Chapter One
Wherein the Cat-Thing is Brought Home
Coco Pommel had been having such a good day until a few minutes ago. She jumped and barely held back a cry when thunder erupted above her. She couldn’t believe that in the midst of talking with her friend, she’d completely forgotten about the scheduled storm!
And then there were the new... creatures roaming the streets.
Coco did her best to ignore the strange creatures that were now running about the streets in addition to the other ponies, but she couldn’t help but stare at a few of them. There were some birds that were blue, red, and white; some strange, overly-large ponies with manes on fire that were cowering together under both mundane and magical shelter, provided by some kind ponies; but the strangest ones of all were the little and not-so-little blue turtle-like beings that were dancing in the pouring rain.
As far as Coco was concerned, it was all just something to consider when she got home to her apartment. And sat down with a cup of nice hot cocoa full of those lovely little marshmallows. She smiled just thinking about it -- but her smile vanished and she halted in her tracks when an annoyingly large raindrop landed dead-center in her eye.
“Ack! Oh gosh!” Blinking rapidly, Coco was able to focus on the sidewalk before her without the water in her eye. She thanked Celestia when the front landing to her apartment finally came into view, and right as she reached for the key hidden in her collar, she paused at the glow coming from the corner of her eye.
It was by far the saddest looking creature Coco Pommel had possibly ever seen.
It had small yellow rings covering its flanks, forelegs, forehead, and on both its ears and tail. From the way they were dimly glowing, Coco could only assume that it was natural for them to do so, and perhaps to be able to glow even brighter. But that wasn’t what nearly broke Coco’s heart; no, it was the way this little black-and-yellow cat-like creature was curled up on the front step of her apartment complex.
It was clearly doing its damndest to stay both dry and out of the way of the tenants for the building, but with the way it kept shivering, it was clear to Coco that it wasn’t having much luck staying warm. Not to mention she could clearly see how soaked its fur was from where she was. Coco bit her lip for a moment, before gently heaving the small black creature onto her back.
She was rather surprised by how heavy it was, but Coco still managed to force the front door open, and she still somehow managed to make it all the way to her apartment on the fourth floor before gently placing the cat-like creature on her couch. It took her only a moment to grab her best towel.
Coco was as gentle as she could be, using the fluffy towel to carefully dry the poor creature. As she worked, it seemed to be steadily warming up to a safer temperature, and it slowly woke up from its fetal position.
“Umbre?” It - he, according to the, ah, glance Coco had accidentally gotten while drying his fur. “Bree?”
Coco may not have been able to understand exactly what he was saying, but she still blushed. “Ah, um... I found you outside soaked from the rain, and um, I brought you inside to dry you off.”
The cat-like creature blinked, and for a moment, Coco wondered if he understood her -- but then he nodded to her, smiling gratefully to her. Coco smiled in return, and finished her work fairly soon. As she did, she was somewhat surprised to find that those yellow rings of his were glowing much brighter than before.
It took Coco Pommel several minutes to completely dry off the glowing cat. When she finished, she hung the towel on the drying rack in her bathroom, and she came out, Coco was somewhat surprised to find the cat sitting in front of the window and staring out at the moon and stars. At first, Coco thought he was just interested in the sky; but then she saw his ears flatten against his skull, and his tail sagged.
“Are you alright?”
He jumped and spun around, making Coco jump as well. Just as she was about to apologize for surprising him, she watched as he grew depressed again, and shook his head. He turned to look out over the city again, resting his head on the windowsill.
Coco couldn’t help but feel her heart ache at seeing her new friend look so down, so she came over to him and gently placed a hoof on his shoulder. He looked up at her, wondering what it is she wanted.
“Um, listen...” Coco began. “Um... I don’t know what’s got you so sad, but if you’d like, you can stay with me for a few nights...?”
For a moment, the black and yellow cat just sat there, looking at her, and it made her wonder if she’d said something wrong. Then, he smiled gratefully and nuzzled her cheek, to which she smiled in return. Coco grabbed a small spare blanket from her closet, and laid it over the couch for him to snuggle up on, before bidding her new friend good night.
