A New World, Same Shadows

Chapter 6: The Calm Before...

Selene walked through the gate leading to Fuji's orchard, taking a moment to stretch while the rest of her group caught up with her so they could continue on to town together. Sighing in her state of bliss from the limber muscles she looked back through the gateway to Cinder and Phoebe merrily talking to each other with Rin between them strapped to a cart needed for todays errand. With an extra six dinner guests and a sandstorm ravaging most of the food somepony had to go to town and buy more as well as the materials to continue the repairs, the Pokémon volunteered to help though. And why wouldn't they? Fuji, despite having little food to spare, once again gave them a free meal, this time hash browns with a strange but undeniably delicious apple that was constantly glowing different colors ranging from pure white to brilliant gold. The weather was perfect too, with the sun glittering off any lingering sand still stuck to the outer wall of the Apple orchard and not a cloud in the sky to obstruct it. It was truly a perfect morning anyone would want to be outside for.

"Ahh, that was the best breakfast I've had in a long time!" Phoebe said.

"Uh-huh, uh-huh!" Cinder nodded "That apple was really tasty...What were they called again?"

"...Morning Suns..."

"Oh yeah. Haha, what a funny name."

Well, save for one. While the Pokémon were full of energy Rin kept her head low, hiding her lime green eyes and the large dark spots under them behind her mane. Yet despite being obviously sleep deprived she wasn't falling behind to the Pokémon.

"Are you alright Rin? you're in a bad mood." Selene asked innocently.

That didn't make her feel any better as she raised head just high enough to reveal the dark spots and shoot the Gardevoir a glare "oh yeah? What gave that away?" she answered tersely.

"You mean ignoring the fact that I can sense your emotions or read your mind like a baby's picture book if I so chose?" Selene replied snidely, smiling mischievously for a moment before donning a worried look "You've been wearing that scowl all morning. So what's wrong?"

Thinking more about it Rin realized Selene wasn't wrong. Then again pulling an all-nighter because your next door neighbors were horny, realizing how much more damage Tyranitar caused that still needed to be repaired, how many apple trees were lost to the sand, and that in only two meals the Pokémon ate through nearly three-fourths of their food stores would leave a good many ponies peeved as well. And nothing would make her feel better than telling her off and shooing her away, at least for a little while. But she couldn't, Rin needed all the help she could get to finish the restoration before it affected business any more. So reluctantly she let out a growl of an answer and hoped she would get the hint or better yet end the conversation "I just didn't get any sleep last night..."

She didn't. "That's not good, sleep is an essential part for maintaining a young gi- err, mare's beauty and energy. Just look at Phoebe here." Selene chastised, even pointing proudly at Phoebe to emphasize her argument.

'Yet somehow you managed to go all night without it and are just fine.' pointed out to herself 'And how am I supposed to know if she looks good or not! I don't even know where to look for eye contact!' she added. Still, in an attempt to understand what Selene was talking about she glanced over to the floating girl, examining the eyestock on the top of her head and the face on her body to figure out which she should be staring at. Eventually Phoebe took notice of this and returned the gaze with a smile...she thinks. It was hard to tell with the body face looking like it was about to eat her while the glowing red eye looked like it was about to cry. The conflicting faces sent a chill down Rin's back "let's just get to town, I'll feel better when we get there." she said, picking up her pace to the point that she was now at the head of the group, and listening to the poorly hidden giggles coming from Selene and Cinder.

'Selene and Cinder...'

The more Rin thought about them the more curious inconsistencies appeared, especially toward Kira 'Selene and Cinder obviously know each other but Cinder kept calling Kira "Daddy". Does that mean he adopted her or something yesterday? No... That doesn't make sense. Parental relationships take time to form, longer than an afternoon anyway.'

'Then there's Selene herself. Deny it all he wants but he and Selene are definitely in a relationship. I could practically see the love between the two of them, and that was before they decided to get intimate last night.' Rin continued to try and think about what it was about them that was bugging her, but everything else she thought of didn't bring any breakthroughs. Selene knew Kira, that much was obvious. Cinder knew Selene, that too. And Kira seemed to be connected to each of the other Pokémon, somehow anyway, but there was still too much she didn't know, and her half-asleep brain cells weren't pulling their weight. Deciding to pursue that line of thought further later, like when she had some coffee. She instead let her mind wander while her hooves kept moving 'I wonder what he's doing right now?' she started with.

"Well this is boring..." Kira stated from the rooftop.

