Pokémon Journey - A Trainer & His Adventure in Equestria

Chapters

Prologue: It All Started With A Freak Accident.
Chapter 1: the Journey Begins Anew
Chapter 2: A Rough First Impression
Chapter 3: Communication Error
Chapter 4: What Comes Next
Chapter 5: A Nice Peaceful Day
Chapter 6: Training & Communication
Chapter 7: Meetings in the Capital
Chapter 8: Affairs in the Castle
Chapter 9: Plots Uncovered - Pt. 1
Chapter 11: Day of the Wedding
Chapter 12: Canterlot In Peril
Chapter 13: A Day in Canterlot
Chapter 14: An Answer to a Question
Chapter 15: A Battle in the Woods
Chapter 16: Rough Patches and Plans Ahead
Chapter 17: Know Your Target
Chapter 18: News From the North - Pt.1
Chapter 19: News from the North - Pt.2
Chapter 10: Plots Uncovered - Pt. 2

Prologue: It All Started With A Freak Accident.

Ponyville, a delightful town near the center of the country of Equestria, and being a few miles away from the nation capital city called Canterlot. In this town stood a large oak tree that been hollowed out, which had been turned into a building called the Golden Oaks Library, and in this treebrary was the current residence and caretakers. A teenage unicorn named Twilight Sparkle, and her assistant who is a baby dragon called Spike.

These two used to live in the great capital city of Canterlot a few months ago, but during this year’s Summer Sun Celebration Twilight Sparkle played a rather significant role in an ancient, foreshadowed prophecy. A prophecy that stated that an old evil would return from a long imprisonment on the moon, and would come back to Equestria and bring forth eternal darkness, but this tale of darkness and vengeance had a sliver of light to it. And that was that this ancient evil could be stopped, if six artifacts of power were found and used with a special spark to stop it. Since then both Twilight and Spike have moved from their old residence in Canterlot, and moved to Ponyville and became the towns newest library custodians.

On this particular day Twilight was down in her laboratory, which was just the library’s basement that was mostly used for storage converted into a private work place. In this lower section of the library Twilight was levitating a really worn out book, its covering old and featureless and its pages musty but still bearing words on them. while the unicorn was holding the book aloft, she was also drawing what appeared to be a magic circle, with runes inscribing the inner edges of the ring.

“That should do it.” Twilight muttered under her breath as she looked back at the book. “Now the next thing I do is check and ensure that the magical circuit is properly distributed along its design.”

“Hey Twilight!”

“AGH!” the unicorn squawked in surprise as the sudden voice of her assistant echoed form the top of the basements steps.

For a brief moment the sudden shock of a voice breaking the unicorns concentration, causing her horn to suddenly overflow with magic for just a moment but it was enough to unevenly pour magic into the circle. The circle then started glow with an immense amount of light, nearly blinding Twilight and even Spike even though he was at the top of the steps. Once the light had subsided both of the libraries custodians looked towards the circle, and watched as it started to fade away leaving very small smudges of white chalk and dust, with a few smudges having some very faint glowing violet patches.

“Woops! Sorry Twilight, I didn’t ruin anything did I?” Spike called out as he waddles his way down the steps.

“It’s alright Spike. And as for messing things up, I can just re-do it.” Twilight said as she used her magic to clean the failed project away.

“What are you even doing down here anyway?” Spike asked as he waddled over to Twilight.

“I was trying to see if this old spell of teleportation could work.”

“But you already know how to teleport Twilight, so why are you looking up a different way to teleport?” the little dragon asked his unicorn caretaker as she started to re-draw the circle.

“I was studying old tomes of magic and found this spell, apparently its used to move several large objects around, at least that's what I think this passage says.” Twilight says as she looks at the book again, more specifically at the passage she was having trouble deciphering as the words were rather faded. The tome after all was very old.

“Well in any case was there something you needed Spike?”

“Oh yeah, I came to see if you wanted to join me and the others for lunch.”

“Lunch? It’s already afternoon?” Spike could only chuckle as Twilight took a glance at the clock on the far side of the room. “Wow I didn’t realize it gotten that late.”

“You’ve been up before the sun was even risen Twilight, come on take a break.”

