few of the key details that were originally mentioned.
“Yeah, I highly doubt that last part is real…”
“Oh, it is, Amigo,” Rattle Shake then spoke up from the end of the hall as he adjusted his hat and looked back at the group. “In fact, ah reckon that her exact words were ‘Kaos! You are going to still carry out your diabolical plans and not sssave your own mother?! I am ssso proud of you!!!’ … Ah was there when it happened.”
That… left Rainbow speechless… even causing her to shake her head a bit and ask for Rattle Shake to repeat that. He did, and it still startled the pegasus. “Uh… I’m going to, uh… you know… go on a walk. I’ll be back uh… soon! Hopefully…” That was followed by her dashing out of the room as fast as she could, knocking Twilight out of Calvin’s grip… only for the Alicorn to teleport herself back to where she was a few seconds ago.
“Seriously, Twilight? At this rate, I’m starting to lose the feeling in my arms.” Hearing that had Rattle Shake look back at Cobra Cadabra for a second as the magician had a suggestion for his partner.
“Maybe we ssshould just come back later. I rather not leave the lady so terrified,” Cobra Cadabra suggested.
“Fine by me. We can alwaysss report back later,” Rattle Shake bowed towards the group Eon was with, taking the cap off his own head as he looked at Twilight. “Hopefully, you will one day find a way to overcome your fears, little lady. Till then, thisss sssnake’s gotta vamoossse,” he then curled the end of his tail to spring up to the ledge of a balcony above them before slithering out of view. Meanwhile, Cobra retracted into a strange wicker basket attached to his tail, said basket soon bursting into confetti and strange musical notes as he vanished from view. Shortly after the two snakes had left the room, Calvin looked back at Twilight as he still tried to not give out on his strength.
“Umm… Can you please get down now, Twilight? I think you killed my arms at this point.” He asked politely.
“Oh, um… right…” She nodded, stepping down from Calvin’s arms before having to apologize for being so… out of character.
By the time she stepped outside, Rainbow was finally able to catch her breath for a moment. Too many things have happened in over a short period of time, and a lot of it only confused her more instead of helped her understand. Most importantly though, some of it seemed to have really caught her off guard. The pegasus just wanted to have some time to herself and catch her breath… But it wasn’t long until someone… or something decided to join her.
It first started when Rainbow turned around after hearing something walk towards her. At first, she thought it was Calvin. But she was startled to see what appeared to be a skeleton in the form of what looked like a dog, just with a green gem on the end of it’s tail. For a moment, this creature really began to make Rainbow feel freaked out and hyperventilate. But after a while, the pegasus was able to calm down, since it hadn’t tried to harm her or do anything threatening.
Thinking it was like Winona, she decided to see if the dog could do some tricks. “Uh… Roll over?” She asked, only for the skeleton dog to do what was requested. “Okay… How about sit?” Once again, it listened and sat down as it looked at Rainbow. The pegasus herself was pretty confident right now that this pet learned the basics of tricks, so it seemed like the right time to do something a little more difficult. “Okay then... how about speak?”
“Hi there!”
“AGGH!!!” Once she heard that, Rainbow bolted behind a nearby concrete pillar with only her head was peeking out and looking at the dog, her teeth chattering a little as she looked at the dog while trying to not act like Fluttershy and actually have some courage. “D-did you just say… Hi there?”
“Why, of course,” it replied, tilting it’s head a little. “You look like you haven’t seen an undead before. They’re common around skylands, even though several of them are well… boneheads.” That kind of humor strangely reminded Rainbow of Pinkie Pie, especially with such a pun. “Nevermind that. My name's Funny Bone. What’s yours? Is it Rainbow Candy? Because your mane and tail look really sweet.”
“Yep, that’s definitely Pinkie Pie’s kind of humor,” Rainbow thought to herself as she chuckled a little. “My name’s Rainbow Dash. It’s nice to meet you, Funny Bone-”
“Ooh! Hey, I got an idea! Play fetch with me!!” The skeleton dog suggested, “Throw me a bone! Here, I can let you use one of mine!!”
“Uh, that’s not really necessary-” Rainbow tried to reason with him before she saw him throw a flying bone disc that landed at her hooves.
“Sure it is! Come on, lazy bones! Let’s play!!” The Undead Skylander insisted, wagging its tail as Rainbow sighed. Taking up the bone disc carefully in her wings, she soon tossed it into the air. For a moment, she thought that Funny Bone would fetch it and catch it in his mouth like any other normal dog as Rainbow saw him chase after it.
