Apples, Oranges, and PokeHeartsby TohshiChaptersGone is the OldBanished PainGloomy Dusk: Entrances and PreparationsHome Is Where You find Your HeartNecessities and OutingsGone is the Old“You guys still at that game?” asked Zack. He was rather annoying with his constant questions about our game. I also didn’t like the way he looked at me like I was some sort of creep or out to get him. Not that he would ever admit to being afraid of me. “Like, hasn’t it been a month already?” “That is how these games normally go,” said Ty. They were sitting on their chair with their feet right up next to their butt and their knees at their chest. They had just flipped to a new page and were gathering dice to roll. “Zack,” said Robert. “Look man, if you want to play you just have to ask.” I kicked him from under the table and he shot me a look. I knew what it was. That I was supposed to play nice, and he was right. It wasn’t entirely Zack’s fault that he had internalized the bullshit about trans women. He wasn’t from around here anyway and the middle of the country where he came from wasn’t known for its niceness to queer people. I smiled at Zack hoping that he would go away but preparing myself for him joining our game. Besides, he would probably only play one session and then leave. “Sorry about that,” said Kristen. She had just exited the bathroom and hurried over to her seat next to Emily. “Really need to drink less soda.” “Only just a bit,” said Emily. “So are you joining us today, Zack? Kinda need to know if we’re taking a break to get you up to speed. Cause I need to run to the store.” “And she means it,” said Robert. Robert had short, scruffy hair that he liked to gel up and spike. Today, however, it had looked like he had woken late and his hair was a messy tangle. “Don’t offer to go with her unless you want to literally run to the store.” “I jog,” said Emily. “Not run. Better for your knees that way.” I giggled and held my fist out for her to fist bump from across the table. Still, I looked up to Zack who looked rather scared of Emily for some silly reason. Maybe it was that she could probably beat the shit out of him. No matter how much iron he pumped. My eyes glanced over his biceps that showed through his t-shirt. Bad brain, no dreaming over hot guys. “If you don’t mind, I’ll just watch today,” said Zack. He sat down with his absurd stack of comics and pulled one out to read while he listened. At least he was polite and was buying things. The store could use it. Aaron, the owner, had it rough and Zack was easily making a dent in keeping the place open. For some reason, he had decided that every single comic that had his favorite superheroes in it needed reading and, over the last two months, he had been rather prolific in acquiring them. I didn’t spend too much time at the game store, not at all. “Hey guys, I got to run out the trash,” said Aaron. “Watch the store. Be back in a few.” “Yep,” I yelled at him from the back of the store. “So anyway, you guys were about to delve into the murky depths of Shadoverse to acquire the gem of power,” said Ty. “The portal ingredients are ready and you have done your research. The time is upon you to step through into another world. One filled with dark monsters and fallen heroes turned against the light.” “A tad dramatic there,” joked Emily. “Oh give them their fun,” said Mary. “I for one love your descriptions. Now do go on.” “As I was getting to,” said Ty. “The portal opens up and from it shadowy mists start pouring through. Steeling yourselves, you walk into the dark portal. As the last of you crosses its threshold, the portal closes behind you. Slowly, your eyes adjust and it is only then that you notice that you are surrounded. A teeming horde of undead smell your flesh and turn to have their latest feast. Roll initiative.” There was a bunch of dice rolled and a number of yelps of happiness. Emily had rolled very well and would be going first in combat. Robert looked rather sad by that but shook his head and looked at his dice. There was a decent chance that he would have new ones next week. There was a loud crash outside pierced by a loud squealing of burning rubber. The whole building shook. I could hear shouts from outside. Ty had jumped under the table and Robert jumped to his feet. Zack, being the idiot he was, was splayed out like something was about to hit us, blocking out the space in front of Mary. Slowly, I crept toward the door not knowing why I was so anxious about a car crash. Still, something was wrong, and a gust of wind blew in through the door. It smelt foul, like rotten eggs. What could that be from? It hit us in a second. There was just a flash and some pain, then nothing. For a moment, I could hear faint whispers of someone talking to me. They seemed to be apologizing. Was it that buffoon Zack? At least he wasn’t dead, or at least I hoped. I couldn’t tell you when the light became darkness. My head hurt and I couldn’t help but wonder if you could feel pain while dead. A wind blew over my body and I felt a shiver run over me. Well, whatever this afterlife was, it sucked so far. I slowly opened my eyes, though my vision was blurry. I was in some sort of forest. The trees seemed huge to me, as did the bushes that sat near their bases. There was a howl that rang through the night, followed by two more. My eyes were finally coming into focus and I could see the leaves on the trees. Around me were a number of strange creatures. One had a black long thing of hair, wait, that is a mouth. I didn’t know what to think of the strange thing that seemed taller than me. Next to them was a pink thing that seemed to be shivering, though I couldn’t really see any form to it. A bit off from them was two foxes one red and the other white with a hint of blue. Their tails bushed out like crazy and then I saw that they had more than one tail each. Hanging from a tree was a pair of stubby legs that were kicking, trying to free whatever it was that was in the tree. It managed to succeed and fell from the tree branch. It sort of looked like a cross between a teddy bear and a cat, yet it was definitely moving. A blue and black cat stumbled out of one of the bushes. They looked almost drunk. There was something in the bottom of my vision and I looked down. Where my hands should have been were two flippers with three fingers each. I panicked and looked away, thinking that if I just ignored it my hands would come back. The thing in my vision came with and I went cross-eyed to see it. It took longer than I wanted to admit but that was my nose or, well, snout. It wasn’t pretty, but I was screaming. said the thing with two mouths which, strangely enough, looked the most human of all of us. said the pink blob which was still giggling. I said. said the two mouthed creature. said the cat bear. said the white fox. said the red fox. said the blue cat. said the pink blob that seemed to turn around and revealed a rather cute face on it. There was a howl that seemed closer to me but I felt like there was bigger problem. Some how we were those weird kids' creatures. From a game. How? Why? I felt like screaming again. asked Mary. asked Robert. said Kristen. The red fox put her paw to her mouth and stifled a laugh. said Zack. The howl was super close this time and every one of us looked in the direction it came from. I could see the strange pink blob that was Ty seem to melt into a puddle. They weren’t liking the idea of what that could have been from. Maybe it was a wolf Pokemon that would be friendly but I couldn’t help but wonder what wolf Pokemon ate in the wild. It wasn’t a pleasant thought. commanded Zack. I said. I was trying to pull myself along, but it wasn’t coming fast. There was the rustling of bushes behind me. I was trying to waddle along faster as a slightly off looking fox creature ran past. Was that Kristen? They were in a full sprint and seemed scared shitless. Then a second red fox came up to me that definitely was Kristen and put her head under my arm. She plenty bigger than me. Then the white fox put her head under my other arm and I tried to hold on as best I could. I looked over my shoulder to see Emily the cat bear running right behind us and then the blue cat and Zack right behind her. The blue cat scooped up Emily by pressing its head through her legs and she, thankfully, was quick enough to grab a hold. That only left our biggest member running slightly slowly. He kept looking over his back and I looked ahead of us, seeing the strange second red fox blazing a trail. The howling had stopped and honestly, that scared me more. That meant they were right on top of us. I looked to our left, only seeing the passing bushes and trees. It was getting dark and I couldn’t see far. Turning to look right, a wolf was nearly on top of us. It had gray fur and stood over twice as tall as any of us. I shrieked and let go of the foxes. The two of them didn’t stop running, but I fell to the ground, dragging to a stop as the wolf missed its lunge and went right over me, barely missing the foxes. I struggled to get up and start wobbling away again. I could see another wolf running at us from ahead of us, chasing the strange red fox. They jumped under the other two foxes who had screeched to a halt. The blue cat got hit by a third wolf and rolled past me, missing Kristen. I looked back the other direction to see something horrible. She was in the wolf’s mouth hanging out of both sides. It chomped down and I could see the blood fall from her and hear the crack of bone as she screamed. Something in me lit up and my body moved on its own. My scream became choked by water that spat out of my mouth like a jet and blasted the wolf, pushing it back. The wolf, surprised, dropped Kristen to the ground where she fell limply. I waddled up to her nudging her with my long nose. She was still breathing but she was loosing a lot of blood. I stood over her ready to fire off more water if another wolf came close. I could see Zack fighting off a wolf that had bitten into his shoulder. There wasn’t any blood coming from him and he swung his head, causing the big mouth hair thing to slam into the wood with a dull thud. The blue cat who, for some reason, I remember that moment was Robert, had gotten to his feet. He looked around, clearly dazed by the blow and then he shook his head. A bit of sparks ran off his fur and he turned to face an oncoming wolf. I didn’t think I could hit it from that far with my water, yet I didn’t need to as Robert slammed into the wolf, who yelped as electricity arced through the air between the two of them. I looked back to the three foxes, finding that Mary had somehow shot ice at one of the wolves which had ran away yelping. The wolves seemed to be in retreat, but I felt exhausted. Stepping off from over Emily, I let someone else look at her. They were swearing but my head was fuzzy and I couldn’t pay attention to what they were saying. There was a rustling of bushes nearby and I jerked towards it sending a spray of water that direction. It had gone further than I thought it would but I couldn’t keep it up. A strange pony creature bigger than all of us but smaller than the wolves had shook its head, sending water in all directions. It wiped a fetlock across its face before looking our way. The creature was far more cautious than the wolves had been and it walked slowly up to us. It had light purple fur and dirty gray mane. There was an emblem on its flank that I couldn’t get a good view of. On its back was some sort of cross between backpack and saddle bags. “Hey there, little critters,” said the pony. “You all don’t look like you belong in these woods. Now I can see that small one there is hurt rather badly. Mind if I try to help?” I said. “I don’t know what you mean, but I’ll take that as a yes,” said the pony. He walked up to us slightly faster than he had been but still cautiously. All of us let him past and backed off as he looked at Emily. He shook his head and started to work somehow gripping things with his hooves and quickly had the bleeding stemmed by a cloth wrapped around her midsection. He gently picked her up and put her into the biggest pocket on his backpack. “So you critters ain’t from round here,” said the pony. “I need to take your friend to my friend to get them all fixed up. I mean, how in tarnation did a seal make it this far inland. Either way, you lot shouldn’t stick around. Themwolves are still around.” asked Mary. said Ty. said Kristen. said Mary, almost offended. The lot of us hurried after him the best we could. Really, I was just slowing down the others, but with the three of the Foxes taking turns carrying me, we managed to keep up fine enough. The only one who had much of an issue with it was Zack, but he had only two legs and they were fairly short as it was. said Zack. said Ty. They were taking a turn carrying me. said Marry. said Ty. “You lot sure are talkative,” said the Pony. “Can’t tell if you understand me, but I ain’t never seen a critter that talks as much as you lot. Maybe you're just stressed. Does seem like the little one is a friend of y’all.” said Robert as he walked next to the pony. “Pretty certain you are talking to me,” said the Pony. “So is that your name or just like, the way you talk? You keep saying some form of Shinx. Eh, I be talking to the critters now. Probably best I headed back to town when I did. Don’t want to be loosing my marbles out there.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It took three hours to start to see some sense of civilization. We came to an open prairie that was disturbed in its openness by a large set of young trees. I could see some area that looked like it might be farmland as we crested the small hill that went into the forest behind us. The Sun had set and we walked by the light of a full moon. Thankfully, there was a trail that proved easy enough for us to traverse, even at three wide, though my tail and bottom flippers were more than sore and might have some sores on them by now. There wasn’t much that could be done though. We had long stopped talking and I could tell everyone was exhausted. I was exhausted and I hadn’t really been doing anything but hold on. It took about half an hour to walk into the town past the orchard. I couldn’t tell what type of trees they were in the dark but I assumed either nut or fruit. The going got considerably easier as we neared the town, or what really should have been called a village. There wasn’t even twenty buildings to be seen in the place. We entered the place and it looked to be dead with all the lights out. I wasn’t certain they even had lights. The large tower which dominated the center of town was lit, but it was too far to tell by what. Something swooped out of the air and landed next to the pony helping us. All of us jumped and I was dropped to the ground by Mary and Kristen who were trying their best to look ready for a fight. “Woah there little critters, she's a friend,” said the pony. “What is with this little pack of yours? Huh, Delver?” asked the dark pony that had flown up to us. She had fur that blended into the night and hair that was obviously a different shade but blended equally well. If it weren’t for her eyes, which shone with Moonlight, one would have easily missed her. There was a sword strapped to her side, and I was far more wary of her having spotted it. I said in a hiss. “I found them in the western forest,” said the purple pony whose name might have been Delver. “Looks like they don’t belong there. I mean, one of them is a hoofed watter critter. There ain't a river around here big enough for one of them, let alone enough to be native.” said Ty. “One of them is hurt pretty badly,” said Delver. “Figure that Gentle can either help heal it or make its last hours a bit less painful.” There was a silence for a moment between us. We all knew we had no choice but to trust these ponies. They seemed nice and it wasn’t like they had any reason to be hiding that from us. I was pretty certain that Delver didn’t know we could even understand him. said Zack. said Ty. said Robert. Raindrops started to hit us. I felt revitalized by it, but I could tell by the way everyone was staring at Robert I was the only one. The storm was hard and soon the dirt road was muddy. We were all soaking and the ponies looked no better off. Thankfully, we came to a house that Delver went up and knocked on. There were sounds just barely audible over the rain of someone running down some stairs. The door opened and a green unicorn greeted us. Her hair was all sorts of messed up but I assumed that was from sleep. Her amber eyes shone in the dark and she seemed to lock eyes on us over the ponies first. “Hi Gentle,” said Delver. “Sorry for the late house call, but I got some critters here that I figured you could help patch up. One of them, got her here in my pack, got real torn up by one of them dire wolves.” “Come, come, come in,” said Gentle. She took a step back and there was a glow on her horn and then a light flipped on in the main room. “Uh, set the hurt one here. Uh oh. Come in you little ones too.” We piled into the room. I was dragged further in and then they backed off. Looking back, I could see a small trail of blood and I flopped over to look at my tail as best I could. Sure enough, I had lost all the fur on me and a decent chunk of skin as well. The blood was oozing from the wounds and I flopped back down on my back, enjoying the feeling of laying down. Not having legs anymore sucked. At least everyone else could walk normally. They weren’t needing to be carried. I couldn’t help the tears that came as I laid there. I didn’t notice when I was picked up gently and only did when placed on the table next to Emily. She was still breathing and I reached out and grabbed her paw as best I could. “I need you to stay still, okay?” said Gentle. “You must be in a lot of pain. Getting so far from home. Don’t worry, I am going to make you all better. Now, I am gonna bandage your flippers and you need to leave it on, okay? Then I think you need some more water.” I asked. “I think so,” said Gentle. “ But I don’t think she is going to walk again. But she is strong, she’ll pull through. I’ll make up a nice bed for all of you and get you some food.” I said loudly. said Robert. The only thing that kept me awake was the pangs of hunger. I laid on the table on my back, sitting with Emily. Her breathing looked less troubled and I hoped she was sleeping well. Gentle had walked into a kitchen and the dark mare with bat like wings walked in after her. “Hey Gentle, Moonlight, I am going to hit the hay. If you need me, I am gonna be at home for at least a week,” said Delver. “Oh yeah,” said Gentle. She peaked out of the kitchen doorway. “Uh, thanks. Um, for helping them.” “You don’t mind if I stick around till you get back to sleep do you?” asked the bat pony who must have been Moonlight. “Been a bit lonely. Punch has been so busy with a project he hasn’t been staying up as late.” “I, uh, don’t mind, uh, the clutter. Uh, sorry,” said Gentle. “Gentle, we have talked about this,” said Moonlight. “You take care of what you can and what you can’t, just ask for help with. I know I am not the only one willing to clean up for you.” “I, uh, it's just this…week…yeah, week, has been really, uh, busy what with the, um, um. thing where you pick plants,” said Gentle. “Harvest,” said Moonlight. “Yeah, um, harvest. Here, take this to the big group,” said Gentle. “I, uh, need to, um, get the injured ones. They might, uh, be, um, concerned no, um…defensive! Yeah, and I know I can help them better. Oh, uh, no offense.” “Gentle, you are the resident animal pony. Of course you know how to do this better than me,” said Moonlight. She walked out of the kitchen carrying a big bowl in one hoof and still managing to walk just fine. “Okay, you little critters. I got a mix of things so hopefully at least some of you can eat some of this.” There was a scrambling of paws and I had to flop over to see, but the group of us who weren’t injured were all at Moonlight’s feet. I couldn’t really understand