Twilight thought for a moment and ultimately decided to take a break from her researching, so she closed the book up and levitated it over to the table and started to make her way up the steps, with Spike quickly hopping up onto her back. but as Twilight and Spike left the basement, they missed the faded violet glow of the unicorns failed experiment shine brightly for just a second. Before fading away to nothing while a spark of prismatic electricity arced between the smudges.

~~~~~

The Pokémon League. The greatest competition of Pokémon trainers and their finest team of Pokémon take part in, challenging other trainers and their teams of Pokémon to see who amongst is the best, and become the champion of the League until the next competition. And in the Shinnoh Region its own Pokémon League was already underway, and at the moment the crowed was going wild as two trainers go head to head in the semi-finals, aim to take one of the final ranks for the championship! And so far both trainers have been giving it there all, the young woman more so as she was done to her last Pokémon, while the young man still has two.

On the left side of the field was tall young woman with fiery red hair, clothes that are a little baggy on her slender frame, and her current Pokémon Zangoose was lashing out with wild attacks, its claws hacking and slashing at its opponent. On the other side of the field was a young man with a rather simple outfit, his skin being a little bit pale which contrasted his dark black hair, and his dark blue eyes. His Pokémon partner on the field was a rather large Camerupt, standing its ground and withstanding Zangoose’s claw attacks, which were hardly damaging it through its thick coat of fur, fat, and muscle. But the Eruption Pokémon didn’t just stand there and be a punching bag, it lashed out with powerful headbutts, foreleg stomps, and even biting down on Zangoose’s arms and throwing it around while occasionally using its elemental attacks.

“Zangoose use Crush Claw!” the woman shouted over the roaring crowed, to which her partner acknowledged with a battle cry as its black claws turn a bright pale blue color, with sparks of white electric-energy crackling between the digits.

“Keep your guard up Camerupt!” the Eruption Pokémon’s trainer called out. “Wait for an opening an make a counter attack!”

The large quadruped bellowed as it stomped forward towards Zangoose, who leapt to the side and tried to strike Camerupt in the side of its head, but larger Pokémon managed to quickly side-step and use its large body to smack the attack away. But the Cat Ferret Pokémon and its trainer weren’t done yet. With the Crush Claw Attack failing the normal-types trainer called out for Zangoose to use an X-Scissor attack, which the white furred Pokémon quickly launched and landing a direct hit on the red furred Pokémon, causing Camerupt to skid back a few paces from it. However Camerupt recovered from the attack, and re-oriented itself to look directly back its opponent, and upon its trainers command reared up and then slammed its forehooves down onto the ground, sending out a powerful Earth Power attack. Which caught Zangoose by surprise and launched the Cat Ferret Pokémon back a good dozen feet, while dealing some big damage.

“Alright Camerupt lets end this!” the young man shouted as he raised his left hand, which had a black fingerless glove on it with a gem embedded in the center.

“It’s time for, MEGA EVOLUTION!”

Camerupt shook its head about as it stomped its left foreleg, which has a black band wrapped around it with its own gem embedded into it. From the young man’s own gem two streams of reddish orange and brown energy shot out, while Camerupt’s gem shot out a pair of yellowish orange energy out and raced towards its trainers own tethers. When the four tethers of energy connected with each other they erupted into a blinding light, which then surged into Camerupt turning its body into a glowing outline of its entire form, where the young man’s opponent and the audience watched as its body started to change forms. A moment later the light dissipated, revealing Camerupt in a new form where its fur was a brighter red color, and the rocks around its body and the volcano became far more prominent. Once the change was over Camerupt unleashed a battle cry, its sheer volumes shaking the ground!

“And there it is folks! Mega Camerupt has emerged on the scene!” the announcer of the battles called out as he, and the crowed in general, marveled at seeing one of the few Mega Evolutions they’ve seen throughout the whole tournament.

“Alright Camerupt time to finish this battle!” the young man said to his partner who bellowed in mighty ‘Bah!’ as the volcano on its back puffed out a gout of fire and smoke.

“Not if we get you first!” the young woman said confidently. “Get ready to end this battle Zangoose!”

The white furred Pokémon snapped out of its stupor after its trainer spoke, and then boldly charged and lept towards Camerupt. Who just watched its adversary with a calm expression, and when its foe lashed out with its pre-prepared attack Camerupt charged forward and slammed its large broad head against the Crush Claw attack, taking some damage but managing to knock back Zangoose. After knocking its opponent back Camerupts trainer commanded it to charge forward and use a stomp attack, which the larger fire and ground type did with its heavy body causing the ground to rumble slightly, while charged at its opponent. But Zangoose was able to dodge out of the way, and immediately went in for a flurry of claw slashes. And while it did score some good hits, Camerupts rocky protrusions blocked the majority of attacks, reducing the overall damage.

A few minutes of this back and forth fighting continued, where trainers called moves and directed their Pokémon, who in turn tried their best to perform the task and fight at their best. Then as the female trainer calls out another Crush Claw attack Zangoose leapt towards Camerupt, who kept its eyes locked onto its opponent.

“Camerupt use Lava Plume!”

At last possible second Camerupt reared its head back as it bellowed loudly, before a massive cloud of smoke, ash, embers, and fire erupted from all over its body, and rapidly expanded outward. Zangoose being so close and in mid-air unfortunately would be unable to evade the attack. The normal-type Pokémon was blasted at point blank range with a powerful fire attack, engulfing it and heavily burning as it was knocked back. when the cloud of blackness had subsided the crowed, as well as the young woman, saw Zangoose on the ground with its fur heavily burnt and appeared to be passed out. All the while Camerupt just stood there in the fleeting clouds remains, eyes slightly narrowed as if it expected Zangoose to spring up and continue the battle, and it seemed its trainer shared its cautious manner. However it seemed to be unwarranted.

“Zangoose is unable to battle, Camerupt and its trainer Matt are the winners!” the referee announced which caused the crowed to really shout out in excitement, while the young woman re-called her partner to its Pokéball, while Camerupt reverted back to its normal state while its Trainer, Matt, walks up to it and gently petted it on the head.

“Looks like I lost.” The woman said as she stuck out a hand.

“You got lucky you got my Swampert out of the match, otherwise I’m sure I would’ve won.”

“All part of my strategy. But any way, great battle.” Matt said as he shook the woman’s hand, while Camerupt gave a cheerful ‘bahh’ sound as its ears wiggled in delight.

“And with that ladies and gentlemen Matt moves onto the finals! Where he and the last three contestants will have their final showdowns tomorrow, so be sure to come back tomorrow to see who the final contestants and their teams will become the newest Shinnoh League Champion!” the announcer said over the loudspeakers, getting the crowed excited again as they, Matt, and his opponent started to file out of the stadium.

“Good luck tomorrow man, and you better win otherwise I’ll be real upset you hear me?” the woman said as she and Matt start walking down the hall of the nearby entrance. The young man started to chuckle as they entered the hallway.

“Trust me I don’t plan on loosing. This time, I’m going to win the Shinnoh League cup, and bring it home for the family to see!”

“Good.” The woman said as she started to go down a different hallway. “I’ll be watching you tomorrow to make sure you live up to that.”

“Then I’ll be sure that me and my team put on a good show.” After giving each other a final farewell in good spirits, each trainer went down a separate hallway, with Matt and his Camerupt going down the right hallway.

“Alright buddy let’s get you and the rest of the team to the Pokémon Center, and get you all patched—”

Before Matt could continue on with his talk of healing and getting his team patched up from their hard work, something akin to a powerful cramp overtook his entire body. It was as if he was struck by a powerful Thunder attack, and his body started to cramp and twitch up as a result. Then a second after the strange sensation just took him over, and he felt Camerupt ‘bahing’ and nuzzle him, a nauseating ringing sound started to rattle in his head. It was so obnoxiously loud and shrill that Matt felt like his head was going to burst. But that was nothing compared to what happened next. From the tips of his fingers, and the tips of his shoes, Matt’s body started to glow in a prismatic light. And then within the blink of an eye, Matt’s vision was overtaken by white a sharp whistling sound, and then pitch black and pure silence.

Chapter 1: the Journey Begins Anew

Today was another usual sunny kind of day in Ponyville, and ponies were really enjoying the nice weather while they could, before the pegasi have to change it due to some kind of order from Cloudsdale. Which has happened more often than the ponies of Ponyville would’ve liked. But while most ponies were enjoying the sun, the crisp fresh breeze that run through the town, at the Golden Oaks Library something was going on. Whether that something would be good, or not, remains to be seen. Down in the basement of the treebrary Twilight Sparkle, student and protégé of princess Celestia, was back at it again in studying the old rustic tome from yesterday, and was once again attempting to cast the spell she goofed a few times the day prior. This time however the unicorn has some company, and helpers this time around.

“Twilight. Sugarcube.” Applejack the towns resident apple farmer spoke to her violet coated friend in a slightly unsure tone as she, and Pinkie Pie stood in the center of the room. “I don’t want to disturb ya while yer experiment’n ‘n’ all but…what exactly are we doing?”

Applejack asked her unicorn friend as she and Pinkie stood inside of a large intricate looking circle, that the violet mare has been drawing around them for the past ten or so minutes. And for herself, Applejack was starting to reconsider her proposal in helping her friend with her magical research, especially when said unicorn doesn’t seem to quite have a grasp on what she is doing. But as far as Applejack has known Twilight, she seemed like the type of pony who wouldn’t get any kind of magical what’s-it’s wrong. Much.

“I’m trying to see if this old version of teleportation could be useful.” Twilight said as she finished making the circle around her friends.

“And why do you need to see if this works Twilight?” the farmer questioned. “You can already teleport.”

“Yeah Twi this seems like a redundant thing for you to try and do.” Pinkie Pie pipped in as she looked closely at the circle and its strange runes.

“If I’m able to make this teleportation spell work I can help you guys a lot more.”

“What do ya mean Twi?” Applejack asked with raised eyebrow.

“Think about it. If I can make this work, then I could help Rarity & you spread your products, and merchandise to other towns and cities faster and without all the hassle of traveling. Especially through dangerous areas that you sometimes have to go through.” Twilight explained to her friends.

“Think about it Applejack, if I can get this teleport spell down I can help you transport shipments of apples, and other stuff that you're family makes.” The farmer did take a moment to think about the prospect of a faster delivery system, and definitely sounded appealing. Especially that wretched swamp with the chimeras wandering it.

“That does sound rather appealing Twilight.”

“Sure does!” Pinkie Pie blurted as she bounced in place. “If this thing actually works, I can get Mr. & Mrs. Cakes confectionaries some major street cred in other towns and cities, and we’ll be able to satisfy more ponies sweet tooths!”

“Exactly!” Twilight said with a minor dose of the pink mare’s enthusiasm as she finishes her work. “Now for this test I’m just going to teleport you two to Applejack’s farm, just to see if it works.”

“Gotcha Twilight. Actually I do have one other question.” The unicorn hummed a questionable murmur as she perked her ears towards Applejack. “What would happen if this whole things turned out to be a failure?”

“Oh you might just be displaced somewhere between point A & B, maybe stuck in the ground or in a building.”

“Oh okay well that—WAIT WHAT!” Applejack said in shock and a twinge of fear.

“Hit the spell Twilight and let’s get this party started!” Pinkie blurted as she wrapped her forelegs around Applejack’s neck, while the two earth ponies horned friend starts powering up her magic, and pours it into the circle.

“I’m starting to regret my decision in this regard!!!!!”

Applejack shouted as whirling sound started to grow in volume as a blinding light engulf everything, forcing the apple farmer to clench her eyes shut, and waiting for whatever result may happen. A moment later the whirling sound faded into nothing, but Applejack still kept her eyes clenched shut. To afraid to see what kind of weird, horrible, or troubled state that she could’ve been put in.

“Are we stuck in anything?” she asked hesitantly.

“Why don’t you open your eyes and find out.” Pinkie’s still cheerful voice suggested. Applejack then started to slowly open her left eye bracing herself for whatever awkward, or horrible position she may find herself in. but thankfully she found that she was still in the libraries basement.

“Oh thank Celestia!”

“Ah! The spell didn’t work.” Pinkie bemoaned as her plump rump ‘thwumbed’ down onto the ground.

“I don’t understand? I did everything that was written down in the tome, down to the letter and yet, nothing happened.” A very disappointed Twilight said as she furiously scanned the pages over and over. As the unicorn flipped back and forth between the pages, Applejack decided to hop out of the circle before anything happened, whether it be accident or by some kind of delay in the spell. Probably more accident than the later.

“Well Twilight looks like this whole thing was a bust.” The farmer said with a bit of joy in her voice. Mostly due to the fact that she wasn’t plunged into a wall, or the ground, or sent to who knows where. “Sorry hun.” Twilight just gave a stressful sigh as she brought a hoof up to rub her temple.

“No its fine Applejack. I’m just sorry I wasted your and Pinkie’s time with a failed experiment.”

“Eh, it’s cool Twi. The point is you tried to do a good thing to help your friends, no bigy.” Pinkie jovially said as she tossed a foreleg around her friends neck. “Now how about we get something to eat?”

Both Applejack and Twilight agreed to the idea of getting something to munch on, and started to make their way out of the basement of the library. one thing was for sure though after this little escapade, Applejack may have to re-think on the things she is willing to help her friends in. Especially if said things include un-tested, and un-sure spell works and other such magical experimentations.

~~Elsewhere~~

A very pained groan escapes Matt’s mouth as he starts to regain consciousness, however as he starts to slowly wake up from his body started to pulsate with minor waves of pain, causing him writhe on the ground. But the pain quickly subsides as it fades away, and a familiar sensation started to nuzzle against his head. Gradually opening his eyes Matt found his partner Camerupt gently nuzzling the side of his head, while a worried look occupied its features which is accompanied by a sad sounding ‘bahing’ murmur. Bringing a hand up Matt started to pat his pokemon on the head, causing it to stop its sad ‘bahing’ to more uplifted ‘bahing’!

“Hey there Camerupt. Sorry to worry you partner.” Matt said as he starts to get up into a sitting position, which made him felt like an old man as he still felt a little bit sore and stiff. But once he was semi-upright Matt took notice that his surroundings weren’t that of the stadium, but instead was what looked like to be old ruins, like those he’s seen in some regions.

“What in the world…where are we?” Matt said more to himself as he tried to get up to his feet, which his quadrupedal friend helped him by using its head as a means of leverage. “Thanks pal.” Matt says to Camerupt as he regains his balance.

Once Matt felt like he was stable enough both he, and his Camerupt, started to walk around in the ruins that they found themselves in and aside from some of the collapsed walls, pillars, and pieces of the ceiling, there wasn’t much else in the ruins. As the two partners continued to wander through the ruins they have discovered some other stuff aside from collapsed rubble. There were old worn out tapestries that hung from the walls, and even with their colors and illustrations mostly faded away Matt was able to make out some of their features, which strangely reminded him of the old depictions of the legendary Pokémon of the Alola Region. However instead of Solgaleo & Lunala, these tapestries have what appeared to be what looked like winged equine looking Pokémon.

“Strange.” Matt commented as he and Camerupt continued to walk down one of the hallways with several of these tapestries lining the walls. But aside from the tapestries Matt also noticed that there were pieces of armor scattered around, but these pieces of armor didn’t suit humans, not did they seem fitted for any Pokémon that he is familiar with.

“Just where in the world did I end up?” Matt said to himself as he picks up an old dusty helmet.

“And how did I end up here?”

Matts internal train of thought was interrupted when Camerupt let out a rather loud bellow, getting the young man’s attention. Dropping the helmet Matt rushed down the hallway, and found Camerupt on a lower level, and surrounded by small furry Pokémon of varying orange and blue colors. All of them with sharp spines, and razor sharp looking teeth! Seeing his Pokémon in danger Matt looked around for something help fend off these wild Pokémon, and an old shield and banner pole with its piece of cloth ripped off. quickly grabbing them Matt hopped over the railing, and landed a few feet from the group of Pokémon who all looked towards him, and spun around looking away from him and then fired a barrage of quills.

“Oh snap!” Matt half-shouted as he crouched down as much as he could, and held the shield in front of him, which started to rattle and prattle as the spikes assail the rounded piece of equipment. Some even piercing through the shield just a bit.

“Man! For little guys they sure aren’t afraid of getting aggressive.” Matt muttered to himself as he pulled his Pokédex out, while he hears Camerupt bellow angerly and started stomping around. “Now let’s find out what these little guys are.” Matt then aimed his Pokédex at the feisty little buggers as they scurry around the larger Pokémon, avoiding the stomping hooves and little puffs of fire from Camerupts mouth.

“No Pokémon entry found.” The Pokédex simply stated.

“Figures. New region, new Pokémon. Well it was worth a shot.”

Matt then pocketed his Pokédex, and took the pole in his hand, and charged at the small Pokémon to give his Camerupt a more even playing field. But even with Matt joining the battle, and even putting his self-defense and limited martial skills to use, the little Pokémon still proved to be a handful. And they were really scrappy little guys, managing to get some good hits in on both Matt and Camerupt. Even if Matt and Camerpupt battered and knocked the little Pokémon away, they just got right back up and went back on the attack. Either with their powerful bites, little claw slashes, or with their dangerous quill spray attack.

‘Things are really looking bad! I could have Camerupt use one of its moves to get these little guys to scatter, but none of his damaging moves, it could bring the whole place down. Wait a minute!’ Matt quickly batted away the latest small Pokémon away from him, and then hopped behind his partner.

“Camerupt use Yawn!”

The large Pokémon ceased its stomping and head flailing, and let out a loud low grumbling sound from its mouth, echoing through the open space of the section of ruins Matt and his partner, and the small Pokémon were in. Peeking out from behind his larger friend, Matt saw that all of the little Pokémon were starting to wobble and get groggy eyed, until they all eventually collapsed onto the ground. Happily snoring away as little sleep bubbles form from their noses. With the danger subsided for now, Matt and Camerupt took the opportunity to make a run for it by darting into a nearby hallway, which lead to another large chamber with a weird pedestal of what looked like a solar system in the center of the room.

“Phew that was close.” Matt said as he rubbed a hand gently over one of the many cuts he has on his body.

“They really got us good back there.” the young man then looked over to Camerupt and saw that it was licking some of its wounds. Placing the pole down Matt reached around to his small backpack, and dug out a super potion, and started to carefully spray his partner where it was injured.

“There. that should do it for the time being.” Camerupt thanked its trainer by rubbing its head against Matt’s stomach as it ‘bahed’ thankfully.

“Alright pal why don’t you take a break for the time being, you’ve still haven’t recovered from the last battle with Zangoose and its trainer.” Camerupt gave a nod and allowed Matt to return it back to its own personal Pokéball. Once Camerupt was safely in its Pokéball Matt retook the pole in his hand, and continued to look around the ruins, preferably for a way out.

For the next hour and a-half Matt wandered aimlessly through the decrepit ruins, walking through hallways, holes in the walls and scaling collapsed structures, and yet so far the young man seemed to be making no progress. But as he wandered the ruins he’s made a few more strange discoveries. Among his discoveries were more fully intact pieces of armor, and by these one design they appeared to be built for some kind of small quadruped Pokémon, but aside from the armor and even more tapestries of the winged equine Pokémon Matt has found some other stuff. In one massive chamber which appeared to be a library of sort Matt found that the books were rather intact, despite the conditions of their surroundings and that the pages were surprisingly in good condition, however the text inside some of the books he looked through looked like weird take on ancient writing.

Aside from the library Matt found what could’ve been some kind of dining hall, if the massive table and numerous chairs were of any indication. Another room looked to be a music hall, with chairs and rusted old instruments left in place, with cobwebs and pieces of rock and pebbles scattered about the ground. Finally after nearly two hours of aimlessly wandering through the ruins, Matt was finally able to find his way out of the ruins. But upon exiting the structure Matt found that beyond the grounds of these old ruins, was thick boarder of large thick trees which looked like a naturally formed barricade.

“That’s going to be one pain of a forest to get through, especially since I have no idea where in the world I am.” Matt then dropped his shield and pole and then reached towards his belt, pulling out a great ball.

“Luckily I still have you to give me a hand in this situation. Probopass I need your help.” The Pokéball then popped open and from it sprang a large stone head-shaped Pokémon, which emitted a low grumbling drone sound. As it fully appeared onto the grassy field outside the ruins, the large Compass Pokémon took amount to look around itself seemingly to get its bearings, but it eventually turned to look to where Matt was.

“Hey there buddy.” Matt said as he patted the forehead of the large rock type, who closed its eyes in a happy manner while making a cheerful droning sound.

“I need your help here buddy, we’re in…some unknown forest and we need to find a town to see where we are.” Matt then patted the side of his right hip where the belt holding his Pokéballs were. “And get the rest of team fully healed up.

Probopass instantly stood, or more accurately float to attention, before moving two of its mini-heads towards Matt’s feet where the trainer carefully stood on top of them, while the third head floats towards Matt’s right hand. Once the trainer was situated on the mini-heads, both trainer and Pokémon started to float upwards till they passed the highest tower of the ruins, where Matt then asked Probopass to figure out which way north was. Probopass then closed its eyes, and dropped its red-stone cap and, the large Pokémon then started to slowly spin in place while its big nose developed a dim red glow.

A moment later Probopass stopped its spinning and pointed to Matt’s right. with this information Matt started to look around himself for any signs of civilization, if he couldn’t find anything then he and Probopass will travel north and hope they would find something. Although it seemed that plan is unneeded as Matt saw something. It was far off into the distance, but after digging out a pair of binoculars from his pack, and when he brought the item to his eyes Matt could see the outline of a town. A smile then grew across the trainers mouth as he stuffed his binoculars back into his pack, and instructed his large floating Pokémon to fly towards the direction of the town, and with a delighted low drawl sound Probopass started to fly off in the direction that Matt pointed towards.

“Hopefully the people in this town can help me out in telling me where I am.”

Matt said to himself as he and his Pokémon fly over the densely packed forest, where the sounds of wild Pokémon noises echoed, which Matt was thankful that he didn’t have to traverse through. Cause he doubt he would make it through the forest without getting heavily damaged, especially with ninety percent of his team knocked out and damaged.

Chapter 2: A Rough First Impression

“Rainbow Dash I don’t think this is a good idea.” Fluttershy said to her cyan friend as both her and Rainbow Dash stood on a small piece of cloud, while the butterscotch mare looked out to the open air before them.

Out in the open sky above the open fields there were other clusters of clouds, all of which of varying sizes, as well as various ropes and other knick-knacks that tied around various clouds. To the shy pony the whole make-shift obstacle race set up, looks down right ridiculous. And possibly dangerous. But then again, Rainbow Dash was one to push herself to the limits of her physicality, as well as her own desire to test out her own level of, coolness.

“Fluttershy you say that about all my training exercises.” Rainbow Dash rebutted.

“Well it’s just that, you always try to push yourself further and harder each and every time, but…” Fluttershy once again looked out to the obstacle course, and took notice of the stuff tied in-between the clouds along the ropes, all of them wobbling in the air and battering against each other.

“I think you may be going a little bit overboard with this one.”

“Ah you worry too much Fluttershy.” Rainbow said as she starts to stretch her wings, legs, and back.

“I gotta push myself to the limit and surpass them if I want to join the Wonderbolts.”

“I suppose.”

“Now just sit back and watch ‘the Dash’ strut her stuff!”

And with that Fluttershy watched as Rainbow Dash zooms off the cloud the pair was standing on, and started to do her usual aerial escapades. From high speed drifts, loop-de-loops, nose dives, and other acrobatic tricks that the cyan flyer had up her metaphorical sleeves. But as the speed flyer was pulling off her usual feats of flying prowess, Fluttershy felt herself get increasingly more nervous when she watches her friend start bobbing and weaving through the obstacles Rainbow Dash set up, from the swaying logs, the make shift spinning poles with rakes and other garden tools ducted tape to them, there were even cart wheels tied to ropes and were swinging like pendulums. But despite her rising dread of her friend possibly harming herself, Fluttershy kept watching her friend go about her practicing.

Just as Rainbow Dash was going into a power climb into the air, swirling around a large column of tower, Fluttershy noticed something just out of the corner of her right eye and when she looked over to what caught her attention she saw something.

It was just a small spec in the distant, but as the seconds role by the spec started to get bigger and bigger, until the object became more clear in what it was. But even then Fluttershy was dumbfounded at what in the world she was currently looking at. The ‘thing’ that was closing in was a pair of creatures. One looked like a giant rock, with a very bushy mustache with a rather goofy face, especially that big red honking nose. It was surprising to see it somehow fly through the air. By the stones side was another floating creature, just as tall as the stone face was, but looked like a tall lanky creature. But what Fluttershy found a bit more odd about the lanky creature was that it was wearing clothes, not fancy looking clothes that her friend Rarity would make, more like casual wear that she’s seen other ponies wear.

“What in the world are those things?” Fluttershy said to herself as she kept watching the two creatures, and as she does so she watched as the clothed creature started to jerk around a bit, before both it and the stone head changed their flight path. Heading more to the left of the pegasus.

“Where are they going now?”

The pegasus asked herself as she continued to watch the pair, her curiosity of seeing two new creatures she’s never seen fly by, before flying off. However before the two creatures got to far Fluttershy then heard something swish past her, and that something was Rainbow Dash! The cyan pegasus was diving towards the two creatures, however to the shock of not only Fluttershy but also the speed flyer, the two creatures were able to dodge the pegasus improve dive attack.

“Rainbow Dash! What are you doing!?” Fluttershy asked worriedly as she jumps to her hooves.

“What does it look like I’m trying to make these, these…whatever they are leave! They were heading towards Ponyville.” Fluttershy looked in the general direction that the two creatures were going, and sure enough, they were heading towards Ponyville. Or at least its general direction.

“But Rainbow—”

“Hey!” Before Fluttershy could continue with her statement, she was cut off as Rainbow shouted loudly. “Get back here you two whatever you are!”

That’s when Fluttershy watched her friend chase after the pair of creatures, who for doing their best to try and avoid the fast flyer. As the rainbow maned pony continued to try and make the creature fly back the way they came, Fluttershy hopped off the cloud and flew off after the trio, where she hoped she could stop her friend in trying to fight two clearly non-aggressive creatures. Yet something told the mare that this is going to get worst, before it got better.

“I really hope things don’t get to out of hoof!” Fluttershy flapped her wings as fast as she could to reach the trio in time, before something bad could happen.

~~~~~

Rainbow Dash darts, then she swoops, then she tries a summersault tackle, she’s using every offensive take down maneuver she knows. And yet somehow, someway, these two creatures who are barely flying faster than Fluttershy, were managing to out maneuver her, and dodge all of her attacks! And each and every time they do so, it just made Rainbow Dash more frustrated. She was the fastest flyer there is in Equestria, she should be able to take these two creatures down easily. Before they could do, whatever it is they can to Ponyville, or the ponies that live there.

“Hold still so I can Smack ya!” Rainbow screeched in her scratchy voice as she once again does a nose dive at the pair, and once again missing by just a hair by the big fat rock thing swivel to the side, and the tall lanky thing back flip over her tackle.

“Okay you two are really ticking me off!”

As Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth she noticed that the tall, clothed creature said something, but whatever it said it sounded to Rainbow Dash like Pinkie babbling in some kind of random langue when she rambles off, especially when she gets really hyped up on whatever surgery treat she scarfed down.

Ignoring the creatures un-intelligible chattering, Rainbow rocketed towards the pair, but this time before either one could dodge, she flipped herself in mid air and changed direction. And this sudden mid-air flip managed to put Rainbow in the perfect spot to deliver a kick to the clothed creature, right at its head! But before her hoof was half-a-foot from its head, the creature was quickly vaulted backwards as its left claw was yanked behind it. Then as the tall creature was quickly moved back, Rainbow Dash watched as the large rock thing moved to where the other creature was, and butted its red stop cap into Rainbows hoof. The moment that the pegasus’s hoof made contact with the stone creature a dull ‘thud’ briefly echoed, before Rainbow felt a surge of pain race up her leg all the way up to the tips of her ears. While her body quivers in the sudden rush of pain.

“YEOW!!!!!” Rainbow Dash cried out as she pulled her hind leg back, and clenched it tight against her barrel all the while saying ‘ow, ow, ow, ow’ in a looping manner as she rubs her hoof.

“Okay. Now your really starting to make me mad.” Rainbow said as she continues to message her hoof, trying to dull down the pain.

“Rainbow Dash!” the cyan pegasus turned to look behind her and saw Fluttershy panting as she flies over to her.

“Fluttershy what are you doing here?”

“I came to try and stop you from hurting yourself, and give these creatures a chance to…” Fluttershy took a moment to stop and catch her breath as she floats over to where Rainbow Dash currently was. “Let them explain themselves.”

“And how is that possible? It’s not like we can talk to—HEY!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she caught the pair trying to fly off out of the corner of her left eye, causing the mare to speed after the duo.

And this time the cyan pegasus was able to catch the creatures off guard, tackling the clothed creature and causing both herself and it to go swooping down towards the ground. Although since she chased the creatures quite a bit away, the duo are on a crash course down into Ponyville instead out in the fields.

~~~~~

The Silver Bit Diner is a nice little place for any pony to grab a nice meal, especially around lunch time where they have a wide selection of great foods from salads, cooked dishes, stuffed pies, and other such delectable morsels. And at the moment Twilight Sparkle was having a good time with her friends Pinkie and Applejack, as they were all sitting around at a table with food and a glasses of some kind of beverage in front of them, while they talk. Which was mostly Twilight more or less talking to herself, on how she could make the spell she’s been experimenting for the past few days, with Applejack and Pinkie chipping in every now and then to give their unicorn friend a helping hoof. But the majority of the time at the diner was just three of them enjoying each other’s company, over a nice, good meal.

“So Twilight after lunch are you going to try and give that spell another go?” Pinkie asked as she takes a big gulp of her glass of strawberry lemonade.

“Maybe. I’ll probably go over the spell and its inner workings one more time, and if I can’t figure out why the spell isn’t working then I’ll put it on hold and work on something else.” Twilight explained before taking a bite of her double decker daffodil sandwich.

“Well if you do find a way to make this conflagering spell to work, try and not to destroy anything.” Applejack half-joked, and half-cautioned her academic friend. Which Twilight could only give a nervous but well-meaning chuckle.

“What about you Applejack. What are you going to do for the rest of the day?” Twilight asked her farmer friend.

“Meh. Ah don’t know yet, Ah rarely get time off from work and harvest, and chores.” Applejack took a sip of iced tea as she developed a contemplating expression, before a look of realization quickly popped up.

“OH! I could go to the spa, Celestia knows my legs and back could do with a nice deep tissue message, and a nice steam chamber bath.”

Both Twilight and Pinkie couldn’t help themselves but chortle as they saw Applejack’s expression of awe, as she was probably thinking of experiencing said treatments. And just as the unicorn was about to take a drink of her glass of cranberry tea, a loud crash could be heard down the street from the diner, which was followed quickly by ponies screaming and the thundering of their hooves stomping the ground. As ponies race past the three mares while panicking, the trio then heard what sounded like a fight going on, especially with all the yelling. Now concerned that something really bad might be happening the trio of mares bolted from their table, not before placing their payment as well as a tip down, and then rush down the street from where the other ponies were running away from.

Reaching the end of the street the trio came upon the east side of Market Square, Twilight and her two friends saw a strange sight. Which wasn’t a total surprise as they were expecting to find something strange. But this, this was defiantly something that they weren’t expecting. What the three ponies were currently looking at was their friend Rainbow Dash, zipping and flying around the market place while trying to fight a pair of creatures. Or at least it looked like it was supposed to be a fight, but the tall lanky creature with clothes on seemed to be doing nothing but dodging, or catching Dash and tossing her to the side. While the large rock thing floating around the creature, and either tackles Dash back, or sends out three smaller rocks at the pegasus, causing her to change course and try attacking from a different angle.

“Incoherent noises!” the clothed creature seemed rather upset or just down right annoyed as it keeps shouting at Rainbow, while waving its claws at her in a frustrated manner.

“Well…this isn’t exactly what I was expecting.” Twilight said as she just continued to watch this little scuffle.

“Ditto.” Both Applejack and Pinkie said.

“Rainbow Dash!” the trio heard the sound of a familiar voice before seeing something yellow and pink tackle Rainbow Dash, pinning the cyan pony to the ground.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight and the others said in unison as they looked at the panting mare, who didn’t seem to notice them as she surprisingly keeps Rainbow Dash pinned to the ground.

“Rainbow *gasp please *gasp* give these *gasp* creatures a chance to *gasp*, explain themselves!” the usually quite pony said in a surprisingly stern tone that Twilight and the others never thought the pegasus was capable of expressing.

“Um girls.” Twilight said to get her two winged friends attention, as well as the two other creatures. “What’s going on here?”

“These…these two creatures were flying towards Ponyville, and Rainbow Dash just started attacking them.” Fluttershy said as she managed to get her breathing under control.

“And why is that?” Applejack asked as she trots over to the pair, while she and the others took notice of the creatures slumping to the ground, and looking like they were trying to relax.

“She thought they were monsters coming to attack the town.”

“Well I mean look at them guys, have you ever seen anything like them?” Rainbow Dash remarked as finally managed to get out from under Fluttershy and then gesturing to the two creatures. “Who knows what they could’ve done.”

“Well attacking them isn’t going to get any answers.” Twilight said as she hesitantly approaches the creatures, but stopped when the rock creature floated in front of the unicorn and making a very clear threatening droning sound, which caused the violet mare to take a step back, but she ultimately steeled herself and just stood before the floating rock creature.

“It’s okay I’m not going to hurt your friend.” Twilight said to the floating rock, but it seemed uncertain and just droned at her again. A hoof then patted on the unicorn’s shoulder and when she turned to look who it was she saw it was Fluttershy.

“Why don’t you let me handle this.”

Twilight did as the pegasus suggested and stood off to the side, and let Fluttershy try and approach the pair of unusual creatures. Hopefully her talent with talking to animals and understanding them could help her in this situation.

Chapter 3: Communication Error

To say that today was a whirlwind of surprises after one weird experience, would be a complete and total understatement to Matt. After all, he was in the Shinnoh Pokémon League winning the last spot for the championship battles and then sometime later, he wakes up in the middle of some decrepit ruins. And in said ruins Matt and his Camerupt had a run in with some rather feisty little Pokémon. And the trouble didn’t end there, because after leaving the ruins and finding civilization, Matt and his Probopass get attacked in the air by what could only describe as a, smaller blue Ponyta with wings and with a mane and tail of rainbow colors.

So far Matt wasn’t liking his current situation in life. But there was a bit of a bright side to this whole situation, at least Matt thinks it is.

At the moment Matt was trying to catch his breath, after he spent roughly five minutes of avoiding, and dodging the blue Pokémon’s constant attacks. Which was really hard! That little blue flying Pokémon was really fast for its size, but with Probopass’s mini-heads giving him added mobility Matt was able evade the blue Pokémon’s attacks. As Matt tries catch his breath and relax, the trainer noted that there were now more wild Pokémon around him, and all of them seemed to be of the same type of equine form, but with some different physical traits. And way more color variations. While looking at the small herd Matt notices that one of the Pokémon, another winged one with a simpler color scheme, seemed to be communicating to Probopass. Or at least it looks like its trying to communicate with the Compass Pokémon.

“Well at least things seemed to have settled down now.” Matt muttered to himself as he runs a hand through his head, which has a bit of dust and sweat in it.

Pulling his hand away from his head and wiping it against his pant leg, Matt noticed that the wild Pokémon that was communicating to Probopass was cautiously approaching him, with one of the Compass Pokémon’s mini heads floating beside the winged Pokémon. Probably as a means to ensure that this wild Pokémon didn’t try and attack Matt. When the new Pokémon stood before the young man it started let out cute whinnies and knickers, sounding like an actual Ponyta but a little more cuter. And with its big wide aquamarine eyes it was hard for Matt not to find this little Pokémon cute, in fact the young man was taken by the creatures cuteness, and unintentionally out reached a hand and started to pet the little thing. which naturally caused to get startled, but it soon relaxed and accepted the head patting.

“You know I bet my aunt and cousin would love to have one of you little guys around the ranch.” Matt said to himself as moved his hand to under the Pokémon’s chin and begins to give it little scritches, which actually got the Pokémon to start making adorable little murmuring sounds. However Matt decided to cut the little pet session short, which got a sad whinny from the Pokémon, as he get’s back up to his feet.

“As much as I would like to lounge around with cute Pokémon, I still need to find someone to tell me where I am. Although…” Matt said as he looked around the area of the town he was standing in.

“Considering there was nothing but other Pokémon in this town, I’m wondering if there is someone actually here to help me.”

Calling Probopass over to him Matt and his floating partner started to wander off into the town, or at least they would if the little herd of Pokémon didn’t try and stop him and Probopass by getting in their way. The yellow winged one flew up towards Matt, and seemed to be trying to coral him to go back to where he was sitting a moment ago. But Matt just side-stepped around the Pokémon, and just continued to walk off.

Another one of the Pokémon, this time it was the purple colored one that sort of reminded Matt of the Ponyta in the Galar Region when he visited his grandparents, although minus the fluffy mane and tail. The little Pokémon then gently nudged its head against Matt’s leg, clearly trying to make him go somewhere, or just trying to convey that it wants to play. Before Matt could even try to figure out what the Pokémon wanted, the young man felt his stomach give a rather strong wrench, while his stomach gives a very audible deep grumble.

“Damn. I didn’t realize how hungry I was.”

The moment that Matt even said those words the very pink Pokémon of the herd rushes over to him, and started to whinny, knicker, and make all manner of sounds and noises in a VERY excitable manner. Which kind of spooked Matt for a second, as he wasn’t expecting one of these Pokémon to be so, hyper. The pink equine then quickly bit down on Matt’s sleeve and started to tug him along the way, surprising the trainer again by demonstrating just how strong it was to pull someone twice its height.

“Okay! Okay! I get it you want me to follow you.” Matt said as he manages to get his sleeve out of the pink Pokémon’s mouth, and started to follow the little thing as it bounces along its chosen path.

As Matt and his Probopass followed the pink equine, who was joined by its fellow Pokémon, the trainer started to actually get a feel of the town as the group walks about. And from just what he was seeing, Matt was fairly certain he was not in Shinnoh, or at least, a part of it that he was not familiar with. Then again there is a distinct possibility that whatever happened to him, did in fact take him to a different region all together. Which wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. Matt clearly remembers that one time when he visited Alamos Town, and was teleported to a pocket dimension when the legendary Pokémon Dialga & Palkia were fighting each other. now that was an adventure that Matt would never forget.

Sometime later during his reminiscing of his past adventures that were ranked on weird or abnormal, and casual observation of the town, Matt found himself at the door of a building that looked like it belonged in a fairytale. The whole structure looked like one giant bakers mad dream come to life, as the building looked like a massive, layered cake. Before entering the building Matt thanked Probopass for the help, and returned it to its Pokéball. This action however seemed to cause a little bit of a fright to the other Pokémon, which in hindsight might seem normal, as these Pokémon weren’t used to seeing another Pokémon be sent into a Pokéball before. After returning Probopass back to its Pokéball Matt followed the small herd into the shop, once they all snapped out of their stupor.

The inside of the building in contrast to the rather whimsy exterior, looked rather normal. It had the appearance, and smell, of a bakery, with the smells of cakes, cookies, and other sweet treats hanging in the air. And causing the young man’s stomach to re-introduce itself, and state its intention very clearly, which the pink Pokémon seemed to obliged by swiftly darting to the back of the shop and just as quickly returns with a cart of treats.

“Wait a minute.” Matt said as he looked to the back room from where the Pokémon came from.

“Did…this thing make, these?” As the trainer contemplated on who was it that made the confectionaries, Matt saw the pink equine grab a rather big chocolate cupcake with white frosting swirls on it, and holds it up to him.

“Ugh. Thank you.” Matt hesitantly took the cupcake, and gave it a cautionary sniff, mostly out of curiosity and suspicion. But after smelling nothing but chocolate, vanilla, and sugary sweetness Matt took a bite of the treat.

“Mhh~. Not bad, not bad at all.” Matt said as he devoured the rest of the cupcake in one chomp, and chewed it up before swallowing. After he finished the cupcake the pink Pokémon clapped its hooves, and offered a whole tray of cupcakes to the young man.

“Better than nothing I suppose, at least it’ll quiet my stomach for the time being.” Matt said as he took the tray, and sat down on the ground and started to casually eat one cupcake after another, while washing it all down with a glass of milk that the pink equine got a moment later.

As Matt was snacking away on the tray of cupcakes he was offered, he started to casually look around the building, trying mostly to figure out what he should do next. From his observation of the town while on route this bakery, there didn’t seem to be any sign of human presence as the buildings they based by all had equine Pokémon already inside, or quickly rushed inside when they spotted him. If this town truly was devoid of any humans, then what should Matt do next? It’s not like he can just go out and blindly wander around this unknown region, and hope that he comes across someone. What he needs a full proof plan, and solid information to help him figure out what his next move should be.

“But where do I even start?” Matt muttered to himself through a mouth full of vanilla cupcake while he continues to just look around the shop.

Whilst the trainer continued to snack away and look around, he noticed that the blue winged Pokémon has been keeping its eyes locked onto him, with a clear visage of untrusting on its face. Aside from the cyan Pokémon, Matt also noticed that the purple Ponynta like Pokémon seemed to be hanging out with the orange equine, which Matt has been rather curious of. Especially about the hat it was wearing, and the ties that kept its blonde mane and tail in a ponytail. Just then the young man watched as the purple equine’s horn developed a light magical aura, and then all of sudden a quill and a scroll appeared out of nowhere. However, the sudden appearance of the items was quickly dismissed when Matt watched the purple equine actually start write, and from his position he could see that whatever the Pokémon was writing, seemed to be the same unknown langue from the books he skimmed through in the ruins library. that’s when something else clicked within the trainers mind as he thought back to the ruins.

“Those pieces of armor. They all looked like they were made for small equines, just like these little guys.” Matt muttered as he stopped eating and developed a deep thinking expression on his face.

“And those books, the ones that I skimmed through all had letters that looked like the one the purple Ponyta is now writing.”

Matt looked over to the Pokémon and watched as it rolled up the scroll, and started to make its way out of the building, where the trainer saw a few more equine Pokémon gathered around the door and window. All of them looking over at him with scared, shocked, and intrigued looks.

“Just where in the world did I end up…if this place IS in my own world.”

