Two ponies and two pokemon approached the crystal deep beneath the city. It was a cave much farther down than ponies would usually explore but it was still surprisingly light inside this small structure. Each crystal reflected the ponies and pokemon with mirror-like precision, adding a slight rainbow like sheen.
The ponies and Pokémon conversed easily, one of the pokemon or ponies sustaining a psychic link between them. The conversation had stayed on it's current approach since they had started, a rather short time before. These caves were known for their hard to navigate, Labyrinth-like structure. Many ponies, stories said, had been lost deep within these mines, and some skeletons farther in could prove it, should anyone go looking.
The group seemed to be searching for Stones, though they hadn't chosen a kind. The ponies believed they could sell them to the Pokémon, and the two Pokémon seemed to want in on the spoils. Such was the case that they were ignoring the crystals in front of them for quite some time. The crystal in question wasn't part of the cave, nor had it ever been. The crystal before the ponies had come from the same world as the Pokémon.
It was nearly six feet tall, and three feet wide. It's surface held a slightly blue tint to it, much like many of the larger crystals of this cave. However, the crystal itself wasn't special, unless you count its origins being an entire other world. Instead, the prize was the thing inside. A rather beautiful creature was deep within the crystal, seemingly sleeping.
It's form was smooth and graceful. It also held the elegance of a swan and beauty of one, making it a rather shocking and mesmerizing image for the ponies, and an even more startling one for the Pokémon. The mons, unlike the ponies, knew very much what almost every kind of Pokémon looked like, and they had had them described by their trainers too. To say the least, this was a pokemon unlike any other, and, it would seem, that was part of their motivation to remove the crystal from the ground and carry it outside. Moonlight struck the face of the creature within as it's crystal was moved out and into a wagon.
As the Pokémon and ponies finished a scavenge of the stones and the wagon made off, a bump caused the crystal to jostle. Visibly, the creature within could not react, nor could she see. The best she could do was reach out with her mind, and when she did, the Pokémon that sat beside her were startled by the light graceful touch of another mind.
She was stumped, the creature. She had known these people would come and had sense them enter the caves. What she hadn't expected was the reaction of the Pokémon. They had left her deep inside the crystal and had yet to get her out. She had been sleeping for a long, long time, even longer than she herself could count. Time blurred when one could not see beyond their mind.
The only reason she hadn't been driven insane, was her dear companion, her girlfriend to precise. A rather beautiful bird the other had been before they had found themselves in this situation, this strange and quite unique situation. The bird confronted her mate, who had long since established an inner world for them to reside in, even if that world was nothing more than a forest and a small den.
The two Pokémon on the cart felt a second sensation, this time as light as a summer breeze, touch their minds. They had been on the alert, no one expecting the cause was the object in the cart. In fact, the mons didn't believe that the creature inside was alive or if it had ever been. She could have easily been constructed by humans or Pokémon long ago. The wagon trundled off leaving those old crystal caves behind.
Time passed, that's as much as the creature knew. It was, as stated before, hard to have a concept of time when you could not see the physical world. How long, that was the real question. From what she gathered from the Pokémon, it had been a few days, and nothing more. This itself surprised her, she had expected to 'sleep' much, much longer. She was further surprised when the crystal was lifted and set on the ground. She listened in, as intently as possible.
"Listen, doc," one of the ponies muttered, his voice was harsh and slightly gruff, "we can sell it to ya, but we ain't just gonna give this out for free."
The doctor, as the creature gathered, was having a crisis. She preferred not to waste money on something so... extravagant, even if the Pokémon with the ponies guaranteed it was one-of-a-kind and likely an ancient artifact from Earth. This was not helped by her lack of funding by the government and nearby towns. It was sad, how many ponies failed to realize how important history could be.