Even as Coco curled up on her own bed and under her covers, her mind could only wander and think over the day’s strange events. It had been a relatively normal day; Coco was finally starting to take commissions from some of the ponies of Manehatten, something she thanked Celestia and Luna for daily, so that she could finally pay her bills. She had even come across one of her good friends today and set up a small lunch date for tomorrow.
But then these odd creatures had shown up. They were all so... different. But if the one out in her living room was any indication, they were also friendly and kind.
Coco Pommel smiled to herself as she finally drifted off to sleep, eager to see where tomorrow would take her and her new friend...
Author's Note
Here is the bandwagon. Here I am jumping on it. Fear this bandwagon. For it shall never die.
Chapter Two
Wherein Attempts at Translation Are Made
Coco covered her mouth with a hoof as she yawned, stumbling into her kitchen for some Celestia-blessed coffee. She had her comforter wrapped tightly around herself, and her eyes were open only as much as necessary to make her way through her apartment without hitting anything.
“Umbre?”
“Not now... need coffee...”
Coco stumbled into the kitchen, bumping muzzle first into the ledge of the counter. Right in front of where she kept all of her coffee ingredients. She slowly reached over to the coffee machine, and paused when her hoof nearly knocked over one of her mugs. Blinking rapidly, she frowned as she peeled her eyes open enough to see that it was also full of delicious coffee.
“Wha... but...” Coco’s confusion only grew as she noticed that the coffee pot was still partially full. She turned to her temporary guest. “Did you do this?”
The little cat smirked and coolly polished one of his paws against his chest. Coco couldn’t hold back a smile. However, she frowned again as a thought occurred to her, and glanced more carefully at the counter. She winced at the mess of coffee beans and spilled water sitting all over the counter, although she did notice the moist dish towel hanging over the sink faucet. Glancing at the cat again, he looked somewhat apologetic for the mess and it made Coco roll her eyes.
“I appreciate the gesture, but next time, let me do it,” she said, patting him on the head. Coco smiled at how he shook his head from how his fur was messed up. Sipping the mug of coffee, she nodded appreciatively. It was almost exactly how she liked it, and it wasn’t too hot either. “Alright, well... I have a friend that I’m supposed to be meeting soon, and you might as well come with me. I doubt those strange things I saw yesterday were dreams, if you’re any indication.”
Her new friend nodded, and moved over to sit on the couch while he waited for her to finish getting ready. He was grateful when she gave him a few apple slices to snack on while he waited. Thankfully, it didn’t take Coco very long to make herself sufficiently presentable for the outside world, and soon they were heading out -- until they froze outside of the front door.
“Wow...” Coco couldn’t help but stare and gape at the various creatures walking and flying and crawling all over Manehatten. She turned to her new friend. “What... what are you all, anyway?”
“Umbreon.”
“Is that your name? Umbreon?”
He nodded, “Umbre.”
“Um... is that all you can say?”
Umbreon lowered his ears, “Breee...”
Coco almost panicked with how sad he became at that, and moved to nuzzle him comfortingly. “No, no, it’s alright! I’m, um, I’m sure we can find somepony to translate for you!”
Umbreon nodded, his ears perking up again, seemingly satisfied with Coco’s promise. He looked around him, then back to her, seemingly asking where they were going. Coco smiled and lead the way down the street, her new friend following closely. Coco looked curiously at all of the strange creatures wandering the streets.
“What... what are you all anyway?”
“Umbreon.”
“...you can’t all be called Umbreon, can you?”
Coco noticed the way her companion rolled his eyes, and blushed a little at how silly that sounded. She decided to remain quiet for the remainder of the short walk to her lunch date. Coco couldn’t help but notice the various amounts of creatures hanging around the Starbucks they were meeting at. Considering that there were several guards patrolling the streets, trying to keep control of the more chaotic ones, Coco decided once again to simply enjoy her day with her friend.
It would certainly help to keep her from freaking out like most of the other ponies were. Although having to stand up in front of dozens of ponies with her runway outfits had certainly helped her hone the Art of Suppressed Panic.
“Coco! Over here!”
Coco Pommel smiled as she spied her friend, a pegasus of the same age as her.
The pegasus was a soothing sky blue in color, with a soft golden yellow mane and tail. Her cutie mark, to anypony who didn’t know any better, appeared to be little more than a confusing series of lines to form a single character. The pegasus also had a pair of saddlebags next to her.
