Beyond the Skies

by FrostTheWolf

Scroll 32- An Unexpected Series of Events (Part 3)

Beyond the Skies- An Unexpected Series of Events (Part 3)

---

By the time that Calvin had rejoined his friends, Scootaloo and the others were not quite sure what had transpired shortly after Ocellus had stepped into the house. The only time that any of them were able to hear something was when either Granny Smith or somebody else raised their voice, and that didn’t happen most of the time, so they assumed that either something bad had happened or nothing happened at all. Yet, when he told them what had transpired as well as what Ocellus told them, all of them were collectively shocked… and some were a bit confused.

“So, wait a minute,” Scootaloo now asked, “You’re telling me that this… Ocellus is not a bad guy? But she impersonated Applejack!”

“Scootaloo, she didn’t choose to be assigned with the other changelings here. Chrysalis forced her and also expected her to fail,” he clarified for her, “Not only that, but unlike the other changelings, she can’t bring herself to fight or harm others, which is why she barely gets by and can’t feed herself properly.”

“So, she thought that in taking the form of Apple Bloom’s sister, it was the path of least resistance?” Raquel asked, “That’s just beyond cruel. But, I think some of us are wondering how exactly this relates to… well, Trevor’s idea.”

“Well, after giving it some thought, I realized that Ocellus probably knows more about what’s inside the castle than any of us do,” the Skyshifter answered, “So, we reached a compromise that Granny Smith actually agreed to help with and is in the process of doing so right now. In exchange for helping regain some of her strength and giving her the chance to feed, she’ll be helping us get in and perhaps even help us figure out how to get the other replacements out.”

“That’s actually a valid point,” Trevor himself acknowledged, “I mean, we can’t just go kicking in the front door and hope for the best, so someone on the inside that knows how everything works could help us in taking it all apart. I like where this is going.”

That had both of the fillies look back towards him briefly, before they looked at Calvin and Raquel, “So, what exactly are we supposed to be doing now? Just wait?”

“More or less,” Calvin replied to Sweetie Belle’s question, “I mean, we can’t really do anything until Ocellus is ready. Unless there’s something else you want to talk about, we’re just playing the waiting game.”

At that, both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked at one another for a moment, before they turned their attention over to the twins as Scootaloo asked them a question. “So, you said that you’re from where Calvin’s from, right?”

“Yeah, both of us are. Heck, we lived in the same neighborhood.” Trevor replied

“And you… possibly came here the same way he did?” Sweetie Belle now asked, something that puzzled Raquel as she looked at her brother for a brief moment.

“Uh… Maybe? Why do you ask?”

“Does that mean you can do some pretty cool stuff like he can?”

Now, both of the Twins were puzzled by what the fillies were saying. Ever since they arrived, Calvin hadn’t really done anything that would be described as ‘cool’ outside of talking to other ponies they met and showing them around town, so they had no idea as to what else the two of them could possibly be referring to. “Um… You’re going to have to be a little bit more specific.”

“Well, Calvin can do this thing where he can transform and such,” the unicorn filly explained to them, “So, we thought that you had something special, too.”

Now, Raquel’s attention was shifted back towards Calvin, as she was looking for some kind of explanation. “Hold on. You can do what now?”

“Oh, right,” Calvin now scratched the back of his head as he realized this, “I never told you guys about that, did I?”

“I’m pretty sure the subject never came up, given everything that’s happened today,” Trevor now replied, his attention now on him instead of Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle as he folded his arms, “So, what exactly is this thing they’re talking about? Some kind of party trick?”

“Not quite,” he shook his head as his pendant began to glow a warm violet as an idea surfaced in his head. The young teen was going to need some space for this as he stepped out in front of the barn. Otherwise, he was going to cause a mess on the front patio, and he didn’t want to make Granny Smith angry, “In fact, it probably might be better if I showed you rather than told you.”

“Wait, show us-?”

All Fired up!

