A New World, a New Identity

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 15
Halloween Chapter (non canon)
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Cancelled
Chapter 3
chapter 14

Chapter 1

The sun was setting on Lilycove, a successful day coming to an end. It had taken Tyler about a week to traverse the rainy forests between Fortree and the large port city. But now he was finally back to civilization, and could pass out in one of the nearby Pokemon Center’s beds.

Before he could continue on to Mossdeep he would need to find a Water-type to ride there. Were it much closer to a nearby coast like Dewford he could fly there, but despite his Altaria, Queen’s, strength, she couldn’t make it that far without a break in between. He was considering a Tentacool, their defensive capabilities were sure to come in handy in a battle, but he was wary about adding a Poison-type to his team just before battling a Psychic gym. He checked his Dexnav to see what sort of water pokemon were nearby, noting that there seemed to be many more water pokemon here than when he had first travelled through the area on his way to Littleroot for his trainer license test. He smiled at the memory fondly; to think that he had already been with Queen for a year, time seemed to fly travelling the Hoenn region.

He finally approached the Pokemon Center, it’s automatic doors sliding open with a pleasant whirring noise. He glanced at the TV, seeing some story about a mutilated pokemon corpse found in the Kalos region, believed to be a victim of some notorious mad scientist.

He handed over his five pokeballs to the Nurse Joy, offering a muttered thanks as she took them to a back room to check and heal. The Center was mostly empty, so he figured the wait wouldn't be long. He got out his Dexnav again to look at what was available nearby more closely, but all he could see were the silhouettes of uncaught pokemon in the area. He could make out what was likely a Frillish, which could definitely come in handy with the powerful twin Gym Leaders, as long as it could get along with his Scrafty, Damian.

Having decided what pokemon to fish for, he put away the Dexnav and got up to go see about checking into a room. The nurse had returned to the front desk, likely having left his Pokemon with her Chansey assistant. He got himself a large suite so he could let his Pokemon sleep outside of their Pokeballs.

Deciding to burn more time while he was waiting, he asked the nurse to send his Pokemon to his room once they were finished, and went to find his room. Coming to the room number, he touched his trainer card to the display on the door and it unlocked for him. These Centers just got more and more high tech, he couldn't wait to see what other sorts of improvements would be made to them in the near future. His bag was haphazardly tossed onto his bed, and he sat down next to it. He opened up the Pokeball pocket, only to find it pitifully empty, with only a Dusk Ball and two standard Balls. He would have to check out that famous shopping center tomorrow to restock before going Frillish hunting.

All of a sudden, a powerful wave of drowsiness hit him, “It must be that long day of hiking, gotta stay awake to let them out of their Pokeballs when…” His thought was cut short as he lost consciousness. The last thing to pass through his mind was a distant strange voice.

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

Bedlam, absolute Bedlam, that’s what Shadow woke up to. He was not a fan of that. He wasn’t really a fan of anything that involved crowds. Or lots of noise. Or people. Lucky for him, he wasn’t actually in the crowd, rather in an alleyway off to the side from where the chaos was going down. Hundred of… Ponyta like creatures all rushing back and forth in a frenzy. The Umbreon got up, and padded silently to the edge of the alley. It didn’t look like a good idea to go out into that stampede, at his size he’d be stomped half to death. Deciding it would be important to get somewhere at least, hopefully to learn what was going on, he looked around the alleyway, finding only a dumpster against a wall. He jumped onto the dumpster, up over the wall, and landed on the other side without any sound. Looking around he appeared to be in someone’s garden. Sneaking around the back of the house out to the street on the other side, he found it to be pleasantly empty compared to the next one over, only a few confused looking Rattata.

He stopped, not knowing which way was best to go. Looking to the right he found another panicked crowd, and to the left, what appeared to be a mugging via Feraligatr. Deciding to avoid the large powerful Water-Type until he knew what was going on, he turned to the right. As much as he hated crowds, that’s where the people are, and where you would most likely find someone.

“Jeez, what a headache.” Tyler was NOT feeling good. He vision was swimming worse than a Magikarp, and he honestly felt as though someone hit him over the head with a hammer. Sitting up, he looked around, finding himself in a large yard with a garden. A very fancy garden. It had tall hedges lining the edges, almost obscuring a stately red brick wall behind them. In the center was a large fountain, with two small Ponyta looking creatures in the middle, shooting water out of their mouths in a colliding arc. He tried to stand, but fell backward almost instantly, due to a strange weight behind him. As he flailed his arms to keep his balance, they seemed… pinker than usual, but he didn’t get a good look before he toppled onto the soft grass.

He would have tried to stand again, but in front of him, was a very pink limb. One that was in the same position as how his arm felt like it was in, and seemed to connect to… a large fluffy mass, which was connected to… oh Arceus no. Upon this realization he jerked back up onto his feet, almost losing his balance again in the process. He waved his arm around in front of him some, making it do certain angles and positions, hoping desperately that it would mess up and turn out not to be his, but to no avail. He looked back to the mass of fluff, now noticing what appeared to be some hanging from his forehead. He brought one of his new arms close and touched it. He could feel the hair shifting at the end of the sensitive nerve endings, all of which, despite his disbelief, were his. He finally looked behind him to the strange weight he had felt behind him, finding a long pink and black ringed tail, with a blue orb at the end, which emitted a faint glow, barely visible in the daylight.

He considered fainting before realizing that’s not how it works. Instead, he collapsed again, remaining conscious while in a state of semi shock.

Shadow dashed down the street as fast as he could. Apparently the locals, which he had discovered by listening in on a conversation between law enforcement, were called ponies. Said law enforcement had noticed him eavesdropping and tried to arrest him. Since when was eavesdropping on cops illegal? The two chasing him were both of the hornless and wingless variant and were easy to dodge when they occasionally caught up. But as he came around a corner, he ran right into one of the horned ones. Which immediately lit up his horn and used an attack, which paralyzed him instantly. He would have to remember these ponies could use Thunder Wave in the future. He tried to use Heal Bell but was unable. Hopefully the paralysis would wear off soon.

As Tyler came back to the realm of thought he realized he was no longer in the garden, and that he was now laying back in a… very comfortable couch, in some sort of living room area. Opposite of him was another couch, seemingly identical to his own. Wherever he was, it was definitely high society. Just the rug looked expensive enough to buy him enough vitamins for his whole team. He heard a loud clopping noise behind him, and a white Ponyta stallion came into view, wearing a fancy high class looking jacket, and a monocle. He glanced at Tyler in a concerned manner, and seeing he was now back to reality, cleared his throat.

“Um, hello. My name is FancyPants.”

“But you don’t have any pants on,” was the only reply Tyler could come up with. “Genius, freaking genius, I make contact with some new species and you say that. Wow. New low.”

This earned a confused look from the stallion, “What does Flaaffy mean exactly?”

“Oh crap he can’t understand Pokespeak. What now?”

Tyler looked around for paper and a pencil, but none could be found. He did his best to mime out using a pencil, hoping to get the point across. Luckily FancyPants seemed to understand, “Oh, I know! Give me a moment, I’m sure I have a translator spell around here somewhere.” He went back behind the couch to a bookshelf, and pulled a few off using… wait. Was that levitation? He didn’t think Ponyta could learn Psychic, but then again, he didn’t really seem like one. Just a similar body type.

“Aha! I knew I had one around here somewhere, let me just read this,” he paused for a moment, reading over the page with utmost care. Who knew what could go wrong if the spell wasn’t done properly? His horn glowed slightly, the light encompassing Tyler for a moment before fading. Tyler just stared at him dumbly for a moment before the stallion chipped in again. “Well go on, say something, we need to know if it works.”

Resisting the urge to facepalm, he sputtered out, “Testing testing, 1 2 3.”

“Fantastic! I haven’t had to perform that spell for some time, I believe back when I was still dating…” he suddenly trailed off and a forlorn look came upon his face for a moment, before switching back to his cheery host demeanor. “Ah well that’s not important. What is important, is why you were almost passed out in my garden in a state of shock.”

“Well… It’s hard to explain.”

“Do your best then.”

“Um… You see what I am now? Well, I wasn’t always this.”

“Were you a pony?”

“Is that what you’re called?”

“Yes, I am a pony, and I’ll take that as a no. What were you then.”

“I was a human.”

Fancy paused for a moment, as though checking to see if the species name rung any bells. “I’m afraid I am not familiar with humans, but nor are your with ponies it would seem. What are you now though?”

“Well, I’m a Flaaffy now.”

“Don’t believe I’m familiar with those either.”

“It’s a Pokemon.”

“Still getting nowhere. Where are you from?”

“I’m from Evergrande City, in the Hoenn Region.”

"I believe you are being too specific. What world are you from."

Tyler almost laughed. "What kind of question is that? I'm not an alien. I'm from Earth."

“Well that’s just the problem, we’re not on this 'Earth,' we’re on Equus. Which means you are indeed an 'alien'.”

Those words shook Tyler. Hard. That was not what he was expecting, or hoping to hear. If he wasn’t on Earth, would he ever see any of his team again? Would he even ever see another human or Pokemon? And just like that, he slipped back into his state of shock.

Chapter 2

Shadow was carried by the horned pony to a large warehouse where other guards were also taking Pokemon to. He was thrown into a small cage, barely big enough for him and maybe someone else of his size, with enough room that they would be shoulder to shoulder with only a few inches between them. Glancing around, he found hundreds of other cages, many containing Pokemon, most of the others still waiting to be filled. The ponies didn’t seem to be capturing any specific types of Pokemon, as he saw them in almost every type and body style. He tried the bars of the cage, and they didn’t budge. He used a few attacks with no better results. He would have to wait until they opened it to feed him and hope one of the horned ones wasn’t nearby.

Several hours had passed since Shadow had been locked up, and the other cages around him were slowly filling up. He tried making conversation with Pokemon around him but they were all either too scared to hold a conversation or too mad at being locked up. His plan of escaping during feeding time was foiled when a unicorn teleported the food through the bars of the cage, and seemed to smirk as though he knew the strange creatures plan.

Long after Shadow had lost track of the time, and the sun was visible in the large doors on the West side of the warehouse, he was given a cellmate. A winged guard flew in at max speed, immediately asking for a cage. In his arms was a strange Pokemon that Shadow didn’t believe he had ever seen before. It had the size and shape of an eeveelution, but didn’t match up with the characteristics for any he knew. It had a smooth dark purple coat, with several spots around joints where the fur was lighter and spiker, it’s tail was a sharp looking blade, similar to an Absol’s, and long spike covered ears. It was struggling and screaming in terror the whole time it was carried in.

“PLEASE PLEASE! YOU NEED TO PUT ME DOWN! I DON’T WANT TO HURT YOU PLEASE! GET A DOCTOR! SOMEONE! GET SOME PECHA BERRIES OR AN ANTIDOTE BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!”

Unfortunately the ponies couldn’t understand her Pokespeak, and even if they could it was doubtful they would listen until it was too late.

She was tossed into Shadows cage, an official looking unicorn casting a spell allowing her to pass through the bars so they wouldn’t need to be opened. She jumped up and immediately began begging the guards for a doctor. They just left, figuring she was just mad about being locked up.

After a moment of worry, she turned to her new cage partner. “Please, this is very important, did I touch you, at all. Even just brush your leg. I need to know.”

“Um… I think your ear touched my tail for a second, but you flicked it away when it touched it.”

Panic immediately filled the strange females eyes. “Please tell me you know a status healing move. Please.”

Shadow nodded, closing his eyes for a second before muttering “Heal Bell,” a faint light passing over his body.

The strange Pokemon sighed in relief, before saying “My name is Valerie. What’s yours,” in an awkward tone suggesting a desire for a change in conversation.

“Shadow. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Pokemon like you before.”

Valerie looked down, her demeanor quickly changing from relief to sorrow.

“Oh, um did I say something wrong? Did I touch on a sore spot?”

“No, no. Well… Yes, it is a sore spot. I’m a Veneon. We’re… I’m a new species of Eeveelution, poison type.”

“Really? I didn’t know that a new one had been discovered since Sylveon.” Immediately after he said it, he regretted it, tears now gathering in Valerie’s eyes.

”You wouldn’t have. Um… I don’t like to talk about this but I’ve heard it isn’t good to bottle these sorts of things up… If I tell you can you promise not to talk to others about it without my permission?”

“If you don’t want to talk about it it’s fine. Really.”

“No, no, I should just get it out in the open. Do you know a Doctor Nurem?”

The name sounded familiar to Shadow, but he couldn’t remember from where. “No I don’t believe I have.”

After a sigh from the “Veneon”, she continued. “He was a mad scientist, he… experimented with Pokemon. He killed over eight hundred in his experiments, very few lived. I was one of the lucky few. If you could call living like this lucky. My form has a...very overactive poison point ability. If anything touches me, even for a moment, they’re inflicted. I really hope that guard will be okay.” She tried to stick her head out the cage to check, with none of the guards in sight. “I hurt everyone I touch…” With that she broke down crying. Sobbing uncontrollably into the bars of the cage.

Shadow was stunned, he didn’t know how to deal with this sort of situation, as it wasn’t something he was all too familiar with. None of the Eevee from his family ever really cried, and no one on his team ever really did either. So he did the first thing that came to mind.

Suddenly, Valerie felt two forelegs wrap around her shoulders, and a soft cheek rest against hers. Her eyes widened and she tried to jerk away, but the Umbreon held her tightly.

“It’s okay, I can heal myself. It’ll all be alright. You're not with him anymore.”

She sobbed into him some more. This was the first person to ever be brave enough to touch her purposefully since… No, she can’t think about him right now. She was free. And she had a friend. And she would definitely make the best of this, for her brother’s sakes.

After Tyler came back again he and FancyPants exchanged information about each other's worlds, and concluded that some powerful being had transported all of the Pokemon and likely many humans to Equus, and transformed the humans into Pokemon, or at least hopefully he wasn’t the only one. Fancy pants explained that he was in Canterlot, the capital of a country called Equestria, and explained that he, and the majority of the rest of the country were inhabited by creatures called ponies, and gave a brief summary of the raes, pegasi who could fly, earth ponies who had a connection with the land and were exceptionally strong, unicorns who could focus magic through their horns, and alicorns, which were a mix of all three.

FancyPants offered to let Tyler stay at his mansion for as long as he needs, since he seemed to be a “Reasonable fellow,” and that he “Must continue to be noble in more than title, since most are not these days.” He only wished for help defending his home from some of the more aggressive ‘Mons that he had heard reports of around the city. Tyler happily agreed, but made sure to mention that he couldn’t control his new powers yet and would need his team to do so.

And so it was that Tyler found himself walking down the streets of Canterlot calling out the names of his lost comrades. “Shadow! Kenny! Queen! Anybody!” He had been searching for his friends for about an hour and a half. FancyPants had renewed the spell so he could ask for directions back to the mansion if need be, and given him some bits so he could get food without having to return, which currently hung in a small bag around his neck. This wasn’t the right way to do this. At this rate it could take months, or even years to find them. From what he had heard from FancyPants Equestria was a big place, and his partners might not even be in Equestria, they could be anywhere else on the planet too for all he knew. If only there was somewhere he could go to to find his Pokemon. Some sort of Pokemon Reunion Commission. He sighed, for now, until something like that was set up, he would have to do it the hard way.

He looked up and to his right, Canterlot Castle was easily visible from anywhere in the city, but it seemed massive even on the far side of the large mountain cliff that supported the Equestrian Capital. To believe that it was built thousands of years ago, in a world without any modern equipment, was almost inconceivable. Imagining the number of ponies needed to pull off such a feat, and the skill needed to organize and manage the project left him dizzy. From what he had heard the two sisters that lived in the imperious yet beautiful spires known as Celestia and Luna controlled the day and night, respectively. This wasn’t too hard to believe, they sounded like the Equestrian equivalent of a legendary, and there seemed to be a legend for just about every natural function of the Earth except for night and day. “I guess they have a complete set now” he mused to himself.

Once Valerie had gotten most of the crying out of her system, she fell asleep, having had an exhausting day. Shadow kept awake, while the ponies seemed to mostly be scared of the Pokemon and thought they were protecting themselves, he wasn’t sure how far they’d go to do so. He heard a door bang open, and about five guards all fighting to restrain something. He couldn’t see past their writhing bodies to see what they were wrangling, but he could hear a rather familiar voice yelling and cursing at the top of her lungs at them. Suddenly the Pokemon broke free from them and rushed down the aisle between the cages, all of the guards chasing after her. She stopped suddenly, and turned around. The guards all stopped too. She moved forward, they flinched, and with a scream she rushed back forwards, her keys jangling menacingly. With this the guards finally fled, one of them yelling “I don’t get paid enough to fight demonic key rings!” Another threatened, “We’ll be back with more you stupid… thing.”

She floated over to the nearest cage, full of about twenty Rattata, and unlocked it. They dashed out to the nearest doorway, the pitiful shrieks of the guards could be heard as the rodent Pokemon stampeded them.

All the commotion had woken up Valerie, and Shadow finally recognized the Klefki. She was moving down the row, unlocking all the cages she could reach. One of the Rattata wandered back in, and came up to the Klefki. “What do you want,” was the brusque acknowledgment he was given.

“My name is Joey. I’m looking for my Rattata, I used to be human. He wasn’t in the cage with me. Have you seen him?”

“How would I know I know which was yours.”

“Oh I’m sure you would have noticed him. He’s top percentage.”

The Klefki gave him a deadpan stare, and continued unlocking cages. The youngster took the hint and wandered off.

After watching the curious exchange, Shadow finally spoke up. “BBK?”

The Klefki stopped for a moment, turning her glare on the Umbreon, before breaking out in a smile and rushing over to unlock the cage. “I’m so glad I finally found someone. Have you seen anyone else? I haven’t heard anything about the rest of the team.”

“No, sorry. BBK, I’d like you to meet my newest friend, Valerie.”

The Veneon stopped suddenly as she was halfway out of the cage, she could practically feel the Key Ring’s eyes boring into her as she was scrutinized. Just when she was beginning to consider running, BBK smiled, if you could call whatever she did with her keyhole smiling, “Hiya, I’m BooBoo Keys, but most people call me BBK, ya know, since it’s less awkward.”

She held out one of her keys for Valerie to shake, she only faltered for a moment before remembering the Klefki was a Steel-Type and accepting. “I’m Valerie, but you can call me Val; it’s nice to meet you.”

Just as they finished their greetings a door banged open and several dozen guards rushed in. A few of them pointed to the floating key ring and explained that what was giving them trouble. There was a moment of silence, and they all burst out laughing. BBK was quick to piece together what they were laughing at, and slowly floated over to them, putting on her cutest face possible. One of the mares of the guard coming forward, and in a mockingly sweet baby voice, “Awww, wook at this wittle cutie, were the big boys giving you twubble?”

BBK faked sadness for the mare, looking down and letting her ring droop, and nodding. The mare turned around and gave the five from before a smirk, and while her back was turned, BBK’s expression changed to a malicious grin, sneaking up closer to her. When the guard turned back around, she jumped back upon suddenly seeing the Pokemon up in her face, with a very different demeanor.

“Kle Kleflki!” was all the guard heard before a blinding pink light washed over them, released Pokemon that hadn’t gone the long way through the offices rushed out. Knowing full well that her element of surprise had vanished, BBK joined her friends and escaped to safety.

After searching all the way until after dark, Tyler felt it would be prudent to return to the mansion. He managed to traverse through Canterlot unmolested, and entered the stately manor. The hired guards eyed him as he entered, but made no move to stop him. As he entered he was approached by an aged pony butler with a rather obvious toupee. “Greetings Master Tyler, Master FancyPants has been waiting to start dinner. He was not sure of your dietary needs, so you should make haste to order dinner before the cook must return home.”

The Flaaffy nodded in thanks and began to wander off before stopping and asking for directions, which were heartily given. He entered the dining room, seeing FancyPants at the end of a long table, already set up with enough plates and silverware for eight. FancyPants was furiously scribbling down something on a piece of parchment with his levitation, a look of mild fury upon his muzzle. Looking up as he heard the door close, he immediately dropped the pen and got out of his chair, his ire shifting to relief.

“My good friend you have no IDEA how worried I've been! I would never have sent you out to search for your friends had I known that my cousin BlueBlood was having guards detain your kind! I was just now sending a letter to the captain of the guard stating that he has no right to do so, since you are all obviously intelligent and sapient beings! I swear one of these days my dear cousin will get his!”

Tyler was surprised at this, he had only just met this pony, and he already thought of him as a friend, and was worried about him, and he had opened up his home to a complete stranger. Were all ponies, discounting this “BlueBlood,” this hospitable?

“Give me a moment to finish this letter, Loyalty, could you fetch Barnardo so he can begin our dinner preparations.”

“Of course sir,” Tyler jumped and looked behind him, that was one quiet butler, he hadn’t even known he had entered the room.

Fancy chuckled when he saw Tyler’s reaction. “Yes he’s quite the quiet one isn’t he. He is of the belief that the perfect butler is only noticeable when needed, he spooks guests more often than I’d like, but it does make for good entertainment. Go ahead and take a seat, I’ll finish up this letter and we can talk more after.”

Just then the door opened, and a tall white bird creature walked in. He gave a small bow to FancyPants, and seeing that his employer was currently occupied approached Tyler first to get his order.

“Um, I’m not sure what I want, do you have a menu or something.”

“I can make just about any dish, just name what you want and I can prepare it.”

“And don’t worry about choosing ‘high society’ dishes, this is not a formal affair, so just order whatever you’d enjoy,” added FancyPants.

“In that case, can you make pizza?”

The griffin began to speak, before faltering. “I’m not sure if I’m familiar with that dish, is it a specialty of your world?”

“Well, if you haven’t heard of it, I suppose it is. If I give an explanation of how to make it could you still make one? Keep in mind I’m no chef.”

“Young master, I am always delighted to learn a new dish, however, I must return to my home before it is too late, especially with what has happened. No offense intended to Pokemon, but I have heard dreadful things about ongoings in the city, and I would prefer to return before it gets to be too late at night. If you show me tomorrow I can make if for you in the future.”

“That sounds reasonable, how about some pasta? Do you have spaghetti here?”

“We most certainly do, and for you, Master Fancy?”

“I’ll go with my usual garden salad,” was his short reply, without looking up.

The chef dipped a small bow and returned to his kitchen to prepare the dinners. FancyPants made one final scribble on his parchment and rolled it up, handing it (hoofing it?) over to his butler, who Tyler could swear wasn’t there a moment ago. “Hopefully the captain will release the others upon my letter’s arrival. I hate writing to the Princesses, I always feel so needy whenever I do.”

“Thank you, for everything. Are all ponies this hospitable and friendly? I’m not sure if most humans would have allowed a stranger into their homes like this.”

“Well, most nobleponies wouldn’t. Many these days have become absorbed in their titles, and become loathsome of ‘the common rabble.’ I always strive to be a true gentle pony, helping all in need.”

“Well once again, thank you. If you hadn't taken me in I may have ended up captured like those other Pokemon you mentioned, or sleeping in the cold.”

“Oh please, don’t mention it. I’m always happy to help the unfortunate.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “I suppose that you had no luck in finding your friends.”

Tyler took a moment to release a heavy sigh. “No, maybe if your letter works I can go down to wherever they’re keeping the other Pokemon and look around some. Maybe one or two will be there. Most of the Pokemon I’ve seen around have been ones that typically inhabit cities and other highly populated areas, so if we’re going to assume that my team will be spread out by the same rules, the most likely ones to be here would be my Scrafty, Damian, and my Klefki, BooBoo Keys.”

FancyPants snorted a little at the second name. “What? Compared to FancyPants for a creature without pants it’s not that ridiculous.”

“Point taken,” was the noble’s short reply between snickers.

Chapter 4

Morning came quickly, and Shadow found himself being woken up by someone moving around in the next room. Glancing to the window he saw the sun rising, at an alarmingly fast pace! Chalking it up to a quirk of this apparently new place he shielded his eyes and climbed out of his sleeping bag. As he got up he glanced to Valerie, who was already awake and alert, trying to find the easiest way out of the sea of sleeping Pokemon. As he got up she looked to him, and he gestured for her to follow him, as he lead her through a makeshift path between the sleeping forms, doing their best to be quiet.

They reached the kitchen, finding the pony owner and the Gothitelle already eating. There weren’t many chairs at the table so Valerie and Shadow decided to share one, the poisonous Pokemon only resisting slightly upon his suggestion. The pony pushed forward a plate of pancakes for them with her magic. Shadow thanked her and moved one to a plate that the Gothitelle had gotten out for them. He pushed the plate to Valerie who just gave him a deadpan stare. Realizing his mistake he moved one to her plate too.

The pony spoke up, “I don’t believe we made introductions earlier, considering the time of night. My name is Offered Hoof, I work as an assistant to a rather distinguished noble.”

“My name is Henrietta, I’m a former human and used to work as a costume designer at the Pokemon Musical in Nimbassa. I hear there are some theaters nearby so I may go look for jobs there if we’re here long term.”

“I’m Shadow, and this is Valerie.”

“Well I must say you two make a wonderful couple.”

At this Valerie nearly choked on her pancake, coughing it up onto her plate and sputtering. Shadow wasn’t sure whether to be offended by her reaction. But opted to simply reply, “No, we’re not a couple, but thanks for the compliment I guess.”

BBK floated in then, a drowsy look on her metal face. She hovered over next to Shadow, thankfully not taking another seat, and grabbed a pancake with one half of her ring. Realizing it was far too big for her she cut off a third and dumped the rest on Shadow’s plate, splashing his syrup on his coat. Ignoring his glare she began eating it without syrup, stuffing it into her keyhole bit by bit.

Henrietta cleared her throat, and began speaking again to Valerie, “So, we didn’t get a good chance to talk last night. What are you, if you don’t mind me asking. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a Pokemon like you before. Are you a newly discovered Eeveelution like Sylveon?”

Valerie, instead of replying, shrunk into her seat and averted her eyes, obviously embarrassed. Shadow picked up on how she didn’t want to talk about it, and replied for her. “You could say that, she doesn’t like talking about it and I won’t give it away if she doesn’t want to. I hope you’ll understand.”

The Psychic quirked an eyebrow at it, but didn’t push the issue. They all continued eating for a minute, silently enjoying pancakes and trying to ignore the awkward feeling that was now felt by everyone. Valerie finally spoke up, “Ok, I can tell that you’re all still wondering about it, Shadow’s right, I don’t like talking about it, but it’s bound to come up again. Henrietta, BBK, have you ever heard of Doctor Nurem?” BBK shook her head in the negative, still eating her pancake bit by bit, but Henrietta’s eyes bulged at the name.

“You're telling that you’re one of HIS experiments?” Valerie nodded. “My goodness, I’m very sorry about asking with such little tact, that must be a very sore subject and a very painful memory.”

BBK spoke up again “Can someone please explain what’s going on? Who’s this Doctor Nurem guy?”

“He was a mad scientist, he was on the top of the most wanted list for Pokemon abuse, kidnapping, and murder. He kidnaps Pokemon and does ‘experiments’ on them, most of them with fatal results. The stories are very gruesome,” Henrietta looked to Valerie again, “Please accept my sincerest condolences for having to go through that.”

BBK dropped her pancake, and then Offered gasped at the explanation.

Valerie blushed at the reactions. “Yes, it was terrible. But I’m here now, and I survived…” She looked to Shadow again, “And don’t worry about keeping it a secret or anything, people should know I’m dangerous.”

“No, you’re not dangerous, not in the way you make it sound!” Shadow said adamantly. “It’s not your fault, and you can’t control it.”

The Poison-Type averted her eyes, “I- I know. But still. Just be careful around me please, if you come into contact with me get Shadow immediately, I’m very poisonous, in fact I’d recommend washing that sleeping bag VERY thoroughly, maybe even burning it once I leave.”

Offered shrugged. “Those are all old sleeping bags anyway, you can keep it if you like. This is the first time they’ve been used in ages.” She took a quick glance at the clock and gasped, “Oh dear, I need to leave or I’ll be late! Henrietta, you’re in charge while I’m gone, don’t let in any more Pokemon unless they know the ones already here,

we’re running low on space.” At that she gulped down her coffee and put her dishes in the sink, and then rushed out of the room. They heard some items shifting as she put on her saddlebags, and the door open and close.

“So what are your plans for today? It would seem I am house sitting.”

“I figured we would go look for our trainer and the rest of our team,” BBK answered, “I would assume that you had the same plan, Shadow?”

The Umbreon nodded, “Yeah I was gonna suggest that.” Looking to Valerie he continued, “If you like you can come with us, or you could go look for some of your friends, from… you know.”

“I would like to find Vincent again if possible, the others too I suppose, but we can search together.”

“Ok, fair point. Where do you think we should look? I’ve never really had to search for missing people on an alien planet before.”

“Well Shadow,” a familiar voice came from the other room, “I don’t think you’ll have to look far for me!” All heads turned to the doorway to the kitchen, where a Scrafty in a pair of black glasses stood, leaning on the doorway.

Henrietta was to speak, “Ah, so you three know that fool. I wouldn't have guessed reasonable folk like you would have anything to do with his type.”

“Well sorry, but I just can’t ignore a pretty face when I see it, even in strange situations such as this.”

BBK silently fumed at her idiot friend and left the room, saying something about looking for metal polish. The rowdy Scrafty gave a light fist bump to Shadow and sat down in one of the remaining chairs, scooting it over closer to Henrietta. The Gothitelle immediately got up and cleaned up after herself before also leaving.

“Jeez, wonder what kind of stick they have up their asses… or keyholes.”

Shadow did a half grin half grimace at his risque companion. “So dude, how did you end up here?”

“Dunno, went to some bar and got hella drunk last night. I kinda remember getting thrown to the curb, next thing I know I’m waking up here. Not like it didn’t happen pretty regularly before I joined up with you guys.”

Shadow sighed, it was true. Tyler had found Damian half dead on a curb from alcohol poisoning in Fallabor Town, and had rushed him to a Pokemon center. After he was out of intensive care, and Tyler got out of a stern talking to from a Nurse Joy who didn’t realize the Dark type wasn’t his Pokemon, yet, Tyler offered him a spot on the team, which was happily accepted. As far as the group knew Damian hadn’t done any drinking since then. But it was apparent now all it took to go back was one night of separation.

“So who’s the new bitch? Don’t think I’ve ever seen any of her kind before.”

Before Shadow could scold him Valerie spoke up, “My name is Valerie, I’m a Veneon, a newly discovered Eeveelution under a mad scientist named Doctor Nurem.”

There was a moment of silence, before Damian let out a simple “Kay.”

Shadow looked to Valerie, who simply shrugged. “I’m sorta used to his type. A certain Gabite in the lab helped me grow a thicker skin. If anything the ruder about it the more comfortable I am talking about it. It seems sorta backwards I know,” she added with a giggle.

“I like this chick,” commented Damian, spewing pancake crumbs all over the table.

Tyler woke up to a light knocking on his door. He groaned and turned over to face it. After a few moments of waiting the knocking repeated. “Yes?” he called out.

The familiar accent of the butler greeted him through the mahogany, “Master Fancy instructed for me to wake you while breakfast is still fresh. He also wishes to know what sort of hygienic supplies you may need, he will be sending out someone shortly to fetch groceries and now is a good time to add them to her list.”

“I’ll be down in a minute, thank you.”

“Of course.” He heard the faint sound of retreating hoofsteps.

After extricating himself from his sheets, which were still sticking to his electrically charged fur, he looked in the full body mirror on the bathroom door. He had thought his bedhead had been bad before, but now he had bed body, and his woolly scruff looked even more tangled and matted than it had the day before. “Ok definately adding a comb to the list of supplies.”

After doing his best to straighten himself up with his hooves he wandered downstairs back to the dining hall. An assortment of breakfast foods were laid out, and Fancy Pants was speaking with a white unicorn mare with a red mane. They both turned to him as he entered the room. The unfamiliar pony spoke up, “Ah so this is the Tyler I’ve heard about. My name is Royal Flush. I must say I would like very much to get to know you better, you sound like a kind person. However, Fancy and I have important business to discuss concerning all of your fellows who were locked up, for ‘bullshit’ reasons I might add, pardon my Prench. We are searching for a solution, but unfortunately it would seem that until Celestia or Luna decrees otherwise this will continue. So if you plan on leaving the estate again please go with pony escort.”

Tyler voiced his thanks, but the two only looked to him in confusion, until Fancy Pants remembered the translatio spell and recast it. “So how was your night’s sleep? I hope your accommodations are to your satisfaction.”

“The room is great, thank you once again. I didn’t sleep all too well though, it’s hard to find a comfortable position when you suddenly have a new limb, and the sheets kept sticking to my fur.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do much about the tail, other than cut it off I suppose. But I doubt that would be much more to your liking.” He added with no small amount of snark.

“I don’t know what would be causing the sheets to stick to you though, but once I can deduce a solution I shall rectify it.”

