CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DUNGEON EXPLORERS YAY!

“Umm… anypon-sorry, anymon else thinking this was a bad idea?”

The quartet is standing about halfway up a hill.  Behind them is darkness; in front of them is yet another strange sight.  A large pink building sits at the crest of the cliff.  Not a subdued pink, but full-blown Pinkie pink, with large eyes that will steal your soul and large bunny ears sticking out the sides.  Lining the path are large torches, blazing in the fading light.  In the buildings ‘stomach’ is a wooden gate.  In front of the building, on the ground, is a grate.  The four avoid the grate, and knock on the gate.

“Remind me again why we’re doing this?”  Apple Bloom asks.

Ryu keeps knocking.  “Because it’ll be fun.  I want to help Pokémon all over the world, and what else are you three gonna do?  Sit on the beach for days, weeks, months?  Waste away, unable to pay anymon for food or shelter?  Also, this is a great fallback plan.  If-sorry, when your friend fixes her machine, we’ll have made some friends here, and I can join a team with other Pokémon instead of having to go on alone.”

“Psst!  Hey, over here!”  The four turn, and see something akin to a small brown mole sticking out of the ground.  “You must be new.  In order to get in, we hafta analyze your footprint.  We can’t go around just letting any Pokémon in, you see?  So, back up, and step onto the grate one at a time.  Once we’re sure you aren’t evil or anything, you can come in.  Got it?”

The four nod their agreement, and the mole disappears.  Scootaloo turns to the others.  “So, who’s first?”

There is a bit of a scramble, and Ryu ends up in front.  Realizing there’s no use arguing, he sheepishly steps up to the grate.

“Pokémon detected!  Pokémon detected!”  A shout emanates from the hole.  Ryu almost jumps off in shock, but stands firm.

“WHO’S FOOTPRINT?  WHO’S FOOTPRINT?” An even louder shout comes from somewhere in the building.  Either the Pokémon is in there, right inside the entrance, or he’s one of the loudest things ever.

“The footprint is Squirtle’s!  The footprint is Squirtle’s!  Squirtle, how many are with you?”

Ryu leans down and shouts, “Three more!” then steps off the grate.  Scootaloo steps up, and the process repeats, minus the ‘how many more’.

After Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom get identified, the voice comes again.  “Okay, you all check out.  Please proceed to the first sublevel.  Somemon will be with you shortly.  Welcome to the HQ of the Wigglytuff Guild!”  The gate creaks open.  They look in, and see a wooden ladder leading through a hole in the ground.  With a shrug, Ryu descends.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie look worried.  “How are we supposed to get down?  I don’t think that’s meant for four-legged creatures.”

Two minutes later…

“Wow.  Why was I worried?  That was a piece of cake!”  Sweetie lands gracefully at the foot of the ladder.

Apple Bloom follows a moment later, tumbling onto the hard ground.  “Easy for ya’ll ta say.”  She grumbles, then stops at the sheer amount of everything going on.

The sublevel is large.  Boards adorn the walls, all stuffed to the brim with pieces of paper.  Many, many Pokémon mill about on the floor, on the walls, on the ceiling, everywhere.  Some are pulling down pieces of paper, some making use of several smaller ladders placed around the edges of the room to ascend or descend, but all are grouped together in groups of two or three.  A window takes up the entirety of one wall, pointing out over the ocean.  A few groups of winged Pokémon flit in and out of the window.

“Wow.  This is…”

“Amazing!”  Ryu finishes.  “I’ve never seen so many Pokémon in one place?  Do you think they’re all members of Exploration Teams?”

Scootaloo looks at him.  “By the way, you never really explained what that means.”

“Hello?  Yes, hello?  Are you the ones who were knocking upstairs?”  They turn, and see a small blue, green, and yellow bird perched on the top rung of the lower ladder.  The defining feature is a crest on the back of his head in the shape of a flag, making his head look like a music note.

Ryu steps forward; Scootaloo notices that the other Pokémon seem to now be avoiding this certain set of ladders.  “Yeah, we’re here for—”

“Go away!”  The bird screeches.  “We have no need for solicitors like you!”

He continues to rant until Ryu states “We’re not here to sell you anything!  We’re here to become an Exploration Team!”

The bird immediately stops mid-sentence, in the middle of sweeping one wing outwards, one foot pointing the other direction, and overall looking rather silly.  “Well, why didn’t you say so?  Come!  Come right this way!” and hops off the ladder to the next sublevel.  The four follow.

The second sublevel is much more subdued in action.  Relatively few Pokémon mill about, always heading in one direction or another.  Wonderful smells emanate from one hallway, and if one listened well enough, restful breathing could be heard from another.  The bird motions them to a door just to the side of the ladder.  The art around the door matches the style of the building above; pink around the edge, large green eyes with bunny ears, white door.  He turns to our hero/heroines.

