The Rings

by Nitro Indigo

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Crossover, Alternate Universe, Human, Drama
Length: 7977

A Hoopa opens several portals between the worlds of Pokémon and ponies. Confusion and curiosity ensues.

Hoopa, a mischievous djinn Pokémon, has the ability to open portals to other worlds for its own amusement. When a Hoopa opens several portals between the Pokémon world and Equus, planet of the ponies and others, all sorts of chaos and culture shock ensues. But the portals don't stay open forever…

Please could someone become my editor? Or make a cover?

This story will return to updating once I've finished writing Secret of the Great Sea.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2016-02-29 18:21:50 UTC

Humans

On the same day Sweet Pea entered Equestria...

Lyra Heartstring's daily routine was interrupted by a strange creature that she found near the outskirts of Ponyville. It looked like it was both plant and animal, with a quadrupedal, reptilian shape, green skin - Lyra couldn't tell if it had scales or not - with a few darker green spots, and a pink bulb on its back. Its voice sounded like deep hissing. The creature's bulb opened slightly, and two long, green vines extended out of it. It whipped one of its vines at Lyra, but she quickly avoided it.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, as if she'd been hurt, even though she hadn't.

"Ssorr ee?" the creature seemed to ask. Some ponies nearby turned to stare at the creature, causing it to glare back at them angrily. It slowly turned and walked away, looking ready to attack something.

Out of curiosity, Lyra decided to follow the creature, although she had to slow down several times, for she was a lot faster than it. It was heading towards the centre of Ponyville, and kept attempting to lash its vines out at ponies who approached it.

When they were near the town hall, two other creatures ran towards the plant-reptile: a red fox with six tails, and a yellow rodent-thing with brick-like patterns on its fur.

Wow! They look strangely... adorable! Lyra thought.

The plant-reptile retracted its vines, and the three creatures started "talking", as if they were familiar with each other.

"Ul! Ul! Eex?" the red fox exclaimed, with a happy tone of voice.

"Orr... saa," the plant-reptile replied.

"Ue! Ru ru ru AN!" shouted the rodent-thing, as if it was telling of a child who had misbehaved.

"Vee-OR!" the plant-reptile replied, half-angrily and half-apologetically.

The three creatures then turned around and headed towards the side of the town hall. Slowly, Lyra followed them, making sure her hoofsteps didn't make much noise. The trio were standing next to a fairly wide golden ring, propped up against one of the walls, and seemed to be arguing about something. A few moments later, the rodent-thing walked into the ring and disappeared, followed by the red fox and plant-reptile.

Upon closer inspection, Lyra noticed that they hadn't disappeared. Inside the ring, there was an image of a city, even bigger than Canterlot, with buildings made of yellow bricks. She ducked down, and out of curiosity, carefully walked into the ring...

Jade the Ivysaur wasn't sure where he was. His trainer had decided to spend the night at the Pokémon Centre in Saffron City, and she had let all of her team out of their Pokéballs. Besides him, there was Garnet the Vulpix, Amber the Sandshrew and Sapphire the Golbat. Despite their gemstone theme-naming, the only female in the team so far was Garnet.

It was the middle of the night, and Jade couldn't sleep. When Jade couldn't sleep, he usually went out walking for a bit. He wandered out of the Pokémon Centre, and noticed something propped up on one of the walls of the biggest building - didn't humans call that the Silph Co. building? It was a golden ring, shining in the street lights, wide enough for him to fit through, and he slowly walked though it, out of both tiredness and curiosity.

On the other side of the ring, he seemed to be in some sort of village, though it was hard to tell because it was so dark. Oddly, few windows had light coming from them, and those that did were lit by fire instead of electricity. He got out his vines to feel around, and eventually found the outskirts of the town. It was a field with a few trees here and there, and a stream and a dirt road ran through it. Jade was feeling tired now, and found a place to sleep underneath one of the trees.

I hope I can find Master tomorrow... I always do, right?

When Jade woke up the next morning, he was very confused, to say the least. The park was full of brightly-coloured... things that he had never seen before. They vaguely resembled Ponyta, but Jade had only seen Ponyta briefly a few times. It was usually Amber that his trainer fought Ponyta with. Even stranger, these creatures acted a lot like humans.

