A New World, Same Shadows

Chapter 2: Into the Sandstorm

Ringo ran. She ran faster than she ever did on the beach, ever in her life even, as panic ate away at her mind. It wasn't because of what was following her, and she knew something was following her. No she was scared at what was in front of her 'that sandstorm is happening at the orchard! Why was there a sandstorm at the orchard in the first place!?' she screamed in her head, before mentally shaking the question away 'Doesn't matter, Grandpa was right! He was right and now he's in danger because I wasn't there to help him! I have to hurry home! I have to!' she mentally repeated, pushing herself to go even faster to the point where her muscles started to ache.

Right now her mane was drooping in front of her eyes and she could only imagine what the rest of her coat looked like now or what everypony would think of the 'vain and terse' granddaughter of Fuji Apple looking the way she did, but right now appearances were the least of her worries. Rin was taking every shortcut she knew through town, using a combination of sprints down the main street and high-speed acrobatics or tight fits between buildings or whenever more strange creatures were inadvertently between her and her destination, and for good reason too. Her Grandpa Fuji was the only family she had, If something were to happen to him...

No! Now was not the time to be thinking about that. He was a tough old stallion, a measly sandstorm wouldn't do him in, she just had to get home, make sure he was alright, and kick the flank of whoever or whatever was causing this.

Luckily, aside from the occasional cart or food stand barring her path, that there were no signs of anypony on the streets. Usually that meant one of two things, depending on the severity of the crisis. Either the town banded together to stop said crisis that was threatening their town, or they hid together in the town hall until whatever was threatening their town, be it bad weather or unusually timed nights, blew over. Usually the latter, much to her chagrin, but regardless of which it was it gave her a chance to push herself without worrying about onlookers. Though really, there was very little she noticed at the moment. All she cared about was reaching the swirling vortex of sand.

And thanks to her efforts, or reckless abandon if her body's aching was any indication, she was nearly out of town and could see the outer wall to her home, it would be only another few minutes before she was there. That was the good news. The bad was that she could start making out how bad the estate was starting to be ravaged by the wind and sand from the sandstorm, that somehow seemed to be moving towards the main building. Worse yet, there was a group of ponies including the Weather Pegasus-the very one that told her today's weather report, the local Guard officer of Kouma-and a unicorn who was almost in love with his job it seemed like, and the Mayor of Kouma-who practically everypony in town agreed must've had a mule for a parent at the front gate standing around arguing about something with...more of these strange creatures, consisting of a floating, flower patterned, thing that had arms and hands but no feet, a blue dog-like thing with yellow fur around the head, front paws, and back legs, and a weird looking giant red thing with flaming eyebrows. As interesting as these creatures were to her, she didn't have time to deal with the arguing ponies or the strange creatures and there was no way she was sneaking through the front gate past them either, not covered in so much sweat the she practically shined in the sunlight.

Acting fast, she snuck through the tree line and made a detour along the side of the wall making sure that nothing, especially the group bickering nags, would see her approach. Catching her breath for the first time since leaving the forest, Rin scanned the three meter tall wall, thinking how best to climb the smooth stone surface. Looking up then back, eyeing a particularly sturdy looking tree branch five meters away, taking a few steps back to look between it and the wall, judging if she could make that or not. With a suppressed whine and a grimace she took one more reluctant breath and began climbing the tree to the branch without being seen up to her perch. With one deep breath to remind herself why she was doing this and strengthen her resolve Rin began her perilous running start and, to the sound of a snapping tree branch, cleared the wall.

While her landing was anything but graceful she had managed to get home undetected, save for the creatures she had to avoid in town, but she didn't think they would be going around gossiping about her anytime soon. Though now she had a new problem, she was now in the midst of the sandstorm, without anypony's knowledge, and with no protection from the sand save her tough shell of skin and hair. In hindsight, going over the wall may not have been her best idea considering all that and now she could barely see past her muzzle. Shielding herself the best she could, Rin shook off the sweat from her run and did the best she could to return to her 'normal' look, deciding it was futile to try and keep the sand out of her coat and mane. Once that was done...or better at least, Rin squinted her eyes and looked around to find anything in the sandstorm, preferably her grandpa safe and sound in front of her with a plan on how to stop this, but at this point she'd settle for anything.

