Moonkind: The Wayward Butterfly

Chapters

Prologue: Anticipation
Chapter 1: Hustle
Chapter 2: Early Bird
Chapter 3: Analytic
Chapter 4: Insomnia
Chapter 5: Snow Warning
Chapter 6: Flower Gift
Chapter 7: Rivalry

Prologue: Anticipation

It had been a long, busy, stressful day for April. Under one arm, she held a folder stuffed with notes she’d written during her field research today. She sighed as she unlocked the door to her apartment, creaking as it swung inwards. She would have loved to go to bed right now, but unfortunately, she had work to do.

It wasn’t all bad, though...

“Rriiiii-gan!” an electronic voice trilled in delight. A shiny, red and blue blur leapt across the room and tackled April in the chest, knocking her over. As she sat up, she saw that the Porygon2’s pupils had contracted in shock as it floated in front of her face.

“You don’t have to feel sorry for yourself, Digit!” April laughed. “It’s good to see you too.”

The living room in April’s apartment doubled as her study. It was fairly tidy, with pale blue walls that matched the door. As April walked over to her desk on the opposite side of the room, Digit returned to its resting position atop her desk, to the right of her computer.

April placed down her folder to the left of her computer, the impact slightly surprising Digit. She was looking forward to a long night of typing up her research, so she wanted to make it as un-stressful as possible. She untied her long, brown hair that took ages to straighten - but it always got tangled up anyway, so what was the point? - before turning on her computer.

“Digit, do you mind opening the window for me?” asked April, as she went to pour herself a cup of coffee. Digit nodded. Its eyes glowed blue, and it telekinetically pushed the sash window upwards.

Before returning to her desk, April took one good look out of the window. The air was still - cool, but not cold - and there were few clouds in the sky, allowing the pale orange light to stream onto the wooden floor. A Beautifly fluttered towards the potted plants that were hanging from the outer windowsill; April could tell it was female from the size of red spots on the upper wings, which were smaller than a male’s. It was… ordinary, but there was something beautiful about it. Knowing exactly what to expect at the end of each day made life that much easier.

Author's Note

Click here to read the commentary for this chapter.

Chapter 1: Hustle

The next thing April knew, she was tumbling out of the sky.

April liked to approach everything in a rational manner, but the only rational explanation she could come up with was that this was a dream. Or rather, a nightmare. Falling was a common nightmare, right? Which was odd, because she couldn’t recall anything between last evening and right now, and certainly not an early-morning skydiving trip; she had never wanted to go skydiving in a million years.

Tossed around by a bitter wind, April tried to spread her limbs out - that’s what skydivers did, right? - but they all felt wrong, as if they had been hacked down to numb stumps. She braced herself for her inevitable fate as a splat on the ground…

When she suddenly felt something open up on her back.

Whatever it was, it slowed down her fall long enough for her to try to get a good look at what was below. She was falling towards a small town atop a mountain, surrounded by rainbows. Or at least, it seemed so. Everything looked blurry, but she could definitely make out that this town looked far more colourful than anywhere she’d ever been, and not just because of the rainbows.

She strained her eyes to get a better look, but she soon realised there was a downside to whatever was slowing down her fall: she was completely at the mercy of the wind. She felt herself being tossed around left, right, forwards, backwards, and every diagonal direction as the ground came closer and closer…

Until she was eventually sent hurtling forwards, skidding face-first into grass.

April picked herself up. Standing on her own two legs felt fine - she miraculously hadn’t broken anything - but also a weird, like something behind her was getting in the way. In the centre of her blurry vision, where her nose would be, she saw an even blurrier, dark brown, crumpled-up line… huh?

She reached out her hands to straighten out whatever this line was, but they couldn’t reach it. She tried to look down at her body, but her neck felt stiff and couldn’t move as much. Then she realised that she wasn’t breathing, at least not in the way she was used to; she still needed air, but didn’t have lungs.

And how had she survived that fall in the first place?

The sensation of whatever had opened up on her back was still there, and it seemed to be coming from her shoulder blades. She tried to control it, and eventually felt the sensation of something moving back and forth, back and forth, back and forth…

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of something brown, with red and yellow splotches.

Oh! It all made sense now! She’d been transformed into a Beautifly. Her wings had caught the wind while she was falling, which, combined with her relatively small size, had given her more air resistance.

Wait, what?

This wasn’t just any dream; it was a fell-asleep-past-midnight cheese-dream. But wait, wasn’t she supposed to be unaware that she’s dreaming? Unless this was a lucid dream… but how did she influence those? She’d never had one before. She concentrated really hard, and imagined Digit appearing right in front of her… but nothing happened.

April was yanked out of her thoughts by the clip-clop sound of hooves. She could feel the sound as much as she could hear it, like she was hugging a loudspeaker.

She looked around to see a grey… thing coming towards her. She couldn’t make out what it was, but she could see its eyes clearly. They were massive, and there was a red mark around one of them. It seemed to be twice as tall as her - wait, that didn't feel right. It seemed to be twice as tall as a Beautifly.

“What’s this?” he said in a deep and gravelly voice. Wait a minute...

Ah, PokéSpeak. A form of interspecies communication long theorised to exist by hippies who thought that humans had forgotten how to talk to Pokémon, and could relearn it by coming closer to nature or something, turned out to be real after all. April wanted to say “I'm a Beautifly, to cut a long story short”, but then she realised that she now had no idea how to speak. She didn’t have any vocal chords, or a tongue, and her mouth was weirdly-shaped.

“No matter. The traders will go crazy for something like this.”

April’s eyes widened in shock. She flapped those wings, only to discover that she didn’t know how to flutter them fast enough to fly. She tried to crawl away, but those stubby little limbs weren’t the right shape for that. She wanted to attack him, but had no idea how to do that, either. Instead, all she could do was lie flat on the ground, cowering underneath outspread wings, as the grey thing bent down and picked her up by one of the wings with his… teeth? Eww. On the plus side, he was definitely a herbivore, or else she would have felt sharp teeth puncturing the wing, and she did not like that train of thought.

The grey thing carried April across a field and into a dark grey tent, where he tossed her into a cage and slammed it shut. April couldn’t make out what the lock looked like, but it definitely wasn’t a padlock, or else she would have noticed him getting a key out, not to mention that he didn’t have hands.

April felt this body’s antennae twitching as she caught the faint scent of a rose to her left. She had just enough room to turn around, and saw a tiny, yellow and green blob in a cage right next to her. Was it a Budew?

“Hello…” she whispered in a high-pitched voice, sounding slightly scared. “Have you seen a human named Crawford anywhere?”

April wished she could say “I haven’t, sorry”, but all she could do was shake her head. Then she couldn’t believe that she wanted to talk to a Budew, then her words struck her. If she was looking for a human, that must mean that there were humans out there, so why had April been transformed? Did some higher power really hate her?

“Oh… sorry for bothering you,” the Budew sighed sadly, sitting down. “It’s just that no-one else I ask seems to listen…”

Outside, the grey thing was giving a theatrical speech, and a small crowd of differently-coloured creatures who seemed to be members of his species gathered around.

“When Nightmare Moon returned to our world, she unleashed hordes of beasts straight from the pits of Tartarus.” The crowd gasped, as if they were watching a magician. April could picture the grey thing standing on a dimly-lit stage, surrounded by smoke. “But Nightmare Moon’s evil has been vanquished, and her mockeries of nature became tame. Now, the Moonkind can be yours for the small price of any Nightmare Moon memorabilia! We have a short-tempered blazefowl, an ambulatory rosebud, a colossal swallowtail, and more!”

April had so many questions. Who was Nightmare Moon? Where was Tartarus? What were the Moonkind? What did any of this have to do with putting Pokémon in cages? What was a “swallowtail”? Was that what they called Girafarig around here? The Budew definitely didn’t know any of the answers.

The crowd broke apart as its members frantically dashed in different directions, as if several major retailers had all announced that they were having sales. In the meantime, April noticed that there were even more cages containing Pokémon in the tent; she counted about twenty. One of them contained an orange Pokémon who was kicking the bars, creating a grating clink sound, which she figured was the so-called “short-tempered blazefowl”.

After what felt like a few minutes, about a dozen coloured shapes returned to the tent, pushing and shoving and falling over each other as they all brandished various dark blue objects. (That they were holding with their flat hooves… somehow…)

“Single file, please!” the grey thing demanded. The other beings formed a queue so quickly that it seemed like magic, which it probably was. April was willing to believe anything at this point.

One by one, cages containing Pokémon were handed to their new owners, who rushed off as quickly as they’d formed a queue, while the grey thing tossed his “Nightmare Moon memorabilia” into the corner with his teeth before yelling, “NEXT!”

Soon, April and the Budew were the only two left… when a cyan and yellow creature shoved her way to the front of the queue, dragging what appeared to be a brown sack in her mouth. Once she got to the front, she dropped it in front of the grey thing, spilling its contents all over the ground. April heard the sound of glass shattering.

“I’ll take all of them!” she shouted. Despite her chipper voice, she sounded angry.

“There’s only two,” replied the grey thing.

“Do you know how long it took me to get all of this?” she continued. “Two hours. TWO. HOURS! All because those stupid vendors want the most random things in exchange.”

April and the Budew looked at each other in concern. What in the world was she doing?

“So here,” she continued. “Take your stupid lamps and statues and figurines and I’ll leave.” She sighed. “Do you know how hard it was to get those? One of the vendors only accepted pineapples. PINEAPPLES!” She cleared her throat and continued. “They’re clearly more valuable to you than actual, living beings!” With that, the cyan thing yanked the two cages over and flipped their doors open; April realised that the cages had a bar on the outside, that kept the doors locked when it was horizontal. The Budew quickly stumbled outwards, but April, rather embarrassingly, still had no idea how to move. The entire crowd gasped.

“Princess Cadence, we have an unfair trade!” the grey thing yelled at the top of his lungs.

A few minutes later, a pink creature descended from the skies, landing in front of the crowd. She was much taller than the others. Everyone else watched in stunned silence, including April and the Budew.

“What’s all this commotion about?” she said in a stern, yet concerned, voice.