One such "rainbownyta", as Jade decided to call them, was poking him with his hoof. It was young, and was exclaiming something in a language that sounded vaguely similar to human speech, but wasn't. Jade realized that this rainbownyta could be a threat, and released several small leaves out of his bulb, aiming them towards it. The rainbownyta jumped away quickly, then screamed. Jade realized that it wasn't a threat, and felt a bit bad for trying to hurt it.

"Sorry about that," he exclaimed, holding out one of his vines like a hand. The rainbownyta didn't notice.

A little while later, another rainbownyta approached Jade. This one was mint green, and much older. While Jade knew that rainbownytas weren't dangerous, he still wanted to tell this one that he needed personal space. He extended one of his vines, telling it to stay away, but the rainbownyta misinterpreted it as an attack.

"What are you?" he asked. He then noticed that a lot of rainbownyta were staring at him, as if they were shocked that he tried to "attack" one of their kind.

Jade, realizing that these rainbownyta were very confused about him, decided to retrace his steps and see if he could find a way back home. He headed back into the village, getting even more stares along the way. Eventually, he saw a golden ring, similar to the one that was in Saffron City, propped up against a cylindrical building. Suddenly, two familiar Pokémon ran out of it and towards him: Garnet and Amber.

"Ui! Ui! Eex!" exclaimed Garnet. Though Jade couldn't fully understand what she was saying, he had begun to figure out what the other members of his team were trying to say, including his trainer. He could infer that Garnet was glad to see him.

"Yeah... I'm fine," Jade replied.

Amber, on the other hand, was glaring angrily at him. "Ue! Ru ru ru AN!" he shouted, as if he was worried about Jade.

"Sorry!" Jade exclaimed.

Jade, Amber and Garnet then had an argument over who would go through the ring first. Eventually, it was settled that Amber would go through first, Garnet second and Jade last.

Leaf was waiting next to the ring outside the Silph Co. building. She'd heard about those rings before - they were called hyperspace holes, and they were created by a species of Pokémon that didn't live in Kanto. When she had woken up that morning to find her Ivysaur missing, she had looked all around the city for him, before eventually deciding, strange as it sounded, that Jade had disappeared through the ring. She had decided to send Amber and Garnet through the hyperspace hole to look for him, but her three Pokémon didn't return alone. They were followed by what looked like a mint green Rapidash, with hair instead of flames, that wouldn't have looked out of place in a cartoon. When the creature noticed Leaf, its eyes widened, and it started bouncing up and down excitedly.

"I see you made a new friend," said Leaf, unsure of what to think about the creature.

Jade seemed surprised at the newcomer, then shook his head, as if to say "I don't know either." Garnet tilted her head, and Amber was looking at the creature, then pointing at the ring. The mint Rapidash, meanwhile, looked slightly disappointed, then bounded back into the hyperspace hole.

Leaf returned her Pokémon to their Pokéballs, then walked towards the gym in order to get her next badge.

What Lyra saw on the other side of the ring awestruck her. The city's building were much taller than any in Equestria, and they all glittered in the midday sun. But even more amazing was what stood right in front of Lyra, something that she'd only seen in old history books: a human. This human was female, had long, brown hair, and was wearing a white hat. Lyra's eyes widened in amazement, and she bounced on the spot excitedly. When she realized that she couldn't understand the human, however, she felt disappointed, before she realized that the rodent-thing was looking at her and pointing towards the ring. She then remembered that there was a translation spell that unicorns could learn, though it was rather difficult to master. Excitedly, she bounded back into the ring, in order to look for a book of spells.

Sweet Pea and the Crusaders

"Good morning, Sweet Pea!" Fluttershy exclaimed.

Sweet Pea awoke to a beautiful morning, with clear skies and a warm breeze. It was certainly a lot safer than the forest in Johto, where mornings were cold and predators were everywhere. Sweet Pea considered staying there all day, but forests were where Chikorita lived, so she walked into the dark forest she arrived in yesterday to look for food.

Inside of the dark forest - Sweet Pea remembered Fluttershy calling it the Everfree Forest - it was still eerily silent. She walked slowly, carefully, looking around for any sign of danger. There were no Fearow, Nidorino, or even Paras around. There also weren't any fruits she recognised, or any fruits at all. Sweet Pea thought the forest was completely empty, until she heard a deep growling sound coming from far away...

Deeper into the forest, Sweet Pea saw a small, round cabin. It smelled strange, and she could hear, but not understand, talking coming from inside of it. She walked past it. The growling sound got louder...

