A New World, an Unusual Inferno

Chapters

01. A Brief Introduction
02. A Fiery Beginning
03. A Rude Awakening
05. Interlude: Another Liability
06. A Long Pilgrimage
07. A Secret Shortcut
04. A Better Understanding

01. A Brief Introduction

It never felt so good to do absolutely nothing. Just a month ago he would have been thrown into situations that would have kept him on high alert, cautious at all times, never lowering his guard for a second so that no one could see through his clever disguise.

He had spent over ten years of his life building credibility and raising his standing in that wretched organization, but now it was all over. All of his hard work paid off, but he couldn't help but feel robbed of what he had worked for.

In all of his years working as a double agent, he had a plan for every situation he would come across, and for every plan there were dozens of back-up plans. For the first time in a long while, Cypher realized that he had no plans. He had plans for the immediate future of course, but he had become so immersed in his work that he had never thought of any long term plans for his life.

With a sigh, Cypher rolled out of his hammock and nimbly landed on his feet. Taking a deep breath, he scanned the clearing behind his home. Every morning at sunrise Cypher would let out his team. It was a routine and a promise that he had kept ever since he had returned home.

During his time undercover, he was never allowed to show that he had a bond with his Pokemon. To those bastards Pokemon were just tools. He didn't have to worry about that anymore now that he was back home. His Pokemon were probably happier and healthier than they'd ever been. Even now, they were all visibly enjoying themselves and for that Cypher was elated.

He wished he could join them, but he still had business to take care of regarding a possible job in town to start making steady income to support himself and his team. He started walking towards the back door to his house watching all of his partners have fun.

Lola was running up and down near the edge of the clearing while Mage was lounging in the shade of a tree off near the edge of the surrounding forest watching her do her endurance training. While Mage was nowhere near as fast as Lola, he made up for it with raw firepower. Where Lola might use agility to get out of a jam, he would simply blast his way out.

Meanwhile, Demetrius was curled up in a ball napping on top of the table on the patio near where Cypher was heading. Demetrius never really did care to much about being social with his comrades. His relationships with them were more about showing mutual respect for each other rather than trying to make close bonds. While an interesting approach, it was understandable to Cypher. In the same way that Demetrius needed to earn respect from his teammates, he had to work his way up the totem pole while undercover. Now that he thought about it, maybe that was where Demetrius had gotten that idea.

Anyways, Cypher spotted Shane and Corona off in the distance, who were just getting out of the pond towards the back of the property and were heading towards the rest of the gang near the edge of the clearing. Those two were damn near inseparable. It was probably since they were both water types, so there was probably some sort of a kinship between the two of them. Shane, was always a bit slower than the rest, but Corona always waited up for him to make him feel more at ease.

A lone figure made its way down the road, dripping with sweat. The pony paused to pull something out of their makeshift sack that contained their only belongings. It was a tomato, one they received while performing on the streets of Manehattan in an attempt to make money. The passing ponies thought it would be more fun to give her something other than bits, but at least she was prepared for a scenario like that.

Trixie had dealt with plenty of flying tomatoes before she hit rock bottom, but she never would have thought that she'd be eating one of the juicy projectiles. She had caught a couple tomatoes in her levitation and took off down the street, risking being hit by more. Of course there were some professional tomato tossers that still hit her as she ducked into an alley to escape from her hecklers.

Even though she dropped her superior attitude while performing, ponies, no matter where she went, still remembered her previous attempts at entertaining them with magic. Of course she still put on shows, hoping that ponies would give her a second chance, but she had stopped making money long ago. She had been barely scraping by for the past couple months, finding scraps in the trash and traveling by the cover of night.

Trixie dropped to the dirt, not from physical exhaustion, but emotional exhaustion. Never had trixie thought she'd resort to eating the very tools the hecklers used to let her know she wasn't wanted there, to let her know she wasn't wanted or appreciated. Tears trickled down her cheeks as she asked herself what she was doing with her life. She dragged herself over to a tree to rest against. She slowly munched on the rest of her tomato before she drifted off to the dreams of a better place.

She muttered in a state between her dreams and reality, "Trixie doesn't deserve this. Trixie's better than this... no I'm not... I do deserve this..."

Cypher had seen all of his team except for one Pokemon, Mia. She was acting a bit odd lately. Either hanging out around Deme or just sulking off by herself. Normally, she would be bouncing off the walls, trying to keep up with Lola, or rolling in the grass near his hammock. He'd have to deal with her later because he had bigger issues to deal with in the coming days. His brother Cole was out adventuring by himself for all he knew and Cypher needed to know what his plans were if he wasn't coming back home anytime soon. He didn't even know where to start looking for him and he didn't have his number because he couldn't risk his little brother being kidnapped and tortured in an effort to get information from him if he were caught while undercover. Sure, he knew he was paranoid, but that paranoia kept him alive and sane... to a degree.

He sighed, deep in thought about his brother's possible whereabouts, when something came up from behind him on his right side and nudged his hand playfully with its nose. He turned to see who it was, but he already had a pretty good idea. They both stopped walking and he turned around and squatted so he could meet her eye level. The immediate response to his acknowledgement of her presence was a tilt of the head and a wagging tail.

"I'm glad to see you're feeling better Mia." He placed his hand behind her ears and started scratching. "It takes a load off my chest to see you back to your usual antics." She started kicking her back leg as a reflex to his petting.

After a few more seconds of pure bliss for Mia, he stopped mid-scratch and stood up to full height. Mia only sat there looking up at him expectantly as he brushed off his shirt and pants briefly.

"As much as I'd love to stay out here with you guys all day, I need to go inside and start making some phone calls. You're welcome to join me if you want though." Mia joyfully vocalized and got off of her haunches. She trotted ahead of him and went in the general direction of the house.

Not wanting to be left behind, Cypher sauntered after her, enjoying the gentle breeze. It would probably be the last he'd see of the outdoors until morning. He would probably be busy calling all of the Pokémon Centers in every region, trying to find where his brother had been most recently. That was going to take a while. Maybe he could split it into two days instead of trying to fit it all into one afternoon...

Mia was pacing back and forth, waiting impatiently for him to open the back door. He chuckled inwardly and looked over to the drowsy Deme, who probably woke up because of all the noise Mia was making in her stupor. Cypher nodded to him and reached a hand out to him in acknowledgment as he passed a good five feet away from him. Deme turned and bowed his head reverently and went back to glaring at Mia. Mia only turned her head up at him and stopped her pacing as Cypher approached the door. He promptly unlocked it and they both went inside. Deme sat there a while longer, yawned, got up, stretched his legs, and went back to sleep.

“Rest now my children, for when you awake a whole new world shall be your home.”

They all went to sleep.

Author's Note

I don't know when the next chapter will decide to slap me across the face, but I was thinking about trying for next week. Hopefully I can at least keep a pattern of one chapter every ten days, but weekly would be ideal for both myself and you, the readers.

Assuming you'll all have these questions:
Yes, zeus gave me the go ahead.
No, I didn't have time to find a editor, proofreader, or anything of that sort so if you don't mind, help me out in the comments.
That being said, if you would like to offer your services as a (possibly) permanent editor for the grueling duration of this approximately 20 chapter side-fic, then be my guest if not, I'll scour the depths of Tartarus for someone who's up to the task.
Yes, you will find out who his Pokemon are... some, relatively soon... others, not so much.
Let's make a guessing game of it; let me know who you think each one is.

02. A Fiery Beginning

[Cypher]

What did I do last night?

This wasn't the first time this week I'd been graced with a wonderfully head-splitting headache upon waking up. Admittedly, I'd picked up the horrible habit of binge drinking near the end of my time with that mafia organization. In my defense, it helped. It really did. I still hadn't gotten around to sobering up now that I was home for good and I planned on stopping soon, but I just couldn't quit drinking all at once. I needed time.

I lifted my hands from the comfort of my bed and stretched out my- something didn't feel right. I felt restricted somehow, like my body just wouldn't stretch out completely. Looking back on it, my bed normally feels more... fluffy. It felt like I was lying on the ground, but I know I remember going inside...

Stop thinking Cy, just open your eyes.

I was indeed outside. I found myself in the shade at the border of a clearing in what appeared to be a jungle of sorts. Oh Arceus, that fragrance! I sniffed lightly in the air and I smelled it all. I could smell the musky scent of old, fallen leaves of the surrounding trees combined with the damp earth where the leaves sat, gradually decomposing over time. I could smell the fresh air from a nearby source of running water and the rich, dark soil giving life to the trees surrounding me. It was all so beautiful, even the fresh droppings somewhere in the vicinity. Never before had I been so overwhelmed. This wasn’t normal… I needed to get up and find my way back to my house.