"Quit complaining and keep working." Tyranitar growled, carrying another pile of desiccated trees to an awaiting cart.

Kira grumbled as he conjured another sphere of water only to gently roll it off the roof, washing away the dirt, soap, and sand still remaining on the tiles. He then grabbed the soapy sponge floating in the bucket slung over his shoulder and started carefully scrubbing the next set. This had been the routine for the past three hours after breakfast, long after Selene and the others were out of sight. Hell, for all he knew they finished their shopping a while ago and were now having fun on the beach without him. But instead of doing that himself he has been scrubbing each of the tiles on the roof of not only the Fuji home but also the surrounding wall. The silver lining though was that he had plenty of time to practice his Water Pulse, so much so in fact that it felt natural using it now. He could even adjust the strength at will, ranging from a veritable torrent to a harmless slosh, the latter being what he's been using to speed up his work. But the endless cycle of wash, Water Pulse, repeat had made him yearn for a distraction, in this case a conversation with Tyranitar who was passing by beneath him.

Tyranitar on the other hand was focused on her task, and by extension ignore him in the process, with Larvitar helping in his own little way by carrying some branches close behind his mother. Those two( more the mother then the child) had the task of cleaning up the dead trees and removing the stones left behind by the Stone Edge attacks.

The big pile of sand gathered yesterday by the two pegasi had already been spread across the beach but there was still plenty of sand left across the orchard that needs to be removed. Fuji was sweeping off the walkways around the house getting any leftover grains outside where they would be swept away by the wind or picked up by the twin pegasi later that day.

"You're mad at me aren't you." Kira probed as he loosed another mini Water Pulse across the tiles.

"You've been complaining nonstop about how boring this is and you hit me in the face with Water Pulse today...three times, so yes." Tyranitar glared as drops of water dripped off her face, his latest stray shot.

"Those were accidents! I swear!" Kira pleaded, though Tyranitar was unconvinced. Admittedly he wasn't a natural at first, with one of his earlier attempts knocking free the tiles unlucky enough to be in its path and another dropping right onto Tyranitar's head. The second time Kira was trying to be cute and curve the attack around a corner of the wall. It worked but the resulting wave splashed down on Tyranitar when she was depositing a previous load. The third time was- "Wait, three times? ...Ooohh... Sorry." And with one last glare the Armor Pokémon continued on with her slightly wetter load, leaving Kira alone on the roof. With a sigh, Kira gave up and went back to work scrubbing the next set of tiles 'I wonder how Selene's doing.' he thought while his body went on autopilot.

Selene, after evolving to Gardevoir, had always been forward when it came to showing her affection towards him, taking every chance she had to make a double entendre. But for some reason, the events of last night still bothered him. It wasn't that she snuck into his room, she's done that at least ten times in Mossdeep City alone, and that's only the times he caught her. Even her sultry actions were nothing new...aside from actually succeeding this time. But that was the effect, not the cause. Although, because of last night he now had a much better understanding( not that he had a choice in the first place) of how his new body could and couldn't move. One example he thought of was when Selene kept his arms pinned down over his head and his legs wrapped around her arms he felt little physical discomfort there. Though unfortunately he had to add something else to his list of things he's tasted( it wasn't Houndoom spit, though a part of him wished it were) when Selene pressed down on him and proceeded to-'Wait! Why am I thinking about that!' Kira screamed mentally, trying to destroy the memory brought on by the tangent. His flushed cheeks and flailing head meant he was failing though.

"Kira, that's enough daydreamin! That sand ain't gonna remove itself!" Fuji yelled from below him in the estate.

Snapping out of his delusion Kira looked down at the elderly pony currently sitting with his front hooves crossed and staring disapprovingly at him. 'You'd be surprised if there was a certain Rock/Steel-type here...' Kira mentally deadpanned. He could already imagine the shocked looks of the ponies seeing a Probopass floating around with sand clinging to its already bushy moustache 'Maybe with enough time it'd become a horseshoe stache.' he snickered.

"Ya want dinner tonight, don't ya? Well this has ta get done first. So enough jokin' around!"

"And then there's the mind-reading pony..." Kira muttered to himself. He was surprised at how intuitive Fuji was despite being separated by a language barrier, even if that intuition was why he was being chided right now. With a sigh of defeat he gave Fuji a nod and focused on completing his job. Dinner was on the line after all and he wasn't going to let anything come between him and a meal, not even the seemingly unending waves of tiles that covered this wall 'This week couldn't get any worse...'

"Greetings citizens of Equus, both old and new."

