Beyond the Skies

by FrostTheWolf

Scroll 31- The Search

Author's Note:

Happy New Year, everyone! With 2021 behind us, I look forward to what this new year has in store and hope for the best.
-Frost

Beyond the Skies- The Search

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???

The night sky was absent of stars this evening, as the sound of moving vehicles echoed in the far distance of the empty lot. What was once a prosperous establishment that sold toys and games to children of any age was nothing more than a shell of its former self. To make things worse, the stories of an unsolved disappearance from two years ago had given the place a bad reputation and scared off any potential buyers that would’ve been interested in taking over the building. There had even been calls to have the place leveled to the ground, but survey teams found that a demolition job would only end up damaging local businesses that were not too far away from the site. It was essentially an empty husk that couldn’t be removed and couldn’t have someone else take over for them.

Though, on this night, the supposedly abandoned building was about to receive a pair of unexpected visitors. “Raquel, are you sure about this?”

The two visitors in question were a pair of twins, who looked to be in their early teens. One was a young man with short brown hair, light skin and brown eyes that wore a black hooded jacket over a blue t-shirt, jeans and sneakers. The other was a young girl of the same age, whose hair and eye color were the same, but she had her hair drift off to the right side of her head. As for her appearance, she wore a gray collared jacket with a blue long sleeved shirt and jeans along with a woven bracelet on her left wrist.

“Trevor, we’ve gone over this a few times already. We go in, have a look around, and if we don’t find anything, we get out,” she told him, placing a hand on her hip and giving him a look of reassurance, “What more is there to be worried about?”

“Oh, I don’t know, sis,” the teen that was next to her replied sarcastically as he folded his arms, “The fact that no matter how many times we’ve talked about this, we’ve never discussed what we would do if we got caught. I don’t know about you, but anyone else would call this breaking and entering-”

“Who would there be to even catch us?” Raquel asked, “The place is basically empty, and no one comes around here, not even the police. Now, are we going to just stand around here asking questions, or are we going to go inside-?”

At this, her brother let out a deep sigh as he looked back to her, “Raquel, you still never told me why you wanted to do this. I would be a little bit more open minded about everything if you could at least tell me that. Unlike you, I’m not a mind reader.”

It was then that the teenaged girl removed the hand from her hip and looked to the front entrance of the old building. “Ever since Calvin vanished, things haven’t been the same here. You saw how devastated his mom was when the news was broken to her. Not only that, but I couldn’t help but feel as if part of me is somehow responsible. I know I’ve changed since elementary, yet I’m still reminded of those times every time we pass by here. There are a few unanswered questions I have, and I thought that by coming here, I could at least get some answers. Either that, or put everything to rest for good.”

Then, she looked back at her brother. “Does that help dispel any doubts you might have?”

Trevor’s only response to that was a small breath as he looked back to her briefly, “A bit, yes. Though, let’s just try to be careful. We have no idea what could be inside, so let’s err on the side of caution. Mom and dad would chew both of us out if something happened while on this little adventure of yours.”

With that out of the way, both of them proceeded to walk through the empty parking lot and towards the entrance of the abandoned building. From a distance, nothing really seemed to stand out about it. The building itself had some wear and tear across the structure. The windows were boarded up, and there was faded graffiti on the walls. Yet, there wasn’t anything that really stood out to either of them, at first glance.

As they approached the front of the deserted building though, that was when the two siblings came across a problem that they couldn’t easily work around, for both the entrance and exit doors were sealed tight with thick metallic chains wrapped around the handles of the doors, joined by a giant lock in the middle. Not only did they not have a key, but despite the two of them watching a few crime dramas together, both teens had no idea what to do when it came to trying to pick a lock.

After closely inspecting the lock and chains, Trevor let out a small sigh before he looked back at Raquel and shrugged, “Well, I guess that rules out going through the front door. Do you have a Plan B or something for how to get in?”

