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