The Monsters She Lost

Chapters

Trick Room
Bug Buzz
Sweet Scent
Confusion
Pursuit
Sunny Day
Transform
Uproar
Rest
Dive

Trick Room

Liz made her way through the Ruins of Alph. They had been right; there was something different about them today. There was a tension in the air, and despite the fact that she was deep underground light was coming from… somewhere. The walls? Liz looked at the walls, at the shapes that covered them. They didn’t seem to be glowing. She sighed… she was tempted to try and read the script, it was easy since it was apparently the basis for the alphabet she knew and loved, but she could never keep the O and the G straight, nor P and G. It was almost always gibberish, anyway.

While she was musing on the script and what good it was to try and read it, she made eye contact with one of the letters. An Unown A was on the wall, as Unowns often are, and as soon as it realized she had noticed it, it peeled itself off of the stone and sped down the corridor. Liz followed, as she had just enough experience with these things that she knew that Unown don’t usually move with a purpose unless they had one.

She followed the Unown around a corner, and saw it disappear in a gap between two blocks of wall. “No, come on!” She said to herself as she peered into the gap. She then let out a slight “huh” as she realized that this was the only time she had seen a gap like this in a wall in the Ruins of Alph. Gaps between stones were not common occurrences in these ruins… but, she realized after a moment, secret doors were. She glanced at the writing on the slab.

GRASP AND PULL

STEP INTO THE ROUND

CROSS THE DIVIDE

And there was a lot of other stuff, too, but it mainly seemed to be rambling on cupcakes. Liz would later look back on this and wonder how it was possible that cupcakes were mentioned on the walls of a couple thousand year old ruin, but at the moment she was too excited at the idea of exploration to realize how odd this was.

She wedged her fingers into the opening, and found that the imposing looking stone wall was actually a somewhat narrow slab; still somewhat heavy but not immovable. She tugged it aside just enough that she could get through, and into the secret passage.

Her first instinct once in the dark passageway was to bring out a Pokémon and have it light the way; but there was light coming from up ahead and the tunnel was straight and short. It was also very smooth; there was no writing on the walls at all. Liz thought this as odd, but quickly decided that it was supposed to be a secret passage, and so perhaps they felt that carving the inside of it would bring it unwanted attention. Liz didn’t claim to understand the thought processes of ancient… Unownians.

At the end of the tunnel was a large, round room. In fact, it was a perfect sphere about a hundred feet across, with no flat floor to speak of. Liz stepped in and slid to the middle, before looking around. Yep, sure was perfect. The only breaks in the sphere were the square door that she had come in, and twenty-seven holes in the upper hemisphere of the room. Of course, the holes were about Unown size, and that’s probably how they got into the room, she realized, immediately before they began to do exactly that.

One Unown is no danger, and two generally are little trouble, but six can be imposing, and ten, twenty, thirty, or more can be a very big risk. When the Unown began to flood into the room, Liz turned and ran toward the door as fast as she could. It was up, away from her, of course, and she couldn’t scale the sphere. But she had to have a Pokémon that could. She reached for her belt; but that’s all the further she got before she was lifted into the air.

She felt the force of the Unown in her head. She knew she had to do something… but she wasn’t very experienced with psychic types, or their psychic powers, or how to fight them in her head. Some part of her said, “Get out a Pokémon!” but she couldn’t remember where her belt was. She wanted to call for help, but she didn’t remember how her voice worked.

When she began to see stars, some part of her said to close her eyes. She didn’t; they were so beautiful. When they began spinning and merging into a silvery multicolored kaleidoscopic mass, she wanted to close her eyes but could not look away.

When she began to see colors that did not exist, it was already far too late.

When she woke up, she came to the conclusion that the world was spinning way too much, and tried to go back to sleep. Alas, her wish was denied and she found herself wide awake hoping that the spinning would stop before she lost her lunch. Thankfully, it did, but only barely, and even after it stopped she spent a while working at not throwing up. She decided against trying to stand up immediately, instead trying to figure out what just happened. She was in the Ruins of Alph… right, there was a secret tunnel, to a big round room, and-COLORS

Liz winced and closed her eyes shut tight. The colors. She had read somewhere that Butterfree could see in more colors than humans could, and wondered if that’s what it was like for Butterfree on a daily basis. Either that… or a Butterfree going through what she just went through would risk their heads exploding.

Whatever that was that she just went through.

Liz decided that the headache, spinning, and upset stomach had all subsided enough for her to try and stand. She stood up, a bit wobbly on her legs, and looked around. She was in a forest, pristine and empty. The Unown must have dumped her here, she figured. She shifted back and forth on her legs. There was something about her that felt funny, felt off, felt not quite right. She looked around, trying to see if there was something in the area she was missing-ah. Her hat laid nearby, a white sun hat with a red ring and a white and red button on the front. She was fairly sure that there was something more off than simply that she was hatless, but she reached for the familiar item of clothing nonetheless.

When a white hoof reached forward and touched her hat, she was surprised. She followed it up the leg… to the shoulder, and was quite confused when she realized that the shoulder was hers. She stumbled backward a bit, shook her head, and gave herself a look over.

She was some kind of… quadruped. She had a white coat, a red mane, and was wearing something like her usual black and blue vest.

Liz shifted back and forth on her feet… hooves. She had hooves now. From what she could see, she was basically a Ponyta, but without the fire. And wearing a vest… and a hat. She was going to wear that hat; she needed every ounce of familiarity that she could get right now. And if she was wearing a hat then it was likely that trainers that saw her wouldn’t think that she was wild… she hoped.

Maybe she was some kind of new Pokémon, in a far-off region. It made more sense than thinking that she was a Ponyta without fire. “One thing at a time, Liz.” She told herself. “Oh, good, it sounds like I can talk normal; that means I should be able to talk trainers out of-erk!” She shook her head. It had taken her months to kick the habit of talking to herself, she wasn’t going to backslide now.

All the same, one thing at a time. Her hat will come first. It took a few minutes of working with her hooves, her teeth, and her back to get the hat on her head right, but once it was up there it was simple enough to adjust for her mane and ears. There was a nice, reassuring feeling. She turned into the wind. Yes… the wind in her face, her hat on her head, and her team around her waist-

She suddenly stopped and looked at her waist. Or, where it was supposed to be. The details didn’t matter. What mattered was that her belt was missing, and with it her team.

Her beloved Pokémon… were not with her. There were no balls, no footprints, no belt, no bag… they were not here.
She was alone.

It took a moment or two for it to sink in. She was alone.

Alone in a forest, in a place she wasn’t familiar with, in an unfamiliar body.

“Liz, calm down,” She said to herself. “You aren’t dead yet, and you know the usual tricks to find towns, there is no reason to panic. Just get going, and take things as they come. And stop talking to yourself, people will think you’re crazy.”
She sighed, and looked around. It would be best to head to the outskirts of the forest, as she would be able to see further from there. Streams, smoke, roads… she had to find something. She had to get somewhere before she could do anything else.

She started walking. She didn’t know where she was going, and she didn’t know what was going to happen, but that didn’t stop her.

“That’s never stopped me,” She muttered to herself.

A road. It took her a bit to realize what the brown line on the landscape was. She had been walking for… a while now. She guessed it was some hours, but wasn’t sure as her pokedex, pokegear, and watch had all disappeared. Most of that time was spent wandering around the forest, trying to figure out a way out, but now that she was out of the forest she only had to crest a hill and was able to see a dirt road in the distance. She galloped to it, happy to see this sign of civilization. Once there, however, her issue was quite similar: Left or right? One way would lead to civilization sooner, even if both would get there eventually.

But there was a better way to do this. The road was nestled between hills, gently curving around one. She trotted to the top of that hill, and looked both directions. In one direction, the road wandered off into the distance. In the other… between two hills, there were roofs visible. A town! A small one, but a town none the less! Liz wasted no time, and headed right for it. Even if it was full of people, she might be able to get a feeling of where she was.

Rarity pulled her haul through the market. It wasn’t her first choice, but it was the most direct path to Carousel Boutique. She was quite eager about this: a shipment of gems from the finest mines in all of Equestria, procured with help from Princess Luna to make Twilight, in Rarity’s words, “Royal garb fitting a Princess of your stature!” Rarity’s declaration of intent was carefully timed so that before Twilight could modestly turn the offer down and try to talk Rarity out of it, Rainbow Dash (with Fluttershy in tow) appeared to give Twilight flying lessons, giving her something else to try to modestly turn down.

There was no doubt in Rarity’s mind that by now the three were flitting around somewhere. Perhaps the sport track? Well, Rarity could worry about that later. For now, she had a large haul of gems to pull back to the boutique.
Looking around the market, Rarity silently noted that her amazing cargo was the most interesting thing going on in town today. As some of the ponies watched her go by, Rarity could see in their eyes that they wanted to wear some of those gems… hmm, if there was a rash of commissions after this, perhaps pulling her supplies through the market should be kept in mind for later dry periods.

Rarity then remembered the pile of commissions she already had. On second thought, if this caused a rash of commissions she would probably end up working three weeks straight.

Rarity tried to distract herself from such thoughts, and found distraction in the form of someone she didn’t recognize. An earth pony mare, looking around utterly confused. She was obviously a pony who cared about her appearance, even if her fashion sense was a bit off. The white and red hat went with her white coat and red mane perfectly! The vest… not so much. The mare, noticing that rarity was giving her attention, walked over.

“Excuse me, but… I’m a bit lost. Do you know where I am?”

“Ponyville,” Rarity told her, “A beautiful town. Where are you from? You have a big city feel about you. Fillydelphia?”

“Filly… no, not there. It’s… a city that you’ve probably never heard of.”

“Try me,” Rarity said. She had been to all of the biggest cities, doing fashion shows, or attending fashion shows, or visiting fellow fashionistas...

“Goldenrod City,” The mare said simply.

Rarity blinked. “I’ve never heard of that. Where is it?”

“Um…” The mare looked around. “compared to here? I’m not sure. I’m new-“

Rarity reflexively took a step back, avoiding the sudden barrage of confetti. Following the confetti was, who else, Pinkie Pie.

“NEW PONY! NEW PONY! HOORAY!” Pinkie Pie almost landed on the mare’s back. “I LOVE new ponies because that means it’s somepony that I haven’t met yet, which means it’s somepony that I’m not friends with yet, which means I might get a new friend! Don’t you love new friends? I DO!” The mare watched, confused by Pinkie’s sudden appearance and somewhat mesmerized by her bouncing. “I also love cakes, games, and parties! I really like parties so I throw them all the time! Oh boy, are you going to stay? If so I can throw a welcome to Ponyville party! But even if you only stay for a month or two, I can throw a going away party for when you leave! But I hope you’re not going away, because if you don’t you can come to LOTS and LOTS of parties!” Pinkie stopped bouncing for a moment. The mare didn’t move much. “Oh, right, I almost forgot. I’m Pinkie Pie!”

“And I’m Rarity,” Rarity said, thankful that Pinkie stopped and allowed her to say something before throwing the actual party.

The mare took a moment to look between Pinkie Pie and Rarity. “Liz.” She said simply. From the looks of it, she was half-expecting for Pinkie Pie to up and explode from happiness from this information.

“Wow! That’s a short name. It’ll make it easy to write on banners.” Pinkie mused to herself.

“Well, my full name is longer, but I prefer a nickname,” Liz explained.

“Oh, yeah! I understand that perfectly.” Pinkie began bouncing again. “Oh boy oh boy, are you going to be staying long? I would love to throw a welcome to Ponyville party for you! Are you going to stay? Huh? Huh? HUH?”

Liz shuffled back a bit, intimidated by pinkie’s exuberance. “I have no idea,” She said, half to pinkie pie and half to herself.

“Oh, well, if you are just let me know and I’ll throw a welcome party for you! Or if you’re not, just let me know and I’ll throw a Just Visiting party for you! Okay?”

“Okay,” Liz answered in a small voice.

“Keen!” Pinkie said, before hopping away, leaving a bewildered Liz with Rarity and Rarity’s cargo.

“Don’t worry about Pinkie,” Rarity said, “She’s always like that.”

“Okay,” Liz said again, glancing after the pink party pony. “Yes… okay… just, give me a minute.” Liz shook her head, trying to clear it. Here she was expecting things to make MORE sense once she gets to the town, and instead the whole place was full of not-Ponytas, some of which had Rapidash horns, and some of which had wings. “I don’t usually say this about people,” Liz said as she looked back at Rarity, “But that girl needs to lay off the caffeine.”

“Caffeine?” Rarity shook her head in response, “No, she’s like that all the time.” Rarity took a moment to ponder a highly caffeinated Pinkie Pie. She immediately came to the conclusion that not only should such a thing never, ever happen, ever, but the less it was thought about, the better. “In any case, welcome to Ponyville. We’re happy to have you, albeit not all as happy as Pinkie is.”

“Okay,” Liz replied simply. “So… um… need any help with your cart there?”

Rarity shook her head. “No, but thank you for asking. I may not be an earth pony, but I can pull my weight.”

Liz looked at the cart. The cart itself was taller than Rarity, and wider, and the gems were piled up to almost twice her height. “Are you sure? It’s really big, and rather overfull. Really, that’s a lot of gems. Where did they all come from? What are they all for?”

“Fashion!” Rarity declared without hesitation. “I run Carousel Boutique, a one-stop-shop for all of one’s fashion desires! I design clothes, for any occasion, occupation, color scheme, and budget. You?” Rarity reflexively looked at Liz’s cutie mark… huh. It was a red circle, white inside, cut in half by a red line, which had another red circle in the middle of it. Rarity had no idea what such a thing could mean… of course, a lot of cutie marks weren’t straightforward. A number of ponies had taken a look at her mark and thought that she was a jeweler.

“Uh...” Liz blinked slightly. A quick glance around town told her that there was no Pokémon around. She hadn’t seen any in the forest, on the field, or on the road. She saw a bird, but it was small, and an odd color, and just seemed… rather too mundane to be a real Pokémon. This just seemed like a world without Pokémon or trainers. “I have no idea.”

“Okay, the basics of flying are super basic, in fact, they are SO basic, that you’ve already figured them out.”

“I have?” Twilight asked Rainbow Dash. She had been roped into flying lessons, and after a bit admitted that she probably needed some. Her first flight over Canterlot had ended up with her in a snowbank on the side of the mountain.

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah, you flew from the balcony. You were a natural! Up until that crosswind hit you. Here I was worried I’d have to start from page one!”

“It just seemed like the thing to do,” Twilight said. “I wanted to fly, gave a few flaps, and did.”

“Changing into an alicorn must have given you some flying instincts,” Fluttershy commented quietly. “Actually… when you gave Rarity those wings, she didn’t need to learn how to use them either. That’s kind of odd, now that I-”

“What matters is that it makes our job easier!” Dash declared, “And that means we can start in on the proper flying stuff!” She took off, and began to zip around the area. Dash could fly from one end of the sport track to the other in the time it took most ponies to sneeze, especially right now when she was so hyped. “Speed! Agility! Maneuvers!” Dash punctuated that by doing a loop-de-loop and stopping short in front of Twilight. “Oh man, you are going to LOVE this!”

Twilight blinked. “Well, okay. How do we start?”

“We start by-” rainbow dash stopped short. Huh… “Hey Fluttershy, do you remember how they started in flight camp?”

“Crashing.” Fluttershy replied, frowning slightly.

The smile quickly disappeared from Rainbow Dash’s face. She had hated that part of the camp. “Eh… let’s skip that. Let’s start with the takeoff instead.”

It turns out that skipping it wasn’t really an option, and after pulling Twilight out of a tree for the third time Dash went over it. Crashing was not as simple as it would seem, as it was the art of minimizing damage taken from a foul landing. When to relax, when to tense up, when to curl up into a ball, overall it was much more complex than Twilight had ever thought of crashes to be. Within two hours she was done with flight practice for the day, with a number of strained muscles and bruises, and decided that before Dash did any more training she was going to read up on the subject.

On her way back to the library, Twilight came across Pinkie Pie. “Twilight! Twilight! Guess what!”

Pinkie was excited about something, that was obvious from the way she was bouncing more than usual, and Twilight smiled slightly and prepared for dealing with Pinkie’s usual energy. “What is it, Pinkie?”

“Guess!” Pinkie said as she came to a stop. The smile on her face clearly communicated that she really did want twilight to guess.

Twilight thought about it for a moment. “Rarity has a huge pile of gems that she’s going to sew into a dress for me?”

“Nope! Well, yes, but that’s not what I’m excited about! Well, I am excited about it, but there’s something else that I’m super-duper excited about!” Pinkie began bouncing again.

“Applejack is making pie?” Twilight guessed.

“Nope! Well, I don’t really know what Applejack is doing, I should go find out, but first I want to tell you about what’s going on!”

“Well, what’s going-you’re throwing a party aren’t you?” Of course. That’s the obvious thing. Why didn’t she think of it sooner?

“Nope!”

“What?” this caught Twilight off guard. She had no idea how to deal with this.

“Well, I mean I probably will, but it’s something I’m going to throw a party about!” Pinkie quickly added. She then shook her head in a teasing way. “Me, not throwing a party. You should see the look on your face, you silly wiggle!”

Twilight giggled slightly. “Allright, allright. What’s going on?”

“There’s someone NEW in town!” Pinkie declared, and punctuated this by doing the splits and a flurry of confetti.

“Oh, okay.” Twilight wasn’t terribly surprised. Pinkie never seemed to get tired of greeting new people. Twilight remembered the time that the Wonderbolts came to Ponyville to oversee the cyclone operation. Pinkie had been preparing a party for them since she heard that they would come for it. After the stress of the cyclone, the party was appreciated by all.

“Yep! Yep! She seems like a nice pony, but I don’t think she’s used to being by herself, since she was just kind of wandering around town. She seemed a bit lost.”

“Well, Ponyville isn’t that big of a town, and I’m sure anypony would be willing to help her out.” Twilight said with a smile. “Anyway, I’m going to go back to the Library and clean up. Later, Pinkie!” Pinkie smiled and nodded, and Twilight returned to the library.

When there, she opened the door and saw one earth pony mare studying intently. The books on the main table were an interesting variety; books on basic anatomy, books on magic, books on the history and geography of Equestira, and a wide variety of books on animals and monsters.

Now, Twilight was used to coming home to find a pony reading, but usually it was a pony she knew. And usually they just had one book or two, instead of a wide number of books on a variety of topics.

“Hi Twilight!” Spike said, waving to her. He was standing on the far side of the library. The mare looked up at Twilight. She noted Twilight’s unicorn horn… and her wings. She then went back to the books, but Twilight did notice some confusion.

Twilight walked over to Spike, and waved for him to follow her up the stairs. At the top she asked him, “Who’s the new mare?”

“Her name is Liz,” Spike said, “She said that she had to do a lot of research fast, and asked for… lots of stuff, really. Lots of really simple stuff; I was happy that you had kept those schoolbooks because that’s what she’s looking through.”

Twilight thought about it. “Spike, does that sound familiar to you?”

Spike thought a minute. “No, no not really. What do you mean?”

“Books on anatomy and physiology, on history, on culture. Simple books, like she doesn’t have an education to build on. Like she was suddenly taken out of her world.”

Spike’s eyes widened. “Like when you were turned into a human!”

Twilight nodded. “The question is… does she want us to help, or does she not want others to know? For that matter, this might just be a coincidence.” She thought for a moment. “Well, Spike, just help her as best you can. If it really looks like she needs help, I’ll step up and help, but I’m not going to make her uncomfortable. I’m going to be looking up books on flying.”

A few hours later, Twilight returned to the main room to find one of the books on flying she knew she had in there, and looked over at Liz. She was looking at a textbook on anatomy and physiology, looking between her foreleg and the textbook, and studying how the joint moved. This reminded Twilight of her first experience with hands, and her own examination of how a human body worked.

After a moment, Twilight sat down across the table from Liz. She wanted to be available, but not nosy. Twilight hoped that if Liz had a question about something, she would ask. However, in a few minutes it was obvious to Twilight that she could learn plenty without being nosy.

“Nothing makes sense,” Liz muttered to herself. “Cows. Ponies. Princesses… it’s all completely different. Even the language. Some-pony. No-pony. Every-pony. Colt… filly… mare, stallion. Cutie marks?” She was quiet for a minute as she read. “Innate magic. Okay. Great. In addition to a Zap Cannon of culture shock, there is also magic.” She sighed, and Twilight heard the distinctive noise of a head hitting the table.

She peered around the statue in the center of the table to look at the dismaying pony. After a moment, she said, “You really aren’t used to being a pony, are you?”

Liz flinched, and looked up at Twilight. “It’s really that obvious? Oh, wait, I was talking to myself again. Uh…” Liz tried to think of an explanation. This… alicorn, the books say? This purple pony must think she’s crazy. Muttering to herself that she didn’t know about magic or cutie marks… wait. “You say that like you’re used to things that aren’t ponies… suddenly being ponies.”

Twilight shook her head and walked around toward Liz. “No, it’s actually personal experience. I… spent a few days in a world where everyone stood on two legs, and wore clothes all the time, and picked up things with… hands.” She waved a forehoof at Liz to try and get the point across.

“Humans!” Liz said, her eyes lighting up. “And they share the world with amazing creatures called Pokémon?”

Twilight blinked. “Um… no. Not that I know of.”

“Oh,” Liz said and slumped slightly. For a moment there, she thought for sure she had a way home; just use whatever Twilight had used. Unfortunately, any world without Pokémon was not the world she knew.

Seeing this reaction, Twilight placed a hoof on Liz’s shoulder. “It’s okay. I’ll help. I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

“Elizabeth Cortinway,” Liz said in return, “But you can call me Liz.” She smiled slightly. “Seems like ponies and humans have different ways of naming, huh?”

Twilight shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter. Now, what do you need help with?”

The pair stayed up long into the night, and Spike ended up making the guest bed for Liz. Although she didn’t want to make Twilight’s life any harder, Liz didn’t have anywhere else to stay, and did appreciate the offer of hospitality. It took her a bit to get to sleep, though, as she was worried about her team… her friends. They were tough, they knew how to survive in the wild, but that didn’t keep her from worrying.

“Goodnight Mrs. Red, Goodnight Mr. Blue.”

One by one, Fluttershy wished her house guests goodnight. Today had been a good day.

“Goodnight Mr. Chipmunk, Mrs. Chipmunk.”

Twilight had gotten her first flying lesson, and it had gone pretty well. At least Fluttershy thought so. No one was hurt much.

“Goodnight Phil, Bob, Joe. If you three toads want to sing later tonight, please remember to go outside first?”
And she had gone to the market, and fed all the animals, and got to talk to Mr. Bear. She had gotten a lot done today.

“Good night, Angel Bunny.”

Flutershy tucked herself in, laid her head on the pillow, and was suddenly jarred by a horrific noise coming from outside. Some sort of buzzing screech, like she had never heard before. She knew all the cries of all the animals, even the ones that usually stayed in the Everfree Forest-

Or, the ones that stayed on the edge of the Everfree Forest. If something was usually further in, then she supposed it was possible that she would never have heard it before.

She listened, carefully, for a while… but there were no other sounds like it. All the animals had been spooked by the noise, but the nighttime chorus picked back up soon enough. Fluttershy went to bed. Maybe… hopefully… it wasn’t anything special.

Bug Buzz

Liz was woken up by the sun, but her reaction was to roll over and cover her face with her pillow. The sun was always the most reliable way to get her up. She hated it every morning, but it was reliable.

“Hello, Liz,” Said a voice. Not one she recognized. She peeked out from under the pillow… to see a little purple and green lizard thing. What Pokémon is that? “Are you okay?” it asked. Talking? Why would a Pokémon-

Liz threw off her sheets to look at herself. Hooves, tail, mane! Yesterday put itself together in her head. She made a noise half-way between a moan and a whimper, and rolled off the side of the bed.

Spike ran around the bed to her. “Uh, are you okay?”

“Coffee,” Liz said simply, “Please… coffee.”

“Oh, sure, I’ll go make some,” Spike said. He ran to do that while Liz put the sheets back on the bed and then walked down the stairs carefully. She went into the kitchen area, and sat down at the table. “Sugar or cream?” Spike asked.

“Black,” Liz answered, “The first cup of my morning is always black.”

“Oh.” Spike said. “You need coffee, huh?”

“Yeah… started in the habit in school. Have never gotten around to kicking it.” Liz didn’t say much beyond that. She just waited patiently for her coffee, and thanked Spike graciously when she got it.

She was upset, that was clear. Waking up in an unusual place, in an unusual body… Spike wanted to help, but he wasn’t sure how. After a minute, he said, “If it makes you feel any better, you’re adapting to your new body quicker than Twilight did. It took her a while to even figure out how to walk, and hands were even more confusing.”

“Yeah,” Liz said, and put down her coffee. “At least I don’t have to worry about that. But… that’s weird. Why wouldn’t I have to worry about that? I’ve been walking around just fine, but I shouldn’t know the first thing about walking as a pony. I mean, I’ve heard that a lot of Pokémon can walk within minutes, but it should have taken a while of bungling around before I could walk, much less trot or gallop. But I didn’t. It was odd at first, but I was able to walk and move without trouble. That doesn’t make any sense. It’s not like there’s less complex movements to walking on four legs, it’s just harder to fall down… I think? I don’t know.”

Liz sighed as she looked at her coffee mug. She then looked at her hoof. “Wait… how did I pick the mug up? I mean, I obviously picked it up, but... it’s not like hooves are made for picking things up. How did I do that?”

Spike blinked in confusion, as this was not what he had been expecting… especially not so early in the morning. “I didn’t think that caffeine worked that fast.”

