A New World, a Fearful Way

by Votederpycausemufins

Rating: teen
Tags: Alternate Universe, Human, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Other, Changelings, Adventure, Crossover
Length: 118694

After Arceus moves all the pokemon and former humans to Equus, Lea finds that being an umbreon here, isn't all it seems to be. Especially where she ended up.

Lea lived in her home in Johto with her family of pokemon. Just when something was going wrong, everyone seemed to fall asleep, and Lea soon followed.
Waking up, Lea found herself an Umbreon, but no one she knew was around. Instead, a winged Ponyta and small Rapidash find her and make her miserable. But after her eventual escape, the former human has a lot more to run from.

This is a side story to: A New World, a New Way
If you like this, check out the original story, or some of the other side stories. If you want to create your own side story, read the original first to get the full story.

Big thanks to Zeusdemigod131 for pre-reading the some of the chapters from the story, and helping a little with it.
editors are Arcticbrony, Goggari, Archeo_Lumiere, and (shoot i need to find them again)

Published 2014-09-03 03:50:08 UTC
Last updated 2016-05-04 00:45:35 UTC

ch. 1 escape (re-written)

About a week ago, Equestria had changed drastically. A being from another world in another universe had come, bringing as many of his subjects as he felt should come. Many had ended up being feared by the ponies, but most of them had found friends with the newcomers.

The same could not be said for one of them. An Umbreon had woken up inside a cage in a building, much like one might find at a dog pound. It hadn’t been long before the Pokemon had woken up, confused on where she was. Two ponies, one a pegasus stallion and the other a unicorn mare, found her not long after she woke up. After that, things went downhill from there. The ponies, unable to understand the Umbreon, took her to be just another animal, which they treated poorly. The two of them even forced the animals they found to fight to earn money for themselves. With a new and odd creature to add to their roster, they decided to use her almost all day.

The Umbreon had been given little to eat, and barely any time to rest in between the fights she was literally thrown into. Each morning, it was pitch black with all the windows, few as there were, boarded up. The Umbreon had no idea what time it was, but it seemed like the lights came on at the same time every day.

When she woke up, the Umbreon worked on trying to break the door of her cage down. She felt that it kept getting looser, but she kept doing less and less each day. The second the lights came on, the Umbreon went over to the boards covering the window in her cell and created another mark, tallying the days she had been in there. Currently she had nine, but she wasn’t sure if that was the real number or not.

There was a slam from outside the door, and a few of the animals in other cages woke up themselves and started to whine, bark, hiss, growl, and make other various noises. The Umbreon decided to try and pretend she was still sleeping to get out of whatever the ponies were going to do to her or at least make them decide not to use her that day.

Eventually, the voices of the ponies could be heard from outside the door. The animals in the room got quiet and a few seconds later, the door opened. The unicorn had a large bag of food. The Umbreon could never tell exactly what it was, since neither of the ponies mentioned what it was and she had never tasted anything like it before. The pegasus held up bowls for the mare to fill, and then he laid them in front of the various cells. Normally, at least two of the animals would not receive food which meant they would be put into the ring that day, but today, it seemed like everyone was getting something to eat.

When it came time to fill the Umbreon’s bowl, the ponies instead left it empty and put both the bowl and the food away. That confused the Pokemon, since she was the only one not fed. As she stopped squinting and fully closed her eyes, the Umbreon tried to think of why she was the only one and if she was going out in the ring, who was she supposed to fight.

Finally, the two left and the Umbreon was able to get up again. The animals who could see her, seemed to look at the Pokemon sympathetically, though not one of them had ever been able to talk to her. She decided to finally try a bit more to break down the door of her cage so she could escape. Every time the Umbreon felt like she couldn’t keep going, she remembered about some of the things she wanted to find out in the world she had woken up in. She wanted to learn if any of her family had ended up here too, or at least other Pokemon.

After a while, the Umbreon started to hear noises from behind the door again. She wanted to stop trying to take down the cage door, but she could tell it only needed a few more hits. The Pokemon aimed her paw at on of the hinges and attacked it, just as the unicorn mare came in. The hinge came flying off, but the pony saw and ran over to the Umbreon’s cage.

“Are you actually trying to get out?” The unicorn asked the Pokemon. “How were you planning to get out of this room once you got out of there you stupid thing?”

The unicorn opened the cage door and used her magic to pick the Umbreon up while she fixed the cell. “Quarry, the new one tried to escape.” The mare called out as she made her way to the front. “It actually almost broke the cage. Can you fix that later?”

“Yeah.” The stallion said, just before he came into the Umbreon’s view. “I’ll actually do that now. Everypony’s already in and our other guy is set-up so all you have to do is make them each other.”

The mare walked into a room that had a few ponies in it. In the center of the room, the tiled floor had been broken and a foot and a half deep hole had been dug into the ground. Surrounding the hole was a strip of a chain-linked fence kept up by various poles. Part of it on each side had been cut out and replaced by makeshift doors. There was a box connected to the far door of the ring that moved every once and awhile, letting the Umbreon know something was in it.

The mare opened up the other door and threw the Umbreon in there. She landed on her side and waited a few seconds before getting back up. The mare walked over to a table with some old speakers on it and a microphone. She grabbed the mic and started to speak into it, even though it did barely anything to make her voice louder. “Hello, and thank you for coming. Today, we were able to bring you a special battle. My husband Quarry was able to get another competitor, and not just your standard animal, but another one of the newcomers.”

The Umbreon looked up as the unicorn released another Pokemon into the ring. The Umbreon looked as a Mightyena came in and looked at her.

“Oh my goodness! Another Pokemon!” The Umbreon exclaimed, though her voice was a little raspy from not talking for the past few days. “Listen, I’m not sure if you’ll believe me, but my name is Lea. I used to be human but ended up here. Maybe we can work together and get ou-.”

The Mightyena growled at her and stopped her from talking. “Shut up and fight why don’t you.”

Lea looked taken aback. “What do you mean? I’ve been stuck in here for days. They’ve been forcing me to fight and almost starving me. You may have just gotten here, but you’re gonna have the same thing happen to you.”

The dog like Pokemon lunged at her with a gaping paw. Lea evaded the Bite with a quick sidestep. The Mightyena crashed into the wall, loosening the dirt and dust built-up within the barrier. The debris entered into his eyes, blinding him.

Lea started to claw at the walls to create more dust in the ring, but the Mightyena had gotten back up and took a swipe at her. It threw her up into the air and made her crash into one of the doors of the ring. The poorly made door broke open, making a few of the ponies scream. One of them tried to kick Lea back in, but she jumped out of the way.

She looked around for a way To escape but there were too many ponies and one was most likely to catch her. Finally, Lea saw a fuse box in the room behind what used to be a counter. She was barely able to make her way through the ponies and onto a chair before she jumped and grabbed on as best she could to the box.

Lea used her mouth to open it and her claws to turn the power off. She could feel a little shock as the circuits were destroyed and the lights went out. The fuse box started to spark, and eventually a few sparks fell onto some old bloody and dirt covered rags that were kept in the room for after battles. They caught fire, and a few ponies started to panic after seeing it. At that point, the Mightyena climbed out of the hole and over towards Lea. The fire was the only thing in the room giving off any light, but it just made him look even more menacing. He lunged towards Lea and instead went into the rags. A few of them made his fur catch on fire, but he paid no attention and went after Lea who was just going out the front door with other ponies.

As the Mightyena ran through, he caught a few other things on fire and inside, the destroyed fuse box created a small explosion. Lea kept dodging ponies left and right, not wanting to be trampled. Eventually she was Tackled by Mightyena, and brought to the ground. “Look what you did!” He yelled at her. “I was finally having fun and you ruined it!”

Lea started to back away. “Leave me ALONE!” She Screeched at Mightyena. He covered his ears with his paws and started to roll on the ground. The rags came off and he put his fur out, but when he looked up, Lea had run off.

She kept running everything she saw was a blur to her. She couldn’t remember a few of the things she did as she escaped further into the town. Lea thought maybe she had attacked something that had tried to get in her way, but she was too tired and hurt to remember. Eventually, the Umbreon started to slow down, then finally collapsed and fell asleep.

Author's Note

This chapter has been rewritten to be a bit better.

ch. 2 belt (re-written)

In an alleyway, Lea was asleep as the sun rose. Eventually, the light from the sun rise fell upon her face, waking her up. When she first looked around, the Umbreon wasn’t sure where she had ended up. Nothing looked familiar and she wasn’t sure if anything was truly real. With nothing else to tell her the answer, Lea brought her paw up to her mouth and bit it as hard as she could.

Lea quickly brought her paw away and shook it in pain. With her other paw, the umbreon put pressure on where she had bitten herself to stop the bleeding she had caused. When Lea finally felt a bit better she flopped onto her back. “We did it Matrix, we finally did it!”

She turned to look at her adopted brother. He smiled at her and nodded. Lea turned her head back to the sky and continued to talk. “I promise I’ll find all of you soon. No matter how long it takes, I’ll look everywhere until I have you all together again.”
Lea got back up and looked to where Matrix had been. The vision was no longer there, but now that she was free, she could find the real one.

The Umbreon took a few steps until she realised she had no idea of what she actually needed to do. She started to pace around, her thoughts all over the place. Finally she shook her head and tried to make a verbal list.

“Let’s see… I’m an Umbreon, I’m not in the Johto region anymore, and I’m apparently on a planet called Equus. Arceus brought a whole bunch of humans here and changed them into pokemon, though not all humans were brought over. Also, it seems that ponies are mainly like humans, and until I meet more, I can’t find out if all of them are as mean as the ones I’ve met so far.

“Now, I don’t know where I am on this planet, I don’t know where anyone I know is, I don’t know how ponies will act towards me and I have no idea where I can live.”

Lea felt something drip on one of her front paws. It was then she realised she was crying. All the pokemon she lived with were gone, but they were all she had. Her mother died when she was little, only around the age of two. She couldn’t remember her mother’s death, but her father told her about it if she asked, even though he was reluctant to. Later, when she was only eight, she woke up to find her father missing. In his room was a note from him saying to take a pokeball he left to help take care of her until she could contact his friends for their help. Before she could see the pokemon he had left, there was a knock at her door and a few people were there, asking for her dad or mom. They tried to take her when she said they were both gone, and kept coming back again and again.

Over time, Lea caught a few pokemon that became her family. She had a Quilava named Kya, a shiny Umbreon named Matrix, an Absol named Angela, a Dunsparce named Sparks, and her father’s Linoone. Even though they had always been able to stay together, Lea had always feared she would lose them like she had lost her parents. Now, they were gone, and she had no idea when she would ever find any of them again.

Lea kept thinking about before when she remembered something the ponies had taken from her that she happened to end up with. She had first arrived with a belt she had made herself and always wore. She never liked carrying around the few things she needed in a small bag, so she gave the belt pockets for the things she needed. It held a picture of all her pokemon with her on the day of her sixteenth birthday a year ago. It also had a key stone implanted in it to go with a mega stone she had finally been able to buy for Angela. There were a few other objects in it as well, but she had no idea if they would still be there, especially if the ponies had messed with her belt.

Then, Lea had an idea. It always seemed to be dark when the ponies first arrived. It was day now, so they shouldn’t be there now. Not knowing exactly where she had been held captive the past week, Lea randomly searched the town. From where she had slept, the umbreon ran to the left of where she exited, and took the next left that lead to a main street. Running down it, she noticed a shop that looked familiar. She stopped for a second to look at it before continuing. As she ran, she smiled. Since she remembered it, she must have past it earlier.

Eventually, Lea found her old prison, or what should have been. The area was surrounded in yellow caution tape. The roof of the building was gone and so were much of the walls. what was left of the building was charred from flames and the buildings near it were slightly scorched too.

Not seeing any ponies around, Lea walked into the remains of the building. She made her way into what was the small room in between the front and back areas. She had only been taken to that room specifically once. That was shortly after Ire had found her in the back. The unicorn had taken her there and took off her belt putting it in a metal chest. Since the pony didn’t realize Lea was as sentient as her, the former human saw the combination on the lock of the box and memorised it as best she could.

It took Lea forever to unlock the box with her paws, but eventually she was able to open it. There were tons of collars in the box along with her belt. She took her own item, but left the box wide open so others could find it.

The umbreon looked through the belt to see if there was anything missing. The area for her pokeballs were empty, but they were before everyone was sent to Equus. Besides, she barely ever used them anyway.

The keystone happened to still be there, which slightly relieved her. Lea had heard of rare occurrences where trainers could find their pokemon with a key stone if they were strongly bonded. She didn’t know if the stories were real or not, or if Angela had to have a mega stone as well, but there was still hope.

The picture she had was gone but another pocket with her pokeblock and her mom’s last oran berry seed were still there. she also had a music player that came with her, though it was busted.

With nothing else to do in the former building, Lea fumbled to put her belt back on before leaving. She continued in the direction she had been headed to find the building to explore the town. She eventually reached a part of town which seemed to have an area of hotels. Or was it one area of many buildings for one hotel? She couldn’t decide since there were so many in just one area.

Nearby, she could see a pony walking around with a book held up in front of her. She seemed to be looking ahead every one and a while to make sure there was nopony in her path, so she quickly noticed Lea. Lea was going to ask the mare for something like food or maybe somewhere to stay, but she yelled out for the police. Lea was taken aback by the yell and wanted to run. Even if they were ponies, Lea still didn’t like police.

The umbreon finally ran as she saw a pony with wings like a Woobat appear from nearby. She took one glimpse at his olive Persian like eyes before she turned a corner and quickly turned again into an alley. She quickly looked around for somewhere to hide before setting her eyes on a hole into an old building where part of the wall had been broken.

She held her breath as best she could when the odd pony past her. When she couldn’t here him any longer, she took the biggest breath she could to satisfy her screeching lungs. Feeling tired from running so much, and the sun starting to set, Lea laid herself down on the ground on an old fallen curtain and fell asleep.

Author's Note

So, now i've updated this chapter. if you happen to read this one, and the next chapter is redone yet, you may see some overlap in them.
also, the original had only about 20 some less words that the new version, yet this flows better. i guess those 20 count.

ch. 3 encounters (re-written)

Lea woke back up when it was still dark. She was a little surprised when there was light nearby her, but the moon was shining into the building through a window, allowing her rings to glow. She admired them for a time before starting to look around the building she was in.

There were at least two floors, since she could see a set of steps leading to a second one. Much of the place was in disrepair, and Lea couldn’t tell how long it had been since anyone had last been in there. She looked around and found there were five rooms on the first level. Two of them seemed to be a dining room and kitchen. Two on the other side of the building seemed to be rooms for fun and entertainment. The largest one, which was right in the center of the ground floor, seemed to be some sort of entrance room, and didn’t seem to have a definite purpose.

Not wanting to spend a second night with barely anything to cover her, Lea decided to round up as many large pieces of cloth as she could to create some kind of bed for her. There was one very large piece that looked like a tablecloth that was almost in the middle of the room. Lea went to retrieve it for her pile but tripped right as she got there. She had caught herself on uneven ground and was unable to keep herself up as an Umbreon.

Lea fell onto the tablecloth and got tangled in it as they both fell into the hole that had been covered up by the large piece of cloth.

It took a while for Lea to come to, but she eventually did. After fighting with the tablecloth to escape it, she figured out where she had landed. Apparently a large sewer tunnel ran under the building and a hole had formed in between the two. Lea wondered why no one had checked for something like that, but she quickly changed her thinking to coming up with an idea on how to escape back into the old building.

With no clear way back up, Lea decided to search the sewer for a way out like a ladder up to a manhole cover. Instead, she found a large pile of boards that, though warped, could act as a slope to get her back up.

The former human was so happy for a way back up that she didn’t notice the large figure behind the boards until she tried to get a wide board that was partially beneath it. The pulling of the wood made the figure stir, and soon it stood up.

A Feraligatr had been sleeping near the wood and was surprised when Lea woke him up. When he saw the Umbreon shaking as she looked at him, he felt a little sorry for her. “Hey, don’t worry.” He said as he rubbed his eyes. “Why are you down here anyway?”

Lea rubbed the back of her head. “I sort of fell down here while looking around the building I was hiding in. I was looking for a way out when I found you and saw the boards under you.”

“Oh!” He looked at the boards. “Yeah, I can help you with that. Though one question, how were you going to use them to get up? I don’t believe you know psychic or else you could have picked me up.”

Lea looked at her paws. “No, I don’t. I forgot I don’t have hands.”

“Ah, are you one of those former humans?”

“Yeah, have you seen any others?! I know Arceus said there were pokemon who went through changes, but he didn’t say we were humans.”

“No, I haven’t seen any, I’ve just heard about them from others. Sorry about that. Still, I should help you out.” The Feraligatr grabbed a few boards and carried them to where Lea showed him.

Before leaving, the water type asked why she was hiding in the building. She explained what happened to her the past few days and what she was planning to do.

“I can’t say that all of those ponies could be mean to you, but then again, I’ve been down here so much and haven’t met any of them. Still, Try and find someone you feel safe with. It can only help.

Lea thanked the Feraligatr and waved to him as he left, hoping they might meet again. Before he was too far away, he turned around to look at Lea. “I hope you have good luck finding your friends.”

Lea looked at him in surprise. “I didn’t say anything about that.”

“I know, But you act just like my trainer when we get separated sometimes.”

The two gave one last goodbye before Lea made her way up into the building again. The Umbreon laid down to rest just a little bit before deciding to look around and fix the place up. Her first idea was to make sure the entrance she used was completely blocked.

Going back into the alley, Lea found a few boxes to hide the hole while still leaving it open for her to get to. While she worked, Lea noticed a pony starting to come down the alley. Wanting to hide before she could be seen, the Umbreon frantically rushed to the opening to the building. She knocked into something, making a clatter the stallion noticed.

“Who’s there?” He called out, looking all around.

Lea stopped breathing, not wanting to move until he left. Eventually the pony seemed to think it was just a creature moving around or something just shifting and he moved on. Lea took a deep breath as soon as he was gone, panting slightly from her lack of air.

Going back inside, Lea tried to figure out what to do with the hole in the room. She could cover it up, but it was also a passage to more room. for pokemon. She decided the best idea would to make a barrier so no one would fall in again but could go down if they really wanted to. She also decide that it might work as a secret passage into the building.

Going up to the second floor, Lea found a room which she could make into a place to sleep. There was a door leading into another room which she guessed would be a bathroom, but the door was jammed. After a bit of attacking the door, it gave way and fell to the ground. Instead of a bathroom, she found an office. There was a safe implanted in the wall, though it was too high to reach. Lea grabbed the fallen door with her mouth to drag it, but spit it out from the taste of the old wood. She tried somewhere else on the door, but this time it was rust from the hinges.

Finally Lea reached the old safe and got the door to come off. The hinges were also rusted, but this time it made it fall off instead of stay stuck. Inside were tons of gold coins and a few gems. The Umbreon guessed that the ponies who owned it forgot the combo to the safe or it was originally rusted shut.

Lea would have used the money to buy items for the building, but until she felt it was safe, there was no way she would go out where there were ponies. Though she then thought of an idea. She would take what she needed and leave the payment needed. She packed as many of the coins as she could fit into her belt. then left the safety of her new home.

Looking at the sky, Lea could tell it was just a few hours until sunset. She didn’t want to be out then because it would be easy for the ponies to find her from her glowing rings.

On her way to the center of the town, where Lea assumed the shops would be, the Umbreon had to hide when a colt playing with a Mudkip came nearby. The two seemed to be playing with a ball. At first, Lea thought she had finally found a pony who was nice to pokemon. Then the colt threw the ball and the pokemon chased after it, running into a wall. The impact made a cut on the Mudkip’s head, and Lea went to check on it. She looked up to see if the colt had come to help, but he was instead going for the ball. Even when he noticed the Mudkip was hurt, the pony didn’t come to check on it.

Lea glared at him, making the colt take a step back. The Umbreon lifted the injured pokemon onto her back before starting to leave. From behind, she could hear the colt yelling for somepony to come and help him, but Lea didn’t want to wait.

Finally, Lea made it to the center of the town. Making sure not to be noticed, she made her way to the fountain in the very middle. Putting the Mudkip in the fountain, Lea looked around before coming in as well to hide. The Umbreon was nervous about getting her belt wet, and tried as hard as she could to keep it dry while in the water. She helped to patch up the pokemon before telling it where it could stay until it was better. She hoped it wouldn’t be too far, but when she also mentioned how there was a path through the sewers, the Mudkip decided to use that way since it would be easier.

She said goodbye to the water type and wished him well on his short journey there before getting out and and hiding elsewhere.

Author's Note

nothing really here

ch. 4 song (re-written)

Author's Note

Finally, my rewrites are done, now i can work on the real book 2
and i finally wrote a song! take that chapter!

ch. 4 song (re-written)

Lea looked out from the box she was hiding in. Across the way she could see a food stand. An orange mare with a yellow and grey mane stood at the stand. She was talking to the owner of the shop next to hers. She seemed to completely ignore one of the ponies waiting to buy something from her. The stallion must have known her, because he called out her name loud enough for Lea to hear.

“Ifrit! I have been waiting long enough. I need to get to work! Stardust can’t run the place on her own!”

The pony rolled her eyes quickly before going back to her conversation. The stallion did the same and took what he needed and left some money behind. Making sure the mare didn’t see her, Lea dashed over to the food stand and left her own money before grabbing some food and running back towards the box. She set it down and went back for more. When the former human believed she had as much as she paid for, Lea started to move the box away, going into it if anypony got close.

As she moved, the Umbreon noticed how fewer and fewer ponies were nearby. Lea decided it was too dangerous to keep moving with so few ponies around since they could easily spot her. Looking around to see where they had gone, Lea saw they were gathering in a group on one side of the main square.

When nopony was watching, Lea dashed towards the crowd, weaving her way through it to reach the center. In the middle was a unicorn mare colored with various greens. The Umbreon couldn’t tell why all the ponies seemed interested in the unicorn since she was just standing there, but then the mare took a deep breath in.

You tell me what you want,
you tell me what you need,
But you won’t ask the-
You talk about yourself,
And never someone else.
You only care about yooooooooooooooou.
You only care about yooooooooooooooou.
You never miss a step,
You never beat.
You always go and hurt-
You find that you’re alone,
that you had never known.
That it was just meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
That it was always meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
I never found a way,
I couldn’t save the day.
Now you treat me-
I wish that I had know,
Wish that I was gone.
But now it’s just all wroooooooooooooog.
Wish that is wasn’t wrooooooooooooong.
Just to stay as meeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
I want to stay meeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Want to just stay me.

The ponies started to stomp their hooves on the ground. Lea jumps back and forth to dodge them, growling slightly of their lack of concern. When they stopped, she heard the sound of coins falling on the ground. Many of the ponies threw their money on the ground in front of the unicorn.

As the unicorn started to leave with her earnings, Lea decided to follow her. Keeping an eye on the mare the Umbreon ran to her box and managed to get in on her back. Going as fast as she could while balancing the weight on top of her, Lea watched as the mare turned down one small alley next to a restaurant. She was surprised since there was a bit of a fence guarding the alley that seemed to small for a pony to fit through. Lea left her box next to the fence once she reached it.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got enough this time. You shouldn’t worry about me.” The green pony said into a door left of her.

A Taillow flew down next to the pony and she pet it. Lea’s eyes widened a little with joy. Finally she found a pony that was nice to pokemon. The unicorn waved to the pony inside who must have been leaving because the first pony stayed in place. Before she could come out of hiding to greet the pony, it was suddenly engulfed in odd flames. Lea was scared that the pony was being burnt up and looked away, but when she looked back, there was still someone standing there. It looked like a black unicorn with a curved horn, that also had wings like some bug types.

Lea gasped in shock at the change and knocked over some of the objects near her. It surprised the odd looking pony and she turned around. Lea, still a little nervous crashed into more objects which fell on her, letting the former unicorn know exactly where she was. The only problem was that she was almost entirely covered up by the things in the alley save for some near her face letting her see out.

“No, please! I-I haven’t hurt anyone.” The strange pony cried out. “I-I’ve been living here forever. I’m n-nice to everypony. I h-haven’t done an-anything wrong.”

Lea was surprised by that. She guessed this odd pony was just as scared of the normal ones as she was. Wanting to comfort the former unicorn, Lea tried as hard as she could to get out from the pile she was pinned under.

When Lea was finally out, the odd pony gave a sigh of relief. “I thought you were a pony! Though I guess only one of you pokemon could fit under there. Sorry about my outburst.”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry, I don’t like them either.” Lea replied.

The creature looked confused for a second before her eyes lit up. She was engulfed again in fire and became a shiny ponyta. Lea was shocked and took a step back.

“What the heck? How did you do that?”

The new ponyta smiled. “I’m a changeling. We’re able to shapeshift. I’m a bit better at shapeshifting than other things, but that means I can change into pokemon like you, though I have some difficulty getting the colors right. Normally parts of me turn blue since that’s the color of my magic. Also, since I shapeshift into a pokemon, I’m able to understand you.”

Lea nodded her head. “Most likely because the way pokemon’s inner ears are shaped compared to you guys.”
The two chatted for a little bit before the changeling asked what Lea was doing. “Well, all the ponies I’ve seen seem to be harming pokemon. I want to make a place sort of what we had back home called a pokemon center when pokemon are taken care of.”

“Oh! I can help! It sounds like a good idea ...uh… I never actually got your name.” Lea gave her name then the changeling replied. “My name is Caddi. Instead of a Y at the end, it’s an I.”

“It’s a nice name. Thank you for agreeing to help.”

“Sure,” Caddi replied. “I mean, it’s the least I can do since pokemon basically saved my life.” Lea looked at the changeling questionly. “You see, changelings feed on love and care. While we do eat normal food, we can die from lack of love too. I was barely getting by from one pony I know, but it hasn’t been enough. Just when I thought I wouldn’t make it for too much longer, you pokemon came and helped me. But I digress, should we get to your place?”

Lea looked in the sky and started to bounce on her feet. “Yes! And soon. I glow at night, and I mean literally glow. I mean, it glows brighter under a full moon, but it still glows at night. Listen, I have a box next to the fence with some stuff in it. Can you carry it?”
Caddi nodded before changing back into the green unicorn. She levitated the box over the fence to her and helped Lea on to her back. The Umbreon guided Caddi on where to turn while the changeling carried them to their destination.

ch. 5 hardships

It had been two days since Lea had met Caddi, almost two weeks since the pokemon had arrived on Equus. The pokemon center the two had made, had quite a few pokemon. Most were younger pokemon that had gotten into some bad situations. Currently, Lea was tending to a minccino. She had been climbing around a slippery area and fallen off a ledge. For the most part, she was fine, but on landing, she had twisted her back leg and it hurt for her to walk on. Caddi, going on her scouting job, had found the Minccino and brought it back.

When Caddi entered the building from the underground route, Lea immediately rushed over. The two of them agreed that the sewer route would only be used for the badly hurt pokemon that couldn’t be brought easily or for pokemon that needed to be brought without being seen.

“What happened?” The pokemon Caddi had brought was a torchic. Caddi could have brought this little guy through the normal entrance.

“An earth pony stallion was chasing after this little guy. From what I could tell, the torchic got frightened by him and used ember. He got angry and tried to grab him. Torchic is fine, just tired from the chase. I used the sewers because it was a smoother ride so Torchic could rest and out of sight from that pony. You go back to whatever you were doing.”

Lea started to go back over to the minccino when Caddi spoke again. “And once you’re done with that, I have a surprise for you in the bedroom.”

When Lea was done tending to the minccino and checked on how the torchic was doing, She went up to go see what the surprise was in the bedroom. When Lea opened the door, she didn’t see Caddi in there. “Caddi? Where are you?”

Lea looked around, and in the corner of the room was an umbreon. A shiny umbreon. Lea knew what the surprize was. Caddi Must have found… “Matrix!” Lea ran over and pounced on the umbreon. “How did she find you! I’ve missed you so much! I have so much to tell you! Have you found anyone else?!”

“Ummm… what?” Caddi’s voice said. “Surprise, maybe?”

Lea stepped back, crying. ‘Stupid!’ She thought, ‘How could I be so stupid! I’ll never find Matrix!’

“I’ll always be alone…” Lea sniffled.

Caddi changed into a ponyta (the easiest for her to do). “What about me? I’m here. You’re not alone.” She placed a hoof on Lea’s back. “But what’s wrong? What just happened there?”

“You know how I’ve told you I had some pokemon friends back on Earth. One of them was an umbreon. Instead of normal umbreon, he had blue rings instead of yellow because he’s a rare shiny pokemon. To me, he… he’s sort of like a brother to me.”

“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry! I- I didn’t realize… since when I change to pokemon, some parts are blue… I can’t believe I just… *sigh* I’ll make it up to you. Somehow…”

“Yeah,” Lea started. “After my father disappeared, my pokemon were my only family. Matrix and Angela sort of became my brother and sister. Looking out for me when I was in trouble and me doing the same for them. When one of us felt down, we’d cheer them up. I don’t really know what I am to Kya or Sparks though. It was never a relationship like that. It more felt like any normal pokemon trainer partnership to me. I guess I’ll never know.”

“I’ll go down and start dinner for the pokemon, join us if you want.” Caddi changed back to normal and flew out of the room, leaving Lea alone.

Lea walked over to the pile of sheets she had been using as a bed. Next to it was one of the few unbroken windows. Lea looked out, hoping maybe to see one of her pokemon out the window, but all she found that night was sleep.

“Posters! They’ve got wanted posters for you!” Caddi held a poster in her magic. “I saw them as I was out buying supplies today!”

Caddi had gone out that morning to pick up some more supplies, food mostly. She had be gone for only an hour before she ran into the building yelling that she had really bad news for Lea.

“WHAT?!” Lea yelled. Even though, they were upstairs, Lea’s question could be heard from downstairs. She ran over and took the poster from Caddi. Lea read the poster out loud.

"Wanted: Umbreon. Distinct features: Wearing a brown belt with a rainbow gem. This pokemon has been seen attacking multiple ponies and other pokemon for no apparent reason, yeah right, and is the cause of the fire at the old dog pound. If you see this pokemon, be cautious and alert authorities. If you can apprehend this pokemon, there is a reward of 3,000 bits and 5 gems.

“What a bunch of lies! Yeah, maybe I accidentally started that fire, but I just meant for the lights to go out. The ponies have always attacked me first!” Lea turned to Caddi, “Let’s take down these signs!”

“Uh, huh? Oh! Give me a second!” Caddi changed into a ponyta. “Repeat that.”

“Let’s go take down these signs.”

“Got it! Do you need me to be any pokemon in particular?”

“Anything flying. You’ll be able to spot the posters better and you can also keep an eye out for nearby ponies.”

Caddi changed into a yanma. “How’s this? The only thing that changes is that the eyes are blue instead of green, and that’s close enough.”

“It’s perfect Caddi! now let’s go. I’ll stand out if it gets dark.”

Lea and Caddi had been out for an hour and a half gathering posters. Already they had collected enough that Caddi had to change back to normal and burn them with her magical fire. Caddi, while she was great at changing, couldn’t use magic unless she was disguised as a unicorn.

“It’s getting close to one and we’ve already cleared half of the city.” Caddi started as she finished burning another pile. “I think we’ll be done before dark, but what about tomorrow.” Caddi changed back into a yanma.

“What, you think they’ll put up posters already? If it’s anything like where I’m from, they’ll just ignore the poster for a while, check on them, find them gone and about a week from today they might be back up.”

“Well as long as we don’t have to do this everyday…”

“Boss, I’ve found her, she’s with another one takin’ down the posters… yeah, I’ll grab ‘em”

Lea and Caddi turned around to see an unicorn stallion with a walkie-talkie headed straight towards them.

“Uh, time to get out of here.” Caddi grabbed Lea with her legs and started to fly them off. They were able to get up to the top of the building next to them before Caddi had to stop flying.

“I… am not… used… to carting… anypony… around! I’m glad… you weigh less… than me… right now!”

It was then a few pegasi flew up and found them. All of them seemed to be working with whoever the unicorn was working with. ‘Why do they all look familiar?’ Lea thought. She couldn’t get the chance to try and remember as the pegasi all flew straight towards her and Caddi. Lea and Caddi ran and flew away in two directions. It was obvious after they split up who the pegasi were after. All but two or three went after Lea.

Lea dodged all their attempts to try and grab her, jumping on at least one during her escape. Lea jumped from ledge to ledge on the nearby buildings, almost falling off of a few. Slowly she tried to make her way towards ground level. She was about two stories up when a pegasus mare threw something towards her. Lea was startled by whatever it was and fell to the ground. She landed on her previously hurt leg. ‘What made Arceus think that bringing us here was a good idea.’ Lea thought as she lay on the ground in pain. ‘I need to find a sewer entrance.’

She slowly got up and started to get away from the pegasi, many of whom had landed. “She’s back on the ground!” One stated into their own walkie-talkie. Lea could hear some sort of response through it before the pegasus talked again. “They said to call in the others!” A few pegasi flew off to grab said others.

‘Just what they need, reinforcements!’ Lea thought sarcastically. Fortunately now Lea had an advantage. She was smaller than the ponies so she could fit into smaller places. Lea pushed through her pain as she kept running away, getting the pegasi, and slowly some other unicorns and earth ponies too, to go into obstacles they wouldn’t notice until too late. As Lea ran, she could tell that the longer she ran, the worse her injury would be later on. From previous experiences, she could tell her leg bone was most likely cracked but not broken.

Slowly the group of ponies was gaining on her. Lea took a chance and turned down a street hoping for an entrance to the sewers only to be met with a dead end. “No! No! This can’t be happening. Please tell me I’m having some kind of dream!”

“We’ve got her cornered!” Lea turned to see the large group of ponies behind her. “Who’s gonna grab her?” One pony asked. “I think I do!” Another replied

“Uh, none of you are going too. The bosses are here.” A third spoke. The pony was interrupted by a pegasus flying to the front of the group. A pegasus stallion. A green pegasus stallion. A green pegasus stallion with a blue and black mane! When Lea saw him, she started to growl.

“Oh look! She’s happy to see me!” The stallion replied to her growl. The group behind him started to laugh. Then the group started to move as if they were letting someone through. Eventually, the pegasus’ unicorn partner was at the front of the group and joined him. “Ugg, this thing had been more than enough trouble for us. Can’t we just turn her in for the reward honey?” The mare asked.

“She get us more than that, Bright Ire. The ponies will pay more to see her beaten up now that she’s a criminal.”

“But Quarry, I’ve had enough of her. You saw how she barely fought before. She might get us a bit more money, but not much.”

“Quarry Arrow, what should we do?” A pony asked.

“I still want her. Grab that umbreon!”

The group of ponies were almost on Lea when another umbreon jumped in front of Lea from a window of one of the buildings next door. The umbreon had blue rings on them instead of yellow.

“Caddi! Get out of here, I can get escape from them again, but I don’t want them to get you too!” Lea called out.

The umbreon turned it’s head slightly. “Who’s Caddi?” He asked.

Author's Note

So, that ending, huh? Guess what, I'm going ahead and stating right here that next chapter we get to learn about lea's history, and not see what happens next.
your own fault for not wanting the chapter earlier!
also, they don't have cutie marks yet, but here's what the two ponies look like:

ch. 6 past

Earth: 9 years ago

A little girl opened the front door of her house and walked in. She placed her books on the nearby table and called out to her dad.

“Daddy! I’m home!” There was no reply. “Daddy! Where are you? I’m home!”

The girl went around the house calling for her dad and sometimes his pokemon. “Daddy? Linoone? Where are you Daddy?”

The girl looked for a note from her dad saying that he was out but she found none. She started up the stairs of her house. Maybe her dad was upstairs in his study and couldn’t hear her and had let Linoone outside to explore. “Daddy? I wanna tell you what I did at school today. We were learning about typing strategies, but I already knew a lot from you!”

She pushed open the door to her father’s study. The room had nobody in it. The little girl panicked. Her dad always told her If he were missing to look in her favorite box for a note from him. If there was no note, he was fine, if there was, then something was wrong. The girl ran to her room and opened the box. Inside was a note and a pokeball. She picked up the note and read it.

My little cherry blossom Lea,

I ~~am taki~~ ~~am being ta~~ ~~have been~~ am going on a trip. I don’t know when I’ll be back. I didn’t want Linoone coming because ~~it is dan~~ it wouldn’t be safe for him. People might come to take you for while I’m gone, but don’t let them. I know you’ll be fine. Linoone will help and protect you if anything happens. I’ll miss you and hope to see you soon. Love, Daddy

Lea set the note down. There was a knock on the door downstairs. Her dad told her people would come to take her away. She grabbed the pokeball and went downstairs. The knocking became more persistent, and now she could hear a voice on the other side. “Open up right now! We know you’re there!”

Lea hid the pokeball behind her back before opening the door. In front of her were three pokemon rangers, two male, one female. They were also accompanied by an Officer Jenny.

“Hello little girl!” The ranger who had been yelling spoke to Lea, the threatening tone in his voice gone. “Your father is going to be gone for a while so we’re going to take care of you!”

Lea gripped the pokeball. She didn’t trust them. She knew they must have thought her dad had done something bad. She had woken up some nights and peeked out her window to see her dad arguing with someone, usually a ranger but sometimes an officer. “Where’s Daddy?” Lea asked.

Officer Jenny stepped forward. He’s… gotten himself into trouble. Until that’s fixed, you have no one to live with so we’re going to take you somewhere that’s safe.”

“But I don’t wanna go! I’m safe here! you just don’t know it!”
Lea pressed the button on the pokeball and threw it into the air, before it left her hand. The ball opened and out came her father’s linoone. Linoone took one look at the people at the door, and then got into a defensive stance. He drove the people away, and then ran towards Lea to comfort her, even though he was just as sad as she was.

Earth: 7 years ago

It had been a bit more than a year and a half since Lea had seen her dad. The rangers and officers had come back numerous times, but they were always driven off by Linoone. The house Lea was living in had slowly been changed by her so that Linoone could access any place in the house while she was gone. Sometimes she would get help from Whitney, the gym leader at Goldenrod City. Her Father used to live there and was the gym leader there before Whitney.

Today was a big day for Lea. She was heading on her new bike to New Bark Town. Yesterday she had held her tenth birthday party at her house, and today she was going to get herself a pokemon.

After biking for a little, Lea got to Professor Elm’s lab. She found him upstairs in the lab drawing in a book in his hands. “Um, Professor Elm?”

Elm almost dropped his book. “Oh, I didn’t hear you come in! Are you here to get your pokemon? I was told someone was coming today.”

“Yeah,” Lea took out and showed him her licence. “Yesterday was my tenth birthday, and I had already passed the test when I took it for fun a few months ago.”

Professor Elm was bringing out the pokeballs of the Johto region starters. “Sounds like you’re on you way to becoming a professor!”

Lea giggled a bit at this. She always had sort of wanted to become a professor, but more she wanted to invent. She wanted pokemon to live a bit more like equals with humans, and wanted to give them that by making inventions that could let them operate in a household for if, say, they needed to take care of their trainer who was stuck in bed and lived alone.

The professor had released all of the pokemon from their pokeballs. “So which one do you want to choose?”

In front of Lea were three pokemon. A totodile, a cyndaquil, and a chikorita. The totodile and chikorita looked eager to impress Lea trying to be picked. The cyndaquil, unlike the others, was trying to hide from view. When Lea asked the professor about it, he told her, “She’s been hiding from everyone. When we set food out for the pokemon, she doesn’t come out until all the others have left. She actually used to belong to another trainer, but she was brought back after her trainer had been… less than caring for her.

Lea went over to the cyndaquil, who immediately tried to get away from her. She approached it slowly, and was able to get close enough to pet the cyndaquil. “I choose her, she needs someone to care for her.”

Lea left the lab on her bike with cyndaquil’s pokeball with her, but the cyndaquil in her bike’s basket. on the way back, Lea decided to talk to her new friend. “My name’s Lea. I’m gonna be your new trainer.” Hearing the word trainer made Cyndaquil tense up. “Don’t worry. I’ll be nice to you and care for you like family. I guess you could say I’m adopting you.”

Cyndaquil turned to face Lea. She did look like someone caring, not someone who would force you against every single pokemon you came across and rarely stop at pokemon centers. The next thing Lea said surprised Cyndaquil. “I guess if you’re joining my family, you should have a name.”
Cyndaquil gave Lea a look as if to say, ‘Are you serious?’

“Yep, a name. How about… Crystal?” Cyndaquil didn’t agree. “Hope? No… Emily? Nah. How about… Kya?”

Cyndaquil was about to shake her head when she paused for a second and thought about it. It seemed like a good name. A pretty one too! She liked it. The cyndaquil lit the flames on it’s back, happy with the name.

“I take it you like the name?” Kya nodded, “Okay, Kya it is!”

Earth: Two months later

Lea was running with Kya on one side, and Linoone on her other side. In she arms was a light gray, almost white puffball mass. Behind them was a luxray, chasing them.

Still running, Lea tried to figure out what to do. ‘I don’t want to hurt the luxray too bad, but I also don’t want Kya or Linoone getting hurt.’

“Kya use Ember, Linoone, follow up with Sand Attack!”

Kya jumped and flipped in the air. When she was facing the luxray, Kya fired her attack. She landed back on the ground, slowing a little as she touched down. Linoone had ran on ahead, stopped, and turned around. The second Lea and Kya had passed him, Linoone launched his Sand Attack at the luxray. The luxray was surprised by the Sand Attack and tried to get out of the way. Some sand got in it’s eyes and mouth causing it to slow down greatly, letting Lea and her friends escape.

When the group got back to their house, Linoone ran to the side of the house to the berry tree that was growing there. He got down a few fresh oran berries and brought them into the kitchen area of the house. Linoone set them on the table, where Kya hopped up onto and picked the biggest one up and handed it to Lea. Lea took the berry put it up close to the mass of fur in her arms.

The puffball in her arms moved to reveal it’s head. Seeing the berry, it took a small bite. Slowly, it made it’s way through the whole berry. Lea set the pokemon down near the other berries. It’s eyes widened as if it had never seen this much food to eat. “VEEEE!” It squeed.

The shiny eevee made it’s way through the berries, eating like there was no tomorrow. When it finally finished, it looked around. Linoone had made his way on to the table, and he was much bigger than the eevee. The little pokemon backed up into Kya, who scared it into running toward the end of the table. The eevee landed on the floor and ran to hide, which didn’t really work that well, considering the shiny portion of itself.

Lea sighed, “I hope he’ll trust us sooner rather than later. It must have been scary for him with all the larger pokemon around. He was practically starved, trying to keep himself hidden and safe… Well, at least you have a new friend, right Kya?” “Cynda!”

Earth: 6 years ago

“AAHHHH!” Lea yelled “How do we always get ourselves into these situations?!”

Lea was being chased by a horde of spinarak. Kya was keeping most of them away. Matrix, the eevee she had saved was a little reluctant to battling, and was running as fast as his little legs could take him. Eventually little Matrix saw an almost hidden cave. He called for Lea’s attention before he went inside. “Vee vee eevee!”

Lea saw Matrix disappear into the mountain side. She could only assume he had found a hiding place, which she had found he was very good at. “Kya! Drop box, one o’clock!”

The two of them rolled into the hiding place right before the horde was on them. Fortunately none of the pokemon saw them enter the cave, but they stuck around for a while afterwards. Hours passed before the spinarak left.

“We’ll never find our way back home through this night. We’re almost at a new moon, and there’s no other light source around other than the sky and Kya, no offence, but you’re not good enough.” “Lalava!” “Well you’re not! Anyway, it’s best if we stay here tonight.”

Lea’s pokemon had already fallen asleep on top of her when she began nodding off. She had been having trouble getting to sleep with it being so cold in the cave, but Kya had warmed it up enough now. Lea was about to close her eyes and keep them closed when she heard a small noise. “Sol.”

Lea opened her eyes again. She looked around for the source of the noise. At the opening of the cave was an absol. The absol looked at Lea, looked further down the cave, then back at Lea. Lea picked up her hand to try hand motions to talk to the absol so she wouldn’t wake up Kya or Matrix when she realized three things. One: Absols aren’t normally found in this area. Two: They predicted danger. Three: Her hand was wet after her being in a previously dry cave for hours.

Lea woke up her pokemon gently, and brought them closer to the opening of the cave. The absol walked in front of her and stood firmly, waiting for whatever was coming. Out of nowhere, a cryogonal appeared. The absol used Night Slash on the pokemon, but the cryogonal retaliated with Ice Beam. Absol dodged the attack, but it almost hit Lea and Kya.

The battle was evenly matched, but from behind Cryogonal came a Quick Attack, which was just enough to knock it out. “Vee vee vee, ee eevee!”

Matrix had helped the absol defeat the cryogonal, and his attack had been just enough. The absol went over to Matrix and chatted with him for a short time before walking back to Lea. The absol walked further down into the cave before she stopped. At the same time, both the absol and Matrix turned around. “Vee eevee ee?” Matrix asked Lea.

“What? Do you want to have a battle with this absol?” Matrix nodded his head. “Alright then. Start with Tackle, then follow with Bite.”

The absol countered with a Night Slash, and tried a second one, but it missed matrix and hit the cave wall. A chunk of ice the Cryogonal had brought over and frozen to the wall broke and revealed a purple-ish gray stone in the shape of a crescent. Matrix stepped on the odd stone and then started to glow. When he stopped glowing, in his place was a shiny umbreon.

“Matrix, did you just… evolve? Congratulations! Anyway, let’s try Bite again!”
The attack hit its target dead on. The absol was pushed back from the attack. Instead of attacking again, the pokemon surrendered and walked over to Lea. She reached her head around Lea and nudged one of the empty pokeballs on Lea’s belt. “Wha-? Do you want to come with me.” The absol nodded. “Alright then…”

Lea took the pokeball of her belt. She held it up to the absol and pressed the button on the end. A light enveloped the absol and brought her into the pokeball. A few seconds later, Lea released the absol back onto the ground. “Now, that you’ve joined our family, you should have a name like these two. Would Angela be good, since you were sort of like a guardian angel for me?”

The absol pondered this for a moment, thinking if it would be a good fit before nodding her head. “Great! Welcome to the family Angela!”

Earth: 3 years and 4 months ago:

Kya was up early, as always. Lea had been working late and was still asleep. Linoone had gone outside roaming like every morning. Matrix slept in late, being the moonlight pokemon, and Angela just wasn’t a morning pokemon.

Kya went through her normal morning routine. She got her breakfast ready and set it on the table that had been made for her and the other pokemon so they could reach and not have to climb up onto it. Kya then went to the door and pressed the pedal next to the door which opened it for her. She ran out, grabbed the morning paper, and pressed another pedal on the outside so she could come back in.

Kya didn’t care much about reading the paper, she just wanted the daily comics. The problem was getting them out of the newspaper with just her paws and mouth. In trying to get the string from off the outside of the paper, Kya pulled too hard and the sections fell everywhere. After finding the comics and setting them aside, she gathered the other sections that had fallen apart. Eventually, Kya picked up a section with an article that caught her eye.

She set the page aside as well and finished cleaning up the paper. When she did finish, Kya went and had her breakfast and occupied herself until Lea came down the stairs. At this point, Kya raced over to Lea with the article. “Morning Kya, anything happen while… What’s this?”

Lea read the article out loud to Angela and Matrix when they came down later on.

“This Friday and Saturday, there will be a contest held in Mahogany Town. The contest involves a cash prize, but it was recently released that there will also be an unknown prize given to the winner. The contest will involve a recently created machine made in the Kalos region but made by a Johto citizen (they have asked to remain anonymous). The machine will enable the battlefield environment and terrain to be randomized. The battlegrounds could be anything from volcanic terrain to an electrical plant. the only requirements is that the contestants are only allowed three pokemon. Signups are open until Wednesday at 7:00pm (19:00) at the pokemon center in Mahogany Town.”

Kya talked to the other pokemon, most likely trying to convince them to do it. When she finished, it seemed she had succeeded because they all agreed to trying the contest. Later that day, Lea told Linoone they were going out and left on her bike with the others either riding along or running along side to her.

When the group reached the Mahogany Town pokemon center, there was already a long line. Before Lea could get in line, she was yanked away from the street. She turned to find the Mahogany Town gym leader Pryce. “Well if it isn’t Lea. How have you been doing?”

“Pryce! You scared me for a second there. I’ve been doing good. I came here to enter the contest.”

“Thought that might be why, but you were never much of a battler, what convinced you to enter?”

“Actually, it was Kya who really wanted us to enter. She convinced me by convincing Matrix and Angela too. I think she was interested in the mystery prize.” “Lalalalava!”

“Hehehe, I’ll take that as a yes. When I saw you, I wanted to say hi. Also, I wanted to ask you if there was any word on your father.”
Lea’s happy mood changed to a more sad and serious one. “No, nothing at all. But I recently came across some of his old papers. It gave me a clue as to where he might be. It’s possible that the pokemon rangers took him to Almia. There’s also the chance he’s somewhere in Fiore, but there’s more evidence pointing to Almia.”

“I hope you can find him one day. Anyway, I’ll let you get into the line for signups. I hope to see you at the contest.”

Lea left to get in line for signups. When she got to the front, she signed her name and the names of her pokemon. She was given a schedule of when to arrive on Friday, so she headed back for Cherrygrove City.

When they arrive at their house, Kya immediately wanted to train for the upcoming battles. “Hold your ponytas, first you need your everstone brace. It would also be good if we can get Angela to try and work on mega evolving. We may need it and I don’t want anything bad happening again.”

After Kya ran up to grab the items they needed, Lea started up their training. Kya wanted to battle against Linoone first, and Matrix and Angela seemed fine with the idea of battling against each other. After placing the brace on Kya and helping to put on Angela’s cuff, the two pairs started to battle. Linoone was the first to attack in the first battle, Angela attacked first in the second one.
In the end, Kya lost from a Pin Missile attack right before Linoone fainted from the burn of an earlier attack. Matrix and Angela tied from an explosion caused by both of them using Dark Pulse at the same time. After the battles (and a few berries) the group decided it was time to work on Angela and her mega evolving.

Angela stood, ready to begin. Matrix was by her side, giving her a pep talk. Angela rubbed her paw on his head when he was done and pushed him aside. Lea activated the key stone embedded in her belt (“Here goes nothing.”) and the evolution started. When the glow dissipated, Angela looked like she really lived up to her name. The wing like fur on her back made her look like the guardian angel she had been when she was named. Her face was another story.

Angela was standing still, in perfect condition after her rest from the previous battle, but it looked as if she had just been through ten in a row. Her eyes glanced back and forth at everything nearby. A berry that fell from the nearby tree set her off.

Angela sent a Night Slash straight at the tree. A group of skiploom and a flock of murkrow left the tree in all directions. Angela’s eyes darted back and forth, looking at them all. On the sidelines, Kya felt scared and did what she naturally did when she was scared, and lit the fire on her back. Angela immediately reacted by sending a Psycho Cut towards her. As the attack came, it was blocked by Lea, keeping Kya safe. Lea’s hand went to her belt, pressed various buttons on the device attached to it, and then the device activated and played soothing music, much like music heard from a pokeflute.

Angela began to calm. eventually to the point she changed back to her normal form. Lea carried Angela up to bed and asked Kya if she would be fine without anymore training for the day. The answer was obviously yes. That night Lea went to work on a solution for the obvious problem: The mega evolution had heightened Angela’s ability of sensing disasters.

Angela was stressing over all the potential disasters and even the tiny ones that happened. It was only when soothing music was played did she calm down. The best answer was to get something on her to calm her when she mega evolved, but it might be considered an item, and Lea was only allowed one item per pokemon. She may be able to have it allowed if she told the circumstances, but she couldn’t rely on that.
Eventually, Lea came to the point of deciding they would have the stone on Angela, but they would only use it if they were in the final rounds and Angela was the one who wanted it.

Earth: 4 days later

Lea, Matrix, Kya, and Angela had made it through to day two. It was Kya’s turn on the battlefield. She had barely won her first battle the day before against a politoed. She had also won a good battle against a girafarig, which afterwards, she had to have a long rest because she had a fear of psychic types. That was mainly from an experience involving a psychic attack, a rock, and Team Rocket. This battle was against a scyther. The battle area was a room with a regularly flat floor that could be altered to make it more bumpy or even have spikes all over the ground. Cooling and heating vents went around the perimeter of the room to make it hotter or colder. The walls were made of plexiglass so that the battle could be viewed, but not have any of the environment changing equipment affect the outside of the room. The last of the equipment actually was a generator to help make solid holographic images. It was the main part of the whole contraption.

The lever of the main component was pulled, and the environment began to change. This battle, it was on an icy field. The field quickly froze over and became slippery with the help of a synthetic Ice Beam. Kya started to slip on the ice holding on to various ice spikes. She eventually found a spot to thaw out for her to stand. Before the spot was large enough for her, she was hit by X-Scissor. The mantis pokemon had quickly made it’s way over to her. It didn’t hurt as much, being resistant to bug type moves, but it still hurt. “Kya, use Flame Wheel!”

Kya attacked, the scyther dodging most of the attack, but being hit a few times. When Kya finished, almost a third of the surface was ground again. The other battler told his pokemon to use Air Slash, which hit Kya dead on.

Kya was hurting, and wanted the battle to be over sooner rather than later. She tried a quick Flamethrower, but it was countered by a Razor Wind. Kya then heard the signal she was waiting for and let out her attack: Fire Blast. The scyther was knocked out easily, and the room reverted back to it’s normal state. Both Lea and Kya left to go find Matrix and Angela in the crowd to get Matrix ready for the next battle. When they finally found the two pokemon, they were bickering over some topic like usual. When Lea split them up, Matrix stuck out his tongue at Angela, before going with Lea. Angela scoffed and grabbed some healing supplies for Kya.

When it was time for Matrix’s battle, the screen showed a quick recap of each pokemon’s previous battles. Matrix had already faced a tangrowth and a grovyle. This time, he was up against a lopunny. He had already seen a couple mega pokemon, and was glad that the pokemon he was facing did not seem to be one as well. The one problem he did find was he couldn’t use Shadow Ball, his favorite and personal best move.
The room changed into a more house like area. Before Lea could say anything, the lopunny attacked with Dizzy Punch. The attack pushed Matrix into a chair, which broke when he collided with it. Matrix tried to move before another attack came, this time a Circle Throw. He almost crashed into a couch, but instead went through it. The holograms flickered for a few seconds, distracting the other trainer and her pokemon giving Lea and Matrix a chance to attack with Dark Pulse.

The holograms stabilized in time for lopunny to break the coffee table and houseplant that were there. The rabbit pokemon, got back up to attack, but was hit by a quick attack. After a few more attacks came from each side, Matrix finally won. The team was moving onto the semi finals.

The judges of the competition told the remaining competitors that there would be a rest break in between this group of battles and the final one because in the final battle, they could use any pokemon, not the next one in the rotation.

The battle before Lea’s was actually between two brothers, one with a crawdaunt, the other with a walrein. The battle took a while before it was over, the main reason being the brothers knew each other’s strategies and secrets. The one with the walrein eventually won, but either way, Lea was nervous because she had promised Kya the final battle.

Angela was up against a granbull, giving her a type disadvantage. The battlefield changed into a simple forest clearing. Angela had the first move with Razor Wind. It hit, but so did the opponent’s Earthquake. The next move was also from the granbull (named Cassidy) with a Head Butt. Angela used Psycho Cut on Cassidy followed by a Double Team. Cassidy’s trainer told her to do the worst thing for Angela, use Dazzling Gleam. The attack was able to hit Angela, doing tons of damage. She tried a Night Slash, but it missed and hit a tree, going through the flickering hologram.
Angela knew one more attack would do her in, so she patted her right leg. “Are you absolutely sure?!” Again, Angela patted her leg. “Okay, here goes nothing, something, and everything.”

The key stone on Lea’s belt activated, and Angela started to mega evolve. When it was over, Angela looked the same as last time, only five times worse. She screamed, in more pain than ever before. She had blurred vision, and the colors seemed different than before, some a little more muted than others. She closed her eyes to find that she could actually see better. Her horn was helping create a mental image for her, and made her realize another thing. Something was definitely wrong, and it was coming from… the tree? For the first time, Angela realized what was happening when she mega evolved. The closest thing she could relate it to was how she thought a lucario sensed aura, but she could be wrong.

Angela quickly made her way out of the path of Cassidy’s second Dazzling Gleam and moved her closer to her trainer, trying to convince them both to exit the room. When she finally got them to understand, Lea was over next to her asking about what was going on. Angela tried to explain the place was going to blow, but it didn’t help Lea couldn’t understand her. Kya and Matrix came in, and were told by Angela to get Lea out, but none of them would leave, except when she did to look at the generator. The people around the generator area quickly left, figuring out what was going on. Angela tried to find some way to keep the machine from exploding, but in the end, it was no use. The generator exploded.

When the place settled down, Angela found herself back to normal in Lea’s arms with Matrix and Kya. Lea herself had jumped in and grabbed Angela taking her away from the source of the explosion right before it occurred. They were banged up all together, (they were banged up) but no one was seriously hurt. In the end, the judges found Lea should have the prize because of Angela’s help. Lea wouldn’t accept the prize money, and instead gave it to the person who created the invention so he could rebuild it and make it better‘n safer. The surprise prize, however, was greatly accepted by Kya. The prize they were given was a pokemon egg.

As soon as they returned home, Kya took the egg out of the incubator (somehow) and took care of it like it was her own. Her bed was brought down so she could live with the egg downstairs. Lea wondered what the egg might be, but wanted to be surprised by the result. All she knew for the time being was that it was a light blue and yellow egg, with the yellow spot on top being closer to a cream color.

Earth: about 3 years ago

Lea woke up to Kya calling to her. She could only guess what Kya was calling her for. She had lost track of exactly how long it had been since then had gotten it, but Lea knew it had to be the egg. Sure enough, when she reached the bottom floor, the egg Kya was near was glowing. When it was done, in its place was a dunsparce. Kya instantly hugged the little pokemon. She placed the baby on her back and carefully walked over to the table. Kya used the little keypad Lea had for them to communicate and typed: Sparks-Mlae sorry, Male.

Matrix was the next to come down, followed shortly by Angela. Both were introduced to the new arrival. Lea brought a pokeball to put Sparks in, but let Kya do the honors. Little Sparks was scared at first, but Kya assured him it would be fine. When they were done, Lea decided to go get her trainer card updated and the local pokemon center. When she came back, Lea found Matrix and Angela sleeping next to each other since they had woken up earlier than they normally did. Kya had gotten a book to read to Sparks and also had a pile of books right next to her for when she was done with her current one. The one thought Lea had after seeing this was ‘Kya’s gonna be a great mom.’

Equestria: a month and a half ago.

“Citrus, why are you leaving? The fun was just getting started.”

“I told you Specter, I don’t do those sort of things, and I promised myself that I won’t until I get married.”

“Then marry me Citrus Flower. I’ve only known you for a few months, but I love you.”

The bright orange unicorn mare pushed aside her cream and yellow colored mane to get a better look at the navy blue earth stallion with a pure white mane. She paused, unknowing of her answer, then told him: “Only if you promise to love the mare I truly am.”

“What do you mean by that, my morning blossom?”

“I am not really Citrus Flower. There has never been a Citrus Flower. I trust you completely when I tell you that I am not a pony, but a changeling.”

The look on Specter’s face slowly changed from confusion, to realization, to anger and disgust. “Y-you are one of those vile creatures? Your kind tried to take over Equestria! Now you have even made a fool of me. What did you do to the real Citrus, the real one I loved.”

Citrus changed to her normal form, A changeling with a light grey and sapphire blue mane. “I told you, there is no Citrus Flower. I made her up as a disguise. You fell in love with me, not her. If you can’t accept me now, then you never really loved anypony.”

The changeling received a blow to the side of her face. She had been slapped. She was hit again and again. When she couldn’t get up, Specter ran to the phone and called the town authorities. “Hello, officer? Yes, a changeling disguised itself as a pony and attacked me! I was able to defend myself from it! Please come to get rid of it!”

“I have a name you know.” The stallion turned it’s head to see the changeling standing near the window. “It’s Caddi.” and she flew out the window.

Earth: 2 weeks ago

“Guys! What are you doing?! I have important work to do!” Lea was being pushed downstairs by her pokemon. They slowly were able to bring her into the dining area and sat her down in a chair, right in front of a cake with two candles on it forming the number seventeen. Sparks turned out the lights and Angela played some music. Sparks soon placed a party hat on Kya, Matrix, and Lea.

Lea sat and listened to the music before asking what the date was. Angela held up a calendar and pointed to the date on the calendar. “I missed my own birthday by a week?!”

Well, it was really only five days, but she had still missed it. Matrix’s birthday was also so close to her’s that they celebrated it on the same day, which was even funnier since technically after evolving, Matrix became the same age as her. They also decided to celebrate Kya becoming Lea’s pokemon too while they were at it.

When the group finished the cake, Lea got up to continue her work before a knock came at the door. Behind the door was a man, from the sound of his voice. “Come out slowly with your hands where we can see them!”

Lea’s pupils shrunk. What had she done? Nothing she could think of. Was trying to continue her father’s work a crime? How did they even know? “Guys, go upstairs to the office, I’ll meet you there.”

The pokemon were reluctant but eventually followed her orders. Lea went over and opened the door. “Yes officer?”

“We have evidence that you have been committing pokephilia and have been working to convince others of following this offence. We have a warrant to search your house.”

“Wha-?” Lea was shoved out of the way by multiple people running into her house. She quickly and quietly found her way past them and upstairs without them noticing her. She entered the office and opened a secret dumbwaiter and stuffed her work inside it. She grabbed her pokeballs and put Kya, Matrix, Angela and Sparks into their pokeballs before placing them in the dumbwaiter as well. She closed and hid the dumbwaiter right before an officer barged into the room.

Seeing her, he called out to his buddies to say he had found her, before collapsing onto the floor. Multiple others also came in before collapsing. Lea was able to see others in the hall before she also started to feel faint. Before she fell to the ground she whispered to her pokemon in their pokeballs, “I’m sorry…”

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

Author's Note

this is the longest chapter i have ever written (6118 word) and school, sports, etc. does not help
anyway, next chapter we finish up what was going on in chapter 5 and lea learns a lesson.
...and such
btw, egg:

ch. 7 revelations

“What kind of mess, SHADOW BALL, did you get yourself into?” The attack deliberately missed any target it had. “I don’t think they started it, and we were told by Arceus not to attack any of the citizens of this world. Oh shoot, now I’M attacking them.”

“Oh sure blame me for- MATRIX! 4 O’CLOCK!”

Matrix dodged the beam from a unicorn. “Thanks, but how do you know my name, the only pokemon that know that are- AHH!” This time a beam caught his toes.

“HEY! Leave my brother alone!”

“Lea? Is that really you? Okay after this, DARK PULSE, we need to have a serious talk.”

“Talk, shmalk!” Caddi said, swooping in,“Lea, glad you found your friend, but we need to get out of here. Take the tunnel entrance right around the corner. I’ll distract them!”

Lea ran with Matrix to the manhole. She flipped the cover and jumped down. Matrix jumped in after her and followed her to the base. Upon entering, a few of the younger and healthier pokemon ran to greet Lea and meet Matrix. Lea told them to have fun and for one of them to tell Caddi that she had gone upstairs to talk with Matrix.

“What is up with all this? What could you have possibly done to anger a whole town of these ponies? I mean, come on, we have the same rights they do. The princess, Celestia I think, made us citizens of Equestria. Why would you attack them?”

“Right, their rights say it’s fine for them to be forced to fight each other. To attack each other on sight. To not care for those that are hurt. Yes, I so love having those rights!”

“What did you do? It’s been two effing weeks! How much could you have done?!”

“Oh, technically its only been about four days for me. I was locked up for the first week and two days. Y’know how there were sometimes those pokemon fights where neither side could use attacks and they just battled until one passed out from exhaustion and fortunately very rarely from blood loss? Yeah, I can give you a first hand experience of what goes on there.”

Matrix stared at her for a second before she went on.

“One day I escaped and my distraction caused the building to set on fire so no one noticed me limp-running away. I went out the next day for food because I was practically starved in that place and everyone attacked me. I tried the next day, and came across a foal playing with a mudkip, and when the mudkip got hurt, what does the foal do? NOTHING! I got the mudkip out of there, bandaged the wounds and went on my way after telling it to come here. I made a friend named Caddi, who you’ll meet later, and we got this place up and running to be like a pokemon center. They eventually put wanted posters up for me and we were taking them down when all those ponies attacked. That, my dear Matrix, is what happened in the past 5 bleeping days!”

“Why weren’t you that descriptive when you had told me?”

Lea and Matrix turned to Caddi, who was a ponyta. “No wonder all this has been happening. If you had told me all that from the beginning, we wouldn’t have this problem. Oh, by the way Matrix, I’m Caddi.”

“Nice to meet you, I’ve never seen a shiny ponyta before. But yeah, Lea, you don’t have all the facts. Why do you think they’re evil when you’ve only really seen them for about five days.”

“Lea,” Caddi started, “Most likely all those ponies attacked you because those evil ponies lied and everyone thought you caused the fire. I only just noticed the posters today, but they could have been there longer, long enough so that when you went up to those ponies the day after you escaped.”

“I’ve been searching for the rest of the group, and all the ponies I’ve seen have been nice to me. I’ll admit, when I first woke up, I ran everywhere searching for you and the others, and a few ran thinking I was some sort of, what did they call it? Lupus minor, I think. But after Arceus made his announcement, they were nicer, and one unicorn even helped me for a while. I believe her name had been Citrus Flower or something like that.”

“Shut up! You’re kidding! There’s a real Citrus Flower?!” The two umbreons turned to stare at her for a few seconds before she said, “Ok… continue.”

“Anyway… the ponies are nice, for the most part. Don’t let this world become the same as our old world. It’s a new world with a new way!”

They looked at Caddi again, who was having a giggle fit. “Yeah… I’ll shut up now.”

“Besides, if this place is giving you trouble, we should leave. We have to find the others as well. I can’t imagine how Kya is right now, same with Sparks.”

“I can understand Sparks being in a bad place, but Kya? Why?”

“You probably never noticed, be she always saw you as a mom. When new trainers came to pick a pokemon with their parents, she saw how much they cared about their kids. She felt that you were a mother to her in the same way.”

Lea stared at Matrix. She had had a daughter, but never knew. Kya saw her as a mother but never realized it. She didn’t deserve that privilege. Heck, if Kya was her daughter, that also made Lea a grandmother to Sparks. Lea started to tear up. “I-I… I never knew! I was a mom and a grandma and I never knew!” Lea was crying at this point. “I may never see them again! I may never get to really have a real relationship like that again! I-I… I’ll never… I’ll never…”

“Shh… just cry it out Lea. You’ve had it rough her for the past two weeks. Come on, you need some sleep.” Matrix comforted her and led her to a large pile of blankets.

“Wow.” Caddi started as they left the room. “I didn’t realize how bad it was.”

“Yeah, she usually keeps it bottled in. Usually, the only way it ever comes out is if Angela is here. If I was able to help let that out, she was having one heck of a time here. I can’t imagine what she’s going through.”

“Oh? What do you mean?”

“Well, one time… one of the few times she opened up before Angela joined our family, a group called Team Rocket tried to capture me. You see… pokemon with a special coloration are super rare, and usually seem to sparkle and shine, so they’re called shinies. This group wanted me because I was a shiny, and almost had me before Lea and Kya could step in. They were able to free me, but one of the two people on that team had a pokemon that was a psychic type. They were angry enough that to get me, they first had to take care of Kya, and they did that by telling their pokemon to use Psychic on her and smash her against a rock over and over again.

“We all barely escaped, and Kya almost didn’t make it. At one point the nurses asked us to leave just in case something were to happen. While we waited, Lea broke down crying because she couldn’t bare to lose anymore of her family. Her mother had died in an accident when she was two. and her dad disappeared when she was eight. Now all this happened and she lost her whole family, only to find out how much she had lost.”

“Wow, no wonder she’s been acting so protective. Now she’ll act even more so with you around.”

“No, we’re going to leave this town and find a better place to stay.”