Further into the forest, there was a river. It rushed so fast that it drowned out all other sounds, and it seemed to stretch on forever. Out of curiosity, Sweet Pea dipped a foreleg into the rushing water, put quickly pulled it out after she discovered it was freezing.

Sweet Pea turned around, and noticed several yellow lights coming towards her from several directions. As they came closer, she could see that they were quadrupedal monsters made of wood. Several of them noticed the tiny Chikorita, and opened their jaws wide. As they advanced, Sweet Pea only had one option: she had to run.

Sweet Pea ran as fast as her tiny legs could carry her, but the wooden monsters were quickly catching up to her. By the time she got close to the strange-smelling cabin again, they were almost behind her. When she was almost cornered, she heard the sound of the cabin's door opening. The wooden monsters turned to look towards the one who had opened a door, a young pony who was yellow-furred like Fluttershy, with no wings and a bow in her red mane. The pony shrieked as the monsters came closer to her, then ran towards the exit of the forest faster than Sweet Pea could ever have. The Chikorita hurled a few small leaves at the wooden monsters, but it barely harmed them. She ran out of the forest, hoping that the pony would be okay.

"...And then those timberwolves started chasin' me!"

Later on that day, Apple Bloom was talking to her two best friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, in their clubhouse. Although they now had their cutie marks, they still met there regularly.

"I could've easily dealt with those timberwolves!" exclaimed Scootaloo.

"That's what you would say..." said Sweetie Bell. She then pointed a hoof at the green sauropod that had followed Apple Bloom. "What's that? It looks like a leafasaurus..."

"I found it in the Everfree Forest after I visited Zecora," said Apple Bloom. "She must've followed me here."

"The Everfree Forest?" gasped Sweetie Belle. "That creature could be really dangerous!"

"She doesn't seem dangerous," objected Scootaloo.

"Well, she COULD be!"

"But most of the monsters that come out of the Everfree are all big and scary! This one isn't."

"Remember the parasprites?"

"Those weren't from the Everfree."

"QUIET!" Apple Bloom shouted. Even the newly-dubbed "leafasaurus" looked startled. "I think we should wait a while and see if this leafasaurus will cause trouble or not!"

"And if it does cause trouble?" argued Sweetie Belle.

"Well, somepony will be able to deal with it, right?"

Ponyville was strange even by Equestrian standards. It had been attacked by giant, celestial bears, cute bugs that ate everything and multiplied rapidly, and bugbears, among other things, all in the span of slightly over a year. Thankfully, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony - including Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle's older sisters - were always there to deal with such problems, to varying degrees of success.

The leafasaurus quietly left the clubhouse.

"Did we upset it or something?" said Scootaloo.

That evening, Sweet Pea was talking to Fluttershy again. She had left the clubhouse of the three small ponies earlier on when she realized they were having an argument, though she didn't know what it was about. Besides, she really liked talking to the kind pony.

"Oh, I'm so glad to see that you're okay!" exclaimed Fluttershy. "The Everfree Forest is so dangerous - I was worried about you!"

"I was chased by wooden monsters..." said Sweet Pea.

"Those are called timberwolves."

"But besides those, what else is so bad about that forest?"

"You really don't know? Well, it's... different from the rest of Equestria. Ponies can't control anything there. The weather happens all on its own, and the plants grow all over the place... It's just so... unnatural..."

Sweet Pea was about to ask how that was strange - after all, it sounded a lot like the place she came from - but then she remembered the thoughts she had the previous night. Was she in another world? Since things seemed to work a lot differently here, not to mention that the local wildlife was completely unrecognisable, she realized that her suspicions were correct.

But will I be able to go back?

Sweet Pea decided that she would go into the Everfree Forest again tomorrow, regardless of Fluttershy's objections. While this new world was nice, Johto was still where she belonged.

Relic Song

On the same day the crusaders found Sweet Pea...

"Hey, Twi, do you know what this is?" asked Spike. He and Twilight Sparkle were in the map room of Ponyville Castle. Twilight noticed that Spike was being followed by a yellow creature, about Spike's height on its hind legs, with long, black-tipped ears, red cheeks, three brown stripes on its back and a zigzag-shaped tail. Twilight Sparkle looked at it, confused.

"Sorry, Spike, but I don't," she replied, flatly. "I don't even think any species like that ever existed in Equestria. Where did you find it?"