“He,” growled the cyan thing, pointing a leg at the grey thing, “is responsible for not only animal trafficking, but giving said animals away to ponies who couldn’t possibly know how to take care of them!” April swore that she heard the sound of a cage being dropped, somewhere in the crowd. “I wanted to free them all, but I was too late.”

“Okay, that’s enough,” said Princess Cadance, before she turned to look at the grey thing. “What do you have to say?”

“I was just trying to do business!” he replied. “Isn’t it better than having these Moonkinds roaming free to cause destruction? We don’t know what they’re capable of!”

“Alright, you two…” Princess Cadence sighed. First, she looked at the grey thing. “On one hoof, it is wrong to trap creatures from the wild and sell them - or in this case, exchange them.” Then, she turned to look at the cyan thing. “At the same time… he has a point. We don’t know what these creatures are capable of. Releasing invasive species into the wild could have disastrous consequences for the ecosystem, regardless of how harmless they look.” She stepped back to look at both of them. “And please stop calling them ‘Moonkind’. Princess Luna has denied having any association with them.” So “Moonkind” must be what these lot call Pokémon. Are they not Pokémon themselves, then?

“I’m not entirely convinced...” April heard the grey thing mutter, but she wasn’t sure if anyone else did.

“Alright…” the cyan one sighed. “But what are you going to do with them? Put them back in these cages?”

Princess Cadence hesitated for a moment. “Well… That is a good point. I suggest keeping a close eye on these creatures until Princess Celestia and her personal protege can determine how much of a threat they are.” April hoped that the Budew would never accidentally poison one of them. That would definitely cause an overreaction.

With that, the crowd walked away, murmuring about everything they had just witnessed.

“Thanks,” the Budew whispered, but the cyan thing didn’t respond. She turned to look at April. “Aren’t you going to fly away, Beautifly?”

April suddenly wished that she could tell the Budew that no, she couldn’t, she didn’t know how to, she used to be a human and her name was April… and then she realised that she was missing someone, too. She’d been so caught up in the “excitement” of the past few hours, she’d completely forgotten about Digit. Where was it? Did it miss her, too? Did computers exist in this world? She wished she could ask anyone if they’d seen it… but instead, the only response she could give was to shake her head.

The cyan thing reached her forelimbs into the cage and yanked April out by holding her between her hooves, then held her upwards. It took her a moment to realise that the cyan thing was hovering in the air. She then let go of April, as if expecting her to fly away… but instead, all April could do was glide downwards at a steep angle and land face-first on top of her former cage, then she stood up on her hind legs. Gosh, that felt good.

“Oh,” the cyan thing said, sounding mildly surprised, then she trotted away without another word.

April didn’t know what to think of the cyan thing - gosh, she wished she knew her name. On one hand, she was willing to free Pokémon she’d never met before… on the other hand, she was willing to abandon them as soon as it was all over. Still… she had shown her compassion, and April needed someone to protect her in this world, and the Budew even moreso.

The Budew seemed to agree. “Do you think we should follow her?” she asked, her voice sounding slightly more confident.

The only response April could give was also the only one she needed to give: she nodded.

Author's Note

Click here to read the commentary for this chapter.

21/Jun/2019: I gave Sassaflash an extra line of dialogue for humour.

Chapter 2: Early Bird

It quickly occurred to April that she had no idea how to follow the cyan thing. She had no idea how to walk, let alone fly; her previous attempts to crawl on all fours had proved unsuccessful. On the other hand, the cyan thing didn’t look too far away…

April suddenly got an idea. She dropped down onto all fours, tried to imitate the pose professional sprinters did before they started running, then quickly leaped off the cage. The air was still, but momentum would let her glide far enough to reach the cyan thing, right?

…Right?

Instead, all that happened is that she fell for a couple of metres. She desperately tried to flap those unreliable wings, but they felt surprisingly heavy, like she was trying to row through treacle using oars that were strapped to her back. Landing flat on her face didn’t hurt at all, but when she looked up, she realised that the cyan thing was a lot further away than she’d expected.

The Budew quickly waddled to her side. “Are you okay?” she asked. April stood up and nodded.

April quickly realised that since she couldn’t fly, she only had one other option: she’d walk. Unfortunately, she had no idea how to do that, either. She’d already figured out that she just couldn’t crawl on all fours, so she had to make do with the alternative: walking the way she was used to, on two legs like any sensible human being.

It wasn’t as difficult as she thought. She carefully stood on one foot and placed the other one down opposite it, as if she was walking on two tightropes at once. While the long wing-tips still dragged against the ground, she didn’t feel nearly as weighed down by them anymore. Unfortunately, it was impossible for her to walk anything resembling a decent pace with those flat, stubby legs; she managed half a metre in a minute.

The Budew, meanwhile, had other ideas. April watched as she ran as fast as her tiny little legs could carry her (ie: not very)... and then she tripped over.

There were still a few of the colourful, hooved creatures out and about, and April could just about make out that the Budew was receiving some stares from various directions. (Were there glasses in this world? She needed those.) Then, she heard one of them gallop in the direction they were headed. About a minute later, he trotted back, alongside a familiar cyan and yellow shape.

April realised that she really needed to stop calling her a “thing”. She seemed like a perfectly respectable… person? Was that the right word? April had only just learned that PokéSpeak was real, after all, so she was beginning to reconsider what “personhood” actually meant. She needed to come up with a better nickname for her. Maybe… Cyantha? Yeah, that sounded good.

“Are these yours?” he asked.

“Oh!” Cyantha gasped. “Sorry about that. I rescued these two, and I was going to take them home, but then Princess Cadence said they would be best left alone..”

“Really?” the male one replied. “I think they might want to come home with you… Where do you live?”

“Ponyville,” Cyantha replied. “Come to think of it, these two would look right at home in the Everfree Forest, and-”

Everfree Forest? That doesn’t sound so bad, April thought as she inched closer.

“Oh, I just remembered!” exclaimed Cyantha, facepalming. With a hoof. That must have hurt. A lot. “There’s a librarian in Ponyville who’s studying the Moonkind, who we really need to come up with a better name for.”

“Like Pokémon!” exclaimed the Budew, but the others ignored her.

“Now that you mention it, I think it’d be best if I showed them to her, and she’d know what to do with them. Thanks for reminding me!” Cyantha waved.

“You’re welcome!” The male one waved back, before trotting away.

Cyantha was about to pick up the Budew, when the Budew ran back towards April.

“Don’t forget about my friend!” she exclaimed, jumping up and down in front of April. “She can’t fly for some reason. Please can you help her?”

At the same time, Cyantha approached April and picked her up between both of her forelegs, before tucking her under one, and then placing her on her back. It was embarrassing, really, having to be carried around like that, but she didn’t have any choice. April sincerely hoped, from the bottom of her heart, that this whole ordeal was temporary, and she’d wake up as a human again, and continue her everyday life and see Digit again… but the more she thought about it, the less likely that seemed.

“And away we go!” exclaimed Cyantha.

Gingerbread. That was all April could think about. They had finally arrived at a wooden train platform - Cyantha had trotted at a pace slow enough for the Budew to keep up with her - and they were about to board a train made of gingerbread, covered in various colours of icing sugar. Okay, so it probably wasn’t, but it wouldn’t have been the strangest thing she’d seen today.

April noticed that Cyantha seemed to be gaining a lot of odd looks, which was probably why she quickly boarded the otherwise-empty carriage at the very end of the train. The journey was… uneventful. April had chosen a seat next to the window, and watched frozen mountains change to temperate forest change to open fields as the sky turned from blue to a lovely reddish-pink colour. The monotony almost lulled her to sleep.

Along the way, she heard the Budew try to strike up a conversation with Cyantha; they were sat opposite each other. “So, what’s your name?” she asked, in the most endearingly polite voice April had ever heard… to no response. She asked a few other questions - “What are you?” “Where are we?” “Have you seen a human named Crawford anywhere?” - but they were all met with the same response: silence. What about this Budew made her so ignorable, and why was April immune to it?

When she jumped out of the train and onto the platform, April looked up in awe to see that the horizon was now fringed with purple. They had arrived in a town consisting of beige buildings connected by dirt paths, and… that was all she could make out. The stars weren’t out yet, but she could see the distinctive orange glow of fire shining from several of the windows.

Cyantha’s home was… ordinary. Despite being a quadruped, it looked just like an old-fashioned, two-storey human house. It reminded her of Celestic Town, where she’d grown up. The only thing unusual about it was the two-piece door.

Cyantha yawned as she trotted up the wooden stairs. April thought at first that she had left her and the Budew in the living room, marked by a green rug with a yellow border, until she realised it was the only room on this floor. Was that a kitchen in the corner? The glassless window was open, allowing the cool night air into the room. It was completely silent, completely still… it was lonely, yet serene. April wished she could take a deep breath, savour it, and reflect upon all that had happened today.

...Well, she could still do that last thing.

Her top priority tomorrow would be to look for a telepathic Pokémon. Even if she couldn’t get answers on what was going on, at least she would have a way to explain who she was. But wait, would she need to explain that, or would a telepath instantly pick up what was on her mind? And why had that never occurred to her before?

On the other hand, she may be completely helpless now, but she was still a grown adult who could cope with being on her own. But this Budew… wasn’t. That poor child was desperate to find Crawford, who she could only assume was her trainer. April had wanted to be a trainer when she was a kid, but she'd never gotten around to it, and then she’d grown up. She should concentrate on finding him first.

And… Digit. Digit was always there for April at the end of the day, but it rarely met anyone else. Was Digit even advanced enough to understand what had happened? Or would it forever be upset that April had just "abandoned" it one day?

But she could worry about all of that tomorrow. Right now, she needed to get some sleep. She looked up at the pale green sofa; while it seemed to be smaller than a human sofa, it looked so daunting, like she was going to climb a mountain. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration. It was more like a hill.

Suddenly, she got an idea.

She staggered towards the pale green sofa, noticing that the Budew was sat down, asleep, by the side closest to the window. She touched the sofa; its hand-woven cover felt coarse, yet what lay underneath felt so soft! She tried to pull this body's… hand - that was what she was going to call it - away, but it felt stuck, like velcro. Yes! She used her newfound power to climb up the sofa, which took so much effort that it felt like climbing to the top of a rock-climbing wall for the first time. Still, it was an accomplishment - she could move on her own!

Here April was, getting excited over a sofa. What a time to be alive.

