Day 1

The first thing Jay noticed when he woke up was that he was lying face-down on the beach. Which was strange, because he distinctly remembered going to bed the night before.

The second thing he noticed was that the sun was practically burning his back. While Sunnyshore City was the warmest place in mainland Sinnoh, there was no way it would be this hot this early in the morning, in spring.

The third thing he noticed was that he felt... different. Very different.

Jay pushed himself up, blinking sand out of his eyes, and looked around. He was on a sandy beach, surrounded by a bright green sea. He seemed to be on an... atoll? Is that what they were called? Wherever he was, it was much too tropical to be anywhere near Sinnoh. How did he get here?

Then, Jay looked at himself. His arms were much shorter than he was used to, and they were covered in orange fur, with blue fins along each wrist. Gasping in surprise, Jay stumbled over to the water, tripping over in the process. After getting back up, he took a good look at his reflection.

Most of Jay's body was covered in the same orange fur as his arms, but there was a patch of cream that stretched from the lower half of his short-muzzled face to his underbelly. There was a yellow ring around his neck. He turned around to look at his back, and saw two cream spots, and two tails dragging awkwardly along the ground.

There was no mistaking it: he had become a Buizel. But how? And why?

Suddenly, Jay realised that he was alone. "Mom?" he called, but soon realised that searching for her was futile: even if his mother was here, she wouldn't recognise him. He stumbled towards a group of trees - much too small to be called a forest - hoping that at least someone could tell him where he was.

"Hey! Would you happen to know where the heck this place is?" Jay heard a girl yell behind him. He turned around, and saw that she was... another Buizel?

Shocked, Jay stared at her for a few seconds as he struggled to think of a response. "Um... no, sorry," was all he could muster.

"Well, that's helpful..." the other Buizel crossed her arms. "What's your name, then? I've never seen you around before, and I know EVERY Buizel where I'm from."

Jay took a deep breath to calm himself. Now that the initial shock had worn off, he figured that he could understand Pokémon because he was a Pokémon himself now. "My name is Jay," he said.

"Well, my name's Deluge, but you can call me Delle. Pleased to meet you!" Delle held out a paw, which Jay shook awkwardly.

"Thanks, but... Do you know where we are?"

"Nope!" Delle exclaimed quickly. "I just woke up here a few minutes ago. I lived near an island much bigger than this one - I think humans called it the Battle Zone? Just yesterday some nice human lady person saved my dad, and now I can't find him..." Jay had a feeling that he knew who this "nice human lady person" was and almost smiled, but then felt a pang of sadness. "But if I had to guess, I think he'd be in that rocky place down there." She pointed towards the clear sea. "There seems-"

"The reef," Jay added.

"The what?" Delle exclaimed.

"The reef. It's what rocky places like that are called."

"Oh, you mean one of those colourful places where everything lives? Heard of those. Never seen one, though." Delle paused. "Anyway, there seems to be a lot of Pokémon down there. My family might be down there, and even if they're not, I can always ask if anyone's seen them. Who knows, maybe we'll find your mom, too?"

"I guess so..." Jay looked down sadly.

"What's the matter?" asked Delle.

"Oh!" Jay looked up again. "Long story."

"Okay then. Whatever the case, let's go!" Delle dived head-first into the water; after taking a deep breath, Jay cautiously followed her. He expected the water to itch his skin and burn his eyes, but... no. It felt like he could see better underwater than he could on land in this new form. He could see the grooves on unfamiliar shells that littered the seafloor, illuminated by distorted, beaming sunlight. The clear water felt so... inviting!

Ahead of the two Buizel were stacks of ragged, yellow coral, forming an undersea forest that teemed with fish he'd never seen before. Among them were a few Pokémon he did recognise, but had never seen in person, which stuck out like a sore thumb.

He watched Delle swim ahead of him, spinning her tails like a propeller to effortlessly propel her whole body forwards as she darted around the coral. It looked so fun! Jay felt really clumsy behind her, slowly moving his arms in circular motions because he didn't how to move his tails. He had thought that swimming would come naturally, but evidently not.

Jay stopped as he noticed a glow coming from a nearby edge of the reef. It mesmerised him; he couldn't even blink. He slowly swam closer and closer towards it...

"What's taking you so long, Slowpoke?" exclaimed Delle, snapping Jay out of his trance. He realised that she must have turned around to find him.

"That," Jay said, pointing towards the light. Just then, the two heard a shriek.

