Growing Up in a New World

Day one

I remember all too well the day the world changed forever…

It was a morning in early spring, and the residents of the Imperial City of Stagland, Empire of Deer, were beginning to wake up. The city was mostly made of hollowed-out oak trees – the Imperial Palace being the largest – and was surrounded by forests of aspen trees, with smooth, white bark.

I was at home, reading a book about what plants were helpful and harmful; back then, I wanted to be a doctor. The book was old, and the pages were starting to fall out from over-reading. I was on a page about poison joke, a blue flower-thing from the Everfree Forest in Equestria which can apparently inflict curses, when suddenly, without warning, there was a bright flash of light.

What was that?

It only lasted about a second, but it was terrifying, like the visual equivalent of the sound of a stick of bamboo hitting a rock. I bolted downstairs, and told my mother, who seemed slightly concerned, I was going out to investigate what just happened; they usually trusted me to go into the woods on my own if I was back in about an hour.

The forest of aspen trees was full of unfamiliar creatures, all of which were asleep. A bright green gecko-thing was lying face-down on a branch, near several oversized pink and green caterpillars. A normal blackbird flew away in panic. Underneath the tree, there was a stream with several spherical blue things asleep around it, some with mouse-like ears, and some that looked more like rabbits. Further away, there was a group of yellow rabbit-things with zig-zagging tails, and nearby was a creature that looked similar, but was smaller, paler and had triangular ears, next to a pink and cream cat. A group of four wooden bipeds with long noses, one of which had leaves for hands, were on the ground. How did they get here? Did it have something to do with that flash?

Eventually, I came across a deer who looked around my age. Her pink colouring made her look a bit like a pony. I nudged her with one of my front hooves, hoping to wake her up. Eventually, she stirred.

“Where… am I…?” she said, rather quietly. It took me a moment for my mind to be able to register what she said, as if she was speaking in another language that I understood. She stood up, looked around and almost panicked, until I raised a hoof to her shoulder.

“You’re in the aspen forest, just outside the Imperial City,” I said. It didn’t seem to help.

“City… that must mean… h-h-h-hu… mans… and I’ve never seen a brown Deerling before…”
I was about to ask her why she believed in humans, and why she associated the word “city” with them, or if “Deerling” was some obscure synonym for “fawn”, but there was a more pressing issue at hand. “How did you get here?”

The pink deer took a deep breath. “I got scared of a thunderstorm and got separated from my family… have you seen them anywhere? I ended up in a forest, but it looked nothing like this one, then I fell asleep…”

“What did it look like?” I heard the sound of branches snapping in the distance, but I tried to ignore it.

“The trees were brown, and a lot wider than these. It was darker than this place.”

I paused as I remembered several maps I’d seen throughout the years, and there wasn’t any forest matching that description in the nearby area, and I don’t think a sleepwalker could cover that much distance. “Do you know the name of the general area you were in? Like, what the forest you were in was called, or even the country or something?”

“I think it was called… the Unova region?”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know where that is. This place is called Stagland.” She looked confused. “You’re not from here, are you?”

Suddenly, I hear a branch breaking, right behind us. It was the group of wooden bipeds I saw earlier, now wide awake, led by the one with leaves for hands. I looked at the pink deer, as if we both thought the exact same thing: danger.

The scenery flew past me as I ran and I ran and I ran back to the city, the pink deer close behind me, but the wooden things still kept up with us. The leader was incredibly agile, jumping several metres at once.

“What… what do you think those are?” I said. The pink deer looked behind to get a closer look. We deer have eyes on the sides of our heads to spot predators better, but this doe didn’t, for some reason. She turned her head back.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “Never seen them before...”

“But this can’t be their territory, because I know these woods well, and I’ve never seen them before either. Or any of these creatures, for that matter.” I had noticed that most of the creatures here had woken up now; at once point, I noticed that the green gecko-thing seemed to be having an argument with one of the blue things.