Concerned with where she might end up, the creature tried to whisper to the doctor's mind, her touch graceful and light, she whispered her best, "Buy it~" she tried to whisper. The doctor's mind seemed puzzled, before deciding that this find should not go off to some 'collector' who would tell no one. The two ponies' minds light up as the doctor pulled out a small bag, handing it to the other ponies.
The doctor called out to the nearby Pokémon who hefted the crystal up onto his shoulder, following the doctor back into the rather large dig site. Pits dug down revealed structures and things such as pots, vases, and oddly enough, a stray rubber tire. The pony led the Pokémon and the crystal down into the pits where a large tent had been set up. Inside, various ponies were cleaning some of the pots and vases, murmuring to themselves as they did so.
The doctor walk over to a closed section of the tent, calling out a name, "Ms. Dust?" the flap of the tent waved slightly before the doctor poked her head into the area cautiously, "I, uh, may have something you want to see." This was followed by a grumbling voice and the pony backing up, a soft clip-clop echoing as 'Ms. Dust' exited the tent flaps, yawning something vicious.
"This had," she yawned, blinking her eyes wearily, "better not be another one of those Pokémon, if they cause one more problem..." The Pegasus frowned, looking at the Pokémon carrying the exceptionally large crystal. She blinked, and glared. The Pokémon smiled sheepishly and set the crystal down before heading back outside to the dig site.
The crystal glistened quietly, the creature within silently watching from the minds of the ponies. 'Ms. Dust' walked up to the crystal, placing her hoof on it and peering in to see the creature inside. "Incredible," she muttered, "if this is preservation, its one of the best ones I've seen. If its artwork," she muttered, "then this has some of the most astounding details I have ever seen. Straight down to the feathers..."
The crystal shook lightly, not escaping the notice of the pony. "Now, that's something." She tapped it with her hoof once again, observing it shivering again. She quickly called over several unicorns, requesting them to cast a list of spells on the crystal. After the creature checked these spells, she pulled back, waiting quietly as the ponies cast their spells. After a few moments of the crystal glowing quietly, the unicorns sat down, however, one in particular seemed to stand there in a complete daze. The shock was evident.
"What?" Dust said as she poked the unicorn in the side. He stood there for a good several moments, the look of shock remaining, if not increasing. She jabbed him again, and finally settled on a means to get his attention. Dust reached over, grabbed a fork, and stabbed the stallion in the leg, rather hard.
The stallion jumped before looking at Dust, and sputtering, “It’s, it’s still alive!” He shouted.
Dust looked at him, and laughed in his face. “As if! Nothing could survive,” she gestured at the crystal with a hoof, “that!” Dust looked around at the other ponies before following their gazes to the crystal in question which seemed to be glowing.
“Yes, sorry,” a voice said, with an almost sing-song aspect to it as it did, “I apologize for not speaking up earlier, but I wasn’t sure I could trust you, I’ve seen many things in my life,” the voice sounded almost depressed at the end. The shock was evident in almost everyone, except for Dust, or rather, Star.
She mused softly, “A talking crystal,” she muttered, “my day couldn't get any weirder if it tried, I suppose.” The archeologist's comment was loud and obvious enough to be noticed by the Pokémon in the crystal.
The tint to the crystal seemed to shimmer as a rather lilting laugh came from it, “I am not the crystal,” it had stopped laughing, “I am the Pokemon inside, for now. I would very much like out. It’s been much longer than it should have, in my opinion.”
Star almost mouthed to the other ponies before stopping herself, “How do we know you’re not some evil from the Pokemon world, and you’re trying to trick us?”
“Commendable foresight, Ms. Star,” the creature said, then it continued, “There are psychic type Pokemon in your little group, correct?” The creature asked this and Star pondered for a moment.
“A few, why?” the gray-maned Pegasus was genuinely confused, again, why would she need these psychic pokemon?
“They can verify my honestly,” the crystal responded, its emotions were far from clear, the creatures expression hadn’t changed for a very long time, and the crystal showed no indication of, well, anything, really. Other than housing a Pokemon, it was a generally normal crystal. Star looked at it cautiously before calling the psychics.