Wandering aimlessly through the sandstorm she bumped into some of the orchards apple trees that had been stripped of their leaves and had sand beginning to perforate the apples 'great, grandpa's in danger and we're gonna be loosing sales...' Rin complained before moving on 'if I find out that somepony is behind this then I'm going to kick their flank so far, Tartarus will have to ask for it to be mailed-' "Whoaa-oof!" Her thoughts were interrupted when she tripped over a smooth slab of stone laying on the ground, obscured by the sandstorm. Standing up on all fours, Rin turned back towards the long rock glaring at it with contempt "grr...stupid rock! I don't have time for this!" she yelled, earning herself a mouthful of sand. Sand she promptly coughed up and spat out onto the ground next to her. Quickly loosing patience with every kind of solid hard material she kicked the slab as hard as she could with her forehoof, cursing as it caused more pain to her hoof than the rock, something she didn't really care about at the moment.

"Ty...?" the rock on the other hand...did.

Rin watched dumbstruck as the slab raised into the air floating away from her before flying at her, hitting her in the chest, and knocking her through a nearby tree. Gasping for air and trying to get back up after the hit she looked back at the slab...then looked at what it was connected to.

"Uh...oh..."

"RAAAA...!"

"How'd we lose her!? She's a bright red...Ponyta...thing!" James yelled at no one in particular as he ran down the road.

"I think it was when those Chimecho came by." Selene replied calmly, ignoring her partner's outburst as she kept up with him using Psychic.

James and Selene had been able to keep up with the mare (which they agreed to call her considering she was some sort of horse-thing) by sticking to the treetops and transitioning to the rooftops when they reached the town. The town architecture had looked like what he had seen in brochures of Ecruteak City with all of the buildings being slightly elevated off the ground and made mostly of wood, from the thick support beams to the open-framed windows. The roofs were all lined with stone tiles and gently curved with the highest point being in the center of the building.

Even with taking in the local architecture, the two were doing well tailing her, until she started going through, around, and sometimes even under the same eye-catching buildings. James and Selene did their best to track her but when she ducked into an alleyway among the buildings their pursuit was interrupted by a group on Chimecho who had never seen a shiny Pokémon before. And while Selene politely sent them on their way, the damage had been done.

"I know the when, but I'd rather know the why. We're better that this, I know we are!" James sighed trying to regain his composure. Something he learned long ago was that anger makes you reckless "Can't you search for her thoughts or something so we know where she is?"

Selene shook her head "I'm afraid not, she's too far away right now and I'm not used to her mental signature like I am with you or everyone else."

"Wonderful..." James murmured 'so she's too far away to track on her mental mini map huh, well that's frustrating. Hmm...frustrating. Maybe...' "Could you track her emotions then?" James asked. 'If Ralts can sense emotions with their horn, and that horn still remains as a Gardevoir then it's possible...right?'

"I could try it." Selene replied. She closed her eyes, focusing on the horn on her chest, opening herself to the emotions of everything nearby "Hm...I sense something but, there's interference everywhere. Best I can tell something's headed to the sandstorm where there's something with similar, but ultimately stronger, emotions overwhelming everyone else's right now. And whatever it is," Selene said opening her eyes to focus on the turbulent wall of sand "it's in the heart of that."

"Lovely..." James sighed. He then took a deep breath as his eyes became burned with drive "Welp, plan B then."

"Plan B?"

James returned Selene's question with a cocky smirk "What else? Enter the sandstorm, find the Pokémon inside, stop it, be badasses in the process."

"Oh," Selene giggled as she returned her attention to the road ahead with a smile "I like plan B."