I went to shield my eyes from the sun that filtered through the canopy overhead so I could try to find some sort of a landmark I could remember, and that's when I saw it. Fur?! Paw! Why is there a paw?!

I rolled to my feet only to fall back down on my four paws. Think fast Cy, what's got orange and black fur and walks on four paws?

"Growlithe?!" That was... oddly comforting. At least I was a type I already had experience with. Fire.

"C'mon Lola, I believe in you!"

I looked my starter in the eyes. I knew she wanted this as bad as I did but she was still unsure of her abilities. All she needed to do was make fire. A basic ember attack. She made fire all the time, whether or not she realized it. If she could do it involuntarily, she could do it voluntarily as well; It was just a matter of teaching her how. All she needed to do now was direct her inner fire outward through her mouth. How do I know that at my young age? Let's say I was so excited about getting a Pokemon that I researched... a lot.

"Lola, just relax, and breathe the fire outward. You just have to think what you want it to do and direct it. Trying to force it out only makes it harder."

She snapped back at me with what was probably a sassy, 'What does it look like I'm doing?'

I watched intently as she composed herself. She took a gentle breath in and she expelled a steady light flame for a couple seconds before she stopped, her excitement showing on her face. The moment the flame disappeared I scooped her up in my arms to celebrate our small victory.

"You did it! Awesome job!"

I was snapped out of my brief trip down memory lane by a rather loud growl.

"Don't make me repeat myself young one," a rather gruff voice came from behind me, "What are you doing on my master's property?"

I turned to face the speaker to see the only other creature in the clearing. "Deme?"

Despite the sun’s invasive rays bringing light through the canopy above me he was still mostly shrouded in darkness. His glowing red eyes shone eerily through the shadows just a few meters beyond the border of the clearing. Since I had spent most of my life with the canine so his appearance didn’t unnerve me, but what came out of his mouth did. His unexpected threat did more than just frighten me. I was questioning my sanity and scuttling backwards away from him in a mixture of surprise, fear and confusion. Since when could I understand Pokemon?! He advanced towards me, leaving the cover of the shadows behind him.

"You know the name my master gave me," Deme asked in shock but quickly replaced it with a more menacing tone bordering on a growl, "How?"

"Deme, it's me. Cypher." I started scuttling back away from him, unsure of what he would do. As far as he knew I was an imposter! It's not like I still look like me. How could I even explain it to him?

"That's impossible, you look like a mere Growlithe in every way," he scoffed at me in disbelief, "there's no way you are my master."

I looked the battle scarred Houndoom in the eyes and pleaded with him. I told him what I knew of the situation. I told him how yesterday I had gone inside with Mia and the rest was a blur. I had woken up just now as a Growlithe and ran into him and I had just as much of an idea of what was going on as he did. I prayed to Arceus that was enough to convince him to trust me.

“The simple explanation is that you spied on us and now you're trying to infiltrate our ranks." He coughed out some smoke and pawed at the earth, growing more furious the longer our argument persisted. "I know your type."

“Just hear me out for Arceus sake! This isn’t Team Rocket anymore, Deme. The branch of the Rockets we were in was defeated a couple months ago!” I felt something behind me and a quick glance back confirmed my fears. I’d backed myself into a corner.

"Please. I've spent enough time working undercover with my master to recognize a trap," he towered over me with malice in his eyes, "and there is no way I'll ever fall for one of your stupid tricks again."

"Deme, this isn't some sort of sick convoluted plot to get you to gain my trust like something one of the admins would pull on hostages. I need you to-"

"Enough!" he barked out in rage. He was getting more and more violent and I feared that he would go off on me with every attack he knew, that he would never trust me again and that he would leave me here alone, but most of all I feared I would lose him forever.

"Demetrius," I started calmly, "how can I prove to you that it's me?"

"If you insist," he grumbled before going into deep thought. Alright, at least I had a chance to prove my identity. “I'll ask you three questions. If you get any of them wrong, I end you right here with no hesitation."

I winced. "Fair enough."

“What is your brother’s name and age?”

“Cole Richter, 15 years old.” I can understand that question. I never told anyone that I have a brother, not like I’d ever had anyone to tell. If anyone was trying to impersonate me, they would have to have my memories.

“Why do you care about your brother so much?”

“I care because I’m the only family he’s got left. He didn’t remember them and I had to make sure he grew up right.” Why did he ask me that question? I don't think he even knew the answer to that one.

"Alright. Last question: where was I hatched?"

“That's a trick question because I wouldn't know. I got you as a gift from my dad when I came back from traveling and spent my 12th birthday at home- and damn you Deme! You know that's a touchy subject you prick!”

"Cypher?" He paused his advances toward me and glanced up at the sky meaningfully for a second before closing the distance between us. He practically pounced on top of me with how hard he began nuzzling me and asking for my forgiveness.

"Deme, Deme it's okay buddy," I returned his affection from my position beneath him, my eyes watering, "I trained you well, it's okay."

"No, master..." he got up off of me and looked away in shame. "I failed you. I should have known it was you from the beginning."

"Deme, it's not your fault..." I trailed off, unsure how to comfort him. I'd never even had a two way conversation with him before and now look at me. I chuckled to myself and changed the topic, "and anyways, we shouldn't even be playing the blame game right now. We should be figuring out why I'm a Growlithe."

He looked down at me, baring his teeth in what I recognized was a smile. He hadn't smiled since... yeah. This would take some getting used to. Normally I'd be looking down at him...

"Do you hear... is that running water?" Deme looked around in panic. Now that my life wasn't on the line, I realized I could hear it too. "Since when did we have a river anywhere near the house?"

“Since never. We should probably investigate.” I got up and followed him out of the clearing.

The roaring torrent of water was nearly deafening and it was only getting worse the closer we got to it. Even though we had to have been right next to it for it to be so impossibly loud, we still couldn’t see it through the thick forest. We were nearing the hill’s crest on the slanted path we had chanced upon. At the time we had hoped to find a better vantage point but now I think it was just so we had something to do. If not for this meaningless quest for uncovering the mysteries of the wilderness that so encompassed us, surely we’d be back in that clearing still trying to make heads or tails out of this situation, as if one of us knew what in Arceus’ name was going on.

I already missed my human body. Sure, I always wanted to see things from the eyes of my Pokemon, but actually becoming one wasn’t what I had in mind. It might have been alright if I knew how to change back, but since I had no idea where I was or who did this to me I was kind of freaking out. I couldn't shake this feeling of being trapped, but at the same time I'd never felt so free.

I guess I had always been trapped in one way or another in the 22 years of my life, from joining Team Rocket to trying to live up to my father's expectations, and even practically raising Cole by myself.

We walked without speaking to one another, as I’m sure we both had the same infinite amount of questions flooding our minds. Where are we? How did I change into a Growlithe? How did we get here? Where’s the rest of my team? Lola? Corona? Mage? Shane? Mia? Were they here too? Why us? Why now? The questions just kept coming and coming, some even coming back for return visits to the back of my mind as I wandered through this strange uncharted forest with Deme, my only anchor to what once was and hopefully still is our home.

After a certain point I knew that we had both realized we weren’t in the woods beyond my backyard at all and that somehow we had been transported an impossibly far distance away. How far exactly? I don’t think I’ll ever be able to grasp it in this lifetime, or the next, or the one after than and so on. I just had this awareness, whether or not it was my new heightened senses is up for debate, that the trees around us weren’t the ones I had grown up with. They were unfamiliar to the both of us and the breeze even felt different. The most worrying revelation was that the smells were off. Sure, there was the smell of other Pokemon in the area, but that wasn’t what had me so uptight. The environment around us didn’t smell of Pokemon. When I asked Deme later on in the day, he told me that if we were back home, the trees, grass, rocks and dirt would all have a distinct residual scent that would reveal what types of Pokemon were in the area, because they had been there recently. Deme said that he couldn’t pick up on any traces of other Pokemon from earlier in the day, but we weren’t sure exactly what that meant.

The raging water just had to be past the tree line ahead. Both of us took a deep breath and pushed on through the light layer of foliage, unsure of what to expect on the other side.

Somewhere in the shrubbery I got caught up on a branch and stumbled the rest of the way out only to land on my face. I scrambled up to a seated position and wiped my tongue on my paws in an attempt to get the dirt out of my mouth but I only succeeded in putting more dirt in. I was too focused on my plight to see the jewel that the forest had kept shrouded this entire time.

“Cy…”

“Deme, what is-”

It was beautiful. We were on small hill adjacent to the thunderous waterfall gushing over the edge of a broad, steep cliff. The water foamed as it cascaded down the otherwise perilous drop to the large pool waiting below and the consequent river that went on past the horizon towards a mountainous spire that glowed in the early morning light. The breathtaking sight before us kept us in relative silence for what felt like an eternity. I finally regained my composure before speaking to Deme, not daring to take my eyes off of the watery curtain.