~~~~~

Twilight was floored! Today started off as a slightly aggravating one, when she failed to master—or even use—the spell she’s recently been studying as of late. Then after another failure, and a nice evening lunch with her friends, the unicorn was greeted with the sight of two creatures that she has never seen before! One of which seems to be able to contain other creatures in small orbs! However despite the creatures unusual appearance, and strange power and her friend Rainbow Dash’s suspicion, the creature seems friendly enough. Or at least no confrontational at the very least. But still the fact that its unable to speak Equestrian, or that her friend Fluttershy has been unable to speak to the creature and its large rock companion.

So after observing the creature, while it ate Pinkie’s cupcakes, the unicorn wrote down a letter for her teacher to read. Which the unicorn hopped that once Celestia has read it, the princess might have some insight into what the creature could be, or may even come to Ponyville and discuss about the creature in person. Reaching the Golden Oaks Library Twilight started looking for her faithful assistant, and eventually found him in the upper floor’s living space with a comic in claw, and a bowl of gems by his side.

“Spike.” Twilight said as she approaches the couch the dragon was lounging on.

“Oh Twilight your back already?” the little dragon asked as he put his comic down. “I’d didn’t think you’d be back so soon.”

“Things sort of took a weird turn, which is why I need you to send this letter to Celestia.” Twilight said as she floated the scroll over to Spike.

“Okay. But what’s going on? I heard some of the ponies outside freaking out.” Twilight gave the little dragon a small smile.

“Trust me it’s best that you come and see for yourself.”

Spike shrugged his shoulders before hopping off the couch and heading towards a nearby window, where Twilight watched the little dragon blow a small gust of green fire. reducing the scroll to ashes and smoke. Then in an invisible gust of air, the ashen remains and smoke of the burnt scroll flew out of the window, making its way up towards Canterlot. With the letter sent Spike made his way over to Twilight, and hopped onto her back where the unicorn then trotted down the steps and out of the library. Making her way back to Sugarcube Corner and show Spike the strange creature that is there.

~~~~~

Celestia, head princess of the nation of Equestria, was enjoying a delightful lunch with her returned sister princess Luna. It’s roughly been a month since her sister returned from her thousand year imprisonment on the moon, but since then Celestia has spent each day with sister, making up for lost time while also aiding Luna in acclimating to the modern era. While also apologizing on how she couldn’t save her little sister. And throughout those days Luna had explained it was not entirely her sisters fault, nevertheless, Celestia still felt like she needed to amend for her negligence of her sisters past inferiority complex.

“So Luna how are you adjusting to the modern age?” Celestia asked as she pours her second cup of tea while Luna finishes her first and tea cake.

“We believe We are adjusting, adequality.” Luna said as she places her cup fork down. “Although We are finding it rather difficult to adjust Our way of speech.”

“Don’t worry Lulu there’s no need to rush.” Celestia says as she uses her sisters nickname which caused the midnight alicorn to chuckle.

“Thank you, Tia.” Luna replied while using Celestia’s own nickname. But as the sisters were enjoying their little tea time, a wisp of smoke came flying in through the only window of the room and wafted its way over to Celestia.

“It appears thou hast received a message from young Twilight Sparkle.”

“Probably another friendship lesson no doubt.” Celestia said with a small smile as she unrolls the scroll and started to read it, but as she continued to read the letter a curious expression started to take over her features.

“Sister is something wrong?”

“There’s a strange creature in Ponyville, some kind of bipedal creature that wears an unusual amount of clothes, and apparently can summon and de-summon other creatures.” Celestia replied as she continues to read. “And Twilight is asking if I have any information on this strange creature, or be willing to come and see it.”

“We see no reason to not venture to thou students dwellings, and see this strange creature yourselves.” Luna says to her sister as she pours herself a new cup of tea, and floats a new tea cake to her little plate.

“I suppose not. Plus I am curious as to what this creature is.” Celestia teleports the letter to her room while she gets up from the table. She then casted a glance towards her sister. “Luna do you want to accompany me on this little venture?” the midnight alicorn gave a small shake of her head.

“Neigh sister We shall remain here, thou student has asked you for this venture, not I.” Luna then gave her sister a rather nervous look. “We also fear that our presence may cause some kind strife amongst the little ones.” Celestia returns the nervous look with a slightly solemn look.

Before Celestia could say anything to relieve her sister of misconception that she has amongst the populace, but Luna simply shook her head and went to enjoying her mid-day tea time. Celestia then gave a respectful nod, and then ignited her horn as she gets ready to use the teleportation spell. A moment later Celestia vanished within a flash of bright light, and after a few seconds the princess opened her eyes and found herself within Ponyville. Right outside of Sugarcube Corner where the creature was said to be at. But the princess not only saw the confectionary-themed building, but a sizable crowed gathered around the door and windows of the building.

“It appears this creature has the whole town all in excitement.” Approaching the building Celestia cleared her throat to gain the ponies attention, and once she did they all gasped in shock.

“Princess Celestia!” the twelve ponies currently surrounding the building said in unison as they dropped to the ground in a bowing motion, just then another pony came out of the building, and it was none other than…

“Twilight.”

“Princess!” the little unicorn said before bowing. “I didn’t think we would see you so soon, or at all.” The princess could only chortle at her students nervousness of her sudden arrival.

“Well Twilight I am quite curious as to what this creature is, so I decided to come and see it for myself.”

“In that case princess, follow me.”

The princess then watched as her student quickly trotted back inside the building, with Celestia following behind her. And the moment that the princess entered the establishment, she found the creature that her student wanted her opinion, however when Celestia spotted the creature she was quite baffled on what it could be. Especially as it held Pinkie Pie in its lap while giving her chin gentle scratches, and petting her mane.

“Well. This is certainly an unexpected sight.”

Chapter 4: What Comes Next

“In all my years of governing Equestria never have I seen anything quite like you before.” Celestia said more to herself than to the small crowed of ponies hanging outside Sugarcube Corner, or to her student and Twilight’s friends while she and the creature just stare at each other.

“Lith yet fairly toned body, furless skin, and such a distinguish face.” Celestia inched her face a few inches closer to the creature, who backed its head away by the same amount, its small yet very detailed dark blue eyes stared back into her own magenta eyes.

As she stares into the eyes she feels a strange form of, calmness and also patience, as if it was watching her like a hawk. While Celestia was observing the creature the princess noticed that the creature steadily raised its right claw, or possibly hand as it bared no claws or structured as any claw she’s familiar with. It then leveled its hand just in front of the princess’s face. Celestia was a little bewildered on why the creature raised its hand, looking back to the creature she saw that its stoic and neutral expression, now showed a gentle and peaceful smile. The look was so, inviting that the princess returned the expression with one of her own.

“OH!” Celestia stiffened as she felt something brush against her cheek, and when she looked to see what was now up against her cheek she saw it was the creatures hand. “It’s so soft.”

“Well princess?” the princess heard her student say from just behind her.

“Do you know what this thing is?” the princess relished in the soft caress of the creature’s hand a few more seconds before withdrawing her head.

“No Twilight, I’m afraid I’ve never seen anything quite like this creature.”

“Really?” Applejack asked as she gave Celestia a confused look. “I’d thought you’d at least come across one of these things for as long as you been a princess, err, princess.”

“I assure Applejack I’ve never seen, nor heard of such a creature, however…” Celestia looked back over to the creature, who took a muffin from a tray Pinkie Pie held in her mouth.

“Something about this creature is, unusual.”

“What do you mean princess?” Rainbow Dash asked as she continuous to hover over the group in the shop.

“I sense no form of magic in it.”

“WHAT!” Twilight suddenly shouted at the top of her lunges, causing the princess to fold back her ears, the other to jump, and the creature to nearly choke on the bit of muffin it was eating.

“B-b-but princess how is that possible! Everything in Equestria even the animals, have some level of magic no matter how small it is! For something to have no magic in it, it’s impossible, only non-organic materials and creatures have no magic in them unless they are imbued with it in some way.”

“Believe me Twilight I am just as surprised as you are, but aside from that I don’t sense any form of malevolent or harmful intention from it. However I would to know what this creature is, but I don’t wish to have it lodged away in some room in the castle, although…” Celestia then looked over to where Fluttershy was, which was at Pinkie side with the creature where they were sharing treats.

“Fluttershy, Twilight’s letter says that you are unable to understand this, yes?” the pegasus gave the princess a small nod.

“I’m sorry princess but I can’t understand it, but it also seems that it is unable to understand us. I was also unable to communicate with the other creature that was with it.”

“Speaking of which, Twilight you said that this creature seemed to ‘absorb’ this other creature with a sphere it has.”

“Yes princes.” The unicorn then rounded around Celestia, and then pointed at the creature’s waist, where the princess saw a black belt with six tiny little spheres on it. Most of them were red and white with a black band, but some were differently colored.

“It used one of the red and white spheres to absorb the large rock creature that it had with it.”

“Interesting.” Just as Celestia was wandering on how the creature was able to use an artifact to absorb another creature, the mysterious being in question started to get back up to its feet while a worried expression holds over its face.

The princes, as well as the other ponies, all watched with curiosity as the creature quickly rushes out of the building. Following behind it Celestia watched as the creature actually start grabbing the spheres on its belt, and watched as they doubled in size and opened up with a ‘popping’ sound. That’s when Celestia and the other ponies watched with marvel as six unique creatures just appeared in front of the shop, all within flashes of brilliant white light.

One creature is undoubtedly the large rock creature that Twilight has written about, and Celestia was indeed surprised in how unusual it looked, with its large bulging red nose, bushy mustache and three floating mini rock heads. The next creature that the princess noticed was a large cow-like creature, its massively bulky body is covered in red fur with three bright blue rings along its barrel, but what was most unusual about the creature was the two large rocky mounds on its back. But unlike these two creatures, the other four all seemed tired, exhausted, some even showed signs of being in minor pain.

The third creature was a wolf with a large amount of white fur along its head, while its body was covered in red fur. And the princess couldn’t be sure, but there seem to be bits of its fur were made out of rocks, even the tips of its folded ears. The next creature looked like a slim bodied weasel, or ferret type of animal with a coat of blemished white fur with patches of violet markings, as well as some yellow bits along its whiskers and near its snout. The fourth creature looked like a seahorse, which appeared to be slightly larger than a normal pony, but its beautiful blue scales seemed to be slightly blemished and knicks on it. The final creature was definitely the most beautiful, with its pale blue fur and wavy tails, but its beauty was soured by some of the harsh injuries it has.

“Look at all of them!” the princess heard a random mare say.

“I can’t believe that thing had all six of these things in those tiny balls.” Said a random stallion.

As the ponies around her continued to comment on the creature, and six other creatures, Celestia watched as the creature took the pack off its back and started rummaging through it. a moment later the bipedal creature pulled out a few red and orange bottles, a green plastic bag, and what looks to be a medical kit. It then started to spray the most injured spot of each of the new creatures with the bottles, which caused the six creatures to flinch, cringe, and groan in pain. After the creature had finished spraying the most injured spots on each creature, it then took the kit and started applying ointments and salves to the less serious looking injuries, before wrapping bandages or medical patches on said areas.

Once the treat was done with the creature then grabbed the green bag, and started to pull out an assortment of berries and gave them to each of the creature, who began eating them at a slow rate. And as they ate the princess watched with interest as the six creatures seem to get their energy back, all of them quickly regaining their vigor and looking as if they were not tired or exhausted.

“The poor things.” Fluttershy said in sad tone as she looked at the injured creatures. “How did they all get so hurt.”

“I don’t know but at least their owner is taking care of them.” Celestia said as she watches the creature fuss over the others, like a mother hen checking if her chicks are alright.

“I can’t believe that thing had all six of those creatures in those tiny balls.” Pinkie Pie bubbled as she trotted over to the group, but stopped when the wolf creature growled at her. “Whoa easy there fido I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Perhaps Pinkie its best not to approach unless their owner has permitted it.”

Celestia advised as she and the other members of the pink ponies friends trotted over to the group of mysterious creatures. As she and the other ponies stood just a few feet from the group, she continued to watch as the creature went about and checking to ensure the other creatures are alright. Celestia smiled as she watches the creature dot on the creatures, while they all seemed to get better with each passing second. The princess was surprised to see the injured creature actually show signs of recovery so fast.

“So princess.” The alicorn heard Rainbow Dash says as the pegasus flies to the princess’s side. “What are you going to do with the creature?” the princess took a moment to think about this topic, and even she was unsure on what to do with the creature.

“It is clearly a sentient creature, and a caring one at that, so I suppose that it will be fine in leaving it here in Ponyville.”

“If that’s the case princess, then I volunteer to let it stay at my cottage.” The princess turned to look at Fluttershy and saw that Twilight and her friends, plus some of the other towns ponies looked genuinely surprised.

“Really Fluttershy?” Applejack asked her pegasus friend. “You’ll look after this lot.” The pegasus gave the earth pony a fervent nod.

“Of course! Besides we don’t know if this poor creature and its friends have a home or not, so I’ll be willing to let them stay at my cottage for as long as they want. Plus if I stay around them long enough we may become friends, and I might be able to understand them!”

“That sounds like a wonderful idea Fluttershy.” Celestia says to the pegasus in a very pleased manner. “In that case could I ask that you send me a report on any progress you make with the creature, I wish to learn more about this strange biped as well.”

“Of course princess.”

“Well then with all that said and done, I will take my leave.”

Celestia bid her little ponies a farewell as her horn generates magic, and once again uses teleportation to head back to Canterlot. As the princess reappears back at the castle, the alabaster alicorn looked around and saw that her sister was nowhere in sight.

“She probably headed off to bed, it was rather late of her to be up at this time of day. I suppose I’ll just have to inform Luna of this mysterious creature tomorrow.”

~~~~~

Today was just full of surprises for Matt, the latest of which was getting served some tasty treats from a very energic Pokémon. But the biggest surprise was coming face to face with, what could be the final evolution of these small equine Pokémon, and it was quite the sight to behold.

It seemed to be just as tall as he was if he was standing up, and its coat of fur was so pure white that it looked like a sparkling blanket of snow, and its mane and tail both looked like a curtain of an aurora borealis that’s in continuous motion. The only odd thing about the Pokémon was that it was wearing gilded accessories, like a crown, a rather large necklace, and golden hoof shoes. In fact when it came up to him, Matt felt like whatever this Pokémon was it was more than just a wild Pokémon, there was just something about it that made, different. It was hard for the trainer to explain.

“Well whatever it was it was certainly a sight to see.” Matt said to himself as he finishes giving his team the best treat he could give them. After all if this place really doesn’t have people in it, then there’s no way there would be a Center around.

“Sorry guys, but this is the best I can for your injuries.” Matt says to his team, while getting various calls in confirmation of their treatments. Ninetails scooted over to the young man, and started to nuzzle into his side while murmuring gently.

“Good girl.” Matt simply said as he petted the Fox Pokémon.

“Now then I better get you guys food as well, but…” the trainer glanced around at the small herd of Pokémon around him and his team, all of them either looking at them, or looking like their silently whispering to each other.

“We might want to go somewhere that isn’t surrounded by these guys, and in the middle of the crossway.”

Matt got up from his crouched position on the ground and reached for his backpack, but as he stood up the same yellow and pink colored Pokémon approached him and his team, but stopped when Lycanroc growled menacing at it. Causing the poor thing to shrink back a few steps, and make the blue winged one knicker angerly and spreading its wings. But before it and Lycanroc could get into a fight, both Matt and the other Pokémon managed to stop the pair before they could do so. Once things have settled down the yellow and pink Pokémon trotted up to Matt, and gently bit down on the cuff of his sleeve and started to tug on it.

“It looks like it wants me to follow it.” the trainer said to himself before allowing himself to be pulled along by the Pokémon, but not before returning his team back to their Pokéballs.