But what she did not expect was for another dog made completely out of lava to intercept the pass in mid flight. “O… kay. Now, I believe I’ve seen everything.”
“No fair, Hot Dog! That was uncalled for!!” Funny Bone complained as the magma puppy pushed the undead dog with a paw to its face. “Oww! That’s a bit warm there, hot stuff!”
“Keep the jokes to yourself, Boney head.” Hot Dog told him before noticing the pegasus not far from them. “Hey, who’s she? New recruit for the senseis?”
“Excuse me?” Rainbow Dash asked, raising an eyebrow. “What the hay are you two talking about? I’m just here with Calvin.”
“Who-?” Just as Hot Dog was going to ask, both of them soon noticed someone new to them approach Rainbow. Of course, the pegasus knew who it was, but she was surprised that he was actually here instead of inside with Twilight and Celestia.
“Hey, Rainbow, you doing okay? You kind of just took off after-” He was going to continue, but turned to notice Hot Dog and Funny Bone not far from him. “Oh… am I interrupting something?”
“Well, Funny Bone here wanted to play fetch, but Hot Dog took that frisbee thing of his before he had the chance to catch it,” Rainbow replied, before looking back at him with a pout. “Don’t judge me. I’m bored.”
“I’m not judging, I’m just… surprised,” Calvin responded to her as he came over to stand next to her. “Never thought you would be so quick to make some friends here.” That caused Rainbow to punch him lightly in the shoulder as he laughed a bit. He knew he was messing with her, but he did not expect her to react like that.
“It’s not like that, Calvin. It’s… a bit more complicated than that,” she told him, embarrassed a little bit, but caught off guard with what he said next.
“How is playing fetch with Funny Bone considered complicated?” That threw Rainbow off guard as she turned back towards him.
“H-how did you-!?”
“I was seeing you interact with him just as I was coming outside,” he reminded her, causing the pegasus to blush a little in response. “Hey, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. You actually looked like you were having fun.”
“More like processing what was actually going on,” she mumbled honestly. The pegasus was right about that for sure. Twilight, Calvin and her had only been here for a short amount of time, only to discover that the Skylands was nothing like Equestria at all, from its inhabitants to the fact that the whole Skylands itself was in the middle of the sky… actual solid ground floating like pegasi cloud cities. Heck, it even made Cloudsdale look like Ponyville in comparison to the vast stretch of islands up here. But how had this world been hidden up here for all these years? That was beyond her understanding. “This place is cool and all, but there are a lot of things up here that confuse me.”
“Give it time, and you’ll like it just fine. Skylands has been known to have a lot of places where you can go on adventures, lazy bones.” Funny Bone responded. Which, of course made Rainbow Dash both angry… and intrigued at the same time. Mostly because of hearing the word “adventures”, since it reminded her of the adventure Twilight and her were on with Daring Do of all ponies. Ah, good times.
“Speaking of which, who’s the kiddo next to you?” The undead skylander asked, gazing at Calvin with a curious look in his eyes. “Would he be a friend of yours, lazy bones?” Now, if Rainbow were to say something about the repeating of Funny Bone’s jokes, it would be that the first time was funny… second time, not so much… and third time is annoying as hay. But all Calvin did was nod his head in response.
“Why, yes, actually,” he spoke up as both of the dogs decided to run on over and talk to him. “I’m Calvin. Rainbow Dash is a friend of mine, and a couple of friends we know are talking to Eon right now after the shenanigans we have been through in the last couple of days.” That though, got Hot Dog a little curious.
“Would you happen to be the kid that I heard can turn into any one of us? I overheard Spitfire talking with a couple other Skylanders about that on my way over here,” Calvin’s reply was just a nod, which really got the magma puppy excited as he wagged his tail. “If that’s the case, can you turn into me?” The boy’s only reply was a smirk and briefly saying ‘See Spot Burn!’ before turning into Hot Dog himself… which only made Rainbow groan a little and the two other dogs very surprised, going as far as giving him a doggy kiss on the face before trying to play around with him a little.
“Great… now, I can’t tell either of you apart… just perfect…” she deadpanned before Calvin decided to switch back to his normal self in order to not drive her nuts. Around that same time though was when they soon heard something else not that far away. It almost sounded like swords clashing, which definitely caught his attention.