“Hang on a second. I’m-”

Before she had the chance to finish her sentence, Raquel heard the sound of a small bell jingling behind her. When the girl turned around, that was when she saw a rather unusual sight. About thirty feet behind the two siblings stood a cat with gray fur and cyan colored eyes that stared at the two of them. A black collar was around its neck, too, with a small bell around the neck. Yet, there didn’t seem to be any tags on them at all and looked like a stray from a distance.

“Raquel, is something wrong? Why are you staring off into space?”

“I heard something and-” at that moment, Raquel paused briefly before she looked back at her brother with a confused glance, “Wait, staring off? What are you talking about?”

“When you didn’t answer my question, I turned my head and saw you just looking behind me, like you had seen a ghost or something.”

At that, Raquel felt a small shiver down her spine as she looked back the other direction. The cat was still there, licking its own paws, and it didn’t go off anywhere. Yet, what her brother just said didn’t sound right at all, as she looked back towards him, “Are you saying that you can’t see it?”

“See what, sis? Because I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Trevor, there’s a cat standing right behind us.”

When Raquel said that, her brother now turned away from the door and looked behind her sister. However, instead of shock and surprise, Trevor was instead confused as he shook his head. “Come on, sis, I don’t see any cats. There’s nothing else out here aside from the two of us. Now, can we try to refocus and figure out another way for us to get inside?”

As her brother was speaking, Raquel looked over her shoulder to see that the cat had turned around and started to walk away. The feline walked alongside the building, and when it reached the corner, it darted around and disappeared without a trace. She thought that this cat was trying to tell her something. Despite her brother somehow not being able to see it, the creature looked as if it somehow understood the problem they were facing. If that was the case, then perhaps there was more to it than she originally thought.

“Hey, Trevor? I might have an idea, but I’m going to need you to really trust me on this one.”

Before Trevor even realized what exactly she was talking about, Raquel began to walk away from him and started following after the cat. When she turned around the corner, the cat was already halfway alongside the building and getting farther ahead of her. In her mind, this cat that only she could somehow see was possibly the key to finding another way inside. Even though it sounded crazy, it was either this or staring at a door for the next few hours with no idea how to get in.

By the time that Trevor had finally caught up with her, Raquel was already around the back side of the lot. “Sis, when you say that you have an idea, it would be helpful if you actually tell me what that idea is!”

“Calm down now, Trevor. We’re fine,” she reassured him, before she looked farther ahead of her just in time to see that the cat she was following had slipped in through the opening of a door that was partially open, “Besides, I think we just found our way in.”

When he heard that, Trevor looked away from her briefly towards the open door that was not that far away from them, before looking back at his sister, “Okay, I got to ask. What exactly made you think that we would have better luck around the back side of the building?”

“Would it be weird to tell you that all I did was just follow a cat, and I found the door like that?”

Her brother just blinked, looking back towards the door briefly before looking over to her. “If it were me, I would think that either you’re hallucinating or you’re somehow seeing something that I’m not. Right now though, it’s the latter.” Shortly afterwards, Trevor walked over to the door and carefully opened it up a bit further, before motioning his right arm, as if he was bowing to his sister, “Ladies first.”

Raquel couldn’t help but chuckle at that, before she walked over and went on inside, with her brother right behind her. As they gently closed the door behind them, the two siblings found themselves in what looked to be a small, dimly lit break room. Despite it being empty, they could see outlines of where appliances used to be, as well as patched up holes in the drywall and dust all over the floor and countertops.

“Well, this place has seen better days. Hey, did you bring some kind of light? That way, we’re not looking around in the dark?” The only response that she got from her brother was him taking out his phone and pressing a couple of buttons before a light began to shimmer next to his phone’s camera lens. “Okay, I honestly forgot that our phones had that feature.”

“That’s because we never really used it until now,” Trevor said, before moving the light around the room to take a good look around, “Man, this place has definitely not aged well since we’ve last been here. I wonder if the rest of the building is just as bad.”