The Flaaffy began shoveling some hash browns onto his plate “Oh, well you’re definitely right about the tell, heh, but I think the sheets sticking to me is because of electrical buildup. I am an Electric-Type after all.” At the confused looks earned by the statement, he realized his mistake. “Oh right, I haven’t explained Pokemon that much have I? You see, Pokemon are divided into different types, similarly to ponies I suppose, depending on which type of energy they can tap into most efficiently. There are eighteen, Grass, Water, Fire, Fighting, Rock, Flying, Steel, Ground, Psychic, Dark, Ghost, Electric, Poison, Bug, Dragon, Ice, Normal, and Fairie. I’m an Electric-Type, so I’m better with Electric-Type moves, but also have a weakness to Ground-Type moves.”

“Well, that seem awfully complicated,” spoke up Royal after a short pause.

“It may sound like it when it’s a new concept, I’m sure there are other people who could give you a more detailed and comprehensive description though, I’m comparatively new trainer, got my starter Pokemon a little over a year ago.”

“Starter Pokemon?” questioned Fancy Pants.

“It’s the first pokemon a trainer receives, usually one of three that the regional professors offer to newbies, thats how I got my Delphox, Kenny, but my first was my Altaria, Queen. She was a gift from my Uncle.”

“Well, I hope you can find them soon. My assistant should be here soon, can escort you around the city as you search, act as a guide if you get lost and make sure you aren’t detained like the other Pokemon.”

“Okay, sounds good. Thanks.”

“Now I believe we will allow you to eat in peace, come Royal, let us move to my study.” The two gathered up their quills and paper and exited the room, finally allowing Tyler to enjoy the food presented to him. After he finished he wandered out to the entryway, seeing Loyalty standing off in a corner, he approached him and inquired to the whereabouts of the pony meant to escort him through town.

“She should have been here five minutes ago. This is most unusual for her. I would recommend waiting another ten minutes before seeking out the Master. In the meantime please enlighten me to bathroom necessities and any other supplies you may need. I shall get the list to the stewardess.” He then pulled a pen and parchment from seemingly nowhere and looked to the Flaaffy expectantly.

“Um… The basics I guess, I’ll need a toothbrush and toothpaste, floss, a brush for my fur and a comb for my wool. Although I may need a special comb for this, I wish I still had my old grooming kit for Queen,” he sighed.

“You seem rather similar to a race on Equus know as sheep, they have wool similar to your own. I believe a sheep comb would work rather well.”

“Ok get one of those then. I think that’s all I need.”

“Should you think of anything else simply come find me and I shall be happy to assist. I shall depart now so the stewardess may begin her duties.”

After the butler departed Tyler needed only to wait a minute or two before an exhausted looking mare opened up the door and came in. Looking to the strange Pokemon for a moment, giving him a curt nod and continuing inward. The small Electric-Type realized she didn’t know what her duties for the day were he called out to her. “Excuse me miss?”

“Yes? I must apologize but I must be getting to my duties running the household.”

“Well that’s just it, you’re supposed to ‘escort me’ around town so I don’t get lost or taken away by the guard, ya know, being new in town, and a Pokemon and all.”

The mares eyes widened when she realized that she had nearly blown off her ward. “Oh my apologies, had I known I would never have-”

“Don’t worry about it, I have a feeling it’s different from your usual duties.”

“Well, yes, usually I relay messages, help organize things, and do paperwork for Fancy Pants. Ahem, anyway, my name is Offered Hoof. I shall be your… guide, for today. What will we be doing?”

“Mostly searching for my friends. It’s fairly likely that they've been captured and locked up by the guard, but I don’t know what else to do today, so we’re mostly just going to wander around town hoping to find them.” He offered an apologetic grin.

“Well, I suppose we should get started shouldn't we.”

“Let’s”

Chapter 5

Tyler and Offered Hoof wandered around Canterlot for several hours. It was plain to see that the guard were doing their job of nabbing Pokemon very well, as there were very few on the streets. Luckily the pair weren’t harassed at all by guardsponies. After about an hour of wandering around, the butler, Loyalty came trotting up to them.

“Ah, hello, It’s good that I could find you. The Pokemon that were captured by the guard are being released on the order of her Highness Twilight Sparkle. You should go down to the warehouse where they’ve been keeping them.”

“I’ll do that thanks. Where is it, though?”

The butler started to speak, but stopped, and lowered his hoof. “I don’t believe the message named a location. My apologies for getting your hopes up. But at least now you no longer need to worry about-” His statement was suddenly interrupted as a voice rang out in their minds, everyone around them also stopping from the shock of an outside intrusion upon their most inner sanctum.

“Greetings citizens of Equus, both old and new. I am Lord Arceus, creator of the Pokémon realm.”

Of course! Arceus was probably the only being capable of this.

“You have no reason to fear me, I come in peace. I have revealed myself to inform you that I am the one responsible for the Pokémon’s presence in this world, for the citizens of Equus, the Pokémon are the beings who have appeared over the past few days. To my Pokémon, I say this, I brought you, all of you, here so that you could live in peace, do not seek to harm the natives of this world, for I am the one responsible for your displacement. And to the Pokémon who went through changes when I brought you here I say this. You are the ones who proved themselves worthy, those who were fair, kind and good in the old world, consider this your reward. And to all of you, as sapients, the laws of Equus, and the varying countries, now apply to you, and only the laws of Equus. That is all for now, but just to be clear, the Pokémon are not to be harmed simply out of spite, if you have a problem with what I’ve done, feel free to contact me, I currently reside in an ancient temple deep in the Everfree Forest, or a pocket dimension outside of the space time continuum, so if any of you wish to face the sheer power of a god, feel free to come by. Goodbye for now, though I doubt this will be the last you hear of me, and peace to you all.”

After the end of the long-winded, or long-minded, speech, there was a moment of silence as everyone contemplated the god’s words. Then, all of Canterlot seemed to break into a panic at once. Both ponies and Pokemon rushed about madly, mostly it would seem for the sake of running around in panic, without any specific goal. The small group began getting pushed around in the crowd, especially Tyler, who was considerably smaller than the ponies stampeding around them. Seeing his distress Offered picked him up with his magic and placed him on her back, despite his protests.

“My house is nearby, we can go there until things cool down some.”

Tyler looked for Loyalty, but the butler seemed to have disappeared into the crowd, likely to go to Fancy Pants to see if he was fine.

Offered was doing her best to push through the crowd, but it wasn’t working all too well. She was barely making any headway. Eventually after what seemed like hours to Tyler, she made it to a side street that wasn’t too crowded. She quickly trotted through to the other side, to another crowded street, though not as bad as the previous one. She was luckily able to move with the flow this time, not getting knocked around as much. Finally she stopped in front of one house and came up to the front door. She fumbled with her keys for a moment until a Gothitelle opened the door for her.

The frazzled pair came in, Tyler dropping down to the floor again from the mares back.

The strange Gothitelle quirked an eyebrow at the Flaaffy. “I thought we weren’t taking in any more Pokemon?”

Offered stopped for a moment before chuckling and replying, “No, no, he isn’t going to be staying with us. My boss wanted me to guide him around the city so he wouldn’t get lost or detained by the guard, who luckily now have stopped doing that.”

“Well that’s nice, I can finally go outside without harassment. Perhaps I will look for a job in the theater district. I don’t know. Just so you know most of the other Pokemon staying here have left, I think the only ones planning on returning are that group with the alcoholic Scrafty and Valerie.”

“They know each other?”

“No I believe that Umbreon with them just met her yesterday, but already knew the Scrafty. Honestly I don’t care about anything to do with that slob.”

“Wait, you said there are a Scrafty and an Umbreon staying here?” Tyler interjected with a hopeful look.

“Hmm? Yes, I believe the Umbreon was named Shadow, came in with a Klefki and… another Pokemon.”

Tyler blinked at the last one, but shrugged off the vague explanation. “Where are they now?”

“I don’t know, they said they were going out to look for their trainer and the rest of their team, and Valerie said she was tagging along to look for some of her friends.”

Tyler’s eyes widened, he had to find his team, he started for the door again, but Offered blocked him with a hoof. “Oh no you don’t, you’d get trampled to death out there! Just stick around here for a while, they’re coming back.”

Tyler considered resisting, but he knew she was right. At his size he wouldn’t get anywhere fast. “Fine.” Just then his stomach did a convincing impression of a Wailord call. “Got any food around here? Heh.”

After the big announcement the group of Pokemon had decided to hide out in a nearby donut shop until the panic died down some. BBK had “found” a few bits and they bought themselves a dozen of the sugary circular delights.

“Well at least this world has some of the same foods we had.” Spewed Damian. BBK wiped the crumbs off her face, shooting a glare at the Scrafty.

“I’m glad that they’re here too, except we never really got good food all that often back at the lab. Especially after Mary escaped.”

Shadow looked surprised at that statement. More from the end part. “There were escapees? Why didn’t they ever try to contact the authorities?”

Valerie shrugged, “I don’t know, if they escaped we never saw them again. I have a feeling quite a few of them were left with very little trust for humans after what the Doctor did to them.”

“Oh, right. Well you would think they would at least try to assemble a rescue team made of Pokemon or something.”

“It wasn’t that easy. The doctor had the whole lab rigged with anti-Pokemon security,” she stopped for a moment, her contemplative expression taking a much darker appearance, “and he had this Porygon helping him. I swear if I ever see that stupid cyber-duck again…” She then switched to a more forlorn look, her eyes beginning to water up. After a few moments of this she let out a few soft sobs.

Shadow looked shocked at the quick change in emotions the Poison-Type was suddenly exhibiting. He quickly pulled her into a hug, holding her still even as she tried to pull away. After a moment, BBK joined him, wrapping her metal bands around the two. Damian simply ate another donut. When Shadow shot him a glare over Valeries shoulder, he just mouthed, “What, I’m not a hugger.”

Once Valerie had calmed down again, Shadow handed her another donut from the plate, earning him a weak “Thank you.”

As she quietly munched on the treat, Shadow spoke up again. “So what do you think you’re gonna do now that you’re free? You can stay with us if you like of course.”

Valerie took another bite of her donut, contemplating his question. After she swallowed she replied, “I think I’d like to find my family again. See what’s become of my only remaining brother.” She sniffed, and Shadow moved to hug her again, but she stopped him with a paw, shook her head, and continued. “This Equestria sounds like a big place though. I doubt I’d be able to find them just be looking around. I think the best way to find them would be to go see Arceus. After all, he did say we could come see him. I’ll have to ask Offered Hoof about where this ‘Everfree Forest’ is.”

BBK chimed it then, “That sounds like a pretty good plan I guess. Maybe we can go too. I’m sure he’d be willing to help us find the rest of our team too. I hope.”

“Well then how about we get off our asses and go talk to Arceus!”

The group got up and cleaned up their mess. Damian carried the donuts, since he was the only one with arms, just as they did so, the voice or Arceus returned.

“I am Lord Arceus.”

“Aw not again, and it just started to calm down outside!” Groaned Valerie.

“Now I realize that this has been somewhat of an inconvenience, and I would like to thank the princesses for putting up with me. And as such, I would like to present them with a gift, a show of goodwill if you would.”

“Inconvenience is an understatement” Muttered BBK.

“What kind of present?” wondered Shadow.

“I present to you, the Eternal Sundial.”

They saw a flash in the window, and upon approaching it, saw a large pink crystal structure floating in the sky. It disappeared in another flash and reappeared behind the castle. A soft yet powerful thudding noise echoing throughout the city as it touched down.

“Well that’s a present for ya.” Commented Damian.

The gift seemed to have it’s desired effect, as most of Canterlot was now calming down as they admired the great structure from afar. The group saw a good opportunity to go back to the house and began the now much easier journey.

“You think that we should go back out now? It’s calmed down outside.” Tyler was extremely anxious. He finally had a lead on where his friends were, but he couldn’t follow it!

“Your friends should be back soon, don’t worry.”

“Patience is a virtue,” was all that Henrietta supplied to the conversation. Currently reading a newspaper, doing her best to ignore the Flaaffy who was currently pacing back and forth in the living room.

“I know I know, but still, I’m so close! But I can’t do anything else but wait now!”

“Well you could finish your lunch to help pass the time.” Suggested Offered.

“No, I can’t eat right now. I’m just too… ugh. It’s nothing against your cooking, don’t worry.”

Suddenly the sound of a door opening could be heard. Tyler immediately stopped his pacing and rushed to the front door, seeing a familiar Scrafty, Klefki, and Umbreon. He immediately rushed forward and hugged the first Pokemon of the group to come through the door, that Pokemon being Shadow.

The Dark-Types eyes widened as the strange Flaaffy pulled him into a hug. “Um… Do I know you?”

“It’s me, Tyler! I've been looking everywhere for you guys!”

BBK squeed, and joined the hug, Damian gave a curt nod, and smiled. “Nice to see ya bud. What have you been up to?”

Once the three Pokemon broke the hug, he replied. “I’ve been staying with a noblepony, who fortuitously is also Offered’s employer! I just wish I had given her a description of you guys sooner so we didn’t wander around the city for so long this morning when we could've come straight here!” He glanced behind Shadow to Valerie. “Who’s the new girl?”

The Veneon took that moment to introduce herself, “My name is Valerie, Shadow and I met yesterday when we were captured by the guards. And in case you were wondering, which I know you were, I’m a Veneon, a… newly discovered eeveelution. I was forcibly evolved by a mad scientist by the name of Doctor Nurem.”

There was an awkward pause at her forwardness, before Tyler spoke up. “Oh! Guys! I already have us set up with a job with the Noblepony I’m staying with. He wants us to act as special guards at his house in case of problems with Pokemon. We’ll get decent pay and a place to stay! And all he wants is for at least one of you to be on the property during the night. During the day we can do whatever, preferably staying in the city of course.”

Damian was the first to speak up, “Nice! Sounds like a perfect cushy job!”

“We have to guard this place? Screw that, this is like a thief magnet!”

The group was now standing outside Fancy Pants’s manor, staring through the gold gates at the marble mansion standing amid a large green lawn, complete with fountain.

“It isn’t as bad as you would think, we have rarely had robberies in the past. Master Fancy is simply taking extra precautions,” Loyalty explained.

“But this place is huge! How are the five of us supposed to guard the whole thing! It must be like ten acres!”

“Eleven actually, but I assure you, your duties do not involve patrol. Master Fancy simply wishes for you to be on hand in case of an emergency. Otherwise you may do as you wish.”

BBK took this opportunity to join in the conversation. “Well I think it’s still a wonderful offer. We can’t exactly stay at Offered’s house forever now can we.”

Tyler nodded. “It’s a good chance for us to get a solid start here in Equestria. We’ll all get forty bits a day each, which I believe is a generous sum of money in Equestria, especially considering how little work it will actually be. Now c’mon, let’s go introduce you guys to FancyPants, I’m sure he’ll like Shadow and BBK, and you too Valerie.”

“Hey! What am I? Chopped liver?”

BBK wrapped her metal bands around Damian’s neck and hung from it like a necklace. “No, you’re an asshole, but we still love you.”

The Dark-Type just humphed, pulled up his loose skin again and followed after the rest of the group. They came inside and were lead to Fancy Pants’s office. Compared to the rest of the mansion it was surprisingly modest. Several bookshelves with labeled binders lined the walls, and Fancy Pants sat at his desk in the center, his back facing the window. He had several stacks of paper on his desk, all of which looked official and important. Upon the Pokemon entering the room, he broke into a smile.

“Ah! Tyler! It’s good to see you found your companions. I hope they weren’t too hard to find.”

“As it happens they were staying with Offered! I kinda wish I had thought to give her a description of them earlier. We only found out when we went back to her place to avoid the stampede that Arceus caused with his speech.”

Fancy chuckled at that, “Well what do you know, I suppose this new world is a small one isn’t it.”

Tyler nodded, and introduced his friends. Fancy reaching out and shaking the paw, hand, or ring of each of Tyler’s teammates. When he got to Valerie she just gave a polite wave, and an awkward smile. Fancy just continued to hold his hoof out for a few more seconds, his friendly smile faltering slightly.

As Valerie realized what was happening she quickly apologized, “Oh I’m very sorry I mean no disrespect. It’s just, I’m very poisonous, so it isn’t a good idea to touch me.”

Fancy Pants’s eyes widened, “Oh my, no offense taken, I understand. Just speak up sooner in the future to possibly avoid awkward situations.” He looked over the Pokemon in the room again. “So are these all of your ‘teammates’? Or are there others you haven’t found yet?”

“I’m still looking for two of them, a tall red fox Pokemon named Kenny, and a large fluffy gold and white bird named Queen.” He looked back to Valerie, “Valerie isn’t part of my team, but I hope she can stay as well.”

Fancy Pants nodded, “Of course, she may stay as long as she likes, given she performs her expected duties as well.”

“Of course, sir, and thank you for letting me stay. Now um, before I get started I think I need to go see Arceus in the Everfree Forest, wherever that is.”

“Of course. It isn’t that far from Canterlot really. Just a little west, an half hour train ride at most. I can lend you a few bits to get there and back, with some dinner as well.”

Shadow spoke up then, “Could you make that enough bits for two? I should probably go with her in case if she accidentally poisons anyone. I can cure it.”

“Of course, that would be most wise.” He pulled out a coin purse and pulled ten bits from within with his magic, and handed them to the two Eeveelutions, then realized they didn’t have a bag for them, chuckling, and poured out the rest of the bag into his drawer and gave them the now empty bag. “I gave you enough to get a hotel room for the night as well in case if the journey through the Everfree takes longer than expected. Let me warn you, the forest is a dangerous place, so be careful. And it would be best if you departed soon, I believe the train leaves for Ponyville in about twenty minutes.”

At this the two Eeveelutions eyes widened, and they rushed out the door to make the train, yelling quick goodbyes over their shoulders. Offered looked through the door at the two retreating Pokemon. “I should probably go with them so they don’t get harassed at the ticket booth, and make sure they actually know where to go to get to the train.” She then trotted after them.

Chapter 6

Luckily, the pair of Eevolutions made it to the train in time. Offered bought their tickets from the snobbish unicorn at the booth, replenished their translation spell, and they were off on their way to Ponyville. They had managed to grab an empty booth seat just as the train began rolling, sitting across from one another.

They had made some idle conversation on the train, but eventually Valerie finally looked out the window. And what she saw blew her away. She had been taken from her home when she was fairly young, and hadn’t seen much of the outside of her parent’s den before. But now, looking out the window, she felt almost scared. After living a life of tight spaces it was inconceivable to be able to see something miles away.

After she stared out the window for several minutes, her eyes rapidly attempting to see every little sight there was to see, Shadow spoke up. “Enjoying the view?”

She jumped at his words, bringing her attention back to the cramped interior of the train. “Oh, yes. I don’t think I've ever seen a view like this before. It was… cramped back at the lab.”

Shadow nodded in understanding. “I remember how I was for me when I first went out on the open ocean with Tyler. We were going to Dewford town to get a gym badge, you know about gyms right?”

Valerie nodded, “Yeah a Scyther named Sam taught us all a whole bunch about the outside world.”

Cracking a smile he continued, “Well anyway, it was my first time really being in an open space like that, it was the same for most of us. I grew up on Route 116, east of a Rustboro, it was a relatively thick forest, and you could never see more than a few hundred feet unless you were on a path, which you avoided unless you were interested in being caught or just plain stupid. So when we went to Dewford on that ferry boat, I could see all the way to the horizon. That was a pretty big shocker for me, but probably nothing compared to what this is like for you.”

Valerie nodded. “I was born in the Kalos region, route ten, north of Cyllage city. I had only just gotten old enough to leave the den without my parents, both Vaporeon, and battle with other wild Eevee of about the same age as me.” Looking for a change in subject, she asked “So how did you and Tyler meet?”

Understanding her need for a change of topic he elaborated. “I wasn’t looking for a trainer really when I joined him. I had gotten cornered by a hunting party of Nincada, and probably wouldn’t have gotten out on my own if Tyler hadn’t saved me. He took on all five of them with Kenny, a Fennekin still at the time. Afterward he patched me up some with some potions and offered for me to join his team. I, of course, accepted and he added me to the team. Apparently he had his whole team planned out in his mind long before he actually caught any of us and he was looking for Eevee. I don’t like to think about what would have happened if he decided to go with something else on his team.”

Valerie smiled at the story, “That’s nice, he sounds like a good trainer.”

“Yeah, he even gave me the final say in what I evolved into, but I trusted his judgement and decided to be an Umbreon. The first two weeks we were together were the most exhausting, we got stayed up late every night until one AM training. I fought so many wild Pokemon I probably have a rep in Petalburg Woods.”

The Poison-Type giggled at that. ‘Well I suppose a story for a story, here I go…”

Shadows eyes widened, “Oh, no you don’t have to if you don’t want to. Really.”

She shook her head. “No, we can’t ignore the Donphan in the room forever. It’s about time I told you more about myself.”

“But we haven’t even known each other for twenty four hours yet.”

“That’s true, but still, you’re the first person to ever really care about me outside of the lab, discounting my family.” She stopped and cleared her throat. “I was captured by the Doctor’s assistants along with my brothers one foggy morning. They didn’t use Pokeballs or Pokemon to catch us, they just shot us with tranquilizers and bagged us. Next thing we know we’re in a small empty room with tiny bowls of food and a security camera. We were allowed to talk with this little kid named Vincent, I think he was the Doctor's son, but he was no less a victim than any of us. He helped explain to us what was going on, and did his best to make what he believed would be our last week of existence more comfortable. But I was the only one to survive.”

Silence reigned once more between them, and Valerie looked back out the window at the landscape. A few minutes passed and Shadow saw her eyes begin to water up again. He jumped out of his seat and switched sides to sit by her, then pulled her into a hug, and this time, for once, she returned it.

Eventually the train ride ended, and they got off. “I didn’t expect it to be so… rural.” Commented the Umbreon.

“Well Canterlot is supposed to be their capital. I guess that’s the only city of that size.”

Shadow shrugged, and looked around. From the train platform he couldn’t tell where the forest was, especially at his stature. He gestured for Valerie to follow him and they escaped from the crowd, looking around some more, but not seeing any sign of their destination. “I guess we’re gonna have to ask for directions.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? Most of the ponies we’ve met haven’t exactly been helpful.”

“Offered said Ponyville was much more laid back. I think if we asked politely we could probably get help.” They looked around some more, looking for someone that didn’t look too busy. Finally spotting someone, a Gray Pegasus mare with a bow mark on her flank. “I’ll have to ask Offered about those later” thought Shadow.

After approaching her and asking for directions she explained she didn’t know the forest all too well, and instead gave them directions to someone else who was much more likely to be able to help them, a “zebra” named Zecora.

After thanking the mare they went on their way. As they passed through the town they couldn’t help ogling at the strange architecture. Libraries inside of trees, joke shops shaped like jester’s hats, bakeries made to look like gingerbread houses! The buildings kept getting stranger and stranger as they went through. The ponies also seemed much more diverse. In Canterlot most of the ponies around had been Unicorns, but here it seemed to be about an even motley of races. The colors of the ponies seemed to be much more vibrant and varied as well, as in Canterlot a great number of ponies had white coats or manes. That would also need to be something they asked Offered and Fancy about later.

Finally they reached the edge of the town, the forest now in sight. Following the instructions of the Pegasus they found the path into the forest and followed it. There was a much larger number of Pokemon staying in the forest than in the town or Canterlot, and they both kept an eye out for any Pokemon that would be overly angry due to their sudden move.

Not long after entering the forest they came upon tree hut they’d been instructed to find. The Blitzle like creature inside that was apparently a zebra happily gave them directions in a strange rhyming accent.

Now with knowledge of the location of their real destination they once again set out. After about two hours they finally made it to the Hall of Legends. The pair were rather surprised to see all of the legends around it, the Regi Trio standing outside the

large front doors. Shaymin, in her land form, came dashing out from between them

as fast her little legs could carry her, and dashed off into the forest. Valerie considered stopping her and asking if she could get some Pecha Berries from her but opted against it since the small legend appeared to be in a hurry.

Shadow stopped in semi shock at the encounter. It was true that it would be expected to meet legends at their home but it was still a big surprise to see Pokemon considered to be legend, hence the name, in person.

Valerie giggled at his reaction. “What, never seen a legend before?” She asked with a playful smirk.

Broken from his short stupor Shadow shook his head, “Well of course not! It was a pretty big deal to meet even one on Earth. But we’ve already seen four up close!”

“Five for me actually, I met Celebi rather briefly before I was taken. I wandered out of the den by myself when I was still just a pup. I got lost pretty bad in the forest, it was already nightfall when she heard me crying and helped me back. I wonder if she remembers me. I don’t remember much about her though, I was pretty little.”

The Umbreon grinned, “Wow, lucky you. Maybe we’ll be able to see her again while we’re here.”

The two finally approached the Regis, all standing sentinel at the entrance. The golems lights lit up together, beeping the strange patterns in unison. Then they spoke up together, their voices melding into one, rather menacing sounding monotone. “Halt, state your names.”

“I’m Shadow, and this is Valerie. We’re here to speak with Arceus.”

The trio beeped a few more times, “State your business with Lord Arceus.”

Valerie spoke up this time, “I was hoping to learn the locations of my family members, obtain some berries, and seek help with a certain, personal issue.”

“And the Umbreon.”

“I’m just accompanying her for… um, moral support?”

“Acceptable. You may enter.”

The two Eeveelutions padded between them and up the steps into the great hall of the building. It was so magnificent, it was beyond description. No one could do this masterpiece justice. After the long walk down the hallway, they came into a more open room, with a large table in the center. The only Pokemon here was Dialga, who appeared to be reading a comically oversized newspaper, and sipping another ridiculous looking cup of coffee, big enough for the two smaller Pokemon to use as a bitter hot tub.

When the two entered he glanced down, and sighed. “You here to see pops?”

Shadow and Valerie nodded together nervously.

The time Pokemon chuckled at their nervous state. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll just go get him and head back to my room. I was pretty much done with the paper, and I don’t really need to drink coffee.” He folded up his paper, and gulped down the last of his coffee. “Hey, you want my paper?”

Before either of the smaller Pokemon could respond it shrunk down to normal size and floated over to Shadow who gave an awkward grateful nod and put it in his bag. The Steel Dragon lumbered off into a different room, leaving the two to themselves, awkwardly standing in the center of the room waiting for someone else to greet them.

After some time had passed there was a bright flash and Arceus stood before them. Before two could bow he spoke up. “Don’t worry about formalities, I’m trying to be easier to relate to. Please, let us talk like equals, or at least near equals.” He looked at the two for a moment. “I hope I am not being rude, but I do not believe I am familiar with your species, are you a resident of Equus?”

Surprised somewhat at his reaction, Valerie answered. “No milord, I was a… experiment under Doctor Nurem. I’m sure you’re familiar with him somewhat.”

The gods eyes widened suddenly. “Oh my! I certainly meant no disrespect when I asked you of your species.”

“No, no, It’s fine! Really.” Valerie's eyes shifted around nervously. “Um… I just had a few questions and requests. Nothing too major for you I hope.”

The legend bowed his head, “Considering what suffering that monster has likely put you through, I would be ashamed of myself if I could not at least offer my help in some way.”

“Ok, um… thanks. Well the first thing is my family. My parents and brother. I haven’t seen them in years, and I would like to let them know I’m still alive, and what happened to my other siblings. Could you tell me where they are?”

“Of course, but I’ll need a description of them before I can find them.”

“Oh, um ok… Well they’re both Vaporeon. My mom is named Flo, and my dad is Hector. I don’t know about my brothers name, he may have a different one now if he was captured, and a lot of Eevee change their name after evolving.

“Give me a moment please.” The elder god’s eyes glowed and he vanished in another burst of light.

“Is it just me or does this whole thing seem really Deux Ex Machina?” Muttered Shadow.

Another flash and Arceus was back. “I have determined the location of your parents. Although I am unsure of your brother as I do not know what he evolved into. I could get the information from your parent’s minds, but that would be rude. They are currently residing at some docks in the city of Las Pegasus. I would recommend going there as soon as you can. They may leave.”

Valerie grinned widely, finally, she could see her family again! They could have closure! And she would get to learn what happened to her younger brother!

“Was there anything else you needed?” Questioned Arceus, breaking Valerie from her inner thoughts.

“Oh, yes! You see, when the doctor experimented on my siblings and I, he meant to create new species of Eeveelution. I was the only successful one though. But I can’t touch anyone without poisoning them. I know most Pokemon with the poison point ability can control it when they aren’t in battle but mine is always active, and it’s hurt a lot of people. I was hoping that there is something you could do to fix that?”

This request gave Arceus pause. “I’m afraid this is not my area of expertise. I believe my daughter Mew would be better suited for this.” His eyes glowed again for a moment, and then faded.

A muffled yell could be heard coming from down a side hallway, “I’m coming, I’m coming, wait a moment!”

A small pink cat Pokemon floated into the room, “Hi there! You said you needed my help da…” Just then she finally really noticed Valerie. She turned to the Veneon, and gave her an intense stare, slowly floating closer and closer, until she was almost nose to nose with the confused Poison-Type. “What are you? I’ve never seen a Pokemon like you! I know humans have created their own species accidentally and on purpose in the past but none as natural looking as you!”

Valerie shifted uncomfortably, and gave Arceus a pleading look. He nodded and his eyes glowed again for a moment, this time Mew’s lighting up as well. Her look of curiosity turned to horror and she backed away quickly. “Oh my! My apologies! I had no idea! I’m just always excited to see new life forms, after all, I created the first few.”

“I-it’s fine. I actually needed your help with that. You see, I have a rather overactive poison point ability. I was hoping you could maybe help to fix that somehow.”

Mew squinted at the Veneon. “Well whether I can help depends on what you mean by fix. Do you just want me to tone it down some, or completely revert your evolution?”

Valerie’s eyes widened. “No no no, I don’t want to revert it. Even if the process in itself was painful and traumatizing, this is part of who I am. I couldn’t even consider going back.”

The cat Pokemon smiled and nodded, “That’s good to hear. You’d be surprised by how many Pokemon have sought me out to ask for a reversal of their evolution. I technically can, but I usually don’t. I mostly only help with Pokemon whose evolution are related to abuse, like yourself, but I never feel right doing it.” There was a short pause, and the legend reached out her paw. “Can I get a few samples? Some saliva, a bit of fur, some blood and a bit of your venom?”

Valerie shrunk back a bit and grimaced, and Shadow came forward to comfort her one more. At Mew’s worried expression she explained. “Sorry, but whenever the doctor said something like that to any of his subjects something bad usually followed.”

The Psychic gasped, “Oh my! I’m sorry, I should be more careful of what I say.”

“Please, it’s fine. I just need to readjust. It’s all me.” She gave a forced smile. After a few moments she held a paw forward to the small legend. “Lets get this over with. Please.”

Mew nodded and looked to Arceus, who summoned some basic medical equipment, including several bags and cups and a needle. The little Psychic made it as short and painless as possible, giving a quick prick in the leg, squeezing a bit of venom from Valeries spiky fur patches, dabbing some of the oily poisonous substance on her fur, pulling out a few tufts of loose fur, and holding the cup forward for her to spit in. She examined the samples, her eyes glowing a few times, and even dipping her finger in the poison. After a few minutes of this she set them down on the legend sized table and began to speak.

“May I test something? I have a theory about something, and I’ll need to use a few battle moves on you. Don’t worry, I’ll use weak ones.”

The Poison-Type nodded, and braced herself. The small cat Pokemon floated over to her, and yelled “Rock Smash!” hitting Valerie square in the chest. It stung, but the low power and infectivity, combined with Mew’s obvious holding back, didn’t do much. Mew’s eyes glowed for a moment again, and hit her a few more times. “Just to make sure theres a measurable amount of damage,” she explained. The mini legend began charging up another attack, this one with a purple glow. “Venoshock!”

The attack struck in Valerie’s chest again, but this time instead of feeling pain she felt a cool refreshing feeling, that reminded her of a swim in the cool river near her parent’s old den. The dull ache from the earlier attacks vanished, and she felt like she was at full strength.

Mew observed her expression, the reaction confirming her earlier suspicion. “Well I guess I’m right then.”

Valerie broke out of her small trance. “About what?”

“You have two abilities!”

The now even more special Poison-Type tilted her head. “What? I thought Pokemon could only have one.”

“Usually yes, but in some cases if the Pokemon has a particularly strong evolution or a stressful one mutations like this can occur. Tell me, how did the Doctor evolve you? Give me details please.”

“He broke a Toxic Orb, and injected it into me while feeding me some sort of special rare candy liquid. I came pretty close to dying during the process, but at the last second I evolved and felt better all of a sudden.”

“Ok, that makes sense. From what I can tell, the way you would normally evolve into a… um… what is your species called?”

“I’m a Veneon.”

“Right, the way you would normally evolve into a Veneon is by having an Eevee hold a toxic orb, and be near experiencing a great deal of emotion at once. You see, it’s a common misconception that Lucario, Snorlax,” she glanced to Shadow, “Umbreon, and other Pokemon that evolve through ‘friendship’. You see, it’s really just extremely powerful emotions that allow them to evolve, friendship and love just being the most effective. I believe that your evolution was triggered by fear, and that combined with having the mixture in the orb directly injected gave you a ‘supercharged’ evolution. And that’s why your Poison-Point is so much more potent and you also have the ‘Poison-Absorb’ ability.”