“Hey, what do you think is going on over there?” Calvin asked, leading to Rainbow Dash shrugging her shoulders.
“Buzz must be doing some training with whoever else is at the training grounds again. Let’s go see what he’s doing!” Hot Dog declared before racing off into the distance with Funny Bone right behind him… and only confusing the pegasus that was with Calvin even more.
“Who or what is this Buzz? It sounds like the first name of a superhero space toy for foals,” she spoke, asking Calvin if he knew what Hot Dog and Funny Bone were talking about.
“Well, from what I know, his job is supposedly Head of Security and secret ninja commando operations at the academy. Kind of ironic that it’s suppose to be secret, but he keeps on talking about it whenever it’s on his mind,” the Skyshifter told her, “Come on, I’m actually kind of curious to see what he’s up too right now, actually.”
“Seriously?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I thought we were waiting on Celestia and Twilight?”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t mean we can do something while we wait,” he pointed out to her. “Besides, it would be better than just standing around here and doing nothing, right?” That… was a valid point, Rainbow had to admit. It was better than just standing around completely bored out here right now. So, with that in mind, both of them followed Funny Bone and Hot Dog to where Buzz had his training quarters set up… which was a bit different this time around then he last remembered.
But what surprised him the most was who was in the center of the ring. This figure had garbs and a helmet similar to that of Eon from the angle he was seeing it at, but held a pair of swords in each hand as she was listening to Buzz talk. “Well, I gotta say, Aurora. Even for a sensei, you were quite impressive during that last round.”
“Buzz, how many times do I have to tell you that just because I’m Eon’s niece doesn’t mean you have to go easy on me?” Wait, what was that about being Eon’s niece?
“I know that. Besides, that was just the warmup round-” Buzz was going to continue, before looking up and noticing both Calvin and Rainbow Dash watching them. “Boomsticks!! Who the heck are you two!? You’re not spies now, are you?”
“Calm down, Buzzy Bones,” both of them heard Funny Bone speak up afterwards. “They’re just guests at the academy. These two are Rainbow Dash and Calvin.” In response, they both greeted the Mabu veteran, even though both of them were still seen as suspicious to him.
“Hunh… If they are who they say they are, then I say that then need to prove it!” Oh boy, here we go. “I would like to have these two take part in one of my training exercises. If they do well, then they’ll be welcomed. If not… well, we’ll see about that.” That made Calvin gulp a little, nervous about the last few parts that Buzz had told them.
“Lay off a little, Buzz. This one’s just a kid. No need to try and scare his pants off for no reason now,” Aurora spoke up, causing the head of security to sigh.
“Alright, fine…” he groaned, before using his only eye to look back at them. “But I’ll be watching you… No funny business, you hear?” Calvin wanted to say a witty remark like ‘no promises’ or something like that, but refrained himself from doing so. Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof… not so much.
“Aye aye, captain,” a few seconds later, the only thing she could do though was close her eyes and laugh her head off while flying in midair. Calvin had a feeling she would say something snarky, but it wasn’t until now that he realized that some of the things Buzz had, including his eyepatch and pegleg, did resemble that of a pirate. Yet when he turned to look back at the Mabu, he was surprised to not find him there. Instead, he was behind Rainbow as he smacked the back of Rainbow Dash’s head, causing her to fall face first into the ground.
“Ooh, that’s going to leave a mark,” Calvin heard Hot Dog say as Rainbow Dash got up, only to realize that Buzz was now behind her.
“H-how the hay did you-!?”
“Oh, I have my ways…” Buzz chuckled, “Now, get your lazy rumps to the training course, pronto!!” Now, all that did for the pegasus was just remind her of Spitfire… if Spitfire was an old mabu with a way of sneaking up behind you when you least expect it.
Soon, Buzz had led the two of them, along with Aurora and the skylanders that were there, to the training ground that they were going to perform the exercise at. It looked almost like a track circuit from the olympics. “Now, this exercise is simple. You are to run along the track while hitting targets that are set up along the course. The more times you hit them, the more points you’ll get-”
“Sounds like a piece of cake-” Rainbow Dash interjected, until she heard Buzz speak again.
“BUT, when these targets will pop up will be random and when they do pop up, you have a limited timeframe to attack them to gain points. Get enough points, and you may be able to convince me that you are who you say you are… Oh, and don’t even try going for the academy record. Aurora already broke that record several times by herself within the last few weeks.”