In an instant, flames began to form around Calvin as his necklace began to glow brightly. Within a matter of seconds, his body began to change as he took on the form of one of the more recognizable Skylanders from back home, the dragon named Spyro. It was something that shocked the twins, but had the fillies just stare in awe as Calvin looked back to Trevor and Raquel, “Well, what do you think? Pretty cool, right?”

“You can… turn into a dragon?” Trevor asked, who looked rather puzzled as he was trying to understand what exactly Calvin was doing.

“Not quite,” he smirked, “Do you remember those Skylanders I collected back home? Well, picture that,” followed by reciting the catchphrase of another skylander as he turned into the Water Skylander Zap a few seconds later, “-But I can transform into any one of them and fight as them.”

Both of the twins were having trouble trying to come up with a proper response to what he was saying. Though, it was at this time that the Skyshifter chose to revert back to his regular self. “Only catch is that I can’t stay in them for very long. I’ve been practicing and such, but it’s still a work in progress at this point.”

Raquel could only stare at him as she began to process what she had witnessed. Though, when she looked at the pendant around Calvin’s neck, that was when a different thought came to mind. Before their arrival, when she and Trevor were in that warehouse, one of the entries in a journal they found talked about a necklace that could do the same thing that he just described. Reading about it was one thing, but seeing his body transform firsthand was something she honestly did not expect and left her at a loss for words.

Though, her brother was a bit of a different story. “Well, that was… eye opening. Though, what does that have to do with us having ‘something special’ though?”

“Uh, w-well,” Sweetie Belle nervously shrugged, “I-I just thought that since you two came here like he did, y-you could do something cool as well.”

“I’m not entirely sure what you mean by-” Before Trevor could finish what he was saying, he looked over to his sister and noticed something, “Sis, what’s that on your wrist?”

“What do you mean, it’s my-” When she looked down, Raquel felt her heart skip a beat. Instead of the bracelet she would always wear, it had been replaced by a woven lavender bracelet that was wrapped around her wrist. “What the-?” She then tried to pull it off of her. However, no matter how hard she tried to pull it or what methods she employed, Raquel couldn’t seem to get it off of her. It was like it didn’t want to come off.

“Is something wrong?” Calvin asked.

Before Raquel had the chance to say anything, the front door opened up, as everyone turned to watch Apple Bloom and Ocellus step out from inside, “S-sorry about that,” the changeling apologized, “Y-you weren’t waiting for too long now, w-were you?”

Both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were quick to shake their heads, which was followed by Raquel’s own response a few seconds later, “N-not at all, I think. We were just… passing time.”

“The heck was that about?” A rather confused Calvin thought to himself as he watched Raquel walk back over to where her brother was standing. Before Ocellus came in, she looked rather startled by something. Yet just now, she was trying to brush it off, like it was no big deal. Something clearly seemed off, but now was not the ideal time to ask about that.

Now that everyone was here, they could discuss how to get into the Castle of Friendship and get the replacements out. “A-Alright, so what did you want to ask?”

“Well, first, let me bring you up to speed on what we know already,” the Skyshifter replied, “To start, we know that each one of the changelings that we refer to as ‘replacements’ took the forms of Princess Twilight, her assistant Spike and her friends. We know this because two friends of ours, Starlight and Trixie, happened to see you and the others change back to your original forms when Queen Chrysalis wanted you to report to them.”

“S-so, there was somebuggy there?” Ocellus asked, “Ganglia thought that there was an intruder, but after not seeing anyone, she figured that something fell over in one of the other rooms of the castle.”

“Gang who?” Scootaloo now spoke up, a bit confused by what she heard.

“Ganglia,” Ocellus repeated, “S-She’s the changeling that replaced t-the princess and the one in charge. N-Not the strongest, but the q-queen recognized her for her resourcefulness and knowledge.”

“So, a tactician, then,” Trevor said as both of the twins were trying to think for a moment, shortly before he asked a different question, “Do all of the replacements stay in the castle at night? Or do you only just come together to give your report to the queen?”