The two Buizel looked at each other. "Someone must be in trouble!" exclaimed Jay, before the two swam towards the source.

Glimmering Pearl had never seen anything like this.

Back when she was at school, her favourite subject had been the extensive lessons about the ecosystem of the reef. If just one invasive species showed up, the balance would be totally ruined. It would either eat the native species or otherwise out-compete them; either way, with no predators to keep it in check, the invasive species would soon drive countless others to extinction.

This coral-with-a-face was one such example of an invasive species. But how? It didn't look like it could swim. What was even weirder was it seemed like it had just... appeared. It definitely hadn't been there a few minutes ago, and Pearl was very thorough when it came to examining the reef. It was her job, after all.

Still, it was... cute. The coral-thing gave Pearl a confused look.

Pearl swam upwards to get to the centre of the reef and alert the other seaponies of her finding, when she realised that the coral-with-a-face wasn't the only new arrival. The rocks were covered in flat, purple clams with long tongues, and things that looked like brown shields; above, a few bright blue seahorses of different sizes and flat, pink, heart-shaped fish swam around. A blue and purple starfish-looking thing was chasing another coral-with-a-face; neither of them were particularly fast. She could hear unfamiliar, whale-like songs that sounded like they came from miles around.

Pearl came face-to-face with what looked like a dolphin-shaped anglerfish. She briefly wondered what an anglerfish was doing this high up, but soon found herself mesmerised by its round, yellow, bell-like light. It adorable, but not as cute as the coral-with-a-face. It opened its mouth wide in what looked like a smile...

And was promptly tackled out of the way by a sunfish-shaped shark.

Pearl shrieked, cowering in fear, but then noticed that the shark wasn't trying to attack her. Instead, it was... talking to her? At least, it sounded like it was trying too; all she could hear were a series of low-pitched sounds coming from the shark's mouth that sounded like angry yelling. She didn't even know that sharks could make sounds.

She then noticed two orange mammals of some sort swimming towards her, one more confidently than the other.

"That Lanturn was trying to EAT you!" the Sharpedo yelled. "You'd BETTER be thankful that I saved your life!"

Jay and Delle swam towards the commotion. In a yellow corner of the reef, a Sharpedo had just tackled a Lanturn away from... something lilac-coloured, with a green tail, that vaguely resembled a Seadra. Whatever she was, she seemed to be a local.

"Excuse me, Mr. Sharpedo," Delle said, swimming up to the Sharpedo and being careful to avoid his huge, sharp teeth, "I don't know much about a Lanturn's eating habits, but if you want someone to be thankful that you saved their life, yelling at them isn't exactly the best idea."

"Fine..." the Sharpedo sighed before rapidly swimming off. After he was gone, Delle approached the lilac creature.

"Strange dragon, would you happen to know where this place is?" asked Delle.

She got no response.

"Maybe you should try being a bit more polite?" Jay suggested. "I'll try. Excuse me, miss, do you know where we are?"

Still no response. Instead, the "strange dragon" swam away towards the heart of the reef, though she didn't seem to be afraid of them.

"Hey, wait!" exclaimed Delle as she swam after her. Jay followed suit. Since he was a slow swimmer, he got to have a good look at his surroundings.

The reef was filled with Pokémon he'd seen pictures of, but never in person: Shellder and Kabuto were standing on the coral, while a few Horsea, Seadra, Kingdra, and Luvdisc swam about. He spotted an Alomomola in the distance, watching on in concern. A Corsola backed away from a Mareanie in fear, but even more afraid were the locals: as he approached the centre, which was less yellow and more blue, he noticed that there were countless buildings that blended into the reef, and he could see half-scared, half-curious looks on the faces of many strange dragons (until he learned what this species was called, he'd be calling them that) through the windows. It looked like the underwater equivalent of a bustling city centre.

Eventually, he ended up in what looked like a central plaza, where several confused strange dragons swam around. The water here was relatively deep, as the rocks that formed the foundation of the reef were further below. Overlooking this plaza was a magnificent blue palace of some sort, with a balcony hanging over the entrance.

"Took you long enough," remarked Delle, who had her arms crossed.

"So... what have I missed?" asked Jay.

"Not a lot. Just a bunch of these weirdos panicking."

Jay stopped to listen to the commotion in the plaza.

"Oh, the queen, the queen... what will the queen think of this?" a dark blue strange dragon mumbled as he paced back and forth.