“Wait… how come you’ve never seen-” the doe was interrupted by one of the smaller bipeds snapping a branch that was almost on top of her. She dodged it, then stopped. She leaped very high into the air, then spun around, trying to kick the wooden thing with one of her hind legs. She missed, crashed onto the ground, and looked hurt, but her leg didn’t appear to be broken, or anything. She got back up and repeatedly kicked her enemy with her other hind leg, knocking it down and giving her enough time to escape.

“Awesome!” I exclaimed. I wish I could fight like that... “Are you okay, though?”

“Sure…” the doe replied. “I’ll be fine.”

Despite her injury, the doe still managed to keep up with me. We continued running until we finally reached the edge of the woods. We thought we had finally outrun our pursuers, until we heard something land behind us. It was the leader, followed by his two remaining cronies.

“We’ve chased you two far enough,” said the leader. Like the pink deer, it took me a moment to register what he said.

“Leave,” said one of his cronies.

“Somehow, one of us Nuzleaf got knocked out earlier,” said another.

The trio moved closer to us, ready to attack.

“…That was me,” said the pink deer. “Why were you chasing us?”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I whispered. The doe nodded slightly.

“Nonsense! Don’t you know never to trespass on another Pokémon’s territory?” He raised an arm into the air, as if preparing to strike that. “It’s basic etiquette.”

What’s a Pokémon?

“SHUT UP!” the normally quiet doe suddenly shouted. “This isn’t your territory!”

“What makes you say that?” the other crony – I assumed that their species was called Nuzleaf – asked.

“I don’t know where I am. I’m from this place called Unova, but I just woke up here earlier! And I’ve never seen any Pokémon like you there before!”

“She has a point,” said one of the Nuzleaf. “I know the forest we came from like the back of my hand, but when I woke up this morning, it looked completely different, even if the trees look similar.”

“This guy,” the doe turned her head towards me, “said I was in Stagland, wherever that is.”

“So? What does the funny-looking Stantler have to say?” the Shiftry said, pointing towards me. I almost asked what a Stantler was, but I didn’t.

“I know these woods well, and I know that this isn’t your territory. I’ve never seen anything like you before; I met this doe in these woods earlier, after there was a bright flash of light.” I shuddered slightly as I remembered the flash.

“…Maybe you’re right…” the Shiftry grumbled. “Come on, Nuzleaf. Find your friend, then we’ll find our own part of the woods. But don’t you two come trespassing on us again…” He muttered something about being outsmarted by a couple of kids, then he and the Nuzleaf turned around and left.

“Thanks,” I said to the doe. “My name’s Ilex, by the way.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you,” the doe replied. “And I’m called Flora…”

“You did most of the talking. Anyway, I need to go home now. My mother might be getting worried about me.”

“Okay… I’d rather stay here, though. Just in case I find any of my family around here…”

“Okay, then. Want to meet me here tomorrow?”

“Maybe…” Flora sprinted away, rather nervously.

I returned home, about half an hour after I left, to my mother, who had a rather stern look on her face.

“Are you okay?” she asked, sounding both angry and concerned.

“Yeah. I had to run away from these wooden thingies called Nuzleaf and Shiftry who thought I was trespassing on their territory, but-”

“Are those some of the monsters that appeared today?”

“Monsters? They weren’t monsters at all.”

“Sorry, what?” my mother sounded like I just casually said that the universe exploded, or something.

“I met this pink deer, her name’s Flora, she said she’s from someplace called Unova. The Nuzleaf and Shiftry tried to attack us, until we told them that this wasn’t their territory.”

“You talked to them?”

“Yeah, they can talk. They were confused, and didn’t know where they were.”

“Ilex… that’s dangerous! Some of the monsters – ” she looked at me “– sorry. Anyway, there’s been countless incidents of them damaging all sorts of places, and attacking deer, and…”

“Maybe we just need to be more understanding,” I said, before heading up the helical staircase that lead to my room, of sorts, before this conversation got any more awkward.

That night, I was up reading the book about plants again, when I heard something outside. An owl of some sort landed on a nearby branch, looked towards the ground, as if searching for prey, before flying away, towards the aspen forest.

These creatures, whatever they were, definitely weren’t monsters. They were just lost and confused, trying to live their lives as normally as possible. If only I could convince others about that…

But one question still lingered in my mind: where did they come from?