The Pokémon continued to tug the young man along for a few paces, before letting the trainer’s sleeve go and just flew a foot in front of Matt to guide him, somewhere. And while the trainer follows the Pokémon he continues to look about the town, but unlike the first venture to the bakery which was quite desolate, there were now a large assortment of Pokémon that were out and about. And all of them were the same trifecta of species that he was familiar with at this point, but all of them had so much variety of color that Matt wondered if they truly are the same type, since its VERY rare for a species of Pokémon to have such a vast assortment of color amongst them. but there was also something else that Matt has noticed about these Pokémon as he watches and observes them. All of them, at least the bigger ones, all have some kind of marking or tattoo plastered on their haunches. And as far as Matt could tell there is no correlation to one single meaning for them to signify.

Some time later Matt and the flying equine have left the town behind them, and traveled down a long dirt road where at the end of the road stood a hill. A hill that appeared to be transformed into some kind of building, if the door, and windows was of any indication. Not only that, but there were small bird houses, and a large assortment of small creatures around the hill.

“Now this is a sanctuary for Pokémon if I ever saw one, either that or some kind of nursery.” Matt commented as he and the winged Pokémon made their way over the small bridge, and up the path to the hills door. However the door only reached up to the young mans chest, so he had to crouch down and walk pretty much hunched over to fit inside the room.

“A little cramped but it sure looks cozy in here.” The winged Pokémon then gestured the trainer over to the other side of the room, where a couch stood along with a nice comfy looking chair. As Matt shuffled his way over to the little Pokémon a thought came to him as a bemused grin cross his face.

“I guess that this really is a town with no humans in it, and is populated by unknown Pokémon.” Matt said with sobered tone of realization as he sits down by the couch, where his little host then gestured him to stay put while it flew off to a different part of the building.

“This is going to be quite the tale to tell everyone back at the ranch…if I figure out where I am, and where home is from here.”

Chapter 5: A Nice Peaceful Day

It’s been roughly a few days since Matt has been in this town of small colorful unknown Pokémon, and for those few days things have been going fairly well. The Pokémon that he was staying with for those two days, who he has been calling Shyly because most times it interacts with him, it’s been a bit nervous and skittish before being more friendly.

During his time with Shyly Matt has discovered that the Pokémon was female, with her genitals being mostly in full view whenever she stands in front of the young man. Shyly has also been a surprisingly sweet hostess, surprising the trainer by her cooking food, feeding the other Pokémon that live in the hill-cottage with her. Aside from his hostess, Matt has had limited interaction with the other Pokémon, but he seemed to have gathered just enough information on who is who. Especially Shyly’s friends. Matt has also learned that the majority of the Pokémon that either visit him, he sees when walking about the town with Shyly. But to the young man these Pokémon, IF they really were Pokémon, seem to be more than they appear.

The one that has been coming by to visit him at the cottage more was the purple horned one he’s called Star, because of the star marking on her haunches, has shown to be not just any normal Pokémon. Every time she came by she would spend time with Shyly, drink tea and having snacks no less, then spend a lot of time to watch Matt. And scribble away on sheets of paper with a feathered quill, it was as if she was studying him, and it was kind of making Matt feel a little uncomfortable.

One Pokémon that Matt has started to gain a fondness for was the very hyper energetic bouncy pink one, who the trainer has aptly named Sugar because it seemed like she’s always on a sugar high. Sugar hasn’t been around to visit as often as Star, but whenever Matt has gone into town, the pink equine always seem to appear out of nowhere and just be a delightful sweetheart. She’s just as affectionate as Ninetales.

Another one of the Pokémon that Matt has been growing close to, mostly because the Pokémon herself seems to fascinated by him was one he calls Crystal. Now Crystal was another Pokémon like Star, although she was pure white with a royal blue mane and tail that’s clearly been styled, but she clearly acted like she was top of the pack. And the moment that she saw Matt she wouldn’t leave him alone! the Pokémon kept circling him, eyeing him up and down, and keeps using her psychic powers to tug at his clothes, even attempting on taking said clothes off him on their first encounter.

There was another Pokémon that Matt has seen more of than others, and it was the orange ‘standard’ species with a cowboy hat plopped on her head. Matt has started calling her simply Rodeo. Now this one Pokémon seems to be on the fence whenever Matt meets her, as in she neither seems excited or nervous around him. Like she doesn’t really care whether or not the trainer was around or not.

So aside from Shyley, Sugar, Star, Crystal, and Rodeo are the only Pokémon of the town that he’s had most contact with. Other of the community still tend to give the young man space, while occasionally braving to trot up to him and act friendly.

Although there is one that seems to be more cautious than the others. the blue winged one that he and Probopass, which Matt has given the name Spite to, as it always keeps its eyes on him, narrowed and looking at him with a suspicious glare. Matt is unsure if Spite is male or female, as it always keeps its distance and never comes around him. but so long as Spite doesn’t try and pick a fight, Matt was fine with her long casted stares, and snorts and unfriendly knickers.

But even after getting to know a few of the equine Pokémon, Matt was still unsure on where he was. Still after a few days there were no other signs of humans around, or if there actually were any. He has thought about leaving the town and just take a chance to explore and see if he could find someone, but considering he is clearly in an unknown region with who knows what kind of dangerous are out there, Matt decided to play it patiently and carefully. Until he knows what Region he’s in, and get a layout of the Region itself, Matt will remain at Shyly’s cottage. But that still leaves him with one problem, how is he going to figure out anything if he can’t read whatever these Pokémon’s language is. The few books he’s seen, both at the old ruins and in Shyly’s cottage, the books were written in gibberish so even if Matt finds a map of this Region, he’d be unable to read or use it effectively.

Today Matt was just wandering around the town of small equine Pokémon, alone this time and was mostly just taking in the scenery, and during his meanderings Matt managed to make his way into what looks like a park. Looking around the area the trainer could see quite a lot of Pokémon running around. Some groups were playing with each other, some seem to be taking it easy and relax, all in all the scenery was quite a peaceful one.

“It sure is peaceful here.” Matt says as he continues to walk through the park, causing some of the Pokémon to look at him and give him varying degrees of friendlies and timidness. But the ones that seem to be the most eager to see him were the really small Pokémon, in fact all of them started to gather around him and just started to poke him, circle him, some of the winged ones even flew up and started to pet his head. one even landed on his shoulder and tried to lift his right arm.

“Guess you little guys have never seen a human like me before huh.” Matt said as reached up to the Pokémon playing with his arm, and started petting it on the head.

But while he was doing so, one of the little ones was fiddling around with his Pokéballs, and accidently knocked one off. Matt tried to catch the wayward ball, causing the little ones around him to scramble away, however he was unable to catch the ball before it enlarged itself and let out the Pokémon within. With a pop and a flash of light the trainers Alolan Ninetales now stood a foot from the trainer, who looked towards Matt yipped happily and made her way up to him and started to nuzzle into him, while the trainer picks the Pokéball up.

“Hey there girl.” Matt says as he knelt down, and started to pet the Fox Pokémon’s checks. But as the trainer was dotting on his Pokémon, Matt noted that the little Pokémon quickly gathered around Ninetales, and started to look the Pokémon over. Which the ice type found amusing and actually started to play with the little ones, running around being chased or being the one chasing the little ones.

“Well they seem to be getting along pretty well.” Matt said before feeling the other Pokéballs on his belt wobble, and when he looked down he found a few of the little ones trying to un-latch the balls from his belt.

“You guys wanna see my other Pokémon?” the little ones didn’t really respond to Matt’s question, and just continued to try and un-latch the other balls.

Matt gave a small chuckle before standing up and reaching towards his belt, and one by one let his team of Pokémon out of their balls. Each of the Pokémon took a moment reorient themselves, before taking notice of the small Pokémon gather around them and started to check them out.

Both Camerupt and Kingdra seemed to like the attention, and the two of them started to play around in the park with the little ones. Lycanroc didn’t seem to like getting a lot of attention, and scampered over to where Matt was standing, then used him as a shield to keep the little ones between her and them. Matt just found this amusing, as Lycanroc is not a really sociable Pokémon. Turning back to the rest of his team the trainer found the little Pokémon using Probopass as an obstacle course, climbing over it and using its miniature heads as stepping stones to reach the top of its head, then there was Mienshao who appeared to be playing tag with the little ones. With the small Pokémon failing to even catching the Martial Arts Pokémon, at least the ones without wings are. But even the winged ones were having trouble of catching Mienshao.

“It looks like everyone is getting along.” Matt said before turning to look behind him, where Lycanroc was still sticking by his side, and noting that the bigger pokemon were just watching from a distance. All of them having mixed expression of curiosity, worry, and uncertainty.

“At least most are.” The trainer remarked before petting Lycanroc on the head. the young man then walked a few feet towards a tree, and sat down with his Wolf Pokémon and about five of the little ones, and sat down in the shade of the tree and just watched the herd of small Pokémon and his team play.

~~~~~

Today Apple Bloom and her two friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, were venturing around Ponyville trying to come up with a new way to get their cutie marks. Ever since the trio of fillies became friends they’ve spent nearly all their time trying to figure out how to get there marks, and this quest for a cutie mark has ended up getting the three into some sticky situations. And even crippling failures. But these fillies were undeterred, they’d never give up in trying everything to get their marks. Although today the trio was having some difficulties coming up with a good plan this time around.

“Well I’m stumped. I don’t know what else we could try.” Sweetie Belle lamented as she trotted in between her two friends.

“How about we try getting our cutie marks at the Spa!” Scootaloo proposed as she trotted ahead of her two friends in excitement. “We could be massagers, or even ugh, we could—”

“Scootaloo I don’t think we’re spa pony material.” Apple Bloom said to her excitable pegasus friend. “Besides, I don’t think Aloe and Lotus will let us in.”

“Yeah after that whole incident at Phill’s vegetable stall no pony is going to hire us to see if we can get our cutie marks.” The earth pony says to her friend who puffed her cheeks a little bit.

“I said I was sorry. Not my fault that his cabbages got turned into burning balls of fire.”

“Scootaloo you tried to cook the cabbages like they were popcorn, and ended up causing the whole wagon to explode and nearly toasted Burnt Oak and Miss. Honey Bee’s stalls, and supplies with those flaming cabbages.” Sweetie Belle added as she recollects about said flaming balls of leafy greens as they went everywhere.

The three fillies continued to go back and forth about the incident at the vegetable stall, and whether or not it was indeed Scootaloo’s fault for the barrage of flaming cabbages, the trio ceased their debate when they heard lots of laughter coming from the park. Curious as to what was going on the fillies trotted to the park, and upon entering the area they found the source of all of the laughing. Apple Bloom and the others found the majority of their classmates playing with some strange looking animals, each one greatly different from the other.

“Where in the world did these things come from?” Scootaloo asked as she and her friends got closer to their classmates and the strange animals.

“I don’t know.” Sweetie Belle said before spotting their friend Twist. “Hey Twist!” the red maned filly skid to a stop and looked over towards Sweetie Belle and her friends.

“Hey, you guys come on and play with us!” the speckled filly lisped as she beckoned the crusaders to come over and play.

“But Twist what’s going on here? Where did these animals come from?” Apple Bloom asked as she looked over to probably the strangest thing in the park, a large stone face.

“They all came from that thing over there.”

Apple Bloom and the other two fillies looked over to where Twist was pointing, and all three fillies balked at what they saw. sitting under a tree with what looked like a wolf laying next to it, and having a few of their own classmates sitting around it, was a big, thing. the fillies weren’t really sure how to describe the thing they were looking at, the only thing they can not about it is that it’s completely covered in clothes, has a short black mane, and just looked so strange. But the fillies quickly got over their confusion, and were over taken by their foalish curiosity and actually approached their fellow classmates, and the more playful animals joining in on the fun.

Chapter 6: Training & Communication

A few more days go by since Matt has ventured through the town, and has the collection of young’uns play with his Pokémon, getting a better layout of the town and even visited the towns library, but again nothing was readable as it was still in intelligible gibberish. Aside from not being able to learn about anything from the books, or from the clearly intelligent Pokémon that are running around. Since the town is not baring any usable or beneficial information to help him, Matt is wondering if it’s worthwhile to take a chance and venture out into this weird world. in fact, he’s really contemplating about doing just that, see what this entire world has to offer, and what it could hold. But again without proper knowledge of what this world does have, it’s too risky to leave and run into any troubles that he could run in.

Over the course of the few days Matt was visited over and over by Star again, and like usual thus far the little Pokémon continues to study Matt, but these visits were a little different than the previous days. Every time Star came over to visit and did her little sit and study of Matt, she would light up her horn which would also create a thin veil of violet light around him. What this was for was unknown to him, but every time it happened Star was really happy about it. Another time that Star came to visit the tall white female he meet once also popped by, and during her visit she also surround Matt with thin veil light, and just like Star she was pretty happy about it.

Aside from the small light shows from Star and Sunny, which Matt has taken to call the tall white one, Matt has had some other noteworthy experiences like going to Rodeo’s farm when the Pokémon guided him there. At the farm Matt was surprised to see that the large property was only managed by Rodeo, and three other Pokémon, not to mention seeing the other Pokémon that kind of looked like Miltank’s, Mareep’s, and something that looked like Torchic’s, and there were some Tepig’s or Pignite’s rolling around in the mud. It was certainly interesting seeing these Pokémon run an entire farm on their own.

~~~~~

Today though Matt and his Pokémon team were out in one of the vast open fields, and today the trainer and his team were going through their usual training routines, while also allowing Matt to see how his team was feeling physically overall. At the moment Matt was carefully watching Lycanroc and Mienshao battle each other, with Mienshao being more on the aggressive side, while Lycanroc tries to dodge and counter attack whenever she saw an opening. As for the rest of Matt’s team they were just relaxing on the sidelines, also watching their fellow teammates go about their sparing.

“Alright guys take a break for now.” Matt said to two Pokémon who stopped after their last attack’s clashed. The Wolf and Martial Arts Pokémon made their way over to the group, while Matt turned to look at the rest of his team.

“Alright How about Kingdra and Ninetails go at it for a bit.” Ninetails stood up from her laid position and shook herself a few times before trotting past Matt, while Kingdra hopped along on his tail towards where Ninetails was.

“Now remember guys, now actual moves in this sparing match. Basic attacks and some minimal type moves, but nothing more okay.” Both Pokémon gave a small cry of acknowledgment and readied themselves to battle. “Then begin.”

Kingdra started things off by firing small water blast’s at the Fox Pokémon, but Ninetails simply hopped out of the way and made her way over to Kingdra. Where she then unleashed a small gust of frigid cold air. But the Dragon Pokémon used his powerful tail to jump out of the way, causing the cold air to frost over a patch of grass, and now from his new aerial advantage Kingdra fired a more powerful water blast down at Ninetails. Yet the Fox Pokémon did not panic, instead, Ninetails breathed a lot of cold air while spinning around in place, creating a small fog cover. And when the water blast struck through it, Ninetails was gone as the fog dissipates. While Kingdra was descending from his jump he started to look around for Ninetails, unfortunately for the water-type the ice and fairy-type hybrid managed to sneak up behind him and leapt up to give a good smack in the back with a hindleg kick.

As the two Pokémon continued to spar with each other, Matt heard something coming from behind him which he thought was just his team cheering the other two on, but when the trainer heard what sounded like a very panicked ‘whinny’ Matt looked behind him and saw Shyly and Star galloping towards the group. Looking fairly panicked.

“Hey there guys what’s—” Before Matt could even finish his sentence Shyly flew past him, and got between Kingdra and Ninetails and appeared to try to get them to stop sparing. In fact the little Pokémon looked like she’s about to cry.

“Shyly what’s up?” Matt asked as he walked over to the small, winged Pokémon, and almost immediately took a step back when the usually peaceful Pokémon gave him a very angered look, and started to knicker and neighing at him rather angrily.

