“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.