The two continued down the path until they saw the gate leading to whatever estate the sandstorm was currently decimating. Much like the rest of the town, the gate itself was made from wood and had the gently inclined tile roof, though there were some noticeable differences than the town architecture. The most notable being the wood carved red apples on each side of the gate and that the base of it as well as the wall it was connected to were made from smoothed grey bricks. And as much as James wanted to admire the architecture more, there was a more immediate problem in front of them.

Specifficly the group of Pokémon standing in front of said gate.

Being seen by the Pokémon here was not a big deal to James, heck he was a Pokémon himself now and a trainer before that. But there were concerning differences with these ones, namely that the three of them had some sort of accessory attached to them, and that was enough for alarm bells to go off in his head. Grabbing Selene he jumped off the path and ducked behind a nearby tree. Peeking out from behind it, James took a closer look at the group.

The group consisted of a strangely thin Dusknoir, a Manectric, and a Darmanitan, all talking with each other. Each of them had their own unique decorations on them consisting of a flower shaped antennae along with flower pattering on the Dusknoirs body, a red scarf tied around the neck of the Manectric, and an absurdly too small red cap on the head of the Darmanitan. In fact, if the situation were different, James would have found the sight hilarious. The problem was that the scarf had a very familiar emblem on it, as did the hat.

"Rangers...great." he cursed. Ever since an incident in Almia, the Pokémon Rangers had been trying to arrest him on sight with some even attacking with their Pokémon beforehand. He even had to stop going home in case one of the more passionate rangers were waiting for him there. Paranoid? Maybe, but he didn't want anyone getting hurt in the crossfire for his actions other than him. "Should've figured I wasn't the only human turned into a Pokémon." he said, letting out a tired sigh.

Selene peeked behind the tree as well "yeah, but they don't know who you are yet. You don't exactly look like your normal self."

"Perhaps, but Shiny Gardevoirs aren't exactly a common thing back home. If we're seen together, it won't take them long to put two and two together and start asking questions." James finished, hitting the back of his head on the tree, the blow was mostly cushioned by his tongue though to his frustration he now tasted splinters. Groaning loudly, he relented "Guess I have no choice then; Plan B version two."

"...'Version two'?" Selene parroted, James retracted his tongue into his mouth and whispered into her ear and her shoulders slumped "I don't like 'version two'."

"It's the best I can do with what I know." James said "And trust me; I don't like it either." and with that he ran parallel to the wall, disappearing into the forest.

"Well, guess I better go say hi." she sighed, returning to the path. As she approached the Pokémon, an ominous feeling passed through her, a warning from her mind that something bad was going to happen. Not 'Arceus putting Pokémon to sleep around the world' bad but still something she was not looking forward to finding out. 'When this is all over, I am going to do SO many things to him!' Selene mentally noted before gaining their attention "Hey! Excuse me! Do you know what's going on?"

The trio turned their attention to her each with an equal amount curiosity for the new voice. The Dusknoir was the first to recover as it flew through the air towards its with her arms extended and aimed at her neck.

"Seleney!" a young girl's cheerful voice called out.

"Phoebe!?"

Instinct took over as Selene ducked around Phoebe's hug, missing her arms by inches as she kept going in mid-air. She had nothing against her friend hugging her, it was just that Dusknoir is known as the Gripper Pokémon for a reason, and she liked breathing right now. "It's nice to see you too Phoebe, but you have to be careful with those arms of yours." Selene scolded.

"Ahaha! Sorry. Sorry." Phoebe replied, swaying from side to side with her arms flapping slightly.

"I guess that means you're Kirikaze's slave." a masculine voice interjected, one that while Selene didn't recognize it made her tense up and grit her teeth. The voice came from the Darmanitan who along with the Manectric had finally caught up with Phoebe. The normally wide grinning Darmanitan had his mouth contorted into a scowl, making his whole face look unnatural, an obvious tell aside from the hat that this 'Pokémon' was once human.

