Tales of a Pokemon Master

Tales of a Pokemon Master

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Chapter 1

Darkness Returns

Part 1 - Plan B

The citizens of Ponyville were used to extreme situations, a side effect of living near the Everfree Forest and experiencing daily exposure to Pinkie Pie’s shenanigans. Still, the presence of the Princess of Friendship and her friends provided them with a feeling of security.

As expected, seeing their princess covered in burns appear out of nowhere in the market square was enough to drive the townsfolk into mass hysteria.

A crowd quickly encircled the alicorn and stared in worry, blocking the passage between two lines of market stands and tents. Their eyes were on Twilight Sparkle, who was lying flat on the floor with an unconscious pony by her side, and they widened the moment they noticed a third figure, Discord himself. More than just a few ponies gulped or started sweating, imagining what kind of terrifying force could take down the Spirit of Chaos himself.

Murmurs and chatter overtook the crowd while a few volunteers galloped towards the hospital to call for help.

“What in tarnation is goin’ on?” Applejack asked as she pushed herself through the crowd. She gasped and galloped towards her friend. “Twilight, what happened?”

The alicorn groaned in pain as she massaged her forehead. After a few quick blinks, she raised her head and asked, “Applejack… where are we?”

“Market square, sugarcube,” the farm mare responded as she supported Twilight and helped her stand. "Just tell me who messed with ya'll and Ah’ll introduce them to mah hooves.” She gave a few tentative kicks. ”Nopony hurts mah friends on mah watch."

Starlight Glimmer stood up to her trembling legs and looked around, quickly noticing the gathered crowd and the scorch mark left on the ground by their teleportation. She looked at Twilight’s damaged wing and her ears drooped. “Th-thanks… Twilight.” Her face had remained unharmed thanks to her mentor’s protective wing. She turned around and approached Discord. Her breathing slowed down as she carefully rolled Discord on his back and shook him gently, tears welling up in her eyes. “Discord, wake up… please...”

“What happened to him?” Applejack asked Twilight.

“I’m not sure. Starlight was with Discord when this happened, so she’s the one with the answers.”

Starlight opened her mouth like she were about to speak, but was interrupted by her friend’s yawning.

Discord stretched and yawned as he wiped the sleepiness from his eyes before massaging his head and ears. “I feel as if I were listening to hundreds of cats clawing at a gigantic blackboard. What a headache...” He looked around, noticing the large crowd of ponies for the first time. He was about to speak when he caught sight of Starlight’s teary glare.

“You stupid draconequus, what were you thinking? Leaving us like that to fight the enemy all by yourself! If I didn’t find you in time, you would be done for!”

Discord blushed and glanced at the crowd before snapping his claw. “A bit of privacy, please.” He frowned in surprise when nothing happened. He snapped his claws a few more times, oblivious to the gathered ponies being randomly repositioned all over the marketplace. He looked at Starlight with an awkward smile and scratched the back of his neck. “I just couldn’t wait to play the hero… sorry about leaving you behind.”

“You should apologize to Twilight as well.” Starlight wiped the tears from her eyes and pointed at her mentor. “We were supposed to work as a team, and you ruined it.”

“Sorry,” Discord said as he tried to stand, his legs shaking from the effort. The only other time he felt so weakened was after Tirek’s betrayal. “Still, after what happened, I’ll stick to the team.” He lowered his head and added, “I promise.”

“Ya, right...” Applejack said, furrowing her eyebrows. She didn’t pick up any insincerity in Discord’s voice, but her experience told her he would most likely fail to keep his promise. “Who did this to ya’ll, Twilight? Care to tell?”

The alicorn shook her head. “This isn’t the place for stories, and we have a lot to talk about. We need to regroup in the castle.”

“Say no more,” Discord said as he called upon his magic, only to feel a dull ache in his head. After putting considerably more effort into the spell, he managed to teleport the group to the entrance of Twilight’s castle.

“That’s neat, now can ya git the rest of the team?” Applejack asked, staring up at Discord expectantly.

“Already on it, dear simple applejack,” Discord said before disappearing, leaving Applejack to roll her eyes.

“I think I’ll take a bath in the meantime,” commented Twilight after taking in the state of her coat.

Starlight examined herself and sighed. “So will I.”

“Ah’ll get Spike and wait in the map room,” Applejack said before stamping her hoof into the ground. “Ah can’t wait to pay ‘em back, whoever those snakes are.”

Twilight was now sitting on her crystal throne with Spike by her side, all her friends already in their respective thrones. Discord looked down from the chandelier made of tree roots and memory gems just above the Cutie Map.

Starlight sat on a pillow next to Spike. Despite her mentor’s insistence, she had refused a throne of her own, as she didn’t feel worthy of such an honor yet.

“Now that’s an epic adventure! I wish I had been there,” Rainbow Dash said with a wide smile on her dreamy face, her wings flapping in excitement.