April was glad to wake up. She'd had the strangest nightmare last night - okay, it'd been more like a cheese dream. She'd been a Beautifly, lost and helpless in an unfamiliar world, and she was going to wake up in her apartment and Digit would be there and everything would be ordinary and fine and-

"Good morning," a familiar, gentle voice said. The reminder that everything that happened yesterday was real hit April in the chest like a sack of bricks, opening a chasm in her heart and non-existent lungs; she really was a Beautifly, she really was in a kind stranger's house, and there really was a Budew talking to her. Or rather, at her.

The morning sun was streaming through the window, filling the room with warmth. It was the only thing that anchored April to this strange reality. The sun would always feel real. It stood out more than ever in this blurry world.

"What do you think that librarian is like?" asked the Budew. "Come to think of it, what is a library?"

April looked around the room for some books so she could demonstrate what a library was, but she couldn't make out any. Even if she could, there was no way she could be able to carry one. Come to think about it, why would Cyantha have books? How would a creature with hooves open a book, let alone get one off a shelf? Was this librarian any different?

Instead, she decided to jump off the arm of the sofa. Those unreliable wings flicked open as she glided towards the windowsill… and she missed, smacking flat against the wall below, and then fell backwards.

“Are you alright?” asked the Budew, looking over April like she’d just woken up from a coma. April shook her head. She wondered if she’d every figure out how to talk. Even if PokéSpeak was universal like all the hippies said, would Beautifly need to talk? What would they talk about in the wild? They didn’t seem like the most talkative Pokémon. I can’t believe I’m thinking about this.

April heard hooves coming down the stairs.

“Good morning!” Cyantha said, a hint of tiredness in her perky voice. It sounded like she was on the other side of the room. Soon afterwards, April saw was Cyantha’s head directly above her, golden eyes staring into her soul. “Oh… What’s happened here?” she asked, in a rhetorical kind of tone.

“She’s fine. I hope…” said the Budew, but Cyantha ignored her. April struggled to stand up to show that she was okay, but she quickly discovered that she was stuck, like a Squirtle that’d been flipped over. Cyantha reached out her hooves, picked up April between them, and put her down again… on all fours. In response, April stood up on two legs.

"Alright, to the library!" exclaimed Cyantha. April stubbornly tried to walk towards her, but tripped over a gap between floorboards.

April wished she could sigh. She was relegated to being carried, again, even though she was perfectly capable of walking on someone else’s two legs, thank you very much. This time, Cyantha hovering a foot or so above the ground, and instead of being on her back, Cyantha was holding her between her forelegs, thank you very much. She still couldn’t get used to that.

While Cyantha looked around, the Budew following close behind, April tried to get an impression of this town - Ponyville, was it called? First of all, it was a blur during the day. The pale-coloured buildings stood out at night, but now, everything was so bright, she could barely tell where buildings ended and the sky began. Maybe I should've been a Dustox instead? She could smell an entire bouquet of flowers from down the street - where those lilies, daisies, and roses? She was never a plant expert, but it seemed like she could instinctively distinguish flowers now. So there was at least one upside to being a Beautifly.

Besides the sound of running water nearby, which April assumed came from a fountain, the town was oddly quiet. Sure, it was early in the morning, but there were no murmurs of idle chit-chat, no bird Pokémon’s songs that would probably sound like idle chit-chat now... nothing.

Cyantha must have figured out where this mysterious library was, because she started to fly, quite slowly… but then suddenly stopped. “Oh! I just remembered! I was going to meet Sea Swirl at the Clover Café!” She dropped April and then flew off to… wherever. As soon as April reached the ground, she looked up, but couldn’t see any sign of Cyantha, until she returned a few seconds later. “I can’t believe I almost forgot you!”

The café stood out to April, partly because it was the greenest building in town and smelled strongly of straw, but mainly because of how popular it was. This was the least deserted place in Ponyville she’d seen so far.

“Have you seen Roseluck lately? I’m getting worried about her,” asked a pink and yellow being at one of the purple and white tables. April needed something to call their species, too - hoofkind? She had no idea what the singular would be, but she couldn’t think of anything better.

“She’s probably gone off with that Time Turner again,” replied a pink and green hoofkind who was sat opposite her, a hint of frustration in her voice.

Cyantha plonked April and the Budew next to a table, where a lilac and dark blue hoofkind stood waiting. That must be Sea Swirl.

“What took you so long, Sassaflash?” asked Sea Swirl. Sassaflash. That must be Cyantha’s name. Better than anything I could ever come up with.

“These two!” Sassaflash proudly exclaimed in response, picking up the Budew and placing her on top of the table. “The other one’s a lot heavier than it looks.” It?!

“S-Sassaflash, is that one of the Moonkind?” Sea Swirl stammered. The Budew quickly jumped off the table again.

“Oh - sorry! I found them yesterday at the Rainbow Falls trade fair, and it’s a long and complicated story involving pineapples and Princess Cadence,” Sassaflash said in one breath.

“PRINCESS CADENCE? What in Equestria did you do there?” Sea Swirl sounded like Sassaflash’s concerned mother.

“Point is, I’m going to show them to that librarian later. Hopefully, she’ll be able to return them to the Everfree Forest or wherever they came from. There’s just one problem…”

Sassaflash was interrupted by a yellow and orange hoofkind who asked for their orders, not even taking notice of April. They both ordered “carrot juice”, whatever that was.

“As I was saying, this one -” Sassaflash pointed to April “- I think he called it a colossal swallowtail? Anyway, it can’t fly.”

“Are you sure? Let me take a look,” said Sea Swirl. Suddenly, the strangest thing happened. April was surrounded by an eye-searingly bright, indigo glow from all directions, and felt herself being dragged upwards. She felt like she was going to be sick. So this is what being on the receiving end of telekinesis felt like. She was starting to feel sorry for the window. Wait - why am I feeling sorry for a window? But was this Sea Swirl a telepath? April decided to try something.

Hello! My name is April Hunter. Sorry I can’t talk to you right now, but I only became a Beautifly yesterday, so have no idea how to use most of my body. Have you seen a Porygon2 anywhere? Or a human named Crawford? Thanks!

April realised how stupid that sounded. Whatever the case, Sea Swirl’s response was to drop April from a couple of metres above the ground and complain about her being too heavy. This time, April was at least able to maneuver herself so that she landed on the surprisingly spongy table.

“That is strange…” Sea Swirl said absentmindedly. “I’m still not convinced that Princess Luna has nothing to do with the Moonkind, though.”

“Howcome?” asked Sassaflash as their carrot juices arrived.

"Think about it. Nightmare Moon appears, and then a bunch of highly magical creatures nopony has ever seen appear,and they insist it was a coincidence?" As Sea Swirl said this, Sassaflash took a sip of her carrot juice. "Sounds like a coverup to me."

"I didn't know you were into conspiracy theories," replied Sassaflash.

"So what do you think?"

"I think it's safest to assume that they came from the Everfree Forest… BUT!" Sassaflash stomped a hoof on the table, almost knocking over the glasses. "Call me crazy, but I think that the so-called Moonkind have come to teach us something. "

"Teach us what?"

"How to become better ponies, of course! Think about it. Soon after the BIGGEST crisis in living memory, a bunch of monsters come out of the Everfree Forest - but they don't want to hurt us. Instead, they silently observe us. Don't you understand? It's a test of character!" Sassaflash leaned across the table, practically staring Sea Swirl down. So they're called ponies.

"And you think I'm into conspiracy theories?" retorted Sea Swirl.

At this point, April noticed that Sea Swirl hadn't drunk any of her carrot juice yet, so she decided to take a sip when she wasn't looking. The orange liquid tasted like… nothing. Literally. It wasn't bland, it was just that April didn't have taste buds any more. At least, not in her mouth. It was one of those things you'd read about in a trivia book, but it'd go to the back of your mind because it wasn't important.

As for the ponies' conversation, Sassaflash's theory sounded like even more hippy nonsense. It was clear that her heart was in the right place, but if there was a test of character, Sassaflash hadn’t been doing a good job at passing it. She was constantly forgetting about or ignoring Pokémon, and dragged them around like toys. She couldn't blame Sea Swirl for doubting her, even if her theory was loaded with assumptions. April wished she could correct both of them, but she didn't have all the answers either.

"Anyway... I think it’s time for me to go," Sassaflash said sheepishly.

“Where are you going?” asked Sea Swirl.

“To the library,” replied Sassaflash. “Wait… do you know where it is?”

“It’s on the other end town, not far from the Everfree Forest.”

“Okay. Do you want to come with me?”

“No thanks. I need to finish my carrot juice-” Sea Swirl looked down at her glass. “Hey, where did half of it go?”

Author's Note

Click here to read the commentary for this chapter.

18/Jul/2019: I changed the last few sentences of the chapter because I wasn’t happy with where the plot thread I set up was going.

Chapter 3: Analytic

“And… here we are!” Sassaflash proudly exclaimed. April half-expected to hear a “ta-da!” sound come out of nowhere. It wouldn’t have been the weirdest thing she’d seen in this world so far.

April looked up from her position on Sassaflash’s back to see that they were standing in front of a wide, dark brown tree. It looked barren at first glance, until she realised that there were a few bundles of leaves on the higher branches. Sassaflash walked up to the trunk and knocked it.

“Hello!” she exclaimed. April heard a door swing open, and a purple pony looked out from the top half. “I found a couple of the so-called Moonkind yesterday, and I was hoping you could research them.” Sassaflash paused. “Wait… you are the librarian, right? You’re not, like, an assistant or anything?”

The purple pony laughed. “If you were looking for a librarian, you’ve come to the right pony. My name is Twilight Sparkle. And you?” Her voice sounded polite and professional.

“Sassaflash,” she said quickly. “Howcome you don’t know already?”

“I only moved here a few weeks ago.”

“Oh yeah. Sorry, I’m just used to everypony knowing everypony around here,” Sassaflash said sheepishly. “I hope this doesn’t take too long…”

“No worries. Come on in!” The lower half of the red door swung open.

