Despite the fact that they were ready to take on the boss, Spyro had other plans. Twilight followed him to a new portal. It led to a level called Night Flight.

"Spyro, what are you doing?" Ellie asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"What does it look like? I'm taking on a challenge," he said.

Twilight facepalmed at his behavior.

"Sunset, stay here," she said. "I hate to say it, but only Spyro and I can take on this level. We're the only ones with wings, after all."

Sunset nodded, then both she and Spyro entered the portal that led to Night Flight. Upon entering, Twilight realized that she was still technically in the air.

"I don't believe it!" she gasped. "I'm flying! I'm flying!"

"Hey now, don't get too excited," Ellie warned. "We're on a time limit, here."

"Are you serious? How much time do we get?"

"You're starting out with 25 seconds. Luckily, whenever you do one of the tasks, it'll add a specific amount of seconds to the timer. The rings will add one second, but everything else, the chests, the arches, and the lighthouses, will all add two seconds for each one that you do. Be mindful of the order you do them in, though. If you run out of time or fall in the water, you'll have to do it all over again."

"Is there any point to doing this?"

"Actually, yes. Every tasks will award you with 60 gems once you complete all eight of a set. Doing all four of them in one go will award you with 60 more gems, making it a grand total of 300 gems in this flight level."

"Neat. Let's get started, then."

Ellie zapped Twilight with her wand, which started the time trial in the level.

"Good luck."

They all started by going through the red rings. Seeing the rings reminded Twilight of a game that Sunset wasn't too fond of. After getting all of the rings, they then destroyed all eight of the chests in the level. After doing that, they then barely managed to get through the eight arches, as some were in awkward places. After doing that, they then lit all eight of the lighthouses. They barely managed to get the last few in time, due to the weird positions of the lighthouses. After getting all eight of them, they flew up into the sky and went back to Peace Keepers with all 300 gems from the flight level.

Upon seeing both Twilight and Spyro return, Sunset could tell that Twilight was pretty upset.

"You are not going to believe what just happened!" Twilight grumbled.

"What?" Sunset asked.

"We got through the first challenge just fine. Fly through all eight rings... no big deal. They were all in a row in places where we could reach them. The others on the other hand, oh boy, you have NO IDEA HOW FRUSTRATING IT WAS TO GET ALL THE CHESTS, ARCHES AND LIGHTHOUSES ALL IN ONE GO! I HAD TO USE MY MAGIC TO GET THE LAST ONE BEFORE TIME RAN OUT!"

"Twilight, Twilight! Calm down!" Ellie pleaded.

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO STARTED THE TIME TRIAL, ELLIE!"

"You're blaming me? I told you, I had no control over it. It's just how the flight challenges are. And all five of the realms have a specific time limit. You think you're the only one who's frustrated?! I've been picked on for being such a brainiac my entire life! So next time you want to let your anger out on somebody, DON'T TAKE IT OUT ON SOMEONE WHO'S HAD A ROUGH LIFE!"

Ellie then flew off and sat on a rock next to the portal leading to Dr. Shemp with her arms folded. Twilight and the others glided over to where she was and confronted her.

"Ellie... I-- I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"Well, now you do! Happy?!"

"Ellie, please, you're not the only who was picked on."

"Oh-- LIKE YOU KNOW HOW IT FEELS!"

"As a matter of fact, I do! Do you I think that my friends that I have now were always my friends? I used to go the strictest prep school in all of Canterlot City! And all I ever wanted was to get a scholarship and be out of that dungeon. Away from Principal Cinch."

Ellie turned around and noticed that Twilight was crying as she spoke.

"And then... the Friendship Games happened. An event that I would rather forget. It broke me. It-- It turned me into a-- a-- a monster. A literal magic-hungry monster. It was every personal struggle I was going through at the time. I just wanted to be accepted and viewed as someone special. And all that magic I gathered at the games turned me into that-- that twisted version of me. Midnight Sparkle. And it still haunts me."

Tears rolled down her face as she sat down next to Ellie.

"Twilight, you fought her off when we went to Camp Everfree, remember?" Sunset said.

"I know that, but... Do you honestly believe that I'll ever recover from it? All of this adventuring is taking its toll on me. And it's reminding me of how much I hate being alone."

Twilight then cried her eyes out from all the stress that she was enduring. Freeing dragons, collecting gems and dragon eggs, the flight level, everything was finally catching up to her. Ever since their first adventures with Crash and Coco, Twilight hadn't been the same. She had changed. And it was really stressing her out.

"Twilight, I-- I'm sorry," Ellie said. "Look, if it makes you feel any better, Gosnold over there told me that he heard that one of your friends is somewhere in Magic Crafters. That's the next homeworld in the Dragon Realms."

She pointed over to the balloonist at the bridge. He looked like Marco from the Artisans world, except that he was wearing a green scarf.

Twilight looked up at her, as she was flying next to her.

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

Twilight wiped the tears away from her face, then stood up.

"Okay. Let's go take on Dr. Shemp and move on."

"You going to be all right?" Spyro asked.

"I'll be fine. As long as my friends are with me, I know I'll be able to overcome anything."

And with that, they all entered the portal leading to Dr. Shemp's lair in order to confront the boss.

Upon arriving, they were immediately met with hostility from a Kamikaze Tribesman gnorc that was pressured into running towards them by a fat lady gnorc.

"Jump!" Twilight shouted.