“Considering how much time has passed, I wouldn’t be surprised,” Raquel shrugged, before she noticed what appeared to be the handle of a door on the other side of the room. Carefully, she approached it with caution and gently pushed against the door as it squeaked open. “Only one way to find out for sure though. Let’s keep moving, though be on the lookout for anything that seems strange.”

“Like cats?”

Raquel could only roll her eyes at that, before letting out a deep sigh. “Yes, because I have a feeling that this place isn’t as empty as we think it is.”

As the twins stepped out of the former break room, both of them were surprised by the state in which they found the rest of the building. Instead of it being a giant empty space, like the break room was, this area in particular had a variety of what looked to be wooden shipping crates in different shapes and sizes. Some of them were even open, with their contents set on the crate adjacent from it, on the floor or on top of a table that stretched across most of the far wall on the other side.

Yet, what was most surprising to them was not just the state of the room, but what was inside the crates. At first glance, the two of them thought that the warehouse was being used by criminals that were trying to hide stolen goods from the police. However, when they took a closer look, what the two of them found was completely different from what either of them were expecting. “What the heck?”

Inside the boxes, the twins found what looked to be various kinds of toys, along with numerous books, figurines and games… not just the kind for young children like building blocks and stuffed animals, but for all ages from the looks of it and many of which both of them could recognize. There were figurines, building sets, different versions of board games like Monopoly and Clue, as well as many other items, too. Not only that, but in a few boxes, there were different costumes and props, such as toy weapons and superhero masks, with a lot of them being in rather good condition.

“What’s up with all this?” Trevor asked as he began to pull out different items, to have a closer look at each one. After a couple of moments, he looked back to his sister and asked the first thing that came to mind, “Do you think all of these are… well, stuff they left behind? Like, products that they weren’t able to sell?”

“I doubt that,” Raquel shook her head, briefly looking inside the box and pulling out one of the items inside before looking back at her brother, “When this place had their going out of business sale, almost everything was cleaned off the shelves when we came here. Besides, if there was anything left over, you would think that it would go to charity, instead of just sitting around gathering dust.”

“Fair point,” Trevor replied as he put some of the items back in the crate, “Though, I doubt we’re going to find anything if we look through every one of these boxes. So, with that in mind, do you have a plan?”

“The only other thing I can really think of is to keep looking around,” she replied, before an idea came to mind, “Given that we still have a lot of ground to cover though, how about you and I split up and meet back here in like… ten minutes?”

Yet, that suggestion didn’t quite go so well with her brother, “Yeah, I… don’t think that last part is a good idea.”

“What, ten minutes? We can’t be here too long-”

“No, the part before that,” he corrected himself, “The part where we split up. Shouldn’t we stay by each other? Safety in numbers?”

Raquel can now only let out a soft groan as she looked at her brother with a deadpan expression, “Trevor, please don’t tell me that you have a phobia or something I’m unaware of.”

“No, it’s nothing like that,” Trevor insisted as he let out a sigh, “Do you remember when I played that one game with dad when he had some of his friends over? You know, the one with all the little figurines, the different kinds of dice and that screen he used to hide whatever he was looking at?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Well, in that game, our group was investigating a warehouse, almost similar to this one. I was going to ask if splitting up was a good idea, though they were quick to shut me down. When I asked why, they told me that splitting the party is never a good idea. Because if something bad happens and you are by yourself, no one else can help you.”

“…And how exactly does this apply to what we’re doing right now?”

At that, Trevor folded his arms, “What I’m suggesting is that we should stick together. That way, if one of us needs help, the other could do so.”

“Then, why didn’t you-” Raquel paused, before letting out a deep breath. The more time that she got hung up on the details of her brother's confusing explanation, the more time they were wasting, “Nevermind, forget that I asked. Let’s try it your way, then. If splitting up is a bad idea, then what do you suggest we do?”

“Well, the only other thing that stands out besides the boxes is that over there,” her brother replied as he pointed towards the back wall.

“The table?” she asked, “How come?”

“Because the more I look at it, the more I think it’s some kind of desk or workbench. If someone was here recently, maybe they left something behind there? Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to look.”