“Deme, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kanto anymore.”

Author's Note

I was having trouble with the second half of this chapter (I love you Trixie, but you're almost as hard to write as a good Zecora or Pinkie Pie) and I didn't want to rush the chapter or for people to think I was dead, so I played ~~Pokemon X~~ it safe and split the chapter. Hopefully I can finish ~~Pokemon X~~ tonight and I'll have part two done by tomorrow afternoon. It'll still be the same chapter, just split down the middle more or less. Hope you enjoyed!

Houndoom
Growlithe

03. A Rude Awakening

There was a light breeze that woke me from my less-than-luxurious slumber. Getting beauty sleep wasn’t an option anymore. Ever since that big incident back in Ponyville everything started going downhill for me especially with the loss of my wagon. I lost a sizeable stash of fireworks and I left that stupid town with nothing. I even left my favorite outfit, my cape and hat, which in my opinion makes me look much more professional. I’m not even sure why I’m thinking about that now of all times, but maybe it’s because of that failed attempt at getting some bits last night. Sure, I’d worked on that rock farm a while back, but I blew all my bits on that stupid amulet. Why’d I have to go and be so stupid, stupid, stupid! If only I hadn’t punctuated each ‘stupid’ with a resounding thud of my head against the tree I was leaning against.

“Ugh… stupid tree. Now my head hurts.”

A familiar sounding cracking sound resonated through the woods from across the road I had veered off from last night. And another one. And another. Each one sounded like it was getting closer and closer to my current position.

I shook my head back and forth rapidly to wake myself up to make sure I wasn’t hearing things. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not scared of some creepy knocking from the woods, that would be-

“Bouf, Bouf, Bouf, Bouf”

A buffalo with a crazy hairdo was charging right at me.

I didn’t scream like a little filly. That must have been somepony else who was being attacked by a rampaging lunatic.

I teleported out of the way at the last second, reappearing on the other side of the road, a good distance away from the crazed creature chasing me. I had never seen anything like it before, and I had never seen anypony charge head first into a tree at full speed and stay on their hooves either. It turned to face me, calling out that same vocalization it made before, and started charging me again. I teleported a short distance away again and it kept on running past me into another tree. It shook its head and came at me once again. Maybe I could wear it down like this?

A rustling in the forest behind me caught my attention before I teleported across the road again to dodge the buffalo-thing for the fourth time. It appears that this fellow isn’t all that bright.

“Grow, Growlithe Growl.”

“Sweet Celestia what in the hay is that?”

“Deme, no don’t attack it!” I shouted before he could unleash the Flamethrower attack he was undoubtedly about to unleash. “Maybe we can calm it down somehow.”

“This Bouffalant is acting on instinct right now," he snarled with flames threatening to break loose from his bared fangs, "this is typical behavior of a Bouffalant that’s defending its territory. The only way to calm it down is to assert dominance.”

“Deme, please let’s try for me, okay? I don’t want to use violence when we can avoid it. Worst case scenario, we take it down, alright?”

He nodded his head as he nimbly jumped clear over the charging Bouffalant, landing behind it as it smashed into another tree.

“Distract it while I get in close and try to talk to it.”

“Master, are you sure that’s a good-”

“Just do it!”

Deme took off to get close enough to the Bouffalant that it would go after him and him alone. I took a quick glance at the strange, slack-jawed Ponyta-like creature off to the side. Apparently this blue Ponyta was a victim of circumstance and the Bouffalant was crazy because it was trying to protect its territory, or at least what it thought was its territory.

“Don’t worry, we’re gonna take care of it.” Hopefully it could understand me.

Deme was standing in front of a tree nearby and I was off to the side of the charging Bouffalant. Deme easily dodged the Bouffalant, making it hit the tree, while I ran up from behind it. While it was recovering I jumped up onto it’s back and lunged for it’s horns before it could realize I was there.

“Stop this, right now! You’re putting others' lives in danger!” Please listen, please listen, please listen.

“Get out of my territory right now! You don’t have permission to be here!” The Bouffalant started bucking wildly in an effort to get me off, but I had a pretty good hold on its horn despite my new form.

“This isn’t your territory anymore, we’re not even in the same place!” Looking back, trying to explain the removal of it’s territory from our plane of existence probably wasn’t a good idea.

“How dare you claim my territory! Take this!” It kicked it’s frantic attempts at getting me off into overdrive as it charged straight at large boulder not too far away. The Bouffalant stopped once it hit the big rock, but I didn’t.

“Take it out,” I called out to Deme as my paws failed me, making me wish I had hands once again, “it’s no use!” That was the last thing I remembered before my head made contact with a tree branch.

Why didn’t we just attack it in the first place… what a stupid, stupid plan. Once Cypher was no longer hanging on for his life on the back of the rampaging beast, I unleashed a Flamethrower at point blank to the back of the Bouffalant, knocking it out instantly. Normally it wouldn’t have taken it down in one shot, but using Nasty Plot a couple of times while Master was putting his life in danger gave it enough power to make the opponent faint. Make me the distraction… genius.

I strode up to the creature that looked like how a Ponyta might look if they were a water type Pokemon. I bowed my head slightly, speaking softly since it looked frightened for some reason, “I hope that Bouffalant didn’t harm you, they can be really aggressive sometimes.”

“A-are you g-going to eat m-me?” The blue Ponyta almost whispered. Well, now I know its a she, based on the feminine voice at least.

“No.” I’m going to assume she can’t understand me since she didn’t make a response that made sense contextually, seeing as to how me eating

“Oh Celestia help me.”

“Oh Arceus help me, my head feels like I just got my mind shredded by a Psychic.” Oh great, Cypher’s up. “Oh hey Deme, did we win?”

“Yes Master, the all-powerful Bouffalant has fallen,” I yawned before nodding my head towards the cowering Ponyta behind me, “but we have a new problem. We can’t communicate with what I’m guessing is a local, since I’ve never seen a Pokemon like her.”

“Her? You know its gender?” He took a seat next to me on the ground right in front of the native.

“Feminine voice, irrational fear of me, it all checks out.”

“Deme, I think everyone’s a bit scared of you when they first meet you, especially after you got those, eh, scars a while back.”

“Oh Celestia, they’re planning out how they’re going to eat me.” We both ignored her for the time being, still not sure how to explain to her that she wasn’t on the menu.

“Don’t bring the scars up again.” Cypher gulped nervously before shifting the topic away from me.

“So, we can understand her, but she can’t understand us?”

“Yeah, can you think of any way to let her know we’re intelligent and capable of understanding her without scaring her?”

“Hmm, aside from acting like a pet or begging for treats, I got nothing.” Genius.

“Well that hel-”

“No wait, I got it!”

He trotted up to her and sat in front of her with his back turned, scratching something on the ground. He took no more than a minute to finish, catching the shivering Ponyta’s attention, and carefully walked around the words he wrote without messing up the dirt. He took a seat on the opposite side of the sentence and looked up at her expectantly, probably not even realizing he was panting.

The Ponyta got up carefully and inched towards Cypher’s work. She followed suit and took a seat, taking in the sentence before her. “We… can… understand you…” She took five seconds to digest the information she had just received before falling face first into the dirty words.

“I think you broke her,” I snickered in amusement.

“What a horrible, horrible dream that was. There was some crazy buffalo trying to kill me and then this dog straight from the depths of Tartarus tried to eat me with it’s orange puppy friend. I must really be-”

“Growlithe, growl.”

“Oh Celestia… it wasn’t a dream.” And they can understand me... “But I can’t understand you two…”

The two dog-like creatures turned to each other, making their strange noises again, clearly bickering back and forth if the tone was any indication. How can I make it so that I can understand them? Trixie, you’re a genius.

“Okay, don’t freak out or anything, demon dogs. I’m going to try to make it so that I can understand you.” I lit up my horn, preparing the translation spell I had learned a long time ago, but had only recently perfected a few months back when I was legitimately contemplating leaving Equestria behind for good. As I was almost prepared to cast the spell I prayed to Celestia that I wasn’t dragged to the depths of Tartarus. Why else would this demon come after me?

The two of them were still bickering back and forth, having completely ignored me when I warned them I was going to be using the spell when I released the magic, completing the spell.

“Doom, hound, Houndoom.”

“Grow, growl, Growlithe- and I said, oatmeal, are you crazy?”

Being as diplomatic as possible was really my only option at this point, so I took a deep breath and ignored his last sentence before adopting a much more upbeat tone compared to how I had talked to them before I knew they were sapient. “Greetings, weird fire breathing dog and companion. My name is Trixie, what are your names?”