“T-the latter,” the changeling answered, “Only her and Mandi, the replacement that took the form of the p-princess’ assistant, stay in the castle. T-the others return to the homes of the p-ponies they’re disguised as, so that they d-don’t a-arouse suspicion.”

“Alright, that gives us an idea of what to expect, at least,” Calvin said as he pondered the new information that he received, “But how exactly are we going to get in? We’ve already ruled out the possibility of going through the front door, since all that will do is just cause more problems for us. There’s also the castle’s balcony, but we don’t exactly have any flying capabilities… No offense, Scootaloo.”

“None taken.”

“Well, w-when all of us infiltrated the c-castle and ‘replaced’ them, i-it happened during a time where they were all together f-for the night. S-since the door was locked, I was t-tasked with going through a w-window that was left open on the side of the t-tree that led to the library. Once I was i-in, I went to the door and o-opened it for the others,” Ocellus explained, before she looked down at the ground, “H-However, I d-don’t think that plan w-would work a second time, especially since M-Mandi would occasionally get up at night and roam around, if he thinks something’s up.”

At this, Raquel folded her arms as she looked towards Ocellus, “Quick question. Say that we have you go to the front door to try and distract this guy. Would it give us enough time to go in through the back-?”

“D-definitely not,” the changeling quickly retorted, “Mandi d-doesn’t really have a lot of patience. He wouldn’t go o-out and leave Ganglia, u-unless it’s an emergency of some sort.”

That part caught Calvin’s attention as he looked back towards the changeling, “What kind of emergency are we talking about exactly? Anything specific?”

“Normally, it would mean anything that c-could potentially lead to o-our cover being blown, l-like if some creature suspects that we aren’t the real creature we’re trying to pose as,” Ocellus explained, “C-Coxa almost had one when we first started.”

“Who?”

“T-The replacement of the y-yellow one. F-Fluttershy, I think her name was. T-The animals there were i-immediately suspicious of her, and she barely was able to keep it together to convince them that she was who she was disguised as.”

Immediately, an idea was beginning to form in Calvin’s head. Though, for it to work, it was going to require some incentive and a LOT of persuasion. “Apple Bloom, got a quick question for you. Do you have any carrots in the kitchen? Not the small kind of carrots, but the big ones?”

---

By the time that they came up with a plan and got everything that they needed, it was a few hours before midnight. With there being about seven of them in their group, including Ocellus, they had to split up into two teams. The Cutie Mark Crusaders and Trevor were with the changeling, around the back side of the castle as they prepared the point of entry that they were going to use to sneak in. This left both Calvin and Raquel with another task that needed to be completed that was vitally important and necessary for this whole plan to work.

Though, Raquel was still trying to wrap her head around what they needed to do… and how exactly was this supposed to be important. “So, wait just a minute. You’re telling me that for this whole plan to work, we are going to have to convince a bunny to rebel against the replacement that’s impersonating their caretaker? A bunny?!”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Calvin replied, “And I know it sounds crazy, but this is probably the only chance we have if we’re going to make this work.”

“What’s a bunny rabbit even going to do? Just throw carrots?” Raquel asked as the two of them started to go around the back side of the cottage, “I mean, what kind of animals does this Fluttershy even take care of? Housepets-?”

Yet, as soon as she asked that, Raquel got her answer almost immediately. When she turned around the corner, she found herself coming face to face with a giant brown bear that still happened to be awake, even at this hour. At first, she thought that the bear was going to harm her. Yet, all it did was smell her and then looked over to Calvin, before sniffing him just like with her.

However, all Calvin did was look back at the bear and waved. “Hello, Harry. Is… now not a good time?”

Much to Raquel’s surprise, the bear actually gave somewhat of a response, not verbally, but through body language as he tilted his head and pointed at her, almost like he was asking ‘who’s she?’

“Oh, she’s a friend of mine,” he explained, “Don’t worry, we’re not going to bother you too much. Do you know where Angel is?”