Coco trotted over to her, Umbreon following closely. “Hello, Rising Sun.”
Rising Sun stood from her table, and tightly wrapped her hooves around Coco for a moment. When she pulled back, she raised an eyebrow at the black and yellow cat behind her. Rising glanced at her friend. Coco giggled and nodded. A moment later, Rising Sun squealed and hugged the Umbreon tightly.
“Oh he’s so cuuuute!” Grinning widely, Rising held him out at hoof’s length. “Where did you find him?”
Coco giggled at the pleading look on the Umbreon’s face. “Put him down, Rising, I don’t think he likes that.”
“Awww... okay...”
Umbreon sighed happily when he was back on his paws, taking a moment to try and shake the messy fur back into alignment.
Coco smiled at her friend as they sat down. “To answer your question, I found him outside my apartment last night, during that rain storm. He looked utterly miserable, so I brought him in and helped him.”
“You’re such a sweetheart, Coco. Do you have a name for him yet?”
Coco blushed lightly. “Well, uh... no. The only thing I can understand when he speaks is -- “
“Umbreon!”
Rising’s attention snapped to the black and yellow feline that sat on the only spare chair. Coco’s blush deepened a bit.
“Hm... I might be able to help. Let me try something...”
Coco blinked in confusion as her friend dug into her saddlebags, pulling out a small pen and a spare handkerchief. Coco couldn’t help but wince as Rising started to etch some strange character into the handkerchief. Rising noticed her friend’s reaction, and gave her an apologetic smile. Umbreon could only watch, his curiosity peaked at the strange combination of lines that were being drawn into the fabric.
“Sorry, Coco, it was the only thing I had on me that might work.” Rising Sun turned to Umbreon. “Here, hold still, let me put this on you.”
Umbreon looked somewhat apprehensive about it, but he merely fidgeted a bit as Rising Sun tied the handkerchief around his neck. The character she etched was pressed against his throat.
“What’s this supposed to do?” He asked.
Coco jumped in her seat, and Rising clapped her hooves happily. “Yay, it worked!”
Umbreon blinked and tried to stare down at his new accessory. “Uh... what?”
“Oh!” Coco Pommel had to take a few moments to recall her friend’s specialty. “Right! Your runes!”
“Runes?” Umbreon asked, confusion evident on his face.
Rising Sun nods enthusiastically. “Yeah! I studied magical runes abroad for a while. The one I put on that is a translation rune. As long as you wear it, and as long as it makes contact with your skin, it’ll work.”
“Oh, cool!” Umbreon cried, a grin stretching across his face. “Thanks!”
Rising giggled, “You’re welcome! Now, do you have a name?”
“Aromi,” he bowed his head politely. “It’s nice to properly meet you two, miss Rising Sun, miss Coco Pommel.”
Coco blushed, “It’s good to be able understand you, Aromi. Uh, can you tell us about... what you are?”
Aromi looked down at his paws and sighed. “Well... as you figured out, I’m now an Umbreon.”
Rising Sun nodded. Her face showing a big grin at the idea of learning about something new. “What’s an Umbreon?”
Coco held up a hoof, her attention to detail having caught onto something that worried her. “Hold on, Rising. Aromi, what do you mean by you’re ‘now an Umbreon’?”
Aromi shuffled in place for a moment. “It... it means that I used to be human.”
Rising and Coco glanced at each other, before Coco continued. “Um... used to be? What happened?”
Aromi’s ears pinned back against his head. “I... I don’t know. I was with my team, and then I... I guess I passed out or something. Then I woke up and I was here and a Pokemon...”
“Pokemon?” Rising asked. “Is that what all of these... things are?”
Aromi nodded, grateful for the distraction. “Yup. All different kinds. I can tell you about them now that you can understand me.”
Rising tapped her chin for moment, “Well, while I would love that, the ink from that pen isn’t gonna last long on the fabric. Unless Coco here can embroider the exact character onto something better to make it more permanent.”
Coco shrugged. “It shouldn’t be too hard. I can just make a template of it, and then put it onto quite a few outfits.”
Rising gave her friend a questioning look. “Why would you want it on multiple outfits?”
