The Rings

Deep within the badlands of Kalos, far away from any humans, there was a grey and magenta, genie-like Pokémon called a Hoopa. This species of Pokémon had the ability to open portals to others worlds using the golden rings they always carried around. Hoopa were very rare, and some people believed that there was only one in the world; this particular Hoopa had certainly never seen another member of its species before. They were also very mischievous by nature, and enjoyed playing pranks, although those pranks were never meant to harm anyone.

The Hoopa noticed a Dugtrio tunnelling underground nearby, and widened one of its rings. Xe smirked, quietly laughed, and pulled a ring off one of xir arms, widened it, and threw it in the direction of the mole Pokémon's path. When the Dugtrio was underneath where the ring had landed, it disappeared.

The Hoopa picked up the ring again, and was about to put it back when xe noticed something inside of it. While most dimensions a Hoopa's rings could lead to were small, and somewhat abstract, the world on the other side of this ring was a lot like the Pokémon world. It showed a badland similar to the one the Hoopa was in, but the rocks were redder, and it was inhabited by Dragon-type Pokémon of some description that the Hoopa thought were related to Charizard. One such Dragon-type noticed the Dugtrio and looked startled, while the Dugtrio's heads had come aboveground and looked startled too.

The Hoopa laughed as a plan began to form in xir mind.

Deep within the forests of the Johto region, a Chikorita named Sweet Pea was looking for food. Unlike most Chikorita, her scales were slightly aquamarine and her leaf was a darker shade of green. The forest was thick, and full of poisonous Pokémon; Sweet Pea had to tread carefully in order to not step on a poisonous barb. Most of the sunlight was blocked out by the broad leaves of the trees above, so she could barely see where she was going, and she couldn't get energy from photosynthesis. Eventually, she heard a nearby stream and ran towards it. A group of Marril were playing in the water, and by the banks she found a plant of red, oval-shaped fruits, called occa berries, which were her favourite food. She scurried towards them, and managed to grab one berry in her mouth and eat it, when she was interrupted by a purple Pokémon slightly shorter than her, but still extremely dangerous. It was a male Nidoran, a purple Pokémon with large ears and a horn filled with poison.

"Iiid!" the Nidoran hissed, turning towards Sweet Pea and glaring at her with anger. The Chikorita ran away as fast as she could - which wasn't very - in order to get away from the Poison-type. While Nidoran were herbivores, they were also very aggressive. Sweet Pea ran through shallow water, across twigs which crunched beneath her feet, almost alerting predators, when she saw something straight ahead that didn't belong in the forest. It was a golden ring which was propped up against a tree, but seemed to contain another forest inside. But there was no time for Sweet Pea to change her path - she ran straight towards it.

Sweet Pea looked around. The Nidoran was nowhere to be seen, and she appeared to be in the forest she saw inside the ring. Unlike the forest Sweet Pea had grew up in, this forest was dark and overgrown, and the only life forms around seemed to be unfamiliar plants, such as long, trawling vines and blue flowers. She couldn't even faintly hear the sounds of any Pokémon, and although it was the middle of the day, it seemed to be night inside this forest. However, in one direction, the forest seemed to get thinner and lighter. Slowly, cautiously, the Chikorita walked towards the exit of the forest, looking out for anything dangerous that could have attacked her.

Outside of the forest, she saw what looked like a human's house, but a lot smaller. Outside of the house, there were a lot of small creatures that Sweet Pea had never seen before, some of which didn't even resemble any Pokémon she'd seen. She then noticed something a lot bigger, but not threatening, coming towards her. Sweet Pea had never seen anything like it. The creature was pink and yellow and about the size of a Bayleef, but with wings and no scales. The creature's eyes were teal-coloured.

"What's your name? Where did you come from?" she, said in a kind voice. Sweet Pea pointed her leaf towards the dark forest she had just exited.

"The Everfree Forest?" the creature replied. "That place must have been very dangerous for you!" She paused. "But what exactly are you, anyway? I've never seen a creature like you before."

Sweet Pea didn't talk very much. Back in the forests of Johto, it was rare to come across another Chikorita, as they were a solitary species. But still, she answered the yellow creature's question quietly.

"I'm a... Chikorita... and my name's Sweet Pea..." she said.

"Chikorita?" the yellow creature said, confused. "I've never heard of those before. But at the same time, you don't seem to be a monster, unlike most of the creatures from the Everfree..."

Surprised that the yellow creature could understand her, Sweet Pea asked her some questions in return. It turned out that the yellow creature was called Fluttershy, and she was something called a "pony". Sweet Pea also learned that Fluttershy had the ability to understand every creature, but no other pony did.

"Goodnight, Sweet Pea," Fluttershy said, as Sweet Pea was preparing to fall asleep outside. Although this pony was nice, the Everfree Forest still reminded the Chikorita of home, in a strange way.

"Goodnight... Fluttershy," she replied.

Before she fell asleep fully, Sweet Pea looked up at the stars. Although she hadn't seen much of the stars, as they were usually blocked out by the forest's canopy, they were in different patterns to the ones she had seen back home. Coupled with the fact that she didn't recognise any life form here, and Sweet Pea began to put pieces together and form questions.

Am I in another world? she thought. Or am I just overthinking things because I'm tired?

Little did Sweet Pea know that she wasn't the only Pokémon going to sleep confused that night...