April was surprised to discover that the oak tree was not only hollow - perhaps its insides had been pulped into books? - but very, very spacious. There must have been at least two storeys, because sunlight streamed in from oval-shaped windows above. It took April a moment to realise that there were sheets of what looked like browned paper strewn across the pinkish-brown floor; they definitely had writing and drawings on them, but April couldn’t make out what they were. There was also a scorch mark, but none of the papers seemed to be burned.

“Tell me more about these creatures,” said Twilight Sparkle. “Where did you find them?”

“I found them both at the Rainbow Falls trade fair yesterday,” Sassaflash said quickly. “This huge, grey stallion was trading them, and I wanted to rescue all of them, but I couldn’t get there in time, so I had to get Princess Cadence involved, and-”

“Slow down,” said Twilight Sparkle. “Did this grey stallion tell you anything about them?”

“Uh… I think he called this one an ambulatory rosebud…” Sassaflash pointed at the Budew. April heard her complain as Twilight Sparkle lifted her up with magenta telekinesis and placed her on a table. “And this one a colossal swallowtail.” This time, it was April’s turn to be telekinetically lifted onto the table. She still couldn’t get used to that.

“Anything else of note?” Twilight Sparkle asked. She placed two pieces of browned paper on the table, and wrote on them using what April assumed was a pen… of some sort. Why would a species of telekinetics use things that were clearly designed for human hands? Wouldn't they be deemed “too primitive”? Or had she just been reading too much sci-fi? She never did get around to finishing The Gears of Time…

“Yeah. I’m most worried about the butterfly one,” said Sassaflash. “She can’t fly. Sorry, but will this take long? I work on weather and I need to go to Cloudsdale soon.” April was amused by the mental image of Sassaflash doing a morning weather forecast, but did ponies have television?

“I won’t take long. I promise!” Twilight Sparkle giggled nervously. April felt Twilight Sparkle lift up all four wings, one at a time. “I’m not an expert in this field, but there doesn’t seem to be any sign of obvious injury… and how could a creature like this survive to adulthood without being able to fly?”

“I dunno… maybe the grey stallion did something to it?”

“That seems possible,” said Twilight Sparkle. “Does the rosebud have any problems?”

“I’m a Budew…” the Budew sighed.

“Not particularly,” said Sassaflash. “Unless you count being bad at running, but I think that’s supposed to happen. Just look at it!” As she said this, the Budew tried to walk off the table, but stopped when she was about to fall off the edge.

“It is very cute,” said Twilight Sparkle. “But I’m fascinated by this creature, too! Imagine - a life form that crosses the boundary between animals and plants! Don’t you understand? This could be a major scientific breakthrough!” April heard her furiously scribble some more notes onto one of the pieces of paper. “Spike!”

“Coming!” exclaimed a young boy’s voice. April heard the sound of footsteps that definitely weren’t hooves, followed by a small, purple and green figure walking down some… stairs? He was holding a blue object, so he definitely had hands, whatever he was. “Sorry about that. Rarity found a bunch of weird gemstones recently, and I’ve been deciding which one to eat first.” There was a loud CRUNCH as he bit into the blue object.

SPLASH!

“WHOA!” exclaimed Spike. He quickly ran down the stairs. April was certain that he’d tried to eat a water stone.

Twilight Sparkle lifted up a third piece of paper and quickly wrote on it. “Spike, I’d like you to send these notes to Princess Celestia.” She waved it Spike’s face with her telekinesis. Spike breathed on the paper, and it was burned to a crisp with green fire. April thought it was a waste of perfectly good paper, but Twilight Sparkle didn’t seem to mind.

“Sassaflash, you can leave now. I’ll keep these creatures here until Princess Celestia and I can decide what the most suitable habitat would be.”

“Okay. Thanks!” Sassaflash exclaimed.

Once Sassaflash had walked out of the door, Twilight Sparkle continued. “Spike, you stay here while I go get Fluttershy. Make sure these creatures don’t break anything.”

Twilight galloped towards the door, but Spike interrupted her just as she was about to leave. “Uh… Twilight? You know how you wrote that the butterfly can’t fly? Call me crazy, but what if it was just transformed from something?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Spike. What motive would somepony have for transforming somepony else into a creature nopony has ever seen before?” Twilight Sparkle replied, just before she left.

April wanted to scream.

“Is it true what he said?” asked the Budew, as the two of them watched Spike dry himself with a towel. “Were you transformed?” April nodded. “Were you a pony-creature before?” April shook her head.

“So what were you? Is that what you call evolution?” April shook her head again. She wished she could give the Budew a proper answer, but instead, the Budew continued talking. “I want to evolve one day. I used to think it would be the best thing in the world, and it’d make Crawford and all the other humans proud… but now I’m not so sure.” She sighed. “Now… now I think the best thing in the world… would be finding him.” The poor thing sounded like she was on the verge of tears. “Do… do you want to know more about the others?” April nodded.

“Let’s see… First, there’s Luana. She has a really nice smile, but keeps forgetting things. Her Buneary isn’t nice, though. She keeps stealing everyone’s food.” April was surprised to hear the Budew sound frustrated. She knew that most Grass-type Pokémon didn’t need to eat - they could just photosynthesise - but she started to wonder if a Budew could. “Then there’s this big strong human called Barlow. His partner is a Makuhita. Crawford says he has trouble telling them apart. There’s a mechanic called Elaine who I don’t see very much. I don’t know what she does. There was also a new member, but they’ve left since then... and then I got lost. Why haven’t they come looking for me? D-do… do they think they’re better off without me?”

April wished she could say, Don’t worry. I’m sure they’re out there, looking for you. The world is a big place, after all, and I’m missing someone too... Instead, she shook her head, which she hoped conveyed the same thing.

Just then, Twilight Sparkle entered the library, followed by a pink and yellow pony who was presumably Fluttershy.

“Hello,” said Fluttershy in a gentle voice. “Where do you live?” The Budew didn’t respond. “Are you shy? It’s okay, you can talk to me.”

“V-Vientwon,” the Budew said, still upset.

“I’ve never heard of a place called Vientown. What’s it like?”

April was stunned, and the Budew gasped. Finally, there was a pony who listened to Pokémon! ...So why didn’t the others?

“Well… It’s near a beach, and there’s a Ranger Base.”

“What’s a Ranger Base?”

“It’s a place where humans called Rangers are…”

Fluttershy paused. “Wait… did you just say humans?”

“Humans?” asked Spike from across the room.

“HUMANS?!” exclaimed Twilight Sparkle, who started hyperventilating.

“What are humans?” asked Spike.

“Only the creatures who appear in every species’ mythology!” Twilight Sparkle sounded exasperated. “According to Equestrian mythology, they gave ponies the groundwork for their civilisations long before the Three Tribes unified, and let’s see…” She telekinetically pulled a book off a shelf and flicked through it. As far as April could tell, they looked exactly like ordinary human books. “Dragons believe they were once slain by them, and griffins considered them to be gold thieves!”

“So… what does that have to do with anything?” Spike asked.

“You see, Spike, the most plausible hypothesis I’ve come up with about the origin of these creatures was that they lay dormant in the Everfree Forest until they were awakened by Nightmare Moon’s return, but if they know more than we do about humans, they must clearly come from outside of it!” Twilight Sparkle said in one breath.

April didn’t have a clue what any of that meant. In her mind, she was screaming, You’ve found one already! Sort of.

“Sorry… what?” asked the Budew.

“But that’s besides the point. Fluttershy, I brought you here because you’d know better than anypony: what do you think the most suitable habitat for these two creatures is?”

“I… I don’t know…” Fluttershy mumbled. “I’ll ask them,” she added quickly. She turned towards the table. “What are your names?”

“I’m a Budew, and this one is a Beautifly. She doesn’t talk.”

“Thank you, Miss Budew. Where would your species live in the wild?”

“Forests.”

“What kind of forests? Temperate or tropical? Deciduous or evergreen?”

“I-I don’t know what any of that means,” said the Budew, but April did. Both species, in the Sinnoh region at least, lived in evergreen forests that were freezing during the winter, as April knew all too well. She had no idea about wherever the Budew came from, though. “But there was a river there, and it was really warm, and there was a lot of light…”

“I think you would be just at home in the Whitetail Woods. But what about your friend?”

“See, that’s the one I’m most concerned about,” said Twilight Sparkle. “She can’t fly.”

Suddenly, April felt Fluttershy leaning really close to her. “Oh, you poor thing! Do you have any idea why?”

“I think she thinks she was transformed” said the Budew. “I don’t know what from. She could have been a Silcoon or a Cascoon before, or even one of you ponies…”

“She said the Beautifly was transformed from something,” Fluttershy said to Twilight. “What’s a Silcoon or a Cascoon?”

But before the Budew could answer, Spike shouted, “That’s what I said!”

Twilight Sparkle furiously pulled several books off the shelves, flicking through them before placing a few back. “Fluttershy, I would like you to relocate the Budew to the Whitetail Woods,” she said, as if she were organising a military operation. “Leave the Beautifly here. I’ll read up on transformation spells and try to figure out what happened.”

“Okay!” said Fluttershy, as she picked up the Budew and placed her on the floor. The Budew reluctantly followed her out of the library.

April had had enough. She wasn’t just going to stay here and let these ponies gawk at her for any longer! She needed to escape… but how?

Author's Note

Click here to read the commentary for this chapter.

Is everyone in-character? I don’t write canon characters very often because I’m worried I’ll screw them up, unless they’re blank slates like Sassaflash and the Budew.

22/Jul/2019: Most of this chapter was written in about three days. Originally, Twilight asked Spike to send the notes she just wrote to Celestia... even though all her other notes are all over the floor. I changed it so that she now asks him to send a different set of notes. I also used it as an opportunity to add a bit of characterisation to April.

25/Jul/2019: I changed the Budew’s description of the “new recruit” (ie: Kellyn/Kate) because I decided that it would be better if this took place after the events of Shadows of Almia, instead of near the start of it.

Chapter 4: Insomnia

April lay flat on the table with those wings spread out, planning her escape like in some sort of spy movie. While she couldn’t turn her head much besides the nodding and shaking she was forced to rely on, she didn’t need to; she could see a blur of almost the entire room from where she was. Twilight Sparkle was currently reading a mile-high stack of books, illuminated by a candle, while Spike was picking up something off the floor - water stone shards, perhaps? The important part was that neither of them seemed to be paying any attention to her - or the door. The door was a rather dull shade of red, but it looked so vivid compared to the rest of the pinkish-brown library! She estimated that she would be able to glide all the way to the door without making a sound.