“Whoa, whoa, easy there Shyly, what’s wrong?” the little Pokémon just continued to neighing at him, but the little Pokémon stopped when Ninetales nudged her way between Matt and Shyly, and gave a small growl.

“Ninetails there’s no need to be rude.” Matt says as he pets the Fox Pokémon’s head to try and calm her down, and as the trainer does so Star comes trotting up to the side and started to talk to Shyly.

“I wonder what got her so upset?” Matt wondered as he watched Shyly start to settle down before noticing Star starts digging through one of the small satchels strapped to her barrel. ‘What is she up to?’

The trainers question was quickly answered as Star pulls out what looks like a rolled up sheet of paper. Once the Pokémon had dug out what she was looking for, the psychic-type then unrolled it and started to gentle knicker as her big eyes scanned the page. Figuring that the Pokémon was doing something private, Matt turned his attention away from the horned psychic-type and back to his team, who all looked just as confused as he did. But they all decided to let the awkward moment pass them by, and were about to go back to training however before Matt could even make the suggestion to his team, a strange sensation raced up his back causing him to shiver slightly.

“Whoa! What was that?”

“It worked!” Matt jumped when a sudden voice just blurted out in excitement. Turning around to look for the person that just spoke, Matt didn’t see anyone. “The translation matrix actually worked! We can understand him now.” Matt slowly looked down towards where Star and Shyly were, where Star had a proud smile on her face.

“D-did one of you two just, talk?”

“Yes I did.” Star said excitedly, her voice clear and unmistakably female, sounding like someone who is about a few years younger than him. but that fact that Star was speaking perfect clear English caused Matt to jump backwards in shock.

“What! How did—what is going on?”

“Don’t worry, everything is fine.” Star says while trying to calm Matt down.

“I just casted a spell on you that allows you to understand our langue, and for us to understand yours.” Matt didn’t seem to fully understand what Star meant, but the fact that he could now talk with a Pokémon like a human, and it also means that Matt might get some of his questions answered.

“Okay. Give me some time to take this all in, this is going take some time to get used to.” Matt said as he sat down on the ground, hand brushing through his hair. A few minutes later and Matt was more or less accustomed to the new strangeness that was now a part of his life.

“So now that I can understand you guys, can you answer some questions for me?”

“Of course, but we also have questions for you to.”

“I kind of figured. But I think it would be best to actually introduce ourselves, my name is Matt.” The trainer said with a small grin.

“It’s nice to now officially meet you Matt, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is Fluttershy.” Star, or Twilight as she was actually called said, as she gestures to both herself and her winged companion, who after being introduced stepped in front of Twilight and gave Matt a rather stern look.

“Matt I don’t want to sound pushy or mean, but why are you having your pets fighting each other!” Fluttershy said as she continues to give Matt that stern look, but its intimidating factor was down graded slightly by her sadden tone of voice.

“Well for one thing my Pokémon aren’t my pets, we’re friends and partners.” Matt says as he pets Ninetales on the head, causing the Fox Pokémon to murmur in delight. “And they were sparing with one another, it helps keeps their skills sharp, and is good exercise for them.”

“But what if they hurt each other!” Fluttershy countered.

“That’s why I’m here.” Matt retorted. “I keep a close eye on my group, and make sure they don’t go overboard with their spars or play fighting. And if they do I can treat their wounds.”

“But its still dangerous. Why would you make or allow your, friends, to fight, spar, or whatever it is with each other.” Fluttershy was now raising her voice as she trotted closer to Matt with a fairly madder expression, but the winged equine was stopped when Twilight placed a hoof on her back. the little equine’s angered expression quickly devolved into a more remorse look.

“You’ll have to forgive Fluttershy, she’s really protective over animals. So seeing them fight each other causes her to get emotional.” Twilight says as she tries to settle Fluttershy down, which thankfully seems to be working as the mare was visibly relaxing.

“Understandable. But Pokémon are a lot tougher than they look, in fact, battling each other is how Pokémon hone their skills and powers more effectively. And with a trainers help; they can learn various ways to use their powers.” Matt explained as he looked over to his team.

“I’m not sure how all of you and the other creatures function Fluttershy, but Pokémon are initially wild creatures and choose to whether or not to stay with a trainer, so because they are initially wild creatures they have to fight each other for survival in the wilds. As well as show that they are not vulnerable to stronger Pokémon.”

“I still don’t like it. No creature should have to fight just to live, or to not be bullied.” Fluttershy mumbled as she sat down.

“That’s the law of nature Fluttershy, it may not be fair or pretty, but its just something that all creatures have to live through.”

“I have to agree with him Fluttershy.” Twilight said as she looked at her winged friend. “I know you try to keep your animal friends safe and live peacefully Fluttershy, but you know that you can’t keep them from being wild animals.”

Fluttershy stayed quite for a bit before finally acknowledging what both Matt and Twilight were telling her, but she still didn’t seem pleased with the prospect. Once the whole ordeal about how Matt treats his team, and the prospect of why Matt’s team was sparring, Twilight and Matt started to talk to one another. Asking questions and answering each other’s questions to the best of their abilities, and while the two were talking to each other Fluttershy was spending time with Matt’s Pokémon. She did ask if Twilight’s spell worked on them, but it seemed like it didn’t, which was fine by Matt. Talking equines of another world is one thing, but being able to understand and even talk to his Pokémon, which would’ve been a little to much for the trainer to handle at the moment.

Throughout their talks Matt was finally able to learn more about this new world he was in, as well as the inhabitants of this world. And after Matt was told about ponies, about this country, and the over all world, he answered the many questions that Twilight had. which was nearly a hundred questions, ranging from his species, the culture he comes from, the Pokémon species, what kind of powers and abilities they had, and other aspects and details about his world. She even asked on how Matt even came to their world…

“I’m not exactly sure on how I came here, but…I might have an idea. But its far-fetched at best.”

“What is it?” Twilight asked as she looked up at Matt with a curious glance.

“There is a legendary Pokémon, a being of extraordinary power, called Palkia and it has the power over space.”

“Space?” Twilight echoed. “What do you mean by that?”

“Palkia is able to bend and control the fabric of space to its will, in fact it actually lives in a separate dimensional plain.”

“Wait a minute! This creature, Pokémon, can control space itself!?” Twilight balked in shock and bewilderment, which Matt just nodded his head, but he then gave the mare a small frown.

“Although, the reason why I think this is a far-fetched idea, is because Palkia RARELLY leaves its home dimension. Or use its power to affect anything in my world.”

“So your not sure if it is this Palkia’s power that brought you here?” Matt just shook his head. “Well…if there is a way to help you find a home Matt, I’ll do whatever I can to help. And I’m sure that—oh!”

“What’s up Twilight?”

“You should meet the princess!” Twilight says excitedly as she hops up to her hooves. “If there is any pony that can help you find a way home, I’m sure she can. Plus, I’m sure she’ll like to actually meet you and be able to talk to you.”

“Wait. Is this princess of yours that tall white pony with the gold jewelry?”

“That’s right.”

“Huh so that’s what pony royalty looks like.” Matt said as he leaned back a little, using his hands to keep himself propped up. “Funny, I’d thought that royalty would be wearing some kind of fancy dress, or something like that.”

“Oh princess Celestia does, but she only wears stuff like that for very extravagant parties and events.” Twilight confirmed before reaching into her saddlebags, and pulled out a piece of paper and feathered quill.

“If you want I can ask the princess to schedule a meeting with her, so that you and she could talk and maybe find a way home.”

“I’d like that. thanks Twilight.”

Matt said as he gave the small equine a heartfelt smile, which Twilight matched before starting to write down something down on the piece of paper. Hopefully this princess could help Matt find a way home, otherwise, Matt will have find some other way home on his own. Or start prepping himself to live in this strange new world, being the only one of his kind among a planet of alien equines.

Chapter 7: Meetings in the Capital

Matt was standing in front of the large castle of the ponies capital, and it was certainly a sight to behold. Especially how tall it was. Unlike other castles that Matt has seen, especially from his adventures in the Kalos region, where there were many castles and chateaus, this castle was at least triple the height of all of them. the reason as to why Matt was at the ponies capital city, let alone standing in front of the castle, was because his new equine acquaintance Twilight was able to schedule a meeting with the leader of the ponies. And the reason for Matt visiting the castle to speak with the leader to see if she knows a way to send Matt and his team home.

“I’ll never understand why castles need such high ceilings, seems like a waste of space, and a perfect place for spies and assassins to hide.” Matt commented as he follows behind Twilight as the mare leads him to where they would meet the princess.

“Well you don’t have to worry about that Matt, there hasn’t been any assassination attempts on the princesses ever in Equestria’s history, or spies and thieves.” Twilight responded confidently. “In fact Equestria has been peaceful for a thousand years.”

“An impressive track record, but still, are these extremely high ceilings necessary?” Matt said as he kept looking up to the immensely high ceilings.

Matt and Twilight continued to banter back and forth about the ceilings structural design, mostly to past the time, and as the duo continued to make their way through the halls of the castle Matt started to notice that the other ponies they pass by were giving him odd looks. Those that were dressed up like maids and butlers gave him startled and fear looks, while the occasional armored pony gave him a stern look as they watched him walk past them. but none of the ponies thus far have been rather threatening so Matt was scared by any of the armored one, but he did feel bad that some of the ponies were being scared of him. hopefully, that after meeting with this princess of the nation’s things will be cleared up. Soon enough the duo came upon their destination, a nice furbished looking wooden door with a stylized sun on it, upon reaching the door Twilight then gave it a few good knocks.

“Enter.” A feminine voice said from the other side of the door before Twilight used her magic to open the door.

As Matt followed Twilight through the door the trainer started to examine the room, which looked like a very well decorated off to very wealthy business man. On one side of the room sat a large bookshelf filled to the brim with books, there was also a nice looking chandelier dangling from the ceiling, and a nice rug with two couches facing each other with a coffee table standing between them. then on the other side of the room sat a desk that had various stacks and books stacks either on it, or around in neat little piles with a small fireplace just a few feet from the desk. And sitting at the desk was the familiar large, winged horn equine, who looked away from a sheet of paper and looked over to Matt and Twilight.

“Oh good you’re here! Welcome, welcome.” The mare said in a very motherly kind voice as she gets up from her desk.

“Greetings Matt, am I pronouncing your name right dear?”

“Yeah.” Matt simply said as he allowed himself to be guided over to the couches, where he sat across from the two ponies.

“Now the reason for this meeting is because you wish to know if I can send you home?”

“That’s right. Twilight said that because of your long life you may have learned something that could help me.” Matt said to the princess.

“I see. Could you explain to me on how exactly you came to our world, and where you initially ended up.” Matt nodded his head and started to explain the strange circumstances of his arrival, from being bathed in a strange prismatic light, the next part was a little tough for Adam to remember as he blacked out a moment later, but what Adam does remember is tumbling through what looked like a blinding white tunnel.

“After that I’m not sure how long I was passed out, but once I woke up the next thing I knew was being in ruins deep in a forest that Twilight told me was called the Everfree.

“Interesting.” Celestia said as she rubbed the wrist of her foreleg against her chin. “Now if I remember correctly Twilight mentioned in her letter that you may have some idea on how you could’ve gotten here.”

“Well it’s more of a VERY far-fetched idea because I don’t think the one behind the idea would even do it.”

“And what is this idea of yours?” Celestia asked curiously.

“It has to do with a legendary Pokémon from my universe called Palkia.”

“Before you continue could you perhaps explain what a, Pokémon, is?” Celestia inquired as she looked a bit intrigued as she leaned a bit in her seat. “Twilight’s letter didn’t explain what these creatures are.”

“To put it as simply as I can, Pokémon a naturally wild creatures that are tied to nature very closely, and have attributes of nature and elemental forces incorporated into their biology.” Matt explained as best he could even if he was dumbing it down just a bit.

“Could I see one of your Pokémon? I’ve only got a brief glimpse of them when we first meet.”

“That’s alright with me. do you have a particular one in mind, or do you want me to pick.” Matt asked as he rested his right hand by his waist where his Pokéballs were.

“Actually there is one I would like to see. It’s the light blue furred creature with the multiple tails.” Matt gave a small smile and reached for his belt and bringing the Pokéball up. a moment later the Pokéball popped open, and in a flash of light Matt’s Alolan Ninetales appeared beside him, where it started to nuzzle up to him and lick his face.

“Down girl.” Matt said as he petted his affectionate partner. Once Ninetales had settled down he directed her over to the two ponies, who both were looking at her with intrigue, Celestia more so than Twilight. The Fox Pokémon then approached the princess cautiously while Celestia offered up a hoof as she drew nearer, and after a moment Ninetales became just as friendly towards the princess by nuzzling up to her, and even giving her some affectionate licks.

“It’s really quite friendly.” Celestia chortled as she petted the Pokémon’s head.

“This is Ninetales, a Pokémon that is an ice and fiery type.” Matt said to the princess as he watched his Pokémon just rest her head on Celestia’s leg and just enjoyed being pet.

“So this Pokémon is able to use ice based magic?” Celestia questioned which Matt nodded his head. “But what does fairy mean?”

“Well the fairy type is kind of hard to pin down, but it’s supposed to represent the more magical or supernatural forces of nature.”

“Now you said that you might have a feeling that one of these Pokémon maybe the reason why you were brought here?” Celestia asks as she continues to pet the Fox Pokémon.

“I wouldn’t really say a feeling, more like a very, very, farfetched idea about what might have happened.” Matt said uncertainty as he rubbed the back of his head.

“You see in my universe there is a legendary Pokémon, a Pokémon that has immense power and strange abilities that they are considered as nothing more than mythical stories. But they are real.”

“And this legendary Pokémon would be…”

“It’s called Palkia, a Pokémon that is said to be the entity of space itself. By that I mean being able to control the very fabric of space itself.”

“It’s able to…control the fabric of space?!” Celestia said in astonishment, which Matt just nodded his head.

“That’s right. it can make things in space warp, change, or even fracture. And it’s perfectly capable of traveling and transporting things through space.” Matt continued on explaining but then started to look uncertain.

“But the reason that I think that Palkia is not behind me being here is because of two facts.”

“And what kind of facts are those?” Twilight asked, who has been relatively quiet throughout the meeting, just listening intently to what is being said.

“The first fact is that Palkia RARELY, if ever, leaves its own personal spatial dominion which it calls home. and the second fact is that even if Palkia does travel to my world, for whatever reason, it rarely uses its space warping powers and abilities on anything unless its provoked or is being attacked.”

“But what would even attack something that controls space!” Twilight asked as looked at Matt with confusion.

“Palkia is indeed an extremely powerful being, but there are other Pokémon that are just as powerful, and would see Palkia’s movements into our world as its attempt to claim more territory to rule over.” Matt said before a groan left his mouth as she slouches back in his spot on the couch.

“But there are people out there that would do anything to control or possess a Pokémon of immense power like Palkia, and attempt to trap it.”

“That sounds like a bit of suicide for somepony to even try and attempt.” Celestia remarked as she stopped petting Ninetales head.

“Oh it is, but it doesn’t stop people from preparing and make the attempt.” Matt then sat up straighter before he continued on with his original statement.

“But like I said, the possibility that Palkia would even come to my world, or even use its power on me specifically, it’s practically a 1 out of a 100 percent.”

“So given all of this, something else was the cause of you being brought to Equestria.” Celestia muttered aloud as she tapped her chin with her hoof. The room was silent for roughly about a minute as Celestia silently contemplated to herself before she looked up towards Matt.

“As of this moment Matt I’m not sure if I know of a way to send you home, as I’ve never come across a situation like this. However if I do some researcher in the archives restricted area, I might find something that could help you.”

“I’d greatly appreciate it princess!” Matt said gratefully as he bows his head.