Raquel hated to admit it, but her brother had a valid point. Not only that, but despite their findings in the crates, they did not have any other leads to go off of. That, and despite that strange cat helping the two of them get inside the building, she had no idea where it ran off to afterwards. “Okay then. Lead the way.”

As the twins walked on over, nothing really seemed to stand out, at first. From a distance, it looked like any other ordinary table. Though, as they got closer, they realized that the condition of the table wasn’t entirely in the best of shape. Not only that, but some dents and scrapes on the surface made it appear as if it had been used recently. Though, the lack of anything that could possibly be used as tools didn’t really tell either of them what exactly was being made here.

There was one other thing that the two of them noticed: a drawer compartment that was underneath the main desk and had a small combination lock, preventing them from forcefully opening it. “Well, this may be a bit of a challenge. Any four digit numbers you can think of off the top of your head, sis?”

“Um, all zeroes?” Raquel said as she shrugged her shoulders.

As she said that, her brother put the numbers in the lock and attempted to pull on it. As he partially expected, the drawer didn’t budge. “Nah, that one seems too simple. If someone were trying to hide something in here, it would probably be more complex than that.”

“Hold on. Let me check something,” she said as Trevor heard the sound of her unlocking her phone and the clicking sounds of her typing into the keyboard, “Hmm… I got two possibilities. Can you try zero three one eight and then zero six one eight?”

“Um, sure,” he replied as he began to change the numbers on the drawer, “Why those specifically, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Well, according to what I found here, Toys-R-Us filed for bankruptcy in march of 2018 and then closed all their stores three months later, including this one. I just thought that it could possibly be a connection or something.”

While it might’ve seemed practical to guess that the history of the location somehow played a role in this, it didn’t help them in the long run, for both of Raquel’s suggestions didn’t work and ended up just irritating her. “Well, that did not work. Unless this guy made his passcode completely obvious, I doubt we’re going to-”

Click!

“Huh. Well, that was much easier than I expected,” Trevor said to himself, before looking over to his sister, “From the looks of it, whoever decided to set this up chose the simplest combination you can think of.”

“What, like one two three four?”

“Even simpler than that,” he smiled, “All ones.”

For a moment, Raquel thought that her brother was messing with her. Anyone in their right minds would know that having all of the same number as the combination on a lock is too obvious. Though, the sight of each number being one on the lock and her brother actually being able to open the drawer without any resistance soon proved her wrong. “Huh. Well, color me surprised, then. Is there anything in there?”

“Yes, there is. However, what’s in here is honestly not what I expected,” Trevor admitted, before placing what looked to be two objects and a journal. The objects themselves were a pair of what looked to be wristbands, but both of them looked vastly different from one another. The first one was a rugged iron band with the symbol of a hammer and forge in the middle, while the second appeared to be a woven lavender bracelet with a symbol that looked to be a single vertical line with two outstretched lines in the form of a V overlapped onto it. “What are these, some kind of arts and crafts project?”

“Honestly, I have no idea,” Raquel shrugged, before picking up the second of the two bracelets to take a closer look. “Though, both of these seem very well made, so I doubt that someone does this for a hobby.”

Shortly afterwards, she turned her head to see that Trevor was beginning to go through the journal that was on the table. “Found anything interesting in there?”

“Maybe? At first, I thought this was like a diary. Though after skimming a few pages, it doesn’t look like that’s the case. There’s pictures of different items in here, but they’re described like something else,” he said, before turning back to a particular page, “Listen to this. Item name: Scarf of the Phoenix. Owner: Emma ‘Ember’ Valkyr. Source: Commission. Since acquisition, the owner of the scarf has inherited the power of a phoenix as her own to control. This includes various levels of pyrokinesis as well as… immortality!? What exactly am I even reading? None of this makes sense.”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Raquel told him, before a thought came to mind as she looked back at him, “What other things are in there?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Well, this thing has the names of people who ended up getting these weird things, right?” she pointed out, “If Calvin came here on the day of his disappearance, perhaps there’s something in there with his name on it? It’s a bit of a long shot, but we have to try, right?”