This time, a response wasn’t needed. Instead, the white rabbit that Calvin was asking about soon hopped up onto Harry’s left shoulder before the rabbit stared both of them down. “T-that’s… Angel?”

“Yes, and right on time,” Calvin told Raquel, before he shifted his gaze from the bear to the rabbit, “Now, I know that you and I aren’t exactly ‘friends’ by any means. Though, I’m not here to talk about that.” All he got in response was the rabbit tapping his foot, making it clear that Angel did not want for him to waste his time. “I wanted to talk about Fluttershy. Surely, both of you have noticed that she hasn’t been herself recently, right?”

Both the bear and the rabbit looked at each other for a moment, before Angel made a gesture that would be his way of saying ‘get to the point’. “Well, I have something that I wish to share with the two of you, if you don’t mind.”

Raquel could only watch as Calvin started to talk with them. However, she couldn’t quite tell what it was that he was sharing to them, or even if the animals were understanding what he was saying. She watched as the bear pointed towards the cottage and back to his nose before shaking their head, while the rabbit looked as if he didn’t want to listen to anything that Calvin had to say. However, it was only when Calvin brought out the full grown carrots that he brought with him that it seemed that Angel was willing to actually listen to him, even though all that did was have Harry think that he was going to get something, too.

After a few more minutes, she watched as Calvin gestured politely to the cottage, “Thank you for your time, you two. Have a good evening.”

As they walked away and left the cottage behind, Raquel couldn’t help but feel as if she was missing something. Surely, it would’ve taken a LOT more work to try and convince the two of them what was going on. Was there something going on in that conversation that she somehow missed?

Not long afterwards though, the two of them heard a bit of commotion going on from an open window of the cottage, “Angel?! Harry?! Elizabeak!? What are all of you doing up so late? It’s past your- W-Wait… W-what are you-? S-Stop! Angel, p-put those carrots down!! What is the m-meaning of this!?!” This was soon followed by a loud thud of a door being slammed open, followed by a changeling that was halfway out of its transformation being chased by a stampede of animals. All the while, Angel was riding on Harry’s back and holding the carrots Calvin gave him as if they were swords as the rabbit led the charge.

“W-what did you even tell them?” Raquel asked.

“Just a few things I wasn’t sure if they knew or not,” Calvin smirked as he looked back towards the castle, “I thought that telling them about changelings in general would give them enough of a ‘push’ in the right direction. Now, come on. Let’s go catch up with everyone else.”

---

Around the back side of the castle, Trevor waited in anticipation with the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Ocellus had already sneaked inside to pry open the window they were going to use to come in, but all of them were waiting not just for the signal to slip inside, but also for Calvin and his sister to come back. That way, they could lock out the replacements that would run out, and they could secure the place. However, even though that sounded simple, none of them had any idea as to what exactly that signal could be.

It didn’t take too long to notice Calvin and Raquel come back to them, which was much sooner than any of them anticipated. “Well, you’re back rather early. How did it go?”

“Better than I thought, if I have to be honest,” he replied back, “Where’s Ocellus?”

“On the inside and has our way in. We’re just waiting for-”

Within a matter of seconds, all of them watched as a changeling that barely was able to maintain part of its disguise scurried over to the castle door and started banging on it. Voices could be heard as the sounds echoed throughout the halls of the castle. “Coxa, what are you doing!? Why aren’t you in your disguise? What’s going on?”

“Mandi, we have an emergency! T-The animals at the cottage are up in a frenzy! I c-can’t get them to calm down or listen! N-Now, they’re chasing after me!”

“Wait, you let them follow you!?! Here!?”

“What in the name of the hive is going on?” A third voice now echoed, “Coxa, what happened to your-?”

“Coxa says that the animals at that one pony’s cottage are out of control. Now, they’re onto her, and from what it sounds like, they followed her here. Should I go get the others-?”

“No, no. Let’s leave them be,” Ganglia insisted, “If any of the ponies in town caught Coxa out of her disguise, it would raise alarms, and we would have a riot on our hooves. Besides, it’s just a few animals, not anything we can’t handle.”