“Deme, she can’t understand us, right? So why is she-”

“If you were paying attention to me when I said I was going to try a translation spell, you would have known that already.” These imbeciles need to learn to listen when a mare is talking. Can it, Trixie. Key word: diplomacy.

The little orange one took the lead for whatever reason, which didn’t really make too much sense, since the bigger creature being in charge was more logical taking into account the size difference as well as their little display earlier. “Oh, well in that case Trixie, my name is Cypher and this is my partner-"

"Boufalant!"

"Let's save introductions for after we get away from that... thing. Run!"

We took off down the path heading to the right of the forest we woke up in. I wasn't sure of the exact direction since the sun was directly above us and I couldn't determine East from West or North from South, but Deme said we were heading East and I trust his senses. I still didn't have a hold on just how powerful my senses were now that I was a Pokémon and I hadn't had enough time to experiment and compare with my normal body.

We made it a decent enough distance from the semiconscious Bouffalant that we were safe unless it decided it wanted to exact its revenge, but that was highly unlikely considering it was probably wounded in some way or another. We would have left some Sitrus berries behind if we had any and foraging for them in a new world was out of the question.

We had traveled quickly and quietly, making no more noise than was necessary, omitting the heavy breathing and panting as we slowed to a stop and took shelter past the treeline on the side of the path.

"Alright, now that we're safe from the buffalo-"

"Bouffalant."

"Whatever, how about you two tell me what in the hay is going on and where you came from."

"Well we're not too sure ourselves," I made an awkward attempt at a shrug as I told her what I had pieced together so far.

"So you don't know how you got here and that you were in this Kanto place just last night, but you woke up here in the woods. You think this is a different world entirely since the concept of these Pokemon creatures is foreign to me and you have more of your group that might be here too?"

I yawned in a bored manner at her restatement of my thoughts. "That pretty much sums it up, anything to add Deme?"

"No."

Hmm, he only gets like that when something's bothering him. "You sure? I know from that look you're giving me something's on your mind."

"I just don't understand how we got here or even why we're here, it's the only missing link in your explanation. Who would just transport us somewhere foreign and what would they gain from it?"

"No one I know is capable of such magic that could bring beings from another world entirely and the strongest magic-wielders would be the princesses in Canterlot."

Magic? A question for another time.

"Well we should go ask them to make sure since that's our only real lead right now."

"Wait, we? I don't have any affiliation with you two."

"Well, we do need someone to show us the way..."

"Trixie is not going to go out of her way to help some vile creatures straight from the depths of Tartarus. I have places to do and things to see."

Dramatic much? And what's up with switching to third person all of a sudden? "We did kind of save your life you know."

"I was fine on my own, thank you very much. I was more than capable of teleporting away at any time I pleased."

Clearly a bluff. "Then why didn't you?" I smirked realizing I'd won. Trixie had trapped herself in her own words.

"Fine, Trixie shall go with you. Trixie was going that way anyways," she huffed as she cantered off towards Canterlot, "Come on, Trixie has a schedule to keep."

Author's Note

Sorry for the wait, life caught up with me. As an apology, have a chapter. I promise I'll spend more school time writing so that I can do weekly updates and spend less time learning things that won't help me in life whatsoever. Also, that was your first look into the inner-workings of Deme's brain. Hope you enjoyed!

P.S.- I might be able to double upload today since I have nothing better to do and I'm on a roll. This could be highly beneficial to me if I want to be relevant in the original story, since I'm playing a game of ketchup right now. I have a party to get to!

Ponyta
Bouffalant

05. Interlude: Another Liability

[First Watch]

My two Pokemon companions had fallen asleep not long ago, leaving me to watch out for any trouble near our camp. The fire was still blazing, illuminating their motionless bodies. Under normal circumstances a fire to keep warm might have been comforting, especially on a chilly night, but strange shadows danced around the fire as if taking part in a dark magic ritual of some sort. The eerie glow coming from the blaze in contrast to the expanse of darkness darting between the trees a stone’s throw away was making my watch even more unbearable considering that normally I wouldn't be up this late at night. I was growing more uncomfortable by the minute.

I knew there was nothing to fear, and I’m not one to be afraid of the dark., but it was what was lurking in the depths of the woods that had me on edge. The natural wildlife had gone into hiding because of the sudden appearance of Pokemon in the woods and not knowing what these uncivilized, wild Pokemon were capable of was really sketchy as well, especially if they were capable of breathing fire of all things like Deme. I still wasn't sure he was to be trusted yet, but little Cypher looked harmless enough.

“Purr?”

“Wh-Who’s there!” I called out into the surrounding darkness, immediately lighting up my horn so I could peer into the night.

Oddly enough, there was no colossal rock serpent or some freaky floating nose thing or any Pokemon that Cypher said were indigenous to the mountainous regions of his world that we should look out for as we traveled towards one. There was nothing that stood out, just a normal cat inching out of the bush a few yards away. No, that’s not right… there was something peculiar about this purple feline.

My conjecture was confirmed as the cat crept out completely, standing up on its two back legs so that it’s front legs were freed up to shield its eyes from the bright light still radiating from my horn. I quickly eased the spell down to a more manageable level, both for the sake of myself and the strange cat.

I almost made the same mistake I made with Deme and Cypher before I realized I couldn’t understand this creature because it was a Pokemon, so I cast the translation spell that I’d abused thus far.

Alright, remember: diplomacy.

“Hello, what’s your name?”

“W-what are you?”

[Second Watch]

At first I was a little shocked by the young Purrloin accompanying Trixie, but the little rascal proved to be innocent enough. From what Trixie shared with me once the little cutie had passed out from fatigue, one moment her owner, a young girl living with her father, was playing with her and the next she was waking up in the middle of nowhere, unable to recognize anything that could lead her back home. Trixie had promised to help her find them and I couldn't break her heart by telling her the chances of that were slim. We didn't even know if my being transformed was a freak accident or if any other humans were brought here along with me. We didn't even know how any of us got here in the first place. It's all so confusing.

I sighed, staring into the gentle flames, ignoring the fatigue of the previous day. I've always liked fire because it helps me relax. Just feeling the warmth on my skin made me feel not so alone. I missed my team. I can't help but feel that they need me right now. I hope they didn't wake up alone...

“Gah!”

I looked around my room in a panic, throwing the covers off of me towards the foot of my bed as if it were trying to strangle me. I sat there and gazed at a spot in the middle of the space that was my room. There was nothing there, but I couldn’t be bothered to look somewhere else as I gathered my thoughts, trying to recall what happened the night before. It was surprisingly dark, meaning I must have had a bad dream or something along those lines because my alarm is usually what wakes me up in the morning.

I got up to go to the bathroom at the end of the hall just to splash my face with water and maybe go downstairs and make my family breakfast. I bet they’d really like me then, especially if I made pancakes. Who doesn’t love waking up to pancakes and syrup in the morning.

After I washed my face I hopped downstairs to start on breakfast, which really took no time at all and I only had a one slightly burnt one. I quickly set the table for four and ran back upstairs, still covered in some stray flour and other ingredients that didn’t want to stay in the mixing bowl when I vigorously mixed them earlier.

I knocked on Cole’s door first and then my parents’ door as I ran down the hall shouting for everyone to wake up because breakfast was served. I ran back downstairs and waited for everyone to come down so I could be the first to see the looks on their faces. I waited a minute, then two, then five, and finally little Cole was the first to descend from the second floor.
“Oh sweet, pancakes!” Cole shouted in his best impression of an Exploud, “What’s the occasion?”

“Oh, nothing… just wanted to surprise my family is all.” I paused and glanced at the seat where my mother and father would usually sit. “Speaking of, where are Mom and Dad?”

“Mom and Dad are back? Since when? Why were they gone so long?”

All it took was the first question to make me realize my mistake, the other two questions only drove the stake in to make me feel even more miserably stupid.”

“Cole, go to your room.”

“But I-”

“Now!”

He was back up the stairs with his bedroom door closed before I could even catch my breath, not that that was even an option now that I was hyperventilating on my hands and knees, bawling my eyes out.

Those pancakes were the coldest, hardest, vilest things I had ever eaten.

[Third Watch]

[Third Person]

The battle-scarred Houndoom sat in complete silence, surrounded by a void of nothingness created by the lack of fire. The dark never bothered Deme, since he always had exceptional vision, regardless of his surroundings. He actually preferred the pitch-black night created by the trees above blocking out the moon. It gave him an advantage.

He slinked towards Cypher once he was sure he was asleep and sat right in front of him. He waited there motionless, eyes locked on his master as the sun's rays creeped over the horizon

"It's time."