“It’s the psychological effect of the taste of the coffee. I use decaf as a placebo sometimes. It helps me cut down.”

At this point, Twilight walked into the room. “Morning Spike. Hello Liz.”

“Twilight,” Liz said, “Have you ever done something, and then wasn’t sure how you did it?”

Twilight was confused at this. “I guess? Like when… um… well, maybe not.”

“Well… look, I should have no idea how to walk around, right? But… I know how. Like I’ve done it all my life. Well, I mean, I don’t really know how to walk, how the joints move when I walk exactly, but I still do it if I try, right? But you had to learn how from the beginning. Why is my case different?”

Twilight was quiet and thought for a minute. “I… have no idea. I have no idea at all. Maybe… it’s a difference in how we traveled through worlds. I used a portal, but if your method was different than it might have different effects.” Twilight sat down next to her. “How about we compare notes over breakfast?”

Liz nodded. “Well, as far as I can tell, I was transported by a group of Unown, but I don’t know anything about the details.”

“What are… Unown?” Twilight asked. “I mean, there probably isn’t much known about them, given their name, but what can you tell me?”

“Well, they’re small, rare, psychic type Pokémon… wait; you don’t know what Pokémon are, either, do you?”

Twilight shook her head. “Let me get something to take notes on.”

Twilight took careful notes over the discussion, even after Spike made pancakes for the pair.

‘Pokemon are creatures, some of which are intelligent, that have supernatural powers. This might be magic in this world. Pokemon appear to mostly exist instead of animals for the most part; there were some normal animals but they mainly play minor roles in the world.’

…

‘Pokemon are grouped by type; type is based on their abilities, habitat, and how they interact with certain kinds of energy. A “fire-type” Pokemon is prone to damage from water (implies dousing, but not all fire Pokemon have external flames. Magical damage based on elements?), but resistant to damage from ice (internal high temperature nullifies cellular damage from extreme cold?).’

…

‘The Pokemon responsible for the transition, “Unown,” is “Psychic-Type,” meaning that it uses mental powers. Mind control, mental attacks, mind reading, teleportation, telekinesis, etc. (Teleportation and telekinesis are considered mental powers? Simply association with other, direct mental powers?)’

…

‘Unown is known for power in groups: alone, is small and of minimal threat. In groups, much larger threat. Mutiplicative or additive power? Supposed connection to other plane. (aether?) In large enough groups, can warp reality! largest known incident: conversion of a mansion into a crystal castle.’

…

‘Liz is not a scientist. Do not ask Liz a lot of science questions.’

“Okay…” Twilight said as she looked over her notes so far. “This is obviously a lot more complex than I thought it would be, but I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised. Anyway, I have some errands to do today, and some friends are likely going to drag me away to do flying lessons later on, so I should get going.”

Liz nodded “And if I’m going to be staying here for a while, I should get to know the town.”

The pair headed toward the front door. “And you should meet some other ponies,” Twilight said, “Ponyville is small enough that people will notice if you become a regular.”

Twilight opened the door, revealing Pinkie Pie.

“Hiya!” She said cheerily, smiling at Liz. “So… are you going to be staying for a while?”

Twilight nodded. “For now, it looks like she’ll be staying with me-”

“WHOOPEE!” Pinkie exclaimed and leaped into the air before Twilight could explain the situation. “I’ll have to start party plans right away! Hey, while I’m here, how about I take her on a tour? See the town!”

“We were just discussing that.” Twilight said. “That okay with you, Liz?”

Liz, somewhat startled by this, took a deep breath. It was a Pink Party Pony, she was probably the least dangerous thing in town. “Sure,” She said, “If you don’t mind.”

“GREAT! That will save me the time of having to show you where your party will be! Follow me!”

Liz followed Pinkie Pie, while Twilight pondered what all she really needed to do today…

Fluttershy pushed through the bead curtain carefully, looking into Zecora’s house. “Hello? Zecora? Are you here?”

Zecora looked up from the book she was reading, and smiled warmly. “Good to see you, Fluttershy. May I ask what brings you by?”

Fluttershy stepped inside. “I’m sorry to come in unannounced, but, I have a question, if you’re not too busy, I mean.”

“I’m not busy, as you can see. Would you like a cup of tea?” Zecora asked and gestured toward a pot over a small flame.

“Oh, yes please,” Fluttershy accepted the tea gratefully. Whatever Zecora did to make her tea, it was better than almost anything else Fulttershy had tried. “You heard the noise last night, right?”

Zecora nodded. “A rude awakening, to be sure. I do not know what it could be for.”

Fluttershy frowned at this. “Oh… I was hoping that you knew what it was. I’ve never heard anything like it.”

“The Everfree hides many things. Secrets and forgotten beings. The noise that was so loud and clear, is a harbinger of one, I fear.”

Suddenly, the sound echoed through the air again. Fluttershy flinched, and almost dropped her teacup. Zecora stopped, and listened to the noise intently.

A moment after it stopped, Zecora spoke. “I do not wish to cause you fright, but that sounded closer than it was last night.”

Fluttershy trembled a bit.

“Fluttershy! Fluttershy! Where are you? Come on, we have to teach Twilight about hovering today!” Rainbow Dash looked for her friend. She wasn’t in her house, or the chicken coop, or anywhere that she usually was. This probably meant that she was in town. Maybe Angel was feeling picky today and made her go get fresh lettuce or something.

You know, why not get the information right from the rabbit’s mouth? Rainbow Dash looked in a window, and saw Angel. He was idly chewing on some carrots and looking through… something. Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure what kind of books Flutttershy had.

Rainbow Dash tapped on the window, getting Angel’s attention. He hopped up to the window, opened it, and crossed his forepaws in front of his chest in an annoyed fashion.

“Look,” Rainbow Dash said, “Five minutes, okay? I just need to know where Fluttershy went. Did she go into town?”

Angel shook his head.

“Did she go to Sweet Apple Acres?”

Angel shook his head.

“Is she taking care of some of her animal friends?”

Angel again shook his head.

“Oh come on. Where else would she go? The Everfree Forest?”

Angel nodded in response to that.

“What? Why?”

Angel sighed, turned to show Rainbow Dash his side, and traced a spiral on his flank with his paw.

It took Rainbow Dash a moment, but she realized what was going on. “Oh! Zecora! She went to go see Zecora. Okay. Thanks, Angel!”

With that, Rainbow Dash was off, headed into the forest. The route to Zecora’s hut was simple enough, and pretty safe. It would barely take a minute for Rainbow dash to-

Her train of thought was suddenly disrupted by some kind of buzzing, shrieking sound. She came to a mid-air stop and looked around. She saw something… a dark thing, moving so fast through the trees that it was little more than a blur. Curious, Rainbow Dash flew after it.

It was fast, but she was faster, and pulled alongside it quickly enough. She managed to see some gold on the body, and a pair of red eyes, but then it apparently noticed her and made a sharp U-turn. Rainbow Dash was able to keep up, but quickly found herself straining harder. It was flying faster, and while it wasn’t faster than what Rainbow Dash could get, it was faster than a lot of ponies that Rainbow Dash knew.

It weaved through the trees skillfully, obviously an experienced flyer. It had an edge in that it was small, Rainbow mused to herself, but as Applejack would say, this was not her first rodeo. Over a branch, under a log, past a bush, and she was hot on its tail.

She caught a glimpse of an eye, peeking over its shoulder, before it suddenly pulled a hard, almost 90-degree turn. Rainbow wasn’t able to keep on its tail after that, but she was able to keep it in her sights. It was harder from further off, and it was now actively trying to shake her. Sometimes with little more than a flit at the edge of her vision and the droning of its wings, Rainbow worked to track it. She didn’t know what it was, but it was some kind of huge bug that went much faster than most things she had met, and that was enough for her.

She realized that this thing could even give a Wonderbolt a run for their money. Oh, there was no way she was backing down now!

Seeing an opening in the trees, she rolled and dived for it. Her hooves brushed the thing’s insectile wings; she felt them buffet her legs and body for a moment before she had to pull up. That must have disrupted its flight path some; Rainbow knew how bad it was to have your wings get touched while in mid-air, especially if you’re going fast.

The thing did dip a bit, but did not touch the ground, instead suddenly shooting upward. It must have been able to recover because insect wings flap a billion times a second or something. Rainbow dash noted to ask Fluttershy about that later.

Rainbow dash followed it, breaking through the top of the canopy, reaching the same height as it, and for just a moment got a good look at it. It was mostly black, but it looked kind of like it was wearing a gold mask. It had red compound eyes, and some kind of red pattern on the tips of its wings. It also had two arms, tipped with small but very sharp claws.
It was only a moment, but it was long enough for the pair to look into each other’s eyes and communicate a silent challenge.

The bug took off, flying as fast as it could now that there was no need to worry about dodging trees. Rainbow Dash followed a moment later. The bug quickly gained an initial lead, having accelerated faster than Rainbow Dash could, but that only lasted so long. Rainbow dash found, much to her liking, that she had the higher top speed.

It took a bit to get going as fast as she could, but once there she was definitely faster than the bug. She shot past it, did a large u-turn so that she didn’t have to sacrifice any speed, and charged at the bug head on. Then, one blur became three, in a tight triangle formation, and Rainbow Dash blew through one of the corners. “What?” She declared out loud before turning again to keep her targets in her sight.

It took her a moment to figure out what had happened: It was some kind of decoy spell, or illusion: two of the bugs were fake, while the third was the real one. She hadn’t expected to see this; it’s already super-fast, using magic too is almost unfair.

Almost. It would be unfair if it was against anyone less awesome. For the fastest flier in Equestria, it was only a challenge.

One swoop, Rainbow Dash passed through one. That one was an illusion, so one of the remaining two was the real one. A loop and Rainbow Dash was in position, and dived at the right angle so that she could get the other two in one go. The formation turned at the last moment, so that Rainbow Dash only flew through one. However, this meant that she now knew which one was the real one.

The bug was apparently keeping track of which ones Rainbow had checked, too, as the formation rotated and dove back into the trees. Rainbow dash followed, but quickly lost track of which one was real as she went back to dodging and weaving at high speeds. The bug, however, not only maintained its speed, but also managed to maintain its illusion. Very well, too, as sometimes the three bugs would use three equally viable ways to get through a patch of thick brush or a wall of vines.

Rainbow Dash didn’t slow down any more than she had to. She knew what she was doing, and she was not about to lose to this bug!

Fluttershy walked through the forest back to her home. Her talk with Zecora hadn’t been very useful. She didn’t like the idea of just waiting for something to go wrong, but she couldn’t think of an alternative.

A sudden fast breeze flew past her, followed shortly by a crash off to the side of her. She froze, and looked into the trees cautiously. She saw Rainbow Dash, on the ground, surrounded by splinters. Fluttershy gasped and rushed to her friend’s side. She was unconscious, that was obvious, and given the splinters… it looked like she had smashed through a branch with her head! Fluttershy picked up her friend, and began to haul her to the town. She could only hope that somepony would help the pair to the hospital.

Liz smiled contently. “Okay, yes, that was the best slice of apple pie I have ever tasted.”

Applejack smiled. “Thanks! I’m happy y’all enjoyed it. It’s an Apple Family Recipe.”

Liz nodded. “That makes sense. Family recipes always seem to be better than mass-produced ones.” Pinkie’s tour had ended with Sweet Apple Acres, and Applejack had just happened to have finished baking. She had invited the pair in to try some pie, and Liz was quite happy that she did.

“So,” Applejack said as she rounded up the plates, “How long will you be in Ponyville?”

Liz shifted back and forth. “Um… not sure. There’s a lot about the situation I don’t understand. And, uh, the situation itself is kind of sensitive. I guess it’s possible it could be wrapped up fairly quickly, but I doubt it. I don’t even know if there’s a solution at all.”

Applejack put the dishes into the sink and turned back towards Liz. “Now, you shouldn’t worry none. Twilight’s the brightest pony in Ponyville, and if there’s a solution then chances are she can figure it out.”

As if on cue, in a flash of purple light Twilight appeared in the middle of the room. She didn’t waste time, barely looking around to get her bearings before speaking. “Applejack! Pinkie Pie! Rainbow Dash is in the hospital!”

“What? Again?” Applejack turned and ran out the door, Pinkie close on her tail. Twilight disappeared in another flash of light, and Liz found herself rushing out the door in an effort to try and keep up with the pair of ponies. She hadn’t the foggiest idea who “Rainbow Dash” was, but she was apparently friends with Twilight, so at the very least Liz should share her sympathies.

“…I’m telling you, it was black, had a gold mask on, and it was almost as fast as I was. I would totally have caught it if it weren’t for that stupid log. What was a log doing in a tree, anyway?” Rainbow Dash was on her back in the bed, because neither Nurse Redheart nor her head would let her sit up without making the room spin around.

Well, nurse Redheart just pushed her back down to the bed. Her head made the room spin.

“Relax, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said, placing a hoof on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder. “Are you sure about that? I didn’t see anything like it.”

“Yes!” Rainbow Dash replied emphatically, “But it was moving so fast, it was a blur. Like how fast I move, but it didn’t have my trail, so it’s easy to miss. I bet it would be practically invisible if you weren’t looking for it.”

“What interests me,” Twilight said, “Is the illusion effect. That sounds like a very complex spell, and using it in the way you described implies intelligence. I’ll have to do some research, try to find anything about this.”

“If you all are done,” Nurse Redheart said simply, “Rainbow Dash needs her rest.”

The group left the hospital. Liz looked at them: Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and… a yellow pegasus with pink hair. A good group of friends to come and comfort someone who just had an accident. Liz waited until the group dispersed a bit, and then walked over to Twilight. “Will your friend be okay?”

“Yeah,” Twilight said with a nod. “She’ll only be a day or two. Sorry to derail your tour like that.”

“No problem!” Liz said, “Truth be told, I probably would have done the same to you. I understand how it is.”

Twilight smiled and began walking. “Okay. Now then, I need to finish my letter to the princess, finish my shopping, and then try to find information on Rainbow’s bug.”

“Bug?” Liz asked, curiously, walking alongside Twilight.

“Yes, apparently Rainbow chased some kind of large bug through The Everfree Forest. It moved very fast, maneuvered well, and apparently had an odd buzzing screech.”

Liz thought about that for a moment. That sounded oddly familiar. “Wait!” She said and came to a halt. “Did she get a good look at it?”

Twilight looked at the odd mare. She hadn’t seen Liz this excited about something yet. “Um… yes. Why?”

“Did it look like it had a gold mask thing? And did it move so fast that it was practically invisible?”

Twilight blinked. “Yeah, how did you know?”

“CICA!” Liz shouted, turned around, and galloped off. She didn’t get very far, though, quickly screeching to a halt before turning around and trotting back to Twilight. “I don’t actually know the way to The Everfree Forest.”

“Do you know about it?” Twilight asked, quite confused and surprised. “I didn’t think you knew anything about Equestria.”

“If I’m right,” Liz said, “then it’s actually a creature from my world, a Pokémon, and my friend.” She stomped her hoof on the ground for emphasis.

Twilight recognized the look; it meant that trying to talk her out of this would be like trying to talk Rainbow Dash or Applejack out of rushing out to help their friends. Which is to say, difficult but not impossible. Twilight knew how to deal with ponies like this by now. “You can’t just run out into the Everfree Forest,” She started, “It’s dangerous. The whole place has unusual magic, and grows in odd ways.” Twilight knew that magic was an unknown to Liz, and would therefore discourage her from running out there alone. “It’s full of dangerous animals, and even experienced ponies don’t like to go deep into it alone.” That, Twilight thought, would be better: from her discussions with Liz, she knew that Pokémon were often dangerous in the wild. Saying there was dangerous animals would be something that Liz could relate to. “And from the sound of it, ‘Cica’ is flying between the edge of the forest and deep into it. There is a large amount of ground to cover, and trying to find something moving so fast as to be nigh-invisible is already difficult if you know where it is. And you don’t know the terrain. Plus, last time it saw you, you were a human, right? It might not recognize you as a pony.”

Liz listened to Twilight’s points, and frowned sadly. She then took a deep breath, set her jaw, looked Twilight in the eyes, and said, “I’ve done stupider things.”

Twilight blinked. That was not the reaction she was expecting. If she couldn’t talk Liz out of it, then there was one more thing to do: try to make sure she didn’t hurt herself. “Okay, just… let me gather up some of my friends, okay?”

Liz blinked. “You would do that for me?”

“Well…” Twilight said awkwardly, “Yeah. I’m not going to let anypony, even just an acquaintance, go into the Everfree alone.”

Liz, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Twilight walked into the Everfree forest. Three of the ponies were nervous; but Liz was just determined. The foliage was thick, the grass was tall, and Sunlight was having trouble filtering through the canopy.

“Are y’all sure about this?” Applejack asked. “It’ll be evenin’ soon; it’s only gonna get darker from here.”

“Good; he’s easiest to find at sunrise and sunset,” Liz replied, keeping an eye on the trees. “We should be looking for claw marks on the trees, and listening for a droning sound. There is a chance of seeing him, but probably not unless he’s feeding.”

“What,” Fluttershy stuttered, glancing around, “What does he eat?”

“Tree sap, mainly,” Liz said. “He’s omnivorous, but in a situation like this he would feed on sap from trees. He might also go for some sweet fruit. He wouldn’t eat meat unless he was starving, and in most places that’s not a worry. I think he doesn’t like the texture of it.”

“Say…” Applejack said, “What’s liable to happen if he sees us before we see him?”

Liz sighed. “That’s what I’m hoping for, actually,” She explained, “Thanks to his speed and good eyesight, it’s a lot more likely that he sees us. The trick is, that it’s likely that he’ll just ignore us… assuming that he doesn’t recognize me, which I admit is likely. He might intervene if we’re in danger, but apart from that he doesn’t mind people. Er, ponies. At least, I don’t think he does.” Liz was finding herself more and more uncertain. Everything had changed. Even if she did find him, she didn’t have his Pokeball.

“And what if he doesn’t recognize me? He could have seen us by now, thought us a group on a hike, and moved on. Really the only thing I have going here is optimism.”

“Uh…” Applejack said hesitantly, “Are you talkin’ to yourself?”

“No!” Liz said, defensively, “Or, well, yes. It’s a nervous habit. Don’t worry about it.”

After a minute of walking, Fluttershy spoke up. “You know, it’s easier to recognize you than it is to recognize most ponies. You have a nice hat.”

Applejack nodded. “Shy speaks the truth; if ya wear a hat enough it becomes part of your image just as much as your mane does. Why, Ah once pulled a prank on Applebloom by sticking my Stetson on a lizard. The confusin’ part was that the lizard then proceeded to up and make flapjacks, so it honestly did look like Ah had been turned into a lizard and was working around it. Where does a lizard learn to make flapjacks, anyway?”

“I… have no idea,” Fluttershy said, “That’s very weird. I’ve never taught a lizard how to do that.”

“Anyway,” Applejack said, trying to get back on topic. “What matters is that even if he doesn’t recognize your face for some reason, he still might recognize your hat.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Liz said. “Let’s at least keep going for a while longer, at least.”

The sun descended in the sky, and the group had found nothing.

Twilight walked up next to Liz. “We should head back,” she said, “It’s getting too dark, and soon the nighttime predators will be out. We’ve been lucky so far, but being out here at night isn’t something we should risk.”

Liz stopped. “Is it… really that dangerous? We haven’t seen anything out here at all,” She said, looking around.

“As I said, we got really lucky,” Twilight answered, “But the longer we stay out here, the more likely we’ll come across something.”

“Really,” Liz said, “what kind of things are out here?”

“Manticores,” Twilight stated.

“Ghosts,” Applejack added.

Fluttershy nodded, and thought back. “There was a hydra that one time…”

“Timberwovles.”

“It’s almost wolf season, too.”

“Giant spiders.”

“Zecora once told me that a Nuckelavee used to live out here.”

“Th’ trees come to life sometimes, too.”

“Giant screech owls.”

“I know there’s a dragon den around here somewhere.”

“And the ursa cave.”

“And the reflection pool, but that’s not all that dangerous.”

“Vine creepers are fairly common.”

“I ain’t never heard of those.”

“Venus Ponytraps.”

“They’re known for tying up ponies overnight and then dangling them for the predators…”

“Oh, lasso weed. Hate that stuff.”

“Poison joke.”

“And then there’s the ants.”

“An’ the wasps.”

“Some of the roaches get to be the size of terriers.”

Liz looked at the other three. That was a long list of things. “Anything else?”

“Dire shrews,” Fluttershy stated simply.

Liz sighed, defeated. “Okay, okay, let’s head back.”

Sweet Scent

Dear Princess Celestia,

This letter has been sent to inform you of an unusual development in Ponyville: The arrival of what I believe to be a trans-world traveler. The mare in question, who prefers to go by the name ‘Liz,’ came into the Golden Oak Library to do research on a variety of topics typically known by ponies of her age, and in a subsequent conversation (the details of which I can send you if you so desire) I determined that she was familiar with a number of things common in the ‘Canterlot High World’, such as human anatomy and advanced computing.

At the same time, she displayed knowledge of things not found in the Canterlot High World, primarily a sort of creatures known as “Pokémon.” (A full letter on the topic might be able to be written, if so desired.) Our discussion led me to believe that Pokémon had a strong enough effect on the culture of her home world that if they existed in the Canterlot High World, I would at least have heard of them.

As a result of this, I theorize that there are several human worlds, many of which are very different. If this is so, then perhaps there are many pony worlds, as well. However, more than that I cannot speculate on without additional information.

Currently, I am trying to work with Liz, determining whether how I can help her return to her own world. Any advice you have on the matter would be appreciated. I will endeavor to keep this within my circle of immediate friends, instead of permitting it to become public knowledge.

Addendum: since writing the above part of this letter, a series of events has led Liz to believe that at least one Pokémon that was with her has also been pulled into Equestria. I intend to get further information on the topic soon.

Yours truly,

Twilight Sparkle

P.S. As a completely unofficial note, I’m willing to bet that Discord knows something about inter-world travel. I will trust your discression on that matter, though, as risking him finding out about this situation, or about Canterlot High, might be too big of a risk.

The 7 mares were gathered in the main room of the library; Liz, Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash (who had been released from the hospital under a long list of conditions) and Fluttershy (who was tasked with making sure Rainbow Dash actually followed her set conditions).

“Liz,” Twilight said, “These are my friends, and they’re all willing to help, but… I get the feeling that this situation is bigger than one or two ponies. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable; but if there is a danger, to yourself or to other ponies, then please let us know.”

Liz sighed. “Allright… I was hoping that this could be nice and quiet, but without pokeballs… should I start with explaining humans?”

“Oh, we already know about humans,” Pinkie said, “There was a time where Twilight went to a human world and wound up getting to be princess of the dance, and fought alongside our human doubles, and got a crush on a guy, and when she got back it turned out that guy was kinda shallow, and nothing ever came of that.”

“Pinkie,” Twilight said, “That’s classified information, remember?”

“Yeah,” Pinkie said, “Strrrrrictly on a need-to-know basis, and the reason that everyone is here is that we need to know things. Besides, I’m willing to bet you already told her something about it.”

“Anyway,” Liz said, “Twilight at least thinks I came from a world that isn’t that one. The one that I came from has creatures that we call Pokémon, which often have odd powers. I think that Rainbow Dash chased around a Pokémon that came through with me.”

“‘Odd powers’ is one way to put it,” Rainbow Dash said, “If a lot of things are as, I admit it, awesome as that bug, you must lead a very interesting life.”

“Um, last night, you sounded like you are friends with, um, the bug,” Fluttershy said. “Does it have a name?”

“Cica,” Liz said, “He’s a Ninjask. He’s very, very fast, and his claws are very sharp. I don’t think that he, or any of the others, are dangers, they’re all used to people. Or at least humans. Really, they’re likely more dangerous to any monsters. Unless there’s really dangerous stuff out there.”

“Ah’m not going to lie to ya,” Applejack said, “There is. Huge dragons, giant monsters, hydras…”

“I heard the list last night,” Liz said, “and I’m not going to worry about that right now. One thing at a time. Cica is in Everfree Forest, and that is what I want to deal with. If the rest of my team turns up later, I’ll rush to them, but for now we only know of one.”

“Okay, dear, calm down,” Rarity said, “Now, what is the plan?”

Liz took a deep breath, held it a moment, and then sighed. “I don’t have one. I’ve always just made it up as I went. I have no idea what to do.”

There was a bit of silence. Twilight pondered, Fluttershy fidgeted, Applejack scratched under her hat, Pinkie looked between all the rest of the ponies in the room. After about a minute, Rainbow Dash spoke up. “Doesn’t anyone else have any ideas?”

“No,” Twilight admitted. “Do you have one?”

“Well, if we could find it, we could probably have Fluttershy talk to it. In addition, Fluttershy right now is our only flier, since Twilight can’t fly very well. Our best bet for spotting it is Rarity, who has an unnatural ability to spot smudges and blurs and all that kind of stuff. Wait, Pinkie, do you still have that gyrocopter?”

“Yep!” Pinkie said, “I can get it if you want me to.”

“Okay, and that means that if Pinkie can see it, she can follow it to the ends of Equestria. Trust me on that. Okay, back to finding. Rarity, can you cast a spell to find golden things?”

“Um,” Rarity thought for a moment, “Gold, sure, but not really… golden things.”

“Drat,” Rainbow Dash said, “That means we’re going to have to do it the hard way. Hopefully, we would find a way to lure it to us… does it have any favorite foods?”

“Sweet sap, sweet fruits, maple syrup when he can get to it,” Liz listed.