“To sell,” Aromi interjected. When the mares looked at him in confusion, he clarified. “If you were to attach this translation rune to a bunch of different outfits, you could sell it to ponies and Pokemon for them to wear and use. I think you’d make a fortune.”
Coco and Rising looked at each other, blinking in some surprise at the suggestion for a solid minute. Then Rising went ahead and pulled Aromi close, hugging him tightly and making him squeak.
“Aromi, you’re a genius!”
He blushed. “It’s not that special...”
“Hold on, Rising.” Coco said, making her friend pause. “Aromi, you mentioned a team?”
Aromi nodded, his ears pinning against his skull. “Well... I say team... they’re... more of a family to me. I... I really miss them.”
Rising hugged Aromi tighter, “We’ll help you find them.”
“Thank you...”
Coco smiled as Aromi seemed to enjoy being comforted by her friend. She finished her drink, and went to throw away their cups and napkins.
“So, um...” Coco began when she got back to their little table. “Rising, can I use this handkerchief to make the template?”
“Of course.”
“Alright, thank you. I should get going back to get started on it. Could you, um, come with me to make sure I get it right?”
Rising Sun smiled and, after putting Aromi down, hugged her friend. “I’d love to! I haven’t visited your apartment in forever!”
Coco smiled and lead the way, both of the mares talking amongst themselves the entire way. On the way, Aromi froze in his tracks, spotting two very familiar Pokemon.
The two mares paused in their walk and saw the little Umbreon staring at two far-off bipedal Pokemon.
“Is... um, do you recognize them?” Coco asked.
Aromi simply nodded, disbelief clear on his face. Rising rolled her eyes at the way he kept just standing there and staring, so she gently nudged him with her wing. It was enough of a nudge to get him to run for them.
“Blaze! Bezella!” Aromi cried out, grinning from ear to ear.
The two Pokemon stopped and looked at who called for them. One of them appeared to be of avian descent and bearing red, orange, and yellow plumage. The other was green and white, wearing what seemed to be a long, flowing dress and had a red spike in its chest.
“What?” The bird asked, frowning. “How do you know our names?”
Aromi skidded to a halt, blinking in confusion for a moment. Then realization dawned on him and he felt the urge to smack his forehead with a paw. “Oh, right, duh! Not human anymore. It’s me, Aromi!”
Bezella raised an eyebrow and gave the Umbreon a flat, unimpressed glare. “And how do you expect us to believe that you’re our trainer?”
“I’m going to have to agree with Bezella,” Blaze commented, crossing his arms. “Prove that you’re Aromi, and not some kind of... trick from this place with all the weird Ponyta.”
Aromi rolled his eyes and sat down on his haunches. “Blaze. When I first got you as a Torchic from my parents, one of the first things you did was set my bed on fire when you decided to practice your Ember in the middle of my room --” Blaze felt his cheeks burn at that little secret being revealed. It didn’t help that Bezelle had to hold back a laugh -- “ and Bezelle, when you became a Gardevoir, it took you nearly a week to stop broadcasting your, ah, desires --” Bezelle found herself now feeling utterly embarrassed at that reminder -- “and then there was the time that I came across the both of you --”
“OKAY!” Blaze cried, very quickly motioning for Aromi to stop. “Okay! We believe you! Just stop right there!”
Aromi chuckled for a moment... but then he felt tears coming down his cheeks. “It’s... I’m so glad I found you two, and so soon.”
“It’s good to see you again, too, Aromi.” Bezelle agreed as she picked up her trainer, hugging him tightly. “You know, having you this size makes you very easy to hug.”
Aromi chuckled again, and just enjoyed being able to embrace two of his oldest and dearest friends. It took him a few minutes to regain his composure, but when he did, he was set back down, and moved to introduce his Pokemon to his new pony friends.
Aromi could only hope that finding the rest of his team would be just as easy...
Author's Note
And now we make some progress with the story.
But who is Aromi? Find out next time, on... whatever this is!
Chapter Three
Wherein Pokemon Model Clothes and Bruises
“Aromi...”
“Yes, Blaze?”
“You know very well that I do not like clothes, hand -- er, hoof-made or not.”
Aromi chuckled. “You made that clear when you burned that shirt I got you back in Mauville.”