why they were acting so much like children, but then again I was really tempted to jump off of this table so that I could get at the bowl too. said Zack. A tongue was licking the lips of his second mouth. said Mary. said Kristen, who was standing on her back paws trying to get at the bowl. “Gentle, do you have a second bowl?” asked Moonlight. “I think there might be a fight if I only put the one down.” said Robert. said Ty. They had dropped their transformation and were just a pink blob again. said Zack. “Here you go,” said Gentle. “Now, now, little ones. I don’t want any of you fighting over food. I have more if needed.” said Zack. asked Mary. said Zack. Moonlight took the second bowl and poured half of the first’s contents into it. She lowered the first bowl down before hovering above my group and placing the bowl on the other side of them. With that, she lifted up further into the air and landed a bit of distance away as if she was worried a fight would break out. Thankfully, everyone had their wits about them still and didn’t hog the food. Gentle came out carrying a bottle and a bowl. She glanced over at the feeding frenzy before stopping at the worktable. Her horn was lit up and the bowl and bottle were floating next to her. I felt a force like fingers rub against my short thick fur and I leaned into it, finding it oddly comfortable. No wonder why pets loved to get pet. Gentle lowered the bowl right in front of my face and then gently lifted Emily in the same magical glow that the bottle was in. Nuzzling Emily, Gentle tried to get her to wake before pressing the baby bottle up to her mouth. Emily seemed awake enough to take the bottle in her mouth and suck. Gentle seemed happy with that. I turned back to my food, which was mostly berries but had what looked like dog food too in it. The berries tasted wonderful and I ate them first. I hesitated at the kibble. I definitely had the teeth of something that ate both vegetables and meat and the kibbles must have had protein in them, because they did smell decent, but it was dog food. I didn’t really want to stoop so low so quickly. But my stomach groaned and I took a bit. They were a bit bland, but edible, and I ate till I was full. Even if I felt a bit shameful for that. With my belly full, it grew harder and harder to keep my eyes open. Author's Note This chapter was proofread by xXDagedXx Also in case it wasn't apparent, anytime that there are like this it means the characters which are Pokemon are speaking. I will keep this up through out the story even when they aren't around ponies to keep it from being confusing. Banished PainThere was a thunderous amount of noise coming up the stairs. Somehow, despite their obvious stomping, I could hear them talking. Three voices echoed through the halls. A colt and two fillies walked into the room stopping at the door. Kristen struggled to get herself back to a semi-presentable shape, not that it was working all that well. Gentle got to her hooves and I slid to the floor. The unicorn colt, who was the tallest of the group, had pale yellow fur, and a deep purple mane with two seperate stripes of near white, that ran the length of his chin length hair. It was mostly straight but looked like it hadn’t been brushed in a while. The two fillies piled in behind him, the earth pony having pink fur and red mane with a deeper red highlight on the ends and the other, a pegasus, having very pale cream fur and copper brown mane. The colt looked at us, before shrugging and walking away, but the two fillies came up to our group. “Hello, Gentle,” said the pink filly. “Where did you get all these animals?” “Delver, uh, found them in the western forrest,” said Gentle. “They seem to be domesticated and, um, they need homes. The red one is spoken for.” “Do you think we can have one each?” asked the pink filly. “I know that Gilded will say yes, and she can’t say no if I just show up with one.” “Fond, you should ask first,” said the lighter filly. “Gilded lets you get away with too much.” “Penny, you worry too much,” said Fond. “Which one do you like the most?” “Oh, I don’t know,” said Penny. “The blue cat looks cute.” said Robert. Mary said. said Robert. said Zack. “They sure are talkative,” said Fond. “Gentle, can you understand what they are saying.” “Yeah,” said Gentle. “It is a little hard to keep up with them though. They talk pretty fast.” I said. said Ty. “At least one of them is a bit worried right now,” said Gentle. She levitated Ty over to her and rubbed their assumed head. said Ty. Kristen said. “Well hopefully finding a home will help that,” said Fond. “Maybe I could take that one too. The two of them are rather cute if you ask me. Maybe it would be best to keep them together as they are the same type of critter.” said Robert responding to Kirsten. said Ty. said Mary. “They are all a bit razzled,” said Gentle. “I don’t see, um, what the harm is if you are all calm and gentle with them.” “We’ll be careful,” said Fond. She walked closer to Gentle and sat down on the floor. I knew she was waiting for me to come to her and despite the fact that I could feel the stress building up in my system, I wobbled over to her and sat between her forelegs. “Hello little one. You are a really interesting critter. I have never seen anything like you.” I looked at Gentle hoping she would explain but she didn’t seem to notice. Laying my head on her foreleg, I tried to calm my heart.. Something was eating at me that I couldn’t place and my head had started to hurt. Penny had sat down and Robert, as well as Zack, had gone over to her. Zack stayed a bit behind Robert, letting Penny gently reach out to pet him. He must have decided that she was nice enough, as he moved forward letting her hoof slide down his back to the base of his tail. It must have felt good as he arched his back and I could hear a soft purr coming from him. “Do you want to come look at them, Brilliant?” asked Gentle. “No, I don’t want Gleaming getting any ideas about getting me a pet to teach me responsibility,” said Brilliant. said Zack, laughing. said Mary. said Zack. I mumbled. “Oh no. Alice you should have said something,” said Gentle. “I’ll go get you some water. I bet you are dehydrated. Be nice while I am gone.” “Of course,” said Fond. “And we will make sure these little guys don’t make a mess either.” said Mary. I said. Mary nodded and then left with Gentle. Ty who had been put down, came over to Fond and I and pushed his way into snuggling with me. I didn’t quite understand how he was so much stronger than me, if he was supposed to be a copy of me, but it wasn’t like I had been resisting his efforts. Fond took turns petting the both of us. The magic fingers that ponies seemed to have at the end of their hooves felt so nice on my short fur. Kristen came up to Penny, sitting next to Zack, and Zack ran his short stubby arms as far down her back as he could. Kristen seemed to like it as each time his hand made it down her back she sighed. Zack had been a lot better than I had expected with all of this and it was interesting to see him be so gentle with someone else. “Are you certain you don’t want to give these cuties pets?” asked Penny. “They are so nice. This one is purring so hard.” She was right, Robert had been purring far louder than I thought he would have been able to or would have wanted to. His face looked like he was enjoying her pets as he had flopped down between her legs and his little tongue was sticking out of his mouth a bit. “Look, I just don’t want to,” said Brilliant. “Besides we should all be reviewing our homework. You know be responsible.” “Says the pony who is trying to avoid any responsibility by avoiding petting some cute animals,” said Fond. “You just don’t want to get attached because you want to go to Canterlot to study.” “Of course I do,” said Brilliant. “It is where Gleaming studied and it is the place where I will best be able to master my talent.” “I’ll miss you,” said Penny. “It isn’t certain he will leave yet,” said Fond. Brilliant only snorted and went back to his work. My headache was starting to get out of hand and I squeezed my eyes shut trying to shut out the light which had started to hurt. Ty must have noticed, as they rubbed their version of my head against mine gently. It was nice but it didn’t do anything to help the headache. Gentle came back into the room levitating a pitcher, a cup, and a set of saucers. She set one of the saucers next to Kristen and the cup in front of Zack. A saucer levitated over to Robert and then one for Ty and myself. She then filled each carefully with water starting with mine. I lapped at it, trying to get as much of it as possible. It seemed to be helping a bit as with each bit of water I got in my headache lessened. There was more footsteps coming up the distant stairs. It was surprising how well I could hear any more. Must have been my large ears. I was pretty certain it was Gleaming and someone else that was headed down the hallway based on their voices. The second voice was rough and deep sounding. I couldn’t really make out his words though from that distance. “So these are them,” said Gleaming as she walked into the room. “I told you they weren’t like any summon I had ever seen. They seem to speak differently too.” “Hmmm,” said the blond furred earth pony. His mane was long and in a pony tail and was orange with a streak of red in it. “Well they are definitely summons. That much is easy enough. A Kucheat, Rokon, Kolink, and two Ashimari. I think the proper answer is to try to send them home. You are certain no one in town summoned them. To be fair the only other I can think of is Plantnium Punch but she is smart enough to not do such a thing. I don’t think we even have books here for the foals to have learned from.” “Please, be gentle with them,” said Gentle. “I, uh, don’t want to see them hurt again.” “The banishing ritual doesn’t hurt the summon. Lets start with those two,” said the earth pony stalion. He walked over to Ty and I and started to chant something I didn’t understand. Ty started to squirm next to me and I felt something wash over me. For a moment I worried that I was really going to be banished to some other realm. That was until the pain started. It was like every inch of me was trying to be torn apart piece by piece. I couldn’t help the scream that came out of my mouth. “Stop,” shouted Fond. “Your hurting her.” I couldn’t help the shaking that had taken over me. The stallion had stopped chanting. I couldn’t see and my head hurt all the more. I could hear growls and some rufling around me. Surely, the others would attack this stallion. “That shouldn’t have done that,” said the stallion. “I can only hope that means they some how aren’t summons, unless somepony has figured a way to anchor them to Equis. I may need to contact the College.” “Can’t you tell us anything else?” asked Gleaming. “How could this be? What is that one? I don’t remember there being anything about shapeshifting summons.” “I have no idea,” said the Stallion. “Look I have caused enough harm to day. I am going to check over the books and draft a letter to the College. For now try to keep them calm and happy. They are still potentially dangerous.” asked Kristen. I tried to nod but it only sent my head spinning. asked Zack. said Robert. “Please don’t do anything rash,” said Gentle. “Fond, I need to check on Alice. Um, if that is alright with you.” I was picked up and I could feel Gentle place her head against my chest. My heart was still a bit erratic and my head felt like someone was trying to dig their way out of it. “Is she going to be alright?” asked Fond. “I don’t, uh, know,” said Gentle. “Her heart is beating weird and I think we need to, um, get some more fluids in her.” “Gleaming, can I go with Gentle to help her? I want to be there to take care of, uh, Alice, right?” asked Fond. “I don’t see why not. I know you won’t be able to pay attention, even if I kept you here. Just keep working on your essay okay,” said Gleaming. “Just try not to get in her way, and if Gentle says you have to go so she can work, you need to listen.” “Thank you,” said Fond. I was slipped into Gentle’s pack and the straps were chinched tighter than they had been earlier. There was no way I was slipping out this time. I couldn’t hold my head up and I laid limply against Gentle. I passed out before she had gathered the others together. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I woke in a pool of warm water. It felt exquisite. My body still ached but my head had stopped hurting so much. The water wasn’t all that deep as I could feel the bottom of the tub I seemed to be in. Opening my eyes turned out to be a mistake, the bright lights sending waves of pain through my head. I suddenly felt rather dizzy and I fell into the water. My head was mostly submerged and I couldn’t breathe but it didn’t seem to be a pressing issue. A pair of hooves picked my head up and then scooted something under my chin. It held my head up above the water. The hooves then stroked down my back and lingered at the place where my neck and body joined. There was a ruffle of flesh that spread out from there, like I was wearing some sort of collar and yet I could feel all the sensations that came with it being a part of me. It was rather sensitive to the pony’s motions. “How long do you think she will be out like this?” asked Fond. “I’m worried. What are we supposed to do with a seal?” “I don’t know,” said Gentle. “I think she needs to have a constant source of water. She gets dehydrated so easily.” “Could we make a pool for her?” asked Gentle. “I mean a pond would be a nice addition to the town I think and she could swim there as long as she wants.” “I think that is a great idea,” said Gentle. “But I don’t know if we have the ponypower to do such a big project right now.” “I bet that Gilded could hire some outside help. Mayor Note has a few projects she wanted to get set up, so some hired help would be good,” said Fond. “I heard her, Gilded, and Cracked talking about having found a good place to put in a mine nearby.” I said quietly. “Oh good you are awake,” said Gentle. “What did she say?” asked Fond. “She says a pond would be nice,” said Gentle. “Until then maybe this wash tub will do. It is definitely big enough for her to stay in.” I asked. “They are downstairs,” said Gentle. “A few of them wanted to met the rest of the town.” I nodded just barely. I felt the weariness of my body creep up on me and I found it hard to fight off the sleep it brought. I had rather disjointed visions during my sleep. Mostly of a world I had never seen. One that seemed almost absurd to me with other strange monsters I didn’t recognize. Was this the world of the Pokemon or just some strange fever dream I was having. Still it didn’t wake me and I found my slipping through many dreams. Author's Note So I edited this myself so I probably missed something. I hope you enjoy this small romp into the growing lives of my main cast. Also the original fanfic has a google doc so people can keep track of all the characters. Considering I have 30 OCs in this story (so far) I think that might be helpful for you all. Maybe I will do that tomorrow. Maybe. To be fair I have a chapter to work on and a plot to introduce. This is an slice of life with adventure on the side after all. Gloomy Dusk: Entrances and PreparationsThis would do. It was far enough off the beaten path that no one would come looking while she worked on her theory. They would pay for what they had done to her. She had circled the small town for the fourth time. There was only one bat pony that lived in the town and as far as Gloomy Dusk could tell the night guard hadn’t seen her yet. Even with their enhanced night vision it wasn’t like it was easy to see a dark pony far up in the clouded sky. The town would be perfect. It wasn’t like Gloomy Dusk liked to be alone and some company might remind her not to forget the ponies she would be hurting if her planed worked. Still she had no other choice. The college had shunned her ideas and she needed to prove them. Not just for herself but for her father who had died trying to do what she was about to. Summons were not to be trifled with and she would have to make some precautions against this going awry. Turning away from the town she flew towards the mountains. Surely there would be a cave nearby that would do for the moment until she could build a more secure lab. It wouldn’t do to have others wandering into her work. Especially if one of them was a summoner that wasn’t a reject from the College. It was a good thing that the materials for the ritual to summon Unknown were easy enough to procure here. Diamond dust and the ashe of a saproling as pure as possible. She had plenty of practice in purifying the ash and from what she understood this area had an abundance of diamonds which would be all she needed. She spotted what looked like a cave near the base of the mountain but decided it would be better to move further into the range of mountains. Make sure it was highly unlikely any of the town folk would stumble onto her endeavor. Still it was dark and it made looking for a cave difficult. Finding a cliff that jumped up thirty feet into the air Gloomy Dusk decided that if she couldn’t find a cave then a artificial one would have to do. She had been planing to summon a Doryuzu to hunt for diamonds and this would just be a bit of an early use of her two available reagents she had carried with her. Landing on a sizable ledge a small distance from the top of the cliff she got to work. It was rather annoying to carve the circle into stone like this and the area wasn’t really flat enough for it. She would have to use one of her far more temporary circles to summon her minion. Pulling out a folded piece of paper that had a arcane circle drawn on it she laid it out as flat as she could. Hovering above the circle she started her incantation and placed the reagents where they needed to be. The reagents were consumed by the summoning but soon enough a mole like creature that walked on its hind legs and had large steel like claws that would let it dig through the very rock itself. The creature was under Gloomy’s control and she set it to digging the entrance of a cave. It wouldn’t need to be too deep. Just deep enough to be free from the elements and little else. Everything else could be added latter. The Doryuzu seemed to enjoy its work and quickly made its way through many meters of the rock. Enough that Gloomy found it safe enough to send it to do far more subtle work. After all she needed a smooth surface to engrave the circle that would keep her second Doryuzu on this realm. Grunting and getting to work the Doryuzu did its best to scrape clean a single section of the newly made caverns floor flat. It was slow going and Gloomy Dusk could tell easily enough that the summon did not in fact like this kind of work. Still it had to be done. Her acid that she kept in a special ceramic jar in her pack would be potent enough to etch the circle. Or at least she hoped. If not she would be required to use charcoal the most basic and most dangerous of all the materials she could use to draw a circle. Thankfully the Doryuzu had gotten its work done well enough that by the time the first rays of morning sun peaked over the horizon Gloomy Dusk felt it was good enough to banish the creature. This would have to work for now. It took but a few moments to banish the creature. Thankfully nothing had happened to her paper circle and it could be reused later if needed. Never underestimate the need for an easy convenient distraction. Carefully packing the paper back into its scroll case Gloomy Dusk took to the sky. After all it would be best to introduce herself at the town during the day light even if it made her eyes sting. Still things had to go well at this village. She had run out of fund in her last attempt to find some place far from the watchful eye of both the Royal guard and the College. Sure nopony had connected the dots to her but that didn’t mean that abandoning all her work in the distant mountains around Dodge Junction hadn’t cost her. Time was something she had in abundance but the reagents were too expensive for her to be wasting. So with a weary heart and a addled brain, Gloomy Dusk headed to the small village of Bellinghoof. Thankfully a the cloud coverage hadn’t fully dissipated letting Gloomy have some semblance of protection from the sun. Hopefully there would be an empty room she could sleep in for the day, one without a pesky window. She had gone further than she had thought durring her exploration and it took a good hour to fly back to the town. Once she was near enough that she could see the town in the distance she ducked lower to the ground flying just above the tree line on the forest that laid to the north of the small village or town. It was so hard to tell the difference between the two any more. Gloomy Dusk wanted to give as little hint as possible to the location of her cave and that meant coming from a direction that one might have flown in from the train. It took her an extra fifteen minutes to get the proper location and then get into the town. The sun had reached far into the sky by that point and Gloomy could barely keep her self from wanting to nod off. It wouldn’t do to crash from exhaustion and destroy all of her supplies. So she landed a bit of a distance from the town and walked the rest of the way. Sure it delayed her rest but it was the safest route to keep her materials intact. “Howdy there,” said a pale pink pegasus. She had nearly as pale blue mane and a tornado or twister as a cutie mark. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around. What brings you to our little corner of Equestria?” “Looking for a new start,” said Gloomy Dusk. It would be easier to keep her story straight if she lied as little as possible and it was true that she was starting over, again. “Names Gloomy Dusk. Could you tell me if there is a place I can get some lodging at least till I figure out something more permanent.” “Fancy that,” said the pink pegasus. “I’m Gale Force, though everypony just calls me Gale. There is a fine Inn in the middle of town. You can’t miss it. I’m sure that Dirty will get you all sorted out. We don’t often get much ponies looking to live out here but don’t worry we can fix you up a place soon enough. But I got to get to work. Those clouds aren’t going to rain on their own after all.” “Oh of course not,” said Gloomy Dusk. “Thank you and have a good day. I need to get some shut eye myself.” Gale nodded and took off into the air speeding away towards the couds that danced around the town. Gloomy headed further into the town hoping that she wouldn’t run into too many more friendly faces, if just so she could get to sleep sooner. Didn’t they know bat ponies were nocturnal. “Hey you are just like Moonlight,” said a small filly. She had pink fur and a red mane. She must have been fairly young as she didn’t have a cutie mark yet. “Are you a friend of hers?” “I doubt it,” said Gloomy Dusk. “Though I’m sure I will be soon enough. Sorry if I am not the most pleasant. It was a long night for me and I should have been asleep hours ago.” “Oh yeah,” said the filly. “I’m Fond Treasures. You want to head to Dirty’s Watering Hole. It is our inn and school house and town meeting hall and a whole lot of other thins.” “Let me guess you are headed there as well,” said Gloomy almost groaning. “Of course,” said Fond. “Gotta get to school after all. I was just checking in on Alice. She is my pet. Gentle is taking care of her for me though for a bit. She has had a hard few days.” “That sucks,” said Gloomy Dusk. “Do you need anything or just want the company?” “Well you haven’t told me your name yet,” said Fond. “Sorry,” said Gloomy Dusk. “I’m Gloomy Dusk. As I said pretty tired right now. Not trying to be rude or anthing just you know.” “Oh of course,” said Fond. “Gilded gets that way when she is up all night working on a project of hers. Sure she doesn’t do that very often but I bet you don’t make a habit of being up for so long either. Have you had breakfast yet? Or is it dinner for you if you eat in the morning?” “Uh doesn’t really mater, does it?” “I guess not but it seems like a confusing thing to explain. Dirty probably has something you can eat when we get there. It is this big building but the entrance is on the other side. Don’t worry none about Glitter though. She may speak a bit funny sometimes but she is so nice.” “Ah okay.” Thankfully the two of them entered the building and the filly ran off leaving Gloomy to nurse the headache that was starting to grow on her. A nearly white pegasus with pastel rainbow of hair sat with a unicorn with mint green fur and alternating white and blonde mane. The unicorn was vissibly pregnant and the two of them seemed to be talking. Hopefully that meant that Gloomy wouldn’t get sucked into their conversation and she could pay for a room and head up there. A small white Rokon sat on the bench next to the pegasus and was staring at Gloomy as she walked in. The Rokon made a noise that sounded unlike any Rokon Gloomy Dusk had ever heard and the two mares turned to see her. Gloomy sighed and waved at the two of them. “O-oh, hi,” said the pegaus with a strong stutter.. “I I am Glitter Cu-cutie. This is Gol-Golden. How can we help you?” “I need a room for a bit,” said Gloomy Dusk. “I am moving here and was hoping I could get some rest before I have to deal with all the little details. Kinda nocturnal.” “Oh oh, Dirty will help you with that,” said Glitter. “Mary, can you run and get him?” The Rokon nodded and jumped off the bench and headed towards the far side of the open room. It was much larger than seemed nesicary for a town of this large but maybe they really did like the space. It wasn’t like it was at a premium here in the middle of nowhere. The two mares turned back to their conversation, letting Gloomy Dusk tune them out. It wasn’t the best habit that she had but it certainly was one she tended to lean on when she was this tired. “Good morning,” said deep voice next to her. The stallion had dark brown fur and blonde mane. A wine glass and grapes was his cutie mark and he had a goofy smile on his face. “New to town, huh? Well, I won’t keep you away from bed for long. You plan on moving here?” “Yes,” said Gloomy Dusk. “I’ll need lodging until I can get more permanent housing figured out.” “Of course,” said the stallion. He must have been the namesake of the inn. “Well right this way. Gilded has a policy that new folks to town get to stay free, out of her pocket mind you, so we can hook you up with a room right away. I assume you want one without a window.” “If possible.” The two of them made their way up a set of stairs and down a hall, away from an open door where Gloomy Dusk could hear the sounds of foals. Hopefully they wouldn’t be too noisy. It was the last thing she needed today. Thankfully the room the Dirty showed her too was nearly as far from the school room as possible and the noise was almost nonexistent with the door closed. Thanking the stallion, Gloomy Dusk fell onto the bed and was asleep before he had even gotten two meters from the door. Author's Note First chapter that is from a different perspective. Welcome to a mysterious pony with mysterious plans and things. Less ominously I hope you find this change in perspective interesting. There won't be too many chapters from her perspective and others might join the ranks of it. Either way I hope you enjoy. Home Is Where You find Your HeartAuthor's Note Trigger warning: semi graphic descriptions of a birth. Also because I can't put this at the end. I tried to edit this. I probably failed. Yeah. Home Is Where You find Your Heart Gentle had been back from lunch for a bit now. She was busy preparing food for the animals in her care. I was included in that and she had been mixing up a large batch of the kibble. I however was on a wet food diet now. Gentle had decided that I wasn’t going to get enough water drinking it like that and as such I had to have soggy kibble when ever I ate. It was pretty much the worst. Kristen, Zack and Emily had yet to find their own homes. At least they were here, even if Zack found it funny I had to eat soggy kibble. If I had been in any mood, I might have tried to blast him with that water gun I had done earlier. As it was I didn’t really feel like I had it in me and that water had to come from somewhere. I certainly wasn’t going to waste it on him. Kristen had been a bit distant since our talk and I guess I couldn’t blame her. There was so much for her to figure out and not everyone was like me and just flipped the switch on accepting you were trans. She had asked to still have us use she pronouns for her and I understood all to well why. It made it seemed too forced for her otherwise. Maybe in time she would come around to those pronouns and not twitch every time one of the ponies called her a good boy. I hoped she could grow comfortable in all of this. Emily spent less time asleep today. Gentle had brought her down from upstairs and has the four of us sit together in the front room while she was out baking the kibble. She was even worse than Kristen and was still being bottle fed. At least she wasn’t refusing it anymore. Her eyes looked dead and I wished there was something we could do for her. As it was, it just seemed like we had to hope she would come out of her stupor on her own. Only time would tell. said Zack. I said. retorted Zack. I said angry. I turned away from him in my tub. I didn’t want to deal with this now. It was hard to not feel rather horrible about the being stuck in a wash tub only a bit bigger than I was. I kept telling myself at least I wasn’t like Emily. That what she was going through was harder. That didn’t really make any of this better. The only saving grace so far was Fond. She was extremely attentive, though I worried that Ty might have been missing out because of that, and came to visit as often as she could spare. Gentle had decided I could go home with Fond today. I wasn’t looking forward to leaving Kristen and Emily alone with Zack, if just because he was an ass. Zack left the house, though he had trouble with the front door and could barely get it closed after he left. So the three of us sat in silence. The door opened again and I looked up to see if it was Zack deciding against being a jerk. Unsurprised, it was not him. Gentle walked in and smiled at us. Fond came in behind her. Coming over to us, Fond scooped me up into a hug, ignoring how wet she got and nuzzled my head. I felt a bit better about today but it still seemed like a disservice to Emily and Kristen to leave with Fond. “How was your day?” asked Fond. She couldn’t understand what I was saying but it wasn’t like I couldn’t try and maybe after a while she might learn at least enough to understand a bit of what I meant. I had heard cats and their owners did this. Why wouldn’t this be true of Pokemon and their friends? I said. “I hope that meant it went well,” said Fond. I shook my head as at least that was something she wasn’t likely to mistake for joy. “Oh I’m sorry about that. Well maybe getting some fresh air will help.” I shrugged, or well a close approximation to it. Fond set me back down and pulled off the saddlebag she was wearing. It looked new and made of canvas and fur of some sort, rabbit I assumed. Fond placed me into the snug fit and then strapped me in before placing me back on her back. I was worried I would be too heavy as I took up most of her back but she seemed to barely even notice my weight. Horses were strong creatures back home and it seemed the ponies were no exception to that. “Take good care of her,” said Gentle. “Make sure she is eating wet food, even if she doesn’t want to.” “I will,” said Fond. “Come on Alice lets go for a walk and we can decide where the pond should be. But we should get Ty first. He or she, I don’t know, seems a bit lonely already.” I said. It would be good to see them even if I was still stuck being carried everywhere. What I wouldn’t give for legs or just an easier time getting places. It didn’t seem like that was to be and so I sighed and resigned myself to being carried. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Zack Zack wondered the small town. There wasn’t anything here to really keep his attention even if everything was new and should have been exciting. Maybe it had to do with being a Pokemon. He wasn’t really certain. Maybe if he had something to do it wouldn’t be so bad. He hadn’t said it before but he definitely enjoyed being busy. Ty could try to run that game still and that might be fun for a while. It sure beat sitting around all day acting like the world had ended. He stopped in front of one of the houses. It had an open workshop on the ground level and Zack could see a earth pony working with a grinder that seemed to run off of magic or electricity. The white pony didn’t seem to notice him yet and she brushed her dual colored mane out of her face. Zack walked up to her but kept a safe distance from her, if just so he didn’t get hit if she got spooked. Over the loud sound of dust and noise being made, Zack didn’t notice another pony sneak up on him until they were right upon them. She was obviously pregnant and had mint green fur and blonde and white mane. Her horn lit up and the grinder slowed to a stop. “Hi,” she said to the other mare. “You have an audience today.” “Huh,” said the earth pony mare. She turned to look at Zack. “So I do. That is one of those creatures Gentle is trying to find homes for isn’t it.” “I think so,” said the unicorn mare. “Hows it going little thing.” said Zack. He didn’t expect either of them to understand him but it was polite to respond. “You sure are talkative,” said the earth pony mare. “So is your name Mawile?” Zack shook his head. It wasn’t like they would understand his spoken response. Still at least they made and effort. “How was your talk with Glitter?” asked the earth pony of the unicorn. “It was nice,” said the Unicorn. “She thinks I will be giving birth in a few weeks is all. I don’t know if I should be excited or nervous.” “Either way, I’ll be there for you,” said the earth pony. She planted a kiss on the other pony and they then nuzzled their heads together. It seemed odd for a moment that two mares would be like that but so far there seemed to be many more mares than stallions as far as Zack could tell so maybe it was fairly normal here. “I have to go see if Stirling needs any help today,” said the unicorn. “I just wanted to stop by and say I love you.” “I love you too,” said the earth pony. The unicorn started to walk away and not seeing any reason to stay there and watch was seemed like rather boring work, Zack followed her. She didn’t seem to mind the company though and they both were rather slow walkers so it was easy enough to keep up. Their walk wasn’t too far thankfully, as Zack was worried about the very pregnant mare being out and about so much, and they entered the tall tower. The bottom floor was filled to the brim with bookshelves though most of them were mostly empty. A desk sat off to one side where a unicorn sat working on some paperwork of some sort. She had white fur and gray mane and looked up with her brilliant blue eyes. “Oh hi Golden,” said the new unicorn, she must have been Stirling. “I told you that I didn’t need your help for a bit. I have this covered you know. You should be resting.” “I’m fine for a bit of walking,” said Golden. She looked rather annoyed. “It isn’t like I am disabled or anything.” “I didn’t mean that,” said Stirling. “But I honestly don’t have anything for you to help with right now. I finished the contract for the mine and all I have been doing today is banging my head against my attempts at writing fiction.” “Well maybe I can help you brainstorm,” said Golden. She winced suddenly and shook her head. “Sorry little one just bucking again.” “See, you need your rest. My fiction can wait,” said Stirling. “It isn’t like I don’t have plenty of free time. Besides I think I might go for a walk. Clear the mind and all that.” Zack couldn’t help but be happy that Golden wasn’t going to be busy spending time brainstorming. It seemed rather boring to him. He could have left her there with Stirling but something kept him by her side. She seemed nice enough and in a way he felt a comradeship with her. They both were stuck because of circumstance. “Fine,” said Golden. “I guess I can just go have a lay down. I just feel so useless.” “You have been listening to Iron Hoof too much,” said Stirling. “You are carrying the first foals to be born in Bellinghoof and you do your best to help out where you can. Just right now your job is to keep yourself and your foals safe. Do you want me to walk you back to your house?” “No it is only two doors down,” said Golden. She winced again. “I can manage that. Though it would be nice if the foals would stop kicking.” “I can imagine,” said Stirling. Golden wandered back out of the tower and Zack followed. Something felt off to him and his nose could pick up the faint smells of something coming off of Golden. He shrugged maybe that was just the way she always smelt. Still she had slowed considerably. She let out a low whine and seemed to pee herself. It didn’t take long for Zack to grasp what was happening. She was going into labor. Golden fell to the ground after she let out a low yowl of pain. Zack tried to catch her and was just strong enough to stop her from crashing into the ground completely. He could feel her spasm though as another contraction ran through her. They seemed to be coming rather quickly but maybe that was normal for ponies. shouted Zack as loud as he could. He didn’t want to run and get help in case something worse happened to his sudden charge. Thankfully his voice must have carried as Stirling poked her head out of the tower looking over at them. She swore and dashed over. “I told you you should be resting,” said Stirling. “Not a good time for told you sos,” said Golden through tight and quick breathes. Another contraction rocked through her and she yelped in pain. “Why now?” “Golden,” shouted earth pony from earlier. She galloped up to us and scooped up Golden’s head. “Why didn’t you say something?” “Cracked, I need you to go get Gentle and Gleaming,” said Stirling. “I’ll carry her to a bed. We will be at Dirty’s.” The earth pony nodded and ran off up the street. Stirling’s horn lit up and she lifted Golden from the ground with a grunt. Sweat formed on her brow as she walked towards the inn. Zack followed quickly. He could see she was dilating from the angle she was being floated at. How quick was labor for ponies? They barely made it into the inn when the first foal came. It was a lot of screaming and then a small sherbet unicorn squeezed out of Golden. Stirling wasn’t ready for that and Golden had been nearly head level above the ground. Zack caught the foal holding it gently as she started to cry. Golden screamed again as she shook from another contraction. There were more coming. As the second foal came, Gentle ran into the room. Stirling had stopped only a bit into the inn after the first foal came. Seemed safer than trying to go up the stairs. Gentle had brought her medical kit with her and started to tend to Golden. Zack still held the first foal. The small one was a bit bigger than an armful for Zack and he gently rocked the baby. Zack had never been at such an event before and something in him had clicked. He had found his home even if the ponies he would be living with didn’t know it yet. Stirling sat down next to Zack holding an indigo unicorn foal. Golden didn’t seem done yet as she let out another howl. Gleaming came into the inn and Glitter was coming out with a pot of boiled water. There was too much going on for Zack’s liking but he could suffer through it anyway. Mary had come up to him and was staring at the foal. Neither of them felt like talking. There was a crash and hot watter splashed across the room. Zack blocked it from the foal with his body letting it sizzle against his iron like skin. It hurt but not all