"I found him by the town hall," Spike replied. "He was looking around, like he confused, then he started following me. He's kinda cute." He paused. "At least, I think he's a he."

The creature climbed upon the table, as if it was some kind of toy. "Chee!" it exclaimed. It tried to grab onto one of the mountains, then it became disappointed when it discovered that the map was a hologram.

"Get down from there!" Twilight shouted, levitating the creature off the map. The creature evidently objected to this, because once it was down, it electrified her.

"Did you... see... anything else... unusual... in Ponyville...?" she said, slightly stunned from being electrified.

"Well, I heard that some kind of plant monster attacked a foal the other day," said Spike.

"Spike," said Twilight, "I think this might need further investigation."

Lyra Heartstrings excitedly ran back to her house, not paying much attention to her surroundings.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!"

She couldn't believe that her greatest dream had come true: to see a real, live human! She was sure she had a book somewhere that contained a translation spell...

When she arrived outside her house, Lyra thought she heard a faint sound somewhere between humming and singing, she saw a grey pegasus mare delivering mail. She waved at Lyra.

"Hey, Lyra! What're you excited about today?" asked the mailmare.

"Well... I saw-" Lyra began to say, but she interrupted herself. Did she really want to tell everypony about what she had seen? None of the ponies approved of her interest in humans, not even her close friend Sweetie Drops. They'd probably just think she was joking, or tell her to get a reality check. "Never mind." She shook her head and went inside.

Lyra's fairly small house was very cluttered. There were piles of dust-gathering books all over the place, and crumpled sheets of music covered almost every surface. The shelves were so full that they looked close to collapsing.

"Nope... nope... nope... wait, when did I buy that?" said Lyra, as she searched through her books. "Nope... nope... oh, there it is! Complex Spells and You!"

She levitated the book up and was about to take it to a table, when she accidentally knocked over another pile of books. She stumbled out of the way, and was about to levitate the books back into a pile, when they glowed with a blue aura and were neatly rearranged.

"You really need to tidy up this place," a feminine voice said. Lyra hadn't exactly heard the voice; it sounded like it was in her head, but not like a thought. Lyra looked around for the source of the voice.

It was a short, bipedal figure, about half of Lyra's height, with grey and white skin. The figure had green "hair" with lines similar to those  on sheet music. The eyes on its rounded face were blue.

"Who're you? What're you?"

"My name is Meloetta," the biped said, "for that is what I am."

"Pleased to meet you! My name's Lyra Heartstrings, and I'm a-"

"Pony. I've been in this world for a couple of days, and have been learning about it. Being capable of telepathic communication and translation counts, but don't worry - I can't actually read your mind. My telepathy is limited. Allow me to demonstrate"

Meloetta sang a wordless tune - an aria. Her "hair" changed from green to orange, and curled around her forehead.

"Wait," said Lyra. "So you're from another world? By any chance, is that world the same one that's on the over side of that ring by the town hall?"

Meloetta sung the aria and transformed back. "Sorry, I couldn't understand you. I can only use telepathy in this form."

Lyra repeated herself. Meloetta nodded.

"Really? You're from the human world?"

"If you mean a world that contains humans, among countless other species, yes."

"Awesome! I came into my house looking for a translation spell so I could understand the humans. Speaking of which, why are you in my house, anyway?"

"I thought it was unoccupied. Sorry about that."

"It's fine. Just don't go breaking into anypony else's house!"

Lyra went back to the table where she had put Complex Spells and You down. She flicked through the pages until she found what she was looking for.

The translation spell will allow every creature in the immediate vicinity of you to understand you, and vice-versa. This spell will also affect other ponies near you. It wears off after a week.

I think a week will be enough... I hope!

She closed her eyes tightly and focused power into her horn. Several seconds later, she released a golden burst of magic that she could see through her eyelids.

"You won't need to use that telly-paffy thing anymore!" she exclaimed, turning to Meloetta.

"Do you understand this?" said Meloetta, without telepathy. Lyra nodded.

Lyra ran back to the ring by the town hall.

Twilight, Spike and the yellow creature were investigating Ponyville for anything unusual. A few ponies mentioned seeing a grey and white biped around, and a many other ponies were gathering around the yellow creature, finding it cute. Twilight, however, made sure they didn't get too close to the yellow creature, because she didn't want anypony (or a dragon) else to get electrified.

