A Soul of Silver: The Johto tales

Chapter 1: Here we go!

"Ugh..."

I woke up after a night of terrible sleep. When I began rubbing my eyes, my hands felt...weird. Not like hands at all. Like something had engulfed my hands in some fuzzy yet sturdy tubes or something. When I opened up my eyes, I couldn't believe what I saw! Hooves! Yellow ones. Not my favorite color, but that didn't matter at the point in time. All panicky, I jumped off of my bed, only to stumble and hit my chin on the floor. I figured if I had front hooves, I'd have back hooves as well. Adjusting myself easily, I trotted to the full-body mirror in my room. Or, well, it wasn't my room. It seemed more colorful. It also had a laptop on a desk I didn't have before, a BIG TV which I didn't have either, and my Wii that I sold a while ago.

Looking in the mirror, it wasn't me looking back. No, the image showed a cream-colored Earth pony with a messy black mane and dark brown eyes. His cutie mark seemed to be what I believed was the GS Ball from the Pokémon animé I used to watch when I was a little kid. I was shocked and yet, excited as well. I knew the pony in the mirror was a lookalike of most ponies from my favorite show: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Not to mention, I looked exactly like the protagonist of the Pokémon Soulsilver game, Ethan. Not exactly knowing what was going on, I went downstairs. Knowing the pony and that this wasn't my room, I figured I was dreaming about being in the game.

Once downstairs, a pony with my coat color came trotting up to me. However, she was a mare, a little bigger than myself and with brown hair pointing outwards on each side. I figured this was the mother character in the game.

"Hi, Sand! You're finally awake."

Huh. I was still named Sand. It's a name some friends on Skype or any other site know me as. It was funny that my 'mother' called me the same.

"Your friend Lyra was just here. She was playing hide-and-seek with her Marill."

Lyra? So apparently I wasn't Ethan, but my co-protagonist was Lyra, apparently. I began fantasizing it would be Lyra Heartstrings, and I chuckled silently. She'd probably be a ponification of the actual Lyra.

"Oh, I almost forgot! Our acquaintance, Professor Veritas, was looking for you. He said he had a favor to ask of you."

My eyes widened slightly at that name. Veritas was one of my pony roleplay OC's! How could he possibly be in a pony version of my favorite Pokémon game?

"You know where the lab is, right? It's right next door to us."

I figured as much. I haven't played the remakes of Silver and Gold yet, but I figured most things would be the same as old. Think now would be the time that 'mom' gives me my bag and whatnot.

"By the way, do you have everything you need to go out? Here, use these Saddlebags to carry things..."

Heh, Saddlebags. Nice alternative for ponies in this world. As 'mom' said that, she strapped two saddlebags around my body and continued talking. She handed me a card with my picture on it.

"And this is your Trainer Card."

Hm. I expected her to say that 'these are buttons to save your progress and that the options are rather helpful'. Then again, this was a world of its own, not really a game. I began wondering when I would wake up from this dream. But I walked outside anyway.

As I looked around outside, standing at my door, I felt something bump against my hoof. I couldn't believe it. A Marill sat in front of my hoof, smiling at me. No way this was real anymore. Ponies AND Pokémon? Now I HAD to be dreaming. I reached my hoof down to pet it, and Marill just let me. Then, I saw a mint-colored pony standing on the staircase against the lab next to my house. At first I looked surprised and then I burst into laughter.

My actual fantasy was a reality in this dream! Lyra was played by none other than the actual Lyra Heartstrings! She trotted away after Marill happily jumped up her back. Having done laughing, I decided to enter Elm's-no-Veritas' lab.

Next to the lab, I saw another familiar fan-named pony staring in the window. Dark grey coat, black mane, purple eyes... Octavia! So Octavia would play the rival Silver later on. Neat.

I trotted on to see my actual OC Veritas stand at the very end of the lab. I recognized his red-brownish coat and golden mane anywhere. Standing in front of him, he began talking.

"Hi, Sand! I've been waiting for you! Do you know anything about my research?"

Before I could say a thing, he continued.

"As you know, Pokémon are carried in Poké Balls these days. But before the Poké Ball was invented, people used to walk with Pokémon. Just like your friend Lyra does!"

So Lyra turned out to be my friend already. Which of course, I found awesome. Excited, I listened on.

"Poké Balls are great because you can carry many Pokémon. But walking with Pokémon must have some advantages. It could have something to do with how Pokémon grow or evolve..."

And what he said next baffled me.

"So, I'm going to give you a Pokémon! Can you walk beside this Pokémon, outside of its Poké Ball, to see if this brings any special feelings or bonds between Pokémon and people? The device over there has some Pokémon you could choose from..."

As he went to his PC, hearing the sound of an incoming e-mail, I hurried over to the device containing 3 Poké Balls. Veritas continued talking though.

"Hey, I have this acquaintance, Vinculum. He keeps finding weird things and raving about his discoveries."

Of course, Vinculum. One of Veritas' best friends in my roleplays. Surprisingly, this role fit Vinculum well.

"Anyway, I just got an e-mail from him saying that this time it's real. It's probably another Pokémon Egg, but we're still so busy with our Pokémon research..."

Suddenly, a wide smile appeared on his face. "Wait! I know!"

I raised an eyebrow.

"You can go in our place, right? Can we count on you? You can choose one of the Pokémon over there." He pointed at the device I was looking at.

Now came the biggest decision before starting my adventure. What starter to pick...?