that much. Looking in the direction of the crash he noticed, Glitter on the floor spasming. Mary had rushed over to her and was doing her best to hold the pegasus’s head still. Gentle looked torn between the two of her patients and thankfully Gleaming seemed to be calm enough to act. “Stirling I want you to tend to Glitter,” said Gleaming loudly. Her voice must have been amplified by magic. “Gentle we need to keep tending to Golden. She is almost done and then we have to stem the bleeding. I don't’ think it is all that bad but you are the only one here who has delivered foals before.” Gentle nodded and turned back to the mare in labor. Zack felt rather useless as there was another scream from Golden. Cracked had ran in and was holding Golden’s hoof and mumbling assurances to her. Three foals at once seemed rather spectacular even to Zack. How she had carried so much extra pony with her was beyond Zack. With a final scream, a white filly whose fur was marred with blood popped out. Gleaming passed the foal to Cracked and set to work fixing up Golden. Both Gentle and Gleaming had to work for a good hour before they seemed done. Golden had fallen asleep during that time and somehow the whole town had shown up. Zack still held the small sherbet filly with a darker but similar colored mane. The filly had the eyes the size of saucers and Zack couldn’t help but nuzzle the little one. She was just so cute. Maybe this was worth all the pain of being here. Necessities and OutingsI woke on a pillow, that felt almost too good to be true. I ached everywhere and it took me a moment to remember why. Then again, it could have been the whole being blown up thing. I opened my eyes to find the pink nose and white snout in my vision, and I knew this wasn’t a fever dream anymore. I could hear faint and cute snores near me and I looked around to see a pile of other Pokemon. All of us were here, except for Emily who must have had a different bed. Mary and Kristen were cuddled up next to each other, with each having their head on the others rump. Ty had dropped their transformation, and was being used as a second pillow by Zack. Zack’s second mouth was being hugged by Robert. I was the only one really left out of the pile but looking back at my tail I could understand why. No one wanted to make it worse. There were sounds coming from the kitchen and I felt no reason to stay where I was. It didn’t seem like I was likely to get back to sleep, and despite the big meal last night, I was already hungry again. Wobbling under the table and through the open door, I saw Gentle working on something. She hadn’t seemed to notice me yet. On her shoulder sat a hawk, who had definitely spotted me, and was watching me rather closely. He had a bandaged wing and I guessed that he must have been being patched up by Gentle. He had nearly black feathers, but looked far to big for the falcons I knew of like that. said the hawk. Gentle looked over towards the door and smiled at me. She said, “Don’t worry Mr Hawk. She is my guest. Here to get help too. Good morning little one. Do you have a name?” I said. I wasn’t certain how much she understood really of our talking and if it was just her own ability to read body language. “Alice is a pretty name,” said Gentle. Apparently it was a thorough understanding. “I bet you are hungry. Well, I will have breakfast ready in just a few. Getting Mr Hawks food real quick first, and then I have to wash up. I doubt you would like to have mouse blood all in your food.” I said. “I bet you want to get back to the ocean,” said Gentle. “I’ll see if one of our pegasus can carry you there.” I said. “Did you come from a zoo then?” asked Gentle. I said. I figured that it was best to not lie at this point. I didn’t see any reason to tell her about our previous world. said Mr. Hawk. “I know you mean well Mr. Hawk, but none of them can fly,” said Gentle. “Um, well we can see about getting you homes around here. I know that some of the towns folk would love a pet. That is, if you don’t mind being a pet.” I said. “Yep,” said Gentle. “And you don’t have to worry about anyone understanding you or if you are doing enough for the town or if if you will will be alone for-forever.” I wobbled as quickly as I could over to Gentle. I hugged her front legs and nuzzled my head against her upper leg. She scritched my head back with her invisible magic fingers. I knew the feeling all too well. Now there seemed like there was no way I would ever find a family of my own. As far as I knew, I was the only Pokemon seal in all of this world. “Here is your fo-food Mr Hawk,” said Gentle. The hawk hopped off of her back and onto the counter and began ripping off pieces of the mice on the table. “Now-now Alice. Sorry. Uh, food. Wake up friends…food now.” I said. “No…no,” said Gentle. “Just a bit brain fu-fuzzy.” I said. “Thank you,” said Gentle. “Now go wake friends.” I nodded and waddled over to the other room. I hadn’t really mastered walking like this. Even with what seemed to be built in muscle memory, I wasn’t very fast or graceful. It sort of dug at me and my heart. I had spent so much time trying to be pretty and here it was thrown out the window. I knew it was vain of me but I wanted to be pretty just once. To be able to look in a mirror, and not feel a sense of disgust at the face staring back at me. Mary had already woken, but she was sitting with Kristen waiting for her to wake. It felt rather off, waking all my sleeping friends. If I could forget for a moment that all these Pokemon were supposed to be humans, they all were rather cute snuggled up in a group. I said firmly but not too loudly. mumbled Zack. He grabbed Ty and tucked them closer to his belly. I said. said Kristen. said Mary. sighed Robert. He let go of Zack’s second mouth and rolled over onto his paws. Coming up to me, he rubbed against me. I said. “Breakfast. Thank you Alice, for trying to get them up,” said Gentle. “Come on you two sleepy heads, you don’t want to miss out on some delicious food, do you?” said Ty. They shifted form and a second Zack took shape. This forced Zack up as he was pushed off the pillow. said Zack. He pushed himself to his feet and walked over to where Gentle was puting down the food bowls. I had been first in line for food and no one pushed me aside. I may have been stepped on by a certain obviously tired fox, but she didn’t weigh enough for it to hurt. It was the same mix from last night, but I didn’t mind. It tasted fine enough. Why not eat it? I mixed the kibble with berries as best I could. Still it was rather disheartening to have to duck my head into the bowl for each bite. It didn’t stop me from doing it and looking at everyone here they were thinking the same thing. Even Zack and Ty, who had hands to use, seemed to be as somber as the rest of us. “Do you not like the food?” asked Gentle. said Mary. “I’m sorry. It must have been so hard being so far from home,” said Gentle. “Don’t worry if we can we will get you back there.” said Ty. “Oh dears, I’m so sorry,” said Gentle. “Look we will go around town and make sure you all have a place to stay. You are all welcome here for the time being but I just need to be able to do my work and you all seem well behaved but my other animals aren’t as friendly.” said Robert. said Mary. said Zack. said Ty. “Oh deary if you need to eat meat we can provide for you. I just ask that you let me prepare it for you,” said Gentle. “It is nice to not worry them so much.” said Zack. “You sure came from a fancy zoo, or, well, where ever you came from,” said Gentle. “Still if that is what you need it isn’t too hard. Peaches raises rabbits for their fur and she gives me the meat. Here, after I feed the last of you, I can cook you some if you are still hungry.” said Zack. I asked. “Last I checked she was out cold,” said Gentle. “Probably going to need lots of rest for the next few days, if not longer. But I will go check on her. You all stay down here please.” I nodded as Gentle disappeared into the kitchen only to reappear with a baby bottle. She ran up the stairs, taking little heed to not make much noise. I was certain that Emily would be awake at this point. Still I turned back to the bowl picking out a few more berries. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “Now I want you all to keep up and not to wander off,” said Gentle. “Don’t make me get a leash. The town should be fairly quiet at this point but it would be good to not have to deal with the lunch rush.” asked Mary. “Twenty two of us but there is at least one more on their way,” said Gentle. “I know not so big but really it gets a bit noisy, even here. We should go to Dirty’s first. Just uh cause if we miss anyone, he can tell them.” She lead the way with me on her back. I wasn’t to be out wandering the dirt roads yet and so Gentle had put me in one of her carriers that she wore on her back. I barely fit right as it was more designed for creatures with back legs but still I was stable enough on her back. Behind us trailed the rest of the group. Zack was near the front looking each and every which way. Mary and Kristen followed after him, though gave him a wide berth, as every time Zack turned to look another direction, his second mouth swung quickly as well. Robert and Ty were right behind Mary. Ty was trying to get the transformation down better. Their face was always a bit off in their transformation and they was practicing on Robert. Seeing the town all lit up for the first time, I noticed how similar all the buildings were. They had wooden shingles for roofs and seemed to be made almost entirely out of wood. The outsides of some of them had been painted, but most were just the natural color of the wood. All of them were weather worn though and I wondered how long they had been here. Most were two stories tall, with one large building that we were heading to, at the center of town, and the tower that stood next to it. The large building was three stories and seemed sort of excessively large. The tower though must have been five stories as it was much taller than even the large building. “Dirty and Glitter are probably working on lunch by now,” said Gentle. “We all come and eat lunch here. I don’t really like it that much but I don’t want to miss out. Dirty is nice though and Glitter is an angel.” I looked back to see if the others were following and they had thankfully not been left behind. It felt bad that Emily wasn’t with us but she needed her rest. Everyone seemed to be a bit on edge though. I couldn’t blame them I felt it too. Our big audition of sorts. “Here we are,” said Gentle. “Now wipe your paws on the mat before you come in, we don’t want to make more work for Glitter.” Thankfully everyone, except for Zack, did as they were asked, and when he was hit, he did so as well. The entrance was a double door, not that was necessary for the lot of us. All of us were rather small and the door was obviously built to accommodate creatures even larger than a pony. The inside of the building was a wide open area with a number of picnic tables, though the seat was longer than would have been for a human. On the near side was a bar and a set of stairs disappeared behind a wall next to the end of the bar. There were what looked like lamps hanging from the ceiling. A blonde maned unicorn sat behind the counter working on something that was hidden from view. He had a sharp face and dark brown fur but he smiled at Gentle as we came in. “Morning Gentle,” said the stallion. “What are all those critters you have there?” “Uh, they uh showed up last night,” said Gentle. “They uh don’t have a place to live and I was hoping that maybe the town folk might want to get a pet. They seem domesticated and they somehow got lost, ah, from a zoo. Or well someplace fancy for critters. It is rather confusing to me.” “I know of at least one pony who would love a pet,” said the stallion. “Glitter has been thinking about a pet for a while now. One that might help her when she gets her seizures.” “Oh yeah. That uh would be good for her,” said Gentle. “I’m sure one of these little ones might be of help. Uh, they are a bit different…that sounds mean. I didn’t mean anything by it uh like that. Sorry.” I said. said Zack. “Thank you,” said Gentle. “Were, um, was I? Sorry. Oh yeah. Uh this one on my back is very gentle but she has some mobility issues. The blue cat or foxes might be better. Um, of course, if they uh want to.” said Mary. “Oh, I am certain that Glitter wouldn’t mind you spending time with your pack mates,” said Gentle. “Uh Dirty, the whitish blue fox said she would be willing to help out. She just wants to be able to see her packmates.” “Well if Glitter gets along with her, I don’t see why not. Bet that fox can run pretty fast and get help if I am not around. What about the rest of them. I know that Brilliant wanted a pet but that would be up to his mom. I wouldn’t be surprised if Penny and Fond wanted one as well. Fond is a for sure thing. There is no way Gilded would ever tell her no.” “Yeah, uh, has Gleaming gotten in yet?” asked Gentle. “Yeah. She is upstairs,” said Dirty. “Glitter is up there with her. If you end up there, tell Glitter it is almost time to start lunch preparation.” “Okay,” said Gentle. “Now little ones, keep up and if you need us to be slow for the steps just say so.” said Zack. said Kristen. We headed to the stairs and Gentle insisted that those who could went up first. Mary, Robert, Ty and Kristen all had no problems going up with the four legs they all had but Zack found it a bit harder, as he had to pull himself up each stair. He was a bit worn out by all of that and had to rest when we reached the top. There was a long hallway and a set of windows that lined the outside of the hallway. On theother side of the hall was a door every so often and it suddenly clicked, that this was a inn of some sort. Gentle lead the way down to an open door and she poked her head in just enough that I could barely see. I could hear plenty well, as two ponies were talking. Gentle knocked on the door and the talking stopped. “Who’s there? Oh Gentle, come in come in,” said a feminie pony voice. “Glitter and I were just having one of her famous heart to hearts. What brings you in?” Gentle walked into the room. Two ponies sat there. One a unicorn and the other a pegasus. The unicorn had near black fur and a silvery mane that reminded me of starlight. The Pegasus could not be more different as she had slightly pink fur that was almost white and a pastel rainbow of a mane. “Uh, Delver found, uh, bunch of animals out in the western woods, I think, and uh they aren’t wild but from a zoo apparently and they need homes and I was hoping that the town folk would uh take one or more of them,” said Gentle. “O-oh. Di-dirty said that that that we co-could get a a pet,” said the pink one, speaking with a very noticeable stutter. “Are any any of them a-avilalble?” “I have one here for you if you want,” said Gentle. She turned to the rest of our group. “Uh I forgot to ask. What’s your name?” asked Mary. “That is just her normal,” said Gentle. “This white one is Mary. I haven’t known her long but she is very nice from what I have seen.” “He-hello,” said pink one. “I am am Glitter Cutie. I hope that we can be fr-friends.” Mary walked up to her and plopped down in front of the pegasus mare. Glitter got of her chair and held her hoof out obviously so that Mary could sniff it if she wanted. Mary didn’t seem to realize what Glitter was trying to do but she just leaned her head against Glitter’s hoof. “Interesting little creature. Can I see the rest?” asked the dark unicorn mare. “Oh, of course,” said Gentle. “I was um thinking that Brilliant might want a pet. Or well if uh that is alright.” “Knowing him, he would want one as long as he didn’t have to take care of it,” said the dark unicorn mare. “But I was thinking that I might want one. If that was alright.” “Of course, Gleaming,” said Gentle. “You are uh like the fourth most responsible pony here.” “You keep a list?” asked Gleaming. Gentle looked away seemingly embarrassed. She turned to the rest of our group and ushered them further into the room clearly trying to distract everyone from her embarrassment. asked Zack. said Robert. said Ty. “Hmm. You said these are from a zoo,” said Gleaming. “I know this one here is a summoned Kolink. I think at least. Hasty would know better. Can you ask if they want to go home? It would be best that we don’t keep them from their home if they want to return.” “Um well?” asked Gentle. I thought on it. We were definitely dead back on earth and the idea of being pokemon on earth scared me more than being here. At least here I there was someone of the dominate species that could understand us but also that I knew enough about pokemon that humans might want us to fight each other and that sounded rather awful. said Zack. said Ty. said Mary. “I don’t really know what they are uh talking about,” said Gentle. “Like um it is all a bit weird. I definitely don’t think they uh came from a zoo. One of them said they died.” I said. “How could they have died if they are here breathing and talking, strangely, but still?” asked Gleaming. “I I don’t know but they are are in pa-pain,” said Glitter. Kristen looked like she was about to cry, though I wasn’t certain we could cry. Apparently we or at least the foxes could. I flopped off of Gentles back, slipping from the pack that held me, and hugged her. We all came together into a group hug, except for Zack who sat there awkwardly at the edge of our group hug, until Ty pulled him in. Things weren’t really all that simple after all. “Well, why don’t you all wait here or, well, at least somewhere in here, while I go get Hasty. He should at least be able to tell if these are summons,” said Gleaming. “Gentle would you mind keeping the foals out of trouble for a bit until I get back.” “Of course,” said Gentle. “Um, Glitter, should we stay up here or downstairs?” “I don’t ca-care,” said Glitter. “Dir-Dirty will send up the foals. I I need to go w-work though.” Gentle nodded and stepped out of the way for the other two to pass through the door. She laid down next to us and just watched. I scrambled across the floor, and out of our cuddle puddle, to lean against her. I said. “I’m sorry about that,” said Gentle. said Ty. Ty turned into another seal creature and sat there wiggling for a moment before they turned back into a blob and then into a red fox. They pulled Kristen into a strange sort of hug that was almost more a tackle than anything else. I said. “Weren’t you always that way?” asked Gentle. I said. said Ty. said Kristen. said Ty. said Zack. The moment that Kristen had spoken I knew what was up, but it didn’t surprise me that Zack, of all of us, had no clue as to what we are talking about. I didn’t really feel like getting into it with him and decided it was best to just ignore him for now. It just would be better for everyone involved that way. said Kristen. I asked. said Kristen. She started to rock back and forth. Her eyes closed and she scrunched up and shook more. Who ever were her former friends they had done something awful to her. I could guess as to what but I wasn’t going to say it, if just to not bring up more trauma. I felt sick and sort of frozen. said Mary. Kristen only just nodded. It was probably best to postpone this conversation till later. Why Ty had thought now was the right time was a bit off to me but they didn’t always have the best sense of timing. I couldn’t really say I did either. Instead I laid my head against Gentle and tried to not let my imagination get too intense and hopefully not dredge up memories I would have rathered not reliving again. Gentle seemed rather horrified herself or maybe she was getting flashbacks too. I couldn’t rightly tell and I rubbed my head against her, as I needed my arms to stay sitting there, hoping that it would comfort her. Author's Note So this one is my attempt at self editing. So yeah my mileage with that may be rather poor. Also welcome to gender issues the whole trademark of pretty much all of my work. To be fair it has mostly came out in original work but I have way more of that anyway.