“I guess. Though, it seems that it only has the name of a person on here if something was actually sold to them,” Trevor added, before pointing at both of the trinkets on the table, “For example, those two are labeled as ‘Band of the Living Forge’ and ‘Bracelet of the Aberrant Mind’, but they don’t belong to any owners. Not only that, but there’s not even a description on them at all. Aside from the name of these… things, almost the whole page is blank-”

Of course, as he turned the next page, what her brother found was enough to startle him and almost drop the journal onto the floor. “Oh my god.”

“What? What is it, brother?” she now asked, a bit concerned for him by the way he was acting in that moment.

“I-I… I think I found him,” was the only thing that he said, before he handed the journal to her, so she could see it for herself. Yet, what was on the page was not exactly what she was expecting at all.

“Item name: Elementanium… Necklace?” Raquel spoke, uncertain if that was how the first word of the item’s name was how it was supposed to be pronounced before she tried to continue, “Owner: Calvin Valkyr (See Valkyr family in addendum). Source: Promotional Giveaway. After acquisition, the owner was quick to discover that the necklace allows him to transform into the various heroes referred to as ‘Skylanders’ for a short duration.”

“Wasn’t that the name of that one video game series he liked?” Trevor asked, “I think I remember seeing him wear t-shirts of those characters to school once.”

“I remember that, too,” she nodded, “There’s more in here though. Since acquisition, the abilities of the necklace have evolved to not only improve the capabilities of the forms he turns into, but also take on the properties of imaginite, a specific mineral found in the world that he had arrived in that harnesses creation based magic to materialize anything the caster thinks of?” Then, she looked back to her brother with a puzzled expression, “Are we sure this is the same Calvin that we know? Because this is talking about him having powers, other worlds and magic-”

Just as she was about to finish her sentence, a familiar bell chime was heard throughout the room as Raquel quickly turned around. Perched on a crate was the same cat that she saw outside. Yet, it didn’t appear as friendly as before, and it looked like its fur and eyes were somehow glowing in the dimly lit room. Not only that, but there was one key difference that she soon realized a few moments after their arrival.

“R-Raquel, is t-that the cat you saw earlier?”

“Yeah, it-” she blinked, before turning back around to her brother, “Wait, you can see it, too?”

Before her brother could answer her question, both twins heard a strange distorted sound from the other end of the room. It was followed by the sound of footsteps that echoed throughout the room as they saw the shadow of a stranger from the other side. Much to the surprise of the twins though, the cat soon vanished from sight before reappearing on a box that was next to the stranger that had just arrived. “Well now, what do we have here, Hermes? It seems we have a pair of guests.”

Despite the glow that was emitting from the cat, neither of the twins could tell what exactly he looked like. Not only that, but when they tried to shine the flashlights on their phones on them, their phones began to glitch out and immediately shut down. “Unexpected and rather rude guests, it seems.”

“W-who are you?” Raquel demanded, trying her best to act tough despite the current situation that she and her brother were in. “What did you do to Calvin?!”

“Calvin, you say? Now, where have I heard that name before?” In an instant, the journal was immediately yanked out of her hands by an unknown force, as it flew over to where the stranger stood. Shortly afterwards, it opened up, and the pages immediately began to flip before stopping at a particular point. “Well, what do you know? The bearer of the necklace. By the ancients, it’s been a long time since then.”

Then, the book slammed shut, before fading and disappearing as the figure looked towards both of them. “I’m truly sorry, but my business is not for the likes of mere mortals to be snooping around in.”

At that point, Trevor stepped forward and tried to put himself in between Raquel and the unknown stranger that just walked in. “Okay, listen. I don’t know who you are, but if you even think of laying a finger on my sister, I’m going to make you regret it, so back off!”

“Oh, sister, you say?” it asked curiously, before acting as if a realization hit it, “I see now. You’re not just siblings, but twins.”