Blaze rolled his eyes. “That’s because it was a stupid t-shirt that had a stupid joke on it.”
Bezella gave her mate a questioning look, and made a note to ask him about it later. “Love, don’t burn the nice pony’s clothes just because you don’t like wearing them.”
“I’m not going to, I just don’t like how they feel against my feathers.”
“Well then I suppose it’s a good thing that I’m still trying to find the right thing for you,” Coco interjected calmly. She held back a chuckle at the way Blaze jumped. Aromi wasn’t so reserved, and was now rolling on the floor laughing. “And there’s the other reason I’m making clothes for you. A good friend of mine is highly knowledgeable in magical runes, and she’s been helping me stitching them onto the inside of clothes.”
Blaze nodded in understanding. “That makes sense.”
Coco looked at the maroon scarf she had Blaze modeling, before shaking her head and having him take it off. Taking it with her to the back, Coco tossed it into the rejection pile and wondered what she should make instead. The amount of fabric she had marked with her friend’s rune was very limited, so making entire outfits with the rune was difficult. Accessories, however, were fairly easy. The rule for the runes was that they needed to come in direct contact with the skin. As long as that was achieved, the translation runes would work.
Of course, that led to the current problem.
“What do the runes do, though?” Blaze asked after tying on another neckerchief.
Aromi interjected while Coco was doing a visual inspection of the neckerchief against Blaze’s feathers.
“The runes translate for us.”
Blaze blinked, and looked down at the cloth wrapped around his neck in a new light. “Okay, now that’s cool. But I still don’t like the feeling of this around my neck. It’s too tight for my tastes.”
Coco nodded, and let Blaze remove the neckerchief. Coco took it in her mouth and put it aside, and started to go over her other options. Glancing over at her things, and then back at the pair of Pokémon that she met only recently. The only reason she wasn’t panicking was because Aromi had assured her that these two were someone he trusted, and as such, she figured that she might as well trust them as well.
And of course, the two taller ones were clearly together. It was proven even further in the way Blaze took the small break to kiss Bezella. That was when Coco got an idea. Looking back at her pile of rune-adorned fabric and over at her closet, she grabbed the neckerchief and went into her closet for a second. The three Pokemon paused in what they were doing and watched as she dug through her stuff for a minute, before coming back out with a few other fabrics.
Dashing over to her sewing machine, Coco set to work. Using the efficiency granted to her from practice, Coco very quickly adjusted the plain white neckerchief. She added a diamond of lime-green, with a small circle of rose-red in the center. Folded right, it looked like a triangle with a red half-circle in the middle. Once she finished, Coco turned around and handed it over to Blaze.
“How about now?” Coco asked, watching for his reaction.
Blaze blinked. He knew that the pony had intentionally designed it around his mate’s colors, and it looked... nice, actually. Very carefully tying around his throat, he was pleased to find that it was larger than it had been previously. It was tight enough for the rune on the inside to press against his neck, but it was loose enough for him to breath as if he wasn’t wearing it.
“I like it,” Blaze finally said, smiling to Coco.
Coco smiled back. “And it works!”
“Well I’m glad to see that we finally got Blaze to get over his fear of cloth,” Aromi teased.
Blaze glared down at his trainer. “You’re still not immune to fire.”
Aromi looked unrepentant. “Worth it.”
The Blaziken rolled his eyes, and stepped over to sit down next to his trainer. He smiled as his mate stepped up to model some clothes. Bezella had always enjoyed wearing small accessories, far more than he ever did. As the little pony handed over the first of many items, Blaze looked over at his formerly-human trainer. It was still rather odd to see him as an Umbreon, although the new pink neckerchief around his neck helped to identify him.
“So...” Blaze began, returning his attention to his mate. He smiled at how wonderful she looked with the stylish little cloth belt around her waist, right where her dress met the rest of her. “How are you taking to being an Umbreon?”
Aromi glanced at Blaze. “Well... it was certainly weird at first.”
“Going from two legs to four can do that, I suppose.”
Aromi chuckled. “There was that, but let’s not forget that I suddenly went from five-foot-eight to half that. Also the lack of hands. There's that.”