"His name is James!" Selene yelled in defense of her trainer "And I am not his slave. I'm his partner."

"Right. And Giovani calls his thugs 'business associates'. Rangers are still cleaning up the mess he made in Almia and he still has yet to be put on trial for his other crimes." the Ranger said with a voice full of contempt "Speaking of, have you seen Kirikaze?"

"No, haven't seen him since I woke up." Selene lied "And even if I did, I certainly wouldn't tell you." she added truthfully.

"We're just trying to help-" the Manectric started to say.

"You've helped enough!" Selene interrupted "Because of you, he hasn't been to Oldale Town in years! He can't challenge the Pokémon League, or even the Gyms in any other region besides Hoenn! He can't enter contests, no matter how much Cinder begs him to! You have no IDEA how much he's given up for us! And it's all thanks to you rangers!"

"Because HE leveled one of our detainment facilities!" the Darmanitan ranger yelled back.

This was not good, she could feel the psychic energy welling up within her, crying to be unleashed on her surroundings. It usually meant one thing; her temper was starting to get out of control, she had to stop this conversation now before things got worse. James was counting on her after all, and she wouldn't let the love of her life down. Taking a deep breath she began to use Calm Mind with the hope that it will have the effect its name implies. It seemed to work...a little bit anyways. At the very least it got her emotions under control enough so Selene could try and change the subject "You still haven't answered my question," Selene said through gritted teeth "What's going on here?"

"Well, we've been trying to go into the sandstorm but these ponies won't let us through the gate." Phoebe explained, pointing toward the group of ponyta-like creatures.

"Ponies?"

"That's apparently what their called." the ranger said "Apparently they can have either wings or a horn, being considered a pegasus or a unicorn respectively. There's also a bit of a vocabulary difference, they keep using the word 'pony' whenever we would use the word 'person' or some variant of."

"How do you know that?"

"Because, we've been here since the Sandstorm started and in that time they've been arguing about what to do with us." the Manectric replied "And to make things worse, like humans they can't understand a word we say." he then added.

"I think I can help with that one at least," Selene said, seeing an opportunity to get close to her love "but I think first introductions are in order."

"I'm Carlos, and this is my partner Manectric." the Darmanitan said.

"No nickname?"

"Manectric is my name, I am quite fine with it."

"Hahaha! You all know who I am." Phoebe said whimsically.

"A lot of people know who you are Phoebe. Being in the Elite Four kinda makes you famous." Selene commented with a chuckle. She then turned toward the group of ponies and began approaching them, with the others following close behind.

The group of ponies consisted of two pegasuses 'or is it pegasi?' arguing with a ashen colored unicorn with a light grey mane with red streaks running through it. The pegasi's coats 'it's probably pegasi.' were different shades of green, one a more lime green while the other was aqua, while their manes and tail were the same storm cloud grey and even looked like puffy storm clouds. There was also a wrinkled old pony that had neither wings or a horn that had an orange coat with silver hair, definitely from age unlike the unicorn's hair which seemed like it's natural color. Another thing she noticed was that like the mare they all had some sort of brand on their flanks, but each was a different picture then the next. The ponies were still arguing with each other with one that had wings suggesting that each of the Pokémon be tied up and reported to their 'Princess' whoever that was, whereas the unicorn was trying to explain how bad of an idea it was, even if he didn't know either, to Selene's amusement. Getting enough of their back and fourth argument, Selene reached out to them with her mind.

"Excuse me, perhaps you could let us through?"

"Wha- who said that?" the aqua pegasus said, looking around for the source of the voice in his head. The others were also searching for the source in different directions.

"Behind you." Selene replied, watching as the ponies all turn towards her. With their undivided attention Selene waved an arm at them and gave the best smile she could under the circumstances "Hello."

All of the ponies stared at her with the same struck dumb expression on their faces. The unicorn was the first to break out of his stupor, clearing his throat "we have A LOT to talk about."