“We’ll see about that-” Around then was when Rainbow Dash got on the track and tried to boast her skills by flying up in a backwards loop… only to hit her head against an invisible barrier in the process. “Oww! What was that for?!”
“Oh, right, I almost forgot,” Buzz sighed, pointing at the barrier that was visible for a split second before becoming transparent. “There’s an invisible barrier along the track to prevent those who have the ability to fly from cheating. Plus, you still need to follow the track. Some of the students learned the hard way, and when they needed to turn, they crashed into a wall.” Given what Buzz said, Calvin decided to stay closer to the center of the track than along the outskirts, like where Rainbow was. “You have 90 seconds to get as much targets as you can.”
With Buzz lifting the small fireworks hand cannon he kept on him in the air, both Rainbow and Calvin took their positions on the track. Calvin smirked though, as his necklace began to glow a little under his shirt. It wasn’t noticed by Rainbow Dash, who was too focused on the challenge of this course to pay attention to it. But the one who did notice it was Aurora.
“On your marks…” Buzz said, looking at both contestants. “Get set… GO!”
“Keeping it cool!” Calvin then said, transforming into the Water Skylander of the Swap Force named Freeze Blade, a blue furred raccoon with ice covering parts of his body, including forming his own set of ice skates. In moments, ice formed beneath his new skates before he started dashing from the starting point. Rainbow Dash herself did a burst straight out the gate and thought that Calvin couldn’t keep up with her, but she was surprised when the frozen chakram he had flew past her head and to the first target that she was closing in on.
All it did though was make Rainbow a little more determined to reach the next target. She got one as they were turning around the corner, but that was also when Calvin got his second one of the test, which in turn made her push herself to go faster to get some kind of advantage. As the two of them were hitting targets and trying to outrace one another, Aurora and Buzz were personally shocked and surprised by what they were seeing. Not only was this new kid somehow able to turn into another skylander, but he was getting the hang of the course rather quickly. How this was possible, they weren’t sure… but it was kind of entertaining to watch. Especially when his pegasus friend tried to accelerate forward and forgot to turn at the last possible moment, slipping across the ground and knocking over some pylons along the side of the track like they were bowling pins.
Of course, it didn’t mean that Calvin was perfect either. There were a couple of times that he threw his Chakram a little too late and missed the intended target while other times his aim wasn’t exactly on point. Like with a lot of the other skylanders he had turned into previously, Calvin had no upgrades for this form. Meaning he couldn’t charge his weapon for a stronger attack, send out icicles to freeze enemies or leave a trail of ice on the ground to slow anyone behind him. Not like that would exactly work against somepony like Rainbow Dash, seeing how she is used to flying with her wings, but it still provided a bit of an advantage for him.
Soon though, as quickly as they started the challenge, the buzzer went off and both of them stopped. Calvin turned back to normal as both Aurora and Buzz addressed them. “Well… that was definitely eye opening…” Buzz commented lightly before looking over the scoresheets. “But based on your performances, I can now tally up the scores… Rainbow Dash.”
“Yes?” She asked, a little nervous as to what she got.
“Based on your score and evaluations… Your score right now is 50 points,” After hearing that, she somersaulted into the air, pulling off several different victory poses in celebration for her achievements and boasting that she might’ve done better than Calvin. Which of course… was wishful thinking. “As for you, Calvin… Your score is 51 points.”
“Oh, COME ON!!!” the pegasus complained, “How is that possible!?”
“Maybe if you spent more time focusing on where you are going instead of crashing into objects on the course, the outcome would be different,” Aurora then commented. She sounded like she really was wanting to get under Rainbow Dash’s fur… and from the looks of things, she was doing a really good job at it. But it was for a reason. Aurora believed in hard work and that it pays off if you don’t slack off on your training and focus. Despite Rainbow’s best intentions, her performance on the course showed that she still had a LOT to learn.
However, before any of them could continue, they soon realized that they had a bit of an… audience. Turning around, Buzz and Calvin soon saw some familiar faces… and heard something that just made him want to facepalm himself. “Hey, what’s the pizza guy doing on the training course?”
“Flynn!!” Tessa snapped at him, bonking him in the head with her boomerang. “How many times have I told you that Calvin does not deliver pizza?!”
“Oh… Does he deliver enchiladas? What about tacos? Isn’t today Taco Tuesday?” Now was the appropriate time for Calvin to facepalm himself. Apparently, after all the explanations that they tried to give him, he still did not understand. It was making him wonder if he actually traded part of his brain, so he could have more of a stomach, because of the amount of times he had mentioned food in any conversation he was involved in.