They all jumped and the Kamikaze tribesmen ended up falling to the abyss, relinquishing a gem.

"There he goes," Sunset said as she looked down.

After that, they defeated a few more gnorcs, collected more gems, and eventually freed the dragon that was being held captive in the boss realm. He was a raggedy orange dragon with scaly dreadlocks named Trondo. He wore bandages on his hands and feet, a bandana, a brown feather-rimmed cloth around his waist, and weapon bags across his chest. He was also holding a kunai in his right claw.

"Doctor Shemp thinks he's so cool," he groaned. "You don't know what it's been like listening to him over and over! But I tell you one thing, he should watch his back!"

Twilight looked up and saw Dr. Shemp on the platform. He looked like a gnorc trying to imitate a shaman with sunglasses. His appearance reminded her of the way Fluttershy described Papu Papu when she was captured.

Well, Twilight decided to confront him while Spyro took care of a few things. Most notably defeating the last fat lady and metal chests. After eventually defeating Dr. Shemp, they finished the level and the entirety of Peace Keepers. All of the dragons, dragon eggs, and gems were found. It was time to move on to the next homeworld, Magic Crafters.

Spyro and Sunset hopped into the balloon upon returning to Peace Keepers, while Twilight used her wings to fly to the next area. Once they reached Magic Crafters, they defeated a new type of enemy called druids. The ones inside the building had armor and needed to be charged. Inside that same building, they also confronted an egg thief and eventually got the egg it stole. They also freed a dragon.

This dragon was a dark green dragon named Cosmos. He had plates on his shoulders held together by a golden strap, metallic spirals on his horns, was wearing purple armor, and wielded a magic staff in his left claw.

"Welcome to Magic Crafters!" he greeted. "I want you to release the dragons, reclaim our treasure, and recover the eggs from those pesky blue thieves! Oh, and also free a certain someone that was wandered into one of the portals, as well."

"You mean one of our friends has been turned into crystal like you guys?" Twilight asked.

"In a word, yes."

And with that, he flew off as he vanished.

After exiting the indoor area, they managed to run into some green druids. The green druids enjoyed using their magic to terraform the earth and mess with its properties. One druid even laughed upon creating what looked like an impenetrable wall in front of them.

"DARNIT! WE'VE GOT TO GET TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THAT THING AND TEACH THAT DRUID A LESSON!" Sunset snarled.

So, they went a different direction and collected more gems from there, as well as catching a second egg thief. This put the total amount of eggs they had at seven so far.

"Seven eggs down, five to go!" Spyro exclaimed.

They then confronted the green druid that laughed at them earlier. In fact, he was still laughing at them as he terraformed the earth again. His laughing stopped when Twilight used her magic to defeat him and collect his gem. After that, they went up a hill and freed the second dragon in the Magic Crafters homeworld.

He was a slender yellow dragon named Zantor. He was wearing a purple wizard's hat, bound-up cape and cloth around his waist held up by a rope belt, and a small necklace. Upon being freed, he resorted to doing some magic tricks with a deck of cards.

"When you see arrows like these ones on the ground, you can charge along with them to begin a new ability called a supercharge!" Zantor said as he did some magic tricks.

"Supercharge? Excellent!" Spyro exclaimed excitedly.

"Go ahead, try it!"

And with that, Zantor vanished as he flew away. The group decided to use the Supercharge Ramp to get the druid before it could terraform the earth on them. Not only that, but they also managed to break open a chest called a Strong Chest that could be opened by either using fireworks, or charging at them with a supercharge. The latter of which worked on this chest, since there were no fireworks in the Magic Crafters homeworld. Once they got that chest, they returned to the cave, where they managed to free the last dragon in the Magic Crafters homeworld.

He was an elderly light green dragon with yellow wings named Boldar. He was wearing a purple cloth around his waist with a brown sack attached to it, as well as a purple hat that reached down to his chest, and bronze bracelets. He carried a walking stick with a potion bottle on top in his right claw. He also had a cauldron in front of him.

"This portal leads to a special place where you can do flight challenges!" he said. "I remember when I was a young dragon, earning my wings..."

"So we've noticed," Twilight grumbled.

Boldar then vanished in a puff of magic. After that, the group managed to get all of the remaining gems in the area, completing the Magic Crafters homeworld. It was then decided that they would start by going into the portal leading to Alpine Ridge, first. That's where they would begin their search for one of their friends.

Author's Note

For those wondering, yes, I went there. I made a reference to the infamous DC Comics video game, Superman 64 and its infamous ring challenges. I think ProtonJon put it best in his playthrough of that game. Superman in that game controls like a car. I've never owned it, I'm just aware of its infamy.

Also, Twilight's frustration mirrors my own. I mean, seriously, what were the developers thinking?! They made the flight levels harder in the remake! The lighting and camera placement in the original were good, plus Spyro controlled pretty well in these levels for a PlayStation 1 game.

Here, the flight controls are reminiscent of Super Mario 64's flight controls! Plus, the lighting is a bit darker and the camera is super random on where it wants to be in certain flight levels! WHY?!?!?!?!?!?! 😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠

And another thing, I based Twilight's emotional breakdown on one of my favorite scenes from Hazbin Hotel. It's the scene where Angel Dust and Husk finally connect with each other, as both of them are broken in their own way. The clip is on YouTube for anyone who's interested. Just type in It's not an act Hazbin Hotel in the search bar.