"My sentiments exactly."

Rin rolled to the side, barely avoiding another charge from the thing she stumbled upon as it cashed through a tree like it was paper. She turned toward where it went squinting to try and see it would approach from next in anticipation of another follow up rush. She was gasping for breath which, being in the middle of a sandstorm, meant that sand was also making it's way into her mouth. So for every gasp of air she took, she either coughed up or spat out the same amount plus whatever sand she inhaled as well, with blood thanks to that initial strike to her chest. Breathing was difficult to say the least and commanding her body to move fast enough to avoid all of the charges was not doing her any favors either.

There was a ray of hope however. The sandstorm seemed to be dissipating slightly as time went on, which made seeing the surroundings much easier than it was when she first arrived. A part of her wished it wasn't though.

The 'stone slab' she had kicked turned out to be something's tail and that something was some sort of stone armored monster with spikes running down it's back. It had two arms and legs each with three very sharp claws protruding from them. It's lined blue belly, which looked to be the softest part of it, was harder than anything she had ever kicked before. There were also what appeared to be black holes on it's chest and knees in the shape of empty glaring eyes but she never had the opportunity to look into them to check if they actually led anywhere, she was too busy not becoming fertilizer for whatever trees would be left after this.

She heard the pounding of it's feet against the ground to her left and turned to meet it. What she saw was a pair of glaring eyes, their pupils the size of pinpricks, a triangle shaped head, ending in three points at the back of the skull, and four pointy fangs currently glowing in it's open mouth. Gritting her teeth, Rin leaped out of the creature's way, barely avoiding the creatures sharp fangs, and once again rolled along the ground. That time she felt some of the hairs on her tail get pulled out, most likely caught in either it's fangs or it's claws.

One thing she realized about it was once it was moving, there was no stopping it but whenever it missed her, because of it's short legs it took it's time turning around for another charge or bite. At first Rin tried using this moment to buck the monster and found out very quickly that this thing was incredibly hard! Now she was using those moments to catch her breath and put some distance between her and it.

"Ty..."

Rin stopped in her tracks, immediately turning around to face the monster only to find it glaring at her from the corner of its eye. She started backing away slowly, never letting her eyes off it's own.

"Ty...rani..."

Her eyes went wide as she watched the giant beast pivoted on one foot and stomp the other hard into the ground.

"Tyranitar!"

And then all Tartarus broke loose. The ground began to heave and break, trees that were somehow still standing nearby toppled over with a large crash. Rin quickly lost her balance trying to endure the shakes as the ground around her began to sunder. She could feel her insides being torn apart, bones breaking from the tumultuous shakes and organs being scratched or pierced from hitting the broken bones.

Rin realized two things at this point. The first was that this thing was holding back the entire time she had been avoiding it. And the second was a bit more grim as she laid on the ground staring at the monster through the sand.

'I'm...going...to die here...aren't I...'

Rin tried to move as the monster walked towards her but a sharp pain in her barrel forced her to the ground coughing up an unsettling amount of blood.

The monster, which like the Geodudes she decided to name Tyranitar, was standing over her staring at her with contempt "Ty. Ran. ni." it said, reaching down for her.

This was it, Rin closed her eyes and awaited the bitter end. The next thing she was expecting was Tyranitar grabbing her neck and biting down on either her head or barrel, ending it. Moments passed in agonizing silence as she waited for it to be over with...so why wasn't it? The next moment she heard a stomp rumble through the ground. Wearily she opened her eyes and was surprised to see something new standing in front of her.

There was a blue frog-like thing with large yellow triangular ears stood with its back to her crouching on its webbed feet, using one of its hands as balance while the other was extended into the air behind it dripping with water. There were also large bubbles on it's knees and elbows that seemed to be unaffected by the sandstorm going on around them. It stared back at her with one eye scanning the length of her body before focusing on her face with a smirk.

"Grenin. Grenin~ ja!"

"I...have no clue...what you just said..."