Author's Note

Purrloin
Exploud

06. A Long Pilgrimage

At the crack of dawn I was nudged awake by the one friend I still had from the old world. Deme insisted I get up as soon as possible because we had a big day ahead of us, but even after he left to wake the others I just closed my eyes again, not even bothering to move from my spot; I couldn’t return to the warmth of a bed or the calm comfort of unconsciousness though. There was too much on my mind to warrant resting for even a moment more. Deme’s presence was a constant reminder that I had to keep searching because it meant the others could be here too. I needed to find the rest of my team, to make sure they were alright, and to make sure no one had hurt them because Arceus knows they'd been through enough in their lives as it is.

Ah, but I digress. I decided there was no time like the present to get my day moving, silently cursing Deme for waking me up so damn early in the morning. Who even wakes up at the crack of dawn anymore?

I went to run a hand through my hair to make some sort of an attempt to fix the usual, unavoidable bedhead I was faced with every morning in the bathroom, but I stopped short at the sight of my paw, remembering I didn’t have the same body. I guess I'm still getting used to becoming a Pokemon, even a whole day after the fact.

Shaking my head slightly, I got up to check in with the others before we got started on today's trek. I spared a glance at the campfire from last night and saw that it was already completely covered up with dirt, most likely the work of Deme who was surprisingly the one fire type of my team that was actually aware of the destructive consequences that their powers could have if they weren't kept in check. I swear, in one month alone I’d been singed more times than I can count on both hands- er, paws.

I didn't see the rest of the group anywhere in the immediate vicinity of our campsite, but I heard somebody in the distance. One voice was definitely female and the other... well, I wouldn't exactly call the other a voice; it sounded more like a collection of grunts and growls. I followed my ears away from the camp in the direction of the road, passing through a thin layer of foliage. To say I was surprised would have been an understatement. It seemed that the new member of our party was already proving to be more trouble than she was worth. She and Deme were going at it, calling each other various obscenities that I couldn't quite make out since they weren't exactly speaking clearly. That, or I really needed a cup of coffee.

I approached the bickering duo, noticing Trixie off to the side watching the two with an amused smirk plastered on her face. As I neared the two I could finally make out their dialogue clearly, which, now that I mention it, with my heightened hearing it’s odd I had to be so close to understand them. Maybe I was still groggy from lack of coffee. Boy I could really use some coffee.

"I'd challenge you to a battle, but a Magikarp would put up more of a fight."

"I hope you become a Spoink. Then you'll have to fucking bounce for the rest of your life or your heart'll stop."

"Oh yeah? Well-"

"Guys, that's enough!" I shouted, stepping between the two of them before they actually started sparring. "I don’t know what it is you're even arguing about, but surely we can come to some sort of a-"

The Purrloin, who I still hadn't properly introduced myself to, snorted before falling to the ground on her back and rolling about in a throe of giggles while Deme merely smirked before averting his gaze downwards to inwardly chuckle at something.

I have no clue what they could have been laughing at, but it seemed to have something to do with me. Maybe my fur's filthy from sleeping on the ground last night? Maybe there's something stuck in my teeth?

"What? What's so funny?"

The two of them stopped laughing after I posed my question, only to resume their cackling twofold.

I sighed in resignation and just let them laugh at whatever they thought was so funny. I'd figure it out once they decided they'd had enough.

"I'm not going to stoop so low as to teach you how to groom yourself." "I'm going to go foraging with Trixie soon because we're out of food; if you want to tag along you'd better resolve your issue quickly.”

Trixie trotted after Deme and stopped halfway to turn and announce, "Cypher, we're going to head just inside the forest. We’ll wait for you there.”

I watched them walk off together, still unsure what was so bad about my hair. I couldn’t exactly see it since I didn’t have a mirror. I started pawing at my hair to try to grab it and bring it into my field of vision but failed miserably. I was so concerned at that point that I was about to start running in circles trying in vain to catch a glimpse.

“Here, use this to see what you look like.” I turned to see the Purrloin sliding a shiny, reflective piece of what appeared to be metal towards me on the ground. I moved over to it and finally saw my reflection for the first time that morning. My hair was a disheveled tangle of cream fur, much worse than any bad hair day I ever had as a human.

I turned to the snickering Purrloin, nearly shouting at her in panic, "How did this even happen?"

“I found it in some bushes when I first woke up here. It’s so shiny! Isn’t it pretty?”

“No, not that, I mean my hair… fur.”

"Don't ask me! You probably just slept weird..." She said dismissively.

"Well how do I make it look normal? I can't go around looking like this all day!" Since when did I become such a diva.

A mischievous grin flashed across her face at the thought. "Hmm, that's an idea... but I couldn't have you walking around looking anything short of absolutely adorable!" I blushed a bit at the thought of me being adorable, but I guess that's to be expected with me being so little and puppy-like. Luckily for me, my orange fur covered the fact that I was blushing for the most part, but I still think she knew. “Here, watch me. This is how you flatten down any hairs that are sticking up at awkward angles.”

She licked the back of her paw a couple times and ran her paw over her head as if to smooth down her fur. She repeated it a couple times although I don’t think the additional cleaning was a part of the demonstration. I started to mimic her and it didn’t feel like too strange of an action to mimic, aside from the part where I had to lick my paw- after all, who knew where my paws had been? Using the reflective piece of metal the Purrloin provided me with I quickly worked out the mess atop my head so we could join the others. Just as I was finishing, a thought struck me.

“Uh, by the way... I never got your name.”

“My trainer gave me the name Cali. I suppose it fits pretty well.”

“Alright, thanks Cali, I’m Cypher.” I pawed over the shiny trinket and we hurried off to join the others.

“Good work out there in the field, grunt. If you keep it up maybe one day you’ll prove to be trusted enough to become an admin like me.”

“Yes sir.”

The admin left to join his fellow admins fresh off of their missions, but I waited until I couldn’t hear their voices anymore before I relaxed. I had been tense the whole time, especially after we finished our mission to steal Pokemon. I didn’t like the idea of stealing any Pokemon from trainers, but I had to. I had to work my way up the ranks so I could find my parents. They had to be holding them somewhere, so it was just a matter of time until I found out where.

I looked around my living quarters. It was pretty small, only housing a bed and a dresser to store my clothes. Nothing more adorned the walls or floor aside from the Rocket poster on the back of my door with their slogan plastered all over it… subtle brainwashing techniques at their finest. Aside from the aforementioned furniture and poster, my quarters was pretty bare. No carpet, no rug, no tables or chairs. There was a fellow grunt resting on the top bunk, but he wasn’t an issue to me. I hardly talked to him anymore. It was hard enough keeping up appearances in front of the admins. I couldn’t risk letting anything slip out in front of my roommate. If I said anything sympathetic to anything, he’d rat on me in a heartbeat at the prospect of a promotion. Our daily conversations began and ended with “Hello”.

I couldn’t let my Pokemon out of their Pokeballs because it was against protocol. That would be another reason for my roommate to rat me out. Did I mention his Pokemon of choice is Raticate? Even his teeth resemble a Raticate’s. It’s creepy.

I had no choice but to just lie down and listen to my own thoughts for yet another night.

It wasn’t too long before we met up with Deme and Trixie in another clearing not too far away from our campsite. They were searching through some bushes, and it appeared they’d not fared too well on their own in their search for nourishment.

“How goes the struggle?” I called out as we neared the duo.

“It goes,” was the unanimous response.

“What’s the situation?” Of course I reverted back to how I used to talk as an Admin- tone, phrasing and all. Old habits die hard I suppose. I’d break out of the old ways eventually, I just needed some time.

Deme quickly filled me in on how they were looking for specific types of berries because of course there were poisonous ones and others that tasted too bitter. Trixie claimed it was for everyone’s sake but I had a feeling it was to accommodate for her own personal preferences. Cali and I joined in immediately, feeling the discomfort that hunger brought with it as it neared everyone’s usual breakfast time. As we got to work, the hunger pains seemed to affect Trixie the least- omitting Deme. He's always hid his true emotions from me, including hunger and pain. I never really knew why, but my guess was always that he doesn’t want to seem weak in front of me for whatever reason.

As we searched the bushes to determine which ones were safe to eat and picking them, I ended up at a shrub near Trixie and decided to strike up some conversation to fill the empty silence that hard work tended to leave in its wake.

"So Trixie, why do you know so much about surviving in the wilderness? Is it your job or something?”

“No... it’s not my job or anything like that.” The speed at which she was picking berries slowed a bit. “I just spend a lot of time outside of civilization. I’ve had to learn how to adapt and survive out here.”

Now I was genuinely curious to know more about the pony that… well, maybe not saved our lives, but she did save us a lot of time by explaining the basics of how this world works and giving us some sort of direction so we weren’t walking around aimlessly looking for an answer to our dilemma. She said she spent a lot of time in the wild but it wasn’t her job so was she some sort of outcast? She had to learn how to survive out here meaning she didn’t have a means to do so in civilization… There was only one way to find out.