“Okay. The maple syrup will probably be the thing, then, since he can’t get it in the Everfree. Pinkie, Applejack, could you get us a lot of maple syrup and some kind of bowl?”

“Yeah,” Applejack said, “But… Dash, since when were you so good at plannin’?”

“Hello? I’m the weathermare for this entire region. I push a lot of clouds myself, yeah, but a lot of what I do is management; figuring out who is good at what and putting them to their best use. If I can’t chase this thing, at least I can use some of my other skills. Now then, worst case scenario, Twilight, could you make an invisible net that could snare its wings as it flew through it? I don’t think it should be necessary, but it’d be nice to have the option.”

“Sure,” Twilight said. “I could do something like that. The invisibility would be the hardest part.”

“Remember,” Rainbow Dash said, “it would need to be like a spider web. Chances are it could fly away in the time it took for a trap to spring. Anything else… nope, I think that’s it. Tada! We have a plan, a backup plan, and room for the backup plan to go wrong.”

“Um,” Fluttershy started hesitantly, “Rainbow, you aren’t allowed to fly. Or go into The Everfree Forest.”

“Shh, Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash gently put her hoof over the quiet pegasus’ mouth, “Let me have this moment.”

“Man,” Twilight mused to herself. “I feel a little like a let down now. I had always stepped into a leadership position, but here I felt like I didn’t have enough information, and Dash just stepped up and whoosh! Off she went.”

“Now Twilight,” Applejack said, “Don’t worry about it. It’s two different ways of going about things. Ya like to know a lot before you move, with the lists and all; while Dash is used to organizing the Ponyville pegasi, something of a rag-tag group, ya know, and making them all work together on whatever is going on. And I’m willing to bet ya she didn’t just think it all up on the spot, either. Ya know how she gets in a hospital bed, or anytime she can’t move around. She has to find something to do, and without a book on hand she wound up ponderin’ how to get… what’d Liz call th’ bug? ‘Kicka?’”

Twilight Sparkle and Applejack sat in a bush in the Everfree, viewing a log slathered with maple syrup. Across from them, Rarity and Liz were likely doing the same thing. They could occasionally catch a glance of Rarity’s hair, but apparently Liz was better at hiding than that. Somewhere, closer to the log, Fluttershy was also waiting. Pinkie Pie hadn’t been seen since they split up, but that was not thought as out of the ordinary.

“Cica, C-I-C-A,” Twilight said, “Her naming conventions are different from pony ones.”

“Right. Mah point is, Rainbow Dash had a bit to think about what to do about Kika, and she spoke up when no one else had a plan right off. You were in unfamiliar water, and maybe ya just didn’t work quite as fast as normal. That don’t mean you failed.”

Twilight nodded. “You’re right. If anything, I should be happy that she can manage and organize us just in case sometime I can’t.”

From there, they lapsed back into silence. That was what was going on for the most part, just waiting in silence and hoping for something to happen. Applejack had said it was kind of soothing, like fishing. Twilight definitely saw the parallels to fishing, but she also noticed that it was not soothing. She kept looking over her shoulder, fearing that something was sneaking up on the pair.

She wasn’t ready for it when Cica was suddenly in the clearing. She had barely heard the sound of wings before he was there, hovering around the log. It moved so fast, it was completely unseen… like a ninja.

Oh, right, Liz had said it was a Ninjask. It was hard to see like a ninja, and it was wearing a gold mask. That seemed like a logical name.

Cica hovered around the log, curious but cautious. At this point, it was up to Fluttershy. Fluttershy had also been caught off-guard by his sudden appearance, but quickly worked up the nerve and stepped out of her hiding spot.

He noticed her, and froze in mid-air. Hovering, it buzzed at her. Cica-Ninjask is not fool.

Fluttershy blinked. “I know you’re scared, and in an odd place, but I just want to talk.” She pulled out the bottle of maple syrup she had with her.

What does Yellow-Winged-Thing know of Cica-Ninjask? It may know of Ninjask, but Cica-Ninjask is not Normal-Ninjask.

Fluttershy winced at the harsh buzz. “I don’t know anything about you,” She said, “only that someone is very worried about you, and wants to be sure you are okay.”

The Ninjask flew closer to Fluttershy, slowly, cautiously. Is it Awesome-Rainbow-Flying-Thing? Cica-Ninjask did not hurt her. Awesome-Rainbow-Flying-Thing could not turn fast enough. Cica-Ninjask hopes that Awesome-Rainbow-Flying-Thing is not hurt bad.

“She’s fine,” Fluttershy said, and offered the syrup to Cica. “Just a slight concussion. She’ll be back in the air in a few days.”

Cica accepted the syrup from Fluttershy, and downed some of it. Cica-Ninjask is happy for that. Awesome-Rainbow-Flying-Thing was very brave, and Cica-Ninjask respects Awesome-Rainbow-Flying-Thing.

“She thinks you’re awesome, too,” Fluttershy said with a giggle. “But right now Liz is worried about you.”

Liz-Human-Trainer? Liz-Human-Trainer is here? Please, Yellow-Winged-Thing, take Cica-Ninjask to Liz-Human-Trainer?

Fluttershy smiled, and gestured to Liz’s bush. Liz stepped out, and Cica immediately faced her. Faster than the eye could follow, Cica swept Liz’s hat off of her head and clutched it to his chest.

This is not Liz-Human-Trainer. This is White-Thing with Liz-Human-Trainer’s hat. Where is Liz-Human-Trainer?

“It is Liz!” Fluttershy said, “She’s just been changed by the event that brought you here.”

Cica-Ninjask wants Liz-Human-Trainer. Cica-Ninjask misses Liz-Human-Trainer! WHERE IS LIZ-HUMAN-TRAINER?

Cica emitted a buzzing screech. Fluttershy recognized it; the screech that she had heard twice before, but close up it was so much worse! Her ears began ringing, and she suddenly had a headache.

“CICA! SILENCE!” Liz barked. Cica fell silent. Liz also now had a headache from the screech, but she was somewhat used to it. She took a deep breath. “Now… Cica. You’re confused, you’re in an unfamiliar place, and I’m a pony. There aren’t any Pokemon, not as we know them, and the rest of the team are nowhere to be found. But that is no excuse to screech at people! Ponies. The ponies here are people… the people here are ponies… not important! What is important is that you need to calm down, not shriek at anyone, and let these ponies help. Okay?”

Cica hovered for a minute, as if processing this information. He looked at the hat in his claws, and then placed it back on Liz’s head. Liz pulled Cica into a hug, and Cica hugged back. He hugged gently, of course, making sure to avoid scratching Liz with his claws. The other ponies came forward, stepping out of the bushes.

Cica noticed the other ponies, flying in-between them and Liz, but Liz quickly reassured him. “Don’t worry, they’re all with me. They all came out to help me find you. That’s Fluttershy, this is Applejack-”

“Wait,” Applejack interrupted, holding up a hoof, “Does anyone else smell that?”

Everyone stopped and sniffed. It only took a moment before the smell wafted fully into the area, making the ponies gag. Liz covered her mouth with her hat, but that only helped so much. She had smelled some nasty things in her time (a number of Pokemon were somewhat infamous for their strong scents) but this smell was new. “What is it? It smells like something-”

“Timberwolves!” Applejack shouted, suddenly turning and running. The others followed immediately, albeit Liz didn’t understand the danger.

“What do you mean? What are timberwolves?” Liz asked. She heard a roar from somewhere behind her. “Why are we running? Are timberwolves really that scary?”

There was a crash from behind her, and she looked over her shoulder to see a timberwolf break through a bush. It was made entirely of wood, of logs and branches, and it was taller than the ponies. It almost seemed to have a green glow about it, and its eyes were literally glowing. More to the point, however, it had huge teeth and claws, like someone carved wooden stakes and hammered them into its jaw. To make matters worse, close on its tail were a couple of its friends.

“Oh.”

Liz ran faster, suddenly moving up next to Applejack at the head of the group. While not all that used to running for long distances, time as a Pokémon trainer had made her an accomplished sprinter. This was not the first time she had to flee through the woods from a pack of hunters.

Remembering the other times, Liz glanced to the side. Sure enough, there was a group of Timberwolves pacing them to the right. Bad memories flooded her mind. “We’re being herded!” Liz shouted.
“Ah know!” Applejack shouted back. “Our best bet is ta get out of th’ forest before they can close th’ trap. If we can’t do that, we have ta try and break through-”

A trio of wolves jumped out in front of the group, and everypony came to a screeching halt. Like that, the trap was closed. The ponies were surrounded on all sides, the wolves cutting off every possible avenue of escape like the experienced and efficient hunters they were.

The largest timberwolf strode forward. Unlike the other wolves, it had a distinctly gnarled look to it. Knobs and scars covered its wooden hide, and its legs were not only much heftier than normal but covered in thorns. It roared in victory, having judged which of its prey would die first. It pounced forward, and was almost immediately separated from its front paws by a black blur.

Cica was on it, his claws a blur as he slashed at its face. Wood chips, splinters, and sawdust fell to the ground. The timberwolf staggered back, roaring.

Honk Honk!

Overhead, there was a comical whirling sound as a brightly-colored hoof-pedaled gyrocopter buzzed the pack of timberwolves. They snarled up at it, as they recognized it as something unusual and that it was too high up from them to pounce on. “Hello everypony! Sorry I’m late!” Pinkie Pie called down. “I was totally ready to be the plan C, but then plan A worked! Hi Cica!”

A green package in a bright blue bow dropped into the group. Twilight glanced at it, and noticed that the bow was somehow untying itself. She didn’t understand, but with Pinkie not understanding was par for the course. The more important thing was being able to guess what to do to minimize the damage.

Twilight hit the dirt. “EVERYPONY DOWN!”

The bow unfurled, the box popped open, and fireworks flew out. They whizzed over the ponies, exploding into stars and cupcake shapes. Fireworks combine three of the things that timberwolves hate: fire, loud noises, and bright flashes. Startled, the timberwolves roared and backed up, away from the sudden chaos. That was the chance that the ponies needed.

Applejack rushed past the heavily wounded timberwolf, and the other ponies followed her lead. Cica broke off, buzzing back up to Liz. Twilight, at the back of the group, saw an opportunity and cast the invisible web spell behind her. She had made the spell, but since Cica was cooperating she hadn’t had to use it. Might as well test it here while she could. However, this was not exactly a controlled testing environment. The most she saw was a timberwolf run up against it before it was out of sight.

Rainbow Dash was waiting at the edge of the forest. She was lying on a cloud that Ditzy Doo was kind enough to grab for her, which was floating maybe half a foot above the ground. It was comfortable, didn’t break any conditions, and if Redheart asked her later, Rainbow Dash could say that she got a lot of rest!

And she almost did get a lot of rest, as she came close to drifting off on more than one occasion. One such occasion was broken by the sound of hooves coming across the ground. Rainbow perked up, and was greeted by her five friends, Liz, and Cica coming toward her.

“Yes!” She said, thrusting her hoof into the air triumphantly. “It worked! Excellent! All-right!” Rainbow Dash slid down into the cloud, reclining. “Proving once and for all I don’t need to be in the air to be awesome.”

Twilight chuckled, and Applejack rolled her eyes. “Yep, the plan worked perfectly,” Applejack said, “At least up until the timberwolves found us, but we were able to take care of them with some high-flying help.”

Pinkie landed, followed shortly by her gyrocopter. “You know what this calls for? A PARTY!”

“Pinkie!” Twilight said and stepped forward. “I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to let Ponyville know about Cica.”

“The party isn’t for Cica; it’s a welcome party for Liz. And since Liz is an outdoorsy pony, it should be in the park, near a gazebo, and if anyone spots me putting bottles of syrup on the roof of the gazebo, they’ll just go, ‘Pinkie, you’re so random!’”

Everyone blinked. “Seriously?” Liz asked incredulously.

“She’s serious,” Rarity said, “and believe me when I say that would work.”

“Wait…” Rainbow Dash rubbed her chin, “Pinkie, how often is it that we see you do something random that actually makes kinda-sorta-sense in context?”

“More often than you would think, less often than you would suspect,” Pinkie replied. She folded up her gyrocopter into a candy-striped briefcase and hooked it with her tail. “If you will excuse me, I have a party to organize!” and with that she was off, little more than a dust trail and an afterimage left behind.

“Anyway,” Liz said, “I just realized something that I didn’t think of before. I don’t have pokeballs; where will Cica stay?”

“Pokewhat?” Applejack said, with a blink. Liz winced when she remembered that the only pony who knew anything about the details of her world was Twilight, and even she didn’t know about pokeballs.

“Um,” Fluttershy said, “He can stay at my house, if that’s okay. I look after a lot of animals, and it’s near the Everfree Forest, so he’ll be able to go in there and feed on sap. I mean, if that’s okay with you two.”

Cica, who had been waiting silently so far, gave what Liz recognized as an affirmative buzz. Liz couldn’t talk to Cica like Fluttershy apparently could, but she had gotten familiar enough with him that she recognized differences between buzzes.

“Well,” Liz said to her beloved ninja bug, “If you want to, okay. I’m staying in the big tree that’s been made into a library, and I’ll be sure to keep in touch with you.”

Canterlot had some of the best of the best, and the machine shop was no exclusion. Tools, magical and mundane, filled the walls of the shop. Gears, fasteners, and metal plates of all sorts of compositions and sizes were around, a veritable treasure trove for any mechanic or metalcrafter.

Of course, there were two things about this shop in particular that stood out. The first was the electricity: by gathering lightning from storms and bottling it, the workshop both had very good lighting and power tools usable by ponies that couldn’t power them themselves. The second thing was the pegasus who was working until midnight.

Wild Fire had taken a while to figure out what she really wanted to do with her life. After applying to the machine shop on a whim and out of boredom, she had found that she was a natural at it. Not only that, but she found it really, really fun. Some days it felt like the gears fell into place in her head, and all she had to do was make that reality and everything worked. Fuse, her unicorn partner in tinkering and the mastermind behind the building’s electricity, had been more than surprised at her quick learning and even quicker work rate.

Especially when she was in the zone, which she was right now.

Having finished all the orders that came in as much as she could without Fuse there to enchant them, Wild Fire had turned to her personal project. She hadn’t decided what to call it yet. Effectively, it was a horseless carriage, but it honestly didn’t look anything like a carriage anymore. The passenger area was smaller, and all the seats faced forward so that the driver could see where she was going. There was a gearbox in front of the passenger area, which gave the machine a rather long ‘nose.’ The gearbox took energy from a lightning jar, and was given instructions on how fast it should go from a series of levers from the driver. Wild Fire was still working on the steering; a lever had felt too clunky, so she was working on something you turned to steer, but that was still only on the sketchboard.

Right now she was working on the gearbox itself. Gears, chains, wires, motors… she kept putting them in, seeing an issue, and taking them out. Finally, she felt like she got it. She slid gears into place, ratcheted nuts and bolts, and connected pistons and chains rhythmically. She was told that she looked silly, doing mechanics to the beat of a song that no one else heard, but she didn’t care. She was one of the best, if not the best, mechanic in Canterlot.

And to think that her parents had wanted her to be on the weather team.

When she went over to the gears and found that the size she wanted was not there, it didn’t stop her. Didn’t even slow her down; this was not the first time she had to make a custom gear and it would not be the last. She got the right metal, set up the right tool, and got on her safety goggles automatically, all to her internal song. She powered it up, and began to cut the metal… and the tool sputtered and died.

A challenge? Bring it on, tool. Wild Fire was about to disassemble it when the lights died in the shop altogether.

After a second, she pulled out her lighter and lit it up for some light. She was not longer in the zone. Her music had stopped, leaving a cold fury in its wake. From the looks of it, the lighting jar had run out… but she knew for a fact that the current jar still had hours left in it. So that would mean that there was something wrong with the wires… but the wires had been fine this morning.

That meant that somepony had come along and done something.

Wild Fire took flight, and picked up one of the heftier wrenches in the shop. This smelled like the kind of problem that could be solved with a hefty wrench and a call to the guard.

Confusion

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

This news is distressing, but I am pleased to see that you have stepped up and are helping her. I admit I am curious about her, her world, and what she might have to teach us, but her welfare should be considered first. Given your experience on the topic, I feel that there is no one better to help her.

The possibility that odd creatures have entered Equestria from her world is disturbing, and as such I will watch for any odd events that might signify the presence of a ‘Pokémon.’ If you can get information on a way to identify or locate Pokémon reliably, please send it to me. I will help as much as I can, although the fact that secrecy may be better in this matter means that it is more likely for Luna to take a direct role than I.

With faith in your intelligence and abilities,

Princess Celestia

P.S. No bet. If you come across a complete dead end, no other option, I will query Discord on the matter. Right now I feel it’s much better for everyone if he not get involved.

Liz looked at the little cottage. It was like something out of a fairy tale, doors and windows peeking out of the mass of green leaves. Animals were everywhere nearby, and the trees were almost lined with birdhouses and nests. There were little burrows everywhere, and as she approached the little bridge that crossed a little stream she could see a little dock under the bridge.

Liz went over and knocked on the door. The upper half opened, and the air was thick with butterflies for a second before Liz could see Fluttershy. “Oh,” she said, “Hi Liz. Here to see Cica?”

“Yeah,” Liz said. “I can see that there are a lot of things here. Animals. You have a lot of animals.” Liz shook her head. “I’m impressed.”

“Well,” Fluttershy said meekly, “I don’t really take care of all of them. A lot of them just make friends with each other, and so all want to live nearby, and if they’re hurt they know I can take care of their wounds. A lot of them, especially the birds, shuffle around places a lot. In a way, it’s like I get new friends every spring!”

“Okay,” Liz said with a blink. She was worried that her habit of talking to herself (which she was trying her best to fight) and caffeine addiction would make her stand out in town, but in a way the main reason that she stood out was that the bar for normal had been completely changed. Fluttershy was considered odd, but in a good way! In fact, it almost seemed like Twilight and her friends were some of the more notable people in the city. But what were the chances of popping into existence and immediately befriending important people?

“Anyway,” Fluttershy said, “Cica isn’t here right now, he went to go get food, but, um, if you’re up for it, I would like to talk to you about things.”

“Oh,” Liz said hesitantly, “Sure.”

Fluttershy opened the door for Liz, and let her in. The entryway had a number of animals in it, but the main room seemed to be mostly animal-free. “I had a talk with Cica,” Fluttershy said, “And he told me a lot of stuff about your world, a lot of which… well, a lot of it didn’t make sense to me. He tried, he really did, but he isn’t all that eloquent.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Liz said. She always got the idea that her Pokémon were communicating with each other, but she never really thought of them as using language.

“He was talking about things that… um, the ideas kind of scared me. But he seemed to think of them as good things. Like… ‘Pokey-balls’? And… um… Pokémon… battles?”

Liz winced. Oh dear. Without Pokémon, there wasn’t any Pokeballs or battles, and in a comparatively care-free world like Equestria, such things would seem… questionably ethical to barbaric, depending on the pony involved.

“Oh… um, yes, I can see how that would be confusing. Well…” Liz was quiet for a minute. “Um, if you don’t mind, could you get me some coffee while I arrange my thoughts?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “I’m sorry, I don’t have any coffee. I always drink tea.”

“Okay,” Liz sighed. She took a number of deep breaths. “Well… I guess we could start with…”

Liz was quiet for a minute, as she considered what all to say.

“Coffee. I’m far, far too undercaffinated for a deep conversation on Pokémon ethics.”

Fluttershy frowned a bit deeper, and shifted uncomfortably. “Um, is it really that complex?”

“Yes,” Liz said with a sigh. “Actually, it’s more complex than that, but even just the basics are pretty in-depth. I think I’ll walk to the coffee shop, get something, and take the time to sort it all out, okay? I’ll need to make it into something that you can understand, which might be hard since I’ve lived my whole life in a completely different culture.” Liz turned around to face the front door. “I’ll be right back. I promise.”

“Okay,” Fluttershy said in a small voice. She hadn’t expected this to be quite so big a deal. Although, maybe Liz really just did need the caffeine.

As Liz approached the door, she stopped, and then leaned her head on the doorframe. “I don’t have any money,” she muttered to herself, “I can’t afford any coffee.”

Liz and Fluttershy entered the library, and Twilight looked up from her book to see the pair with somewhat unhappy expressions. Fluttershy looked concerned, while Liz looked like she had resigned herself to something unpleasant. “What’s wrong?” Twilight asked.

“Well,” Liz said, “Fluttershy asked some deep questions about the ethics back home, and I decided that I needed to be caffeinated for that conversation, and she doesn’t have any coffee, and I figured that I would wind up talking about this to you sooner or later, so… yeah. Might as well talk to two people at a time and get on with it.”

Twilight blinked. As she watched Liz head into the kitchen, she managed to get out, “Oh… allright, then.”

Fluttershy walked up next to Twilight. “I’m worried about this,” She whispered to her friend, not out of any desire to be secretive but instead because she was just feeling small and quiet. “I was talking to Cica, and he said things that I didn’t understand, and I asked Liz about them, and apparently they’re complex ethical issues. I didn’t know to expect that, I just thought that… oh dear. I wasn’t expecting this.”

Liz came back into the room, with a piping hot mug of coffee. “Okay. So, after thinking about it, the first step to figuring out ethics is history, right? And going into the history will buy me enough time for the caffeine to kick in… that was supposed to be my inside voice.” She shook her head. “Focus.” She took a swig of coffee. “Okay, in ancient history, it really boiled down to humans vs Pokémon, in some ways. Pokemon would do what they very well wanted, having abilities like breathing fire, summoning lightning from the skies, turning water to ice and the ability to lift you telekinetically and throw you into the side of a mountain. Humans, on the other hand, had tools. However, basic sledgehammers and brass swords were only so useful against Pokémon, who are generally inordinately durable.

“The obvious solution was domestication, something I know you have because I’ve seen pets around.” Liz glanced at Owlicious, who was snoozing peacefully in the corner. “Humans would find, raise, and train Pokémon to help them in various things, not the least of which was fighting against other Pokémon either for defense or hunting. Beyond that, however, there was the more utilitarian uses for Pokémon, as with humans to guide them they could help cook, maintain fields, build, and generally do stuff that was needed for bigger, better civilizations.

“And from there, you get into wars, but as a general rule wars result in breaks in the ethical code, so let’s not get into those.”

The pair of ponies nodded. “I don’t want to hear about wars at all,” Fluttershy mumbled.

Liz nodded. “Anyway, at some point in time humans discovered Apricorns, which are these kind of… nut or fruit things, which with some tooling could act as containers for Pokémon. This basically made it possible to, after some work, fit any kind of Pokémon into a ball able to fit into your hand.” She showed the pair her hoof in an effort to demonstrate, and then frowned at the lack of proper demonstration. “I think that pony hooves are about the same size as human hands, but I’m not sure. Anyway, keep in mind that Pokémon vary in size between tiny little things and twenty-foot-or-taller behemoths.”

Fluttershy blinked, not understanding. Twilight shook her head. “How does that work?”

“I don’t know, I’m not a scientist,” Liz said, “and I sometimes get the feeling that scientists don’t really know how it works, they just use it. Anyway, from there the technology took off. In modern times, Pokeballs come in a lot of different versions, most of which have to do with making capturing Pokémon easier.”

“I can’t imagine that’s very comfy,” Fluttershy said with a sad frown.

“I have it on good authority that it can be,” Liz responded, “And that it’s certainly not uncomfortable. Once again, I’m not sure how it works. I know for a fact that Pokémon can, to a limited extent, tell what is going on outside of their balls, and can also escape at will for the most part. Some balls are harder to break out of than others, but they all seem to be able to fail if the Pokémon inside figures out how.

“Now, Pokémon are expected to be let out of Pokeballs on a regular basis. Modern Pokeballs do have some kind of life preservation thing, but not letting your Pokémon out regularly enough can have adverse effects on their physical and mental health, not to mention a ton of legal trouble if you’re caught.

“Any kind of Pokémon abuse in general carries with it hefty jail time, suspension of any kind of Pokémon license, and you are forbidden from getting another license for any reason. Abuse, hoarding, neglect, any of that. Of course, with some Pokémon going to jail is better than what the Pokémon would do if it reached its breaking point.”

Twilight nodded and took more notes. “You mentioned something about hoarding? How many do you need to be considered hoarding?”

“So many that you can’t take care of them,” Liz said. “The details are left fuzzy on purpose, I think. If you know what you’re doing, you can have a lot of Pokémon. Gym leaders and Pokémon professors tend to have a lot running around, for sure.”

“Gym leaders?” Fluttershy asked, while Twilight scrawled more notes.

“Um, yes, I’ll get into that in a minute, I need to talk about Pokémon battles themselves first,” Liz said. “Okay… Pokémon battles are basically my world’s favorite past-time.”

The looks on the pair’s faces clearly communicated that they did not come to the right conclusion at all.

“It’s… look, Pokémon are dangerous things, and even in modern times they sometimes attack travelers or even whole cities. For a long while they were considering walling off roads between cities to protect traffic! With that in mind, there was a group that formed called Pokémon trainers, and they did exactly that: they trained Pokémon, and then wandered around places and solved problems, like overly aggressive Pokémon, individuals or groups that used Pokémon for illegal purposes, etc. Since then, the whole situation has changed, but that’s how it started. Anyway, Pokémon trainers would fight each other to see who was better. It was often sparring, but sometimes it became a challenge to decide something. The strongest trainers generally began to form groups, and the groups generally operated out of a given city. Similarly, the strongest of the strongest tended to become movers and shakers in their region. The rag-tag groups of trainers became more and more organized, and the Pokémon League was formed. It was arranged to work with the government: There were eight gym leaders, one in each city, and then the Elite Four and the Regional Champion.