"I woke up this morning to find these clams - clams! - all over my kelp garden. I had spent ages growing that!" a silver one yelled.

Even more aggravated than the strange dragons were the Pokémon.

"Just yesterday I was in cold seas, and now I'm somewhere tropical?" a Dewgong complained loudly. "This heat can't be good for my fins!"

"Are they gonna eat me?" a young Lapras asked, retreating under her mother's flipper. It took a moment for Jay to realise that "they" were the strange dragons. Jay had never seen Lapras underwater before; he had only seen them on the surface.

"Of course not, darling," the mother Lapras replied. She began to sing what sounded like a wordless lullaby, that would have been soothing had it not been drowned out by the noise.

"Just where am I? I demand answers!" a Kaputops exclaimed, taking his anger out by hitting his scythe-arms into the rocks that he was standing on.

"Who are you? Where are we? We're in an unfamiliar sea!" a group of Lileep eerily sang in unison. Repeatedly. They sounded like the world's most annoying cheerleaders. Jay had had enough after hearing it the second time.

"SILENCE!" a voice shouted. Everyone turned to see the dark blue strange dragon, who had now swam up in front of the balcony.

"We are not sure what caused the appearance of the strange creatures this morning, but we are currently dealing with them," he continued. "If a creature is causing trouble, do not hesitate to report it to us."

A few strange dragons turned silent and headed towards the palace, where many guard-looking strange dragons were waiting, but everyone else continued talking. One voice in particular caught Jay's attention.

"So, I woke up early this morning, and I was just going about my job in the Yellow Branch, when suddenly, a piece of coral appeared, and - get this - IT HAD A FACE." It was the lilac strange dragon from earlier. She was talking to a bright pink one. "But that's not the weirdest part. This cute kinda-anglerfish, kinda-dolphin thing showed up, and it was SO ADORABLE! And then... I was almost eaten by a SHARK! Then these two orange cuties showed up, just before I came back here, and they drove the shark away. Not sure how they managed it, though. Speaking of which..." She seemed to notice Jay and Delle and turned around.

"Um, excuse me, MISS," Delle said, aggravated. "But if you were LISTENING, then you'd know that the Sharpedo WASN'T trying to eat you. He SAVED YOUR LIFE!"

"...There they are!" the lilac strange dragon exclaimed, completely ignoring what Delle had just said. Delle facepawed.

"I don't think she's intentionally ignoring you," said Jay, stopping Delle from having an outburst. "Do you think that maybe... they can't understand us?"

"But we can understand them... Strange." Delle shrugged. "Whatever this lot are, they can't be Pokémon."

"Oh my gosh, they're so cute!" the pink one gasped. Delle frowned at this. "They remind me of something I saw earlier. They're a lot smaller, though."

"Is she talking about a Floatzel?" Delle's eyes lit up. "That might be my dad!"

"My little sister would love to see them!" the pink one continued. "But..." She looked down sadly.

"What's the matter, Oyster?" asked the lilac one.

"She was poisoned by one of the new arrivals. It was purple, and had a lot of spiky arms in a circle. Have you seen one of those, Pearl?"

"Sounds like a Mareanie!" exclaimed Jay.

"A what?" asked Delle.

"A Mareanie. A predator that lives in tropical seas and mainly eats Corsola branches. Hadn't seen one myself until earlier on today as I was swimming here, but I've heard about them," he replied.

"Nerd," Delle remarked.

The lilac one, whose name was evidently Pearl, shook her head. "I haven't, but your sister needs help ASAP! Can you show me where it was?"

"Not far from where I live, in the Orange Branch. Just follow me," the pink one, whose name was evidently Oyster, replied. She swam off, followed by Pearl, followed by Jay.

"Why are you following them?" asked Delle. "You swim like a human, for crying out loud!"

Well...

"Because... it's the right thing to do." Jay paused. "Um... and we might find your dad!"

"Oh yeah!" exclaimed Delle. "Then I'll come with you!"

The Orange Branch, as Oyster had called it, looked like a residential district. It felt humble compared to the blue area and its magnificent palace. A young strange dragon tired to pick up a Shellder in what looked like a front garden, before her mother came and told her to put it down and go back inside. She was the only strange dragon that Jay had seen outdoors in the Orange Branch, in fact. The silence was eerie.

Eventually, Jay was alerted to the sound of a young girl crying.