“Wouldn't you rather live with other ponies?" The expression she gave at hearing that brought pain to my heart. She looked so conflicted. There was a mix of anger welling up underneath her broken and shattered feeling of sadness and yearning that I picked up from her the first time we met her. There was something that was always eating at her from the inside and I had just said something that magnified that feeling tenfold. There was nothing I could do but watch as she struggled to come up with the words to respond.

"I just travel a lot, okay?" She looked away, not even caring to continue picking berries. I could tell she didn’t answer my question fully. Sure, there may have been some truth to it, but she didn’t lose her pained expression upon the admission that she travels.

I kind of know how she felt. I wasn’t entirely alone for 11 years since I had my team with me, but it was hard not being able to talk to my brother and my childhood friends anymore. It was like I had no one to go to. No one to talk to who could tell me that it was alright, that I was doing what I was doing for good reasons, that I wasn’t like them, that I was still sane! I couldn’t get a response or any sort of validation I was on the right path. I was just alone to my own thoughts. I was the only voice in my head and after a while there was no way to be sure it was even me anymore. I knew I had to try to reach out to this fellow lost soul and let them know I understood their struggle.

"That must have been pretty lonely, being all by yourself-"

"Just drop it alright?" She scowled at me, moving over to another shrub with edible berries in it, not even bothering to pick the rest of the bush clean. I didn’t want to push the issue anymore after witnessing her reaction to just a little prodding, so I just made a mental note to save that conversation for later. I couldn’t just drop the issue after all. Maybe I’m being a bit selfish by trying to help someone else to make myself feel better, but I could tell she needed it too.

I got back to work and slowly but surely we filled up a bag full of berries for the road. We met back up by the road to pick up where we left off yesterday, had a small snack for breakfast which Cali opted out of since she was full from shoving nearly half of the berries she picked into her mouth. Trixie seemed to have forgotten about our talk earlier as she was back to her usual self, cracking jokes and making snide remarks. Cali felt the brunt of her artillery for taking a fraction of our findings for herself. I think she took it a bit hard on her, she had been out in the wild for as long as me and Deme after all. I was hungry myself, but I had more self control than the young Purrloin. She had to have been famished to have been unable to wait.

Not much longer after we finished eating, Deme took the lead down the path to Canterlot, with Trixie following behind as the navigator and Cali and I taking up the rear. Hopefully by the end of the day we’d make it to our destination.

Author's Note

This chapter is dedicated to glitchhunter5000 for essentially demanding for me to come out of hiding.

Magikarp
Spoink
Raticate

07. A Secret Shortcut

We actually arrived at the base of Canterlot Mountain later than we had accounted for. It was late afternoon, so the sun would be setting in a couple of hours. Trixie told us the sun and the moon didn’t move across the sky by themselves, but that the princesses controlled their flight through the sky. It wasn’t too unbelievable considering the powers that the legendary Pokemon could wield. It was just another mechanic of this world to get used to I suppose.

Trixie said she knew a secret way into the city that she’d take us through because she didn’t want to draw attention to us; we were strangers to this world after all and this was a fairly large city we were talking about. I mean, seriously, you could tell the place was huge even from a distance. Deme seemed unintimidated, but personally I was a bit frightened. Whoever built a city on a mountain had to have been powerful. Perhaps the princesses were the legendaries of this world. If so, we’d better be careful with what we do, we wouldn’t want to irritate them after all. Cali seemed unphased by the idea of going into a big city and she actually said she was a bit excited to see a pony city. She claimed she wanted to observe the differences, but I didn’t really peg her as the type of Pokemon who would be genuinely curious about something for curiosity’s sake. Trixie appeared fairly emotionless about going to Canterlot, but I still remembered our talk from this morning, so I hurried up a bit to match her pace as we headed off to her secret entrance.

“Hey Trixie!”

“Gah!” She panicked a bit, having been daydreaming as she walked. She noticed me walking next to her and calmed her breathing. “Sorry Cypher,” Trixie began, shaking her head to clear her thoughts, “I was caught off guard... I didn’t hear you come up behind me, heh. What is it?”

I didn’t think I was that stealthy. I mean, I was panting the whole time so anyone with ears could have heard me, but I let it slide and proceeded to ask, “So you’ve been to Canterlot before right? What’s it like?”

She took a second before replying, “It’s where I grew up, so I know it pretty well. Haven’t been back here in a while though…” She took a deep breath. “I wouldn’t trust the ponies here; they don’t respond well to anything beyond the opulent lifestyle they’re used to. I know from experience.”

“Oh… alright.” It wasn’t exactly the response I was looking for. I guess coming here really struck a chord with Trixie to make her respond the way she did. What I did garner from Trixie’s comment was that they were the snooty, upper class types and that it wasn’t wise to show ourselves to them.

It wasn’t long before we reached the entrance Trixie had been talking about. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting… actually I don’t know what I was expecting. It was a railway tunnel with tracks heading off around to the other side of the mountain and far into the distance. Nothing more, nothing less. The tunnel was fairly wide and plenty dark. One thought crossed my mind: Ponies have trains?

Deme decided to speak up, voicing his concerns, “Are you sure this is a wise idea? Wouldn’t we be spotted by any peop- ponies operating any passing train?”

“Trust me, they won’t be able to see us, and if we’re lucky we can hitch a ride quicker up the mountain this way. Either way my hooves are killing me,” Trixie called over her shoulder, already heading into the tunnel.

I glanced between Cali and Deme a few times, all of us a tad uncertain of this pony’s judgement in the situation. Cali was the first to move to join her while Deme and I looked each other’s way once more before walking after them. It was our best bet I suppose, this being the only pony we knew we could trust after all. And if the plan started going down the drain, I knew the two of us could escape at any time if need be. Cali could hopefully hold her own, she did grow up in a big city back in our world.

The tunnel looked pretty dark, so any worries about being spotted were alleviated. Since there were only lights on the walls of the pony-made tunnel every 45 meters or so, there were plenty of dark portions of the tunnel to hide in if a train were to pass by. Trixie did have a solid plan after all.

My ears perked up as I felt movement nearby. I glanced up and saw hundreds of Zubats and Swoobats lounging on the ceiling of the tunnel, all sleeping. I stealthily galloped ahead of the others to tell Trixie about the potential threat.

I whispered as I ran alongside her, “Trixie, we need to be really quiet right now.”

“Why’s that?” She clearly didn’t hear the part about being quiet if the volume of her voice was any indication.

“Shh!” I glanced at the Pokemon above us to make sure I didn’t shush her too loudly. “There are some really annoying Pokemon above us right now sleeping. If we disturb them they’ll surely attack us.”

“Why does that affect us? We’re not loud enough to disturb them.”

CLICKETY-CLACK CLICKETY-CLACK CLICKETY-CLACK

“That will,” I interjected almost smugly. I say almost because I would have been smug about the whole ordeal had our lives not been at stake. The train was still in the distance, but it was getting closer and closer with each second and we had to come up with something quickly.

Trixie stepped up and started whisper-shouting orders to us, “Deme, you’ll have Cali and Cypher on your back, think you can make a jump onto a moving vehicle going 72 kilometers per hour?”

CLICKETY-CLACK CLICKETY-CLACK CLICKETY-CLACK

“In my sleep,” Deme responded dutifully.

“What about you?” I asked.

“I’ll handle myself, just be prepared to fight when you get on the train. If you say they’re a threat, we’ll need everyone in on the fight. Cali are you-”

“You don’t even have to ask, I’ve been waiting to get in on some fighting.” Cali seemed a bit jumped up on adrenaline at this point. The train was nearly entering the tunnel and we were still setting up a game plan. I was starting to get a little hopped up on adrenaline too. Deme seemed pretty calm as Cali started climbing onto his back.

CLICKETY-CLACK CLICKETY-CLACK CLICKETY-CLACK

The light from the engine of the train started making its way around the bend in the tunnel and the rest of the train followed, becoming more and more visible. There was the sound of hundreds and hundreds of wings flapping erratically faintly accompanying the clickety-clack of the train on the tracks. As the train came closer and closer, the silhouettes of flying creatures swarming around it.

“Shit,” I muttered under my breath, perched atop Deme’s back behind Cali. We had our work cut out for us.

Trixie gave us the signal, “Go!”

Deme didn’t hesitate for a second; he was already crouched down and ready to pounce. He spotted an open gondola train car and took off. He raced to match its speed and once he was running even with it, he jumped to the side without losing stride. As we arced slowly through the air, time seemed to slow down as we neared the train; we barely cleared the side of the car, but we made it, although we landed roughly. I glanced back at where Trixie had been before we took off, but she was still there oddly enough; however, almost immediately after I looked back at her, her horn lit up and there was a flash revealing she had vanished from where she was.