“How do you-?”

Before either of them could react, they felt themselves being forced down onto the ground by overwhelming force as the trinkets from the table began to move towards them. Both objects were glowing as the iron band was wrapped around Trevor’s right wrist, while the lavender bracelet tore away the one that Raquel was wearing and fastened itself in its place. Pain began to surge through the twins as it became harder to see what was happening. Though, as this was happening, the stranger happened to say one last thing.

“Nothing personal, you two. But, you know what they say… Good things come in pairs.”

The last thing that they heard was a loud snap of a finger as everything began to fade to black all around them.

---

“O-ow… my head.”

After feeling like he was adrift for hours, Trevor began to slowly open his eyes, as light began to shine down on his face. It was difficult for him to piece together what exactly happened at first. In fact, he originally thought that everything that had happened was some kind of dream, something that seemed impossible with no possible way of happening in real life. It was like he was just waking up from a nap in his backyard.

Yet, as he lifted his right hand to try and block the light that was shining down on him, he immediately jolted upright. “Oh, no. T-that wasn’t a dream at all.”

Shortly after the young man realized his predicament, Trevor noticed the environment around him. He was no longer inside the cold abandoned building from before. Instead, he was in a deep forest that looked rather cartoonish at first glance. However, the scenery wasn’t what was on his mind right now, as he began to look around.

What he was focused on was who happened to be laid down right beside him. “Raquel!!”

Immediately, he scrambled over to his sister and propped her head up on his left knee. The first concern that immediately came to Trevor’s mind was whether she happened to be hurt in some way. However, there were not any injuries anywhere on her body. In fact, the only noticeable change was that the bracelet that she would always wear on her left wrist had been replaced by the Lavender one that they found at the lot. Yet, that wasn’t his immediate concern.

“Raquel, come on! Please wake up…” he pleaded, trying his best to get his sister to rise from her slumber as he took a quick glance at their surroundings. There was no telling what kind of animals could be out here in this forest, so the sooner that Raquel woke up, the sooner they could get out of here before something found them. “Come on! Come on! Come on!! Please, sis! Wake up!”

Fortunately, his pleas did not fall on deaf ears. For shortly after, his sister's eyes began to slowly open. “B-brother?”

The moment that he saw his sister wake up, Trevor felt relief wash over him, “O-oh, thank goodness. I was worried about you. H-how do you feel?”

“I… don’t know,” she replied, looking back at him, “My head hurts a little. Yet, I feel as if something about me has changed. But… I can’t tell what it is.” Her eyes then shifted, noticing the environment around her before looking back at her brother as she tried to get on her feet, “Trevor? W-where are we?”

Before he even had the chance to answer, the twins heard a rustle from a nearby bush. At first, they thought it was an animal that was hiding inside. Though, that was when the two of them began to hear voices from the other side.

“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this is happening! Out of all the things that have happened in Ponyville, why this!?”

“Wha-?” Before Raquel could say anything else, her brother moved his right hand to her face to cover it, before extending a finger to his lips.

“Sssh. Let’s stay quiet and listen,” he whispered to her, before the two of them carefully got closer, so they could see who was talking. Much to the surprise of both of them though, the conversation that was playing out before them was between a pair of talking unicorns that were by some kind of caravan. The first one had a faded pink coat with blue eyes and a purple mane and tail that had a stripe of aquamarine down the middle, while the second unicorn had an azure coat, dark violet eyes and a cerulean mane and tail. Both of them also had strange markings on their rears as well.

“Trixie, let’s just take a moment and stay calm-”

“Stay calm?! Starlight, we both heard what they said in the castle. I-I can’t deal with this,” the azure unicorn, who the twins assumed was called Trixie, replied as she was panting and trying to catch her breath, “I-I’m just a performer, not some hero! This… this is princess-level stuff! But the changelings ponynapped all the princesses! We’re doomed!!”

“What’s a changeling?” Trevor whispered.