"OH WHAT NOW!?"

Every pony in Kouma was looking around for the source of voice they just heard, and beginning to panic when they couldn't find it. Some of the more skittish residents were already making a beeline to their homes while some of the braver ones, like Vigilant, were trying to prevent said panic from setting in.

Rin was somewhere in the middle. She wanted to at least see what was causing the new voice before she decided to either fight or flee, even if fleeing with the supplies she just bought would be difficult. It sounded masculine but there was something else as well, a sharpness similar to a king or queen addressing a group of ants. "Please tell me you know whose voice that was inside my head." Rin pleaded immediately after the voice started speaking she turned to the ones most likely to know, and her heart sank at what she saw.

Cinder and Phoebe were both looking towards the sky motionless and with their mouths agape, as if they were staring at some unseen giant looming over the entire town. Selene was far worse. While she too was looking towards the sky like the others, her amber eyes were reduced to mere pinpricks, She was visibly trembling all over, and was clearly starting to hyperventilate.

"Th-that's...Lord Arceus..." she was barely able to say through her fear "Why is he...?"

"Umm, who?" Rin asked, only to be cut off by the voice.

"I am Lord Arceus, creator of the creatures that you have seen over the past few days. You have no reason to fear me for I come in peace. I am the one who brought the creatures you see to this world, they are known as Pokémon. I have my reasons for bringing them here, and I will be holding a summit with the world's leaders so that they can help inform their citizens the best.

'Okay, so he doesn't seem interested in a hostile takeover. That's good at least.' Rin noted. With her more violent fears regarding Arceus laid to rest she exhaled the breath she didn't even realize she was holding. When she calmed down a little more she returned her attention to the voice, intent to not miss any more of his declaration as it continued on.

For now I issue a warning; Even if some do not appear as such, the Pokémon are just as intelligent as any other creature that calls this world home. Since they are MY subjects I will not tolerate their mistreatment or abuse. Treat them as you would your own neighbor. Pokémon who have awoken in this new world, do not seek to harm the natives of this world.

'Duly noted, even if you're a day late on the warning.' she chided, taking a moment to look at her barrel. Thanks to Selene it looked perfectly normal, no scars, no discoloration, nothing suggesting that just the other day her insides resembled tree pulp.

To the Pokémon that experienced certain... changes... when you arrived; You are the ones who proved that not all of your kind deserved vengeful retribution, consider this your reward. To live new lives, free of the burdens of the old world, a chance to start anew. As sentient beings of varying intelligence, the laws of the respective countries you now reside in apply to you, and only those laws."

This caught Rin by surprise '"Changes"? "Retribution"? What does he mean by that?' Kira never mentioned anything involving angering their own creator enough to warrant vengeance, not that anypony would want to brag about something like that. But if Kira was somehow involved then that would explain why Carlos reacted the way he did yesterday. The changes part was also bothering her and again suspicion was cast on Kira. 'Perhaps Kira used to be something else, like a pony?' she hypothesized. Thinking back, even though Kira said he was a Pokémon trainer he never said he was a Pokémon, Rin just kind of assumed. Did that mean before appearing in Kouma Kira was a pony or something? 'Something else to ask Kira when I see him I guess, or that Carlos guy.' she concluded. Conveniently, so was Arceus.

"That is all for now, the Pokémon are not to be harmed simply out of spite. If you have any qualms with what I have done, I reside in a temple located within the Everfree forest and welcome all who would like to speak, 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."

For the next minute everything was silent. No one dared move or speak in case the voice returned with "something he forgot to say". Slowly the ponies around Kouma crept out of their homes and hiding spots and began talking about what just transpired. "Oookay so, that just happened." Rin said absentmindedly. In truth she was still processing the information Arceus ended on 'The Everfree forest though. That's near cousin Applejack's farm. I hope she's ok...' she thought. Rin had never met Applejack or even been to Sweet Apple Acres herself, she was always too busy keeping Fuji's orchard running alone. Everything she knew about her cousin came from either Fuji's stories or newspaper articles about the Elements of Harmony. Regardless she was still an Apple and while Rin couldn't be there physically she silently prayed for Applejack's well-being.

Her worries about her extended family were cut short when a thud rang out from behind her followed by labored breathing. Rin looked back to find Phoebe and Cinder crowded around Selene on her knees and clutching her chest tightly with her hands. "Hey! Are you alright?" Rin cried out, franticly trying to free herself from the cart's yoke.