The moment that they heard the voices leave, that was the cue for them to move in. The window was now fully open as Calvin and the twins were helping the fillies inside first, before they came in afterwards and closed the window. Once they were all in and made it to the center of the castle where the Cutie Map was, both of the twins were a bit caught off guard by their surroundings. “Okay, when I saw this place at first, I didn’t think it would be this big on the inside.”

“We can save that conversation for another time,” Calvin replied, “Right now though, we should lock down this place to make sure that the replacements aren’t able to come in when they get back.”

“We’ll start looking for things to close off any open doors we find!” Apple Bloom replied as she and Sweetie Belle began to hurry upstairs.

“Make sure to close off the balcony, too, while you’re at it,” the Skyshifter added, recalling how Thorax got in before, so that no one else could get in the same way again, before he noticed Scootaloo at the table. “Scootaloo, are you-?”

“Sorry, I was just trying to see if there was anything to block the front door. But the girls’ thrones and the map are stuck to the floor,” she added, before noticing something that was left on the table, “Huh? What’s a pebble doing on the table?”

“T-That’s not a pebble,” Ocellus said, “I-It’s a Hive Stone. That’s what Ganglia used to talk to the queen earlier.”

“So, if we destroy this, then the replacements lose contact with the queen?” Calvin asked.

“W-Well, yes, but I-I don’t know if you could break it-”

“Well, let’s find out,” Calvin asked, before he made a motion for Scootaloo to toss it over to him as the filly picked it up and threw it. After he caught it, the Skyshifter’s necklace began to glow a fiery red as he changed into his Imaginator, Kai Chi. He then dropped the stone onto the ground as fire began to burn around his right foot, “Alright, moment of truth. Let’s see if this works.”

With one downward slam of his foot, the impact caused the stone to break and scatter into pieces.

---

“My queen, we have a problem.”

“What is it? Can’t you see that I am busy declaring to this failed student of Princess Sparkle here about my victory?!”

“We lost contact with the replacements in Ponyville. Something severed the communication with their hive stone.”

“ … I’m sorry, WHAT!? HOW?!”

---

“Well then, problem solved.” He let out a sigh of relief, shortly before he changed back to his regular form again.

“Y-you can transform, too?” Ocellus then asked, a bit shocked by the sight of him changing forms in front of her eyes.

“Kind of. It’s a little bit more specific,” Calvin replied, before he began to look around the room, “Though, how about we save that conversation for later? Right now, we still have an entire castle to lock down, and I’d doubt we’re going to get a lot of sleep tonight.”

“Is there anything that’s in your room that we can use?” Scootaloo asked.

“Wait, you have a room here? Seriously?” Trevor asked, caught off guard by the filly’s casual question.

“Yeah, I’ve been here for quite some time, so Princess Twilight let me stay here,” he told the twins, before looking back to the pegasus, “Also, to answer your question, Scootaloo, I don’t have anything, unfortunately. Though, perhaps you can find something in Twilight’s room? It’s down the hall from where I’m at.”

In response, Scootaloo gave him a mock salute, before she hurried up the stairs to join her friends in the search. As she did, the twins now looked to him as Raquel was the first to speak, “Is there anything on the bottom floor that we should make sure to get patched up?”

“Any of the windows for starters,” Ocellus suggested, “I already moved some of the bookcases in the library to block the windows, but I have yet to check the other rooms.”

“Just avoid the alchemy lab and the basement for the time being. Especially the basement,” Calvin emphasized, “I’ll explain why once we’re out of this mess, but just trust me for now. If we open up the basement, we’ll just end up causing a lot more trouble.”

“How do we know which one’s the lab?” Raquel asked, “Are there any signs or-?”

“No, Twilight hadn’t put those in place yet, unfortunately,” he groaned, “If you see a door that looks like it got blown off its hinges once, that’s the alchemy lab.”

The twins had no idea how exactly to respond to that. Though, before either of them could say anything, they all heard a call from upstairs that was followed by a loud crash. “Hey, can we get some help up here? We got something for the door… but we need help getting it all down.”