“Now, as time went on, the police became better at what they did, the international police began to crack down on crime syndicates, and the need for a lot of people roaming around to solve problems dropped. As thus, the league was re-tooled to be more of a sporting organization.”

Twilight switched out pens to keep the one she was working with from giving out from the strain. Fluttershy just sat there, mouth open, confused.

“Look, do you have marital arts in Equestria? Think of it like the professional tournament circuit.”

Fluttershy gave a small “oh” and Twilight nodded and noted it down.

“Trainers needed to beat eight gyms, usually the ones in their region but eventually the regions began to recognize each other’s badges, and when they did that they were allowed to enter the Pokémon league. The Pokémon league is a tournament, with eliminations until there is only one person left, the League Champion. From there, it is traditional to challenge the Elite Four, and from there the current Regional Champion, to become the Regional Champion. In theory. In practice, the few times that the Regional Champion has been beaten in that way, they wind up keeping the title and position due to the politics associated with being the Regional Champion. Suffice to say, you are much more popular as a Regional Champion if you go around and help the region. It’s something of a celebrity position, and not everyone can take that kind of pressure. Typically, only gym leaders have really become new champions, because gym leaders are really good at what they do and have the mettle to actually be the Champion and keep the seat.

“Anyway, gym leaders are generally good for the city they are in, because they’re generally successful people that put significant investment into their cities, and are there in case something big comes along and tries to wreck your city.”
There was a pause as Twilight finished her notes and Fluttershy thought about all this. It was unusual, to say the least. After a moment, Fluttershy spoke up. “Um, How does anyone get their first badge? If all the gym leaders are so good at what they do…”

“Gym leaders generally have three or four teams,” Liz explained, “A ‘beginner’ team, an ‘intermediate’ team, and a ‘real’ team. Which team they fight you with, and how serious they fight, is a matter of how many badges you have or otherwise how tough they think you are. Technically, even if you lose to a gym leader, if they are impressed enough they might give you a badge if they felt you proved yourself.”

“How big is a team?” Twilight asked quickly, between notes.

“The legal maximum for a team in the League is six Pokémon, but generally they aren’t all used. Gym leaders are allowed to choose the kind of battle; three on threes are most common, I think, but I might be misremembering,” Liz replied.

“Wow,” Fluttershy said, “I didn’t realize that it was such a big deal. I was worried that it was, you know, um…”

“Don’t worry,” Liz interrupted her, “Ethics are a big concern, both for the Pokémon and the people. I admit that from the outside it doesn’t seem ethical, especially at first, but people love it and try to work within ethics with it. Now, of course, there are groups that hate the whole set up, some even going as far as to say that catching Pokémon at all is wrong, but they’re generally in the minority. Especially since the Team Plasma incident in Unova, however, they’ve had less traction than usual. Suffice to say that a militant extremist Pokémon equality group turned out to be militant, extremist, and not for Pokémon equality at all, and that’s impacted the standing of other, more reasonable groups.”

“Um… how do you go about catching Pokémon?” Fluttershy asked, seeking to change the topic. She felt that the ethical issues were quite simply too complex and deep and full of grey areas.

“There are two main ways,” Liz said, “befriending them and then they come with you, or beating them in battle and catching them in a pokeball.”

Fluttershy tried to hide her frown, but Liz caught it and thought fast. “Look, a lot of Pokémon respect strength. It’s kind of odd, but a lot of Pokémon see beating them in battle as a show of superior power, and therefore you as a candidate for ‘boss.’ It’s pack instincts, and they see you as the alpha. Ideally from there you become friends with them, but that’s not always the case. Some Pokémon run off, some refuse to listen to their new trainers, some wait for the middle of the night, steal your stuff, and tie you to a rock in the middle of a cave with a slab of meat on your lap. That happened to a friend of mine. Ultimately, it’s the Pokémon’s choice.”

“So,” Fluttershy started as she thought about it, “If a Pokémon doesn’t like someone, they can always leave?”

Liz nodded. “Yes. Well, ideally. In practice, there are people with loose, poor, or no morals, but those come up anywhere.”

“Right,” Fluttershy said, “But that’s what all those law people are for, the gym leaders and Elite Four and ‘police’.”

“This is so fascinating,” Twilight giggled to herself, “I’ve read speculative fiction about cultures with different value systems, but this is new and different! Our cultures seem to have the same basic values, but due to the worlds we live in our cultures developed in different ways! It’s like the nature vs. nurture argument, but for entire civilizations!”

“Good to know I managed to present it in a positive light,” Liz said, mostly to herself.

Fluttershy fidgeted. “I’m not sure what to think of it,” She said, “I mean, there is some stuff that should be bad, but… it’s not bad, because the way stuff works where you come from. If you go about it in a bad way, it’s bad, but the thing in and of itself is not bad? Should history be accepted as a reason for things to not be bad? I mean, it shouldn’t be, but you can kind of say that they don’t know a better way, and I certainly don’t have a better way, because any better way I might have would have problems that this way doesn’t have, and… ohhhhhh…” Fluttershy rested her head on the table. “This is all so confusing.”

Twilight switched to a new pen. So many more questions! Before any could be asked, the front door flew open. Standing there was Rainbow Dash. “Aha!” Rainbow said and pointed at Fluttershy and Twilight. “You were allowed a day off yesterday on account of you-know-what and my concussion, and I’m still not allowed into the air, but that does not mean that I can’t teach you how to fly! It just means that I can’t demonstrate, which Fluttershy CAN! Come on, Twilight! I want you to be hovering by tonight, and we can go over gliding from there.”

Twilight sighed exasperatedly. “Rainbow Dash! We are going over ethical and cultural differences between Equestria and Liz’s homeworld! This is more important than learning how to fly!”

Rainbow Dash frowned. “Are you sure? I realize it’s interesting and all, but knowing how to fly would be, you know, really, really useful!”

Twilight sighed. “One more question?”

Rainbow Dash sighed. “One more.”

“Okay,” Twilight said and prepared her pen again. “Now, Liz, how do you get your fist Pokémon?”

“I went to a new trainer day at the gym in my city,” Liz explained, “The ideal method is taking a trip to a Pokémon professor’s lab and get a starting Pokémon from him, but they have a tendency to be out in the middle of nowhere, so it’s a lot easier to just get one from a gym.”

“Was Cica your first?” Rainbow Dash asked, “Because that would be awesome.”

“No,” Liz said, “He was my third. And when I got him he wasn’t a Ninjask, he was a Nincada, about this big, without wings, white skinned… cripes, now I have to describe evolution.”

“Evowhat?” Twilight said.

Rainbow blinked. “Yeah, what she said.”

“Okay,” Liz sighed, “Most Pokémon come in several stages. There is the basic stage, and then most Pokémon can evolve once, and some twice. Some also have a baby stage, which is before the basic stage. The exactitudes of why a Pokémon evolves are up in the air, last I knew. It’s complex, to say the least. Suffice to say that there’s a bright light, and their bodies kind of… rearrange.”

“And they become awesomer?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Liz resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “As a general rule, yes. Before you ask, Cica is fully evolved.”

“That’s pretty cool,” Rainbow Dash said, “Weird as all get out, but really cool.”

Fluttershy let out a slight um, and said to Rainbow Dash, “I thought you said you would let Twilight ask one more question.”

“She asked one that interested me,” Rainbow Dash said simply. “And now, unless there’s another really interesting question, you need to learn to fly.”

Twilight sighed and put her notesheet and pen down. “Allright, allright. You’re looking like you would appreciate a break anyway, Liz.”

“Yeah,” Liz said and took another swig of coffee. “I wanted to go job hunting today, anyway.”

“Oh, do you know how to sort books?” Twilight asked Liz. “I could use someone to run the library while I did research, and sometimes Spike can get a bit busy by himself.”

“I can learn fast,” Liz said, “I stay calm in stressful situations and I’m willing to work hard.”

Rainbow Dash gave an exasperated sigh.

Liz looked at Rainbow Dash, and then back at Twilight. “How about we discuss this after you’ve done some lessons, and I spent some time with my bug?”

“Sounds good!” Twilight said. “I’ll see you in… an hour?”

Rainbow Dash crossed her front legs and shook her head.

“Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said, “Twilight isn’t as athletic as you are. She’s not going to be able to train as long.”

“It’s not like she’s out of shape,” Rainbow Dash countered. “Okay, okay, we’ll see what happens.”

Fluttershy shook her head. “Rainbow, I think you’re being cranky because you haven’t flown in over two days.”

“I… well…” Rainbow Dash was quiet for a moment. “Yeah… I guess. Sorry. I’ll be at the sport track whenever you’re ready.” A bit embarrassed, Rainbow Dash headed back out of the library.

Fluttershy got up to follow. “I’ll go talk to her,” she said to Twilight, “Try to get her to cheer up. And make sure she’s been taking her medicine.” With that, Fluttershy walked after the ground bound Pegasus.

Liz watched the Pegasus go. That was somewhat awkward. “I should go find Cica, but later can we talk about the history of Equestria? I’m going to have to live here, you know.”

“Oh, yeah,” Twilight said with an awkward smile. “Sure. I suppose that really should take precedence right now, huh?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Liz said, “I recognize that you like to learn a lot. I know that I can be stubborn or curious at times. Here, just as much as at home, everyone seems to have their own personality tics, and you have to be used to that to get along.”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah. I guess there are some universal constants, huh?”

Liz nodded back. “Especially among Pokemon trainers. Something about Pokémon just seems to bring out the quirks in people, or attract quirky people, or something, because Pokémon trainers do not seem to come in ‘sane’.”

Spike looked at the collection of coffee. Twilight didn’t have the stuff much; she mainly kept it around for her parents who did. But even so, when they visited they didn’t have all that much, and for the most part went for decaf. And then Liz comes along, and she drinks the stuff by the pot! They were already almost out.

Spike’s musings were cut short by a familiar feeling, and he stepped back and turned away to keep the dragonfire from scorching the cupboard. It solidified into a message, with Celestia’s royal seal on it. “Huh,” Spike said as he picked up the letter. Twilight had already received one letter from the princess today. That implied that this was something new… or maybe something urgent. Spike opened the seal carefully, and read the note.

Both something new and somewhat urgent, it turns out. Spike went into the main room to tell Twilight, but she was gone. She must have gone out somewhere… but where? Spike tried to think back on the conversation… but he didn’t hear much of it from the pantry. Spike rushed out the door, and began to look around. There wasn’t any time to waste; Princess Celestia wanted to meet Liz!

Pursuit

Twilight Sparkle felt entirely too wobbly with her wings. She was doing better, and knew it, but hovering still felt really unstable. That said, all her knowledge on the subject was from books and what she had been told, so considering that she was brand-new at this she was doing pretty well. Or at least Rainbow Dash thought so.

“That looks pretty good,” Rainbow Dash said, “Not the most stable hover, but I’ve seen worse on ponies that have been pegasi their whole lives!”

“Ditzy Doo?” Twilight asked, rolling her eyes.

“I didn’t say it, you did,” Rainbow replied defensively. “But really, you’re doing great. Are you comfortable?”

“No,” Twilight said simply. “This is a lot more… concentration-intensive than just standing is.”

“Well... that might be because you’re too stiff,” Fluttershy said, hovering nearby. “Try to relax some. You might be overthinking it. Just a little bit?”

Twilight nodded and took a deep breath, holding it and straightening her back a bit before letting it out. She felt her altitude drop a little bit, and compensated. Fluttershy smiled. “There you go. Now, try to come over here and tag my hoof.” She held up a hoof, and Twilight shifted her wings so that she had some forward thrust, and flew over to Fluttershy. Twilight reached out and touched Fluttershy’s hoof when she was close enough.

Twilight giggled. “You know, this is starting to feel easier, more natural.”

“That’s good,” Fluttershy replied. “I bet you’ve always had trouble in gym class, huh? You think about everything so much, it’s easy to forget that sometimes the body seems to have a perfectly good idea of what it’s doing.”

“It does?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah,” Fluttershy replied, “Haven’t you tried to play… um… actually, you probably used magic for that.”

“Statistically speaking? Most likely,” Twilight replied.

“Or… well, do you remember what it was like trying to walk? It’s kind of like that. You have no idea what to really do, but you want to do something and your body just kind of figures out how to do it on its own.”

“Fluttershy,” Twilight said with a blink, “Foals learn to walk when they are tiny. There is no way I could remember that.”

Fluttershy blinked back. Rainbow Dash, having heard the whole exchange, trotted over to where the pair was floating. “Wait, Fluttershy, you should know that!” She called up to the pink-haired pegasus, “It’s not like you can remember what it was like to learn to walk.”

“Um…” Fluttershy looked down and away, awkwardly. “I can. Kind of. It’s all really vague, but I kind of remember the feeling of it.”

Rainbow Dash let off a “Huh?” and Twilight thought about it.

“Fluttershy,” Twilight said carefully, “If you don’t mind my asking, what is your first memory?”

Fluttershy took a moment to think back. “I was in a comfortable place. And then there was a lot of moving, and then things were very uncomfortable. That’s all I remember.”

Twilight was knocked out of her pondering by hearing the sound of Spike calling her name. She turned to see him running across the grass toward her. She landed, letting the baby dragon get to her and take a minute to catch his breath.

Huffing and puffing, Spike handed Twilight the scroll. “Twilight… Princess Celestia… wants… you, Fluttershy, and Liz to come to Canterlot right away.”

Twilight looked over the message. “Oh my,” She said, “This sounds important. We need to find Liz right away. She’s either looking for or hanging out with Cica, most likely.”

“No trouble!” Rainbow Dash said, “You know as well as I do that it’s just a-” She was cut short by Fluttershy placing a hoof on her back.

“Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said in a polite yet stern voice, “You know what Redheart said. Not until you’re cleared.”

“But…” Rainbow Dash looked at her friend, who wore a concerned look. “But…” She looked at ponyville, with the roofs she knew so well. “But…” She looked up at the clear, blue sky.

There was one cloud up there that the weather team had missed this morning. ONE cloud. Just SITTING there. Waiting to be busted.

Rainbow Dash let out a noise halfway between an exasperated sigh and a moan of boredom and futility and flopped onto the ground. She then got back up, stated “I’m going to go talk to the nurse,” and rushed off.

Fluttershy watched her friend go. “Oh dear… I’ll meet you at the train station, okay Twilight?” Twilight nodded understandably, and Fluttershy headed off after Dash.

“Okay,” Twilight said, turning to Spike. “Where would Liz and Cica be right now?”

Spike shrugged in return. “How would I know?”

“Now, dear, I think it goes much better with your mane than the blue one did! It gives you something of a presence, too, draws the eye to you.”

Liz shook her head. “I appreciate it, but it isn’t as durable as my old vest. I chose that vest because it was durable and had a lot of little, useful pockets. Not just because I liked the color.”

Rarity sighed and rolled her eyes. “Really? I don’t want to be rude, dear, but the truth of the matter is that the giant insect has a better fashion sense than you do.”

Cica, hovering nearby and sporting a silver-and-gold bowtie, let off an amused buzz.

Rarity went over and picked up Liz’s vest with her magic. “However, I see what you mean by durable. It’s stretchy, but not too much so, rather thick, and made out of… some bizarre fabric that I’ve never seen before.”

“It’s synthetic,” Liz replied, taking off the red, orange, and yellow vest that Rarity had produced for her. Where did she even get it from? It’s not like there’s a lot of vests in the shop!

“Synthetic?” Rarity asked, trying to figure out what that meant. “You mean to say, conjured magically? Why, the thought of that is ridiculous. Being able to conjure fabric out of thin air… being able to dictate its color, tensile strength, durability, and weight by magic when you create it… being able to custom-design patterns without worrying about whether the weaver will mess it up… never having to worry about whether anyone will notice if I use the slightly-wrong fabric ever again… Luna in trousers! I need to look into this!”

Liz blinked. “No… um, we don’t have magic where I come from, it’s created by technology.”

“What kind of technology?” Rarity asked eagerly, wide-eyed at the possibilities.

“I don’t know,” Liz said, “But chances are that magic is the closest thing you have here.”

“Then one way or the other,” Rarity said, “I will have to look into this. But first, I think we should try something in green for you. Green… and grey, perhaps? No, no, to drab. Still, some kind of neutral tone… probably either tan or brown would be better. And come to think of it, brown in particular can come in a variety of quite durable fabric.”

Liz sighed. “What was wrong with black and blue again?”

“It doesn’t work! Trust me on this! And since you want your vest to add color, you are going to have to use something other than your current scheme of red and white, but it has to go with red and white!” Rarity turned the vest over. “Actually, maybe black-and-blue CAN work. It would just have to be a different shade of blue, with black relegated to highlights or patterns…” She put the vest down, and began to make sketches on a piece of paper.

Liz sighed. “Is the real issue that it’s the vest I came into town with? Do you take pleasure in updating people’s wardrobes?”

“I do!” Rarity said, earning a chuckle-like buzz from Cica. Rarity showed Liz her notebook. “Now then, which of these designs do you like the most?”

Liz looked at the designs with another sigh. “Rarity, I’ll be perfectly honest with you… huh. Actually, I like number 3.”

“See?” Rarity said with a smile, “was that so hard? Fashion can be a lot of fun if you don’t get stuck in the rut of what the ‘trends’ are. The Canterlot ponies don’t get it. Trends are exactly that: trends. The real glory is not in making clothes that fit the trends, it’s in making clothes that start the trends! If you make a fashion that is good enough, people will notice and dub you a genius, especially if you don’t get on the bandwagon!”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Liz said, “I’ve never been a real close follower of creative pursuits or things with trends.”

“What, aren’t there any trends among… whatever it is you do?” Rarity said, realizing half way through speaking that she didn’t actually know what it was that Liz did.

Liz had a sinking realization that she maybe should have explained the Pokémon world to all the ponies at the same time. “Um… I’m a Pokémon trainer, and there generally isn’t trends in the ‘such-and-such is trending’ kind of way. And there are good reasons for that, but I just finished explaining it to Twilight not too long ago, and it’s rather long-winded.”

“Ah, say no more,” Rarity replied, “I know that people can be surprised by how in-depth the fashion world is. It’s a lot more complex than most ponies realize.”

“That seems to be true for most things,” Liz said, “I once heard it said that sub-cultures tessellate infinitely.”

“That sounds about right,” Rarity said with a nod. “At least in the fashion world; and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s true in other things as well.”

The conversation was cut short by the noise of the front door opening. “Rarity!” Twilight’s voice called.

Rarity went into the next room, and looked at Twilight. “What’s wrong, dear?” she asked. “You look like you’ve been sprinting all over town.”

“I have been,” Twilight said, “I’m looking for Liz and Cica, but they aren’t anywhere around the fringes of Ponyville, Sweet Apple Acres, Fluttershy’s house, I even checked at Sugarcube Corner to see if Liz had been there, but she hadn’t! So I’m here asking you, if you’ve seen her, just maybe? Please?”

“Twilight, I’ve been here the whole time,” Liz said, stepping into the room. Cica flew out the door after her.

Twilight blinked at the pair. “Oh! Oh. You’re here. That’s good. That’s very good. Very good! Get your stuff together and get to the train station, okay? Okay!” Twilight didn’t wait for an answer, instead immediately rushing off.

Liz blinked at that. “What? Why?”

Rarity sighed and shook her head. “She’s like this sometimes. It’s best to just do what she says, so that we can keep her from getting… twitchy and giggly.”

“Twitchy and… okay then.” Liz said, pondering that mental image. That was not something she wanted to see. “I’ll take my old vest, then, and let you ponder ways to improve it while I’m gone.”

Liz looked at the train. It was very colorful, but more than that it was very old-fashioned. A steam engine, not an electric, high-speed, or even diesel engine. It wasn’t a very large engine, either. It rather reminded her of the ways that trains are presented in children’s shows. Actually, now that she thought about it, the quaint village-cottage style houses, the brightly colored talking ponies-

Liz shook her head strongly, forcing herself to not finish that thought. Such a thing was NOT worth pondering, for sure!

She saw Fluttershy fly towards her. “Hello Fluttershy,” Liz said with a wave.

“Hello, Liz,” Fluttershy replied and landed. “It’s good to see that Twilight found you.”

“Yeah, apparently we were at the last place she expected. And she barely did more than tell me to come here before running off again.”

“Yes, Twilight is always very nervous about the Princess,” Fluttershy explained, “Underneath the way she acts in public, Celestia is a very informal and forgiving pony, really, but Twilight never quite-”

“Wait,” Liz cut in, “I’m sorry to interrupt, but, Princess?”

“Yes, Princess Celestia,” Fluttershy said simply. “Didn’t Twilight tell you about her?”

“No!” Liz said, “I don’t know a thing about how your government works! It’s not like I’m an official of any sort! And for that matter, how did she know I was here?”

Fluttershy blinked, and then frowned. “Oh dear.”

Liz was about to say something more, when Twilight appeared in a flash of purple light. “Perfect!” Twilight declared when she saw the two. She had a pair of saddlebags loaded down with books, quills, and parchment just from what Liz could see. “Help me remember while I’m there to pick up a book on teleportation. Maybe next time we go to Canterlot we can jump straight to the front steps of the castle!”

“Twilight, did you tell Princess Celestia about Liz, and then not tell Liz about Princess Celestia?” Fluttershy asked in a chiding voice.

Twlight’s initial reaction was a “No!” but after a moment to think back on their conversations corrected that to, “Er… actually, I guess so. Um, hey, the train will be leaving soon, so why don’t I apologize and explain once we’re on board, huh?”

The trio got on board and Fluttershy immediately headed for a train car further back on the train. The next-to-last car on the train was completely empty, so they took seats there and Twilight apologized. “I’m sorry, Liz… ever since I first came to Ponyville, I’ve been writing letters to the princess on a regular basis. And everypony knew it, too, so I guessed it slipped my mind that you wouldn’t.”

Liz sighed. “I just don’t think I want the government involved with this! It’s confusing enough as it is! Wait… how regular? Are they official letters, or personal ones?”

“Um… mainly personal,” Twilight said. “I’ve been her personal student for years now, so we know each other quite well. I suppose you could call them official letters, but they aren’t governmentally official at all. I use a sending spell to send them to her directly, completely avoiding the postal system.”

“Um,” Fluttershy spoke up, “Technically Spike sends and receives them with his dragon fire.”

“Yes, right.” Twilight said with a nod. “You know, I bet I could learn the sending spell myself, though. I’m fairly sure Spike wouldn’t mind not having to send and receive all the time.”

“Anyway!” Liz said suddenly. “I have not-very-long to learn all the correct ways to meet and talk with a princess before I go meet her. I don’t want to make a fool of myself or offend anyone!”

“Calm down, there isn’t really a set etiquette for it.” Twilight said to try and reassure Liz. She placed her hoof on Liz’s shoulder to try and reassure her. “Or, well, there is, but really only the Canterlot nobility follow it. For the most part, all you have to do is bow when you first see her, and then if she does something particularly royal. Apart from that, just be polite.”

“Oh,” Liz said. “That’s a lot less complex than what I was expecting.”

“As I said earlier,” Fluttershy said, “Celestia is rather informal herself. I sometimes wonder why she bothers with all the Canterlot upper class stuff in the first place.”

“Well,” Liz sighed, “What does she want to see me for?”

“Um…” Twilight used her magic to pull a piece of paper from one of her bags and looked over it. “It doesn’t say in her note. I’m willing to bet it’s about your home world, and maybe even going back to it. She’s more powerful than any unicorn, so she’d be the one to talk to about it.”

“Okay,” Liz said, and leaned up against a window. “I guess I’ll just… have to wait until we get there, and try not to worry about it.”

Liz decided to distract herself by watching the scenery go by. Grass, trees, a group of… brown Miltank?

Cows, they were called in the books. Not ‘Brown Miltanks.’ She was a long way from home, and in a way every time she saw an animal that was rubbed in.

The scenery passed, and in time they began to climb some kind of mountain. About then was when Liz thought she heard someone say her name. She looked around, half-expecting it to be her imagination, but Fluttershy was there and seemed to want attention. Fluttershy deflected her gaze and ‘ummed’ very quietly, almost too low to hear.

“What is it, Fluttershy?” Liz asked. She was talking a bit quieter than usual, because she didn’t want to scare the little pegasus. Well, Fluttershy was just as tall as Liz was, it just often seemed like Fluttershy was smaller than she really was from the way she acted.

“Well…” Fluttershy said shyly, “I know that after that long conversation earlier, you might not want to talk about things so soon, but… I’m wondering, a little… what is it like to be human?”

Liz blinked. That was not what she was expecting. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” Fluttershy fidgeted hesitantly, “I’m not quite sure, I guess. I think… your body. Maybe… does it… feel very different in some way? Is this making any sense? What did it feel like to be a human, as opposed to, you know, being a pony?"

Huh. Liz looked at her hoof, at the end of a leg where an arm was supposed to be. She remembered what her hands looked like, but for some reason imagining them on the ends of her arms was weird.

That’s silly, Liz. You’ve been a pony for all of, what, four days now?

She closed her eyes. Feet. Legs. Hips. Torso, shoulders, arms, hands, neck, head. It was simple enough. It was what she had lived with her whole life.

“I don’t remember,” She admitted to herself. The fact that she said it aloud meant that Fluttershy heard it, too. “Why can’t I remember?”

The city of Canterlot is amazing. It’s beautiful, it’s busy, and it has a variety of stores and ponies not seen anywhere else in Equestria. As a general rule, whatever it is, you can find one in Canterlot.