“However with my royal duties and other obligations that I have to attend to, I am uncertain on how often I will be able to commit to researching a way to send you home. I’m sorry.”

“I understand.”

“Princess if you want, I can help in with the researcher!” Twilight quickly cut it as she looked up to her mentor.

“And while I would graciously appreciate the offer Twilight, but only royals can access the restricted section of the archives. So I’m afraid you won’t be able to help in this manner.” Twilight looked greatly disappointed as Celestia had to debunk the unicorns offer of assistance. “Now onto a different matter, Matt I suggest that you remain here in the castle grounds, that way if I do come across anything that could help you return home then we could initiate right away.”

“Wait! You would let me just, stay in the castle as a houseguest?” Matt asked with a clear tone of surprise in his voice.

“Of course. I’m not above in allowing non-noble or high class personal to stay in the castle, I just rarely get the opportunity to do so.”

“Well if you’re okay with it then I accept your offer.”

“Excellent.” Celestia said cheerfully. “Now is there anything else you would like to discuss?” Matt just shook his head.

“With that I believe this meeting has come to an end, and it looks like it approaching noon, so why don’t we have lunch. Afterwards I’ll show you to one of the guest room that you can stay in.”

Both Matt and Twilight agreed to Celestia’s idea in getting lunch, so after returning Ninetales to her Pokéball, the group left Celestia’s office and started to make their way through the castle. And as they made their way to the dining hall, Celestia started to ask Matt more questions about his world, as well as the different verity of Pokémon. Including the ones that are attributed to being referred to as legendary. Twilight also started to ask more questions from Matt, despite asking a plethora of questions yesterday that Matt thought that the unicorn wouldn’t have never ended. But aside from the questions about his world, the various types of Pokémon, and other facets about his world, both mares asked on how Matt acquired his team of Pokémon. Which he was happy to reminisce about.

As Matt was wrapping up the story on how he came across his Kingdra, when it was just a little Horsea, where he even showed a picture of the little water-type to the two mares which they both gushed at, the group came upon the dining hall. entering said hall Matt spotted a pair of ponies already at the table. One of the two was a stallion, white coated with a blue mane and tail, and was wearing a bit more fancier looking armor than the other guards. So Matt figured that this one was a higher officer. The second pony was like Celestia, by an alicorn as well. However this mare was pink furred, and her styled curled mane and tail had three shades of color being purple, pink, and yellow. She was also wearing jewelry like Celestia, and was also dawning a small golden crown.

“Shining Armor!” Twilight said happily as she dashed towards the table, where the stallion hopped out of his seat and meet Twilight halfway.

“Twiliy! This is certainly a surprise; I didn’t expect to see you here.” The stallion said as he gave Twilight a hug. As the two had their hugging session, Matt noticed the mare at the table leave her seat and joined them.

“Twilight it’s so good to see you!” the mare said, although Matt saw that Twilight looked a bit uncertain as she looked at the alicorn.

“Um I’m sorry but do I know you?”

“Twilight this your old foal sitter remember?” it seem to have taken Twilight a moment, but Matt saw a flash of realization spring up in the unicorn.

“Cadence! Oh my gosh I didn’t recognized you.” Twilight said as she trotted to the mare, where she and this Cadence started to do a weird little dance and chant. But Matt decided to not comment on the act, as it seemed like an in-joke or private thing. but while the trainer turned away from the mares, he noticed that the stallion was giving a curious look. Thankfully Celestia came around Matt and approached the stallion.

“Shining Armor this is Matt, an acquaintance of your sister as well as my guest in the castle. When you have the time, could you inform the rest of the guard, as well as the castle staff about this?”

“Of course princess.” The stallion then looked back to Matt with an apologetic look. “Sorry if I was gawking at you a moment ago.”

“It’s fine, I’m kind of used to it at this point.” Matt said as he lowered himself down and stuck out a hand. “My name is Matt.”

“Shining Armor, captain of the Royal Guard.”

After meeting Shining Armor, Matt was then introduced to Cadence who Shining said was his fiancé, which caused Twilight to hop around like a kid getting Christmas presents in Summer. And once Twilight was calmed down the entire group sat down at the table, where they talked as they awaited for their food. Most of the conversation was Twilight asking about the wedding, and when it was going to take place, as for Matt he and Celestia just talked amongst themselves. And this time Celestia was explaining a few details about the world he finds himself in, a little bit about herself, and the nation of Equestria. Plus some general tips about what goes about in the capital city, especially what goes on inside the castle so that Matt doesn’t make any mistakes.

‘Well at least things are progressing, even a little.’ Matt thought to himself as he saw a few servant ponies trot over to the table with trays of food. As the servants placed the food in front of everyone, they left and left the party to continue and talk amongst themselves, where Matt again answered questions from all of the ponies. But as the group took time to eat their meals Matt took a glance at Celestia as he ate away at his salad.

‘I really do hope Celestia is able to find a way to send me and my team home.’

~~Elsewhere~~

Several miles from Canterlot Mountain in a large forest to the west something was stirring within the trees. Within the forests various black equine creatures galloped and flew about, while others spined green slime about the trees and creating what looked like nests. The small black creatures hissed and chittered about as they all fiddled about amongst the trees. But while this horde of small creatures scuttled about, a large ebony chiton figure looked towards the mountain while standing on a small hill in a small clearing in the forest. Just then the figure saw a one of the small black creatures flying towards the clearing, and when it reached the clearing it landed before the taller figure and bowed before it, while the tall figure just glared down at it.

“Report.” The tall figure asked in a reverberating feminine voice, but her tone was more of a commanding one.

“Things are going according as planned.” The smaller creature said which was also in a reverberating voice, but was instead male “The ponies are saying that the proceeding for the wedding are well underway, but the arrangements are still being finalized.”

“Then we’re right on schedule.” The mare then flicked her head to the side. “Dismissed.” The smaller creature did as the mare said and flew off into the forest.

“Now it’s my turn to infiltrate the castle, and carry out my plan.” The tall figure said as she started to flutter her wings.

“And if everything goes as planned, not only will I be able to replace the princess of love, but it will give me the opportunity to take over the kingdom and absorb all the love and affection the ponies of these lands have for their rulers.” The mare then turned towards the forest where a small group of the smaller creatures stood.

“Remember grubs do not show yourselves and remain in this forest until I say otherwise.”

“Yes Queen Chrysalis!” the group said in unison before the mare took to the air, and made her way towards Canterlot Mountain.

Chapter 8: Affairs in the Castle

Shining Armor and a platoon of his Royal Guard were all standing on the side lines of the training halls sparing arena, where they were watching the newest live-in guest of the castle, Matt, training with his six strange creatures he calls Pokémon, wither by instructing them as they fight each other or has mock battles with one his Pokémon. It was actually interesting to see the group train along with each other, especially since the captain could see that Matt appears to have no form of magic, or whatever strange powers that the Pokémon have, yet he was proving to be quite agile as he bobs and weaves through some of the Pokémon’s attacks. And then get in a few blows with punches or kicks.

“I gotta say sir, these creatures are really interesting in watching them spar with their owner.” One of the stallion guards commented as he watched Matt currently spar with the small weasel creature, where they were launching punches at each other and blocking or judging each other’s attacks.

“Well he is certainly skilled, and his way of training his creatures is pretty good.” Shining Armor said as he actually flipped over the weasel creature and swept it off its feet with a low kick.

“I find him more interesting.” One of the mare guards said which caused Shining Armor, and the other guards to look at her with confused looks. “The way that he fights and is able to move around, it’s really weird yet intriguing to see a tall bipedal creature fight when I compare him to how a pony might fight.”

“Oh.” Shining and the other guards say in unison as they go back to watching the sparring, but it seemed that the sparring was over with for the time being as the ponies watched Matt started checking his Pokémon, presumably to ensure none of them got any bad injuries.

“So Matt do you always have these sparring sessions with your Pokémon?” Shining Armor asked as he and two members of his platoon trotted over to Matt.

“Most of the time, it’s a good means of exercise, and a way to keep are skills nice and sharp.” As Matt confirmed Shining’s question he took a look around at the six Pokémon, eyeing them curiously as a thought came to him.

“Say Matt, how do you feel about having one of your Pokémon sparring with me?”

“You wanna spar with one of them?” Matt asked clearly taken aback from the sudden request as Shining nodded his head.

The trainer then rubbed the top of his head, as he looked at his team. The captain also looked over to the group of Pokémon, and they all seemed excited about the idea, at least most of them the giant floating rock face one, and the wolf and weasel didn’t really show much emotion. At least as far as Shining could tell.

“Well if you’re up for it sure, but it will be a match with you against me and one of my Pokémon, I still need to make sure I’m in sync with my team when we have to fight together.”

“That’s fine by me, but I’ll also have one of my guards join me.” Shining said before turning back to the two guards that followed him. “So which of you would like to take part in this?”

“I volunteer sir!” the earth pony mare said as she strolled up to Shining’s side. Matt then walked over to the seahorse looking Pokémon and leaned down a bit before speaking.

“What do you say Kingdra, up for an actual battle?” the Pokémon excitedly nodded while making a unusual ‘doo’ sound as it hopped in place on its curved tail a few times, before proudly standing beside Matt.

“Alright. The match will be a simple fight, the first team to be knocked out of the ring or admits defeat is the looser. And Matt—” Shining said as he looked up to the human. “You can use one of the training swords we have.”

“That’s fine.” Matt said before reaching into the sizable satchel, or pouch, which was strapped to his waist. Shining then watched as Matt pulled out a small black cylinder from the satchel, which then had two shafts extend from both ends, turning it into a staff that was just a little more than half his overall size.

“I got this if I ever need to defend myself.”

Shining smiled up at Matt, mostly out of excitement that this human was indeed prepared for a fight. the group then went to their separate ends of the sparring arena, while the rest of the guards who were mostly just either partially listening to their conversation, or training on their own took up seats or stood around the arena. While the rest of Matt’s team strolled off to one side the arena. Once everyone was in place, and Shining’s partner grabbing a practice sword, the Captain had one of his guards take the center of the arena acting as referee, and after the guard took his place and confirmed that both parties were ready for their own little sparring match he loudly proclaimed begin!

The moment that the guard said that, and promptly flew off to the side, Shining Armor and his partner charged towards Matt and his Pokémon. Who actually done the same! However after running over a few feet, Matt leapt forward and landed on his hands where he expertly balanced himself, but then both ponies watched as Matt’s Pokémon hopped on top of Matt’s feet after making a solid bound towards him. Then to the surprise of not just Shining and his partner, but to all of the ponies in the hall, Matt coiled his legs before thrusting them up where the Pokémon then bounced off and soared ten feet into the air! The whole movement and maneuvers both trainer and Pokémon made from Shining’s point of view, was quick and precise like they pulled this whole thing off before.

“Kingdra use Icy Wind!” Matt’s said loudly snapping Shining out of his little marveled state, before looking up and seeing Kingdra blew out a spiraling current of frigid cold air, which actually started frost over Shining and his partner over! Acting quickly Shining conjured up a barrier to block the attack.

“Hydro Pump!” Again Shining heard Matt call out, and then he saw as Kingdra started to fall back down to the ground that it stopped blowing the icy wind, and immediately fired a powerful stream of water that actually broke through Shining’s shield, as water splashed all over the place.

When his shield was broke Shining Armor was actually surprised by this, as none of his unicorn guards could break it with any magical attacks of their own during training. But that thought was swiftly brushed aside when he saw Matt was only a few feet from him, and his staff was at the ready to be swung at him. yet the captain was spared getting hit in the face when his partner leapt in front of him, and used her own practice sword to block the attack. Snapping out of his stupor Shining goes in to launch his own attack, but he was stopped when he saw Kingdra leap over Matt and again seemed ready to launch another attack. Quickly acting the captain brought up a shield in front of his partner to block the attack, yet instead of water, or frigid cold air, Shining and his partner were instead meet by a stream of smoke being blown at them.

As the arena started to fill with smoke, Shining and his partner started to cough as their eyes watered a bit, but during that time the captain was soundly tackled from the side and felt himself being forcibly pinned to the ground. but the captain wasn’t going to go down easily, so using all the strength he had he managed to buck whoever tackled him off, and once he was freed Shining spun around and fired a magical blast. Yet whatever tackled him rolled out of the way, and hid in the smoke. Before Shining Armor could look for which of the two tackled him, or even attempt to disperse the smoke around him, something else came rushing it out of the smoke and tackling him. this time though it was his partner.

“Sorry sir, the seahorse got me good in the side.” The mare said as she got off the captain who also got up to his hooves.

“No problem. But I think we may have underestimated how good Matt and his team are.” Shining said as used a spell to get rid of the smoke, but the moment he did so Shining Armor and his partner were immediately face to face with Matt, who the mare was just able to start blocking his staff swings. Shining Armor fired a few magical blast’s, but the human was able to dodge two of the shots, but Kingdra fired a blast of water to cancel out the last one, and started to try and headbutt, tail smack, or body slam into the stallion.

“I gotta say human your pretty good.” The mare said as she continued to block, parry, and counter attack against the taller trainer. She tried to use her smaller stature to surprise him by ducking into areas where he would be blind to, but Matt always kept her in his sights.

“After the many years of self-defense, and all the years of traveling I’ve done I should be.”

Matt responded as he went for a swift staff swing at the mare, who blocked the attack with the sword, but left herself exposed for a low leg sweep, knocking the mare onto her side which Matt then pinned her to the ground. With the mare disarmed and pinned, Shining Armor was left on his own in fighting against Kingdra. And both pony and Pokémon seemed to be evenly matched. Shining Armor was never the best when it came to an offensive assault, which is why he solely focused on his exceptional skills in defensive magic, yet this Pokémon was testing his limits with its barrage of water and icy gusts of wind. Soon enough though Shining found an opening to give him a direct shot, and when Kingdra landed after making another leap Shining struck, firing two magical blasts at the Pokémon in its body!

“Yes!” Shining said triumphantly as Kingdra was knocked back a few feet, but stopped as it used its tail to brace itself.

“If you want to knock down Kingdra Shining Armor, you’re going to have to put more power into it. Like this! Kingdra use Twister!”

Kingdra began sucking in a large amount of air before exhaling and letting out what looked like a pale violet tornado, which raced across the short gap between the two of them, and slammed right into Shining Armor. The captain wasn’t able to bring up a fully deployed shield, or barrier spell, and was knocked clear out of the ring and slamming against the wall! A collection of guards rushed over to their captain, while both Kingdra, Matt, and the rest of the trainers team looked worried. Matt especially as he shrunk his quarter staff.

“Oh crap that might’ve been overkill!” Matt said before he quickly got off the guard mare, and rushed over to Shining Armor, with said guard mare and Kingdra following beside him.

“Shining are you alright?” the captain groaned as he sat up and rubbed his back before looking up to Matt.

“Yeah I’m fine, my armor took most of the impact against the wall, but wow that was one powerful attack. I literally got the wind knocked of me, and my back still felt a lot of pain.”

“I’m glad that you’re not overly hurt, but we should probably get you checked up just in case.”

“I agree sir.” A unicorn stallion said as he and the earth pony mare helps Shining up onto his hooves. “We’ll help you get to the medical wing to have you checked out.”

Shining didn’t protest as his back did really hurt, and going to see one of the medical pony would be best, especially since he still needs to help Cadence in getting the preparations for the wedding on the way. So Shining Armor hobbled his way out of the training hall, while Matt checked up Kingdra and how it felt.

“So sir, what did you think about our little sparing match with Matt and his Pokémon?” the stallion asked the captain as they trotted down the hall.

“Well for one thing their certainly not amateurs when it comes to fighting.” Shining said before elaborating more to his two guards.

“That first maneuverer they pulled would take a lot of practice to pull off, without tripping over themselves. Not only that butt they were well-coordinated in their attacks, especially when the smoke was deployed, they were able to take full advantage of the situation.”