“Yeah… good luck with that. The only reason she hasn’t left already is because she created a pokemon center here. Well, as good a pokemon center as you could get here.”

“Great, just great. Now we have to hope the others can find us. By the way… what region did you come from?”

“Huh? Oh, right. I’m still a ponyta. No, I’m not from your world. I’m from this one. I’m called a changeling. I can change into other beings like ponies, griffons, and, as I learned when you guys came, pokemon too.”

“Well, you fooled me. It seemed like you knew what you were talking about when you mentioned that this place was the closest to a pokemon center as we could get.”

“Nah, She just talks and talks and talks about your world. Anywho… want a tour of downstairs?”

“I guess I’d like that. Since I’m gonna be staying here, I should know where everything is.”

When the pair reached the main area downstairs, the younger pokemon from earlier jumped onto Matrix. They quickly brought him down and conquered him.

“AHH! These guys are as bad as Sparks!” He waved his paw in the air, “I give, I give! This is me surrendering!”

While a bunch of them got off of Matrix, a few of the smallest ones stayed on. The rest of them started pelting him with questions, the main one being: “Are you Lea’s mate?”

At this question, Matrix paused, shuddered, and gagged slightly. “No, she’s not my mate. She’s my sister. Or hatch-mate. Which ever you prefer. I go with sister.”

“You sure?”

“Yes! Please don’t make me think about it.”

As Matrix left for a tour of the whole place, Caddi said. “I think they like you!”

“Yeah, no kidding.”

Author's Note

Short chapter since last one was so long
things will be happening soon though

ch. 8 allies

“Good morning you two! Hope you had a good night’s sleep because I can’t change today!”

Lea and Matrix woke up to Caddi bursting into the room. Matrix was startled even more so because Caddi hadn’t even been in her normal form when he was around her.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I strained myself changing into too many forms yesterday. It can happen to almost any changeling, but usually doesn’t happen because they stay in one disguise all day. Also- wait… Why could I understand you?”

“Maybe one of the pokemon from downstairs is helping.”

‘Do I get a cookie now?’ A voice played in the heads of the small group.

When the trio reached the playroom for the pokemon, an espurr walked up to the with her paws held out.

Lea laughed and went to fetch a sugar cookie from the food storage.

“Thanks for helping us.” Caddi told the espurr, “Would you maybe like to stay?”

“No, I’m just here because I needed a place to stay for the night. Maybe I can stay for today, but I want to find my friend as soon as possible.” The espurr touched the necklace it was wearing. “Her name is Elise.”

“I understand,” Lea told the espurr. “We’re looking for our friends and family too. Thank you for helping us even though you didn’t have too.”

“I thought you three deserved it after all you've done for these pokemon.”

“Umm… not to be rude or anything, I’d like to talk to my friend here.” Caddi interrupted and pulled Lea away from the espurr.

“Listen, last night, Matrix mentioned a unicorn mare named Citrus Flower.”

“So? Why does that matter to you?”

“Before I was discovered as a changeling, I lived as a unicorn mare named Citrus Flower. What’s even weirder is I actually made her from this weird photobooth thing that takes the pictures of two ponies you give it and mixes them together. It’s just enough for me to use because while i’m not as talented as magic and flying or any of that stuff, I’m rather good at my natural changeling magic of disguising myself. When your twin expla-”

“Wait! I understand everything else, but twin?”

“Well he explained you’re basically the same age, so close that you celebrate your birthdays together, and you also both happen to be umbreons. You also consider each other siblings. So yeah, you two are twins.

“Anyway, continuing with the story. Matrix described the mare and she matched the description of the pony I disguised as. In other words: She’s another changeling, or she’s a one in a billion chance.”

Lea could understand why Caddi wanted to check this out. Soon Caddi explained she would go out tomorrow to find her, since she could be her new alias, Kiwi Lime.

“I like the names you chose.” Lea commented, “How did you choose them?”

“I went and looked at the names of bathing supplies. Citrus Flower was a coat wash and Kiwi Lime was a shampoo.”*

“Of course that’s how you picked them.” said Lea, who would have face pawed herself if she weren’t standing on all of them.

“Anyway, for the rest of the day, we should focus on taking care of all the pokemon since the only one of us who can leave is Matrix and he said he didn’t want to be alone for a while. We can go out tomorrow morning. I should be ready then.”

“Alright then.” Lea agreed, and the two departed to take care of various pokemon.

That night, Caddi went to sleep earlier while Lea and Matrix finished up a few jobs downstairs. About a fourth of the pokemon had been able to leave that day, but a few decided to stay the night before leaving like the espurr. The two siblings ate a late dinner of apple dumplings Caddi had made with the help of a torkoal, and some bread rolls.

When the two went upstairs, they found Caddi fast asleep. Lea decided to check their financial status before heading to bed while Matrix took straight to the covers. Lea, unfortunately found that they would need another payday from Caddi to stay on track. She felt that they should stay within 30 bits of a set number and they were about 50 bits below that number. It was nothing too big, but Lea didn’t want them running out of money.

As she closed the safe, Lea heard Matrix call for her quietly from the other room. She went over to find Caddi moving around on the mattress of sheets and boards they had made, and had pushed Matrix off. As Lea got closer, she could hear Caddi humming some sort of tune, but she didn’t recognize it. Eventually, when they could tell Caddi wouldn’t be stopping anytime soon, the two umbreons created a pile of sheets in a different part of the room and slept there.

The next day, the two were woken up early by Caddi, who had already disguised herself as Kiwi. She told them that she wanted to leave a little earlier because there was a slight change of plans. “I’ve got an idea for a performance to do, and I want to have time to do the performance, get back here to drop off the profits, and then go find this other Citrus Flower. By the way, before you woke up, a chansey that used to belong to a nurse joy showed up, which is really lucky, and I asked her if she could take care of things while we were gone and she said yes! Just wanted to let you know so you didn’t panic.”

Lea opened her mouth to say how grateful she was that Caddi was getting some more money since they were a little low, but Caddi stopped her. “If you’re going to say, ‘Good, we were past our set limit.’ then yes, I know. I checked how we were doing this morning. Great minds think alike and all. Otherwise, don’t say anything. The espurr already left and I don’t want to risk changing a lot already.”

Lea closed her mouth again, and the group went downstairs to say goodbye to all the residents in the building before taking the sewer route to the center of town. The trip took a while since the sewers were like mazes and they started at the edge of town, trying to get to the middle.

When the finally reached their exit, Caddi exited first, followed by Matrix and then Lea. They scouted out an area for Lea and Matrix to stay while they waited for Caddi to be done with her performance. Finally, Caddi was all set up and a small crowd had already formed since they already knew what would be coming next.

Lea was surprised by the fact that Caddi had a music player with her, seeing as they had walked through the sewers with nothing on them and she never saw Caddi grab one.

Much like last time, Caddi did a song performance, which Lea admitted was nice because Caddi had a very pretty singing voice. When she got to the refrain though, Lea recognised the tune. It was the same exact one Caddi had been humming in her sleep the night before. It was a rather nice and catchy tune to Lea, which was apparently evident to Matrix since he had hopped on top of Lea to keep her from moving.
Lea was prone to dancing whenever she heard or remembered a nice and catchy tune, which was bad when they were trying to stay out of sight. Lea was still able to wiggle a little, and could still dance enough that it made her happy for once. She really needed that after what had happened over the past few days.

When Caddi finished, they raced back to the building, dropped of the earnings for the performance, and started to leave for their original outing. On the way, Lea asked Caddi a few questions about her performances.

“Where did you get the music player?”

“I have no idea. I can never remember. Questioned that a few times myself.”

“I’ve never heard the song before. What’s it called?”

“Don’t know. Came to me last night.”

“Wait, if you made that up last night, how did you get the music?”

“Stop asking me questions about it! Let’s just say It makes as much sense as a spider humming James Bond music!”

“Huh?”

“Never mind!”

Somewhere in Canterlot, a young and very hyper joltik had a great idea for later. Now all he had to do was wait for the right time...

The group reached their new exit. They left the sewers the same way they had earlier that day. Carefully, Caddi led them to an apartment building. She went in and walked up to the front desk to ask the manager a question, before carefully leading the group to the second floor to a door with the number 251 on it. Caddi knocked on the door, and she heard a female voice talk to another pony before they answered the door. There was a pause in the hoofsteps and the mare most likely looked to see who it was before opening the door. When she opened the door, the mare spoke to Caddi, and didn’t seem to notice Matrix or Lea yet.

“May I help you?”

Matrix, recognizing the pony as Citrus Flower jumped towards her.

“Matrix! It’s you! Would you like to come inside with your friend.”

“Friends, but yeah, let’s go in!” Matrix told her.

“Oh, I guess your friend doesn’t know how to do translation spells. I’ll just help with tha- AAHHH!!!”

As soon as Matrix and Caddi had walked into the room, Citrus could see Lea, which was obviously stated with her quickly closing the door before she could walk in.

“Of course she saw the posters! *sigh* Matrix, get her to let me in.” Lea called through the door as she knocked on it.

She could hear Matrix trying to get her to be let in, but it was muffled by the door. As she called inside and knocked a bit more, Lea became aware of two ponies talking on their way up the stairs. Lea stopped knocking when she realized she recognized the voices. It was Quarry and Ire!

“MATRIX! HELP!” Lea was banging on the doors. “THE PONIES FROM TWO NIGHTS AGO! THEY LIVE HERE! THEY’RE COMING! LET ME IN! HURRY!”

The door still wouldn’t open and the two ponies were coming up the stairs quicker after hearing her. The door finally opened when Bright Ire turned around the corner and saw Lea and grabbed Lea in her magic.

“HELP!”

When Citrus had closed the door behind Caddi, Matrix tried to open the door.

“What! Are you crazy? That’s the wanted pokemon the police have been searching for!”

“Matrix, get her to let me in.” He heard Lea say behind the door accompanied with a few knocks.

At this point, Citrus had been able to cast the translation spell on Matrix. “What’s going on with you?” She asked.

“Citrus, let her in she won’t do anything bad.”

Before Citrus could respond, the knocks had changed to pounding, and Lea was yelling from the other side that the ponies that had attacked them two days prior were coming.

“What’s going on out there?”

“It doesn’t matter! Just let her in!”

“But why-?”

“JUST DO IT!” Matrix yelled at her.

Citrus still just stood there before Caddi opened the door for her. Outside Lea turned her head just before she was picked up in indigo magic.

“HELP!”

Matrix grabbed Lea and pulled her in before he slammed the door shut. Lea quickly ran and hid before there was a new knock on the door. The group of course knew who it was, but Citrus answered it thinking she knew who it was.

“I’m sorry ma'am,” Bright Ire was standing at the door with Quarry with an evil smirk on her face as she spoke with her bitter sweet voice. “I believe I saw the wanted… umbreon, was it?... come in here. If so, I’d like to take her to be… turned in.”

“Well I-” Citrus Flower was cut off by Matrix.

“Nope! The only umbreon here is me. If another does come by, we might just let you know! Other than that, LEAVE!” And he slammed the door in their faces.

“Lea you can come out now!” Caddi called.

Lea slowly peeked out from her hiding place and looked around, before running out and hugging Matrix and crying from what she almost lost again.

“What’s going on Matrix?” Citrus asked him.

“Citrus, this is Lea. The same Lea I had told you I wanted to find. This planet… hasn’t been the most welcoming for her.”

“THOSE TWO PONIES NEARLY STARVED ME! OF COURSE IT HASN’T BEEN WELCOMING FOR ME!”

“Oh, she needs the spell cast on her too!”

Citrus cast the spell on Lea, and before she could ask for Lea to repeat herself, Matrix stopped her. “You don’t want to know…”

“Okay, I’m done waiting and listening to all this noise!” said a stallion who walked around the corner.

“What’s going on here?” he noticed Lea, “And isn’t that-”

“Yes she is. Sorry I kept you waiting. Let’s go to the kitchen.” Citrus told him.

When they finally all settled in the kitchen, Citrus asked why they came to see her, and how they knew to find her there.

“Mostly because Matrix told us about you and you shouldn’t even exist so I had to meet you for myself. I thought I would find you here because of him.” Caddi told Citrus and pointed to the stallion.

“What do you mean? And why would you think I would be here because of Specter?”

“Because he used to be my coltfriend before he dumped me and then went out searching for a pony to replace me who shouldn’t have existed, but guess what? You do!”

At this, Specter spoke up. “I’ve never dated you! I don’t even know you!”

“YOU TRIED TO MARRY ME!”

“WHAT!!!” Citrus and Specter exclaimed simultaneously.

At this point, Caddi dropped her disguise and proceeded to slap Specter across the face.

When he recovered, Specter immediately did what he had done about a month and a half ago. Before he could finish, however, Caddi grabbed him in her magic. “Oh, no you don’t. If the police come here, you have to deal with Matrix and his anger.”

Citrus Flower also kept him away from the phone, but was simultaneously glaring at Caddi. “Give me an explanation. A good one, and don’t leave anything out.”

“Fine! A few months ago, I was pretty sure my disguise might be compromised, which was bad for me since you all seem to hate changelings because of Chrysalis. I had to create a new disguise. One that didn’t look like another pony, because that was the reason my old one needed to be discarded. In town they have that one booth that lets you put two pictures of ponies together to see what they would look like melded together. I decided to try that, and I came up with a pony, which I named Citrus Flower. I met Specter a few days later when I was trying to find a job. He let me stay with him in this apartment, which, by the way, is how I knew to look here. Eventually, he asked for me to marry him, but I said only if he’d accept the true me. The changeling me. He didn’t and thought I did something to the real Citrus. I left, and apparently he went looking for the real Citrus.”

“You mean me?”

“Yes, and I thought you didn’t exist. The chances were on in a billion, which I guess you are. Anyway, I left and created a new identity, the one I came here as, and named her Kiwi Lime. Instead of looking for a job, since the authorities were most likely looking for me, I did street acts. The problem was that I wasn’t getting enough love, and I would have died for that reason if it weren’t for the appearance of the pokemon, who cared for me as much as I cared for them. After a while, I found I could change into them… with some differences, and eventually was able to understand what they said while I disguised, though that only finally happened the day before I met Lea.

“Anyway, the day I met her, she went looking for me after a performance and saw me change. I thought she was a pony and freaked out, I tried to convince her I hadn’t done anything wrong before finding out she was a pokemon. She had been hiding from ponies because they kept attacking her and trying to catch her but she didn’t know why.”

“Well that’s because-” Specter started.

“Up, bup, bup! My story, not yours. We fixed up an old and abandoned building, though it was mostly her, and started rescuing hurt pokemon, and any pokemon that we thought might be being treated wrongly, which we possibly interpreted wrong. Eventually I found a wanted poster for Lea and we tried taking them down. We were spotted and attacked by a group of ponies being led by two ponies who wish to capture her for more… grotesque purposes. We don’t know how the other ponies were convinced by the two leaders only that they were following them. Matrix came in and saved the day, not knowing it was Lea. We took him back, and he told me about how you had helped him. I wanted to meet you since I thought you couldn’t exist. I thought to look here because I believed Specter would have found you while he looked for me. When you left Lea out in the hall the ponies who formed the group that attacked us same her and tried to catch her.

“Now you know my story. I hope it was good enough for you!” Caddi finished.

After a few quick questions, Citrus wanted to hear Lea’s story.

“It’d be better if Matrix told you. We all know the story, but I might lose my temper thinking about it.”

“Alright then, I guess I’m telling the story then. Well, let’s see… Lea, when she ended up on Equus, she found herself in one of those underground animal fights. Fortunately, they don’t seem to do death matches. They had a few places like that on Earth. The worst that was done to Lea was she was hurt badly, practically starved, and forced to fight all day. From what I’ve heard, the most ponies they would have is 4 or 5 watching, unless the two leaders had some sort of special event, which only happened, once was it?”

“Twice, actually. My first day, and the day I escaped.”

“So, yeah, Lea escaped about nine days after all the pokemon came. In her escape, something happened, causing the building to catch on fire. We’re unsure of what happened in town after that, but the next day, Lea went out to see if anypony would spare some food, but they all treated her badly.”

Citrus Flower stopped him. “I can fill in the gap. Quarry and Ire covered their operations by saying they had been rescuing animals, but you had started the fire. The next morning, there were already posters up for your capture. Reports of your encounters with the other ponies said you attacked first, since they mostly saw them going after you as a good deed, but a few did actually admit they attacked first and would have provoked you.”

“Thanks for the info.” Lea told her, “Matrix, could you continue?”

“Yeah. So she got the impression that all ponies were cold hearted to pokemon, and the ones who had pokemon with them when she found them were using them. She decided to create a pokemon refuge building, which we’ve sort of made into a pokemon center. She found Caddi after she had mostly fixed it up, and found me a few days later when Quarry and Ire got a group of ponies to try and catch her. We got away eventually, I got angry at her, and she got angry at me since she was all stressed. I understood, and I told Caddi here about you, so we came to visit. You wouldn’t let Lea in at first, and she almost got captured by Ire and Quarry again. Oh yeah, and we’re also still looking for Angela, Linoone, Kya, and Sparks.”

“Oh I feel so sorry for you three!” Citrus told them.

“They’re probably just lying to get us to feel sorry for them.”

“Oh shut up Specter! Now I understand why you wanted me as your marefriend so bad! You still were in love with Caddi, but wouldn’t give her a chance since she was a changeling!”

“But honey, I-”

“Don’t you honey me! We can still be friends, but that’s it! I’m breaking up with you!”

Lea Matrix and Caddi, doubled over in laughter at Specter’s reactions. Then Citrus walked into the next room and came back with pizza. “Here, have some leftover pizza. It’s all we have, and it’s about dinner time.”

“What!” Lea looked out the window. Outside, it was night time, and the moon was shining brightly in the sky with the stars. “Oh, no! Ohnonononononononono!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Umbreon glow in the moonlight. I’m an umbreon. There’s moonlight. The closest sewer entrance is in a place I could be seen! Not to mention Ire and Quarry are probably waiting for me!”

“Don’t stress about it. I think I can manage a short teleport to the ground below the window, and we can go to the police station to sort this all out.”

“Well… I guess.” Lea agreed. But I think Caddi should be able so stay disguised and not need to go in as a changeling.”

“Deal! Let’s go! Specter, do you want me to teleport you to so you can come with us.”

Specter nodded. The group went to the window, and Citrus charged her spell. The spell worked, but Caddi had to help her along because of how fatigued after casting the spell, as she was still recovering a little from the dual translation spells. The group went off in the quickest way towards to police station, but tried to keep Lea in the center of the group so she wouldn’t be seen.

‘Let’s hope this works. Then maybe Matrix, Caddi and I can look for the others.’

Author's Note

References! stuff! Music!
btw the music i imagine Caddi using here is this: [link]
also, quote from Zeus from after he pre-read the chapter. Hope you liked it
"Looks good to me. Oh! And I wanna kick Ire and Quarry's teeth out, but that's normal."

yep, also next chapter might get a bit dark but hey... DARK TAG!!!
NUU! MOMMY!
wha- what are you doing here! you can't know about this yet! get out!
help! the author notes are being invaded by pokemon here too!

ch. 9 interrogation

As the group made their way to the police station, every sound scared Lea, making her think they were about to be attacked. Eventually, they all reached the police station. Upon entering, there were only two officers that could be seen, but to Lea, there were more. The walls had a poster up for her capture, which made her feel more like she was the criminal they were expecting her to be. Caddi got the attention of one of the officers to talk to them.

“Excuse me sir? Can we talk to you?”

“Yes ma'am, what can I do for you?”

The guard walked over. He was a thestral, or as most ponies called them, a bat pony. Upon walking over to the group. Lea tried to hide herself a little bit more, which seemed to work, as he didn’t notice her.

“Well, we have some news for you on you search for the one pokemon you were looking for.”

“The umbreon?! You caught it?!

“I wouldn’t say they caught me.” Lea said under her breath.

The officer, being a thestral, heard her. This time he noticed Lea within the group.

“Shielded Wish, they brought the umbreon we wanted.”

“Yes sir, Midnight Honor!” The other officer, a unicorn, picked up a catch pole. He tried to put the loop around Lea, but Specter kept it away from her.

“What are you doing?” Midnight asked.

“Listen, while I may not like this girl, and I’d be fine with you taking her, I still think you should hear her side of the story first.”

Shielded Wish looked and Midnight Honor, unsure of what to do. Midnight nodded to the unicorn, and Wish put down the catch pole.

“Fine,” He looked at Lea. “Go down the hall to the sixth room on your left. The rest of you can go to the fifth room on the left when Shielded Wish takes you. I need to quickly tell my boss what I’m doing. If you need help finding the room, one of the officers back there can help you. Two of them are new volunteers, so they might have trouble.

“Thanks. I hope we can sort this out.” Lea told him nervously.

“Me too. I’ll be there in a second.” Midnight told her before leaving to contact his boss. Lea went through some doors and down the hall. On her way to the room, an earth pony mare came out of a room with a Hitmonlee. When the mare saw Lea she instantly freaked out and called for other guards. The pokemon tried to stop her, but wasn’t really succeeding. As the mare directed the other officers toward Lea, Lea herself payed more attention to the uniforms they were wearing, and not the ponies themselves. When the police officers got close enough, Lea defended herself. The first one that came close enough was caught by her claws. The second one only got hit by her paw, but it was hard enough that they were knocked away. Before a third could come near her, the hitmonlee stepped in between Lea and the officers.

“Stop overreacting.” He told the ponies, “Seriously, ever since that one rhyperior got hit by a confuse ray and accidently almost took down a building, you’ve been acting up at every pokemon you see. I mean, Copper, you thought when you saw that pichu the other day, you thought it was going to attack your face when it jumped on your head. Now tell this umbreon you’re sorry.”

The group of ponies sheepishly apologized to Lea, but when she didn’t respond, the hitmonlee kneeled next to her to see what was wrong. Upon inspecting Lea, he found she was crying silently. Her eyes were shut tightly and her muscles tensed up.

“Hey, you okay?” he asked her.

When Lea didn’t reply, he asked again. This time, she slightly opened her eyes to look at him and asked him a question.

“Can you keep them away? I want them to be safe.”

“Who?”

“My family. I don’t want to lose anyone again.” Lea told him, a few more tears coming from her eyes.

“I can only try.”

When Lea had finally calmed down enough for her to tell the Hitmonlee where she needed to be, he brought her to the room she had been expected in. When they entered, Midnight was pacing in the room. He turned the moment the door opened.

“Benjamin! What happened?!”

“I’ll give you three guesses.”

The two paused before simultaneously saying “Copper Star.”

“*Sigh* If it weren’t for her great skills on the field, I wouldn’t have even vouched for her as a volunteer. Right Ben?”

“I think we should focus more at the problem at hand.”

“Right, right. If you want, you can go to room five to wait with her friends.”

“Alright.”

Ben the hitmonlee left the room. Lea watched him leave and, as the door closed, she turned to Midnight.

“Y’know, so far, he’s the only one I have respect for.”

“Why’s that.”

“He’s the only one who hasn’t attacked me on sight.”

“That’s why we’re here now. To straighten things out”

~“So, where should we start?”~

“I say they start with those two cruel ponies.”

“Citrus, they can’t hear you. Besides, he doesn’t even know her name yet.”

“I guess you’re right Matrix.”

Inside room five, Matrix Caddi, Citrus, Specter, Shielded Wish (who was fine with being called Wish, even though it kinda sounded girly), and now Benjamin were watching Midnight interrogate Lea.

~“I think we should start with necessary information. Name, Age, Gender. That kind of stuff. Then we can talk about the more important things.”~

~“Fair enough.”~

“Yeah, I don’t think I can get through this.” Caddi stated, “Where’s the bathroom?”

“Go out the door, turn left, go down seven doors and turn right at the intersection. From there, it’s three doors down on your right. Got it?” Wish told her.

“I think so.” And Caddi left the room.

~“So my name is Lea. I recently turned 17. I used to be a human before being changed into an umbreon by Arceus when we were brought here. As you can probably tell from my voice, I’m female.”~

~“Any family?”~

~“I consider Matrix, the other umbreon in our group, my brother. We considered an absol named Angela as our sister. There’s Kya the quilava who was basically my daughter, which makes the dunsparce she raised from a hatchling named Sparks my grandson.”~

~“Wait, let me write this down. Some of those pokemon names I don’t know.”~

“I’ll be telling him what they are later.” Ben commented.

“This is like one of those crime shows Lea lets me watch.”

“Lets you watch?” Wish inquired.

“Some of them she can’t cope with when they come on. She’s had a rough past.”

“I could tell when I met her earlier.” Ben added.

~“Okay, any pony, er- mon else?”~

~“Only one left would be my dad, but I’m not even sure if he is still alive. He disappeared about nine years ago, and I haven’t seen him since.”~

~“Okay then. Now tell me, what do you know of the charges against you?”~

~“I believe they were along the lines of arson, and assault.”~

~“And what do you have to say about this?”~

~“I accidentally caused the fire in an attempt at escape. I was attacked myself, but I’m pretty sure the only time I’ve attacked anyone was just a little bit ago when all those officers ambushed me… sorry about that.”~

~“No, I’m sorry. I should have escorted you to the room myself.”~

“This is getting good! I wonder where Caddi is? She should be watching this.”

“Let’s see… he said turn left at the intersection and it should be third on my right, right? … yeah, I think so!”
Caddi opened the door. Inside was a world made of blocks as far as the eye could see. She closed the door right after an arrow almost hit her.

“Okay, maybe it was third on the right.”

This door opened with a button. When she pressed it, the door slid up. Looking in, Caddi found herself face to face with a giant purple bunny.

“Nope!” exclaimed Caddi, as she quickly closed the door. “Maybe I have the number wrong.

She opened three doors next to each other numbered 4, 5, and 6.

“Crystal palace, crystal tree, crystal palace in a crystal tree.”

“Maybe she got lost. Couldn’t be too hard right?” Citrus asked.

“I guess so.” replied Matrix.

~“You mentioned an attempt at escape. Escape from what?”~

~“Illegal animal fights. Two ponies found me, assumed I’m just like any other animal you’ve got here and made me fight various animals, mainly dogs every single night for about a week and a half.”~

Inside room 6, Midnight’s eyes widened. He got angry and flung the chair he had been sitting in across the room. Lea instinctively hid under the table between her and Midnight.

~“I should have known! I had been hearing rumors about such things and it just so happens a bunch of ponies and animals were in a supposedly abandoned building! And what do they say?! They were helping the animals! What do I do?! LET THEM GO!!! They could be anywhere now! They all probably left town days ago!”~

“Okay, I really wish Caddi were here to see this.” Matrix stated

“Yeah, she has been gone a while now.” Specter said.

“Mushroom people? No. Magic Nightmare Night costumes? Nope. Big cute pink thing that eats everything. Not at all. What’s next?!”

Caddi was still looking for the bathroom. She decided to try the right side of the intersection this time, but now she forgot which door. She opened a new one. This time, it opened up to another police station. Inside this one, Caddi saw two fire pokemon which seemed to be officers, though the outfits the ponies were wearing here was different. Instead of investigating, Caddi slowly closed the door to try another one.

The new one looked kind of like it was made of crystals. Opening the door, she witnessed a group of ponies move out of the way to show a giant blue turtle, who was starting to shoot water at her. Caddi closed the door just in time and went on to the next one.

Trying again, Caddi opened the next door only to see a gigantic group of large metal ants. Upon opening, all the ants turned their heads towards her, seemingly angry. “I’m just gonna go now.”

Caddi decided to try once more. This time, she opened up to… a bathroom.

“FINALLY!” she yelled. “Oh, what’s this?”

Caddi picked up a newspaper article from the floor. On it was the title: WORLD LEADERS MEET TO DISCUSS POKEMON.

Caddi quickly finished in the bathroom before rushing off back to her friends with the article.

~“Are you calm enough for me to come out now?”~ Lea asked from under the table.

~“I guess.”~ Midnight told her angrily.

~“Well then, I should tell you that they’re not gone. It was run by two ponies and just a few hours before we came here, they tried to capture me again.”~

~“You’re kidding!”~

~“I’m not. Their names are Quarry Arrow and Bright Ire.”~

~“...”~

~“Midnight?”~

~“...”~

~“Hey! Guess wha- oh, wrong room.”~

Caddi had burst into the interrogation room with the article in hoof.

~“What’s this?”~ Lea asked her.

~“An article about a meeting the world Leaders are having in Canterlot, by the way, that’s the capital of Equestria. Anyway, I’ll leave now.”~

“Well, that was odd.” Ben said before Caddi entered the room.

“Hey guys! I finally found the bathrooms.”

“We could tell.” Specter mumbled.

~“Quarry and Ire?”~ Midnight finally said.

~“Yeah. This isn’t the first time they tried to get me either. A few days ago, when I found Matrix again, he had showed up to protect me from them.”~

~“They had asked me a few days ago to create a team to try and find you to turn you in.”~

~“The same team that attack me and Caddi that Matrix saved us from.”~

~“DAMMIT!”~ This time Midnight flipped the table. Lea barely ducked under it as it went over her head.

~“Gosh darn it! Get some anger management classes.”~

After a long pause from both of them, Midnight spoke again.

~“You’re free to go.”~

~“What?”~ Lea said, surprised.

~'You never looked to your left, only tensed when I got angry, moved your paws when telling your info, basically your body says everything you’ve said is true. Which means I’ve got to start looking for Quarry and Ire.”~

~“They live in Specter’s building. That might help you.”~

~“Would you like to join the force to help find them?”~

~“What?!”~

~“Join the police force here to find them. You know more than we do.”~

“Say yes, say yes!” Citrus and Caddi whispered together.

~“No.”~

“WHAT!!!” Both of them said.

~“I’ve had enough experience with them. They’ve endangered my friend and family. They’ve attacked us all. I’m done with them. Besides, you can just go to the building they live in and tell them you’ve caught me. Bring them here to see me, and by the time they realise I’m not here, they’ll be behind bars.”~

~“... You know… that’s not a bad idea! Wish, Ben, escort the whole group back out to where they live. I’ll tell the others what we’re doing and I’ll head over to meet them once you get back.”~

Lea left the room and gathered with the group. Specter decided he would go back home while Citrus wanted to see where Lea and her friends were staying. Lea couldn’t wait until she could live a normal life again. Well as normal as it could be now.

Author's Note

so... you saw the stuff with the doors right? RIGHT?
good. originally i was going to have Caddi get lost in the comments of other new world stories, but that didn't work out.
instead, i decided to make references to the new world stories (other than the original) that i read.
didn't know what to have for new mind, so i didn't mention it, but see if you can figure out which ones i read.

i also added a few other references in there. Let's see who can name them all. (i might have a prize)
Other than that, Ire and Quarry are finally being put to justice!!!
and now our heroes don't have to worry about anyone attacking them thinking that they're the bad guys!
Now all they have to do is find the rest of the family.

ch. 10 anger

“Wow! How much longer until we reach your place?” Shielded Wish asked.

“Not much longer.” Caddi told him. “Just a block left.”

Lea couldn’t wait to get back to the pokemon. She was ready to collapse from how long she had been awake too.

“Here we are!” Caddi told their new friends.

“This place?” Ben asked her, looking at the run down building. “But this place is so…”

“Old? It just looks like that on the outside.” Lea explained to him. “It’s much better on the inside.”

“What was that?” Wish asked Ben.

The spell Citrus had used on Matrix and Lea had worn off. They didn’t want her to cast it again and Wish didn’t know the spell well enough to cast it. Ben could still be understood because an officer that did know the spell had enchanted a wristband for him.

“Nothing of importance Wish. Let’s go inside.”

Lea led them to the entrance. It was still hidden from when she first made it, so the group helped to uncover the entry way. Eventually the path was clear and they walked into the building. Lea was the first in and she called out into the building. “Hey everymon! We’re back from our outing!”

This brought a large group of small pokemon running to the door. Many of them jumped onto Lea and Matrix, with a few climbing onto Caddi. After a few moments, a few of the younger and more timid pokemon noticed the new arrivals. A couple of them ran away before Lea reassured them it was fine.

Finally, Lea asked Citrus if she could cast the spells again for her and Matrix. Citrus cast the spell and Lea started the group on a tour.

“So, this would be the room the pokemon who come here stay. We have another room for them as well but it’s more of a play area. Please try to stay away from the hole in the middle though.”

“Why is there a hole?” Wish asked.

“It was there when I first found the place, but we put it to use. It leads to the sewers and we used them as a path to move around the city without having the chance of being seen. We also used it for bringing pokemon here if we couldn’t use the streets.

“Next we have the kitchen. We have a bunch of food that Caddi got for us and…”

“Wait wait wait! It has been bugging me this whole time! You’ve been calling her...” Wish pointed his hoof at Caddi. “Caddi, but I’ve seen her in the center of town and she introduces herself as Kiwi Lime.”

The group exchanged looks at their mistake.

“Well?”

“Well, that’s because Caddi is my real name.”

“What do you mean…?”

“Listen, before I show you, I’ve done as much wrong as Lea has, which as we saw was, like, nothing.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…” Caddi started as she changed to normal. “I’m a changeling. And if Lea has enough courage to talk to you guys, then I have enough courage to tell you about this.”

Wish gave more of a reaction then Ben did, which was reasonable seeing as he didn’t know about the invasion of the changelings in Canterlot.

“You, you… how… wha-?”

“Why would we think you’ve done anything wrong?” Ben asked her.

Caddi was shocked by Ben’s statement before remembering exactly who and what he was.

“Well, a while ago, I forget exactly how long ago, there was a wedding in Canterlot and a group of changelings decided to attack. Needless to say the changeling who planned it was punished and stripped of her title by our ruler, who, by the way, is currently one of the rulers listed as being at the world summit.”

Ben looked towards Wish. “Really? They’re thought to be criminals for the actions of a few?”

Wish didn’t have a reply, he just stood there looking at the ground.

“You can’t blame him.” Caddi spoke up. “That was really the first full scale changeling encounter ponies had had. It also doesn’t help how we really look. Green and black are normally not seen as good colors, just like red and black. When you want to make a villain or something evil, you go with those colors. It’s also had to trust someone who can change how they look on will.”

“Okay…” Ben rubbed the back of his head. “I can understand that from experience.”

“Eh… it’s fine, I don’t expect anything else. I kinda became a self reliant changeling after the whole Canterlot deal. I personally like it.”

Caddi started to walk off. Before she left the room she turned back to say, “I just told four, well, three ponies and a pokemon my biggest secret in less than 24 hours! I feel invigorated! I’m going to go jump off the back of this building and fly back up at the last second! By the way, can someone take Lea up to the bedroom? Thanks!”

After a few moments, the group stopped looking where Caddi had been standing and turned to look at Lea who had fallen asleep with many of the small pokemon cuddling around her. Wish and Ben said they would be going, but not before telling the group that they would be back tomorrow to give a report on what happened on their job and see if they could help them get acquainted with the town.

“Good luck with that Caddi mare too. You’ll need it.” Wish added

“Yeah, thanks! I have no idea how I’ll live with her.”

The next day, first thing in the morning, Midnight arrived at their door with Wish. When Lea asked if he wanted to be shown around and if Wish wanted to see the whole tour, they declined saying they had successfully found Ire and Quarry. Lea agreed to see the ponies, if only to finally have them listen to her.

The group left for the station. Citrus left them before they arrived to go talk to Specter. A few ponies came up to Lea apologizing for what had happened. Apparently after Quarry and Ire had been caught, the town police announced the mishap they had and many ponies felt ashamed at what had happened. Lea forgave them, saying it was her own fault too and she should have tried to help fix it earlier.

Upon arriving at the station, Copper greeted Lea, apologizing to her again and again. Lea finally got her to stop before telling her that she understood what she did under the circumstances she had been in.

Copper Star was asked to lead Lea and her friends to the cell that Quarry and Ire were being held in. Both the ponies were paying attention to something else when they arrived and didn’t notice the group until Copper spoke to them.

“Hey! You have some visitors.”

Lea, Matrix and Caddi were out of the view of the cell’s occupants when Copper spoke to them, so Ire spoke in a more cheerful tone, most likely thinking it was a friend who could get them out.

“Oh really? Someone here to clear up all the mistakes I suppose.”

“Oh yes!” Copper told her. “Was able to give us a first hoof experience at what happened. Or should I say first paw.”

At that, Ire’s face darkened, and Lea stepped into view. “She-she’s the real culprit! She’s the one who should be locked up!” Ire pointed at Lea as she spoke to Copper.

“Maybe it would be easier to believe if you actually treated me the same.” Lea shot at her.

Ire was shocked by the new voice to the conversation and looked around for the source. Finally she was able to figure out it was Lea speaking to her. “Wha- you can…”

“Of course I can talk! I’m not just some animal! Since you don’t remember, Arceus said we were just as smart as any citizen on this planet and some of us are even smarter. I can remember every day that you had me trapped in that… that… sorry I am not comfortable using some of the words I have to describe that place. But you almost starved me. You hurt me and left me to bleed. I was forced to continue fighting other creatures when we had both had enough. The only good thing I can say is that you never killed me and that none of the other animals died… in the ring at least.

“But what happened is done and over with. The ponies who attacked me because of your lies have been forgiven. Those who did the same but because they were frighten I have also forgiven.”

Quarry jumped in at this point, “Let me guess, you came all this way to forgive us because we deserve to be forgiven?” He gave Lea a smug look.

“No,” she replied to him, his look fading “That’s not how it works. You never forgive because someone deserves your forgiveness, you forgive because you deserve to be free from the anger they caused, and until you have payed for what you have done, and until I find a reason I should no longer be angry, I will never forgive you. Think about that while you’re here. Maybe then you’ll be able to change.”

Ire’s face was red. Before she could think about what she was doing, She blurted out her doom. “We should have let you die when we had the chance!”

She immediately regretted her statement. The instant she finished her statement, Ire clapped a hoof over her mouth.

“Thank you for confirming Lea’s statements to be true, Bright Ire.” Copper said to Ire.

Quarry looked angrily at Ire. “I told you not to say anything!”

As the group started to leave. Bright Ire lost it. “I AM NOT HAVING SOME… SOME DOG RUIN ME! I SHOULD HAVE FINISHED WHAT I STARTED!”

And with that, she brought her hooves smashing upon her horn with enough force to crack the ring that was around it. With another blow, the ring broke off. She immediately used her magic to bring Lea smashing into the bars. Lea’s nose started to bleed from the crash. Copper found an intercom to alert the other officers of what was happening. Ire had her arm around the bars and around Lea’s neck.

Lea was barely able to speak let alone breathe, but she was able to gasp out one thing before falling unconscious from the lack of oxygen. “Yawn.”

Matrix heard barely heard Lea and was able to follow her command. He used yawn on Ire. She quickly felt drowsy and loosened her grip on Lea. Within a few minutes, she was fully asleep on the ground. Other officers came to find the scene that was laid out for them: Both Lea and Ire unconscious. Matrix and Quarry over them respectively. Caddi talking to Copper Star nervously.
When an officer came over to the group, Caddi told her what had happened, but also asked where Midnight was, seeing how he had been overseeing all of this.

“Worked overtime yesterday to catch those two. We told ‘im he didn’t have to come in to work today at all, but he insisted on picking you up to come here.” The officer told her. “From what I could tell, he really wanted to see you again. Couldn’t stop talking about you… what was it? Kiwi Lime? Anywho, I think he’s takin’ a liking to you Miss.”

“Re-really?” Caddi blushed at the statement.

“Just my guess. Anyway, I need to take care of this. Think she’ll be alright?”

Matrix walked up to the officer and answered her. “She’ll be fine, thankfully.” The bleeding stopped and her breathing is steady. Also, don’t worry about Ire. All I did was put her to sleep with an attack called Yawn. If there’s any discrepancies about it being against any law, I believe you can put it along self defence as Lea gave me the order to do so. At least… that’s how it worked back home.”

“There were no problems with what you did. You didn’t harm Ire, and if you had, I would have understand with the given situation. It’s best you return to your home. You’ve had enough to do with these two to last a lifetime, I’d say.”

“Thank you. We should probably meet up again with our one friend now.” Caddi told the officer.

The group left, overhearing that Ire would be moved to solitary confinement. Matrix carried Lea on his back. When they reached their home, they found Citrus waiting for them. She was horrified after hearing what Ire had done to Lea. She also announced that she was going to start working at the pokemon center as a volunteer and was going to help in what ever ways she could to make it up to Earth standards just so everyone would come and be able to learn about the hardships that had happened to make it.

Matrix stopped her saying Lea would never want that to be the reason for anyone to come and she would probably never want to tell a story like that, but she’d like something that could make her think of a home.

Author's Note

I... don't really know what to put down here for this one.
ask me stuff about this chapter so i can find out if there's anything i should put down here

ch. 11 berries

It had been 4 days since Lea and her friends had gone to the police station to see Quarry and Ire. Many of the ponies in Hoofington had come to help her fix up the building to make it safer and a better place to live. The front doors were no longer boarded up as ponies and pokemon were coming in left and right. One griffon had even come to visit and he decided to start up a donation box for the building of the center.

It was finally made official the day before when Lea signed for the ownership of the building. Since the building was old and unused, it was pretty cheap, for a building. There was enough bits from the donations alone to pay for the building, but only just.

The gems Lea had found in the safe she sold to a jeweler. There was enough money from them to cover the expenses for the rebuilding part. Citrus was the main pony on the job of renovations and Caddi was working on figuring out what Lea needed for the building, while also learning a few things from the pokemon staying there. Matrix had decided to take to the streets and look for anyone they knew. So far he had had no luck.

Lea, after they had fixed the bedroom (the first room to be fixed) had kept herself busy in there. A room connected to it became her own office. She was watching the finances while studying and learning about whatever she could. She had a large pile of notes next to her desk that she wrote with a pen after she figured out a comfortable way to write with it in her mouth.

“Lea, will you take a break from all that work?” Matrix came in asking her.

“No! there’s so much I have to do! If I don’t do my job, this could all fail!”

Matrix stared at her a second before starting to drag her out the door.

“What the hey are you doing?!” Lea asked him.

When he finally got her down the stairs, he told her, “We are not going to have a repeat of back home, okay? You always tried to work as hard as you could to keep us in a home and we understood that, but you worked too hard and never took a break when you needed it. We almost didn’t get to celebrate our birthday together because you were too wrapped up in your work.”

Matrix’s words hit Lea like a brick. She had almost lost that. Lost it because of her own actions. “Alright, I’ll come.”

“Great! You need it.”

Matrix explained to Citrus and Caddi where they were going. The two umbreon left the building and went searching on the streets for any signs of their friends. Along the way, they stopped at a few shops to see if anything they were selling might be helpful to the home project. Nothing they found really helped, until they came to one gardening store, where the owner welcomed them the second they walked in.

“Welcome to Bluegrass’ gardenin’ store. Ah’m Bluegrass. Whatcha need?”

The earth mare was a nice grass green with a blue mane and tail. She had some pokemon with her as well. Following her in was a cherubi, a bayleef, and a bellossom.

“Grass types, figures.” Matrix whispered to Lea, who swatted at him.

“Hi, I’m Lea and this is my brother Matrix. We’re working on building a pokemon center and wanted to see if there was anything we could use here.

“Ah, you’d be the pokemon we’d thought was a criminal. Sorry ‘bout that. Could’ve done better.”

“Nah, I didn’t handle the situation right either. It was just as much my fault as any of your’s.”

“Now that’s mighty kind of ya. Hmm, let’s see… we got anythin’ that might helpful to ‘er?” Bluegrass asked her pokemon.

The bellossom perked up and left the room and came back a second later with a few berries.

“Pokeberries?! Where did you get those.”

The bellossom started to pantomime something out, but Lea stopped her. “You can just explain it to us. We can understand you.”

“Oh,” The flower pokemon blushed. “I’m so used to only talking to my friends and having to try and communicate silently to anyone else. Anyway, we visited a town called Ponyville a few days ago because Bluegrass like to go there every so often and visit the forest there to find some seeds from the odd plants. Recently, there was a harsh battle that occurred there between one of the legendaries and one of the legendary-like occupants of this world.”

Lea shuddered at the idea. “Two legendaries fighting can be devastating. Do you know who they were?”

“I heard it was Zygarde and someone named Discord, who embodies chaos.”

Both moonlight pokemon paled slightly. A battle between order and chaos was bad enough, but the physical embodiments of them would be a hundred times worse.

“Yes, that’s how we reacted too.” The bayleef spoke up. “Anyway, Arceus and Princess Celestia stopped the battle and Arceus sort of healed part of the forest, but instead of the normal plants that were found there, he replaced them with berry trees and such. We brought back a few of them to grow our own and have some to eat.”

“That’s great! Do you have any we might be able to grow?”

“Those berries?” Bluegrass asked. “Sure, we’ve got a ton. By the way, we’ve only got a couple, and ah was wonderin’ how many kinds of berries there are. Fifteen? Twenty?”

“Hmm, let’s see.” Lea started to count off the berries in her head. “At least 50 berries that I can remember, but I’m probably forgetting a few.”

“50 kinds! Woo, that’s a big haul! We only found ten kinds. Been meanin’ to give ‘em signs, but I didn’t know what they’re called and couldn’t ask these guys.”

“Well, let’s see what you have.” Matrix told Bluegrass.

Bluegrass led them to the back room where she had the berries set out and separated. Fortunately for Lea and Matrix, they were some of the better berries to have. Upon seeing so many berries, Lea’s stomach growled, making her realize it was past lunch time and she had yet to eat anything.

“Haha! Guess you’re hungry! Go ahead and have a few. We’ve got plenty and we can always go and plant more.”

Lea ate a few oran berries. They were her favorite, and Bluegrass had plenty. Once she swallowed, Lea started to help list off the berry names.

“So the blue ones I was just snacking on are called oran berries. They help restore a pokemon’s health.”

“Oran spelled O-R-A-N, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. Now these heart shaped ones are called pecha berries. They help cure a pokemon that’s been poisoned. By the way, it’s spelled P-E-C-H-A.”

“Pe-cha ber-ries! Got it written down. What’s this one that looks kinda like a cherry?”

“Those are cheri berries, but cheri is spelled C-H-E-R-I, not -R-R-Y. They help cure paralysis.”

“Paralysis?! Pokemon can paralyse you?!”

“Well, there’s still a chance you can move, but it’s not good to have the chance of not to move, otherwise you can’t defend yourself in a battle and can’t dodge an attack.

“Anyway, this next, purple colored berry is called a chesto berry. It wakes a pokemon up that’s been put to sleep by something like sleep powder or rest. There’s even been a strategy nicknamed resto-chesto where a pokemon uses rest to regain their health and used the berry to wake back up.”

“Ah have a question.” Bluegrass told Lea. “Not about the name. That’s just chest with an O at the end. Na, ah wanna know how they can eat it if they’re asleep.”

“You’d have to ask Matrix. He’d have a better answer than me.”

“Woah! Hey! Don’t ask me. I’ve never tried.”

“Um…” The cherubi whispered. “not to be rude, but mostly it’s just an instinct we have, much like breathing when we sleep.”

Lea repeated what the cherubi had said to Bluegrass.

“Okay then. Now what about these berries.” Bluegrass pointed to a group of yellow berries with blue markings.

“Those are Aspear berries. They’re used if a pokemon is frozen by an ice attack, and please don’t ask me how they work exactly either. So far, I’ve only gotten my hands on a few to use normally, and any others I use for making treats like pokeblock… I’ll tell you about them a different day.”

“Can ah just have the spellin’ of them?”

“Oh, yeah! A-S-P-E-A-R.”

“Give me a second… there! What’s next?”

After a long debate about berries later, Lea and Matrix left the shop with a basket of berries. Bluegrass didn’t want any payment for it since they helped so much, but Lea insisted on giving at least a few bits for the berries. Finally Bluegrass had accepted the money, and the two umbreon were on their way home.

Upon arriving back at the building, they found the renovations had come along as planned. Caddi was taking a break and talking to Midnight. Citrus, after hearing Lea plant to grow some berries, brought them up to the roof. The roof had been made a place for flying and grass pokemon to go to, since it was outside and a good place to grow. Somepony had set up a large planting area, and there were already a few tree saplings in the soil.

“While I’m a unicorn,” Citrus started to explain. “most of my relatives are earth ponies, and almost all of them are farmers. I’ve picked up a few things from my visits, and it should be enough to help with this.”

“Thanks! I’ve also done a bit of research on berry trees myself, so that should help too.”

“A little?” Matrix asked her.

“Okay, okay, fine. A lot of research, but mostly because I wanted to be prepared if anything else started to happen to it.”

Citrus gave a confused look, not knowing what they were talking about.

“Oh, uh, back home we had a berry tree of our own. One day during a rather bad storm, it got hit by lightning and I was scared it would die. Especially since we used the berries so much, I built them into planning our finances.”

“That makes sense. If it died, it would effect your live pretty badly.”

“Yeah, it would. But would you like to learn what I know, well the basics.”

“I guess so, but remember, it’s not my strong area, so don’t go overboard.”

“Okay, I got it. Berry farmers give the plants five stages. First is when a berry has been planted.”

“Wait, you plant the berry and not a seed?”

“Yeah, that’s kind of the biggest difference between them and normal berries. Anyway, the second stage is a sprout. The third is a plant, such as a bush or tree. Fourth is it’s flowering state and fifth stage bears fruit.”

“Yep, basically the same as any plant, but it’s a good refresher. Anything else I should know?”

“Yeah, they grow super quickly. World record is about 96 hours.”

Had Citrus been drinking something, she would have had a glorious spit take. “96 hours! Are you kidding me?! That’s only enough time for a sprout to grow!”

“Berry trees grow fast. Besides, that’s only the world record. Usually it takes a week.”

“That’s still a super fast time! Anything else I should know about?”

“Well, pests and weeds can be a problem, though not too much of one. Also, depending on what you plant next to each other, one of the plants may yield another type of berry with their own.”

“Example please?”

“Hmmm, let’s see if I can remember one.” Lea pause a few moments to think.

When she finally had an answer, she pulled out two berries from the basket. One was an oran berry, and the other was a pecha berry. “If you plant this oran berry next to this pecha berry, one of the plants has a chance to have not only the berry they normally have, pecha or oran, but can also have a few qualot berries as well.”

“Okay, so I should or shouldn’t plant them near different berries?”

“We should. The more kinds of berries we get, the better! Once we get the other berries, we can plant those for a crop. I can make a quick list for you.”

“Alright. I’ll go down and ask if any of the pokemon want to help, you go do what you need to Lea.”

“I’ll see you later Citrus. Matrix and I are probably going to go back out, just so you know.”

“Don’t run into any trouble, you’ve had enough as it is!”

“Okay, mom!” Lea said sarcastically as she left. But while she had been joking, Lea thought it felt nice to finally have someone to call that.

Author's Note

uuuugggggg! i typed most of this when i had a keyboard cover on. (i'm taking typing classes)
any who! i did lots of research on berries. could ya tell?
i actually own no games what so ever, and it doesn't help that i don't own any video game systems
literally all i can play are flash and java games. can't even play some of them cause my computer is so slow (saving up for a new one tho)
cool part is, because of my lack of skills and wanting to be on the same level as my friends, i do so much research, i can tell them stuff THEY don't know

zeus had a comment, but it wasn't interesting enough. you can blame him

ch. 12 secret

After Lea had dropped off the short list of four combinations, she and Matrix went back out. It was still late afternoon and the two still had a few hours before it would start getting dark, so they decided to focus on trying to find someone, or somemon, they knew. Before a whole hour had past, they saw a rather banged up absol walking on the street.

“I think that might be Angela!” Matrix told Lea.

“What! How… how can you tell.”

“Well, each pokemon has a slightly different scent depending on their type and gender. For instance, I can tell that that is a female absol. The scent also slightly differs for each individual pokemon. That’s a little harder, since it’s a slighter change, and can sometime be wrong.”

“Chances that it is her and not some other absol?”

“One in six chance that that is Angela.”

“That’s good enough for me! And if it isn’t, maybe she knows where she is!”

“Well absol normally don’t- aaaand she’s off.” Lea was already halfway to the absol and couldn’t hear Matrix.

“Hey, wait!” Lea called to the pokemon before she walked faster. “Stop! I’m talking to you.” The absol quickly looked at Lea before going even faster.

“Will you stop running! What are you afraid of?” Lea asked her.

That was apparently the magic phrase, but not in a good way. The absol quickly stopped and turned toward Lea, placing her horn up against Lea;s neck with an attack charged.

“What… the hell… did I do to you?!”

“Um… I, uh… just wanted to ask you something.”

“Oh,” The absol stopped charging her attack and stood normally. “Sorry, I’ve been running into a lot of pokemon that have grudges with me. Can’t believe most of them still remember… but it was some memorable stuff. What do you want to ask?”

“Well, your statement there kind of answered my first question.”

“What was that?”

“Well, I’m one of those pokemon that used to be a human,” The absol nodded in understanding. “and I used to have an absol of my own. I wondered if maybe you might have been her, but I can’t think of how any pokemon would have a grudge with her, so that made that a no. My next question would be if maybe you’ve seen her.”

“I’ve come across a couple of absol on my journey, may have met her. She have a name?”

“Yeah, actually. Her name is-”

Lea was cut off by Matrix coming up to them panting. “You… could… have… waited… for me… y’know…”

“I’m sorry! I got excited to see if she was Angela!”

The absol gave a startled expression. “Wait. Lea? Matrix? That’s you?”

Lea looked surprised before pouncing on Angela to hug her. “Angela! I’ve missed you so much! You’ll never believe what’s happened while you were gone!”

“Ack! No! Stop! I hate hugs! Get o- fine go ahead!” Angela rolled her eyes.

“Now what were you saying about pokemon having grudges with you?” Lea pulled back and gave Angela a serious look. “What haven’t you told us?”

Angela sighed, “A lot of things. I don’t like and don’t want to remember my past from before I met you. It wasn’t something I wished would happen to anymon, much less me.”

“You do know you’re going to be telling us later, right?”

“I do now. Now let’s leave. I’d rather not risk-”

“YOU! YOU’LL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID!!!”

“-Risk that… *sigh* what do you want?” Angela said, turning to face her rival.

She turned to see it was a cryogonal who was speaking to her. “Oh, hey! I actually remember this pokemon.”

Lea looked at Angela. “Is this the same one we saw when we met you?”

“Yep.”

“SHE WILL PAY FOR WHAT SHE DID!”

“What did Angela do?”

“SHE KEPT ME LOCKED IN THE CAVE, NEVER LETTING ME OUT!”

Angela turned to face Lea. “Long story short, my past involved people I didn’t like who ordered me around, and making me guard this guy was the only reasonable thing they made me do.”

“REASONABLE?! I WILL MAKE HER PAY!”

“Enough with the yelling and sayin’ you’ll make me pay! We get it, alright? Let’s just get this over with.”

“FINE! ICE BEAM!”

Angela dodged it by leaping in the air, arcing toward Cryogonal. “I told you to shut up! DARK PULSE!” The attack took a direct hit.

“NOT UNTIL I WIN! FREEZE-DRY!” The attack hit Angela, bringing her down for a few moments. She quickly got back up and used her signature night slash.

“Stand down. We both know that I’ll be winning this.”

“OH REALLY?! FROST VANISH!”

The crystallizing pokemon disappeared from view, catching Angela off guard. Suddenly, from behind her came the pokemon’s voice. “ICE CHAIN!”

Cryogonal came back into view just as, as the name implied, an ice chain wrapped itself around Angela.

“Angela! No!” Lea called to her.

Angela payed no attention to Lea’s concern. “Is that all?” She asked the cryogonal. “Dark edge.”

She said it quietly enough that it caught Cryogonal off guard. The attack broke the ice chains and hit him. It was strong enough that Cryogonal was knocked out and fell off to the side. The small crowd of ponies that had formed during the battle paused to look at the group before continuing on their way. Angela brushed herself off before heading over to Lea and Matrix.

“So,” She said, nonchalantly. “Let’s go home.”

“We’re back!” Lea called as they entered the building.

“Lea! You’re back!” Caddi welcomed them. “Who’s that?

“It’s Angela! We found her!”

“I’m guessing someone exciting. The translation spells wore off I guess and I don’t want Midnight to find out that I’m an angeling-chay. Let’s go up to Citrus.”

Lea nodded and they went up to the roof where Citrus Flower was watering the freshly planted berries. In front of each mound where the berries were planted was a sign with the name of a berry, most likely to show which berry was which. A few areas were left empty for when they would be able to plant new berries.

“Hi Lea! Hi Matrix! I was just finishing here. I see your search was successful.”

Citrus casted the spell on each of them so that they could actually have a conversation. Unfortunately, Citrus still got fatigued from casting the translation spell three times. So they helped her downstairs.

“Remind me… to teach that officer friend of ours… that spell.”

“You should rest Miss.”

“Don’t call me Miss… My name is Citrus Flower… but you can just call me Citrus.”

“Okay then, my name’s Angela.”

“There! Now that we’ve got introductions out of the way,” Lea said. “WHAT WERE YOU DOING ON THE NIGHT OF OCTOBER 16th, 10 YEARS AGO!”

“Lea, don’t worry, I’ll tell you later. First can you show me around this place? I want to know where everything is.”

As Lea went to show Angela around, Citrus pulled Matrix off to the side. “How the hay did she get whatever she got from what Lea said?”

Matrix gave a small smile. “Lea and I always got along well, but when it came to her and research, she could get a little out of hand, and Angela was the only one of us who could really follow along with her. I always wondered why, but maybe now she’ll be telling us.”

After Angela’s tour, Lea brought them into the bedroom and fetched Matrix before locking them all in the room. “Okay! Talk!”

“Few years before you found me, I forget how long ago, I was captured in the wild by one of those evil teams. By the way, I’m not saying which. I deserve to keep some of my past a secret. They decided to work on a team of pokemon that could conquer others and to do this, they tried messing with the attacks we had.”

“Sort of like creating new attacks from old ones the same way bubblebeam was made by bubble?”

“Exactly like that. Anyway, I never liked to follow orders. The fact is that they couldn’t hold me in a pokeball because I wouldn’t let them, so I was a little tougher for them to train. They caught me in a net instead, and forgot about the idea of using a pokeball on me. Eventually they got what they wanted, and even went overboard.

"Most of the pokemon they used didn’t like me, because since I was a free ‘mon, I could really do whatever I wanted. A bunch looked to battle me, but I always won. The only other pokemon that came close to beating me was that cryogonal. Eventually, he stopped listening to anyone, and they sent me and him away to that cave you found us in. They froze him in place, and left me in there. The only reason I listened then was because it was the one sensible thing they had wanted.”

“And then we came along…” Lea remembered, half sighing.

“Yep. Warmed up enough that he got out. I stopped him to save you. I later went back to find out I hurt his pride and he became a mostly run-of-the-mill pokemon.”

“So… nothing too horrible?” Lea asked.

“Not really. I just don’t like talking about it. By the way, I have a question. Why haven’t I been attacked by Kya or Sparks yet? Are they waiting to catch me off guard?”

Lea looked down at the ground, pawing at it. She tried to keep herself from tearing up. “W-we haven’t found them yet. It’s just been Matrix and I for the past week. Well… that’s if you don’t count our new pony friends.”

“What about Linoone?! Haven’t you heard anything?!”

“N-no… but Linoone’s the oldest of us, he can take care of himself. Why are you so worried?”

“Because I’m not the only one who’s been keeping secrets.”

“What do you mean?” Matrix asked.

Angela sighed, “I was out one time looking for him to tell him Lea was getting dinner ready, and found him with another Linoone. A female one.”

“He has a mate?! Since when?!”

“Since apparently before you and Kya were even around, that’s why you never knew. He told me a few days before we were brought here that they had an egg which was supposed to hatch soon.”

The three of them exchanged looks before Matrix spoke up. “Yeah, that’s a big reason to be concerned.”

“We can only hope he’s okay.” Lea said, pulling her two siblings into a hug. “I’m just glad I have both my brother and sister here after all we’ve been through. Hopefully we’ll have everyone together soon enough.”

Lea unlocked the door so they could leave, but Angela asked if she could hang out with her for a little bit and talk. Lea brought Anglea into her office. “What do you want to talk about?” Lea asked as she jumped into a new chair that had been placed there after they had left. It caught her off guard and the swivel chair started to spin around.

Angela stopped the chair for Lea. “Thanks.” Lea said dizzily.

“So then, what happened with you guys while I was gone?”

“Nothing much. I mean, The town thought I was a criminal, we caught the real criminals, one of them tried to kill me, and now we’re making this place. But other than that, nothing.”

“So… basically it’s better than home?”

“If it weren’t for the part of me almost being killed and not having the whole family together, yeah! Pretty much!”

“Have you thought about talking to Arceus yet?”

“What?!” Lea half shouted at Angela “I can do that?!”

“Yeah,” Angela said. “He announced that to everyone in that mind speech thing. He’s staying in the Everfree Forest, but I don’t know where that is.”

“Oh that place?!” Lea exclaimed, remembering where Bluegrass had gotten her berries. “It’s right next to a town called Ponyville. We got the berries we planted from a mare who went there and found some in the Everfree.”

“Speaking of berries…” Angela started.

“”You want pokeblock, don’t you.”

“Maybe…” Angela shifted her glance to the side.

Lea pulled her belt off, a feat she had managed to master after a few times. She dropped it in front of Angela’s feet. “You try and open it. I’ve had no luck.”
After fiddling with it a bit, Angela was actually able to open it. She spilled a few onto the floor before picking one up in her mouth. She bit down on an indigo one and Lea herself ate a brown one. Lea picked up the ones that had fallen out of the case and put them back in. Putting the belt back on, Lea went to work on her, well… work. At one point, she took a break and grabbed a new sheet of paper. Carefully, she was able to write down a note for herself. My Dad?

Author's Note

woooo! new chapter
zeus in i got in a small debate about the attacks:

i did my research. the attacks i used are all real, though i did have to kinda play with what exactly they did (the cards don't really tell you what happens in a real battle.)
You know serebii.net has a list of attacks each pokemon can learn right?
i mostly use bulbapedia, which, after looking at serebii, gives me more info.
the pokemon cards give them more attacks
here's how i got the two attacks for cryogonal: *shows picture*
Yeah I've never really played the card game, nor was I counting those moves as actual moves. Since it just gives a name, damage, and an in game effect
ah, well i actually was more into the card game myself (i've still go over 1000 cards, one of which was a charizard card which i later found out is one of those collectors cards that people would buy for over $300)
i also sort of made mention that this wouldn't be a normal thing and it was...
“Sort of like creating new attacks from old ones the same way bubblebeam was made by bubble?”
like how dark edge could be originated from night slash

then it was all good!
here are the two cards i used:

anyway, the note at the end of the story? it's important! write it down or something if you want. the list is going to be added to in many of the chapters.

ch. 13 building

Lea woke up to a loud noise from inside the building. A couple of the workers were yelling and calling for her. Lea ran so quickly down the stairs that she tripped on one step and tumbled to the bottom. Upon reaching said bottom, she saw some of the ponies staring at a fletchinder. “What happened?!” What’s wrong?!”

“The pokemon there changed!” One mare told her, guessing what Lea had asked from her tone.

“Did it glow and change from a pokemon that looked a little like that except smaller and more grey, less red?” Lea asked after one of them was able to cast a translation spell on her.

“Y-yes… that’s exactly what happened.”

Lea laughed a little inside her head. They had monsters all over the place, two rulers who could move the sun and moon, and they had all the pokemon and former humans appear about three weeks ago. They were scared by this?

“It’s natural for pokemon. You see, pokemon while they can grow bigger, more naturally evolve when they grow up. Some pokemon don’t evolve, like…” She walked over to a blue and beige pokemon that looked much like a rabbit. “This minun here. Some like this Sunflora,” She gestured to a sunflower looking pokemon. “evolve once. Then there are pokemon like this fletchinder here that can evolve twice in their life. This was this pokemon’s first time evolving.”

“What about you?” One curious pony asked.

“I’m an umbreon, which evolves from eevee, which is one of the most complicated evolution lines there are. Seriously, other than umbreon, it can evolve into seven other pokemon.”

The cluster of ponies didn’t really want a lecture, so they departed to do what work was left. Many of the ponies that had come the first day, but were no longer there. The work that could be done was wrapping up and was close enough to a finish that Lea decided to run upstairs to fetch a checklist she had made earlier in the week. Before she went back down, however, she took out the note she had made the night before and added two more notes. Speaking in Poké and Ghost Pokemon.

Lea grabbed her checklist and went to see what was done. The garden on the roof was done with a few plants other than berries that had been planted the day before. She checked garden off the list and went downstairs to see what else was done.

The kitchen had been one of the few rooms that was finished early. The ponies, despite not having some technology, did have stoves and refrigerators. The kitchen was well done, but like the rest of the building, not really decorated so that Lea could decide that.

The next room was a sleeping room for the pokemon to rest in. It was filled with beds and pillows and blankets everywhere. There was a large closet in one corner that was filled with extras, should they be needed. Next door was a slightly smaller room filled with toys and games for fillies and colts which the younger pokemon enjoyed too. Lea checked those both off the list and went on her way.

The next room was for pokemon that needed to be treated. Many of the things they would need weren’t there, but they had enough that Lea decided to check that room off as well. She quickly checked what supplies they were missing and could get though, and wrote them down on the side as best she could.

The large entry room was fixed up quite a bit. The large hole had been made bigger so that if any pokemon in the sewers were hurt, they could bring them up or bring them supplies. It was also a good place for water pokemon to stay, which brought Lea to the list. She didn’t really want them in the sewers since she knew what was normally in the water there, but she had been able to pull enough money together to send for some sort of water filter in a city called Cloudsdale, which was apparently where they made the weather.

The ponies that were left didn’t really have much to do, other than helping with better lighting and the exterior of the building. The only other ponies there were actually hanging out with the pokemon staying there.

After making note of a few more rooms, Lea finally came to the conclusion that the place could be open to the public for use no later than two days from then. That left her one question. Where to get some red ribbon.

Lea decided the ribbon could be put on hold. There were more important matters. The umbreon made her way to the local library. Before she left, Citrus stopped her at the door.

“Where are you going?”

“Library. I want to get some books to learn about this world.”

“Thought you might be going out for something like that soon. I talked with your sister last night and she told me how much you like to read and learn, so I left for my home and grabbed my saddlebags from when I was a filly. I kept them in case I ever had one of my own.”

Citrus Flower helped fit the bags around Lea’s belt. She also threw in a few bits, telling her the library would only let you take out books with a card and there was a fee to get one.

“Thanks Citrus! I’ll try to be back soon.”

With that, Lea left the building. On her way, she saw a pony ranting in the street about pokemon.

“...It’s just a matter of time until they turn on us! There’s no way to tell what could happen to us all now. If their so called god is able to bring them here, then he should take them back. He’s just trying to take over this world. Who knows how many others he’s done the same to?”

Many of the other ponies on the street ignored him. One filly didn’t, but only because she threw a rotten apple at him. The stallion continued, none the less.

“They’ve done more damage in the time they’ve been here than Ponyville sees in a month. Do we really want these monsters running around too?”

Those sentences caught Lea’s attention. Was this Ponyville that bad that he could compare the past three weeks to a month worth of time in that town? Citrus had told her the Everfree was a dangerous place, so that might be the case.

What really got her was him calling them monsters. She decided to walk up to him and give the stallion a piece of her mind.

“Really sir? You find us to be monsters? Where we are from, your kind would most likely be seen as monsters. You have no typing, so any attack you used would not be affected by our resistances. A fire attack on a water pokemon could possibly kill them. Unicorns could overtake the minds of dark pokemon. The only real evil ones on our world were the humans, and any evil humans were left on Earth. If you really think we should be gotten rid of, maybe you should talk to Arceus in the Everfree about your opinions.”

Lea left the formerly ranting stallion stunned and speechless. In a few minutes, she reached her destination at the library. Not much was going on in there, but a few pokemon joined the ponies that were there in reading. Lea walked up to the librarian’s desk and got a card for herself.

Upon leaving, she had filled her bags as full as they could be with books, and even had two riding on her back. When she got back, she was met by Midnight at the door, who had a small package with him.

