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.