Valeries haunches sunk to the floor. She lifted a leg and examined the spiky fur on her elbow. “I wonder how I haven’t already figured that out. The doctor used to put me in the simulator all the time to test what my species was capable of, movewise. It’s strange to think in those whole five years he never thought to have Bit use a Poison move. Heh.”

“So you mentioned wanting to have yourself ‘fixed.’ Would that mean having your Poison Point ability removed altogether, or just lowering it back to manageable levels? And keep in mind I’ve never done anything quite like this before, so it could take a few weeks of preparation.”

The dual abilitied mon contemplated for a few moments, before looking to Shadow, the question evident in her eyes.

His eyes widened a bit that she would look to him for advice. “Um… I think it’s pretty cool you have two abilities. That could really come in handy, and if it’s only active during battles. But I suppose you probably have some negative memories attached to it, so I would understand if you didn’t want to keep it.”

Valerie closed her eyes. Shadow brought up good points. It was part of her, and she couldn’t deny that, but it had hurt those close to her many times, and she didn’t want it to happen again. But weakening it would still prevent her from hurting her friends and family, once she found them, and it would still give her another level of defense in battle. Her mind was for diminishing it, but her heart was for getting rid of it altogether. A sigh escaped her lips, this was much harder than she had always planned out in her mind.

Mew cleared her throat, and Valerie looked up again. “How about I just weaken it for now. If you ever decide to completely remove it then you can return any time, I may not be able to give it back to you if you decide to remove it.”

The Poison-Type nodded in understanding. “Ok, thank you. So how long do you think it’ll be before you’re ready?”

The little Psychic placed a hand on her chin and looked up. “Hmm, I’m not sure. These will be a very busy next few weeks after the teleport. I’ll work on it when I can but it could be some time. Three weeks at most.”

Valerie nodded. “Well I guess it’s better than nothing. Thank you for your help.”

Arceus now returned to the room again, “I believe you mentioned you needed some berries. I spoke to Shaymin and she was kind enough to supply you with a large portion of her Pecha Berry crop. I would recommend using half and half for seed and use. Was that all you needed?”

“Yes I suppose that is, since it will be getting dark fairly soon. Thank you very much for all of the help. The only other thing I could think of is to say hi to Celebi for me. She helped me out of a tight spot once when I was still an Eevee North of Cyllage.

He nodded, “I’ll make sure to mention it. If you like I can teleport you back to Canterlot, you may not be able to make it to the train in time, I checked the schedule while I was retrieving the berries, and while you can’t tell from this room, it’s already dark out.”

The two friends smiled, and Shadow spoke up again “Yes that would be great, thank you.”

Arceus’ eyes glowed, and the two were gone in a flash.

Chapter 7

“Gaah!” Tyler recoiled from the attack and clasped his sore stomach. He made to tackle his assaulter but fell forward, slamming his muzzle into the grass.

Damian came over and helped him up again. The training Tyler had decided to do after Shadow and Valerie had departed wasn’t going well. The only move he had figured out was tackle, but that wasn’t saying much. He had started on attacking rocks in Fancy Pants’ backyard but had quickly decided that until he was stronger that was much too painful a method.of practice. Damian and BBK had soon after volunteered as practice dummies, and so far hadn’t even flinched at Tyler’s attacks.

Damian suggested learning via simulated battle rather than using living punching bags. All this really entailed was Tyler taking repeated Rock Smashes and Tackle attacks to various parts of his body, and missing every tackle attack he attempted. He had discovered that his Ability was Static when he accidentally paralyzed BBK, but that was all the progress so far. Luckily BBK knew Safeguard so they could continue training without Shadow around.

“I wish those two would hurry up and get back! I feel like crap!” The Key Pokemon was currently draped over a tree branch in the yard, unable to do much more that rejuvenate the safeguard when she could.

“Woah woah, watch your language BBK!” Tyler taunted as he was finally getting air back in him again.

“Fuck off.”

The Flaaffy let out a snicker, and finally straightened up to his full height of two and a half feet. “Okay, let’s keep going.”

Damian nodded and readied himself. Tyler did so too, concentrating on doing something for once.

The Scrafty began his charge, his hand glowing, Tyler scrunched his eyes, focusing all his will into a Protect, what BBK had recommended as a beginner move. He tensed his muscles, he began to feel some energy flowing in his body, focusing around his neck he began to feel something happen.

POW!

The Rock Smash attack connected with his jaw, and the energy he had amassed dissipated, and the little pink Pokemon was sent reeling, collapsing on the ground again. “Uuuugghhhh.” The former human then closed his eyes and just dealt with the dull throbbing pain in silence.

“Congratulations,” said Damian, interrupting his trainers self resignation session.

“For what?”

“Open your eyes.”

Tyler followed the directions of the Fighting-Type. Instead of seeing nothing but dirt, grass and horizon there was a large mass of white. Upon closer inspection he found it to be wool. “Cotton Guard,” he mouthed. He suddenly felt himself picked up and nonchalantly tossed over his Pokemon’s shoulder.

“Well congrats on using your first move, but if you hadn’t noticed the sun is starting to set, we should probably head inside and get cleaned up for dinner.”

As he walked off the little keyring Pokemon, still draped on a tree branch called out, “Hey you assholes! Don’t you dare leave me out here!”

The Scrafty waved her off and yelled back, “I’ll be back in a bit calm your… um… calm down!”

The little Electric-Type, just grunted in response. The days activities were suddenly taking much more of a toll on him. He was glad to have finally used his first move, but the use of his starter Pokemon’s signature move left him on the melancholy side. “I hope we find you soon queen.” He muttered, then fell asleep as he and his Scrafty passed through the double doors into the mansion.

One year earlier

Tyler swept back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. None of these trainers coming for the Hoenn League Championships had any idea how to clean up their shoes, the floor was covered in mud and dust. He grunted in agitation. Every year the same thing, all these “pro” trainers and tourists would come through, take up all the hotel rooms and parking spots, make big messes for the locals to clean up, then leave. He was sick of it.

Hearing the sound of irritated grunting he looked up from the floor and his broom, seeing an ace trainer struggling with a bottle of protein, her hair dyed a ridiculous shade of green. He leaned his broom up against a nearby shelf and walked over. “Hey, you need any help with that?”

She shot him a glare and retorted, “Fuck off, I can do this myself!”

The boy sighed, another thing many of the visiting trainers shared is an overblown ego and an unwillingness to accept help. He went and picked his broom up again but before he could get back to sweeping he heard the sound of glass shattering on the floor, and an enraged yell.

Sighing at the prospect of more to clean up he turned back around, the jar of protein now caved in on the tile floor of the Pokemart. The trainer looked to him and immediately demanded, “I want a refund!”

He just shook his head, “Sorry, but the product wasn’t defective. You already paid for it and it was your own fault for breaking it.”

The trainer went slightly red, and restated, “I want a refund! The jar was defective and wouldn’t open!”

Tyler shook his head, he tightened his rubber cleaning gloves, and reached into the pile of glass and mush, and pulled out the still mostly whole top of the jar, which with little effort he managed to turn and remove, then handing the remains to the trainer. “The jar was fine, you were just too stupid to realize you needed to unscrew it.”

This was the final straw for the trainer. “How dare you! I hereby challenge you to a battle!” She then pulled out a Pokeball and pushed the button, a Hariyama coming out in a flash. “Right here, right now. If I win I get the refund times three!”

Tyler looked away. “I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t? There aren’t any other customers right now! We can go outside too! Cmon!”

“I said I can’t. Now leave me alone so I can clean up YOUR mess.”

“Not until you give me a proper excuse for chickening out!”

Tyler blushed. Usually people gave up on challenging him by now. “Fine, I can’t because I don’t have a Pokemon to battle with.”

“Well then go get it from your house! I can wait! My next match isn’t till tomorrow morning.”

“No, I mean I don’t have a Pokemon at all. I’m not a trainer.”

“Well why the hell not? You’re way above the age of getting a trainer license!”

Tyler’s hand tightened into a fist. “That’s none of your business. Now leave.”

“Not until I get my damn refund.” She looked to her left at the register. “You know what? Hariyama, keep an eye on this loser while I get my money back.”

Before she could get to the register to retrieve her PokeDollars a refined sounding voice called out, “You shall do no such thing young lady!” A psychic grasp then encircled her and her pokemon, and teleported them outside, ten feet above the ground.

Once the trainer got back up she looked back to the doors of the store, an aged man and a Medicham standing guard outside of it. “Go. Now. Before I call the police.”

With a mumble of irritation the trainer recalled her Pokemon, and walked off, shooting a dirty look over her shoulder.

Turning back around the man entered the store again. “Malachi, please clean up this mess” he said gesturing to the broken jar and its contents. The pile disappeared with a small flash, and a small thunk could be heard in the trashcan behind the counter.

The man turned his attention back to the teenager standing in the store, an old wooden broom clasped in his hands. “Hi Uncle.” Was all he offered.

“Hello to you Tyler. I’m glad to know I came at a good time,” he looked to the register. “Elizabeth already has enough trouble as it is trying to run this store. I can’t stand the thought of young hooligans like that girl robbing her of her earnings.” Looking back to Tyler, now sporting a slight smile. “Well on a lighter note now, I have finally decided to retire, from my old career that is. I’m getting too old to run around judging contests, and you’re getting a little too old to be stuck living with his mother. I propose we trade places for a time, you can go out on your own Pokemon adventure! And I shall stay here and take your place in helping run the store.”

Tyler’s eyes widened. This was the chance he had been waiting for for five years! “R-Really Uncle?”

“Of course I mean it! Your mother and I have already talked it over, I’ve been in town for a few days already you see. She should be here soon, I believe she is retrieving your new trainer gear from your apartment.”

Just then the doors to the Pokemart slid open again, and a woman holding a large backpack in her arms came in. She was in her late thirties, but you wouldn’t guess it from looking at her. Her hair was already graying in most places and the lines on her face were those of a woman with ten more years than her. Seeing the ecstatic look on her son’s face she sighed. “Gordon, I thought we agreed that you would wait to tell him until we were both here.”

The older man reddened some, “Sorry LIzzy, I guess I just got caught up in the moment. But don’t worry, I saved the best part for when you’re here.” He then reached into his pocket and drew out a bright red ball, a cherish ball. Tyler’s eyes widened even more. Cherish balls were extremely rare! He knew his uncle was rather famous and influential as a contest judge and former top coordinator, but this was far beyond what he thought his Uncle’s fame could do.

Gordon’s arm stretched out to Tyler, offering the priceless orb to him. The astounded teenager took it, and held it in front of his eyes for what seemed like ages.

His mother cleared her throat, “Well what are you waiting for? Open it!”

Snapped out of his daze he obliged, and pushed the button on the side. There was a flash, and before him stood a shiny Swablu. “Swab?”

Tyler sat down in front of it and offered out a hand to it, and pet it. “I- I don’t know what to say!”

“How about thank you?” offered his uncle.

The new trainer nodded, “Yeah! Thank you so much! H-how did you get him?”

“Her, Tyler. It’s a girl. I received it from an old friend of mine, a popular contest star by the name of Lisia. You should thank her if you ever run into her at one of her contests, and definitely her Altaria, Ali too! After all, she’s his daughter”

The little Swablu was now happily in the arms of her new trainer, humming contentedly as he stroked her head.

Elizabeth chimed in once again, “I believe you should give her a nickname don’t you?”

Tyler nodded his head vigorously. “Of course!” He looked down to his new Swablu, noticing an unusual tuft of fluff on the top of her head, somewhat resembling a tiara. “I’ll name her queen!” The newly named “Queen” spread her wings and chirped happily at the dubbing.

Tyler stood back up and placed the Pokemon atop his head, the golden bird wrapping her wings around his cranium. “I’m gonna go and get my license right now!” He started for the door but was stopped by his uncles hand.

“I’m afraid that with the League Championships going on for the next week here in town it could take some time to schedule a trainer license test. However, I made a call to my old friend Professor Birch in LIttleroot. He has all the proper certification to give trainers their license, so…” He pulled out a plane ticket. “You have a flight to Oldale young man!”

Chapter 8

The two Eeveelutions, after the flash from the teleportation, found themselves in Canterlot. Right by the train station. Shadow sighed, “I suppose we should’ve told him where we’re staying more specifically.”

Valerie smirked, “Well at least we’re closer than all the way out in the Everfree.”

The Umbreon simply sighed in defeat. “Yeah I guess. Gimme a sec, I gotta adjust my bag, this stupid paper keeps bumping into me.” He took it off from around his neck and removed the newspaper, laying it on the street for a moment to move the bits purse in the bottom of the bag. When he looked back up, Valerie was staring in shock at the paper. He saw her mouth something that looked like “my fault.”

Confused at what she meant, he glanced down to look at the paper. The main front page story was of course about Arceus and the Pokemon, but on a small side article, there stood the letters, clear as day. “Pegasus Guard Dies of Strange Poisoning, Believed to have Correlation with ‘Pokemon.’”

“My fault,” the Poison-type Eevolution said a little louder. “I’ve...I’ve killed someone else now.”

Shadow was shocked, the Pegasus that had brought Valerie in kicking and screaming had slipped his mind completely. He had assumed that ponies would have sufficient medicine to cure him. “Val, it… It’s not you fault…”

“How is it not?!” she nearly screeched at him. “That was my poison, my ability that did that!” She looked up and around, clearly searching for something.

“It is not your fault!” He argued, “You didn’t touch him on purpose! Hell he captured you and was trying to wrongfully arrest you!”

“I should have gotten the attention of a psychic or one of their unicorns to explain the situation,” Valerie returned, before picking up the paper and sticking it on her back. “I’m going to find a guard station and turn myself in before it gets any worse.”

He was getting desperate now. “That’s ridiculous! You haven’t committed any crime! It’s wrongful death at the worst! And you hold no blame for it. You were forced into that situation! And those guards just saw us as beasts! If I had tried to cure him they’d misinterpret my Heal Bell and think I was attacking!”

“And now that they and I know better, they deserve to know all the parts of the story,” Valerie said before sighing. “At least this death I can do something about…”

“Valerie… fine, but only explain what happened. Don’t do anything stupid like get yourself arrested.”

The Poison-Type made no reply as she got to her paws, heading off for the nearest guard station, Shadow walking alongside her. They walked in silence for some time, neither knowing quite what to say.

It wasn’t long before they finally made it to the station, they entered cautiously, still rather unsure about how the guards were interacting with Pokemon.

An aged, portly unicorn stallion with a thick mustache and a large bald spot surrounding his horn. He seemed to be enjoying a large bowl of salad, doing paper work at the same time. When the two Pokemon came in, he glanced up, and asked gruffly, “Can I help you?”

Valerie hesitated, but with a comforting smile from her friend, she came forward, and set the newspaper on the desk. “Um, hi. I saw this story in the paper,” she muttered, pointing to the article.

The guard grunted, “I can’t understand you, give me a moment.” He pulled out a slip of paper with some scribbling on it, and squinted at it, then mouthed a few words about magic and mental links. After a few moments his horn glowed, until the light enveloped the Eeveelution for a moment, and faded away. “There, that should last for an hour or two.”

Valerie cleared her throat, “I saw this story in the paper.”

The stallion glowered. “Yes, what about it?”

“Um… It was me that poisoned him.” she squeaked, her voice cracking slightly cracking.

He put his hooves on the desk and leaned forward, “Care to explain?”

The Veneon shrank as he loomed over her, and Shadow moved forward some, analyzing the stallions intent.

After a few moments, Valerie backed up and composed herself as best she could. “W-well, you see. Yesterday when the guards were going around capturing Pokemon, he was the one that brought me in.” She stopped and sniffed, looking down. “You see, I’m very poisonous, whenever people touch me they get poisoned.” She sniffed again, “I’m so sorry.”

The guard’s eyes softened some, and he leaned back into his chair. “Well thank for coming and turning yourself in. But don’t worry about being arrested. We aren’t even arresting Pokemon who fight back after being attacked by guards, so I don’t see any reason to arrest you for something that you can’t even control.” He put a hoof to his chin and hummed for a moment. “Though, I would suggest at least warning others or having some way to treat it to hoof. It wouldn’t do to go through life afraid to touch others.”

Valerie nodded, “I have my friend Shadow now,” she turned back to look at the Umbreon, “And we just got some berries that can be used to cure it also in case he isn’t around.”

The stallion nodded, “That’s good. I’ll make sure to tell the officer in charge of the investigation, and his next of kin.”

Valerie’s eyes widened, tears welling up in the corner, “N-next of kin?”

The guard grimaced, “Yes, I’m afraid he had a wife and child at home.”

The Poison-Type’s heart skipped a beat. “N-no. Please, it can’t be true.”

He sighed, “I’m afraid it is, please, don’t blame yourself though. We can throw the blame around as much as we want, but in the end it was just an accident. So please…”

Before he could finish the Purple Eeveelution sobbed loudly, turned, and ran back out the door. Shadow threw the stallion an apologetic look, which was answered by an understanding nod, and he was out the door too.

Valerie, having a significant head start, was already fairly far down the street. The Umbreon tried to give chase, but it was clear that she was far too fast, as she was still pulling away from him even when he was at full tilt. She turned a corner and went out of sight. Shadow put on an extra burst of speed and came around the corner, only to trip over himself when he found his quarry sitting right around the corner crying.

He wrapped one of his legs around her shoulder, and she leaned into him. Shadow heard something escape her lips, but couldn’t make it out. When he didn’t reply she said it again louder.

“I’m nothing but a threat.”

He closed his eyes, and pulled her closer to him. “No, you are not. Just because you’re dangerous doesn’t mean you can’t still do good!”

“Well a fat lot of good I’ve done.” She pointedly looked away and sighed. “I’ve done nothing but cause harm ever since I Evolved. First my brother, and Vincent on a regular basis. Now I’ve taken a father away from his family.”

“It isn’t your fault. It’s just… a tragedy with no real culprit.” He held just a little tighter as she tried to move away.

“Or rather, a culprit we can’t claw from this world,” Valerie retorted. “Still...these ponies are too forgiving. If they were human, they’d be locking me up and trying to either ‘cure’ me or put me down, I know.”

“Yeah, you're right. If anything the Doctor is to blame, for everyone you’ve hurt.”

“Especially so with my brother,” Valerie sniffed. “It...was the first day after I survived, and...and he just wanted to see if his big sister was okay...I...we both, Vincent and I both watched him die, because that damn Doctor wanted to test how poisonous I was.” Her sniffing turned to sobbing. “It’s been five years! Five years and I still can’t forget!”

Shadow continued to hug her, and stroked her back some. He used Heal Bell on himself as he was beginning to feel it’s effects.

“Well you shouldn’t forget. That would be disrespectful to his memory. I’ve never lost anybody, but I haven’t seen my parents in eight months. I miss them, I hope to see them again, and I think about them all the time. But I keep going knowing that’s what they want for me, just like your brother wants for you to live a happy life.”

The Veneon sniffed a few times, before hugging Shadow for his kind words. “I...want to find mine,” she said. “They...deserve to know about what happened.”

Shadow nodded, “Of course, I say we head to Las Pegasus as soon as we can, and have ourselves a family reunion!”

Valerie grinned, and hugged him again, “Thank you.” Before Shadow could reply he suddenly found her lips touching his. His eyes widened, and he almost pulled away, before leaning into the kiss. They stayed like that for a few moments before breaking apart and hugging again, the Veneon whispering “Never leave me,” into his ear.

“I’ll always be here for you. Don’t worry.”

Chapter 9

Several days passed in a blur. Fancypants requested that Valerie and Shadow stay in town for a few days after the arrival of the Pokemon until things were cooled down some more, and told them they’d be free to go meet her relatives after. Valerie thought it fair since he would be paying her to go, and she was still nervous about seeing them after all this time.

They had all begun to receive a “paycheck” although it was more akin to an allowance, so the two had decided to spend it on a night out together.

“Who knew that pony plays were so good!” Shadow and Valerie were now returning home after a play, it had been surprisingly good in Shadows opinion. He had been expecting some girly musical with no real male appeal, but these ponies seemed to have plenty of surprises entertainment wise.

“I told you you’d enjoy it! Just because it looks girly doesn't mean it’s bad! I feel like some stranger watching us really appreciates that statement.”

Shadow shrugged off her odd statement and nodded. “I think that was an excellent choice for a first date. Even if we had trouble getting in.” He then leaned over and nuzzled his companion. “So do you want to do something else, like dinner, or just go home?”

“I dunno, I feel like theres so much more to do tonight, and I want it to last forever! But I am getting pretty tired.”

The Umbreon let out a wide mouthed yawn, “Yeah me too. But that theater food wasn’t all that filling.” He looked down the road, still thick with ponies going about nightly activities. Glancing into a nearby nightclub, loud dubstep music could be heard from the entrance, and a Flaaffy could be seen DJing at the Turntables. He smiled, it was good to see that Pokemon were already starting to settle in and be accepted more. His group had landed it pretty easy at Fancy Manor. Most that had been Pokemon before probably ended up back in the wild, but most former humans wouldn’t have the skills to “rough it.”

He stopped suddenly, “Hey Val, heres someplace we could hang out for a while.”

His date stopped, and looked to where he was standing. It was the donut shop they had gone to on that second day in Equestria. She broke out in a grin, “That would be perfect.”

The two went inside, the bell lightly tinkling as they entered. The same Unicorn as before was at the counter, and unlike most of his kind in Canterlot he was fairly welcoming, not looking down his nose or huffing disdainfully.

The two bought four to share, and went to the table by the window, so they could look out at the passing ponies and their fancy night wear.

The lovebirds looked up when the bell to the shop rang again, and in came a peculiar sight. A Whismur riding atop a dark blue Unicorn, with a shiny Scizor behind her, and a shiny Metagross outside. Valerie squinted at the whismur for a moment, thinking it was rather familiar but shrugged it off and went back to her jelly filled donut, up until it jumped off the Pony’s back and ran up to her, waving and squeaking.

The realization only hit her once the little normal type started signing to her. “Wendy?”

Shadow stopped eating his chocolate glaze and looked down to the strange Whismur. “You know her?”

“Yeah!” She exclaimed excitedly. “She was in the lab with me!”

The Umbreon smiled, “Well it’s nice to meet you Wendy. My name’s Shadow.”

“Uhm.. excuse me.” The blue unicorn interrupted, “Is this your Pokémon? We found the scared little girl outside, causing some mighty chaos.”

“Mine?” Valerie replied. “She isn’t anybodies Pokemon.”

“Oh, is that so? Well, she seems to know you. We’ve been chasing after this little rascal for a while now.” The unicorn chuckled, petting the small creature, “My friend here, Steven, told me that was she does isn’t normal for her species, so we were wondering if you knew what’s going on with her… er, ability?”

Valerie shifted uncomfortably, and looked to the abnormal Normal-Type, who just nodded at her, indicating it was ok to divulge her tender past. “She and I were both victims of a… a mad scientist by the name of Doctor Nurem. He did ‘experiments’ on Pokemon to try and augment us. She was given the ability of another Pokemon called a Jigglypuff, but much more potent. Every time she talks she puts people to sleep, so she has to get by on sign language.” She stopped and glanced down at her half eaten donut.

“So that’s why…” The Scizor interrupted,”One of Nurem’s experiments… damn maniac.”

“You know who he is?” The unicorn asked, looking at the small Whismur who seemed to be rather sad now, at the mention of her former captor.

“One of Earth’s most wanted criminals. Some even call him a myth, some say he doesn’t exist. A maniacal scientist that used to do extreme experiments on Pokémon. He kidnapped Pokémon from the wild, used extreme amounts of chemicals, messed with their D.N.A…. many Pokémon didn’t survive the procedures. Everytime we got reports of one of his labs, we usually just found corpses of his test subjects laying around, not a single trace of him.” The Scizor sighed, and took a soft look at Valerie, “This may be a fragile subject, but if I may, what did he do to you? I can’t recall any Pokémon with your appearance”

Valerie, seeing the shift in mood, handed the Whismur Shadow’s remaining donut. The Umbreon almost protested, but thought better. “I was one of his most successful. His goal was to discover whole new Eeveelutions. He injected me with the contents of a Toxic Orb and force fed me liquefied Rare Candies. I evolved into this, he dubbed me a Veneon, since apparently that’s what I say in Pokespeak.”

“That sounds… horrible” The unicorn sighed.

“New.. types of Eevelutions? That idiot… I deeply apologize for bringing the subject up. And to interrupt your meal.” The Scizor said softly.

“It’s fine, really. I’m glad to see Wendy again. She identifies with me the most out of most of the Pokemon there. We both have to watch ourselves so we don’t inflict our friends with status conditions by accident. I have a very overactive Poison Point ability you see.”

“Hey, thanks for leaving me behind you pricks” A dry voice interrupted from behind the Scizor. A cream, cat-like Pokémon came into scene, his ribbons cleaning the mess on his face, as signs of ink were distributed messily all around his head. “What kind of marker did that annoying brat use? I swear this is harder than what it should be”

“So you’re awake, huh?” The unicorn chuckled, “This is Frederick. Please forgive his attitude, he can be a bit… rude”

Valerie’s eyes widened. Tears slowly creeping into the edges. Shadow was about to ask what was wrong when the Veneon yelled “Freddy!” and then launched herself across the table and tackled the Sylveon in a hug. Completely forgetting about her poison.

“Uhm… can someone get this freak off me? My body is itching like crazy” The Sylveon replied coldly.

Valerie was now sniffing, and on the verge of full on tears, and Shadow was getting up, mad at the strange Sylveon for his blatant insult. Before he could do anything the Poison-Type mumbled “You don’t recognize me. Of course you don’t. Who could.”

“Uhm… forgive me, but do I know you from somewhere? I think I’d recognize a purple cat creature.”

“It’s me, Valerie. Your sister.”

The Sylveon went silent, as a single tear began forming on his eyes, yet his face was of anger, “No, you… can’t. This is a joke, isn’t it? That damn iron asshole went into my brain, didn’t he? HA, very funny guys, you pricks… don’t you… don’t you fucking play with my past!” The Sylveon violently forced Valerie off himself, standing up and glaring at them with a disgruntled look

Valerie was simply shocked. She had finally found her final surviving brother, and he was convinced that a psychic was just playing a trick on him. That was the straw that broke the Camerupts’ back. She now burst into tears. And Shadow jumped down to comfort her, shooting a glare at the Fairy.

Valerie sobbed uncontrollably into her mates shoulder. He just stroked her back, and said nothing. One broken word escaped from her lips, “Freddy…” and then she choked up again.

Something seemed to spark on the Sylveon, whose eyes became full of tears, as he got closer to the crying Poison type, “That voice… those tears… no, it can't be... after all these years.” The Sylveon rushed towards Valerie, and hugged her with force, launching off Shadow, who landed with a thud to the side.

“Lil sis… Valerie. I’m so… sorry. It was all my fault, I had to protect you, and now I just keep hurting you. What... what happened, who did this to you!?” Frederick sobbed, tears running wildly on his body.

“I… It doesn't matter now. He’s gone. We’re together again!”

“Where are the others… are they with you?”

The Poison-Type’s eyes just watered up more, and she sobbed into his shoulder again. After a moment, she whispered, “It was shorter for them.”

“No…” Frederick dropped Valerie, and got away from her, “This… this is all my fault. She told me to take care of you, it was… it was my FUCKING DUTY!” Frederick started moving backwards, searching for the exit, as his now red eyes let out more of the waterfall of tears.

“NO IT WASN’T! IF YOU HAD BEEN THERE YOU WOULD HAVE JUST GOTTEN CAPTURED WITH US!”

“DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA…. OF HOW I FUCKING FELT WHEN I ARRIVED THERE, AND JUST SAW THOSE DAMN HUMANS TAKE YOU!? I COULD HAVE FOUGHT, I COULD HAVE SAVED YOU, BUT I WAS, AND I WILL ALWAYS BE AN IDIOT, A COWARD!” Frederick rushed for the door, yet his paws started shaking mid way, as his body seemed to lose color, and his eyes closed. The poison had taken effect, and the Sylveon was now laying down in the floor, unconscious.

Shadow quickly dashed forward and used Heal Bell on the unconscious Pokemon, who stood mindless on the floor, his body slowly regaining color.

Valerie just backed up, in shock at how quickly the poison had worked. Usually when not in battle it was much slower. All of the emotions from the moment must have sped it up.

Before she could ponder it further there was a loud crash and a Flareon flew through the window of the shop, his head banged on the table and he then fell into to the ground. Shouts of the word “anarchy” could be heard from outside, and a Raticate and two Rattata came in.

“Grab the False Prophet!”

The Rattatta scampered over to the “false prophet.” It started to rise again, but they quickly used a bite attack on it, fully fainting it.

“You two!” The Scizor exclaimed, “Leave that Flareon alone, at this rate you’ll end up killing it!”

“Butt out, heretic! This is our business!” The Raticate proclaimed in a pretentious voice.

The Bug type extended his wings, while his claws started glowing a soft red, symbolizing an attack, “I said, leave the Flareon alone.”

“Make us, heretic! You shall fall before the mighty might of the Disciples of Helix!”

“You asked for it. Bullet Punch!” As swift as a bullet, the Scizor rushed towards the two Normal types, his glowing pincers delivering punch after punch, sending them both back, and knocking the small Rattata out. “Pickett, get the Flareon, and Frederick out of the way!”

“On it!” The unicorn replied, rushing forwards and grabbing the two seemingly unconscious Eeveelutions, dragging them back on a safe distance.

“You asked for it heathens!” The rat Pokemon’s teeth began to glow a bright white, and he yelled “Super Fang!” before rushing the scizor. Before the attack could land, a black blur jumped in front of him,

“Protect!” The attack bounced off the glowing yellow shield, and the fuzzy brown Pokemon landed on his back, on top of all the broken glass he and his comrades had knocked in. Before he could right himself the Umbreon moved again, “Foul Play!” Shadow grabbed the Raticate, lifted him of the ground, and spun him around until releasing him, letting him fly into the table.

That did it for the invading Pokemon, his eyes now consumed by spirals..

“Maniacal idiots. What were they thinking?” Steven mumbled to himself, looking at the ones present, and seeing that nobody got hurt. “Who were they?”

“The Cult of Helix” The Flareon suddenly stirred, struggling to stand up, bruises all over his body. “Insane bastards, they’ve been following me for a week now. They claim I’m some sort of ‘False Prophet’, their ideologies have lead them to follow me around to ‘bring me to Helix’s justice’ “

“What did you do?” Inquired Valerie.

“I left…” The Flareon sighed, before giving up on the attempts of trying to keep steady, “or rather they kicked me out.... long story.”

“Cult of Helix?” Steven asked, before looking outside at the Metagross that was still out there, watching them from a distance. “I see… well, there’s no point in dealing with them now. We need to heal your wounds, and we also need to check on Frederick. Now it’d be a good time to find a Hotel, Pockets.”

Valerie chimed in again, “If you like you can come stay with us. We’re living with a noble by the name of Fancypants. We’re supposed to be security, and you guys look pretty tough so I’m sure he’d appreciate extra help.

“I have yet to have a pleasant experience with nobility in this world,” The Metagross interrupted, sneaking his head up on the hole in the window, “I will keep my distance. I’ll dedicate myself to scouting the area, and to prevent more cultists from causing more trouble.”

“Oh yeah, Layton messed up the mansion of a Mayor” The unicorn chuckled

“Well then maybe you should stay away, after all, it would be our job to prevent that.” The Umbreon replied, chuckling along with Pockets.

“I appreciate the offer. Although I think it would be too much--”

“Oh quiet Steven, don’t go all humble here. We can stay in the house of a freaking noble. Sides, I’ve heard that Fancypants is a cool guy, so it should be fun.” The Pony interrupted, before looking at the duo, “So yeah, we will gladly accept.”

As the group started moving out to the mansion, Steven picked up the still unconscious Sylveon, and cradled him in his chitinous arms. Valerie staying close as she kept an extra eye on her freshly reunited brother, and she couldn’t help but be reminded of her younger brother.

“Please, please give him an antidote! He’s going to die! Please you have to!”

“Vincent, restrain that... that new Pokemon!”

“She’s right! You can’t just let him die!

“I have to know the effects of the poison Subject 37! Now restrain her so it can properly spread, or else I’ll have to use more of our subjects to test it.”

“NOOOOOO! PLEASE!”

The Veneon flinched at the painful memory, but blinked away her tears and continued onward. No time to reflect on past mistakes, when there was a whole new world of opportunity, to make a new identity.

Chapter 10

It didn’t take long for the group to reach the mansion. When they arrived the butler took it in stride, welcoming in the new Pokemon and cleaning up the little bit of dirt that was tracked in before they even left the room.

They found Fancypants in the lounge enjoying deeply enthralled in a book. As the Pokemon entered, he looked up. “Ah, Shadow, Valerie. How did your outing go?”

Valerie smiled and moved closer to Shadow, “Very well thank you.”

“That’s good. I see you’ve brought back more friends. I thought that the only ones remaining were bird and fox-like creatures.”

Shadow spoke up now. “Well technically the only one either of us knows is the Sylveon, Frederick, who is still passed out after accidentally getting poisoned by Val.”