“Woah! With that many books, you look like you’re trying to rival Princess Twilight in reading.”

“Who?” Lea asked

“She’s one of the Elements of Harmony who recently became princess. She used to be student to Princess Celestia.”

“Okay. What do you have there?” Lea questioned the package.

Midnight blushed, “I, uh… I got a present for Kiwi.

“Kiw-? Oh yes! I hope she’ll love it!” Lea said quickly, almost blowing Caddi’s cover.

They both went in and, as Lea started up the stairs, she heard Caddi squeal in delight over the present. It was a necklace with a fire opal gem in the middle.

“I love opal! How… how did you know?”

“I just guessed.”

“Well I love it!” Caddi said as she wrapped Midnight in a big hug.

‘They make a cute couple.’ Lea thought as she went up the stairs.

After an hour of reading later, Lea had almost run out of books. Many of the books that were older history books were more pictures than words, much like a picture book. Her only reasoning was that the ponies from back then were mostly uneducated, and couldn’t read. The maps were easy to skim over. The other books went by fast, but that was because she was a fast reader and had also learned a way recently enough to go even faster, yet still find what she needed.

Lea decided it was time to take a break. Going downstairs, a zigzagoon hatchling ran inside asking for help. The umbreon ran over to the little guy to ask what was wrong.

“Bad ponies! Mightyena! Daddy’s hurt! Please help!”

Someone else ran in the door, this time a pony. Said pony was Copper Star. She rushed over to Midnight, who was nuzzling Caddi.

“Midnight, sir! There’s been an attack at the station. The chief was injured upon the attack. He’s been taken to the hospital, so you’re in charge now.”

“What happened.?” Midnight asked, suddenly looking very serious.

“A pokemon attacked the building, letting two of the ponies locked up there out.”

“What?! Who!?”

Copper glanced at Lea, who was talking to the zigzagoon. “I’ll let you guess...”

Author's Note

really, who can guess?
also, put together what ziggs (that's the name of the zigzagoon) and Copper said.
now, can anyone tell me the evolution of zigzagoon?

bonus: I was once on tumblr when i saw a post where someone was saying why people all want diamond rings for engagements and showed opal rings.
when i went looking for a fire opal necklace picture, i thought about just looking about how cheap on could find a nice looking opal engagement ring (btw, black opal is best for that in my opinion)
the cheapest one i saw was about $73
$73
why is everyone spending so much on diamond rings?! TELL ME!

btw: sorry this is short, next chapter will be longer, i promise :pinkiesad2:
fine, pinkie promise :pinkiehappy:

ch. 14 linoone

So far, none of them had told Lea exactly what had happened. She was more occupied with Ziggs (the zigzagoon who had come) and following him. The little hatchling was fast for how young he was, and Lea was having a little trouble keeping up. Her one leg had been beaten so much that straining it too much really hurt her.

Finally, the group of Lea, Caddi, Midnight, Angela, Matrix, Copper, and Ziggs came to a stop in front of the side of the police station. Various medical ponies were around the area evacuating hurt ponies out of the area. Those who were there, but weren’t hurt were being questioned. Lea overheard one officer giving one statement that sent a shiver down her spine and made her start to sweat.

“Some black and gray, dog-like pokemon came and blasted down a wall, letting out a pegasus stallion that had been in the cell. Then I saw the Stallion say something to the pokemon. It blasted another wall and let out a unicorn mare. Wasn’t it those two ponies you caught recently?”

“Lea, calm down! You’ll poison someone.”

Lea turned her attention to Matrix “Wha-? Oh, right. Umbreon can sweat poison.”

“Normally they only do it when they’re threatened, but after hearing that, I’m guessing part of your brain thought that.”

“I-I guess.”

Lea shifted her attention to Ziggs, who had started calling to his dad. “Daddy! I found help! Where are you?!”

The group fell silent to listen for a reply. Near the far edge of the rubble in front of them and a little to the right, Lea could hear a reply, but she almost missed it. “Over here Ziggs! Right over here! Can you follow my voice?”

Ziggs started off, and Lea followed him over the rubble. The rest of the group stayed to go clean up the piles of rubble. Under a large piece was a linoone. Ziggs reached his dad first. The second the linoone could see his son, Ziggs spoke up. “I brought help! A really nice umbreon came to get you out. Then she can help bring you to her pokemon center.”

Zigg’s dad gave a small laugh. “An umbreon setting up a pokemon center? That’s something I’d never think I’d hear about. Where is she?”

Lea came into view of the linoone. “Right here sir. What happened?”

His face darkened “Some mightyena came and tried to take down the wall. I came in to stop him but he won in the end. He succeeded and some of the wall fell and pinned me down. Ziggs came and found me, so I sent him for help. I saw two of those ponies come out of the building. Any idea who they were?”

Lea had started working on lifting up the piece of wall trapping the linoone. “Unfortunately, yes. This place was a police station and those two were being held here.”

“Their pokemon let them out?” The linoone asked.

“Didn’t have one last I checked. Would have used it against me if they did.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…” Lea was able to lift the wall up enough to let him out. “They were put in jail after they attacked me and even my family a few times. Last time I saw them, the unicorn one of the two tried to kill me by strangling me.”

The linoone winced. “That’s bad. Hopefully my mate is doing alright. We got split up by the move. Well, I was already away from them when it happened, but Ziggs was with his mom.”

“There’s at least one female linoone back at our building. I’ll take you over there myself.” Lea examined his leg. “The wall diminished the blood flow to your leg. Nothing too serious, but it’d be best not to have you walk on it until it’s caught up again. The loss of blood flow probably made it too weak to walk on.”
Lea told the others where she was heading before coming back and getting linoone on her back. It was a little hard for her, as the linoone was at least 20 pounds heavier than her, but she could still get him down to the sewers and use one of the carts they had set up to move pokemon.

In a matter of minutes, Lea was getting the linoone on the cart with Ziggs helping her. Soon they were off, heading towards the pokemon center. It wasn’t long before they arrived. Lea had a little trouble getting the linoone upstairs, but it wasn’t anything too hard.

Ziggs ran all over the place, meeting with any linoone that was in the place. After Lea had been able to find a good place for his dad to rest, he ran back in with a sad look on his face. “None of them were Mommy. I want her back!”

Lea couldn’t bear to see him so sad, so she hugged him. “Aww. I’m missing some of my family too. I’m still looking for my daughter and her son. I’m also looking for my dad and a friend of mine.”

“What kind of pokemon is your daughter?” Ziggs asked. His face brightened. “Is she a jolteon?! I’ve always wanted to meet one!”

Lea laughed a little at his reaction. “No, she’s adopted. She’s really a quilava. Her son is a dunsparce she hatched from an egg.”

“Oh!” The hatchling looked at his sleeping dad. “My dad’s looking for some friends of his too. He was with them when we came here. They were attacked right before it happened! He said these big pokemon came to take him and his friends, but Arceus saved them all. He was scared he’d never see them again.”

“Your dad seems like he really cares about his friends.”

“Yeah! He said he had a crush on one of them at one point, but then he met Mommy!”

“Okay then! Well, I should probably get back to my friends and help them. You make sure your dad gets everything he needs.”

“I’ve got it! No one will hurt Daddy again!”

Lea giggled once more before leaving. She bet he would get along great with Sparks if she ever found him.

Earlier that day:

‘Hmm… The scent is coming from from here now. Looks like they’re right behind this wall. Wait… the female’s scent is diminished. Only the male’s scent in recent enough.’

A mightyena was tracking something. He called out to the occupant of the room behind the wall.

“Is somemon in there?”

A noise came from the other side. It sounded like the male. “What? Hmm, must be another one of those pokemon.”

“Master! Are you okay? Where is your mate?”

“Unless you came here to let me out, leave.”

“Of course, Master.”

The mightyena attacked the wall. “What the-?” The voice said.

Soon, a large crack had formed in the wall. It was then the mightyena’s job was stopped.

“Hey! What are you doing? We’re not supposed to destroy anything. If you’re confused, come with me and we can find a pony that can help.”

The pokemon paused to see a linoone talking to him. He brushed it off. “I don’t have to do what anyone tells me to do except my masters, and Master wants me to free him.”

“I still can’t let you destroy that building.”

The linoone attacked before the mightyena could react. Unfortunately, it’s attack was stronger, so the bite pokemon brought down the linoone quickly. From inside the building, the voice had been attacking the wall from the inside, and the crack had grown larger. The mightyena attacked it again, and an attack from inside helped bring the wall down, some of the rubble falling on the fallen pokemon.

“It’s you!” The pegasus from inside stepped out, recognising the pokemon. “That other pokemon was never as strong as this… Maybe you can help. My wife in stuck in another room. Think you can get her out?”

“Of course!” The mightyena nodded his head. “Anything for you.”

The pegasus directed the pokemon to a place to attack. At that point, officers came running to the two of them.

“Get rid of them.” The pegasus ordered the mightyena.

“Sucker Punch!” The pokemon called, attacking the other ponies. “Thunder Fang!”

Soon the whole group of officers was down, and more of the building had collapsed. Within minutes, the second wall was down revealing a unicorn mare. “Quarry!” The mare ran over and kissed the stallion. “I knew you’d get us out.”

“Actually, it was this pokemon. He did what I told him to.”

“Really?” The mare said, shocked. “Maybe we can get more of these and catch that one who put us in jail.”

“Mistress, I know of some others I can get for your cause.”

“Yes, I think a team of these creatures will do nicely. You, go find others for our team.”

“Of course Mistress.” The pokemon nodded to her before running off.

As they left, a small zigzagoon came out from his hiding place and ran over to the linoone.

“Daddy! Are you okay?”

“Yes Ziggs, can you find help for Daddy? He’s stuck.”

“Yeah, I can!” And the little hatchling ran off in search of help.”

Back to present:

“What do we need to do?” Lea asked.

“Clean up this mess and look for Quarry Arrow and Bright Ire. You should be careful for the next few days. I’ll have a guard on you at all times.” Midnight told her.

“What?!” Lea exclaimed. “I don’t need protection. I’ve got my family, well most of them, to help. Matrix and Angela can just train me. I don’t need police watching me 24/7. It makes me nervous.”

“I’m sorry, but we need a guard to capture them as soon as possible, and most likely, they won’t come out unless it’s to get you. Besides, you’re kind of a small celebrity in this town. Compared to it’s size, news travels fast, and everypony is at least the friend of your friend, if not your friend here.”

“Okay, but he or she better not get too close. I’m still not trusting of any random guard you give me.”

“Of course not,” Midnight chuckled. “Ben’s going to be doing it.”

The hitmonlee walked over to Lea. “I promised I would protect your family. I think that includes you too.”

If one were to look closely, they could notice some of Lea’s face get a little pinker. “O-okay, I guess I can live with that.”

Angela gave Lea a look before walking up to her. “No way are you crushing on him.”

“Wh-what? What do you mean?” Lea whispered back.

“Don’t try and hide it. I can tell you do.” Angela told her, backing away now.

It wasn’t long before much of the destruction had been cleaned up and they were able to leave. This time, Ben went along with them and Midnight stayed. Upon their arrival at the pokemon center, Ziggs ran up to them.

“Something’s wrong with Daddy! He won’t stop coughing and sometimes he coughs up some red stuff.”

Lea’s eyes widened as she realized what Ziggs meant. “Guys! Hurry! To the sleeping room!”

They entered the room to find that Zigg’s dad was indeed coughing horridly. There was a little blood on the floor and some near his mouth. A few pokemon were watching, unsure of what to do. Lea helped him up onto Angela’s back and they made a run to the hospital in the town. The doctors took a look at him, and after Lea explained what she knew, the doctor came up with a conclusion.

“With a lack of blood flow to his leg, the blood that was supposed to go there was likely forced to another area. If too much blood was being pushed into one of his vessels, it could have burst it. That’s what seems to have happened here, and it seems to be in a place where the blood in finding it’s way close if not in his lungs.”

“Can you find out where?”

“I… guess I can try.” He said, looking at Ziggs nervously pacing in the waiting room.

A little while later, the doctor was able to confirm where the blood was coming from. He was able to do something that would stop the blood flow from reaching the linoone’s lungs while still letting him breathe, though he would have a little trouble.

“I basically gave him something somewhat like a bandage. Tomorrow, the vessel should be healed enough for me to remove it and he’ll be fine. Make sure he doesn’t strain himself after that, at least for a day or two, otherwise it could open up again.”

“Alright. Thank you Doctor. Here…” Lea gave him a bag full of bits. “This should pay for your work.”

“Thank you Miss.” He nodded to her, and sent the group off with their friend.

“Can I play with Daddy yet?” Ziggs asked for the tenth time.

“No, he has to rest for a few days. Meanwhile you be staying with us.” Matrix told him.

“Oh, okay.” Ziggs said sadly.

“Oh come on. You can still play with me! I bet your dad wouldn’t mind.”

“Okay!” Ziggs said, jumping onto the shiny.

“He’s good with kids, isn’t he?” Caddi asked Lea

“Yeah. Sparks like to play with him all the time. When our linoone wasn’t around, he was the only other male pokemon around. It made sense for them to play together.”

“Daddy?” Ziggs said, questionly.

The old linoone had walked in. He took a look at Matrix playing with Ziggs.

“I should go back to bed. I’m seeing things.”

Lea went over to the linoone. “Oh, what’s wrong.”

“I’m seeing a shiny Umbreon playing with my son.”

“That’s… exactly what’s going on. Should I tell Matrix to stop?”

The linoone’s head snapped in her direction. “What’s your name?”

“Lea. Why?” Lea asked, already thinking she knew.

“We finally found you! Ziggs come here!” The zigzagoon did what his dad said. “I don’t know how you did it, but you found my friends.”

“Linoone, that’s really you?”

“Yep, same one your dad had and used at the gym. Other than me, who have you found?”

“Only Matrix and Angela. And Angela we only found yesterday!”

“Hmm… I was hoping Ziggs might get to play with Sparks, but I guess we’ll have to wait a little longer. I’m at least glad to be with some of you.”

Linoone paused before thinking about what Lea had told him when she was getting him out from the rubble. “Wait! Those ponies are after you?! I overheard them talking about making a team of pokemon to attack you.”

“What?” Ben asked, walking over.

“Yeah, they sent the mightyena that freed them to find some pokemon to create a team to catch her.”

“That’s not good. Lea, you shouldn’t leave this place for the next little while. And If you do, do it that same way you got around before you proved your innocence.”

“I-I think I can. But I still need to look for Kya and Sparks. And now I need to look for Linoone’s mate.”

Linoone cut in. “We can look for them. I don’t want you getting hurt. If we find your dad, he’ll never forgive me if you did.”

“Thanks guys. I don’t know what I’d do without you!” Lea pulled everyone into a large group hug.

Elsewhere:

“So what did you bring to show us?” Ire was talking to the mightyena.

‘He brought me.’ She heard in her mind.

“What?” Quarry asked. He had heard the voice too.

A grumpig walked out, along with cacturne, an amoonguss, and a glameow.

“How are you doing that?” Ire asked the grumpig.

‘I am a psychic pokemon. I can communicate through your mind.’

“Must you really?” She asked her.

‘You ponies don’t understand our language, so yes.’

“That stupid umbreon talked to us perfectly when she visited us in jail.”

‘Many ponies of the unicorn variety have casted translation spells on pokemon they wish to communicate with. I see that you are one as well. If you wish for me to stop, you could do the same.’

Ire grumbled a bit before using the spell.

“Thank you. Now we can have a proper conversation. Now, you said you had a grudge with an umbreon, am I correct?”

“Yes…”

Quarry was standing to the side, observing what Ire was doing. “Just what are you doing?” He mumbled to himself.

Author's Note

well, those two didn't stay down long. and now they're building a team
what does this grumpig have in store for them. And is Lea falling in love?

chapter came out so quickly because i've been planning this for a little while and i'm out of school for thanksgiving break.
now the question remains: What chapter will Kya or Sparks appear in? And will Quarry and Ire attack before that?

btw: i was listening to this music, you should too:

MUSIC LINK

ch. 15 items

“Grphnug!” Lea was jolted awake by Linoone.

“Woah! Lea, if you want to sleep, you should try doing it in a bed!”

Lea rubbed the back of her head. “Sorry. All the work we did yesterday plus you needing to go to the hospital made me really tired. Not to mention Angela wanted me to keep working on learning dark pulse. I thought umbreon couldn’t do that without a TM.”

“There have been some cases where pokemon can learn moves naturally from practice that are more easily learned from a TM or HM. Anyway, I went out this morning to see if there was anything for you to do while you’re stuck here and can’t really go outside. I found this form, which seems like it will work, but you have to be the one to fill it out.”

“Let me see it…” Lea asked for the form “Let’s see… It’s a form to let various natives and even non-natives of this world ask questions on your experience so far. Questions can be for the one filling out the form or their family and friends. So I basically have to put down my name, the names of my family and friends, and a mailing address?”

“Apparently so. And you can mail the people, er-, ponies who are running this when there’s someone new added to your group they can ask.”

“Eh, seems legit. I guess I’ll try it.” Lea started to fill out the form, but had to stop at mailing address. The certificate she had gotten from buying the building gave the address, but she couldn’t remember it. She ran upstairs with the paper carefully in her mouth and entered her office room. She placed the form on her desk and opened up the drawer with the building certificate. Lea was able to fill out the rest of the form. She looked over the list of names one last time.

“Let’s see… Me, Matrix, Angela, Linoone, Caddi, Citrus, Midnight, Ben and Ziggs. I hope Ben and Midnight don’t mind me adding them to the list.”

Lea went back downstairs with the form in an envelope and gave it to Linoone to deliver. He left and a few minutes later, Midnight came in to the main room.

“Lea, hey, um, can I borrow some stationary and stuff? The office at the police station kinda got destroyed and I need to send a letter.”

“Only if you’ll answer three questions. First why didn’t you ask yesterday?”

“I was taking care of the mess at the station, then after helping with Linoone, I went back there to see what other damage might have been caused.”

“Okay. Second, Who are you sending it to?”

“To Princess Celestia or Luna. Whoever gets it first. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem our chief would bother them with, but with many of our officers hurt, and the pokemon still causing some minor problems, I thought it might be one to alert them about. Not to mention, from what Linoone said, they’re most likely building a team of pokemon to hurt you and your family if not kill you outright.”

“Yeah, that’s probably important. Anyway, my last question was if you and C-Kiwi are a thing now.”

“I-I-I guess we are. Y-yes.” Midnight said, his face red from blushing.

“Hah! Knew it! Go ahead, but I want to read the letter after you’re done. And don’t use our names if you can help it!” Lea called to him as he rushed up the stairs.

It didn’t take long for Midnight to write the letter. He showed it to Lea, who was in the corner of the room working on a list. “Here, I finished. What do you think?”

He set it down in front of Lea. The letter read:

Princess Celestia and Luna,
I am Midnight Honor, acting police chief of the Hoofington Police Force. Last week, we apprehended two criminals who were running an underground animal fighting ring. They were stopped by one of their prisoners, who was a formerly human pokemon. The had continued their criminal actions with her even after Arceus’ ~~message to~~ announcement to all of Equus. About a week after her arrival, she (she wishes to be kept anonymous) was able to escape, but also managed to set the building on fire.
The ponies responsible convinced us she was the real criminal, and we were searching for her. About another week had passed before she came to us to tell us the truth, mainly because she was seen as the criminal. When we finally found out the real culprits, we were able to capture them quickly.
The next day, ~~Le~~ my new friend came back to confirm that it was them. Bright Ire, one of the two, attempted to take the life of the pokemon she and her accomplice, Quarry Arrow, had trapped. One of her own pokemon, an umbreon, was able to stop Ire without harming her, just putting Ire to sleep.
Yesterday, however, a pokemon supposedly belonging to Ire and Quarry freed them from their cells, destroying much of the building in the process. While they were the only two to escape, many of our officers, including our chief were injured. Another of my friend’s pokemon, a linoone this time, witnessed the attack made by their mightyena and tried to stop the pokemon. He was harmed, but is currently okay. He was able to overhear the plans of them and from what they said, they are most likely trying to create a team of pokemon to seek revenge on ~~L~~ my friend and her family, hoping to harm or even kill them.
I send this hoping you can send at least some help, as our forces are currently very low from injury. We would have a few more to help, but with calls every day reporting small incidents with pokemon, we have even fewer.
I know you must have your own problems, seeing how many we are finding here, but if you can do anything to help, we would greatly appreciate it.
-Midnight Honor, Acting Chief of the Hoofington Police Force.

“Hmm, it seems good. Thanks for not using our names.”

“Yeah, I had a couple of times I almost wrote it. But I crossed them out before I wrote your whole name.”

Midnight made the paper into a scroll and tied it with a red ribbon for it’s importance. He placed a scratched up seal with the symbol designated to the Hoofington Police Force, though it was slightly damaged from him having to retrieve it from the rubble.

“I’m going to give it to our fastest flyer on the squad, Feather Flurry. She fast compared to most pegasi. I bet she could give a few of the slower Wonderbolts a run for their bits. Anyway, she should be able to get it to one of them late tomorrow afternoon, maybe early evening. I’ll see you later.”

“Bye Midnight!”

Elsewhere in the city:

Ire was standing in front of the mightyena that had freed her and her husband. Yesterday, after it had brought other pokemon, one of the ones it had brought, a thing called a grumpig, had decided to help train her. Now, she was being tested.

“Are you sure this won’t harm him enough that he can’t help?” Ire asked the black and purple pig.

“He’ll be fine. Besides, he’s the closest we have to an umbreon so it will simulate what you’ll go through.”

Ire still didn’t understand why she had to do it. “I thought we got you to stop these other pokemon. Why can’t you do this to her yourself?”

The grumpig chuckled. “Pokemon have different types, depending on their types, the attacks of others have different effects. Pokemon like mightyena and umbreon are immune to psychic attacks, which is what I do. Unicorns, like yourself, don’t have that problem, and you can simulate what I can do with your magic.”

“What about her two friends? The other umbreon and, what was it, absult?”

“Absol. Don’t worry, We were able to find another pokemon to take care of them.”

Ire turned to an area that the pig like pokemon gestured to. There stood a large beetle looking pokemon. It was a dark blue pokemon with yellow eyes and a large horn. Ire hadn’t translated it yet, so all she heard it say was: “Heraaa-.”

“I have to admit, that pokemon looks like a good match, but how?”

“Easy.” the grumpig started, “Dark are weak to bug and fighting, and this guy just happens to be both. The linoone your mightyena encountered also is weak to fighting, so that’s two spearow with one stone right there.”

“Excellent!”

Hoofington Shopping Area.

Caddi had just finished up another performance in the town square. Instead of doing a musical performance today, she had done some comedy. Her best joke had been about a stallion and a genie: A stallion found a lamp with a genie in it. The genie told him ‘I will grant you three wishes, but be warned. Whatever you wish for, your worst enemy with get double that.’ The stallion first asked for a mansion, and his worst enemy got two. Then he wished for a million bits, his worst enemy got two million. Then he told the genie ‘I wish you would scare me half to death!’

Caddi had ended the joke right there. After two or three seconds, the ponies listening would put it together and laugh at the joke. She had earned a few more bits than normal that day, so Caddi decided to use the for shopping. One of the stalls caught her eye as she was passing them all, so once she knew there was nothing else she wanted, Caddi returned to the first booth.

The booth had various pieces of jewelry. Many of them contained stones she had never seen before. After conversing with the owner of the small shop, Caddi learned that many of these were evolution stones for pokemon.

After looking for a while, Caddi eventually decided to buy a necklace with a light blue gem with a dark blue and white squiggle pattern in it. She decided it would make a nice gift for Lea to cheer her up.

After arriving back at the pokemon center, Caddi found Lea who was working with Angela some more. “Hey, Lea! I was out shopping , not looking for anything in particular when I found something that might cheer you up!”

Lea looked at Angela, who nodded, before she walked over to Caddi. “What did you find?”

“Well, I was at a jewelry stand and I found a necklace you might like to wear.” Caddi showed Lea the necklace. “Do you like it?”

Lea stared at it. After a little bit of just staring at it, she poked at it with her paw. “Th-this is real?”

“Should be. Why, is it some sort of really special evolutiony stone that you needed? The mare running the booth said some of them were made from stones like that.”

“Yes! That’s exactly what this is! Angela, come here!”

“What is i- is that absolite?!”

“Yes! Caddi found one!”

“What? What’s going on?”

Lea and Angela got into a conversation of their own.

“Will it even work with you as a pokemon?”

“I don’t know. One lucario that came here said that after a few days, the balance between pokemon and human aura on the former humans stopped at an even fifty fifty.”

“So that still gives us a chance.”

“WILL YOU TWO TELL ME WHAT’S GOING ON?!” Caddi yelled.

Both of the dark pokemon looked at her and blinked. Eventually, Angela spoke up.

“That stone is a stone called Absolite. It allows absol like myself to mega evolve. It requires a second part, called a keystone, which Lea currently had attached to her belt.”

“Okay, thanks for telling me. Here.” Caddi put the necklace around Angela’s neck and walked away. Lea and Angela couldn’t even start up their training again before being interupted once more, this time by Citrus.

“Lea! Where’s your belt?!”

Lea waved her paw in front of Citrus’ eyes before replying “I’m wearing it.”

“Oh, didn’t see it there! Take it off!”

“Why are you all excited?” Matrix asked. He had walked over after seeing her unusually peppy display.

“I think I finally got this one spell down pat, and it will really help us in the long run!”

Lea was unsure at first, but eventually gave Citrus her belt. Citrus cast the spell on the belt, then waved over a random pokemon, and put the belt around them like a sash.

“Say something!”

“Um, why am I wearing this?” The pokemon asked

“To help me demonstrate to them what it does.”

Lea, Angela, and Matrix looked at her. “How did you…” Matrix started.

“I found a modified version of the translation spell which allows the user to imbue and object with a lower power version of the spell which has the same effect, but has a longer duration than casting it on a living organism. The spell allows the caster to charge the spell when it runs low and is not restrained to a single being.”

The pokemon in front of her looked at her with confusion from her new tone of speaking.

“That’s what it says in the book.” There were a few sounds of understanding. “Basically, I can give you a translation spell that lasts longer, but uses less of my energy to cast. The only thing I want to make sure of is that the thing I cast it on iis something you’ll wear all the time.”

“Don’t do it on this necklace.” Angela spoke up. “I’m probably not going to want to wear it, especially if we can’t get any use from it.”

Next Matrix came in. “I don’t have anything I can wear that you could do it to yet, but I’ll look for something. I’ll go tell Linoone and Ziggs to start looking too.”

“Okay let me just grab the book with the spell and copy down the page so I know I won’t forget.” Citrus walked over to grab her book, but Lea was already there. Instead of looking at the book itself, she was looking at Citrus’ bookmark.

“Where did you get this?” Lea asked.

“What, the book? I got it at the library.”

“No, not the book, the bookmark.”

“After Matrix had left looking for you, I had gone to visit my mom to see how she was doing. One of the pokemon in the town had been selling some stuff he had made. I gave him a couple bits for a small pack of them that he had made. Left the one square on that one blank so he could fill it in with the buyer’s cutiemark when they bought it.”

“What’s so special about it Lea.” Angela asked.

“Look.”

Lea showed her the signature at the bottom. It was a singular letter. The artist had put two dots, one above the other, and then made a curve going around both of them in an S shape. on the top of the S was four lines, making it look as if the letter was glowing or shining.

“Oh my gosh!” Angela exclaimed. “Sparks!”

Author's Note

be on the lookout for the letter in Zeus' story (cuz it could possibly show up)
btw, the part near the start where Lea signs them up for an asking thing? you can ask them stuff
a bunch of authors were doing it, so i am too. I just built it into the story (not going to have it in the story though)
link to ask thing

ch. 16 training

“Okay, I want to see you hit all three of those X’s!” Angela half yelled at Lea. “Ready… GO!”

Lea hit each of the targets with dark pulse. The third one almost missed, but was still close enough to count as a hit.

“Where were your calls? You call you attack right before firing. Let’s them know at least what to expect.”

“Why should I?” Lea asked. “These guys are trying to catch me, or even possibly kill me. They don’t need that advantage.”

“Not calling them is just as bad. Some attacks can kill, and we don’t want to become them, now do we.”

“I… I guess not.”

“Good. Now go again.”

“Dark pulse! Dark pulse! Dark pulse!”

All three attacks hit the targets dead on. However…

“Good form, nice aim, but when you call an attack, you want to be sure you actually use that attack. Still, It’s good to know that you can use shadow ball, so we can try working on that next.”

Lea had fired two rounds of dark pulse, but the third had instead been a shadow ball.

“Keep working on dark pulse, when you get three perfect groupings of three, we’ll try to get you to learn to use shadow ball.”

It took her sixteen tries before Lea could get three rounds of three perfect shots. After a short break, they moved onto shadow ball, which was a little harder, seeing as it was a ghost type move and not a dark type. After getting shadow ball as good as it was going to be for her, Lea was told to move onto alternating the two moves until she alway fired the one she called.

It took over an hour of training, but Angela finally let Lea leave. The training had been done in the sewers as there was no one down there as of then. Lea made her way up to the main floor, and then up the stairs to her room. Going into the office, she noticed two extra papers on her desk.

“No way!” She exclaimed, looking at them. “How did they get here so fast?”

On her desk were two questions from different ponies. Or could they be pokemon. Maybe even something else. Anyway, she answered the questions, and suddenly they disappeared. Before they could, it seemed like some sort of unicorn based magic had enveloped them, so her main conclusion was that was what had taken them.

She waited to see if there was anything else, but when nothing showed up, Lea decided to go back to writing more notes into her list. The day before, she had added a bullet point with the words: repeat in past; and another with: humans=Poké?

Now Lea was ready to add two more. Now, she wrote down: mega evo and notes and work. After looking at her notes, Lea proceeded to underline the second one she had just written. Before she left, Lea added a title to the paper. After scratching out a few ideas for a title, Lea finally decided to go with Questions for Arceus.

“LEA!!!” Angela yelled from downstairs “BREAK’S OVER! YOU’RE WORKING WITH MATRIX NOW! GET TO IT!”

Lea sighed and hopped off her chair, leaving it spinning behind her. She had almost left the room when she went back to put her list away.

She was looking forward to Matrix teaching her as he said they were going to work on a healing move.

“You ready to begin?”

“Yeah. What am I learning?”

“We’re going to see if we can get you to use moonlight.”

“Isn’t that a fairy type move?”

“Yes, it is, which might make it a little harder for you, but it is a move naturally learned by umbreon such as ourselves.”

“Okay what do I do?”

“Are you sure this is the only way?” Ire asked the grumpig.

“Yes. Besides, Mightyena is fine with it and no mon else has made any objections, now have they?”

Ire had to admit that the pokemon had a point. none of the other pokemon had tried to voice in otherwise. In fact, Ire could barely remember them saying much at all.

‘Hmph, probably don’t remember them saying anything since I can’t understand them.’

“Now,” started the deception pokemon, “I want you to do what I described to you to Mightyena. Remember, even though he is willing to do it, his brain will still show some restraint. And also remember to have a question for him once you are done to check your work.”

Ire went through what she had been taught. As her magic reached to Mightyena’s mind, she could feel it try to get rid of her. It was enough to get a small reaction out of her, but not much. When this happened, she could hear Grumpig’s voice instruct her, though it seemed farther away than normal.

“That rejection is what you have to push through. The stronger the mind, the harder it is to get through, not to mention they’ll most likely not even want to let you in at all. In other words, this is going to be harder when you do it for real. Now go onto the next step.”

Next Ire started to look through Mightyena’s mind. Eventually, she came to a memory of the day before where he was trying to let her and Quarry out, but was attacked by that other pokemon. It was a simple enough task. Instead of taking away the whole memory, though, she removed and time her was able to see the second pokemon. When she pulled herself out of the spell, Ire could see that his eyes, were a little bit glazed over, but he seemed fine after he shook his head.

“Ask your question.” The psychic pokemon instructed.

“What pokemon attacked you when you were trying to free Quarry and I?”

Mightyena looked at her with a little shock. “That’s all? It’s easy, it was a…” The bite pokemon paused. “I… I can’t remember. I can remember them attacking, but can’t remember even seeing them. Was that supposed to happen?” He asked Grumpig.

“If Ire’s objective was for that to happen, then yes.” She told him. “Very good. Just remember that it will take longer when you do it to that umbreon if you want to fully suceed.”

“I forget, why is this better than just getting rid of her?” Ire asked Grumpig.

“Because, this is worse. I found one account of this being done by a unicorn once before, a long time ago. Any books or papers written on how to do it were destroyed. The book I had found about it called it living death.”

This piqued Ire’s interest. “And why was that?”

“Well, the book said how one pony had done so much wrong, that death was too kind for them. Of course, your princess tried to stop them from doing anything worse, but what they did was basically clean the slate of the pony. They could still talk and walk and all that stuff, but they lost their being. Also, those cutiemarks you have? Gone! Had to rediscover their talent, which led to studies on if it was possible that changing your past could leave you with a different one”

“That does sound like something perfect for her.” Ire remarked. “Perfect for what she did. And then once it’s been long enough, we can take her back and she won’t remember a thing of the first time we had her.”

Off to the side, Quarry was watching. While he too wanted to get back at Lea and her family he didn’t think this was the best way.

“Why did you come to help us?” Quarry asked the pokemon.

“Easy, back on Earth, both Mightyena and I worked for this group who wanted to rule the world. This is as close as we’re getting to that again.”

“What about the others?”

“I’m very… convincing.”

Quarry didn’t know why, but he shuddered a little.

“Now!” The grumpig clapped her hands together. “There’s a chance this umbreon of ours has worked on protecting her mind. You know the phrase: make your mind a fortress?”

“Yes.” Ire answered simply.

“Well psychic pokemon take it literally, and there are some that while they aren’t psychic, they might still be the same. Now, I want you to do the same thing with Mightyena to me, just don’t actually change any of my memories.”

“Alright…” Ire lits her horn once again as she replied.

When she used the spell on Grumpig this time, she could already notice a difference. Trying to get in, there was more resistance from the grumpig’s mind. It wasn’t much stronger, but it was noticeable enough. When she did find herself where she wanted to be, Ire was able to visualize a large structure representing the mind. When she tried to mess with it, defences came up to try and get her out. After the seventh attack, they finally succeeded.

“That was harder than before.” Ire said, rubbing her head.

“Yes, but you also weren’t trying anything specific. Now let’s run through what you’re going to do.”
As the two girls worked on that, Quarry was examining the other pokemon. One of them just seemed to be sitting there. He waved his hand in front of it’s face. There was no reaction. Then he poked the pokemon. When he went to poke it again, it hit him with it’s arm with the spikes on that arm glowing. It glared at him before returning to it’s original position like nothing had ever happened.

“I’m going out.” Quarry told Ire, who wasn’t listening. “I’ll be going to the next town over. I’ll have better luck there. Be back soon.”

“I give up! It’s not working!” Lea yelled.

“It could be you don’t have enough experience for your body to allow you to use moonlight.”

Lea gave him a mean look. An actual mean look. “We worked on that for who knows how long and you never thought to TELL ME!”

“Well, uh… at least we know that you’re uh, close.”

“What do you mean?” Lea asked with a slight sneer.

“You just successfully used mean look, which is the third hardest naturally learned one, with moonlight being the hardest.”

“Maybe that’s it.” The gears in Lea’s head starting to turn. “Maybe the way each pokemon uses an attack that they naturally learn is different. The only way you can learn how to use it is by doing it the first time on accident and from then on, you just repeat what feelings you went through when you were doing it the first time.”

“Maybe. Hey, can you think of any other times this happened?”

“I think I’ve used a screech attack before, but that’s it.”

“At least we have something to work with. First, let’s get you somewhere soft to take a nap. You deserve it.”

Author's Note

What's this?! Quarry having second thoughts?
This can't be real!

can we have more questions

anywho, it's drawcember for us artists and i decided to do something this year:

ch. 17 villain

Lea was woken up from her nap by a few very loud knocks on the door downstairs. When no one went to answer it, she ran down and carefully opened the door. “Yes? What do you want?”

In the doorway stood a pegasus and some sort of cross between a braviary and a pyroar.
“We have a package we’re supposed to deliver here to a pokemon going by the name of Lea.” The pegasus explained. “Some sort of water filter from Cloudsdale. Know where we can find her?”

“She would be me. Do I need to sign anything saying I got it?”

“Yeah, actually. Can you sign here?”

Lea nervously looked at the package for a second. “Um, actually, can I look at it first? While I do trust that you did everything you should, we’ve been running into a lot of problems here and I want to make sure I don’t have another before I sign for it.”

“Go ahead.” said the other creature, “I’d like it if you would. If something were to happen, we’d be the ones thrown under the cart.”

Lea checked the package, and after looking at it pretty thoroughly, she signed the form and the two deliverers started on their way. Before they left, however, Lea stopped the second one.

“What do you want?” He asked.

“I’m still kinda getting used to this world, and while I know the various names of your various species, I don’t know exactly which is which and, well, what I’m trying to say is that-”

“You want to know what I am?”

“Yeah, that pretty much hits the nail on the head.”

“Well, I’m a griffon. Sometimes you can mistake hippogriffs for griffons because they are part pony instead of lion.” He paused before rephrasing. “They have the back legs and tail of a pony instead.”

“Okay, sorry. To me, I recognize you to be part braviary and part pyroar.”

“Yeah, kinda guessed. Anyway, guessing by the names, it’s the pyroar part that changes.”

“Thanks for telling me. Sorry if I’m making you late for something else.”

“Nah, this was the last package I had to help with today. If you want, I could stay to help set it up, what with me having claws instead of hooves.”

“You don’t mind?”

“Nope, I really don’t know what I’d do instead. I ran out of things I even need to be doing. Besides, I think I can also help with your problem with learning the various species of Equus.”

After they had managed to to move the water filter down to the sewers. Lea and the griffon stated to talk.

“My name’s Gregor, by the way. Already knew yours was Lea since this was sent to you.

“Thanks Gregor. You know, your name is one of the most normal ones I’ve heard in the… OH MY GOSH! WE’VE BEEN HERE FOR THREE WEEKS!”

“Three weeks? Already? Wow, seems like it’s been less than that. Hmm, Natalya’s been away for a month then, which means she should be back sometime this week.”

“Natalya?” Lea questioned.

“My cousin. She had originally planned to visit me for a while, but something came up on the first day and she had to leave. Said she’d be back in about a month.”

“Do you wonder if she has any pokemon friends she’ll be bringing along?”

“She might. Okay, press that light blue button. that will release an inner tube that will keep it at the level we want it.”

Lea pressed the button on the filter. Around the machine, an orange inner tube inflated around it. After it finished, Gregor helped Lea get it into the water and tie it into place so they could place it.

“So, what do you want to hear about first?”

“Hippocampi please. They sound interesting.”

“Basically they’re ponies that live in the water.”

“So… like mermaids?

“Like… What?”

“Mermaids. They were sort of like if a human were part water pokemon. Top half of a human, bottom half of a milotic.”

“I guess that’s it, yeah. What next?”

“Hmm, I read about two leaders that went to the summit; a diamond dog and a minotaur. I found a picture of a diamond dog, and minotaur basically sounds like a mix of mino for man and taur like tauros, so I have an idea. Dragons are most likely like dragon types, but which ones?”

“Out of the pokemon I’ve seen, charizard looks closest to what they look like here. But then there are also wyverns.”

“Noiverns?”

“No, WYverns. They’re mistaken for dragons most of the time. The only difference that is easy to see is that dragons have six limbs, like two wings, four legs or two wings, two arms, and two legs. Don’t know if ones with two legs and four wings exist though. Wyverns have only four. It can be two wings, two legs or maybe no wings, just two arms and two legs.

“I only really know that because I was once out and lost when I came across one and called her a dragon.” Gregor laughed. “Boy was she mad!”

“Gregor! Watch what you’re doing!”

The tool Gregor had been holding had almost fallen into the water. Lea had barely caught it in her teeth and set it down.

“Sorry about that. How about changelings next?”

“No, I know how they look. I found some… pictures from the wedding incident. How about breezies?”

“Ah! I’ve heard a few pokemon who have seen pictures call them fairy ponies. They’re very small and have antennae and have gossamer wings.”

“Alright, I get the idea. Anything else?”

“Rumors of things called sphinx. Haven’t seen any so I can’t say. There are deer they kind of look like, well, um… rats, how do I describe them.”

“Deerling.”

“What’s that?” Gregor asked.

“I said,” Lea fixed a hole in a wall they’d built to control the flow of water. “deerling. If I associated ponies with ponyta, I’m gonna assume it’s the same for deer and deerling.”

“Okay. Oh shoot! How could I forget?! Zebras are like striped ponies, earth variety only, and donkeys are a lot like ponies and mules even more so. Again they’re also only like earth ponies. One you never want to see is a centaur. I’m pretty sure the only one left is Tirek, but last I heard, he’s still in Tartarus, though there was the one time Cerberus wasn’t guarding the gates…”

Lea let Gregor continue talking until they finished their work with the filter. He bid her adeu and left for his own home. It was late enough that Lea finally got to go up to her bed and know that’s she’d be able to stay there, at least for a little while.

Unfortunately, before she could, an orange pony walked in wearing a poncho and a hat that covered his face. On his back was a rubber chicken. He spoke in a low voice. “Excuse me. I’ve been traveling for a while, waiting for some sort of party I need to make. Is it possible that I could stay here for the night.”

“Do whatever you want.” Lea told him. “As long as you don’t try to kill me, I’m fine.”

The pony took off his hat and gave her an odd look. “You know what?” He asked in a more cheerful and happy voice. “I think my next party will be here.”

“How wonderful.” Lea said sarcastically. “Extra bedroom is on the third floor, second door on the right. A friend of mine is staying in the room next to you, so be nice. I’m going to bed myself, so don’t bother me. I’ve had a long day.”

“Alright, by the way, the name’s Cheese Sandwich.”

“Nice to meet you, now goodnight!”

A cloaked pony walked into a bar called John McRory’s which was named after the owner, a hippogriff. Upon entering the bar, the cloaked figure walked over to the owner and asked for a drink.

“Quarry, what are you doing here?” John asked the figure.

“Shush! Remember, I go by Arrow here.”

“Fine Arrow. Why are you here? There are ponies looking for you so you can be arrested. You’ve been in some bad situations before, but this is off my charts for you. I mean, I never saw you as one who would try to escape punishment like this. Maybe lie a bit and put the blame elsewhere, but escaping from jail?”

“*sigh* A pokemon decided to bust me and Ire out and I took the chance when it was there. Since then, she’s been acting… differently.”

That got the hippogriff’s attention. “How so?”

“Well, it was another one of these pokemon that got us caught, and Ire did what Ire does: Get angry and goes overboard. She almost strangled the girl. Ire wanted to get revenge and got some pokemon together to try and help her but now…” Quarry trailed off.

“What’s going on Qu- Arrow?”

“She’s been going over the top. She’s planning to do something called living death.”

John’s eyes widened. If he hadn’t already heard some other over the top schemes from another of his friends, Gifted Brains, they might have popped out of his head.

“Living death?! That’s just a myth! Even if the story is true, you can’t just do it!”

Quarry sighed again. “One of the pokemon that joined the team is some sort of psychic type that has experience manipulating minds. They convinced Ire to learn how to do it, since apparently they can’t do it themselves.”

“I can see Ire going after some sort of revenge, but this? Never saw it coming.”

John paused to quickly take an order from another regular at the bar. She was a pony with a Braytish accent named Wisdom Grifter. She had been listening into their conversation.

“When did she start acting strange?”

“Right around the time that grumpig showed up. Come to think of it… any of the pokemon she had brought along with her basically act like zombie slaves. Come to think of it, Ire’s been acting sort of like… Oh my Celestia! That pokemon is messing with my wife’s mind! Thanks for the talk you two. Wisdom, say hi to the team for me.”

Quarry ran out of the bar and started off toward where he and Ire were staying. He was a block away when he saw the purple pig like pokemon.

“You! What did you do to my wife?!”

“Oh, you finally found out.” She grinned. “The description you gave of this other pokemon and her friends was uncanny. Almost the same as this one girl I met many years ago. Not only does Ire want revenge, but so do I. Now all that’s in my way is you. That leaves me with only one choice.”

The pokemon’s eyes glowed an ethereal blue. After a few seconds, Quarry blacked out.

“There, all done. You won’t remember any of that conversation now, but you get to keep you suspicions just because your mate is possible strong enough to free herself from my mental probing if you’re too different. With that out of the way, nothing can stop me now. Well, nothing I can’t fix.”

“What’s going on?” Ire had gone outside and found the two, and became concerned when she saw Quarry unconscious on the ground.

“I think he went out to a bar, he seemed drunk, and I smell alcohol in his breath.”

“Ugh! I thought I told him to stop going there. It’s risky, especially with Gifted Brains living above there. He’s so prone to getting bugs.”

“Shouldn’t an extermination fix that?”

“Wrong kind of bugs. They’re the listening kind.”

“Oh, those kind of bugs.”

“Yeah. Hey, maybe once we’re all done, we can have a girls night.” Ire suggested as she walked away, leaving Grumpig to move Quarry.

“Yes, maybe…” Grumpig smirked one more time before lifting up Quarry in her psychic grasp.

Author's Note

the bar scene is a reference to i show i watch
namely the name of the bar and the two ponies that are mentioned/show up

TEH TRU VILLAIN IZ REVEALED!!!

The names of the griffons in lea's scene are the given names for two griffons see in the show (fan given names i mean)

also, Cheese Sandwich :pinkiehappy:
Zeus: No one has used Cheese, kinda surprised actually
but you know what this means: *starts singing* It's time to polka, with ponyta and pidgy too...
no, wait, that's next chapter....

ch 18. party

It was not yet six in the morning when Angela entered the building. Most of the pokemon were asleep, but a few nocturnal pokemon, like noctowl, were still up.

“Better get upstairs and into bed before Lea wakes up and realizes I’m not there. She’s not gonna want to hear the bad news.”

“Hear what bad news?”

Angela’s fur stood on end for a few second when she heard Lea’s voice. She turned and saw Lea in the doorway leading towards the kitchen standing on three legs with the fourth in the handle of a mug with steam coming from it.

“L-lea! What are you doing up? And is that coffee?”

Lea walked over to her sister. “Nah, it’s hot cocoa. The peppermint kind too. I kinda figured out how to hold a mug while still being able to walk.” She took a sip. “By the way, I need to buy a few new mugs. Anyway… where where you?”

Angela gave a small sigh. “I went out to the town Citrus said she had got the bookmarks. Turns out it’s just the next town over. I asked if some of the residents had seen Sparks and if they knew where to find him. Apparently he left a few days ago.”

“Oh, that’s, uh… too bad.”

“Hey, I have good news too.”

“What’s that?”

“He was seen leaving with a quilava.”

Lea’s eyes widened. “Then that means, if we find him, we find Kya!”

“Yeah, if it is her. It most likely is, but still… Anyway, why are you up?”

“My dream woke me up.”

“You had an actual dream?”

“No, haven’t had once since we got here. The colors just suddenly changed.”

Lea had a dream form of synesthesia. She dreamed in colors instead of pictures. Sometimes she had a normal dream, but not usually.

“What was it last night?”

Lea took another sip from her mug. “It was mostly blues and purples, then it suddenly changed to a burst of bright orange and yellow with a little red. The burst is what woke me up.”

“Okay. *yawn* Anything else happen.”

“Well nothing that I can-”

Lea was cut off by another voice. “Hey! You should have told me you were waking up early! I could have started to set up the party!”

“Oh yeah, there’s this guy.”

Angela wasn’t use to being surprised, and the new pony popping up right behind her really didn’t help.

“You…” She started after she calmed down. “Are worse than sparks after having sugar. Well, maybe equally bad.”

“The name’s Cheese Sandwich. This is my friend, boneless.” He gestured to the rubber chicken on his back.

“Uh, huh. Well, I’ve been up all night, so I’m gonna go up to be-”

“Come! Let’s make a party for your friend!” Cheese yelled as he took ahold of Angela.

“All. My. HATE!” Angela whispered to Lea before being pulled away by the party pony.

“And that’s for staying out all night without telling me!” Lea called back after her.

‘Hmm, I wonder if I can manage two legs again. I saw one article about someone’s houndoom who could could do it. I should go try.’

And so the sleep deprived Lea left the room to try walking on two legs again.

After Lea had slept a bit more, she came down to have breakfast. She found the whole downstairs area decorated for a party.

‘Huh. This pony doesn’t mess around when it comes to parties.’

Lea found the party pony looking at various pokemon and taking notes.

“Ah, glad to see you up! I started the party already for the younger ones who were already up. They’ve been having fun.”

He stopped to look at what he had been writing down. Then out of nowhere he put up a poster of the legendary pokemon Lugia, and started bouncing around the room, pointing at various pokemon and saying their names.

“Krabby, snubbull, venonat, mankey, chansey and zubat. Slowking, ditto, butterfree. Lugia and caterpie.”

Out of nowhere, he pulled out an accordion and started up a tune. After an intro, he started singing.

“Krabby, Snubbull, Venonat
Mankey, Chansey and Zubat
Slowking, Ditto, Butterfree
Lugia and Caterpie
Oddish, Poliwag, Goldeen
Elekid and Nidoqueen
Victreebel and Magneton - Everybody Polkamon!
“Aerodactyl, Seel, Machoke
Marill, Moltres, then Slowpoke
Articuno, Ditto, Muk
Flareon and ol' Psyduck
Cloyster, Kingler, Shellder, Gloom
Snorlax and of course Vileplume
Zapdos and Charmeleon - Everybody Polkamon!
“It's time to polka
For Ponyta and Pidgey too
Come on put on your lederhosen
And try not to stamp on little Pikachu
You'd better grab yourself a partner
Like Tentacruel or Bulbasaur (Bulbasaur)
Hold on a minute - there's still at least a hundred and twenty-seven more
“Including Ledyba and Omastar
Jynx, Bellossom and Magmar
Geodude and Arcanine
Jiggypuff and Mr. Mime
Don't forget about Sandslash
Exeggcute and Rapidash
Lickitung and Porygon - Everybody Polkamon!
“Everybody Polkamon!
Everybody Polkamon!”

“That is the weirdest song I have ever heard.” Lea said when he finished. “But I loved it! I think Kya would too if she heard it.”

“Who’s Kya?” Cheese asked.

Lea lost her smile. “She was my adoptive daughter. I never really thought about her being like that until two weeks ago, and I haven’t seen her since we got here. I-I want to see her again.” A tear fell from Lea’s face.

“Hey! This is a no tears zone! Go find something fun to do.”

Lea wiped her eyes. “Thanks, but first I want to go check on the berry plants upstairs. I’ll be back down in a little bit.”

“Well I’ll continue the party down here!”

Lea gave a small laugh before heading to the roof, where she found Blue Grass looking at the sprouts.

“Blue Grass?” Lea called.

She turned, “Oh, hi there Lea. Ah just came to see the plants. Can’t believe you’ve already got sprouts!”

Lea looked at the plants, “Yeah, they’ll be in stage three by tomorrow.”

“Stage three? What d'ya mean by that?”

“Berry plants are grouped into five stages of life. When they haven’t sprouted yet, sprouts, a not yet flowering plant, and flowering plant, and a plant with fruit.”

“But ya only planted these a few days ago.”

“Yeah, they’re growing nicely. Should have a few berries in a couple days more.”

“How in the hay did ya get ‘em to grow so fast?”

“Eh,” Lea shrugged. “They naturally grow fast. The fastest is to have a plant with berries in just a little over four days.”

“Four days!” Blue Grass sputtered. “Most plants don’t even get a sprout in that time. Well, if you let it grow naturally.”

That caught Lea’s attention. “What do you mean?”

“Earth ponies like me have magic too. It’s more connected to Equus though. We can make plants grow a little faster an’ keep them bearing fruit almost all the time. There’s a farm called Sweet Apple Acres where they’ve got apples that need harvesting almost every day. Fact is, Earth ponies have alway been the main producers of food, all the way back to before Equestria was formed and the princesses ruled.”

“Aren’t they thousands of years old or something?” Lea asked, thinking some mistake had been made.

“Yep, always been that way.”

“Hmm, the librarian would let me get out anymore books because I was trying to take them all. I guess I’ll need to find some more history books somewhere else to learn more about all that. Anyway, they’ve been planted so that hopefully we’ll get new berries from mutations in the plants. I’ll be able to tell once they flower.”

“‘Cause of what the flowers look like?”

“No, all the flowers look the same, even if it is a different berry. The way to tell, while strange, always works. An even number of blossoms mean that at least one of the berries is a mutation. Odd means they’re all normal berries.”

“Huh, ah never would have guessed.”

“It’s probably best if you were able to find a former human that gardened before. My knowledge is limited to what I’ve read. They might have more knowledge from personal experience.”

“Alright then. Ah hope I’ll see ya again soon.”

“Hey!” Lea called. “There’s a party going on downstairs. Why don’t you bring your friends and come back to have some fun.”

“Ah might just do that. See ya soon!”

Lea found herself enjoying the party. There had been a few former humans at the party. One group had been lucky enough to find many of their very large group. It consisted of a porygon2 named Agatha (no relation the the elite four member), a scyther named Zeetha, a Weavile named Violetta, and others in their crew. Agatha even had a pokemon that spoke English named Krosp (a purugly).

Somewhere else was a girl from the orange islands. She had become an oddish with her pokemon, a sableye she named Stitch.

The last group Lea met with was a young girl named Kryssa who had just been starting her journey the day everyone was brought to Equus. She had been happy to find her fennekin next to her upon waking up,but the now flabebe had had some trouble trying to convince her new pokemon it was her.

The party goers still had fun eating the cake and other treats, and for once, Lea was having fun and enjoying herself. This Cheese Sandwich really knew how to make a party, though it still felt like it could be better. Like if it were possible for laughter itself to make the party.

Somewhere in ponyville, a pink pony that looked like cotton candy sneezed.

Still, Lea had to admit, it was the best party she had been to so far. There were many games that were like she had seen back home, but there were also a couple thrown in that she couldn’t tell if they were some of the games they had here, or that Cheese had made up for the party.

For the first time since her arrival on equus, Lea felt fully relaxed. Well, until She was dragged to the center of the room to join in a group dance. It didn’t take long for her join in, as it was almost exactly like one she had heard Kya or Angela sometimes play at home.

By the time it was over, Lea was ready to sit down and get something to drink. At the table of food, there were a variety of foods that both ponies and pokemon would enjoy. Along with a mug of punch, Lea got herself a plate of pizza, which she carried over to a table on her back.

After she had set her food down, Ziggs came over to her with a few cookies stuffed in his mouth. “Mrrph ffmrrphs mrr phrrmmph mrrff!”

“Wait until you’re done eating.” Lea told him, using her paws to block the crumbs coming from his mouth. “I can’t understand you with food in your mouth.”

“These cookies are really good!” Ziggs said after her finally swallowed them. “Maybe you should get some too.”

“What kind are they?” Lea asked, taking another bite from her pizza.

“They’re called snickerdoodles! It’s a really funny name.”

Even with the pizza in her mouth, Lea’s mouth started watering. She took one more bite of her pizza, and ran over to the cookies. She piled about ten cookies onto her plate before coming back to the table with them. In one bite, she ate almost all of the first, fairly large cookie. Linoone soon came over to his son and saw Lea eating the cookies. He face pawed.

“Oh Arceus, she found the snickerdoodles.”

“What’s so bad about that?” Ziggs asked his dad.

“She plows through them like a tyranitar could plow through a snow fort. They’ll be gone before you know it.”

And just as Linoone foretold, within a matter of minutes, and the snickerdoodles we gone from the table, and Lea was left with a fully belly.

It wasn’t long before the party was finally over. Everyone had had their fill of food, and all of the games had been played. Lea had inquired Cheese Sandwich on where he had gotten the recipe for the cookies. He admitted the recipe had come from a shop in Ponyville, and that theirs were probably better.

“That’s it!” Lea exclaimed, “When this whole thing with Ire and Quarry is finished with, we’re taking a vacation, and our first stop is Ponyville. Everything seems to happen there. And I hear they also have a good library!”

Everyone else face hoofed or pawed respectively.

Author's Note

Sooo... this would have been out earlier, but it's hard to write a party when something sad happens.
can't believe no one thought to use Cheese yet. I mean, come on! we have a weird al pony in a crossover with something he just happened to write a song about. How long did it really have to take.
anyway, new pokeddexy pictures:

ch 19. earlier

Equestria: about 3 weeks ago

“Quarry, come on! This ring hasn’t given us any new payment in a while! If anything we’re losing money”

Ire gave Quarry a small shove as she passed him by.

“Well I’m sorry no one has wanted to give me a job yet. Why don’t you try looking for once? Better yet, we could close the place down for a day and you could look for a job too. Maybe then we’d actually get somewhere.”

"Well we’ve already planned something for today, so let’s get down there."

A door at the end of the hall banged open, waking up Lea. ‘Wha-! Wh-where am I?’ She scrunched her face as she tried to remember what happened to her last. ‘Let’s see… I had just hidden everyone in their pokeballs and hid them away with all the papers when...’ Her face relaxed as she remembered what came next. ‘They got upstairs and… and they must have captured me.’

The one wall of Lea’s new home was barred, just proving her theory. Then she turned her attention to the voices at the other end of the hall. She couldn’t tell what they were saying, but there were definitely only two there. From their voices she could also tell one was male and the other female. Both sounded angry.

Even though it would probably end badly for her, Lea called out to them. “Hey! How long have I been out?!”

Both of the voices stopped. “Could you answer my question instead of just standi-oof!” Lea fell on her face as she tried to get up.

The two people ran over to her, except when Lea looked up at them, they reminded her of ponyta, or the legendary pokemon Keldeo. Neither of them had a fiery mane and one of them had wings instead of a horn. “What are you?!” Lea said, shocked.

“Where did this come from?” The one who did have a horn asked. She was the female voice Lea had heard.

“Don’t know. Wasn’t here last night when we closed up.”

Lea got scared. She didn’t like how they were looking at her and apparently the female thing used some form of psychic on her. ‘How is she doing that? She’s not any pokemon I’ve heard of and she doesn’t seem to use pokespeak unless she’s using some sort of translator.’ “C-can you let me go?” Lea asked.

“Well it’s perfect for tonight.”

“Still, it’s strange that it keeps saying ‘umbre-umbreon’, or stuff like that.” The male one said.

“Wait, why would I be sayin- AAHHH! I’m… I’m an umbreon! I’m an Arceus damned umbreon. Not that it isn’t cool at all, but, AHHHH!!!”

“Don’t let it get away! And make it shut up, it’s loud!” The one with the horn said.

“Fine!” The one with the wings yanked Lea from the air and took her down the hall. Lea looked at the other cells and found each one had a creature in it. They were all very different to the one that was carrying her, but all similar to each other. They all resembled houndour, mightyena, and herdier.

Exiting the hall, Lea was brought into a large room. She was literally thrown into a cage in the center of the room. She didn’t get hurt too much, though she thought she may have a bruise. “Great! They can’t understand me and think I can’t think for myself. How wonderful! What’s next?! *sigh* What do you think Matrix?”

Lea paused for an answer before she remembered she was alone. Well… alone except for the two pontya like creatures.

“Quarry! I’ve got another dog. One of the healthier ones to go up against this new one.” The horned one looked at a clock in the room. “Start setting up. Ponies will be arriving soon.”

After about half an hour, Lea was terrified. She had ruled out this being a nightmare, and it was too flawless to be an illusion especially if the illusion maker had to create these new creatures. Now the room had four more ponyta things. The winged from before, whose name was apparently Quarry, had announced that she and this other creature that the horned one, Ire, had brought in, were about to battle each other.
Lea had no idea how to use any pokemon moves, not to mention she could barely stand up. She felt totally off balance on four legs, much less as an umbreon.

Finally the creature resembling a poochyena was let go from the horned one’s telekinetic grip. (Lea had heard of some humans with telekinesis, it seemed fair these creatures could as well.) The animal raced towards her, growling and it’s teeth showing. Lea tried to get away, but it crashed into her. A few of the other rainbow ponytas cheered.

Soon, Lea had gotten the hang of dodging the creature’s attacks, but not after it had scratched and bitten her enough to make her bleed in a few places. The next attack she dodged easily, but the one after that was coming straight for her. Lea, trying to defend herself, swiped at the animal with her paw. Her claws caught it in such away, that she already drew blood.

“Look at that! Her first hit and already her opponent is hurting! Wow, she must be some sort of Everfree beast, right foalks?!”

“I’m not a beast you stupid ba-” Lea was cut off by another attack by the creature. “Okay, while that hurt, I did need that. I was getting a little edgy there.” Lea said to herself, nearly being hit by another tackle from her opponent. “I’m so sorry for this!”

Lea wasn’t doing well, and she needed a break. While the creature seemed to have a lot of speed and attack power, it didn’t seem to have much in the way of defence. Lea finally made a move and scratched again at the animal. The creature started to bleed from a large cut she had made, and it fell to the ground.

“WE HAVE A WINNER!!!” Quarry, the winged one, shouted. Ire took the creature out and bandaged it up, though Lea knew it could be much better that what had been done. All ire had done was wrap a very thin cloth around the animal’s wound. Lea could see it was already soaked.

‘I didn’t mean to hurt him… her? It that badly. But now maybe I can get some rest.’ Lea’s stomach growled. ‘And some food too.’

“Now, her next opponent!” Quarry announced.

‘Maybe not.’

“Get back in there! And eat up! Can’t have you too tired for tomorrow! One of our visitors said he’d be back tomorrow and with a guest. A guest with a bucket of bits!”

Lea was back where she started, the cell where she had woken up. She was given a little food, barely enough for her. Not to mention it was more of a tanish mush. Unfortunately for Lea right now, food was food, and it was probably all she was going to get for a while.

She was still sore from all the fighting all day, and from what Ire had said, it seemed Lea still had another day to go through. Quarry, thankfully, had tried to help her. He had also patched up the bad healing methods Ire had used.

“Listen, if you want us to stay in business Ire, you should do a better job bandaging the dogs.”

“They’re animals! All we need them for is to help get us money so we don’t end up living on the streets!”

“Ire calm down! You shouldn’t be getting so angry.”

“ANGRY?! IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T NOTICED, MY NAME IS BRIGHT IRE! YOU KNOW WHAT IRE MEANS, RIGHT?”

“Yes, but can you please calm down. We’ve both had a long day, and all we need is to fight with each other.”

“Alright honey.” Ire pouted a little before smiling and kissing quarry on the cheek. Then she noticed Lea watching them. Ire stomped over to Lea, who backed away from the bars.

“Stop watching us you stupid animal! And get to sleep, you’re gonna need it for tomorrow.”

With that the two ponytas left Lea, turning the lights off, leaving her in pitch black darkness.

Author's Note

yeah, i needed something to put up while i wait for zeus.
he's going to be helping with a part in the next chapter, but that's not happening until he feels better
so here's what happened on day one in Equestria for Lea.

Wahhh! :raritycry: I don't want this anymore! I can't do it!
(zeus+sickness+chacater trauma= emontional mess) (i'm so sorry zeus)

ch 20. elsewhere

Author's Note

first of all, this is just something i typed up today just to have something new. after reading, you'll be able to figure out sort of why i added this, but it's not going to come into play for a while.
hopefully the next real chapter will be coming out on Saturday or Sunday, but it depends on what Zeus is doing.
No crossovers yet, he's just going to help write Celestia in the next chapter.
btw: Yay! he's not sick anymore!

ch 20. elsewhere

Somewhere in Equestia: day twenty one

A delcatty was bouncing around, chasing a butterfly she had found. She found it fun to chase after one and not have to worry about sleep powder or poison powder. Chasing after her was a linoone.

“Can you slow down? I honestly don’t think that’s helping our little mission.”

The delcatty stopped chasing the butterfly and walked over to the linoone, her ears bent down to show she was sorry.

“It’s okay. I just really want to find my son and my mate. More so my son since he’s just a hatchling.”

The delcatty nodded and sniffed the linoone and then tried to find the similar scent of her mate or son.

“Anything?” The linoone asked?

After a few more seconds, the delcatty sadly shaked her head, before picking it back up and sniffing again.

“What is it? Do you smell one of them? Tell me!” The linoone exclaimed.

The delcatty turned to give her a look as if to say ‘Really? Tell you?’

“Right… can you, uh, mime it out?”

The delcatty tried to, but the linoone couldn’t figure it out. Finally the two gave up.

“Fine, let’s make it simple. Can you follow the scent that you smell?”

The delcatty sniffed a few times before shaking her head.

“It’s too old or too weak, isn’t it.”

Finally the delcatty nodded.

“You know what? We should take a break. We have been walking a while and it might take us a while to make some sort of shelter for tonight.”

The two pokemon gathered supplies from the area around them. The mostly gathered long sticks and rocks. After making a sort of tent like structure, they gathered long grass to cover it, which proved to be harder than it sounded, as it needed to be able to stay there through the night and a chance of storm overnight.

“So, who was it?” The linoone asked her friend as they worked. “The scent I mean. Was it a friend, or just somemon you’ve met before.” The delcatty raised her right paw.

“Friend, okay…” The linoone’s eye’s widened, “Was it your mate?”

The delcatty shook her head vigorously with a look to ask if she was crazy.

“Right, okay. Not a mate. Were you a trainer’s pokemon? And you smelled your trainer?”

The delcatty nodded her head. When she stopped nodding, she stomped her paw on the ground twice. That gave her a confused look from the linoone.

“What do you mean by that?” Again, two stomps. “Two stomps? Is that your way of saying two?” A nod “Two… two… Two what?” It took the linoone a second to figure out what her friend meant. “Wait two trainers? You have two trainers?”

The delcatty gave a small nod. “Well how did that happen, last I checked, pokemon can only have one trainer.”

After another try at miming out what she wanted to say, the delcatty got through to the linoone what she wanted to say.

“So, you belonged to one trainer, but after a while they gave you to someone else?”

The delcatty gave a nod. But her friend still questioned her answer.

“But then they would be your trainer, and not the other person, why would you still count that as two trainers. I mean the only way that would work was if…” the linoone figured it out. “they were family and the first one gave you to the other until they came back. And you were still with the second person when we came here, weren’t you?”

The delcatty gave a slightly sad nod. The linoone decided to stop asking questions as they continued their work. It was a little while before the linoone broke the silence again, this time, not asking about her friend, but about herself.

“I lived in the forest my whole life, as you could guess, but my mate was a trainer’s pokemon himself. His real trainer disappeared a couple years back, but he still lived with their daughter. He was sort of the only family she had after that for a while. He told me her mom died when she was about three and she didn’t have any hatch-mates. He became my mate about a year after his trainer disappeared, and we never really felt sure enough to have any hatchlings until earlier this year because of his trainer’s daughter.”

The delcatty pawed her friend. “What is it?” The linoone tried to figure out what her friend was trying to ask. “What? What do you want to know? More about me?” A shake. “My mate?” Another nod. “His trainer?” This time, the delcatty nodded.

“Well, I think he said his trainer used to be a gym leader, but stopped a little after he had gotten married because he wanted to have a family. It was easy because there was a willing trainer to take over. Even went and used the same type focus: normal. They moved to where they were living when my mate and I met. A little house in Cherrygrove City in the Johto region.”

The delcatty pounced on her friend, even shaking her back and forth with her paws.

“Wwwwwhhhhhhyyyyyy aaaarrrrrrrrreeeeee yyyyyooooooouuuuuuu sssshhhhhhhaaaaaaakkkkkiiiiinnnnnngggggg mmmmmmmmmeeeeeeee?” The linoone asked, hoping it would get her friend to stop. It did, and then the delcatty tried to mime to her friend again.

The delcatty pointed to herself. “You.” The delcatty nodded and then pointed to the linoone and then quickly to her side. “Behind me?” This earned a shake from the delcatty and she tried to act it out again.