“If it tries anything weird,” Star said, frowning, “anything that could danger Equus or Equestria, tell me.”
The psychic Pokémon nodded before heading back into the room with the crystal. It returned a few moments later, “I’m not sure what it is,” the Pokémon murmured looking rather flustered and confused, “but, it is being truthful.”
Star frowned before walking back into the room, “They agreed that you’re being honest, but,” Star stopped before speaking hesitantly, “I’m not sure if I can believe. Even the Pokémon doesn’t know what you are.”
A light laugh came from the crystal, before it spoke up again, “Of course, I myself am a Pokémon, even if I am a bit different,” it said, the voice sounding rather humored and slightly concerned, almost distraught.
Star looked at the crystal, “I find that a bit… unbelievable,” she muttered.
“If you wish,” the voice said, rather softly, “I can, to the best of my abilities, show you what happened and how I ended up here. It has been awhile since then,” the voice went quiet before returning, “I’m not sure how it’ll look.”
Star shook her head, “I’ll choose to believe you for now. Do you have an idea how we can get you out?”
The crystal hummed momentarily, Star listen intently as it paused, “Not a clue,” it said, causing Star to groan.
“What if we break the crystal?” she asked from behind a hoof.
“You can certainly try, I see no reason it wouldn’t work,” the voice answered.
Star sighed, muttering a few choices words about the abilities of the Pokémon under her breath before leaving the tent and heading towards one of the larger Pokémon. It was a rather large fighting-type Pokémon who was helping dig into the ground. "Hey," she called to the mon who turned its head and looked at her quizzically.
"Think you could help me break up this crystal we've got?" Star asked the Pokémon, looking up at its face. A moment or two later, it nodded and followed her into the tent, having to squeeze into the tight space. After a quick roar and a rather loud, "ROCK SMASH!" The crystal fractured with an even louder, "Crack!" causing the Pokémon inside to fall to the ground, revealing her height as she towered over Star.
"Thank you," she bowed slightly to the Pokémon who blinked in awe. Star herself was a little stunned, she had known what the Pokémon looked like, but seeing it past the veil of crystal was one thing, being in its presence was another. She was regal, almost. "That said, I must introduce myself. I, am Revel."
Star gaped at the Pokémon with wild eyes, "..." after another moment of stunted silence, she spoke, "Beautiful..." The pony's eyes locked with the Pokémon's as it stretched its limbs.
After a moment or two, she grinned and hugged the pony, "This is so much better," she set the pony down and twirled happily. "This is great, being free after so long!" She was almost hopping with joy, "Alright, so, where are the other Pokémon?" The pony gestured outside with a hoof and the fusion in front of her excited the tent.
"Greetings!" she called to them as she excited, "Are you all well? How are things in the world? Any new types? All the humans are gone? Even the apricots? What about-" she went off on a tangent and all the other pokemon just gaped. It wasn't long before she realized they had stopped talking and blushed, "Sorry. Forgot my manners."
They just stared as a tear ripped open behind her and partially under her causing her to fall back. As she fell, she noticed Lord Giratina flying away and heard a small amount of words, "I believe that's the last of those ex-humans..." And she tried to cry out, to call that she wasn't a human, and Swanna tried to as well. As their mouth opened, everything faded to black.
-Meanwhile-
Giratina winced at the furious face of his father, "You mean to tell me, you accidentally sent a Pokémon, one that looked very new, into the Void?" The God-pokemon practically roared. He was furious, yet he understood Giratina's regret. Arceus brought a leg up, rubbing his head in frustration.
"I can't see her in any of the worlds I know, best I can do, for the moment, is keep an eye out. Should she manage to return, my child, you must remember to apologize, yes?" Giratina nodded, "Indeed father."
Neither suspected that it would be a time shorter than they anticipated, but much, much, longer for her.
Author's Note
So, yeah, this is a thing now.