“Get ready, here they come,” came a familiar voice from behind us.

I’d figure out how she got in the car later, but Trixie was right, they were almost upon us. I hopped off of Deme and Cali followed suit. As soon as Cali landed, she let off a Hone Claws to increase the damage she dealt while Deme used Nasty Plot to do the same, preparing for the worst. I just sat off to the side, sparing a glance at my paws. I still had no idea how to use any fire attacks willingly. I could bite, that wouldn’t be too hard. What other attacks could I have? Ember is out of the question, Tackle would be useless against flying enemies unless they got close. It seemed we’d be relying on Deme to take on the bulk of them.

Deme had just finished using Nasty Plot for the second time just in time for the first strike to be dealt. At the head of the flock of flying Pokemon, a Zubat that felt brave enough to dive-bomb us swooped down at Deme using Bite. Deme didn’t bother counterattacking and simply swatted it away with a swipe of his right paw, leaving the Zubat to fall to the side of the moving train and onto the ground as we progressed further into the tunnel. The entire swarm flocked around us now, taking their injured Zubat companion as a sign that we meant to harm their colony.

At the head of our group, Deme began letting loose some Dark Pulses at the larger populations of bats in the horde, while Trixie, who stayed at the back, began shooting beams of magic at the ones who were closing in on us, but it did little to deter them.

“Trixie what are you doing?” I hollered back at her before pushing away a Swoobat that got too close to me.

“I’m trying to distract them so you guys can get better hits in.”

“Trixie…” I would have face-pawed if I had the time. “They can’t see anything, they’re bats. Focus your efforts on physically deterring them from coming closer.”

“...Oh.”

She blushed a bit in embarrassment, but she got her act together and started using telekinesis to swat the bats away, making better use of her time and ultimately protecting us from being overrun. Without her help, I’m fairly certain we’d have been taken out a lot sooner. Deme, having dealt with a good number of the Swoobats with his extensive use of Dark Pulse, switched over to a neutral damage dealing Flamethrower attack to deal with the Zubats. Cali had been non-stop Fury Swiping any Pokemon that Deme had either not seen or decided not to target since they were individual targets and thus wouldn’t have been a beneficial use of his energy for the rest of us.

The only sounds I could hear were the sounds of the battle. There was the thumping noise of unconscious enemies falling to the left and right of me, the flutter of wings overhead from bats diving at us trying to get some hits in before we noticed them, Cali’s claws working in a frenzy to fend off her foes, grin plastered on her face as she audibly sliced through rows and rows of bats surrounding her, flaming clumps of bats screaming because of the searing pain they felt in the aftermath of one of Deme’s flamethrowers as they fell to the ground below, Trixie’s unicorn powers, making a shimmering apparition appear before bats, and a solid thwacking sound as they felt the impact and were launched to the ground behind the speeding, oblivious train. It was pure chaos in that tunnel, and I was only playing a small role in all of it.

I’d been able to picture myself in my Pokemon’s skin during a battle before, but never so vividly. Now I was actually in the action, using attacks to deal damage to other Pokemon. Adrenaline was coursing through my body as I used Bite on any bats that decided to go after me, the, in their minds, less dangerous target. I was able to hold my own, but I was slowly losing ground and momentum as more and more bats swarmed me. A quick glance to my left revealed Deme and Cali in a similar situation. Trixie, back towards the head of the train car was moderately safe, but she wasn’t able to keep up with the seemingly increasing number of bats following the train.

As I realized how dire the situation was, I felt a fire growing deep within me. I knew there was no better time than now for my fire attacks to come in handy. I felt something deep at the back of my throat, getting bigger. I aimed at a nearby bat and let loose just as it was coming in to Wing Attack me.

“ROOAAR.”

Not exactly what I was going for, but it proved to be fairly effective. It knocked back many more bats than I had intended to attack and they went flying back into other bats behind them, immobilizing them for the time-being. I quickly realized how useful this could be and proceeded to Roar at anything and everything that was either on or close to the gondola car that we occupied. I was able to free up my comrades and assist Trixie in repelling a majority of the oncoming bats for a good few minutes so Deme and Cali could regroup.

As we fended off the last of the Zubat/Swoobat colony, it began to become gradually lighter around us and it became clear that the train began slowing down as well with the screech of the breaks becoming louder. It took me a second to realize what was going on, but Deme beat me to the punch.

“Duck!”

Everyone hit the deck just as we exited the tunnel into the station, avoiding being seen by any nearby train station workers. Upon exiting the tunnel, the remaining bats that followed us peeled away from us and flew to find another cave to call home, obviously very irritated they’d been awakened and evicted in the span of half an hour.

Just as the train lurched to a halt, Trixie poked her head out over the edge of the rail car and, when the coast was clear, motioned for us to follow her.

We all clambered out and ran after Trixie into a nearby alley to regroup and account for any injuries. It was beginning to get dark outside because of the sun setting over the horizon, giving us perfect cover as we entered the city. Luckily no one saw us leave the train station.

Once we were a safe distance into the alley, I decided to raise my question for Trixie from earlier, “Trixie, how did you get on the train earlier?”

She seemed a bit bored by the question. “I teleported.”

“Alright, that’s what I thought, but if you could teleport why not just teleport us all onto the train, or even teleport us into the city?”

“I don’t know what type of teleporting you’re used to, but it would take a skilled Mage to mass teleport long distance-” Hah, Mage can’t teleport, although that would be hilarious. It would help in battle with how slow he is too. Ah, whatever I’m getting sidetracked. “-teleport myself short distances just fine, but a long distance teleport would deplete my magic. In the same way, teleporting all of us a short distance onto a moving vehicle would not only be dangerous, but it would also leave me unable to assist in the fight.”

“Oh, okay, that’s all I wanted to know.”

“So what’s the plan, Trixie?” Deme piped in.

“Honestly, I have no idea.”

“Wait, what?” I was completely floored; we’d come this far following her that it was unthinkable that she had no plans going forward.

“You said you wanted to see the princesses, but I don’t know how you’ll even be allowed to see them. The guards would probably freak out and try to detain us for questioning if they saw you all, especially you Deme,” Trixie glanced over at him apologetically, “no offense.”

“None taken. I agree, we should be as stealthy as possible when infiltrating the castle.”

“Yeah, see? It just isn’t a- wait, WHAT?!”

“”We’re still going Trixie,” I interjected, “you don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

“You do have a better shot at being forgiven if I’m there to validate your story…” She pause to steel herself, “Fine! I’ll go with you, but if we get caught don’t say I didn’t tell you so.”

A voice rang in from the back of our party, “Hooray for espionage!”

“Cali, you sure are excited to do a lot of things today-”

“Sorry, still riding on that high from fighting millions of Zubats. WOO!” We all got a much needed laugh from her behavior.

We took a look at ourselves and noted that we didn’t receive too many wounds from the fight. At least, nothing that would keep us from walking around sneakily. We decided now was the best time to try to slip past the guards since it was going to be night soon and Trixie said they’d probably be changing the guards soon, whatever that meant, so now was the best time to strike.

We navigated through alleys and backstreets to get as close to the castle as we could without using main streets, but we would have to walk across one main street to even get close to the castle.

Trixie took the lead once again, whispering the plan to the tree of us, “On three we run across, alright?”

Everyone gave an affirmative nod as she began counting, “One. Two… Three!”

We all took off at the drop of a hat and we had almost made it across when there was an “Oomph!” behind us.

We looked back to see Trixie on the ground looking dazed next to a guard pony in full gold armor who looked just as surprised to see us as we were to see him. It appeared we picked the worst time to cross the street because there was a guard making his rounds at just the perfectly inopportune time. How we didn’t see him approaching was beyond me with how much he stood out. He did a double, then triple take, but before he could react. Deme uttered one word:

“Run.”

Author's Note

Minor cliffhanger is minor cliffhanger.

Zubat
Swoobat

04. A Better Understanding

We sat huddled around the fire Deme provided for us, burning the dead branches that Trixie gathered with what she called magic. The only explanation I could think of was that she was a Psychic type, but given that we weren’t in Kanto, maybe that wasn’t how this world worked. I’d have to save that for another time.

I was pretty pissed off that I couldn’t use at least a basic Ember attack as a Growlithe. I sat in one spot for at least half an hour trying to get it to work, but no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t get it to work. I really wanted to help out with the fire as an excuse to try out my new abilities, but I couldn't even tap into my inner flame, as the textbooks so long ago had called it. I knew how to do it but it just wasn’t working, so I guess I’m just not strong enough to learn it yet. I’d have to give it some more time before trying again. Maybe if I get in more battles I’ll become experienced enough to learn it.