“Getting it… all down-? What did you even find up there?!” Trevor called out.

“Princess Twilight has a bunch of bookcases up in her room,” they heard Sweetie Belle speak up next, “We used one to block off the balcony doors, so we thought that the others could help with the front door!”

At this, Calvin could only just stare off towards the staircase, before letting off a deep sigh. “Not ideally what I was thinking of, but I’ll take it,” he muttered and let out a small yawn,” Let’s give them a hand, before they end up accidentally hurting themselves-”

“Why don’t you let us help them instead?” Raquel interjected, “You’ve been doing a lot already, so how about you let us give them a hand, and you can get some rest?”

Even though he didn’t want to admit it, she made a rather valid point. Calvin had been on his feet throughout the whole day, and despite little short rests here and there, he hadn’t had the chance to rest properly, something that he was beginning to realize as his vision started to blur.

“Y-yeah, I think that’s a g-good… idea.”

Before he could even find a place to sit down, everything went black as Calvin passed out on the floor, something that Raquel was not exactly fond of. “Oh, come on. I didn’t mean that!”

---

When consciousness began to return to him, Calvin felt as if everything around him was a blur. He had a feeling that he wasn’t where he had collapsed in the middle of the castle, for everything around him felt warm instead of the cold surface he passed out on. What felt like a blanket was over him as the whole room that he was in was rather bright. Slowly, his vision began to straighten itself, as the Skyshifter started to make out what was around him. He was inside his own room, on his bed, and his pendant was on the nightstand, not far from him.

Yet, as he went to reach for it, that was when he heard a voice, “Well, it seems that you’re finally awake.”

Immediately, Calvin turned his head to the far left of his room, to find an unexpected guest waiting for him, one that startled him at first as he stared towards her. “P-Princess… Celestia?” he asked, his voice starting to sound a bit hesitant. “I-Is that really you?”

The princess couldn’t help but give off a low chuckle as she smiled, “Yes, it is me. You and your friends have been through quite an ordeal, I must say.”

Yet, despite hearing that, it did little to ease Calvin’s confusion at that moment. However, there was one other thing he wanted to ask about first, “I-Is everyone else okay?”

“They are tired, but otherwise are doing just fine,” she told him, “Apple Bloom and her friends told us what happened. I must say though, I didn’t expect for the Castle to be so… fortified upon our return, or the surprise that we found outside.”

“S-surprise?”

The alicorn nodded her head, “Somehow, the animals at Fluttershy’s cottage were able to band together and apprehend most of the changelings that replaced Twilight and her friends. I’m pretty sure a couple of them have now developed a fear of rabbits because of it.”

Calvin couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief at that, before a different question emerged in his head, “Well, t-that’s good and all, but how did you guys escape? Did Starlight and the others r-rescue you?”

“In a sense,” at that, the Princess of the Sun couldn’t help but trot over to the other side of the room as she turned away for a quick moment. “Yet, I believe that’s a question best suited for someone other than me to answer. After all, he wanted to see you the moment that you woke up.”

“Huh? Who?” he asked, rather puzzled by what the princess was telling him, as Celestia’s magic began to glow around her horn. Once she opened the door and stepped out, a completely different figure stepped in, a lime green pony-like creature with the eyes, ears, horn and wings that resembled that of a stag beetle’s. The orange pincers on their head looked like the antlers of a deer, and there were three dots around the creature's neck. At a glance, it was rather difficult to make out who this figure happened to be.

However, it was when this creature spoke that he immediately recognized who they were. “Hello there, Calvin. How are you feeling?”

“T-Thorax?” he asked, blinking a couple of times before he tried to straighten himself up, “Why do you look-?”

“Like this?” he gestured a hoof towards himself, “Well, let’s just say that because of our efforts, not only did we rescue everypony, but my people have ‘turned over a new leaf’, so to speak. Not only that, but now, my kind see me as their king.”