So April crouched into position and jumped off the table. The blurry image of the door became sharper and sharper as she got closer to it, until it was right in front of her... and then she fell face-first onto the floor. Again. She stood up to discover that the door was still some ways away; those antennae definitely weren’t brushing against wood. So she stumbled towards the door instead, hoping that her footsteps wouldn’t make too loud of a sound. It was hard to have heavy footsteps without any bones, but she couldn’t tiptoe, either.

Just as she was about to reach the door, April saw Spike move in her curved peripheral vision.

“TWILIGHT!” he shouted. “The butterfly is trying to escape!”

April panicked as she heard Twilight Sparkle stand up. She desperately staggered towards the door and was about to push it open, then she remembered that it opened inwards. She tried to feel for a doorknob, but then April felt stupid when she realised that a race of telekinetics with hooves wouldn’t need doorknobs.

...So how was Spike supposed to get out?

April tried to push the door open again, but it was so heavy! She wondered if it was reinforced by metal. The sound of hoofsteps was getting closer and closer, drumming against the floor like miniature earthquakes...

April realised she was a prisoner when she was surrounded by a familiar magenta glow.

After Twilight Sparkle had placed her on the table again, April spent the next few hours trying to think of another escape plan. Maybe the windows were just holes? No, if they were, she would be able to feel at least a draught in the room. Which was a shame, really. A breeze could help her learn to fly. Occasionally, Twilight Sparkle would come, place a book on the table, and use some sort of glowy powers that were the same colour as her telekinesis - but not telekinesis, thankfully - then complain that it didn’t work.

Suddenly, the front door burst open.

“Twilight!” exclaimed Fluttershy. “The Budew has gone missing!” April heard a loud THUD as Twilight Sparkle dropped the book she was reading.

“OH NO!” exclaimed Twilight Sparkle. “Not again!” She stomped her hoof.

April almost wondered how she’d lost Pokémon before, but that wasn’t important right now. No, what was important was that the Budew was missing! April had promised herself that she’d help find this mysterious Crawford, but now she was once again reminded of how useless she was. She could’ve at least secretly followed Fluttershy, or done anything else to watch over the Budew! She could be dead by now, for all April knew.

Twilight Sparkle, meanwhile, was hyperventilating.

“Where was the last place you saw it? Did you encounter anything dangerous along the way? Were you distracted at any point?”

“Um… I don’t know,” whispered Fluttershy nervously. “I was looking ahead the whole time. I didn’t realise she was gone until I arrived at the Whitetail Woods.”

“What if it ran off into the Everfree Forest like the chicken did?” asked Spike nonchalantly. Both ponies gasped in unison.

“Fluttershy, you check the Whitetail Woods while I check the Everfree Forest,” said Twilight. April could tell from the tone of her voice that she was desperately trying to hide the fact that she was panicking. “Spike, you stay here. Make sure the Beautifly doesn’t move!”

“But you can’t go to the Everfree Forest alone,” said Fluttershy. “It’s much too dangerous!”

“It’s okay. I’ve been there before. Besides, it would be better if we covered more ground.”

“I suppose you’re right…”

“Then let’s go!”

Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle hurried out of the library so quickly that it sounded like a stampede.

That night, April couldn’t get to sleep. She was worried sick about the Budew, which was odd, because she would’ve thought that she would’ve gotten a Beautifly’s instincts with this body. Beautifly didn’t live for very long; what would they have time to get worried sick about?

Wait… how had it only just occurred to her that she wasn’t going to live very long? That just made everything even worse!

The room was dead silent - Spike had gone upstairs - until April heard the door slowly creak open.

“So many leaves… so little time...” groaned Twilight Sparkle, slowly plodding into the room before she abruptly collapsed on the floor with a THUD. And then snored. Very loudly.

April must’ve fallen asleep for a few minutes, because the next thing she knew, there was a soft, pink glow directly in front of her face. A blue shape jumped onto the table next to her.

“I’ve come to rescue you,” shout-whispered a cheerful young boy’s voice. “Follow me!” The blue one jumped off the table and headed across the room - April could hear that he was trying to walk as quietly as possible - and the pink glow slowly floated after him.

April felt concerned. On one hand, who were they, and why had they come looking for her? On the other hand, she finally had a chance to get out of here! So she stumbled towards them, walking even slower than usual to reduce the risk of falling over.

Once they reached the door, the blue one lightly tackled into it, causing it to swing open. Which meant two things. One, it swung both ways, and two, it wasn’t reinforced… April was just too weak to push it. As if things couldn’t get any worse…

For once, though, there was a bright side. Almost literally, in fact. It was such a relief to be outside after all this time! The cool, midnight air felt refreshing after being trapped in a stuffy tree all day, and April had never realised how bright moonlight was before.

“I found her!” shout-whispered the blue one.

“Were there any other Pokémon in there?” asked a voice from above. His voice was serious, but he rolled his “R”s.

“Nope!” exclaimed the blue one. April heard a fluttering of feathered wings as a dark figure descended from the tree’s branches. The blue one headed behind the tree, followed by the pink glow, and April tried to follow him. Unfortunately, she was even less used to walking on uneven ground, and she couldn’t see where she was going, so she fell forwards. Worse still, she didn’t have the energy to get back up this time. The pink glow returned and bobbed up and down impatiently, allowing April to see that she’d tripped over a root and was now laying on top of it.

“Hurry up!” exclaimed the blue one.

“She can’t walk,” said a quiet, gentle, child’s voice. Was she…?

“You could’ve told us that!” said the two male voices in unison.

April was determined to prove that she wasn’t completely helpless, thank you very much, and tried to drag herself across the root, but it didn’t work. Those feeble little hands couldn’t reach the ground. Learning to walk was a lost cause; he needed to focus on learning to fly instead.

April felt a set of talons clamp around a top wing. They weren’t sharp, thankfully, but it still hurt, like they would cause bruising if scales and chitin could be bruised.

“She’s surprisingly heavy…” said the feathered one, desperately flapping his wings. “I need help.” As soon as this was said, April felt the blue one abruptly charge into her from behind, sending her flying long enough to send her tumbling onto a bare patch of ground. Thankfully, she landed on her front, so it was easy for her to stand up.

April seemed to be in a clearing away from the view of any houses. She heard the feathered one land next to her, followed by the blue one. The pink glow illuminated the clearing, allowing her to see a tiny, green figure… yes! The Budew was okay! Crisis averted!

“I think she only recently evolved,” said the Budew to the other two. The Budew then addressed April. “I didn’t want Fluttershy to take me to the woods. When she wasn’t looking, I ran away and met these Pokémon, so I decided to stay with them.” It suddenly occurred to April that tomorrow, Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle would be even more worried when they realised that she was missing, too.

...One thing at a time.

“I suppose we should introduce ourselves,” said the feathered one. “My name is Starly. I used to live in this forest surrounding a beautiful lake. It would take an hour to fly over it. There was an island in the middle, and some said you could see a spirit come out at night. One day, I woke up on the ground in a dark forest, and I was almost attacked by these growling… things. I couldn’t see what they were, it was so dark. So I flew as fast as I could, and eventually met this glowy… thing who guided me out of the forest. I think it’s a Pokémon?” The pink glow bobbed up and down. “It doesn’t talk. Problem is, when I arrived in this town, I was kidnapped by the purple one. Thankfully, she let me escape after a few hours. Seriously, if she lives in a tree, why does she have a friend who can breathe fire?”

“I’m Poliwag!” exclaimed the blue one. “I woke up in a fountain. It was so different to the pond I used to live in! There wasn’t any algae, and it felt too soft, and it wasn’t as transparent, and-”

“Get to the point!” chorused Starly and the Budew.

“I decided to leave the fountain! I thought fountains were made by humans - I used to live in this place with a tall purple building - but there weren’t any here. Instead, there were these weird things that were terrified of me, but I was only trying to make friends! So I decided to stay in the fountain in the day and only come out at night. I met Starly on my adventures one evening.”

“Together, we’re trying to learn about the inhabitants of this town,” said Starly. “Have you seen any other Starly around here? I miss my flock…”

“They’re called ponies,” said the Budew. “And I haven’t seen any Starly.”

“Neither have I!” exclaimed the Poliwag.

April shook her head.

“What does that mean?” Starly asked April.

“She means no,” said the Budew.

“Anyway, if you don’t mind me asking… how did you get here?” asked Starly.

The Budew described her life in Vientown first, but significantly less tearfully this time. “Then, few days ago, I woke up in a nice field with rainbow rivers. I was the only living thing there, so I thought it was a dream… until I touched one of the rainbows and it burned me. Then, I started to worry about where all my friends were, and then I was put in a cage by a big, grey pony. Over the next few days, he put other Pokémon in cages - like this orange, fiery one that looked like Starly, but with no wings. One day, he brought in Beautifly, and then a turquoise pony with wings called Sassaflash rescued us and took us here.”

“I see… so what’s this Sassaflash like?” asked Starly.

“She’s nice, but she’s too fast,” said the Budew. “She has a friend who doesn’t like Pokémon, though. Most ponies call us Moonkind and won’t listen to me.”

“Do you have any idea why?”

“Something about someone called... Princess Luna...” The Budew yawned.

“I think we should talk about this more tomorrow,” said Starly, also yawning. “Right now, we should get some… sleep…”

Something lingered on April’s mind just before she fell asleep. The Budew had mentioned “a few days”... which meant that the Pokémon didn’t all appear at the same time. How long had this been going on for?

Author's Note

Click here to read the commentary for this chapter.

Chapter 5: Snow Warning

When April woke up the next morning, the realisation hit her that in the midst of all the distractions yesterday, she’d never gotten the chance to go looking for a telepath. Now that those ponies were out of her way, it would be a lot easier, once she ignored the million other problems she had.

She'd fallen asleep with her face on the ground, because it was the only way she could. Beautiflies didn't have eyelids. She stood up to see that Poliwag had presumably returned to the fountain, and the other Pokémon were still asleep. Starly was mumbling about how he should've been a Hoothoot, the Budew was laying on her back, and there was a tiny, white Pokémon that April didn't recognise between them.