“My… my… mate?” The linoone asked, sounding very unsure of herself. Fortunately, the delcatty nodded. “So… you… and my mate. You… you… know him?” This gave a big nod. “How? He never mentioned a mute Delcatty being among the pokemon he lived with unless…” The linoone connected the dots. Her mate’s trainer use to be a gym leader. Not just that, but a normal type gym leader. And what type was delcatty? A normal type.

“You two have the same trainer.” The linoone said; more of a statement than a question.

The delcatty started hopping around while nodding her head.

“But wait…” There was still one last thing the linoone didn’t understand. “if you were the pokemon of the gym leader who went missing, and he gave you to a family member, who-”

The linoone was cut off by the sound of thunder. The pegasi apparently had scheduled a rainstorm in the area for that night. The two pokemon raced into their little shelter, which, while it fit them was only barely big enough.

“Let’s get to sleep.” The linoone said, “I want to see if we can find a town or some forest for better shelter for tomorrow night. Maybe we can even find some ponies to help us find our friend.”

The delcatty nodded as she slowly fell asleep. The linoone stayed awake a little bit longer, and after her friend did fall asleep she spoke her question into the night. “Who’s your second trainer…”

ch. 23 problems

A woobat landing on Midnight startled him. After realizing what had happened, He gave the pokemon a small pat on the head before it flew off.

It was very late, and Midnight was having trouble staying awake. Normally he’d be fully awake at this point, but ever since he started helping Lea, he had been awake more during the day than at night.

He was starting to drift off again when Angela came stumbling down the stairs. She crashed into one wall. “Angela, are you okay?”

Angela turned her head towards Midnight. She stumbled toward him before trying to attack him. Fortunately, she was so off balance that she missed him. Angela attacked again, only getting close enough that he had to quickly move out of the way. Midnight lost his balance and fell to the ground. Angela turned towards him and almost used Night Slash, but the woobat that had landed on him used Gust. This stopped her enough for Midnight to get up and pin her down.

“Sol, absol sol!”

“Can you get me a pokemon that can help me translate what she’s saying?” Midnight asked the woobat.

‘I- try.’ He heard in his head. ‘- not- good at-.’

Surprised at first, Midnight responded, “That’s good enough for me. What’s she saying?”

‘--inks- the one- -ed-.”

“Can you repeat that? All I got from that was she thinks something the one somethinged.”

‘thi- yo- - -ne- kill- -rents.’

“Uh… please tell me I’m wrong when you’re saying she thinks I killed her parents.”

‘Sor-.’

“Oh for the love of-.” Angela jumped on Midnight. He had loosened his grip on her just enough that she got out. The few attempts she made at attacking him missed. The final attempt, though, was going to hit him dead on if it weren’t for the woobat’s help. It used Gust on her again and before she recovered it brought over a bulbasaur which used sleep powder on Angela.

“Thanks for the help.” Midnight thanked the woobat. “Can you wake me up when she wakes up, because I’m ready to sleep to.”

Some of the powder had landed on Midnight as well, and it didn’t take much to put him to sleep. As he fell asleep on the ground, the glowing form of the woobat landed on him and wished him goodnight. Or, as he would have heard it: “Woo-swoo.”

“Did we really have to keep her from leaving her own home?” Ire asked Grumpig.

“Yes, you do want to get back at her, right?”

“Well yes, but…”

“But what? If she has the chance to leave the city, she’ll take it. That umbreon wouldn’t risk staying here if she could help it.”

Ire agreed, but she still didn’t like Grumpig’s plan. “She’s got protection from the police in this town. That pokemon your cat like friend told us about told us about was working for them and he had been following her.”

“Can I suggest one thing?” Grumpig asked.

“What would that be?” Ire asked harshly.

“We refer to the umbreon by a name?”

“I would if I could remember it.” she retorted. “The officers guarding our cell told me her name, but I didn’t bother with remembering. All I can remember is it started with an L.”

“How about we refer to her as L then.”

“Good enough for me.” Ire said.

“Alright then. So L has the police on her side, but many of them were hurt when Mightyena broke you out, so there aren’t as many to help. Besides, I’ve found many of my… comrades from Earth. They’ll be more than enough to help us with your your revenge.”

“Remind me again why you agreed to help? You’re not really getting much in return.”

Grumpig smirked. “Oh I’m getting more than enough, just you wait and see.”

“What do you mean by that?” Ire inquired.

“Well I get food, a shelter, found some of my old acquaintances, and got to learn more about your kind. Soon I might be able to gain the same level of importance here as I had back where I used to live.”

“You’d let us be a part of that too right?” Bright Ire stared down Grumpig.

“O-of course!” She replied. “I couldn’t even come close to getting there without your help.”

“That’s good. Hey Quarry!”

Quarry looked up at Ire. The look in his eyes made her shiver a little, but she couldn’t figure out why. “We should hit the hay. It’s past midnight and if we want to stop at Blackberry's tomorrow, we’ll need to leave early.”

Quarry gave a grunt and headed up to where they were sleeping.

“Is it just me, or has Quarry started talking less recently?” Ire asked.

“Don’t ask me. You’ve known him longer. Though I would suggest it’s because he’s quiet to help you concentrate with your training.”

“I guess…”

“Oh, and by the way, I found another pokemon I knew from my old team. He was one of the strongest and he just happens to have met another of our best ‘mons a few days ago.”

“Oh really? Where is he?” Ire asked, eager to meet the new recruit.

Grumpig left and brought back the pokemon she had found. “Cryo.” Ire heard it say.

“Perfect! He’ll just make us stronger!” Ire said delightedly.

“Oh yes!” Grumpig agreed. “Now all we need is that Absol and L will stand no chance. No one will!”

Somewhere else in Equestria:

The delcatty woke up with a start. Last time she had done that was when her trainer had been in danger. She shook her linoone friend awake. “What’s going on?”

Delcatty tried her best to show the panicked state she was in, But her friend only wanted to sleep. “Listen, we can leave in the morning. I have no idea how late it is, but I bet it’s not even close to the time we should wake up. Unless we are being attacked, or the area around us is plagued with fire, let me sleep!”

The linoone was asleep again in a few minutes, but the delcatty walked around for a few minutes before coming back to her friend. She knew something was wrong, but she didn’t know what, and she didn’t like that.

Author's Note

sorry for the shortness of the chapter. I didn't want to really go into day 23 yet and I was having a little bit of writers block.
next chapter will be longer, I promise.

ch. 24 Angela

Midnight woke up to something nudging him.

“Mmnn… Let me sleep!” He moved his hoof in the air to try and get whatever was trying to wake him up to leave. Instead of working, whatever it was just tried harder. “Bat bat swoooo!”

“Alright! I’m up! What do you want?”

Midnight looked around. First he noticed Angela starting to wake up next to him. That reminded him of what happened last night. Next, he noticed the large bat with a heart shaped nose that had been trying to wake him up.

“Thanks for waking me up!” He told the swoobat. “Could you find that little guy from last night to help me with Angela?”

‘I- little guy.’

Midnight was thrown off by this before he remembered what Ben and Lea had told him about pokemon and evolution. He had to admit, the little pokemon from last night and this one did look very similar. It wasn’t a stretch to reason they were the same pokemon.

“Alright. Thanks for helping me. By the way, your communication methods sound better than last night.”

‘Thank- -I be- friend?’

“I see no reason why not, though I have noticed some pokemon have names and others don’t. Would you like one?”

‘--you want.’

“How does… Silver Wing sound? I know you don’t really have silver wings but-” He was cut off by the swoobat.

“Swoo! Swoo, swoo! Bat bat bat!” Silver said happily.

“I take it that you like it! That’s perfect! And silver can be your nickname.”

“Ab ab sol absol. Sol sol absol ab absol.”

“What was that?”

‘She- a headache.’

“*sigh* Listen Angela. I need to talk to you about last night, but first we’re going to need to go get someone to cast a translation spell on you.”

Before Angela could get a response in, Caddi trotted down the steps. “Good morning! You two are up early. I got scared for a second there when I heard voices downstairs.”

“That’s alright Kiwi. Hey do you happen to know how to use the translation spell?”

Caddi looked at Angela, unsure of what to do. Finally she waved Angela over and answered Midnight. “I can, but I’m not that good at magic so I need to be left alone with her to cast it so I can concentrate.”

“Take all the time you need. Well, not all the time you need. I still need to talk with her.”

Caddi nodded to Midnight and led Angela into another room. She dropped her disguise and cast the translation spell on Angela.

“Why couldn’t you have just done it in there?” Angela asked. “He could have been quiet enough. Besides, I know you love him.”

Caddi blushed a little. “Yeah, I kinda do. But that’s the thing. He doesn’t know I’m a changeling yet, and ponies don’t always trust us.”

“Why couldn’t you have just cast the spell with your disguise on?”

“While I’m great with my changeling powers, I’m not that great at other magic. I can only use simple unicorn magic when I’m disguised as one. The Translation spell is hard enough that I can only cast it when I’m as a changeling.”

“So you can only do one thing and not the other.” Angela guessed.

“Exactly.” Caddi donned her disguise again. “Now let’s go back to Midnight so he can talk to you.”

They returned to when Midnight was waiting. Caddi left the two of them to talk while she went out to the store. Midnight and Angela waited until a few minutes after she left to get around to talking with each other.

“What is it you wanted to talk to me about anyway?” Angela asked.

“In the middle of the night, you came stumbling down the stairs.”

“So?”

“That followed up with you attacking me and apparently yelling something about you parents.”

Angela’s eyes widened, but she quickly made it neutral again. “Ha, that’s a good one Midnight! Why would I have thought you killed my parents.”

“I only said you were yelling about them, nothing else.” He glared at Angela the same way he always did when he wanted ponies to talk.

“Alright! You got me! I’ve been having nightmares about my parent’s death recently and various… other things.”

“What do you mean?”

Angela sighed. “I told you yesterday how I used to belong to evil based people. Back before then, I was a wild pokemon, and I lived with my parents and four hatch-mates.” Midnight started to ask her what she mean, but she cut him off. “That means my siblings. My mom was lucky enough to have triplets the first time, and twins the second time. I was the first of my siblings to hatch. The youngest was my sister. The other three were brothers.”

“But what happened to your parents?” Midnight asked.

“I was getting there.” Angela responded. “One night, while my hatch-mates and I were sleeping, I was woken up by a cry from my father. I woke up to find my mother standing guard of my siblings and I from a group of people. She was very hurt, and to the side…” Angela paused as she tried to choke out the words. “To the side was my father, who was lying there, dead.”

Before Angela could continue, she felt Midnight’s hoof on her shoulder. “You can stop there if you want.” He told her.

“No, i-it’s probably best for me if I get it all out now.”

“Okay, but feel free to stop if you need to.”

“Th-thanks. Anyway, my mom tried but she fell to the same fate my father had. They then took all of us and even sawed off my father’s horns. Oh, uh, he was a Sawsbuck, and they change how they look depending on the seasons. They were rare in the area we were living in and apparently sold for a lot on the black market.

“Anyway, they started training us vigorously. One day, I had heard that they were thinking of getting rid of one of us for not being strong enough. My sister was the smallest and weakest of us, so I guessed they meant her. After that, I started giving her some of my food and helping her train so they wouldn’t get rid of her. A few months went by, and we were all still together. But then one day, we were brought together and one man talked to our trainer saying that he would only take the strongest one of us, and that he had to ‘off’ the other four.

“I was the one they chose to use. When they came to take me, I couldn’t leave my siblings and then…” Angela stopped as she caught her breath. Midnight was about to try and comfort her again when she spoke again, yelling this time. “THEY MADE ME KILL THEM! THEY FUCKING MADE ME KILL MY OWN FAMILY! THEY MADE ME CUT THEIR HEADS OFF AND I HAD TO WATCH AS MY BODY WAS FORCED TO DO IT!

“NOW ALL OF THE OTHER POKEMON I KNEW FROM THAT GROUP ARE HERE AND FOR ALL I KNOW, I’LL DO THE SAME TO MY NEW FAMILY! I CAN STAY AND RISK THEIR LIVES, OR LEAVE AND BREAK THEIR HEARTS!”

Angela broke out crying on the ground. Before Midnight could do anything, a black and yellow blur ran over to Angela and hugged her.

“Oh Angela. Why didn’t you tell me?” It was Lea. She had come downstairs earlier and had heard the whole story. “You’re my sister, and I’ll understand whatever you choose. It’d be sad to see you leave after we just found you, but you should decide.”

Angela had, for the most part, stopped crying. Soon she was hugging Lea back. Once the two finished, Lea gave Midnight an angry glare. “Leave us! You have made my sister cry, which is very hard to do! Go find something else to do!”

At that, Midnight ran off, hoping to find Caddi as she was shopping.

“You di-didn’t have to do that.” Angela sniffed.

“Yes I did.” Lea rebutted. “I know when you need time alone, and this is one of these times. I’ll go kick matrix out of the bedroom so you can stay up there and you can come out when you want.”

“No Lea, you don’t have to-”

Lea stopped Angela from talking. “Yes, I do. I said that I would be fine if you left right now. Albeit I will be sad at first, I don’t want to make it worse for you. And if you do leave, I want to make sure I got to help you feel better first.”

“But Lea…” It was too late. Lea was already running upstairs, calling for Matrix to wake up. “She’s never going to take no for an answer, is she?”

“I don’t think so. But I don’t know her as well as you do.” Said Silver.

Angela sighed. “Shouldn’t you have gone with Midnight?”

“Aw fudge!” Silver exclaimed before he zoomed off after Midnight.

Angela laughed a little before she was interrupted by a whisper. “Where are you?”

She whipped her head around, but Angela couldn’t find out where it had come from. She was about to dismiss it as her imagination when she heard it again, except followed this time by: “Come here.”

Half of her felt like leaving and trying to find out where the voice was coming from while the other was ready to hide. Eventually, Angela decided it would be best if she went up to the bedroom like Lea wanted her to so she could be alone and calm down.

“DAMN IT!” Grumpig yelled. “I had her! I had a connection and she almost responded! I could feel it.

Grumpig had been alone concentrating for most of an hour. Ire, Quarry, and the rest of the pokemon had been outside, waiting for her to come out.

“What’s wrong?” Ire asked as she stepped in, followed by Mightyena.

“It was weak, but I had a connection to the absol’s chip. She was just strong enough to resist the command I sent to it.”

“Why do we even need this absol?” Mightyena asked. “I’m plenty strong enough. I’ve even got the same typing as her.”

“Yes…” Grumpig hissed. “But Absol are normally stronger, and it just so happens this one knows a special move that other pokemon don’t.”

“What do you mean?” Ire asked.

“Pokemon are usually limited by their move set. The group I belonged to wanted to help create new moves for the pokemon they had so that they could be superior. Not all of us were able to learn one. Only about one in five were successful at the task. She and the cryogonal I introduced you to were some of the very first. They have the most experience in how to use their attacks, which is what I want, since sometimes the pokemon didn’t always… survive the power so of their attacks had.”

“Do you happen to know any?” Ire asked, hoping for something extra to use and surprise L.

“I know something I call Hypnoblast, which puts a pokemon to sleep while hurting them a little bit as well, but it puts me to sleep too. I don’t recommend the use of it unless it’s a last chance type of thing.”

“So, technically you’ve got nothing special?”

“Not unless you count the certain dark type pokemon I can actually control, no.”

“You said that you could only barely had a connection to the chip thing.” Ire said. “We know that snowflake looking guy saw this absol. Maybe he saw something else that gives us a clue as to where she ended up.”

“That’s… actually a good idea.” Grumpig agreed. “I’ll find out.”

Grumpig’s eyes started to glow blue as she set up a telepathic connection with the cryogonal. When she returned to normal, Ire could tell something was wrong.

“What did you find out.” Ire inquired.

“Oh,” Grumpig faked a smile. “It just so happens she was with two umbreon. One of them was even shiny. Exactly like L and her umbreon friend!”

While Grumpig frowned again, Ire started to grin evilly.

“Why are you so happy?” Grumpig asked.

“We can use the absol to help us get rid of L, and she won’t lift a hoof against her friend. Well, in her case it would be a paw, but still…”

Now it was Grumpigs turn to smile, this time for real. “Why didn’t I think of that Ire? That means that absol is the best chance we have.”

“What do you mean by chance? We have this whole plan in the bag. There’s no way that stupid L will ever be able to mess with us again!”

“Why did you make me leave the bedroom Lea? I was still trying to sleep.” Matrix was upset at having to be woken up so early.

“Because that’s the best place for Angela to be alone.”

“Wait,” That answer had gotten Matrix’s attention. “What happened while I was asleep?”

“Apparently she’s been having nightmares about when she was younger, mainly about the deaths of her family.” Lea answered him.

“What?! How did they-?”

“Lea stopped him. “It’s very personal for Angela, enough that talking about it made her cry. Not just normal crying, but she broke down into tears on the ground!”

“Are you sure this is Angela we’re talking about?”

“Absolutely! All you need to know is that she’s scared that her being here could cause us to get hurt, but she also doesn’t want to leave us at the same time. I wanted to give her space to figure it out.”

“Okay. As long as she-”

This time, Matrix was interrupted by Ziggs, who had pounced on him.

“*gasp* You’re awake! You’re not usually up this early! Come on! My dad’s working and I wanna play!”

“Avenge me!” Matrix whispered as he was dragged away by the small pokemon.

Lea giggled. For the first time in a while, she felt at home in Equus. She just hoped it would last.

Author's Note

first chapter that's been put up after being looked at my new editor, Arcticbrony.
check out his story: Old Scars, New Chances

ch. 25 ponies

“I’ve decided to stay!” Angela exclaimed as she finished coming down the steps.

Her answer surprised Lea. “Are you sure? You’re not just doing it because you don’t want to make me sad, right?”

“No, I’m not. The chances I’ll be more of a danger to you than what’s going on right now are rather small. Not as small as I’d be comfortable with, but it’s fine. Besides, if anything does go wrong, we’ve got Ben to stop me. That reminds me… where is Ben?”

Through the door came Copper Star. “He’s actually working on training right now. Ever since last night, he’s been working on trying to get stronger.”

“What are you doing here?” Lea asked Copper.

“I happen to be the first pony he met when all the pokemon appeared. I came to check up on him since he was asked to stay and guard you. It felt lonely off work without him.”

“I’m sorry about that.” Lea apologized. “I didn’t realize how well you two knew each other.”

“It’s perfectly fine. It’s part of the job. I mostly gave him a roof over his head while he didn’t have anywhere to stay. I used to live by myself and had actually put out an ad in the local paper about an extra room. He just happened to be my roommate until now. I came to inform him that somepony else was going to be staying in the room he had been using while they’re in town since they couldn’t afford a hotel room for the time they’re staying.”

“Well, if you ever need something, feel free to come over and ask.” Lea told Copper as she started to leave.

“I’ll be sure to do just that.” Copper Star replied, waving as she exited.

Angela quickly followed her out, pushing her aside as a pot fell from the top of the building, landing right outside the entrance.

“Sorry!” Bluegrass called down. “Ah wasn’t looking at what ah was doin’. Is anyone hurt?”

“No, you’re good!” Copper called back up. “Have a nice day!”

“You too! Hey, Angela! Can you send Lea up here? Thanks!” Bluegrass disappeared from the edge of the rooftop to whatever she had been doing before.

Angela headed back inside and told Lea she was wanted on the roof. Lea went up the stairs and found Bluegrass inspecting the berry plants. “What? Back already?” she asked Bluegrass.

“Yep! Can’t believe they’re this big already!”

“Well,” Lea started. “I did say that some of them only take a week. A few of these will take a little longer than that, but if you come back about three days from now, you can get fresh berries from the trees. The flowers will appear in about a day and a half.”

“Lea… ah was wonderin’ ‘bout somethin’.”

“What would that be?” Lea asked.

“Yesterday, a Stallion came into mah shop and said he was lookin’ for ya. He had seen ya comin’ out of my store the day ya got the berries from me.”

“Wh-who was it?” Lea was afraid that Quarry had tried to find her by way of Bluegrass.

“Some earth pony named Specter, ah think. Wanted to know what you’ve been up to. Ah didn’t tell him though. Wasn’t sure if ya wanted him to know.”

“It’s fine. As long as it wasn’t Quarry.” Bluegrass gave her a questioning look. “One of the two ponies I’m pretty sure are out to kill me.”

“Kill you?!” Bluegrass exclaimed. “Why do they wanna do a thing like that?”

“They were criminals and I helped put them in jail. There names are Bright Ire and Quarry Arrow. Ire actually already tried to, which is why I think they’re planning to do so.”

“You’re kiddin’.”

“I’m not. If Matrix hadn’t been there, I might not have gotten away from them a few times.”

“Ya mean, ya might be…” Bluegrass didn’t finishing her sentence. She didn’t have to.

“You should go back to what you were doing. You looked like you had been having a good time.” Lea told her. “I’m going to see if I can contact him to come her since I, uh, don’t want to leave.”

“Ah’m practically done here. Ah can go get him once ah am if ya want.”

“That would be nice. Thanks. Just direct him to go up to my bedroom once he gets here. I’ll be in the connecting office.”

“Now let’s see… I don’t think I’ll be able to find that ingredient on this planet, so maybe I can find a substitute.” Lea was working on trying to reproduce Ben’s potion. “Once the oran berries grow, I can juice them for the main part of the potion, but then I’ll need-”

She was interrupted by a knock at the door. “What are you talking about?”

Lea swiveled her chair to face Specter. I’m currently trying to work on a potion that will heal pokemon and also hopefully anyone else. I don’t believe one of the ingredients I need exists on this planet so I need to find a substitute and find out how it will affect the proportions of the other ingredients.”

“Uh huh… Well, I want to talk to you about that changeling.”

Lea jumped at him and covered his mouth. “Quiet! Midnight might hear you!, I’m not sure if he’s back yet, but if he is, I do not want him finding out.”

Specter glared at her. “Why? Has she done something bad and you don’t want her taken away? This is exactly why the police should know about this.”

“And they do! But Midnight doesn’t yet and Caddi doesn’t want him to yet.”

“Why is that?”

“Because they’ve fallen in love with each other and she’s scared he’s going to ditch her after he finds out just like you did. I honestly don’t understand why you ponies are so hateful for those changelings. I read up on how Griffons were at war with the ponies hundreds of years ago, and now you’re all hunky-dory. And then, after one attack by changelings, ones who were punished by their own kind, you can’t trust any of them. Didn’t you hear that their leader was at the World Summit as well? Really, what is your reasoning for Caddi supposedly being bad?”

“I, uh, she…”

“That’s what I thought! Now if you don’t have anything else you want to talk to me about, I suggest you leave so I can work.”

Lea got Specter to back up out of the office before she slammed the door on him.

“She doesn’t understand just how dangerous they can be.” Specter murmured to himself.

He went down the stairs and out the front door. He had yet you walk five feet before he was stopped by a pokemon. “What do you want?”

“I want something you want.” The pokemon said. “The question is, are you in?”

“I don’t need help from something that looks like a sick pig. How would you even help?”

“Ooo, seems you need a bit of persuasion.” Grumpig’s eyes started to glow.

“What are you doing?” Specter said, starting to back away.

“Oh, I’m just going to show you my point of view. And if that doesn’t work, I have… other ways of convincing you.” Grumpig gave an evil smirk.

“What are you doing? No! Get away! NO!”

Specter blacked out.

“Sorry about that, but I need someone she’ll let inside for my plan to work.”

Author's Note

see the comment section
see how it's has few comments
my editor gives me more comments (that aren't about what i need to fix) than you guys.
it's because of them that i've added in some stuff i almost looked over
you guys need to do a better job at being readers
also, the fearful way question box feels very cold and lonely
there are, like, 15 characters you can ask questions to. you can even ask the villains some questions if you want.
please ask them : HERE

here, in simple terms: LACK OF FEEDBACK IS BORING! DO BETTER!
(i will change this authors note if you do so)
p.s. i know there are like forty of you who are probably reading this (going off chapter views and likes)

ch. 26 education

“So these herbs might work for a substitute for the potion ingredient we’re missing.” Lea was continuing to work on reproducing potions. “Bluegrass might have the herbs at her shop. Kya! Can you come here?”

Lea waited for a response before remembering she wouldn’t get one. “Oh, right. Um, Matrix, can you come here?”

In a few moments Matrix had come into the room. “What do you need?”

“Well, I’ve been trying to create a way to reproduce potions and super potions and all that, but there’s one chemical I don’t believe I’ll be able to find on Equus. I’ve narrowed it down to a few herbs that exist here that might be at Bluegrass’ store. If I give you a list, can you see if you can get them.”

“Yeah, I can do that.”

“Thanks Matrix!”

Lea started back with her work before Matrix came over to her and said, “Don’t worry Lea. We’ll find them soon enough. At least we know they can’t be too far away thanks to Citrus.”

Lea hugged him. “Thank you. I kinda needed that.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll be back in about an hour.”

“See you then!”

Lea continued to work on what she already had. She still had an extra oran berry from planting that she was using for her tests. Lea also had enough cuts and bruises that she could test the results on herself.

With nothing else to do, Lea decided to look up where the plants she needed might be found. That way when this whole thing with Ire and Quarry blew over, she might be able to get the herbs if Bluegrass didn’t have them.

After reading through her book of plants, Lea found out something slightly horrifying. All the plants she needed came from the exact same place, and it was impossible to find them anywhere else. Every single herb and plant she wanted came from the one and only Everfree forest.
Lea went to the back of the book to see if she could find a reason as to why it was. After finding one such reason, she read it aloud. “Many rare and valuable herbs are found in the Everfree Forest due to it’s chaotic nature. It allows strange plants to grow that can have odd effects. Some notable plants found here are poison joke, heart’s desire, and the very rare plunderseed plants. There are reasons to believe that the forest still exists either because trying to get rid of it will also rid us of these herbs and plants, or because certain plants have stopped any deforestation(see timberwolves).”

Lea closed the book and placed her head on her desk. “Uggh! What if I can’t figure this out? My boss was right. I need more experience in school.” She banged her head on the desk a few times.

“Why did my mom have to die? Why did they have to take my dad? Why can’t I just have a normal life? Is that too much to ask?” She looked up. “Arceus, why do you hate me so!”

“Is this a bad time?” Lea turned to see Ben in the doorway.

“What do you need?” Lea asked, pushing aside her work.

“I came to check on how you were doing. For the most part it was quiet, then I heard a bunch of ‘thuds’.”

“That was just me banging my head on the desk. I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to use for remaking potions.”

Ben looked at some of the work she had done. He whistled in amazement. “Man, this looks a little more complicated than I thought it might be. I didn’t realize you were that experienced.”

“I’m not. Half of this I only just reviewed from some of the textbooks I was able to get. The only way I’m going to be able to do this again is with those books. I wish I could have gotten a normal education.”

“Why couldn’t you?” Ben asked.

“I also had to take care of my family-slash-pokemon and work a job. And that’s hard enough at my age.”

“Aren’t you like twenty-three or something?”

“Younger than that. I’m seventeen.”

Ben paused for a second. “Sorry, say that again. I thought I heard you say seventeen.”

“I did.”

Ben paused again, opening his mouth a few times, but not saying anything. finally he said, “Yeah, I don’t believe you.”

“I don’t blame you. I learned enough from my dad and his friends when I was younger, so I was able to skip a few grades in school. I was able to skip two more grades on my own, since basically all I had to do in my free time was read and study.”

“What about a T.V. or art or something like that?”

“For a while, I couldn’t afford a television. I also suck at art, writing, and stuff like that. Though on the other hand, I’ve been told I’m at least a decent singer. Anyway, eventually the money I had left by my dad and some of his friends started to run out, and I had to get a job of my own. In doing so, I had to drop my classes and find a job that would accept me with my education and age. It was actually Pryce who helped me with finding one that would accept me.”

“Wait, wait, wait! Pryce? As in the gym leader?”

“Yeah, he was one of my dad’s friends.”

“Who the hey was your dad?” Ben asked.

“Not telling. I want to finish my story… So, as I was saying, I got a job, and after I got comfortable with it, I was able to take online courses when I got the chance. Mainly I did math and science since that’s what my job needed. There were sometimes I was so focused on studying that Kya, Matrix, or Angela would have to check on me and force me to take a break and even sometime for me to eat something.”

“How do you forget to eat? Wouldn’t your stomach remind you?”

“Mainly I was so focused in what I was doing at the time I would ignore my stomach growling. It mostly didn’t work, buuuuut let’s just say I was a little underweight.”

“You’re not going to be starving yourself here, are you?”

“Uuuhhhhhhh…. nnnnoooooooo…”

Ben stared Lea down. “Maaaaayyyyybe…”

Again, Ben just stared at her, “*sigh* Sometimes it’s going to happen, but that’s just because it’s happened before and I haven’t broken the habit. Mainly, I’m just kinda happy that we were brought over to Equus when we did. The next project the wanted me to do for work, I have no idea how to do. And don’t even try to ask what it was, That’s how little I understood it.”

“Yikes! Why didn’t they give the work to someone else?”

“They didn’t know my real age, so they thought I was at the point where it would be easy for me. I mean, even you thought I was older than I really am.”

“Well, you’ve got me there. Hey, is there anything else you’re planning to do?

“I’ve already crossed a few things off my list that I wanted to do, but can’t.”

“Such as?”

“Well, I was thinking about maybe eventually rewriting some of the information given in the pokedex back when we were on earth. Now that we’re here, I don’t think they exist anymore.”

“Why did you want to do that?”

“It started when I still had my dad around, and a friend from school told me her brother had caught a magcargo when he was away and he had come back the other day. When I went over to see, I got to use his pokedex to learn about the magcargo, but it just said, ‘Its body temperature is roughly 18,000 degrees F. Flames spout from gaps in its hardened shell.’ and that’s hotter than the surface of the sun. If it were really that hot, it would vaporize a person that tried to come near it!”

“Okay, I can see why you might want to fix something like that.”

“Another project I was going to try was fix this busted music player, but I can’t figure it out. Kya’s going to get so angry when she finds out… Anyway, I also had another project I had started on back on Earth, but without my apocalypse papers, and with how Arceus might react if he found out, I can’t.”

Ben looked at her, horrified. “What could you possibly have planned that would cause you to name the papers after the end of the world, and that Arceus might destroy you for?”

“I kinda never put my pokemon into pokeballs unless they seriously needed it. Healing them in pokeballs also made it easier. One time, I thought about what if we had pokeballs that were a one time use, that catch the pokemon for a limited amount of time, so that way, they could be healed. I also wasn’t sure how, but I thought maybe it could also work for humans. That way, if someone were really sick, but you couldn’t move them easily to get medical help, you could use this thing instead. I have no idea how I’d make it, but it was a cool idea.”

“Okay… I can kinda see why you’d want that, but apocalypse papers?”

“It was a group of documents that I kept together that, if the end of the world ever happened, I wanted to have.”

“Okay, now the name makes sense. Is there anything you need help with before I take off? I promised Wish I’d go help him with something. Don’t worry, I’ve got a pony to look out for anything while I’m away, but it shouldn’t be long.”

“Nah, go ahead. Matrix should be back any minute now, and I can try finishing up the samples for the potion reproduction. I want to finish quickly before I get second thoughts on being my own test subject.”

“If I find out you’ve mutated yourself, so help me, I will-”

“Just go!”

Author's Note

new chapter woo!
don't really have anything left to say except apparently getting angry at you guys here in the last chapter worked. now i feel bad :ajsleepy:

edit: i was playing showdown before heading to bed and was able to share this story with a person i was battling with. the game suddenly crashed, and i could get back to it. If you happen to be the person i was with, and you're reading this, that is what happened.

ch. 27 testing

“Lea! I’m back with what you wanted.” Matrix gave her the bags he had taken that were now filled with various plants. “Bluegrass warned me that you need to wear something to protect your paws when you work with the blue flower one. I thought she said something about poison oak, but it’s doesn’t look like that.”

“That must be the poison joke. I’ve read what it’s done to some ponies. While it might not work the same way with pokemon, it’s better to be safe rather than sorry.”

“Okay. Also, she said that one of the plants you wanted only comes in season once a year for only a day, so she doesn’t have any and doesn’t think she ever will.”

“Which one was that?” Lea asked, opening her book so she could make note of that.

“It was the zap apple. She said if we ever wanted it, we would have to go down to a place called Sweet Apple Acres during the few days it would be growing and hope you could grab one or two on the day they’re ripe. Apparently they use most of their crop for making jam.”

“Alright, I’ll take those off the list. If we can’t get them year round, it won’t be a good idea to use for potions since everyone will need them. I’m going to start making the samples now.”

“Alright. And Lea?”

“Yeah Matrix?”

“Try not to do anything that will harm you instead of heal you.”

Lea rolled her eyes. “I’ll try, but I’m not making any promises.”

“That’s what I was afraid of.” Matrix said as he left Lea to her own devices.

“First on the list, heart’s desire.” Lea started off a paper to compile her notes. In front of her were various dishes with the same solution in each of them, waiting for their final ingredient. Lea moved one of the dishes so it was in front of her. After failing and grabbing it in her paws, Lea then picked up the pink, heart like flower in her mouth. When the flower was right over the dish, she pawed off a few of the tiny hearts into the dish.

After mashing the little hearts so that it was all one mix, Lea grabbed a brush and applied the liquid to one of her cuts. Once she set the brush down, she eyed the cut to see if there was any change. After about a minute of nothing happening, Lea gave up to try another plant.

“Alright, plant number seven, plunder seeds.” Lea took four of the seeds that Matrix had gotten and started to grind them up. After she had a dark grey powder, Lea added some of it into another of the solution dishes. After mixing the full solution to a light grey liquid. Lea picked up a clean brush to use on this test.

Lea found another cut on which to test on. It was smaller than some of the others, but it would do for the test. When Lea brushed the mixture onto the cut, there was an immediate effect. The cut was healed, but it was also oddly colored. After a few more seconds, Lea felt her cut start to sting and itch. Trying to keep herself from irritating it more, Lea diverted her attention to writing down the results. “Plunder seed mixture… while it heals the wound, also makes it... sting and itch!”

As she wrote her results down, Lea kept shifting from the irritation she was being caused by the cut.

“Alright, on to test number eight.”

“Test number twenty three, poison joke.”

Lea was down to her last plant, the blue flower known as poison joke. After reviewing her book, she found that her best bet was to use the stem, as the pollen from the flower that lightly powdered the petals was what caused its normal effect.

Lea had already covered her paws and was working on removing the petals from the plant. When all of them were removed, she cleaned off the stem to make sure no stray pollen particles had found their way onto the stem. Once she felt it was sufficiently clean, Lea started to crush the stem.

As Lea crushed the stem, a light blue liquid came from it. After Lea had gotten enough of the juice, she added it into one of her unaltered dishes. Once again, after mixing it, she picked up a clean brush to help her apply the mixture.

This time when Lea applied the liquid to a cut, the injury started to heal. It was slower and less than a normal potion, but it was close. Lea waited awhile to see if there would be any side effects, but it seemed that there were none.

“Okay, so the poison joke stem helps with the healing solution. It doesn’t fully heal the cut, but there is some healing properties in it. Maybe if I use a more concentrated form, it will work as a perfect substitute.”

Lea wrote her findings down near the bottom of her most recent page. She had created a small stack of her notes about four pages high. After she finished up, Lea moved the papers to the side and started to clean up. She poured the leftover unchanged solution into a single container labeling it as such. The plants she had used up and had no use for were put into a bag she was going to take up to the roof in the morning for composting.

As Lea finished up putting everything away, she yawned. A few of the tests had really taken a lot of energy from her, not to mention it was starting to get late. Lea walked over to the pasta Caddi had brought up earlier. Putting it in her mouth, Lea wished she had eaten it when it was first brought up and it was still warm.

After Lea had finished eating, she quickly brought her dishes downstairs and went back up to go to sleep. Upon arriving at the bed, Lea found Angela had already fallen asleep. She also noticed that Matrix wasn’t there with Angela, but he had started to sleep downstairs with the younger pokemon after he got tired from playing with them.

Lea grabbed an extra fluffy blanket and wrapped herself in it before getting into the bed. She pulled some of the covers Angela wasn’t using over herself. After turning a little bit, Lea found a comfy position and fell asleep.

Author's Note

this was a short chapter... go enjoy another one, i made two.
p.s. next chapter we introduce a new character! and i actually didn't make this one up!

ch. 28 Blissey

“Lea! The building is burning down!” Angela yelled in Lea’s ear.

Lea woke up with a start. “What! Is everyone on their way out?! Has anyone gotten hurt?! Ummm… where’s the smoke?”

“There is no fire.” Angela told Lea.

“But you said…”

“I only said that to wake you up. I’ve been trying to for the last ten minutes.”

“Oh. I guess I stayed up later than I thought last night. Sorry about that. What time is it?”

“It’s still only ten thirty.”

“But then why did you have to wake me up?”

“Because you’re pink.” Angela told her.

Lea jumped out of bed. “I’m what?!”

Looking down at her paws, Lea found that they were still black, but after getting a mirror from Angela, she found that it was only her yellow rings that were now pink. Still…

“How did this happen?! And why pink?! I hate wearing pink!”

“It could be worse.” Angela started. “You could still have yellow rings but be mainly pink.”

“I guess you’re right. Still, how did my rings turn pink?”

Lea tried to remember what she could have done last night that would cause this to happen. “Fuuuuuudge… I must have touched some of the poison joke flower when I was cleaning up last night.”

Lea left the room to wash up. “Now I need to send Matrix out again to get ingredients for that bubble bath remedy. And until that’s all made up, I’m gonna be pink!”

At that moment Ben walked in on Lea. “Hey, Angela told me to check up on you and… are you pink?”

Lea gave a small yell of surprise. “Ben! Get out of here!” She threw a bar of soap at him. “Yes I’m pink, but I’m also in the bathroom, so leave!”

After Lea finished washing up, she went downstairs. “Morning Matrix!”

Matrix was currently having a small foal tugging on his ear. “Hi, ow, Lea. We had a family of ponies come in this morning. A pokemon stay-ING, with them heard that a friend of his might have ended up here.”

Lea helped Matrix get the foal to stop tugging on on his ear. “Thanks Lea. That little guy was starting to give me a… Are you pink?”

“Yes, now shut up!” Lea glared at him.

“Okay! Sorry. I was just shocked by it, that’s all.”

Lea sighed. “It’s okay, I’m just not in the best mood right now. I’m just glad this can be fixed. By the way…”

“Let me guess, you need something from town to fix you pinkness and need me to go get what you need?”

“Yeah, that basically sums it up.”

“I’ll go once this family is done here. Heh, just think, what if you had ended up as an espeon?”

“I’m trying not to!”

“Fine! Though you might want to check with the family, one of the pokemon they came with was a blissey. I heard her taking and interest to the place. She might want to come help out here.”

“Then I’ll go ask her. For all we know, she could be a former human who ended up as one. She might need some help from some other pokemon that know their stuff.”

Lea left to go meet up with the family of ponies. One of them, who Lea assumed to be the foal’s father, was chatting with a archeops. A filly was going around looking at all the pokemon as the blissey chased her around. Finally, the blissey was able to catch up the filly and bring her back over to her mother, who was nearby her father and the archeops.

“Is everything alright over here?” Lea asked the family.

The mother of the filly turned to face Lea. “As well as it can be. My name is Golden Glory. This is my husband Wetzel and our daughter Rainy Feather. We’re from Manehatten. We met this pokemon who has been looking for his friend.”

Lea turned to the archeops. “And you would be?”

“My trainer didn’t give me a name. I’m trying to find my friend. He was another of our trainer’s pokemon.”

“What was he?” Lea asked.

“He was a dodrio. I was hoping he might have come here.”

“Sorry,” Lea told him. “I haven’t seen any dodrio here. Is there anyone else you’re looking for?”

“No, he was the only one. I wasn’t to fond of the other pokemon we were with. They turned out kind of mean from how our trainer raised them, Dodrio and I were some of his newer pokemon.”

“Alright. Where are you guys heading off next? If he does appear here, then I could point him in your direction.”

At this point, the stallion of the group spoke up. “We were heading for Baltimare next. I’ve got a brother there that we can stay with who might be able to help us. My family would like to get back home, but this guy still wants to search for his friend. I already sent a message ahead, so they know we’re coming.”

“Alright. If you need a place to stay for tonight, we’ve got a few extra rooms upstairs that you might be able to use.”

“No, we have a place. By the way, this blissey was hoping to stay here to help. She talked about how she had worked at a place like this back when she was on Earth.”

“Ah, so she was a Nurse Joy’s blissey. We’d be happy to let her help out here. In fact, we sort of need the help.”

After the family left, Lea decided to meet with the blissey. After looking for her, Lea found the blissey in the kitchen helping Caddi clean up from breakfast.

“Blissey!” Caddi called to the blissey. “Slow down! you might drop the dishes!”

“Sorry! I’m just so excited to be working in a pokemon center again! I really love to help!”

“I see you’re already starting to help out around here.” Lea said to Blissey.

“Oh yes! I really like to help! Anything to help make others happy.”

“A little too much if you ask me.” Caddi said under her breath.

“It’s good that we have someone with experience working here now. There was a chancey that was here a while ago, but she left after a while. We might not have much to work with, but we do have some resources you can use.”

“Oh thank you! I think i’m going to go out and meet some of the pokemon staying here. Well… that’s only if I’m not needed here.”

“Go ahead!” Caddi told her a little too quickly. After getting some questioning looks from Blissey and Lea, she continued. “I, uh, I’m used to working by myself. I’d rather it stay like that.”

“I’m sorry! So very sorry! I didn’t realize I was causing trouble!”

With that, Blissey left to go perform other tasks.

“Finally! I thought she wouldn’t leave.” Caddi told Lea as she sat herself down.

“Let me guess, she’s a little to excited when she helps out.” Caddi nodded her head in response. “That’s because she’s a blissey, which is known as the happiness pokemon. Think of it like you and love. Well, sort of. Basically, it’s really hard for her to be around others who aren’t happy and strives to make them as such.”

“Yeah… she’s a little too enthusiastic for me.”

“Just wait until you meet Kya.” Lea said quietly.

“What?”

“Nothing. I’m just going to find Blissey again and help her learn where everything is.”

Back in the main room, Blissey had started to play tag with all the other younger pokemon. Currently, it seemed that she was it. When Lea tried to get over to Blissey, she was instead tagged by her. One of the other pokemon saw her get tagged and yelled out, “The pink umbreon is it!”

Everyone started to run from Lea, even Blissey. “Blissey wait! I’d like to talk to you!”

“No! I’m not gonna let you catch me!” Blissey called back, starting to run even faster.

“Slow down Blissey! You might trip and-!” Before Lea could finish her sentence, Blissy did exactly that. As she fell, a necklace she had been wearing came off from around her neck. Lea was rather quick to react and barely grabbed it before it went out a window.

“This is why you should have slowed down.” Lea said as she returned the necklace. “If I wasn’t used to having Sparks doing stuff similar to this, I might not have caught this.”

“Oh thank you so much! I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost this.”

Lea was intrigued. “Why’s that? Is it something important.”

“Well,” Blissey responded. “It was the necklace they gave us when we graduated our school for chancys. A friend I made there didn’t make the cut, so I broke my necklace charm and gave the bottom half to her. I’m hoping I might be able to find her again here! She’s so nice and selfless, so I know she’ll have made it over here!”

Elsewhere, a pyroar could have sworn she felt her ears burning...

“Did she have a name, or was she just Chancey?”

“Actually, she wasn’t a chancey at all. She was a human who joined our academy after they wouldn’t let her in the normal medical school. Her name was Jessie.”

“She sounds nice! I hope you’ll be able to find her.” Lea paused for a second. “I’m actually thinking about going to visit some other places with my family at one point, so maybe I might find her then.”

Bissey’s smile grew. “That would be wonderful! I wonder what pokemon she is now! I can’t wait to see her again!”

Lea didn’t want to disappoint Blissey with just how long that might take, so she stayed quiet and just smiled along with her.

Author's Note

First up, LEA'S PINK!!!!
second, that one line with the pyroar, that was thought up by another writer, Thadius, who does the story A New World, A New Mind (rated M for mature). we're gonna cross over eventually, but nothing m rated is gonna end up in here.
third, i've started to draw the characters of this story, so you might want to go to the new wold new way fan group and look out for that post eventually.
and finally, if you guys are still wanting to read more, and haven't read my new New World story, you might want to check IT out
i haven't posted a chapter for this story in a while because i was working on that!

ch. 29 guards

“Ohhhhhhh…” Lea sighed. “This feels nice…”

Matrix had gone out and grabbed the ingredients for the poison joke remedy. With some help, they had been able to mix it up and Lea had started to soak herself. Lea fully submerged herself in the tub, and popped her head back out after a few seconds. Lea looked in a mirror, she saw she was back to having yellow rings.

“Ha! I’m not pink anymore! I love it!”

“Don’t say anything Lea.” Matrix told her jokingly. “You might jinx it and find some more poison joke after we’ve drained the bath.”

Lea stuck her tongue out in response. Matrix did the same. Both of them laughed before Matrix jumped in after her and they started to splash each other. While they were messing around, Midnight opened the door, and was splashed by Matrix when Lea had ducked.

“Lea I- bllrrpphh! Stop messing around you two!” Midnight paused to wipe the water from his face. “Feather just got back from Canterlot. She says that Princess Celestia was able to spare a few guards who will be here later today. Since I’m probably going to be here when they arrive, you might find them at the door. Even if they don’t show up, I still want you to meet with them and tell them everything you know about Quarry and Ire since you have the most experience with them.”

“Do I have to?” Lea asked. “Things normally don’t go well when I meet people, or ponies, like that.”

“Uhhh, yes?” Midnight answered her.

Lea face pawed herself. “Right, I took my belt off to take the bath. Matrix, can you tell him to let me finish up and then we can talk?” Matrix nodded and repeated what she said.

“I’ll be just outside. Just don’t take too long.” This time Lea nodded in response.

Lea stepped out of the bathroom, fur slightly fluffy from being dried quickly with a towel. She had put her belt back on around her waist. “Alright Midnight, let’s talk.”

“So I already told you Feather Flurry arrived back from Canterlot today. She told me she was able to meet with Princess Celestia who said she would be able to send five guards. Since they’ll be helping with trying to find Quarry and Ire while many of our own police force are working on normal jobs, I want you to meet with them at some point since you know most about them.”

“Are you sure, because me and legal enforcement people don’t mix well.”

“What about you and Ben?” Midnight asked with a small smile, causing Lea to blush slightly.

“Th-that’s different! He acts like a normal person. Ben was the only one of you thinking straight when I showed up!”

“Alright, fine. But the guards might show up here looking for me since I’m currently chief.”

“That’s right.” Lea realized. “You’ve been hanging out here so often that I kind of forgot. How are you doing that?”

“Some of the officers like Copper have been visiting while I’ve been around here. Since the attack sent by Ire and Quarry a two days ago, I’ve been focusing even more on the area around here, especially since that might mean they’re planning to do something soon.”

“Don’t talk about that. I don’t want to think of them deciding to come after me in here and having the risk of them hurting all the pokemon here.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll find them before that happens. I don’t want so see anypony get hurt just because they happened to be in the area either. I’ve had that happen before, and I’m not going to let it happen again on my watch.”

Midnight looked at a nearby clock. “Speaking of my job. I told the real chief I would come over to his house and tell him what’s been going on recently. I’ll be back soon.”

Lea was back downstairs taking care of the pokemon to help get her mind off everything else that was going on. As she was helping a seedot and a chespin, there was a knock at the front entrance. She turned towards the door.

‘It shouldn’t be locked.’ Lea thought. ‘Maybe they’re just being polite.’

Lea excused herself to answer the door. However, before she got there, the knocking came again, harsher this time. It was also accompanied by a voice. “Open up! We’re looking for someone named Lea.”

Lea’s pupils shrunk. This was exactly what happened back on Earth before they were brought to Equus. They weren’t here to help. They were here to take away everyone she cared for. It was just a matter of time before they would get in, so Lea opened the door regardless.

In the doorway stood tens… no, hundreds of guards. “Are you Lea?” One of them boomed. Lea did the first thing she could think of… and dropped to the ground hiding under her paws.

“Umm, anypony know what just happened?” Asked one of the guards.

“I think we might have scared her.” Another replied.

A third trotted over to Lea to see if she was okay.

The fourth went inside to see if Midnight was here, since they were asked to see if Lea knew where he was.

The final one of them just stood in the doorway, not completely sure what to make of what just happened.

“Shoot, Lea went into panic mode again.” The guards heard a voice say. They looked around to see a pokemon much like the one they had just scared, except this one had blue rings instead of yellow and wasn’t wearing a belt.

“Lets wait until Lea’s calmed down, then you six can talk.”

After Lea had calmed down, Matrix had brought them in a room to talk with one another. Lea still seemed nervous, but she also seemed ready to talk.

“Sorry for how I reacted earlier. She told them. “I’ve had some bad experiences in the past that were sort of similar to that. I panicked and reacted like it was one of those times.”

Lea had gotten a good look at the group. The guards consisted of an earth pony, two pegasi, and two unicorns.

“It’s quite alright.” One of the pegasi replied. “When we first arrived at the station here and found in under some repairs, we thought we might find Midnight Honor there. When we couldn’t find him, an officer directed us to come here and ask for someone named Lea, which would seem to be you.”

“Midnight should be back soon. I know Kiwi had gone out to find him since he said he would have been back by now.” Lea told them, noticing one of the unicorns tense up a little bit at Caddi’s false name.

Before Lea could ask about that, Caddi stepped in with Midnight. “I found him on his way back here. He said he lost track of time and only realised when mention was made of starting to make dinner.”

“There was a lot to update on, and I got lost in the details.” Midnight explained.

“Quite alright sir.” The earth pony guard said. “I’m afraid we gave Lea here a small shock when we first appeared.”

Midnight turned to give Lea a look that said ‘really?’ In response, she just rolled her eyes and shrugged to say ‘I told you so.’

Midnight focused his attention on the guards again. “Anyway, thank you for coming. About a fourth of our force is unable to work, mainly from being put in the hospital from accidental injuries caused by pokemon. We would normally be able to cope with this, but a couple we had already arrested has escaped, and one of the two had already threatened with homicide. There have been some sightings of them still in the town as recent as yesterday. Mainly these reports have been directed more towards this area of town. Can any of you tell me why that might be?”

A pegasus guard answered. “The threat of homicide was made toward someone in the area, wasn’t it?”

“Correct. Not only is the one they threatened in this area of town, it was made toward someone in this very building. They threatened none other than Lea.”

Two of the guards turned to look at her while the other three kept their focus on Midnight.

“I would like you five to guard the nearby area and try to find Quarry and Ire. Lea will be briefing you on them shortly. We also want to make sure there are no other suspicious activities around here as they could lead to them. I believe from recent happenings, that Ire and Quarry are planning to strike soon and attack Lea. They have already sent a pokemon to make sure she is not able to leave to safety.”

“Yes sir!” The guards replied back before turning to Lea to hear about Quarry and Ire.”

After the guards had left, Midnight collapsed on a couch in the room. “That was the craziest thing I have ever done.”

“It didn’t seem crazy to me.” Lea told him. “If anything, it was crazier when they first arrived.”

“You don’t understand. Those guards only take their orders from royalty. And they were listening to me! For that moment there, it was like I was royalty.”
Midnight paused to think before he continued. “What if I messed up? What if I gave them the wrong information and they return to the princess who thinks I shouldn’t have this job anymore and shames me for eternity!”

“I think that’s a little overboard Midnight.” Caddi said, returning to the room after the guards had left. “Besides, if there’s anything you forgot to tell them, I invited them to come back in a little bit for dinner.”

“What are you making today?” Lea asked.

“Well, a couple of the pokemon were hoping for something with a little bit of meat, but I didn’t want to add much, especially if anypony didn’t want to have any. I once found a salad recipe with meat bits in it when I was at a griffon restaurant. It also has this really nice dressing to go along with it.”

“How did you get the recipe from them?” Midnight asked.

“Well, I liked to go there a lot to try all their different dishes. One time I didn’t bring enough bits with me to pay for all my food, so I agreed to come in the next day and work in their kitchens. There were even a few times after that where I helped in the kitchens again voluntarily. That’s how I got great at cooking all these dishes.”

“I can’t wait to try it, but I need to go out myself and search for Quarry and Ire.” Midnight told her.

“I’ll see you later then.” Caddi told him as he was leaving.

Right before Midnight walked all the way through the door, he quickly came back and kissed Caddi in the cheek. As fast as he had come back, Midnight had left the room with Caddi standing motionless in the center.

“Caddi? Caddi?! Say something!” Lea tried to get her attention.

“He… he kissed me…” Caddi said smiling before her face turned to a slight frown. “No… he didn’t. He kissed Kiwi.”

Caddi sighed before Lea came started to comfort her.

“Hey, he kissed you, not Kiwi. The only thing about you that’s different from Kiwi is how you look. If Midnight really cares, he’s not going to care that you’re a changeling.”

Before Caddi could thank Lea for saying that, another voice spoke. “So it’s true. Kiwi is really a changeling. Celestia was right.”

Caddi and Lea turned to see one of the guards in the doorway. Lea recognized it at the unicorn who had reacted to hearing the name Kiwi. “How did you find out? Other than now of course.” Lea asked the unicorn.

“The officer who came to visit Celestia with Midnight’s request overheard the name Caddi being used to refer to Kiwi and mentioned it to Celestia. When the princess was giving us our orders to come here, she mentioned a possible changeling going by the name of Kiwi, who turned out to be you.”

“You’re not going to do anything to her, are you?” Lea asked taking a defensive stance in front of her friend.”

“No, you obviously know a good changeling from a bad one. I’ve seen both during my time as a guard. We were just told to be cautious and make sure you weren’t a danger to anyone around due to the slim chance you might.”

“So, you’re not taking me away or anything, right?”

“Not at all. Though, if I were you, I’d tell Midnight about this sooner rather than later. The longer you wait, the worse it’s going to become.”

“Thanks for the advice.” Caddi said as the guard returned to her job.

Lea decided to follow the guard back to the main room of the Poke Center. An earth pony entered the building as the guard exited. The pony came over to Lea and asked her a question. “What’s with the guard?”

“What are you doing here Specter?” Lea glared at him, still remembering the last time he came to visit.

“Do I need a reason?”

“I guess not…” Lea trailed off.

“Then can you just answer my question?!” He said angrily.

“Fine! No need to be harsh about it! They’re here to help search for Ire and Quarry. Midnight asked if Celestia could send help and she was able to send five of her guards. I’ll have to add thank Celestia on my list of things to do when we visit Canter- hey! Where are you going?”

Specter had suddenly bolted for the door. “No respect…” Lea said under her breath. “Really glad that Caddi didn’t stay with him. Same goes for Citrus.”

Lea turned back away from the door to come face to face with Angela. In her mouth was a red ribbon.

“Where’s Citrus?” She asked through the ribbon.

“Not sure, you might look for her during dinner. Why do you need her?”

“I finally found what I want to wear instead of having to be given a translation spell everyday.”
Lea looked quizzically at Angela, then at the ribbon, then back at Angela. “Where are you going to wear it, because I can’t picture you of all ‘mon wearing a ribbon around your neck.”

“I’m gonna wrap it around the area where the my horn meet my head. I’ve had to wear something in that place before, so I’ll be used to it.”

“Hey, as long as you want it there, I’m fine with it.” Lea told her.

“By the way, who was that pony who just talked to you?” Angela asked.

“That was Specter. He used to be Citrus’ boyfriend. Or as they call it here, coltfriend. He was acting weird though.”

“Yeah I noticed…” Angela thought for a second. “The way he acted seems familiar, but I can’t remember why.

Lea shrugged. “Eh, maybe you’ll figure it out later, no need to rush.”

“I don’t know. I just have this feeling that it might be important.”

Author's Note

three more chapters...
i have nothing else to say...
other than two chapters posted again!!!
btw, this is day 24

ch. 30 planning

“Where’s that pony you said would be helping us Grumpig? He should have come back last night!” Ire growled at Grumpig.

“For all we know, L could have had something important going on and he felt staying was the best choice.” A door in the next room slammed open. “That should be him right now.”

Specter walked into the room. “They have guards.” was all he said.

“Yes, we know they have guards.” Ire said exasperatedly. “The whole police force is looking for us.”

“They have Canterlot guards. Five of them.” Was all Specter said in reply.

“So, what does that mean?” Grumpig asked, unimpressed.

“It means that Princess Celestia knows what’s going on.” Quarry said from a corner of the room.

Ire had been startled by his sudden statement. “Quarry, don’t scare me like that, you know I don’t like it.”

“Sorry.”

“So you’re telling me…” Grumpig started to ask Specter. “That your ruler, the one who raises your sun, has sent help for L?”

Specter nodded. Ire was surprised when Grumpig started to smile at this answer.

“Are you crazy?!” Ire asked. “She’s one of the most powerful beings in the world and you’re not concerned that she is?”

“She’s not concerned enough. All your precious princess did was send a few guards. And I have a feeling that it would take a while for anything else to come for help. Especially since anything past tomorrow will be too late for L.”

“Does that mean…?” Quarry started.

“We’ll go over everything Ire needs to know today, and tomorrow will be the day we finish our plan. Where’s that mightyena?”

“I’ll get him.” Quarry said leaving the room. In a few moments, he had brought back not only Mightyena, but also some of the other pokemon working for them.

“Mightyena, you’re going to need to lure L out of the building. I want you to start planning what you’re going to do. If you must, go find Glameow. She’s been hanging around the place, making sure L doesn’t leave. The rest of you, work on training, for all we know there could be a problem and some of L’s friends might follow her along.”

“And make sure you’ll be able to keep L from being harmed.” Ire added. “I want her in perfect condition when I get to pay her back for what she did!”

“You’re starting to sound like me.” Grumpig complimented. “I like that!”

Grumpig gave one last order for the pokemon to turn and leave before she joined Ire for her final training. As she did so,Grumpig gave a small smirk.

“Angela, where are you going?” Lea said to her.

Citrus had come in that morning and Angela had gotten her ribbon enchanted. Lea was working on trying to wrap the ribbon where Angela had wanted when she started to leave mid wrap. After realizing what she was doing, Angela shook her head.

“I have… no idea.” Angela said, confused. She came back over to Lea so the ribbon could be wrapped the rest of the way. “How have you been doing cooped up in here? It’s been a while since you’ve been out.”

“I’ve been fine. I’ll admit I’d like to go out in the town again, but I’ve had the other pokemon to hang out with. Caddi has been fun to talk to when it’s late and they’re all getting ready for bed. I’ve also gotten to learn what Midnight’s been doing when he’s been over here.”

“Good. I don’t want you to be tempted to leave and endanger yourself.”

“Believe me, if I were to leave, it’s gonna be when this whole thing is over.”

“Lea…” Angela started. “Can you promise me one thing?”

“What’s that?” Lea asked as she tied the ribbon in place.

“No matter what might happen, can you promise you won’t hurt anyone unless it’s to keep yourself alive.”

“Well, yeah, that should be easy. Why did you need me to promise that?”

“I’ve noticed a few times when you’ve gotten a little angry that you’ve started to charge up some of the various moves umbreon can do. I want to make sure you know so you can watch out for that.” Angela explained to her.

“Thanks, but I think I’ll be good. Come on, let’s go grab some breakfast.”

“Glameow! Where are you?”

Mightyena was nearby the poke center.

“Shut up!” Glameow said from behind him. “What are you doing? Don’t you know there are new guards around here?”

“Of course I do, but my masters don’t think they’re a problem so I don’t either.”

“Fine… Why are you even here?” Glameow asked.

“I’ve got to figure out how I’m going to get L out of the building to where they need her.”

“How do you plan to get her through without anyone seeing?”

“I-I’ll figure it out. There are already a ton of pokemon inside there. They won’t notice me go in.”

Glameow slapped him. “They’re already watching to see if a pokemon like you or me is around. The second they see you, they’re gonna be on alert.”

“I’ll just have to wait for a distraction.”

“Who knows when you’ll get one of those. It’s not like tomorrow, just when you need it, Arceus is going to make another important announcement!”

“I’ve gotten lucky before. It could happen.”

Glameow rolled her eyes. “Riiiiiiiiiiiight… Arceus, the all powerful god, is going to give you what you need, exactly when you need it.” She frowned. “If that happens, I’ll do whatever you want for a whole week.”

She didn’t know why, but right after she finished making that statement, Glameow shuddered.

“We then you better get ready to-” Mightyena was cut off.

“Who’s there?”

Mightyena and Glameow were barely able to hide themselves before a pegasus guard came by.

“Come out and show yourselves and there will be no consequences… unless, of course, there’s a reason you feel the need to hide from me.”

“Oh for the love of… Hypnosis!” Glameow whispered.

The guard fell asleep in front of her. “This is the reason you should be around here. I’m leaving. It’d be wise if you went and did the same. I’d also hurry because we don’t want another guard fining his buddy asleep here.”

“Fine! I’ve got a plan to get her out anyways.” Mightyena said as he left, despite having no actual plan.

“Lea! One of the guards just came in with another on their back! He was put to sleep by a pokemon… or so we think.”

Caddi had come running into the bathroom where Lea was working on giving some of the younger pokemon a bath.

“What?! Can you take over here? I’m going to go down and look at them. By the way, do you know where Blissey is?”

“I saw her on my way here, I already told her what happened. Don’t worry about it. By the way, Linoone went out to go find Midnight, so you don’t have to worry about that either.”

Lea nodded in reply before she ran out to go find the guards.

“Is he alright?” Lea asked when she found them.

“Yes!” Blissey told her. “It was a pokemon who put him to sleep, most likely Hypnosis since there was no powder found near the area he was found. Didn’t I hear there was a glameow that was keeping you from leaving?”

“Yes. That’s correct.” Lea answered.

“Then it might have been them. Glameow can learn hypnosis naturally. It’s normally the fourth move they learn in their lifespan.”

“Can you wake him up safely?”

“Oh, yes! I’m sorry I didn’t do it sooner. Heal Bell!”

After a few quick moments, the guard woke up. “Huh, where am I? Last time I checked, I was outside.”

“The glameow from a few days ago has apparently hanging around. She used Hypnosis on you.”

“I knew I heard something nearby. I’ll have to try harder.”

“Don’t you think you should take a small break?” The other guard asked.

“That’s what I just did. We have to catch these criminals sooner rather than later.”

“Fine! Be stubborn! Hope you’re fine with any consequences.”

With that everyone departed. Blissey left feeling happy that she helped. The guards left somewhat angry at each other, and Lea left, more nervous than before.

It had been a while since the guard had been attacked by the glameow. Midnight had come in and learned what had happened. Lea had gone and locked herself in her room, and Ben was trying to get her to come out.

“Come on Lea! You’ve been in there since lunch time. Come out so you can have dinner!”

“It’s safer for everyone if I’m alone!” She called through her door.

If Ben still had some, he would have ruffled the hair on his head. “Look, locking yourself up isn’t helping anyone. If anything, everyone is being put in more danger because they’ll get harmed while Ire and Quarry are looking for you.”

There was only silence before slowly, the lock clicked and the door slowly.

“Ben…” Lea started. “I’m… I’m scared.”

Ben responded with the only way to comfort her he had, and hugged Lea. “I know you are. But that doesn’t mean you have to be alone.

Author's Note

two more chapters, and Lea is REALLY not having a good time.
btw, this is day 25

ch. 31 broken

Everyone was restless. After the events of the previous day, the guards had been on high alert. Silver wing, who had been helping out at the police station for Midnight when he was away, had come back to the poke center and was guarding the entrance. Citrus and Bluegrass had also come in to help after hearing what had happened the day before.

Caddi and Blissey were serving lunch, trying to make it seem like nothing was wrong, but a few of the pokemon could tell that they were nervous about something.

Lea hadn’t been allowed around the younger pokemon that morning. She had stayed awake all night and was now acting like more of a tired shell of herself. The only time a normal reaction had been gotten out of her that day was when Matrix had fallen down the stairs. For that short moment, Lea had forgotten about everything that was going on.

The one who seemed most concerned with her was Ziggs, but that was mainly due to him being oblivious to what else was going on. Whenever he asked his dad what was wrong with Lea or if she could play with him, Linoone just told him “Not now.”

Because of this, Ziggs had been asked to watch Lea since he had nothing else to do. He warned the others if something Lea was doing needed to be fixed, like when she had started to fill a cup with water and didn’t stop pouring when it was full.

As everyone was working on cleaning up lunch, Ziggs kept trying to talk to her. Eventually he did something that made many of pokemon and ponies around gasp or look up in surprise. Caddi even dropped a dish she had been holding in her magic.

“Can we please play now? Matrix can’t play, Daddy’s too busy, and everyone keeps telling me you can’t either but you haven’t been doing anything today. So can we pleeeeeeeaaaaaaassssssssse play?”

“Not now.”

For the first time that day, other than when she was acting completely normal, Lea had spoken.

“But why not?! Why don’t you want to play?!”

The others hoped he might be able to get another response from Lea, but just when it looked like she would say something else, she collapsed. When Ziggs ran over to help her. all he told the others was that “She feels really warm.”

“What?!” Angela yelled before running over. “Blissey, over here! Lea has a serious fever! She’s burning up!”

A few of the ice pokemon that were staying in the sewer section with the water pokemon were asked to come upstairs to help her cool down. Lea was brought to an extra room on the first floor so she would be left alone. Midnight set up a cot for them to place Lea on while Citrus had got to grab a pillow and a sheet to lay over the cot.

“How did this happen?! She didn’t have a fever earlier!” Angela said. “Matrix, you were helping her out right before lunch. Did she have any signs of a fever then?!”

“I didn’t see or feel anything. It’s like she got it while Ziggs was talking to her.”

Angela started to lose it. “Lea, you have to snap out of this! Do you think Kya will want you like this when she comes back?! Do you want her to find her mom dead!”

“Woah!” Caddi yelled. “What are you talking about! She’s not going to die!”

“I’ve seen this before a few times. Back when I was still being used as a tool, some of the other pokemon were just so fed up with everything that they just seemed to lose the will to go on. I’m stupid for not noticing this earlier! Lea! What about your dad?! He’s still has to be out there! All you ever wanted to do was find him. Do you really want to give up that chance because of something we can stop?! Who was the one who didn’t want to lose her family?! It was you! And now you’re going to cause exactly what you didn’t want! I’M NOT GOING TO LOSE ANOTHER SISTER!”
Everyone started to freak out at this point. Angela had gotten so stressed out that she had started to charge an attack. Matrix started to freak out a bit more when he recognised it as Megahorn.

Everyone had just gotten Angela out of the room and started to calm her down when something happened. The whole room froze as a voice entered their minds.

‘Greetings Equestrians! Ponies, Pokemon, and various others. I am Lord Arceus… I bring good news this time, a revival of a popular (And harmless) activity from our world. A Pokemon Contest Spectacular will be held in Canterlot five days from now. A spectacle that displays the inner and outer beauty of our kind that everyone can enjoy. Both entry and participation is free for all who wish to come. The creator of this Contest, and myself, hope that with the gesture and display of our culture, that relations between our kind will improve. To those entering, I wish you luck and for those wishing to watch this event, I hope you find it a spectacle that you will never forget.’

For a few seconds after the announcement, no one moved. Then, Angela started to yell again. “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?! We are having a crisis over here and he thinks an announcement about a contest is important enough to broadcast to everyones minds?! Is he out of his mind?!”

“Angela! There are children around!” Linoone said, referring to her crude language. “What would Lea think about this?”

“I think she might do the same, just in her more child friendly ways. I, on the other hand, have gone through more than you have, and I don’t want anything more and I think-” Angela cut herself off. She slowly raised a paw to her head before also lightly rubbing it. Finally she quietly mumbled a short list.

“Headaches, glameow with hypnosis, nightmares, voices in my head, doing stuff I can’t remember.”

Angela bolted for the room Lea was in, but she was blocked. “Why do you need to go it there, Lea needs to rest.”

“I figured out who Ire and Quarry are working with. I can find them too. I’m hoping if I tell her she’ll get better. Lea listen I-!” Angela had started to call into the room before she stopped again.

Her friends were confused when she turned and started to leave.

“Angela, what’s going on?” Caddi asked.