Blaze paused in his questions long enough to admire the crimson and cream colored scarf around Bezella’s neck, and the way the tails trailed her sides and framed her figure. Bezella admired it in the mirror for a moment, before she and Coco decided to try a few other things first.
“Yes, but that’s all the physical stuff,” Blaze finally continued. “What about the whole being a dark-type thing?”
Despite his insistence that he was fine, Aromi’s ears pinned back for a moment. Blaze gently lay a hand on his back.
“Well, I...” Aromi took a deep breath. “The dark-type part’s fine. I’m sure we’re going to run into those typists at some point, but with you guys, I’ll be fine. It’s... everything else that comes with it that scares me.”
“Everything else? What do you mean?”
It was at this moment when Bezella decided. “What do you think, Blaze?”
Blaze looked up and found himself smiling. Bezella had decided to go with a pair of cloth belts, both of which were slightly slanted to match the curve of her slim gown. One was a crimson color matching his own feathers, and the other a light cream, once again matching his feathers. The crimson belt was small enough to not be overwhelming, and it crossed the cream belt just enough to make both of them stand out without being too obvious.
Rather than answer verbally, Blaze opted to stand and draw her into his arms. Bezella squeaked at the sudden embrace, but she very quickly melted into his arms.
“You look lovely. They suit you quite well.”
Bezella blushed. “Thank you, love.” She turned to look at Coco. “Now, miss Coco, how much do we owe you?”
Coco waved her hoof. “Don’t worry about it.”
Aromi frowned a little. “Are you sure? I’m certain we can scrounge up the money somehow.”
“No, don’t, seriously.” Coco insisted. “They’re presents. Although...” she smiled to her new friends. “If you could keep wearing them and show them off to Manehatten, I’d consider us even.”
Blaze chuckled. “Walking billboards it is then.”
“Sorry, but it is good advertisement.”
Aromi smiled. “Well thank you for the presents, Coco. It’s very nice of you.”
“You’re welcome. Now, I believe that that’s all for today, so why don’t I take you three on a short tour of Manehatten?”
Blaze smiled and nodded, “Yes please! We’re going to need a map.”
Coco gave Blaze a puzzled look as she closed down her shop. “Why’s that?”
Aromi glared at his starter. “Blaze, if you value your pride, you will keep your mouth shut.”
Blaze eyed Aromi for several seconds, then shrugged. “Worth it. It’s because Aromi can’t follow a straight line to save his life.”
Coco blinked. “Really?”
“I have seen Aromi be told which direction to go, and get them confused on a straight road. Yes.”
Aromi eyed Blaze for a moment, then gestured for Bezella to lean in close. After whispering in her ear for a second, Bezella slapped a hand over her mouth to try -- and fail -- to stifle her giggles.
“He didn’t!” Bezella finally squeaked. Aromi just smirked. “Oh dear Arceus!”
Blaze wasn’t sure what secret had been shared, but from the way his mate was now clutching her sides as she laughed, Blaze was certain that he wasn’t going to hear the end of it anytime soon. If ever. Sighing, Blaze decided to just accept it and move on.
Coco just looked confused. “What just happened?”
“My mate now has something to torture me with for the rest of our lives, and it was supplied by my trainer.” Blaze explained with the straightest face he could manage. “I’m not quite sure what it was, either, but I’m not all that eager to find out.”
“You’ll find out soon enough, I’m sure,” Aromi assured him, a smug little smile on his face. “Now, I believe we had a tour to go on?”
It took a second, but Coco had to visibly reset her train of thought. “Right. Let’s get that started, before anything else happens.”
As if on cue -- and it probably was -- there was a small explosion of sorts from up the road. Aromi took the chance to glare at Coco.
Coco noticed and blushed. “I didn’t plan that or anything! I swear!”
“You still jinxed it.”
Blaze rolled his eyes for what felt like the umpteenth time that day. “Come on, someone might have gotten hurt. Let’s go see how we can help.”
Coco blinked at the way her three Pokemon friends were so quick to charge into what was undoubtedly a dangerous situation. After shuffling her hooves a little, she followed as fast as she could. Unfortunately for Coco, she wasn’t as in shape as she’d liked to have thought; it took her several moments to catch her breath once she’d caught up.
“What...” Coco paused, taking another deep breath and silently promising herself to exercise more. “What is it?”