April turned around, and looked at the tree that housed the library within. Its dark pinkish-brown colour was unmissable against the pale sky. She wondered if she could climb it, launch herself off a branch, and try to fly… no. She would trip on a root again.

She still wondered why she had to be a Beautifly. It felt like the world’s most elaborate practical joke. In every story about a human becoming a Pokémon, they’d always become something cute or cool, the kind every kid would want to train. The only exceptions were if the transformation was a punishment, but what had she done wrong? Was it because Beautifly was the last Pokémon she saw back in Eterna City? Or was it based on her personality? She had no idea what Pokémon would describe her personality, but she certainly wouldn’t use “Beautifly” to describe anyone’s personality.

“What are you looking at?” asked Starly. April turned around to see that the other three Pokémon were now awake. April tried to tilt her head in a way that meant, “it’s nothing”.

After the four Pokémon gathered in a circle, Starly spoke. “So, what do we know about these… what did you say they were called again, Budew?”

“Ponies,” said Budew.

“I see,” replied Starly. “What do we know about ponies?"

“They act like humans,” said Budew. April noticed that since last night, she'd been more confident than when they first met; making friends must have done her some good. If only April had that luxury…

“No they don’t,” said Starly. “They don’t have Pokéballs, for one.”

“What are Pokéballs?” asked Budew. This struck April as odd. How could a Pokémon live alongside humans for pretty much their whole life and not know about Pokéballs? Sure, she was young, but how sheltered was she?

Evidently, Starly was surprised too. “Oh, you lucky thing! Pokéballs are horrible! Some of my flockmates, INCLUDING my parents, always went on and on and on about how it was the greatest honour to be captured by a human, but why? Why would I want to abandon everyone I know and love at a moment’s notice? I’ve seen trainers. They keep you in those balls most of the time, and their Pokémon never want to go back home… I can’t imagine a life like that! I’ve lost some of my closest friends to beginning trainers.” He took a deep breath. “But… if you didn’t have a Pokéball, what did your human keep you in?”

“Nothing,” Budew said matter-of-factly. As this conversation was going on, April noticed that the sky was becoming overcast incredibly quickly. “Anyway, have you noticed that ponies act like humans? Like… maybe everywhere has a version of humans, and ponies are the humans of wherever this place is. Maybe that’s why they won’t listen to us, except for a yellow one.”

She has a name, you know.

“Do you know why?”

“No.”

April thought about this for a moment. It was common for most people-who-owned-Pokémon to be able to “understand” theirs, but not “understand” enough to be able to hold a two-way conversation like Fluttershy did, and certainly not with a Pokémon they’d never met before. Wasn’t there a guy in Unova who could talk to Pokémon? Maybe Fluttershy was like him.

“More importantly, how did we get here in the first place?” Starly continued. “Those ponies can’t have had anything to do with it, or else they’d know what we are. We need to find the answer to that question next.”

We were definitely teleported here, but by who? What was their motive? They certainly had a sick sense of humour.

“Has anyone seen a map of this place?” asked Budew. April wondered if she’d heard the name of this land, but if she had, she’d forgotten it. While she explained to Starly what a map was, April was distracted.

“You go over there, Sassaflash! Left a bit… right a bit… perfect!” shouted a raspy, tomboyish voice above. April looked up to see a familiar cyan and yellow shape… covering the last patch of clear sky with a cloud? Huh? There were several other flying ponies doing the same thing. How inconsiderate.

“Alright! Are we ready?” the tomboyish voice continued. All of the flying ponies did… something to the clouds. Suddenly, a freezing blanket of snow dropped onto the entire town.

“WHAT?!” gasped the tomboyish voice.

Oh, great, thought April, as she struggled to drag herself out of the snow. While it would probably melt in a day, assuming it was summer, a team of Fire-type Pokémon wouldbe able to melt it even quicker… but April hadn’t seen any around here.

“Help me!” cried Budew. Her voice was muffled; April could only see the pale green of her bud sticking out of the snow a few feet away. April tried to stumble over to pull Budew out, but she quickly realised that she couldn’t distribute her weight well on snow when she fell onto her face. Instead, she awkwardly dragged herself forwards with those weak arms… then it hit her that they would be too weak to pull anything.

April suddenly noticed a four cyan legs land next to her.

“There you two are!” exclaimed Sassaflash, as she gripped Budew’s bud beneath her hooves and pulled her out. “Oh - you have friends now!”

“This is Sassaflash,” Budew whispered to Starly.

“I suppose you need names,” Sassaflash continued. “You’re Rosie,” she pointed at Budew, “and you’re… you’re, uh… Butterfall.” April already had a name, thank you very much, and she would be perfectly willing to share it if it she could just talk to someone. Yet another reason to find a telepath. On the other hand, “Rosie” sounded nice.

“Is she normally this… um… energetic?” asked Starly.

“Yes,” the newly-dubbed Rosie replied bluntly.

“Wait… does the librarian know that you’re here?” Sassaflash continued; it was clear that she was thinking out loud. April and Rosie exchanged glances.

“CALLING ALL WEATHER PONIES!” the raspy voice shouted at the top of her lungs, echoing across the town. Sassaflash promptly sprung into the sky. “We have a case of industrial sabotage on our hooves! I say that half of us stay here to clean up the mess, while the other half of us go to Cloudsdale to see what caused this! Who’s with me here?” All of the flying ponies cheered.

“I'll lead the ponies in Cloudsdale!” exclaimed Sassaflash. “I work in the lightning department. If anypony knows their way around the weather factory, it's me.”

Lighting department? April had a very strange mental image of Sassaflash working in a department store and breaking various light fixtures. "Weather factory", meanwhile, sounded like the name of an art museum.

“Alright! Everypony who wants to go to Cloudsdale, join… uh… what's your name?”

“Sassaflash.”

“EVERYPONY WHO WANTS TO GO TO CLOUDSDALE, JOIN SASSAFLASH!” There was a flurry of colours above as a herd of ponies flocked towards Sassaflash.

April suddenly realised something. She had no idea why these ponies were so obsessed with the weather, but this problem must’ve been caused by Pokémon. If she wanted to prove that she wasn’t useless, now was her chance! She needed to follow them, but how?

April looked at Starly and furiously pointed upwards. She wished she could’ve been a Starly. At least then, she would have had proper, functioning legs and been able to see.

“Do you want to go with her?” he asked.

YES! April furiously jabbed her arm into the air.

“Are you sure? You can’t…”

How am I supposed to convey that they need my help? All April could do was continue to point upwards, hoping he’d get the message.

“Oh, alright then. But I’m coming with you.” Starly flew up towards Sassaflash, but the ponies were already leaving, Sassaflash leading the way. April was glad that ponies were all different, bright colours, or else she’d never be able to tell them apart. She noticed that the wind was blowing in the direction they were flying; did she instinctively pay more attention to things like that now? If so, when would a Beautifly’s flying instinct kick in? “I can’t catch up to them,” he said.

“What’s that over there?” asked Budew. April turned to see something pink and purple, not far from the library. “I think humans use those to fly.”

It must be a hot-air balloon!

Starly flew towards it and perched on the edge of the basket, while April trudged through the snow. Eventually, Starly had to drag her towards the basket by a wing, again, but she was able to climb into it her own.

“Are you coming with us, Budew?” Starly asked.

“No thank you,” she replied.

“Now… how do we get this going?” asked Starly. April pointed towards a brown rope that was laying on the ground. Starly pulled it with his talons before quickly hopping back onto the edge of the basket, and they were up and away to wherever the ponies were headed.

Were April’s eyes deceiving her, or was this Cloudsdale place made of clouds? It was dripping with rainbow waterfalls, just like the place she’d crash-landed into.

When her hot-air balloon touched the edge of the clouds, April quickly realised she had no idea how to stop it, and Starly definitely wouldn’t. She noticed that ponies were standing on clouds, however that worked. She quickly climbed out of the basket as it fell to the ground, never to be seen again, just after Starly hopped out. The clouds felt nothing like how she’d expected. They were soft, like the world’s most comfortable mattress, and weren’t damp at all. The laws of physics must be different in this world, and she was willing to buy anything at this point.

“...I say we split up and FIND! THAT! CULPRIT!” exclaimed Sassaflash. April looked up to see that she was rallying up a group of ponies outside of a lilac building. Starly flew towards her, his dark shape weaving through a crowd of pastel colours. The crowd gasped.

“Uh… this is one of the Moonkind, or whatever you want to call them. I’d never seen this one until this morning, so I don’t have a name for it, but what I do know is that it probably doesn’t want to hurt us.” The awkward silence was tangible, the only sound being Starly’s wings as he flew away. “Anyway, who’s with me?” Sassaflash asked sheepishly.

“WE ARE!” the other ponies shouted in unison, before rushing into the building.

April noticed a green circle with a few hints of red and yellow nearby. She’d recognise a Natu from a mile away, and Natu was psychic…

Hello! Natu over there! My name is April Hunter, and I really need your help right now. Please can you use telepathy? she thought. The Natu said nothing and flew away.

Starly landed at April’s side. “I... think we should avoid drawing attention to ourselves,” he said, as she slowly headed towards the building, Starly flying ahead. She briefly considered giving walking on all fours another try, but decided against it.

Once she was inside, she decided to give climbing on walls a try, and it worked! From what she could make out, this mysterious weather factory looked exactly like any ordinary factory - or at least, what she’d seen in photographs - but smaller and more colourful. It was lined with shiny-floored corridors spreading from a central room, with groups of ponies flying down each one. April’s priority was following Sassaflash, and she hoped Starly would figure that out.

A few ponies were following Sassaflash. She pushed open a tall, golden door. April and Starly followed her in just before it slammed shut, entering into a room full of jars containing glowing substances. April wished she could squint. One of the other ponies reached for a jar.

“Don’t touch that!” shout-whispered Sassaflash. “Lightning is extremely dangerous!”

Wait, so they kept lightning in bottles? Why had it never occurred to them to use it to power machines, from what April had seen, then? Why did they even keep it in the first place? How did they keep it? Yet more evidence for her theory that the laws of physics were different in this world. It occurred to April someone with enough technical know-how could recreate human technology and power it with this electricity if they couldn’t find an electric Pokémon… but April was not that someone. The most advanced thing she’d ever done on a computer was install the upgrade for Digit, and it had taken her ages to get that working.