Eventually, they made it near a town hall, where Twilight noticed a ring showing a street of an unfamiliar, yellow city inside it. Spike began to approach it, but Twilight stopped him.

"Careful, Spike. Who knows what that ring could be?"

Suddenly, the yellow creature dashed towards the ring. At the same time, a pony, Lyra Heartstrings, followec by a grey and white biped, also ran towards the ring.

"Home!" a high-pitched, but recognisably male, voice exclaimed. Was it... the yellow creature? The yellow creature then dived into the ring, followed by Lyra, and then the biped, although the latter hesitated for a moment.

"You're still not going in there, Spike. It could be dangerous."

"But Twi-"

"We will discuss this back at the castle."

"Remember the mirror that lead to the place Sunset Shimmer had escaped to?" asked Twilight rhetorically.

"Yes," replied Spike. "Why?"

"What if those rings are similar to the mirror, only they lead to a different world?" Twilight's eyes widened. "Just think about the possibilities: an infinite number of worlds out there, each with their own laws and rules..."

"So what you're saying is that the yellow thing comes from another world?"

"Yes. Think about it: nothing like that has ever existed in Equestria! Imagine what life forms could be in the world on the other side of that ring, or any other world!" She paused. "But... I'm fine with staying in Equestria as is. Still, I wonder what Lyra was doing?"

Loyalty

One day after Lyra learned the translation spell...

After putting a hyperspace hole down in Lumiose Badlands and watching a few Gabite go through it, the Hoopa had teleported around the world, looking for other, more populated places to put xir other rings. Xe ended up placing xir other rings in various locations throughout the world, staying in each location long enough to see Pokémon cross into the other world before placing a ring somewhere else. Xe was now returning to every location where xe had put a ring to see what had happened.

The Hoopa was currently in Castelia City, the largest city in the Unova region. The countless skyscrapers were positioned around a semicircular port where human ships came and went. The Hoopa was near the fountain in the central plaza, being careful not to get noticed, where xe had placed a ring earlier. Xe looked around; at first glance, it was a perfectly normal day in Castelia City. Young trainers hurried towards Burgh's gym, Lillipup played with each other while their owners watched on benches,  Pidove pecked the ground for any scraps of food, and street performers danced. The Hoopa seemed to be the only one who noticed the other side of the ring, and inside xe could see a white and gold city with a blue sky much clearer than the city xe was currently in. The white city's multicoloured inhabitants didn't seem to notice the hyperspace hole, though a few of them glared at the ring suspiciously. The Hoopa activated xir telepathic translator to hear what the humans on the bench were talking about.

"Did you hear about the mystery creature from earlier?" one of them asked.

"The one that panicked and almost knocked someone over?" the other replied.

"Yes, that one. Good thing it left - it was scaring the Pokémon."

The Hoopa laughed, then deactivated xir translator. Xe grinned, then jumped through the hyperspace hole, hoping to cause more chaos.

The Hoopa looked around the white and gold city on the other side of the portal. The air was a lot cleaner than in Castelia City, and the sky was much clearer. At the highest point of the city was a grand castle. The inhabitants were quadrupeds of various colours, most of which had a single horn. They all seemed to avoid the ring, as if they were suspicious of it. The Hoopa found this city, quite frankly, boring. It needed something more lively... such as...

The Hoopa got out a hyperspace hole, the only one xe still had, and focuses all of xir power into it. The ring widened as the inside turned purple, and a long, green, flying serpentine Pokémon, a Rayquaza, flew out of it, before the inside of the ring showed nothing again. As its shadow loomed over the city, the citizens all turned to look at it, their eyes wide. Several of the inhabitant's horns glowed, and they levitated rocks towards the Rayquaza, but it was no use. The sky dragon, confused and angry about being suddenly teleported, fired up an orange-ish white laser which it aimed towards the street. While the creatures all managed to scatter to avoid it, the laser left a huge indentation in the cobblestone. The city was flooded with its inhabitants escaping from its many buildings, all desperately trying to avoid the rampaging Rayquaza.

The Hoopa, realizing that summoning a Rayquaza might have been more than just mischeif, picked up the hyperspace hole xe had left in this city. Its eyes glowed, and the inside of the ring turned black, with Castelia City only faintly visible. The Hoopa then closed its eyes, focusing as much power as it could into that ring, and smirked. Xe then teleported around this world, looking for xir other rings.