The Poison-Type broke out in a wide grin, a bit of moisture coming to her eyes. “He’s my brother. I never thought I’d see him again, but he’s here, finally.”

“That’s wonderful. It’s always important to be with family.” He looked to the Scizor, Sylveon, Flareon and Unicorn. “I suppose you offered them a place to stay while they’re in town?”

Valerie rubbed her leg uncomfortably. “Yeah, sorry if that’s overstepping boundaries or something.”

“We can find a hotel somewhere else if need be. We have plenty of bits with us.” Steven spoke up for the first time, pointing at the saddlebag the unicorn wore.

Fancypants slammed his book shut, making everyone in the room flinch. “That would be preposterous! How could I in good conscience turn away the family and friends of one of my own friends. It would bring dishonor upon myself and my family!”

“We appreciate it, sir” The Bug-type nodded, “My name is Steven Stone from Rustboro City, in the Hoenn region of Earth: the unicorn next to me is Pickett Midnight, from Tall Tale, the pink guy passed out here is Frederick, and the Whismur behind Valerie is Wendy.”

“Wassup!” The unicorn chimed, giving a military salute to the fancy-looking unicorn in front of him.

“My name is Prophet,” added the Flareon before Steven could ask.

The noble nodded. “Greetings to you as well.” He looked over to his loyal butler in the corner. Looking to the Flareon and Sylveon he asked, “Are those two going to be alright? They don’t look in the best of shape.”

“I should be fine, I’ve had worse. A little rest and I’ll be as good as ever.” Answered the Fire-Type.

“Same with Freddy, if you cure it soon enough my poison shouldn't have any long term detrimental effects.”

“Hmm… well if you’re sure.” He clapped his hooves twice and the butler entered again. “Loyalty, could you please go get a few rooms set up?” He looked back to the group, “Have you three had anything to eat yet today?”

Steven and Pockets looked at each other in shock, they had forgotten the pies that they ordered back in the restaurant, and their stomachs had been growling in anger for a while, yet the commotion had lead them to ignore them.

“...And they were already paid for too…” Pockets sighed under her breath,

“Apologies, but… would you mind providing us with a meal?” Steven sighed as well, ashamed of having to ask this from their host.

Fancypants chuckled. “Well why do you think I was asking? Loyalty, fetch Barnardo.” He looked back to the Pokemon waiting expectantly. “Come along, the dining room is this way.”

The Pokemon and Pony followed the white unicorn through the halls. As they passed through the entryway, Tyler came running down the stairs.

“Hey guys! How’d the date go?”

Shadow nuzzled Valerie. “It went great.” He lifted his head back up and turned to the Scizor, still holding an unconscious Frederick. “This is Steven Stone, you’ve probably heard of him.” He pointed to the Sylveon the Champion was holding. “That’s Frederick, , Valerie’s long lost brother, the quiet Whismur is Wendy and the Pony is Pockets, or PIckets… or something... I dunno.”

“It’s Pickett, but just call me Pockets, don’t ask why” The unicorn shrugged, “Glad to meet ya”

Tyler’s eyes widened to the size of teacup platters. “Steven Stone? The Steven Stone?”

“Uhm… indeed?” The former champion said dubiously.

The Flaaffy darted forward and held his plush paw up to the Scizor. “I can’t believe it! I… I’m honored to meet you again sir!”

“Uhm… pardon me, but I don’t think I recognize you… given our current bodies it’s hard to remember old acquaintances”

“You’re pretty famous, huh Steven?” The navy blue unicorn chuckled.

“My name is Tyler Watsky. We met once just south of Petalburg woods, but I doubt you’d remember me. You fixed up my Fennekin after I lost my first battle and gave me some encouraging words.”

“Yeah, forgive me. My memory is not that good, I’ve met many trainers in my journeys. But if I gave you some advice, it means I saw potential in you. So glad to see you’re here, in this planet that is.”

“You’re babbling mister Champion, can’t really handle fanboys, huh?” Pockets mocked, nudging him.

“That’s ok. I bet it’s hard to remember guys like me when you’re off saving the world and overseeing Pokemon Championships and such.” He clasped his paws behind his back and blushed slightly.

Pockets stomach growled loudly, interrupting the awkward pause after Tyler’s statement. “Can you guys leave the autographs for later? Seriously, following that sneaky rascal around drained all my energy, gotta refill.”

Steven heard the rumble in his own stomach, and looked at the former human in front of him ashamed, “I’m feeling hungry as well, we can speak on the dining table, if that’s ok with you, Tyler”

“Sure! It’d be an honor.” He grinned.

Loyalty approached them again, “Excuse me sirs, and ma'ams. Your rooms are ready should you wish to get some shut eye. If you need any other assistance just ask.”

“Thank you,” Steven nodded at the butler, “We’ll dine first and then we’ll go take some rest. Although, I think it would be the best to leave Frederick resting, it’s no good to have him in my arms all the time, I’m sure a comfortable bed should help him out. “

“Of course, give him here and I will take him to one of the rooms.” The butler stepped forward to receive the Sylveon but Valerie stepped in front of him and shook her head.

“Thank you, but Shadow and I can take him up.”

The stallion nodded and continued onward, looking for some other service he could contribute around the manor.

Steven carefully placed the unconscious Pokemon on Shadows back, and the Umbreon, along with his mate, slowly made their way upstairs, Prophet following close behind.

The remaining Pokemon and Pony continued on to the dining hall, where Barnardo gave them some pasta that he believed to be a shameful example of his culinary skill due to him having to rush it before he left for home.

“Sweet Celestia this is good!” Pockets chuckled, muzzle full of noodles.

“Indeed, this is pretty tasty,” Confirmed the Scizor, trying to eat as slowly as possible, enjoying every little detail of the meal that was in front of him.

“Dude, if you keep eating like that you’ll finish up by the sunrise! Just grab a bunch of them and get them all in your belly!” Pockets grabbed a considerable amount of noodles with her fork, placing them all on her mouth at once and slurping them all with great force, which caused all the noodles to slap her face instead of directly going into her mouth, causing a chuckle in all the presents.

“So, how did you end up meeting Valerie and Shadow?” Inquired the Flaaffy.

“Well, the Whismur, Wendy, caused some chaos on the place we were dining at. Her ability caused a bunch of ponies to fall asleep all of the sudden and we ended up following her around the city. She seemed to be following your friends, as she and Valerie is one of former Nurem’s experiments. Then things started… getting rather chaotic, but I believe we’re lucky to have found her, she seems to be a rather nice Pokémon.” Steven explained, before getting another bite of the meal, “What about you? I don’t think any trainer could just casually find a one in a kind Pokémon like her.”

Tyler chuckled. “She isn’t one of my Pokemon. We met her after the mass exodus. She and Shadow got put in a cage together when the guard was still rounding up Pokemon.”

“So the Pokemon were causing problems here as well? Damn you guys are troublemakers,” The unicorn joked, her mouth once again full of food which made it hard to understand her.

“We’re pretty much aliens in this world, so it’s understandable. Tyler, once again, I am sorry for forgetting, but could you please remind me how we met?

”Sure, I wouldn’t expect you to remember, it was like a year ago, and I’m sure you meet tons of trainers like me.” The former human cleared his throat, “I was just a few days into my journey, and was about to head into Petalburg woods. Up till that point I hadn’t battle any trainers, really just fighting wild Pokemon and rocks, heh. This snooty guy named Winston challenged me to a 1v1 between my Fennekin, Kenny, and his Zigzagoon. He ended up totally destroying me. The closest Pokemon center was miles away and he was too much of a stiff to give me any potions. Then you came out of nowhere and reprimanded him for not helping me, and gave me a full restore. My spirits were pretty crushed after the loss so you gave me a few kind words about believing in myself and then you were on your way.”

“Oh! The trainer with the Fenekkin, I remember now. How did your adventure go? I did see potential in you, especially on the bond you had with the Fennekin.”

Tyler smiled, then sighed, “It was going great. I had six badges, and had just made it to Lilycove when all this” he gestured around “Happened. I was planning on catching a water type and swimming out to Mossdeep the next day but then Arceus did his thing.”

“I see.. Six badges? You’ve become pretty strong, haven’t you? That’s good.” Steven remarked.

“So what are you doing here in Canterlot? I showed up here and got a place to stay so I figured I’d go sedentary for a while.” The Flaaffy inquired.

“We’re going to the Everfree Forest” The unicorn interrupted, cleaning the massive amounts of sauce on her muzzle with a fancy-looking napkin, and yawning after finishing, “Steven wants to talk with your god, something like that.”

“I just wish to ask Arceus some things, Miss. Midnight here had some business in Canterlot, so we decided to stay here for the night. If Frederick is better by the morning, we’ll be planning our departure, after he solves some details with his… sister that is.” The former champion buzzed softly.

“Ok, makes sense. Valerie went to see Arceus immediately after his announcement and took Shadow with her. I don’t know what happened when they were gone but next thing I know one of my partners is in a relationship. I don’t mind that he’s settling down and all it just bugs me they won’t tell me what happened to bring that about.” He sighed. “I don’t mean to be nosey, but… you know. Shadow is one of my best friends, my first Pokemon to evolve. I just don’t like being out of the loop.”

“If I may, they seemed pretty happy together, and your Umbreon, Shadow, seems to care a lot about her. I know how hard it is when your own Pokémon hide things from you, but you have to remember that, they have feelings just like us. They have their own life, and still they decide to share part of that life with us, but it doesn’t mean we have full control over them. We are their trainers, yes, but we are also their friends, and we have to respect their decisions.” Steven took a sip of the glass of water that stood next to the now empty dish, “By the way, we appreciate the food. Tell our host that it was marvelous.”

Tyler smiled. “Thanks for the advice, and I’ll be sure to do that.” He glanced at the clock hanging on the wall between the two large windows to his right. The hour hand was nearing the eleven mark. “I suppose we should probably turn in soon, you probably have a full day ahead of you tomorrow with meeting Arceus and all.”

“Once again, thanks to both you and our host. If you don’t mind, could you lead us to our rooms?” The Scizor requested, before poking the suddenly sleeping pony at his side.

“Wait… what, what did I miss?”

Steven chuckled softly, “That explains why you were so quiet all of the sudden.”

“I would lead you to your rooms, but Fancypants has like twenty or something in this place. I don’t know which ones are prepped for your stay.”

For once Tyler didn’t flinch when an aged voice spoke up behind him, “I would be happy to lead you to where you’ll be staying. Come with me please.”

The Scizor and Unicorn followed the butler through the doors, and were lead upstairs. Pocket's room was the first on the left. “Thanks, sleep tight!"

“Aaaand I have sudden insomnia, great. That food must have done something.”

Pockets got off her bed, looking around at the huge room they provided for her and Wendy. “So many things but nothing to do. And Wendy’s completely asleep so I can’t ask for her help, it’d be rude. What… to… do…” Pockets opened the main door, and stepped outside. Just a couple of lights illuminated the hallway. “Maybe there’s a kitchen around here somewhere, maybe I can get some milk to help me out.”

The unicorn slunk downstairs, trying to avoid being spotted by those still awake, who were mainly servants. “This is going to be my biggest heist yet… a glass of milk in the house of a famous noble!” The unicorn chuckled under her breath, teleporting around and hiding in the shadows.

“No one can spot the famous Robin Hoof of Tall Tale! Pickett Midnig--”

“Do you require anything ma’am? I’d be happy to fetch something to help you sleep.”

At the sudden interruption, Pockets, who was carefully standing on a shelf, found herself falling to the floor. “Gah! You came out of nowhere! Do you ever sleep?”

“I make myself available for any who may need assistance.” Replied Loyalty, his face still showing no emotion.

“No offense, but that’s creepy.” The unicorn chuckled awkwardly, “I was just looking for the kitchen, want to get some warm milk and whatnot. Do you think you can tell where that is?”

“Of course madame, follow me.” The old butler turned and led her through the dining room, into the kitchen through a side door. She stood awkwardly by the entrance while he retrieved a bottle of milk, and poured it into a glass. His horn lit up for a few moments and a bit of steam and bubbles rose from the drink, before handing it off to her levitation. “If you need anything else just ask.”

Pockets took a tentative sip from her glass, spitting it back in when she found it to be boiling hot still. She set the glass back down and looked around, but the butler had already disappeared.

“Geez, what’s wrong with that guy…” Levitating the milk, she decided to walk around the mansion while the milk cooled down. The wide windows let the moonlight come in, softly brightening the place up. She went upstairs, having a good look at the various fancy items in the mansion, wondering the value of each one of them. She reached the guest rooms, and saw the two Pokémon they met at the Donut Shop earlier standing in front of a room, the one she assumed was Frederick’s.

“Hey, sup.” The unicorn saluted, catching the attention of the cuddling duo.

“Oh, hi. Pockets right?” Valerie broke off from Shadow at the Unicorns approach.

“Sorry, if I’m interrupting anything I’ll just be on my way!” The blue pony chuckled awkwardly.

“No! Don’t worry it’s fine. Fredericks your friend so if you wanna check on him or something that’s fine.” The Veneon gave an equally awkward smile.

“I guess he hasn’t woken up yet… you doing ok? He’s your brother after all.”

Valerie smiled, “I’m fine. I honestly hadn’t expected to meet him so soon! I had been planning on meeting our parents soon. When I went to see Arceus he told me they were in a city called Las Pegasus. I would have probably gone in the next few days.”

“Your parents… huh. Hey, do you mind having a walk with me? I have some… questions.” Pockets scratched her head, a bit embarrassed of doing such a request to someone she had just met.

Valerie looked to her mate. “I’ll keep an eye out while you're gone, if he wakes up I’ll come find you.”

The Poison-Type gave him a lick on the cheek, stood up, and walked over to Pockets, making a “lead the way” gesture with her head.

The two strolled silently through the corridor until Shadow was out of sight, and Pockets finally cleared her throat. “Frederick seemed… uneasy when he found out who you were, something about being his fault… sorry if it’s a delicate topic, but he’s my friend, and I’d like to know what happened to him… to you.”

Valerie’s ears flattened. “Well, I can’t tell you much about what happened after I was kidnapped, after all, I wasn’t around, but I do know that he’s different now. I only recognized him because he sounds so much like our dad, and his name is Frederick.”

“I see… he also mentioned… others? You had other siblings?” The unicorn asked, a bit saddened and ashamed by talking about the topic.

Valerie nodded. “Yes, two brothers. Marc and Eric. Both their deaths were… gruesome to say the least. You see, Shadow, Frederick and I all evolved from the same species, Eevee. Eevee has eight documented forms, and many believe there to be more. I’m proof of that, as the new ninth. The doctor wanted to discover more Eeveelutions, so he kidnapped us to be the ‘lucky frontiersman’ of our species. Marc died in his first attempt, and Eric… Eric was the first one I ever poisoned.”

“That’s… horrible… Sorry for bringing it up. Frederick sure had it hard then, explains why he hates humans so much.” Pockets sighed, “I guess you guys used to be really close, weren’t you?”

The Poison-Type nodded. “Yeah, he was the oldest out of all of us. He had a really bad case of overprotective big brother syndrome. He got in trouble once for beating up this Poochyena that was teasing me! I’ll never forget the look on that guys face when he came charging in with a swift attack.”

“Haha, that sounds like what he would do… No wonder it hit him so much… losing you would hit him so hard…” She noticed a tear slowly rolling down Valeries cheek, and grimaced slightly. “Here, you want some milk?”

This earned a slight smile from the Eeveelution. “No thanks, I wouldn’t want to poison you, even if Shadow is nearby. Ingesting my poisons are way worse than having it absorb through your skin.”

“Aaaaand that is not something I needed to know.” The unicorn chuckled, “Thanks for hanging out with me, Valerie.”

Shadow watched the two girls depart, a small smile growing on his snout. It was good to see that she was still making new friends. Only Arceus knows what sort of emotional issues she could have ended up with after her experience. At least reclusiveness wasn’t one of them. Before he could reflect on it further, he felt something snaking its way along his barrel, before he could react another one covered his mouth, they both then simultaneously tightened and pulled him into Fredericks room.

“Well then, hello pretty boy. Finally we can have a one on one conversation, don’t you think ‘brother in law’?”

“Mmph, mmph.”

Frederick chuckled diabolically, “Easy there, you’ll have time to talk soon enough. You know, I don’t really like Umbreon, in fact you are on my top hated things in the world, just below humans. So you better answer carefully. What are your intentions with my sister?”

Frederick released the Umbreon, letting him breathe again.”I don’t know what you mean!” He sputtered, drawing in as much air as he could.

“No, no, not a good enough answer. You know, I’ve always wondered… some people say that Eeveelution always fall in their feet, who knows, this place is pretty high up.. and with a couple of Moonblast... “ Frederick grabbed Shadow once again, and looked at him with a dead-stare. “What are your intentions with my sister, I’ve met some pretty rotten Dark types before, give me one reason to believe you’re different.”

Shadow growled “Look man, she came onto me! And I’ve been helping her readjust to not living under the fear of a psychopath. I don’t have any ‘intentions’ other than to help her in any way I can.” He returned the Sylveons glare, “And don’t think that some stupid type advantage will mean too much in a battle. My trainer planned for encounters with fairies.”

“Oh, tough boy aren’t you? Trained as well… that explains the ‘creative’ name,“ Frederick smirked, “Listen, I’m just protecting my little sister, and I don’t really trust you, at all.”

“If you’re trying to ‘protect’ her, where were you when we were both tossed in a cell together just for being Pokemon? Or when she found out she killed someone and tried to get herself arrested? Huh? I’ve been protecting her too you know!”

Frederick dropped Shadow, and grunted under his breath, “Oh… that was most definitely a wrong answer, you fucking asshole!” Frederick grabbed him once again and threw him in the air, before swiftly throwing two small Moonblasts at the Umbreon, sending him back.

Shadow managed to dodge one of the two Moonblasts, but the other impacted him square in the shoulder. The force threw him back into a wall, where he quickly threw up a protect to block the next two attacks. His tail glowed a bright white and he rushed forward, hitting the Sylveon in the jaw, drawing a bit of blood with the super effective Iron Tail.

“Oh ho ho. You fucking asshole, you represent everything I hate in life. it’s going to be fun to beat you up!” Frederick released a strong Flash in the room, blinding Shadow for a couple of seconds, and just as he regained sight, another Moonblast hit him directly between his eyes.

The Umbreon stumbled back, before his eyes glowed a purple light, and a viscous bubbling liquid was shot at the Sylveon, infecting him with the toxin, causing him to shudder violently. Frederick chuckled, then copied the Umbreon, sending his own Toxic attack out. To his surprise, the Umbreon didn’t even flinch as he was infected.

“Sorry, that’s not gonna work. Thanks to your sister I’ve started to build up a resistance. Give me two hours and I might start to feel a little wobbly.”

“For Arceus’ Sake… you dirty bastard. I still have enough time to beat you up before the Toxic takes me down.” As Frederick grunted, he Moonblasted the Umbreon once again, who dodged it effortlessly, but was surprised when the Sylveon himself tackled him out of the window, and onto the roof. Shadow barely managed to hang onto the edge, and pulled himself back up onto the tiles.

He erected another Protect, blocking another few Moonblasts, and then healed himself with Moonlight. “That all you got?”

Frederick called for a Wish to heal himself as well, annoyed by the taunts of the Umbreon who until now had been able to take his hits with ease, “You piece of garbage… I won’t let you get close to my sister, no matter how, but I’ll stop you two from being together any longer… even if I have to kill you for it!” Frederick rushed to the Umbreon, tackling him they both were rolling around on the rooftop of the mansion, punching and kicking each other on the way down. Frederick was ready to send another Moonblast, and Shadow was ready to use another Iron Tail, but both were stopped when they reached a balcony, and a loud shout of anger and confusion called their attention.

The two were forcefully yanked from one another by a blue telekinetik grip, and held there in the air, both panting and glaring at the other.

“WHAT IN ARCEUS’S NAME ARE YOU TWO DOING?” shrieked Valerie.

“Well I did say I’d let you know when your brother was awake.” He gasped out.

“Hey Sis, I was just having a small chat with your pesky boyfriend, we were just playing and whatnot.” The Sylveon chuckled with anger, hissing at the Umbreon with his sight.

“Somehow I find that doubtful,” Pockets glared.

Valerie turned to Shadow, “What’s going on Shadow?”

The Umbreon gasped for breath for a few more seconds, having taken a hard kick to the stomach right before they were separated. “Your lunatic of a brother yanked me into his room and started interrogating me! Something about him not trusting me around you. Words were exchanged, then blows, now we’re here.”

“Is this true?” She turned sharply to Frederick.

“That’s one way to put it, I just wanted to know if he could be trusted, and hey! What a surprise, he can’t be trusted at all, you should probably break up with him as soon as possible, you deserve better than.. that” Frederick chuckled, just now receiving the heal from the Wish he had called for earlier.

Valerie’s eyes darkened. “You think you have the right to tell me who I can and can’t fall in love with?”

“Kind of, yeah.” The Sylveon said dryly.

The Veneon growled, “Does that give you an excuse to attack and possibly harm my mate?”

“He got on my nerves! The idiot taunted me about not being with you for when you needed help! Freaking idiot…” The Fairy grunted under his breath.

“There’s a difference between taunting and citing examples of when I helped her instead of you.” The Umbreon shot back.

“She was taken away from me years ago you asshole! How was I supposed to help her?”

“Well I never accused you off not being there, I was just saying that maybe you aren’t the only one who can help her!”

“Oh, sure, that was totally what you meant back there, you idiot can go and suck a-”

“STOP FIGHTING!” Pockets interjected, “You two are both acting incredibly immature, and in your case, that’s saying something!”

“S’not my fault…” The Sylveon sniffed.

“He started it,” whined the Umbreon.

“I can’t believe you two, especially you Frederick. I would have thought that you would be more mature after five years.” She looked to Shadow, “I know it was probably mostly self defense from you, but there must have been better ways to deal with it than fighting.”

Before either could retort there was a sound of shattering glass from around the corner of the building. Pockets finally set down the two Eeveelutions, gave them a shushing gesture, and put an invisibility spell on herself.

“We’ll discuss this later, I’ll go check whatever that was.”

“I’ll go with you, just so I can get away from those idiots for a bit.” She gave a glare to the two rivals, “Don’t do anything even stupider while I’m gone.”

Frederick glared at the Umbreon, but before he could throw more blame at him, he felt a sudden pain hit his stomach, as the Toxic from earlier became stronger. “I hate you… gah.”

“Let me help you with that,” before the Sylveon could protest he felt the poison fade away with a glow from the Umbreons eyes.

“I’ll use my own damn move to heal my health next time if you don’t mind.” Was the only thanks the Dark type received, before Frederick jumped into a nearby roof, his feelers glowing softly while he prepared Flash to illuminate his way.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“What? Do you think I’ll just leave Pockets and Valerie to investigate whatever that was by themselves? As much as you hate the idea, I’m her brother, and I’m also Pockets’ Pokémon.”

“Fine, then I’m going too.” The Umbreon padded along behind the Fairy, as he reached him he lit up his rings, thus making the Flash pointless. The Sylveon grunted at his assistance, and advanced forward.

Chapter 11

One Year Ago

Tyler couldn’t believe it, he was finally going to be a trainer! He looked down to his new trainer belt, lightly caressing the shiny red orb attached to one of the clips. The flight to Oldale had only been an hour and a half, but the whole time he couldn’t stop thinking about the new life he would be living for the next few years.

He stepped out of the airport and breathed in the fresh air. Now that he was outside again he pulled the ball off his belt, expanded it, and released his new partner from within.

“Swab?” The golden bird gave him an expectant look.

The teenager offered out his arm for the Pokemon, but it instead ignored it, and jumped onto her trainer’s head, causing him to stumble in surprise. After a moment she settled down, and he relaxed.

Once Queen was settled he dug his hand into his pocket and began to dig around for the crumpled instructions he had been given by his uncle. He finally managed to retrieve it out from around his phone, and began to read it, doing his best not to move his head around for the sake of his Pokemon resting on top. . “Let’s see… the Journey Cafe. Sounds like a good place to start on my own!”

He strode down the street as fast as he could without creating too rough a ride for his fluffy hat. Eventually, after walking for about fifteen minutes he came upon the cafe. He looked around some but couldn’t see the renowned professor.

After a moment a young woman with a long white lab coat approached him. “Excuse me, but are you Tyler? I’m afraid Professor Birch wasn’t able to pick you up himself, he’s having trouble down at the lab. ”

The new trainer nodded, “Yep! That’s me! Don’t worry about Professor Birch, I know how it feels to miss out of stuff because of work.”

The lab assistant nodded in agreement. “Thank you. Would you like some lunch before we head over? This cafe has great sandwiches.”

“No way! I’m way too excited to eat now! I’ve been waiting five years for my trainer license, and I can’t stand to wait another minute!”

“Ok, ok. Calm down. Cmon, I’ll drive you over to Littleroot. By the way, my name is Emily.”

The two climbed into the aforementioned car, an old slightly worn truck, obviously used for field research, and drove off. Tyler could barely contain himself, he held his new Pokemon in his arms, which had recently dozed off. He stroked her head lightly. This was all he could have asked for and more. He had expected to start with one of the generic Hoenn starters, but getting not only a Swablu, one of his favorite Pokemon due to their evolutions beauty, but a shiny, and the daughter of a famous contest star! This seemed too good to be true, and he had to resist the urge to pinch himself.

Tyler jumped a little when he was broken from his thoughts by the assistant clearing her throat. “So, out of curiosity, how come are you starting your journey so late? I mean… I’ve heard of trainers starting at slightly later ages like eleven or twelve, but never fifteen. Sorry if it’s a sore subject.”

Tyler didn’t even blink at the question. “It’s okay, I get asked that a lot, although usually before it was why I hadn't started it yet. My dad had a serious gambling addiction when I was little, and one day, after adding a large amount of debt to the pile he just vanished. We’re not sure whether someone finally offed him over his debts, or if he decided to run away from them. Either way he was trash. So he left my mom with all that debt. I had to stay at home and help run the Pokemart she owned. Simple as that.”

“Wow… That’s too bad. Well at least you can go on your adventure now, huh!”

He nodded and smiled, then looked back out the window, observing the wild Pokemon that could be seen through the window. As he looked out the window he thought about his plans for his team. He had gone to many a match in the leagues, and had watched the best of the best of Hoenn battle it out for the crown. Through this he had made several decisions about Pokemon he wanted on his team, but he was open to flexibility. He didn’t think any could be easily found nearby though, besides Eevee, which he knew could be found around Rustboro. He knew Klefki and Scraggy had been showing up East of Fallarbor, so he would definitely spend some time there, and Trapinch were rather common along Route 11. “I’ll need to find some desert gear some time in the near future,” he mumbled to himself. There were numerous other Pokemon he would have loved to add to his team, but couldn’t be found in the Hoenn Region.

Ever since Team Magma and Team Aqua had caused a near apocalypse, Pokemon not believed to be indigenous had been migrating there, and that opened up significant new opportunities to him. But not all the ones he wanted.

He found himself thinking about what other regions he should visit after finishing up in Hoenn, but stopped himself when he remembered that he was already older than most trainers when they started their journey, and would as such not have as much time as most to enjoy himself on this commemorative journey. “I’ll just have to make the most of it,” he whispered with an optimistic smile.

They finally made it to the Professors lab, and he quickly got out of the truck and rushed inside, accidentally jostling the sleeping Pokemon in his arms. The automatic doors slid open and he began to step inside. “WAIT! DON’T LET HER ESCAPE!”

A yellow and orange blur dashed between Tylers legs, disappearing into nearby woods. The teen looked back into the building, only to have a large body collide with him, toppling him over, and to get crushed under the strange man’s weight. The man quickly got up and looked around, “Oh no, oh no… ohnoohnoohonoohno! Now how are we supposed to find her?”

Tyler got up and got a better look at accidental intruder of his space. He found it to be a large, overweight bearded man with a formerly white lab coat, now sporting numerous burn and singe marks, whom he recognized as the famous professor.

He felt a light weight land on his head, and saw a small amount of fluffy white around the edges of his vision. He reached up a hand to pet the bird Pokemon, and outstretched his other to the professor. “Hello professor, my names Tyler. My uncle sent me here to get my trainer’s license.”

The older man focused on the boy for the first time, and broke out into a smile. “Ah yes! You’re Gordons nephew! It’s nice to meet you. One of my assistants got the test booted up on one of the computers in the back. Emily, could you lead him back there and get him started? I need to go help find Fennekin.”

“What’s going on?” Inquired Tyler.

The Professor sighed. “A few days ago Professor Sycamore from the Kalos Region sent us a few Pokemon that we were planning on introducing to the local environment to see how they interacted with the locals and vice versa. But the Fennekin he sent us keeps throwing tantrums almost every time we try to tag it!” He gestured to his burned lab coat. “She’s the only one we haven’t introduced to the environment here yet. At least not until now,” he looked out into the trees again.

“I can help look if you want!” the near trainer offered.

Professor Birch rubbed the back of his head. “Alright, just don’t go too far, and try to stay out of battles since you’re not technically allowed in them yet.”

Tyler nodded, “You got it. Cmon Queen!” He then dashed off into the woods in search of the Fennekin.

“We’re never gonna find her at this rate are we.”

“Swab”

The two had been searching now for hours. These were thick woods, and it seemed the little Fennekin didn’t want to be found. The sun was already starting to set out on the horizon, and Tyler was considering heading back to the lab before night fell.

He got out his DexNav, and went to the AreaNav app. “Ok I guess we should start heading back now. We don’t want to be here after dark.”

The two began to trek back through the forest, still keeping an eye out for the runaway. After some time they came to a large clearing around a small rocky lake. To the pairs surprise, far on the other side of the lake, was a Fennekin. It was leaning over the water on a precarious edge, lapping at the stagnant liquid. Tyler immediately crouched down as to avoid being seen, and it seemed to work, until he lost his balance in the crouch and stumbled forward, thudding onto the ground and startling the Fennekin, who lost it’s balance and fell forward and fell into the Lake.

Tyler could tell immediately that something was wrong when the Fennekin simply sank instead of making it to a shore. “Oh shit!” He dashed to the left, quickly covering the distance from his shore to the shore where the Fennekin had fallen in. He practically ripped off his backpack and coat and dived into the water, and in record time for him reached the bottom, and grabbed the now close to drowning Fire-Type. Once he had it securely in his arms he turned around underwater and pushed off from the bottom, reaching the surface and carefully placing the Pokemon on the rocky ledge.

Once he was sure it was okay he swam over to the nearest shore and came back over to the soggy starter. After once again checking the condition of the Pokemon he got a towel out of his bag and wrapped the fox Pokemon up in a bundle. He made sure it was comfortable and scratched it behind it’s ear. “Well that was a close one wasn’t it little guy.”

The Fennekin gave his hand a happy lick, and nodded it’s head happily, before wriggling out of the towel and curling up alongside the boy, who stroked it’s head some more.

They just sat there for a few minutes while the two dried off. Queen didn’t seem to mind and still jumped up atop her trainers head, and disgusted at the state of his hair, began to preen it with her claws and beak. During this time Tyler just stared out at the water, before finally breaking the silence. “Well I guess I should change, then get you two lovely ladies back to the lab.”

As soon as the words left his mouth the Fire-Type resting against his leg jumped up and used an Ember attack on him.

“Gah! What the hell was that for? That stung!”

He heard a sort of mixture of chirping and chuckling from atop his head, “Ah come on! Aren’t you supposed to side with me?”

The chuckling turned more to chortles, and he just slumped forward in defeat. After a few moments he straightened up again, “I’m sorry cutie, but I’ve gotta take you back to the lab whether you like it or not.”

Instead of the expected fight or flight response it just nodded, and let out an agreeing “Fenne.”

“Wait, I thought you didn’t wanna go back to the lab. Why are you so agreeable now?”

This reply earned an eye roll from the little fox, who just shook it’s head and gestured to it’s nether areas. Still oblivious, he blinked, “I don’t get it.” The Fire-Type face pawed, and pointed to Queen, shook it’s head, then pointed to his crotch, nodded, then pointed to it’s own groin and nodded again.

Tyler’s eyes widened as he finally began to understand. “Wait… Are you saying that you’re actually a guy?”

He nodded his head ecstatically, and let out a series of excited yips.

“Oh jeez, sorry. I thought you were female because the Professor… Oh. That’s why you kept burning him isn’t it.”

The Fennekin rolled his eyes again and nodded.

“Well then. I suppose I should escort this lovely little lady,” he pointed to his new hat, “and this handsome young gentlemen,” he gestured to Fire-Type “back to the lab before it gets dark.”

He quickly changed out of his soaked clothes and got out a fresh pair, stuffed the wet set into sealed plastic bag and was off, leading them back to the lab with his thankfully waterproof AreaNav.

Once they got back they found Professor Birch apologizing profusely to an unknown young man, also in a lab coat, over a video chat projected up onto a large screen..

“Hey professor! I found HIM.”

For a man of his size, the scientist whipped around startlingly fast, and for a man of his intelligence, completely missed the pronoun and it’s emphasis.. “Thank you! I don’t know if I would’ve been able to find her on my own! Please, take this.” He pulled out a card from his pocket, then held it out to him.