“Anyway,” Sassaflash continued, “there’s nothing out of the ordinary here, so I say we look elsewh- oh, hello!” April suddenly felt deeply embarrassed as several pairs of eyes stared at her, as unblinking and reflective as mirrors. “Oh! I’d like you to meet Butterfall, another one of the Moonkind. I found it two days ago. What’s it doing here, though? It can’t fly.”

Excuse me? I am not an “it”, thank you very much. I may not look the part, but I am a respectable human being.

“Anyway... let’s look elsewhere,” said Sassaflash awkwardly as she started to leave the room. The other ponies followed after her, until…

“Sassaflash! I’ve found the problem!” a female voice shouted, causing Sassaflash and company to gasp. A pony burst through the door - gosh, she must be strong - was that Sea Swirl? Their voices were different, but she hadn’t seen two identical-looking ponies before.

“Where is it, Rainy Rays?” asked Sassaflash. Oh. So is she Sea Swirl’s sister?

“They’re in the Rain Lab. There were these snowflakes. Giant, killer snowflakes that are like windigos, but snowflakes. They’ve already frozen two ponies!”

April was certain what the problem was now.

“I need to see this. Now!” Sassaflash sounded scary when she was serious.

Sassaflash and Rainy Rays rushed out of the door, followed closely by the other ponies, their hooves ringing like thunder against the metallic floor. Starly flew after them, but April was barely able to keep up. As they reached another door, she gave up crawling on the walls and glided into the room just before it closed.

“Wh… Where did they go…?” asked Rainy Rays, a shiver in her voice. Despite the Rain Lab being so brightly-lit that it seemed like there was an artificial sun embedded in the ceiling, it felt like standing in a fridge. April knew exactly why: there were Cryogonal all around the room - she couldn’t count how many; they were a similar shade of blue to the walls - and they had frozen several tanks of water.

“The snowflakes? They’re still here,” said Sassaflash.

“No!” snapped Rainy Rays. “I meant the ponies!” The room went silent. “Oh, no…”

Starly flew up to the middle of the room. “Excuse me, snowflakes… what are your names? Please could you leave?”

“We are not snowflakes,” said the Cryogonal. “We are Cryogonal. We were born in the sky, and now we have been blessed with a paradise in the sky. Why should we leave?

“Because… uh… you’ve caused problems for these ponies! Though I don’t understand what those problems are…”

“These ponies you speak of are not the rightful owners of this place. They have impeded upon our territory. Only humans could create a sanctuary like this.”

“Well… have you seen any humans around here? Because I haven’t.”

“ENOUGH!”

The room was illuminated by a cyan ray of ice that struck Starly, sending him tumbling to the ground. In an instant, Sassaflash flew up, charging into the offending Cryogonal and sending it flying across the room. It seemed to end up close to the ceiling, at an angle that reflected its light onto the floor in front of the other ponies. Hang on a minute…

The other Cryogonal closed in on Sassaflash, surrounding her as she darted up, down, left, right, forwards, backwards, any direction. April couldn’t just leave her! But what could she do…?

April noticed that one of the Cryogonal was close to the beam of light, and it wasn’t even that high up! April crawled onto the wall, and once she climbed high enough, she jumped off and glided towards the Cryogonal… this was her only chance… if she missed, she wouldn’t have time to get back up again… no… yes! She dangled from its mouth-chain and climbed onto its face, then leaned sideways, trying to turn it around.

“What!?” shouted the Cryogonal.

Once April succeeded at turning the Cryogonal around, she jumped onto the ground. The beam of light reflected off the Cryogonal’s back and onto the frosted Starly, and he started to move.

...And she’d attracted the attention of every Cryogonal in the room. They closed in on her...

“W-wait…” said Starly weakly. “D-don’t hurt her… either of them…”

“Why shouldn’t we?”

“I’m not… Do you know how you got here?”

“We do not know.”

“Exactly! So… h-how do you know that ponies stole this place from you… if you don’t know how you got here? Th-this place… belongs to them. I d-don’t know much about ponies... but I’m sure they don’t want to hurt you. There’s plenty of sky in the world. I’m sure you’ll find your place somewhere… I’m begging you, please, leave before you cause any more harm!”

“Is it just me, or are they talking?” asked Sassaflash to her group. “Let me try something...”

She stepped forwards and stood between Starly and the Cryogonal. “Listen up, you big snowflakes! I don’t know if you understand what I’m saying, but it’s time for you to leave. This is our factory, and this bird has nothing to do with us. Hurt it again, and I’ll smack ALL of you into the walls!” The other ponies cautiously formed a protective circle around Starly. The Cryogonal must’ve been successfully intimidated, because they quickly filed out of the room.

After the ponies stepped away, Starly turned towards April. “T-thanks, Beautifly. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

April, Starly, and Sassaflash stood at the edge of Cloudsdale, watching the world go by. April felt like she should be disoriented by this, but she wasn’t. She’d been told that the Cryogonal had travelled north, and the ponies had unfrozen the tanks of water. Unfortunately, the “missing” ponies remained unaccounted for... but April was fairly certain what had happened to them.

Rainy Rays energetically flew towards Sassaflash. “Have you heard? We’re famous now!” She held up a piece of paper that was probably a newspaper. “It says here that the snowflakes flew away to the Frozen North.”

“Really? But we didn’t do anything,” replied Sassaflash. “They did.” She gestured towards April and Starly.

“So what are you going to do now? Are you going to return to that town, or are you going to stay here?” asked Starly.

April stopped to think. On one hand, this place was a lot more interesting than Ponyville, and the ponies weren’t as wary of her here. On the other hand, she still couldn’t fly. Was there anywhere she could get lessons?

“Now that the lab’s been fixed, it’s about time for Ponyville to get its overdue rain!” exclaimed Sassaflash, gesturing with a leg.

Unfortunately, Sassaflash clearly wasn’t looking when she put her leg back down. She accidentally nudged April… sending her tumbling over the edge.

April’s wings instinctively spread open as she plummeted towards a patch of dark green below. She would have thought it would be less scary than the first time, but it wasn’t; instead, she was filled with dread. What if she was attacked by a territorial Pokémon and couldn’t defend herself? What if she didn’t survive the fall this time? What if Sassaflash never noticed she was gone?

The last thing she heard was Starly shouting: “BEAUTIFLY!”

Author's Note

Click here to read the commentary for this chapter.

18/Aug/2019: I edited Starly’s conversation with the Cryogonal because I thought it was too rushed.

27/Aug/2019: I edited the end of the confrontation.

Chapter 6: Flower Gift

April was fairly certain that she was tangled up in lianas. Fairly, because she couldn't actually see where she was. She could feel something wrapped around each upper wing, she could feel that she was suspending her above the ground, she could feel the cold, so cold that it felt like night, but all she could see were shadowed outlines of trees.

A faint, bluish glow not far below quickly caught April’s attention, a beacon in this strange world of darkness. She was drawn to it, as if it were speaking to a recently-awakened instinct, saying “come here!” So April struggled to untangle herself, one wing at a time, until she harmlessly fell to the ground.

She crawled towards the bluish glow, revealing itself to be a flower. She realised she was starving; she hadn’t drunk anything since the carrot juice yesterday. Curiously, she took a sip of its nectar. She could only imagine that if she still had taste buds, it would’ve been the sweetest thing she’d ever tasted.

A green light pierced the darkness - no, two green lights - no, several pairs of green lights, surrounding her in a circle. Accompanying these lights were the sounds of light, yet rickety, footsteps... and deep, rumbling snarls. April tried to stand up, but her wings were weighing her down even more than usual. She felt hot breath as these creatures came closer and closer and closer…

Wait - could she hear more footsteps? They were light, quick, and on two feet.

“Take THIS!” a girl’s voice shouted. Suddenly, a giant burst of flame illuminated the forest, its heat licking April’s sides. She caught a glimpse of one of the glow-eyed creatures being burned to a crisp, and it smelled of burning wood.

“Good thing I missed you!” the girl said. “Now watch out, because it’s about to get even hotter!”

I can’t move.

As if she heard April’s thoughts, the girl said, “Oh… wait. Well then… COME HERE, YOU TWIGS! YOU’RE ABOUT TO GET ROASTED!”

April saw every remaining pair of glowing, green eyes turn to look at the girl… who was behind her, so April had no idea what she looked like. The creatures snarled as they walked towards her; April heard the roar of flames as they met the same fiery fate.

“BOOYAH!” the girl exclaimed. Afterwards, a silhouette landed in front of April. “Aren’t you going to thank me?” she asked.

Aren’t you going to learn some manners?

“Never mind. You… really need some help right now, and I know just the right… person?”

“Those flowers are called poison joke... I think,” explained the girl, who turned out to be a Torchic. She had taken her into a hollowed-out tree with a dark interior. The only source of light was a green glow coming from the middle of the room. A greyish pony had given April a bath, much to her protest; she could have easily drowned if her spiracles were filled with water. It must’ve been a magic one, because those wings no longer felt so heavy. She’d seen weirder. Now, she was laying on the floor in front of the Torchic.

“When I first woke up in this forest, I met this teeny-tiny white Pokémon who was holding one of those flowers. I tried to ask her where I was, but the next thing I knew, I was freezing! It was then that she rescued me.” She looked at the grey figure on the other side of the room. “I don’t know what her name is, but she gave me one of those baths. I thought it would hurt me, being a Fire-type and all, but it was actually really nice! The next thing I knew, I wasn’t cold anymore. I had nowhere else to go, so I’ve stayed here ever since.” She paused, and April stood up. “How did you get here?”

April looked out of the window. She couldn’t see the sky at all, just various shades of darkness.

“You can understand me… right?” the Torchic sighed. April nodded. “Okay. It’s just that it’s been so boring here! The stripy one doesn’t understand me, and all she ever talks about are weird plants she’s found. I'm only staying here because I don’t know where else to go.”

April wanted to point her in the general direction of Ponyville, but she had no idea where it was.

“So what are you going to do now?” she asked. “Are you going to stay here?” April pondered this for a moment. She’d finally found someplace safe, and she didn’t have anywhere else to go either… but wouldn’t Rosie be missing her right now? “Of course! You can fly, so you can leave at anytime! So… why haven’t you?”