Twilight Sparkle had called all of her friends over to the castle to discuss the yellow creature she had found, but Fluttershy hadn't arrived.

"I heard that somepony got shocked by some yellow thing over in Cloudsdale, but it probably didn't look like that," said Rainbow Dash, after Twilight had described it.

"Whatever it was, it must've been super-duper zippy-dippy ADORABLE!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie.

"Well I think that sounds rather dangerous," said Applejack, in sharp contrast.

"So where is it now?" asked Rarity.

"It went through a ring that was propped up against the town hall," said Twilight. "I know this sounds crazy, but before it left, it said something about home."

"So the ring must've been some kind of portal? Like the mirror in the Crystal Empire?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"That's what I think," said Twilight. "Just imagine the possibilities! Imagine how many worlds there are out there!"

Suddenly, Spike burst into the room and breathed out a letter in a burst of green flame. Twilight levitated the letter in front of her, her eyes widening as she read it.

"Princess Celestia says that a giant dragon has appeared in Canterlot and has started destroying the city! I've got to go. You should all stay here," gasped Twilight. Before any of her friends could reply, she teleported away.

After Fluttershy had finished feeding her animal friends, she heard a knocking on her door. She opened the top compartment, and saw that the visitors were the Cutie Mark ex-Crusaders.

"Fluttershy, have you seen a leafasaurus anywhere?" asked Apple Bloom.

"A what?" asked Fluttershy.

"Y'know, a greenish reptile-thing, with a leaf on its head," said Scootaloo.

"You mean Sweet Pea? She's just outside." Fluttershy heard the crusaders walk towards where Sweet Pea usually was, but then she heard them walk back.

"It's... I mean, she's not there," said Sweetie Belle.

"Oh? Oh!" Flutershy opened the door and desperately searched for Sweet Pea. There was no sign of the Chikorita anywhere, no matter where she looked.

"Well, I came across that Sweet Pea in the Everfree Forest-" began Apple Bloom.

"The Everfree Forest?!" gasped Fluttershy. "I warned her that it was dangerous in there!"

"You warned her?" asked the three crusaders simultaneously, but Fluttershy didn't respond. The pegasus flew as fast as she could - which wasn't very - into the Everfree Forest, hoping that she wouldn't spend too much time in there. She saw several small, rounded footprints which she could tell belong to a Chikorita, and followed them. They eventually lead to a golden ring, which contained an image of another forest. Desperately, she dived through it.

The forest Fluttershy ended up in was as overrun as the Everfree Forest, but was a lot brighter. The forest was full of creatures which were unfamiliar to her, but resembled animals that lived on Equus. A brown bird with red wings, that resembled a sparrow but had an eagle's stare, looked around from the branch it stood on, then noticed Fluttershy and seemed confused. A giant purple butterfly with white wings landed by a patch of flowers. A few orange insects that looked a bit like crabs, with red and white mushrooms on their backs, were gathered on a tree trunk. Fluttershy could hear the sounds of these creatures, and many more besides. But there was no sign of Sweet Pea, or any other Chikorita.

"Eeeee... aaaawaar!"

Suddenly, one of the sparrow-eagles dived down and attacked her, followed by several others of its kind. Fluttershy ran and ran and ran, desperately trying to get away from the constant pecking. Eventually, she ended up being followed by an even larger sparrow-eagle with an even longer beak. Eventually, however, the sparrow-eagles scattered when they noticed a flurry of small, sharp leaves being hurled towards them. Fluttershy was shocked when she noticed where the leaves came from.

"Sweet Pea!" she exclaimed. "I'm so glad you're okay! It's time to go home now."

"Sorry, Fluttershy, but..." replied Sweet Pea, looking downwards, "this forest is where I live. I'd rather stay here..."

"But this forest is so dangerous!"

"It is for you, from another world. The Pokémon who live in this forest are much better suited for this environment... or something..."

Fluttershy was about to ask what a "Pokémon" was, but she didn't. "I suppose if it's best for you..."

Sweet Pea waved her leaf, as if to say goodbye. Fluttershy waved back at her.

"Don't get upset, Fluttershy... it's just that... this forest is where I belong, that's all. And your world is where you belong."

Fluttershy slowly retraced her steps, being careful not to get attacked. Some of the other creatures of the forest, which weren't malicious, seemed rather curious about her. A rounded, blue and white creature ended up following her, but stopped following her when she got near the ring.