Tyler took it, and widened his eyes when he saw what it was. “I thought I had to take the test before I could get it!”

The man chuckled, “Technically the test is just a standardized format used to determine whether you’re ready when I don’t know you too well. But I think that considering the fact that you managed to contain this little cutie,” he gestured to the Fennekin, “back here without it kicking, screaming, and burning you to a crisp, you must have potential.”

Tyler nodded in agreement. “Well he wasn’t that much of a problem. I think I figured out what the problem was though. You see-”

“The Fennekin is male and sensitive about being called a girl,” the man on the monitor spoke up. “Sorry to interrupt. I was about to explain that to the dear Professor. My name is Professor Sycamore, I’m the main professor in Kalos.”

Tyler approached the screen with Birch. “Um, hi professor. My name is Tyler.”

“Hello Tyler. It’s always nice to meet new trainers. I see you already have a Pokemon too,” He glanced at Queen, now resting atop Tyler’s head again.

Tyler gave the Swablu a light stroke, causing her to shiver. “Yeah, this is Queen. She was a gift from Elisa to my uncle, and from him to me.”

The professor smiled. “Well it’s nice to meet you Queen. Perhaps we can get together in person one day.”

“Swab!” was the happy reply.

“So, anyway. On to business. I see that you and my Fennekin have already bonded some,” the Kalosian looked down at Tyler’s legs, where the Fennekin was standing close by, almost hugging the boy’s legs.

“Hmm, oh yeah. I guess me being the first to recognize that he was male probably earned my some serious bro points.”

The professor chuckled. “Yes, we had a similar problem here too at first. I must apologize Birch, I forgot to tell you about that. This particular Fennekin has a… more feminine body than most males of the species.”

Even over the videochat he flinched as the fire fox growled angrily at him.

“Heh, well I see you still haven’t quite tamed his temper. But, as I was saying. I think that if you were able to find, bond with, and identify the issue of a Pokemon so easily, you have some promise as a trainer. How would you like, if Professor Birch doesn’t mind, to take this Fennekin on your journey with you? As a sort of secondary starter”

Tyler broke out into a wide grin. “That would be amazing!”

Professor Birch just shrugged. “I don’t see a problem. As long as you can send me another Fennekin soon so I can finish my planned research.”

The foreign professor nodded. “Of course. It was probably a bad idea to send that one in the first place. I’ll go find another more docile one.” He then exited the screen and could be heard conversing with an assistent about finding a more suitable Fennekin for Professor Birch.

The Hoenn professor turned back to Tyler, “So, you think you're gonna give her- I mean him a nickname?”

Tyler knelt down, and cupped the Fennekin’s head in his hands. “I think I’m gonna name you… Kenny.”

The male Fennekin yipped happily, and licked the boys hands.

“Together, you Queen and I, we’re gonna make the ultimate team!”

Chapter 12

As the Poison Eeveelution and the Unicorn slowly slunk along the corridor to where they heard the glass shatter, they heard faint voices, arguing.

“You idiot! I told you to open the window not to smash it!”

“Well how are we supposed to do that? We don’t have fingers.”

“You’re a Psychic-Type! Use your freaky mind powers!”

“Oh, right. Oops.” There was a light blue glow, and the sound of a window being opened.

“Well now that the glass is broken, we’re just making more useless noise!”

“You’re the one who’s yelling.”

“Gaah! My feet! Clear away all this glass before I skin off the rest of my foot!” A Luxio limped into view, and Valerie and Pockets shrank further into the shadows to avoid being detected by the intruders.

A Bronzong floated over the glass, picking it up and depositing it outside the window, making light clinking sounds as it hit the ground.

The Luxio spoke, “Oh come on! Now you’re just blocking the way for the others! Go open the next window over, and don’t smash it this time!”

The Bronzong obeyed, and opened up the next window, thankfully the one opposite from the thief and her friend. Several more Pokemon came inside, a Vileplume, an Arbok, a Mightyena, and a Bibarel.

The Luxio, obviously the leader, began issuing commands again. “Find the Flareon, do not engage on your own. If you find him, make the signal. You all remember the signal right?” There was a general nod of confirmation, and a few let out ridiculous ca-caw sounds. “Good, now, Steve and Barbie, you check the second floor east wing, Cabbage, Six, you two get second floor west wing. Mighty and I will check the whole first floor. Move!”

“Sure thing Sparkles!” The Mightyena barked happily

“I’ve told you… don’t call me that, I’m Sparks!” The Luxio grunted back.

The Pokemon scattered, the snake and bell Pokemon luckily passing by the two hiding without noticing them.

“Geez, these guys must be newbies, telling their names loud and clear during a heist. Lets follow them and see what they do.” Pockets chuckled, as she once again casted the invisibility spell on herself and Valerie, and followed the leader and his annoying sounding partner.

“Shouldn’t we go wake the others?” Questioned Valerie.

The pony smirked. “Nah, with noobs like these guys, we got it in the bag.”

“Just because they don’t know how to efficiently break and enter doesn't mean they can’t handle themselves in a fight. They could be dangerous.” The Veneon replied.

“Fine… We’ll wake up someone when we get upstairs, let’s follow them some more, this’ gonna be fun.”

“If you had listened you’d know this is the group in charge of the first floor.”

“Gah, you’re right. You wanna go warn the others? I’ll keep an eye on them.”

“Got it,” The Veneon stepped out of the range of the invisibility spell, and padded silently down the corridor, turning the corner and quickly going up the stairs in the main entryway. Once she made it to the top, she checked to see if the Arbok and Bronzong were there. The two were just entering a room, a luckily empty one, and she quickly went up the final step and made a rush for Stevens room. Before she could she found herself in a psychic grasp.

“Well what do we have here huh?” The Arbok slithered over and took a good look at the strange Pokemon before her. “You aren’t our target, that’s for sure.”

“Maybe its one of those weird creatures that roam around, ya know, like the ones we beat up mercilessly to get a place for our base!” The Bronzong joked happily.

“Put me down!”

“Oh so it is a Pokemon, or at least one of the intelligent local species. I think it’s most likely the former, you look a lot like an Eeveelution,” She hissed. “Some sort of freak I suppose.”

There was the sound of another window shattering, and a shadow ball flew through the air, impacting the Bronzong. causing him to drop Valerie. “She. Is not. a FREAK!” A Sylveon landed in front of Valerie, hissing at the two intruders, even with the obvious type disadvantage.

Shadow ran in behind him, also charging up a Shadow ball. “If you know what’s good for you you’ll go find your friends and leave. Now.”

The Arbok let out something between a hiss and a laugh. “The Umbreon could be a threat, but a pretty pink little thing like you? Go play with some dolls.”

“He… you snake freak underestimate me. I’ve dealt with things three times your size, I’ve been the ruler of a freaking forest infested by the ones like you. For me, you’re nothing but a weakling. Type advantages make me laugh.” As the Fairy boasted about his abilities, he released a strong Flash, blinding the Arbok, and sending it back with a Shadow Ball.

Shadow quickly sprang into action, also sending out a Shadow Ball at the Bronzong, who shrugged it off with his high defense. “Looks like this’ll be fun,” he grunted.

Arbok hissed, and yelled “Toxic!!” Three blobs of poison were sent out, impacting all three of the Eeveelutions, the only one affected fully being Frederick. The Sylveon flinched, and conjured another Shadow Ball, which sent the snake flying into a door. She righted herself, hissed, and lunged at the Sylveon, who dodged out of the way, and used Double Team, the room filling up with ten more of him.

Shadow and Steve were both taking turns protecting, throwing attacks, using heal moves, and attacking again. “Hurry up little kitty, I don’t have all night.” He then took a Dark Pulse straight to the face.

Meanwhile, on the first floor, the sounds of the fight could be heard clearly, as the explosions and the hits alerted the Luxio and the Mightyena that their partners were found.

“It’s probably the buffoon Steve. Let’s go, maybe if we get up there fast enough, we can end the battle quickly.”

Pockets panicked at the sudden order of the Luxio. She thought for a few seconds, trying to get an idea of how to distract them, until the bulb in her head lighted up. The unicorn teleported in front of the pair of Pokémon, with a fancy-looking dish equilibrated on her hoof.

“Hello gentleman, welcome to the mansion, what can I do for ya? You sneaky intruders.” She said calmly, on a slight sensual tone.

“Another one of those Ponyta creatures! Get outta my way, or I’ll bite you!” The Mightyena growled, taking a defensive stand.

“Easy there, bud. I’m not here to stop you from doing whatever the hell you guys are planning to do.” Pockets dropped the plate, and with her levitation spell, she rolled it towards the wall. “I’m here to help you. You see, I’m a professional equestrian thief, and I saw how you and your friends got inside the mansion, and I gotta say, you Pokémon did a terrible job!” Pockets teleported next to the Luxio, who began charging sparks of electricity on his tail, trying to do a menacing stand. “Now, you big boy, you seem to be the leader. Isn’t it annoying when your group just doesn’t follow your orders?”

“Don’t taunt me Ponyta, we have a job to do!” The Luxio growled menacingly at Pockets, sparks coming out of his mouth, before advancing towards the staircase.

“Think Pockets, you need to keep these two around.” The blue unicorn teleported between the two Pokémon, and with a cool grin, she attempted one more time to convince them to stop and chat, “Come on, no need to be aggressive.I’m just trying to help you. Just imagine being able to sneak inside any house without even being detected, believe me it’s the most glorious feeling in the world. I can help you become the stealthiest group in this entire planet.”

The Mightyena spoke up then. “Hey Sparkles, isn’t this the Pony that Digger told us about from before? The one that was with the green Scizor”

“Sparkles” turned around and growled at his partner. “Don’t call me that. And yes, now that you mention it I think you’re right. Ponyta, by the order of our great Lord Helix you are under arrest for interfering in his godly business.”

Pockets was scared and confused, her cover had been blown up, and the two Pokémon were probably going to kill her, if she was lucky that is. “Ok, yes I was with the bug guy, but I was just… uh. I was just eating donuts?”

“You are still guilty Ponyta. Come quietly or else....”

Pockets walked back, as the two Pokémon slowly got closer to her, fangs showing and claws ready. “Oh boy, this is not going to be pretty.”

“Hey assholes, you’re on private property you know.” Before the two could advance any further, an orange blur impacted the Mightyena, flinging him into the Luxio. Before either could react Damian used a Poison Jab, hitting the electric lion this time. The Mightyena latched onto the Scrafty’s tail with Crunch, but he quickly turned around and hit the invading Dark-Type between the eyes with a drain punch, knocking it out for good.

He felt a shock hit him on his back, and he turned around again and replied with a Head Smash, sending the Luxio flying. Before he could finish the lion, it quickly jumped up and ran off, howling in pain and tucking his star tipped tail between his legs.

Once the coast appeared to be clear again, he turned back to Pockets. “Sup, I’m Damian. I don’t know you, but you looked like you were trying to help, so I won’t beat your sorry ass quite yet.”

“Kinda rude, but I appreciate the help, dude. Name’s Pockets, and I’m friends with the purple cat and the sheep guy.” The pony replied, holding out a hoof.

Damian accepted, and looked up the stairs, the sounds of the battle still raging. “I suppose we should go help out now huh. Oh and also, thanks for buying me some time to charge up with Dragon Dance.”

“Didn’t know I was doin’ that, but you’re welcome!” Pockets chuckled, advancing towards the staircase.

“Hey Cab. What are we looking for again?”

“The Flareon traitor, we have to find him and bring him to Lord Helix.”

“Right. And how are we going to find him?”

“Searching every room, he must be asleep.”

“Makes sense. And why are we-”

“I swear Six, just be quiet and keep looking, or I’ll Giga Drain you. Check in that room ahead, I’ll guard the door.”

The Bibarel turned the door knob with his teeth, stepping inside carelessly to search for his target.

“Hello, any Flareon here? “

“You dumbass! Don’t announce yourself! Just check if the room actually has sheets on the bed, and if so see if it’s the Flareon!”

“Oh, sorry.” The Bibarel then smacked the door with his tail, causing it to slam closed loudly.

“You’re hopeless…” Sighed the Vileplume, “Why were you even selected for this mission?”

The Bibarel stood up on his hind legs and clapped happily. “The disciples of Helix all deserve their time to shine!”

The Water type walked into the room, looking around to try to find any clues that could aid his ‘special mission’. He then saw that the bed, unlike many others in that floor, was actually occupied.

“I found something!” The Bibarel chimed loudly, but all the answer he could hear was a loud smack from a facepalm. The Normal type climbed the wooden nightstand, dropping many different objects on the floor. Luckily for him, the creature resting on said bed was a heavy sleeper.

“Ok… so how does a Flareon look like? Flare… that sounds like… Seed Flare. That’s a Grass type move, so he must be a Grass type. Yes, makes sense. So, lets see who’s under these sheets.” The Bibarel uncovered the one sleeping in the bed, to reveal a large, slim, bipedal, lime-green Pokémon, “Ok, this guy is green, so he’s totally a grass type. And the ‘eon’ in the end of ‘Flareon’... That sounds modern and technological, and this guy looks like a Steel type. Yeah, green and technological, this guy must be the Flareon!”

The Bibarel took a deep breathe, before releasing a loud “CACAW!”

As the call was given, the Grass type walked in with an alarmed look, “You found him?”

“Yup! I’m the best tracker ever!”

“Good, make sure he doesn’t wake up, we gotta leave. There’s a fight going on down the hall! We need to take the Flareon out of here and deliver him to Lord Helix!”

“I dunno, he looks pretty big and heavy. We might need Steve to get him out of here.” The Bibarel looked back to the “Flareon” with a concerned look.

“What are you talking about, idiot? Flareon are like a third your size?” The Vileplume wasn’t liking where this was going.

“I believe the correct term is ‘Scizor’ “ A voice said from behind them. As the large lime-green figure began getting up, grabbing the Bibarel by the throat with one of his pincers, “And you just woke me up from my much needed slumber.”

“YOU IDIOT! THAT’S NOT A FLAREON, THAT’S A FREAKING SCIZOR!” Said the Poison type panicking.

“Don’t… worry.. Cab. I got- I got this!” The Bibarel’s body started glowing red, and so did Steven’s eyes. The grip became stronger, as the Swagger started acting on the Scizor.

“You idiot! Scizor are known for their physical strength!” Panicking, the Vileplume grabbed a ceramic jar that was laying around yelled “Fling!”, and threw it at the angry Scizor, causing him to drop the Bibarel on the floor. “Lets go!”

Running away from the Steel type, the two Pokémon could hear the fights going on the other side, and now the first floor. Their group was being demolished, and there was nothing they could do about it. Another sound joined the battles, as a loud buzz got closer to the Vileplume.

“Where do you think you’re going, intruder?” The Scizor was now next to him, his eyes still a violent red. Steven swinged his right pincer to try to strike the cultists, but failed the hit due to his confusion, hitting nothing but a wall and hurting himself. “Gah! That’s so annoying!”

“Hey! My Swagger actually worked! See? I know what I’m doing!”

“Uhm… Six, look behind you!”

Steven once again followed the pair, as they reached the stairs. But a Tailwind from Steven let him catch up with the intruders, and before they could even reach the first steps, they were already in the Scizor’s grasp, as his eyes turned to normal, revealing that the effect of the Swagger was over.

“You two better have a good explanation for waking me up.”

The cultists gulped. “W-we were just honoring the wishes of the great Helix!” The Bibarel whimpered. “We didn’t mean any harm to you! Please give us the Flareon and we’ll leave.”

Stevens eyes hardened. “He is under my protection. And he shall not be harmed in my charge.” He then opened up a window, and unceremoniously dropped the two would be kidnappers.

Once he was sure those two wouldn’t be causing any more trouble, he began heading back to his room. “Oh… Wait. Theres the battle going on over there. I guess I should help.” He groaned thoughtlessly. “i don’t even know what time it freaking is…”

BANG. The Bronzong fell to the ground after taking a final Shadow Ball.

Shadow was panting, that was a much more intense battle than he had expected from the Psychic-Type. He looked over at Frederick, still fighting with the Arbok. He gave one more look to the downed bell pokemon before running over to the Sylveon and offering his assistance. A few more hits and the Poison type was down for the count.

“I don’t need your help, smartass.” The Fairy grunted in annoyance, “And that was rather annoying, these idiots weren’t even able to give out a proper fight.”

Shadow, trying not to make the Sylveon angrier with him, held back his sarcastic comment. “We should probably go wake up some of the others, and check if there are more of these thugs around.”

“We can do that later. First, are you hurt, Valerie? If these idiots did anything to you…” The Sylveon asked softly, taking a good luck at the Poison type to check for any major injuries

“I’m fine. The Arbok hit me a few times but I’m immune to Poison-Type attacks. It’s part of my ability.” She shot a glare at the two. “And don’t think that just because some morons broke in we won’t talk about what happened earlier.”

The males flinched under her gaze. “He started it... “ Mumbled Shadow.

“I’m just protecting you. I can’t sleep calmly knowing that my little sister who I haven’t seen for years is in a relationship with a guy I don’t know at all. What if he ends up being a pervert?”

“He’s not a pervert. If anything it’s me since I’m the one that kissed him the first time.” She growled.

Frederick remained silent. His eyes darkened, and he let out a loud growl, “YOU’VE KISSED HIM!? HOW LONG HAVE YOU TWO BEEN TOGETHER!?”

“Uuu… about a week now.” Shadow contemplated for a moment. “Actually I guess it’s more like five days. Tonight was our first real date together.”

Once again, the Sylveon remained silent, before forming a small Shadow Ball in his feeler, and throwing it at the Dark type, “YOU BARELY HAVE A WEEK AND YOU LET HER KISS YOU!? I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU DID FOR HER. TRUE LOVE NEEDS WORK AND TIME. YOU DON’T JUST SKIP FRIENDSHIP AND GO DIRECTLY WITH THE CHEESY STUFF YOU PIECE OF FUCK!”

Valerie rubbed her shoulder with her tail. “Actually that’s how the relationship started really.”

“It was on the second night in Equestria.” Shadow added. “She had just found out that she had accidentally killed someone with her poison, and I was comforting her, and… well… she kissed me. And I guess I kissed her back. Since then I don’t think we’ve actually done anything more than light nuzzles and kisses on the cheek though .”

Frederick let out a loud grunt of anger, charging a large Shadow Ball in front of him, and throwing it through the window, breaking it, his eyes not deviating from the couple “Valerie I swear… I know you had a hard time these past years, but at least freaking try to control yourself! Comforting is easy, loving is not! You don’t know how painful love can be! You may think you love that smug fuck, but when you least expect it things go down the drain and you end up like a sad and angry piece of shit like me!” In sheer anger, Frederick’s ribbons emanated a strong red aura, as his red eyes left out a single, yet small tear surrounded his cheeks.

Valerie’s gaze softened somewhat. “Freddy… Is that why you’re so different than when I last saw you? Someone hurt you didn’t they.”

Frederick turned away, ignoring the question. “Take these idiots downstairs and fucking leave me alone. I need some air…” He whispered, loud enough for the couple to hear, before turning around and jumping through the hole in the recently broken window.

“I’ll assumed that he’s friendly since you two weren't beating his ass like the snake and the metal guy.”

Shadow turned to the source of the voice. “Hey Damian. Yeah, he’s… relatively friendly. He’s a guest at least.”

Steven finally made it to the scene of the battle, babbling random sounds and softly cursing the intruders for interrupting his sleep. Damian struck a defensive pose before the Scizor waved him off. “I’m with the Sylveon.”

The Scrafty looked to the two Eeveelutions, who nodded their heads in confirmation, and he then relaxed. “Sup, I’m Damian.” He held out a hand to the metal bug.

“Stone, Steven Stone.” The Scizor replied, returning the handshake, “Where’s everyone? I went to check on Pockets to see if she was OK, and she was gone, same with Frederick.”

“The blue unicorn? Yeah she’s fine. Had a nasty run in with a Mightyena and a Luxio, but I took care of em before she was hurt.” He looked down the stairs and called out, “It’s all clear up here now. You can come up.”

A navy blue blink of light sparked on the handrail, before revealing a short unicorn striking a pose, “Pickett Midnight has arrived!” She announced, before slipping on the waxed rail, and falling off towards the first floor. There was a collective gasp, and then another flash quickly brought the Unicorn back to the worried spectators.”I’m fine! Geez, that looked way better in my head.”

“Pockets... do you ever run out of energy?” Steven facepalmed.

“Give me a break, you guys all have awesome powers, i just wanted to look as cool!” The mare chuckled in return, “So, what did I miss?”

“Was about to ask the same thing. I woke up to find two intruders my room, and now I see two other Pokémon unconscious on the floor” The former human said, pointing at the Bronzong and the Arbok. “What exactly happened?”

Valerie spoke up. “I think there are only six. A Bibarel, a Luxio, these two, a Mightyena, and a Vileplume.”

“I already took care of the Mightyena, but the Luxio ran off.”

“The Bibarel and the Vileplume are currently out of the house, and most likely unconscious on the bushes outside of the mansion. We can still grab them if we need to. “ The Champion said dryly.

A nearby door creaked open, and a drowsy Flaaffy hobbled out. “What the hell happened out here?”

“Some cultists broke in and are looking for the Flareon we brought back with us.” Shadow clarified.

Tyler blinked twice, only half registering the implications of the Umbreons statement. “So where is the Flareon?”

The whole group paused for a moment. “Did anybody think to go see if Prophet is ok?” Valerie asked tentatively.

Another voice spoke up. “Well to be honest I think it’s a good idea to make sure the people here looking to take him should be dealt with first. But now would be a good time to see if that friend of ours is alright.” The Pokemon turned to the middle hallway dividing the two wings of the second floor, a white unicorn in a fancy white pajama shirt stood, with his monocle on.

Tyler nodded in agreement. “Yeah, Fancy is right. Where is the Flareon staying.”

Loyalty, as usual, seemingly came out of thin air once again to assist. “He is in the third room in the west wing. But it would appear that the remaining invader has already taken him. It would be prudent to interrogate the remaining to determine the location of their base of operations.”

“Holy shit Loyalty, you’re effective.” Pockets chuckled, “I second his idea“

Damian poked the Arbok with a foot. “I’m pretty sure these two are down for the count. Let’s try one of the guys that safety scissors here tossed out a window.”

“As I said before, the two intruders I faced are probably unconscious. Yet that isn’t an issue.” The Champion replied, before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

“What is he doing?” Shadow asked with curiosity, receiving a shrug from Damian.

“The big guy is coming” The mare laughed dryly. Suddenly, a metallic silver saucer carefully entered the hallway through the balcony nearby, two unconscious Pokémon floating next to him, a Bibarel and a Vileplume.

“Greetings,” The Metagross saluted in a robotic deep voice, “My name is Layton, Steven’s partner”

“It’s nice to meet you Layton, I’m Fancypants. Please be careful not to chip the floors.” The stallion grimaced slightly.

“I shall try.” The Steel-type nodded curtly, “And I hope you don’t mind, but I did a superficial mind check to see if you were trustworthy, and you seem to be.”

“Layton had some bad experiences with rich ponies in the recent past.” Steven added, “And don’t worry, superficial checks leave memories and knowledge intact.”

“Does that mean they aren’t always superficial, and they aren’t always benevolent?”

“I try my best to respect the mental privacy of others, but experience has shown me that not everyone can be trusted, and my main priority is Steven’s safety.” Layton explained impassively, “Living creatures, human, Pokémon, ponies, not everyone can be trusted.”

“I suppose that makes sense. So, with your mind powers can’t you simply pull the location of these trespassers allies?”

The Steel-Type nodded his whole body. “I already have. They’re in a warehouse in the poorer district of the city. We should go there as soon as possible, they seem to have a plan involving sacrifice in store for him.”

“We should go now then,” Tyler spoke up. “I’ll go wake BBK, she could be handy.”

The Flaaffy waddled over to another room, and went inside. There was the sound of yelling, screaming, cursing, and apologetic pleas. After all this was over a very grumpy Klefki floated out of her room, followed by a frazzled looking Flaaffy.

“Let’s get this bullshit over with. Just because I don’t have a complexion doesn’t mean I don’t need my beauty sleep.”

Meanwhile at the cultists base…

A grumpy Delphox sat on an inflatable mattress in a cleared out bathroom. The cultists had “remodeled” it just for him, the “beautiful bride” for the “great Lord Helix.” This was probably the worst case of mistaken gender he had ever experienced.

“I swear when I get my chance…”

Before he could finish the threat, the door to the locked off room was unbarred, and an Omastar came in. “Hello beautiful! How are we tonight? One of the guards told me you haven’t tried to break out in more than four hours now, I think we may be gaining headway with you my love!”

Kenny grunted in response.

“Please dear, if there is anything you need, just tell me.”

The Fire-Type glared at a puddle on the floor. “I want my stick back.”

The Omastar sighed. “You mean that old table leg? My craftsmen are already working on a beautifully carved staff for you to use. Why would the object of my affections ever hold that brutish club as the object of her affection?”

“It has sentimental value. Just give it back already. I promise to stop trying to burn shit with it.” He tapped his fingers impatiently on the tile floor, which was much closer than he preferred considering how dirty it was.

“I suppose I can give it back to you,” the extinct Pokemon put a tentacle to his cheek, “with one condition. You must make a prophecy using it regarding our most glorious marriage.

“No”

“Please my love. Just one teency little prophecy.”

“No means no.”

“If you do I may let you wander the compound some more.”

Kenny was about to deny him again, but realized the major chance he had been offered. “Fine. But I get to keep my stick.”

The Water-Type could barely suppress his glee. “Perfect, guards, fetch Kendra’s stick.”

“I already told you my name is Kenny.”

“Pish posh. Kendra makes much more sense.”

A Nidoking lumbered in, and handed a worn table leg to the Omastar, who in turn handed it to the Delphox.

“Now my love, look into the flame, and tell me what you see.”

“I see…”

“Yes?”

“I think I see.”

“Tell me!”

“I SEE MYSELF BASHING YOUR FUCKING SKULL IN”

The Delphox hit the Omastar in a downward curve with his “stick” as hard as he could, sending the Water-Type flying backwards. The Nidoking quickly came back in and took back the table leg and subdued the Delphox, who was now yelling and screeching profanities at the Omastar, who was picked up and moved back out by a female Dragonite.

“I think we’re making progress.” Was all the “god” could supply.

Chapter 13

Morning light was beginning to seep over the horizon as Celestia prepared for the beginning of the new day. The group had taken some time to prepare and travel to the warehouse, which they were currently observing from some distance away.

“This place gives me the chills.” Pockets commented softly.

“Is this even the same city?” Frederick commented as well, taking a look at the neighbouring buildings which seemed to be either badly maintained, or completely abandoned.

Tyler considered for a moment. “Well, it’s in the city limits, which I think is considered to be everything hanging off the side of the mountain. But I don’t know if I’d like to think of this as part of my city if I was born here.”

“Layton, got anything?”

The Metagross remained silent, his eyes glowing a soft green, before returning to their normal red. “There are approximately forty nine Pokémon inside that warehouse. Many are underleveled, others seem to be fully evolved and extremely powerful. But overall, the group is large. I recommend proceeding with caution.”

Steven nodded, and pointed at the two eeveelutions, “You’re up. The mental link is ready, so if you find anything, inform us. We won’t advance until we’re clear to go, understood?”

Shadow and Valerie both nodded in understanding, exited their hiding spot, and walked towards the vent that stuck out loosely near the ground.

Steven waited for the duo to get inside the building, before looking at the group once again, “Pockets, Damian, and the Klefki will wait for Valerie and Shadow’s signal. If the way is clear, you’ll go inside and you’ll try to locate the Flareon. Avoid being detected, we don’t need a massive fight against all those Pokémon.”

“Sure thing, ant captain!” Pockets joked with a salute, as she signaled the two Pokémon to follow them.

“As for us, Tyler. I told Layton to prepare a separate mental link between you, and your Pokémon. You know them better than me, so you’d know what to do in certain situations. If anything goes wrong, we’ll have to get inside and fight. What are you capable of doing as a Pokémon?” Steven asked to the Flaaffy.

The Electric-Type shrunk down a little, “Only things I’ve figured out how to do on command is Cotton Guard, and Tackle if you count that. But I’ve used Thunderwave a few times on accident. I’m not very good at this whole being a Pokemon thing yet.”

“That’s fine. Those moves can be pretty useful in battle.” Steven nodded. But he then thought for a second, as he analyzed all the possibilities of what could happen. “However I think I could give you a move to defend yourself if needed. The process is slightly complicated, but it works.”

“... Um… What?”

“Have you heard about the ‘move tutors’? “Layton asked coldly.

He nodded, “Yeah, I took BBK to one once so she could learn Iron Defense.”

“Layton can do the same thing. A friend of mine trained him so he could get inside any Pokémon’s brain, and make him either remember a forgotten move, or learn a new one, as long as it’s a commonly used TM.”

The Flaaffy blinked, “Wait, you wanna go inside my head and teach me a move?”

“That’s the basic idea, yes.” The Psychic type nodded with his body, “Do not worry, the chances of you suffering any psychological damage are relatively low.”

“That ‘relatively’ is relatively scary.”

Steven chuckled softly, “Don’t worry. You’ll be fine. Furthermore, you don’t need to do this. We can deal with the enemies just fine, your Thunderwave and Cotton Guard will be pretty useful in battle. And Layton can protect you if you wish.”

Tyler considered, then gave in. “Fine, just… be gentle… or something. I don’t know much about this psychic mumbo jumbo. Thunderbolt would be nice, and Iron Tail too if you can do that.”

Layton thought for a second, before nodding to both trainers. “Those two moves are available in my database. I will just need you to relax. This can be a bit painful, and it can have some side effects. But do not worry, it will be over soon.”

The Electric-Type gulped, “Alright, let’s get this over with.”

Layton closed his eyes for a couple of seconds, creating an awkward silence in the atmosphere. Suddenly, he opened his eyes with a strong, binding, glue glow. Tyler felt his head itching from the inside. But in a matter of seconds, he felt nothing. He was unable to think, he just stood there, motionless, with blank eyes and a lost expression. A couple of minutes passed, and he then started feeling alive once again, as a strong pain struck his head. He wanted to scream, but he was somehow muted by an invisible force. He opened his eyes, and saw the two Steel types in front of him, watching him coldly. Layton’s eyes slowly became normal once again, and the pain in Tyler’s head began dissipating.

“The process was successful. You’ve learned Thunderbolt, and Iron Tail” Layton pointed out coldly with his usual robotic voice.

“Now try to use one of the two moves, you should be able to see the results.” Steven added.

“Uh, ok.” Tyler scrunched his eyes and focused, and his tail lit up with a white glow. “Woah, that feels weird.” He then swung it back and forth a few times before letting the energy dissipate. “Can’t wait to actually try that out. Maybe we’ll actually get somewhere in our training sessions now that I sorta know how to focus my energy better. Thanks.”

“No probl-”

“Tyler, Steven. We found something!”

“Is it the Flareon?” Tyler thought back.

”One, better. Kenny’s here!”

Tyler’s mouth fell open. It had been a week since he had found any more of his Pokemon, and now this came out of nowhere! “Layton, can you focus in on the Delphox in the building and add him to the mental link?”

“I’ve detected a brain wave pattern. Seems to be of a Delphox. One floor underground, six Pokémon are nearby and they seem to be strong.” The Iron Leg Pokémon informed coldly.

“I imagine that the Delphox you’re speaking with is the one I met. Your Fennekin.” Steven added.

“Yeah, that’s him. Layton, be careful though he isn’t very in touch with his psychic powers, he might freak out or something.”

“Understood. I’m adding him to the mental link…” Layton remained silent for a couple of seconds, before he blinked and nodded at the former trainer, “He’s in. Delphox, your trainer is in this link, please think clearly, and remain calm. We don’t want them to know we’re here.”

“Who the fuck are you?”

“Kenny, It's me Tyler. The one you were speaking to before is Layton. We’re here to rescue a Flareon, and now you. Where are you?”

“They’re keeping me locked up in a bathroom in the fucking basement. You better hurry up because they’re planning on sacrificing that Flareon, and afterwards their dipshit of a leader is gonna marry me, and probably rape me afterward.”

Tyler didn’t know how to react. “Wat?”

“You heard me. That dipshit thinks I’m a chick, and wants to bang me. Please don’t let him.”

“I could find him. Yet those six Pokémon could be a problem.” Layton pointed out.

“Delphox, there are six Pokémon around you. Could you help us with their species, position, and apparent role?” Steven asked, already planning out what to do to save the Fire type.

“I have a fucking name you know, it’d be nice if you could use it.” Tyler facepalmed at his Pokemons reply. “There’s a Dragonite and a Nidoking outside my door, and farther down the hall is the Lapras, who is currently being kept in a lower floor which has been flooded, no idea how they got him down here. There’s also the head dumbass himself, Helix, and his hardass of a second in command “Messiah,” the Pidgeot. Those are the only ones I’ve seen.”

Steven thought for a second. They had the type advantage, but with the amount of Pokémon in the building he doubted if going all in would be a good idea. “Layton, join the two links.”