“Wait a second…” Buzz said, hearing what Tessa said before looking back at Calvin. “How come Tessa knows about you already?”
“Because I ran into her first… I’ve met almost everyone at the academy earlier, except for you. Tessa told me a little about you, and I gotta say… you’re a lot different in person than what Tessa told me.” Calvin replied, smiling a little before waving to them.
“And what’s that suppose to mean?”
“Oh, nothing important…” Calvin shrugged it off, dodging a bullet there with that conversation as he followed Rainbow Dash up the stairs. But just as he got to the top, Buzz remembered something.
“Hold on there, youngster… I still have something that I needed to ask you,” he said as Calvin looked back at him. “How come you were able to turn into a skylander during the training course we gave you just now?”
“That… may be easier to explain once you come up here. I already showed it to Tessa and them, so maybe they could help you understand it more than I can.” With that, the Mabu veteran and Aurora both walked up to where everyone else was waiting. They took the time to explain to Buzz what Calvin can do as well as explain how each of his forms would also need upgrades from Persephone, so he could have some more moves at his disposal. Before Calvin could even ask about how he could be able to get the money needed for the upgrades, he soon spotted Master Eon walking out with Princess Celestia… and a partially timid Twilight Sparkle, who kept looking over her shoulder several times to see if any of the two snake skylanders she saw earlier were following them.
“Is your friend there going to be okay?” Tessa asked, looking at Twilight.
“Yeah… She just happened to run into Rattle Shake at the wrong time,” Calvin sighed for a moment. “Twilight’s afraid of snakes.”
“W-where!?” They heard her say, surprised at the fact that somehow, she overheard the last word in Calvin’s sentence and thought there were actually snakes somewhere.
“Case in point…” the skyshifter replied as they saw the three of them walk over to where they presently were. “Now, that brings up a different question… what do we do now?”
“Well, normally I would suggest for you to ask for Trap Shadow’s help, since he can help track down Kaos’ new whereabouts,” Tessa spoke up, before then mentioning something. “But he’s likely on a mission right now, and we won’t know when he’ll come back. For now, I believe it’s best for you guys to go back and get some rest. We’ll call you when he returns.”
“And who would be this… Trap Shadow?” Celestia then asked.
“He’s a Swap Force Skylander of the Magic element, and an excellent Hunter/Tracker. Was really helpful when it came to tracking down various bad guys across skylands. If we’re trying to find Kaos, he’s our best shot,” Cali then spoke up, explaining to them a bit about the person they were talking about. “But yeah, like Tessa said, we will call you when he comes back. Have a safe trip home you guys.”
“Thanks,” Calvin replied, before noticing Spitfire nearby as he was preparing Hot Streak. “We’ll see you guys soon.”
Back at the Castle of Friendship
“So, let me see if ah can understand what you are trying to tell me…” The Earth pony known as Applejack spoke up. She had gathered with her friends, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, alongside with her sister Apple Bloom and her two friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Princess Luna and Discord had also arrived back at the Castle of Friendship. They were trying to talk about and understand a very… peculiar incident that only happened sometime earlier today. “Rainbow Dash was about to do a Sonic Rainboom…”
“Yes,”
“She was gaining enough speed to pull it off…”
“Uh hunh…”
“And when she did it, it tore open that colossal hole in the sky?” The farm pony questioned.
“Yes, like I didn’t just get done explaining it to you already!” Scootaloo pouted, causing her friends to sigh a little as she pointed out one more thing. “That’s the third time you wanted me to repeat what I just told you.”
“Ah’m sorry, Scootaloo, but ah’m having trouble believing that Rainbow could something like… well, that!” The earth pony replied back to her. “Now, not only is Calvin not here, but Twilight, Rainbow and even Princess Celestia aren’t back. I’m just worried that something might’ve happened to them.”
“Oh, come on now, AJ. This only happened two chapters ago, and if some meanie did try to hurt them, they could easily kick their flank! Wax on, wax off!!” Pinkie Pie proclaimed while taking out a white piece of cloth from her mane, tying it across her forehead and adopting a kung fu stance as her front hooves moved in a circular motion.
“She has a point, Applejack,” Rarity then spoke up. “We all saw him be able to defend himself from that mongrel that crashed the gala this year.”