Liz, originally from a big city herself, would have felt right at home if she hadn’t felt like an alien in her own skin. The feeling as hooves hit the street, the feeling of the mane on her long neck, the feeling of her tail; it was all so… familiar. Like she had grown up with them.

That made no sense. She was bipedal by nature, with arms and legs and digits and only hair on the top of her head. Okay, some on her arms and legs and body, but certainly not the coat of fuzz she had right now. The tail in particular had no basis in anything from a human body! It should be immensely weird to have! But it didn’t. If felt natural.

But on the other hand… oh the irony; she couldn’t remember what hands were like. Even trying to imagine it was impossible, or far too weird. Why was that unnatural?

Liz registered that Twilight said that they were approaching the castle, and even looked at it. But she was too preoccupied to really appreciate the white marble palace stretching into the sky, or fully register the handful of historic fun facts that Twilight recited on a whim. Something was wrong in her, she was sure of it. She was sure of it because she felt so right in a body that was not her own.

Something was horribly wrong, in short, because an already horribly wrong situation felt not wrong at all.

“Princess Celestia!”

Oh right! Visiting royalty. That’s right.

Liz managed to bow only a beat after the other two did, getting a good idea of how to bow as a pony by watching them. Liz got a good look at this princess… and she was huge! Almost twice as tall as any other pony that Liz has seen so far.

“Twilight, Fluttershy, it’s good to see you both,” Celestia said. The other two relaxed and stood, and Liz wondered if she was okay to stand now or if she should wait to be mentioned. One way or the other, she didn’t have to wait long as Celestia looked at her “You must be Liz. Welcome to Canterlot; I feel we have much to discuss.” Celestia was smiling warmly, and she made Liz feel at ease despite her towering physique and the fact that her mane was a perpetually-flowing rainbow of colors. Liz straightened up to hear what she had to say. “Before we start into anything lengthy,” Celestia said, “First there is a matter of an unusual creature in Canterlot. That is why I called for you, Fluttershy. And Liz, I understand that some creatures from your world may be in Equestria? Would one such creature be a collection of metal balls, screws, and magnets?”

Liz stopped herself from gasping. “Actually, yes! Oh… it’s causing trouble for the power company, isn’t it?”

“It’s causing trouble for a company that uses power,” Celestia agreed. “Permit me to show you the way.”

Celestia strode through the streets, accompanied by a number on ponies in armor. They must be some kind of guard, Liz guessed. That wasn’t important right now. What was important was that another of her Pokémon had been found… and she realized as she walked through the city, that Canterlot didn’t have any power lines. In fact, all the lights she had seen in Ponyville had been something burning or magical. Forward, Liz saw a pair of unarmed guard ponies guarding an alleyway. Princess Celestia stepped up, and they stepped aside wordlessly. “In here,” She said to Liz and Fluttershy.

In the alley itself, a pair of ponies examined a trio of metal spheres with eyes, with horseshoe magnets and screws attached. It was magnetized to a metal box on the building, and stuck to it was a hefty wrench, a lighter, a crowbar, and a pair of spears that Liz recognized as the kind that the guards around used. Fluttershy’s initial reaction was to approach carefully, of course, but Liz skipped straight to rushing forward and hugging.

“Ohm! It’s good to see you! Thank goodness-“

“HEY!”

Liz spun around to see a tan pegasus with a dark brown mane frowning at her crankily. From the look of it, she didn’t get enough (if any) sleep last night. “Is this your… magnet thing?” she asked, clearly very cross about this entire situation.

“Um, yes,” Liz said, “It is.”

“Then I assume you could explain why this… magnet thing is stealing lightning out of our building?”

“It’s a Magneton,” Liz said, “it feeds on electricity. It’s like food and water to it.”

The cranky pegasus blinked. “Seriously? That’s your angle?”

Fluttershy walked up. “Well… he doesn’t have a mouth, but he still has to get energy somehow. I guess that makes sense.”

‘Ohm’ made a noise similar to what a dying computer speaker makes, and Fluttershy took a step back. That was a rather creepy noise, and what’s more, she actually understood it. “He says that he’s very sorry, but there wasn’t electricity anywhere else in the city, so he had to feed off of your building.”

“He HAD to?” The pegasus burst out! “Seriously? COME ON! It didn’t even occur to him that this was private property and that he is stealing? A rare resource, at that!”

Fluttershy frowned. “At least try to understand! What if you wound up in a city, full of strange creatures, and you were in the middle of a desert, so there was no water, and you just happened to come across a building with a clean, clear pool of water on the side?”

After thinking about that for a moment, the pegasus sighed. “Okay, point given. But… he’s been on there since last night! It’s almost… what time is it, Fuse?”

A unicorn standing nearby took a look at a watch he had on. “About five.”

“It’s almost five in the afternoon! Does he really need that much? I mean, leave some water for the electric fishes, guy!”

The Magneton made more noises, and Fluttershy translated. “It points out that there are no other electric sources for miles as far as it knows, so it needs to stock up in order to be able to make a journey to a better source. Also, it clarifies that it does not have a gender, and as such wants to be referred to as gender-neutral.”

The pegasus blinked “Gender-we aren’t exactly speaking Germane, here! Our choices of gender-neutral pronouns are a bit lacking! Know what, I don’t care. Just… take it and go. And give me back my lighter.”

Fluttershy nodded and turned to Ohm. “Um, we probably should go, before we cause a ruckus, please?”

“Ohm,” Liz said, “Maybe some ponies somewhere else can find some storm clouds for you. They can push clouds around, you see.”

Ohm hesitated for a moment, and then detached from the building. The various tools and weapons fell to the ground with a racket, except for the lighter. The lighter, directed by a horseshoe magnet, floated back to the pegasus. The pegasus snatched it out of the air, muttered an insincere ‘thanks,’ and stalked off.

Fluttershy, Liz, and Ohm stepped back out of the alley to where Celestia and Twilgiht were waiting. “Very good,” Celestia said, “Fluttershy, if you could take it somewhere out of town, I think it would be a good idea. Twilight and Liz still have some things to do here.”

“We do?” Liz asked, unsure of what to make of that.

Fluttershy looked between Ohm, Celestia, and Liz before answering. “Of course. Come on, Ohm, Cica is back in Ponyville. Maybe we can find a way to get you on the train.” Ohm was unsure about this, but a reassuring wave from Liz convinced him, and he went with Fluttershy.

“Twilight,” Celestia said, her smile disappearing, “Luna is in the library right now. You are going to have to go talk to her; I’m afraid we’ve found some royal paperwork for you to do.”

Twilight “Oohed” and, much to Liz’s confusion, smiled. “I’ll go right away!” She said, and trotted off.

To her guards, princess Celestia said “Don’t worry about us,” and they dispersed in a professional manner. This left Liz alone with Celestia.

Celestia smiled again. “Liz, could you please walk with me?”

Sunny Day

Liz and Princess Celestia walked through the royal flower garden. To say it was beautiful was quite an understatement, and Liz did her best to enjoy it. It helped her calm down, and prevented her from worrying too much about the giant magical princess pony next to her.

“How have you been?” Princess Celestia asked casually.

“Considering the circumstances?” Liz asked, “Quite well. Twilight and her friends have been better than gold to me.”

“You seem to be taking it well,” Celestia remarked, “But you seemed to be disturbed when I first saw you. Is there anything I can do to ease your mind?”

Liz shook her head. “No. But it’s not like ease of mind is what I need right now.”

“A world travel spell would not be simple,” Celestia said, looking over a group of particularly colorful blossoms, “but I feel that Twilight is better qualified to make one than anypony else. Unless… there is something more on your mind?”

“Yeah.”

Celestia was quiet a minute before speaking again. “I wasn’t simply being polite, you know. Even some ponies sputter and stumble when they first see me. You’re surprised and intimidated, but not letting that stop you, or even slow you down. Such resolve is to be lauded.”

Liz blinked. Such a compliment was not expected. “Oh. Well, thank you.” The pair came to a larger open area, a dais overlooking the city. It was a very nice view, Liz thought to herself.

“How long have you been in Equestria?” Celestia asked, coming to a stop and looking down at the city?

“This is the fourth day,” Liz answered simply.

“Oh? I would never have guessed; you seem right at home here,” Celestia replied. Of course, she knew that it hadn’t been long since Twilight had found Liz, but Liz did seem to be oddly at home.

“I’ve always liked exploration,” Liz told her, as she looked down at the busy streets. She idly identified a park and a marketplace. “I’ve always wondered what was over the horizon, and I like to think I’m fairly good at dealing with the troubles that come with curiosity.” That’s what Liz said, at least, but Liz’s mind wandered to something else.

Celestia noticed. It was small things, in Liz’s body language and voice, but she noticed. It didn’t seem to be that Liz didn’t want to talk about it, though, or at least not with Celestia. But at the same time, maybe she wanted to talk about it but was afraid to bring it up: that was a common enough trouble. Celestia pondered this for a moment, and then simply said, “Anything I can do to help.”

Liz blinked. Celestia knew she had an additional issue, it seemed. Liz turned and looked up at the princess. “You read people, don’t you? You hear what they say and how they act, and you read between the lines.”

“It is a gift, I admit,” Celestia said with a nod, “But I will not require any information from you, unless it is needed for the good of Equestria. The real good of Equestria, not just my own curiosity.”

Liz nodded. She took a moment to ponder the situation, and then she decided to speak. “Five days ago, I wasn’t a pony. I was a human. Do you know about humans?”

“More than most,” Celestia replied.

“And now here I am, a pony, suddenly quadrepedal, suddenly without hands, with more hair and all… and it hasn’t slowed me down. I can walk, I can talk, I can run and jump and turn pages in books like I grew up doing it. And what’s worse… I don’t know what having fingers was like anymore. I try to think of it… but I can’t. Like how you can’t really imagine what it would be like to have a body that isn’t yours. And… that disturbs me. It disturbs me, because it’s like a link to my past has been truncated. Because I’m afraid that it was done by design, so that I would be less motivated to leave.”

Celestia nodded. Quite a logical conclusion, especially if there was some intelligence behind whatever sent her. She quickly thought of a way to gauge the damage: “Close your eyes,” she said, “and picture yourself. Who do you see?”

Liz was confused by this answer, but nonetheless closed her eyes and thought. “A girl. Early twenties. She has a light tan, because she’s in the sun a bit. Especially on her arms, since she doesn’t wear long sleeves in the summer. She’s wearing a sun hat, this hat,” Liz touched her hat to communicate it clearly, “to keep the sun out of her eyes and because she’s had it for years now and it too attached to it to get rid of it.

“Her clothes are utilitarian, a T-shirt and jeans shorts in summer. The decent jeans shorts, not those things that are gym shorts made of denim. Cargo shorts, if that means anything to you. I’ve probably completely lost you with all this clothing but bear with me. She has a vest on, this vest. Or one similar to it; it seems like it was ponyfied, too. It’s durable, and has a lot of small pockets. She has on a small backpack, but a good-sized fanny pack. Apart from that, she has pokeballs around her waist.” Liz opened one eye to look at Celestia, who was listening intently. “I explained those to Twilight earlier, if you can have patience until she sends you a report I would appreciate it.” Celestia nodded, and Liz closed her eye again. “Nice, heavy, steel-toed boots. Kind of low tops, so I can run in them. I’m fairly fit, but not really shapely.”

Liz took a deep breath, thought a bit more, and then opened her eyes. “That’s it.”

Celestia was smiling, as the point she was hoping for had come through wonderfully. “You still see yourself as a human. That means that your self-image is intact. Good. That means that the only alterations are likely to your muscle memory. Whatever method of travel you used overwrote your muscle memory, so that you could live as a pony as normal.”

Liz thought for a moment, and then huffed. “Blast. Stupid Unown. They’re the things that portaled me, or whatever, and they have psychic powers so they could pull that kind of thing off.”

“It implies worry for your wellbeing,” Celestia said, “Which from the sound of it is quite curious.”

Liz nodded. “It’s still a disturbing thought.”

Celestia nodded back in agreement. There was a bit of silence before Celestia spoke again. “I am very curious about your world. What all do you expect Twilight to send me in her next report?”

“Life, history, civilization, ethics… you know, all the big questions compressed into simple terms. I’m not a cultural specialist or a philosopher, so it might not be the most accurate information. It all boils down to what I do, why it’s done in my world, and whether we think it’s wrong.”

“Well,” Celetia said with a nod, “I suppose it’s only fair then that I answer some of your questions about Equestria.”
Liz shifted uncomfortably. “I’m not really feeling curious right now. No offense to your kingdom or anything, but right now I really just want to gather my team together and head home. It’s all so different, even a Ratatta leaping out of the grass and mauling my ankles would be a reassuringly familiar experience.”

Celestia nodded, and almost immediately asked, “Are you sure you’re not hallucinating this all?”

Liz blinked several times. “What?” Hallucinating? She looked up at Celestia. “What? Why would you suggest that… what?” That would make sense. That would make so much sense. The Unown hot-wired her brain so that she would live a lie for a bit, for… reasons. Trying to find a reason behind the Unown was like trying to solve a puzzle where the pieces are always shifting, and at least half of them were in a different plane or something. Liz was simply boggled by this sudden turn of questioning, and just how much sense it made.

Celestia’s smile was a bit more mischievous now than it was a moment ago. “It hadn’t even occurred to you? Very interesting. I think that says a lot about you. You mental state seems to be unusually stable; a lesser man might have gone mad by now.”

Liz, after a moment, cracked a smile of her own. “Well, I have coffee as a crutch and already have the questionably sane habit of talking to myself when I’m alone, so make of that what you will.”

“If minor madness can be used to avoid major madness, then some sanity must be sacrificed. It’s a very obscure but important lesson, one that many people don’t grasp,” Celestia said sagely. She still had a grin on her face, and managed to push down the urge to laugh as she changed the topic. “But please, I would like to know more about you. About your history, about your team, about how you wound up here.”

“Why so curious?” Liz asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well,” Celestia said, “You’re the first complete outsider to wind up in Equestria. Curiosity is only natural.”

“Allright,” Liz said, “I’ll humor you. I was born in Goldenrod City. It’s a big city, a lot like this one now that I think about it. I was always too curious. I was always asking questions, and I loved stories about people who went out, explored places, and saved damsels heroically. My family was well-off, so I could have afforded a Pokémon at any time. But my parents were smart. They made me finish schooling before I was allowed to go on any big quests. That made sure that I knew what I was doing when I got my first Pokémon.” Liz sighed as she remembered her good friend. “I haven’t found her yet. I know she’s okay, she’s tough as nails, hardy as a tree, smart as a whip and can squeeze her way into any heart. I miss her. Anyway, there was a gym in Goldenrod, there are eight gym challenges in the region to beat, you see, but since I was brand-spanking-new I had to go out into the world first.

Liz thought a minute about what to talk about next, and then shook her head. “You know, I’ll skip most of this part. In retrospect I was a lot of young and eager and far, far too little actually thoughtful. I’ve grown a lot since then, both as a person and as a trainer. I went to the Pokémon League, by some miracle I got through all the gyms, and got stomped in the second round. I know this doesn’t make a lot of sense to you, but suffice to say it gave me a lot to think about… and a whole year until I could try again.

“I needed that, I think. That year was when I really grew up. Began to ponder things. You know, put things in perspective. Decided to go and see more of the world. Well, while going around and looking into things, I met a guy. He introduced me to some scientists. They were studying Pokemon, looking to put together enough data to give solid, useful information to the general public. Lots of grunt work. Lots of leg work. That’s where I come in. There would be a thing they wanted, ‘go try to find a moon stone,’ or ‘go take atmospheric readings on Mt. Silver,’ or ‘find a wild Macargo for us to put into this box with a Shuppet.’ I still tried to beat the league next time it came around, but it felt like I was doing more with my life, going new places, trying weird new things. Honestly exploring, instead of walking down a path that countless others had ‘explored’ before me.

“And that’s not even counting the issues I had against Team Rocket. Suffice to say I have some troublesome hero impulses.”

“And some equally troublesome creatures to help you out, hmm?” Celestia asked.

“Yeah,” Liz said with a nod. “I owe my life to every member of my team. My life isn’t in danger on a regular basis, but there have been multiple occasions. Anyway, now that I think about it, I’m kind of living the life. Not really the one I expected to live when I started, but a great life nonetheless.”

“Up until you were rudely whisked away to a land of magical talking ponies?” Celestia jokingly asked.

“Yyyeah,” Liz shrugged. “I’ll be honest. This hasn’t exactly been a high point in my life so far. Well, actually, that’s really unfair. I’m getting to hang out with a princess.”

Celestia finally gave in and laughed. “If nothing else, try to look at Equestria with your explorer’s eyes. It’s a very big place, and a very small amount of it is actually understood. If you can look past the detail that you were brought here against your will, I think you could find yourself having much more fun.”

Liz nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. I’ve been focusing on the negatives. In a way, this is completely virgin territory, you know? Bravely go where no man has gone before and all that.” Liz took a deep breath. “You know, it was nice to be able to talk about this all with you. It’s a lot off of my mind. Are you still willing to talk about Equestria?”

Celestia nodded. “I knew you would be curious, didn’t I? What would you like to know?”

Liz thought for a moment. “Well, most likely the best place to start is the beginning. I know my explanation started with history, so let’s start with that.”

“A very good place to start,” Celestia said with a nod. “In fact, inside we have a series of stained glass windows for this very purpose. They are officially made in honor of the various events, but they’re really nice to have around whenever I need to do some historic exposition, like when Equestria’s past comes back to haunt us. Which it has done several times in the last three years… we’re starting to run out of legends.”

Celestia led Liz into the main hall of the Castle, where the stain glass windows were. “The start of Equestria,” Celestia started, “Was in the Discordian era. The three tribes of ponies, earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi, banded together to survive. This was the founding of Equestria. However, modern Equestria did not begin until my sister and I defeated Discord using the elements of harmony.”

“You defeated… is Discord a person?” Liz asked. “Or did you actually defeat a notion?”

“Discord, the spirit of chaos and disharmony,” Celestia answered. “So a person literally, and to a limited extent the notion itself. He was turned to stone, and my sister and I took up the duty of the day and night: I raised the sun, and she the moon.”

“You… wait, literally?” Liz asked with a blink.

“Yes,” Celestia stated, taking Liz’s doubt in stride. “It’s not as hard as you might think, given that we are princesses of the day and night, respectively.”

Liz shook her head. “No offense, but where I come from, such an idea would be considered… ridiculous.”

“Well,” Celestia said, “Maybe after I’m done with my little history lesson we can compare notes on how our worlds work.”

“Okay,” Liz said and looked up at the stain glass windows… and stopped in her tracks. “Is that Twilight and her friends there?” She asked as she pointed at one of the windows. There were the six ponies, firing some kind of beams at a larger, dark blue pony in armor.

“Ah, yes.” Celestia said. “The defeat of Nightmare Moon, in which the six elements of harmony found their bearers, and the bearers found their true strength.”

Liz looked around more, glancing between the various windows. “You know… now that I’m looking for them, Twilight and her friends appear in a lot of these… and is that Spike?”

Celestia nodded. “They are by far the greatest heroes Equestria has ever seen, even greater than myself, my sister, or any other alicorn. In some ways, I find it smugly satisfying that Twilight accomplished more as a unicorn in three years than some alicorns have in three hundred. Really, her changing into an alicorn and becoming a princess was only a technicality. A technicality laced with royal paperwork, but a technicality nonetheless.”

Liz blinked, making sense of that. “So… Twilight Sparkle and her friends are national heroes, wielders of some kind of great power, and Twilight used to be a unicorn, and was made an alicorn so that she could be a princess?”

“That last note is not the official story, of course, but basically!” Celestia said.

“So I was plopped into the laps of the six most notable ponies in the land?” Liz asked, still not believing.

“There would be some that would argue that those six are not the most notable ponies in the land… but they would be wrong, so yes. The only way you could have gotten luckier is if you had been plopped down in the throne room and made friends with myself and Luna. And even then, you likely would have wound up with Twilight and her friends, as Luna and I are too busy to really be of help to you.” Celestia sighed. “Between you and me, I’m hoping that Twilight can reform the government so that we princesses don’t have to do so much busywork.”

Liz shook her head. What she wasn’t saying was what she was really thinking: This was like someone suddenly making friends with the gym leaders, or the elite four, or legendary Pokemon. How did this happen? Either there was some mighty luck involved, or… there was some sort of reason behind it.

Liz wasn’t sure she wanted to attribute the Unkown that much power. It had disturbing connotations.

Celestia led Liz through the hall. Each window had a story. The defeat of discord, the defeat of the changelings, the defeat of king Sombra, the reformation of Discord, Twilight’s ascension… even highly paraphrased, it was a long story. By the end of it, Liz had come to the conclusion that she had no idea what to make of it and was just listening for the stories.
Celestia sat down on her throne in the end. “Those are the really notable events in Equestrian history. The rest of it has been slow change, over a great many years.”

“It’s kind of like fairy tales,” Liz mumbled to herself.

“I beg your pardon?” Celestia asked. She hadn’t quite caught what Liz had said.

“Uh,” Liz took a moment to figure out which of her thoughts she had accidentally orated. “Your history reminds me a lot of fairy tales from my world. Stories where the power of love and goodness overcomes all. No offense, but… to me, it just sounds fanciful.”

Celestia nodded. “Well… I would blame that on something that my world has that yours likely does not: here, friendship is magic. Literally.”

Liz blinked. “What? How does that work?”

“Quite well, all said and done,” Celestia replied, “but in a world where friendship and magic are unrelated, it’s likely that stories would be a bit darker.”

“As far as I know,” Liz said, “There isn’t magic like there is in this world. It seems like the more I learn about this world, the more different they are.”

“And yet there is nothing stopping us from making friends,” Celestia said. “I think that has been proven. Even if our worlds are so very different, they are still similar enough that the bond of friendship can be forged.”

Liz nodded. She certainly had to agree with that.

Twilight walked through the castle. The guards had said that Celestia had started by going into the gardens. The guards in the gardens then pointed her towards the main hall. The guards in the main hall then pointed her toward a side-room. Twilight opened the door, and saw that Celestia and Liz were talking over some piping hot cups. Tea for Celestia, and of course Coffee for Liz. She caught some of what Liz said: “…imagine ALL the colors, at the same time, every single hue and brightness, the whole color wheel, but most all of the colors, all infinite of them, aren’t next to colors that they’re similar to. Also, there are colors that do not exist, and, I saw them, and-”

Celestia placed a hoof on Liz’s shoulder. “There there… I didn’t realize how scarring it could have been. I can only imagine what-oh!” Celestia noticed Twilight and greeted her with a smile. “Hello, Twilight! How are you? Finally done with the royal paperwork?”

“Yes,” Twilight grumped. “That’s insane. Half of the papers are just nothing! Pointless things that I have to sign to get to one ones that do mean anything! And I’m sure this could all be done by some Canterlot noble!”

“If it makes you feel better,” Celestia said softly, “I have some books on the inner workings of the Equestrian government for you. I’m sure that given some time you’ll be navigating the bureaucracy deftly, and shaping it shortly after that.”

“Shaping?” Twilight blinked. “Are… uh… are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Twilight, I have every hope that you can help Equestria into its golden age,” Celestia stated, perfect honesty in her voice.

Twilight shook her head. “Princess… this is Equestria’s golden age.”

“Well,” Celestia said and sipped her tea, “The silver age of Equestria was called golden back when it was going on, too. In any case, I understand that I should be expecting a report on Liz’s homeworld from you?”

Twilight eyes lit up. That was a topic that she was looking forward to! “Yes! It’s a fascinating study in cultural differences caused by differing supernatural pressures and scientific progress due to differing universal variables! Um, in theory, anyway. I only have one source.” Twilight looked at Liz.

“And the source had trouble in both history and science classes,” Liz admitted sheepishly.

Celestia shrugged. “Well, just do the best you can, you two. I think that’s everything for now, I have duties to attend to. I wish you two a safe journey home, I wish the both of you luck in your endeavors, and… hmm. Actually, first, Liz, if you could write a list of your Pokémon and how to recognize them, I can watch for news of them.”

Liz nodded. “Of course! I should have thought of that. Can I borrow a piece of paper and a pen?”

Fluttershy and Ohm hid a short way outside of Canterlot. Fluttershy was hiding in a patch of flowers, and Ohm in a nearby tree.

Fluttershy looked around, and stood up. “Okay… looks like they gave up. Oh… how could I forget? All my biggest modeling fans were in Canterlot. How are we going to get on the train now?”

Ohm made a suggestion. Fluttershy frowned at it. “Ohm, that’s illegal. Not to mention dangerous! We would have to jump onto a moving train. That doesn’t seem a little foolish to you?”

Ohm shrugged with two of its magnets and made a different suggestion, and Fluttershy shook her head. “It’s at least a day’s walk, maybe two, and using wings can only cut that so much since I’m not a very fast flier.”

Ohm was quiet for a bit longer, before making a third suggestion.

Fluttershy thought about this one hard. “That would work, but I don’t have the styling nor coloring tools. I suppose we could find some simple dyes in nature, but I can’t really change my mane style or tail style that much.”

Ohm made an addition to the plan that almost made Fluttershy scoff. “What… how could you style hair with magnetism? I… I can’t think of any way that would be possible at all.”

The explanation was long, and Fluttershy found it confusing. “Well… I don’t actually use conditioner in my mane of tail; and I’m fairly sure that the conditioners in Equestria don’t have metal in them, much less ferrous metal! Still… maybe we can use your magnets as curlers? It’s worth a try, I guess. Okay… help me find some big, juicy berries or something.”