The Psychic type nodded, doing what his trainer had asked him. “Valerie, Shadow. Do you copy?”

Shadow replied “Yeah, we’re just above Kenny right now, but they’d be able to hear us from down the vent if we speak up.”

“What about the entrance. Did you spot any guards that may cause trouble?”

“Not really, all their stronger guys are on the lower levels, and the top floor is all weaker guys, except for the Espeon. She looks sorta tough. On the lower levels there is a Nidoking, a Dragonite, a Venomoth, a Lapras, an Omanyte, a Pidgeot, and a Feraligatr.”

Steven thought for a second. Now there were two objectives, and the number of Pokémon in that building would make it extremely hard for them to sneak in and out safely. “Pockets, Damian, BBK. You’re up.”

“Got it. Lets do this guys.” The blue unicorn said confidently. The door to the warehouse was locked by a single, rusty lock, yet strong enough to hold Pockets’ picks. “Ok, this is a problem.”

BBK floated forward, “Amateur,” her keyhole made a motion somewhat akin to a smirk, and she pulled a bobby pin off her ring. “This old thing should be a piece of cake.” She stuck it in, made four of five short quick movement with it, jiggled it, then turned the handle to the door, which swung open easily.

“Show off,” chuckled Pockets. “Let’s see how you’d do if you weren’t a living key ring.”

“You’re just jealous.”

“Of course I am. Opening any lock could be extremely useful to somepony of my profession.” She chuckled.

The Steel-Type quirked an eyebrow, “I want to ask what profession that is, but I have a feeling that I’ll end up feeling like a hypocrite if I pry.”

The trio entered the warehouse, and were greeted with what appeared to be a party. An espeon approached the intruders, “Hello, are you here for the Great Lord Helix’s wedding? You could have simply used the front door.”

Pockets looked at the two Pokémon besides her, confused as to what the pink Pokémon was saying.

The Psychic's eyes glowed for a moment as she began translating with the pony. “Oh, my mistake, you’re one of the locals. I should have known. We shall tolerate your presence, but don’t get too comfortable.”

“She’s with us.” Damian stated, slightly looming over the purple Eeveelution.

“Hmm. Of course she is. Make yourself comfortable. The ceremonies should begin shortly, and we have some food available.” The purple cat Pokemon then wandered off to go greet other guests.

“We’re in. And it looks like something important is gonna happen” Pockets informed through the link.

“Search for any clue as to where they could be keeping the Flareon” The former champion replied.

Pockets felt a slight fuzzy feeling in her mind for a moment. “What was that?”

The cold, mechanical voice of Layton came across the link, “I was creating a barrier between your outer thoughts and your inner mind so that the translator the Espeon used will still function, but she will not be able to do anything else. I can sense that she is fairly strong for her kind. But not so much that she will be a problem for me.”

Pockets sighed. She didn’t know what she was getting into. “So, guys.” She looked at the two Pokémon behind her, “Any ideas?”

Damian shrugged, “I was ready for a fight. How about we find our way down to where Kenny is, he could really come in handy.”

“Sounds good to me” chimed BBK.

“Sure. Lets try to find a way down. What are all these decorations for anyways?” She questioned to herself, before shrugging and following the Dark type.

“Attention all!” The group turned to the Espeon standing up on a rafter. “The ceremony will begin shortly! Please take your seats in the assorted… furniture we have assembled.” The other Pokemon in the room slowly shuffled into seats surrounding the stage, mostly old chairs and couches. They all appeared to have seen better days, and to have come from a landfill.

“Shit guys, they’re taking me out. Is the ‘wedding’ starting?”

BBK answered the Delphox, “Yeah, a Pidgeot just announced the ceremony will start soon.”

”FUCK”

Everyone in the link flinched, as they could even seem to detect the intense volume of the shout in their thoughts.

“Remain calm. Valerie, Shadow. Do you think you can take out whoever’s taking Kenny?”

Shadow answered, ”Yeah, it’s just the Nidoking with him right now, if we get a surprise attack we might be able to get him.”

“Good. Damian, Pockets, and BBK. Search the area, try to find any information that may be of use, got it? Shadow and Valerie will take care of Kenny.”

“Understood. Cmon, I think there might be something in the room over there.” Damian pointed.

“What makes you think that?” BBK questioned, not looking where he was pointing.

“The fact that it says ‘do not enter, important stuff inside’.”

“Works for me” Pockets chuckled, “Come on, let’s find something to kick these guys’ flanks.”

They advanced towards the door, making sure that no one was watching them. They opened slowly, and sneakily walked inside. There was a long hallway, with many doors at the side, which were either broken or not there at all. But at the end of the hallway, a red, bright wooden door stood firm.

“Well, if that doesn’t scream suspicious, I don’t know what does.” Pockets chuckled.

“What was that? Who’s there!? “ A voice said from the distance.

A couple of Raticates exited from a side room, and one narrowed its eyes at the trespassers. “Hey! You were with that group that interfered in our capture of the false prophet!”

“Shit!” Pockets exclaimed, sending a stun spell at one of the Normal-Types, which fell to the ground, stiff as a board.

“You shall pay heath-” The other Raticate received a powerful Drain Punch to its stomach, and was kicked painfully into the other, stunned on the floor, when it rolled back over it’s eyes were spirals. “Uhhhhh... “

“These guys are pushovers,” Damian smirked.

BBK put one of her ‘arms’ over his mouth, “Shhh. You hear that?” The Fairy put her head against a the red door, and listened to the voices inside.

“The ceremony is starting soon. We have a full house, and things seem to be going as planned, Commander Geo. Assassin is undermining the guests mental stability as we speak. The longer they stay here, the more loyal they are to our cause.”

“Good. And the ‘bride’?”

“Secured, sir. Assassin will work on him soon enough. If things go as planned, he should believe that he’s a goddess in time. He has been a pain to work with, but we have a plan.”

“Also good. Helix is already so unstable these days, if his ‘fiance’ were to escape, it could finally break him.”

“Commander Geo,” A familiar voice to Pockets interrupted, “If I may. I have never fully understood, why are we using the Omastar? Wouldn’t it be easy to get Assassin to brainwash the right ponies and work from there? There was this rich guy nearby--”

“We need him because our little psychic can only do so much. She cannot fully undermine their will, but she can make them more trusting and gullible, and make them more inclined towards a symbol, such as a ‘god’.”

“Understood. Should we take the Flareon out for the sacrifice? Or wait longer.”

“Take him out. We shall kill him just before the marriage. Now, while you are doing that-” The Pidgeot was cut off by the sounds of a battle on the floor below. “I think we may have a problem. Continue as planned, I shall investigate the disturbance.” The door to the room then opened outwards, and the two ‘mon and pony hit on the other side from the room. After the Flying-Type had flown down the hallway, a Venomoth and Luxray exited as well.

The two crossed the hall, and unlocked a heavy metal door, which appeared to lead to an old meat locker. Before the door could close fully Pockets slowed it with her magic, and slowed it so they could open it behind the two Pokemon.

The three peaked in, and observed the Venomoth approach a battered red form on the floor, which had a small red puddle around it. “Your time has come ‘Prophet.’ It’s a shame you decided to betray us. You would have been third in command had you evolved properly.”

“You’re all a bunch of psychopaths. You betrayed me! How is it my fault that idiot couldn’t keep a water stone and a fire stone straight!”

“Silence!” The Luxio declared. “You defied the will of god! And for that you must be punished!”

Damian stepped forward then, but he was stopped by Pockets. Who silently signaled him to remain on his place.

The unicorn took out a small crystalline gem from her bag, and breathed deeply, as a flash of light covered the two Pokémon and herself. Soon, a magical aura changed their bodies’ color, until it matched perfectly the background, making them invisible to regular eyes.

“Not yet, just follow my lead.” She said through the link.

“You better not get that guy killed.” Damian replied.

The Luxray and Venomoth exited the room, the Bug-Type carrying the Flareon. They went down the hallway, and exited into the larger main chamber.

Sparks jumped up onto a makeshift stage on side of the room. “Ladies and Gentlemen! We are happy to bring you the first segment of tonight's festivities. We bring you: the false prophet! For final retribution!”

There were several boos from veteran members in the audience, while others just mumbled in confusion at the title.

The Venomoth then flew over the stage, and dropped the Flareon from ten feet in the air onto a shoddily assembled pedestal. The Luxio moved forward and tied the Flareon down, face up. This caused some muttering in the crowd below, as the guests were becoming concerned with the nature of the ceremonies. “And now. As Lord Helix himself requested, he shall die the most painful of deaths. Suffocation via tickling!”

The fear in the Flareon’s eyes disappeared. “But I’m not ticklish.”

The Luxio stopped, and thought for a moment. “Now what?”

The Venomoth shrugged, but before he could suggest anything, an invisible force knocked him away. From behind them, a unicorn, a Klefki and a Scrafty appeared. Spark’s eyes widened at Damian, “You!”

Damian smirked, “Yep, me. Drain Punch!”

“Gah!” The Luxio was thrown off the stage, and landed on the hard concrete floor among the audience. Before the Venomoth could do anything he was hit by a Psyshock attack, and was sent reeling by the super-effective hit.

At this point most of the guests that were just there for food began to scatter, muttering things like “I didn’t want drama, I just wanted food,” “What the hell is going on here? Were they about to kill that guy? What a bunch of psychos,” and “That’s enough alcohol for one night.”

“Well then, it looks like your followers aren’t really following ya, now are they?” Pockets chuckled, before sending a stun spell at the Luxio, who had begun standing up again.

Damian walked over to the podium where the Flareon was strapped and began undoing the bindings. Just as the last one was undone, and the Eeveelution jumped down, there was a loud rumbling, and a large amount of dust was expelled from the basement nearby, and the Pidgeot from before came flying out, carrying a red fox.

“What the hay? Steven, things are starting to blow up, we need help!”

Layton’s mechanic voice responded across the link, “The basement is collapsing, Steven and I are moving to excavate Shadow and Valerie. We are sending Tyler to help you.”

“Please hurry up, there’s another one of those rat things coming right at me!” The oncoming Raticate was deflected by Damian before it could hit her.

Tyler then came waddling in at the fastest pace he could, his tail awkwardly swinging behind him. He stopped in front of the trio, gasping for air. “Arceus! Why couldn’t you give me a body that could run better?”

Minutes Before

Shadow and Valerie went ahead of the two through the ventilation, and loosed the grate, moving it out of the way so they could drop down. Once Kenny had passed under, and the brutish looking Poison-Type was under the grate, Shadow took his chance.

“Foul Play!” Shadow jumped down from the vent, and slammed into the Nidokings head. The Umbreon jumped off of the surprised brute and made a perfect landing behind him.

“Gaah! You stupid cat! I’m gonna pummel you for that!” The Nidoking charged Shadow with a Horn Attack, which was easily dodged.

“That all you got you big lug?” The Dark-Type taunted.

“You’re dead!”

While this was going on Valerie snuck down and began untying the binds around Kenny’s legs and arms.

“Thanks, you help out Shadow, I’ll go get my stick so I can fight.” The Delphox dashed down the corridor, and Valerie looked back to the ongoing battle.

“Grah! I’m going to get you one way or another! Stop dodging and fight me like a ‘Mon!” The brutish Pokemon charged Shadow again, and found himself embedded in a wall. “You’ll get yours! No one messes with King Fonz!” He extricated himself from the wall, insulation sticking to his purple form. “Sludge Bomb!” The Nidoking threw the pulsing purple orb at the Umbreon, and it would have hit if Valerie hadn’t jumped in the way just in time, absorbing harmlessly into her skin.

“Wh-What? How’d you do that! No one takes my Sludge Bomb without flinching!”

Valerie smirked, “It helps if-” WHAM. The Nidoking suddenly fell forward, a large bruise already forming on the back of his head, and Kenny stood above him, rubbing the end of his table leg with his furry arm.

Valerie frowned at the Fire-Type. “Excuse me, I was about to say something really cool, couldn’t you have waited a few more seconds?”

“Sorry, but I’ve been wanting to do that all week.”

Shadow chuckled, “Nice to have you back dude. Now cmon, we gotta go find that Flareon and get out of here.”

“No way, not until I whoop that stupid ‘God’s’ ass and his number one henchman. That Pidgeot deserves one especially. I’m pretty sure he’s the one running everything here.”

“Dragon Rush!” An orange blur raced by the Delphox, almost hitting him. “Woah! Watch it you ass-” He saw who it was, “Bitch.”

The Dragonite huffed, “I knew that you would be trouble, but Helix just had to have you as his wife, when I was already around too!”

Kenny cringed at the Dragon’s words. “You seriously want a piece of his slimy tentacle ass? You people are even more fucked up than I thought.”

“Don’t insult Lord Helix! Aqua Tail!”

Kenny’s eyes widened as the super effective move hit him head on, and he was thrown backwards into a stack of cardboard boxes. “Fuuuuu… I don’t want anything to do with you people. Just leave me alone.”

“No you leave us alone!” The Dragonite charged up another Aqua Tail and smashed through the boxes launching the Delphox out.

The Fire-Type stood back up shakily, “Well we would if you’d let us leave!”

“Sh-Shut up!” The Dragonite began charging another but was interrupted when Valerie jumped onto her back. “Wh-What? Get off me! You’re so itchy!” The dragon grabbed The Poison type and threw her down the hallway, luckily landing on her feet somewhat.

The Dragonite rushed the Veneon, who only barely dodged, and yelled out “Venoshock!” The purple liquid shot out at the Dragon, who was still turning back around from the previous attack.

The Dragonite shrieked in pain as the Poison in her bloodstream was aggravated. “I’m going to destroy all of you!” She managed to grab Valerie and Shadow and threw the two into a wall heavily.

“Fire Blast!” The Dragon was struck with the powerful Fire-Type attack, forcing her to cease her assault on the Eeveelutions.

“Heh, that didn’t hurt at all little fox! Now how about a real attack! Stone Edge!” The floor of the basement was torn apart violently as several rocks sprung from ground, hitting Kenny and knocking him out.

The Dragonite turned back around to the two Eeveelutions struggling to stand back up again. “I’m sure Lord Helix will be upset that his bitch is knocked out, but I’m sure he’ll love to have a few extra sacrifices.”

“Yeah, not many get to sacrifice a Dragonite.” A voice said from behind the Dragon type, who turned around searching for the source.

“Who’s there!?”

“Over here, you giant orange doofus.”

The Dragonite struck a nearby wall with a Dragon Claw, trying to hit the taunting voice who just chuckled softly.

“Not only dumb, but blind as well. I bet that you were the laughing stock in your pack, weren’t you?”

The Dragon type growled in anger, charging the darkness with an Aqua Tail and greatly damaging a support column.

“Missed. You aren’t very good at this.”

“Shut up!” She roared, before rapidly sending attack after attack, before a soft pink light shined between the debri. She smiled deviously, before shooting a rage filled Dragon Pulse, which did nothing to her target, disappearing as soon as it made contact. “Fairy…”

“If you were trying to bring this place down on us, then congratulations! You did it, you fucking idiot.”

Broken columns and walls began shaking violently, as the cracks became larger, and far more menacing. The Sylveon who had been taunting her jumped on her head, breaking her balance as she slowly tripped over, falling on her wings. And before she could react, the concrete roof began crumbling, small pieces falling on her forehead, before the largest section came down, crushing her and leaving her unconscious.

Valerie called out “We need to get out of here! Help us grab Kenny!”

Before any of the Eeveelutions could get to the Delphox a powerful whirlwind whipped through the narrow hallway, throwing all of the small Pokemon around until the finally were thrown into side rooms. A large Pidgeot then swooped down and grabbed the Fire-Type in his talons, carrying him out of the collapsing basement into the area above.

“Layton!” Valerie mentally called out, “We need out of this basement! It’s collapsing!”

“Please remain calm. I will arrive as soon as possible.”

Shadow dashed across the hall to the room where Valerie was thrown. “Valerie, are you okay? Can you stand? We need to get out of here now!”

The Poison type stood up shakily, “Y-yeah, I think I’m mostly fine. Cmon, we need to find Frederick.”

Another form came through the dust, dusting off the pulverised concrete from his coat.“No need, Valerie, if you can stand we need to go.”

“Yes, I know.” The Veneon dashed out of the room, dodging the wreckage up to the next floor, where an Espeon appeared to be comforting the guests.

“Please, calm down. We have had a minor collapse in the basement, everything is fine! The bride is being fixed up as we speak and the wedding will continue.”

Valerie stepped out and looked around. “I don’t see where they took Kenny, what about you?”

Just then, the Poison type felt a massive weight on her back. “She is not available currently. Maybe you could catch her after the honeymoon.” Valerie looked up to find the same Pidgeot as before looming threateningly over her, one foot planted firmly on her back.

“Get your fucking claws off my sister!” Frederick called, launching a Moonblast at the Pidgeot, who simply blocked it with his left wing.

“You should never have come here. Now, I will offer you once last chance to leave before-”

But the Flying type couldn’t finish, as a rapidly flying silver saucer struck the Pidgeot away, before revealing four metallic appendages and a giant golden ‘x’. “I apologize for my timing. But it seems that you were able to make it out of the basement in time.”

“Your timing was impeccable metal arse, now lets get the hell out of here.” Frederick grunted.

Tyler ran in behind Layton, gasping for air. “We can’t go anywhere until we get Kenny!”

“Who the fuck is Kenny?” The Fairy asked confused, “We can’t stay here much longer, Valerie’s too hurt already!”

“It’s not that bad Freddy, and I’m not going anywhere until we get Shadow’s friend.”

“None of you shall leave!” An irate Omastar waddled into view, “You have ruined my wedding! Assassin! Lazor! Get the intruders!” After the ancient Pokemon’s orders a Feraligatr and the Espeon from before appeared.

The Espeon expressed her doubt, “My Lord, are you sure? Most of your followers have fled after the collapse, we are outnumbered.”

“Ha! I can take em!” The Feraligatr rushed the group, only to be consumed by an arc of yellow. The water Pokemon spasmed for a few moments before the attack stopped.

All present turned to Tyler, who just shrugged, “I just learned that move, and I had to test it!”

“You’re gonna pay for that!” The Feraligatr was even angrier now, “I’m gonna use your ribcage like a-” The Big Jaw Pokémon was shut down shortly, as two thick pieces of grass came from the ground, tripping it over with force. The green glow in Layton’s eyes faded.

The Omastar grunted in annoyance, “Geo! I command you to stop the intruders!”

“Immediately, my lord.” The Pidgeot flexed his wings, then pushed off from the ground, a warm red glow emanating from his primary feathers.

“Incoming Heat Wave, prepare to dodge.” Layton warned, rapidly floating away from the Flying type as the attack approached them.

Everyone managed to move out of the way, except Layton and Tyler, the former taking the hit much better than the latter.

“HOLY...! I THINK MY EYEBROWS ARE GONE!” The Flaaffy exclaimed.

Another heatwave was launched at the group, this time Everyone moved out of the way of the attack successfully. “Be cautious, this Pidgeot is no pushover,” Layton warned.

“Then I guess we’ll have to take him out quickly.” Steven replied, before brewing up a Tailwind.

The Pidgeot narrowed his eyes, “I shall finish these… heathens, quickly milord. Heat Wave!”

Steven rushed forwards, running as fast as he could. He prepared a Bullet Punch, as the waves of hot air began emanating from the Pidgeot's body. The former champion sidestepped as the bright orange aura got closer to him, it managed to hit his arm, causing an intense pain on Steven, but he was able to continue, reaching the Flying type with a jump, and striking him down with a mid-air Bullet Punch.

“You Heathens!” Geo growled, flapping his wings and getting back into the air once again, but was hit by a powerful Head Smash from behind, and was sent spiraling out of control into a support beam.

“Steven! That bird guy is bad news! They’re brainwashing Pokémon and turning them into zombies, and are planning to take over Canterlot!” Pockets exclaimed from nearby, bucking two small Pokémon that tried to stop her. She, Damian, BBK, and the Flareon had arrived from the nearby battle with Sparks, the four of them were now facing the few real adepts that remained with Helix.

BBK turned to the Pony in confusion, “They never said anything about conquering Canterlot, or zombies.”

“Heh, well I may have exaggerated some, wanted to spice things up a bit.”

The Klefki groaned, “Can we take this seriously please? Look guys, this guy and some of the others have all their little pawns fooled into thinking that Helix dude is a god. The Espeon is undermining the mental capacity of their subjects to make them more willing followers. To be honest I wouldn’t be surprised if some sort of violent takeover is planned some time in the far future.”

Helix was now seething in rage, “They have neither fooled nor enslaved no one! They are all my willful and enlightened followers!”

Damian chuckled, “Oh yeah, and he’s the only higher up that believes in the whole god thing.”

Helix stomped the ground repeatedly in anger, “You’ll all pay for your sins! I’ll make you pay! Well, Geo will. But he’s my prophet so in the end I’ll make you pay!”

Damian approached the seething Omastar, and booped him on the nose. “If you’re so powerful just smite me down where I stand oh capable one. I am shaking in my nonexistent boots.”

Helix smirked with a soft chuckle, “As you wish. Taste my wrath!”

An arc of lighting hit Damian in the back, causing the Scrafty to flinch and stumble forward, before adjusting his shades. “Meh, I’ve been hit by worse by BBK when I comment on her weight.”

Layton took down a Weavile who tried to jump on him, analyzing all his foes. He noticed that something was not right, as several opponents were hidden in the shadows, as if they were observing the battle and waiting for it to end. He then noticed something about the sudden Thunderbolt that struck Damian, “Omastar can not learn Thunderbolt. Which can only mean…” Layton stopped for a second, before hovering rapidly towards Helix, yet stopping mid way and placing himself in front of Damian.

A pink sphere of light was shot from the shadows, aiming at the Dark type yet striking the metallic body of Layton, “Your power is nothing but teamwork.” His eyes glowed and several Pokemon were lifted up from behind furniture and wreckage in the building. “The Thunderbolt was the Luxio, the Moon Blast was the Clefairy. I’m sure there are plenty of other ‘special powers’ you have that are simply the work of these Pokemon.”

“Lies! I didn’t even know they were there! I’m an all powerful being created with the sole purpose of conquering the world and bringing happiness to--”

“Oh be quiet Helix.” A voice interrupted. Layton and Damian searched for the source, to find a bruised Pidgeot standing up with difficulty, “I should have known this couldn’t continue to work here. We’re being demolished, what’s the point of it. You never had any powers you fool. They’re right, this is all a ruse.”

The Omastar became silent, a tear on his eye, “What… what do you mean? You… you told me I was special, that I was destined to become a god!”

“You ARE special. You’re far less intelligent than any regular Pokémon, easy to manipulate yet charismatic enough to charm the masses. You are no god, you’re a failed lab experiment, and you have no more use!” Geo screeched, before sending a powerful Whirlwind that sent the Omastar away. “This is ridiculous, a general of the great PLA being humiliated just like that. My perfect plan destroyed by your foolish actions. But this is enough, you want a true battle? You’ll have it.”

Nearby, Steven finished off a Mightyena that unsuccessfully tried to bite his head off. As the Mightyena fell on the ground, he noticed the splash sound that the unconscious body made. Water came from the stairs, slowly increasing as seconds passed by, he prepared to face any new contender, but he wasn’t able to do anything, as a gigantic wave washed him away.

“Da Prince is in!” A large blue mass slid out onto the floor, and sent a powerful Hydro Pump at Layton.

Layton called for a Protect, barely stopping the attack, yet as the barrier disappeared, a powerful fist grabbed his frontal leg, effortlessly swinging him into the ground, as a voice yelled “Here’s Annie!” A deep, yet somewhat feminine voice exclaimed, as a large Hariyama got on her battle stand.

The Steel type tried to fight back, but from behind him, powerful jaws Crunched him into pain, as the Feraligatr from before helped take down the team's heavy hitter. BBK came forward and use a Play Rough on the Hariyama, hitting it from all sides with fairy energy. Tyler used another Thunderbolt on the Feraligatr, sending it reeling again. Damian rushed in and used a Zen Headbutt on the Hariyama, but was immediately struck away by a large Emboar, who Brick Breaked him down. Layton got up, yet another set of fangs, this time electrified ones, bit him in the head, the Luxio from before not wanting to get off.

“Now this is more like it” Geo chuckled, “Behold, Team Twitch, the new organization that will liberate Pokémon everywhere!”

“I don’t need to be liberated thank you very much.” A voice growled from behind him. A powerful Moonblast hit him directly in the back, sending Geo across the room and into a wall, three bruised up eeveelutions stood there, a determined look on their faces.

“Sorry about the wait, Frederick and I had to patch ourselves up after the last fight.” Shadow explained, “And also, Team Twitch? What kind of name is that?”

Geo stood back up again and flexed his wings, “You wouldn’t understand the reference.”

“Well then you must be really bad at referencing things,” A blue beam hit Geo, as Pockets appeared from the shadows with a stun spell.

Paralysed, Geo tried to stand up, yet failed with every attempt“You.. you fools. GET THEM!” Looking at his comrades, he found that as he and the Eeveelutions had been talking, the rest of the Pokemon present had continued to fight, and his side had fared badly.

“Gah. You’re all useless…”

“So… general Geo.. huh?” A wet Steven asked, grabbing the Pidgeot by one of his wings, “We have some questions for you.”

The group was now centered around the Pidgeot, most of his ‘Team Twitch’ members had been tied up, but they found that a few of the main ones, the Espeon and Luxio, had escaped. Helix was deemed unnecessary to tie up, as he was too busy crying in a corner. Steven and Layton were keeping a close eye on the Pidgeot as the former Champion asked him, “So how did this whole thing get started?”

Geo pulled his head out of his wing, as he was trying to fix his battered feathers, before standing tall and looking down at the Scizor.“I was a General in the original PLA, I served under Viper’s command. I focused mainly on troops morale and public relations. He ignored much of my advice on how to handle the humans, I would not have begun the slaughter so soon. When Tsushima fell to the humans I fled, but I remained loyal to the cause. A group of like-minded Pokémon followed me, it was apparent that the PLA would fall sooner or later, and Viper was losing his mind. The war ended, and Viper had fallen. We tried to rejoin when we heard about the new leader, that… Sev. He was Viper’s son, we thought that perhaps he would be more capable of handling the movement. Yet we were so wrong. A mere bandit who kept the name, even crazier than his father, although a bit more civilized. We decided that it was not worth it.”

“So what did you do afterwards?”

“Form my own group. Yet the bad blood of the old PLA stood with our name, we needed someone to represent us. Sev had been wanting us to return, and so we did. The PLA had grown big enough to be called an organization, we gathered some information, even got some resources and equipment. But even though Sev was leading a small nation’s worth of Pokémon, none were fit enough to represent our new group. They were either too smart, or too dumb for it, and I was not going to risk it. That’s when I had my encounter with this… scientist. The guy was a wimp, yet he was amazing with science. This scientist, Loom they called him, he had a fossil on his lab. I knew about the revival of fossils, and how it’s like having a son of your own. It was perfect, I could raise him myself, and I could teach him how to be our perfect facade.” Geo chuckled softly, before sighing, “He needed some… motivation to do my bidding, but in the end it worked. We all left the next day with the baby, and we raised him in the woods near Kanto. We all planned it very carefully, and when he became an Omastar, it was time to act.”

“We made him believe that he was a god, he thought he could use any kind of move, that he had mental capabiliities greater than any other’s. We got Pokémon to believe that he was truly an all powerful being, and his charismatic personality made things easier for our Espeon to control them. When we were sent here, oh was I rejoiced. No humans, only Pokémon and these pesky ponies. Then that darn Arceus talked to us all. The real god had appeared, and we were helpless. We convinced our few remaining followers that it was all a trick, some other being trying to take Helix’s rightful place. With some more shows, we managed to slowly regain more followers, yet it was not enough. Then we had the idea of the wedding. Love and happiness, illusion in every spectator’s eyes, it was the perfect situation for our Psychic types to weaken their minds. But you…” Geo screeched, and tried to attack Steven, yet the chain that had a hold of his claw didn’t allow him to.

“It was all the perfect setup! I would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for you pesky ‘mons and your meddling pony! Helix just had to become fixated on that shemale of a Delphox! And then Prophet appearing out of nowhere, and undermining our authority.”

Steven stood up, and turned around, “It looks like we’re done here. We’ll take you to the authorities, I don’t think they’d like a group messing with people’s minds.”

Kenny stepped forward then, having been recovered from Geo’s private chamber earlier. “That sounds good, but first, Fire Blast!”

The powerful attack flew forward, striking the Pidgeot in the chest, and damaging the area around him. Upon the display, Tyler stepped forward, leaped into the air, and smack the Delphox on the back of the head. “What the hell was that for Kenny? He’s already down you don’t need to keep fighting him!”

Kenny rubbed his shoulder and looked away, “He called me a shemale.”

BBK sighed and shook her head, “You’re such a fucking idiot sometimes Kenny.”

Layton undid the chains attached to the support pillar in the warehouse, pulling Geo along with them like a leash, the rest of his group floating unconscious behind. Once they were outside, they started for the nearest guard station. It was now full daylight, the sun about a quarter of the way across the sky.

“We were in there a long time weren’t we,” commented Tyler, squinting against the sun.

“Two hours forty seven minutes,” stated Layton.

“Jeez, I barely got any sleep last night. Maybe I can get some shuteye on the train.” Pockets groaned.

Suddenly, Geo screeched, and struck the chain holding him to Layton with a peck attack, shattering it where it had been hit by Kenny’s fire blast attack. Before Layton could do anything he pumped his wings and shot away from the group, flying low and fast over the buildings of the city.

BBK began charging down the street in his direction but was stopped by Damian putting a hand on her ring, simply shaking his head when she shot him a glare. “He’s not worth it. Someone like him is bound to get himself into trouble again, and I doubt that he’ll get away that time.”

“He has no place to go” A voice said from behind them. They turned around, to see the small Omastar looking at them with red, tired eyes, “I have no place to go either.”

Steven showed him a sympathetic look, he knew that although he wanted to kill them, he did nothing wrong, “Somebody once told me that it’s better to be alone, than with bad companions. Perhaps, this is a good opportunity for you to start a new life, Omastar tend to live a long time, so I think you should make use of that.”

“Being normal ain’t that bad, buddy,” Pockets added, “You don’t have to deal with the weight of being an almighty god, which is nice. Perhaps you can go to… I dunno, the sea. Maybe get a lady and have some children” She chuckled.

“The sea…” The Omastar sighed, and looked at the horizon, “That does sound nice. To the sea!” The omastar then began charging down the road as fast as he could, in the opposite direction as before.

“Should we tell him that we’re in the middle of a mountain, in the middle of a continent, and that the nearest coastline is weeks-worth distance away?”

“And that he’s not even going the right way to get out of the city.” Tyler added.

“I think we should let him be. Let the guy have some time to… I don’t know, find himself or something” Frederick said dryly with a yawn.”I really just want to get some sleep. Besides, I want to get some quality time with my sister.”

Valerie stepped forward then, “Oh no. You aren’t off the hook yet mister. Same to you Shadow.” She looked to the rest of the group, “You all go ahead. I need some private time with my brother and mate.”

“Well… fuck.” Frederick sighed.

The three Eeveelutions headed home, Frederick and Shadow trailing silently behind Valerie, too nervous to speak. As they went through the early morning city, Frederick searched desperately for any escape route, but he knew that she would track him down.

Once they finally reached the mansion, Valerie led them inside and to the dining room. Fancypants was an early riser, and had already departed to his office for the day when they arrived, so the room was luckily empty.

“Sit,” Valerie commanded of the males, “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Shadow and Frederick both seated themselves, on opposites sides of the table from each other. Not too close, but close enough for Valerie not to get mad at them. After about five minutes she came back out, and sat herself at the end of the table between them. “Barnardo will be out in a few minutes with some breakfast.

“Good, I’m starving” Frederick said dryly.

Valerie made no verbal reply, but simply nodded her head and hummed. “So. Where to begin?” She put a paw to her chin, before scowling. “How about we start with Frederick treating me like a child who doesn’t know up from down.”

“What did you expect me to do? I haven’t seen you in ages, and when I do, you’re dating a ‘mon who you’ve barely known for a week. I already fucked up once, I can’t let that happen again now can I? Had to make sure that he was trustworthy” Frederick huffed.

Valerie growled and put her paws on the table, “So you don’t trust me to be able to judge that myself?”

“Love’s blind, Val. I don’t really trust Dark types either, ‘specially Umbreon.” He replied with a frown.

Valerie’s scowl increased. “So would you hate me if I had evolved into an Umbreon instead?”

Frederick remained silent, before looking away from her, “I guess… I guess not.”

“Then why would you extend the same bigotry to him? Type and species has nothing to do with it. He’s just as good a ‘mon as you or I.”

Just then Barnardo entered, carrying a large plate of pancakes, stacked ridiculously high to the point it was swaying slightly as he set it down. Once it was in front of Valerie, he gave her a wink, and whispered, “Good luck.”

Shadow spoke up for the first time since they had gotten back, “Finally! I’m starving!” He reached over to the plate, only to have his paw smack away by Valerie’s tail.

“Sorry, these are all for me.” She smirked.