“Now, please keep a level head when dealing with the Guildmaster.  He has been known to be a bit… eccentric at times. Don’t say anything out of turn or anything remotely hurtful.”  He hops towards the door, then turns back.  “In fact, don’t say anything at all.  Leave the talking to me.”  With that, he brushes open the door and ushers the four in.

A darkened room greets them.  A thick carpet leads from the door to the other end of the room.  Two braziers are placed on either side of the carpet, coals burning low.  At the other end of the room sits a thing.  In the darkness, it is hard to make out what this thing is; in the low light all that can be discerned is the thing is large.  The bird hops over to the thing.

“Guildmaster?”  No response.  “Guildmaster?  Sir?”  No response.  The bird becomes slightly panicked.  “Wigglytuff?  We have some young Pokémon here wishing to become—”

“YOOM-TAH!”  With a shout, the thing turns around and the room brightens.  The thing is revealed to be the same as the building and the door:  tall, at least six feet high, colored like a penguin with pink instead of black, tall rabbit ears, and large soulful green eyes.  “Hiya!  I’m Wigglytuff!  Chatot here tells me you wanna become Guild members, right?”

“Yes, Guildmaster, they do, but—” Chatot tries to interject, but Wigglytuff cuts him off.

“We’re always looking for new friends!”

“Guildmaster, we really can’t—”

“Oh, I have a feeling we’re all going to get along just fine!”

“GUILDMASTER!”  Chatot shrieks.  Wigglytuff looks at him, a hurtful look in his eyes.  Chatot takes a step back.  "I’m sorry, but we cannot accept any new teams at this time.”

Wigglytuff pouts.  “Why not?  The last team moved out, what, two, three days ago?  And if there’s not enough room, we can always get Diglett and Dugtrio to expand again.”

“But…I…uh…” Chatot deflates.  “Yes sir.  Alright then, names and team designation please.”

“I’m Ryu.  This is Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom.  Uh… what do you mean by ‘team designation’?”

“Every team goes by a name.  Razor Wind, Charm, Glee, every team has a designation that sets them apart from the others.  What is your team name going to be?”

The four go into a huddle.  A minute later, they turn back to Chatot.  “Well, how about Team Crusaders?  These three, back in their home village, were known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders.  However, since I have no clue what a ‘cutie mark’ is, we’ve decided to just go with Crusaders.”

Chatot produces a piece of parchment, and begins writing.  “…And, done.  Welcome to the Wigglytuff Guild, Team Crusaders!  Now, if you’ll just follow me…”

“Wait!”  Wigglytuff yelps.  Everymon turns to see him balancing a box on top of his head.  He jumps, bucking the box off, and it lands with a thump in front of the Crusaders.  “Every team needs the right gear.  This will help you get started.”  Ryu opens the box, and begins pulling stuff out.  First out of the box is four pins.  “These badges show everyone you are part of my Guild, and are to be treated with the respect that deserves.”  Second is four small sacks.  “These treasure bags will hold anything you find on your adventures.  Food, items, interesting shiny bits, you name it, you can put it in there.  Since you’re just starting out, the bags can only hold a few things, but with hard work, you can rise through the ranks and gain access to bigger and better things.”  The third thing is a folded piece of parchment.  “That’s the wonder map!  Anywhere you go on your adventures, it’ll mark it down, no effort on your part!  A must-have for any Exploration Team.”    The fourth item is a small worn book.  "That's a field guide you can use to identify basically anything you find on your adventures."  Ryu nods, then pulls out the last set of items: four squares of cloth.

“What are these?”

“Oh, those are just some bandanas you can wear whilst adventuring.  Nothing says you’re part of a team like matching uniforms!”

“Is that all, Guildmaster?”

“Ayup, I think so!”

“Alright then, if you would just follow me, Team Crusaders, I will show you to your quarters.”  Chatot glides out of the room.  The Crusaders follow, and end up in a small room with four pads of grass on the floor.  “This is where you will be staying during your apprenticeship here.  Life in the Guild starts pretty early, so make sure to get enough sleep.  You’re going to need it.”  With that, he hops off.

The four settle down, and Ryu notices the girls have wide smiles on their faces.  “What’s with the smiles?”

“Oh, the Guildmaster just reminds us of a certain crazy party pony we know.  Like, they act almost the same and have the same colors, almost.”  Scootaloo remarks, then turns over onto her back.  “Ryu, how much can you tell us about this world?  If we’re gonna be stuck here for a while, we need to fit in as best we can.”

“Well, I don’t really know much, but I can tell you what my dad told me.  See, a very very very very long time ago, at the creation of the universe, there was an Egg…”