Transform

Liz and Twilight got back to Ponyville late, of course, and were surprised when they found that Fluttershy had not arrived yet. Of course, the reason was obvious enough: Fluttershy wasn’t able to get Ohm onto the train, so they would have to go the long way back to Ponyville. Rainbow Dash said that she would fly out to meet them first thing in the morning… but then amended that to second thing after getting cleared by the nurse. Okay, third, after breakfast-oh blast, she’d have to do the weather, too! She promised that she’d do it as soon as ponily possible.

Liz wasn’t worried. She knew that Ohm could last a while between meals, and did not doubt that Ohm would cooperate with Fluttershy. He was sometimes troublesome, but not as much as certain oft-disobedient Pokémon she had.
And so it happened that Liz wound up in Sweet Apple Acres with the intent of making herself useful for the day. Without any emergencies, she had to find things to do… and preferably get paid for.

“Well,” Applejack said as they walked through the fields, “There’s not a whole lot of work to get done right now. It’s not Cider Season, or Applebuck Season… in fact, you might almost call this the ‘off-season’ as far as Sweet Apple Acres is concerned. For the most part, all we have is the year-‘rounds, and not all that many of those today.”

“Year-rounds?” Liz asked, “I don’t know what that means.”

Applejack smiled slightly. “Oh, no, I bet not. So, you know how there are apples available all year ‘round, despite the fact that Applebuck Season comes once a year?”

“Applebuck… I assume that means apple harvest time?” Liz asked to clarify.

“Yep,” Applejack said with a nod, “The trick is that with the proper tending, apple trees can be convinced to drop year ‘round, with only most of the trees dropping at that time. That gives ponies a reliable source of apples all year… well, except for in winter. Can’t really get them to have apples in winter.”

Liz wanted to ask about this, but after thinking about it decided that the explanation probably boiled down to ‘magic’ and decided to accept it. “So basically, today isn’t very busy, and you don’t really need an extra hand?”

Applejack nodded. “Sorry, but everything’s… huh… actually, there may be one thing. How are you with busted things?”
“Stubborn and crafty,” Liz said. The moment afterward she regretted it; that had to be one of the worst ways to voice her ability to fix things. Or work around broken things. Or treatment of uncooperative equipment in general…

“Perfect!” Applejack declared. “We’ve got a plow that’s got a huge dent in it from a rock. If you’re good enough with a hammer to straighten it enough that it works again, I’m sure Big Mac’ll pay ya!”

“I’ll try,” Liz said with a smile, “No guarantees I won’t make it worse, but I will try!”

It just so happened that stubbornness and being crafty was just what was needed. The Apple family has a big old hammer and an anvil, but that only did so much good. Liz didn’t have a lot of experience with the hammer, so she couldn’t swing it all that accurately.

Adding that to the detail that the steel was high-quality and quite solid, most ponies would have given up after about thirty minutes. It took Liz forty-five to get tired of the hammer, and get a big rock instead. Still quite heavy, but easier to aim and with a wider hitting surface. Of course, a wider hitting surface wasn’t all that good, so after another fifteen minutes she went to find another rock.

It was a challenge by then, and Liz had a habit of not backing down from a challenge until she was well and thoroughly beaten.

Some time later, Applejack arrive to check on Liz, followed by a very large, Red Stallion. Liz guessed that was Big Mac. “Hi,” Liz said between breaths, “I think I’ve got it. Whadda you think?”

Applejack looked at the plow. “Well… that looks like some solid work. Wouldn’t you say so, Big Mac?”

Big Mac turned a discerning eye to the plow, examining the blade carefully. “Yup,” He said simply.

“Hey,” Applejack said, “is it just me or did she work out some of the smaller dings, too?”

“Yup,” Big Mac agreed.

“Well, I’d say that this plow was about ready to go back into the field.”

“Yup.”

Applejack turned back to the hot, sweaty, and tired Liz. “Good job, Liz! You just saved us a lot of trouble. Took you a while, I’ll admit that, but it’s a job well done. Oh, where are my manners? This here is Big Macintosh, my brother. He does a lot of the heavy lifting here at Sweet Apple Acres, both physically and… paperwork-wise.”

“Hi,” Liz said simply. She would say more, but without the plow to be frustrated at, she was forced to notice that she was tired after beating a piece of metal for… a long time. She wasn’t sure how long it had been.

Happily, Big Mac didn’t seem to be the type to talk a lot anyway, so he simply replied with a “Howdy.”

“Come on inside, Liz,” Applejack said, “And I’ll get you some apple juice.”

Liz followed Applejack and Big Mac into the house. It was quaint, a little kitchen and eating area right inside the door. She sat down at the table, letting her legs rest a bit.

From behind her, a voice came, “Oh, now who are you? I’ve plum gone and forgotten ya. I like to think that my memory is better than a lot of ponies my age, but when I don’t see someone for a while…” Liz looked over her shoulder to see a very, very old pony. Green with a grey mane, age lines, and sagging skin, the pony tottered over to get a better look at Liz.

“Nah, Granny, that’s not anyone you know. That’s Liz, she’s new in town, and she just helped un-dent our plow. Liz, meet Granny Smith.”

“Ohh, goody. That’ll save Big Macintosh the work this winter. Can I get you anything? Apple juice? Coffee? Cider? Wait… might be out of cider.”

Liz perked up. “Coffee, please.”

Granny nodded and headed toward what Liz recognized as a coffee pot. “How do you like it, dear? Wakeful or sleepy? Strong or casual? Cream? Yessir, we have bona-fide cream for our milk.”

Liz smiled brightly. This was something that was familiar. “I’m addicted; the wake-up would be nice. I like it strong, and black.”

The smile disappeared from Applejack’s face, and she and Big Mac shared a concerned glance.

“Not trying to kick it, huh? I guess if you came out and beat our plow straight you would be tired, though. How about I make you my special blend? It’s stronger than Big Mac, and it’ll keep you going until sundown, guaranteed.”

“That sounds great,” Liz replied. Nothing better than coffee made by someone who spent their life making the stuff!

Applejack stepped forward. “Liz… ah, you might want to re-think that… Granny’s brew is really strong stuff. Really strong.”

“Eeeeeeeee-YUP,” Big Mac stated. There was fear in his voice. Granny’s coffee scared him.

“Well… now you have me curious,” Liz said. “I’ve at least got to try it.”

Granny chuckled. “That’s the spirit! Just give me a few minutes, dearie.”

A few minutes later, a cup of piping hot coffee was placed in front of Liz. She let it cool, lifted it to her nose, sniffed it…“Whoof! This is strong stuff,” Liz commented out loud. She then carefully took a sip. Her eyes grew wide for a moment, and she shook her head. “Wow. That is the best coffee I’ve ever had. Not the strongest, but the best. Amazing. I love it.” Liz quickly finished the mug. “Yep. Best coffee ever. Love it. Can I have your recipe? Maybe? Well, I came here to work, so I really should do that, is there any work I should do? I’m willing to work for my coffee. Oh, and some money. Not a lot of money, but I don’t have any money, so money would be nice, for coffee, because I keep drinking all of Twilight’s coffee, and I feel kind of bad about it, you know?”

“Slow down there, girly!” Granny said with a laugh. “I’m sure we can find some things for ya to do. Come on, no point wasting your energy on talk.” Granny got up, and Liz followed suit. The pair of them went out to find something useful to do. Applejack and Big Mac watched them go.

Applejack spoke a bit after the pair went outside. “That was the same brew that knocked you flat on your flank, right?”

Big Mac nodded. “And made me buzz like a bee until midnight, yup.”

There was a beat of silence before Applejack found another, even more disturbing truth.

“She’s going to be fun once the caffeine kicks in, isn’t she?”

“Eeyup.”

“It was a good idea,” Fluttershy said, “it’s just a pity that the only plant in the area we could feasibly use as coloring is out-of-season.”

She and Ohm were flying above the trees at a casual pace; having decided that it would be faster than walking through the thick forest here. Fluttershy wasn’t sure how Ohm was flying, but she had decided not to question it. Maybe it was just magic.

“It’s probably safe to say that when they notice that we don’t arrive for a while, Rainbow Dash will come looking for us. She’s a close friend of mine, and can fly much faster than I can. She’s sure to see us if we’re easily visible from the sky, and from there we can explain what’s going on and why we’re late.”

The forest gave way to a road, and Fluttershy went down to land. Ohm followed, but didn’t really land, of course. The odd magnetic thing… Magneton, Liz had called it? It was one of the most confusing creatures Fluttershy had ever met.
The pair began to move down the road, and Fluttershy tried to make small talk to her magnetic companion. “So… is electricity more common where you come from? Common enough that it’s a reliable source of food?”

Ohm’s answer was a series of noises that Fluttershy understood. Other ponies thought that her being able to talk to animals was weird, but even Fluttershy had to admit that talking to Ohm was weird.

What’s more, the response was very long, so Fluttershy had to listen to the noises it made for a bit. Even if the noises weren’t so bizarre, the answer was complex enough that Fluttershy had to take a moment to figure out what was actually being said. This entire situation was dreadfully confusing.

To make matters worse, a wagon pulled by a pair of ponies and ridden by two more came around the bend. Ohm saw this, and cut off to zip into the forest. “Up, Ohm!” Fluttershy advised him, “Earth ponies don’t look up often!” Ohm took the advice and took back to the sky.

Now… all she had to do was be calm. That wasn’t hard. Fluttershy would just walk past the wagon, and no one would be the wiser. She trotted forward casually, past the pulling ponies and the riding ponies and the wagon itself… which was covered by a white sheet, probably to protect the things inside from any weather that might come up.

“Hey… hold up a minute!”

Fluttershy came to a stop, and so did the cart. She turned around, and found the two riding ponies looking at her. One of them spoke up, “Bend, have I seen that pegasus somewhere before? I have the darndest feeling…”

The second one thought for a moment, and then his eyes lit up. “While I’ll be, Curve! It’s one o’ tha elements o’ harmony! Ya’ll remember that? They helped chase tha changelings out o’ Canterlot.”

Curve smiled goofily. “While I’ll be, too! It is!” He hopped down from the wagon and trotted forward. “I owe you a thanks! I was in town when all that trouble hit!”

Fluttershy smiled, but shook her head. “Well, thank you, but I didn’t do much. It was Shining Armor and Princess Candace who threw out the cangelings.”

“Don’ sell ya’llself short,” Bend said as he got down from the wagon, too. “Ya’ll d’feated Discord, an’ Nightmare Moon… an’ I feel like there was somethin’ else? O’ well. Tha point is, ya’ll’re a hero. Thanks.”

“Come on, Bend,” Curve said, “All you’ve got to say is a thanks? The Elements of Harmony have saved Equestria three times! In as many years at that. I think they deserve a bit more than thanks. Come on over here, and I’ll let you pick out something from my stock.”

Fluttershy shook her head. “Oh, no. I couldn’t. I appreciate the gesture, but I don’t need any reward for being a hero.”

“Aw, come now,” Curve said, “Are you sure? It’s not like it’s anything big. Mainly nick-knacks and lil crafts I whittled myself.”

Fluttershy considered, and then gave in. “Okay. What have you got?”

“See for yourself,” Curve said, lifting an edge of the sheet. Fluttershy caught a glance of two bright blue-glowing eyes under the sheet, and stopped. Bend moved around behind her. Was that… was this? Was there a way to tell?
Thinking fast, Fluttershy reared up on her hind legs and flapped. She made enough wind to blow the sheet back a bit more… revealing the black carapace of a changeling.

“Oh you’re a clever one!” ‘Bend’ declared as he grabbed her. “What gave us away? It was going to sell ‘nick-knacks’ in Canterlot, wasn’t it?”

‘Curve’ frowned as well. “Come on. You’re pinning this on me? Did you hear your accent? It was like a parody of an accent. I don’t even know what it was a parody of.”

Fluttershy tired to call for help, but was stifled by the pony (who was probably a changeling) behind her. “Nope,” ‘Bend’ said, “Not going to be that easy. Don’t worry, you’re just going for a ride! Your friends won’t even notice you’re gone.”
A bolt of lightning shot from the sky, striking ‘Curve’. He seized up, and then flopped to the ground twitching. Ohm floated down, between ‘Bend’ and the wagon, and electricity arced between its magnets.

Of course, the changeling in the wagon immediately sat up and seized Ohm in its front legs. It opened its mouth wide, wide enough to use its fangs, and bit down on one of Ohm’s three spheres. Or tired, anyway. Ohm was made of metal, and as thus the only thing that got hurt was the changeling’s teeth. Ohm, little more than annoyed, sent a single surge of energy over its form, zapping the changeling enough to get it to let go. The changeling fell back into the cart, hissing in pain.
Then from Ohm’s magnets came a number of… small, silvery-colored balls of energy, which flew past ‘Bend’ and then pulled sharp u-turns and ran into his back. He cried out in pain, and let go of Fluttershy. Fluttershy ran, but out from under the sheet came four changelings: it seems like that’s all there was in the wagon! They quickly flitted overhead and landed in front of Fluttershy, cutting off her escape. Ohm rushed to her side, and behind her ‘Bend’ and the two ponies that were pulling the wagon rushed to surround them. Those three dropped their disguises, so that they could use their full combat prowess as changelings. ‘Curve’ tried to get up, but the most he could do was roll over onto his other side and twitch some more.

Ohm didn’t seem to be afraid. It told Fluttershy something very simple, and she was quite eager to do so: Get down!

As Fluttershy hit the dirt, Ohm let loose a beam of oddly reflective energy from an eye, knocking back one of the changelings. The others charged forward… and almost immediately regretted it, as Ohm electrified its body and zapped any changeling that got too close. It then let loose a bolt of electricity toward on changeling, who managed to dodge. Fluttershy didn’t know it was possible to dodge electricity.

When the changelings started firing beams of magic was when Fluttershy lost track of the battle. Ohm seemed to consider the beams more dangerous than the threat of the changelings tackling it, and so began actually trying to dodge itself. Beams of reflective energy returned to the changelings, as did shocks of electricity.

Fluttershy thought that there might have been more than one kind of electricity shock, but wasn’t sure. Sometimes the bolts missed, sometimes they hit, sometimes they hit and made a changeling fall to the ground. At one point, Curve got back up and almost immediately was electrocuted again. It was all far, far too hectic for her to make sense of. The first real landmark Fluttershy noticed was when three of the changeling’s beams hit Ohm at once, something that really looked like it hurt! Ohm was made of metal, but even metal could only take so much strain under a magical onslaught. Thankfully, this coordinated blast didn’t seem to severely damage it.

However, it made it angry. Ohm released a sound. It sounded like the wrenching of metal in a train wreck, the shriek of gears that are not cooperating, the final, warbling squawk of one of Vinyl Scratch’s speakers as yet another one bites the dust. Fluttershy reacted about the same as the changelings: everyone cried out in surprise and pain and covered their ears.
All Ohm’s magnets pointed toward one changeling, and in front of it a sphere of silvery light formed. It then suddenly turned into a pillar of white light, shooting out to the unfortunate changeling. The changeling was knocked over the wooden cart and into the trees a ways away. Fluttershy remembered that Liz had said that Pokémon were dangerous, how they caused trouble. How the people of her world had considered walling of the roads. Now she understood that. If many Pokémon were as strong as Ohm, it’s little wonder that they were domesticated!

Ohm switched focus to dodging, being more cautious after that concentrated burst. It juked, turned, and kept moving, but didn’t give itself enough time to aim its own attacks. After a few wildly off bolts of electricity, it came up with a solution: it released more of those silvery balls of energy, which directed themselves into the changelings. The changelings, battered and tired from the fight, began to fall one by one. In time, none were left standing.

Fluttershy got to her feet shakily. So many thoughts went through her head. Was Ohm Okay? Would the changelings be okay? Where did they come from? Had they planned this? One thought in particular managed to make its way to her mouth: “We need to tell the Princess.” This was all Fluttershy managed to get out before she fainted.

Author's Note

Say... you might be interested to know that everything that Ohm does has basis (at least) in a Pokemon move. I'm NOT sticking to the four move system, but for now I think that you all will be able to put together an (incomplete) movelist for Ohm.

Uproar

The guards at the ground road to Canterlot have a boring, boring job. Most things enter Canterlot either by train or by air, and as thus the main thing at the main gate is young fillies going out to play, or young couples going out to have picnics, or the occasional mob of admirers chasing a terrified ex-supermodel out of the city.

It’s more common than you might think. The mob of admirers, that is, ex-supermodels are rarer.

The guards at the gate, both unicorns, perked up a bit when said ex-supermodel approached the gate alone. She must have ditched the mob, they figured to themselves, but she still looked very upset.

“Excuse me,” She said softly, “I hate to bug you gentlemen, but, um, I was attacked and I need to report it.”

“Are you sure it was with intent to harm?” One of the guards asked, “As opposed to accidental? Mobs of admirers can get rowdy, but rarely mean harm.”

The yellow pegasus slowly shook her head. “No, it was after I hid from them. And given that they tried to push me into their carriage, and then attacked me when I wouldn’t, I’m pretty sure that it falls under intent to harm.”

“Attempted foalnapping, then,” The guard said and pulled out a notepad and pencil. “Could you describe your assailants?”

“Oh, I could, yes, if you want me to, but I don’t think that would be very helpful, I’m afraid.” She stuttered hesitantly.

The guard raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”

“Well, they were changelings, so-”

The guard immediately perked up, as did his partner on the other side of the gate. “What? You were attacked and almost foalnapped by changelings?”

The other guard frowned. “This is bad. The changelings must be very bold if they think they can attack and kidnap one of the elements of harmony.”

The first guard’s stoic face slipped. “What? You’re an element of harmony?”

Fluttershy fidgeted and hid behind her mane. “Um… yes. I’m Fluttershy, it’s, um, nice to meet you.”

“Wait,” The other guard said, “We don’t know that she’s Fluttershy. If there’s Changelings in the area, we need to check.”

The first guard shook his head. “Why would a changeling tell us there’s changelings in the area?”

“I don’t know!” The second guard said, “But protocol is protocol. She needs to be scanned.”

Fluttershy nodded. “I-it’s okay. I don’t mind. I know you have to do what’s best for, you know, everyone.”

The pair of guards cast the spell together. Fluttershy felt it as it moved over her skin and through the feathers on her wings. She remembered what Twilight had said about the spell; it would disrupt a changeling’s magic, forcing them to revert to their true form. After the spell was cast, Fluttershy was still Fluttershy, proving that she was not a changeling.

The guards nodded, and the one with the notebook and pencil flipped to a new page. “If you’ll give me the full account, miss, we will forward the information to other guards throughout the city.”

Fluttershy readied herself. She could only hope she could do this right. “Well… I was on the road to Ponyville, the wooded part, and, um, there was a cart going toward Canterlot. They saw that I was an element of harmony, and said that they wanted to thank me by giving me something out of their cart… but the cart was just full of changelings. And the ponies driving and pulling the cart were changelings, too.”

“How did you escape?” The guard asked.

Fluttershy resisted the urge to panic. Was she allowed to tell the guards about Ohm? Right now, Ohm was hiding at the tree line, so it was safe, but the Pokémon were supposed to be a secret, right? “Uh… well, a friend of mine drove them off.”

The guard looked around. Fluttershy was alone. “Friend?” He asked, confused.

“Likely a bear,” The other guard concluded. “Fluttershy talks to animals, remember? Didn’t you pay attention in the briefing?”

“My wife was in labor that day,” The first guard grumbled, “Give me a break.”

“Um, congratulations, if you don’t mind me saying so, but… I need to tell the princess,” Fluttershy squeaked out.

The guard nodded. “Of course. Go right on in. I trust you know the way?”

“Yes,” Fluttershy said with a nod, “Thank you.”

She hoped that Ohm wouldn’t get bored waiting for her. She’d just have to hurry.

Iron Jaw was very proud of a few things in his life. One of them was getting promoted to captain of the guard after Shining Armor was promoted to governor. As the captain of the guard, his tactical and strategic prowess were put to the challenge. Similarly challenged were his skills with logistics and politics. Especially politics. Especially when Celestia herself came along and began to ask him to keep secrets.

Especially when the secrets were completely insane.

“Princess,” He said slowly, “I’m not a slow pony, but I want to make sure I have this clear. There is someone in Equestria who was, in short, yanked from her home by some kind of odd magic. Okay, allright, odder things have happened. There’s some creatures that came through with her with bizarre magical powers. Now, that’s when I get worried. Now every report that comes across my desk, I’m going to have to look for little odd things in it, compare it to this list of descriptions you gave me, try to figure out if any of the events could be caused by the creatures, try to deal with it while this person comes by to pick up the creature... and last but not least, you want this whole thing to happen quietly.”

“Well, not totally quietly,” Celestia spoke to clarify, “More just muted. Rumors are allright as long as they don’t hurt anyone, but we don’t want the entire nation to know what’s going on. As long as no one makes a big deal of this, there shouldn’t be any issue… of course, that means that if there is a big deal, you’re going to have to convince people it’s not a big deal in a way that implies it really isn’t a big deal, not that it’s a big deal that we just want to keep from looking like a big deal. Does that make sense?”

Iron Jaw sighed. “After picking it apart in my head, sure. My main worry is what is on this list… or more exactly, what is not on it. We have crude descriptions of the critters, but I’m willing to bet that if I used these to sketch them, I would get it wrong. In addition, it makes mention of their powers, but no really in-depth information. Do we have to worry about these things taking down buildings? Could they take on a guard regiment if they want to? The first thing I need is information!”

Celestia frowned. “I understand your situation, Iron Jaw, but I can’t supply much more. I don’t know how much information can be shared at this point, and don’t have much more information myself. I should be getting more soon, but I’m not making any promises about whether any of it will be useful to you, much less available.”

Iron Jaw sighed. “This smells like international politics.”

Celestia shook her head. “This isn’t international politics.”

“It’s either international politics or whatever it is that Discord is classified under,” Iron Jaw retorted, “Shining Armor just had that listed as ‘EoH Shenanigans,’ which isn’t exactly descriptive.”

“Yes, that’s more accurate. It’s EoH Shenanigans,” Celestia said with a nod. She was about to carry on carry on when there was a knock on the door to the office.

Celestia used her magic to open the door, and there was Iron Jaw’s assistant, Pinpoint. While a good bit lither than most guard recruits, Pinpoint did the essential job of organization, summarization, and using certain magics that the earth pony captain could not. “A message came in marked emergency,” He explained, the envelope held in his sand blue magic. Celestia handed the note to Iron Jaw, who ripped it open and read it.

“A changeling has been spotted outside the city. By an element of harmony. Isn’t that just peachy?”

Celestia frowned. “Which one? Where is she now?”

“Fluttershy,” Iron Jaw replied, “And she’s likely on her way here now, apparently looking for you.”

Celestia immediately turned around and rushed from the office, flying out the first open window she came to. Pinpoint watched Celestia go (She was shockingly graceful for her size, and that had always perplexed him), and then saluted to the captain. “Awaiting orders, sir.”

Iron Jaw sighed. “Make sure that every guard in the city knows… and no civilians do. If this gets out, you know good and well that the populous might panic.”

Fluttershy galloped through the town as much as she could bring herself to. Sometimes she came across a thick crowd, and of course she didn’t gallop then because that would have been terribly rude. She sometimes took flight to get a bit closer to the castle, but she knew that the guards didn’t like it when people flew too close to the castle; everyone was supposed to go in through the gates out of respect.

Her competing worries of being fast and being nice were silenced as Celestia descended from above, her wings momentarily casting a shadow over Fluttershy. Celestia landed gracefully, almost immediately bending down to examine Fluttershy, concern on her face. “Are you hurt?” the princess asked, “I heard that you were attacked.”

“I’m fine,” Fluttershy replied, smiling at the upset princess, and then looked around and barely whispered, “Ohm protected me. It stayed in the forest, because-oh!” Fluttershy cut herself off as a pair of Pegasi guards landed nearby.

“Princess!” One said, stepping forward. “Are you all right? We heard-”

“I am fine,” The princess interrupted him, “As is Fluttershy. I will escort her back to Ponyville.”

The pegasus guard nodded. “Of course. We will prepare a chariot.”

Celestia hid a frown. Whether these guards were loyal or changelings, Celestia didn’t want to use the chariot. She shook her head, doing her best to leave no question in the guards’ minds. “No. I will escort her myself.” Her horn glowed, and a rainbow of colors washed over her and Fluttershy. The guards stepped back, never having seen this before. As the lights faded, neither Celestia nor Fluttershy was left there. The guards shared a look.

“You know… sometimes I forget that she’s a powerful magical alicorn princess. And then she does things like that.”

Celestia and Fluttershy re-appeared in the forest outside of Canterlot. Fluttershy looked around, trying to get her bearings after that. “I didn’t know you could teleport, Princess,” she said. That hadn’t been anything like Twilight’s teleports. “It was… very pretty. And very smooth.”

“Yes, thank you,” Celestia said absentmindedly. She looked around. “Now we need to find Ohm fast, I can teleport you two to Ponyville and you can tell Twilight. Ohm? It’s Celestia!”

“Come on out, Ohm,” Fluttershy said, looking around. This should be the right area, or close enough. “Princess Celestia is here. She has a fast way for us to get home!”

After a minute, Ohm hovered down from above. He eyed the pair of ponies, waiting to see what this method was.

Celestia nodded. “Excellent, now it will only be a moment…” and again, a rainbow flowed from Celestia’s horn and she and her guests disappeared.