Blaze was frowning. “Trouble.”
Coco blinked, and squinted through the cloud of dust, watching as the silhouette of a large beast rose. She gulped when she saw that it glaring straight at them. Her nervousness evolved into total fear when it roared. Coco immediately found herself cowering under her hooves.
Her three new friends were not so easily cowed, something she would later be thankful of. Aromi stepped forward a bit, squinting into the slowly dispersing dust as well. After a second of being unable to see what was in it, he sighed.
“Bezella, could you use Psychic or something to get this out of the way?”
Bezella frowned slightly, but nodded. “I think I can do something.” She took a deep breath, and after a second, her eyes glowed a light blue. Shortly after, a wave of psychic energy forcibly dispersed the dust cloud.
Aromi found himself suddenly wishing she hadn’t. The silhouette revealed itself to be twice as tall as he currently was, and bearing a large purple horn in between equally-sized purple ears with green innards. It stood on two thick legs, and a thick purple tail lashed angrily behind it, smashing some innocent bookshelves to bits.
“Wh-wh-what is that?”
Aromi chanced a glance to his friend, and noticed that she was ever so slightly peeking out from behind her hooves. “A Nidoking.” He frowned for a moment, before stepping forward and taking a deep breath. “Excuse me! Nidoking!”
Nidoking grunted, turning to the sudden interruption to his rampage. “You! Evil-type!”
Aromi flinched, his ears splaying back for a moment. He took a deep breath. “Why are you -- hey!”
Aromi had to cut off his question as Nidoking fired a quick Poison Sting at where he’d just been standing.
“Where is she, little demon?!” Nidoking roared, even as his horn began to glow.
“Where is who? What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play me for a fool, evil! What have you done with my mate?!”
“I haven’t done anything!”
“LIAR!” Nidoking bellowed. His maw opened, and a line of flames shot forth.
“Hey!” Blaze leapt in front of his trainer, brushing aside the fire with ease. “Knock it off! We’re only trying to help!”
“The only thing I see is a pair of mates helping an evil-type keep me from my mate! EARTH POWER!”
Aromi reacted first. “Scatter! Bezella, grab Coco!”
Bezella lifted the poor mare with psychic, and dodged over to the side just as the others did.
Placing Coco down when they ended up near the sidewalk.
“Miss Coco, find cover and stay there until we come get you, okay?” Bezella whispered to her. Coco, despite her fear, managed to nod and run into a nearby alleyway.
Blaze glanced down at his trainer, noticing a slight burn mark on the Umbreon’s side. “You okay, Aromi?”
“I’ve taken worse,” Aromi said dismissively, focusing more on the opponent. “Will you stop and ju--”
Aromi was interrupted when he was blindsided by Nidoking charging him and promptly Thrashing him, quite painfully, and with more than a few sickening cracks coming from his body. Something inside him managed to focus, however, his eyes sharpening and seeing the opportunity for what it was. With a growl and managing to ignore the pain, Aromi was able to clamp a Bite onto Nidoking’s left hand, drawing blood as he did. Rather annoyingly, it only seemed to drive Nidoking further into his rage. Aromi held steadfast, even as the other hand came flying at him with what would no doubt cause quite a lot of pain and damage. Fortunately, however, he had backup.
Blaze managed to catch the incoming strike and slam Nidoking’s head with a solid Sky Uppercut, causing Nidoking to stumble back and convincing Aromi to let go. He stumbled a bit as he landed on the ground and wound up on his ass, but again, a somewhat strange sensation came over him and he managed to keep his focus on the enemy.
“Bezella! Psychic!”
Despite being an Umbreon rather than a human, after years of being her trainer, Bezella followed the instruction without question. Her eyes glowed a bright blue, and Coco watched from her hiding place as Nidoking was promptly knocked on his ass from an unseen force. While Nidoking was distracted from the psychic, Blaze followed up rather promptly with a Blaze Kick straight to his midsection. There was more than enough force in the strike to bury Nidoking in the stone road a few inches. Aromi managed to limp his way over to Nidoking, stopping near his face.
“Are you ready to listen now, or are you gonna keep being an asshole?”
Nidoking growled at him, and made to get up, but Blaze stopped him by placing a single leg on his midsection.