“Matrix! Linoone! With me!” Was all she said.

As they were leaving, Midnight told Caddi, “Kiwi, can you follow them? I want to make sure somepony can contact us if something goes wrong.”

“Got it!”

Both groups had left the building, and neither of them had noticed the courting pokemon lying unconscious to the side.

“Are you kidding me?! How in the world did you do that?” Glameow said as she and Mightyena raced from the building.

“That wasn’t me. I guess Arceus decided to help. But you know what that means.”

“I KNOW… what it means! Careful, she’s slipping!”

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to be letting my masters down today.”

“We better hurry, there’s no telling when they’ll notice. Good new is that absol is the same one Grumpig was looking for, so we should have a problem if they find us before Ire can finish the job.”

“Are you going to explain what’s going on?” Matrix called ahead to Angela, who was a bit farther ahead. Linoone would have no trouble keeping up with Angela, but he was one of the slowest in the group. The only one of them slower than him was Sparks, and he was still young.

“The pokemon… that I used to… work with…” Angela told him in bursts when she turned her head. “Ire and Quarry… are using them… figured it out… got to hurry… Lea could be in-”

Linoone had to stop suddenly as Angela came to a halt in front of an alley. Matrix caught up just as Angela started to go down it. Looking down, both he and Linoone were horrified to see Ire, Quarry, and a few other pokemon. One of the pokemon was a grumpig who was currently holding Lea so she couldn’t escape.

Author's Note

short chapter is short because next long chapter shall be long.
Aus, Stag, Thad- I know you all read my story, can you pm me your predictions for next chapter, it's a big & important one and i want something special. (plus i refuse to start writing next chapter until i have one)
readers, you can do the same if you wish.
thanks to Aus and Zeus (mainly aus) for making and sending Arceus' announcement
btw, as you can probably tell, this is day 26. the next chapter will also be day 26.
now guys, i also have one condition: even if i finish the chapter AND have it edited, i'm not uploading unless i get to see comments, mainly because it makes me feel unimportant when i write this for you guys but you don't give any feedback.
i read that feedback. because of it, the story has been shaped in ways i didn't originally think of. You guys help make the story.
anywho, i'm off to draw and hope to see some messages and stuff from you guys soon!
(hopefully)

ch. 32 battle

Author's Note

I almost didn't add this chapter yet because the main activity i've been getting is from other authors.
You guys lucked out this time.
but speaking of authors, i had asked some of them for their predictions for this chapter.
I only got two replies, but here they are:

MoochPrime:
I can see this going a couple of ways.
1 Angela and the rest kicking ass.
2 Angela going into a blood rage over what the grumpig has done, and raising holly hell.
3 Angela and the rest winning then grumpig pulls a trick and they start losing but Kya (I think that is the one I'm thinking of) and gets them back to winning.
And that's all I've got. Can't wait for the next chapter.

The Stag Prince:
Right off the bat the only two things I can think of are
1: have one of Team Rocket's pokemon show up (Arbok, Weezing, and so on)
2: have a certain Grumpig get blasted off to the Everfree

Not sure where stag got his ideas, but i digress
Btw, Zeus is helping w/ next chapter, so who knows when it will come out.
oh yeah... i still need to tell him that...
anyway, on to the stunning conclusion.

ch. 32 battle

“How did you get Lea?!” Matrix yelled, seeing his adoptive sister being held captive.

“Oh is that her name?” Grumpig smirked at him. “I didn’t realize. You should probably leave before it’s too late. We wouldn't want you in the way.”

“We’re not leaving without Lea!” Linoone exclaimed.

“Well I guess you’re out of luck.” Ire said. “You’re outnumbered, ten to two.”

“I think you miscounted.” Matrix told her. “There’s three of us.”

“Were you counting Absol?” Grumpig asked, her grin widening. “Because that would be your mistake.”

The second Grumpig finished her sentence, Angela turned around on the spot, her eyes devoid of any emotion.

“There! That should clear up any confusion you had. Two against ten.”

“A-Angela?” Matrix stuttered. “Wh-what did you do to her.”

“She goes by Angela now? That’s a stupid name. Nothing angelique about her. I doubt we’ll need the full ten with her on our side. You two will be easy for her to defeat.”

“No! We still have three!” A voice came along with a blue blast of energy, which hit Grumpig’s arm. It caused her to let go of Lea, who quickly ran over to Matrix, Linoone… and Caddi.

“WHAT?!” Grumpig yelled. “Attack them!”

Angela was the first to attack, trying Megahorn. Fortunately, everyone was able to dodge her, but that didn’t prepare any of them for the next attack. A cacturne used Needle Arm, hitting both Matrix and Lea as well as Angela who had been in the way.

“Don’t attack that absol, Cacturne!” Quarry told the scarecrow pokemon. “They won’t want to hurt their friend anyways.”

Linoone was hit from behind with a Signal Beam from Cryogonal who had used his Frost Vanish to sneak around. Before Cryogonal could get away, Linoone used Extreme Speed to hit back, followed by Pin Missile. Cryogonal quickly recovered, but was still in pain from the attacks. To try and stop Linoone, he used Ice Beam. Linoone’s paws were frozen to the ground.

Linoone didn’t know many move he could do standing in one place, but he did know one good one. Before Cryogonal could figure out what was about to happen, Linoone shot a Hyper Beam right at his back and knocked him out.

Caddi was currently blasting Quarry and Ire again and again, even levitating some decent sized rocks at them. While Quarry was having a hard time from her attacks, Ire was dodging almost every one.

“Oh, is the street performer having a hard time with her magic?” Ire said in a very fake concerned voice. “Let me show you some tips!”
A large blast of orange magic was shot at Caddi. She started to dodge, but it hit her in the side. She was flung into one of the alley’s walls.

Mightyena had decided to finally have his battle with Lea. He was done being told to try and make sure she wasn’t hurt for what his mistress needed her for. “Let me see what you have up your sleeve.”

Lea, not really wanted to battle, just responded by using Screech. When he was about to attack her, she just repeated her last move. “I don’t want to fight. Just leave us alone!”

“Why can’t you just fight me like a ‘mon?! And we’re not going to stop until the masters say so!”

“Then I’m sorry for this. Dark Pulse!”

The attack hit Mightyena. Even though he was resisted to it, Lea still had a STAB boost and his defense was lowered. It would have done more if his ability hadn’t been intimidate.

“Is that really the best you can do?” He boasted. “Ice Fang!”

Lea barely dodged his attack. She wasn’t weak to Ice, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t dislike it. Lea used Screech one more time followed by another Dark Pulse. She continued to use this combo after each of his attacks until Mightyena was knocked out.

“I’m sorry Angela. I really didn’t want to attack him.”

Matrix was battling Amoonguss and Glameow. He was being beaten again and again with Slash before he finally was able to stop Glameow in her tracks and get her to faint. Matrix mainly used Dark Pulse and Shadow Ball to try and attack Amoonguss, but was having trouble after Amoonguss had used Double Team. It didn’t help when he was hit with a Toxic attack either, though he smirked when his opponent started to feel some effects of poison too.

Linoone helped finish off Amoonguss. It seemed like they might be winning, before Caddi crashed into them from another of Ire’s attacks. “Grumpig! Do something!”

“Of course. Absol? I’m done playing with those two. Heracross, grab Lea.

Being forced to obey, Angela came over with a fully charged Megahorn. Lea screamed in terror when she saw the attack would land right at Matrix’s neck. “You’ll kill him!”

Grumpig turned to face Lea with a crazed look on her face. “That’s the plan dear! He’s such a nuisance! I don’t know why you even thought he would last this long!”

“Grumpig, don’t you think this might be taking it too far?” Quarry asked.

“I thought I didn’t want you questioning the plan!” Grumpig said, her eyes and pearls turning blue.

Ire was too distracted by Lea to notice what was going on. She was smiling giddily as she would finally get the revenge she deserved. “You tried to take my life away from me, so now I’m going to take away yours, and you can live the rest of your ‘life’ all alone!”

“Wha-what do you mean?”

“I mean,” Ire started, her horn starting to glow. “That I can give you something worse than-”

She was stopped as a voice rang out yelling, “Flame Thrower!”

A torrent of flames came and hit Heracross, who found himself burned. Angela had stopped her movement towards Matrix to look up and see a quilava running in with a dunsparce riding on her back.

“Stay away from my mommy!!!” The quilava yelled at Ire.

“Away! Away!” The dunsparce echoed. “Rawr!”

“Kya?! Sparks?!” Matrix and Linoone said at the same time.

‘K-Kya? A-and Sparks? They’re here?’ Lea thought.

“I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO ATTACK THEM ABSOL!” Grumpig screamed at Angela.

Before she could try again, Angela was hit by an attack. “Thunder, Thunder!” was what Sparks had started to chance.

“Good job Sparks! You placed that attack really well!”

The dunsparce sneezed, followed by a small cough.

“We still need to fix the problem of you being sick.”

Angela had been knocked out. Linoone had started to go over to check how she was doing before he too started to cough, which started to become hacking.

“I’ve had enough of all of you! Heracross, I don’t care what you do, just stop Lea!”

Lea was knocked into the alley wall. Hard! On her collision, Lea heard a snap. A few seconds later, she felt the blazing pain from her newly broken hind leg.

“Oh this is all making sense!” Grumpig came to a realization.” You were that girl with the shiny eevee we wanted to catch. You had that stupid cyndaquil that tried to destroy our machine. I can’t believe she survived. I guess I’ll have to try harder!”

Grumpig’s eyes and pearls started to glow again, and this time, so did Kya!

“Mommy!” Sparks said as his mom started to float away from him.

“Let’s see, how did we do this again? Ah! Now I remember!”

Kya was flung against the wall, her side crashing against it. Then she was flung to the other wall. This time her back hit it. Again and again Kya was flung across the alley into the wall, until Lea screamed.

“NOOO!!!”

Ignoring the pain in her leg, she got up and balanced on her other three. “DARK PULSE!!!”

The attack hit Grumpig dead on. Lea’s eyes started to glow, and before she knew it, Grumpig was in the air this time. “LET’S… SEE… HOW… YOU… LIKE IT!”

It was Grumpig’s turn to be beaten on the walls. Lea would have done more, but she was blasted away by an orange burst of energy.

“I’ve had enough of you. You’re always in the way!” Ire said to Lea. “But now you’re all out of tricks.”

Matrix and Linoone stepped in front of Lea. “You really think that will make a difference?” Grumpig said as she shakily got up. “Neither of you are fit to battle. Why don’t you let me show you! Psyshock!”

Linoone braced himself for the attack, only to be surprised when Matrix fell instead.

“H-how is that possible?” Lea exclaimed looking at her fainted brother.

“You can thank Doctor Nurem for that! I wanted to become his subject and he gave me stronger powers. Instead of being immune, dark types are just very resistant to my attacks. Unfortunately, it’s doesn’t even take out a full percent of his health. But then again, that’s all he had left. Besides, the poison was going to finish him anyway.

“Now there’s just one ‘mon to protect you, and he’s almost finished too. I guess that’s too bad for you.”

“Bad piggy!” Sparks said from on top of Grumpig’s head.

“What?! How did you-? Get off me!”

“Noooo!” Sparks whined. “Bad piggy!”

He gave a small hop in the air and came back down, quickly spinning. His small tail drill hit grumpig with Drill Run. Then, when he landed on the ground, Sparks started to glow red. He attacked Grumpig, and while it didn’t do much, Lea could tell it did some damage.

Sparks was attacked from the side by an Energy Ball from Cacturne, who still hadn’t been knocked out from earlier.

“Leave Sparks alone!” Linoone yelled at Grumpig, before she fired her own Energy Ball at him, causing him to faint.

“There!” Grumpig said in frustration. “That leaves two of you and five of us.”

“Four!” Sparks said, adding a cough at the end.

“Sparks, what do you-?” Lea had started to stay, before Heracross finally fainted from the burn he had gotten from Kya earlier in the fight.

“We still have more than you stupid pokemon have left!” Ire exclaimed.

“I… wouldn’t be… too sure… of that.” A struggling voice said.

It had gotten dark enough that Ire, Quarry, Grumpig, and Cacturne couldn’t see who it was until it was too late. A blast hit Cacturne right in the chest, knocking him down and out.

“Now… the teams are equal.” Caddi said, walking into view with her wings slightly buzzing.

“That mare was a changeling?!” Quarry exclaimed.

“Yes, I am. Now, whether or not you’ll let us, we’ll be going now.”

Throughout the end of the battle, Caddi had slowly been levitating Lea’s family to a single place when they were knocked out. Pulling Lea and Sparks to the same place, she stood in the middle.

Before Caddi could be stopped by Ire, Quarry, or Grumpig, she had started to strain herself to use a spell. Slowly, blue flames started to sprout up around them. When a full circle was formed, A light blue bubble seemed to form around them. When Ire finally came to her senses, it was too late. Lea and the others had started to sink into the ground. From Lea’s point of view, she could see Ire getting closer and closer. Then suddenly, everything was black.

Lea could tell she was no longer in the alley, which was good, but she couldn’t tell where she was now. The whole place was pitch black.

‘I wish umbreon just glowed in the dark and not only in moonlight.’

Lea tried to take a few steps forward, but cried out in pain when she tried walking on her rear left leg.

“Gan-ma?” Lea heard a voice say.

“Sparks? Is that you?”

“Can’t see!”

“I can’t see anything either.”

“Sunny!” Sparks said, right before artificial sunlight started to shine.

Lea’s eyes took a minute to adjust themselves. In front of her was Sparks, who looked very proud of himself. She also saw that Caddi had used up whatever energy she had left and was also knocked out with her family. Lea could also tell that they had ended up in the sewers.

“So you know Sunny Day, Sparks?”

“Sunny! Sunny! Sunny!” He chanted!

‘Wonder why he talks like a toddler would when Ziggs is younger but speaks like he’s older.’

Lea gave a small shrug before looking back and her family and Caddi, finally getting a chance to look at their conditions. Almost everyone was bleeding, especially Kya. She guessed some of them might have a broken bone or two as well. Not to mention, Lea herself was bleeding and she could feel somewhat faint.

“I know we have something around here!” Lea said, aware of how imperative it was to get all of them to a hospital of some sorts.

“Here it is! Sparks, can you help me?” A little while back, Lea, Matrix, and Caddi had set up carts and rafts for if they needed to bring larger pokemon to the poke center. Lea had found one of the rafts.

After they had gotten the raft into the water and everyone onto it, Lea pushed them off and Sparks started to steer. Lea acted as a map for Sparks so he could get them to the pokecenter. Eventually, the Sunny Day faded, but Lea could see another source of light.

“Go to the light Sparks. That’s where we want to…” Lea’s voice faded off as she finally lost consciousness.

ch. 33 nightmare

“Kya! Use Ember!”

Lea was running with Kya as she tried to catch up to the people with Matrix. The attack was blocked by a Protect, which was followed by a Psyshock from their grumpig. The attack hit Kya, making the little cyndaquil tumble on the grass. Fortunately, Lea was far enough back to scoop Kya in her arms and keep running.

The next attack came from a beedrill, which was an X-Scissor. Lea was hurt more than Kya. and the small eevee let out a small cry of despair from the cage he was in.

Lea was still able to keep running, not wanting to lose her newest family member. The grumpig’s trainer looked angry. She barked a command and the vehicle they were in finally stopped. They jumped out, leaving Matrix and the cage in the vehicle.

“Grumpig, get rid of them.” The woman said.

Suddenly, the grumpig’s eyes started to glow along with its pearls. Out of nowhere, a large rock appeared. The surrounding area seemed to fade away and Kya was lifted up into the air and slammed onto the rock. Lea gave a cry of despair, but found herself unable to move. The group with Matrix had grown, and with them now was also a liepard and an absol. All of them had evil grins as Kya was brought down on the rock again and again.

When they finally stopped, the little cyndaquil was covered in blood. Lea tried to run over to Kya, but fell on the ground as her leg started to blaze with pain. She gripped her leg in her hands, hoping to somehow stop the pain.

“Don’t worry Mommy…”

Looking up, Lea saw Kya limping towards her. When the quilava finally reached her, Kya instantly turned around to face the evilly grinning absol, which had followed her over. Lea wanted to get up to help, but her one leg just got in the way, keeping her on the ground. The absol got closer, and tried to attack before Kya hit her with a Flamethrower.

When the flames died down, the absol still stood there, her horn with blood splatters on it which matched the red ribbon on the base of the horn. As Angela got closer, Lea could see her eyes were a blank white color. Once more Kya tried attacking, but nothing effected Angela. Just before the absol was upon them, she faded from view to reveal Grumpig, her eyes and pearls glowing a menacing red and purple instead of blue.

Lea tried to wrap her paws around Kya and keep her safe. But she was pulled away in Grumpig’s psychic grip.

“Are you ready for round two?” Grumpig said before smashing Kya into the ground.

Kya’s figure became even more red colored as more wounds were created. Lea’s eyes turned away as she felt something below her. She could see a large black circle forming around where she was. Shadowy tendrils came from it, and latched onto her legs and neck. Slowly, they started to pull her into the ground. Looking back up, Lea found Grumpig finishing up with Kya.

Just before her eyes were pulled into the black void, the quilava was thrown just a foot from the circle. Her lifeless body covered in her own blood. Next, all Lea could feel was pain.

And then...

"ENOUGH!!" A powerful voice tore through everything, wiping away Lea's surroundings and blasting it, and everyone else, to dust. Once the dust had blown away, Lea spotted a dark blue mare with an ethereal, star filled mane. "Art thou alright?" She asked Lea.

“What? How?” Lea said shocked as she could suddenly see again. She could feel her face was wet with tears.

The mare flew over to Lea and kneeled down next to her before wrapping the umbreon in one of her wings. "It is alright little one," she said soothingly. "The nightmares cannot bother you anymore, not while we are here."

“Thi- this was a nightmare?” Lea asked the alicorn. “Then… that means you should be Princess Luna.”

“Indeed,” Luna said with a smile. “And who might you be?”

“I’m Lea.” She replied, not wanting to smile back. “I’m.. I’m going to have to do this again…”

“What does’t thou mean?” Luna asked. “I promise the nightmares will not bother you, I shall ensure that.”

“The nightmares aren’t real! But what happened last night is! I don’t want to see Kya dead again!”

Luna looked shocked, she still wasn’t use to more nightmares being based in reality than in some kind of emotional problem as it had been with the ponies. “My apologies,” Luna said sadly. “Is there anything that we can do to help?”

Lea’s anger started to fuel her responses. “You and your sister have done enough for me. The guards that came weren’t able to help anyone! The only thing they helped with was ensure that Caddi is easy to find out! You seem to care more about fun. Everyone was too distracted by the announcement of the Canterlot Contest to notice my kidnapping! And because of that, Everyone was hurt, and some are most likely dead!” Lea finally stopped to take a breath from her small rant.

Luna remained silent for a few seconds before responding. "We... I am sorry," she said sadly. "My sister told me she was sending some guards nearby, but I did not think much of it," she sighed. "It is our fault the events that have befallen you and your friends... I am sorry, if there is anything I can do to help you, I will see that it is done."

Lea took Luna’s words in, and, after she realized she had probably come close to offending a being who could move the moon, she replied to the princess.

“I just want some kind of punishment for those ponies and pokemon, but…” She thought for a second. “I think it’s that grumpig. She did… something to them. She’s the one who caused all of this.”

“Something to them... tell me, is Grumpig a Psychic type?” Luna asked.

“Yes… and unusually strong for her specific type of pokemon. She was actually able to hurt Matrix. What’s worse is that she was the most psychotic pokemon I’ve ever seen. She was able to control my sister and almost had her kill some of our family.”

“These Psychic Pokemon seem to cause more problems than the others,” Luna mused to herself. “Fortunately, we know one who has been quite helpful with situations like this in the past few weeks, and we are sure he is more powerful than any Grumpig.”

“No, no more psychics! I’ve had enough of them! I’m beginning to see why Kya was so afraid of them before!”

Luna frowned. “Ah, Mewtwo will be disappointed... we can ensure the offenders will be arrested and moved to Canterlot, there we can have the... affected, see a Psychic for help.”

“Not sure how that will help, but thanks for the offer.” Lea paused as she finally allowed herself to fully calm down. “I should probably wake up now, shouldn’t I?”

“If that is your wish, I can return you to the waking world,” Luna told her.

“Better to face what’s there than wait in fear of what could be happening. So if you’d be able to… I’d like that, thank you.”

Luna nodded and touched her horn to Lea’s forehead. “Farewell Lea, perhaps we shall meet again in the material world.” With her goodbye spoken, she released her magic, sending her back to the waking world.

“I’ll be sure to do that.” Lea said, finding herself in a bed back in the Poke Center back home.

Author's Note

So... raise your hoof/hand/appendage if you were confused before Luna showed up.
And speaking of Luna, I didn't write her. Zeus helped with this chapter as well. Anything you want to add?
Just that. Like always, I enjoyed helping write this, Luna is one of my favorite ponies to write.
So, I hope you enjoyed this chapter with Lea cause you ain't gonna see her for a while
This also ends the Grumpig arch of the story.

ch. 34 caring

Angela was woken up from hearing a scream. “Kya!”

She sprinted to where she had heard Kya scream. Eventually, she found a door with a few ponies outside it. “Wha-what’s going on? Why did I hear Kya scream?”

“Who? Oh! Is she one of the three pokemon who came in yesterday?”

“I’m not sure about three, but Kya’s new here, yes.” Angela’s memories of the night before were blurry. Anything that happened after Grumpig had started to control her were harder to remember than everything else, but that normally happened. “She’s tan and dark turquoise, with a few red spots.”

“That would be the pokemon in here. You must have heard he screaming from when she woke up. She seems to be having a negative reaction around unicorn magic. All unicorn doctors in there had to leave once she woke up.”

“So now she’s scared of unicorns too? Great…” Angela said to herself. “How’s she doing?”

“Well,” Started a doctor who was just leaving the room. “Other than the obvious wounds, she seems to have a concussion. There’s also something else that you can learn from her, or from me. Which would you like?”

“From you.” Angela responded quickly.

The mare gave a small sigh. “She’s also blinded in her right eye now. We might have had ways to help, but that would involve a surgery. We’re still not sure if our methods would work on pokemon like her, and don’t want to risk her life on something she can live with.”

“But she will still live, right?” Angela asked.

“Yes. She was fortunate enough just to have a few cracked ribs, so she’ll be fine.”

“What about the others?”

The doctor looked through her papers. “The linoone that was brought to the hospital earlier this month opened up his injury again, Lea only had a broken leg, Matrix had a few cracked ribs and a large cut on his skull so we’ll be checking for a concussion there too, and then the little snake like pokemon with wings…”

“That would be Sparks.”

“He’s mainly just sick, though he does have a few minor cuts that we needed to put bandaids on. And overall, everyone had blood loss from their wounds, but not enough to be serious.”

Angela noticed the doctor had left a name off her list. “What about Caddi? How is she doing?”

The doctor looked nervous for a few seconds. “Ah, well… I was hoping you wouldn’t ask about that thing.”

“Caddi’s not a thing! Caddi’s a she!” Angela exclaimed. “And she’s my friend, so I want to know how she’s doing.”

Before the doctor could respond to Angela, a few doctors along with Blissey ran by. The doctor tried to stop Angela from following them, but she got away. Angela followed the group into a room with other doctors. She also found Midnight there with them. He was being held down by Citrus’ magic.

“I have to see how she’s doing! Kiwi needs me!”

“What are you two doing?” Angela tried to ask, but she went unnoticed.

“I know that’s her! I saw the necklace I gave her! Why can’t I see her?!”

“Midnight, stop! They’re doing everything they can!” Citrus tried to reason with him. “She’ll be better before you know-”

Citrus had stopped mid sentence. Angela also stopped trying to get their attention. All of their faces paled. From behind her, Angela could hear one of the most dreaded sounds in a medical facility. Caddi was flatlining.

“NO!!!” Midnight yelled. He moved so suddenly that Citrus’ magical grip on him broke. He pushed his way through the doctors to find himself looking at Caddi. For the first few seconds, he was confused. He was here for Kiwi, not a changeling. Then he saw the changeling was wearing the fire opal necklace and he pieced it together. “Kiwi… was a changeling…”

The doctors started to pull him away from the bed, but Midnight pulled back and threw himself over Caddi. “I don’t care if she was a changeling or not!” He stated, starting to cry. “I still loved her. That’s all that matters to me.”

The doctors were shaking their heads, a few of them calling him delusional for thinking he loved her, and that they’d find the real one soon enough. Blissey was the only one who stayed inside the room, and she was starting to cry herself. The mood was so somber, that no one noticed the change in sound coming from the equipment.

“Hey Midnight, what’s with the tears.” Came a slightly hoarse voice. “It’s like somepony died or somethin’.”

Midnight tilted his head up off of Caddi’s body just enough to see her looking at him, her eyes half open and her mouth in a weak smile.

“I feel like I was hit by a train.” She told him. “Kind of like one of those ones from the Crystal Empire. They kinda scare me.”

Midnight, who was a little freaked out about Caddi coming back to life, started to back away. “Wait, what’s wrong? Did I do something-” She caught a glance at the leg she had started to reach out towards him. Seeing it, her eyes widened.

“Oh, I… you… me… I messed up, didn’t I?” Caddi’s head and ears drooped down. This was what she was afraid would happen when he found out. He would first get scared, then angry, and then he would… ‘Hug me?’ Caddi thought as Midnight had started to hug her. His hug was very tight too.

“Woah! Midnight!” Angela exclaimed. “Don’t kill her again! I doubt she can come back to life twice!”

“What do you mean by that?!” Caddi asked once Midnight had let go. “Midnight, what does she mean by that?!”

“Well, your heart stopped for a short while there. We all thought you we dead during that time.”

Blissey cut in. “None of the doctors could find anything wrong except that you were having heart problems and had an irregular heartbeat. Before they could do anything to try and fix what was going on, it just stopped. But then once Midnight came over to you it started back up. I don’t think that normally happens with ponies.”

“It might have to do with me being a… um… changeling.” Caddi said the last word quieter than the rest. “I probably used up almost all of the love energy I had trying to save everyone last night and that was me running out. Basically, I kinda starved to death, but apparently Midnight was able to give me some just in time that I survived that short time that I was… well, my heart wasn’t working.”

The group stared at her, hoping for something a bit better than that explanation. “Hey! That’s the best I can do! I’ve never done this before! I also don’t want to do it ever again.”

“Well I don’t want that either Kiwi.” Midnight said, giving Caddi a small kiss, making her blush a little.

“Then if you don’t care that I’m a changeling, you might want to learn my real name.”

“So… it’s not actually Kiwi Lime?” He asked. “Is there a real one?”

“I made her up myself. The chances of her being real are one in a zillion now since Citrus is around. My real name is Caddi.”

“Wait, what does Citrus have to do with anything.”

“She happened to create a pony to be who looked exactly like me.” Citrus told him. “She even happened to get the name the same.”

Midnight started to help Caddi out of the bed before Blissey stopped him. “No! She should rest! Besides, she might be hungry and want some actual food! I’ll go do that!”

Blissey ran out after she made sure Caddi wasn’t going to leave the bed. After that, Midnight looked like he was about to talk when another scream was heard.

“What was that?!” Citrus asked.

“Kya.” Angela told him. “She came to help us last night. Apparently whatever Grumpig did to her, it made her scared of unicorns. Most likely it’s because they’re so much like psychic pokemon. It doesn’t help she was already afraid of them back on Earth.”

“Does Lea know yet?” Caddi asked.

“Last I heard, she didn’t. Midnight, might you know where she is?” He shook his head. “What about you Citrus?”

“I saw her this morning a little after she woke up. I haven’t seen her since.”

“That’s not good. I’m going to try and find her.” Angela told them before she left the room.

Angela had gone to the main room where many of the pokemon were. A large portion of them were asking her what was going on. She ignored their questions and asked if anyone them knew where Lea had gone. Angela felt something on her shoulder as a familiar voice answered her.

“I’ve asked them already, but none of them could tell me.”

Angela turned to find herself face to face with a walrein, whose flipper had been the one on her shoulder. “Pryce?! Is that you?”

The walrein smiled. “It’s nice that you recognised me so quickly.”

“Well I heard your voice before actually seeing you, so that kind of helped.” Angela told him. “When did you get here? How did you find us?”

“I actually met up with Kya and Sparks about three or four days after we arrived on Equus. Who have you found so far?” Pryce asked her.

“So far it’s just been Lea, Matrix, and Linoone. We also found Linoone’s son. His name is Ziggs.”

“So, you haven’t found Samuel yet, have you?” Angela gave him a strange look. “That would be Lea’s father.”

“Oh. No, we haven’t. I’m sorry…”

“That’s too bad. I was hoping I might get to see him again. Maybe catch up with each other.”

At that moment, one of Celestia’s guards came in trying to catch Angela’s eye.

“One moment Pryce. It seems someone wants to talk to me.” He nodded in recognition and Angela went over to the guard. “What do you want?”

“I’d like to know where Midnight is. I have some news for him.”

“I wouldn’t go looking for him. His girlfriend just died and came back to life, so he needs some time.”

The guard gave her an odd look. “Listen, I just wanted to let him know that as I was out looking for any of the ponies or pokemon from last night, I found this.”

The guard held out the object he had found on his patrol. “Hmm, that looks familiar. Do you recognize it Angela?” Pryce asked after he had come over to see what Angela was doing.

Angela turned to him, scared. “That’s Lea’s belt.”

The guard nodded. “The same one she had been wearing when you all ended up here last night, which means that she’s gone missing.”

Author's Note

dun dun dun...
spring break starts for me on thursday, so i'll be dishing out some more chapters soon.

ch. 35 random

“What do you mean Lea is gone?!” Matrix yelled at Angela as he tried to get up.

He had finally woken back up a few minutes earlier and wanted to talk to Lea, only to have Angela come in instead to give him the bad news.

“Matrix! You shouldn’t get out of bed yet.” Angela said, trying to keep him in bed.

“Why not? You’re out of bed.” He retorted.

“That’s because I don’t have multiple cracked ribs.” She told him. “There’s also the chance you have a concussion, so don’t think Moonlight will help you get out of here any sooner because the doctors still want to check for that.”

Matrix still ignored her and tried to leave. When she stopped him again, he asked her, “Why are you stopping me? You’d be doing the same thing if our roles were flipped. In fact, why haven’t you already left?”

“Because,” Angela said, glaring at him. “With Lea gone, and everyone else hurt in some way, I’m the only one who can help run things around here.”

Before Matrix could say anything else, Angela stuffed an oran berry into his mouth. “By the way, a bunch of the berries ripened today. That’s one we just had picked. Bluegrass already planted some of the new ones we got, so anything left is fine to eat. Just make sure there are some left.”

After Angela left, some doctors came in to do a quick check up on Matrix. After healing himself using Moonlight and learning he did not have a concussion, they agreed he could leave the room, but not to leave the building to look for Lea. Even after using Moonlight, Matrix was still sore on his chest, and also still needed some rest.

“Come on Matrix!” Blissey said as he was trying to persuade the doctors to let him leave. “If you go out in this condition, you’ll just make things worse. Who knows, maybe Lea will come back soon.”

“Fine.” He sighed. “But if she’s still not back by tomorrow, I’m going to look for her.”

“Deal!” Blissey said, glad that he would take at least one day to rest.

Matrix made his way downstairs, where he found Linoone watching Ziggs playing with Sparks. The two seemed to be enjoying each other's company, and only paused from playing when Sparks took a second or two to cough or sneeze.

Matrix joined Linoone in watching the two playing together. At one point, Sparks tried to get him to join, but he declined so that he could talk with his friend.

“So how are you feeling?” Matrix asked Linoone.

“Cruddy. I also ache all over. What about you?”

“About the same, only I bet I’m not as sore as you.”

Linoone gave a weak laugh. “Yeah. So, there’s nothing… seriously wrong with you, right?”

Matrix gave him a confused look. “No, why would there be?”

“Because it was a psychic attack that knocked you out in the first place.” Linoone weakly shook Matrix by the shoulders. “A psychic attack! Used on a dark pokemon! That doesn’t happen in nature!”

Matrix got Linoone to stop. “So? It probably wasn’t that. Must have been some other attack that I didn’t realise had happened and knocked me out instead.”

Linoone gave him a serious look. “I’m not sure. That grumpig mentioned Doctor Nurem.”

“Wait! You mean that doctor who disappeared about fifteen years ago with his son and did testing on pokemon. That same doctor?”

Linoone rolled his eyes. “No… I’m referring to the Doctor Nurem who found a cure for a rare disease. Of course I’m talking about that Doctor Nurem! Apparently what ever he did to her made her able to hurt dark types using psychic type moves. She said they still do barely anything, but they will do something.”

“And they tried to hurt Mommy too.” A voice said from behind them.

Matrix and Linoone turned to see Kya. Over from where Ziggs and Sparks were playing, there was a short cry of “Mama!” Before Sparks zoomed over to Kya. The quilava hugged the small dunsparce before he went back to play with his new friend.

“Kya! It’s good to see you again!” Matrix said rubbing her on the head. “How are you?”

“She’s got a very minor concussion and can’t see out her right eye.” Angela said as she joined the group. “She’s going to be having some problems with depth perception for a little while, but other than that, she’ll be fine. We’re lucky that it’s nothing more serious than that.”

“Which is why I want a big group hug right now!” Kya exclaimed. “It’s been too long since we’ve had everyone together, and I want to have one before anything else goes wrong.”

Before anyone could stop her, Kya pulled everyone into a big hug until she said the words no one wanted to hear. “Wait, where’s Mommy?”

When no one spoke up to tell her the bad news, it was Pryce who delivered it to her. “She disappeared this morning apparently.”

The flames near Kya’s bottom stopped flaring, and she looked like she was about to cry for a few seconds before they and the ones on her head flared to life in anger.

“They took her again?! They still want to hurt Mommy?! I’ll DESTROY them!” She yelled.

“Kya, you’re in no condition to try and find her, much less fight.” Angela said, trying to calm her down. “There are already ponies who are helping us try and find them.”

The flames on Kya’s head disappeared, but the flames near her bottom stayed lit, which was how Kya normally kept them.

“Why don’t you tell us how you got here Kya.” Linoone suggested, hoping it would get her mind off Lea being missing.

“Well, I found Sparks when we first ended up on Equus. We found a few bits here and there to get food and stuff. One time, I bought some paper and a pencil for Sparks so he could start drawing again. He was actually able to sell some of the art he made for a few more bits, so it wasn’t a waste. I remember one of the ponies I saw around here had bought something from us at one point.”

“Yeah,” Matrix stopped her. “He name is Citrus Flower. She showed us the bookmark she bought and we hoped we might be able to find you since we recognized Spark’s signature on it.”

“Well, around that time, Pryce had come up to us to look at some of the art and recognized some of it from last time we visited Mahogany Town. He had heard about this pokemon center that had been opened up by someone named Lea and was hoping it was her. Pryce took us along with him, and last night we arrived at the pokemon center. Everyone had gone into a panic because apparently Lea had gone missing and a few of the others had left a bit ago to try and find her. Pryce stayed here to help calm everyone down while Sparks and I went to find you four, which turned out to be five. You know everything that happened after that.”

“I’m just glad to see you again.” Said Linoone. “By the way Pryce, where are all of your pokemon? Haven’t you found any?”

Pryce nodded. “Woke up near a few of them, but I told them to head up north and I would find them later on. I first wanted to see if I could find anyone I knew and thought it was best for them so go where it’s cold.”

“Makes sense.” Linoone told him. “I wonder if Samuel found any of his other pokemon.”

Pryce sighed. “One can only hope.”

Matrix decided to speak up and get everyone out of this odd conversation. “So… since you Kya and Sparks are new here, why don’t I give you three a tour of the place.”

“This is a nice building you have here.” Pryce stated when they finished.

“These beriffs are rery juicy oo!” Kya said around one stuffed in her mouth. “Bu ee sill need a eeano.”

“Well where do you suggest we buy a piano for you Kya?” Angela asked.

After swallowing her berry, Kya replied, “Maybe there’s a music shop in town.”

“Fine! When we find your mom, talk to her about getting a piano! Deal?!”

“Kay kay! Oh! That reminds me! Back in the first town Sparks and I ended up in, I met this really nice pony who played piano and he taught me new songs!”

Matrix could swear he saw her eyes start to sparkle. “Enough about pianos, we’re trying to each choose something that we’ll probably always wear that can have a translation spell cast on it so everyone can understand us. Angela just chose her’s not too long ago and Linoone and I are still looking for our own.”

“We could cast it on my everstone bracelet, and Sparks can probably make something for himself. Let me ask him! Sparks!” Sparks looked up from what he had been doing to see what his mom wanted. “They want us to have stuff to wear so ponies always understand us. Do you want to make something for yourself that they can use for that?”

Sparks smiled at the idea. “Neck liss!”

“You want to make a… necklace?” Angela asked him before Kya tried to push her away.

“You’re gonna need string, right? Anything else?”

“Wood ‘n pencil!” Sparks told her.

“What kind of wood? Big, little, thick or thin?

“String thingy chip size!”

Kya turned to Linoone. “Do you think you can find what he needs?”

“I… guess? I can find the string and a pencil, but I’m not sure about the last thing.”

“Oh,” Kya said, rubbing the back of her head. “He wants a piece of wood about the size of a guitar pick. probably a little thicker than a normal one if he’s gonna be wearing it everywhere.”

“Then yeah, I can get those.” Linoone said as they reached the front door.

He double checked that she didn’t need anything else before opening the door. Standing on the other side of the door was none other than Quarry Arrow. Before having any time to react, he fell to the ground in front of them, revealing Copper Star standing behind him.

“AND STAY DOWN!!! Oh, hi guys! I saw him running towards here and I came to stop him! I hope you don’t mind!”

Author's Note

mainly a chapter for set up and backstory, so sorry if it seems kind of random and such.
next chapter actually helps move the story along.
btw, we have a very large cast of characters now. anyone wanna go ask them questions in our ask forum?
http://www.fimfiction.net/group/203478/a-new-world-a-new-way-fan-group/thread/140506/ask-lea-and-the-rest-of-the-fearful-way-cast
it's been very quiet.

ch. 36 help

Quarry woke up and found he was tied to a chair, on the ground, and with a pokemon snarling in his face.

“Why did you dare come here!” Linoone growled.

“Lea’s gone if you were trying to come get her.” Matrix said from the sidelines. Linoone was better at intimidating others than he was.

“Leave him alone you two.” said Angela.

“Angela, are you alright? You do realize this was one of the ponies who wanted to capture Lea and controlled you.” Matrix told her.

“He wasn’t controlling me!”

“What do you mean?” Linoone asked, not letting his gaze break from Quarry.

“She means that she and I were in the same boat. The only difference is that I wasn’t at the very start.”

“Care to explain Angela?” Matrix asked.

“Pokemon weren’t the only thing Grumpig was controlling. She was affecting him too.”

“And you know this, how?!”

“When we’re being controlled, it creates a psychic link between everyone else that is being controlled as well. It was fuzzy for me since I’m a dark type and I was connected differently, but other than that, I could tell who was in that link.”

“And he was in it?” Linoone asked.

“Yes, he wa-” Angela started, before a mightyena burst in on them.

“Let… him… go…” it growled.

From the chair, Quarry rolled his eyes. “Sit down and stay. Don’t attack them. I came to talk and they misunderstood.”

The mightyena sat down, following his orders.

“So just why did you come to talk to us?” Linoone growled at him.

“Because my wife made a terrible mistake.”

“I want you to come out right now!”

Ire walked out, revealing herself to her summoner. “Really? After everything that happened last night, you still decided to come back? I guess you’re as stupid as I though.”

“Shut up!” Lea yelled at her. “It’s because of you Kya is almost dead if she isn’t dead already!”

Ire slightly flinched at this. “Wh-who was she?”

“She was the fire one! She’s also a mother and my daughter! That’s the reason I came back! Because I didn’t realize how heartless you actually were!”

“Well I don’t think it’s that much of a loss. If you were the one who raised her, it makes sense she wouldn’t last long.” Grumpig had started to reveal herself as well. “Now Ire… wasn’t there something you wanted to do with her.”

Ire seemed a little nervous at first, but after a slight glow from Grumpig’s eyes and pearls, her horn lit up followed by Lea starting to levitate slightly in the air.

“You continue with that Ire. It seems we have a traitor on our hands…” Grumpig turned to face Quarry.

“The next thing I remember is that they were gone and all they left behind was your friend’s belt. I put the belt where a guard would find it and eventually decided to come here to tell you.”

Linoone, Matrix and Angela looked at each other, unsure if they could trust him.

“Should we see if we can find Silver and get him to check if he’s telling the truth?” Linoone asked.

“That might make it worse.” Angela answered. “Besides, I doubt he’s good enough to manage that.”

“I say we trust him.” Matrix spoke up. “His story make sense, and I wouldn’t put it past that grumpig to do something like this. Part of me wonders if the whole reason she made it over here was because her mind was too broken and crazed to be seen as evil by Arceus.”

“Fine! You’re off the hook.” Linoone said to Quarry. “For now…”

“Wait! We still don’t know if Lea is even still alive!” Angela realized.

“Believe me,” Quarry replied. “The whole reason we even started working with Grumpig was because Ire wanted her revenge to but super horrible for Lea, while still keeping her alive for later.”

“Okay, listen…” Angela said to Quarry. “We’re going to let you out of the chair, but you have to stay in the bui-”

Quarry didn’t let her finish. “No! For all I know that pokemon is still messing with me! Keep me tied up! But, if you could, can you at least stand this chair up? It’s getting a little uncomfortable with my head on the floor.”

“Oh! Sure!” Matrix told him before helping to pull the chair upright. “Better?”

“Yeah.”

“Do I still have to stay sitting here?” Mightyena asked.

“As long as you stay in the building and don’t try and hurt anyone, you’re allowed to explore. If I learn you left or hurt someone, I will have to punish you in some way.”

“Yes master…” Mightyena said as he got up, sounding disappointed.

“He acts more like a dog than a pony.” Quarry said rolling his eyes. “The only way I can think to treat him is like how he acts. It feels confusing to train a dog you can understand.”

Matrix glared at Quarry until he finally said, “It’s only fine because he acts like a dog… not a pony.”

“Okay! Yes! I get that what we did was wrong! You don’t have to keep bringing it up.”

“I’m only bringing it up so you’ll never forget.” Matrix said with a slight snarl.

“Will you stop fighting! This isn’t helping us find Lea.” Angela yelled. “Since she doesn’t have the key stone with her, using my new mega stone to try and get that rare occurrence where it will lead me to her has no chance of working. We do however know that’s she’s still alive, and I’m betting that Lea’s still somewhere in town since Quarry is and Ire’s his wife. I say we start looking for her, especially since I heard that two of the guards were heading back to Canterlot because they think defending the princesses at this contest coming up is more important. That being said, in other news, about half a dozen of the Hoofington officers that were off duty seem to be back in action.”

“Well it’s good we’ve got some more help.” Linoone said. “Saaay… did we ever think about telling the mayor of this town about what’s been going on?”

The three pokemon all internally facepalmed before Quarry spoke up. “You’ve already told the mayor. A few years back, Hoofington decided to try a year with the chief of police as mayor and it happened to stick. So technically, since your thestral friend is taking over as chief, he’s also currently the mayor. I even heard from a friend out of town that another city recently did the same thing, at least temporarily.”

“Okay… we really need to learn more about this town…” Linoone said.

“We can do that while we look for Lea.” Angela replied. “Let’s get Ben and go find her.”

At the mention of their friend Matrix spoke up. “When was the last time anyone actually saw him.”

The group went around asking if anyone had seen Ben recently. They only finally got an answer when they talked to Pryce.

“Was he that nice hitmonlee I met earlier? I think he left after I asked to see Lea when we first arrived and she wasn’t here at the time.”

“Great, now we have to find both Lea and him.” Angela mumbled. “Linoone, you’re still recovering, so you should just do what Kya had wanted. Matrix and I will go out looking for them. Pryce…” She looked at the gym leader. “Make sure Kya doesn’t try to burn our guest tie to a chair in the other room to a crisp.”

And with that, the three pokemon left Pryce behind right before he could say, “Okay… I guess…”

Author's Note

what's this?!?! Another new chapter?! In the same week?!
oh... it gets better... i'm half done with a third one.
by the way ask QUESTIONS
and meet the CHARACTERS

ch. 37 search

Matrix and Angela were running down the streets. After searching for about an hour, they had caught wind that a hitmonlee had been seen recently, and from the description of how it was acting along with one pony mentioning that it was wearing an armband, the two easily deduced that it had to be Ben.

Eventually they found him. He had been quite a distance from the center almost to the point of being at the exact opposite side of town. At first they were excited because of who he was with. They had found him talking to an umbreon.

Before they could reach the two of them, the umbreon tried attacking Ben. Though it seemed to purposely miss him the first time, when he still tried to get near them, the umbreon attacked again, this time aiming for him.

“Woah woah hey! Break it up! What’s going on?”

“Do either of you know this pokemon?”

“Yeah, why?” Matrix asked.

“You need to do something about him. He apparently can’t comprehend that there’s more than one female umbreon in the world.”

Angela facepawed. “What did Ben do?”

“Well at first, I heard him calling out the name Lea. I presumed he was trying to catch the attention of someone else until he grabbed me and distinctly called me that. I told him he had the wrong pokemon and told him to look elsewhere, but he insisted. Then I presume you saw me try to use an attack to convince him to leave. When he still persisted, I attacked again, aiming to hit him, but you two came and interviened.”

“Ben! what do you have to say for yourself?!” Angela yelled at him.

“I thought it was her… a-and when she talked, she sounded like Lea too…”

“You’re delusional! you’re just hearing what you want to hear.” The umbreon said.

“Well he is right.” Matrix spoke up. “You do have similar voices. You even have a similar scent. But other than that, you have a different personality and obvious don’t recognise any of us. Besides, I don’t think Ire would just put Lea back on the streets alone for us to find, or let her go so she could find us. I’m sorry for the trouble we caused.”

“It’s fine.” The umbreon told him. “Just promise you won’t let this happen again. I’ve got enough on to deal with right now.”

“Fine, we promise.” Angela said. “But maybe we can help with whatever you’re having problems with.”

“I’m looking for a unicorn mare. She goes by the name of Rage Spell.”

“Sorry, I don’t think I’ve heard of her. But maybe she’ll turn up at our poke center.”

“You run a poke center?” Umbreon said, lifting an eyebrow.

“Well, sort of.” Matrix told her. “It’s as close as we can get right now. You’re welcome to come and stay there while you look for this unicorn.”

The umbreon looked like she was about to accept, but then she glanced at Ben.

“Sorry, but if he’s going to be there, I’d rather not.”

“Well then, sorry we couldn’t be of any help. I’ll take Ben back home Angela. You should stay out and look for Lea.”

“Got it. Have a nice day Umbreon.”

“You too… I guess.”

Angela had tried looking everywhere she could think someone, or somepony, might hide. She even thought about looking some places that they were less likely to be. Eventually, she just ended up going to visit Bluegrass’ store.

Angela was greeted at the door by Bellossom. “Hi there! Welcome to Bluegrass’ Gardening Store! Can I help you?”

“Yeah, uh, do you know if she’s around?”

“Yes, she is. Let me get her.”

Angela could hear Bellossom talking to Bluegrass in the back before the pony herself walked out.

“Ah heard there was a customer who wanted mah- Oh! Angela, It’s you! Have ya found Lea yet?”

“Not yet.” Angela sighed. “All we found was a different umbreon who was angry at Ben trying to persist that she was Lea.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“It wasn’t, but we then agreed to help the umbreon find a mare she’s looking for.”

“What’s the mare’s name?” Bluegrass asked as she started to water some nearby plants.”

“I think it was something like Anger Spell or Fury Spell or maybe…”

“Rage Spell.” Bluegrass said as she dropped her watering can.

“Yeah! That was it! Bu- what’s wrong.”

“How can she know ‘bout Rage Spell? How can any of y’all know ‘bout her at all?”

“Why do you mean?”

“She disappeared years ago. She was a unicorn who would get angry easily and use her magic when that happened. Normally ponies ended up hurt. Then one day, she just vanished. No nearby town had seen her show up, so many just presumed she died. Most ponies just refuse to talk about her either because they forgot about her, or want to.”

“Well then, it seems someone is trying to find her again.”

“This is all your fault!” Ire yelled at Grumpig.

“You’re the one who wanted to do this to that umbreon.”

“Well, I didn’t want to have her escape! And she got out on your watch!”

“She won’t be able to find her friends. I’ll even bet that they’ve already seen her and don’t know it.”

“With their luck they did find her already and fixed her! Where’s Quarry?! I need him for something.”

“He’s gone.”

Ire spun around to look at Grumpig. “What do you mean he’s gone?! Gone where?!”

“He was a traitor. Last I checked, he was off to where Lea was living.”

Ire’s eyes widened. “He’ll tell them everything! About what we planned! They’ll just find that umbreon quicker!”

“He won’t. He can’t remember.” Grumpig gave a small shrug. “I got rid of his memories of the plan.”

The next second, Grumpig found herself pinned to the wall with Ire’s magic. “YOU WHAT?!”

“He was a threat.”

“HE… WAS… MY… HUSBAND!!!” Ire yelled, blasting Grumpig with a large bolt of magic at the end of her sentence.

When Grumpig recovered, she raised one arm as her pearls and eyes started to glow. However, before grumpig could do anything else, Ire blasted her again. “Don’t you dare try anything with my mind now too.” Then Ire’s eyes widened again. “Y-you used your powers to convince me to finish with Lea this morning! I didn’t want to do it in the end but you got me to do it anyway! You’ve been running the show since the start!”

Grumpig gave a low chuckle. “No, you were in control at the start, I just lived up to my title and tricked you into believing you never lost it.”

With that, Grumpig used an attack on Ire and escaped. leaving the unicorn to call after her. “I will find you again! And this time, I’ll be in control of you!”

“What’s he doing here?!” Ben asked when he saw Quarry in the tied up chair.

“Believe it or not, he came to tell us some helpful information about Ire and Grumpig.”

“Yeah right. If that were true, why is he still tied up”

“Okay, one, I can hear you!” Quarry said. “And two, I asked to be left tied up. Grumpig used some mind control on me before, why not do it again?”

“Mind control? Yeah right!” Ben rolled his eyes.

“Actually…” Matrix started. “Angela actually confirmed he was being at least partially controlled by Grumpig.”

“I’m still not trusting him.”

“That’s fine with me. But hey, can you check and see how Mightyena is doing and make sure he isn’t up to something?”

“You brought your pokemon here?!” Ben yelled before he ran off.

“So what have you been doing while we’ve been gone. Other than sitting around of course.”

Quarry gave a small laugh. “Not much, but while you’ve been gone, I thought of something else that might help you.”

“What would that be?”

“Grumpig had recently ‘enlisted’ the help of an earth stallion. I think he went by the name Specter.”

“That would explain why he was acting so strangely last time he came here.”

“He might know something I wouldn’t, so you might want to try and find him to see what he knows.”

“I’ll go do that. Can I trust you to tell Angela where I’m going.”

“I wouldn’t…”

“Then I am!” Matrix said with a large grin before he left the building.

Author's Note

There, this was just edited today! (and by that i mean whenever this came out.)
i've already got another one ready, so as soon as there's a comment asking for the second one, i'll work on putting that up. otherwise i'll just put it up tomorrow when I get the chance.... maybe...

ch. 39 development

“Wait up!” Ziggs yelled as he ran down the street, trying to catch up to Sparks. Unfortunately he had learned the hard way that it wasn’t easy to stay near Sparks in an open area. The dunsparce was fast for his size, and faster still for his type.

When Ziggs finally caught up, it was only because Sparks had stopped in front of a candy shop. “We’re supposed to be looking for your grandma, not candy.” Ziggs told him. “How would you even pay for it?”

Sparks turned his head to look at Ziggs, and revealed that he had a small bag in his mouth. “When did you-?” Ziggs was cut off as Sparks zipped into the candy shop leaving him to follow.

“Can I help you?” The mare behind the counter asked.

“Apple!” Sparks said to her.

“What kind? I’ve got apple lollipops, apple candies, caramel apples, candy apples…”

“Candy!” He cheered when she mentioned it. The mare grabbed one of the candy coated apples from a tray and started to give it to him. “No, two!” She gave a small smile before getting a second.

The mare wrapped them in plastic and placed them in a bag. “That will be six bits please.” Sparks opened his bag and gave the bits to the mare. She hoofed over the bag to him, and he took one of the apples out.

“Sparks! You can have an apple later! We should go!” Ziggs said as he shifted on his paws.

Instead of listening to Ziggs, Sparks unwrapped an apple, and put the entire thing in his mouth, leaving the stick poking out. There was a loud crunch, followed by a few softer ones. Sparks gave a large gulp, and spit out the stick. Both the mare and Ziggs looked at him in amazement.

“Take another… free of charge.” The mare told him. “That’s got to be the quickest I’ve ever seen someone eat one of those, and I don’t think anypony else will be able to beat that.”

Ziggs just continued to stare at Sparks with his mouth agape at his new friend. Before he could recover, Sparks had already zoomed out out the shop with both his bag of bits and bag of apples. Ziggs only finally went after Sparks when the mare started to nudge him out the door. “Wha? Oh! Thanks!”

On his first glance, Ziggs couldn’t tell where his friend had gone. But after looking again, he figured it out by the shocked looks of ponies down one street. Eventually, he found Sparks at a small park area on top of a jungle gym.

“Sparks! What are you doing?! We’ll never find Miss Lea at this rate!”

“Looking!” Sparks gave a small whine back.

“Playing isn’t looking!”

“Breon!!!” Sparks yelled before quickly climbing down the jungle gym and running off again.

“Sparks!” Ziggs half yelled, half sighed. “Can you please wait up?!”

This time, Ziggs found Sparks talking to an umbreon on the streets.

“Sorry little guy. I’m not who you’re looking for. You’re not the first ‘mon to mistake me for somemon else.”

Ziggs went over to Sparks. “Sorry ma’am! I hope he didn’t bother you. We’ll leave now.”

“It’s fine, but do either of you know if there’s a place to find berries?”

“There’s a place near the center of town owned by a pony named Bluegrass. She might have some. Other than that, I’m not fully sure.” Ziggs answered her.

“C’mon!” Sparks gave a small whine. “More search!”

“Fine, let’s go. Bye Miss!” and then the two pokemon had set off again.

Kya stared at Caddi. Caddi stared back at Kya. Ben and Midnight watched the two of them. Finally, Kya blinked. “Gah! Do you ever have to blink with those eyes?”

“Wait, we were having a starting contest?” Caddi asked. “I thought we were just looking at each other.” The three others smacked their faces.

“But anywho… you’re called a changeling, and he’s a thestral, right?”

“That’s right.” Midnight answered for Caddi.

“And then I know Ben is a hitmon- AHH!” Kya screamed before hiding under Caddi, peering through one of the holes in her leg at Midnight.

“What? What did I do?” asked Midnight, just as confused as the others.

“Swoo…” Came a voice from right behind him.

The thestral turned his head to see Silver Wing flying in the air just behind him. “You’re scared of Silver?” Caddi asked Kya, trying to get her to come out.

Kya just nodded and slowly increased the distance between herself and Silver.

“Angela did say Kya was having trouble around psychic types and even unicorns now.” Midnight said. “Silver, could you maybe go check on something else, like maybe help search for Lea?”

Silver gave a quick nod and flew off.

“You’re as nervous around psychics as your mom was around the other police officers when I first met her.” Ben noticed.

“You’re a police officer?” Kya asked.

“I’m more of a volunteer, but yeah, I am.”

“But you still like my mommy.”

Ben was sort of taken aback by her comment. “Was I wrong?”Kya asked. “I mean, I thought you did.”

“No, you’re right. I just didn’t realise I was being that obvious.”

“The first time I heard about you, you had just come back for going crazy trying to find Mommy in such a way that it’s either a really strong crush, or you want revenge on her. I just can’t see the other one happening.” Kya explained seriously before cheerily saying. “But what do I know?”

Ben put his face in his hands. “Ugh! Is that what it sounded like? *sigh* After Lea had been overwhelmed by seeing the officers at the station, I kind of helped her out and she made me promise that I’d help keep your whole family safe. When I heard Ire had tried to strangle your mom, I felt like it was partially my fault. I had just promised to keep her and her family safe, and I was already failing. After that, I slowly started to spend more time with her. I started to notice just how much she cares for everyone she knows. She puts them first, but often forgets just how important she is to others and doesn’t always give herself the same care. I sometimes do that myself, and so it just feels like sometimes we fit together. Do you know what I mean?”

“Maaaaaybe?” Kya responded.

“I know that it tastes like pineapples.” Caddi said. “Other than that, it’s love, complicated stuff.”

“Love tastes like pineapples?” Midnight asked.

“His does. Yours tastes like pudding. Blueberry pudding.”

Ben leaned slightly closer to Kya. “Hey kid, make sure that if your mom and I do end up together, it doesn’t get this weird.” Kya nodded.

“Can we stop talking about love over there? I can hear you perfectly and it doesn’t help my broken heart!” Quarry yelled from his chair.

“It’s your fault for loving that criminal!” Ben yelled back.

“At least some of us judge others after they learn about them first!” Quarry retorted.

“Whatever, I’m done here.” Ben said, leaving the room.

“I don’t think he likes him.” Kya said.

“Who? Ben doesn’t like Quarry, or Quarry doesn’t like Ben?” Caddi asked.

Kya replied just by saying, “Yes.”

After Ben had left to go meet with Copper Star, Citrus had come in the building on a break with some good news and a new friend. When she had been out looking for Lea, she had come across one of the pokemon that had been with Quarry, Ire and Grumpig.

“Sooo…” Caddi started. “You want to help in return for berries?”

“Yes! I love to make little fruit salads with them and I heard there were some here.” Explained Cacturne. “I know I did the opposite of help before, but I can help now.”

“But we already have Quarry with us. What more info could you give us?”

“He wasn’t around all the time when Ire and Grumpig discussed plans. I can remember a few meetings he wasn’t there for but were important. I also remember that Grumpig suddenly booted him out of the mind link when we found your friend.”

“And what would that have to do with anything?” Caddi asked.

“Usually when that happens, Grumpig proceeds to make sure whoever it was can’t say what happened.”

“And how does she do that?”

“I don’t know! I haven’t had it happen to me before.”

“Fine! What can you tell us about Lea?”

“Well…” Cacturne looked around, as if Grumpig or Ire would jump out any second. “I remember hearing Grumpig mention that there was this very old pony punishment for some of the worst criminals that was banned long long ago, but she thought she would be able to recreate it.”

“Wait?! Seriously?!” Caddi yelled. “What the hay was it?!”

“The only way it was mentioned, is that it was a called ‘a punishment worse than death.’ and from what I got from context and stuff, the punishment doesn’t kill, but lasts forever unless you find a way to fix it.”

“I think I remember hearing of that once.” Midnight spoke up. “By the way, nice interrogating Kiw- I mean Caddi.”

“Thanks Midnight. Now… before I give you the berries, Anything else you want to add?”

“Yes!” Cacturne exclaimed. “Two things actually. Lea escaped when no one was paying attention and Ire isn’t working with Grumpig anymore.”
Caddi gave Cacturne a few berries before she started to discuss with Midnight about what they had just learned. “Why do you think Ire stopped working with Grumpig.”

“She might have realised what Grumpig was doing to Quarry. Or just that the job was done and she didn’t need Grumpig anymore.”

“Can’t be the second though.” Caddi reasoned.

“Why not?” Midnight asked.

“Well Lea got away, and they didn’t split up until after that happened. Why wouldn’t they stay together to catch her again.”

“Hmmm…”

Before Midnight could respond, Citrus actually spoke up. “It could be that Grumpig was just there for helping Ire get revenge on Lea, and once it was done, she left.”

“That’s true.” Midnight agreed. “But if that was so, why agree to the job in the first place.”

“I saw how twisted and broken her mind was. She didn’t need a reason, she was crazy!”

“Can I add one last bit of information?” Cacturne asked as he slowly peeled his berries.

“What would that be?” Midnight asked in return.

“While I don’t know if Grumpig is doing the same, I know for sure Ire is looking for your friend. And seeing as how she knows what she did to Lea, She has a better chance of finding her.”

With that statement, Midnight and Caddi looked each other in the eyes, both thinking the same thing. If there was any chance of finding Lea first, they were going to need Bright Ire.

Author's Note

sorry about not having a chapter last week, but you got 2 the week before and 2 more the week before that.
my current editor said i might benefit with a second editor, so if anyone wants to do that....
finally, the ask thing is lonely, and half the reason that this took so long is that sometimes the questions there give me some ideas for writing and main reason i haven't posted is from not knowing what to write.

ch. 40 meeting

“Midnight! I had told you to stay with Caddi!” Angela yelled at the thestral. “Instead you went out and left her alone, and we came back to find her with this cacturne! The same cacturne that was helping trying to catch Lea! Explain yourself!”

“Angela, calm down.” Matrix tried to get Angela to settle down. “I haven’t seen you this angry in ages.”

“Oh really?” Cacturne asked smugly. “It used to be she was like this all the time. At least when I was around to see.”

“Oh you keep out of this! I don’t need your sass.” Angela snarled at Cacturne

“Honestly, I’m not sure why you were that weakling Daniel’s pokemon and not Gale’s pokemon.”

“You shut your mouth and don’t you dare mention her name again!”

“Who? Gale? Give me three reasons not to.”

Angela’s horn started to glow and enlarge as she placed it next to Cacturne’s neck. “Here’s one good reason, and even though I haven’t done it it years, I won’t hesitate to do it now!”

For the first time since he had started talking to Angela, Cacturne looked scared. “Alright! Alright! I get it! I’ll shut up!”

Angela’s horn returned to it’s normal state, but she was still angry. “Look… I’ve been trying to run the operation of finding Lea because I have the most knowledge of what we would want to do in finding her. I’ve been in numerous situations like this before. I lived more than half my life with people like Ire and Grumpig and know sort of how they think. Obviously none of you care about what I have to say since no one’s been listening, so I’m going to give one last order which you might actually follow. If you find Lea, find me next because I’m done working with all of you. If you need me, I’ll be out on the streets looking, and I’m not coming back until Lea is found.”

Before anyone could stop her, Angela was out the door.“No!” Kya cried. “I just got my family back! Why must I lose them again?!” She turned to Midnight. “Mister noibat pony!”

“I’m a Thestral.”

“Whatever! This is your fault, and don’t say it isn’t! I don’t like you anymore! You have been shamed!” Kya turned her back on him.

“But I-”

“I said shamed!!!”

“Don’t worry Midnight.” Matrix told him. “She’s ashamed everyone in our family multiple times and she still talks to us. She’ll forget by tomorrow.”

“At least give her two days Matrix.” Linoone said from the side. He had come down to ask how things had gone the day before. For the most part, Linoone was feeling better, but he was still a little weak. “She didn’t even get a full day back with Lea, and those two haven’t been apart from each other for this long since ever.”

“Well if everyone is done talking…” Caddi called from the side. “I think I can go back out and help search.” The group turned their heads to see that Caddi was currently disguised as Kiwi Lime. “It took a few tries, but I was finally able to get my normal disguise to work again. I guess I finally have enough love stored up again to stay like this for more than a few seconds. Just know that I haven’t tried becoming a pokemon yet, so that’s out of the question.”

“Woah!” Kya said in awe of Caddi. “You can look like pokemon too? Are you some sort of bug type ditto?”

“I guess you can say that, but from what I’ve learned about them, it seems that unlike them, I can still attack in my normal changeling form.”

“And Midnight is your boyfriend?”

“Well yeah, I gu-”

“Noibat pony! You are unashamed!”

“What did I tell you?!” Matrix smiled at Midnight.

“I’m beginning to think this is the craziest family I’ve ever worked with.” Midnight responded.

Ire was making her way down the streets. She wore a cloak to cover her cutie mark and had finally washed all the dye from her mane. Her appearance was different enough that no one recognized her. She had spent the last few days searching for Lea again. She didn’t care what trouble she might get into. Bits were tight and these animal fights were the cheapest way to make more. It wasn’t her fault it had come to this.

She had spotted Lea earlier, but there were other pokemon around so she wouldn’t have been able to catch her without some disturbance. The worst part is when she had approached the umbreon to find out what she was doing. Lea had mentioned her name and that she was looking for Ire herself. In a panic, Ire had ran away, not waiting for the other pokemon to leave before catching Lea.

Later, Ire had learned that Quarry was now working with Lea’s friends and family. She still loved him, but thought maybe Grumpig had been right to call him a traitor. But maybe he had done the right thing. The longer Ire stayed in town, no matter how disguised, she risked being found by Quarry, who was the only pony who knew her true secret.

“That pokemon has ruined my whole life!” Ire said to herself. “I can’t afford to start over again, especially since this time I can be found. I guess I could hitchhike to another town, but that would take too-”

Ire noticed a familiar figure out of the corner of her eye. It was the one pokemon Lea had been with that Grumpig had used against Lea’s friends. Following Angela along was Silver, who Midnight had sent to follow her.

“Swoo! Swoobat bat! Bat bat swoobat bat swoo!”

“No matter how much you try, I’m not coming back” Angela replied to Silver. “If it weren’t for the situation we were put in before leaving Earth, I would have rather stayed there than have to deal with this mess.”

“Swoobat swoo swoo?”

“Of course I mean it! The second after Lea gets back and rests up, we’ll plan a trip to that one town near the Everfree forest and we can visit Arceus so I can give him a piece of my mind!”

“Swoo swoo swoo swoo!”

“I realize he could do that! But I don’t really care anymore. I’m done being the pokemon I wanted to be when I lived with Lea. It’s better if I go back to being how I was with Daniel.”

“Bat bat?”

Before Angela could respond to Silver’s question, the pokemon was shot down by a small blast of magic. Angela reeled her head around to see a pony smirking at what she had just accomplished.

“Why did you do that?!”

“Your friend was getting annoying. Besides, I want to talk with you. Angela… wasn’t it?”

“How the hell do you know my name?” Angela asked, shocked.

“Ah, ah, ah! I don’t like your language. Besides, it’s Tartarus here. And that’s also the next place you’ll find your friend without my help.”

“What would you know about that?”

“Does the name Bright Ire ring a bell?”

Angela instantly went into a defensive position. “This is all your fault! Why couldn’t you just leave Lea alone?”

“She’s my one chance at actually being able to live around here. I haven’t even been able to show my face in years because of a mistake I made. A mistake which is not so unlike something you have done.”

“How would you know?” Angela sneered at Ire.

“You’d be surprised about what I learned from your friend. Like the fact you killed some of your family.”

“Don’t you dare bring that up! I was forced to do that! If I could have controlled myself, they would still be alive!”

“The same goes for me and my parents. Because of something I couldn’t control, everyone started to hate me. What will happen if something like that happens to you?”

Angela winced at what Ire said. She was right, at least, if she had actually done something to her parents. Matrix and Linoone almost didn’t make it when Grumpig had control of her.”

It seemed that Ire knew what she was thinking. “I didn’t want her to do anything like that.”

“What?”

“That pokemon. She wanted you to… get rid of… your friends. I was distracted by the changeling. She was also messing around with me, so I wouldn’t have been able to stop you if I had known.”

“Stop talking like you want to help me!” Angela yelled. “It’s all your fault! If you had left us alone, none of this would have happened.”

“I know!” Ire’s voice wavered.

Angela looked at Ire again. There were tears forming in her eyes. “The longer I think about it, the more I realize what I did! I’ve been alone since I was a filly. Everypony hated me and none of them would help, so I did what I had to, even though it meant I could probably never turn back.

“You should have chosen better instead of trying to come to me.”

Ire raised a hoof, almost as if she was going to slap Angela, but instead she winced. “What do I care about you. If you aren’t with me, fine!”

“Why would I want to work with you?”

“Because I can find your friend, and you can help stop Grumpig.”

“You’re lying.” Angela growled.