Scarcely a few minutes later, Fluttershy hurried into Ponyville, having left Ohm at her home with Cica. Fluttershy was more interested in delivering that important message. She was looking for Twilight, or Liz, because she wanted to tell Liz that Ohm was back, and that she sent him to her cottage, but she had to tell Twilight about the changelings… oh no, Liz didn’t know anything about changelings, did she? A changeling cloud walk right up to Liz and she wouldn’t know any better. She obviously had to tell Liz about changelings, too… and Twilight likely wanted to know that Ohm was back so-

“Fluttershy!” The pegasus almost jumped at the sound of her name. She barely had time to look for the source before Rainbow Dash landed in front of her. “You’re back! Great! Where’s the new pokething?”

“Um,” Fluttershy said while arranging her thoughts. This wasn’t what she was expecting. “Ohm is back at my cottage, but did nurse Redheart say it was okay for you to fly? Even if she did, you should be taking it easy.”

“I am!” Rainbow Dash said with a huff, frowning grumpily. “That’s why I haven’t caught Liz yet!”

Fluttershy was taken aback by this. “Catch Liz? Why… why would you need to catch Liz?”

“Uh… I don’t really know,” Rainbow Dash admitted with a shrug, “You’d have to ask Applejack, but one way or the other she’s running around like a madpony! She’s fast, too. If you see her, let Twilight know okay? But I’m betting that I’ll find her first!” Rainbow Dash then leapt into the air, flying off.

“Rain… Rainbow Dash! Where is Twilight?” Fluttershy called after her friend, but it quickly became obvious that Rainbow couldn’t hear her. She couldn’t really blame Rainbow Dash, she’d been grounded for a few days and was no doubt eager to fly as much as she could. Fluttershy galloped further into town, and for all she understood Rainbow Dash’s energy, though, she couldn’t help but be upset by this. First changelings and now Liz is running around all over the place? Maybe… oh no, what if the changelings had caused that? Fluttershy would realize that was silly later, but at the moment it seemed possible.

Fluttershy was so busy running all over the place that she almost ran into Applejack. The pair came to a screeching halt in time, and Applejack smiled. “Fluttershy! It’s good to see you. Have you seen Liz around?”

“No, and Rainbow Dash said that she was running around all over the place. Why?”

“Oh,” Applejack shifted back and forth a bit, scanning the street. “Well… Liz had some of Granny Smith’s special blend coffee. It made her awake, active, and once the caffeine kicked in she said that she was going for a walk and zipped off faster than you could say... most anything, really. That would have been okay, but then Twilight showed up and said that she needed to talk to Liz. I told her that Liz had run off, and she went off to find her saying it was urgent. Well, of course I was going to help, and I told Rainbow, who went off, and I think she’s begun to take it as a challenge. You know how she is.”

Fluttershy nodded, relieved. That was good. It meant that there wasn’t anything bad going on just… something weird. “Thank Celestia,” Fluttershy said with a sigh, “I was worried. Um, do you know where Twilight is right now?”

“Sorry, hun,” Applejack said with a shake of her head, “I don’t rightly know. Maybe try Whitetail Woods. Since Liz is an outdoorsy pony, Twilight thought she might go for a walk there.”

“Okay,” Fluttershy said with a nod. “I’ll look over that way. Thank you, Applejack!” Fluttershy rushed off. This was good, right? She could get to Whitetail Woods fast enough. She would find Twilight, and then together they would find Liz, and everything would be perfect!

It was immediately after that moment that Liz ran into Fluttershy, knocking both into the ground. Liz got up immediately, and looked around. When she saw Fluttershy she immediately helped the poor pony up. “I’m so sorry!” Liz said to Fluttershy. “I wasn’t looking where I was going and I have so much energy right now I didn’t even see you! You’re not hurt, are you? I’m really sorry. You’re really light.”

Fluttershy shook her head a bit, clearing it before she recognized the earth pony. “Oh, Liz! Yes, I’m fine. It’s okay-“

“I mean, REALLY light. I expected you to be heavier. I mean, you are heavy, but not all that heavy. I guess it’s kind of like how flying types are really light? Apperantly they have hollow bones or something, but I’m not really sure how that works.”

“Um, maybe? Ohm is ba-”

“OHM! You brought back Ohm? Great! Where is he?”

“Oh, it’s at my cottage, but do you know where-”

“Great! Thank you so much, Fluttershy! Thank you so so much! I’m going to go see him!”

“Um, yes, but I need to tell you…” Liz was already gone, having almost left skid marks on the ground. It was like Pinkie Pie on too much sugar, but with less vibrating and talking to fast to be understood… so, even less hyper than normal Pinkie Pie, but with a similar attention span.

Fluttershy sighed. This was so much more difficult than it should be.

“Fluttershy!” Twilight called from behind her. Fluttershy turned around to see the purple alicorn, finally calming down a bit. Of course, she let Twilight speak first, “Fluttershy, have you seen Liz? I need to talk to her about her home, and she’s hyped up on caffeine, so she’s being difficult and all.”

Fluttershy nodded, smiling. “Yes, she is headed to my cottage because Ohm is there.”

“Excellent!” Twilight, said, rearing up on her rear legs in excitement, “I can teleport there and beat her to it! Can’t escape forever!” and with a flash, Twilight was gone.

Fluttershy stared at the place where the princess had been, smile wiped from her face, before raising her voice for the first time all week. “But I need to talk to you!” Fluttershy turned around, and then launched back into a gallop, headed around town for her own cabin. Why was it so hard to tell anyone something so important? It was like anytime she really wanted to say something no one would listen to her.

As she approached her home, she saw the group of ponies. All of her friends were there, as were both Pokémon. Liz was on Ohm’s back, looking down at the other ponies. Cica was there and hovering near Rarity, who had a large white box under one hoof. Applejack was trying to talk to Liz, and so was Twilight, but about two different things, and Liz didn’t seem to be paying attention to them, but to Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash was talking to Liz, apparently about Ohm, and Pinkie was just... there, being very happy about something or other and Fluttershy was sure she’d she happy for her friend if she could only hear what was going on! She walked forward and tried to say what she had to say.

“Excuse me, everyone, but I need to tell Twilight…” she couldn’t even hear her own voice. “I need to tell Twilight that…” Her herself talk? She could barely hear herself think! “It’s very important, Princess Celestia said that…” They didn’t hear her. They couldn’t hear her at all! She got closer into the circle. “Everyone, this is very important-” At that point in time, Pinkie Pie began screaming and jumping up and down. It was all just so frustrating. All the noise around her home, ponies here that she loves of course but right now they’re all being noisy all over the place and she couldn’t hear anything of what anyone was saying and she had to say,

“I WAS ATTACKED BY CHANGELINGS!”

Dead silence. Every eye was on Fluttershy. Everypony was suddenly paying attention to her. Pinkie Pie was stopped in mid-air, not letting anything about her landing disrupt the air. Fluttershy immediately regretted screaming, now everypony was completely focused on her.

“But, um, Ohm saved me, so… it’s okay.”

Suddenly, ponies converged around the shy Pegasus, to comfort her and make sure she was unhurt. Fluttershy tried to explain that she was fine, yes, completely unhurt, and that Celestia knew. Only Liz was left out of the sudden herd, looking on in confusion. “Hey,” she said carefully, “What’s a changeling?”

All the other ponies looked at her, and there was a moment of awkward silence. Twilight stepped forward, taking the explanation upon herself. “Changelings are a kind of creature that can change their shape into ponies, looking like anyone they want to.”

“So they’re like Dittos?” Liz extrapolated. After a minute of blank looks, Liz explained, “Ditto is a kind of Pokemon that can transform into other Pokemon, taking their appearance and abilities. I heard there was another kind of Pokemon that can do something similar with illusions, but I’m not familiar with it.”

“Do Dittos eat love?” Twilight asked, “Because changelings do.”

Liz blinked. “Uh… no. I am not aware of any Pokemon that eats love. I think there was one that eats anger? But that one doesn’t shapeshift… anyway, how can you tell whether a pony is actually a changeling?”

“You can’t,” Rarity said, stepping away from the group. “That’s why they’re so devious. We’ve made a spell that will reveal them if they’re changed into another pony, but that’s the only way. Well… assuming they’re actually decent actors. Their queen was… less than stellar in her own role.”

“Less than stellar my hoof, the queen wasn’t even trying,” Twilight grumped. “Let’s cast that spell, to make sure that no one here is a changeling.” Twilight’s horn glowed, and light covered everypony present. Nopony was revealed as a changeling. Twilight nodded as the light faded. “Simple enough! Now we can discuss this rationally, and calmly. Fluttershy, please tell us what happened.”

Fluttershy relayed the tale, getting chased out of the city by admirers, starting down the path, meeting the ponies along the path… who turned out to be changelings. Ohm’s fighting them off. Going back to Canterlot, letting the guards know, telling about Celestia’s teleporting, Liz listened as well as she could but she was missing something.

“These sound like bad news,” Liz said, peering down from her perch on Ohm’s back. She was very proud of him, having protected Fluttershy, but right now something else was bugging her. She thought a minute, trying to get through the coffee-induced hyperactivity fog in her mind. “You have experience with these? They sound like something you have a lot of experience with. Now that I think about it, I think Celestia mentioned them. Something about a wedding?”

Twilight snorted, not fond of the memories of that event. “They replaced the bride, brainwashed the groom, who is my brother, zapped the princess, and almost conquered Canterlot. Thankfully, I found the real bride, reunited her with her beloved, and together they used the power of love to vanquish the changeling army.”

Liz raised an eyebrow. She couldn’t deny it, apart from the bit about brainwashing, that sounded like the plot to a children’s book. “Seriously?”

“Yeah!” Rainbow dash said, “they rose into the air, horns crossing, and released a HUGE shockwave that blew the entire army out of the city! Way cool.”

Liz blinked. Shockwaves are not typically caused by love in children’s books. “I guess there are certain perks to having friendship be magic. And you’re worried about them trying again?”

“Or something,” Twilight said, “I’m not sure. There’s no way to know, not really. The most we can do right now is think of what to do about this… situation. We can’t just go around checking ponies. That might cause a panic.”

“So what are we going to do?” Applejack asked. “We can’t do nothing. We’ve got to do something.”

“But what can we do?” Twilight asked, clearly upset about it herself, “Whatever we can do, we want to keep the element of surprise. We don’t want the changelings to just leave town, that doesn’t solve anything. I’m going to wait for the princesses’ to make a plan, or at least send me a message. They have far more experience with this.”

Liz hmmed. “There isn’t a way to tell changelings from normal ponies when they’re disguised? What was that spell you cast?”

“It was a disruption spell,” Twilight explained, “It would force the changeling back into its natural state. Simple detection spells don’t work; changeling shape shifting is made to be undetectable. In theory, sometimes changelings forget details, like cutie marks or eye colors, but that information is only in legends from books I’ve read.”

“So, they smell right when shapeshifted?” Liz asked, “And they have the right body temperature?”

Twilight blinked. “I… don’t know. I’ll have to check. What gives you that idea?”

“Pokemon have a lower base body temperature than humans, so the few Pokemon that can change to look like humans can be told apart that way, and apart from a few special cases I don’t think any Pokemon can change their scent. Even if a ditto looks like a Charizard, it apparently still smells like a ditto.”

“What’s a Charizard?” Fluttershy asked, raising her voice enough that Liz could hear.

“Uh, it’s like a big, orange, winged lizard that breathes fire.”

“There are dragon Pokemon?”

“Yeah, there are. Charizard isn’t one of them, though.”

Author's Note

The Pokemon and Pony worlds have a lot of weird points for comparison. In a way, most any fantasy settings do, especially high fantasy ones, (Look, I'm sorry, Pokemon is a fantasy setting, because there isn't enough science for it to be scifi) but when you mush them together like this you really begin to appreciate just how many common points there are. They don't line up nicely, and they aren't quite the same, but...

Rest

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath. Oh, this was feeling good. The sky was half-full of clouds, the sun was coming up, and Rainbow Dash was up here with them. She turned around to look at the weather team, which were ready for her orders. “Okay!” she said, planting her hoofs on her hips. “We have a forecast of mostly sunny today. However, we can’t just go busting because we have a cloudy tomorrow and a rainy the day after that, we need to keep the clouds around, unless you all want to get up early tomorrow to get forming.”

The chorus of ‘no’ was exactly what Rainbow Dash wanted to hear. “Well, then, I suppse we’re spending today doing sky-highs!” There were cheers, every pegasus happy with that news.

As one, they got to work gathering together the clouds, forming them into large balls. As they worked, a white earth pony with a red mane in a white hat looked on in confusion. She had seen the pegasi push clouds around before, but never in this way. She usually didn’t watch the morning weather, but this time there was obviously something interesting going on. They were arranging the cloud balls in a line, but Liz couldn’t figure out why.

There was a gasp behind her, and Liz turned to see Twilight looking up at the clouds as well. “They’re doing sky-highs?” she asked, a big grin on her face, “These are always such fun! It’s one of the more interesting weathershaping methods, that was first devised during a particularly bad drought. A particularly bad cyclone meant that everyone was poor on clouds, so one pegasus thought of a way to keep clouds around for future needs, and has been a way of conserving cloud matter ever since!”

Liz blinked at Twilight. “Uh… let’s start with the basics. What are ‘sky-highs’?”

Twilight looked at Liz again. “You’re not familiar with weather control, are you?”

“Some Pokemon can do it a little,” Liz admitted, “And a few legendries can do it a lot, but it’s not an everyday thing with procedures and a team and all. Now, I can understand pushing clouds around, and I can understand breaking the clouds to get them out of the way, but what are ‘sky-highs’?”

“Here,” Twilight said, turning away, “Follow me.” Liz did so, following Twilight out of town. “Now, I’m not sure how weather works where you come from, but the further away a cloud is, the smaller it seems, right?”

“Right,” Liz said with a nod. “That’s basic logic.”

“So, if you don’t want a lot of clouds around, but you don’t want to get rid of them, you put them out-of-the-way, someplace where ponies won’t notice them, right?”

“…up in the sky?” Liz guessed. “That’s about as out-of-the-way as you can get.”

“Exactly!” Twilight said, “And from there, they can be retrieved when needed.”

Liz thought for a moment. “So they just gather the clouds up in big balls and push them into the sky?”

Twilight let loose a slight giggle. “It’s a bit more complex than that.” She led Liz over a hill, where they could see a pegasus on the other side. He was different from the others: Large, bulky, and with tiny wings. No, that was an understatement: he was huge. His muscles rippled under his skin, almost threatening to burst right off his body. He had a lantern jaw, a short, flat-top haircut, and a look of focus on his face as he went through what Liz recognized as a warm-up routine.

Rainbow Dash flew down next to the hulking pegasus, smiling at the way everything was going. “Are you ready, Bulk Bicpes?” She asked, a bit of challenge in her voice.

Bulk flung up his forehooves, flexing his muscles. They bulged, veins popping out of them. He took a deep breath, and released a loud, “YEAH!”

Rainbow Dash laughed and nodded. “Okay! First cloud, coming straight down!” She then zipped up to the first cloud ball, which the other pegasi were in formation around. They maneuvered it over the top of Bulk Bicpeps, who took up a sturdy stance on his two back hooves, his little wings beating to keep him upright. At Rainbow Dash’s signal, the flying pegasi drove the cloud down on top of Bulk’s head, who met it with a perfectly-timed surge upward. The cloud hit the ground and the bottom flattened, spreading along the ground. There was a tense pause, and the cloud rocket upward, blowing the pegasi around it out of the way and continuing into the sky until it was little more than a little, white poof in the distance. The pegasi laughed as they regained their orientation and examined their handiwork, Bulk Biceps standing triumphantly on the ground, a silly but proud grin on his face.

“Looks good, everypony,” Rainbow dash said as she examined the far-off puff, “But maybe a bit higher than it should be. Let’s move to the next spot, everyone!”

The Pegasi moved on, and Liz’s mouth hung open as she watched them go. Twilight smiled and nodded. “It’s a really clever usage of the elasticity of clouds and natural pegasus magic. It’s not easy to do, but thankfully we have a really good weather team. Other towns often need four or five pegasi working together on the ground, and they can’t do it as reliably.”

“Wow,” Liz said quietly. “I’m not sure what to make of that. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“You said that Pokemon can weather control a little, right? Do humans have machines to manage the weather, then?” Twilight asked.

Liz shook her head. “Not really. We just let the weather form naturally and deal with it. We try to forecast the weather, but we can’t really control it.”

Twilight frowned. “Like the Everfree? Weather patterns just… form?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Liz said with a nod, and then immediately regretted it as she was regaled with meteorological questions. “Twilight! I’m not a scientist! I don’t know! Winds are caused by the Coriolis Effect or maybe the sun heating the earth, clouds are made by the water cycle, tornadoes are made when warm equatorial winds move under colder polar winds, and hurricanes in a similar way but form differently because of the moisture coming up off of the ocean.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “You sound like you know something about it.”

Liz sighed. “I went to school. I passed science classes. Barely. I don’t know any details, just the bare minimum.”

Twilight smiled and rested a hoof on Liz’s shoulder. “That’s more than I know. Come on, let’s work on that report for Celestia.” Twilight then led Liz back toward the Library, over the large hill again. When Liz got to the top of the hill, she stopped, and looked over Ponyville as it basked in the morning sun.

Twilight turned to look at Liz after she noticed that Liz had stopped. Liz had an odd look on her face… something like confusion. “Is something wrong?” She asked.

Liz didn’t respond for a moment. “I don’t know, it just feels weird, I guess,” Liz said. “It’s like… How do I explain this? Twilight, where did you grow up?”

“Canterlot,” Twilight replied, “My parents are fairly well off; they’re not nobles but I’ll admit they’re a lot wealthier than most ponies. I was accepted into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, and that’s where I did all my schooling. I’ve really only lived in Ponyville for a few years.”

Liz nodded. “Right. Now, when you first saw Ponyville, what did it feel like? Kind of… unreal?”
Twilight shook her head. “Can’t say it did, but I was distracted at the time. I’m not quite sure what you’re going for here…”

Liz shook her head. “It’s just… you hear about places, right? And you watch movies about them, and see pictures, but it’s different than-wait. Twilight, have you ever seen the ocean?”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Yeah. It was several years ago, but I remember it. The water went out all the way to the horizon, it was breathtaking! It started to feel normal fairly fast, but I’ll never forget the first time I saw it.”

“It’s kind of like that,” Liz said, gesturing for Twilight to come up next to her. “It’s the difference between reading about someplace and actually going there. Looking at Ponyville from here, it’s just a bit hard to believe that it’s real. It looks like an idyllic small town, taken right out of a storybook. It’s hard to think that a place like this is real, much less that I’m living here for now.” Liz sat down, a frown forming on her face.

Twilight walked up next to her. “Liz?”

“This is just too weird,” Liz said to herself. “It’s just… what happened? I mean, I know what happened, but it doesn’t make any sense. I’m a pony, and my team is nowhere to be seen, I guess we’ve found two of them, but… what even happened?”

Twilight didn’t say anything. Liz’s expression slipped from bewilderment into confusion and began to edge on panic. What was going on? Twilight’s mind raced to find an explanation. It seemed like she was having a reaction to the realization that Ponyville was a real place, but she hadn’t had a panic reaction before. Even while they were in the everfree, Liz got scared but she never seemed to panic. Perhaps… adrenaline and enough distraction could keep the full impact of a given situation from hitting someone, and up until now Liz must have had a solid enough goal in mind to keep herself from realizing the gravity of the situation. That’s what was really going on here. It would be like what would have happened if Twilight had been stuck in the Equestria High world after the portal had closed. Maybe even worse?

Twilight guessed that Liz’s mental state was somewhat fragile right now. Improper wording or a poor consolation would only make the situation worse. The correct answer contained truth, compassion, and the assurance that she would not have to go through whatever happened alone. A more secondary aspect of the answer was distraction, as if permitted to run rampart in her own mind Liz would become more upset.

Twilight moved forward, and wrapped Liz in a hug. A firm hug, but not a tight one. A friendly hug, but one that could not be denied. Having spent a few years with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, Twilight learned more about hugs than she thought there was to know about hugs. They were very complex.

After a bit, Liz pulled away from the hug. She was smiling again, a bit sheepishly but smiling all the same. “Thanks, Twilight. I needed that.”

Twilight nodded. “Come on,” she said, “Let’s go and see Ohm and Cica. They likely miss familiarity as much as you do.”

Cica-Ninjask liked the pony-things. One pony-thing was fast, was very good at flying, and had many colors. The many colors part wasn’t too important, but it was kind of nice. But the being fast and very good at flying made Awesome-Colors-Pony-Thing a challenge. Cica-Ninjask was hoping Awesome-Colors-Pony-Thing would get better and they could race more.

The Nice-Yellow-Pony-Thing was very nice. Nice-Yellow-Pony-Thing told Cica-Ninjask what plants were good, and which were poison. Nice-Yellow-Pony-Thing let Cica-Ninjask stay with Nice-Yellow-Pony-Thing and help Nice-Yellow-Pony-Thing sometimes as long as Cica-Ninjask stayed quiet and was nice.

Cica-Ninjask had lots of practice being quiet and nice. Cica-Ninjask was quiet and nice a lot back when Cica-Ninjask was Cica-Nincada, or Hides-Shiney-Objects-In-Small-Holes-Nincada, before it met Liz-Human-Trainer. It was harder when it became Cica-Ninjask, but Liz-Human-Trainer worked hard to keep Cica-Ninjask quiet and nice.

Cica-Ninjask also liked White-Fancy-Pony. White-Fancy-Pony made clothes. Nice clothes. Little hat. Little tie. White-Fancy-Pony made Cica-Ninjask feel fancy. Cica-Ninjask liked feeling fancy!

Cica-Ninjask did not know much about other ponies. Orange-Pony was seen very little, and Bouncy-Pink-Pony gave sweets during the party. Bouncy-Pink-Pony seemed odd to Cica-Ninjask. There was also Purple-Pony, who Nice-Yellow-Pony said Liz-Pony-Trainer was staying with.

It was odd for Liz-Human-Trainer to be Liz-Pony-Trainer. Very confusing. But Cica-Ninjask was Cica-Nincada before, so Liz-Human-Trainer could turn into Liz-Pony-Trainer. Cica-Ninjask was sorry Cica-Ninjask screeched at Liz-Pony-Trainer. Liz-Human-Trainer was not upset when Cica-Nincada became Cica-Ninjask. Liz-Human-Trainer was happy.

Cica-Ninjask was happy that Ohm-Magneton was back. Ohm-Magneton said Ohm-Magneton was happy to see Cica-Ninjask, too. Cica-Ninjask hoped that soon Cica-Ninjask would see more Pokemon! Maybe Cica-Ninjask would see Cica-Shedinja?
No, Cica-Ninjask would not see Cica-Shedinja. Cica-Ninjask only saw Cica-Shedinja at Liz-Human-Trainer-Parents-House. That made Cica-Ninjask a little happy, but only a little. Cica-Shedinja was Cica-Ninjask’s shed-twin, but Cica-Ninjask found Cica-Shedinja creepy. Cica-Ninjask still liked Cica-shedinja, Cica-Shedinja was smart and knew many things about people and Pokemon.

Cica-Ninjask wondered if all Ninjasks found their shed-twins creepy, or if that was just Cica-Ninjask.

Cica-Ninjask went to Ohm-Magneton. Cica-Ninjask asked Ohm-Magneton what Ohm-Magneton wanted to do today. Ohm-Magneton said that it needed to conserve energy, so today it would wait. Cica-Ninjask did not understand that. But Cica-Ninjask knew that Ohm-Magneton was very good at waiting.

“Cica! Ohm!”

Joy! Cica-Ninjask rushed to Liz-Pony-Trainer as fast as Cica-Ninjask could.

Twilight looked on as Cica, followed by Ohm, came out of the woods near Fluttershy’s cottage. Liz went to work, getting a wet cloth and cleaning Ohm, Cica helping after finding his own cloth. Ohm cooperated, moving some of his metal parts around to let Liz get at the places underneath. Soon enough, Ohm was shining like new.

Notes. Twilight summoned a notepad and pen from her library, and began writing. Her original idea of working with Liz all day to make that report had fallen by the wayside, but this might be even more interesting. Trainers tending to their Pokemon, much like how ponies tend to their pets. Liz began to talk, more to herself than to her Pokemon, about what she should be doing in the future that she’s in Ponyville. Good, Twilight thought to herself, she’s getting her mind back onto future goals.

Liz then went and found a simple wash basin and filled it with water. “Your turn, Cica!” The giant bug responded by disappearing. Liz rolled her eyes and stayed put, waiting patiently. After a few minutes, Cica flew out of the woods and, with a buzz that sounded a lot like a sigh, landed on the edge of the basin.

It was a clear display of pack behavior, Twilight noticed. While normally ponies used herding behavior, individual behavior in a group for safety, pack behavior is more based on each member of the pack working together to support the whole. Of course, both kinds of behavior are harder to identify and categorize among sapient beings, but the signs were there. It was like what Liz said about catching Pokemon: they saw her as in charge, and she knew how to manage them.

Twilight pondered the cultural ramifications of this for a moment. Would this result in more individuals with leadership skills? Or more individuals without leadership skills in what amount to positions of leadership? What was the amount of Pokemon trainers in comparison to the rest of the populace? What about ones as strong as Liz? Stronger?

“They’re so happy together!”

Twilight almost jumped. She looked over at Fluttershy, who was smiling at the trainer and her two Pokemon. Twilight looked back at the trio. Liz was gingerly polishing the golden mask-like markings on Cica’s face, making them clearer and more beautiful. Cica certainly didn’t seem to mind, and Twilight had no idea what Ohm was thinking, but Liz was happy. “Come on, stop squirming!” she teased Cica, “I know how much you like being clean. In order to be clean, you need to get washed.”

