The Rings

A few hours before the portals closed...

Lyra Heartstrings looked around the yellow city again. The human she had seen earlier was nowhere to be found; in fact, there was a lot less humans than on her first visit. The street beneath her hooves was hot under the midday sun, and she saw a yellow creature with brown stripes on its back running in the opposite direction.

"Do you know where we are, Meloetta?" she asked.

"No, unfortunately. I came from a place far away from here called Castelia City, which is even bigger than this place. I fell through a hyperspace hole..."

"What's that?"

"The ring. Anyway, I fell through a hyperspace hole and ended up in a white city, inhabited by unicorns like you."

"You mean Canterlot? I used to live there."

Meloetta nodded. "I tried singing there, but the unicorns didn't appreciate it. They thought I was strange, and that my singing wasn't 'fine' enough. After much travelling, I ended up in your town - Ponyville, I believe?"

"Yep. That's it."

"But I was tired from my journey, so I decided to stay in a seemingly-vacant house - that turned out to be yours - and practise for a bit. Then I noticed another portal, and decided to come back to my own world. At least humans appreciate my music..."

Lyra heard the footsteps of a human coming towards them. While she was normally enthusiastic about humans, she didn't want to bother this one.

"Meloetta... I think we should continue our conversation somewhere else. I don't want to get stares," whispered Lyra.

The two of them found a fairly spacious alleyway, that was empty apart from a few purple rats.

"Anyway, as for me, I used to live in Canterlot, but I eventually moved to Ponyville. One of my old school friends moved there too, and she's famous now!"

"What's she famous for?"

"She became... the Princess of Friendship!"

Meloetta looked confused. "Okay. Anyway, why did you choose to move to Ponyville?"

"Oh, I made friends with somepony called Sweetie Drops who lived there. I also found Canterlot a bit too busy for my liking; it's much too crowded for a pony like me."

"But now that you're in this world... what do you plan to do?" Meloetta's question made Lyra stop and think. What would she do? She had always wanted to meet a human, but then what? And what if humans thought ponies were weird, just like how ponies thought of humans?

Still, Lyra decided to look for the human she had met the other day later.

That evening...

After several failed attempts, Leaf had finally succeeded in getting her Marsh Badge. While Jade had struggled, her other Poison-type, Sapphire, had done rather well, swiftly dodging any attacks he could. The gym had been dark, just like a Golbat's natural habitat. She was now watching a news broadcast in a Pokémon Centre. They normally weren't very interesting - it was common for Meowth videos to get shown if there was nothing to talk about - but today there was breaking news.

Recently, a Rayquaza has been sighted in Castelia City in the Unova region. It seems to be enraged, and is causing major damage to buildings. All ships leading to the city are cancelled until further notice.

Leaf was confused. Didn't Rayquaza live in the general area of Hoenn? In the stratosphere? How did it get there?

She then remembered the hyperspace hole she saw by the Silph Co. building earlier. Could that have anything to do with it? Or was it just a coincidence? She definitely wasn't being unrealistic, because three of her Pokémon had been through the ring and back again.

She decided to stay in the Pokémon Centre for the night. It was getting late, and it would be a while before they would reach Fuchsia City. Suddenly, she heard the automatic doors slide open.

"Hi..." a high-pitched voice said, nervously. Everyone in the room turned around to see who it was, and they were all shocked, except Leaf. It was the mint Rapidash again. Who could apparently talk. The people in the building promptly started gossiping.

"Sort of looks like that thing that was sighted in Castelia a few hours ago, don't you think?"

"A lot of weird stuff's been happening in Castelia, if the news is to be believed..."

The creature looked around, as if it was confused. "My name is Lyra Heartstrings..."

The creature, whose name was apparently Lyra, was met with even more stares. She quickly ran out of the room, without saying another word.

What... just... happened? thought Leaf.

Suddenly, a Pikachu ran into the Pokémon Centre. It squeaked, then looked confused at the humans. Leaf assumed that it was a stray, or got separated from its trainer; wild Pikachu lived in Viridian Forest, far to the west. A few children tried to get close to it, but then it ran back out of the door again, scared.

Lyra's attempt to talk to some humans had turned out... less than favourably. She was already feeling nervous, doing something she'd anticipated for years... and then the humans reacted as if she was some kind of freak. She decided to go back to Ponyville, back to her own world. She checked to see if there was any humans around, and there weren't many because of the time. Still, he had to avoid the few that were outside.

Around the corner... down that street... next to the middle building...

When she got to the wall where the ring was, she was shocked. The ring no longer showed Ponyville on the other side; instead, it just showed the wall of the building.

Lyra almost cried. She wished she hadn't come to the world with humans. Now she'd never see her friends again, never see Ponyville again...

Lyra saw an image of what looked like a miniature, purple ahuizotal (while she wasn't the biggest Daring Do fan, she knew some things about it) flash before her eyes for a brief moment.

"Did the humans scare you too?" someone said.