Gone is the Old“You guys still at that game?” asked Zack. He was rather annoying with his constant questions about our game. I also didn’t like the way he looked at me like I was some sort of creep or out to get him. Not that he would ever admit to being afraid of me. “Like, hasn’t it been a month already?” “That is how these games normally go,” said Ty. They were sitting on their chair with their feet right up next to their butt and their knees at their chest. They had just flipped to a new page and were gathering dice to roll. “Zack,” said Robert. “Look man, if you want to play you just have to ask.” I kicked him from under the table and he shot me a look. I knew what it was. That I was supposed to play nice, and he was right. It wasn’t entirely Zack’s fault that he had internalized the bullshit about trans women. He wasn’t from around here anyway and the middle of the country where he came from wasn’t known for its niceness to queer people. I smiled at Zack hoping that he would go away but preparing myself for him joining our game. Besides, he would probably only play one session and then leave. “Sorry about that,” said Kristen. She had just exited the bathroom and hurried over to her seat next to Emily. “Really need to drink less soda.” “Only just a bit,” said Emily. “So are you joining us today, Zack? Kinda need to know if we’re taking a break to get you up to speed. Cause I need to run to the store.” “And she means it,” said Robert. Robert had short, scruffy hair that he liked to gel up and spike. Today, however, it had looked like he had woken late and his hair was a messy tangle. “Don’t offer to go with her unless you want to literally run to the store.” “I jog,” said Emily. “Not run. Better for your knees that way.” I giggled and held my fist out for her to fist bump from across the table. Still, I looked up to Zack who looked rather scared of Emily for some silly reason. Maybe it was that she could probably beat the shit out of him. No matter how much iron he pumped. My eyes glanced over his biceps that showed through his t-shirt. Bad brain, no dreaming over hot guys. “If you don’t mind, I’ll just watch today,” said Zack. He sat down with his absurd stack of comics and pulled one out to read while he listened. At least he was polite and was buying things. The store could use it. Aaron, the owner, had it rough and Zack was easily making a dent in keeping the place open. For some reason, he had decided that every single comic that had his favorite superheroes in it needed reading and, over the last two months, he had been rather prolific in acquiring them. I didn’t spend too much time at the game store, not at all. “Hey guys, I got to run out the trash,” said Aaron. “Watch the store. Be back in a few.” “Yep,” I yelled at him from the back of the store. “So anyway, you guys were about to delve into the murky depths of Shadoverse to acquire the gem of power,” said Ty. “The portal ingredients are ready and you have done your research. The time is upon you to step through into another world. One filled with dark monsters and fallen heroes turned against the light.” “A tad dramatic there,” joked Emily. “Oh give them their fun,” said Mary. “I for one love your descriptions. Now do go on.” “As I was getting to,” said Ty. “The portal opens up and from it shadowy mists start pouring through. Steeling yourselves, you walk into the dark portal. As the last of you crosses its threshold, the portal closes behind you. Slowly, your eyes adjust and it is only then that you notice that you are surrounded. A teeming horde of undead smell your flesh and turn to have their latest feast. Roll initiative.” There was a bunch of dice rolled and a number of yelps of happiness. Emily had rolled very well and would be going first in combat. Robert looked rather sad by that but shook his head and looked at his dice. There was a decent chance that he would have new ones next week. There was a loud crash outside pierced by a loud squealing of burning rubber. The whole building shook. I could hear shouts from outside. Ty had jumped under the table and Robert jumped to his feet. Zack, being the idiot he was, was splayed out like something was about to hit us, blocking out the space in front of Mary. Slowly, I crept toward the door not knowing why I was so anxious about a car crash. Still, something was wrong, and a gust of wind blew in through the door. It smelt foul, like rotten eggs. What could that be from? It hit us in a second. There was just a flash and some pain, then nothing. For a moment, I could hear faint whispers of someone talking to me. They seemed to be apologizing. Was it that buffoon Zack? At least he wasn’t dead, or at least I hoped. I couldn’t tell you when the light became darkness. My head hurt and I couldn’t help but wonder if you could feel pain while dead. A wind blew over my body and I felt a shiver run over me. Well, whatever this afterlife was, it sucked so far. I slowly opened my eyes, though my vision was blurry. I was in some sort of forest. The trees seemed huge to me, as did the bushes that sat near their bases. There was a howl that rang through the night, followed by two more. My eyes were finally coming into focus and I could see the leaves on the trees. Around me were a number of strange creatures. One had a black long thing of hair, wait, that is a mouth. I didn’t know what to think of the strange thing that seemed taller than me. Next to them was a pink thing that seemed to be shivering, though I couldn’t really see any form to it. A bit off from them was two foxes one red and the other white with a hint of blue. Their tails bushed out like crazy and then I saw that they had more than one tail each. Hanging from a tree was a pair of stubby legs that were kicking, trying to free whatever it was that was in the tree. It managed to succeed and fell from the tree branch. It sort of looked like a cross between a teddy bear and a cat, yet it was definitely moving. A blue and black cat stumbled out of one of the bushes. They looked almost drunk. There was something in the bottom of my vision and I looked down. Where my hands should have been were two flippers with three fingers each. I panicked and looked away, thinking that if I just ignored it my hands would come back. The thing in my vision came with and I went cross-eyed to see it. It took longer than I wanted to admit but that was my nose or, well, snout. It wasn’t pretty, but I was screaming. said the thing with two mouths which, strangely enough, looked the most human of all of us. said the pink blob which was still giggling. I said. said the two mouthed creature. said the cat bear. said the white fox. said the red fox. said the blue cat. said the pink blob that seemed to turn around and revealed a rather cute face on it. There was a howl that seemed closer to me but I felt like there was bigger problem. Some how we were those weird kids' creatures. From a game. How? Why? I felt like screaming again. asked Mary. asked Robert. said Kristen. The red fox put her paw to her mouth and stifled a laugh. said Zack. The howl was super close this time and every one of us looked in the direction it came from. I could see the strange pink blob that was Ty seem to melt into a puddle. They weren’t liking the idea of what that could have been from. Maybe it was a wolf Pokemon that would be friendly but I couldn’t help but wonder what wolf Pokemon ate in the wild. It wasn’t a pleasant thought. commanded Zack. I said. I was trying to pull myself along, but it wasn’t coming fast. There was the rustling of bushes behind me. I was trying to waddle along faster as a slightly off looking fox creature ran past. Was that Kristen? They were in a full sprint and seemed scared shitless. Then a second red fox came up to me that definitely was Kristen and put her head under my arm. She plenty bigger than me. Then the white fox put her head under my other arm and I tried to hold on as best I could. I looked over my shoulder to see Emily the cat bear running right behind us and then the blue cat and Zack right behind her. The blue cat scooped up Emily by pressing its head through her legs and she, thankfully, was quick enough to grab a hold. That only left our biggest member running slightly slowly. He kept looking over his back and I looked ahead of us, seeing the strange second red fox blazing a trail. The howling had stopped and honestly, that scared me more. That meant they were right on top of us. I looked to our left, only seeing the passing bushes and trees. It was getting dark and I couldn’t see far. Turning to look right, a wolf was nearly on top of us. It had gray fur and stood over twice as tall as any of us. I shrieked and let go of the foxes. The two of them didn’t stop running, but I fell to the ground, dragging to a stop as the wolf missed its lunge and went right over me, barely missing the foxes. I struggled to get up and start wobbling away again. I could see another wolf running at us from ahead of us, chasing the strange red fox. They jumped under the other two foxes who had screeched to a halt. The blue cat got hit by a third wolf and rolled past me, missing Kristen. I looked back the other direction to see something horrible. She was in the wolf’s mouth hanging out of both sides. It chomped down and I could see the blood fall from her and hear the crack of bone as she screamed. Something in me lit up and my body moved on its own. My scream became choked by water that spat out of my mouth like a jet and blasted the wolf, pushing it back. The wolf, surprised, dropped Kristen to the ground where she fell limply. I waddled up to her nudging her with my long nose. She was still breathing but she was loosing a lot of blood. I stood over her ready to fire off more water if another wolf came close. I could see Zack fighting off a wolf that had bitten into his shoulder. There wasn’t any blood coming from him and he swung his head, causing the big mouth hair thing to slam into the wood with a dull thud. The blue cat who, for some reason, I remember that moment was Robert, had gotten to his feet. He looked around, clearly dazed by the blow and then he shook his head. A bit of sparks ran off his fur and he turned to face an oncoming wolf. I didn’t think I could hit it from that far with my water, yet I didn’t need to as Robert slammed into the wolf, who yelped as electricity arced through the air between the two of them. I looked back to the three foxes, finding that Mary had somehow shot ice at one of the wolves which had ran away yelping. The wolves seemed to be in retreat, but I felt exhausted. Stepping off from over Emily, I let someone else look at her. They were swearing but my head was fuzzy and I couldn’t pay attention to what they were saying. There was a rustling of bushes nearby and I jerked towards it sending a spray of water that direction. It had gone further than I thought it would but I couldn’t keep it up. A strange pony creature bigger than all of us but smaller than the wolves had shook its head, sending water in all directions. It wiped a fetlock across its face before looking our way. The creature was far more cautious than the wolves had been and it walked slowly up to us. It had light purple fur and dirty gray mane. There was an emblem on its flank that I couldn’t get a good view of. On its back was some sort of cross between backpack and saddle bags. “Hey there, little critters,” said the pony. “You all don’t look like you belong in these woods. Now I can see that small one there is hurt rather badly. Mind if I try to help?” I said. “I don’t know what you mean, but I’ll take that as a yes,” said the pony. He walked up to us slightly faster than he had been but still cautiously. All of us let him past and backed off as he looked at Emily. He shook his head and started to work somehow gripping things with his hooves and quickly had the bleeding stemmed by a cloth wrapped around her midsection. He gently picked her up and put her into the biggest pocket on his backpack. “So you critters ain’t from round here,” said the pony. “I need to take your friend to my friend to get them all fixed up. I mean, how in tarnation did a seal make it this far inland. Either way, you lot shouldn’t stick around. Themwolves are still around.” asked Mary. said Ty. said Kristen. said Mary, almost offended. The lot of us hurried after him the best we could. Really, I was just slowing down the others, but with the three of the Foxes taking turns carrying me, we managed to keep up fine enough. The only one who had much of an issue with it was Zack, but he had only two legs and they were fairly short as it was. said Zack. said Ty. They were taking a turn carrying me. said Marry. said Ty. “You lot sure are talkative,” said the Pony. “Can’t tell if you understand me, but I ain’t never seen a critter that talks as much as you lot. Maybe you're just stressed. Does seem like the little one is a friend of y’all.” said Robert as he walked next to the pony. “Pretty certain you are talking to me,” said the Pony. “So is that your name or just like, the way you talk? You keep saying some form of Shinx. Eh, I be talking to the critters now. Probably best I headed back to town when I did. Don’t want to be loosing my marbles out there.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It took three hours to start to see some sense of civilization. We came to an open prairie that was disturbed in its openness by a large set of young trees. I could see some area that looked like it might be farmland as we crested the small hill that went into the forest behind us. The Sun had set and we walked by the light of a full moon. Thankfully, there was a trail that proved easy enough for us to traverse, even at three wide, though my tail and bottom flippers were more than sore and might have some sores on them by now. There wasn’t much that could be done though. We had long stopped talking and I could tell everyone was exhausted. I was exhausted and I hadn’t really been doing anything but hold on. It took about half an hour to walk into the town past the orchard. I couldn’t tell what type of trees they were in the dark but I assumed either nut or fruit. The going got considerably easier as we neared the town, or what really should have been called a village. There wasn’t even twenty buildings to be seen in the place. We entered the place and it looked to be dead with all the lights out. I wasn’t certain they even had lights. The large tower which dominated the center of town was lit, but it was too far to tell by what. Something swooped out of the air and landed next to the pony helping us. All of us jumped and I was dropped to the ground by Mary and Kristen who were trying their best to look ready for a fight. “Woah there little critters, she's a friend,” said the pony. “What is with this little pack of yours? Huh, Delver?” asked the dark pony that had flown up to us. She had fur that blended into the night and hair that was obviously a different shade but blended equally well. If it weren’t for her eyes, which shone with Moonlight, one would have easily missed her. There was a sword strapped to her side, and I was far more wary of her having spotted it. I said in a hiss. “I found them in the western forest,” said the purple pony whose name might have been Delver. “Looks like they don’t belong there. I mean, one of them is a hoofed watter critter. There ain't a river around here big enough for one of them, let alone enough to be native.” said Ty. “One of them is hurt pretty badly,” said Delver. “Figure that Gentle can either help heal it or make its last hours a bit less painful.” There was a silence for a moment between us. We all knew we had no choice but to trust these ponies. They seemed nice and it wasn’t like they had any reason to be hiding that from us. I was pretty certain that Delver didn’t know we could even understand him. said Zack. said Ty. said Robert. Raindrops started to hit us. I felt revitalized by it, but I could tell by the way everyone was staring at Robert I was the only one. The storm was hard and soon the dirt road was muddy. We were all soaking and the ponies looked no better off. Thankfully, we came to a house that Delver went up and knocked on. There were sounds just barely audible over the rain of someone running down some stairs. The door opened and a green unicorn greeted us. Her hair was all sorts of messed up but I assumed that was from sleep. Her amber eyes shone in the dark and she seemed to lock eyes on us over the ponies first. “Hi Gentle,” said Delver. “Sorry for the late house call, but I got some critters here that I figured you could help patch up. One of them, got her here in my pack, got real torn up by one of them dire wolves.” “Come, come, come in,” said Gentle. She took a step back and there was a glow on her horn and then a light flipped on in the main room. “Uh, set the hurt one here. Uh oh. Come in you little ones too.” We piled into the room. I was dragged further in and then they backed off. Looking back, I could see a small trail of blood and I flopped over to look at my tail as best I could. Sure enough, I had lost all the fur on me and a decent chunk of skin as well. The blood was oozing from the wounds and I flopped back down on my back, enjoying the feeling of laying down. Not having legs anymore sucked. At least everyone else could walk normally. They weren’t needing to be carried. I couldn’t help the tears that came as I laid there. I didn’t notice when I was picked up gently and only did when placed on the table next to Emily. She was still breathing and I reached out and grabbed her paw as best I could. “I need you to stay still, okay?” said Gentle. “You must be in a lot of pain. Getting so far from home. Don’t worry, I am going to make you all better. Now, I am gonna bandage your flippers and you need to leave it on, okay? Then I think you need some more water.” I asked. “I think so,” said Gentle. “ But I don’t think she is going to walk again. But she is strong, she’ll pull through. I’ll make up a nice bed for all of you and get you some food.” I said loudly. said Robert. The only thing that kept me awake was the pangs of hunger. I laid on the table on my back, sitting with Emily. Her breathing looked less troubled and I hoped she was sleeping well. Gentle had walked into a kitchen and the dark mare with bat like wings walked in after her. “Hey Gentle, Moonlight, I am going to hit the hay. If you need me, I am gonna be at home for at least a week,” said Delver. “Oh yeah,” said Gentle. She peaked out of the kitchen doorway. “Uh, thanks. Um, for helping them.” “You don’t mind if I stick around till you get back to sleep do you?” asked the bat pony who must have been Moonlight. “Been a bit lonely. Punch has been so busy with a project he hasn’t been staying up as late.” “I, uh, don’t mind, uh, the clutter. Uh, sorry,” said Gentle. “Gentle, we have talked about this,” said Moonlight. “You take care of what you can and what you can’t, just ask for help with. I know I am not the only one willing to clean up for you.” “I, uh, it's just this…week…yeah, week, has been really, uh, busy what with the, um, um. thing where you pick plants,” said Gentle. “Harvest,” said Moonlight. “Yeah, um, harvest. Here, take this to the big group,” said Gentle. “I, uh, need to, um, get the injured ones. They might, uh, be, um, concerned no, um…defensive! Yeah, and I know I can help them better. Oh, uh, no offense.” “Gentle, you are the resident animal pony. Of course you know how to do this better than me,” said Moonlight. She walked out of the kitchen carrying a big bowl in one hoof and still managing to walk just fine. “Okay, you little critters. I got a mix of things so hopefully at least some of you can eat some of this.” There was a scrambling of paws and I had to flop over to see, but the group of us who weren’t injured were all at Moonlight’s feet. I couldn’t really understand why they were acting so much like children, but then again I was really tempted to jump off of this table so that I could get at the bowl too. said Zack. A tongue was licking the lips of his second mouth. said Mary. said Kristen, who was standing on her back paws trying to get at the bowl. “Gentle, do you have a second bowl?” asked Moonlight. “I think there might be a fight if I only put the one down.” said Robert. said Ty. They had dropped their transformation and were just a pink blob again. said Zack. “Here you go,” said Gentle. “Now, now, little ones. I don’t want any of you fighting over food. I have more if needed.” said Zack. asked Mary. said Zack. Moonlight took the second bowl and poured half of the first’s contents into it. She lowered the first bowl down before hovering above my group and placing the bowl on the other side of them. With that, she lifted up further into the air and landed a bit of distance away as if she was worried a fight would break out. Thankfully, everyone had their wits about them still and didn’t hog the food. Gentle came out carrying a bottle and a bowl. She glanced over at the feeding frenzy before stopping at the worktable. Her horn was lit up and the bowl and bottle were floating next to her. I felt a force like fingers rub against my short thick fur and I leaned into it, finding it oddly comfortable. No wonder why pets loved to get pet. Gentle lowered the bowl right in front of my face and then gently lifted Emily in the same magical glow that the bottle was in. Nuzzling Emily, Gentle tried to get her to wake before pressing the baby bottle up to her mouth. Emily seemed awake enough to take the bottle in her mouth and suck. Gentle seemed happy with that. I turned back to my food, which was mostly berries but had what looked like dog food too in it. The berries tasted wonderful and I ate them first. I hesitated at the kibble. I definitely had the teeth of something that ate both vegetables and meat and the kibbles must have had protein in them, because they did smell decent, but it was dog food. I didn’t really want to stoop so low so quickly. But my stomach groaned and I took a bit. They were a bit bland, but edible, and I ate till I was full. Even if I felt a bit shameful for that. With my belly full, it grew harder and harder to keep my eyes open. Author's Note This chapter was proofread by xXDagedXx Also in case it wasn't apparent, anytime that there are like this it means the characters which are Pokemon are speaking. I will keep this up through out the story even when they aren't around ponies to keep it from being confusing.