Liz finished up cleaning Cica and let him take off. Cica disappeared and then reappeared almost immediately, landing on Twilight’s back. It felt kind of odd, Twilight had no idea how it could possibly stay upright, and the Pokemon was surprisingly light for its size. Twilight smiled slightly at the giant bug. She didn’t know quite what it wanted, of course, but made a quick guess. “You look very nice,” She told him. The Ninjask buzzed at Twilight, and then looked up suddenly. Twilight followed his gaze, to see a small black could speeding toward the cabin. After a bit she noticed a rainbow trail coming out of its back, and knew just what was going on.

Rainbow Dash zipped in, pushing the small thundercloud. “Hey, anypony order some spare lightning? I said I would deliver, and I did.” Ohm quickly moved into the cloud, and there were a few rumbles of thunder as Ohm sucked electricity out of the small cloud. Cica, not wasting any time himself, moved over to Rainbow Dash and buzzed around her excitedly. Rainbow dash was mainly confused by this. “Woah, slow down there! It’s, uh, nice to see you, too?”

“He wants another race,” Fluttershy said, “I’m sorry, Cica, but Rainbow Dash needs to recover some more.”

Cica buzzed at the pair of ponies. Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Yeah, taking it easy for today. If I don’t, I’ll wind up in the hospital again right away, and no one wants that. Anyway, I’d love to stay and chat, but I promised the mayor I’d help with cleaning city hall.”

As Rainbow Dash zipped off, Liz hmmed. “Being able to fly would make things like that much easier. You know, at first I was wondering why the library has such tall shelves, but there are both ponies that can fly and use telekinesis, so height is really not much of a problem for a lot of ponies.”

Twilight nodded. “The different pony tribes do have very different building styles; it’s an interesting line of study, especially historically.”

Liz nodded, and then remembered. “That’s right; we were going to spend today sharing information, weren’t we? So that you could write a presentation on my world. I completely forgot about that.”

Twilight nodded. “I’ll go get my stuff. Oh, Fluttershy, you don’t mind that we do it here, do you? I think that it might be a good idea to have Cica and Ohm nearby while writing about their home world.

Fluttershy shook her head. “No, no, that’s okay. I’m curious myself. I want to know more about Pokemon, too.”

Celestia sighed deeply as she threw another plan into the fire. Stupid changelings. You can’t assume the worst, you can’t assume the best, and you can’t tell anypony. In theory, anypony could be a changeling. In actuality, most of the ponies that commonly worked in the castle were cleared; no changelings were found in the guard, the management staff, janitorial staff, or even the nobles that frequent the castle. That ruled out all the ponies that could do a lot of damage, but it also ruled out all the ponies that could be casually checked in the name of improved security procedures. There was still no way to surreptitiously check the general populace. Openly checking the populace was guaranteed to cause a panic, but not doing anything would arguably be worse, as it permitted the changelings to continue to do whatever they wanted.

There was a knock on the door, and Celestia straightened up. “Enter,” she commanded, and proceeded to relax as Luna entered the room. “Luna, what are you doing up?” Celestia chided, “You should get some sleep.”

“You have duties to perform, sister,” Luna retorted, “Duties that, if skipped, will make the ponies nervous.”

Celestia resisted the urge to grit her teeth. “I don’t want to listen to the nobles whine. I have bigger things to do! Two different bigger things to do.” Even if Liz’s problem was not as pressing as changeling one, it was still better than the daily drivel of the day court.

Luna shook her head. “No, sister. You have had to raise the sun and the moon by yourself for too long.”

Celestia shook her head back. “Go to bed, Luna. That was a non-sequitor.”

“Quite the contrary,” Luna said, “It is exceedingly important. For a thousand years you ruled alone, all of Equestria on your shoulders. You have forgotten what it is like to have other princesses around you that you can delegate tasks to.”

“Not so, for a while I had Candace,” Celestia countered.

“Sister, I have spoken with Candace. You taught her well, but she was scarcely given more than any noble who you trust. You prefer to do things on your own when you can, and that is admirable, but in this case, you can’t.”

Celestia sighed. “Then what shall I do, Luna?”

Luna placed a hoof on her sister’s shoulder, grabbing her attention “Go be the sun for the ponies to look up to. Let the moon shine upon the hidden places and ponies who tell lies. Let magic sort out the unusual visitors to our land.”

Celestia was quiet a minute, and then sighed. “You’re right. Luna, I trust you to deal with the possible changeling threat. I will take steps to put Twilight firmly in charge of the Pokemon issue when I can. Hopefully these two issues will not collide more than they already have. Now will you go to bed?”

Luna, smiling slightly, shook her head. “I will when I can, sister, but I believe that for now I have to see what we know about the changeling problem. Be a dear and send us some coffee?”

Celestia let herself smile back. “I’ll let the kitchens know.” She turned away, leaving Luna in the office.

Luna looked at the papers, and silently mused to herself that the chances of these issues not colliding were non-existent. However, this did not strike her as a bad thing. If what Celestia had told her was true, then she found it likely that if the issues did collide, they would quickly only have one problem. Celestia was a great long-term planner, bless her soul, but she was never terribly skilled at the more underhanded parts of life.

“Luna!”

Luna turned around, looking at her sister who had appeared at the door to the room again. Luna was about to make a snide remark when a newspaper was pushed into her face. Surprised, Luna read the headline aloud.

“’Professor of marine biology discovers new species.’ This is not a big deal, sister. I understand that new species are found in the ocean every time they look.” Luna then looked at the picture provided. She stopped. “Is that-”

“It matches the description that Liz gave me. Distract the court, Luna; I’m going to send this to Twilight.”

Author's Note

I removed the teaser from the end of the last chapter, so this isn't connected to that. Consider it anyway you want, I'm considering it a revision to maximize the flow of the story.

Dive

May Showers, Ms. May to her friends, was fond of life at sea. The wind in her hair, the boat under her feet… it was hard work, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. She managed the clouds and wind around the ship, controlling the weather to be sure that it worked for the ship instead of against it, on top of all the work that she did as a sailor. She found it rewarding, all said and done.

This morning, after making her morning weather round, May found herself examining the device that they had brought along with them. It was like a huge metal bell, but with windows around the sides, and one big window across the bottom of the bell. A hose was connected to the top, which was connected to a pump on the boat. There was also a thick cord that would let the bell be suspended from a crane on the ship. The ‘diving bell’ was a marvel of modern engineering, and would (in theory) permit a pair of ponies to venture into the depths of the ocean to examine the creatures down there.

“I don’t get why we brought the thing along,” a voice behind May said. She turned around to see Pearl Dive, a unicorn whose gift was undersea exploration. “I would think it’d be easier to make a spell to protect ponies from the pressure than making a big chunk of metal and throwing it down there, having to pump air down from the surface.” He shook his head slightly. “Or at least work some kind of spells into in to make it recycle air. I know they can do that.”

May shrugged. “I’m sure there’s a reason not to. You’d have to ask that professor, he’d likely be willing to give you an explanation.”
Dive shook his head stronger. “No, thank you. There’s a good chance that he’d start talking about the mating habits of manta rays halfway through. And I’m not so sure he does have an explanation. Between you and me, I think he’s on the mad side of science, you know?”

May rolled her eyes. “You say that about any eccentric that gets on the ship. Come on, not all geniuses are-”

“Pearl Dive!” Pearl Dive spun around and stood at attention, with May Showers joining him after a moment. They saw their captain, Captain Captain (for Captain was his family name) walking toward them. The grizzled grey earth pony has been at sea longer than the two of them put together, and if the rumors were true he was born and raised on a boat. As soon as he was sure he had the unicorn’s attention, he started giving orders. “Pearl Dive, I want you to go under and find a good place to use the professor’s diving bell. Take someone with you, of course, and this time try not to get distracted.”

Pearl Dive nodded. “Will do, Captain.” He tuned to May, smiling. “Want to come with me, Ms. May?”

May suppressed a giggle. “I’d love to, Dive!”

The pair jumped overboard quickly enough, and got good and wet before Dive cast the spell. They dove under the surface, and looked around. May stretched her wings out; she was used to swimming with them. Most pegasi hated water, or at least weren’t terribly fond of it, but once you got used to moving underwater wings were very useful.

“I still can’t get over how weird it feels to breathe water,” she admitted to Dive as they followed the anchor chain down, towards the ocean floor. “And my voice sounds so weird in water. It’s always nice to go down with you, though,” she admitted.

“Yeah, it’s nice to have someone to go down with,” Dive agreed, “a lot of people get squeamish over it, either having heard about all the dangers of the deep or getting worried about the bends. I mean, come on people! Lots of diving spells defend against the bends, I know mine does, and the creatures aren’t bad if you know what you’re doing. As long as you don’t dive near Austailia, that is. Those oceans are a nightmare.” He gave and exaggerated shudder and then came to a stop, grabbing onto the ship’s anchor’s chain. “Hey, look over there!” He pointed into the distance.

May came to a stop, and peered through the water. It wasn’t terribly murky, so she could just barely see… “Is that a reef?”

“I think it is!” Pearl Dive said, and started in that direction. May followed, eager to see the kinds of creatures that lived in this coral reef. Each one was a bit different, owning to the currents, the temperature, and the magic in the area. The captain’s order to not get distracted was quickly forgotten, as the pair rushed forward to see what wonders awaited them.

They were not disappointed. The found giant fishes, as large as ponies, with reflective scales on the side that made it like a living mirror. A school of fish that moved together, their scales glistening in the light, looking like a rainbow swimming through the ocean. One section of coal actually got up and moved around; it turned out to be growing on the back of a giant crab! They saw several small sharks, a giant jellyfish that appeared to be living in harmony with a group of very small fish… it was all so amazing. Corals fanned the seawater, plucked at the currents, and filtered the water. Lobsters met, fought, made up, and then signed up for wrestling tournaments.

Ms. May laughed as she saw the wonders around her. This never got old. It was all so beautiful. “You know,” she said to the nearby Pearl Dive, “I keep expecting to come down here and see Sea Ponies. I know they’re only a legend, but with what I’ve seen down here I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Pearl Dive nodded at her, before turning to watch a long eel swim by, its scales back as night with starlike specks on them. “I sometimes wonder if sea ponies are too mundane for the ocean. They’d actually be one of the less fantastic things I’ve seen down here. Watch yourself,” he said as he pointed at Ms. May’s hoof. She looked down to see some kind of blue tentacle poking out of a hole in the reef, moving toward her right back hoof.

“Good eyes, thanks,” she said, carefully moving her hoof out of the way. The tentacle didn’t take well to that, as it lashed out suddenly to wrap around Ms. May’s leg. May frowned at it, and tugged against it. “Hey! Let go!” She pulled, but couldn’t convince it to let go so easily. Five more tentacles reached out of the hole, and joined the first around her hoof, making sure the creature had a good grip. As May pulled, she pulled the creature closer to the opening of the hole… close enough that she could see a pointed beak and a pair of black, glassy eyes. That was enough for her, she panicked. Her wings flapped, pushing her away from the reef, pulling the creature out of its hole. It had a snail shell, but she didn’t see much more than that as she swung her leg around trying to get it off.

“Hold still! Let me get it,” Pearl Dive said, catching the creature in his magic. When it realized that it was being pulled on, it let go of Ms. May and retreated into its shell. Pearl frowned at it. “That’s enough of you,” he said, throwing it over a small hill in the reef.

May took a minute to catch her breath. “You know,” She said, pointing off one way away from the reef. “I think that drop-off over there would be a good place to test the bell. It’s deep, there are animals to see, all that good stuff.”

Pearl Dive nodded “That sounds good. Let’s head back up and let them know we’ve found a place.”

Together, the pair swam back to the boat. The boat, like many pony boats, had a simple ladder built into the back, so that they could climb up without needing anyone to throw them lines. Once up there, Ms. May took a minute to wring out her wings and mane, as she didn’t want to leave too much water in them. When sea water dried it left a layer of salt, and that could gunk up a mane or a pair of wings fast. Of course, even after managing herself that she’d have to have Doc run a cleaning spell over her to make sure she was in top flying shape next time she needed to manage the weather. That was one thing that Pearl Dive hadn’t made a spell for. May looked over at Dive, still sopping wet, telling the captain when they had found. Pearl Dive was a swell guy, but he could afford to take better care of his coat, Ms. May thought to herself.

“You have found a suitable place to test my creation?” a voice next to her said. Ms. May, slightly surprised, turned to face the speaker. Professor Perciforme was tall, gangly pegasus, and almost thin to the point of being unhealthy. Ms. May thought that he looked a bit like a fish himself, but never said that out loud. His wings were rather long on the big feathers and short on the small ones, and his mottled white coat kept him from standing out. Of course, when it came to the creatures of the sea, especially the really weird ones, there was no one more knowledgeable.

Ms. May nodded. “Yeah, found a spot off of a reef. It’s very nice, lots of fish I don’t recognize. There was a species of mirrorfish, a kind of schooling fish that formed a rainbow, at least one large reef crab, and a kind of creature with tentacles and a spiral shell, like a land snail.”

Professor Perciforme raised his eyebrows and smiled. “A nautilus? Those are very rare. A good find!”

“It tried to eat my hoof,” Ms. May grumbled. Truth be told, she couldn’t hold that against it; it was likely just curious what she was.

“Say,” the Professor said, touching a hoof to his chin, “You two were under for a while. Pearl Dive has underwater survival spells, does he not?”

Ms. May raised her own eyebrow. “That’s right,” She said, looking over at Pearl Dive’s cutie mark. An oyster open, with a pearl inside; one of the few cases where the name and the cutie mark line up perfectly. Her own cutie mark was actually a grey storm cloud; something that she felt was misleading. “Dive’s diving spell gives water breathing, underwater talking, protection from the bends, neutral buoyancy, and some protection from cold and pressure. It can’t go super deep, but it lasts until you get dry so you don’t have to worry about it wearing off,” She explained. Pearl Dive was very proud of his spell, sometimes annoyingly so, and as a result Ms. May had its capabilities borderline memorized.

The Professor smiled. “Perfect. Captain?” He moved toward the captain, who immediately turned to face him.

“Professor, Pearl Dive found a place to use the diving bell,” the Captain said, “A crevasse with a nearby reef, it should make do for the preliminary tests.”

The Professor nodded. “In addition, I believe that I know who will go down in it. Pearl Dive and his friend, Ms. May, seem to be the ideal choice; they have experience working together underwater, and Pearl Dive has underwater survival spells that would be useful in case of emergency.”

Captain looked at Pearl Dive. “Are you up for that, Dive?” Dive nodded, surprised by the offer. Captain then looked over at May Showers “And you, Ms. May?” May nodded, too. The Captain smiled. “Excellent! Ms. May, get cleaned up and into the air, we’ll need some specialized winds to get into the proper location. Pearl Dive, you’ll have to give us directions from in the water.”

Ms. May went to find Doc. She didn’t actually know the doctor’s name, she had never heard it said, and everyone either called him “Doctor” or “Doc.” In addition to acting as the ship’s medical expert he had taken it upon himself to keep the ship clean. This was why he had a spell that was good for working salt out of a pony’s coat; between pearl dive, herself, and the occasional storm that washed sea water onto the deck, there was plenty of use for a spell like that.

As the magic ran through her feathers, Ms. May voiced one of her main concerns. “What do you think could go wrong with that bell, Doc?”

“The diving bell?” Doc pondered aloud, “I’m not sure. Engineering is not one of my stronger points. The bell is meant to defend you from all the things that the deep has to offer, if you listen to the Professor talk about it, but if I had to guess something to go wrong… likely either asphyxiation caused by the air hose failing or lacerations from a window breaking. If a window breaks, the pressure from the water outside of the bell will likely be enough to force the glass shards inward, into any pony near the window. However, the entire bell is supposedly enchanted to be durable, so such a fate shouldn’t happen.”

As the Doctor turned to step away, Ms. May sighed. “That worries me a bit. He’s not a unicorn, he couldn’t have cast the spells himself.”

“I think that’d be a good sign,” Doc countered, “As it means that he would have gone to experts in the kinds of spells needed instead of casting inferior versions himself. In addition, he is a pegasus: you of all ponies should know that pegasi can have a deep understanding of environmental hazards.”

Ms. May nodded at that. “I guess you’re right. I guess I’m just a bit nervous. Well, I have to go manage the wind. Later, Doc.”

Ms. May looked down through the glass bottom of the diving bell at the ocean below, creeping closer as the bell was lowered. Now, Ms. May wasn’t as prone to claustrophobia as some pegasi, living on a ship helped with that, but this bell was small enough to make her uncomfortable. She looked over at Pearl Dive, who was also looking down at the waves. “This is completely insane,” he said aloud.

“Well,” Ms. May said carefully, “That’s probably what people said when they first made pony-drawn carriages. Or cloud chariots. Come to think of it, sailing ships likely looked like a madman’s dream when they were first made.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Dive said, leaning back as far as he could. The bell hit the water, and he watched as the waves slowly encircled them. “I suppose, if it does work, it’ll have its use. With cameras, ponies will be able to actually take pictures of some of the creatures under the water. Scientists will be able to take notes, all that good stuff.” He took a deep breath, and looked out one of the side windows up at the surface. “Okay, we’re submerged. Check for leaks.”

The pair of ponies went over the inside of the bell, and found no leaks. Water tight and air-tight, it seemed solid and safe. The air was flowing in and out from the air hose properly, and the pair could see into the ocean through the windows. As they sunk downward, the light from the surface began to fade. They looked out the windows, and before long the reef came into view. Vibrant colors, beautiful fish.
“You know, I take it back. This is pretty good,” Pearl Dive admitted, “Being able to go underwater without ever needing to get wet? I think that this could be really good. Get some Canterlot nobles in something like this, drop them into a reef, and let them see what it’s like from the safety of a bell… I think it would be super popular.”

May smiled. “Maybe,” she said, inching closer to Pearl Dive. “I could see it being romantic, you know? They would have to make these bells a little more comfortable, but-” May was cut off by the bell coming to a sudden stop and tilting slightly.
The pair immediately looked down, at the glass bottom. Only yawning abyss met them. They then looked out the side windows, and saw the claws of a great crab, covered in corals.

“What?” May exclaimed, “Why are we being attacked by a reef crab?”

“Maybe it’s just curious,” Pearl said, “It will likely decide that the bell isn’t edible and then let go.” After about a half a minute, the bell began to make odd noises: the groan of metal and magic, fighting against great pressure. “Or,” Pearl dive said nervously, “It could decide that the bell is a giant shelled creature, and that there is food inside.”

May reached out and pulled the emergency cord. They were told to pull the cord when they needed to come up early, and that certainly seemed to be the case at the moment! After a minute had passed and the bell didn’t move, she began to assume the worst. “So,” she looked at Pearl Dive, “You think that a reef crab is strong enough to crush magically-reinforced metal?”

The Diving Bell groaned a bit more, and leaks started at the seams. The pair of ponies shared a look. “Get ready to get wet,” Pearl dive said, “As soon as we’re wet enough I’ll cast the spell, and then we just have to get out of the bell. Even if the door is stuck, we just need to wait for the bottom window to blow out, and swim out the bottom.”

The walls of the diving bell began to bow in, and more water began to gush into the bell. The pair found themselves back-to-back in the center of the rapidly shrinking bell. They looked out the bottom window, to see a pair of glowing eyes and a great, gnashing mouth.

And then a trio of spikes struck one of the crab’s arms. Two of them glanced off the crab’s shell, but one found purchase in a joint, and that claw let go. Suddenly, the bell lurched in the other direction, up and away from the crab. It took the pair a moment to figure out what was going on. “They are trying to pull us up!” Pearl Dive realized, “The crab is just strong enough to hold us down!”

Even with only one claw, the reef crab was able to keep them from getting any further away. The strength of the crab was being tested against the strength of the cable, and one or the other would have to give out sooner or later. Truth be told, the crab would have won that contest if it weren’t for an unusual surge of water into its relatively unprotected face. The crab let go, taking up a defensive stance. The pair of ponies did not have time to ponder that, as they were pulled upward toward the surface.

The next few minutes were hectic; breaking the surface, being swung out over the boat, strong ponies wailing on the large window to pop it open so they could get inside. Ms. May and Pearl Dive were drug out of the bell, sacred and wet but no worse for wear. Doc went over them, to be sure that they were just as healthy as they seemed. Professor Perciforme stood back, alternating between cursing the depths and thanking the princesses, for though his diving bell had failed the volunteers were safe!

In all the commotion, the Captain was the first to notice something was wrong. “Professor! What is that thing, there, clutching to the cable?”

Everypony turned to look at the bell’s cable, where a creature hung on. It had a spiral shell, with spikes down the center. Six long tentacles and four arms reached out around a beaked mouth, giving the animal a star-like appearance. A pair of eyes, black and distant, reflected some light from the sun. Or so it seemed, until it reached up and placed the back goggles on top of its shell, letting the world see its real, catlike eyes.

“Professor,” Captain asked nervously, “What is that?”

“That’s the thing from earlier,” May said, confused. “It… why is it wearing goggles?”

The professor shook his head. “I have never, ever, seen anything like this. It must be a new species. Look, it seems fine. It must be amphibious.”

“Wait, a new species?” Pearl dive looked up at it. “May Showers! You discovered a whole new species! That means you get to name it!”

“Why is it wearing goggles?” May countered, staring up at it. “Seriously, am I the only one who finds that odd? It’s wearing goggles for some reason! How does it know how to wear goggles? Where did it even get goggles? What’s up with that?”

“They’re calling it a spined nautilus,” Twilight said as Liz poured over the newspaper that Celestia sent, “It’s thought that it had previous contact with ponies, and they think it’s highly intelligent.”

“Highly intelligent is an understatement,” Liz countered, “Nemo is smarter than I am. There’s something of a funny story behind meeting him, but I’m worried that they’re going to treat him like an animal. He’s smart enough to pick locks, hack computers, and rig explosives; if he gets treated too roughly, there’s not a lot they can do to stop him from leaving.”

Twilight blinked in surprise. “Explosives? He… explosives!?! What?”

“It’s unlikely he’d try to escape, though,” Liz clarified, “He loves science. He’s always cooperating with Pokemon researchers and scientists, but if they decide to dissect him, he’ll probably disappear the night before and then there’s no way we’ll find him-”

“Liz!” Twilight placed a hoof on Liz’s shoulder to get her attention, “Explosives? This nautilus Pokemon knows how to make explosives!?”

“If he has access to the chemicals, yeah,” Liz said, “But only as a last resort. If he can lockpick and pickpocket his way out, he’d do that instead. And, again, he’s a huge fan of science! He’ll probably work right along with the researchers as long as they don’t do anything stupid.”

“And… is this Pokemon otherwise less dangerous than your other ones?” Twilight asked hopefully. Her heart sank when Liz shook her head.

“Nope,” Liz said, “He’s not good in melee, but from a distance he can cause serious damage. Scald, spike cannon, and brine as a finisher. It’s a nasty combo, especially if you can out-maneuver your opponent.”

Twilight shook her head. “Great. Smart and dangerously magical. Just what we need.”

Liz shrugged. “Let’s just be fast. Where is he… Baltimare? Why do all your city names have horse words in them? Anyway, going by train, how far is that? A few days?”

“I’m looking into taking a balloon instead,” Twilight stated. “I even have a balloon, it just may be a bit small. It can fit five ponies comfortably, and Rainbow Dash can fly ahead… or stay here. She might need to closely manage the weather for a while. Fluttershy should stay here, too, to keep track of the Pokemon we have found. That leaves you, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and me. Wait, without pegasi we have to pay attention to air currents. Do the winds blow toward Baltimare, or away from it?”

“Maybe we could take Cica with us?” Liz offered. “He’s not very strong, but he might be able to help some?”

Twilight, leafing through a weatherpony almanac, nodded. “How do humans usually travel by air? Do humans usually travel by air? I’d imagine they would have hot air balloons.”

“Ah, yes,” Liz said, “But those are mainly for hobbyists. Most people go in planes, which are-“

“Wait, aeroplanes?” Twilight looked up from her book, looking incredulous. “Aeroplanes? Unless you mean some other kind of planes? Aerooplanes seem too unstable and clumsy to be used on a regular basis.”

Liz blinked. “What kind of airplanes do ponies have? Like… made of wood, propelled by a propeller?”

“Yeah, and most of them need to be magically lightened to get off the ground at all. And unless the human world has some wood that is both very light and very sturdy, that’s going to have been an issue.” Twilight ponders that a bit more. “Well, I guess humans probably wouldn’t fly all that much. It’s probably just a few important or rich people and then the crazy hobbyists.”

“Um, actually, we make planes of metal, propel them by jet engines, and have planes that can fly a hundred people per trip. They’re really popular for continent jumping.”

Twilight blinked. “You put one hundred people… in metal planes… powered by rockets… oh.” A smile broke across her face, and Twilight rolled her eyes. “You’re messing with me. You had me going there for a minute. Do they have fixed wings, too?”

Liz frowned. “The ones that don’t fold up for storage, yes.”

“What? Why wouldn’t wings fold up for storage? A plane of that size, the wings would have to be monumental! And how would you make lift without flapping?”

“It has to do with the shape of the wing. It’s a funny shape, so that it makes a difference in air pressure.”

“Okay, then how do you steer? The wings would have to move to be able to steer.”

“They have wing flaps for that. That is, parts of the wings that move and mess with air drag…”

Spike resisted the urge to moan loudly. For being not a scientist, Liz seemed to know a lot about science. He had a sinking feeling that this was going to take a while, and fished up a weather almanac for himself. Someone was going to have to do the research into Equestria, and it looked like it was going to be him.