“That’s for you to decide.” Ire gave another small wince. “I’m leaving. Think about what I said, and maybe you’ll choose the right thing.”

“Like helping you would be the right thing!”

Ire looked back. “I never said that it was, You’ll find out on your own.”

Angela just stared as Ire disappeared around the corner or the nearest building. Of all the thoughts Angela could have had there, Angela focused on one thing. For just a few short seconds, Ire had sounded exactly like Lea.

Author's Note

so, this is the first chapter to be checked by multiple editors
had a few kinks, but i think next chapter will come out faster
as always, remember to comment, give a like, what ever
also, as of the last time i posted and now, both this story and the prequel/sequel: a new story; are in the prime canon folder in the group!

ch. 41 Bluegrass

“No! Don’t let him leave! Can someone use Vine Whip?” Matrix was trying to give orders in the chaos they were now faced with. After a rather calm day since Angela had left, Quarry had finally decided to turn on them. But in a way, it seemed unnatural.

“HE SAID VINE WHIP!” Cacturne yelled at a nearby ivysaur. The pokemon quickly did as he was told and held down Quarry.

“I don’t get it. Why would Quarry decide to attack us now instead of when he first got here? And why did he want to be tied up?” Midnight asked.

Cacturne smirked. “I guess he’s strong for a pony. Never seen anyone last that long before the aftershock of the chip came in.”

“Aftershock?” Caddi asked. “What do you mean?”

“Well, the one problem with using the chips is that the personality of the one using it to control others kinda rubs off on them. When it’s been used on you a bunch, the effect doesn’t really last that long, like for me. But on pokemon, or in this case, ponies who haven’t had it done that much, the effect is more prominent at can last for a little while. The exact time depends on how much they were controlled and for how long.”

Matrix’s eyes widened. “Is that why Angela’s been acting so weird lately? She had probably gotten used to it before when she was still on your team, but it’s been a few years and she probably lost her resistance to it.”

“That might be it. Serves her right.” Cacturne replied.

“No it doesn’t!” Kya said, joining the conversation as she jumped on Cacturne. “She’s trying to help her family! Would you like it if you were trying to do that but something like this happened to you?!”

“I-I guess not.” He replied, not liking the fire type positioned on top of him.

“That’s what I thought!”

After the group has finally gotten Quarry into a position that he wouldn’t be able to easily escape from, the group started to settle down to sleep for the night. Kya was the only one who wouldn’t go to sleep.

“Hey, are you alright?” Citrus asked. She had decided to stay the night in case anything happened, as she would know immediately.

“I just really miss my mommy, and now I’m scared that something might happen to Angela.”

“Well, don’t worry. Even though we’re stationed here, there are other ponies and pokemon looking for your mom. Maybe later I can introduce you to one of the ones I’ve met.”

“Oooo! What’s their name?”

“Her name’s Bluegrass. She comes to visit here sometimes to see how the berries that are being grown on the roof are doing. It makes sense since she runs a gardening shop.”

“I don’t know if she’ll like me.” Kya’s fire went out as the ears drooped a little. “Since she likes plants, Bluegrass might not like a fire type.”

“Well I think that she’ll still like you as long as you don’t do anything bad. Are there any plant and fire type pokemon?”

“Well, first, it’s called grass, not plant. Second, no, there’s not.”

“Really? Nothing like a pokemon that resembles a pepper or something.”

“No, nothing like that.”

“Seriously? I heard that there was a pokemon that looked like a keyring, but there’s not a pepper pokemon?”

“Nope.”

“Well that’s weird. Anyway, I think Bluegrass will still like you. She’s really friendly and tries to help everypony. Well, in your case it would be everybody.”

“What do you think she’s doing now?” Kya asked.

“Well, while she’s helping us look for your mom, Bluegrass also has her shop to run. But at this point in the day, she might be closing up, though she does have a few last minute customers. I’d guess that she’ll be out looking for your mom in a few minutes time if she’s not a;ready.”

“That’s good.” Kya replied before starting to curl up near Citrus.

“Excuse me? Is there anyone here? Your sign said you were still open and I wanted to speak to the owner.”

Bluegrass stepped out from the backroom. “Hey there! Need some help or somethin’? Ah was just ‘bout ta close for the night, but ah guess ah can help you before that.” Bluegrass went to the front and flipped the sign in the front window. “Now, whatcha need?”

The umbreon that had entered walked closer to Bluegrass. “I heard you know about a pony named Rage Spell, who I’m trying to find. Do you know where-”

“Wait! Can ya stop for a moment? Ah can’t understand what you’re sayin’. Maybe you can write down what ya need and then ah can help.”

The umbreon eventually was able to very messily write ‘RAGE SPELL?’ so that she could get a response from Bluegrass.

“You’re that pokemon that Lea’s friends told me ‘bout! The one lookin’ for her! Ah’m sorry, but ah don’t like talkin’ ‘bout her.”

“Please! I really want to find her!”

“Tryin’ ta convince me isn’t gonna do much for ya. Ah’ve got mind mind set and- Watch out there!”

The umbreon had been walking around, not looking where she was going and walked right into a display of flowers with caution signs around it. One of the legs broke, and all the flowers toppled over and fell, covering the eeveelution.

“Here, let me help ya up. We should get that cleaned up ‘fore-”

The umbreon didn’t let her finish. “You already said you wouldn’t help. Why would you offer now? I… I’ll find out about Rage Spell somewhere else.”

She bolted out of the shop before Bluegrass could stop her. “Great! Well, ah bet she’ll be back later, but now ah need ta figure out how ah’m gonna clean these flowers up.” Bluegrass said to herself looking at the pile of blue flowers on the ground. “Well, ah think ah got the stuff ah need for an antidote. If it weren’t for the ponies that use it in potions an’ such, ah probably wouldn’t even sell poison joke here.”

Bluegrass started to clean up the mess before she started to wonder again. ‘Why in Equestria would that pokemon want to know about Rage Spell. And how does she even know about that mare?’

Finally Bluegrass finished cleaning up, so she packed the ingredients she needed in her saddlebags and headed off for home. She and her pokemon friends agreed that they could stay in the shop if they protected it from any thieves (not that there were any) and didn’t destroy anything. So far, they had actually done a better job of that than Bluegrass had herself.

The earth mare was wondering what they might be doing when she ran into a pony who had been walking the streets. “Oh! Sorry ‘bout that. Ah wasn’t lookin’ where ah was going.” Bluegrass told the mare she had run into while she tried to get up from the ground. She had landed in an awkward position and was having trouble to stand back up. A yellow hoof was extended towards her from the mare.

“Thanks for helping me up mi-” Bluegrass froze. The pony standing in front of her was a face she recognized. From the indigo eyes, to the greyish, cornflower blue hair, Bluegrass recognized the mare as her cousin.

“What are ya doin’ in town?” Bluegrass asked. “Ponies might be looking for ya!”

“I know there are ponies looking for me! Pokemon too! The thing is, no one seems to remember the old me, just the new me And the new me is who they’re searching for.”

“How long have ya been in town?” Bluegrass questioned.

“I never left! I remember the day you moved back to Hoofington and set up your shop. I even came to visit. It seems that mane dye can fool even what little family I have left. Seems fitting since you decided to leave me!” Bluegrass’ cousin explained.

“Now ya know ah didn’t have a choice there. Mah parents decided to leave.”

“But they knew that I was all alone. They knew it was a mistake, but they left me here. Do you have any idea what I’ve gone through trying to live here?”

“Ah can’t say that ah do…”

“Of course not!”

“R- Spell… you know ah-”

“That’s not my name anymore!” Spell yelled at Bluegrass. Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a pokemon I need to find.”

“I think she’s tryin’ to find you,” Bluegrass said to Spell as she went out of earshot. “and ah hope neither of ya do for her sake.”

Author's Note

The next chapter begins on day thirty, and i'm hoping that i can make it longer than my recent ones have been
mainly cuz it's gonna be big!
btw, i'm starting to do d&d!

ch. 42 found

“Midnight! I’m going into town!” Caddi announced.

“Mind having Kya along?” He asked. “She should get some time outside, and I don’t think you’re going to be out there looking for Lea by how you said that.”

“She can come.” Caddi agreed. “I was just going to see if I can earn some more bits. She might like it since I usually like to do music performances. I got this weird sound board from a friend of mine that I’m going to use.” Caddi held up a board with 64 buttons on it in a standard square design.

“Cool! Who’s was it?”

“I don’t have to tell you my sources!” Caddi exclaimed, staring at him with her pure blue eyes before she disguised herself as Kiwi. “Kya! I’m going into town! Wanna come?!”

Kya burst into the room, accidently skidding into a wall when she tried to stop. “Do I get to help look for Mommy?”

“Um, no… But I’m gonna do music stuffs if you wanna come see.”

“To the music!” Kya exclaimed. She ran to the door, barely missing the door frame.

“Any idea when she’s gonna have a better time seeing with one eye? Or is she always going to have issues?” Caddi asked.

From one side of the room, Blissey answered. “Well, she has been getting better. I’d say she’ll be able to go around normal in a day or two.

“That’s good.” Midnight responded. “I’ll see you later Caddi.”

“A kiss for the road?” Caddi asked.

“Well I gu-”

“Are we going or not?!” Kya poked her head back inside. “I have been promised music! And I will get said music!”

Caddi rolled her eyes and got a small kiss from Midnight before she walked out the door.

“So you said stuff about music. What kind of music stuff?”

“Well, every once and a while” Caddi started to answer. “I’ll go into town to earn some bits to live off of. Since I’ve been staying with your family, however, I’ve been helping to make sure we all don’t run out of money.”

“When I get a piano, can I help?”

“I guess if your mom lets you, you can.”

“Yay!”

The two of them reached the center of town and Caddi started to set up with some help from Kya. It had been a while since anyone had seen Caddi, and everypony was excited to see what she was doing today. By the time Caddi was all set up, there was already a fairly large group of ponies to watch. There were even some pokemon in the audience.

Caddi started up the equipment and used her magic to press the various buttons to play certain sounds that when played along with the already playing music, sounded amazing to the audience. At one point, a few of the pokemon flinched at a sound that resembled a pokeball, but other than that, everything seemed fine.
Then at one point during the performance, Caddi just stopped the music altogether. She had noticed that in her audience were three very familiar figures. The first was Angela, who looked very tired, like she hadn’t slept since the night before. The second seemed to be Bright Ire, but her mane was a different color. More of a blue than yellow. The last was an umbreon, but unlike your average or shiny umbreon, this one had pink rings.

“LEA?!” Caddi shouted, looking straight at her.

“Where’s Mommy?!” Kya exclaimed.

Both Ire and Angela turned their heads to look where Caddi was staring. Lea had her paw on her forehead as she slowly shook her head. She looked like she was about to speak, but then she was tackled to the ground by Angela.

“Where have you been?! We’ve been searching the whole entire city for you! Do you have any idea how pissed I am at you?!”

Lea pushed her adopted sister off of her. “I thought you and I had a chat a while ago about how I wasn’t your friend and you wouldn’t bother me again unless you found the pony I was looking for.”

“And who would that be dear?” Ire said, joining the conversation. Her horn was still growing from the translation spell she had just cast on the umbreon. Slowly all the ponies and pokemon nearby were backing away.

“That would be you, Rage.” Lea smiled.

Ire had a shocked look before it became one of anger. “It’s not Rage, it’s Spell. And it’s not Spell, it’s Ire! How do you even know my real name?!”

“Well I…” Lea was at a loss for words. “I’m not sure, but that doesn’t matter.”

“Wait, why were you looking for Ire, Lea?”

“I’m not your friend Lea! Stop thinking that!”

Caddi tried to fly over to join the three of them, but forgot she was disguised as a unicorn and fell flat on her face. Kya had ran over quickly to the group to tackle Bright Ire before she could do anything else to her mom.

“What did you do to my Mommy?!”

“I AM NOT ANYONE’S MOM, AND I AM NOT LEA!” The umbreon yelled at the top of her lungs.

“Oh, but that you are.” Ire goaded. “And if it weren’t for my regrets, I would let you keep disagreeing.”

“Oh what kind of regrets would you have?” Angela sneered.

“All I wanted to do was get rid of who she was so she would be an obedient pokemon.”

“Is that all?! How wonderful!” Angela growled.

“You did what to my mom?!” Kya yelled, her blind eye twitching.

“Hey, I said I wanted to, not that I did. Instead she just can’t remember who she is. She doesn’t have access to those memories. Though she should have just acted like somepony with amnesia. Instead, she seems to know who I was and built a whole personality for herself which I can’t explain.”

“Great, that makes everything better!” Caddi said as she joined the group. “And let me guess, you can fix it?”

“As a matter of fact, I can.”

“And why the hell should we trust you?”

“Because since I didn’t remove her memories and just locked them away, I actually have all her memories. And while for me, they all seem vaguely dreamlike, I still know them.”

“Prove it!” Caddi challenged.

“You made her cry trying to surprise her back when you two first met.”

Caddi gave a wide eyed look before looking down at the ground. “Yeah, okay… you proved it.”

“So do you want me to fix her or not?”

Angela looked like she was about to strangle Ire. Or worse. Instead she simply replied. “Fine! But let’s go somewhere other than the middle of town.”

“Who says I want to?” Lea said from the sidelines. “Maybe I’d like to stay this way. I’m perfectly fine not being whoever you want me to be, and that should be enough! My mind, my rules.”

“Gosh! You sound too much like Ire!” Caddi rolled her eyes. “Come on! We’re going home!”
Caddi picked Lea up in her magic, and as she was leaving, told the group of ponies she would have another performance tomorrow and apologized for the disruption.

Upon entering the building, Ire turned on them, her horn glowing. “Why is my husband tied up in a chair!”

“Woah! Leave them alone! I asked them to keep me like this when they wanted to untie me.”

“What?! Why would you want that?”

“In case Grumpig decided to try something using me. She didn’t, but some after effects of what she did to me kind of made me attack them.”

“So calm down Ire.” Caddi said, dropping her disguise as Kiwi. “Now will you fix our friend or not.”

“Not! I’m not letting her!” Lea exclaimed.

“Since when did Lea act like my wife?” Quarry asked, getting a glare from Ire.

“This may be like the effect I got from when I blocked her memories. Instead of getting mine, she just got some of my personality.”

“My sister is you?!” Matrix said, his one eye starting to twitch. “You better fix her now or I’m going to make Angela tear you to shreds. Mainly because she’s good at that and I’m not!”

“Alright!” Ire said, slightly scared of the thought of being torn to shreds. “You! Get over here!”

Ire picked up Lea in her magic. Lea squirmed in the air for a few seconds before she became limp. Ire had her eyes closed and was staying very still. within a few minutes, Lea was set on the ground and Ire opened her eyes.

“That should work, though i’m not sure since I don’t have Grumpig here to tell me what to do.”

Slowly, Lea started to wake up and picked herself up off the ground. When she seemed to be stable on her feet, she slapped Ire’s face.

“That’s for removing my memories!” Lea slapped her again. “That’s for attacking my family.” Then Lea gave her a hug. “And that’s for helping fix what you did.”

“Mommy!” Kya pounced on her mom.

“Hi Kya! I’m so glad to see you and not be in danger.”

“We need to talk about getting a piano.”

Lea laughed. “Alright, but first I want to unpink myself.”

“Aww! But I like you as pink!”

“I don’t.”

“So, how much do you remember of the last few days?” Angela asked.

“For the most part, I can remember it well, Though not as well as my normal memories.”

“Well, I’m glad I could help, but I’d really like for my husband and I to leave.”

“Wait just a moment!” Matrix told her. “If you haven’t noticed, we’ve got a police officer staying here.”

“Yes.” Midnight spoke up. “You have a long list of charges Bright Ire. Or would it be better to call you Rage Spell?”
Ire quickly spun to face the thestral. Her horn was charged so much, that it was sparking. “Don’t you DARE call me that! I don’t use that name anymore and neither should you!”

“Leave her be Midnight.” Lea told him.

“Wait, what?” Angela asked.

“We still need her help. She can help us find Grumpig before she does anything else bad.”

“You seriously want her help?!” Angela yelled. “Are you missing a few memories? She tried to kill you! She treated you like an animal.”

“But she came around in the end. Besides, the second time around, I kinda picked up a few of her memories as well.”

Ire flinched. “Wh-which ones.”

“The ones that matter. No one should have had to go through what you did at that age. No one deserves something like that.”

“What are you talking about.” Matrix questioned.

“It’s… not something that concerns you.” Ire said quickly. “Let’s talk a break from all this and look for that pig pokemon in an hour or so.”

“Deal!” Lea told her.

After the hour had passed, the group figured out who would go looking for Grumpig. Lea wanted to go since she hadn’t done anything recently other than be someone else entirely. Angela decided to go because she wanted to talk with the psychic. Ire and Quarry were obviously going along since they had the best chance of finding her. They were bringing along Mightyena since they believed he might be able to find her scent. Matrix was also part of the group, though he didn’t want to.

“Matrix, you’re the only one of use who knows a move to put her to sleep.” Lea urged him.

“Why can’t we wait until you figure it out. I don’t want to face her again.”

“Are you really that scared of her?” Ire taunted. “She said that dark types were immune to psychic moves.”

“We’re supposed to be, but she’s… different. She can actually hurt me if only a little.”

“Before becoming Gale’s pokemon, Grumpig had her psychic powers boosted by Doctor Nurem. From what she said, there was some sort of accident and that gave her a bit more of a boost than she wanted, but it was fine for her none the less. She’s not sure what exactly happened to the doctor after that, but I think I might have some sort of idea.”

“Wait, who’s Gale?” Lea asked. “Did I miss something while I was gone?”

“Not something I want to talk about right now.” Angela said, wanting to get off the topic. She turned to Mightyena. “Do you have a scent of her yet?”

“I think so. Follow me!”

The group started to follow the bite pokemon at a quick walk, which slowly got faster and faster as the scent became more clear for him. Before long, they came to what seemed to be a park, but it looked as if no one had been caring for it the past few years.

“I remember this park.” Ire said, slowly retreating. “You guys can go ahead, I’ll stay here and guard the entrance. I-in case she tries to… to leave. Yeah, I’ll stop her if she tries to leave.”

“What’s so scary about this place.” Matrix asked.

“Matrix, leave her alone. I wouldn’t want to go in here either if I were her.” Lea scolded him.

“Oh, but why don’t you all come in? It would make my day.” Angela said from behind Ire, a dead look in her eyes.

Author's Note

Guess what?! GUUUUUEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS WHAT!!!!
Editor comments!
This is great! -Scarlet
Good chapter, wished for a bit more action, but I think that is to come. Nice to see that Lea is back though. -AB
we are getting closer and closer to the end of this story (well, book) and there are only a few days left in the story before i'll take a break from it.

also, as a personal note, i've been playing pony clicker

edit: music i used as reference in this chapter was given a pmv recently

ch. 43 rage

The group was walking into the forgotten park with Angela at the rear to make sure they all went where they were supposed to go. As the got further and further in, Ire got more and more nervous by the scenery.

When they reached where they were being led, the group found that many of the plants were non-existent here, and the plants that were there like tree were burnt and dead.

“What happened here?” Matrix asked.

“Do you like it?” Grumpig asked, hidden in the foliage around the dead area. “It was like that when I found it. I’m rather fond of how it looks.

“Will you stop controlling me?!” Angela said, shaking her head. “Or are you too weak not to face us yourself?”

“Don’t call me weak! Besides, after you left there was a pokemon who was able to resist anyone’s command other than their trainer. And that was only because they were willing to listen.”

“Listen Grumpig,” Lea cut in. “You’ve done enough, and it’s time you stop trying to hurt everyone.”

“Well I see you’ve got my old ‘comrades’ to help you, but that won’t be enough for you to win.”

“Why don’t you care to put your bits where you’re boasting.” Quarry taunted Grumpig.

“That actually sounds like a good idea. Let’s begin!”

Grumpig’s eyes and pearls began to glow as she emerged from the plants along with some of the pokemon who had stayed. Out of those were only Glameow and Heracross.

“Most of the other pokemon left, but of course, I don’t need that many to get rid of you. Glameow, take who you want. Heracross, attack whoever she doesn’t attack.”

Glameow gave an evil smile and went after Mightyena. Heracross decided to go after both Lea and Matrix. Grumpig herself went to face the two ponies in the group.

“So you two thought it would be a good idea to help the same pokemon you wanted to get rid of?”

“Better than helping you!” Quarry exclaimed.

“But what about you Ire? You look nervous. What’s so scary about this place to you? Perhaps you’ve been here before?”

“It happens to be that I have.”

“Well then I’m glad I chose it. Nothing better than to pick a place to give me an advantage.”

“Uh, I wouldn’t try taunting her like-” Quarry started.

“You think you have an advantage here?!” Ire yelled, her horn starting to spark in rage. “Do you know why these plants are all dead? Do you know why the trees are all burnt?! I did that! I did everything you see around us and I was just a filly! If I did all of this back then, what’s stopping me from doing worse to you now?!”

Grumpig tried to attack Ire, but failed as she was knocked away instead. “I was born with the name Bright Ire, but when I got my cutiemark, I opted to do what some ponies do and change their name to something more fitting. I chose Rage Spell, because everytime I get to angry, my magic gets out of hoof! It flares up and sometimes I can’t control it! So really, do you want to try and make it worse? Speed up the timer on the already ticking bomb? Go ahead, try.”

Grumpig chose to attack even after Ire’s speech, but Bright Ire countered the attack with one of her own that completely dissipated Grumpig’s and hurt her badly.

“Look out!” Quarry said, guarding Ire from an attack from behind.

Grumpig had focused some of her energy to get Angela to attack Ire for her, hoping it would go unnoticed until it was too late. Quarry was left with a large gash on his back where Angela’s horn had hit. His one wing was damaged as well from landing on it upon hitting the ground. Ire quickly went to see if her husband was okay when Grumpig attacked her once more.

“That’s it!” She yelled. “You can attack me all you want, but when you attack my husband and use him as a way to hurt me, I will take away all restraint I had!”

Grumpig barely had time to put up a light screen before the attack hit. Like a normal light screen, Ire’s attack only did half the damage it would have otherwise, but Grumpig was still badly hurt and found herself covered with burns.

The other battles ceased, with Lea and Matrix stopping for the disoriented heracross, and Glameow and Mightyena stopping from shock at what had just happened. Ire was breathing heavily from her attack, holding Quarry in her hooves as she cried. He had been just close enough to her attack that he had been harmed too.

“Matrix use yawn on Grumpig. We want to bring her back and make sure she’s not too seriously injured. Ire, do you need help bringing back Quarry?”

Ire sniffed as she nodded her head. Lea’s own eyes started to glow as she helped get Quarry on Ire’s back with a little difficulty.

When the group finally got back to the Pokemon Center, Blissey was immediately able to help heal Grumpig at least a little. Quarry, on the other hand, was only able to be but in a more stable condition before Bluegrass went with Ire to bring Quarry to the hospital.

“Mommy! Why did you bring her back!” Kya said, her fires blazing in fear.

“We need to make sure we know where she is. Besides, I don’t think even the new cells and the police station will be able to hold her. Matrix and Blissey will be taking shifts to make sure she stays asleep. In a few days, we’re going to take her to Arceus.”

“We’re gonna what?!” Kya exclaimed.

“I’ve wanted to take a trip to visit some of the other cities and towns, and since the first place I want to go is right near the Everfree Forest where he’s staying. It makes sense to see him about her.” Lea gestured to Grumpig.

“When will we go?” Midnight asked Lea.

“What do you mean we?” Angela asked. “Who said you would come?”

“Well I assumed that Caddi would be joining you. I would like to stay with her, especially since she’s going out of town.”

“Don’t you need to stay here as police chief?” Matrix asked.

“Iron says he’ll be able to start back with that part of his job tomorrow. I’d just be going on vacation anyways because he was insisting I do that.”

“Fine! You’re joining us! Anyone else?” Angela asked.

“I might!” Citrus called. “I’ve got some relatives there, though distant. I think they’re like third cousins or something like that. Which reminds me… I’ve got some family in Manehatten and some near Applewood that I should visit some time.”

“Is that all?” Lea asked. When no one answered, she started to count who would be going. “Let’s see, we have six pokemon, along with two technically three ponies, so that’s nine of us altogether. Wait Midnight, will Silver be coming along?”

“Let me go ask.” He responded, leaving to find the swoobat.

“Well, while we wait, I’d like to mention that I’d like to stay there about three days, after which we’ll go to Canterlot. We might stop some other places afterwards, but for now we’ll just have those two on the list.

“Hey, just so you know, he said he wants to stay here.” Midnight said to Lea.

“Alright, so we’ll need nine tickets for the train. Anyone know how much tickets are?”

“The tickets are ten bits for an adult, and seven for anypony twelve and under.” Citrus explained to Lea.

“So that means 81 bits total since Kya, Sparks, and Ziggs are all younger than twelve.”

“Choo choo?” Sparks asked, trying to climb on his mom’s back.

“Yes Sparks! The whole family’s gonna go on a choo choo train!” Kya told him.

“Choo choo!”

“I’m not sure when exactly we’ll leave, but everyone should plan for at least three days from now, and we might be taking the overnight train.” Lea told everyone. “I’ll work on details and such, but right now, everyone should take a break. We’ve had a long few weeks and I think we all need it.

Author's Note

Much choo choo will come, but that's not yet
expect about 3 more chapters before I take a break from writing for a little bit. besides, i've got finals coming up. heck, they might even happen at the same time.
no editor comments this time. only one came to check and i've had this for a few days so you can have it now.

P.S. the ask box for the characters needs some questions. I would also love feedback stuff

ch. 44 plot

“Tag! You’re it!” Kya yelled as she tagged her mom.

“Well now Sparks is it!” Lea said when she tagged him.

“Tags!” Sparks called when he found himself on Matrix.

Matrix was looking around for someone else to tag, but couldn’t decide between Ziggs or Linoone.

“Why aren’t you joining them Angela?” Citrus asked the Absol.

Before everyone had gone to sleep the night before, Angela had gone to try and talk to Grumpig. She had waited until the psychic woke up. Angela got as much information from Grumpig as she possibly could before she had enough and tried to control Angela again, at which point Blissey put them both to sleep and pulled Angela out of the room.

“I’m not in the mood. I’ll join later.”

Lea had started to run from Ziggs who had been tagged by Matrix. In trying to dodge him, she slipped on a blanket someone had left on the ground. The next thing she knew, Lea was sliding across the room until she slid into a walrein.

“Sorry about that!” Lea told the pokemon as she dizzily stood up.

“Pryce! You’re back! Wanna join us?” Kya came up asking.

“Wait, Pryce?” Lea looked at Pryce quizzically. “When did you get here?”

“I was actually traveling with Kya and Sparks trying to help them find you. I was hoping that maybe if I found you, you might have found your dad again.”

“Not yet. But wait… If you got here with Kya and Sparks, why haven’t I seen you already?”

“I’ve been going around town trying to see if maybe I could get some clues on where some of the other people I know have ended up. I heard about a fair amount of well known people trying to arrest a trainer claimed to be abusing his pokemon.”

“Abusing how?”

“Pokephilia.”

“Are you kidding me?” Lea’s eye twitched. “They’re not going to listen to what Arceus said? And what does it matter now? We’re all pokemon! Decades from now, no one will remember what humans looked like! Why can’t they just stop annoying people with all these false claims and leave us alone?!”

Lea stopped yelling when a table crashed into the wall near her. She looked around to figure out what had happened, and her first clue was that Kya looked scared. That probably meant a psychic, but the strange thing was that Kya seemed to be scared of Lea.

“Listen, I know you’ve had some problems with people like that before.” Pryce tried to calm Lea. “But don’t worry. It was settled easily and the problem’s gone now.”

Lea hesitated at Pryce’s answer, and in the end, she just left the room to be alone. Upon leaving, Lea bumped into Ben, who had just been coming to join them.

“Alright? Who did what to make her sad? Or mad. Or whatever that was.”

“Pryce brought up pokephilia.”

“Can I get some context? Because last I knew, you guys were just a family and there was nothing... intimate… going on.”

“That would be my story to tell.” Linoone started. “After retiring from his old carrier, Lea’s father Samuel decided to be somewhat of an activist for pokephilia, for the main reason that it was something both he and his wife supported. You see, Lea’s mom’s sister was in a relationship with her pokemon.”

“What was that?”

“I forget. We only met once and it was years ago. Anyway, after Samuel disappeared, some police came to take Lea for two reasons. The first was that she was now living on her own, the second being they wanted her to learn about how her father had been wrong with the subject of pokemon and human relationships like that. Lea didn’t want to go with them and decided to stay in her home. A couple of her father’s friends took care of her, and she eventually sort of started to show her pro-pokephilia side.”

“Then what happened?” Ben asked.

“Well, seeing as how she was a girl, not yet considered an adult living on her own, a police officer would come about once a month to check on her. It wouldn’t be as bad if she weren’t living only with pokemon she called family and being pro-pokephilia. Because of that, there would be the occasional officer who would try to force their way in to make sure she wasn’t abusing any of us.”

“I can see why she has trouble trusting the law all the time if she group up with that.”

“I never really liked it either.” Matrix spoke up. “With Linoone always out, apparently with his own mate, and Sparks being the only other male than me in the house, I was always picked on most.”

“Would that be why the younger pokemon calling you Lea’s mate ticked you off so much when they first mentioned it?” Caddi asked.

“Yeah, that’s why.”

“But anyway,” Linoone continued. “The day Arceus moved us all here, a few officers appeared at the door saying they had some sort of proof she was a pokephile. I’m kind of glad we got sent here when we did, or else Lea would have been devistated to lose her family again.”

“Nice lady save us.” Sparks spoke up.

“What nice lady?” Kya asked.

“Out window!”

Kya looked out the nearest window. “Where? I don’t see anyone.”

“Earth!”

It took a second for anyone to realize what Sparks meant.

“Wait, you saw a woman coming to the house when all the police officers were there?” Matrix asked.

“Yep! Alazam too!”

“She had an alakazam?!” Kya asked, her voice higher than usual.

“What did she look like?” Matrix asked.

After describing the person to the group, Kya translated what little words he had said into a description they could all understand.

“It was someone, about Lea’s age with long blonde hair in a ponytail that was partially dyed a light purple. She had a band-aid across her nose and wearing mainly green colored clothes. And of course, she also had an alakazam with her.”

“You got all that from what he said?” Ben asked.

“I’m his mom. It’s what I do.”

“I would say I know who that is if it weren’t for the hair color.” Matrix said.

“Really?” Angela asked. “Tell me, because I’ve got no clue.”

“Well, you wouldn’t. Before you came around, Lea had a friend named Alexia. She liked to wear green like this person did, and just before she moved to the Kanto region, her kadabra finally evolved into Alakazam.”

“It’s been long enough that she may have bleached her hair and dyed part of it purple.” Linoone suggested. “So there’s still the chance it was her. Maybe she was coming to visit, and when she saw what was going on, she came to help.”

“Good thing too. If Arceus hadn’t been released, she would have been able to help.” Matrix stated.

“Y’know, we should make a list of all the people we want to find when we’re on our trip.” Kya suggested.

“Of course you’ll want to find Samuel,” Pryce remarked. “And as you just said, you’ll want to find Lea’s friend Alexia.”

“Blissey mentioned someone named Jessie that she was friends with.” Angela brought up. “We should probably look for them too.”

“Fessor?” Sparks suggested.

“That’s right! Lea might like to see Professor Elm again. Anybody else?”

The group paused, trying to think of anyone they might want to find, but they came up with a blank.

“We really need to get more friends.” Matrix mentioned. “That’s a really short list.”

“Yeah, well I bet we’ll think of more.” Angela replied, gazing to the side where Cacturne was showing off for some young grass types. “You never know who we might remember.”

Author's Note

mainly stuff that will be plot points in the next book
also, heads up: i'm gonna be writing a second fan fic for mlp, so look out for that

ch. 45 forgive

After Ben felt it was okay to leave, he went upstairs to check on Lea, only to find her office door locked… again.

“Lea, this is getting annoying. I don’t care how often you might have done it before, you need to stop locking yourself in there.”

“Go away!”

Ben sighed. “Lea, please let me in. I’m not coming on your trip through Equestria, so you better make the most of the time you have with me until you leave.”

The lock clicked open, and the door swung open as well. Ben walked in and leaned against a wall since Lea was sitting in the only chair.

“So why did you lock yourself in here this time?”

“I was reminded on how little I’ve done to help my family and how much they have to do for me instead. It seems I always cause the problems and don’t fix them. It makes me wonder if they even need me around.”

“Hey, don’t say that!” Ben exclaimed. “If it weren’t for you, they wouldn’t have found each other by now.”

“Yeah they would have. How would that change if I weren’t around?”

“Your family was moving everywhere searching for each other. None of them settled down in a certain place, so them finding each other would be harder. The main reason everyone found each other was because you decided to make your home in Hoofington.”

“I… I guess you’re right.”

“I know I am. Also, if you weren’t around, this place wouldn’t have been made to help all the pokemon who might get hurt, and give a home to any pokemon without one of their own right now. Not to mention, I wouldn’t have gotten to meet you.”

Lea gave a small smile. “I guess I have done a few things to help.”

“Do you want to back downstairs? I bet everyone will be glad if you do. Who knows when you’ll disappear again.”

Lea laughed. “Fine, I’ll come down. Just give me a minute.”

“Alright… Hey! Just so you know, they decided to make a list of people you guys could keep an eye out for on your trip. The people they had when I came up were your dad, Professor Elm, uh… some person named Jessie for Blissey, and an old friend of yours named Alexia.”

“Alexia?! Really? What made them think of her?”

“Apparently Sparks saw someone out the window before everyone got put to sleep and your family thinks he saw her.”

Lea’s eyes widened. “Alright, scratch that. I’m coming down now!”

Later in the day, Bright Ire nervously entered the Pokemon Center.

“What are you doing back here?” Angela asked her.

“I’ve been kicked out of our apartment. We weren’t able to pay the rent in time and they got rid of everything. I used up the last of my bits to help pay for Quarry’s stay in the hospital. Except for him, I literally have nothing left.” Ire started to cry. “I-I was hoping th-that you might be a-able to forgive me enough th-that I could stay here f-for now.”

“Do you really think after everything you’ve done-?!” Caddi started, but Lea interrupted.

“Of course you can. We let Quarry stay here a few days, and until we leave, Grumpig’s staying here too.”

Ire tensed up. “She-she’s here? As in, right now?”

“Don’t worry. We’ve been making sure that she’s either asleep, about to be asleep, or with someone who can put her asleep at all times. Fortunately for us, she doesn’t know Sleep Talk.”

“Wh-what’s that?”

“It’s a type of move some pokemon know that allows them to use one of their other moves while asleep, though they can’t choose which one.”

“If you don’t want to stay in the same building as her, I won’t complain.” Caddi said as she left, not wanting to be around Ire.

“Don’t mind her.” Lea told Ire. “It’s safe for you to be here, but just know that if you pull anything, I won’t hesitate to kick you out.

“I’ll… remember that.” Ire replied, noticing Lea’s eyes flicker blue for a second.

Everyone was finishing up dinner later that night when the subject of discussing the trip came back up.

“I’m thinking of going to buy the tickets for the train tomorrow morning so we don’t forget and have to buy them last minute.”

“That’s a good idea, Lea.” Caddi replied while she eyed Ire in the corner, slowly eating her dinner. “Anything else you was to do that I could help with?”

“Well, I was thinking of going to a few stores in the places we visit, so I’ll be bringing a ton of bits. I’m even going to be bringing one or two of the gems from the safe upstairs.”

Caddi quickly looked at Ire to see if she had made any reaction to Lea’s comment. “Relax Caddi, she’s not going to try anything. You don’t have to suspect everything we say will make her turn evil. In fact, she might be less trustworthy of you now than you are of her because of how you’ve been asking.”

“Why are you so okay with this?” Caddi asked. “She tried to kill you and then tried to basically brainwash you.”

“You and I both know she tried to make sure that second part didn’t happen. Ire could have been perfectly fine with what she was about to do, but she wasn’t and had to be forced to do it.”

“Y’know Caddi.” Angela joined the conversation. “If those two reasons are why you don’t want her in here, then I should probably be kicked out of here as well.”

“But you haven’t-” Caddi started.

“You two would be surprised by some of the things I’ve had to do. But I’ll let you two talk again. Sorry for butting into your conversation.”

“It’s fine.” Lea told Angela. “But anyway, I’m also fine with it because everyone deserves a second chance. And while technically this is her third chance, she deserves it.”

“What has she done to deserve anything?!”

“She’s been through things no one should have to go through at the age it happened for her.”

“Stop keeping us in the dark! You keep bringing up something that happened to her that both of you know about, but won’t reveal what exactly that is!”

“It was my parents.” Ire answered.

As she had argued with Lea, Caddi hadn’t noticed the unicorn get up and come nearer to them and sit in Angela’s now empty seat.

“What about your parents?”

“I was only about six when we went to the park one day. I had had a really bad day, and my parents hoped taking me to my favorite park would help. At first it did, but two bullies from my school ended up being there too. My parents didn’t know, and assumed we were friends, especially since my father and one of theirs worked together. I tried to tell them who these two colts actually were, but they wouldn’t listen, which just made me feel worse. And then I… there was a fire. A really big fire. Neither of them made it out alive. The very last thing I got to say to them was how I hated them. After that day, I wasn’t able to find any place to live. My own relatives wouldn’t let me live with them. I started living on the streets, and eventually I changed my identity because I didn’t want to be Rage Spell anymore.”

Caddi sat there for a second, taking in Ire’s story. “I...I didn’t know. I… that’s horrible.”

“After that, Ire eventually found a home with a bad group of ponies. They ran one of those animal fighting ring things. One day, they just kicked her out for no reason, and she was back on the streets. She started one up herself because it was basically the only thing she knew how to do that would get her money.”

Ire herself looked like she had been deflated as she lay with her head on the table. She sat there for a few minutes before starting to head off to where she had set up a place to sleep. Before she could get far, Caddi stopped her. “Wait! I… I’m sorry. Sorry for how I treated you. I… I didn’t know.”

Ire started to walk away again as she said, “It’s okay. You still don’t”

Author's Note

Ire is not a frenemy... i guess...
but yeah, onto the train!

ch. 46 train

It was they day they had been preparing for. Lea had gone and bought the tickets already and was working on giving them out. “Okay! We have an hour before the train leaves for Ponyville! So everyone make sure they have what they need.”

Everypony and everyone was scrambling around making sure everything was checked. Bluegrass was going to be coming to the Pokemon Center everyday to make sure the berry plants were taken care of and harvested while they were gone. As they were preparing to leave, Bluegrass was already up on the roof plucking the newest batch.

Midnight had made sure that Ben would be able to take care of his job while he was gone, since the pokemon had volunteered to take over the thestrals shift. Ben had even offered to do extra time if Midnight was a little late in getting back from his vacation.

Caddi had been resting much of the day before. Ever since she had basically used up all her energy and magic to same Lea and her family from Grumpig, she had been having some trouble with keeping her disguise up full time. She hoped that with the extra rest, it would be easier to stay disguised as Kiwi, since changelings weren’t as accepted outside of Hoofington as they were now.

Lea herself had gotten a few filly and colt size saddlebags to carry all the items they would have, which was currently mainly bits. Lea had heard that there was a boutique in Ponyville, and hoped she might be able to get the chance to something made there, though she wasn’t sure if she’d find the chance to visit it. She also wanted to visit the library there if she got the chance since she hadn’t been in one since she was kicked out of the Hoofington Library.

Matrix hadn’t thought of anything he needed to do, and was spending his time resting. While they had been able to get Lea to learn yawn, it was still unreliable and they didn’t want Grumpig to stay awake long if she failed to use it.

Angela had been making sure, for the hundredth time, that Cacturne had gotten the message that if he caused any trouble while they were gone, she would deal with him. She had also apparently had a discussion with him in private earlier she didn’t want to talk about, even though everyone knew it had happened. The grass type had come out of their discussion needing to be healed by Blissey from whatever Angela had done.

Kya and Sparks had packed a few things into a little sack that Sparks was able to carry around. Mainly in the bag were things like paper and pencils, but there was also a carefully wrapped candy apple or two.

Citrus hadn’t yet arrived because she had recently bought a place of her own and had called her in to fill out some last minute paperwork. When someone had complained that she should have been told to do this earlier, she brought up that it was fine as long as it meant she didn’t need to share an apartment with Specter to stay in town.

Linoone was focused on trying to get Ziggs to settle down. Ever since he had heard about the train ride, the young pokemon had been very excited to finally go on the trip. As the time got nearer, it had been harder to keep him in one place.

Lea herself had been doing a lot of work. She had spent half the day after Ire had come gathering anything the center might need while they were away. Unfortunately, when she had come back a little bit before lunch that day, she had been complaining about her one leg, and Blissey had looked it over to see that all the activity she had been doing was starting to fracture her leg again. Her leg had been put in a very clunky, makeshift cast, and was told she wasn’t allowed to take it off until the train arrived in Ponyville.

When Citrus finally arrived to meet up with the group at the station, the train was going to arrive in a few minutes. “Alright! I got everything taken care of! How much longer until the train shows up?”

“I think I can see some smoke from the train in the distance.” Caddi said. “It’s in the same direction as Baltimare, and since that’s where it’s coming from, it probably is. Should be her in about five-ish minutes.”

“You might want to touch up your disguise before it arrives. It’s pretty warm out and it might look weird if you wear a cloak.” Midnight told Caddi.

To make it easier to hold her disguise as Kiwi as they waited for the train, Caddi had only disguised her front half and covered her back half with a cloak to make any ponies who were wary of changeling not notice her odd appearance.

“Fine, give me a second.” There was a slight glow from under the cloak before she removed it showing a full pony body.

“Uh, Caddi, you might want to fix that.” Citrus said, pointing to where Caddi should have had a cutiemark.

“Oh! I almost forgot that!” Caddi exclaimed before fixing her mistake. “There! That’s better.”

A few of them jumped as the whistle blew. The train started to come into view through some of the trees near the station. As it slowed to a stop, Kya gave out tickets for Lea. The only ones who weren’t given tickets were Sparks and Ziggs since they were too excited already.

When the train finally came to a stop, the conductor called for anyone boarding the train to get on. Midnight was able to find a car that was a bit smaller than the normal seating cars, but just perfect for their group to fit in.

“Found this place the first time I went on a train. I remembered it in case I would ever go on with a large group. Glad I finally got the chance to use that knowledge.”

When everyone was situated in the car, a pony came around and took their tickets, with Lea giving the extra ones for Ziggs and Sparks. Before long, the train started to leave the station. Lea was the first one to look out the window and start watching Hoofington disappear.

“Hey, you okay?” Matrix asked Lea, still a little tired from being woken up from his nap to get on the train.

“Yeah, I guess. Hoofington is really the only place on Equestria I’ve been in so far, and even back on Earth, I hardly left town. I guess I’m just nervous something bad will happen.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. We’ll be back soon enough, just you wait and see.”

“Thanks.” Lea said hugging her brother. “I need all the reassurance I can get.”

“Hey!” Kya called out. “Anyone feel like this is sort of set up like the end of a movie or something?”

“Well then, if it is, I’m hoping we get a sequel.” Caddi responded.

“I don’t care as long and we’re all together.” Lea said to her friends and family. “Because that’s the way it should be.”

End

of book one

Author's Note

Arctic: Looking forward to book two.
Carolina: Still amazing, still fun to read.
Wanna know when i'm gonna start the next book?
lemmie tell you.... ASK ZEUS!
hope you played the music i had for the ending. I picked it because is sounded good for ending music!

ch. 47 interlude

Angela was angry. She wasn’t about to show it to any of her family or friends, but she was angry. She had thought that after being taken it to live with Lea, she wouldn’t have to deal with any of Gale’s pokemon again. After years of never having to travel and only a few local battles from the nearby wild pokemon, Angela had thought she would never have to see any of them again.

But now they were on Equus, and it seemed that all her old ‘buddies’ were popping up, still remembering her distinctly. She had always been the strongest, just like Gale had wanted all her pokemon and the other pokemon she gathered to be like. Instead, none of them seemed to beat her, and Gale kept forcing the pokemon she had to work harder.

One day, Gale had found her own pokemon who seemed stronger than most. A psychic type more powerful than its species normally was. Gale caught Grumpig and slowly learned that it was through testing on the pokemon itself that it her new pokemon was so strong. Gale’s brother, Daniel, had tried to stop her, but she decided to follow in the footsteps of that monster, Doctor Nurem, and start some tests on the pokemon she had to try and make them stronger.

Instead of some normal enhancement, she had developed some kind of device that would be put on a pokemon to let psychic control them, no matter the circumstances. For a while, it seemed to work, but soon it was discovered that enough force to one would damage it to the point it wouldn’t work. Around the time where Daniel had let Angela go, her being his pokemon, Gale had finally developed a chip and implanted it in all of the pokemon she had to work with. There were still a few flaws in her design, but none that made things difficult for her to work with.

However, before she had discovered to make the devices into chips, Gale had shifted her research into making the moves pokemon used stronger. There were some successes, and some failures. One pokemon she had use a special move she had help to design died trying to use it. Instead of stopping with testing the move, she tried finding a pokemon who could use it, which lead to other pokemon dying before she finally stopped trying the one particular move.

Fights were another thing she used to test them all. Angela had been one of the ones she used most of all, just to try and figure out how to make the others better. One battle between Angela and a Charizard ended badly, and the latter of the two didn’t make it to the end of the battle. Daniel wanted his sister to stop, but she always made sure he couldn’t do anything to stop her progress.

The more Angela thought about the days back she she was almost under Gale’s full control, she remembered how it all went sour. The day Gale had found Grumpig was the day when it seemed even Daniel couldn’t help Angela feel better anymore.

Now, here she was with Grumpig nearby. Lea wanted to take this criminal to Arceus so he could decide what to do with her. Angela just wanted to get everything over with and get rid of Grumpig for good. It wouldn’t be too hard to off the pokemon with her asleep. Then again, there was still one reason why Angela hadn’t already. This was one of the few pokemon who knew just how many other pokemon Gale had collected over the years.

Angela had heard that Gale was starting to interest some of her co-workers into joining her secret group. And with her working with Team Rocket, it wasn’t going to end well for anymon.

The absol might have never gotten to leave if it weren’t for Cryogonal. The pokemon was so resistant to following orders that he had to be constantly controlled by a psychic. It was after Cryogonal had learned a second new move that Gale decided he was too problematic to deal with. Originally, she was just going to to release him and let whoever found him to deal with him. Instead, Daniel had asked Angela to make sure Cryogonal didn’t hurt anyone.

It had been hard for her to listen to him at that moment. She had always wanted to escape Gale, but in doing that, Angela had to leave Daniel. He had cared for her and was the only good thing she had ever really gotten from being taken from her home. She had hated to admit it to herself when he was letting her go that she was scared to go back to being a wild pokemon.

She had been able to get Cryogonal to trap himself in ice pretty quickly, but Angela always stayed in the cave he was trapped in to make sure he didn’t escape, only leaving to get food for herself. Then one day, a few years later, she came back after finding something to eat to find there was a person in the cave sleeping with two pokemon. The fire one of the pokemon was letting off enough heat that it was starting to melt Cryogonal’s prison.

Angela tried to wake them up before he could escape, but it was too late. She tried to make sure they didn’t get hurt and battled Cryogonal. Instead, the girl’s eevee decided to help battle, and afterwards wanted to have a battle with her even though he was so small. In the end, the eevee evolved into an umbreon and Angela went with the girl.

From that day forth, Angela had been living with Lea living the peaceful life she had always wanted, just a little different. She thought she’d never have to deal with Gale and all the pokemon she trained ever again. But she was wrong.

While Gale herself would never be able to make it to Equus, Angela had to deal with the pokemon she had trained. Many of the ones that knew Angela held grudges with her for her being just a little bit better than them. Now she was out of shape and had a family that needed protection. At first Angela thought it would be fine, then Grumpig showed up again and used her against her own family.

There was now only one reason Angela wasn’t going to get rid of Grumpig herself. That was because unlike her, the psychic had stayed near Gale and knew what had happened in her absence. She knew how many more pokemon Gale had used, how much more damage had been done, and most importantly to Angela, what had happened to Daniel.

Angela continued to look at the sleeping figure of Grumpig, until she was surprised by her waking up. No one noticed at first, but then she quickly sat up. There was a crazy look in her eyes, one that made Angela assume something was definitely wrong with the psychic, even though most of the time it seemed like she wasn’t ‘all there’.

“Where’s Malachite!” She screamed at Angela.

The rest of the occupants in the train realised that Grumpig had woken up. Lea was the closest to Grumpig and tried to use yawn, but failed. She was smacked away and crashed into Matrix, who had been making his way over.

“Honey, tell me what you’ve done to her!” Grumpig yelled, looking back towards Angela. “You know what he does to her! Tell me what you’ve done!”

Angela quickly used Night Slash to hit Grumpig away from her, making the psychic hit the opposite end of the train car. After Matrix and Lea untangled themselves from the floor, Matrix helped put the psychic back to sleep.

“Anyone know what she was talking about?” Caddi asked around.

“She seemed to be talking to Angela.” Lea mentioned.

“Yeah.” Angela replied slightly nervously. “But the way she said Honey sounded more like the name of a pokemon rather that her just calling me that. She might have thought I was some-mon else.”

“She’s right. She was also yelling about someone named Malachite, and none of us know anyone with that name right?” Midnight asked.

“Never heard of a pony or a pokemon with that name before.” Angela said, shaking her head.

“Neither have I.” Citrus agreed.

“I noticed she also mentioned someone else, but didn’t mention a name. She just said ‘he’. I wonder who she was talking about.” Kya mentioned.

“Doe no.” Sparks said, trying to get up after he had been overturned when Grumpig went flying.

It wasn’t too long before the car riders all settled down, but Angela couldn’t stop thinking.

‘If she’s talking about who I think she is… then what have Daniel and Honey been doing? And what do they have to do with this Malachite?’

Author's Note

so after a month, maybe a month and a half, i decided to put up a chapter. I set up some more stuff about Angela's past because it was gonna come up anyway.
now i want to ask everyone: who do you think Honey and Malachite are, and do you think Daniel made it to Equus.
and, i want to know if there are any other questions people have, because this is going to be the last chapter for a while.
if you do want something of mine to read, i'm now writing on a story called A Change of Pace (click the title to go read it)

Editor's notes: Arctic- nice to see things from angela's point of view.

ch. 48 Hoofington

Author's Note

Welcome to book two of Fearful way! while the first book was all about just what was going on in hoofington, this book is going to be all about crossovers.
so let's start off back in Hoofington with part one of the Hoofington crossover with ZephyrStrife

ch. 48 Hoofington

Near the edge of Hoofington, a Delcatty was sniffing the air and looking around. Following her was a Linoone.

“Are we almost there? I mean you decided we should switch to going this way instead of the way we were going, so it must have been better that what you smelled before.”

The Delcatty pointed vigorously at the town in front of them.

“Wait, are you saying he’s in that town right there?!” The Linoone exclaimed. “Finally! Linoone!”

The Linoone ran quickly into the town just as a train left the town. The Delcatty sniffed the air again and looked at the train. Her eyes widened. She tried to get the attention of her friend, but she had already run into the town.

Linoone kept running until she reached the center of town. She turned back to ask Delcatty where to go next, but she wasn’t there. “Delcatty where are you?!”

Linoone ran back and found her friend. “So, which way is he? You said he was here.”

Delcatty shook her head and pointed to outside the town. “What do you mean by that. Where is he now?” Delcatty acted out a train for her.

“No… you mean? He was on that train?” Delcatty sadly nodded her head. “Is this world out to get me?! If I weren’t too tired from getting here, I’d say we go after that train.”

Delcatty, gave a small sniff of disapproval, but then she sniffed again. She could still smell some of her friend’s mate, but she could also smell something else that was vaguely familiar, like the scent of an old friend she hadn’t seen in awhile. She waved her paw over towards where the train had left.

“What is it now? Do you actually want us to follow the train?” Linoone asked.

Delcatty shook her head. before heading off in the direction of the train station with her eyes closed, letting her nose guide her.

Delcatty was running almost too fast for Linoone to keep up. It didn’t help that she didn’t know where the Prim Pokemon was heading to exactly. When they had been running for about ten minutes, Linoone suddenly saw a group walking in the street ahead of them.

Delcatty seemed to be so focused on following her nose, she didn’t notice the group.

Suddenly she ran into a Cyndaquil in the group and started to sniff all over him before moving on to a Quilava.

The mouse pokemon blinked a bit as he was bowled over, training his blue eyes on Delcatty. “What was that for?” He asked with slight irritation.

Delcatty’s ears twitched as she continued to sniff the rest of the group. When she finished, she went over to the cyndaquil and patted him on the head.

An Ekans blinked a few times as they looked at the cat pokemon. “Hey, Skitty got your tongue? Don’t worry, the little guy is able to stun pokemon and diamond dogs alike with his adorableness… and how tasty he looks.” The snake teased with a smile.

Delcatty turned to pokemon and gave a silent hiss. Finally, Linoone had caught up to Delcatty, but didn’t like what the pokemon had said. “You really don’t want to say something like that to somemon who can’t talk.”

The Cyndaquil had a confused look on his face as turned to see Linoone. The Ekans seemed to move her head in a shrug-like motion. “Meh… I’ve done worse… I tried to eat an ex-human.” She replied nonchalantly.

Then Delcatty looked down the street sniffing the air before starting to walk off. “Ugh, great. There she goes again. You know, you could at least be nice to these guys after sniffing all over them!”

“Why’s she sniffing around so much?” The Cyndaquil asked as he picked himself up from the dirt.

“My mate and I got separated during the move here.” Linoone explained to them. “She’s got a good enough nose that she was able to try and find him. She led us to this town, but he left on a train just as we were entering. Who knows where she’s going now. Maybe he found his… well, I wouldn’t call her his trainer, but maybe he found his other family and they have a place to stay.”

The small pokemon put a paw on his chin. “Well… how about we help? A larger number of people looking out for someone would be able to help better, what’s his name?”

“Heh, heh.” The Linoone laughed. “Well, you see, neither of us really used a name other than Linoone. But maybe we can find someone from his family. I know he mentioned the girl he lived with was named Lea.”

“Lea… Huh…” He replied as he got back into his thinking pose. “Is she from the Johto region?” He asked. “I might actually know her, my parents used to go travelling all the time before I started my journey when I was ten."

“Yeah, we lived in Cherrygrove City.” Linoone replied. Behind her, Delcatty’s eyes widened and she started to shake her friend. “Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat iiiiiiiiiiisssssss iiiiiiiiitttttttt nooooooooowwwwwwww?”

She tried to act something out, but no one could figure out what she was trying to say. Finally the Delcatty gave up and just led the group the way her nose was leading her.

The Cyndaquil and his group were fairly curious to what the Delcatty was trying to point out. The only one a bit hesitant about following these strangers was really the Quilava, but she didn’t quite voice her concerns yet as she followed along behind the group, stoking her flame just in case the situation needed a stronger fire type.

Eventually the group stopped at a rather old looking building that looked like it had been renovated very recently. Delcatty pointed at the door, trying to say that was where she was getting the scent.

“Yeesh… this building definitely looks like it could use some work… it actually looks like it’s a work in progress…” Emma, the Quilava, said as she examined the buildings. “I thought ponies did whatever they could in order to keep their cities and towns in the best condition?” She asked as she looked back at the group.

“Emma, this sort of thing even happened on earth. The buildings in Kinholdur were all occupied, that’s why there didn’t seem to be any abandoned ones. Diamond dogs just prefer function over anything else.” The Cyndaquil named Mick replied.

Then a yellow unicorn mare came out the front door. Seeing the group just outside, she slowly stepped backward. “Quarry, there’s a whole ton of pokemon out here. I don’t know why they’re here.”

A voice from inside called out. “Ire, remember, this place got made into one of those hospital things they had on Earth. They probably heard and wanted to see it. Let them in.”

Mick seemed to smile before he pulled his makeshift sling backpack in front of him and shuffled through it and spending a few moments to pull out a mason jar full of orange liquid. He popped the top to take a small sip before quickly closing the jar and holding up a paw.

It was only about thirty seconds before he talked but he smiled at the yellow pony. “Hi! Does the translation potion work with ponies?” He asked.

“Well, apparently so. Why are you here?” Ire asked in return.

“We’re apparently looking for an ex-human named Lea, do you guys happen to know her?” Mick asked with a smile as he tried to make his eyes as adorable as possible.

“Yeah, I do actually.” The unicorn replied. “I tried to strangle her and later erased her memory. She and a couple of her friends just left for Ponyville. Sorry you missed them.”

Mick blinked a few times as he returned to his normal posture. “So… you tried to commit murder and then tried to violate her mind before you two… just happened to become friends or something?” He asked in confusion.

“She ruined my life, not tried, did, and yeah, we’re cool now. Apparently when I erased her memories, she got some of mine by accident.” She answered nonchalantly.

“Well… it seems that Arceus really did pick a weird place for us to go… I’m kinda wondering if my dad came here then.” Mick says as he slowly looked down towards his feet. “I… I know my mom would be here… but… I…” He stopped himself and shook his head before smiling again. “Anyway…” He started. “... Is it okay if we come in? I’ve been not-training due to a lack of convenient pokemon centers.”

“Oh yeah. Hey Bluegrass!” She called up to the roof. “Can you pick some Oran berries? We got some pokemon here that need them.”

“Hehe… bluegrass…” Mick chuckled. “Wonder what kind of music she likes?”

“She gets that name from the plant, not the music.” Ire said, rolling her eyes. “But with an accent like hers, you could be right.”

Gwen, the Ekans chuckled before looking at Mick. “That actually makes me wonder, weren’t there a lot of breeders in Johto that had huge crops of pokenip?”

“No… I think that was more Hoenn’s thing… but there were a few in Johto…” Mick replied with a pensive look. “Wait…” He started before looking at the pony again. “Where did you say the train was going?”

“They mentioned they were headed to Ponyville. I think Lea wanted some sort of plant that grows in the forest and maybe a chance for her to ask Arceus some stuff. I’m not sure of all the details. After that, I think she said they’re gonna go to Canterlot.”

Mick began to smile widely. “Awesome! When’s the next train?”

“Not sure. I don’t really pay attention to that kind of stuff. I don’t think I’ve even left this town since I was a filly. But enough standing around out here. Do you want to go in? I think you might find someone who can help you, but Blue wanted me to run to her place to get something, so I’m gonna go.” Ire explained to them before leaving on her errand.

Mick nodded before motioning the rest of the group to follow him inside, talking quietly to one another as they looked around. Coming down the stairs was a Blissey with a bowl of Oran berries in her arms. As she was reaching the bottom of the stairs, the happiness pokemon tripped and the bowl flew out of her arms.

Delcatty was the first to react and was able to catch the bowl on her nose. She was able to move the bowl enough to catch most of the berries, but a few bounced out.

“Oh! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to drop those! Here, let me take that back.” Blissey apologised putting the berries that fell on the floor back in the bowl and taking it back in her arms. “Bluegrass told me these were for you guys.”

“It’s no trouble, since Orans are firm berries I’d be more worried if you accidently dropped one of those berries that are softer than a Pecha.” Mick smiled as he walked over to open his sling-bag so that she could have a spot to put the extra berries. “Besides, all they need is a bit of a rinse and they’re good as new.” He smiled.

“Oh Mick… you really haven’t changed much since becoming a pokemon…” Emma chuckled.

“Oh were you a human before? Where were you from?” Blissey asked.

“Johto, though I was from Azaela town, I kinda miss talking to Bugsy…” Mick replied.

“Oddly enough, most of the people that he seemed to know from Johto managed to land somewhere near the Diamond Dog homeland.” Allen, an Aggron, chuckled as he began looking for a spot to sit. “Got any seats for plus sizes?”

“I think you might be able to find something in the next room over. But really? Johto? That’s really strange. I mean, I’m from Johto, Lea’s from Johto, Pryce is from Johto…” Blissey said, trailing off.

“Pryce is here!? Where?” Mick asked quickly as he looked up at the Blissey with his adorable ice-blue eyes.

“Ooo! You’re so cute!” Blissey cooed picking him up and hugging him. For his part, Mick struggled to breathe as he flailed around in the larger pokemon’s grip. “See the large hole in the floor? He’s down there. That’s where most of the the water type pokemon and a few ice types are staying.”

Emma giggled a bit. “Do you mind having someone call out for him? I’m sure that Mick would just love to keep getting hugged, so I don’t think it would be nice to let him be deprived of such a caring ‘mon.” She requested with an innocent smile as Allen walked off to the room the Blissey had mentioned would have better seating. Mick shot the Quilava a death glare from the slightly-too-tight hug as he continued struggling to speak.

“Yeah, I can get him. But just know that someday I will get him, Ziggs and Sparks into a room together, and Kya and I will produce much squee. Hey Pryce!”

“Wait, Ziggs?!” Linoone cried. “That means he ended up with his father! Do you know where he is now?”

“Yeah, both of them took the train out to Ponyville. I don’t think they’ll be back for a while. Lea wanted to go traveling after being stuck in this town since we all got here.” Blissey replied, just at the top of the stairs leading down into the hole.

“Then maybe we should stay for a bit? I mean… we do need a guide through Equestria, it’s not like somepony is going to just wander up to us and ask ‘Hey! Do you need a guide? I can speak pokemon without you needing to resort to that orange liquid that Diamond Dog created without realizing it was a translation potion.’ the world doesn’t just work like that.” Emma sighed as she let herself take a seat near one of the walls.

“Actually, it kinda can.” Came a voice from the stairs. “When Ire gets back, ya can just give her somethin’ ya want ta wear and she can cast a translation spell on it. That’s what we do ‘round here.” Linoone looked at the stairs to see an earth pony coming down the steps.

Finally, Bluegrass stepped on to the main floor. “So, you’re the bunch of newcomers? Glad ta know we’ve still got pokemon coming here that aren’t from this town.”

“Yeah, Pokemon move quite often depending on the availability of safety and food…” the Ekans of the group replied with a chuckle. “So if pokemon are citizens here like they are in Canida then you’ll have plenty of tourists, although I’d say it would be mighty easier to live in Canida despite it being a frozen wasteland aboveground.”

“Well, we haven’t seen many visitors yet. Hoofington is just in between a small town and a city that most ponies just don’t seem ta want ta visit. So, how long do ya think you’ll be stayin’?”

“Oh… I wouldn’t say too long, fortunately the Diamond dogs are actually pretty generous with the gems they dig up so we could get a few train tickets for our group to go to Ponyville and back before making our way back to Canida.” Emma replied as she rubbed her neck. “Now that I think about it though… I think we could use quite a break from the travelling…”

“AIR!” Mick managed to wheeze out from the Blissey’s embrace.

“Blissey! What have I told you about hugging the cute pokemon?!” A Walrein coming up the stairs said. “They’re not as durable as you or me most of the time.” Mick was still struggling to get free of her embrace, trying… yet failing to get free.

“Aww…” Blissey said as she dropped Mick. “But so much cute! And so much soft!” The Cyndaquil in question spun his head a little in a daze as he tried to recover at her feet.

“Yes, I know he’s cute and soft, but he still needed air. Now are you alright?”

It took a few moments before he finally responded. “Y-yeah… I… I think I’m good…” He stutters as he picks himself up from the floor. “Wait… Pryce! Yeesh man… I never thought you’d become a Walrein… I would’ve thought maybe a Swinub or Dewgong…”

“Well apparently I became this instead. Now who would you be?” Pryce asked.

Mick was about to answer before Emma cut her way in. “Hey Pryce, the last time we saw you was just after Mick beat the Ecruteak gym… it wasn’t our best meeting… but I would’ve thought you’d at least remember us.” she pouted as she picked up Mick. “It’s Mick! See!” She replied with a joking smile as she held up the little fire-mouse up for him to inspect. “You met his parents after you stomped us… since he went to battle you instead of Jasmine and Chuck. I still think you cheated by the way.”

“Ah, yes, I remember.” Pryce replied. “You must remember that it’s been over a month since we were last on Earth and I am an old man, er, mon. But yes, I remember now. How have you been so far?”

“We’ve been doing fairly good… Mick had a pretty bad breakdown the other night, but for the most part-...”

“I CHALLENGE YOU TO A BATTLE!” Mick proclaimed as he stood up and pointed dramatically at the Walrein and interrupted his Quilava.

“Well then… I guess I should accept.” Pryce replied before leading Mick back down where he had come from.

Mick attempted to take a step forward and, due to the hug attack earlier from Blissey, fell flat on his face in unconsciousness. Delcatty hopped over and took one of the Oran berries from the bowl and placed it in Mick’s mouth before eating one for herself. Then, She got Mick onto her back and carried him down to the sewer. Once at the bottom of the steps the little fire-mouse exhibited some fairly decent dexterity for only eating an Oran berry and flipped off of the Delcatty’s back, landing perfectly on his hind paws. “I meant to do that!” He said excitedly as he walked towards the Walrein.

“Alright we want to move a bit further down so that way our attacks won’t hurt any of the pokemon here. Delcatty, You can be our judge.” Pryce explained. “Let our battle commence.”

ch. 49 visitors

Mick smirked as he crouched into a low stance, most of his training coming back mentally as he watched for any sudden moves from the ice type pokemon, knowing that he could end the match quickly with fire type moves.

Pryce was unsure what he should do. He didn’t know how powerful this former human could be, but he knew that it couldn’t be that much. He had been a gym leader for many years and knew this couldn’t go too well for Mick. “You should take the first move.”

“No problem!” Mick smirks as he quickly leaps into the air and takes a deep breath, unleashing a small gout of flame at the large ice-type while using the flames to propel himself out of striking distance.

Pryce didn’t bother to move. It hurt a bit, but with such a weak attack, it felt more like he had briefly picked up a hot pan. Pryce was not fully sure what he should do next. After much though, he tried a move he was only partially sure he would be able to do. “Hail!”

Mick’s eyes widened a little as he felt the little spheres of ice pelting him from what seemed like nowhere. He shook his head and stoked his flame once again to let out a thick cloud of smoke.

“Heh, that actually worked.” Pryce mumbled to himself with a fairly impressed tone. “Now then, I believe you go again.” The smoke continues to fill the room, slowly thinning out as it creates a haze throughout the whole arena. “Fine then, let’s hope this won’t be too much.” Pryce said aloud. “Icy Wind!”

Something solid seemed to smack lightly into the back of Pryce’s head. “TACKLE!” Mick shouted.

“Well hello there.” Pryce said. “I believe I should try again. Icy Wind!” With a yelp of surprise Mick was sent tumbling across the room while practically frozen in ice.

“Mick!” Emma shouted as she raced onto the battlefield, quickly picking up the little fire type as he seemed to already be thawing.

“Is he alright? I’m sorry, but other than Hail, Icy Wind is the weakest attack I know. Even though he’s a fire type, I knew even it would hurt him badly.” Pryce explained and Delcatty hopped on top of him poking him again and again with her paws.

Emma takes a deep breath. “It… he’s fine, it’s just that when Arceus dropped us here we both nearly froze to death in Canida.” She picks up Mick and lets out a light flame to help thaw the Cyndaquil quicker.

“Try and keep him from battling Lea if he meets her. Last battle she was in didn’t really go well. It could possibly have scarred her for life.”

She nods. “I just hope he doesn’t make a habit out of this.”

“We should get him back upstairs. Bluegrass should be working on lu- give me a moment, Can you please stop poking me Delcatty? I realise I won the battle.” Delcatty looked sadly at Pryce and stopped poking him. “Thank you. But anyway, lunch should be ready shortly upstairs. do you want to carry him up or should I?” Pryce felt one more poke. “Or should she?”

“Should who?” Emma asked as she hesitated on the bottom step.

Delcatty started to wave her paws in front of Emma’s face. “Her.” Pryce replied.

“Oh… Uh… I… I guess…” Emma replied nervously as she held the ex-trainer out for the Delcatty.

Delcatty bounced over and put Mick on her back, giving him a small lick on his forehead. She then started up the stairs, making sure Mick wouldn’t fall off.