“I fear you wouldn’t have made much of a difference, darling,” Rarity spoke up. “If anything, Discord’s hot temper only made matters worse, and we all know that you tend to rush into action without second thoughts. No offense.”

“Hey! I got better at teamwork since I joined the Wonderbolts,” Dash grumbled, crossing her forelegs.

Fluttershy tapped her hooves together as she spoke hesitantly, “Ummm… doesn't that mean that those animal creatures you spoke off are really dangerous? Maybe I could convince them to stop being so mean.”

“Don’t count on it,” Discord said, peeking from behind a root. “They seemed blindly obedient to Sombra, not even blinking when I counterattacked.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Now that I say it aloud, I remember they all had those weird collars with dark crystals.”

“Dark crystals!?” Twilight said as her eyes widened. “Why didn’t you mention that earlier?”

“It slipped my mind.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Sure it did.”

“Twilight, do you know anything?” Starlight asked with a hard interrogative stare as she started thinking back to her encounter with their enemies.

“Sombra once ruled the Crystal Empire, and he even raised an army in one of the distorted timelines. It makes sense that he would know the means to control others against their will,” Twilight explained.

“But how did old grumpy face get all those cute little critters to work for him? Pulling them from a wizard's hat?” Pinkie asked. She imagined Sombra in Trixie’s costume, pulling random creatures from his hat before placing brainwashing collars on their necks. She embraced herself and shivered. “S-scary.”

“I think he summons them from another dimension, using that weird rune in the middle of the room I fought in,” Discord pointed out. Several pairs of eyes stared at him in disbelief. “What? Don't give me that look girls, I can have smart ideas from time to time too. It just bores me to overthink details.”

Fluttershy half-closed her eyes and spoke up as bravely as she could, “Smart ideas or not, those mean animals did hurt you. I absolutely forbid you from putting yourself in any more danger! I mean… I would appreciate it… if that's ok with you.” She hid the blush of embarrassment behind her mane.

Twilight closed her eyes and thought deeply before speaking up, “I think Discord may be right, for a change. When I was exploring that dungeon, I encountered many notes, and some of them were about some grand project about summoning. It didn’t cross my mind it would mean summoning inhabitants of different worlds.” She lowered her head and sighed. “I wished I could have gathered more data, but all those poor innocent books I found were torn to pieces.” She growled. “I swore to avenge those books, and I’ll keep my word.”

Spike raised his claws to his mouth, faking a gasp. “Destroyed books? I pity the fools who enraged you by doing that.”

Discord vanished and reappeared on the map, his head resting on the miniature of a mountain with a tiny city located on it. “Seems I won the bet, Starlight. Remember how I guessed that those pesky invaders may have come from another world?” He poked his friend’s muzzle, who gently pushed his claw to the side.

“But what can be done?” Rarity asked, looking between her alicorn friend and the Spirit of Chaos. “I got the impression from your stories that Sombra was trying to uncover Discord’s weakness. Not only did he succeed in this regard, he already had beasts resistant to magic at his beck and call.” She raised a hoof to her forehead dramatically. "Oh, c'est fini!"

“Ah gotta agree with Rares on this one. What’s the plan?”

Starlight looked at Discord curiously. “How about fighting fire with fire. Discord, you have the power of chaos on your side, could you maybe summon some help?”

“That sounds like a great idea!” Discord responded as he stood up. “Why risk my hide if I can let someone else do it for me. Though opening a portal between dimensions is quite exhausting, so don’t expect me to bring an army here or anything.”

“That didn’t stop you from trying to banish my friend,” Fluttershy scolded.

“What can I say,” Discord said and shrugged. “Banishing is easier for me than summoning.”

“Eureka!” Twilight shouted, attracting everypony’s attention. “Discord, we don’t need an army. If you could summon someone with plenty of knowledge to cooperate with us, we could learn more about those invaders and find the means to defeat them. It’s a perfect plan!” She tapped her hooves in excitement before pointing at her shy friend. “Fluttershy could translate their language, and if that fails, I could try to find a way to communicate with my magic.”

“Ya sure ‘bout that?” Applejack asked. “What if they ain’t smart enough?”

Twilight shook her head. “The one who hurt us when we were about to teleport to Ponyville communicated telepathically and seemed to be intelligent. I’m sure it will work.”

“And what if Discord screws up again?” Dash asked, giving the Draconequus a challenging glare. “His list of failures is quite long, after all.”

“Screw up? List of failures? I feel offended,” Discord said, turning around and holding a claw on his chest. He returned the glance with a determined stare of his own as he pointed at the athletic pegasus. “Just sit and wait, Rainbow Crash. I will bring with me someone so powerful, smart and awesome that you’ll eat your words. Literally.” With one solid slash of his claw, he caused a portal to another dimension to open above the table and jumped in. The portal blew a raspberry at Dash as it closed right behind him.

All eyes in the room immediately locked onto Rainbow Dash, each one of her friends giving her a disapproving look.

“What… what?”