Her head was low but the streams of tears running down her face were impossible to miss. Her entire body was trembling and her mouth was pulled back, revealing her teeth as she struggled to breath and speak at the same time "th...th..." was all she could say before more tears or the need to breathe drowned out her voice.

"Mommy?"

"Thank you!" Selene cried, Shouting those words and more to the heavens as the tears continued flowing down her contorted, but still smiling face "Thank you Lord Arceus! Thank you, thank you, a thousand times thank you!"

Rin just stood there, half free from the cart, staring with a confused expression at the trio. By this point she knew Selene was crying tears of joy from Arceus' declaration even though before he started speaking she was utterly terrified of what he had to say. But still she felt like she was missing some context somewhere, especially with Selene's dramatic reaction. So with all of the composure and grace she could muster she tried to eloquently voice her questions: "Uhhh... Huh?" sleep deprivation nixed her efforts quite well though.

Thankfully Phoebe noticed her and after giving Selene a light hug started floating towards her with a kind aura emanating from her "Selene and her trainer, James, had it pretty rough where we came from." she said softly, moving to the cart and positioning herself to look like she was sitting on top of the supplies watching the mother and daughter soothe each other "From what he told me he was always being chased by poachers because of Selene being a shiny Pokémon and-"

"Wait. What do you mean a shiny Pokémon?" Rin interrupted. Phoebe looked down at her confused but then brought one of her hands over her eye stalk and chuckled softly 'Did she just face-hoof? Or try to hide her laugh?'

"Oh, right. You don't know about that haha..." Phoebe laughed, though Rin sensed a bit of grief hiding in her voice. Choosing to not press further on that emotion the two looked to Selene who was now having her face nuzzled by Cinder in her latest attempt to stop the tears "Well...Gardevoirs are not normally blue or amber. For some reason the abnormal color causes the Pokémon to 'sparkle' when they leave their Pokéball." Rin opened her mouth to ask another question but before she could say anything Phoebe cut her off "And don't ask what a Pokéball is, it's not important." with a quick snort Rin looked back to Selene with a deadpanned expression "Anyway, because of that certain collectors would go to any lengths to have her just to have her as a sort of trophy, or worse." she thought back to one of her league sanctioned missions near route 123 to a wealthy socialite's manor.

This socialite in particular was under suspicion of kidnapping Pokémon from trainers and Phoebe was tasked with using her Ghost-type Pokémon to find any incriminating evidence. When she arrived at the manor in question one of the servant's spirits told her that the socialite had been tipped off about her arrival, and what she saw confirmed it. To put it simply, she found far more than enough evidence than even the League wanted to find. Every servant she saw had either a hole or a knife going through one vital organ or another, the socialite silencing any would-be loose ends. In the cellar she found a Ditto so drugged with aphrodisiacs it tried to assault her as her( with one notable difference) as well as the ghosts of the abducted Pokémon, all of which the servants testified were drugged and attempted to be bred with, and not always with other Pokémon. There were also dozens of hatched, rotten, and smashed eggs of Ralts, Roselias, Meditites, Sawblus and even Solosis. What made this scene wore was the servants said these were the "failures" of the socialite's scheme to own a Shiny Pokémon and not only did he hatch a "success" but he took it with him when he fled his home. She didn't have to look far for him though as his poisoned body was found face down with black and purple flower petals scattered around him. In the end, with no other traces of survivors and all of the servants bodies accounted for Phoebe had to leave the manor with nothing more than the dirt on her hands from the freshly dug graves.

"I can't imagine how hard it must have been being a target for the criminal underworld your whole life simply because your skins a different color than normal." Phoebe said, after pulling herself out of the memory even if her words lacked any of her usual positive cheer.

"I can..." Rin muttered, barely loud enough for her own ears to hear. After another moment watching Selene became too much for her to bear, and so for her own sake she looked away instead straightening her ink black mane with a hoof to banish the bad memories welling up from Phoebe's explanation. Still, even she couldn't deny that she and Selene had more in common than she first thought 'maybe we can be friends... or at least get along.'

"And this is all before he became an enemy to the Rangers."

Her ears perked up at this latest bit of information, something Phoebe herself didn't seem aware she said out loud "huh? You mean Carlos and Manectric? Selene and this...'James' pony are their enemies?" Rin pressed. This could be her chance to figure out what happened when Selene stopped translating yesterday shortly after Manectric said "you stink." and why Carlos and Kira were about to turn their front yard into a battlefield.