“Oh? So when are our plates coming?” Frederick asked with curioisity, looking at the door and expecting the chef to come inside again.

“They aren’t” she replied as she began pouring syrup on them.

“So… what do we have to eat?” Shadow asked.

“Nothing. At least until we’re done here.”

“Oh,” the Umbreon’s ears drooped.

“Well I’m fucking starving, damn Sylveon body needs constant sweets, so how am I supposed to end this? I won’t apologize if that’s what you’re asking, that asshole touched a really delicate subject!” Frederick growled, pointing at Shadow with his paw.

“We’re about to get to that. Shadow, even if my brother is being an ass, that doesn't give you an excuse to be one back to him.” She took a bite out of the stack, making sure to show off the food to the two.

Shadow flinched at the display, his stomach growling loudly, “Well… yeah. You’re right. I was just mad that he thought I was taking advantage of you or something. I probably could’ve phrased what I said to him better.”

Valerie took another bite, chewed it slowly, showing that the was savoring the flavor. “Good, we’re making progress. Now, you’re both going to apologize to each other. And then you can have some pancakes.”

Shadow sighed, and looked at the Sylveon across the table from him, “Fine, sorry.”

Frederick remained silent, his pride trying to get the best of him. Yet the idea of his long lost sister being mad at him saddened him, that and the pain in his stomach was killing him, “Fine… Sorry Shadow, friendship yada yada, now please give me food because my stomach is fucking killing me”

Valerie looked between the two, and stuffed a whole half of a pancake in her mouth at once, speaking through the food and spitting some out she replied, “Nope. Not sincere enough. I can do this all day, these are amazing. I should go compliment Barnardo after we’re done here.”

Frederick sighed, and tried to look at the Umbreon in his eyes, with his ears flattened, he took a deep breath, “I’m sorry. I misjudged you, and… Valerie is just such an important part of my life, and when I saw you as her couple, I didn’t… I thought I’d may lose her again. I’ve been through some… love related shit before, and I didn’t really want her to be hurt either. I wanted to defend her… but I think that perhaps…” He sighed, and mumbled under his breath, “You’re not that bad”

“I can’t hear you!”

“You’re not that bad! Fine, I accept that I was wrong, can I get something to eat now?”

Valerie scrutinized the Sylveon, before smiling and nodding. “Yep, you’re good. Now you Shadow, then you can both eat.”

Shadow gulped slightly, and clutched his stomach. “Yeah… uh… I guess I can’t be completely mad at you for what happened. You were just trying to defend your sister, and my mate. I said some things I shouldn’t have, and I’m sorry for that.” He held out a paw, “Bros?”

Frederick stretched out a ribbon, and without looking at him, he nodded, “That word is so… cringeworthy. But sure.” Frederick then pulled Shadow closer, and looked at him in the eyes, “But if you dare to hurt my sister, I’ll fucking kill you, understood?”

Valerie stepped forward and slapped him, “No! Bad Freddy! But good enough. You can have pancakes now.” She sat down and stuffed what was left on the plate into her mouth.

“Whoah what!?” Frederick exclaimed, “I went through a fucking speech about feelings and forgiveness, and you still ate all the pancakes? What the fuck sis!?”

Valerie giggled, “You wanted those? My venom got all over them when I was eating them. It’d be a terrible idea to give them to you.” She took her knife and tapped it on her empty glass, and the doors to the dining room opened again, as Barnardo brought out two more plates of Pancakes.

“Enjoy, and good luck with your new family life.”

Later in the day, Steven and his group had to leave. Out of everyone, Valerie and Frederick seemed the most torn up about it. They were currently waiting at the train station, the previous passengers disembarking, and the train being restocked with supplies.

“Are you sure you can’t come along sis?” Frederick begged, “I’d be willing to put up with Shadow for you.”

Valerie just chuckled at him, “No. My place is here. But make sure to visit. And not just me, I found out where our parents are. They’re staying in a city called Las Pegasus, near the docks I believe. You should stop by and say hi to them too. Shadow and I plan on going in a few days.”

Frederick chuckled, and let out a sigh “I’ll see what I can do. Although you know what dad thinks of sailor mouths like me. I should learn to control myself a bit before meeting them… besides, I don’t think I could go back after what happened….”

“What did happen after I left anyway?” She asked in concern. “They didn’t blame you or something did they?”

“I… never did go back home. Kind of got lost after searching for you for about three days.” Frederick rubbed the back his head with a ribbon, an awkward smile on his face, “What happened afterwards is not really that important. “

Valerie smiled and poked him on the nose. “I don’t believe you about what happened after. But I won’t pry… for now. But I’ll make sure to tell them about what happened. It must be unbearable not knowing what happened to all four of us.”

“Yeah, I guess so. You know, after all our deal with Arceus is done, maybe I can come back here and spend a few days with you, catch up and whatnot. It should be fun”

“That would be great,” she smiled.

The train whistle blew then, beckoning passengers on. Tyler turned to Steven, “Well, it was nice meeting you. Good luck with life and all that jazz.”

“Same to you, Tyler” The former champion nodded, grabbing his bags and entering the car, “I hope to meet you another time, I’d like to see how you’ve progressed so far with your entire team. Besides, that should give me an excuse to come back to this amazing city.”

As the rest of the group followed Steven, Frederick stopped mid-way, and dropped his bags, “Hey, Shadow, do me a favor, would ya?”

The Umbreon gave him a confused look, “Oh? Sure I guess.”

Frederick ran back to Valerie, and hugged her with a tear on his eye, “Love ya, Val. I’m happy that you’ve found a family, and a future. I’ll try to do the same, for you, ‘kay?”

“Thank you Freddy,” She pulled into the hug.

“That’s not really a request for a favor,” Shadow chuckled, using a Heal Bell on the Sylveon as he pulled away.

“Yeah whatever. Take care of her you fucking moron. Now if you excuse me, I gotta meet god.” He ran back to the train, grabbing his bags and jumping at the last moment, as it started moving, leaving towards Ponyville.

Chapter 15

After Valerie and Shadow headed off to Las Pegasus, the others all ventured back to the mansion. Damian and Tyler decided to get some training in, and it was going much better than all previous attempts.

“Drain Punch!” Damian rushed forward, his hand glowing with energy, ready to strike.

“Iron Tail!” Tyler swung his tail around, shining metallically, and parried the strike, before charging it up again and swinging it at the Scrafty’s stomach.

Damian jumped backwards, just out of the strike, and held up a hand. “Good job man, you can charge up faster, but they still ain’t all that powerful.”

Tyler nodded, and wiped the sweat off his brow. “Thanks. You think we can call it off for the day? I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up.”

Damian nodded in understanding. “That’s cool. I kinda wanted to go look for new shades around-”

“Tyler!” An enraged shout emanated from the house, and an irate Delphox came charging out, grasping his table-leg in his hands. “You’re taking me to find a carpenter.”

“I am?” He questioned.

“Yes. I don’t have any money yet, and don’t know my way around town, so you’re coming with me.”

“Why do you need to see a carpenter?” The confused Flaaffy scratched his head.

“Because of this!” He held his table leg in front of Tyler.

Tyler was getting more confused by the minute. “Um… is there something wrong with your stick?”

“Arceus you’re blind” Kenny groaned. “Look!” he pointed to a hairline scratch in the wood, “Those asshole from the cult scratched it! Now I have to go get it repaired.”

“But Kenny… the whole thing is covered in scratches, how do you know it was them?”

“I know my stick like the back of my hand!” he huffed, “That scratch wasn’t there before.”

“But why is that scratch so much more important?” Tyler was now holding his head, trying to suppress the headache he was developing.

“Because it was them! Now cmon! You’re gonna get it sanded and refinished.”

Tyler groaned, and rubbed his head some more. “I guess I don’t have a choice do I.”

Kenny then stormed out of the backyard, and stopped at the door into the mansion. “Well? What are you waiting for? Cmon!”

Tyler followed the Delphox inside in defeat, Damian following close behind him. “I’ll come with, like I was sayin’ before, I was gonna get some new shades, so I might as well go with you guys.”

Tyler nodded in thanks, “That’s good. It seems like Kenny’s been even worse since we rescued him from the cultists.”

BBK floated in from the next room, “Yeah, true. He’s been an even bigger jackass lately. I think the fact Helix wanted to marry him and knock him up really got to him.”

Loyalty then approached and handed Tyler a bag of bits, “I thought you would need these sir.”

Tyler nodded in thanks, and responded to BBK, “Yeah, I think you’re right. Maybe we could-”

“Hey assholes hurry up! We’re burning daylight!” Came a shout from the front door.

Tyler sagged, and glared at a wall. “We need Queen to help calm him down I think. She was the only one who could really do that.”

Damian nodded, as they approached the front door, “Yeah, but for now shut up about it. I don’t want another ‘incident’.”

Tyler and BBK nodded in agreement, and followed the impatient Delphox out. Halfway up the walkway Tyler stopped, “Wait, Kenny. I don’t know the city any better than you do.”

The Delphox stopped, and turned back at the Flaaffy, “Then get someone who does!” The Delphox glared down at the little Flaaffy, his gaze filled with rage.

Tyler shrunk under his gaze, “Um… Uh… I’ll go see if Offered is around.” He then dashed back into the mansion, slamming the door behind him. He exited again several minutes later, the light green mare following behind him,

“So, Kenny was it? You needed a carpenter?” She asked, unfazed by the Fire-Types hard gaze.

“Yeah, you know one in town?”

“Course, he fixed up an old dresser for me a few months ago. He’d probably be able to do whatever you wanted.”

“Take me to him.”

Tyler had finally had enough, it was time to stand up to his team member and demand he shows people some respect. “What’s the magic word?”

Kenny crossed his arms, “Fuck off.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s two words.”

Offered jumped in then, “Don’t worry about it, Tyler. I’ve dealt with worse before I started working for Fancypants. I’ll lead the way.”

The group traveled through town, Damian looking around for somewhere he could look for sunglasses. After some time they reached a small square, and Offered led them to one of the shops. It didn’t look like anything special. Above the door the name “Oak Sapling’s Wooden Emporium” was displayed. In the front window several wooden chairs and clocks were displayed, and a thin coat of sawdust seemed to coat everything as they entered. Several customers were milling about, admiring the hoofmade wares.

Kenny marched straight up to the counter, and placed the table leg on the surface, and rang the bell on the counter. After a few moments a light brown unicorn stallion came out. “I hear you do repairs?” Kenny questioned.

The stallion nodded, “Yeah, but I’ll need the rest of the table too.”

Kenny looked confused for a moment, before frowning and shaking his head. “No, I just want the scratches on this sanded down, and for you to refinish it.”

“Oh, so you’re planning on re-attaching it yourself? It doesn’t cost much extra for me to do that too.”

Kenny rolled his eyes. “I’m not putting it on a table. I use it to focus my powers. Just fix it up. How much will it cost.”

The carpenter looked over the table leg, “This looks pretty easy. Ten bits to have your… table leg fixed up.”

Kenny looked to Tyler, who sighed, “Sure. Do I pay before or after.”

“Half now, half when it’s done.” Oak answered.

Tyler pulled out five bits from his bag and placed them on the counter, and the stallion took the table leg and placed it on his workbench. “I’ll have it done by tomorrow probably, I have other things I have to do first.”

Before Kenny could complain, Tyler grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the shop, shouting a quick thanks. “Cmon guys, let’s get some food while we wait. You know a good place nearby, Offered?”

The mare nodded, “Sure, there's a little diner nearby that I like to go to. They serve mostly salads, if that’s ok with you guys.”

They all voiced their consent, and headed in the direction of the restaurant. About halfway there Damian spotted a place with a large selection of sunglasses, and decided to browse, BBK going with him to look at keychains.

Another few blocks down the now trio came to the restaurant, which was fairly empty. The server was quick with them, obviously out of fear of Kenny’s unhappy glare. “Kenny stop,” Tyler leaned over and whispered. “You can’t just be an ass to everyone you meet.”

“Not now, Tyler,” He growled back.

Tyler’s eyes narrowed. “Look, you can’t just-”

“Tyler? Tyler Watsky?” A voice interrupted. Tyler, Kenny, and Offered Hoof all turned to the verbal intruder, finding a lone Froslass eyeing the group.

“Um… Do I know you?” Tyler asked, rubbing the back of his head, “Sorry but the whole ‘every human I know being turned into a Pokemon thing’ sorta makes it hard to recognize old friends.”

The Ice-Type huffed, “I should’ve thought you’d be too much of a dolt to recognize me. Honestly I thought when Arceus said worthy that didn’t include losers.”

Tyler groaned, “Oh, now I know who you are.”

“Well I still have no fucking idea so hurry up and introduce yourself,” Kenny demanded.

The Froslass smirked, “Honestly I’m not sure which I should less surprised at. The fact you’re still living with your mother, or how stupid she sounds. It’s Juliana.”

Kenny stood up and slammed a fist on the table. “I am not his fucking mother! Or a chick!”

Juliana quirked an eyebrow, “Tyler, you mind explaining to her, or him, I’ll just go with ‘it’ for now.”

For the first time that day, Tyler’s eyes were fixed in a glare stronger than Kenny’s, “Kenny, meet Juliana. My ex-girlfriend.”

“So, if this ‘Kenny’ isn’t your mom, who is he?” She asked, leaning into their booth from the next over.

“He’s a member of my team.” Tyler continued his glare.

“Your team? Do you play some nerdy board games together or something? Compete in championships? Oh what am I thinking, you’re far too poor for that.”

Kenny’s glare began to match Tyler’s. “No, I’m a member of his Pokemon team. He’s my trainer.”

Juliana blinked, “Trainer? Well that explains a lot, such as where you disappeared to in the last year, and why your Delphox looks so weak.”

Tyler finally snapped, jumping up in his seat he slammed his hands on the table and leaned across, nose to nose with the Ice-Type. “Yeah well he’d wreck your Blaziken!”

The girl flinched backwards, obviously surprised by the outburst, before regaining her composure. “Well, I guess you’ve grown a bit of a backbone in the past year. Challenge accepted. He’s back at my house. I’m staying with a noble, a mare named Fleur De Lis. She’s pretty famous around here so I’m sure it’ll be easy to get directions. She’s doing some landscaping so we can use the part she’s planning on tearing up.”

“You're on!”

The server then returned and gave them their drinks, and Juliana floated out, preparing for the coming battle. “Tomorrow. Three O’clock, be there!”

Kenny sipped from his glass, “So, I guess we’re still doing the whole battle thing. I kinda thought Arceus was against that sort of thing.”

Tyler sighed, “Yeah, sorry. If you don’t wanna-”

“No don’t worry, I’ll fight. She seems like a huge bitch, I would assume her Blaziken is as well, and I think giving someone a beatdown would be good for my temper,” He then cracked his knuckles. “We’ll need to get my table leg back first though. But three O'clock tomorrow is a lifetime, it'll be done by then.

Tyler grinned, “It’s great having you back bud. I’m sure you’ll destroy her!”

Just then Damian and BBK entered, Damian now wearing a different pair of shades with metal frames instead of the plastic on his old ones. “Hey, you guys order yet?”

Kenny shook his head, “Nah, just the drinks. I think the server’s scared shitless of us.”

The two slipped into the booth with them, and picked up the menus in front of them. After a few moments Damian looked at Tyler, who was still showing a strange mixture of emotions between anger and anticipation. “We miss anything?”

Offered finally spoke up then, “We ran into Tyler’s ex. It seems the two are pretty hostile, and Kenny has a battle with her Blaziken.”

BBK perked up then, “Tyler! I never knew you had a girlfriend!”

He rolled his eyes at her, “Yeah, I didn’t really mention her for a reason.”

The Klefki grinned and floated closer, “C’mon! Gimme the juicy details!”

Tyler scowled, “There are no juicy details. It was just a stupid teenage relationship. She cheated on me, I called her a whore, and we broke up. Nothing more.”

“Oh, well that’s disappointing.” BBK sagged, “And here I was hoping for some dramatic tragic romance to spice things up.”

“BBK, it was years ago. Do you really expect me to have deep, long lasting emotional feelings at fourteen?”

“Well… that is pretty young for a human I guess. You do have a point. But still! Next chance I get I’m setting you up with a nice gal!” The keychain Pokemon grinned at him.

“Please don’t.” he took a sip from his water. “So what about you guys? Any of you have any notable ex’s?”

Kenny shook his head in the negative, “Nah, it was hard to pick up chicks when everyone new you met thought you were one.”

Offered nodded, “Yeah, I’ve had a couple coltfriends. None of them ended particularly poorly. The relationship just got stale and we decided to move on.”

BBK shook her head, “Nah, I was never really interested.”

“Never had a real long term relationship, but I’ve had some flings.” Damian replied.

Tyler groaned, “Great, I was hoping someone could sympathize.”

Kenny patted him on the back, “Eh, don’t worry about it. After we destroy them you’ll feel better.”

“I thought Arceus said he only brought kind humans or something.” Offered queried.

Tyler shrugged, “Honestly she’s pretty nice to most people, and she utterly spoiled her Pokemon when I knew her. We had a pretty hostile breakup so her nastier side comes out around me.”

The whole table let out various understanding noises, and began looking at their menu’s.

The server came back out then and they all ordered. Getting various rather simple salads.

Once the jumpy mare had left with their orders, Damian spoke up again. “So what’d you do to the guy she was cheating on you with?”

“I didn’t ‘do’ anything to him,” Tyler replied crossing his arms. “He was like that one really nice and cool guy that everyone knew and liked. I confronted him, and learned that he had no idea about me, and they had actually been together since a few days before she went out with me, so she was really cheating on him.”

“So did you do anything to get back at her?” BBK leaned in, with the new possibility of “juicy details.”

“I didn’t, but the other guy told one of his friends, who was a massive gossip. Long story short her reputation was ruined. I don’t think she’s been with anyone since but something could have happened while we were on the journey together.”

“So,” Kenny began, “What do you know about her Blaziken?”

“I know that she got him when she was ten, like most people do.” He paused and thought hard for a moment or two, “I don’t think she’s the type to teach him many strategic moves. He’s probably all muscle. Then again, you would be too if I hadn’t made sure you learned some sort of strategic move.”

Kenny scowled again, “Whatever. So a basic Will-Oh-Wisp could knock him down a few pegs?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, “only super effective move he has against psychics is Shadow Claw. He also knows Rock Tomb, but Will-Oh-Wisp could help with that too. Only other move I know he knows is Flamethrower, but if they’re smart they’ll stay away from that.” He then returned Kenny’s scowl. “Unfortunately for us, we aren’t that smart, and all of your good moves are Fire-Type attacks.”

The Delphox huffed and looked away, “Well maybe you should’ve trained me better.”

“I can only do so much on my side, I even bought the TM Psychic for you, and you got fed up and said screw it after five minutes,” was Tyler’s retort.

“Yeah well… screw all that Psychic mumbo jumbo anyway. It ain’t my style.”

The server returned not long after, and they all enjoyed their meals. Once the they were finished they paid and headed back out to the carpenter to check on Kenny’s stick. Once they arrived Kenny marched straight up to the counter and rang the bell again, and after a few moments the tan stallion stepped out again.

“Oh, hello. Your… uh… table leg isn’t quite ready yet.”

“Do you think you can hurry up a bit with that? It turns out now that we need to be somewhere with it by tomorrow.” Kenny requested.

“Sorry, I’ve got a couple other small projects I’ve had to do first.” The stallion grinned sheepishly.

Kenny sighed, and looked at the wooden grandfather clock in the store, which showed one forty seven. “We need it by at least two thirty tomorrow. Can you do it by then? We’re willing to pay a bit extra to have it done sooner.”

The stallion considered for a moment, then shook his head. “Sorry, but they’re pretty major clients. I can’t skip over their orders. It could take longer to get it done. Sorry.”

Kenny groaned and rubbed his forehead. “Well would you mind if I look through some of your long roughly cylindrical pieces around here? I need something for the battle.”

“Uh sure,” Oak Sapling looked around, “What do you need exactly?”

“I use my table leg to focus my fire, just any wooden stick or dowel will do, but I’ll need to test it before I take it.”

“Alright, you have any preference,” the stallion gestured for Kenny to come behind the counter, “I have a couple scrap piles in the back, if you like you can dig through and try to find something. You have any preference on types of wood?”

“Oak or mahogany is best. Definitely not pine.”

The stallion looked around for a moment, “There’s the mahogany pile, and oaks over there. When you ‘test it’ please step outside. This is a wood shop after all, and I’d rather you not burn it down.”

“Yeah sure whatever,” Kenny mumbled as he began rummaging through the scrap wood, tossing bits and pieces to the side. “Dammit, I won’t be able to fight as well with the wrong wood pieces. I need my table leg.”

Tyler groaned, “Then ask for it back, and have him finish it up afterwards!”

Kenny stopped digging, and facepalmed so hard he gave himself a headache. “Why the hell didn’t I think of that!”

They moved back out to the front, where the stallion was dealing with another set of customers. Once he was finished with them he turned back and asked, “Did you find what you needed?”

Tyler shook his head, “No, we decided we’ll just take back the table leg for now and we’ll come back another time.”

The stallion returned to the back, and cried out it shock. “Fluffy! No! Bad! Put that down that is not a toy!”

The stallion came rushing back out, an apologetic grimace on his face. “I’m so sorry sir! I don’t know what came over him!”

Kenny glanced over the pony's shoulder into the room behind him, where a guilty looking Mightyena was pawing at the floor next to a thoroughly gnawed table leg. “He ate my fucking stick!” He yelled in horror.

“Like I said, sir, I’m very sorry! I can replace it! Make one that looks just like it! It’ll be free of-”

“That table leg had sentimental value! You can’t just replace it!”

Oak’s eyes widened even further, “I’m very very VERY sorry sir!

Kenny sighed, and clenched his fists. “I guess I’ll just have to go back to the scrap pile.” He then marched back into the other room.

Tyler glanced back and forth between them. “Heh, um. He’s been having a bad week so far.”

“What kind of bad week?”

“He got kidnapped by a group of cultists who tried to marry him to their male leader who was convinced he was a chick.”

The unicorn almost fainted, “And now a sentimental item of his is ruined. Oh Celestia, I’m so sorry.”

The MIghtyena then peaked out of the room, “I thought it was scrap! He told me I was allowed to chew on scrap!”

Tyler just waved him off. “Don’t worry, I think as long as he gets to beat Juliana’s Blaziken he'll be fine emotionally.”

The stallion nodded, “So, if I may, what kind of sentimental value does an old table leg have?”

Tyler glanced into the next room, where Kenny was frantically digging through the oak pile, before looking back to Oak Sapling. “Well, do you know about evolution?”

The stallion shook his head, “No, I haven’t really been able to speak with many Pokemon other than you. How are you doing that anyway?”

“Kenny’s a psychic,” Tyler explained. “Although he’s never really learned how to do anything other than a simple translator. This is the longest he’s really kept it up I think. But anyway, evolution occurs when a Pokemon meets certain conditions regarding strength, emotion, time and other factors. Kenny started out as a smaller Pokemon called Fennekin, then became a Braixen, and is now a Delphox.”

“Kenny evolved for the first time at a place called the Mauville food court. It’s just a cafeteria that people can battle in really. We were in the middle of a battle, and he managed to throw his opponent into a table hard enough to break it, then he evolved in the middle of the battle. Once it was over the owner threw a fit over breaking the table and we paid for it, Kenny took one of the table legs to use as his focusing stick. His species uses tree branches usually, but he’s not very normal. The shape of the wood affects the output and strength of his fire, he’s very brute force oriented so something big and heavy like that works well for him.”

Oak considered Tyler’s words, “So how long has he had it?”

“About nine months,” Tyler answered. “It’s not family heirloom tier sentimentality, so don’t get too worked up over it.”

The stallion sighed, “Still, there must be something I can do to make up for this.”

Kenny stepped in then, holding a large thick oak dowel. “There is, make me a new one. Use your fancy magic or something. We only have an hour left now.”

“Alright, do you want it to look like your old one?”

The Delphox considered for a few moments, “No. I want something different. My old staff was… mediocre really. I only used it for sentimental value, but strictly speaking it wasn’t very good.” He walked over to a table and scratched out a quick sketch. “I sorta thought this up a while back, but never really had the time to get it.” He then handed it to the stallion. “Think you can make it look like this?”

Oak nodded and took it in his magic, “Of course. Sorry again, lemme just go shape this real quick.” He then retreated into his work room, and the cartoonish sounds of various machinery, all of which didn’t sound like they belonged in a carpenter's shop, emanated from behind the door. Tyler and Kenny gave each other looks, wondering what was going on behind the door, before the noises stopped, the stallion exited, and handed a long object wrapped in paper to Kenny.

“Once again, my apologies on the destruction of your staff. I’ll be sure to not let something like that happen again.” He gave an unhappy look to the Mightyena.

“Sorry,” the hyena Pokemon mumbled.

“You should be.” Kenny growled, “I think your mutt needs training.”

The pony gave him an confused look, “You’re talking about him like he’s an animal. I thought Arceus said that all Pokemon were intelligent.”

Kenny shook his head, “No, we’re all sentient. Intelligence can be a rare quality.”

The Mightyena whimpered a bit, “I said I was sorry.”

Kenny sighed, “Fine. Let’s go Tyler.”

Tyler gave another apologetic look to Oak as Kenny charged out of the store, almost running into Offered who was waiting outside with Damian and BBK. “What took you guys so long?” the Klefki asked.

“The store owners Mightyena chewed up his table leg, he had to make us a new one.” Tyler sighed.

“Is that what’s in the package then?” Damian leaned forward to get a better look, “It’s kinda weird for him to wrap it up like that.”

“He better not have done a shitty job,” Kenny mumbled, ripping off a few chunks of paper from the package. He began to pull out the new staff, and his eyes widened.

It was a far cry from a table leg, but wasn’t quite like Kenny’s drawing from before, the liberties taken rather obvious. It was long, flowing, smooth. It was designed to have the shape of a tree branch, winding along to the end, where it branched out into three points, all pointing back to center.

“Woah,” mumbled Tyler. “That’s not something you wanna hit someone over the head with.”

“Yeah” Kenny mused. “I guess no more pseudo Wood Hammer for me.”

“Wait,” BBK interrupted. “How long did it take for him to make that thing?”

“About a minute,” Tyler replied. “I wasn’t really paying that much attention.”

“So why couldn’t he just do it when you first got there?”

Kenny put a hand to his chin, and a scowl started to reappear, “Good question. Maybe I should go…”

“Nope!” Tyler grabbed Kenny’s arm and pulled him away from the shop, “I know you’re just gonna get in trouble, and we need to make sure that you can use your new stick.”

“Fine, but we’re going to a different carpenter next time.”

After the dinner at Fredericks, the three eeveelutions returned to the den, a few leftover slices for Hector in tow. Once the collapsed drain was in sight Valerie stopped, causing her companions to as well.

“Something wrong hun?” Flo questioned, a concerned look on her face.

“No… well yes… but… I don’t know really.”

“That’s helpful,” Shadow chuckled. “You wanna talk about it?”

Valerie sighed, “Maybe later. For now, I think I’m just gonna go for a walk, I haven’t really gotten a good chance for alone time since this whole thing happened.”

Before either of the other two could respond she was already off, padding along the shoreline, away from them. She already felt bad about wandering off on a day like this, but she was just feeling so overwhelmed. Everything was going so well. It just felt wrong. After so many years of pain and misfortune, having a good day just didn’t feel natural anymore.

After a while of walking, she came across a pier, jutting out into the calm waters, the sun slowly being pulled down past the liquid horizon, allowing Luna’s night to begin. Valerie decided the pier looked like a good place to sulk for a while, and padded down the wooden platform to the end, where it ended in a long T shape, branching out fifty feet in each direction. There was only one other person there, a shiny altaria, gazing out into the waters on the left side, so Valerie decided to take the right.

The climbed up onto a bench, and sat alone in her thoughts for some time, watching schools of water types pass by in the distance, splashing and playing on the surface. After some time she heard a creak behind her, and turned around to find the shiny Altaria from before standing just behind her, watching the Wailords in the distance.

“Um… hi.” Valerie stuttered awkwardly. “Can I help you?”

“No. But could I help you?”

Valerie tilted her head in confusion. “What?”

“You look sorta down. So I’m willing to listen if you like. Sometimes that’s all it takes.”

“Oh… well my boyfriend already offered to listen, and I told him maybe later. So…”

The Altaria nodded in understanding. “That’s fine, I just thought I’d offer, since sometimes it’s easier to tell a stranger than someone you know. It protects the image they have of you.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Valerie mumbled. “For most of my life I haven’t really known any strangers. I was sorta confined to one little hellish corner of the earth.”

“Is that part of the problem?” The shiny Pokemon asked.

“Well… more the second part then the first.”

“Go on.”

Valerie shuffled her paws nervously. “Well… are you gonna ask about what kind of Pokemon I am?”

“Unless it’s part of the problem you don’t have to tell me. If it’s important, then sure.”

“Oh. For most people that’s one of the first things they ask. Well, I was the victim of an evil scientist named Doctor Nurem. He kidnapped hundreds of Pokemon and conducted brutal experiments on them. Very few survived. I was one of the lucky, if you could call continuing to live there lucky.” She stopped and looked to the Flying-Type, who nodded to continue. “I finally got out when Arceus brought us all here, and since then… everything has been… perfect. But… it feels… just… wrong.”

“You’re worried that this is all a dream?” The Altaria questioned.

“No… it’s not dreamlike. I just… feel like something bad is going to happen to counter all the good.”

The Altaria hummed. “I think I know what you mean. But what if this is all the good to counter the bad that happened before.”

“That....” Valerie considered. “That makes me feel like a paranoid idiot.”

The Dragon chuckled. “You’re not stupid. Don’t worry. Anything else you’d like to talk about?”

The Veneon sighed, “No… not really. I think just talking about that one thing really helped.”

“It’s good that I could help.” The Altaria smiled.

“So,” Valerie asked, “What’s your name?”

“Queen.”

Halloween Chapter (non canon)

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Chapter 16

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Chapter 17

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Cancelled

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Chapter 3

After the delicious dinner with FancyPants, the butler, Loyalty, led him to an upstairs room that had been prepared for him some time that evening. It was a fairly large room, fully equipped with all of basic necessities, even a bathroom. The bed was far too large for him, now that he was a diminutive two and a half feet; he figured it would work better once he was evolved, if he could evolve that is. He hoped he could, he didn’t want to be small and pink the rest of his life!

Getting into the bed proved difficult, as it was just about level with his head. To get in he had to push a chair from the desk to climb in. Once he got in further challenges were presented, his fur was full of static and the sheets kept sticking to him! And even worse he couldn’t figure out how to position his tail, and it kept sticking up into the air whenever he tried to sleep on his stomach like he always had as a human. After about ten minutes of struggling he finally found a comfortable position and managed to remove the sheets from himself, only to realize the light was still on. “Please tell me this isn’t going to get worse,” was the only reply he could offer to this realization.

Things were going even worse for Shadow and the gang. It got cold in Canterlot at night , due to the high altitude and winds. BBK wasn’t bothered much by the cold, but Shadow and Valerie were bordering on hypothermia, and they couldn’t exactly share warmth. They had searched for a dumpster with newspapers or anything that could be used to help contain their precious heat but the city was unfortunately clean, the only dumpsters they found had been emptied recently.

“Maybe we should have stayed at that warehouse,” moaned Shadow, “At least it was warm in there.” The others nodded in agreement. Unless they found somewhere warm their escape would be pointless.

“We should just break into one of these houses! I’m sure we could overpower whoever lives in there.”

Valerie gave a shocked look to the Klefki, not expecting the cute little fairy to suggest something so illegal.

Shadow just groaned, already used to BBK’s less than legal tendencies. “No, we can’t do that, then they’d just have more justification for locking us up! And would we be much better than the beasts they think we are?”

“I still think it’s better than you two freezing to death.”

Shadow groaned again, as much as he was loathsome to admit it, she did have a point. “It’s times like these I wish that I wish Tyler had let me evolve into a Flareon.”

“Well I like you just how you are, with a weakness to me,” teased the Fairy.

“Yeah yeah eat it up, either way I’m the one that beat you so Ty could capture you.”

BBK’s eyes narrowed, “Well maybe we should have a little battle tomorrow to see. That is if you two survive the cold.”

“It’s on then BooBoo!”

“I’m gonna crush you, you flashlight!”

Valerie felt now would be a good time to intervene, “Guys guys! Calm down! Fighting right now isn’t going to help! We need to find somewhere warm!”

“OOH! I have an idea! How about we break one of Shadow’s legs and admit him to the hospital!”

“No, no, no, no, no! We are not going to break one of my legs! I like my legs! And who knows if these ponies would be able to fix it?”

“Well it’s better than freezing to death isn’t it!”

“Only barely!”

Suddenly a window on a house next to them slammed open and an angry looking Gothitelle stuck her head out. “Will you idiots shut up! Some people are trying to sleep! The pony that lives in this house says you can stay here as long as you stop yelling outside her bedroom window!”

The group grimaced at the Psychic-Type’s shrill mental voice ringing in their minds.

“Sorry ma'am, I think I’ll gladly take that offer.”