Because I can’t. April was filled with frustration, but also… resolve? That’s it. She knew what she was going to do next. She looked around the room, but couldn’t make out where the door was.

“So you do want to leave?” asked the Torchic. April nodded furiously. “The door’s that way.”

April stumbled towards the door. She pressed against it with all her might, but still wasn’t strong enough to open it. The Torchic rushed over and quickly kicked it open, the door almost swinging off its hinges.

Once she was outside, April almost regretted her decision. The only light to guide her was a greenish glow coming from a window - what time was it? - so she had to feel her way around. Once she felt rough, sturdy bark, she climbed up the tree. She found a branch and carefully clambered across it on all fours, as cautiously as a tightrope-walker. Once she reached the tip, she quickly spread out her wings - if she ever wanted to learn how to fly, she needed to accept that those wings were hers now. She moved each wing, one at a time, then moved them in pairs, alternating between upper and lower, then moved them all at once… how did this work? She’d seen Beautifly fly loads of times, but she had no idea what it felt like. It was all four at once, right? Thankfully, there was no wind.

Without another thought, April jumped off the branch. I’ve got to trust my wings now. Could she move all four at once? Yes! For the first time since she got here, she wasn’t just falling forwards. She briefly felt herself moving upwards as well!

...Unfortunately, it wasn’t effortless. Her flight was erratic, and her upper and lower wings quickly came out of sync. Having nothing to aim for, she was headed downwards, sending her face-first into a bush.

“Hey! What are YOU doing here?” demanded a ridiculously squeaky, kazoo-like voice.

Author's Note

I’d still appreciate input on the previous chapter. I’m also looking for someone to discuss plot ideas with through PM - Random Order has been offline for over a month.

Click here to read the commentary for this chapter.

Chapter 7: Rivalry

April didn’t need to be able to see to know that she was face-to-face with a Beautifly. She could smell it, and she just knew what that smell meant. She could even smell that it was female… and she’d rather not.

“Get out!” the ridiculously whiny and petulant Beautifly continued. “Seriously, get out!”

Oh my gosh, is that what I’m going to sound like? I think I’d rather never talk again. April tried to untangle herself from the bush, its twigs scraping her sides, but she was stuck.

“What, did you not gain any manners when you evolved? Please,” she continued.

I never evolved. April suddenly wondered what she looked like. With none of the wear and tear gained with age, did she look like she was just born?

Suddenly, April was assaulted with what felt like a thousand tiny knives, sharp enough to graze her wings and slice the leaves around her to a flurry of shreds. She quickly realised that these weren’t knives at all, but wind, whipped up by the Beautifly’s wings. To make matters worse, sharp, snapped twigs were pressing into April’s sides like a bed of needles. She struggled her way onto the ground. She definitely had a lot of wear and tear now.

The worst part was that April knew exactly why the Beautifly was attacking her. They were viciously territorial and would see any other Beautifly of the same sex as a threat. I wonder what they think of Dustox? But why didn’t April feel the same way? Why hadn’t she gained any instincts with this new body?

April stood up and tried to walk around the bush, as far away from the Beautifly as possible. It was rare for a confrontation between a wild Pokémon to result in death… unless one was going to eat the other. Now that she knew that PokéSpeak was weird, what did they think of predation?

...Now wasn’t the time to think about that.

Unfortunately, she still couldn’t see where she was going. She bumped into the wild Beautifly… and was blown back onto the remains of the bush in response.

“And stay there!” shouted the wild Beautifly as she flew away.

April tried to wriggle her way free, but she was once again stuck. It was a miracle her wings hadn’t been punctured. And so she lay there for what must’ve been hours, looking up at nothing, until it eventually became so dark that she couldn’t see shadows any more. Until, finally…

“You really need some help, don’t you?” said a male voice. He carefully pushed April onto her side and out of the bush. His limbs felt like short nubs, and he smelled… poisonous. Literally.

“Let me guess… you can’t fly?” he asked once April had stood back up. April felt shocked. How did he figure that out so quickly? How could he even see her in this darkness? “Don’t worry. I had trouble on my first day, too.” Whatever the case, he seemed friendly.

The mysterious male figure had guided April to the top of a tree, far away from where the grey pony lived. She was clinging onto a branch on all fours. The only lights were a few sources blue phosphorescence scattered around, thankfully a lighter shade of blue that the poison joke.

“If you want to learn how to fly, the first thing you need to do is trust your instincts,” he said.

Trust her instincts? That sounded like utter nonsense. What was that supposed to mean? Those instincts would’ve been REALLY helpful when she first fell into that field.

“If you worry about how you should fly, you’ll lose focus. Just go ahead and do it.”

April doubted this advice. She couldn’t see where to land, and she had no idea how safe this neck of the woods was. Still… it’s not like she had anything better to do right now.

April looked around and tried to aim for one of the phosphorescent things, but she quickly realised that she couldn’t figure out what was “straight ahead” anymore. She was about to take a deep breath, then she remembered that she couldn’t. Don’t lose focus!

So she stopped thinking about anything that wasn’t on the most primal level. I am a Beautifly now. I can fly. I am supposed to know how to fly as soon as I would have evolved. Wait - I DO already know how to fly.

Without a further thought, she let go of the branch and let her wings carry her. Her wings felt awkward and clumsy, like they were struggling to lift a heavy weight, but for once, they were actually fluttering! Her flight was still wobbly, but she wasn’t headed diagonally downwards.

...And then her face hit a tree trunk.

“Now try flying vertically,” he said, once he had guided April back up the tree. Of course! Why hadn’t she realised that sooner! Also, he must’ve had incredible night vision to be able to see anything.

“See that light up there? Aim for it.” April stood up. She didn’t need to tilt her head to notice the faint sliver of light poking through the darkness above. How was she supposed to do this?

No. I’m overthinking things again.

April’s wings fluttered again as she tried to lift herself upwards, but she couldn’t. She knew that Beautifly flew vertically, but it just felt… wrong.

“Don’t just stand there!” he exclaimed. “You still need to fall before you learn to fly! Think you can get back up here?” With that, he gently pushed April off the branch.

April’s wings flapped frantically as she tried to fly back up. She was definitely making progress, but she felt tired incredibly quickly. She ended up feeling her way towards the tree and climbing the rest of the way.

April heard the flapping of wings. “That’s it! You’ve made some progress!” he exclaimed. It took April an embarrassing moment to realise that she’d climbed the wrong tree by mistake.

Can't we wait until it's lighter?

"Okay, maybe I should do something more simple. Just follow me back." April heard him fly back to the branch they started at, and saw flickers of his silhouette through the blue glow, but couldn't see where he landed. Instead, her antennae twitched as she searched for his scent. It felt odd, actively searching for toxins, but now it was her only guide.

She leaped off the branch and didn't stop to think about how awkward and clumsy her horizontal flight was. She seemed to be going in the right direction… but where was she supposed to land?

“Hey!” April heard the mysterious male figure exclaim as she collided with him. “Sorry, I didn't realise you couldn't see as well as me in the dark. Still… you flew! Do you want to try reaching the light above now?”

April nodded. Letting go of the branch again - she'd have to figure out how to fly from a stationary position later - she let her wings carry her up. She still felt like her body was weighing her down, until she felt a short, stubby limb stick to one of her arms, guiding her upwards, through the leaves… towards the moon!

After April's eyes had adjusted to the forest of perpetual darkness, the full moon seemed as bright as the sun. Next to her was a smudge of purple and green - he was a Dustox! It all made sense now!

And for the first time since she'd became a Beautifly, April felt truly happy. If only Digit could see me now…

“Mind if I show you one of my favourite places?” the Dustox asked. April nodded. Her wings couldn't keep up with his.

He guided her to the edge of the forest, where the trees thinned out and a crumbling, grey ruin stood, illuminated by the moon as if it were made my mirrors. It stood out by virtue of being the only building for what seemed like miles around. The Dustox guided April to one of the lowest walls, letting go of her just before they landed. April, unfortunately, was completely unprepared for this, so she fell onto the cold stone floor below. She could smell the most unusual flower in a nearby, shadowed corner.

“Oh, hello,” said the Dustox as he landed in front of April. “I’ve never seen you before. Do you know anything about this place?” A tiny, white and blue figure stepped out of the shadows.

“My sisters have told me there was a battle here not too long ago,” said a gentle, yet mature, female voice. “Would you like to hear their account?”

“Sure!” exclaimed the Dustox.

The white figure took a deep breath, and spoke as if she were reading a storybook. “Not too long ago, this forest was ruled by a wicked shadow. She weaved her way through the forest, creating chaos in her wake, harming the innocent Flabébé who had just awoken as collateral damage. But each and every time, the shadow was driven away by six warriors. They fought the shadow in this very castle, where they restored the light, and morning came. Ever since then, the Flabébé have been waiting for the six warriors to return.”

“Thanks, uh… what are you?” asked Dustox.

“Floette,” said the white and blue figure. April noticed she was holding a red and black flower.

April had been on the verge of sleep while the Floette told her story - not because it was boring, but because she was already exhausted. Still… one question pressed on her mind: why Beautifly? April think she had an answer now.

When April was a child, she spent a lot of her time at the foot of the mountains to the west of Celestic Town. She would spend hours just watching Pokémon live out their lives, watching the world go by. The Pokémon who captured her interest the most was not the mighty Machoke, the cheerful Chingling, or the swift Swablu, but a humble little Wurmple.

It was the same Wurmple each time, she was sure of it. Every day, it would struggle to climb a tree, and cower behind leaves to hide from Zubat and Noctowl as night fell. April never helped - not because she was heartless, but because she loved watching it persevere on its own.

One day, the Wurmple began to glow, and April witnessed an evolution for the first time as it spun a cocoon out of silk. A few days later, that Silcoon glowed as it cracked open, and a Beautifly emerged from within. A few minutes later, its wings unfurled, and it instinctively knew how to fly, how it was going to survive in this vast, wide world.

She never saw the Beautifly again. As it flew away, April finally realised something: instead of becoming a trainer, she wanted to study Pokémon in their natural habitats!

And now… April was like that Wurmple.

Author's Note

Click here to read the commentary for this chapter.