That caught Calvin by surprise rather quickly, “K-King?! But what about-?”

“Chrysalis?” Thorax’s question was followed by a nod from the young teen, as the changeling shrugged and took a seat by his bedside, “After her defeat, Starlight tried to reason with her. She told her that she didn’t have to be evil and that she could change her ways for the better. However, Chrysalis burned that bridge the first chance she got and ran off, swearing revenge. We have no idea where she went off to after that.”

“I-I see,” he said as he tried to process everything in his head, “W-Wow… that’s a lot to take in. H-how is everyone else? Celestia told me about Apple Bloom and the girls, but what about-?”

“You mean the other two that almost look similar to you?” Thorax asked, “From my understanding, they’re in one of the guest rooms here, getting a much needed rest. Twilight wanted to speak with them, but Celestia convinced her to wait until they had the chance to recuperate.”

“Well, that’s good to hear,” Calvin let out a major sigh of relief, before a different idea came to mind, as he looked back at the newfound king, “Hey, uh… I know this sounds strange, but when you guys came here, did you meet another changeling named Ocellus?”

“Actually, we did,” the newfound king said as he looked towards the door to the room, “In fact, I think she wanted to say something to you once you were awake.”

Shortly after, another changeling that was smaller than Thorax nervously peaked around the edge of the door’s frame and looked into the room. Her body was light blue with red wings and a pink like ‘fin’ along the head and the back of the neck. “U-um… H-hello Calvin.”

“H-hi, Ocellus,” he replied back as he tried to move the blankets that were on him and get himself out of his bed. “What brings you here?”

“D-Didn’t Thorax tell you already?” she asked, before glancing over to the changeling king as he shook his head.

“I thought I would let you do the honors.”

At first, Ocellus didn’t quite know how to take that. Though, after she took a deep breath, the changeling began to speak, “Both of us wanted to take a moment to thank you for everything you’ve done to help us yesterday.”

“M-Me?” Calvin asked, surprised by what she was telling him, “I should be thanking both of you. If it wasn’t-”

“Come on now, Calvin, you’re giving us too much credit,” Thorax interjected, “You could’ve easily turned me away and ignored what I told you the other day, but instead, you chose to lend me your ear and help. If it weren’t for the kindness of you and the Apple Family, Ocellus wouldn’t have been so brave enough to help you and your friends with your plan. Not only that, but because of your actions in Ponyville, it gave Starlight and I a chance to turn things around when everything seemed grim. Such a chance is the reason why we stand before you like this instead of who we were before.”

At that, Calvin didn’t know what to say. Yet, before he could really reflect on his words, the newfound king of the changelings had one more thing to say, “So, on behalf of our people, thank you. You will always be a friend to us.”

As Thorax finished speaking, both he and Ocellus took their leave and said goodbye to him as they made their way downstairs. While there was a lot that was said that Calvin was trying to make sense of, one thing was clear as day… and even he couldn’t believe it.

“By the elements, I’m friends with a king now… That’s a first.”

---

End Scroll 32

Author's Note:

Part 3 of 3

---

So, for this chapter, I wanted to take the introductions and where we left off last time in the last one and try things from a different angle. Since the Season 6 Finale took place in the Changeling Kingdom for when Starlight and the others went on their rescue mission, I decided to have this happen while they were away from Ponyville and have Calvin and Company come up with a plan to tackle a threat that was a bit closer to home. In the end, I think the payoff went rather well.

I hope you guys enjoyed this one. Instead of putting it as a massive chapter, I decided to break it down into parts for everyone to make it easier to read. Thank you and have a great day

Until next time
-Frost

P.S. When writing the scene with Angel, I couldn't help but think of this

Comments

[Ocellus The Changeling]

Like the chapter and your take of season 6 finale

[FrostTheWolf]

11127295
I wanted to try it from a different angle, so I'm glad you like it

[Ocellus The Changeling]

11127299
A different angle is always something new which I like and I like that Calvin made friend with Ocellus. Which I say is one of my favorite characters in MLP