“Don’t look at me, I’m just as confused as you are,” Raquel quietly retorted, before trying to move a bit closer, so that she could hear the two ponies a little bit better.

“Maybe not,” the other mare, Starlight, pondered, “Chrysalis only said that they took Celestia and Luna along with Twilight and the others. But maybe-”

Unfortunately though, as she tried to inch closer, her foot stepped on a fallen tree branch that snapped seconds later. Before either of the twins had the chance to react, both unicorns were looking straight at their hiding place, as both of the horns were lit up with magic. “W-who’s there?!”

“Well, so much for trying to stay quiet,” he grumbled, before looking back at his sister, “Come on. Follow me.”

“Wait-? You want to-? Trevor, you can’t be serious,” she replied, taken aback by what was happening and by what she thought her brother was going to do, “Why would you want to go out there and-?”

“Because they already know that we’re here,” he reminded her, “Whatever’s going on, they already seem to be on edge. I just thought that maybe if we talked to them and explained our situation, perhaps they could calm down and maybe help us out somehow? I mean, all we can really do is try.”

With no better options to consider, Raquel just followed along with her brother’s plan. While it might’ve sounded crazy at first, the more she thought about it, the more that it slowly began to make some sense. Though, it was still difficult to wrap her head around the fact that they were somehow about to talk to actual unicorns. This wasn’t something that you could just make up.

As the twins moved out of the bush and onto the road, both unicorns looked rather shocked as well as confused. “What the hay?”

“I’m sorry, but we didn’t mean to startle you,” Trevor quickly replied, hoping that it would help make the situation a little less tense, “We have no idea where we are, and-”

“You two are… humans?” the one called Starlight asked, “Like, actual humans? N-not… changelings?”

The twins looked back to one another, puzzled by the question before they turned their attention back to the unicorn as Raquel spoke before her brother even had the chance to say anything, “W-wait a minute! You know what we are?”

“Well, yeah. I-” Almost instantly, the expression on the mare’s face changed. Her eyes shrank as the magic around her horn vanished instantly, “Oh, no. Oh, dear Celestia, no!!”

Now, the other mare that was right next to her was just as confused as the twins, “Starlight? Are you okay?”

“Am I okay?!” the unicorn retorted as an expression of fear and panic began to form on her face, “Trixie, don’t you realize how bad this is?! We spent so much time sneaking around the castle, trying to find answers, and yet, we forgot to check and see if-”

“Oh, hey, there you are.”

The unexpected voice had Starlight jump in fright as Trixie was forced to stand up and catch her with her forelegs. However, when the twins heard that, they recognized it as a familiar voice that they haven’t heard in years. Part of them doubted that the person who spoke was who they thought it was. Yet, any suspicions they had soon dissipated when they looked past the two mares and saw where the voice came from.

“N-no way. Is that-?”

Farther down the road was a young teenage boy that looked familiar to both of the twins. The clothes he wore were almost exactly as the ones that Calvin wore on the day that he went missing, and his appearance was almost identical. Yet, the only difference that stood out to them was a pendant that he wore around his neck, and he looked a little bit taller than what they remembered. At first glance, it was unclear as to whether or not this was who Raquel and Trevor were looking for.

Yet, it was when Starlight spoke again that the twins got their answer. “Calvin, do not scare me like that!”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to,” he apologized and scratched the back of his head, “I think I’m just relieved to find you, with what’s been going on lately-”

Around then though, his eyes shifted as he noticed the twins. “What the heck!? Starlight, what’s-?”

“Honestly, that’s what I think Trixie and I want to know,” the unicorn added, “Before you arrived, the only thing that they told us was that they were humans like you.”

“Like… me?” the young teen asked, before looking at both of the twins, “That’s the first time I’ve heard of there being other humans here… Have we met before?”

“Wait, you know these two?” Trixie asked as she set Starlight back down on her hooves, before looking back over towards the twins.

“I think so,” he replied with a puzzled expression, “They seem familiar… Who-?”