Banished PainThere was a thunderous amount of noise coming up the stairs. Somehow, despite their obvious stomping, I could hear them talking. Three voices echoed through the halls. A colt and two fillies walked into the room stopping at the door. Kristen struggled to get herself back to a semi-presentable shape, not that it was working all that well. Gentle got to her hooves and I slid to the floor. The unicorn colt, who was the tallest of the group, had pale yellow fur, and a deep purple mane with two seperate stripes of near white, that ran the length of his chin length hair. It was mostly straight but looked like it hadn’t been brushed in a while. The two fillies piled in behind him, the earth pony having pink fur and red mane with a deeper red highlight on the ends and the other, a pegasus, having very pale cream fur and copper brown mane. The colt looked at us, before shrugging and walking away, but the two fillies came up to our group. “Hello, Gentle,” said the pink filly. “Where did you get all these animals?” “Delver, uh, found them in the western forrest,” said Gentle. “They seem to be domesticated and, um, they need homes. The red one is spoken for.” “Do you think we can have one each?” asked the pink filly. “I know that Gilded will say yes, and she can’t say no if I just show up with one.” “Fond, you should ask first,” said the lighter filly. “Gilded lets you get away with too much.” “Penny, you worry too much,” said Fond. “Which one do you like the most?” “Oh, I don’t know,” said Penny. “The blue cat looks cute.” said Robert. Mary said. said Robert. said Zack. “They sure are talkative,” said Fond. “Gentle, can you understand what they are saying.” “Yeah,” said Gentle. “It is a little hard to keep up with them though. They talk pretty fast.” I said. said Ty. “At least one of them is a bit worried right now,” said Gentle. She levitated Ty over to her and rubbed their assumed head. said Ty. Kristen said. “Well hopefully finding a home will help that,” said Fond. “Maybe I could take that one too. The two of them are rather cute if you ask me. Maybe it would be best to keep them together as they are the same type of critter.” said Robert responding to Kirsten. said Ty. said Mary. “They are all a bit razzled,” said Gentle. “I don’t see, um, what the harm is if you are all calm and gentle with them.” “We’ll be careful,” said Fond. She walked closer to Gentle and sat down on the floor. I knew she was waiting for me to come to her and despite the fact that I could feel the stress building up in my system, I wobbled over to her and sat between her forelegs. “Hello little one. You are a really interesting critter. I have never seen anything like you.” I looked at Gentle hoping she would explain but she didn’t seem to notice. Laying my head on her foreleg, I tried to calm my heart.. Something was eating at me that I couldn’t place and my head had started to hurt. Penny had sat down and Robert, as well as Zack, had gone over to her. Zack stayed a bit behind Robert, letting Penny gently reach out to pet him. He must have decided that she was nice enough, as he moved forward letting her hoof slide down his back to the base of his tail. It must have felt good as he arched his back and I could hear a soft purr coming from him. “Do you want to come look at them, Brilliant?” asked Gentle. “No, I don’t want Gleaming getting any ideas about getting me a pet to teach me responsibility,” said Brilliant. said Zack, laughing. said Mary. said Zack. I mumbled. “Oh no. Alice you should have said something,” said Gentle. “I’ll go get you some water. I bet you are dehydrated. Be nice while I am gone.” “Of course,” said Fond. “And we will make sure these little guys don’t make a mess either.” said Mary. I said. Mary nodded and then left with Gentle. Ty who had been put down, came over to Fond and I and pushed his way into snuggling with me. I didn’t quite understand how he was so much stronger than me, if he was supposed to be a copy of me, but it wasn’t like I had been resisting his efforts. Fond took turns petting the both of us. The magic fingers that ponies seemed to have at the end of their hooves felt so nice on my short fur. Kristen came up to Penny, sitting next to Zack, and Zack ran his short stubby arms as far down her back as he could. Kristen seemed to like it as each time his hand made it down her back she sighed. Zack had been a lot better than I had expected with all of this and it was interesting to see him be so gentle with someone else. “Are you certain you don’t want to give these cuties pets?” asked Penny. “They are so nice. This one is purring so hard.” She was right, Robert had been purring far louder than I thought he would have been able to or would have wanted to. His face looked like he was enjoying her pets as he had flopped down between her legs and his little tongue was sticking out of his mouth a bit. “Look, I just don’t want to,” said Brilliant. “Besides we should all be reviewing our homework. You know be responsible.” “Says the pony who is trying to avoid any responsibility by avoiding petting some cute animals,” said Fond. “You just don’t want to get attached because you want to go to Canterlot to study.” “Of course I do,” said Brilliant. “It is where Gleaming studied and it is the place where I will best be able to master my talent.” “I’ll miss you,” said Penny. “It isn’t certain he will leave yet,” said Fond. Brilliant only snorted and went back to his work. My headache was starting to get out of hand and I squeezed my eyes shut trying to shut out the light which had started to hurt. Ty must have noticed, as they rubbed their version of my head against mine gently. It was nice but it didn’t do anything to help the headache. Gentle came back into the room levitating a pitcher, a cup, and a set of saucers. She set one of the saucers next to Kristen and the cup in front of Zack. A saucer levitated over to Robert and then one for Ty and myself. She then filled each carefully with water starting with mine. I lapped at it, trying to get as much of it as possible. It seemed to be helping a bit as with each bit of water I got in my headache lessened. There was more footsteps coming up the distant stairs. It was surprising how well I could hear any more. Must have been my large ears. I was pretty certain it was Gleaming and someone else that was headed down the hallway based on their voices. The second voice was rough and deep sounding. I couldn’t really make out his words though from that distance. “So these are them,” said Gleaming as she walked into the room. “I told you they weren’t like any summon I had ever seen. They seem to speak differently too.” “Hmmm,” said the blond furred earth pony. His mane was long and in a pony tail and was orange with a streak of red in it. “Well they are definitely summons. That much is easy enough. A Kucheat, Rokon, Kolink, and two Ashimari. I think the proper answer is to try to send them home. You are certain no one in town summoned them. To be fair the only other I can think of is Plantnium Punch but she is smart enough to not do such a thing. I don’t think we even have books here for the foals to have learned from.” “Please, be gentle with them,” said Gentle. “I, uh, don’t want to see them hurt again.” “The banishing ritual doesn’t hurt the summon. Lets start with those two,” said the earth pony stalion. He walked over to Ty and I and started to chant something I didn’t understand. Ty started to squirm next to me and I felt something wash over me. For a moment I worried that I was really going to be banished to some other realm. That was until the pain started. It was like every inch of me was trying to be torn apart piece by piece. I couldn’t help the scream that came out of my mouth. “Stop,” shouted Fond. “Your hurting her.” I couldn’t help the shaking that had taken over me. The stallion had stopped chanting. I couldn’t see and my head hurt all the more. I could hear growls and some rufling around me. Surely, the others would attack this stallion. “That shouldn’t have done that,” said the stallion. “I can only hope that means they some how aren’t summons, unless somepony has figured a way to anchor them to Equis. I may need to contact the College.” “Can’t you tell us anything else?” asked Gleaming. “How could this be? What is that one? I don’t remember there being anything about shapeshifting summons.” “I have no idea,” said the Stallion. “Look I have caused enough harm to day. I am going to check over the books and draft a letter to the College. For now try to keep them calm and happy. They are still potentially dangerous.” asked Kristen. I tried to nod but it only sent my head spinning. asked Zack. said Robert. “Please don’t do anything rash,” said Gentle. “Fond, I need to check on Alice. Um, if that is alright with you.” I was picked up and I could feel Gentle place her head against my chest. My heart was still a bit erratic and my head felt like someone was trying to dig their way out of it. “Is she going to be alright?” asked Fond. “I don’t, uh, know,” said Gentle. “Her heart is beating weird and I think we need to, um, get some more fluids in her.” “Gleaming, can I go with Gentle to help her? I want to be there to take care of, uh, Alice, right?” asked Fond. “I don’t see why not. I know you won’t be able to pay attention, even if I kept you here. Just keep working on your essay okay,” said Gleaming. “Just try not to get in her way, and if Gentle says you have to go so she can work, you need to listen.” “Thank you,” said Fond. I was slipped into Gentle’s pack and the straps were chinched tighter than they had been earlier. There was no way I was slipping out this time. I couldn’t hold my head up and I laid limply against Gentle. I passed out before she had gathered the others together. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I woke in a pool of warm water. It felt exquisite. My body still ached but my head had stopped hurting so much. The water wasn’t all that deep as I could feel the bottom of the tub I seemed to be in. Opening my eyes turned out to be a mistake, the bright lights sending waves of pain through my head. I suddenly felt rather dizzy and I fell into the water. My head was mostly submerged and I couldn’t breathe but it didn’t seem to be a pressing issue. A pair of hooves picked my head up and then scooted something under my chin. It held my head up above the water. The hooves then stroked down my back and lingered at the place where my neck and body joined. There was a ruffle of flesh that spread out from there, like I was wearing some sort of collar and yet I could feel all the sensations that came with it being a part of me. It was rather sensitive to the pony’s motions. “How long do you think she will be out like this?” asked Fond. “I’m worried. What are we supposed to do with a seal?” “I don’t know,” said Gentle. “I think she needs to have a constant source of water. She gets dehydrated so easily.” “Could we make a pool for her?” asked Gentle. “I mean a pond would be a nice addition to the town I think and she could swim there as long as she wants.” “I think that is a great idea,” said Gentle. “But I don’t know if we have the ponypower to do such a big project right now.” “I bet that Gilded could hire some outside help. Mayor Note has a few projects she wanted to get set up, so some hired help would be good,” said Fond. “I heard her, Gilded, and Cracked talking about having found a good place to put in a mine nearby.” I said quietly. “Oh good you are awake,” said Gentle. “What did she say?” asked Fond. “She says a pond would be nice,” said Gentle. “Until then maybe this wash tub will do. It is definitely big enough for her to stay in.” I asked. “They are downstairs,” said Gentle. “A few of them wanted to met the rest of the town.” I nodded just barely. I felt the weariness of my body creep up on me and I found it hard to fight off the sleep it brought. I had rather disjointed visions during my sleep. Mostly of a world I had never seen. One that seemed almost absurd to me with other strange monsters I didn’t recognize. Was this the world of the Pokemon or just some strange fever dream I was having. Still it didn’t wake me and I found my slipping through many dreams. Author's Note So I edited this myself so I probably missed something. I hope you enjoy this small romp into the growing lives of my main cast. Also the original fanfic has a google doc so people can keep track of all the characters. Considering I have 30 OCs in this story (so far) I think that might be helpful for you all. Maybe I will do that tomorrow. Maybe. To be fair I have a chapter to work on and a plot to introduce. This is an slice of life with adventure on the side after all.
Gloomy Dusk: Entrances and PreparationsThis would do. It was far enough off the beaten path that no one would come looking while she worked on her theory. They would pay for what they had done to her. She had circled the small town for the fourth time. There was only one bat pony that lived in the town and as far as Gloomy Dusk could tell the night guard hadn’t seen her yet. Even with their enhanced night vision it wasn’t like it was easy to see a dark pony far up in the clouded sky. The town would be perfect. It wasn’t like Gloomy Dusk liked to be alone and some company might remind her not to forget the ponies she would be hurting if her planed worked. Still she had no other choice. The college had shunned her ideas and she needed to prove them. Not just for herself but for her father who had died trying to do what she was about to. Summons were not to be trifled with and she would have to make some precautions against this going awry. Turning away from the town she flew towards the mountains. Surely there would be a cave nearby that would do for the moment until she could build a more secure lab. It wouldn’t do to have others wandering into her work. Especially if one of them was a summoner that wasn’t a reject from the College. It was a good thing that the materials for the ritual to summon Unknown were easy enough to procure here. Diamond dust and the ashe of a saproling as pure as possible. She had plenty of practice in purifying the ash and from what she understood this area had an abundance of diamonds which would be all she needed. She spotted what looked like a cave near the base of the mountain but decided it would be better to move further into the range of mountains. Make sure it was highly unlikely any of the town folk would stumble onto her endeavor. Still it was dark and it made looking for a cave difficult. Finding a cliff that jumped up thirty feet into the air Gloomy Dusk decided that if she couldn’t find a cave then a artificial one would have to do. She had been planing to summon a Doryuzu to hunt for diamonds and this would just be a bit of an early use of her two available reagents she had carried with her. Landing on a sizable ledge a small distance from the top of the cliff she got to work. It was rather annoying to carve the circle into stone like this and the area wasn’t really flat enough for it. She would have to use one of her far more temporary circles to summon her minion. Pulling out a folded piece of paper that had a arcane circle drawn on it she laid it out as flat as she could. Hovering above the circle she started her incantation and placed the reagents where they needed to be. The reagents were consumed by the summoning but soon enough a mole like creature that walked on its hind legs and had large steel like claws that would let it dig through the very rock itself. The creature was under Gloomy’s control and she set it to digging the entrance of a cave. It wouldn’t need to be too deep. Just deep enough to be free from the elements and little else. Everything else could be added latter. The Doryuzu seemed to enjoy its work and quickly made its way through many meters of the rock. Enough that Gloomy found it safe enough to send it to do far more subtle work. After all she needed a smooth surface to engrave the circle that would keep her second Doryuzu on this realm. Grunting and getting to work the Doryuzu did its best to scrape clean a single section of the newly made caverns floor flat. It was slow going and Gloomy Dusk could tell easily enough that the summon did not in fact like this kind of work. Still it had to be done. Her acid that she kept in a special ceramic jar in her pack would be potent enough to etch the circle. Or at least she hoped. If not she would be required to use charcoal the most basic and most dangerous of all the materials she could use to draw a circle. Thankfully the Doryuzu had gotten its work done well enough that by the time the first rays of morning sun peaked over the horizon Gloomy Dusk felt it was good enough to banish the creature. This would have to work for now. It took but a few moments to banish the creature. Thankfully nothing had happened to her paper circle and it could be reused later if needed. Never underestimate the need for an easy convenient distraction. Carefully packing the paper back into its scroll case Gloomy Dusk took to the sky. After all it would be best to introduce herself at the town during the day light even if it made her eyes sting. Still things had to go well at this village. She had run out of fund in her last attempt to find some place far from the watchful eye of both the Royal guard and the College. Sure nopony had connected the dots to her but that didn’t mean that abandoning all her work in the distant mountains around Dodge Junction hadn’t cost her. Time was something she had in abundance but the reagents were too expensive for her to be wasting. So with a weary heart and a addled brain, Gloomy Dusk headed to the small village of Bellinghoof. Thankfully a the cloud coverage hadn’t fully dissipated letting Gloomy have some semblance of protection from the sun. Hopefully there would be an empty room she could sleep in for the day, one without a pesky window. She had gone further than she had thought durring her exploration and it took a good hour to fly back to the town. Once she was near enough that she could see the town in the distance she ducked lower to the ground flying just above the tree line on the forest that laid to the north of the small village or town. It was so hard to tell the difference between the two any more. Gloomy Dusk wanted to give as little hint as possible to the location of her cave and that meant coming from a direction that one might have flown in from the train. It took her an extra fifteen minutes to get the proper location and then get into the town. The sun had reached far into the sky by that point and Gloomy could barely keep her self from wanting to nod off. It wouldn’t do to crash from exhaustion and destroy all of her supplies. So she landed a bit of a distance from the town and walked the rest of the way. Sure it delayed her rest but it was the safest route to keep her materials intact. “Howdy there,” said a pale pink pegasus. She had nearly as pale blue mane and a tornado or twister as a cutie mark. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around. What brings you to our little corner of Equestria?” “Looking for a new start,” said Gloomy Dusk. It would be easier to keep her story straight if she lied as little as possible and it was true that she was starting over, again. “Names Gloomy Dusk. Could you tell me if there is a place I can get some lodging at least till I figure out something more permanent.” “Fancy that,” said the pink pegasus. “I’m Gale Force, though everypony just calls me Gale. There is a fine Inn in the middle of town. You can’t miss it. I’m sure that Dirty will get you all sorted out. We don’t often get much ponies looking to live out here but don’t worry we can fix you up a place soon enough. But I got to get to work. Those clouds aren’t going to rain on their own after all.” “Oh of course not,” said Gloomy Dusk. “Thank you and have a good day. I need to get some shut eye myself.” Gale nodded and took off into the air speeding away towards the couds that danced around the town. Gloomy headed further into the town hoping that she wouldn’t run into too many more friendly faces, if just so she could get to sleep sooner. Didn’t they know bat ponies were nocturnal. “Hey you are just like Moonlight,” said a small filly. She had pink fur and a red mane. She must have been fairly young as she didn’t have a cutie mark yet. “Are you a friend of hers?” “I doubt it,” said Gloomy Dusk. “Though I’m sure I will be soon enough. Sorry if I am not the most pleasant. It was a long night for me and I should have been asleep hours ago.” “Oh yeah,” said the filly. “I’m Fond Treasures. You want to head to Dirty’s Watering Hole. It is our inn and school house and town meeting hall and a whole lot of other thins.” “Let me guess you are headed there as well,” said Gloomy almost groaning. “Of course,” said Fond. “Gotta get to school after all. I was just checking in on Alice. She is my pet. Gentle is taking care of her for me though for a bit. She has had a hard few days.” “That sucks,” said Gloomy Dusk. “Do you need anything or just want the company?” “Well you haven’t told me your name yet,” said Fond. “Sorry,” said Gloomy Dusk. “I’m Gloomy Dusk. As I said pretty tired right now. Not trying to be rude or anthing just you know.” “Oh of course,” said Fond. “Gilded gets that way when she is up all night working on a project of hers. Sure she doesn’t do that very often but I bet you don’t make a habit of being up for so long either. Have you had breakfast yet? Or is it dinner for you if you eat in the morning?” “Uh doesn’t really mater, does it?” “I guess not but it seems like a confusing thing to explain. Dirty probably has something you can eat when we get there. It is this big building but the entrance is on the other side. Don’t worry none about Glitter though. She may speak a bit funny sometimes but she is so nice.” “Ah okay.” Thankfully the two of them entered the building and the filly ran off leaving Gloomy to nurse the headache that was starting to grow on her. A nearly white pegasus with pastel rainbow of hair sat with a unicorn with mint green fur and alternating white and blonde mane. The unicorn was vissibly pregnant and the two of them seemed to be talking. Hopefully that meant that Gloomy wouldn’t get sucked into their conversation and she could pay for a room and head up there. A small white Rokon sat on the bench next to the pegasus and was staring at Gloomy as she walked in. The Rokon made a noise that sounded unlike any Rokon Gloomy Dusk had ever heard and the two mares turned to see her. Gloomy sighed and waved at the two of them. “O-oh, hi,” said the pegaus with a strong stutter.. “I I am Glitter Cu-cutie. This is Gol-Golden. How can we help you?” “I need a room for a bit,” said Gloomy Dusk. “I am moving here and was hoping I could get some rest before I have to deal with all the little details. Kinda nocturnal.” “Oh oh, Dirty will help you with that,” said Glitter. “Mary, can you run and get him?” The Rokon nodded and jumped off the bench and headed towards the far side of the open room. It was much larger than seemed nesicary for a town of this large but maybe they really did like the space. It wasn’t like it was at a premium here in the middle of nowhere. The two mares turned back to their conversation, letting Gloomy Dusk tune them out. It wasn’t the best habit that she had but it certainly was one she tended to lean on when she was this tired. “Good morning,” said deep voice next to her. The stallion had dark brown fur and blonde mane. A wine glass and grapes was his cutie mark and he had a goofy smile on his face. “New to town, huh? Well, I won’t keep you away from bed for long. You plan on moving here?” “Yes,” said Gloomy Dusk. “I’ll need lodging until I can get more permanent housing figured out.” “Of course,” said the stallion. He must have been the namesake of the inn. “Well right this way. Gilded has a policy that new folks to town get to stay free, out of her pocket mind you, so we can hook you up with a room right away. I assume you want one without a window.” “If possible.” The two of them made their way up a set of stairs and down a hall, away from an open door where Gloomy Dusk could hear the sounds of foals. Hopefully they wouldn’t be too noisy. It was the last thing she needed today. Thankfully the room the Dirty showed her too was nearly as far from the school room as possible and the noise was almost nonexistent with the door closed. Thanking the stallion, Gloomy Dusk fell onto the bed and was asleep before he had even gotten two meters from the door. Author's Note First chapter that is from a different perspective. Welcome to a mysterious pony with mysterious plans and things. Less ominously I hope you find this change in perspective interesting. There won't be too many chapters from her perspective and others might join the ranks of it. Either way I hope you enjoy.
Home Is Where You find Your HeartAuthor's Note Trigger warning: semi graphic descriptions of a birth. Also because I can't put this at the end. I tried to edit this. I probably failed. Yeah. Home Is Where You find Your Heart Gentle had been back from lunch for a bit now. She was busy preparing food for the animals in her care. I was included in that and she had been mixing up a large batch of the kibble. I however was on a wet food diet now. Gentle had decided that I wasn’t going to get enough water drinking it like that and as such I had to have soggy kibble when ever I ate. It was pretty much the worst. Kristen, Zack and Emily had yet to find their own homes. At least they were here, even if Zack found it funny I had to eat soggy kibble. If I had been in any mood, I might have tried to blast him with that water gun I had done earlier. As it was I didn’t really feel like I had it in me and that water had to come from somewhere. I certainly wasn’t going to waste it on him. Kristen had been a bit distant since our talk and I guess I couldn’t blame her. There was so much for her to figure out and not everyone was like me and just flipped the switch on accepting you were trans. She had asked to still have us use she pronouns for her and I understood all to well why. It made it seemed too forced for her otherwise. Maybe in time she would come around to those pronouns and not twitch every time one of the ponies called her a good boy. I hoped she could grow comfortable in all of this. Emily spent less time asleep today. Gentle had brought her down from upstairs and has the four of us sit together in the front room while she was out baking the kibble. She was even worse than Kristen and was still being bottle fed. At least she wasn’t refusing it anymore. Her eyes looked dead and I wished there was something we could do for her. As it was, it just seemed like we had to hope she would come out of her stupor on her own. Only time would tell. said Zack. I said. retorted Zack. I said angry. I turned away from him in my tub. I didn’t want to deal with this now. It was hard to not feel rather horrible about the being stuck in a wash tub only a bit bigger than I was. I kept telling myself at least I wasn’t like Emily. That what she was going through was harder. That didn’t really make any of this better. The only saving grace so far was Fond. She was extremely attentive, though I worried that Ty might have been missing out because of that, and came to visit as often as she could spare. Gentle had decided I could go home with Fond today. I wasn’t looking forward to leaving Kristen and Emily alone with Zack, if just because he was an ass. Zack left the house, though he had trouble with the front door and could barely get it closed after he left. So the three of us sat in silence. The door opened again and I looked up to see if it was Zack deciding against being a jerk. Unsurprised, it was not him. Gentle walked in and smiled at us. Fond came in behind her. Coming over to us, Fond scooped me up into a hug, ignoring how wet she got and nuzzled my head. I felt a bit better about today but it still seemed like a disservice to Emily and Kristen to leave with Fond. “How was your day?” asked Fond. She couldn’t understand what I was saying but it wasn’t like I couldn’t try and maybe after a while she might learn at least enough to understand a bit of what I meant. I had heard cats and their owners did this. Why wouldn’t this be true of Pokemon and their friends? I said. “I hope that meant it went well,” said Fond. I shook my head as at least that was something she wasn’t likely to mistake for joy. “Oh I’m sorry about that. Well maybe getting some fresh air will help.” I shrugged, or well a close approximation to it. Fond set me back down and pulled off the saddlebag she was wearing. It looked new and made of canvas and fur of some sort, rabbit I assumed. Fond placed me into the snug fit and then strapped me in before placing me back on her back. I was worried I would be too heavy as I took up most of her back but she seemed to barely even notice my weight. Horses were strong creatures back home and it seemed the ponies were no exception to that. “Take good care of her,” said Gentle. “Make sure she is eating wet food, even if she doesn’t want to.” “I will,” said Fond. “Come on Alice lets go for a walk and we can decide where the pond should be. But we should get Ty first. He or she, I don’t know, seems a bit lonely already.” I said. It would be good to see them even if I was still stuck being carried everywhere. What I wouldn’t give for legs or just an easier time getting places. It didn’t seem like that was to be and so I sighed and resigned myself to being carried. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Zack Zack wondered the small town. There wasn’t anything here to really keep his attention even if everything was new and should have been exciting. Maybe it had to do with being a Pokemon. He wasn’t really certain. Maybe if he had something to do it wouldn’t be so bad. He hadn’t said it before but he definitely enjoyed being busy. Ty could try to run that game still and that might be fun for a while. It sure beat sitting around all day acting like the world had ended. He stopped in front of one of the houses. It had an open workshop on the ground level and Zack could see a earth pony working with a grinder that seemed to run off of magic or electricity. The white pony didn’t seem to notice him yet and she brushed her dual colored mane out of her face. Zack walked up to her but kept a safe distance from her, if just so he didn’t get hit if she got spooked. Over the loud sound of dust and noise being made, Zack didn’t notice another pony sneak up on him until they were right upon them. She was obviously pregnant and had mint green fur and blonde and white mane. Her horn lit up and the grinder slowed to a stop. “Hi,” she said to the other mare. “You have an audience today.” “Huh,” said the earth pony mare. She turned to look at Zack. “So I do. That is one of those creatures Gentle is trying to find homes for isn’t it.” “I think so,” said the unicorn mare. “Hows it going little thing.” said Zack. He didn’t expect either of them to understand him but it was polite to respond. “You sure are talkative,” said the earth pony mare. “So is your name Mawile?” Zack shook his head. It wasn’t like they would understand his spoken response. Still at least they made and effort. “How was your talk with Glitter?” asked the earth pony of the unicorn. “It was nice,” said the Unicorn. “She thinks I will be giving birth in a few weeks is all. I don’t know if I should be excited or nervous.” “Either way, I’ll be there for you,” said the earth pony. She planted a kiss on the other pony and they then nuzzled their heads together. It seemed odd for a moment that two mares would be like that but so far there seemed to be many more mares than stallions as far as Zack could tell so maybe it was fairly normal here. “I have to go see if Stirling needs any help today,” said the unicorn. “I just wanted to stop by and say I love you.” “I love you too,” said the earth pony. The unicorn started to walk away and not seeing any reason to stay there and watch was seemed like rather boring work, Zack followed her. She didn’t seem to mind the company though and they both were rather slow walkers so it was easy enough to keep up. Their walk wasn’t too far thankfully, as Zack was worried about the very pregnant mare being out and about so much, and they entered the tall tower. The bottom floor was filled to the brim with bookshelves though most of them were mostly empty. A desk sat off to one side where a unicorn sat working on some paperwork of some sort. She had white fur and gray mane and looked up with her brilliant blue eyes. “Oh hi Golden,” said the new unicorn, she must have been Stirling. “I told you that I didn’t need your help for a bit. I have this covered you know. You should be resting.” “I’m fine for a bit of walking,” said Golden. She looked rather annoyed. “It isn’t like I am disabled or anything.” “I didn’t mean that,” said Stirling. “But I honestly don’t have anything for you to help with right now. I finished the contract for the mine and all I have been doing today is banging my head against my attempts at writing fiction.” “Well maybe I can help you brainstorm,” said Golden. She winced suddenly and shook her head. “Sorry little one just bucking again.” “See, you need your rest. My fiction can wait,” said Stirling. “It isn’t like I don’t have plenty of free time. Besides I think I might go for a walk. Clear the mind and all that.” Zack couldn’t help but be happy that Golden wasn’t going to be busy spending time brainstorming. It seemed rather boring to him. He could have left her there with Stirling but something kept him by her side. She seemed nice enough and in a way he felt a comradeship with her. They both were stuck because of circumstance. “Fine,” said Golden. “I guess I can just go have a lay down. I just feel so useless.” “You have been listening to Iron Hoof too much,” said Stirling. “You are carrying the first foals to be born in Bellinghoof and you do your best to help out where you can. Just right now your job is to keep yourself and your foals safe. Do you want me to walk you back to your house?” “No it is only two doors down,” said Golden. She winced again. “I can manage that. Though it would be nice if the foals would stop kicking.” “I can imagine,” said Stirling. Golden wandered back out of the tower and Zack followed. Something felt off to him and his nose could pick up the faint smells of something coming off of Golden. He shrugged maybe that was just the way she always smelt. Still she had slowed considerably. She let out a low whine and seemed to pee herself. It didn’t take long for Zack to grasp what was happening. She was going into labor. Golden fell to the ground after she let out a low yowl of pain. Zack tried to catch her and was just strong enough to stop her from crashing into the ground completely. He could feel her spasm though as another contraction ran through her. They seemed to be coming rather quickly but maybe that was normal for ponies. shouted Zack as loud as he could. He didn’t want to run and get help in case something worse happened to his sudden charge. Thankfully his voice must have carried as Stirling poked her head out of the tower looking over at them. She swore and dashed over. “I told you you should be resting,” said Stirling. “Not a good time for told you sos,” said Golden through tight and quick breathes. Another contraction rocked through her and she yelped in pain. “Why now?” “Golden,” shouted earth pony from earlier. She galloped up to us and scooped up Golden’s head. “Why didn’t you say something?” “Cracked, I need you to go get Gentle and Gleaming,” said Stirling. “I’ll carry her to a bed. We will be at Dirty’s.” The earth pony nodded and ran off up the street. Stirling’s horn lit up and she lifted Golden from the ground with a grunt. Sweat formed on her brow as she walked towards the inn. Zack followed quickly. He could see she was dilating from the angle she was being floated at. How quick was labor for ponies? They barely made it into the inn when the first foal came. It was a lot of screaming and then a small sherbet unicorn squeezed out of Golden. Stirling wasn’t ready for that and Golden had been nearly head level above the ground. Zack caught the foal holding it gently as she started to cry. Golden screamed again as she shook from another contraction. There were more coming. As the second foal came, Gentle ran into the room. Stirling had stopped only a bit into the inn after the first foal came. Seemed safer than trying to go up the stairs. Gentle had brought her medical kit with her and started to tend to Golden. Zack still held the first foal. The small one was a bit bigger than an armful for Zack and he gently rocked the baby. Zack had never been at such an event before and something in him had clicked. He had found his home even if the ponies he would be living with didn’t know it yet. Stirling sat down next to Zack holding an indigo unicorn foal. Golden didn’t seem done yet as she let out another howl. Gleaming came into the inn and Glitter was coming out with a pot of boiled water. There was too much going on for Zack’s liking but he could suffer through it anyway. Mary had come up to him and was staring at the foal. Neither of them felt like talking. There was a crash and hot watter splashed across the room. Zack blocked it from the foal with his body letting it sizzle against his iron like skin. It hurt but not all that much. Looking in the direction of the crash he noticed, Glitter on the floor spasming. Mary had rushed over to her and was doing her best to hold the pegasus’s head still. Gentle looked torn between the two of her patients and thankfully Gleaming seemed to be calm enough to act. “Stirling I want you to tend to Glitter,” said Gleaming loudly. Her voice must have been amplified by magic. “Gentle we need to keep tending to Golden. She is almost done and then we have to stem the bleeding. I don't’ think it is all that bad but you are the only one here who has delivered foals before.” Gentle nodded and turned back to the mare in labor. Zack felt rather useless as there was another scream from Golden. Cracked had ran in and was holding Golden’s hoof and mumbling assurances to her. Three foals at once seemed rather spectacular even to Zack. How she had carried so much extra pony with her was beyond Zack. With a final scream, a white filly whose fur was marred with blood popped out. Gleaming passed the foal to Cracked and set to work fixing up Golden. Both Gentle and Gleaming had to work for a good hour before they seemed done. Golden had fallen asleep during that time and somehow the whole town had shown up. Zack still held the small sherbet filly with a darker but similar colored mane. The filly had the eyes the size of saucers and Zack couldn’t help but nuzzle the little one. She was just so cute. Maybe this was worth all the pain of being here.