"Took you long enough," said Scootaloo. Fluttershy reunited with the Cutie Mark ex-Crusaders back in the Everfree Forest.

"Sorry..." said Fluttershy. "Sweet Pea said that the forest was her home, and that she wanted to stay there."

"Well, that's okay with her, then. At least she wasn't calling trouble," said Sweetie Belle.

The four ponies walked out of the forest, when all of a sudden, they heard the sound of high-pressure air being sucked in. The all turned around, and noticed that the inside of the ring had turned black, and was pulling the contents of the forest into it. A few creatures from the other forest were flung out of the portal. Scootaloo tried to fly towards the ring, but unfortunately, she was barely able to fly. She was sucked towards the ring, and before she could try to escape, she was pulled into it.

"Scootaloo, NO!" shouted Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom.

Panicking, the remaining ponies ran out of the forest.

If only Fluttershy was here...

When Twilight appeared in Canterlot, she noticed that there was a huge indentation in a path, and the nearby buildings were mostly rubble. Worst of all, there were next to no ponies to be seen, and a long shadow loomed over the city. She looked up, and saw an angry, green serpent. She flew up to it. When the serpent noticed Twilight, it swiped one of its short, but sharp-clawed, arms towards her, but she managed to dodge it. She landed back on the ground, when she heard a familiar voice.

"I see you have arrived, Twilight Sparkle." It was Princess Celestia, accompanied by her sister Luna. Twilight Sparkle turned around. "A dragon, unlike anything Equestria has ever seen, suddenly appeared here and started attacking the residents. Thankfully, nopony was harmed, but the damage done to the buildings was major."

"I noticed," replied Twilight. "Why did you send that letter to me?"

"You and your friends have saved Equestria on countless occasions. We thought you would be able to help. Speaking of which, where are they?"

"They're back at the castle. Well, most of them are, anyway. I don't know where Fluttershy is."

Suddenly, the three alicorns ears swivelled towards the sound of the air pressure increasing. There was a ring at the end of the cobblestone path, which was sucking the surrounding rubble in like a black hole. Simultaneously, the green dragon dived towards them, ready to attack. The ring widened, and the ponies began to be sucked into it. Twilight, who was standing furthest away from it, managed to get away from the suck-in field, but Celestia and Luna were less fortunate, being pulled in, followed by the green dragon.

Twilight held back her tears, but a few still rolled down her cheeks. Bravely, her horn glowed magenta, and she fired a translation spell into the ring. Wherever the princesses ended up, Twilight wanted them to understand the inhabitants. The ring then stopped sucking things in altogether.

Twilight teleported back to Ponyville, as the sun sank below the horizon, not followed by the moon.

Twilight Sparkle teleported back into the castle, gasping and still slightly crying.

"What happened?" her four other friends all exclaimed.

Twilight took a deep breath. "There was a dragon attacking Canterlot... so Celestia called me over... and then she got sucked into one of the portals... followed by that dragon..."

The other ponies' reactions ranged from surprised to distraught. Suddenly, Fluttershy burst into the room, followed by Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom.

"So there you are!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash. "But where's Scootaloo?"

"We were in the Everfree Forest," said Apple Bloom. Applejack looked concerned. "Long story. Anyway, Scootaloo got sucked into this portal, and we don't know if she'll be okay or not!"

"Was that portal... anything like the one in Canterlot?" asked Twilight.

"We don't know. Anyway, you've gotta help her!" exclaimed Apple Bloom.

"Okay, fillies. Stay here," said Rarity.

"I'll go," said Rainbow.

"Umm... are you sure? It seems dangerous... like, really dangerous..." said Fluttershy.

"Really? I'm the greatest flyer in all of Equestria. Sure, I'll be able to save Scootaloo!"

The sun had set unusually early, and there was no sign of the moon. Rainbow Dash flew towards the Everfree Forest as fast as she could; she arrived in a few minutes. Zecora wasn't around. Many of the tree's leaves had been completely torn off by the portal, so it was easy to find.

"Scootaloo, I'm coming!" she shouted, as she flew straight into the high-pressure winds that made her mane blow all over the place.

Inside the portal, it was dark. Rainbow saw a brief image of a dark blue bird of some sort flash before her eyes, before ending up on the ground in a forest. But where was Scootaloo?

The mare was never seen again.

Tugging at the Heart's Strings

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.

A Small Chikorita in a Big Forest

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...