“Calvin, don’t you remember us? We went to school together,” Raquel replied, trying her best to help jog his memory, “We were all in the same class? Surely, you remember my brother, right?”

“Uh, if I have to be honest, I’m better when it comes to remembering names. Besides, the only people I remember from then were-” At that, realization began to hit him as his eyes widened. She noticed Calvin’s feet slowly move backwards as his gaze returned to them, “W-wait a minute… are you-”

Trevor himself had a smile on his face and was going to say something. However, before either of the twins could speak, a different voice was heard farther down the road. “Uh, Calvin? Can I come out now? I’ve been waiting back here for the last few minutes, and you haven’t told me if it was safe or not.”

Immediately, Calvin’s attention went elsewhere as he turned back around and went back around in the opposite direction, “Oh, shoot! Sorry!!” he replied, before looking back towards Starlight and Trixie, “There was someone I ran into on the way here that wanted to talk to Twilight and such. Though, after we found out that something bad was going on in the castle, we began searching for you instead.”

That had Starlight tilt her head to the side, puzzled by what he was talking about. “Really? Who?”

At that, Calvin just turned away from the mare briefly before looking back over his shoulder towards her, “Promise me that you won’t freak out, alright?” he said, before looking back towards where the other voice came from as he spoke, “Okay, Thorax. It’s safe to come out.”

Moments afterwards, the twins saw a different creature trot up alongside Calvin. However, despite its appearance resembling that of a pony, its actual body was more like that of an insect in form, from its eyes to its wings. “We meet again, Starlight.”

“AH!! CHANGELING-!”

“Trixie, don’t!!” Starlight quickly retorted, “He’s one of the good ones.” Though, it was shortly after the words left her lips that she began to remember their current predicament. “Wait a minute. How do we know that you are who you say you are?”

The twins watched as the changeling named Thorax began to recall what occurred the last time that the mare had seen him. Not only was his memory on point, but he even went as far as transforming into the pony that he was talking about and mimicking their voice perfectly to prove his innocence. It caused Starlight to feel relieved, but only briefly, for she had a bad feeling of what he wanted to talk about.

“Well, at least we know you’re telling the truth,” the unicorn replied, “But wait, weren’t you in the Crystal Empire? What brings you all the way down here?”

“That is something that I hoped to speak to your mentor about,” Thorax told her, “The changelings had captured and replaced Princess Cadence and her family, including your friend Sunburst. I was the only one who was able to avoid them. On my way here, I met Calvin and hoped that I could warn both Princess Twilight and Spike in time. Unfortunately, we realized that we were too late-”

“Well, that’s just perfect,” Trixie threw her hooves up into the air, “I told you that this was some princess-level stuff, Starlight! Now, all the princesses have been pony-napped! What does that make us…? Doomed!”

“T-Trixie, calm down. Panicking is not going to help. I-I’m sure there’s somepony who could help.”

“Is it just me, or does it seem like whenever something goes horribly wrong, freakouts like this are normal?” Raquel asked her brother as he shrugged his shoulders.

“Honestly, it’s a bit too early to judge.”

“Starlight, there is nopony else! Everypony we know that has powerful magic is already gone!”

It was at this exact moment that another voice was now heard. This time, it came from directly behind the twins. “You know, whenever somepony decides to start a conversation involving powerful magic, they always seem to forget to ask if I wanted to take part in it. Why, I would have been insulted by that, if I hadn’t changed my ways for the better.”

Sitting up in a nearby tree like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland was what could only be described as a living being that was the combination of multiple different body parts from other animals. No two limbs were the same, and his behavior was unlike anything they’ve met before, as he reappeared alongside the caravan with a snap from the eagle talon that served as one of its hands. “So, can anypony explain why we have Twilight’s own friendship student, a magical showmare, a rogue changeling, Calvin and a pair of twins that he happens to know for plot convenience’s sake standing around in the middle of the woods?”

Immediately after that was said, Raquel fainted on the spot.

---

End Scroll 31

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