"There she is," Oyster said. Jay looked down to see a tiny, pinkish-orange strange dragon lying on some rocks outside of one of the houses. Jay saw a purple gash across the base of her tail.

"What happened?" Pearl asked exasperatedly.

"She was just playing outside when she came across that... creature," said Oyster, sounding like she was holding back tears. Jay wondered if it was even possible to cry underwater. "I just went outside to check upon her when I saw it... it plunged a spike on the top of its head into her tail and she started falling... I had to carry her onto this rock to stop her from falling into the abyss. I wanted to help her, but I didn't know how... even our best doctors would have no idea how to treat this..."

Pearl looked furious. "Where's the culprit?" she demanded rhetorically.

"It was just around the corner... whoa!" Oyster exclaimed as Delle quickly swam past her, Jay following suit.

Delle found the Mareanie on an outcropping behind the houses. "Alright, Maree-anie," she said, putting her paws on her hips. "Why did you hurt that girl?"

The Mareanie looked offended. "Well ex-CUSE me! I was just trying to protect my territory, and then this wotcha-ma-call-it showed up! I had every right to attack, thank you very much!"

"Um... Mareanie," Jay said. "I don't know where your territory is, but it certainly isn't here. None of us Pokémon know where we are right now." Wait, did I just say "us Pokémon"?

"Well, I suppose this sea feels weird somehow... but still, she should've known better than to provoke a Mareanie! We're the most feared Pokémon in the sea! Except Gyarados, and Sharpedo, and Wishiwashi, and... well, you get the idea." The Marenie covered his face with his arms and went dormant.

"Well, that's solved," Delle said, smirking, before her expression clouded. "But that doesn't solve the problem. What should we do now?"

"Well..." Jay thought for a moment. "You know how Oyster said that none of the doctors from here would be able to help her sister? Do you think a Pokémon would be able to help her?"

"Good idea," Delle replied. "But what Pokémon should we look for?"

Jay tried to remember what marine Pokémon he knew about. "Um... Alomomola? I saw one earlier. I've heard that they're good at healing, like the Chansey of the sea. They're big, and pink, and have these fins that bend like hands. Do you think we should go looking for one?"

Delle nodded. "Sounds like a plan," she said, before the two swam back the way they came, towards the centre of the reef.

Glimmering Pearl swore that the two orange mammals were intelligent. For one, they seemed to understand what she was saying. As soon as she said that the purple thing was around the corner, they darted off there! She noticed that the one with one spot on its back was a better swimmer than the one with two spots.

Not only that, but they dealt with the purple, venomous creature by... talking to it? At least that's what it looked like to Pearl and Oyster as they watched from a safe distance. She felt a strange sort of respect for them. Despite their small size, they were unafraid of something that almost killed a seapony.

Pearl noticed that the mammals had stopped talking to the purple thing, and started talking to each other in their strange, unintelligible language, before swimming past her and Oyster with determined looks on their faces. Did they just plan something? Whatever it was, she hoped it would save Conch.

Speaking of which... Oyster couldn't take her eyes away from her sister, who was still whimpering in pain. She tried to offer words of comfort, but clearly didn't know what to say.

"Conch... please... you'll be fine... I promise!" Pearl could hear the tears in Oyster's voice. "I just don't know how... but you'll make it! Oh please, please make it..."

After the longest few minutes of her life, Pearl finally saw the two orange mammals swimming back, this time with a lumpy, pale pink, heart shaped fish, almost twice their size, with huge fins.

One of them held a paw in front of the fish, as if telling it to wait, before the two of them swam down to where Conch was and lifted her up, with some difficulty. Oyster looked shocked, but the two seemed to ignore her.

The one with two spots on its back pleaded with the fish, before the fish swam closer and embraced Conch in its dorsal fin, which bent over sideways. It soon lifted it, revealing that the gash was gone. Upon realising that she was healed, Conch excitedly swam into Oyster's forelimbs. The two orange mammals drew closer.

"Thank you!" exclaimed Oyster as she hugged her sister. "Thank you so much!" The fish took one last look at the seaponies before it swam away.

Pearl smiled as she realised that these new arrivals weren't all bad after all, irreversible damage to the ecosystem notwithstanding.

Author's Note

Fun fact: this chapter was almost called "The Weirdest Day of the Rest of Your Life".

Major revisions
28/Jul/2018: Changed the description of Marelantis' Yellow Branch in section 1, added Sunken Treasure's announcement in the Blue Plaza scene.