“Come over to the door, the pony is already unlocking it. Now I’m going back to sleep.” And with that the grumpy Psychic-Type brought her head back in and slammed the window closed with her Psychic powers.

The group followed their instructions, and went to the front door, a sleepy looking mare with a light green goat and dark gray mane mixed with black. She mumbled a half hearted “good morning” before walking them to the living room and getting out a few more sleepings bags, as there were already two or three Pokemon in the room. She handed off a few bags to the Eeveelutions before looking to BBK, who shook her head and hung herself on a hat stand.

The two old friends fell asleep quickly, but Valerie stayed awake for some time. She hadn’t been given a good chance before to fully contemplate what being outside of the lab would mean. She would no longer have access to an all but unlimited supply of antidotes. Sure Shadow could always use Heal Bell, but he wouldn’t be around all the time. She would need to find a way to cure others all on her own. Perhaps she could learn Heal Bell? That could work, that is if her species could learn it. She let out a sigh, she would have to simply be VERY careful for now.

Another thought came to her mind, now that was free, what was keeping her from tracking down her parents and remaining siblings? She had had three brothers, and only two were taken with her to the laboratory. She stopped at that thought, tears welling up in her serpentine eyes. How would she explain what had happened to them? What if her parents blamed her? She blamed herself, so why wouldn’t they? Maybe she shouldn’t look for her family.

At the thought of family, the only surviving human test subject, Vincent, came to mind. He and some of the other survivors had become her surrogate family, and if she had somehow escaped, what was stopping them from being mysteriously teleported also? She smiled at that thought, she wondered what they were up to, and how they would be spreading their new metaphorical wings. Hopefully they were staying out of trouble.

Yawning, she turned over in her sleeping bag, her bristles catching slightly on the pillow. Shadow was laying before her, sleeping peacefully. He was the first non-victim to ever show compassion or care for her. That alone made him more valuable than her freedom, as freedom was a dangerous thing for her. Hopefully that pegasus guard from before was alright. Even if he had wrongfully arrested her and thrown her in a tiny cage, he was only doing his job, and she couldn’t stand the thought of someone else being hurt by her. Maybe once the local authorities stopped detaining Pokemon she could ask around wherever their station was.

The events of the day finally getting to her, she yawned, and drifted off to sleep. Her mind created a beautiful dreamscape, a large field, empty for all but a giant tree in the center. From it’s branches hung plump, roughly triangular pink berries. The most pleasant dream she had had in some time.

A few miles away, at Canterlot hospital, tragedy was taking place. Several nurses rushed around madly, a pegasus stallion laying in a bed, in his final death throes. The heart monitor showing only a flat, green line. Finally he stopped moving, his hoof falling to his side. On the other side of the room, a pegasus mare sobbed uncontrollably, a young foal clasped tightly to her barrel.

chapter 14

The day after the incident with the cultists, Shadow and Valerie received their next “paycheck,” and with some chipped in from the others, they had enough to make the trip, considering they could find inexpensive shelter in the great gambling city. Berries were picked for the journey, tickets were bought, and farewells were exchanged. Now, Valerie and her mate were on their way to Las Pegasus, to find her parents.

“I… I can’t believe that I’m finally going to see them again. After five years.” A tear rolled down the Poison-Types face, which was quickly wiped off by a black paw.

“Yeah. It’ll be nice to meet them. I hope they aren’t as hotheaded as your brother though,” the Umbreon snarked.

Valerie chuckled. “No… I think he got that more from our uncle, Lecter. He was a Jolteon, and was constantly picking fights with other wild Pokemon… Up until he challenged a trainer and got captured. Haven’t seen him since. He’s probably doing well, he was pretty strong so I bet his trainer liked him.”

Shadow frowned slightly. “Humans don’t only look at their Pokemons strength. I was pretty feeble for an Eevee when I first started out with Tyler.”

Ears flattening, Valerie defended herself. “I… I didn’t mean it like that… I just meant maybe it helped.”

The Umbreon smirked. “Don’t worry about it, you haven’t exactly had the best experiences with humans.”

“Heh… Yeah. But I really don’t have anything against humans. I met the Gym Leader for the nearby town a few times since he trained in the forest we lived in a bunch of the time, and he was pretty nice.”

The Dark-Type shrugged. “Alright. Just remember, that Nurem guy was pretty much the worst of the worst. There aren’t many even comparable to him, and I know that NONE of the humans Arceus brought along are like him. If there were, and I heard about them, I’d probably be one of the first people to sign up for the hunting party.”

Valerie smiled, and gave him a peck on the cheek. “I know you would, and I’d be right there with you. Just don’t do anything rash if you do hear about those types of people, alright?”

“Of course,” he then replied to the peck with a nuzzle, which she happily returned. The two lovebirds began getting comfortable, and waited out the rest of the trip.

The sun was setting as the train finally pulled into the station at Las Pegasus. It was not at all what Valerie had expected. She hadn’t been sure what is was she was expecting, but it was definitely not the towering buildings, long roads of flashy signs, and lively streets of Equestrias gambling center that she observed from the window. It was just about the polar opposite of Canterlot as a large city. Instead of haughty and dignified unicorns flooding the streets there was a hodgepodge of different pony races, much more evenly balanced than the capitol. Despite all of these sighs, she was still focused on the ocean which could barely be seen from the moving train. Somewhere along that shoreline, were her parents. And she couldn’t wait to find them.

Once the train was fully stopped she and Shadow exited before the stampede of other passengers, and quickly navigated their way out of the station and onto the bustling streets. They didn’t even bother to try asking for directions from the ponies since they wouldn’t be able to understand them anyway.

They were able to make it to the port just fine, but realized upon reaching it that it was far too expansive to simply search around and hope to find two random Vaporeon.

Shadow spotted a nearby Politoed, and signaled Valerie to come with him to talk to it.

The Politoed was currently watching the water intently, apparently searching for a meal in some form. “Cmon… One of those local fish. Just come a little closer… cmon…”

Shadow approached the Water-Type slowly, making sure not to startle him. After a few moments of debating how best to introduce himself and ask for information and directions a rather large fish swam up closer to the surface, and began feeding on insects floating on the surface. The Politoed quickly leapt down and closed his jaws around the fish, which he shook around violently above the water before swallowing it whole.

Shadow grimaced at the sight, and Valerie sighed, a slight smile upon her face. When she saw the look on the Umbreons face she chuckled, “It’s the same way my parents used to hunt, except with magikarp, and they would keep carry the it out and tear it up for us to eat.

The Umbreon nodded, slightly uneasily, and turned back to the Politoed who was pulling himself out of the water now. Figuring that that was as good a time as any, he approached the frog Pokemon.

“Excuse me, my mate and I were looking for her parents who we believe may be staying somewhere in the docks nearby. They’re two Vaporeon by the name of Flo and Hector. We were hoping you may have seen or heard about someone by that description.”

The Politoed burst out in laughter, “You know those two? Of course I know about them, they caused quite the ruckus first day here. Those two were duking it out with some Croconaw over who got to use this old collapsed drain pipe as a den. I don’t blame em’ honestly. It was a pretty nice place, if I was still with my mate we’d probably try for it too.”

Valerie beamed, they were so close! “Did they win? If so where is it? I have to see them!”

The frog laughed again. “Those reptilian bastards didn’t stand a chance. Your folks both knew Thunderbolt, and neither of the Croconaw had any good moves up their sleeves. Wasn’t even a fair fight.” He then looked up the shoreline. “The den is somewhere up along there, about a half mile I suppose. It’s by this old, rotting fishing dock. Looks like it’s about to collapse. You’ll probably know it when you see it, especially since the drain sticks out pretty far from the shoreline. Good luck. And if you’re passing by this sort of the shore, swing by if you like. You seem like… interesting folks. I’d love to learn more about ya.” The Politoed then went back to looking for food, waddling farther south along the shoreline.

It didn’t take long to cover the distance between the Politoed’s fishing area and the dock he had mentioned, and once they found the dock, the den was easy to find. Valerie stopped above it, taking deep breaths to calm her nerves. What if her parents had changed like Frederick? What if they weren’t accepting of her evolution? What if they blamed her for her brothers deaths? What if it wasn’t actually them? All of these questions continued to build up in her mind, and her heart beat faster and faster.

Shadow, sensing her distress, licked her cheek, and nuzzled her neck. “It’ll be fine, c'mon. Let’s go meet your family.”

This helped the Veneon significantly in calming down, and her breathing and heart rate slowed back down to normal. “You’re right,” she mumbled apologetically. “I should just be happy to finally be here. But… it’s just been so long. It was easy with Freddy, I didn’t expect it at all and just went with my gut… but now… I’ve just psyched myself out so much from thinking about it. How am I supposed to introduce myself? ‘Hi I’m Valerie, your long lost and now freakshow of a daughter.”

The Umbreon frowned and shook his head. “You aren’t a freakshow, and are you really gonna make me repeat myself? Okay then. It’ll be FINE. Just relax.”

“Yeah… I know in on my logical side that you’re right… but my emotional side is a whole different story.” She sighed. “Let’s just get this over with.” She stood up and moved down the shoreline, coming around to the opening of the sewer drain. It was a typical concrete pipe, about an inch thick on the sides, and about four feet in diameter. Farther inside was a larger chamber, largely brick and mortar, ending about six feet in where there had been an apparent cave in. A raised walkway ran along the right side below which was a pool of relatively clean water, about six inches deep and containing some algae and small fish. Shadow could definitely see why there had been a fight over it. It was a perfect home for a pair of Vaporeon.

Unfortunately, the perfect home was currently empty. Which wasn’t exactly heartening to Valerie, especially considering what they had heard about the fight over it. “You don’t think something bad happened do you?”

Shadow looked around some more. “I don’t think so, that cave in looks pretty old and settled since there’s all that algae on the rocks closer to the water, and that Politoed did mention before that it was caved in, so there aren’t really any signs of a struggle. They may just be out hunting like the Politoed.”

The Veneon sighed. “Yeah, you’re probably right. You stay here, and I’ll go out to look for them some more.” She then exited the cave, and wandered off farther to the north around the dock.

Shadow took this time to move farther into the cave, stepping up onto the walkway to keep from getting wet. When he reached the end of the walkway he took a better look at the brown boulders blocking off the rest of the sewer system. Upon his examination, he noticed one of the rocks looked… off.

“Oh Arceus… That’s not a rock that’s a…”

“An egg. I know. Now you have five seconds to back off before I tear out your throat.”

Whipping around, Shadow was greeted with an irate mama Vaporeon, currently baring her teeth at him. “Woah woah woah! I mean no harm!”

“Right. You’re probably buddy buddy with those two lizard assholes. Now get out before I carry out on my threat.” The Water-Type advanced forward some.

“No really! I’m here with Valerie!”

There was a spark of hope in her eyes, before it was smothered by skepticism. “How did you learn that name?” She demanded.

“She’s outside somewhere looking for you! I’m…” he almost spilled the beans about their relationship, but remembering Frederick decided to put it on hold. “... a friend. We came here together to find you and your mate.”

The Vaporeon considered for a moment, before coming to a conclusion, “If what you say is true, what’s my name?”

Shadow stuttered for a moment, “I… I know Valerie mentioned it once or twice… Um.... Fleur? No… that isn’t right.. F… F… It starts with an F.” He considered for a moment, “Flo! That’s it! Flo right?”

“Well at least you got it right eventually. Let’s step outside, I don’t quite trust you yet.”

Shadow followed along willingly, stepping back out into the afternoon sun. Glancing around he saw another Vaporeon approaching with Valerie draped unconscious over his back.

Shadow growled low, “What did you do to her?”

The male of the Water-Type duo huffed, “Calm down, I just used Yawn on her. She should wake up soon. In the meantime how about you explain why you two are intruding on our den.”

Shadow sighed, still glaring at the Vaporeon. “Well, your daughter and I were looking for you two.”

Upon her mates confused expression the female explained, “He claims that he’s here with Valerie. I suppose that would be her if he’s telling the truth. I want to believe it, but I’m not so ready.”

“It’s true!” Shadow defended, “Your name is Hector, she’s Flo, your other children are Frederick, Eric, and Marc. They all disappeared about five years ago, except Frederick… I’m not sure how much longer he was around with you two before he went off with that trainer.”

Hector glanced to Flo, both of them considering the Umbreons words. After a few moments, the male of the two spoke up. “I guess we should wake her up to find out if he’s telling the truth or not. She’ll probably be able to prove it better. You wouldn’t happen to know Heal Bell would you?”

Shadow glared, “Yes. I do. Heal Bell.” His eyes glowed for a second and after a moment Valerie’s eyes fluttered open.

“Wh… What happened?”

Shadow helped her up, “Your dad used yawn on you. They don’t believe me about you actually being Valerie.”

The Poison-Type sighed. This is exactly what she was scared of happening. “I guess we should have expected you not to, Frederick didn’t either. Go ahead, ask away.”

Before either asked a question, Hector’s eyes widened and he darted forward and wrapped his legs around the Veneon. “No need, just hearing your voice is enough proof. You sound just like your grandmother.”

“I do?”

The Vaporeon released her, “Absolutely! I never thought I’d see you again! And here you are again out of the blue! What happened to you? You mentioned you met Frederick? What about the others?”

Valerie grimaced slightly, then smiled. “I’d love to tell you all about it, even the more painful parts. It’s been so long!” She looked back to Shadow then, “Shadow, do you think you could give my parents and I some time together? How about you go to that Italian place we passed on the way here, I think it was called Francine’s or something,”

The Umbreon nodded, “Sure, you three have fun catching up.”

Once Shadow was gone, Flo invited Valerie inside. “Before we get started,” the Vaporeon pulled a round looking stone off the back wall. “I’d like for you to meet your newest sibling.”

Valerie gasped, “Oh my Arceus! I’m going to be a big sister again!” As soon as the words left her mouth Valerie’s heart stopped. She had meant to tell them in a gentler way.

“What do you mean again? What about Eric?” Concern showed in Flo’s eyes.

“I… well… They... He…” She whimpered. “I’m sorry.”

The mother Vaporeon’s eyes saddened, “Sweetie, I know that whatever it was that happened to them couldn’t have been your fault. Just… tell us what happened.”

Valerie sniffed, she knew this moment would come, but she still didn’t feel ready for it. “Marc, and Eric, they… they’re both dead.”

Flo came over and wrapped the Veneon in a hug, “Oh honey! Please tell me it was quick!”

“I would be lying if I did.”

The hug tightened, “Please, tell me what happened.”

Hector stepped forward, “Honey are you sure-”

“YES! I need to know what happened to my babies,” she looked back to Valerie, “No matter how horrible. I need to know.”

Valerie nodded, then gulped. “I’ll start from the beginning.”

Five Years Ago

“Ha ha ha! Bet you can’t catch me Val!” The little Eevee darted around between rocks, dodging his younger sister’s attempt to tackle him.

“Give it back Marc! It’s mine! I found it!”

“I don’t know why you’d even want some stupid old Leaf Stone, that’s not even how you evolve into a Leafeon dummy!”

“I know that! I just want it as a decoration for the den!”

“Then why do you care so much about me having it? We share a room!” The older Eevee taunted.

“Because the last time I found something cool you hid it and ‘forgot’ where you put it.”

Eric finally caught up to the two, “Guys! We’re way too far away from the den! We’re gonna get in trouble with Mom and Dad if they find out we’re out here.”

“Whatever, you’re the youngest, I think that the big Eevees, like Valerie, Frederick and I are fine this far out!”

“That’s not what they said when Frederick got grounded last month.” Valerie retorted, defending her younger brother.

“Feh, whatever goody two paws. Have your stupid rock back.” He tossed the Leaf Stone back to his sister.

The female Eevee only grunted in response to having it returned. “Finally, now we should head back. Eric is right. It’s especially dangerous out with this fog!”

Marc looked around, “Meh, whatever. It’s just some stupid fo-” his sentence was cut off as a dart suddenly appeared in the Eevee’s neck. “Wha- What the…” he then fell over, unconscious.

Before either Valerie or Eric could react two more darts came out of the fog and impacted their chest and leg. Valerie made one last feeble attempt to call out for help to her parents or brother, but all that came out was a small groan, before she fell over, and went into a deep sleep.

Valerie groaned as she slowly woke up, her eyes fluttered open, and she was greeted with the sight of a human boy, clad in simple clothes. His hair was black, his eyes were green, and...he appeared to have been crying recently. All around them, the floor and walls were white and slick. Even the ceiling appeared to be uniform, only broken by a square of light. Around her were Marc and Eric, only slightly coming to.

“H...Hello,” the boy said to Valerie and her brothers.

“Wha… Where are we?” Marc managed to groan.

“The lab,” the boy said in response. “And...I’m sorry, in advance. I...I’ve never seen an Eevee before, and you don’t deserve what’s about to happen.”

Eric began to panic, “What’s a lab? What’s going to happen to us?”

Vincent slowly got up from the corner and walked a little closer before sitting in front of the trio. “They study Pokemon here...but not everyone makes it,” he said solemnly. “They...send me in to calm the new arrivals down...But you deserve to know what’s going to happen.”

Eric’s eyes began to shine, “I w- want my mommy!” He began to sob uncontrollably, and his siblings joined as well, their sobs slightly weaker.

Vincent merely opened his arms up in an offering for a hug for all the little Eevees, who accepted.

Just then the door opened, and a man in scrubs marched in, grabbing Marc, and Vincents arm. “It’s time for the experiment to begin. Come along subject 37.”

Vincent fought only a little against the pull, he knew it was pointless, but he wanted time to say one final thing to the two that would be forced to remain. “I’m sorry,” he said again, before he too was dragged through the door.

Valerie and Eric waited anxiously for several hours, neither sure what to do besides cry to themselves and hold each other. After some time the door opened again, Valerie and Eric looked to him hopefully, but the boy just shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

“Wh-What did they do to him?” Choked out Valerie.

“You...don’t want to know,” Vincent said, sitting in the corner and sniffing. “They made me watch. They always do. And…”

“You have to tell me! I need to know what happened to my big brother!” The Eevee demanded.

Vincent sighed, “Fine, but remember you wanted to know.” He stopped for a moment before continuing. “They took a Metal Coat, an item associated with steel types, and melted it down. Then… they injected him with it.”

Valerie’s eyes widened, and more tears gathered at the corner. “What? Why? Is he okay?”

“...” Vincent couldn’t bring himself to look at either of them. His lack of response told them everything.

The two began to sob again, and Valerie could only imagine what they’d do to her when it was her turn.

Two weeks had gone by since Marc’s passing. Valerie still hadn't fully accepted it. She had accustomed herself to the schedule in the lab somewhat, but it still felt wrong. One of the aids took her just before mealtime, and she was helpless to resist as she was carried down the narrow corridors in the firm grip to what she believed her certain doom. A door opened to another room, and she was unceremoniously dropped on a table in the middle. It was then she got her first good look at the doctor.

He was rather tall, pale, and had similar black hair to Vincent. His eyes, however, were blue, hidden behind thin glasses. He wore a long lab coat, and his hands were covered in blue gloves. “It is time to begin the next experiment in new evolution and forcing it,” he said.

Valerie tried to jump off the table, but was caught and placed back off the table by a mechanical hand, which strapped her down. The doctor took out a purple vial labeled “Toxic Orb,” and he stuck a needle into it, drawing some out. “We will begin by injecting the subject with the contents of the orb.” He brought it down to the struggling Eevee, and held one of her arms still, and injected the serum into her shoulder.

Valerie screamed. The moment the liquid entered her bloodstream her flesh felt like it was on fire! She struggled and writhed in agony as the poison took hold. One of the aids brought down a hose which was forced into her mouth, and a smooth sour liquid poured down her throat.

“The subject has begun being fed our liquid rare candy concoction.” The doctor narrated to an unknown individual.

Another aid spoke up, “Doctor, it’s pulse is dropping.”

“What? We can’t allow that!” He then barked out a series of orders, mostly unintelligible medical jargon that Valerie didn’t understand, not that she was paying attention. “Inject ten cc’s of adrenaline! Raise the pulse!”

Valerie barely felt the pinch in her opposite shoulder as her body was burning from the earlier injection, and despite their best efforts her pulse was still dropping. She could hear a loud beeping noise nearby, which after a few more moments turned to a single long drone, then suddenly, everything seemed to slow down. Her head fell to it’s side, and she caught sight of Vincent, in tears in a corner.

He mouthed something to her, which she barely registered. Then suddenly, her body began to glow. All of the staff around her backed away, shocked at the spectacle taking place. Valerie felt her limbs stretching, her barrel expanding, causing the straps around her to tighten. Her vision whited out for a moment, and when it came back it seemed as if her eyes weren’t pointing in quite the same directions as before. Her tail expanded and she felt something heavy on the end, causing it to fall down to the table with a soft clunk.

There was silence in the room for a few moments, before all present, except her and Vincent burst into applause. “The experiment was a success!” Cried out the doctor. Success? What were they trying to do? Valerie felt her mind returning to her slowly, and the burning from before was converted into a refreshing, cool feeling, causing her muscles to relax.

“Return the subject to her room, we can conduct further experimentation with her later.” She heard the doctor say, and then the restraints were undone, and she felt gloved hands pick her up. The trip down the hall was a blur, and she suddenly found herself in the room she had come to know in the past few weeks.

The confused former Eevee stood herself up, and looked around. “Big sis?” She whipped around to find Eric behind her. “Is that you big sis?”

Valerie blinked for a moment. Seeing her brother from this angle was odd, as she was now considerably taller than her younger sibling. “Yes it’s me.”

Eric approached cautiously. “What did they do to you? Are they gonna do that to me?” He asked fearfully.

The Eeveelution looked down. “I… I don’t know. I don’t think they’re going to try the exact same thing again.” She then felt a pair of small paws wrap around her abdomen. “Wh- why are you hugging me?”

“You’re still my big sis! Please stop crying Valerie!”

She smiled, and returned the hug, neither aware of the devastating effects to come.

Valerie finished recounting the story, tears staining her fur. “I spent five more years there. I saw hundreds of other Pokemon come and… go. Each and every one reminded me… of… of…” She then felt her mother’s arms wrap around her from her right, and her father’s from her left.

“Shhhh. Honey. It’s okay. You aren’t there anymore. You’re safe. And with family again.” She heard her mother whisper in her ear. The Veneon felt something wet on her shoulder, and she knew exactly what it was.

Valerie teared up again. “Thank you. Mommy.”

Shadow entered the shop, the name “Fredericks” planted on a sign by the doorway. “Better keep him away from this place, egomaniac.” The second he stepped in he couldn’t help but inhale a lungful of restaurant air. Those dishes smelled absolutely delicious!

The griffon at the front greeted him. “Seating for one?”

“Four actually, more are coming soon.”

The griffon blinked a few times before sighing. “So...you’re not one of those psychics, then,” he said, before turning to the kitchen. “Mary, I could use some help translating!” he shouted.

Shadow stood in the doorway for a few moments and sulked about the language barrier. “Too bad those spells only last a few hours.” He looked to a blackboard outside, reading over some of the foods listed, the special of the day being a Supreme Pizza. There was also the “Pony Friendly” special, which featured more vegetarian ingredients.

“Ack, when will these barriers of word be overcome? We cannot always rely on little Vincent…” With those words, the shiny Sandslash chef came out and stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the restaurant proper. “How many today, little Umbreon?”

“Four please.”

Mary turned to the griffon and held all four of her claws up and nodded once. The griffon nodded as well, beginning to retrieve four menus from the podium. “Hold it,” she said with a bit of bite to her voice, before turning back to the Dark-type. “Table or booth? Pony friendly menus, or non?”

Shadow considered for a moment before replying. “Table would be best, and it’s just my mate and her parents so non-pony I guess.”

Mary nodded again, before holding her claws in a T for the table preference, then shaking her head to indicate that they did not need the green menus the griffon had been going for. With another nod of his head, Fredrick replaced the green with red and hopped down from behind the podium.

“This way,” he said, leading his latest guest to one of the few free tables that would hold four at this time of day.

Shadow seated himself, then realized that he was too short. Looking guiltily to the Griffin, the server sighed, and retrieved a booster seat for him. Once the Umbreon was comfortable he looked over the menu, and decided to ask for a simple cheese pizza, since he didn’t know the preference of the others. Since he couldn’t ask to delay it and didn’t want to bother the chef again he could only hope it wouldn’t be cold by the time the others arrived.

Luckily the minute hand on the clock only went halfway around before the others arrived. Valerie quickly ran over to their table and hopped up in the booster seat with Shadow. Flo and followed close behind, having to make do with a normal chair.

Seeing his confused look at the absence of her father Valerie explained. “He’s staying behind with the egg. Oh! That’s right! I’m gonna have a new little brother or sister!”

Shadow smiled, “Yeah, I saw the egg before. Congratulations. I guess we need to come back again some time in the future.” He looked to Flo, “How long do you think before it hatches?”

Flo sipped from a cup of water at the table, “Well I laid it two days before we came to Equestria, so it may yet be a while until it hatches.”

Valerie slouched a little and smiled, “Aww, now I gotta wait.”

Her mother smirked and smacked her lightly on the shoulder, “You must have changed a lot in the last five years. You used to be the patient one!”

“If you think I’ve changed you should see Frederick!” She laughed. “Did I mention he’s a Sylveon now? Honestly that’s the last evolution I would have expected him to pick. I always imagined him as a Jolteon or a Flareon, with that temper of his. He’s even worse now.”

“Oh? That’s a shame, I had hoped maybe he’d become more level headed when he got older, and not taken after his uncle so much.”

Valerie giggled, “Well your hopes are sort of in vain. He’s worse than ever, but he’s still a sweetheart on the inside.”

Shadow gagged, “Can we just eat the pizza now? Before it gets cold.”

“Sure honey,” Valerie laughed.

Flo’s eyes widened. “Honey? Are you two- oh my Arceus!”

The Vaporeon jumped onto the table, walked across, and squinted at the Umbreon, who leaned back as far as he could in his chair with wide eyes. “Hmm… Yep. You’re good boyfriend material.” The Water-Type then returned to her seat.

Valerie sighed in relief, “Frederick would have to disagree with you on that one I’m afraid. He actually got in a fight with Shadow back in Canterlot when he wouldn’t leave. We finally convinced him to let me stay with him, but they still don’t like each other very much.

“Ha! Sounds a lot like your uncle when your father first met me. He thought I was just some whore. After we got to know each other better he decided I was only a slut. I just thought ‘It’s a start.’”

The whole table laughed, then dug into the pizza, The only talk for some time was Flo complaining that it didn’t have anchovies. As they ate they mingled some, Flo occasionally asking Shadow about his life with Tyler, and more detail on how he and her daughter met, which he answered to the best of his abilities, occasionally looking to Valerie for any indication of what she was and wasn't ok with him sharing.

That was about when there were the sounds of a...commotion in the kitchen. Screaming, metal and water being thrown about, and wood impacting something at high velocity. And then the intelligible screaming started. The screaming that was somewhat...familiar to Valerie.

“È goffo idiota! I told you I needed pureed tomatoes, not chunks! This sauce is worthless!” There was some more banging and a young colt in a kitchen uniform was ejected forcefully from the kitchen.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Please!”

With another bang, a shiny Sandslash threw the door open and put one claw under the colt’s chin, holding him still as she looked at him for a moment. After that moment, she snorted and nodded, which seemed to relieve the colt...for all of a second after which the mop and bucket were thrown at him.

“You know the rules! You mess up in my kitchen, you are on janitor duty for a week!” the chef proclaimed.

The colt winced, and took the cleaning tools, knowing better than to argue. He began by cleaning up the large puddle of chunky red sauce that was slowly leaking it’s way out of the kitchen.

Once the scene was over, the atmosphere in the restaurant returned, although it was slightly more tense now. Valerie was still fixated on the doorway. “I know that Sandslash.”

“You do?” Shadow mumbled, spitting out a bit of cheese as he spoke.

Instead of replying the Veneon dropped from her chair, and padded over to the kitchen, giving the mess from before a wide berth. She pushed open the swinging door a bit, “Excuse me, Mary?”

“You, get that pot down to a simmer!” the shiny Sandslash said, pointing a wooden spoon at one of the colts like it was a conductor’s baton. The pony scurried to obey her, even through the language barrier. “You, check on that dough! And you-” Here the Sandslash turned to Valerie, blinking a few times. “You...seem familiar,” she said aloud, spoon dropping a few inches.

“Heh, you’d think someone like me would be harder to forget.” She grimaced a bit under the chef’s glare.

“I did my best to forget a lot,” she said tersely. “And I learned a lot more besides. You do seem rather...unique, I will grant you. Did we know one another?”

Valerie blinked in surprise. She had expected her to at least remember her somewhat. “My name is Valerie, I was one of the other… Subjects under Nurem’s ‘care’.”

“Valer-...oh I am ever so sorry for not recognizing you,” Mary said, finally dropping the spoon and moving to give the poison-type a hug, before reconsidering and backing off. “It’s been a little bit since I broke out, you know. I tried to forget some of the more...tragic things.”

The Poison-Type nodded. “I understand. It’s nice seeing you! We all really missed your cooking after you were gone, especially Vincent.”

“No need to tell me that,” the Sandslash said with a laugh. “Little Vincent has already come by before. He is just the cutest little Abra…”

“Vincent is here?” Valerie broke out in a grin, that was not something she had quite expected to hear.

“Yes, and if we are going to catch up on old times, I am going to take my break and escort you back to your seat,” the chef said, picking her spoon up and glaring at the colts...who all quickly got back to work. With a snort and a smile, the chef held the door open for the Poison-type. “After you.”

Valerie entered back into the dining room, once again sidestepping the slightly less large red puddle. As they passed it Mary clacked a few of her claws together, causing the colt to hurry up in his ministrations to his mess.

They went over to the groups table, as they approached Valerie introduced the Pokemon. “Mary, this is my mate Shadow, and my parents Flo and Hector. Everyone, this is Mary, she was another subject back at the lab.”

Mary nodded at the parents before turning her eyes on Shadow. The Umbreon suddenly felt as though Mary was Valerie’s mother, and not Flo, with how she was staring at him. The Sandslash took another step towards him and hummed a few times. “You are courting?” she asked, glancing at Valerie as she asked the question.

“Um… I guess you could call it courting,” was the awkward reply. The Sandslash gave off a humph and continued to inspect the Umbreon.

“He knows well enough about your form, I take it, and the drawbacks,” the Sandslash commented.

The Umbreon nodded, “Yeah, I’ve been helping her a lot with that, especially since I know Heal Bell.”

“Good,” Mary said with a nod and a sad smile. “But not all wounds are...external, little one. I know that one well enough.” With a soft sigh and a shake of her head, the chef turned back to Valerie. “But enough of depressing things. How have you been since the shift, Valerie?”

“I’ve been doing fairly well. We hit a few… bumps,” she saddened for a moment, but quickly returned to her previous demeanor, “but overall it’s been good. I found my brother again, which I admit while it was good it was also a bit of a hassle. And I made some pretty good friends back in Canterlot. What about you?”

The Sandslash waved a claw around to indicate the restaurant. “I have not been doing badly either. Once I showed that griffon what a real red sauce should taste like, he let me stay. And despite a...small bump of our own here throughout Las Pegasus, things have been calm and good for us. Little Vincent was most eager to taste my cooking again.” Once the Sandslash looked at the table, she chuckled a little. “As were you it seems.”

“Heh… Yeah. I didn’t even realize it was yours until a minute ago, but it was so good I feel guilty for not recognizing it and dashing into the kitchen the second I tasted it,” the Eeveelution giggled.

“Well if you want, I do have a griffon-friendly pizza recipe that I can have ready in about twenty minutes. Give you all a reason to stay and talk, and I’ll even toss in some breadsticks for half-price,” the Sandslash offered.

The whole table grinned, “That would be great!” Exclaimed Valerie. “And would it be too much to ask if we got just one teansy recipe to take back with us? I promise the chef where we’re staying is probably one of the few chefs worthy of your cooking!”

“Well if you speak so highly of him, then I can probably trust him with one of my recipes...but the next one will cost him one in return, little Valerie,” Mary said, scratching behind the Eeveelution’s ear with one of her claws. Just the tip of one of her claws, and she remembered to not touch anyone with it afterwards.

“I could probably do that, his pastas are his equivalent to your pies.” She grinned.

“Don’t let that griffon hear that,” Mary said with her own smile. “He’s not half-bad at making his own noodles, even if his sauce-work leaves much to be desired. So, one pizza and an order of breadsticks?” the chef asked, to make sure she got it all right before vanishing again. With a small round of nods coming from the Eeveelutions, the Sandslash ducked back into the kitchen.

“She seems nice,” commented Flo. “How exactly did she manage to cook in the laboratory anyway? You’d think that ‘doctor’ would keep a tighter hold on knives and heating elements.”

Valerie rubbed the back of her head with a paw. “Well… uh… she doesn’t really need knives, since her claws are much sharper than other Sandslash. But the doctor let her near cooking equipment since it boosted morale among the other subjects when they got good meals… and the… suicide rate would drop.”

“That’s… um… a nice sentiment I suppose,” was her mother's reply.

“Yeah… sentiment…” Valerie looked down at her plate.