Looking back, what moves would a young Growlithe even have? Bite was definitely one of them and if I remembered correctly, Roar was the other one. Ember was the next closest move I could learn, so I must have come into this world no more powerful than a newly hatched Pokemon. Interesting… that might be something significant, then again, trying to guess what in Arceus’ name happened is more likely than not going to result in a massive headache, so I just ignored it for now.

We had gotten to talking on the path to the princess about various things, like how this world worked in comparison to our world. Trixie was fascinated by the concept of Pokemon, creatures that you can befriend and have work at your side in a sort of mutual partnership that usually blossomed into full-blown friendship. The Pokemon would be allowed to battle, to grow stronger and unlock their true potential while their trainers could enter into tournaments and complete gym challenges to grind their way up to better and better trainers, allowing the cycle to continue. Meanwhile, I was just fascinated by this magic that Trixie described. Apparently there are more than one type of pony, as I learned they were called. There were pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies, each with their own skills and talents respective to their subspecies (kind of like Pokemon if you ask me). They each had magic, only unicorns could use it actively. The other ponies only had passive magic, but it gave them skills that unicorns could not possess. Then there were the princesses, alicorns, who were every race combined. It was a lot to take in, but I think I got the basics down. While Trixie and I were shooting the breeze, Deme just kept on plodding down the road, indifferent to our shared interest in the others' world.

“So, I remember you said something about there possibly being more of your friends out there somewhere because you weren’t the only ones sent here since that buffalo wasn’t with you.”

“Bouffalant, and yeah, there should be five others with us assuming we’re not alone. That would include Lola, Mia, Mage, Shane and Corona.”

“What do they look like? I would think that having another pair of eyes on the lookout might increase your chances of finding them.”

“Hmm well hold on I’ll show you a-” Dang it, no Pokedex. C’mon, Cy, you’re not a trainer anymore. I’m not a trainer anymore… I’m… what am I now?

“Deme, what am I to you now?”

“Huh?”

“What am I to you now? I mean, I’m not your trainer anymore, I’m a Pokemon, there is no Pokeball keeping you by my side, what’s keeping you from just up and leaving. I know just as well as you do that I’m a liability now; I’m just holding you back. You could move a lot faster without me.”

“I… you’re my Master, even if you’re no longer a human, I still feel drawn to you. You just… I’ve never had to put these feelings into words before... I know I’ve told Mia before that I respect you so much because of your leadership skills. You’re a natural leader, you won’t stand down from a fight, even if the odds are against you because you believed in us, and that gave me the confidence to do anything. I trust you with my life, and I’d gladly resume to do so, even if we’re in a new world.”

“R-really Deme? You put that much faith in me? I’m nowhere near to being the greatest trainer in the world, and I know I’ve made stupid, reckless decisions in battle that have cost me the battle and you, your health. I-”

“It doesn’t matter, everyone makes mistakes, and I’d rather think of the times when you helped us to victory than to drag myself down thinking of the times we’ve lost. I know we’ve both learned from our failures in battle and we’ve gotten stronger because of it. No one is perfect, but I’ll settle for you.”

“That was, so beautiful…” Trixie was tearing up at our touching moment and to be honest, I probably would have too if I were watching such a spectacle. This was the first time I’d ever been able to talk to one of my Pokemon about what they thought of me, and, well… I’d always doubted that what I was doing what was best for them. They were in a very risky situation along with me for most of their lives and I’ll be damned if they didn’t acquire some mental issues along the lines of PTSD, paranoia or anxiety. I know Deme can be very paranoid. He had to be paranoid, he couldn’t trust anything unless I told him it was fine. He had saved my life a handful of times, or at least kept our cover from being blown, but I always felt like they would have been better off living with a breeder or if I dropped them off at a daycare, or even if I gave them to Cole. They probably wouldn’t have listened to him, but at least they’d have been out of harms way. I couldn’t bear to think of one of them getting harmed outside of battle, and that was one thing Team Rocket was good at. From shock therapy to torture and everything in between to break Pokemon and make them obey their sick schemes. It was sadistic.

“Deme, let’s do our best, okay? We’ll find the others, and Cole too, I promise. Then we’ll never be alone ever again.”

“Alright, count me in.”

“So, what do they look like?” Trixie asked, picking up right back where we left off before the conversation got derailed. She settled in a bit more, getting relaxed almost looking like she could fall asleep at any moment, but she insisted she was wide awake and intent on hearing about my comrades.

“Well, it’s going to be hard for me to describe since I’ve never had to do that before, since it’s common knowledge where we come from, and even if someone didn’t know, there was a device that trainers could use to let them know what species a Pokemon was. Bear with me,”

“Let’s start with an easy one. Mage is a Pokemon called Magcargo. He is mostly made of liquid hot magma and has a thin, grey shell on his back made of hardened magma. Oh, and he’s just about as tall as I am now if my size compared to Deme is any indication.”

“Alright, got it. Lava snail creature.”

“Next up is Lola, a Typhlosion. She walks on two feet most of the time, but if she’s running or being agile, she’ll be on all fours. She’s got a creamy yellow colored underside and her back is dark blue. She also has some red spots on her back near her neck that can produce fire if she’s in battle or enraged for whatever reason, so watch out for that.”

“I see… okay, give me another one.”

“Shane is the next one. He’s pink with a light tan muzzle, curled ears, and four legs that end in one white claw each. He has a white-tipped tail that secretes a sappy fish lure that he can use to go fishing. If his tail gets cut off it’ll grow back, but it takes a while. He also takes some time to process pain among other things. He’s pretty slow on land, but in water he can swim at a reasonable pace, so I think he’s more at home in water. If we wanted to find him, he might be near a source of water,”

“Corona is a Crawdaunt, really hard to miss, even if you’re not looking for her. Corona is mostly red, but her underside is tan with some blue stripes near her head and some red pattern near her stomach. She has a big yellow star on the top of her head and huge pincers with spiked edges for giving people handshakes with. Her tail is kind of like a lobster and it has a yellow triangle near the base.”

“Big red lobster… check. If my math is right, you still have one more.”

“Yeah, that would be Mia. She has grey and black fur covering her entire body. More specifically that’s a grey torso and a black tail and lower legs. She looks kind of like Deme here, but she’s not as tall or slender as he is. Chances are if she sees me she’ll come running- no… wait… never mind.” I was once again reminded of my new body. So much will have changed because of it. I can’t pet my Pokemon anymore, or give them hugs and they couldn’t even recognize me anymore. It was about time I realized there were some negatives to being in the body of a Pokemon. At first I could only think of the positives, but now I had to face reality. Things changed, for better or worse, and I would have to deal with it.

“You okay, you kind of just broke down for a second there.” I looked at the two worried faces staring at me as I had a mental breakdown. Trixie was clearly uncertain of what she should do or if she did something wrong. Deme just sat there, staring intensely at me, but I knew he was worried for me.

“Never been better.” Of course I lied, I couldn’t let them worry about me when we have more important things to deal with like finding the rest of the team and figuring out why we’re here.

“Alright, well that’s all of them. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for anyone matching the description as we make our way to Canterlot. For now, I think we need to get some sleep because I bet you're all tired. Don't worry about Trixie though because Trixie is used to this kind of traveling. We're half a day away if we keep the pace we've been maintaining for today, so let's get moving at the crack of dawn, does that sound good with everypony?"

"Sure, I guess."

Deme didn't answer immediately, instead he rolled up from his prone position to a seated position to look Trixie in the eyes, piercing her soul with his blood red eyes, bringing up a valid point, "Shouldn't one of us stay up and watch over the others to make sure we don't get attacked?"

"Why would we need to-"

"That's not a bad idea. All we need is for us to be asleep and another territorial or just plain aggressive Pokemon to come through our camp and take us out when we're unprepared. It's too unpredictable right now to think that we're safe; we should always be on alert."

"Fine. You do make a compelling argument." Trixie rolled her eyes and looked away briefly before her eyes lit up. She suddenly screeched out, "Trixie gets first watch!"

"Take it, it's the worst shift anyways," I fibbed to get her to try to change her mind, knowing that Deme would overpower me if I tried to take the last shift."

"Trixie will deal with it." She got up and trotted over to rest against a nearby tree that gave her a decent view of the rest of the camp.

"Alright then." I finished ominously as I curled up into a ball near Deme, letting my fatigue from a day on the road kick in.

Hopefully this Celestia has some answers.

Author's Note

I'm not saying the names of the characters will have significance in the story, but I'm also not saying they won't.

Magcargo(Mage)
Typhlosion(Lola)
Slowpoke(Shane)
Crawdaunt(Corona)
Mightyena(Mia)