“That may be true, but what if something comes here while he’s away?” Applejack replied, looking back at everypony else as she then spoke up. “I know we sent Tirek back to Tartarus, but that was when all of us were here. That ‘thing’ just worries me.” Luna herself understood what Applejack was going to talk about, but before she could say anything, Pinkie was soon jumping up and down in place before taking off.
“TWITCHY TAIL! Everypony hide!!” Almost everypony except for Discord and Princess Luna ran for cover. Hiding under tables, the stairs, the bathroom and even under the Cutie Map table. All while the Draconequus and the Princess of the Night just stared in confusion.
“Uh… what are you doing?” Discord asked, before hearing Sweetie Belle speak to them from under a chair.
“Are you crazy? Anytime that Pinkie Pie’s tail twitches, something will fall!” She told him before she hid back under her chair… and causing Discord to laugh… and not pay attention to the rift that was opening directly behind him.
“Now, that’s just the silliest and most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard-” Shortly afterwards, the draconequus got blindsided by the front molten grill of the vehicle that was Hot Streak as it skid across the floor before both Calvin and Spitfire got out. Twilight, Rainbow, and Princess Celestia soon emerged as well, only to see the flattened draconequus on the floor reinflate himself as he was trying to catch his breath. “This… proves… nothing-”
“Well, I believe that was a successful landing… other than hitting Discord on accident,” Calvin replied as he looked back at Rainbow and Twilight.
“Actually… that part was kind of hilarious. Almost as funny as you running over Twilight!” Rainbow Dash replied, bursting out into laughter while everypony else in the entire castle was staring at Calvin.
“Oh, really? And how is that going to prove that whole ‘twitchy tail’ phenomenon that you were-” Just as he said that though, Pinkie was hopping in place again before ducking for cover once again.
“TWITCHY TAIL!!”
“ …Seriously? Twice in a row-” That was when a shelf that was previously dislodged from when Calvin and Spitfire originally arrived soon began to fall off of the wall and cause the textbooks that were neatly arranged on there originally to plummet on top of the draconequus as they all piled up on him in a huge mess. Shortly before pulling out his eagle talon and pointing towards Pinkie, even though one of the books covered his eyes. “…Okay, maybe she’s onto something…”
Ignoring that though, it was Princess Luna who soon spoke up, asking the same question that was everypony’s minds. “So, would you care to explain what exactly happened?”
That… caused Calvin to take in a deep breath and sigh deeply. “It’s a LONG story…”
End Scroll 11
Happy Halloween / Hallows eve / Nightmare Night / whatever else you are celebrating!
No tricks here. This is a definite treat. I haven't gotten imaginators yet, but I'm planning to do so soon once I clear up a lot of things on my schedule. Here's the transformations this time around
Along with a few other Skylanders that Calvin happened to meet
And with Aurora right here.
Enjoy! (Also, thanks Regreme for pointing that out)
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Ha! Never underestimate the tail twitch!
7686687 xD
Surprised you didn't also list the other characters that were met there in the author's notes.;)
7686741 I put up the videos of the ones that he actually transforms into if it's anyone new. Case in point, Hot Dog and Freeze Blade
7686762 I know. But I mean like Skylanders they met, like Rattle Shake, Cobra Cadabra, etc.
7686793 Yeah... Right now, I'm half awake, tired, about to get to sleep and surprisingly excited that this story got 100 likes. I forgot xP. Simple as that.
7686864 Simple fix too, eh? XD
7686869 Yeah once I am awake -_-
7687499 lol ^^
7687805 And fixed.
7687824 Pretty sure Aurora has a video out already. And maybe pics of the other allies you meet if you can find them. But, better than yesterday at least.^^
7687836 I looked and I didn't find a trailer vid on the main Skylanders youtube channel. So yeah, there's that
7687838 Odd. Found it on youtube.
7687849 So did I. Fixed... again.
7687853 lol Nice.^^
7687853 So, I assume that we can do our cross soon?
7688719 Yup... Also, did you notice the Pixar references in the chapter again?
Is Calvin gonna interact with the Doom Raiders?
“Oh, come on now, AJ. This only happened two chapters ago, and if some meanie did try to hurt them, they could easily kick their flank! Wax on, wax off!!” Pinkie Pie proclaimed while taking out a white piece of cloth from her mane, tying it across her forehead and adopting a kung fu stance as her front hooves moved in a circular motion.
I LOVE PINKIE PIE!