Phoebe however realized her slip as well "ahahaha...I think I said too much." she chuckled, rubbing the back of her head in an attempt to treat it like it was nothing important. It wasn't working. Seeing that Rin wasn't buying it, Phoebe figured it was time she used the tried and true method of keeping quiet: Change the subject then run like hell "We should go buy more food, I have a feeling everyone's going to celebrate tonight."

And just like that Phoebe hopped down from the cart, gave Rin a quick wave, and flew towards town, the opposite direction Rin, and the cart she was still half-strapped to, was facing "wha- hey!" Rin called. Intent on following her, Rin looked back at the cart of supplies to weigh her options. She couldn't leave the cart unattended, not with all the rice, wheat, and non-apple fruits on top just begging for somepony, or somemon, to help themselves to it but she also couldn't effectively chase down Phoebe dragging it with her. Cursing under her breath and stomping the ground she strapped herself back to the cart so she could begin turning it around to chase her "When I catch you I'll make you tell me what you know!"

"Ahahaha you'll hear it from him first!" Phoebe goaded a safe hundred meters ahead of the approaching mare.

As Rin began her pursuit of the ghost Pokémon the remaining two sat there, oblivious to the world around them. After another minute Cinder looked up with worried eyes to her mother's own closed eyes "mommy?"

"I'm ok now, thank you." Selene whispered, releasing Cinder from her embrace to wipe away her remaining tears. Slowly she opened her bloodshot amber eyes, letting them adjust to the presence of light once more and to reassure Cinder she was really fine. "Let's go too, sweetie." she said, her voice cracking occasionally "They won't know what to get if we just sit here and wait, will they." With a bright smile on her face Cinder nodded vigorously and started barreling towards town no longer with a care in the world. Selene smiled softly as she watched Cinder run, deciding to walk at a leisurely pace as they headed back to town 'I wonder how James is taking this.' She mused on the way, taking a minute to listen to the ocean and the wind 'I did kinda forget to tell him we're on another world. Haha, I bet he's freaking out right about now.'

The ocean breeze gently caressed the Kouma beach line and all on it, ponies and Pokémon alike. The weather pegasi were clearing the sky of any clouds intent on taking advantage of the warm weather and make today a fabled 'perfect day' to be out on the beach despite having a flock of  Wingull watch them from a distance in the air. Even some Krabby and Kingler could be seen on the rocks interacting with each other with some brave/foolish ponies inching closer for a better look. There were even some young fillies playing tag with a Tyrogue, a Meditite, and a Pancham while their parents( and a Hitmonlee) sat and wearily watched them play together. It was a testament to how both sides were trying to naturally coexist peacefully, regardless of the foreign god's declaration to do so. And yet none of this was registering to the lone Greninja on the beach.

After listening to Arceus' announcement Kira excused himself from his chores, sneaking down the nearby trail to the beach without Fuji's consent( or knowledge). There were most likely going to be consequences for his little disappearing act but right now he had a downpour of thoughts plaguing his mind, none of which involved his shirking. The Pokémon god of their world not only revealed his existence to most likely everyone but also took credit for moving an entire species from one world to another, changing another species into beings of the former species, and condemning the previous world to not-even-god-knows-what!

Finally unable to take the pressure, Kira collapsed onto his hands and knees under the weight of his thoughts "is this really happening? No...of course it is, how could any of this be a dream." he murmured despondently while his eyes stared blankly at the sand beneath him "It would be so easy to say it is though. To just deny everything that's happened and that I'll wake up in Selene's lap back at Ever Grande City and everything will be back to normal, but it won't. This is my normal from now on." letting out an empty sigh Kira tried to stand back up...only to fall on his back. It wasn't that he slipped lost his balance rather when he pushed himself off the ground to stand his body just kept going. Now he laid on his back in the sand facing the sky with his legs bent in weird uncomfortable V-angles "Haha...you'd be laughing your ass off if you saw me now, wouldn't you, Nova..."

"You know it could've been, like, so much worse..."

Unbeknownst to him Kira had gained a guest during his little tirade. Said 'guest' was about a meter tall grey dog with black fur on its feet past the joints as well as on its back and tail. Its head was drooped and its tail was between its legs as its red eyes stared emptily towards the ocean. And aside from some extra ragged fur on the head, obscuring the muzzle slightly, and a four pointed blonde patch of hair between its ears it looked like any other Mightyena Kira had seen, but two things convinced him otherwise. First was the aforementioned hair and second was the voice it-she spoke with was incredibly familiar.

"That voice...Sharlene!?"