“You took my mate from me, Evil, and seduced these --”
Blaze growled. “And that gives you the right to attack us unprovoked? In the middle of a city street, surrounded by innocents?”
Nidoking snarled. “These are nothing more than illusions! Trickery by this Evil here!”
Aromi rolled his eyes. “Will you shut up with the Typism and actually use your brain for once? For fuck’s sake, look around you! Even if I was capable of illusions, which by the way I’m not, I seriously doubt I’d be able to do one that involves an entirely different world, different species, and you feeling pain.”
Nidoking made to retort, but despite himself, he looked around at the slowly gathering crowd of what looked like small, strange-colored Ponyta. One of them, looking to be a very light amber or beige with a flower-like hair clip that seemed to be particularly worried and coming closer. Not far behind her was a white-looking one wearing what appeared to be... armor?
Coco gulped as she skirted around Nidoking towards her new friends, namely Aromi, since he seemed to be the one hurt the most. She wasn’t entirely certain what the large purple creature was saying, though it wasn’t very difficult to guess the context from her friends’ words. The guard that she had managed to find and bring over was a little braver than her and came up to the creature.
“Are... are you alright?” Coco whispered to Aromi.
Aromi was starting to breathe through clenched teeth. Now that the fight was over and the adrenaline was fading, he could quite clearly feel many bruises forming. Not to mention the way several of his bones were badly damaged and the way he could feel them grinding against each other.
“No,” he admitted. “But I’ll get better.”
Blaze came over soon enough. “I think we can leave this to that guard. I translated for Nidoking a bit, he agreed to be detained for now, as long as they helped to find his mate in return.”
Sure enough, Nidoking was easily prying himself from the road, and after giving a quick glance to Aromi with an unrepressed snarl, he followed the guard. The crowd parted to give them both plenty of space. Coco was too busy fussing over Aromi’s obvious wounds to notice, though. Despite his protests otherwise, she was able to convince him to at least visit the hospital. Blaze and Bezella’s insistence had helped, though, so it was with a rather adorable pout that Blaze was carrying Aromi as they followed Coco once more.
The hospital was only a few blocks away from where the fight had occurred, but to Aromi, it may have been miles. Each step Blaze took reverberated through his body, causing him to hiss through clenched teeth as he endured the pain. They tried their best to keep his attention away from it, constantly talking to him as they made their way through the city. But it was still quite the blessed relief to see the red cross above the front door, something that was apparently universal.
To their surprise, there wasn’t a pony at the front desk. Rather, it was a couple of pale-pink Pokemon. Coco found herself just following her new friends from behind, unsure of how to react but not really willing to be left behind.
Blaze stepped forward and started to explain the situation to them, letting the girls figure out a place to wait.
“Um, Bezella? What are those two, er, Pokemon?”
Bezella glanced at Coco, before returning her focus to her trainer and mate. “They’re called Audino and Blissey. They’re most commonly found in hospitals.”
“Oh.”
Blaze came back over, sitting next to them, sighing. “It won’t take too long, they said, but I think one of them might be a former human.” At Bezella’s questioning look he continued. “The Audino kept stumbling and tripping over her feet, and was acting and sounding like she was more accustomed to being the human in charge. I might be wrong.”
“So, um, how bad is it?” Coco finally asked.
Blaze sighed. “Preliminary exam says several fractures, bruises, and possibly one or two breaks.”
Bezella grimaced. “That aligns with what we thought, too. Damn.”
“I-I’m sorry...” Coco whispered.
“Whatever for? It’s not your fault that Nidoking was an ass.”
“I know, I just... wish I could’ve helped more...”
Bezella wrapped an arm around Coco, drawing the pony in close. “We asked you to not get involved, so you don’t have to be sorry. I’m just glad nobody else was hurt.”
Coco nodded. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it shortly after when nothing came to mind. Neither of her friends really had anything to say, either, so they quickly descended into a somewhat uncomfortable silence as they waited...
Author's Note
So... it's only been, what, three years? I think that might not be long enough. After this chapter, I'll be back in four.
...I'm kidding. Anyway, this chapter is un-beta'd, so please give it an honest review, as I'm a bit rusty in regards to writing in general.
