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)