“I really wonder how Samuel dealt with her back when she was a Skitty.” Pryce remarked.

“I’m not even sure how I deal with Mick now that his childishness and maturity are both seeming to be amplified by being a pokemon…” Emma sighed as she leaned against the large ice type.

“So, What have you done since coming to Equus?” Pryce asked Emma.

“Found out that there’s a dog in Canida that can turn ‘special dirt’ into a translation potion that tastes like pecha berries.” Emma replied. “...Survived a train accident… and Mick’s planning to ask Arceus something.”

“Oh, what would that happen to be?” The former gym leader questioned.

“We’re going to be primarily asking if Professor Elm can have a copy of the research he had already accumulated on earth, since he’s the one that was looking into pokemon evolution. Though Mick wanted to ask where we could find the rest of the team and possibly his parents if they’re here.” Emma answered as she started her way upstairs.

“I believe one of the things Lea was going to go ask Arceus about was about her dad. I believe she also mentioned asking for something that was left on Earth. I believe she called them her apocalypse papers. They’re better than they sound!” Pryce quickly added as he realised what he had just said.

“I really wouldn’t be surprised… everyone needs some sort of disaster plan...Oh yeah! We were also talking the other day about just having pokemon speak the regular languages of this world, we’re not sure if he can really make it so every pokemon can suddenly speak the language that ponies and whatnot can already understand, but we at least want to see if it’s possible since we shouldn’t even be able to understand each other if logic were to have its way with us.”

“Well, If my memory is correct, I believe there have been rare cases of pokemon learning to speak English. It seems odd that any former humans would not have been given that same ability.”

“Sadly, that’s not the case… so ex-humans can only talk to pokemon without learning a new language entirely. Mick was learning Canid.” Emma said with a smile.

“Still, I wonder if that’s something Lea may have thought of. I know there were a few things she was questioning when she got the chance.” Pryce mentioned.

“Hey! You’re done already?” Bluegrass asked as she saw them upstairs. “Let me guess, ya want somethin’ ta eat?”

Emma nodded. “We could use some lunch… berries from the wild only make you enjoy them for a short time.” She chuckled.

“That’s good. Now, ah‘m not as good as some cooks, but ah made a large pot of corn chowder for the place. Ah think ah might have even made too much.” The pony commented.

The Quilava chuckled a little as she started to smile a bit more. “I think we’re all due for some good corn chowder. How long has this place been up and running?”

“Maybe about… hmm, ah wanna say twenty days, so ‘bout three weeks now. Not that long. Before then this place was abandoned and a wreck. Lea actually got a whole ton a ponies to help work ‘n fix it up.”

“Cool, we haven’t had much of a chance to rest out in the wild. I’m sure Mick will want to stay here for a while so that he could evolve before we get to Ponyville.” Emma explained as they reached the top of the stairs. “I also get the feeling that Allen, that’s the Aggron… big metal dinosaur, hasn’t quite eaten his fill during the whole trip.” She paused for a second in mid-stride. “Wait… how can you understand me? I know I’m not talking in Canid… or Equestrian…”

“Ca-Kiwi cast a translation spell on me personally. It’s a form of the spell that lets me understand ya instead of letting anyone who can’t understand me know what ah’m saying. She has a little bit more trouble with the translation spell for pokemon, so now we’ve got Ire doin’ that.”

“Oh… well… Mick is actually going to Arceus to solve that problem, he wants to ask Arceus if he could make it so Pokemon and the species of this planet can understand each other without needing to resort to translation spells.”

“Huh, well, ya might have wanted to meet with him already ta ask him for that. Ah remember someone ‘round here mentionin’ that before they went ta go see him. Ah think ah also remember somethin’ about ghost pokemon too, and some other stuff like that.”

The Quilava sat down at one of the empty seats. “I’ll be napping for now… Let me know when everything’s all ready.” She explained with a smile before curling up in the seat.

“Well, Ire just got back a little bit ago with the last thing ah need, so shouldn’t be too long. Give me ‘bout ten minutes, tops.” Bluegrass told her before heading off to the kitchen.

In the kitchen was a very large metal-armored dinosaur. He gave her a slightly confused look. “Uhm… I think I got lost…” Allen chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head.

“Ah think ya meant to go in the door to the right when ya came in, not the left. Ah hope you didn’t mess up anythin’ when ya went through the dinin’ room.”

“Well… while I’m here, need any help?” He asked.

“Yeah, actually. We keep the bowls in the cabinet in the corner over there.” Bluegrass told Allen, pointing to the cabinet in question. “There should be about a hundred bowls in there. Can ya take ‘em out and place them in stacks of ten on the counter here?”

He nodded and opened up the cabinet, reaching in and grabbed several of the bowls out, two to three at a time to make sure he didn’t accidentally lose his grip on any. “O’course ma’am… that’s a fine accent you got. Reminds me of Kanto.” He said with a small smile. “Anyone tell you about that country?”

“Yeah, one of mah pokemon friends was from there originally. She told me ‘bout the other countries as well. Ah think she said there was also Hoenn, Kalos, Almia, Unova, and ah think there was one other, but ah can’t remember it right now.”

“There’s also Sinnoh…” He replies with a small smile. “I spent much of my life travellin’ around. My favorite region had been Kanto because of how wide open and natural most of it was.”

“Nice ta know. Anyway, I think this is about ready. Thanks for helping to get it ready.”

“No problem, I’m happy to help long as someone asks.” Allen replied. “It’s good to have somethin’ to do.” He sighed a little. “Keeps my mind off of the past…”

“Not somethin’ ya want ta think about huh?” Bluegrass sighed. “Ah get what ya mean. I wasn’t there for some of mah family when they needed me, and because of that, she became somethin’ no one wanted her ta be.”

Allen gave a hollow chuckle. “I was in prison when my family needed me the most… caught up in a case that was rigged against me from the start. I’m still lookin’ fer my team. If ya happen to find a Grovyle named Lorna or a Flygon named Kirstin… be sure ta let me know or send ‘em my way if I settle down in one place long enough.”

“A Flygon by the name of Kirstin?” Came a voice from the doorway to the dining room. The two turned to look at a Cacturne standing there. “I saw one awhile back when I was out of town doing something for Quarry. I remember her mentioning a Grovyle too, though you won’t like it.”

Allen’s eyes narrowed a little. “What do you mean…? What happened to Lorna?”

“He’s dead Jim.” The Cacturne replied to Allen.

“My name’s not Jim, and Lorna’s a female Grovyle.” The Aggron growled.

“She’s dead Allen… doesn’t have the same ring to it. Anyway, you’re friend ran into me and I wanted her out of my way. She ended up getting a little beat up before she flew off. Not sure exactly where though.”

The Aggron went silent for a few moments, straightening himself to his full height as he slowly began walking over to the Cacturne. “What did you do to her?” He asked quietly.

Cacturne shrugged. “We had a battle. What, have you never been in one? Let me guess, You’re one of those humans that just became a pokemon and just happened to be like this. Didn’t even need to fight to evolve.” He finished with a sneer.

Allen brought his left claw to the Cacturne’s throat to lift him off the ground. “I may not have had to fight to evolve… but I did train while I was in prison… you learn to watch your back and get stronger in there, especially when your entire life is ruined by Rangers…” The Aggron growled. “She’s like my daughter though… and I swear to whatever god you pray to boy… I will crush your head like a grape if she died or if you’re using Lorna’s death as some sort of joke without a punchline.”

“Listen, I don’t really care what you think. In fact, I don’t really care about anyone, but I swear if you don’t put me down, you’ll get some hurting from me. Yeah she’s fine, at least last I saw, but who knows what after that.”

Allen dropped the Cacturne. “Rock and Steel, the best you could hope is to make me flinch a little.” He turned again to continue helping Bluegrass. “Is there anything else you need some help with Ma’am?”

Bluegrass had found a place to hide briefly, just incase the two pokemon started to battle. “Ah, well, lunch should be ready to serve. Ah think ah have another ladle in the cabinet above the sink. If ya want, ya can help me serve the chowder.” Allen nodded and gave her a small smile as he reached for the Cabinet.

He shot the Cacturne a look. “You had better get a better attitude… next person you piss off might not have as much control as I do… losing a life because of stupidity is never a good thing.”

“Hey! I personally like this attitude.” Cacturne replied to Allen. “It actually is what’s kept me alive this long.” Cacturne paused for a second. “Arrrggg! Poison Jab!” Cacturne attacked Allen, knowing that the attack would do nothing. “That’s for making me think about it!”

Allen simply punched the Cacturne in retaliation, not using any particular move. “It’s your own fault for acting like a punk.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about! If you knew what it really was, maybe you’d actually be nicer!” Cacturne yelled back.

“Hey! Can you two just stop! Everyone is hungry and ah’d like ta give them their lunch soon.” Bluegrass shouted, more at Cacturne than Allen. “Cacturne, can ya just go see how your buddies are holding up? See if any of them feel like eattin’ today?”

“Fine! But I doubt they will.” The scarecrow pokemon replied.

Allen stepped into position dutifully behind Bluegrass. “Ready?” He asked the mare quietly.

“Ah guess. Hey Bright Ire? Soup’s on! Can ya help send the food out as we dish it?”
Ire poked her head in briefly. “Yeah, I got it.”

Bluegrass and Allen worked quickly in filling the bowls. Soon most pokemon had their bowls, though the ones that were asleep didn’t really need any.

Mick let out a small sneeze as he woke up. “Aww… man…” He groaned. “Really? I got… I got…” His face twisted as he tried to keep himself from sneezing again, going so far as to cover his nose with his paws. His body began to relax as it seemed like the worst of the sneezing was done with. “Got anything for a-...” He was interrupted as he let out another sneeze, each attempt to speak was met with him covering his muzzle in order to keep it from getting everywhere so he simply laid down on his seat and let out a small groan.

“Bluegrass… do you have any medicine for a cold?” Emma asked.

“Ah’d have to run out and find some. Ah think we used up the last of our supply on Sparks. Ah meant to go out and buy some more, but with everythin’ else goin’ on, Ah guess ah forgot.”

“If you want, I can go Bluegrass.” Quarry Arrow volunteered. “Flying will probably be faster than walking anyway. Anything else you might need while I’m getting that?”

“Anythin’ else you can think of Emma?” Bluegrass asked the Quilava. Emma shook her head as she gently stroked Mick’s back.

When Quarry got back with the cold medicine, Some of it was instantly given to Mick. He smiled a little as the pegasus gave him the medicine. “Thank you…” He croaked before curling up and snuggling against Emma’s side.

“I think we’re good for now… Thank you Quarry…” The Quilava said quietly as it seemed the day was fading fast.

Linoone came into the room yawning a little. “Hey, Turns out they have a bunch of rooms on the second floor for large groups that came to stay, almost like a hotel. If you guys want, there’s a few you could choose one. Otherwise you’re gonna have to find a hotel to stay in, and those cost bits.”

“We’re fine down here… It’s just till tomorrow anyway…” Emma replied quietly. “We don’t want to be too much of a burden on supplies since we’re not going to be here long.”

“Eh, we’ve got enough supplies here as it is.” Ire said to the pokemon. “Basically this town was fine with the thought of pokemon living here and lots of them have been helping fund this building so we can keep making it look better.”

“Perhaps… but we’re not going to be living here, once we’re done talking to Arceus we’re going back to Canida… I just hope we can continue living a safe life there.” Emma sighed. “I don’t want Mick getting hurt… he’s just a kid…”

“Hey, the rooms were always just supposed to be for anyone who needed a cheap place to stay for the time being. Basically staying there is using it for just what Lea would have wanted.” Ire smirked before holding a hoof to her head. “If you don’t mind, I need to go. I’ve got somewhere I need to be.”

Emma nodded a little as she gently picked up Mick by the scruff of his neck and made her way upstairs.

Author's Note

part 3 of my cross over with zephyrstrife
huh, when the official book 2 of fearful way starts, it's gonna be chapter 51
will each book be 50 chapters?
anyway, part 3 will come next week
also, give a big hand to my editor, i kinda pushed him to edit this and accidentally made him think he had way more to do.

ch. 50 attack

“Rise and shine everyone! I came to visit!” A mare burst in the door, waking quite a few pokemon up. A few of the smaller ones, after realising who the pony was, scrambled over to her to give her a hug or two.

Ire came drowsily down the stairs along with Derek the Machoke, Richard the Gardevoir and a very chipper Delcatty.

“Great… Copper, what are you doing here?” Ire asked.

“I haven’t been over to visit in a while.” The police pony answered. “I also wanted to see how Ben was doing since he officially started to live here.”

“He’s probably in Ponyville right now. Now can you be a bit quieter? I’m gonna try going back to sleep.” Ire told Copper, going back upstairs as she finished.

Derek smiled a bit as he watched the pony leave. “Well, I guess it’s just time to explore the town.” The one-armed Machoke mumbled before turning to Copper. “Any good places to visit around town?”

“Yeah, a couple. Do you know where the train tracks are from here?” Copper asked.

“No, but I’m sure it would be a hard place to miss in this town.” Richard replied as he nuzzled the Machoke.

“Well the door is facing towards it and that way is North. You want to head East for about three main streets then head South and you’ll find yourself at the town square. If you’re trying to find anyplace to explore, start there. You can find all the good places around there.” The mare explained.

“What about a nice restaurant that accepts gems as payment?” Derek replied. “Diamond dogs don’t use Equestrian currency so we’ve only got gems.”

“Well, there’s also a bank right in town square too. They recently started to exchange gems for bits for any pokemon with those on them instead of bits since a bunch of ground and rock pokemon were trying to use them.”

“Makes sense, We’ll head there first then… What kinds of restaurants are here? Or are they all vegetarian only?” Richard asked.

“Actually, there are a bunch of hippogriffs that live nearby, so you can find one or two nearby. Besides, a couple of ponies like to eat there too since, believe it or not, ponies can eat some meat. I know Kiwi liked to eat at one restaurant near where she worked. Goes by the name of Stardust’s Eatery.”

“We’ll ask around for the place then.” The Machoke said with a smile. “Come on Richard.” The two of them quickly made their way out of the pokemon center so that they could enjoy some time together in town.

“Just make sure you mention you have connections with Kiwi. She’s Stardust’s favorite customer and she usually gives a desert on the house if you tell her. But, just so you know, Kiwi also told me that if you want to get it, you also have to use the word ‘caddy’ when she asks for it. Don’t know why though, ‘cause I haven’t tried it yet.” Copper Star told them.

“Alright, we’ll be sure to do that.” Richard said as he smiled, practicing a bit more with his telepathy.

Emma let out a small groan as she began to wake up, her first thoughts were immediately on the little bundle of fur at her side. “Mick... “ She cooed, earning a groan from the little Cyndaquil. She simply smiled as she curled up around him to keep him warm. “Maybe next time you won’t challenge a gym leader after only having a little training under your belt.

Mick let out his own groan, whatever he was trying to say though was lost in whatever he mumbled except for, “...get ‘im next time…” He curled into a tighter ball and pressed his back against Emma’s side.

Out from the next room came Blissey, leading a bunch of the young pokemon. “Oh hello there!” She greeted Mick and his friends. “Are you going to be joining us to the park this morning?”

Emma smiled a bit as she looked over the little Cyndaquil. “It might actually be a good idea, give him a chance to be the child that he never got to be on earth.” She looked back over to the Blissey. “Would you like to hold him on our way to the park?”

“Sure! I can do that!” Blissey exclaimed, picking up Mick and giving him a big hug. “Now, to the park!”

Emma took a deep breath as they finally reached the park. “The last time I was at a place like this there was a bug catching contest going on.”

“I’ve been helping to take many of the young pokemon here to play everyday, though it would be better if they fixed the other park up since it’s closer to the pokemon center.” Blissey told the Quilava.

Emma nodded. “Well, perhaps you could ask Allen… He is an Aggron after all and they’ve been known to terraform mountains back to their old beauty because a forest fire happened.” She bites her lip a little though. “I… I heard that he got in a fight with a Cacturne last night though… Is he alright?”

“I’m sure your friend is fine! I don’t believe Cacturne would cause too much harm.” Blissey tried to reassure Emma.

“I wasn’t talking about Allen, I know he could handle himself… I was talking about Cacturne.”

Blissey suddenly got a little nervous. “Well, he’s as fine as he’s ever been. Though I’m not fully sure what that is exactly. He hasn’t seemed as happy since he brought his friends over to the center.”

“It’s good that Allen didn’t hurt him too much… what were they talking about to get Allen so mad?” Emma asked with a raised brow.

“Didn’t really hear, I’m sorry. But I think I did hear something about, I think it was a Grovyle.”

“He told us that he got arrested on the night that his Grovyle had admitted her love for him… It actually sounds like something he could get mad over.” The Quilava sighed before looking up at the playing pokemon. “It looks like Mick’s having some fun.”

For once, it seemed that Mick was truly acting like the child he was. He was eagerly playing tag with several of the pokemon who had come with Blissey to the park. The little Cyndaquil happily chased a Pichu along one of the paths that circled the park, slowly managing to gain on the little electric mouse. “You’re gonna be it!” He called out with a laugh as he started to pour on the speed. Suddenly, the pichu stopped as his cheeks started to spark, letting Mick run into him. Mick let out a small grunt as he collided with the Pichu.

The small mouse pokemon looked a little scared as his cheeks continued to spark, a little quicker than a few seconds before. “Um… a-are you okay?” Mick asked with concern as he slowly got up.

“Look out!” The Pichu finally exclaimed, pushing Mick out of the way as a Thunderbolt hit where he had just been standing.

“Yah!” Mick shouted as he rolled onto his back. His eyes shrunk a little as he tried to figure out where the bolt came from since the Pichu hadn’t tried to attack him. Emma quickly got up from where she was sitting with her ears alert. Delcatty, who had also followed the group, also got up and raced towards the two small pokemon.

Out from some foliage nearby came a Raichu. The pokemon looked somewhat angry and almost seemed like he was glowing from his all electricity. “Get out of here! All out you!”

Emma raced to put herself between the Raichu and the basic pokemon. “What do you want you bully?” She growled as her flames lit up over her body. “Don’t you know it’s not right to pick on kids?”

“Really?! Kids are just weak! In fact, I rarely meet such a weak bunch. I bet you’re just as bad as them!” The Raichu yelled before he was hit with a Double Slap. Delcatty was already set for a battle. She had an angry look on her face as well, much different from her normally chipper personality.

“You’d be surprised… It’s not easy to take on the league challenge back on earth, getting to the seventh gym in the league is no average feat.” Emma replied before unleashing a Flamethrower attack at him.

After hitting the Raichu, he disappeared into nothing. Then from behind both Emma and Delcatty were hit with Thunderbolt. Emma let out a pained grunt as she was struck, her head whipped around to try and get a look at the Raichu. The mouse pokemon was already heading towards many of the smaller pokemon which were trying to hide behind Blissey. Mick stood defiantly between the two as he took in a deep breath, only to unleash it as a strong Ember attack seconds later.

The attack hit Raichu, but he barely reacted as he sent a quick Thunder Wave toward Mick and the others, paralyzing a couple of the pokemon towards the front. A whip-like strand of fire streaked towards the Raichu, also hitting him and sending his face into the dirt. “I don’t think it would be wise for a pokemon such as you to pick on such little kids, where are your manners?” comes a smooth, male voice. The Raichu got up to see a blood-crimson unicorn stallion, his slicked-back orange mane seemed to have it’s own sheen to it. “After all, what good is the society that your dear Arceus dropped you into if you were allowed to hurt mere children simply for being so brutish?” He continued in what seemed to be an unplaceable noble accent.

“I- I don’t… Just stay out of it! This is between me and them! Now get out of here before I decide to electrocute you too!”

At that the unicorn took a sharp breath as his small smile faded to a frown. “Well… you see, I can’t do that, since what you’re doing right now is against the law. As much as I would not say that I am an officer meant to arrest you, many of the police stations around Equestria don’t mind a bit of assistance.” He replies as he lights up his horn again. “Now… we do have a couple ways this could go... You could either leave and we can pretend like this didn’t happen, or I can hog-tie you and bring you to the local station.” He finished with a smile. “Not all ponies are as pathetic against you pokemon as the ones in ponyville.”

The Raichu just kept glaring at the unicorn before he called out, “Flora, take over for me will you?” Suddenly the Raichu’s face seemed to calm down as he attacked with a Thunder Punch. The stallion’s horn brightened a little more as a crimson shield sprouted in a dome around him, glowing brightly at the site of the impact. The crimson pony grit his teeth a little as he kept the shield up.

From the sidelines, Delcatty started to cover her ears as something started to irritate it. “Seems like both of us together are hurting your friend.” A more female voice came from the Raichu. “I don’t think Plama will be able to finish without help, so I’m not going to be the one who stops first.”

The crimson stallion fixed his composure as another wave of red went through the shield, reinforcing its strength as a whip of flame came out of the shield at the Raichu. “Do forgive me, but these are simply citizens that I am helping out, not friends yet.”

The Raichu was protected from the attack by a shield of his own. “I suggest you not try that too many more times. The average unicorn can not usually attack with a spell of that magnitude too many time while also maintaining another spell.”

He let out a breath. “You see, that’s the difference between me and an average unicorn… an average unicorn spends their life dedicated to one school of magic, I have spent my life dedicated to all nine.” He replies as a flame seems to leap from the shield before growing into what seems to be a pony-shaped creature made completely out of fire. “I am a fire disciple, no mere unicorn.” The pony-fire construct landed on the ground next to the Raichu, its posture was ready for battle. “Your move… mouse…” The crimson stallion scowled.

“Oh, you shouldn’t be that excited to battle us.” The female voice came again. “Really, I find myself a little *Yawn* tired of you. What about you?”

“I find it a bit tedious that I have to clean up a mess the guards shouldn’t even have to. I mean really? Picking on kids? Not even the lord of Tartarus would want such a thing…” The crimson pony had the fire-construct punch the Raichu.

The pokemon was able to dodge in time. He let out a quick Flash to try and make it a bit harder for any attacks to land on him. “Oh don’t worry, we’ll take care of the ones we like. Just because Gale isn’t around anymore doesn’t mean we can’t do what we’ve always done.”

The stallion let out a sigh. “You’re still doing something illegal here… oh well… It looks like I won’t be able to resolve this peacefully.” He sounds… a bit happy… that he wouldn’t have to bring the Raichu in unharmed. “A shame really, the police don’t like it when I rough up the perps.” The stallion smiled as lightning arced around his horn. “Pray tell… have you ever been subject to a lightning spell? I know that you electric types are resistant to the electricity of other pokemon, but spells seem to have a fairly normal effect on you all.”

“A spell like that could possibly be redirected by me. Besides Plasma’s speed will most likely be able to help him get out of the way in time. Now, just how much protection can your shield actually give you?”

“That still begs the question, why would you risk going up against a fully trained soldier just to hurt some innocent bystanders?”

“We train them young. The best way to try and find any potentially good mon is to put them in danger. Now, if only our one friend was here, we wouldn’t even bother with them anymore. We might just use you instead. Besides a battle of seven on one should be enough to finish you soon enough.”

“Oh what little intelligence you have… The police are already on their way, and you were recorded.”

“Hmm, let’s see. Hoofington police huh? A few weeks ago many of them were… hurt from their building being partially demolished by… What’s that? Ah, just a Mightyena. Believe me, They shouldn’t be too hard. Oh! And it seems one of their best stallions is away as well. And you’d really want them to hurt his friends?” The Raichu told the stallion.

“Well then, it looks like I shall simply have to put a curse on you instead… I would slay a monster such as yourself, but since you’re fighting by proxy it doesn’t feel very sporting.” He smirks a little. “So what say you to letting him control his own body so that I can let them know it was his own fault that he decided to fight me?”

“Hmm, let the pokemon that has trouble choosing anything himself without getting a headache battle you, or have me do it for him. Oh, It’s so hard. Why not put the others in distress for a third option, shall we?” The voice said as a cry came from a few of the younger pokemon and Blissey. Emma quickly bolted over to the group of pokemon, trying to find out what caused the shout.

Over near them was Cacturne, looking like he was ready to attack them at any moment. One of the younger pokemon, a Minccino, try to attack him, but he didn’t seem to care as he swatted at it.

“Now, what do you think your main focus is now?” The voice asked the stallion.

The stallion seemed to mumble a few words before a bunch of webs shot away from his horn to coat the Raichu in order to slow him down.

“So, choosing us then. Cacturne, have fun with them while I work on this pony will you?” The voice called out. “Now, let’s see how tough your shield really is.”

Mick managed to sink his teeth into Cacturne’s leg and fire flow freely from his mouth as he kept his grip tight. Then, instead of ignoring Mick, Cacturne reacted by saying. “Hey! Get off! Is this for me making your friend angry last night? Because it was his fault."

Mick didn’t say anything and continued to let the flames pour out as his back lit up. “Ow! Dude! Turn the flames down! Do you want to help burn the building… down? Uh, when did we get outside?”

The crimson stallion sent a sphere of fire at the Raichu. He wasn’t about to get out of the way in time as the attack hit him, blasting him away. “Great, Now I need to use somemon else. Glameow should do for this.” The voice complained.

“Wait, what’s Glameow doing up? And was that Flo-AAHHH!” Cacturne tried to say before he was stopped.

“Just finish up with them why don’t you!” The voice asked, this time coming from Glameow.

“I don’t think so…” Richard said as his eyes began to glow blue, lifting the Cacturne up. “I get the feeling that you’re someone who should be behind bars.” The Gardevoir stated as a Machoke stood next to him.

“No! Don’t hurt him!” Blissey exclaimed. “He’s not doing anything!”

“He was also supposed to be back at the Pokemon Center, wasn’t he? And Mick’s setting him on fire, so I do apologize if I find that hard to believe.” Derek replied.

Cacturne used Toxic against the Embrace pokemon, poisoning him. Richard grit his teeth as he tightened the psychic’s hold on the Cacturne.

Derek rushed forward to use a Mach Punch on the Glameow. Right before it could land, an amoonguss came out from the crowd that was forming and took the attack instead. The Machoke frowned as he brought his fist towards the Amoonguss again. The pokemon took the hit again, but used Spore to stop any more attacks. Richard scowled a bit as the Machoke fell, he dropped the Cacturne in order to send a Psychic attack at the Amoongus. The second Cacturne got the chance he used Venoshock.

“It’s really hard to stop us when each one knows exactly what’s happening to the other. If it weren’t for this pony here, we’d be finished already. But five is a little much for right now, so here’s your one friend back.” The Glameow voiced.

Emma scowled at the Glameow, “Evil pokemon like you will never win, you shouldn’t have been here in the first place, you should have been left to rot with all the other evil beings that Arceus left behind!”

“I’m just finishing my job. We were so close back home, but now that everyone is gone, i’m just trying to get back where we were.”

“Bushes left of the big elm tree.” Cacturne said. “Flora’s there. Now get off me you stupid Cyndaquil!” He finished, shaking his leg vigorously to send the Cyndaquil back towards the group of pokemon. Mick landed on the ground with a grunt of pain.

“Great, guess it’s time I come out anyway.” Flora said. A Musharna floated out from the bushes, sending a Shadow ball at Cacturne to get rid of him. “Pity he wasn’t acting right, four pokemon to control just doesn’t feel right.”

Emma let out a Flamethrower attack at the Musharna. The pokemon put up a protect at the last second. “You’re wasting time, and you don’t have much left. Choose what you really want wisely. Me or them.”

“If I get rid of you I take down the mastermind behind it all, while my other friends have your goons covered.”

“Right, yes. I’m surely the mastermind. The whole reason I brought up another name earlier couldn’t possibly suggest something else.”

“You’re the one with the freaky mind control powers, thus, bringing you down will help bring the others down.” Emma smirked as she charged with a Flame Wheel.

“And there goes my second last trick.” Flora said as one more pokemon came out to keep her from getting hurt. A Heracross stopped Emma with Brick Break, though not without suffering a burn from the attack as he sent the Quilava flying. A streak of lightning shot towards the Heracross so that it could hit and chain towards the Musharna. The attack hit, but Flora was still in the fight from using others to attack the whole time.

“Well, it was fun knowing you all,” She said as the pokemon she was using collapsed on the ground. “But I really must be going.”

Flora started to leave as a few of the young pokemon were picked up into the air. Among them were a Chikorita, a Cleffa and a Surskit. Shortly after being picked up, the Cleffa started to cry. Glameow was the first of the collapsed pokemon to get up. “I give her ten seconds.” She said.

After ten seconds passed, Flora turned back about and gave them back. “I can’t do it! They’re better when they hatch from eggs! Take them!”

Emma gave the Musharna a confused look as the young pokemon were practically thrust at her. “Wait… what?” She asked as the sudden disappearance and reappearance stunned her.

“She hates kids” Glameow replied. “Look, would you rather keep doing what Gale wanted and risk being beat up by the Absol, or work with us and her.” Flora instantly took their side. The Quilava continued to look on in confusion, not sure why teammates hadn’t been on the same side in the first place.

“Are we getting pranked or something?” Emma asked.

"Listen, everymon knew about Absol and just about everyone promised if she came back we were going to follow her instead."

“So why did she try to steal these kids?” Emma asked as she put the young pokemon down so that they could go back to Blissey. “Are you guys the bad guys? Or is she?” Emma’s eye twitched.

"Gale and Grumpig are the real villains in this whole thing. Flora just likes to follow whoever she thinks is best at the time like me."

“That doesn’t make any sense…” Emma said to the Glameow with a frown.

"We generally don't make sense. Now can we just get everyone back to the center? Also, I'm hungry. Anyone have something to eat?"

Richard shook his head. “Derek and I had reservations already at… ugh…” The Gardevoir stopped as he held his head and collapsed to the ground. Emma yelped a little before darting over.

“Anyone have a pecha berry?!” She called, looking pointedly at Blissey.

"Did anyone bring one?" Blissey asked the kids. A small Fennekin raised it's paw as the spoink next to it threw one over. Emma caught it and began feeding it to Richard.

"Alright, I'm going with them to get food. I'm guessing you're going back to the center, but what about the unicorn?"

The stallion smiled and bowed to the Blissey. “Asmo Deus, you may call me Asmo. I was actually out here in Hoofington for a small vacation, I came out on the last train but I shall be going back to Canterlot soon. I’m afraid that this town hasn’t sparked my writing inspiration as much as I wanted it to.”

"Great, fine you still didn't tell me what you're doing."

“I’m going to be taking the Raichu to the police station and then simply touring the town till nightfall. He did break the law after all.” Asmo replied.

"After they find out who he is they won't take him. Angela already made them promise to send all of us to the center. Besides, Plasma is rather unstable. Keeping him captive just make it worse."

“And you expect him to simply run free because of that?” Asmo replied with a disbelieving brow.

"Listen, while it probably wasn't too long, he was most likely controlled before your encounter with him. It affects us almost like we're still being controlled a little. Again, Flora's got more fault here than him."

“He attacked the children before Flora took over… it wasn’t until I stepped in that she was controlling him.”

"Can you at least talk to him first before you decide what to do?" Glameow asked

“Why? He specifically stated that he attacked the kids because they were weak.” Asmo replied.

"She's right," Flora said. "That was left over from me, which was technically left over from Gale."

“You shouldn’t even be talking right now.” Asmo stated. “You’re in just as much trouble.”\

"They didn't kill anyone!" Glameow exclaimed. "Angela has killed a couple mon before but everyone loves her!" She finished.

“And yet you want to join a murderer?” He asks with slight confusion. “It doesn’t take a good person to be loved. Take the solar princess of Equestria for example, she banished her sister to isolation on a desolate rock for a thousand years because her sister wanted some of the attention she had. To this day she still is adored by her ponies while her sister is shunted to the side.”

"Oh my gosh! I'm done! You know what? I'm gonna go find Plasma and take him home instead. I'll eat there too so you guys go ahead."

Emma sighed before she made her way to the stallion. “I… Thank you for helping… but… I think we can handle it from here.” The stallion let out a small breath. “Seriously… we’re good.”

“Fine…” Asmo replied before he turned back towards the crowd and walked off.

Emma let out another sigh. “So… still… I don’t get why you guys attacked the kids, out in the wild basic pokemon are hunted for food, but… we’re in town and Arceus himself said we’re supposed to obey the laws of the country we’re in.” she said to the Glameow.

“The police themselves thought gathering up the pokemon we know and keeping them where Angela is was better than just keeping them locked up. A bunch of the pokemon Gale worked with ended up pretty badly. Now if you excuse me, I’m leaving.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you guys attacked the kids!” Emma growled.

“I wanted the kids to train like Gale would, but normally they don’t cry so much. I don’t know why Plasma was trying to scare them away. Maybe he was trying to help even though some of me was still left on his chip when i was controlling him last.” Flora explained.

Emma put her paw to her head before she made her way back over to Mick. “This… This is just giving me such a headache… we really need to get out of this town…” She muttered as she picked up the little Cyndaquil.

After the pokemon had come back and she heard what had happened at the park, Bluegrass ran to her store. It didn’t take too long for her to get there by running, but she was still nervous that she had been too slow.

“Let’s see… Ah! Here are some healing herbs, and here’s the tea pot.” Bluegrass took a green tea pot with some flora designs down from a shelf in the back area. She put a contraption on it and put some of the herbs inside the pot.

Running around some more, the mare filled the tea pot with water and found a match. She lit the contraption, creating a small fire that was just under the pot. She grabbed the handle and picked up the pot and mobile fire contraption. After making sure the pot wouldn’t fall. Bluegrass made another.

When both were done, the mare grabbed them both and started to run back to the center with a bag of extra herbs as well.

As soon as she returned, Ire and Quarry started to help get the tea to the various pokemon that had come from the park. Bluegrass made sure each of the pokemon got the right kind of tea.

After all the tea was gone and the herbs were too, Bluegrass sat down to rest. Ire walked over to see how her cousin was doing after that large task.

“So, did you learn that from Grandma Wishful?” The unicorn asked.

“Yeah, she taught me when she thought Ah was old enough and saw Ah was taking an interest in plants. Though mah herbal teas were never as good as hers.” Blue said with a little laugh.

“Well, she was also a unicorn and her talent was tea making.” Ire looked from the ground to Bluegrass. “She moved a little while after you left, so I don’t know how she’s doing. Is she…?”

Blue grass gave a sad nod. “She died ‘bout seven years ago. Ah’m sorry that ya never heard.”

Ire shook her head. “No, it doesn’t matter. No one really remembered me anyway. That’s why I like Quarry so much. Her sticks by me no matter what I do, and he actually makes it so I won’t alway do something that could end up killing me too.

“Hey, Ah’m back now. Do you think you can forgive me?”

Ire hugged her cousin. “Yes, I can.” Then she pulled away and gave the earth pony a light punch. “But don’t think I won’t still pretend to hate you.

Bluegrass shrugged. “Eh, Ah can live with it.” She started to walk away. “Ah’m gonna go watch for that Gardevoir and Machoke if ya don’t mind.”

Ire waved her hoof. “Nah, go ahead. Ah’m good.”

Bluegrass laughed at the bad attempt at an accent from her cousin before going back outside.

“Ah! There they are!” Bluegrass said as Derek and Richard came in. “Wonderin’ when you two would be gettin’ back.”

The Machoke sighed. “It’s not easy walking home with to-go desserts and a drunk Gardevoir… I’ll tell you that much.”

“Oh stahp it… I carried home ths desr.. desss… dessrt!” Richard slurred as he shook the bag of ice cream.

Derek rolled his eyes at the Gardevoir. “Anyway, how are you guys?” He asked Bluegrass.

“Not good!” Bluegrass said, sounding panicked. “After ya left, Some of the pokemon just got up and left, which was weird ‘cause for a while they haven’t benn doin’ anythin’. We’ve even had trouble getting them ta eat. Then when they came back they brought two more. One of them was this orange mouse lookin’ on which was just like the other were before. The only good news is that the Glameow, it’s doin’ fine again, but now Cacturne isn’t responding.”

Derek blinked a few times. “Aw…” He sighed as he hung his head. “Can you put the ice cream in the freezer… I’ll try to see what I can do.”
“Yeah, Ah can do that for ya. Ah can also take your friend to a bed if ya want me ta.”

“That would be nice… I’m no nurse Joy but I’ll try to see if I know what’s going on with them.”

Bluegrass was able to get Richard on her back and grab the bag in her mouth carefully. She nodded to Derek before heading to the kitchen to put away the frozen treat and then head upstairs to the bedrooms. Derek quickly got lost on his way to the rooms of the injured pokemon. After Bluegrass set the bag in the freezer, she told him. “Ya wanted to go in the room on the opposite side of the main room, the one right of the entrance.”

“Thanks, sorry… not used to this place’s layout yet…” The Machoke replied with a sheepish chuckle.

“That’s fine, everyone gets lost here at some point.” Bluegrass explained.

The Machoke nodded and made his way to the injured pokemon room. When he got there, he saw Blissey tending to many of the pokemon. The one group she kept going back to consisted of the pokemon that had attacked everyone at the park. Watching them was Flora and Glameow. Derek walked over to the Blissey. “So… uh… need any help with anything?” He asked hopefully.

“Just tend to any pokemon you can. Many of them are just scared after what happened earlier today, but some have it worse that others.” She told him glancing over to the side. He nodded and made his way over to a small group of pokemon to see what he could do.

Flora was floating all around the group tapping each one again and again to try and wake them up. Glameow, who was watching her, just sighed as Flora started to tap them even faster.

Derek took several looks over the group before he took a deep breath. “It is my professional opinion…” He started, waiting for someone to prompt what he was about to say. He looked around for a few seconds, trying to make sure that at least someone had their attention on him. Glameow looked toward Derek, glad to have something else to focus on while Flora paid no attention and continued to try and wake her friends up. “...That I have no idea what to do since I have no formal training in the school of medicine.” He admitted. “Although I will try to help.”

“Thanks, but I’m not sure if anything you try will really help.” the cat like pokemon said.

“So… What happened to them?” Derek asked.

“A while ago, a bunch of us were captured and taken to be part of this sort of experiment. A woman named Gale was the leader of these people and tried to make even some of the weakest pokemon as strong as they could be. Eventually, she got frustrated with some of the pokemon not obeying commands and used psychics. After a while it proved to be somewhat worse than before and a chip was developed to be implanted in each of us so some of the psychics could keep track of us. The one downside of it was using it too much would affect the pokemon’s personality and even more than that could make them non responsive for a while. That’s the case here with these guys.” Glameow finally finished.

“So… I’m guessing that there’s pretty much nothing that we can do…” Derek guessed as he rubbed the back of his head.

“Only thing I can think of is if we can find some of the other psychics. If the personality is close enough to their own, it won’t hurt them as much. That’s one of the reasons Cacturne is there now instead of me.”

“The only psychic pokemon I actually know is Richard… but he’s kinda drunk right now.” Derek admitted.

“That wouldn’t work. The thing affecting it is the chips we have, and the only pokemon that have those are the other pokemon we lived with.”

He nodded. “So… while we’re just waiting… have any hobbies?”

“Not really.” Glameow told him. “Unless you count what I did before, which was ten hours straight of training then time for resting.”

“Well… Mick would certainly want training.” Derek offered, “Probably not ten hours worth at once… but he’s getting close to the point where he’ll evolve.”

“If he needs to, I could probably help. At least until you guys decide to leave.” Glameow suggested.

“What would you suggest for him?”

“Don’t know. Haven’t really gotten to meet him yet, what with the whole not responding business and such.”

“He should be back by now though… he was with Blissey before Richard and I left.”

“What is he? Maybe I’ve seen him.”

“He’s a Cyndaquil.” Derek replied.

Glameow pointed to a Cyndaquil who kept passing the door in the next room over. “That him over there?” She asked.

Derek had a confused look. “Yeah, he’s the only one who has blue eyes… but… he looks depressed.”

“Well, let me go meet him. Flora, don’t do anything You and I will regret you doing alright?” The Musharna gave a quick nod before going back to trying to wake the pokemon up. Derek watched as the Glameow got up.

Mick was pacing back and forth, muttering to himself as Emma and Gwen sat off to the side with worried looks on their faces. “M-Mick?” Emma tried, though she got no response from the mouse pokemon as he continued pacing.

“This is him?” Glameow asked Derek. “Doesn't seem much like the fighting kind of pokemon right now.”

“I don’t know what’s up with him… usually he’s ready to take on any sort of challenge, no matter how big.” The Machoke explained. “He tried to stand his ground against a Gabite… uh… he… well… actually, now that I think of it, he did get pretty upset the other day.” He looked over to the Glameow. “He wants to speak with Arceus… and… I’m not sure he even knows what he wants to speak with Arceus about.”

Glameow walked up to the pacing Cyndaquil. Since he wasn’t really paying attention, she place one of her paws on Mick head to keep him from moving. It managed to stop him immediately as well as direct his attention at her, it only took a few seconds before his eyes widened and he glared at her. “What do you want?” He growled.

“Someone said you wanted to train to get stronger. Want some help? I’ve got nothing better to do.”

He narrowed his eyes at her, he wanted to shout at her and tell her to mind her own business… but in the end, something else won out. “...yes…” He replied meekly.

“Good, now before we actually train, I want to see what you can do. Start by just attacking me which whatever you’ve got. I’ll tell you how to improve from there.”

“Don’t we have to be in a place that doesn’t risk putting the injured in further harm?” Mick asked as he indicated the care rooms around them.

“Yeah, fine. There’s a place outside nearby we could go. We could also use the basement, but all the water pokemon are living there.”

“What place do you mean?”

Glameow mentioned the old hideout Quarry and Ire had when Lea was still captured. It wasn’t to far from the building they were currently in, just on the opposite corner of the block. Mick grudgingly accepted, but only after Emma and Gwen said that they would go along as well.
In a few minutes, they had arrived at a place that looked like a building had once stood there, but what was left just looked like a bunch of burnt rubble. Mick was preparing himself as they walked, he didn’t want to fail… again, the thought made him frown a bit as he mentally berated himself.

“Alright, show me what you’ve got little guy.” Glameow told him, almost sounding like a full fledged order. The Cyndaquil glared a little as he sprinted forward, lighting up his back as flames licked the edges of his mouth. Glameow stood there until the last second when she jumped over him. He twisted to unleash his flames up into the air. The attack was able to hit Glameow, though only barely.
Mick rolled into a stable stance again as he kept his gaze on the Glameow. “Good, now try to keep up.” She said starting to run as fast as she could in circles around him. He smirked a little as he let the flames stoke again, he curled into a ball and began to roll while keeping himself coated in fire.

Giving a small smirk, Glameow took a small leap into the air and used Double Team.

The inefficient burn of energy quickly extinguished itself as Mick had to force himself back into a standing position. “Double team? That’s an easy move to look through.” He replied as he let his senses search for the large cat.

“Not if I keep making it harder.” Glameow told him before using the attack again and creating two more rings on copies going around him.

Mick took a deep breath and unleashed an ember attack that spread out in a ring around him. A bunch of the copies disappeared from the attack, but none of them were the real pokemon. The Cyndaquil kept his senses alert as he searched for the Glameow. He took a small breath as he let his fire warm up again. “So… where are you?” There was no answer from the cat like pokemon. He let out another gout of flame, though there was getting to be a risk of setting at least something on fire.

From somewhere in the surrounding area, Glameow called out. "Do you want to stop and get some real training now?"

“You’re really not taking this seriously!? And here I thought you actually wanted to help, not just be lazy about the training and not do anything.” Mick scoffed. “If that’s the case I’d be better off fighting wild pokemon, I’d certainly learn more from them.”

Glameow came out from a large pile of rubble. “I'll take that as a yes then. First, your quick change of changing your direction for attacking was good, but you want to try and expect the change before it happens for a more effective attack. Next, you want to keep track of an opponent using double team, you should try to watch for an extra shadow, since technically the copies themselves are shadows and cannot make one of their own."

And so, the training went on in a similar manner as the day drew to a close. While the little Cyndaquil didn’t find the Glameow’s presence enjoyable… he did manage to tolerate it enough to be willing to learn from any source of knowledge he could. Emma picked up the exhausted Cyndaquil and walked with Gwen back to the Pokemon Center. “Thank you for training him…” the Quilava said hesitantly as she still eyed the Glameow with suspicion.

"If you come back later, we can work some more on making you stronger." Glameow offered.

“I wouldn’t hold my breath…” The Quilava responded. “You did attack us at the park… and still supposedly have that weird mind control stuff in you, I’m honestly surprised I let him train with you in the first place since that pokemon is still out there doing who-knows-what to other innocent pokemon.”

"Fine, but just so you know, it was working. His attacks we a little bit stronger than at the start."

For what it was worth, the Ekans gave her a smile. “Thanks for helping him.” She said before she slithered to catch up with the hasty Quilava. “Emma! Slow down! You know I can’t move that fast!”

"Fine, I'll just stay here. You two have fun." Glameow said as she waved goodbye. The Ekans smiled back again and waved her tail at her before taking off after the Quilava.

“So, you guys are finally leaving? That’s good.” Ire said after hearing Mick and his friends were going to head to the train to catch one to Ponyville.

“Ire, that’s not nice!” Bluegrass exclaimed. “Ah’d say they were wonderful company while Lea an’ her friends are out of town.”

Allen gave a shrug. “It is good, It means we can finally keep goin’ on the quest our little friend Mick started. We gotta speak ta Arceus after all an’ get Professor Elm’s research notes from our world.” The large metal dinosaur explained while he held Emma and Mick on his shoulders.

Glameow ran up to the others. “Hey, since you’re leaving, mind doing me a favor? And by me, I mean all of my friends too.”

Mick gave her a curious look. “What favor?”

“You know when Plasma and Flora showed up at the park? And Flora used a couple of the pokemon from the Center like Cacturne and I? Well, there’s more of us than just nine of us. I think Lea’s Absol decided she was going to look out for some others, but I think all of us would feel better if there were more ‘mon looking for the others too.”

“Sure, we can keep an eye out… is there something in particular you want us to tell them?” Mick asked. “I can only be under the assumption that they’re about as battle-eager as you and that Cacturne were at the time.”

“Well, not all of them. A few were actually nicer than you might expect. One I can name off the top of the head is Malachite the Sudowoodo. But if you do happen to find one that might know us, ask if they know of a woman named Gale. Chances are if they do, they’re the ‘mon you’re looking for. After that, tell them to come to Hoofington if they want because Absol is back. Just don’t call her Angela since they won’t know her by that name.”

“Alright, we’ll be sure to tell them.” Mick replied with a smile. “If they happen to be in Canida though, it might be a better idea that they stay there… I don’t know what Allen’s planning to do, but after we’re done talking to Arceus Emma, Gwen and I are going to be heading back to Canida.”

“I think I might just start explorin’ around again once I have my old team back.” Allen replied. “I prefer warmer places anyway… Kirstin and Lorna prefer ‘em as well, due ta being used to the Hoenn region.”

“Well, I hope you bunch find you want. I won’t really be missing you.” Ire said again, trying to get them to leave faster. When she saw they weren’t, the unicorn just left to go back to the Center.

“Not like we’ll be missing her either…” Richard grumbled as he stretched next to Derek, getting the Machoke to roll his eyes.

“Alright team! Let’s head out!” Mick called to the rest of his team as Allen directed them towards the train station.

The rest of the Hoofington group waved Mick’s group off as they boarded the train to Ponyville. as the train started to leave. Bluegrass started to run beside the train. “If you do happen to see Lea and her friends, say hi for us!”

Mick gave her a broad smile and waved back. “Definitely! Who is Lea?”

Bluegrass ran faster as the train sped up. “Umbreon! Wearing a belt! Travels with a shiny Umbreon, an Absol, a Quilava, a Dunsparce, and a Linoone! Don’t forget!” With that Bluegrass had to stop to catch her breath.

“Umbreon with a belt! Got it!” Mick called out with a smile as the train began to pick up its pace. The light of the sun glinted off the back-most windows of the train as it made its way along the horizon to the west, bringing our heroes that much closer to Ponyville, let’s hope that their train stays on the rails this time.

Author's Note

wooo! the crossover is out and now i get to start a new one!

ch. 51 In Ponyville

The train came to a halt. Passengers started to get off and into town. Out of one of the cars came a large group mainly consisted of pokemon. Once they had all gotten off, one of them started to call off names.

“Okay, Matrix, you’ve got Grumpig. Kya, you’re with Sparks. Midnight and Caddi are together. Linoone and Ziggs are here, as well as Citrus, Angela, Ben and I. Did I forget anyone?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“Good. Okay, we’re gonna be here for three days. We need to find someplace that we can stay at until we leave then. We also want to visit Arceus, but with everything else that needs to be done, we might have to do that tomorrow.”

A few of the visitors groaned. “Well if you want to do it today, I suggest we start looking for a place to stay. Kya, think you would be good at that. Sparks, stay with your mom and Angela, make sure they don’t do anything we’ll regret.”

The second Lea finished her sentence, Sparks sped off. Kya quickly went off after him, and, after she sighed, Angela followed.

Lea told most of the others to go look around but kept Matrix with her. “I want to try and go to this town’s library at some point, but first we need to find where it is. I’ll carry Grumpig for a while now if you help.”

Matrix nodded. “Sure, just as long as we get to explore later.”

Sparks was running off into the town, excited to explore a new place. Kya was right behind him, trying to make sure he didn’t get lost. Trailing angrily behind the two of them was Angela, starting to curse under her breath.

Soon, the three of them came to an area packed with ponies. Sparks was small enough that he was able to easily get through while the other two lost him in the crowd. The little Dunsparce went a bit further when he saw two beings he had never seen before. He thought they might be pokemon, but after that one griffon he saw he wasn’t sure.

He quickly made his way up to the one that looked like it was wearing a dress and said “Pretty!”

“Hm?” The Gardevoir looked down at him and smiled. “Aww, hi there.”

Sparks nuzzled her then looked at her friend and nuzzled him too. “I like! Friend?”

“Oooh, you’re so cute!” She picked him up and smiled at the Gallade accompanying her. “Gene, can we keep him?”

Gene smiled and laughed. “We should make sure his parents aren’t around here first Belle.”

Sparks looked around, not seeing Kya. “Mommy?” He teared up a little upon not seeing the Quilava.

“Aw, don’t cry cutie pie,” Belle said, wiping away his tears. “We’ll help you find your mom.”

From the crowd, Kya finally made her way to the other side and saw Sparks. The first two things she registers was he was with psychics, and her son was crying. “Oh my goodness, Sparks! Ember!”

The fire type launched her attack at Gene and Belle before quickly grabbing Sparks away. “Angela! Help!”

Gene pulled his hat off and shook out a bit of fire clinging to the brim. “Okay, that was weird,” he looked over at Belle. “You alright?”

She nodded. “I’m fine... should we go after them? Make sure the little guys okay?”

Before the pair could Angela Came out from the crowd with a very angry look on her face. ‘If we weren’t related, I swear I could kill Kya. She always makes me take on the psychics. This is the fourth time! Why keep giving me all these false alarms?’

Gene noticed the approaching Absol and stepped in front of Belle. “Can I help you?” He asked wearily.

“I just want to know if this is just Kya being stupid again and calling me for another false alarm.”

“Um... we just got attacked by a Quilava after we found a little Dunsparce who was looking for his mom.” Belle explained. “Is that who you’re talking about?”

Angela gave a large sigh. “Yep, that’s her. The Dunsparce is her son and she has a terrible fear of psychics. I can’t really blame her for it since she was almost killed twice because of one, but I still don’t like her using me to fix the problems she causes.”

“It’s okay,” Gene said. “We’re kinda use to getting attacked out of the blue by random people.”

“Here, let me get her to apologise. Kya! Get over here right now!”

The Quilava carefully came back with Sparks on her back, eyeing the psychics. She stopped walking towards them when she was standing right next to Angela. “Say you’re sorry, or I’m letting them hold Sparks.”

Kya stared at Angela before crying out, “Nuuuuu! I’m sorry! Just don’t hurt my baby!”

Belle smiled gently before kneeling down in front of her. “Don’t worry, we’d never hurt a child.”

“And we forgive you for attacking us,” Gene added.

Angela sighed again. “Now that that’s over with, My names Angela, she’s Kya and this little guy is Sparks. We just arrived on the train from Hoofington with our group.”

“I’m Belle, and this is my husband Gene,”

“Hi.” Gene said with a wave.

“We live here.”

“That’s nice.” Angela said smiling. “Hey, do you know if there’s any place for us to stay around here? We’re gonna be here for the next few days and currently we don’t know where to look.”

“There’s one hotel, and a few ponies we know would let you stay with them if you asked nicely.” Gene replied.

“Thanks, do you know which way we should head? Then Kya and Sparks can stay there then I can find the others in my group.”

“Hotels that way,” Gene said, motioning down one of the streets.

Angela nodded to them and started off down the street. Kya glanced at the pair before following after while Sparks gave a wave with his tail. “Bee-bye!”

Belle giggled and waved back, while Gene smiled at her before placing a hand over her belly and kissing her cheek.

Citrus had decided to go through the town by herself. She remembered coming here once where she was younger, but it was somewhat fuzzy. A few of the buildings looked familiar, but she was heading for one shop in particular. “Let’s see, It shouldn’t be too far from town hall.”

The unicorn found the town hall after a little bit of searching, and figured out where to go from there, but instead of the place she was looking for, there was a new shop. Deciding to find out what it was now, Citrus walked into the shop and was greeted by the tinkling of a bell as she opened the door.

“Just a minute~” Someone responded melodically from upstairs.

Citrus looked around. Inside were mannequins for creating dresses instead of the old baskets of flowers she remembered when she was a filly. She guessed that was why the birthday presents from her aunt of flowers from here had stopped coming instead of her just being too old.

“Sorry about that,” a white Unicorn said as she trotted down the stairs. “Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where everything is chique, unique, and magnifique~ My name is Rarity, how may I help you this fine day?”

Citrus looked a little sheepish. “Sorry, I-I just came to look at this place. I came here once when I was younger and thought I was coming to the same shop. I guess you took ownership since then.”

Rarity sighed. “Oh it’s perfectly alright dear, I’ve just been working on some new designs, a distraction is probably a good thing. Lets new ideas flow... and lets me remember that I forgot to eat breakfast this morning.”

“Would you like me to help you? I think I’ve got some experience from my one friend.” Citrus volunteered.

“Oh no darling, I wouldn’t want to impose.”

“Well, I don’t really have much to do for a while. I only just got here, and the rest of my friends went off in their different ways.” The door opened again and in came another unicorn and a thestral. “At least I thought they would have. Hi Midnight, hi… Kiwi.”

“Hello~” Rarity greeted them with a smile. “Welcome to Carousel Boutique, home of the chique, unique, and magnifique~”

“Ooo! Midnight! Look at all the dresses! They’re so pretty!” the mare said before going back and forth between the ones in the room.

“Kiwi, careful. You don’t want to exert yourself too much. By the way, I’m Midnight is you didn’t figure that out yet.”

“Nice to meet you darling,” Rarity said. “I am Rarity, owner of this establishment. So, how may I help you today?”

“Midnight? Can I get a dress? And which would I look cute in?”

The thestral rolled his eyes. “Caddi, you know you could make any of them look cute if you wanted.”

Caddi pouted. “I know but I want one that looks cute on me normally. And don’t call me by that! It’s not just friends here. I-it’s embarrassing.”

Rarity giggled. “Oh my stars, you two are simply precious!”

Caddi blushed and made a weird sound. “Nyeeeeeeh!”

Citrus walked over to Caddi and shook her. “Do you want to keep making it more embarrassing for you?! Just go pick a dress. And if you don’t mind, you two can stay while I go explore some more.” And Citrus went back outside.

Rarity smiled and led Kiwi into the dressing room. “Come along dear, I’m sure we can find something that’ll suit you just right.”

The unicorn followed Rarity as Midnight smirked at his girlfriend.

Lea and Matrix had finally found a pony that told them where the library was in the town. Grumpig had woken up once, but she had quickly been put back to sleep.

“Do you think this could have any long term effects?” Lea asked and they drew nearer to the tree that held the Ponyville Library. “I mean, I know she did do some pretty bad things, but she was raised that way and I don’t want her to be too hurt.”

Matrix shrugged as best he could as the walked. “I don’t know. Who knows maybe there’s a book in the library.”

Lea smiled at that and picked up her pace, quickly getting into the library. Not really paying attention to anything else in the room, she used Psychic to bring multiple books towards her to see the titles and put them back when she realised she didn’t want them.

“Um... hi?” A purple Alicorn said, suddenly noticing the Pokemon.

“Shh! Reading!” Lea exclaimed quietly, not looking up from the books.

“... okay,” she began to reorganize the shelves, putting the books that the Umbreon hadn’t wanted back in their correct places.

Matrix went up next to Lea. “Um, I think you should look who was just talking.”

Lea didn’t look up at all. “Matrix, be quiet! This is a library! Besides the fast I get this done, the sooner we can get rid of her.” she said, giving a slight gesture to Grumpig.

“What’d she do?” The Alicorn asked. “And why is she asleep?”

“Evil mon, almost killed most of my family, took control of my sister to make her kill us. We dealt with it.” Lea said like it was nothing at all.

Twilight sighed. “You know, a few weeks ago that would’ve made me freak out,” she walked over to the sleeping Grumpig and poked her. “I can send a letter to Celestia, I think they’re working on ways to hold Pokemon up in Canterlot.”

Lea shook her head. “Nah, we were going to see Arceus, and if he doesn’t do anything, then I can just turn her in once we leave Ponyville for Canterlot in three days.”

“What are you gonna ask him to do? I don’t think he has a prison in there... then again, I heard there’s a library and a pool...”

“Who knows.” Lea answered before setting the book she had on the ground in front of her.. “Aha! This book mentions Poison Joke!”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Um... why do you need that?”

Lea glanced up for a second before returning to the book. “I want to learn how to grow it. Some plants have different effects depending on what part of it you use. I happen to need part of the poison joke plant to make… Wait a second.” Lea looked back up. “Th-that’s the Ponyville princess! Princess Twilight! Or would just Twilight do?”

“Just Twilight’s fine,” she said with a smile. “So what are you making with the Poison Joke?”

“An Equestria version of the potions we used back home. It took a while, and I ended turning pink more than once, but it was worth it.”

“That sounds really interesting,” Twilight said, eyes widening. “Juniper’s been trying to get some things from Earth working here too, not sure if she’s moved on to potions yet. Last I checked she was still trying to build a Pokedex from scratch.”

“Good! And remind her to fix some of those entries. Magcargo could not be as hot as that machine says it is. Otherwise our world would have been non existent.”

Twilight laughed. “I’ll remember that, and if Arceus can’t do anything about her,” she pointed at Grumpig. “Just bring her back here, I can have the guards arrest her and take her to Canterlot.”

“Thanks. Got it. Do you know where the librarian is? I want to check out this book.”

“That’s me!” Twilight said with a smile.

Lea’s eyes widened. “Ooo! That sounds cool! A princess and keeper of books! Anyway, do I need to do anything to check it out or just promise to return it?”

“Just promise to return it in good condition, you seem pretty trustworthy.”

“I got it. Come on Matrix.” Lea lifted Grumpig back onto her back. “Let’s go see how everyone else is doing.”

“Come back anytime!” Twilight called after them.

Ziggs and Linoone had decided to search the town in hopes that Linoone’s mate might be there. Ziggs was helping but kept getting distracted by a sweet smell in the air. Eventually, the Zigzagoon started to follow the smell, forcing Linoone to follow his son.

Ziggs came upon a place that looked like it was made from food, but the smell was coming from inside. He sneakily made his way inside towards the smell, hoping to find it’s origin.

“Hi!” A squeaky, cheerful voice greeted him.

Ziggs jumped at the voice and looked towards the source. Right in his face was a very pink pony with a very fluffy mane.

“My names Pinkie Pie! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! What’s your name? What type of Pokemon are you? Do you want something to eat?”

With every question, Pinkie’s face had gotten closer to Ziggs. Eventually he had fallen over onto his back. “Um, hi. Thank you. Ziggs. Zigzagoon, or normal if that’s what you meant. And maybe?”

Pinkie smiled at Zigg. “Hi Ziggs, it’s nice to meet you.” She patted his head. “I like your fur, it’s spiky.”

At that point, Linoone came in to see Pinkie talking to Ziggs. The Zigzagoon gave a small wave to his dad, making Pinkie look towards the Linoone. “Sorry if I’m interrupting, but what did you find Ziggs?”

“This place and this pony. I think this is a dessert place.”

“Yepperoni! This is Sugarcube Corner, we have cakes and cupcakes and brownies and cookies and pies and so much more!”

“Do you have candy apples? My friend Sparks really likes them. I saw him eat one the other day in just one bite.”

“We sure do!” Pinkie zipped off, and zipped back a few seconds later holding a candy apple. “Here you go.”

“Could I maybe have it wrapped or packaged or something for him?” Ziggs asked, before rummaging through the bag Linoone had with him. “I think this is enough bits for it.”

“Okie dokie!” Pinkie grabbed the bits, tossed the apple in the air, and plastic wrapped it before it hit the ground. “Hope your friend likes it.” She said, handing it over to them.

Ziggs didn’t say anything or even move as he stared at the now wrapped apple. Finally, Linoone sighed and put his son on his back, thanked Pinkie Pie, grabbed the candy apple, and left.

Ben was sitting on a bench in the park. He didn’t really have anything he wanted to do. It felt good to have some time to relax instead of be on alert almost twenty four seven. He watched and various ponies and pokemon had some fun of their own. Ben smiled as he saw three fillies run past with the Kanto starters. “Huh, I guess ponies are starting to become trainers now.” Ben gave a small laugh from thinking about it, making the Bulbasaur look over.

Bulbasaur poked one of the fillies with a vine and drew her attention to Ben. “Howdy Mister,” she said with a country accent. “Ah haven’t seen you around here before.”

“I’m new. Just came from Hoofington. I’m taking some time to relax before my group and I meet up again.” Ben explained. “It’s nice to see you guys are getting along well with pokemon.”

“We’re gonna be Pokemon Trainers!” The orange Pegasus said with a smile.

“I could tell. I remember when I started as a trainer. Unlike some trainers who go to a professor for their first pokemon, I got mine from my uncle. How did you meet yours?”

The six of them all looked at each other and smiled. “We just kinda found them around Ponyville,” the unicorn answered.

“Oh really? You three must have gotten rather lucky to get those three instead of different starters.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you three just happened to get the three from Kanto.” Ben told them. “In all there are eighteen different starters, and technically you could have come across any pokemon to be your partners. The fact you got those three is a little surprising, but in a good way.”

“Whoa, that sounds like some kind of destiny thing,” the Earth Pony said with a grin. “Maybe that’ll be how we get our Cutie Marks!”

“Um... no offense Applebloom, but I don’t think we can get Cutie Marks for having Pokemon from a place back on Earth.” The Unicorn pointed out.

“Well... maybe your right Sweets,” Applebloom admitted sadly. “But we can still get ‘em for Pokemon Training!”

Ben noticed that they didn’t have Cutie Marks Like Copper Star and Citrus. “Wait… maybe she’s on to something there.” Ben said, gesturing to Applebloom. “Maybe it’s not because of where your Pokemon are from, but if you three friends happened to have that happen with such a small chance, maybe your paths are interlocked.” Ben closed his eyes. “Well, more than they would normally be. Everything is connected to everything else in one way or another. If one could know the acts of everything in the universe, they can predict all outcomes and learn what will happen.”

Ben opened his eyes to see the fillies staring at him. He rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry, I guess sometimes the things my sensei taught me come back when I don’t realize it.”

“That sounds really cool.” Scootaloo said, eyes wide.

“Well, it’s nothing much, I know a couple of other things from him too since I practically lived at his school. My parents were away a bunch and I ended up staying after for a while every day. from that, I sort of became his favorite.”

“Are you a ninja?” Applebloom asked.

Ben stared for a few seconds before laughing out loud a little bit. “N-no, I’m not a ninja. I was trained in karate. I became a black belt a few years before we all came to Equus.”

“Aww... still cool though.” Scootaloo said.

“Hey, ah know some karate too!” Applebloom added.

“Oh really?” Ben asked. “Mind showing me? I kinda want to see if it’s different from how I did it back on Earth seeing as we’re built differently.”

“Sure thing!”

Ben watched Applebloom and shortly joined her. After about two minutes, the others got them to stop.

“Sorry, I guess I got us distracted there.” Ben apologised.

“It’s okay,” Scootaloo said. “But we gotta get going.”

“Oh shoot,” Applebloom said. “Ah forgot, we gotta go meet Korrina at the farm!”

The fillies and their Pokemon rushed off. “By Ben, it was nice meeting you!”

Ben waved them off and started to walk away before he stopped in his tracks. ‘Korrina? As in the gym leader.’ He looked back, but couldn’t see the fillies or their pokemon. ‘Huh, man, wish I could have gone with them. Oh well.’

Lea picked up Sparks as he went past her. “Sparks, why are you out here? Where’s your mom?”

He flapped his little wing. “Hotel.”

Lea looked happy. “You three found one?! Can you take us to it?”

Sparks started to go down the street with the two Umbreon following him. Along the way, the three had to stop when Caddi literally crashed into them. “Sorry about that. I’m just all excit- hey where are you going?”

Matrix told Caddi, Midnight and Citrus that they were going to the hotel they they would be staying at. before too long, all of them had gotten to the hotel. They went up to the floor they were on and to the room Sparks knocked on. From inside, Ben opened the door.

“Oh hey, I guess Sparks found you. We’re still waiting on Linoone and Ziggs, but Angela went out to find those two. Meanwhile I’ve been watching Kya.”

The one hotel room was small, but the group had rented two right next to each other that were connected by two back to back doors, one in each of the rooms. Apparently the rooms had already been separated. Lea, Matrix, Angela, Sparks, Linoone, Ziggs, and Grumpig were going to stay in one room. Caddi, Citrus, Midnight, and Ben would stay in the other.

When Angela finally arrived with Linoone and Ziggs, she went straight to one of the beds. “Give me like, five minutes before I have to do anything else.”

Ziggs showed Sparks the candy apple he got for the Dunsparce, and unwrapped it for his friend. In the blink of an eye, all that was left was the stick, just like last time.

Lea smiled, but then spoke up. “So, we did everything we wanted to do before seeing Arceus rather quickly, so I think we can go. Who wants to come?”

Angela had decided to carry Grumpig through the forest for this trip. Caddi had gotten directions from Bluegrass before they left that would help them get through the Everfree, though none of them knew the exact location of the Hall of Legends. Lea was following right behind her, carrying Sparks for Kya.

“Okay, from What Bluegrass told me, we should try to follow this path to the left. That should hopefully lead us to where we want to go.”

Midnight sighed. “Why can’t I just fly up over the treetops to see if I can find it?”

Caddi’s eyes stared into space as she processed what Midnight had told her. Slowly, she brought one of her hooves up to her face and slapped it. “Yeah, yeah. Yep! Just, just do it. Augh! Why didn’t I think of that!”

Midnight flew above the trees before quickly coming back down and helped lead the group. Before long, they had made it to the temple, which they saw was guarded by the legendary Regi’s.

After a few beeps and boops from each of the Golems, Regice stepped forward. “State your business here.”

“We came to speak to Arceus if he doesn’t mind.” Lea answered. “I wanted to ask a few things that have been on my mind for a while and I think only he would have the ans- Caddi what are you doing?”

Lea had turned her attention to Caddi, who was back as a changeling at looked to be concentrating really hard on something.

“Give me a second…” And Caddi changed into a small, deeper blue version of Regice before quickly changing back. “Aww, dangit.”

The Regi’s didn’t react, rather they simply stepped out of the way as the Temple doors opened slowly.

“Enter.” Registeel said robotically.

Midnight dragged Caddi along with them when she tried again to become one of the Regi’s. Lea led the group in, just a little nervous about coming there.

After a few minutes of walking, the group entered what they figured was likely the main chamber. Partially due to its size, partially due to the fact that Arceus was waiting for them there.

The god smiled at them. “Welcome my children, to the Hall of Legends.”

When Lea didn’t respond, Matrix did instead. “Thank you for allowing us to come.” He nudged Lea in the ribs. “YES THANK YOU!” She yelled, before quickly covering her mouth and apologising.