Necessities and OutingsI woke on a pillow, that felt almost too good to be true. I ached everywhere and it took me a moment to remember why. Then again, it could have been the whole being blown up thing. I opened my eyes to find the pink nose and white snout in my vision, and I knew this wasn’t a fever dream anymore. I could hear faint and cute snores near me and I looked around to see a pile of other Pokemon. All of us were here, except for Emily who must have had a different bed. Mary and Kristen were cuddled up next to each other, with each having their head on the others rump. Ty had dropped their transformation, and was being used as a second pillow by Zack. Zack’s second mouth was being hugged by Robert. I was the only one really left out of the pile but looking back at my tail I could understand why. No one wanted to make it worse. There were sounds coming from the kitchen and I felt no reason to stay where I was. It didn’t seem like I was likely to get back to sleep, and despite the big meal last night, I was already hungry again. Wobbling under the table and through the open door, I saw Gentle working on something. She hadn’t seemed to notice me yet. On her shoulder sat a hawk, who had definitely spotted me, and was watching me rather closely. He had a bandaged wing and I guessed that he must have been being patched up by Gentle. He had nearly black feathers, but looked far to big for the falcons I knew of like that. said the hawk. Gentle looked over towards the door and smiled at me. She said, “Don’t worry Mr Hawk. She is my guest. Here to get help too. Good morning little one. Do you have a name?” I said. I wasn’t certain how much she understood really of our talking and if it was just her own ability to read body language. “Alice is a pretty name,” said Gentle. Apparently it was a thorough understanding. “I bet you are hungry. Well, I will have breakfast ready in just a few. Getting Mr Hawks food real quick first, and then I have to wash up. I doubt you would like to have mouse blood all in your food.” I said. “I bet you want to get back to the ocean,” said Gentle. “I’ll see if one of our pegasus can carry you there.” I said. “Did you come from a zoo then?” asked Gentle. I said. I figured that it was best to not lie at this point. I didn’t see any reason to tell her about our previous world. said Mr. Hawk. “I know you mean well Mr. Hawk, but none of them can fly,” said Gentle. “Um, well we can see about getting you homes around here. I know that some of the towns folk would love a pet. That is, if you don’t mind being a pet.” I said. “Yep,” said Gentle. “And you don’t have to worry about anyone understanding you or if you are doing enough for the town or if if you will will be alone for-forever.” I wobbled as quickly as I could over to Gentle. I hugged her front legs and nuzzled my head against her upper leg. She scritched my head back with her invisible magic fingers. I knew the feeling all too well. Now there seemed like there was no way I would ever find a family of my own. As far as I knew, I was the only Pokemon seal in all of this world. “Here is your fo-food Mr Hawk,” said Gentle. The hawk hopped off of her back and onto the counter and began ripping off pieces of the mice on the table. “Now-now Alice. Sorry. Uh, food. Wake up friends…food now.” I said. “No…no,” said Gentle. “Just a bit brain fu-fuzzy.” I said. “Thank you,” said Gentle. “Now go wake friends.” I nodded and waddled over to the other room. I hadn’t really mastered walking like this. Even with what seemed to be built in muscle memory, I wasn’t very fast or graceful. It sort of dug at me and my heart. I had spent so much time trying to be pretty and here it was thrown out the window. I knew it was vain of me but I wanted to be pretty just once. To be able to look in a mirror, and not feel a sense of disgust at the face staring back at me. Mary had already woken, but she was sitting with Kristen waiting for her to wake. It felt rather off, waking all my sleeping friends. If I could forget for a moment that all these Pokemon were supposed to be humans, they all were rather cute snuggled up in a group. I said firmly but not too loudly. mumbled Zack. He grabbed Ty and tucked them closer to his belly. I said. said Kristen. said Mary. sighed Robert. He let go of Zack’s second mouth and rolled over onto his paws. Coming up to me, he rubbed against me. I said. “Breakfast. Thank you Alice, for trying to get them up,” said Gentle. “Come on you two sleepy heads, you don’t want to miss out on some delicious food, do you?” said Ty. They shifted form and a second Zack took shape. This forced Zack up as he was pushed off the pillow. said Zack. He pushed himself to his feet and walked over to where Gentle was puting down the food bowls. I had been first in line for food and no one pushed me aside. I may have been stepped on by a certain obviously tired fox, but she didn’t weigh enough for it to hurt. It was the same mix from last night, but I didn’t mind. It tasted fine enough. Why not eat it? I mixed the kibble with berries as best I could. Still it was rather disheartening to have to duck my head into the bowl for each bite. It didn’t stop me from doing it and looking at everyone here they were thinking the same thing. Even Zack and Ty, who had hands to use, seemed to be as somber as the rest of us. “Do you not like the food?” asked Gentle. said Mary. “I’m sorry. It must have been so hard being so far from home,” said Gentle. “Don’t worry if we can we will get you back there.” said Ty. “Oh dears, I’m so sorry,” said Gentle. “Look we will go around town and make sure you all have a place to stay. You are all welcome here for the time being but I just need to be able to do my work and you all seem well behaved but my other animals aren’t as friendly.” said Robert. said Mary. said Zack. said Ty. “Oh deary if you need to eat meat we can provide for you. I just ask that you let me prepare it for you,” said Gentle. “It is nice to not worry them so much.” said Zack. “You sure came from a fancy zoo, or, well, where ever you came from,” said Gentle. “Still if that is what you need it isn’t too hard. Peaches raises rabbits for their fur and she gives me the meat. Here, after I feed the last of you, I can cook you some if you are still hungry.” said Zack. I asked. “Last I checked she was out cold,” said Gentle. “Probably going to need lots of rest for the next few days, if not longer. But I will go check on her. You all stay down here please.” I nodded as Gentle disappeared into the kitchen only to reappear with a baby bottle. She ran up the stairs, taking little heed to not make much noise. I was certain that Emily would be awake at this point. Still I turned back to the bowl picking out a few more berries. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “Now I want you all to keep up and not to wander off,” said Gentle. “Don’t make me get a leash. The town should be fairly quiet at this point but it would be good to not have to deal with the lunch rush.” asked Mary. “Twenty two of us but there is at least one more on their way,” said Gentle. “I know not so big but really it gets a bit noisy, even here. We should go to Dirty’s first. Just uh cause if we miss anyone, he can tell them.” She lead the way with me on her back. I wasn’t to be out wandering the dirt roads yet and so Gentle had put me in one of her carriers that she wore on her back. I barely fit right as it was more designed for creatures with back legs but still I was stable enough on her back. Behind us trailed the rest of the group. Zack was near the front looking each and every which way. Mary and Kristen followed after him, though gave him a wide berth, as every time Zack turned to look another direction, his second mouth swung quickly as well. Robert and Ty were right behind Mary. Ty was trying to get the transformation down better. Their face was always a bit off in their transformation and they was practicing on Robert. Seeing the town all lit up for the first time, I noticed how similar all the buildings were. They had wooden shingles for roofs and seemed to be made almost entirely out of wood. The outsides of some of them had been painted, but most were just the natural color of the wood. All of them were weather worn though and I wondered how long they had been here. Most were two stories tall, with one large building that we were heading to, at the center of town, and the tower that stood next to it. The large building was three stories and seemed sort of excessively large. The tower though must have been five stories as it was much taller than even the large building. “Dirty and Glitter are probably working on lunch by now,” said Gentle. “We all come and eat lunch here. I don’t really like it that much but I don’t want to miss out. Dirty is nice though and Glitter is an angel.” I looked back to see if the others were following and they had thankfully not been left behind. It felt bad that Emily wasn’t with us but she needed her rest. Everyone seemed to be a bit on edge though. I couldn’t blame them I felt it too. Our big audition of sorts. “Here we are,” said Gentle. “Now wipe your paws on the mat before you come in, we don’t want to make more work for Glitter.” Thankfully everyone, except for Zack, did as they were asked, and when he was hit, he did so as well. The entrance was a double door, not that was necessary for the lot of us. All of us were rather small and the door was obviously built to accommodate creatures even larger than a pony. The inside of the building was a wide open area with a number of picnic tables, though the seat was longer than would have been for a human. On the near side was a bar and a set of stairs disappeared behind a wall next to the end of the bar. There were what looked like lamps hanging from the ceiling. A blonde maned unicorn sat behind the counter working on something that was hidden from view. He had a sharp face and dark brown fur but he smiled at Gentle as we came in. “Morning Gentle,” said the stallion. “What are all those critters you have there?” “Uh, they uh showed up last night,” said Gentle. “They uh don’t have a place to live and I was hoping that maybe the town folk might want to get a pet. They seem domesticated and they somehow got lost, ah, from a zoo. Or well someplace fancy for critters. It is rather confusing to me.” “I know of at least one pony who would love a pet,” said the stallion. “Glitter has been thinking about a pet for a while now. One that might help her when she gets her seizures.” “Oh yeah. That uh would be good for her,” said Gentle. “I’m sure one of these little ones might be of help. Uh, they are a bit different…that sounds mean. I didn’t mean anything by it uh like that. Sorry.” I said. said Zack. “Thank you,” said Gentle. “Were, um, was I? Sorry. Oh yeah. Uh this one on my back is very gentle but she has some mobility issues. The blue cat or foxes might be better. Um, of course, if they uh want to.” said Mary. “Oh, I am certain that Glitter wouldn’t mind you spending time with your pack mates,” said Gentle. “Uh Dirty, the whitish blue fox said she would be willing to help out. She just wants to be able to see her packmates.” “Well if Glitter gets along with her, I don’t see why not. Bet that fox can run pretty fast and get help if I am not around. What about the rest of them. I know that Brilliant wanted a pet but that would be up to his mom. I wouldn’t be surprised if Penny and Fond wanted one as well. Fond is a for sure thing. There is no way Gilded would ever tell her no.” “Yeah, uh, has Gleaming gotten in yet?” asked Gentle. “Yeah. She is upstairs,” said Dirty. “Glitter is up there with her. If you end up there, tell Glitter it is almost time to start lunch preparation.” “Okay,” said Gentle. “Now little ones, keep up and if you need us to be slow for the steps just say so.” said Zack. said Kristen. We headed to the stairs and Gentle insisted that those who could went up first. Mary, Robert, Ty and Kristen all had no problems going up with the four legs they all had but Zack found it a bit harder, as he had to pull himself up each stair. He was a bit worn out by all of that and had to rest when we reached the top. There was a long hallway and a set of windows that lined the outside of the hallway. On theother side of the hall was a door every so often and it suddenly clicked, that this was a inn of some sort. Gentle lead the way down to an open door and she poked her head in just enough that I could barely see. I could hear plenty well, as two ponies were talking. Gentle knocked on the door and the talking stopped. “Who’s there? Oh Gentle, come in come in,” said a feminie pony voice. “Glitter and I were just having one of her famous heart to hearts. What brings you in?” Gentle walked into the room. Two ponies sat there. One a unicorn and the other a pegasus. The unicorn had near black fur and a silvery mane that reminded me of starlight. The Pegasus could not be more different as she had slightly pink fur that was almost white and a pastel rainbow of a mane. “Uh, Delver found, uh, bunch of animals out in the western woods, I think, and uh they aren’t wild but from a zoo apparently and they need homes and I was hoping that the town folk would uh take one or more of them,” said Gentle. “O-oh. Di-dirty said that that that we co-could get a a pet,” said the pink one, speaking with a very noticeable stutter. “Are any any of them a-avilalble?” “I have one here for you if you want,” said Gentle. She turned to the rest of our group. “Uh I forgot to ask. What’s your name?” asked Mary. “That is just her normal,” said Gentle. “This white one is Mary. I haven’t known her long but she is very nice from what I have seen.” “He-hello,” said pink one. “I am am Glitter Cutie. I hope that we can be fr-friends.” Mary walked up to her and plopped down in front of the pegasus mare. Glitter got of her chair and held her hoof out obviously so that Mary could sniff it if she wanted. Mary didn’t seem to realize what Glitter was trying to do but she just leaned her head against Glitter’s hoof. “Interesting little creature. Can I see the rest?” asked the dark unicorn mare. “Oh, of course,” said Gentle. “I was um thinking that Brilliant might want a pet. Or well if uh that is alright.” “Knowing him, he would want one as long as he didn’t have to take care of it,” said the dark unicorn mare. “But I was thinking that I might want one. If that was alright.” “Of course, Gleaming,” said Gentle. “You are uh like the fourth most responsible pony here.” “You keep a list?” asked Gleaming. Gentle looked away seemingly embarrassed. She turned to the rest of our group and ushered them further into the room clearly trying to distract everyone from her embarrassment. asked Zack. said Robert. said Ty. “Hmm. You said these are from a zoo,” said Gleaming. “I know this one here is a summoned Kolink. I think at least. Hasty would know better. Can you ask if they want to go home? It would be best that we don’t keep them from their home if they want to return.” “Um well?” asked Gentle. I thought on it. We were definitely dead back on earth and the idea of being pokemon on earth scared me more than being here. At least here I there was someone of the dominate species that could understand us but also that I knew enough about pokemon that humans might want us to fight each other and that sounded rather awful. said Zack. said Ty. said Mary. “I don’t really know what they are uh talking about,” said Gentle. “Like um it is all a bit weird. I definitely don’t think they uh came from a zoo. One of them said they died.” I said. “How could they have died if they are here breathing and talking, strangely, but still?” asked Gleaming. “I I don’t know but they are are in pa-pain,” said Glitter. Kristen looked like she was about to cry, though I wasn’t certain we could cry. Apparently we or at least the foxes could. I flopped off of Gentles back, slipping from the pack that held me, and hugged her. We all came together into a group hug, except for Zack who sat there awkwardly at the edge of our group hug, until Ty pulled him in. Things weren’t really all that simple after all. “Well, why don’t you all wait here or, well, at least somewhere in here, while I go get Hasty. He should at least be able to tell if these are summons,” said Gleaming. “Gentle would you mind keeping the foals out of trouble for a bit until I get back.” “Of course,” said Gentle. “Um, Glitter, should we stay up here or downstairs?” “I don’t ca-care,” said Glitter. “Dir-Dirty will send up the foals. I I need to go w-work though.” Gentle nodded and stepped out of the way for the other two to pass through the door. She laid down next to us and just watched. I scrambled across the floor, and out of our cuddle puddle, to lean against her. I said. “I’m sorry about that,” said Gentle. said Ty. Ty turned into another seal creature and sat there wiggling for a moment before they turned back into a blob and then into a red fox. They pulled Kristen into a strange sort of hug that was almost more a tackle than anything else. I said. “Weren’t you always that way?” asked Gentle. I said. said Ty. said Kristen. said Ty. said Zack. The moment that Kristen had spoken I knew what was up, but it didn’t surprise me that Zack, of all of us, had no clue as to what we are talking about. I didn’t really feel like getting into it with him and decided it was best to just ignore him for now. It just would be better for everyone involved that way. said Kristen. I asked. said Kristen. She started to rock back and forth. Her eyes closed and she scrunched up and shook more. Who ever were her former friends they had done something awful to her. I could guess as to what but I wasn’t going to say it, if just to not bring up more trauma. I felt sick and sort of frozen. said Mary. Kristen only just nodded. It was probably best to postpone this conversation till later. Why Ty had thought now was the right time was a bit off to me but they didn’t always have the best sense of timing. I couldn’t really say I did either. Instead I laid my head against Gentle and tried to not let my imagination get too intense and hopefully not dredge up memories I would have rathered not reliving again. Gentle seemed rather horrified herself or maybe she was getting flashbacks too. I couldn’t rightly tell and I rubbed my head against her, as I needed my arms to stay sitting there, hoping that it would comfort her. Author's Note So this one is my attempt at self editing. So yeah my mileage with that may be rather poor. Also welcome to gender issues the whole trademark of pretty much all of my work. To be fair it has mostly came out in original work but I have way more of that anyway.