Arceus laughed. “It’s quite alright, now then, I assume you have a reason for coming here?”

“Um, yeah, uh, I kinda wanted to ask a few things.” Lea reached for her bags and pawed through them before she realized she had forgotten her list. “Shoot, let me try and remember them all.”

She paused for a second before remembering a few. “Okay, the first one is about ghost pokemon. I know there are a few that come from the souls of humans or pokemon, so does that mean there will be new ones because of the ponies?”

“Hmm... I don’t know about new species, but I assume ponies could end up as Ghost Pokemon after they die.”

“Alright… next is why we can’t speak normally. I mean, I had heard of a few cases where pokemon learned English back home. And I’m almost definitely sure that it’s the same language here. So that means that pokemon can speak in a way ponies can understand. Why is it the former humans can’t do that?”

Arceus shifted a bit in the air. “I... think I overlooked the language when I moved everyone here, didn’t realize it’d reset the human’s vocal cords, and with everything that’s been going on lately, I haven’t gotten around to fixing that.”

Lea nodded. She could see that happening. “Okay, my next question is if it would be possible to get something that got left back on Earth. I kinda wish I had my apocalypse papers back.” Lea waited for a second before realizing how it sounded. “I mean, I call them that because it’s filled with stuff I would want if there was a disaster or something like that.”

Arceus closed his eyes. “Where they with you when I brought you here?”

“In a safe in the second floor of my house back in Cherrygrove City. On top of them were my team’s Pokeballs which I had just put them in to hide them. I didn’t know what was going to happen next or I wouldn’t have put them in there.”

Arceus didn’t respond for a few seconds, then the air in front of them erupted in an explosion of gold and a safe, along with a large portion of drywall, crashed to the ground. “Oh... sorry.”

Lea opened the safe and saw it exactly as it had been when she closed it except for a pile of dust where the pokeballs had been. Lea carefully took out the folder and blew off the dust, stamping on the particles for good measure. Opening the folder, she took out a few papers, quickly looked through them and took about half of them away from the others. She laid them in front of Kya who quickly burned them.

“Okay, now we’re safe. Sorry about that.” Lea said to Arceus.

“Out of curiousity, what was in those?”

“The ones I just burnt were part of a patent that explained how to make pokeballs. The only reason those were there is I was trying to create something like a pokeball that would work on any pokemon, caught or not and temporarily hold them that way if they were very seriously injured they could easily be brought to a Pokemon Center or a place like that so they could be healed without putting them in danger of getting worse. I was even hoping to figure out a way for it to hopefully work on humans too.”

“Hmm, I bet Sliph Co. wasn’t too happy about that, they take their top product quite seriously.”

“It wasn’t too hard. I had a bunch of connections in the Johto region from my dad. Kurt helped me a little and I had some help from my job too. But anyway, speaking of my dad, I haven’t seen him since even before I got to meet Kya and take her home. Do you know if he made it over?”

Arceus closed his eyes again, then opened them. “He’s here.”

“D-do you know where he is?” Lea asked, nervous he would be far away.

“Canterlot,” Arceus replied.

Lea gave a large sigh of relief before Kya started to bounce around her. “We’re gonna find Grandpa. We’re gonna find Grandpa!”

Kya chanted a few more times before colliding into Midnight. “Sorry. Didn’t see you there.”

Midnight rubbed her head. “Hey, there’s nothing you could have done about about it. Which reminds me. When are you going to ask about Grumpig?”

Lea’s eyes widened. “Shoot! Yeah. Okay, Long story short, this Grumpig here kinda tried to kill us.”

Arceus sighed. “How did I mess up this time?”

“Not your fault.” Angela told him. “I blame Gale. She messed all of us up. Now I don’t care what really happens as long as I can learn one thing from her. Problem is she’s probably not going to tell me so I was wondering if maybe you can help.”

The rest of the group looked at Angela with odd looks on their faces. She hadn’t mentioned anything like this before.

“I can find out anything you need from her,” Arceus answered.

“I want the names of everyone Gale and gotten after I left that’s still alive. If possible, I just want to keep it to myself. It’d be better if all of them weren’t worried by it too.”

Arceus nodded and pulled his Psychic Plate from his pocket dimension. “Alright, let’s see what we’ve got.”

Angela was silent for a few seconds as she gained the information she had wanted. In a few seconds when opened them again and thanked Arceus.

“No problem,” he said, removing his Psychic Plate. “What’s next?”

Lea looked back and forth between Arceus and Angela. “Ummm… I have… no idea. Do you guys have anything you want to ask?”

Caddi raised her hoof. “I wanna try something.” The changeling went in the same position she was in before they met with Arceus, which caused Midnight to start taking her away. “No, you’re not going to strain yourself anymore, and I won’t let you even try to become him.”

Kya laughed and fell on her back. “If it’s not too much trouble, maybe someone could fix my eye.” She half asked the god.

“Done,” Arceus said with a smile, blasting a concentrated Heal Pulse at her.

“I can see!” Kya exclaimed.

Lea rolled her eyes. “I think that’s all. I don’t want to ask for too much.”

“Well, come back anytime,” Arceus said with a smile.

Lea nodded to the god and helped push everyone out of the temple. As she left, Angela turned back and said. “Listen, I really don’t care too much about Grumpig, but even though she’s done a whole lot, there’s still someone she cares for desperately, so she still should have one last chance at that.”

Arceus nodded. “I’ll make sure of it.”

Angela nodded back to Arceus, before following her group towards the door. They gave her a few questioning looks. Sparks was the last out and stopped just before leaving to turn back to Arceus and say “Bee-bye!” He then quickly followed after his family, not wanting to be left behind.

Author's Note

I LIVE!!!!!! AND RETURN!!!
Zeus: I had a lot of fun writing both of these chapters!
oh yeah, there's gonna be a second one, but because i'm gonna disappear for a bit more while i work on the next crossover, well..... i'll see you next week.

ch. 53 Too Much

Lea ran as fast as she could. She heard a few ponies or pokemon call to stop, but they didn’t try to make her. Eventually she found herself near the Everfree Forest. She only took a glance at where she was before heading straight into it. Eventually, she stumbled on some tree roots or some other plant. Lea landed face first into the ground. It happened to be wet, so her face was covered with mud.

She pulled herself out and made her way to a nearby tree to take a break. She had trouble relaxing even a little from all the sounds from animals in the forest. It left the Umbreon tense for a bit, but her exhaustion won out. Just a few seconds after closing her eyes, the former human had fallen asleep.

A growl woke her up again. She looked around but realized how dark it was. Knowing the sun and moon in this world worked almost exactly like clocks, Lea looked up. Unfortunately, the trees covered up too much of the sky. Though she could tell it was night, the moon wasn’t visible, which helped explained why it was so dark and she wasn’t glowing.

Lea finally seemed to react to the next growl she hear. Or, more likely, the smell. The Umbreon whipped her head around, her muzzle scrunched in disgust. She new every kind of pokemon, hard as it was, though she couldn’t always remember how they looked and some she couldn’t name off the top of her head. Still, the former human knew, without a doubt, that this couldn’t possibly be a pokemon, though she guessed if it were, it was ghost and plant.

She shook her head. The creatures were coming closer. She didn’t have time to dwell on what they were. All she needed to know was they looked ready to kill. If she were a normal pokemon, Lea might have beaten them with no trouble. Being a former human, however, she had trouble defending herself sometimes, especially under pressure.

Before she could react, one of the wood creatures had pounced and landed on her. She yelled as it bit her side. She tried using shadow ball, but it was weak and only surprised it. Before long, the whole group was attacking her. Lea’s body felt like it was burning up from all the pain. She felt tired enough from blood loss that she almost closed her eyes and knock out. But while a pokemon would stop, These creatures kept attacking.

Eventually, Lea felt to exhausted to try and get away and focused on staying awake. One of the wood creatures seemed to notice and pulled her across the ground. The rest seemed to follow it, so she guessed it was the leader. Lea started to notice her vision was not the best. ‘Blurry. Guess that’s it then.’ Finally, the Umbreon closed her eyes. She thought she heard something as sleep consumed her, or was it death.

Everything was white and bright. Lea wanted to look around, but she felt to tired to move. Her eyes were squinted from the light. Her hearing seemed to kick in a bit later. Voices were talking and there was a sound next to her that was slowly starting to become annoying.

Lea’s throat was too dry for her to talk normally and ask where she was. Instead, she was just left with a small croaking noise. She found it ironic that she made such a noise.

The voices went silent and she could hear some kind of movement. She could feel herself being moved to a point that she was no longer looking straight at the light. Instead, her vision was directed on a pony. The mare seemed to have a mint colored mane in a bun and a coat the color of periwinkle.

“Oh good, you’re awake. It wasn’t another false alarm. Floral? Can you find the family and tell them she’s woken up?”

Lea heard the pony that was being spoken to call the periwinkle one Tender. Lea tried to ask Tender where she was, or what happened, but she still had trouble speaking. The mare seemed to realize this and quickly got her a little bit of water to drink. Some dribbled out out Lea’s mouth, but with her condition and the mare’s lack of magic, it was to be at least somewhat expected.

Finally, Lea was able to ask her questions, though with some difficulty. The pony answered as best as she could. She was in the hospital in ponyville. She had been attacked by something in the Everfree and a friend of hers had saved her. She’d been out for a while, marking this the second time that she could remember that was near death for her.

One of the pokemon that had started to help out in the hospital had been doing as best as they could to heal her quickly. There had been some complications, as the healing had left in some splinters that had made their way far into Lea’s body. They assumed Timberwolves, to which Lea agreed.

This made Tender panic for a second before she calmed down again. “Sorry, I forgot for a second that your kind of pokemon have some amounts of poison going through you already. Your friend says Umberon can sweat poison. So I’m guessing that if you did come in contact with a poisonous timberwolf, you seem to have no effects.”

Lea corrected the nurse on how to say her pokemon name before asking what she meant about the timberwolves. Tender explained how timberwolves are made of the plants from the Everfree. If those plants happened to be poisonous, they could be very dangerous.
It was then that Lea could hear her family coming in. Kya was the first voice she recognized from the group. The Quilava seemed to want to jump onto her mom the moment she was in the room, but the nurse stopped her. Matrix was the next voice she heard.

“How is she doing? I know she was bad when I found her. Is there anything else wrong that you’ve found?”

The nurse asked Matrix to calm down. “She’s fine. Other than being attacked, she seems to have been hit on the head. Fortunately because you pokemon are so resilient, she didn’t get a concussion, but you may want to try and stay away from and physical trauma. You might not know when enough is enough, and too much trauma can actually cause memory loss.”

It was then Lea could see the time. Her eyes widened at what she saw. “We’re gonna be late!”

The Umbreon ignored how much she ached and started to get up. Tender tried to keep the former human down, but she refused. “I bought tickets for Canterlot the day we got here. I need to pack my bags so we don’t miss the train.”

The nurse kept trying to get Lea to keep resting, but eventually, the pokemon won. The second Lea was let out, she wanted to run to the room they were staying in and pack her stuff, but Linoone wanted her to first see the others. Caddi, Midnight and Citrus hadn’t been let in since they were only friends while family was present.

They left the room and found their friends in the lobby of the hospital. Caddi was the first to notice Lea coming out and zoomed to hug her. The former human liked the tackle-hug at first, but it started to hurt after a bit and she had to push away the changeling.

Looking around, Lea noticed Angela was nowhere to be seen. Lea was half glad, though she was wondering where her adopted sister was. Sparks seemed to notice that and answered with his limited vocabulary. “Angy pack stuff! Train meet!”

Lea sighed, though she wasn’t sure if it was from relief that the Absol wasn’t around right then, or that she wouldn’t have to pack after getting hurt. Either way, Lea followed as everyone went towards the train station. Midnight was the only one who didn’t, as he left to find Angela and help her carry everything to the station. As they all walked. Lea was on of the few who was silent. The others talked about everything that had liked about Ponyville, what they couldn’t wait to see in Canterlot, and also a little bit about thinking about home.

Matrix saw that Lea was trailing behind the group and slowed down a bit to walk next to her. He tried to ask Lea what was wrong, but she refused to talk. The shiny pokemon decided he would get something for his partner to eat, seeing as how she had slept through most of a day and most likely hadn’t had anything since lunch the day before.

Sparks and Ziggs had made one last stop at Sugarcube corner and gotten even more candy apples. Linoone scolded them for using up so much money on the sweets, but was nicer after he had gotten one. The candy made Lea smile for a bit, but she was back to frowning before long. When Angela and Midnight returned, they didn’t have to wait long before the train arrived. Caddi took the tickets and gave them to the conductor as the group got on. Lea went straight to a car with beds in it. Seeing as how she had slept for around a full day already, Matrix followed her in.

When Matrix was sure it was just the two of them, he started to talk. “Lea, stop pretending.”
The former human looked at him in confusion. “What do you mean?”
Matrix shook his head. “I mean, I can tell something’s wrong. You’re keeping something bottled up.”

“Matrix, just leave it alone.”

“No!” Matrix said somewhat forcefully, which surprised Lea. “When something happens, I stand by because it’s usually something small. Ever since we ended up on Equus, you’ve been separating yourself from everyone even more.”

“Matrix, You know I woul-”

“Shut UP!” Matrix yelled, baring his teeth at Lea. “You may try to be with others, but you keep the important things in. I want to know what’s happened. You’re getting worse every day. And I don’t want you to keep anything hidden, you’ve done enough of that already.”

Lea was too shocked to do much. She stared at her brother wondering both if she really had been that obvious and if he really needed to know everything. As she stood there, a few tears went down her face, though she didn’t notice them. Not wanting to wait any longer, Matrix brought Lea over to somewhere to sit so he could hear the full story.

“Ahh! No! Daddy!” Lea shot up in her bed.

Her face was wet and her nose felt clogged. Her nightlight gave her enough light to move around her messy room without tripping. The hallway was darker, but she knew the way to the bathroom.

The little girl closed the door to the bathroom before turning on the light. She took some of the toilet paper and blew her nose. On her tip toes, Lea could see her eyes were red and she still had some snot on her face. She wiped her face before she washed it. The wash cloth made it a little pink, but at least it was cleaner.

Lea went back to her room and grabbed a flashlight. She use it to look at the clock on her nightstand. It said that it was only a bit before two in the morning. Even though Lea had gotten back in bed, she didn’t want to go to sleep.

She was terrified by her nightmares. She didn’t really know what they were like before. Lea barely even had dreams when she slept. Mainly she only saw colors. Her dad had told her it might be something related to hypnagogia, but he hadn’t checked yet.

Finally, Lea decided just to go downstairs and get something to eat. She didn’t bother being quiet, there wasn’t really anyone in the house to wake up. Linoone might, But he sometimes slept outside. Before long. Lea fell asleep at the table, glad not to have another nightmare.

Lea’s grades had been dropping. She didn’t sleep as much and barely ate. Her teachers were worried and wanted to schedule a meeting with her dad. Unfortunately, they could never get ahold of him.

They weren’t as worried though. Lea was a smart student, and she was only getting a C in her worst class. Still, wanting to contact someone, they called a friend of Lea’s dad to see if he he could catch him.

“Hello, is this Pryce?”
“Yeah, who else would it be? What do you need?”
“I’m the principle at the Cherrygrove City. We know you’re friends with one of the student’s parents. A man by the name of Samuel Sumisu.”
“...”
“Hello, are you still there?”
“Yeah, I’m still here. What do you need.”
“Well, his daughter has been doing badly lately.”
“Lea?”
“Yes, her. Her grades have dropped recently and she seems tired all day. We’ve tried to contact her father, but he has never been home when we call.”
“I believe I can find the time to visit them. Thank you for your call.”
“You’re welcome.”

There was a knock at the door. Lea jumped at first, but realized it didn’t sound forceful like the police had. She called Linoone over in case something happened before opening the door. The person at the door made Lea smile. “Pryce! Why are you here?”

“I came looking for your father. He and I need to talk.”

Lea looked at the ground. “He’s not home.” The gym leader asked when he would be back. “I don’t know, he’s been gone a while.”

“Oh? How long? He might be back soon if it’s been a few hours or so.”

Lea shook her head. “No, longer. I haven’t seen him for a month.”

Pryce stared at her for a bit before shaking his head. “Now don’t exaggerate. He can’t have been gone that long.”

But Lea insisted. She told him how one day her dad was gone, and how the police came, and the nightmares, and how she had been living alone for so long. Pryce didn’t want to believe her at first, but he didn’t think Lea would try to make up a story like that.

After that, Pryce tried to make sure Lea was in a good condition, getting some of her father’s other friends to help as well.

Jasmine was both sad and happy. She was sad she would be gone from Olivine city for a few days, but she had made sure any challengers would know she would be back soon and Amphy seemed fine. Even though she had only met Samuel a few times, the other gym leaders seemed to want to help.

It was her first time visiting Cherrygrove City. Jasmine had gotten the address of where she needed to go and found it quickly. It was in an area that had less housing areas and she recognized it from the Oran tree in the front yard she was told about.

Jasmine knocked lightly on the door. When no answer came, she knocked again, though this time it was louder. In a little bit, the door opened to a little girl. She asked who Jasmine was before opening the door for her to come in.

Nothing much happened. Jasmine helped Lea cook a dinner that was healthier than what the girl made herself. The most exciting thing that seemed to happen when a Linoone appeared and started going around like it had been there the whole time. When the gym leader asked Lea, she said how it had been he dad’s. Jasmine didn’t want to pry, but in a few minutes, Lea was crying anyway.

Jasmine continued to work on the dinner. She felt nervous being there, but she blocked it out as much as she could by imagining Lea was just Amphy. When she had finished, She put the food into the refrigerator for Lea to heat up later. She was going to wish Lea goodbye, but instead, the girl was gone and her father’s Linoone seemed to panicking. He kept running up the stairs, banging against something, then running back down.

As Jasmine ran up the stairs with Linoone to see what was wrong, she wished Pryce hadn’t convinced her to do this. Why couldn’t this girl live with someone else, or go to an orphanage. It had been a year, her father wouldn’t come back now.

One of the doors in the hallway upstairs was closed. It had an indent where Linoone kept running into it. When Jasmine tried the handle, it was unlocked. She guessed since usually the pokemon was there, Lea forgot she needed to lock it. Inside, the room was empty. It confused the gym leader before she saw the window was opened. Running to it and looking outside, she saw there was no type of balcony.

Above her was a short yell. Jasmine looked up at the roof to see Lea climbing on it heading towards the chimney. Jasmine called up as loud as she dared. Fortunately, Lea was able to hear it. Unfortunately, it made Lea speed up. Jasmine didn’t realize what was happening until Lea was on top of the chimney, standing up and looking at the ground. As Lea jumped off. Jasmine’s Steelix came out of it’s pokeball. He barely caught the girl before she reached the ground. The force of the stop had made one of her arms come out of it’s socket, But Jasmine helped fix it.

“What were you thinking? You’re glad I brought Rusty with me. Linoone? Can you make sure she doesn’t try to leave again. I need to call Pryce.”

It had been a while since Lea had met Angela. Still, Lea sometimes got nervous around her adopted sister. For the most part, the Absol didn’t show her emotions, and if she did, it was normally anger. Still, Lea knew there wasn’t really anything to be scared about. That was just how Angela acted.

Some of the fear did come from when Angela had mega evolved the first time. Even though the Absol still couldn’t control it, at least everyone knew what to expect. But even before then, there was still something making Lea wary. Before they had met Angela, the only Absol Lea had ever seen belonged to one of the people in the Team Rocket group that almost kidnapped Matrix.

The events of them meeting Kya didn’t help either. Both she and the Cryogonal there seemed to be staying there. Lea couldn’t help wondering why. The Cryogonal that been hostile, like it had been raised by someone evil or was evil itself. Could it have come from someone from Team Rocket?
Still, Lea didn’t want to think that way. There was such a small chance, she didn’t want to assume that was the case. Angela had saved them. She couldn’t have been that Absol. So why did Lea still have just a little bit of doubt?

Lea realized it wouldn’t be too hard to give up. Let them kill her. It wasn’t as if she’d get out soon. Arceus might have told the ponies they were sentient, but these ponies didn’t seem to care. Maybe pokemon liked to battle, but not like this, and Lea didn’t know how to use any moves.

The only thing still keeping Lea from giving up was her family. She didn’t want them to lose her like she had lost her dad. Still, she kept wondering if it was worth it. They wouldn’t be alone if she was the only one gone, they would still have each other. Besides, she didn’t know how much longer ponies would be interested in her. There were so few that came, that Lea wouldn’t be surprised if it came soon.

The Umbreon hoped she had been counting the days correctly. If so, it had been about a week. She gave a tired and weak laugh. How had she managed to stay this long? Maybe it really was time for her to give up. If she hadn’t gotten out in a week, why would she get out now?

When Ire came in, she looked especially angry. The second one of the dogs made a noise, she hit the door of the cage making it rattle loudly. Finally, she stopped at one a few down from Lea and yanked it out. As the unicorn looked around, she came towards where Lea was. The former human guessed this was it, she would give up and let this be her last day. But instead, Ire opened the cage just next to her.

The angry mare looked at Lea for a second. “Be glad that we were asked for normal fights today. But don’t look to happy, You’re still getting at least one match today. You may think you’re special, being able to last so long like this, but if you haven’t guessed, we’ve been going somewhat easy on you compared to what could have been.”

Lea wasn’t exactly sure what to think about that. Ire left without either of them saying anything else. She sat there for a while, dwelling on what had just happened. Maybe it was some kind of sign for her not to give up just yet. There was something there helping her keep going. And that was really all she needed.

In a bit, Quarry had walked in to give the animals food. Lea felt that it was off with coming now. When he arrived at her cage, the Umbreon though she saw a look of pity on his face. He gave Lea her food, and she was about to thank him, though she knew he couldn’t understand her. Before she could, however, the pegasus turned around and bucked the cage door, making Lea flinch. Maybe she was imagining things, but maybe it would get a little better soon.

Lea finished her story. Matrix stood there staring at Lea before he hugged her. “What brought up all of this?” He asked.

Lea sighed. “For me, when I work, things feel normal. It helps me block out anything bad happening. Angela kept trying to get me to stop and it made me get angry again. It made me think about how long I’ve had to wait, and with everything that’s been happening recently, I worry if I’ll ever actually find my dad. With our luck, he’ll be leaving Canterlot when we get there.”

“Don’t worry, We’ll find him.” Matrix reassured as she hugged her a bit tighter for a second. “We’ll find him. We’ll find… our dad.”

To the side, Somepony started crying. “Th-that was beautiful!” Caddi, sobbed. She pulled them in a big hug. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to you guys! I’ll make sure of it.”

Suddenly Caddi dropped them and stopped crying. “Well, as best I can. But I don’t know who will need more help in Canterlot. Can’t wait ‘til we’re there!”

Author's Note

oh look, more stuff from the past! and a character almost dies twice! can't wait until this story starts do be dark! ... what do you mean it already is? I barely made it dark
Oh yeah! they're going to Canterlot! you have to guess what that means

ch. 21 letter

Author's Note

Sorry this took so long to get out, but there are reasons. Good reasons...
ZEUS HELPED WITH THIS CHAPTER! *much fan-girling happens*
It took a while at first since he got sick, and i had been sick for a while too, and then there's the thing about time zones, but all in all, it worked out well for my first collab! :yay:
It also means the main story line is back instead of ones taking place elsewhere.
Zeus: Well, this is certainly shaping up nicely, I’m happy I could help with Tia for this chapter. Can’t wait to see what happens next.
Anyway, now that we've gotten through this, i'm thinking about looking for an editor since someone pointed it out a while back. The only reason i hadn't done anything yet is because i wanted this to come out first.
also there haven't been any question for the group lately. If you have any, you can go here to ask
anyway, we continue with after the party......

ch. 21 letter

The pokecenter group was working on cleaning up the party. Cheese Sandwich had left suddenly yelling about cheesy senses or something. The place was still a mess, so they in turn had to clean it up themselves.

Lea had found herself a few more snickerdoodles that had been left uneaten, but they were quickly taken from her before she could gobble them up. That caused the next problem: Caddi.

After eating one of the cookies they rescued from Lea, Caddi got the same look Lea had earlier, and went after the remaining cookies.

“THEY’RE MINE!” She yelled, running after anyone who had a cookie left.

“Now we know why Lea ate them so quickly!” Citrus exclaimed, trying to keep the cookie she had found away from Caddi. “Whatever you do, don’t eat them!”

Ziggs, who was running around with them, but not really helping in any way, stopped dead in his tracks. “I’VE BEEN CONTAMINATED!”

His voice could have given the Royal Canterlot Voice a run for it’s money. Everyone had to stop so they could cover their ears.

“What do you mean?” Linoone asked when he could finally hear again.

“I ate a couple earlier. I’m bound to go cookie crazy soon! Aren’t I?”

Angela shrugged, “I guess it’s just these two. Bad Lea!” She hit Lea on the back of her head.

“Alright, alright!” Midnight tried to calm everyone down. “Let’s just clean up and go back to our plans for the day. I know I have a lot to do, and with what’s been going on, so should all of you.”

Caddi pouted. “Awww, I was having fun.”

“WE WEREN’T!” Everyone else (‘cept Lea) yelled simultaneously.

“Yeah, let’s finish up.” Lea spoke up, and started back to work on cleaning up what was left of the party.

“Let’s see…” Lea ruffled through the papers on her desk until she pulled out the town map she had found a while back. The map was covered with pins all over it, along with notes describing possible sightings of Quarry and Ire.

“Lea?” Ben peeked into the room.

“Hey, didn’t see you at the party.” Lea answered, not turning away from her work.

“I was outside. It was a party, anyone could have been let in and any of them could have come for you.”

“Th-thanks. Now let me work.” Lea was slightly blushing.

“Hey! I’ve heard from your family about how you like to bury yourself with work when you don’t want to think about something. Obviously it’s not those two,” He gestured to the map. “since you seem to be working on that. The question is, what are you trying to block out?”
Lea sighed. “Did they tell you what happened at the party?”

“You ate every single snickerdoodle you could get your hands, uh, paws on. Is that really what’s got you down? You going on a cookie rampage?”

“No, that’s not the real reason. While they weren’t the same, they tasted almost the same and the cookies I had on my eighth birthday. I haven’t had any like those ones since then… well, until now.”

“Why not?” Ben asked, not realizing what he was getting himself into.

“That!” Lea exclaimed, a faint blue glow coming from her eyes, “Was the last birthday I got to celebrate with my father before he was taken away! And before they tried to do the same to me too!”

Her eyes glew a little brighter. “They tried to take away what family I had left and almost succeeded, but I promised myself I’d find my family again and that’s what I’ll do!”

The door literally slammed in Ben’s face, knocking him to the ground outside Lea’s office. Both of them were too flustered about what happened to notice what Lea had just done.

Back in her office. Lea pushed the map off the table. Under it were various papers she never remembered seeing before. Looking at them, she realized that they were recent, and were hidden under the map by whoever made them.

Reading the papers, Lea found they were all letters. None of them were finished, but they all were being sent to the same two ponies: The princesses Celestia and Luna. The unfinished letters were Midnight’s attempts at writing to them.

A few of the letters she could see were pretty bad, with parts all crossed off. Others she couldn’t tell why he had stopped. Her reasoning was he didn’t know how to continue from what he had already written. One letter, however, was different from the others. The name at the top was different from them and was finished. It was a letter to Caddi from Midnight. Well, technically, it was for Kiwi Lime.

Lea decided it was best for her to leave it alone, and set everything up so that it looked like she had never touched the letters. When she finished Lea went back down to see Midnight, but had forgotten he had left already.

“Ben! Where did Midnight go? I need to talk to him.”

“He went to help work on fixing the police station but he said-”

“Thanks!” Lea called slamming the entrance door behind her.

“-not to leave… Wait up!” And Ben ran out after her.

Canterlot: Present time

Celestia was having a better day than yesterday, granted, considering the... unfortunate events that had occurred yesterday involving a certain ambassador, so long as no new disasters occurred, it wasn’t that much of a contest.

Currently she was in the throne room, Ninetales by her side, waiting for something to happen, or for someone to come in for Day Court. “I suppose all the nobles are still scrambling to gain ground in one way or another.”

Celestia sighed, other than Blueblood, most of the nobility had kept quiet ever since Arceus had arrived with the Pokemon... thinking about it, that probably wasn’t a good thing. “I suppose I should check in to see if any of them are planning anything.”

It was then the door to the throne room burst open.

“What now?” Celestia asked under her breath.

The opening of the doors had been caused by a pegasus mare. Her uniform suggested some form of policing job. The pegasus was running up to Celestia, the two guards following her.

“I’m… So… Sorry… Celestia!” The mare said, out of breath.

Celestia eyed the mare for a second, then held up her hoof, halting the guards. “It’s quite alright Miss...”

“Feather Flurry, Princess Celestia. I work for the police in Hoofington. I’m sorry to barge in here, but I just flew all the way here. I left only yesterday with a letter from our… Stand in chief.”

“A letter?” Celestia asked.

Feather pulled out a scroll, tied with a bright red ribbon to help signify the importance of the contents.

Celestia raised an eyebrow and used her magic to pull the scroll to herself and unwrap it. As she read it, her eyes widened, then her expression turned to one of anger.

Taking a deep breath as she rolled up the scroll, she looked back to Feather Flurry. “What do you need?”

“Many of our normal force were harmed at the attack of the station. A few were even hospitalized. If anything maybe a guard or two to help with our search for these criminals.”

Celestia nodded, she could do that, the situation in Canterlot was currently less severe than that of some other towns around Equestria, at least until the next madman tried to take over the city or steal another priceless artifact. “Miss Flurry, I’ll have a contingent of four or five guards on there way to Hoofington within the next two days or so.”

“Alright.” Feather nodded in agreement, but something else came to her mind. “There is one other thing I should probably mention.”
Celestia simply nodded, motioning for her to go ahead.

“The group of pokemon Midnight has been working with has two ponies in their group as well. One of them acts oddly around others. It seems Midnight may be taking a liking to her, but I’m not sure if I can trust her. The mare’s name is Kiwi Lime, but her friends will start to call her something else before catching themselves.”

Celestia thought on that for a moment, most likely this Kiwi Lime had a secret she didn’t want to get out, though there were a few other options... “I’ll inform my guards to be on alert around her... and perhaps ask an old friend who may know something.”

“Thanks! I… just worry about him sometimes. We began our jobs at about the same time, and he’s kinda the closest I have to family in the town. The rest of my family all live in Cloudsdale.”

Celestia nodded and smiled softly. “I understand... but do keep an open mind, you never know what might reveal itself with time.”

“Alright! I’ll keep that in mind.” Feather turned to leave, but quickly turned back after seeing Ninetales. “One last request. Can I maybe… Pet her?”

Celestia blinked once, then smiled. “Well, I certainly have no problem with it, Ninetales?”

The Fire Fox smiled and ran over to Feather Flurry. “Hi!”

“Thank you!” Feather gushed, lightly petting Ninetales as not to mess up her fur. “I’ve been so amazed with all the pokemon that seeing a new one gets me excited. I’m sorry for taking your time.” Feather finished.

“It’s no trouble,” Celestia assured her. “I’m always happy to help my little ponies.”

Feather gave a small giggle and left the room, closing the doors behind her.

“She seems nice,” Ninetales said with a smile.

Celestia chuckled. “Yes she did,” she looked at the two guards who were still standing on either side of the doors. “Go to the barracks and see about getting some volunteers for a mission to Hoofington, I think five will do, and make sure at least one is a Unicorn.”

The guards saluted before leaving the room.

Celestia sighed and looked out the window. “Hold on little ones, help is on the way.”

ch. 22 backstory

“LEA!!!” Ben yelled at the umbreon running down the road. “YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO GO OUT ALONE!”

“I’ll be fine!” Lea called back, not as loud as Ben had. “Why would they attack in the day t-”

Lea was tackled to the ground by a glameow.

“Lea!” Ben started to run over, but before he could reach the two of them, The other pokemon saw him, attacked Lea and left, barely dodging his Mega Kick as it escaped.

“What happened?!” Ben asked. Lea had been badly hurt. He tried to think of what kind of attack was strong enough to do damage like this to her. He could only recall that fighting moves were effective against dark types, but, being a black belt trainer, that’s all he needed to know.

“Sh-she used Play Rough.”

Ben picked her up. ‘That’s right, dark’s weak to fairy types too.’ “You going to be okay?”

“Yeah. Yo-you’re right. I shouldn’t have gone out. C-can we go back?”

“Sure. We probably should. What else happened?”

“She just came up, told me to stay inside until they wanted me, attacked me and left.”

“That… makes no sense, whatsoever. Why would she do that?”

“She must be working for them. They want to make sure I won’t leave the town.”

“I hope we get some help finding them soon. We can’t have this happen again.”

“NUUU!” Ziggs exclaimed when he saw Lea. “I WILL AVENGE THEE!”

Ziggs tried to run past Ben and out the door, but Ben was able to stop Ziggs with his leg.

“You’re not going out there! They may not know you’re her friend, but she needs you to be here instead of going out to find the bad guys.”

Linoone convinced his son to leave before speaking with Ben. “Should I go get Midnight and tell him what happened?”

Ben thought for a second before saying, “Maybe Angela should go out instead. I know for sure she can protect herself against them if she’s attacked.”

“Alright, I’ll go get her. By the way, Citrus went out to a local restaurant for dinner and Caddi is currently in the kitchen working on making a soup for all the pokemon.”

“Okay, I’ll take Lea back upstairs. After you get Angela, can you also tell Caddi what happened?”

“I can do that!” Linoone responded before running off to perform his tasks.

When Ben and Lea reached her bedroom, Ben set her down and wrapped her in a couple of blankets. He left the room briefly before coming back in with a small table, and a spray bottle.

“Mmnn… What are those for?” Lea grumbled, not fully awake.

“The first is a table for you so you can rest in bed but still have Caddi’s soup once it’s done. The second is a potion I fortunately woke up with instead of gone with all my other things. I had been about to use it too, so it was in my hands. That might be how it got through.”

“Wait… You had a potion with you and didn’t tell me?”

“Yes. I was going to save it for something important, and this seems like it.”

Ben was about to spray when Lea was badly damaged before she stopped him. “I’m not that important. In fact, you should have told us about that sooner. Maybe by now we would have a replica of a potion for distribution or at least be able to use it for the center. For all we know, it could be the last in existence. And you want to waste it on me?”

“Um… I… guess?”

“No. Give it to me, or put it on my desk. Once I’m better, I’ll figure out how to make more.”

“Alright,” Ben said, quickly going to place the potion in the other room. “Feel better. I’ll be up with some soup soon.”

“Midnight! Midnight, where are you?” Angela called.

“Over here!” He called back. “What’s wrong?”

“Lea was attacked. Apparently a glameow working for Ire and Quarry attacked her when she left to go find you.”

“Do they need my help?” Midnight asked her.

“Nah. I think they just wanted me to come down and tell you what happened.”

“Hopefully Feather’s already met with Celestia, but if not, I guess she’ll see Luna soon.”

“Wait, why wouldn’t she meet with Celestia now?”

“Here in Equestria, the two princesses guard over the night and day. So it would be about the time they would switch their ruling time.”

“Oh, I thought it was just they moved the sun and moon. Still can’t believe they can actually do that though… Anywho, I should leave.”

“Alright, I’ll see you- Anywho?” Midnight questioned.

“Yeeeaaaah… We used it around the house a bunch back home. If you want to heard some really weird phrases, you’ll have to meet Kya. Well, once we find her of course.”

“What was she like?” Midnight asked Angela.

“Kya? She is a music lover.”

“Sorry, Sometimes the only times I have talks like this are when, well… you know.”

“I see.” Angela replied, perfectly understanding what he meant. “Anyway, Kya’s favorite thing to do was play the piano. And I don’t just mean simple pieces, I mean she did super complicated ones by using all four of her paws at once. I don’t think there was a piece created she can’t play. Well, as long as it was made to be played by one.”

“Anything else? I’m finished up here for the day and want to have something to talk about on the way back.”

“*Sigh* Let’s see… She’s always awake really early. Not as early as Linoone will normally wake up, but close. The only times she’ll stay in bed is if something’s wrong. Sometimes she’ll wake us up early from her morning activities, and most of us like to sleep in, so it doesn’t end well. Sometimes I feel like strangling the kid.”

“You wouldn't really, right?

“Of course not. She’s my niece. Well, more like adopted niece, but still-”

“No, no.” Midnight stopped her. “I get it. She’s still your niece nonetheless. Anything else about her?”

“Back before I came along, Some people tried to steal Matrix from Lea.”

“Why would they do that?”

“You know how he’s a shiny pokemon, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well pokemon like that are rare. Really rare. Not everyone has a shiny pokemon. Anyway, these people were trying to take Matrix, and Kya stepped in to help. They had a psychic pokemon on their team, and it used an attack that works much like unicorn telekinesis and slammed her repeatedly on a rock.”

“THEY DID WHAT?!” Midnight yelled.

“Ow! I’m right next to you!”

“Sorry. I just can’t believe…”

“When I heard the story, I did… but that was probably due to the fact that I used to belong to people like that.”

“Are you serious?”

Angela nodded her head. “They even placed some sort of chip in my brain when I was little. It allowed their psychic types to control me, but only the ones that had a chip as well.”

“Th-that’s… very unethical!” Midnight said strongly.

“Go ahead,” Angela told him “I’m fine if you want to use stronger words.”

“You might be fine with it,” Midnight told her. “but I only use them when I feel like it. And when I do, it helps.”

“Suit yourself. Anyway… back to the story. After Lea got them all away, she rushed to the nearest pokemon center so they could treat Kya. Fortunately for her, nothing was badly hurt, but Lea was told that if anything that bad happened to Kya again, something could be permanently damaged.”

Neither of them spoke for a while as they walked, but after a while, Midnight spoke up again.

“Has… anything happened to her since then?”

“Hmm? Oh… I guess we got into an explosion a few years back. She was fine after that, but I don’t think she’ll be that lucky next time. All I’m hoping for i- look out!”

Angela jumped out of the way as a pegasus fell to the ground right next to where she had been standing.

“Go-good job tranquil!” The pegasus raised a hoof to the air while his face stayed on the ground. “I’m just gonna rest here now.”

“Sir,” Midnight addressed the pegasus. “I think you should get up.”

“Ehh… give me a second.” And in a few moments the pegasus got up.

“How d’you do that?” Midnight asked after the other pony had left.

“Natural ability of my kind. We can sense disasters.”

“That must be handy.”

“It is… most of the time. Please don’t ask.”

“Wasn’t going to.”

At this point Midnight picked up a newspaper from the stand they had reached. He saw a picture of the Crown Jewels. When he read the title, however, he dropped the paper.

“HOW THE TARTARUS!”

“There it is! ...I think. Tartarus is your version of hell right? Anyway, what are cussing about?”

“Somepony or something stole the Crown Jewels.”

“What?” Angela asked. “Who?”

After reading the story, she had a look of horror. “Fox made it over?”

“Who’s Fox?” Midnight asked.

“Famous thief from our world. No one can catch her. Her full title is The Phantom Thief Fox. Though… Ah, right here! Just as I thought!”

Angela was pointing to an article on another paper. It was how about how they had been returned.

“She… returned them?”

“Always does. I guess she’s more of an anti-hero than a bad guy. Still, not someone you want to meet. If Lea ever gets her apocalypse papers back…”

“Her what?” Midnight’s interest was piqued.

“First rule about the papers… we don’t talk about the papers.” Angela pointed at Midnight and poked his muzzle. “Nah, I’m kidding. Just, try not to, okay?”

“Got it.” He said nervously.

“Midnight! Taste this soup!”

As soon as the thestral had walked through the door, a spoon was shoved in his mouth. It was forced in so suddenly, he gagged. Finally, after he swallowed, Caddi removed the spoon.

“If you hadn’t tried to choke me with it, I would say it’s good, but you tried to choke me with it!”

“Sorry Midnight…”

He sighed, “It’s fine Kiwi, just don’t do something like that again.”

“WHAT!” Lea could be heard from upstairs, followed by her coughing loudly. By the time they reached her, they couldn’t figure out what she had yelled about.

“It was, uh, a letter I got. Nothing big.” She finally answered.

“Oh, for a second I thought you had learned Fox was in Equestria.”Angela told her.

This time, It was not only Lea, but also Matrix and Linoone who yelled.

“Oh come on!” Angela told them. “It’s not like we have anything she could want.”

Lea glanced to her office. Angela noticed her.

“Lea… what do you have.”

“Nothing!”

Before Angela could do anything, Ben came in as well and made them leave.

“Let her rest! she’s had enough happen today as it is. She doesn’t need you to make her worry about Fox too.”

“Thanks Ben.” Lea told him before falling asleep.

Ben tucked her in and took her empty soup bowl away.

“Goodnight.”

Author's Note

Fox here, Fox there. Fox, Fox everywhere!
anywho, now we learn more about Kya
and remember, you can ask the cast questions, which is why Lea yelled 'what' and started coughing
Fudge.... Now what if fox decides to steal lea's papers ~~when~~ if she gets them back...

ch. 38 recovery

Matrix had come back that night without any new news. He had been unable to find Specter anywhere in the town. Angela had told Matrix about what she had learned yesterday about Rage Spell.

“She sounds kind of like Ire. Imagine if those two teamed up.” Linoone said the next morning, trying to lighten everyone’s mood. “They might just take each other down instead.”

“We should still spend some more time searching for Lea.” Angela stated as she finished her breakfast. “While we shouldn’t have Ben going out from they way he’s been acting recently, Sparks got over whatever he was sick with last night, so he’ll be going with Ziggs to look for Lea.”

“Wait! My son is not going out there!”

“Well we need all the help we need and the doctors don’t want you running around looking for Lea. Besides, he’s been cooped up in here for a while now. Ziggs needs to go outside.”

“I can come too!”

The group turned their heads to see Midnight helping Caddi down the stairs.

“Caddi,” Matrix started. “No offense, but you still need to rest.”

“No! I’m fine! See?!” She screwed up he face before her changed into what looked like a changeling version of Kiwi Lime. “Okay… maybe you’re right.”

“I can still help you guys look.” Midnight told them.

“No, we want you to make sure Caddi doesn’t leave mayor.” Angela replied with a slight grin.

“Who told you that?!” Midnight exclaimed.

“He did.” Matrix pointed to Quarry who was asleep, still tied to the chair.”

“How does he sleep like that?” Caddi asked.

“Blissey used sing to get him to fall asleep.” Linoone explained. “You should have seen the looks Mightyena was giving us when she did that.”

“Still… I’m not officially mayor. Besides, Iron Guardian will be healthy enough to return to those duties be tomorrow anyway.”

“Woah woah woah! Did you actually say his name?!” Matrix asked.

“He likes to be called the chief when we talk about him doing his policing duties. We only say his regular name when referring to him as the mayor.”

“Can we focus on the import facts here?! Lea’s still missing, a random pokemon is trying to find a dangerous unicorn, and I still don’t have a piano!” Everyone turned their heads slowly to look at Kya. “I’m not stopping ‘til I get my piano! Now… ESCAPE!”

Kya ran from the room, running into the door frame once before actually leaving.

“All in favor of not letting her leave?” Angela asked.

“AYE!” The group unanimously chose.

“Motion carried.”

“What are you doing?” Blissey asked when she found Kya sulking at a table.

“Being sad.”

“Why are you sad? Or is it just the obvious reason.”

“Well, I do miss my mommy, but I also feel that no one thinks I can do anything cuz I’m broken.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Ever since I tried to help in that battle, I’ve been trying to help around here, but I just seem to be messing up because everything keeps moving around and nothing’s where it should be. Angela told me that’s cuz my eye doesn’t want to work anymore.” Kya explained

“Well I think eventually you’ll find a way to fix it. Is that all?” Blissey inquired.

“I also haven’t been able to sleep very well that recently. I think it’s because I haven’t had a Moonbeam song in a while.”

“Moonbeam song?”

“Well, ‘pparently my granma and granpa liked to sing this lullaby when she had trouble sleeping, so when I have the same problem, Mommy would do the same thing.”

“Well wouldn’t Linoone know it since you said your grandpa sang it to your mom.”

“He can never remember it all.”

“Do either of the others know?”

“I’m pretty sure Angela might, but she doesn’t like to sing. And Matrix just can’t.” Kya gave a little shudder.

‘Reminder: Never make Matrix sing. Ever!’ Blissey thought to herself. “Well maybe I can still help cheer you up. I’ve got a few things to do that would be quicker with someone else to help.”

The flames on Kya’s back end lit up. “That sounds nice! In fact, anything to do sounds nice right now! What do we hafta do?”

“Let me see…”

“I could have been there.” A fist hit a hanging pillow. “I should have been there.” The pillow was hit again. “It was my fault.” Once more. “It was all my fault!” This time the the pillow was kicked, and not just once, but twice.

The rope holding the pillow from the ceiling unraveled, letting it fly across the room. Ben walked over and retrieved it. He grabbed the rope and tied the pillow back up. “Double Kick… I know Double Kick now. Now wasn’t then. Then could have helped.” Ben mumbled to himself.

He started punching the pillow again, adding in more kicks than before. Everytime, he hit the pillow a little harder than the last time. Finally, the rope gave way again. This time, it was flung against the door of the room Ben has shut himself in. A second later, the door opened from Caddi entering.

“So… did you hear they’re not letting you back to look for Lea.”

“What?! But they need all the help they can get. We need all the help we can get.”

“Woah! Hey, I’m not allowed out either, and neither is Midnight. I think somepony got to a phone and called Citrus, so she’s helping and we’ve also still got a few guards helping look. Believe me, we’re going to find her eventually.”

“But how soon is eventually? Ever since I learned she was taken, I’ve just been feeling like… like…”

“Like every single time you find something small to be happy about, you can’t let it be happy?” Ben looked at her with amazement. “Eh, it’s something some changelings can do. The changelings who can are normally the ones who are around ponies more often. We feed on love, but eventually we get a feel for other emotions as well. Currently, you’re crushed because you couldn’t help the pony, well… pokemon, you love.”

“I don’t love, love her if that’s what you me-”

“Shhhhh…” Caddi held he hoof up to his face, followed by her poking him all over the place. “Where’s the mouth on this thing?”

Ben slapped her hoof away. “Okay, maybe I have a crush on her! That still isn’t helping that much.”

“You seem calmer.”

“Why? Are your feeling senses telling you that too?”

“No. The little spring like areas on your arms became less tense after you admitted your crush on Lea. Something is telling me that once you take a chance to calm down, you might actually be able to help instead of staying stuck in here punching stuff.”

“Well I‘m not really in a calm mood. How do you suggest I calm down?”

“You could always try sleeping.”

Before Ben could speak any opposing ideas, Caddi called out of the room. “Blissey! I have something you can help with!”

Before long, Ben was asleep on the ground while the pokemon and changeling gave the closest thing to a high five as they could.

Author's Note

okay, someone asked for more, so here it is
oh btw, i found pokemon crystal online so i've been playing it alot recently
my team has Kya, who recently evolved into typhlosion (only because i want her to be able to learn swift) Vincent who's a kadabra (some of you might know what i'm referencing here) Rocky who's an onix that i traded in game for (name and all) Nyo my poliwhirl (Nyo is apparently japanese for poli or something like that) Zuma who's a shiny pichu, and Pri who is my very newly evolved togetic.
oh and i just have like two or three badges left

ch. 52 Battle Time

Lea was having trouble concentrating. A few of the others were snoring as she worked, though she was starting to block it out. The umbreon looked at the clock, It still wasn’t that late, only about fifteen minutes until midnight.

She went to grab some of the seeds she had collected on their way out of the Everfree. On her other side, she opened the book she got from the library. “Let’s see… if I want to grow these I need to- aw shoot! I grabbed the wrong book when I left!”

Lea got up carefully so she didn’t wake anyone up. “Maybe there’s a chance that library is still open or something.”

Grabbing a key to the room the umbreon left, not noticing a figure following her on the way out.

Lea ran as fast as she could to get to the large tree that was the library. As she got closer, she bit her lip when she could tell none of the lights were on. Still hoping for some reason she might get in, the Umbreon got the rest of the way there just to make sure it was really locked.

“I guess… I ran… all this way… for nothing.” She panted.
Lea sat down next to the library to rest for a little bit when she heard the front door seem to creak open. standing up to go look at it, she saw Sparks in front of an open door.

“Sparks! what are you doing! Why aren’t you asleep! You should be back at the hotel with your mom.”

“Book?” Sparks asked her.

Lea nodded, telling him how she had come to get a book she left here. After she explained that, Sparks went into the library. The umbreon quickly followed him in to bring him back out, but he was already gone.

“Sparks!” She whispered. “Where did you go!”

Lea saw a door on the other side of the room and went through it. She thought it might be a storage area. Instead, her ears drooped down as she saw a kitchen instead. “Oh no. If that’s a kitchen then someone must live here.”
Suddenly, there was a crash in the library area and Sparks came zooming into the kitchen to Lea’s side. “Oops.”

There was a crash from upstairs, as if someone had fallen out of bed, followed by some quiet mumblings and the sound of someone coming downstairs.

Lea shook a little, a little scared of what would happen. Twilight had been the librarian here, so if anyone was living here, it should be her. As a princess, Lea didn’t know what might happen to her. Sparks didn’t seem to care that much, as he decided he wanted to see who was there and followed the new noises.

“I swear, if that Mage again,” Twilight mumbled.

“You probably just left some books stacked on the table again,” Spike said with a yawn. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”

Sparks was hiding himself, looking like he was ready to pounce on either of them. Spike was the first to get close, and the Dunsparce jumped onto the dragon. “Play time!”

“AAAAHHH!” Spike fell to the ground. “Twilight! Help! It’s gonna eat my face!”

Twilight looked shocked at first, then sighed and pulled the Dunsparce off of Spike with her magic. “Okay, who are you and what are you doing here?”

“Sparks! Books!”

Twilight tilted her head, a little confused. “Um... the library’s closed right now, could you maybe come back tomorrow?”

Sparks gave a sad look at tilted his head. “But gan-ma want book.”

He wiggled around until Twilight dropped him and found the book Lea had come for. “Book!”

Spike dusted himself off and looked over at Twilight. “Twilight, I think he’s just a baby.”

Twilight nodded. “I was thinking that same thing... wonder where his family is.”

From across the room, Lea ran as fast as she could to the front door, picking Sparks up using psychic as she passed him. “Sorryforcominginhere. Ileftthisbookhere. BYE!”

As the umbreon went through the door, Sparks exclaimed “Wheeee!” before the two of them disappeared from view.

“Mommy! Wake up! I wanna look around this place more!”

Lea gave a small groan when Kya started to shake her around to wake the umbreon up. Lea had never really been a morning person, and being awake for so long last night didn’t help. Finally, Lea decided she had to get up, but not before Kya had pushed her off the bed and onto the floor.

“Fine! But everyone has to make a list of what we can do for the next two days before we can take the train to Canterlot.”

“Wait? Why two days from now?” Caddi asked. “You seem to think there’s nothing left to do, so why can’t we leave sooner?”

Lea sighed. “I already bought tickets and I can’t give them back for a refund. So either we’re paying for a whole new set of tickets, or we wait.”

“I’m fine with waiting.” Ben said. “Besides, it’s not like it will hurt to wait.”

“Mommy, can you come with me? I wanna train and stuff!”

Lea turned her head sharply toward Kya. “What? You’ve never really wanted to before. What made you change your mind?”

Kya pawed the floor. “Well, these two psychics got near Sparks and I freaked out. I wanted Angela to save him since I couldn’t do it. They didn’t hurt him, but what if they were mean and Angela wasn’t there?”

Lea looked at Angela. “She said sorry, though barely, more ‘cause I threatened her.”

Lea gave the absol a look that said, ‘Really?’ “Next time, don’t threaten your niece, even though you’re not related by birth and stuff. Kya, come on. We can train, but you really should be nicer to them, though I do have something I would like to give them for my apologies.”

Lea grabbed one of the saddle bags they had brought, and packed three small spray bottles. “Alright, let’s see if we can find them again.”

“PRETTY LADY!” Sparks exclaimed, before zooming out of the room. Kya giggled nervously from his enthusiasm while Lea groaned.

“Remind me to ground him once we finally get back home. If he keeps this up, we’re going to get in tons of trouble.”

Lea and Kya ran to keep up with Sparks. Eventually, the Dunsparce jumped on a few objects in the street of increasing height until her found his way onto the head of a Gardevoir, and then snuggled it like it was a giant teddy bear.

“Aww, well hello to you too little one,” she said with a smile. “What are you doing here?”

“Pretty lady friend!” Sparks exclaimed before Lea and Kya caught up, the former out of breath.

“Sparks! You know I’m not used to keeping up with you! Now please get off her head.”

Belle giggled and lifted the Dunsparce off her head, setting him on the ground. “So you’re this little cuties mother then?” She asked.

“No.” Lea replied. “I’m his grandmother. Kya here is his mom.”

Belle nodded. “Well, it’s nice to meet both of you,” she said with a smile.

Lea rubbed the back of her head. “Kya and Angela, uh, she’s my sister, told me about how they ran into you, and then Kya tried to attack you, and probably some other stuff. I wanted to give my apologies as well.”

“Oh it’s alright,” Belle replied. “I understand she’s protective of her child.”

At that point, Kya stepped forward. “Where’s the other guy? The one you were with when we found you earlier?”

“Oh, my husband’s around somewhere,” Belle assured her. “Probably chatting with some of our friends... this is the first time in a while that we’ve actually been able to relax.”

Lea gave a small laugh. “Oh, what’s been going on here?”

“Hm, some people from Earth tried to arrest him and one of our other friends,” Belle shrugged.

“Ah, doesn’t sound too bad… at least not to me.”

“Oh?” Belle asked. “What’s your story then?”

“Also almost arrested, almost strangled to death as well as almost beaten to death. Oh, and someone tried to use my own sister to kill me and the rest of my family” Lea responded, with a somewhat crazy smile on her face. “Other than that, we have some criminals living in our home back in Hoofington, the same ones that made me fight some of the animals that lived here almost to death.”

Lea took a big breath of air. “I suddenly feel much better.”

“Venting does that,” Belle said with a nod. “And you definitely had a lot to vent about.”

“Yeah… Oh! Sparks, go be a hat for Kya. I don’t want her to freak out too much.”

Sparks went on top of Kya’s head, making her be very careful so he wouldn’t fall off. Lea quickly used psychic to take one of the spray bottles she had in her saddlebags out and gave it to Belle. “Here, this is for my apology.”

“Thank you,” Belle said with a smile. “... what is it?”

“I figured out how to make potions here. I used most of the normal ingredients, but there were a few that don’t seem to exist on this planet, so I found a substitute. I’m going to try and mass produce them in the future.”

“If you need some kind of plant, I’m pretty sure Arceus could get it for you,” Belle said. “I know he was making berries earlier.”

“No, it was more a man made chemical that was needed, but it just so happens that one plant on this world is close enough to it that it works almost exactly the same. It’s just a little bit weaker. I should be able to make it just as strong with time.”

“Well, I’m sure a lot of Pokemon and trainers will be thankful for that,” Belle said with a smile. “I know some are probably itching to get back to battling.”

At that, Kya perked up. “Oh, Mommy! I wanted to do that! Can we find someone?!”

“I guess we could. Do you have any ideas of who we could ask… Oh my gosh, I never got your name.”

“Belle,” she said with a smile.

“That’s a nice name.” Lea replied. “But still, do you have any ideas?”

“If you don’t mind.” Kya quickly added before she decided to hide behind Lea.

“Well, my husband’s a trainer,” Belle said, “I’m sure he’d be interested.”

“I knew it!” Kya exclaimed. “If you’re really careful, you can tell. But yeah! Could we maybe?”

Belle chuckled. “Of course, I’ll just go get him.” Belle Teleported out, and a few moments later, returned with her husband.

“Hi, I’m Gene,” he introduced himself.

“Well hello!” Lea responded. “I’m Lea, and I guess you know Kya and Sparks.” She gestured to the other pokemon. “Kya kinda wanted to battle you, and since we got potions, it should be better than one just out of the blue.”

Gene smiled. “Sure, sounds like it’ll be fun.”

Kya started to jump around in happiness, with Sparks soon following. “So, Kya will be the one battling on my side.” Lea said. “What about you?”

“Oh! I’ll go get Fang,” Gene said excitedly. “Belle, take them to where we’ve been training outside of town, I’ll meet you there.”

Belle smiled as he ran off. “I’ll just Teleport us there, alright?” She asked.

“Uh, I’m fine with it. I’m just wondering about Kya.”

Kya gave a quick nod. “Do it before I change my mind.”

Belle nodded and Teleported them all to a field just outside of town. “A lot of us have been using this place for training,” she explained. “Making sure former Humans know how to use their powers so they don’t hurt themselves or anyone else.”

“Good idea.” Lea commented.” We use the large sewers underneath the town, though we also try to clean it up as well so we don’t get sick or anything.”

Kya walked in place somewhat impatiently. “I can’t wait, I can’t wait!”

Lea rolled her eyes. “You know, it would be easier if you took your bracelet off.”

The Quilava glared at her. “Never!!!”

“What’s special about the bracelet?” Belle asked.

“It’s got an Everstone implanted in it because she doesn’t want to evolve. At least, not yet.”

“Hey guys!” Gene shouted, running up with Fang at his side. “Sorry about that, anyway, this is Fang.” He patted the Houndooms head.

“Pleased to meet you,” Fang said with a grin.

Kya looked at the Houndoom, then at Lea. “He’s big. I like him!”

Fang smiled and took his place across from her. “Been awhile since I had a battle,” he said, stretching. “This’ll be fun.”

Sparks tossed an object and Gene, which he caught. “SPARKS! How did you get that out of my saddlebag?!”

“Magy!” He replied before slowly backing up. “Wooh, wooh, wooh, wooh, wooh!”

Gene looked at the squirt bottle. “Um... is this a potion?”

“Yup!” Lea nodded. “Made it myself. I gave another one to Belle for when you need it, but this one is for after this battle. Or during if you want.”

“Hm, neat,” Gene smiled. “Alright, you ready?”

“Ready if you are!” Lea replied while Kya hopped out in front of her.

Gene grinned. “You can have the first move.”

Lea and Kya smiled. “Alright Kya, Smoke and circle!”

The Quilava started to blow out smoke from her mouth. She circled around Fang as fast as she could to completely surround him in her Smokescreen, switching which way she was going a few times so he would have trouble knowing exactly where she was. Kya slowed down once she was done spewing smoke so she wouldn’t run out of breath too quickly, but the volcano pokemon refused to stop moving around for Fang to figure where she was.

“Fang, use Smog!”

Fange took a deep breath and as he exhaled, a thick purple smoke began to seep from his nose and mouth, traveling outwards and mixing with the Smokescreen.

Kya gave a shake of her head as she exhaled sharply from the smell. The flames on her head came up from her annoyance getting her a little more pumped up for the rest of the battle. “Alright, try Overheat Kya!” Lea ordered.

Kya smiled as her body started to get hotter and glow. She shot out a large blast of flames from her mouth as the attack left her and towards Fang in the midnight purple cloud.

Fang smirked as the attack passed over him. “Flash Fire,” he said to her.

“Now use Flamethrower!” Gene shouted.

Fang blasted a wreath of flame at Kya, bathing the entire area in flames.

“No!” Kya exclaimed right before the attack hit her. It knocked her over before she got up quickly and sung. “Ohhhh, we’re halfway there!” Before digging into the ground.

“Wait her out Fang, then use Bite!”

Fang nodded and watched the ground, waiting for Kya to pop up.

From under the ground, Kya poked small holes throughout the terrain. Seeming to come out of all of them, Kya called out, “Speed Star!” Stars came out from all of the holes, before directing themselves toward Fang, a Swift attack.

Fang yelped as the Swift hit him, before lunging at one of the holes and trying to catch Kya.

Kya gave a small yip of surprise before a few pink and yellow hearts surrounded her and went after the Houndoom.

Fang’s eyes widened as the attack hit him, and his pupils were replaced with little hearts.

“Ooh! Not Attract!” Gene cried. “Come on Fang, snap out of it!”

The Houndoom didn’t respond.

At that point, Kya came out of the ground straight into Fang’s underbelly, knocking him a few feet away. Kya let herself relax for a second with a small giggle before getting ready for any attack that might come.

“Fang!” Gene called again.

This time, he responded, shaking his head and looking at Gene in confusion.

“Use Inferno,” Gene ordered.
Fang nodded and his jaws lit up with flames, the wave of fire that blasted towards Kya, and engulfed the surrounding area.

“Hurry Kya! Move out of the way.”

The Quilava barely made it, but she decided she wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been for the circumstances. With it being a move that already had a fifty fifty shot of hitting with the fact that there was still some of her smoke lingering in the air, she was glad it worked out.

“Hope you like some more stars!” Kya exclaimed in the air before launching another swift attack.

Fang took the attack, knowing he couldn’t dodge. Then ran towards her, his body surrounded by dark energy as he used Beat Up.

Kya took the hit, surprised on how hard it hit. “How the heckle?” She stared at Gene. “Oh I get it now! Digging again!” And she disappeared back into the ground.

Fang stuck his snout down the hole, and launched a Flamethrower attack.

Kya knew there was no escaping and the attack hit, leaving her to start glowing orange. “This doesn’t help. Or does it?” Kya jumped out of her hole and aimed a fire blast attack right in front of Fang, Aiming straight at his horns. It left a grey smoke cloud around him from the blast, so Kya couldn’t tell what happened. “If it works, yay! If not, well, I’m screwed.”

“Ow, ow, ow!” Fang shook his head. “Dammit! I hate when they figure out the horns!” Fang growled and pounced at Kya, jaws open, preparing to Bite.

The attack hit, knocking Kya out. Lea quickly ran over and sprayed her potion, helping to revive the Quilava. “That was a good battle!”

“Thanks!” Gene and Fang said together, as Gene leaned down and sprayed Fang with the potion. “Good job Fang.”

Fang smiled and licked Gene’s face.

“Thank you for the battle. I can’t believe she figured out she could hit the horns. I didn’t know that and I like to research stuff like that!”

“It’s not that well known,” Gene said with a shrug. “It took me a while to figure it out too.”

“Maybe I’ll add it in when I try to remake the pokedex, or maybe not, since it could give an unfair advantage. Though who knows when I’ll get to that. I have too many other things to do, like recreating other items and making a better and more… what’s the word… ethical contraption sort of like pokeball that is temporary and such.”

“Capture Stylus?” Belle asked.

“No, not something like that. I’m trying to figure out a way to make a machine that acts much like a pokeball, but can only be used once. Once the pokemon leaves it, it can’t be used again. It’s more for the use of taking a pokemon, and maybe a pony if I can make it work like that, to someplace to heal them if they’re in critical condition.”

“Hm,” Gene sounded interested. “Stasis Ball... interesting idea if you can make it work.”

“I was thinking more cube like, so no one would think of it as a pokeball and complain to Arceus or the princesses about it.”

“Yeah, he does get upset whenever anyone mentions them,” Belle replied. “But good luck with it anyways.”

“Don’t worry too much, Arceus already knows. But thank you so much, I really should be going back to my family. I hope we might see you again in the future.”

“I’d like that,” Gene said with a smile.

Lea smiled, and she and Kya waved to the group of three before heading back into the town.

On the way back, Kya had wanted to get lunch. Lea was surprised at first before realizing again that she had slept in so late. Lea decided she should have something to eat as well and the two bought some apples from a stand. Instead of eating them right away, they went back to their hotel room and started to peel them. Lea filled up a pot with water and dumped the apples in while Kya heated them up to boil them.

Before long. They had made an apple pie which they enjoyed as well as the others when they returned. It had become a bit of a late lunch, but otherwise it had gone well. The group ate contently other than Ben and Angela who both seemed to be thinking about other things.

“So, how is everyone?” Kya decided to ask.

Most of them were doing good, but Ben answered differently. “I know we still have a day left here, but I think I want to head back to Hoofington already.”

Lea through a small bag at him, surprising the Hitmonlee. She smiled. “I didn’t know when you would be leaving so I never bought you a ticket. Thanks for coming here though.”

Ben smiled back before grabbing the bag. “Hope to see you guys return soon.”

Everyone wished Ben good luck, but Midnight took him aside to talk. Before long, Ben had gone to buy a ticket for himself and catch a train back to Hoofington. Midnight and Caddi left as well deciding to go on a date, though the changeling was nervous and refused for a bit. Matrix also wanted to go out and explore the edge of the forest. Kya and Sparks stayed in the hotel room while Angela and Citrus just stayed. Lea was about to work on making some more potions when Angela changed her mind.

“Oh no you don’t. We are on vacation. You are not working.”

“Oh come on!” Lea exclaimed. “I have had enough vacation here. besides, I have a book I need to return by tomorrow and that tell me how I can grow poison joke.”
Angela raised her eyebrow before sighing. “Alright, but only growing those plants. Got it?”

Lea nodded and added how she would also be taking notes for next time. Angela agreed and helped get what the Umbreon needed. Before too long, Lea was planting her seeds and making sure she would be able to grow them again. When Lea felt she was done, she decided to take a few extra notes on the book. Even when that was done, Lea still wanted something to do. Taking a quick glance to make sure Angela wasn't looking, Lea was happy to see the Absol with her eyes closed. The Umbreon use psychic to get her folder, apologizing to Kya when the Quilava complained.
Lea put her notes away and took out some older ones. There we around thirty pages in the pile she pulled out and on each of them was all the various pokedex entries she had gotten from various regions. It had been hard to find them, but it was worth it now.

“Lea! I thought you said you were just going to work on those plants!”

Lea turned her head slowly towards the voice. Angela was staring at her, right next to her head. It shocked Lea and she backed up, falling on the ground.

“Get up! Get up! You’re going outside!” Lea tried as much as she could to stop Angela from dragging her out, but the Absol didn’t stop. “I’m not letting you lock yourself inside just work!”

“Well that’s the closest thing to a normal life I’ve ever had!”

That stopped Angela in her tracks. Lea stopped fighting back but kept talking. “After my dad left, I had to do everything myself. I didn’t have time to meet with friends anymore. Everything was for school so I could live by myself because I wasn’t going to have my dad’s friends helping me forever! There was always a part of me that hoped he’d come back, but he didn’t, and because of that there’s still a part of me that hates him for that. Because he left, I never got a real normal life. Working was the only thing that made it see better and that was my normal life. Living with you guys and work. Now everything is messed up, I worry about everything, and I don’t know if when I wake up you guys will even still be here.”

At this point, Lea was starting to cry. Everyone in the room had gone silent. Kya started to get up, most likely to hug her mom, but Sparks pulled her down.

“And even just hanging out is odd. You apparently were with some evil group of people before I found you. What’s to say you won’t do it again? I mean, you didn’t want to help Kya the first time. Maybe you should try to find your old trainer!”

Angela realized what she had done. “No, Lea, I didn’t mean to-” Then she was thrown across the room.

Lea had used Psychic to slam the Absol into the wall. It earned a cry from Kya as she covered her head. Lea was angry enough she started to slam Angela a few more times. The Umbreon didn’t stop until Kya screamed her name. Lea suddenly stopped and stared at what she had done. Angela had fallen to the ground. She was beat up, but the Absol had been through worse.

As the disaster pokemon started to get up, Lea ran from the room. Kya wanted to go after her mom, but Citrus stopped her. “There are times you just have to let it out. This is her way.”

They waited for a bit before Citrus put on a song. Just after a few lines, she stopped it, as it made the mood even worse.

Author's Note

Well, that's the second (and final) chapter that's really a crossover. the rest is them just in, and leaving Ponyville.
it might come out later than I hope, but who knows.
oh and guys, if you read this, please don't use the horn rule. i only found out about it while we were working on the battle.
like, roll 2 d 20's and if both are, i don't know, 3's, then your character knew (or if you knew before reading this chapter.
oh, and zeus has the same message from last chapter. (and back to the darkness we go. *jumps in pit of darkness and sadness*)