“Agreed.” The mare said as the trio rounded a corner. “Matt was very good in using that extendable staff of his, and the way he pinned me to the ground was effective. I couldn’t even budge out of his grip.”

“Guess this human and his Pokémon are very capable fighters despite their appearances.” The stallion guard said as a curious expression came over his face.

“That’s true.” The mare said as the group made it to the medical wing of the castle, and trotted to one of the beds lining against the walls.

‘I’m sort of tempted to ask Matt if I could take part in his training sessions, to see what else his Pokémon are really capable of.’ The mare mentally stated as Shining Armor hopped on one of the beds, and the stallion guard left to fetch one of the doctors from the adjacent office.

~~~~~

Princess Cadence was trotting through the halls of the castle with a few maids trotting beside her, all of whom were taking down notes for the princess of love regarding preparations for the wedding, while another maid was showing various pamphlets and magazine pages showing different types of wedding dresses. The princess of love has been going about in checking preparations, deciding what could be applied to the wedding, and many other factors that still need to be overseen and finalized. Now these preparations would go a bit smoother if Shining Armor was here to help, but Cadence knows that he still has his duties as captain of the royal guard to do, he also has to make sure that security would be tighter since their wedding involves not only herself, but her aunts as well. And while Equestria is a peaceful place, Celestia has told Cadence to be weary, as she had a premonition that something would come to Canterlot on the day of the wedding, and cause some kind of conflict.

“Princess Cadence!” the pink alicorn looked down a nearby hall and spotted a pegasus maid speeding towards her with a very worried look. “We have a problem!”

“Why? What’s wrong?” Cadence asked the frantic mare who skid to a stop in mid-air before she collided with the princess.

“It’s the cook that was hired to take care of the feast for the wedding, he QUITE!” the mare said frantically which did cause not just Cadence, but the two other maids as well.

“What?!” Cadence exclaimed. “Why did he quite?”

“He said something about the rest of the kitchen staff not following his instructions, and the staff saying he was being overbearing and to controlling. It was just an absolute mess.”

“Floral, Gossamer, we’ll continue our surveys later but now I need to fix this.”

Both maids nodded and proceeded to trot off, while Cadence follows the pegasus towards the kitchen. Hopefully, she can catch the head chef and convince him to stay, otherwise they would have to find somepony new to take over, and on such short notice that was going to be incredibly difficult. But as the princess was following the pegasus she noticed that something was off, the kitchens were near the center of the castle so that they can distribute food to any part when food ordered, but Cadence noticed that she and the maid were heading towards the southern most end of the castle.

“Wait a minute, we’re going the wrong way.” Cadence said as she stopped.

“The Kitchen is in that direction.” Cadence pointed to a nearby hallway, but the pegasus just stopped in flight before turning to face the alicorn.

“Forgive me princes, but I was trying to make sure that we were well enough away from prying eyes.” The maid said while her voice started to carry a slight reverberating effect to it, and her eyes turned green.

“What do you mean?” Cadence asked suspiciously.

“What I mean is I was trying to make sure no pony sees what I have in store for you.”

Before the princess could figure out what the mare means, the pegasus body erupted in green fire which startled the alicorn yet just as she was about to scream, something flew out of the mass of fire. something sticky and slimy splattered all over Cadence’s face, covering her mouth and the entire right side of her face, leaving only the left side of her face unspoiled. So with her remaining eye Cadence watched as the maid before her transformed into a large black figure, the appearance was similar to that of an alicorn, but all of the bodily features were insectoid like. but that mattered little to the princess of love, as Cadence was about to make a run for it. however her assaulter again fired the same green substance at her, sticking her hooves to the ground preventing the pink alicorn from running or flying away! Then in a last ditch effort Cadence was about to cast a teleportation spell, but again, she was plastered with more of the green slime, this time around her horn.

“Sorry princess, but for my plans to work, I’ll have to restrain you.” the new figure said in her reverberating voice as Cadence watched her get closer to her, while her jagged horn glowed with green magic.

“Oh but don’t worry I’m not going to kill you, but I can’t have you anywhere in the castle as somepony might stumble upon you eventually.” Then Cadence saw that a ring of green fire circled around her, and she started to sink into the floor!

“Which is why I will be sending you someplace that no pony will ever think to look!” Then in a final flourish of green fire, Cadence was sucked completely into the ground, and was now in pitch darkness.

~~~~~

Queen Chrysalis watched as the princess of love was swallowed up by her teleportation spell, sending her to the deepest cavern of the crystals caves that she scouted out before infiltrating the castle. Once the princess was fully gone, Chrysalis quickly shifted to take on the alicorns form, and once she has dawned Cadences appearance she instantly went out to look for the stallion she was meant to marry. If her plan was going to be executed to its maximum effectiveness, she’s going to need to start working her magical hooks into that stallion, so that not only will she be able to passively drain love off of him. but also use him as a pawn to clear out any suspicions that she might stir up, and if her intel was correct and preparations for the wedding are still underway, then she could also use the chaos of the pre-wedding set up as cover up for her activities as well.

‘But where could this captain be right now?’ Chrysalis internally questioned as she wandered around the halls. But as she traversed through the halls something caught her attention that disrupted her train of thought.

Walking side by side with a pair of guards was something that her scout didn’t inform her of. The thing walking side by side with the guards was a tall bipedal creature, and it was covered in some very unusual clothes. Though the fact that it was wearing a large amount of clothes in the first place was rather strange, as nothing in Equestria wears that much clothes. Yet the queen was intrigued about this creature, but that sense of curiosity was swiftly replaced by worry. She has no idea what this creature is, or why its in the castle, it could possibly ruin her plans!

“Princess Cadence, can you hear me?” the queen was snapped out of her train of thought when a voice spoke loudly towards her, and when she looked to the one that spoke she saw the creature standing before her.

“Are you alright you look really flustered?” the creature asked in a masculine voice.

“Oh ugh yes, yes I’m perfectly fine I was just…wandering how preparations for the wedding were going.” Chrysalis quickly responded.

“Matt she’s royalty!” one of the guards said, which the queen noticed like something terrible was happening. “You can’t talk to her so casually.”

“Why not? She and Shining Armor said I could.” The queen perked up when the creature, who apparently was named Matt, mentioned Shining Armor.

“Speaking of my beloved, do you know where he is at the moment?” the pegasus stallion off to the bipeds left spoke up as he straighten up.

“He was taken to the infirmary, to ensure that he didn’t hurt himself during a sparring match you highness.”

“Thank you gentlecolt. I’ll be taking my leave now.”

Taking her leave Chrysalis quickly trotted past the trio, who started to talk amongst themselves again. But as she trots down the hall in search of the infirmary, the changeling queen looked behind her and watched as the biped and his two guard entourage rounded a corner.

“This could prove to be a problem.” Chrysalis muttered quietly under her breath as she went back to trotting down the hall. “I have no information about this creature, this Matt, it could disrupt everything.” The queens eyes shimmered green for the briefest of moments as a small frown graced her muzzle.

“It appears I’ll have to add a new object to my plan to ensure everything runs smoothly.”

Chapter 9: Plots Uncovered - Pt. 1

Matt was enjoying a nice quiet afternoon in the palace garden with his Pokémon, while occasionally spotting either a single or multiple ponies running around in a frantic state. Which was understandable what with Shining Armor’s and princess Cadence’s wedding being right around the corner, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise for Matt to see maids and butlers running around with decorations and supplies in hoof or magical aura, as well as seeing some of the guards being dragged into helping them. Speaking of the groom and bride Matt hasn’t seen them around as often as he did in the last few days, more so of Shining than Cadence. In fact the last few times that Matt has crossed paths with the princess something seemed, off about her. Matt couldn’t really put his finger on it, but the princess seemed to have lost a bit of her cheerful demeaner, or didn’t seem as vibrant as she was the last time Matt has met her.

“Things really seem to be getting down to the wire for the wedding.” Matt commented as he affectionately petted Mienshao who was sitting beside him as he watched a bunch of pegasi fly past the gardens with armfuls of flowers.

“Matt!” the trainer perked up when he heard his name being called out, and when he turned to look behind him he spotted Twilight and her friends coming towards him.

“Hey there girls.” Matt said to the group as he turned to face them, while they encroached on him and his team of Pokémon who mostly appeared happy to see them. “What are you guys doing here?”

“We’re taking part in the wedding!” Pinkie blurted as she hopped up beside the young man and started nuzzling up to him, which the trainer chuckled at the pink pony’s excitement as he starts to pet her.

“Oh yeah that’s the stuff.”

“So what are all of you going to do for the wedding?” the young man asked the group as they started to mingle amongst the Pokémon.

“I’m going to be helping out in the after party preparations!” Pinkie Pie said as Matt started to scratch under her chin, making the female equine coo with delight as she rolls onto her back like a lounging Glameow.

“Ah’ll be helping out in the kitchen to bring in some good ol’ home cooking to the whole thing.” Applejack commented as she was about to pet Lycanroc, who just growled at her. “Easy there buddy Ah ain’t gonna hurt cha.”

“Sorry Applejack, but Lycanroc doesn’t let other people try and pet her, she gets pretty defensive.” The mare retracted her foreleg and took a step back, which Lycanroc settled down and swagged on over to Matt’s side.

“What about the rest of you?”

“I’ll be helping with the music by leading a bird chorus.” Fluttershy said as she was petting Ninetales, who was thoroughly enjoying the affection.

“As for me I will be designing the wedding dress for the bride, and the other mares that will be taking part in the event.” Rarity said as she stood beside Fluttershy and appeared to be admiring Ninetales’s lustrous fur. Matt looked over at Rainbow Dash who was not trying to make direct eye contact with him but still elaborated on what she was doing for the wedding.

“I’ll be performing some aerial tricks with the Wonderbolts to finish out the celebration before the party.” The mare said with as much enthusiasm as a balloon with a hole poked in it.

‘Seriously. She’s still skeptical of me?’ Matt pondered as he watched the cyan mare start quietly bickering with Applejack, he figured that the mare was still feeling a little sour towards him, which was understandable as he and the mare didn’t quite patch things up.

“As for me I’ll be helping out with the wedding schedule, making sure that everything really is going as planned.” Twilight remarked as Camerupt waddled his way up to her and started nuzzling into the mare, causing the unicorn to chortle as she started to pet the large bovine like Pokémon’s head.

“Hey Twilight, can I ask you something?” Matt asked as he turned to fully face the mare. “Have you been around Cadence at any point today?”

“All of us were with her just for a little bit before we started walking around the castle, and then coming to meet you.” Twilight retorted before giving a curious look to the young man. “Why do you ask?”

“It may just be me, but doesn’t Cadence seem a bit, different? Like she isn’t acting as cheerful as she usually is?” The rest of the ponies all looked at each other as if they all had the same idea, or notion about something.

“She did seem a little bit sour when we all met her and the other princesses.” Pinkie Pie commented as Matt started to give her belly rubs.

“It could just be that her nerves are getting to her, after all her big day is just right around the corner darling.” Rarity retorted as she was now stroking Ninetales’s glossy tails getting some delightful cooing noises from the Ice-type Pokémon.

“Then I guess it’s just me then.” Matt said as he continued to lavish Pinkie Pie with belly rubs, which the mare was wholeheartedly loving.

The group continued to hang out in the garden for a bit longer, but then the mares left the trainer and his team to go and help out where they can. As for Matt he stayed in the garden for a bit longer, simply enjoying the somewhat peace and quiet despite all the ponies still hustling about. But as he was relaxing something caught his eye, it was only for a moment, but the trainer could’ve sworn that he saw something small, and jet black fly past. At first Matt paid it no mind and went back to just kicking back, but then he spotted a few more black objects zip by and going in the same direction. With his curiosity now fully peaked Matt decided to investigate and started to gather up his team, though Lycanroc didn’t want to go back in her Pokéball, so she tagged along, and the two ran out of the garden and went down the hallway that Matt saw the black objects go in. The pair continued to travel along the hallway, but none of them could see anything out of the ordinary.

“Guess it was nothing.” Matt said as he rubbed the back of his head before he was about to give up and head back to the garden, Lycanroc started to sniff around as if she caught wind of something.

“You got something Lycanroc?” the wolf Pokémon nodded before walking off down a hallway, with Matt following after the Rock-type.

The young man kept on following after his Pokémon who clearly was onto something, and as Matt followed Lycanroc he started to noticed something. It was faint, but the longer Matt followed Lycanroc, the more it became more pronounced, and that faint thing was a smell that was like lime juice or something equally as sour smelling. Aside from the smell the trainer also noticed that wherever they were going, the pair have been going down a flight of stairs that lead farther down into the castle, which was getting darker and darker the further they went. And then…

“It’s almost time for us to get ready.”

A voice suddenly said which caused the pair to stop before they started to creep close to a corner, and upon peeking around the corner Matt spotted a small group of ponies. But they didn’t look like the fuzzy cuddly kind. These ponies were all jet black, but what was stranger was that they all looked like they had bug like wings, and even shiny carapaces.

“Question is if everyone else is set up so they can easily take the castle.” One of the insect-like ponies said to the others.

“If they followed our queens plans to the letter, than yes.” Another insect-like pony said in response to the others question.

“Looks like we stumbled upon something bad.” Matt quietly muttered to himself before he was yanked to the side before hearing something go splat against the wall.

“What the!” Matt said as he looked up to see Lycanroc standing in front of him, while three other insect-like ponies stood a few feet from the pair, all of which were glaring at the trainer and Lycanroc with large glossy eyes as their stubby, yet jagged horns glowed with a green aura.

“Get those two creatures! We can’t let them interfere with the queens plan!”

A barrage of what looked like green goop came flying towards the pair, though they were able to duck out of the way and got ready for a fight, with Matt taking out his extendable staff and Lycanroc howling at the ponies before slamming one of her paws on the ground, which then lobbed several large rocks at them. The ponies managed to fly out of the way, and again fired green globs at the pair, while a few even charged at them. Dodging the globs were a piece of cake as they were quite slow, but when it came to the ones charging at the pair Lycanroc would start fist fighting with them, while Matt started smacking and deflecting the ponies away with his staff. Yet as well as he fought back against these unknown types of ponies, one of them managed to sneak up behind him and tackle him, where he started to feel something slimy and sticky start wrapping around his body!

“Crap!” Matt grunted as he tried to struggle to get the pony off him, and tear whatever the stuff was being plastered on him off, but it was proving difficult. Matt then heard Lycanroc howl out in frustration, and when he looked towards where his Pokémon was he saw that she was also getting wrapped up in the same green slop the ponies were spitting out.

‘Damn it they got both of us!’ Matt internally groaned as he toppled to the ground as his legs got fully wrapped up.

“One of you go and get the queen, she’ll most likely want to know what these things were doing sneaking around.” one of the ponies commanded to the group, to which one of the others suddenly burst into green fire, where Matt then saw it transformed into a blue pegasus mare and flew off.

‘What the heck? Are they shapeshifters?!’

Matt questioned as he was dragged off by the insectoid pony that had wrapped him up, tossing him to the side with Lycanroc being tossed next to him a second later. And is visibly not happy in being tangled up, but it seems that all of her wriggling around was starting to tear the goop wrapped around her. Looking towards the group of insect-like ponies Matt saw that all of them weren’t looking directly at them, so taking the opportunity Matt leaned down and started to chew the goop off Lycanroc, who noticed what her trainer was doing and laid still to make it easier. Luckily, they didn’t cover his head with goop, otherwise they would’ve been stuck like this till their queen came to check up on them. After a few minutes of chewing through the goop, stopping on occasion when he saw the insect-like ponies look towards him with questioning looks, before turning back and talking amongst themselves. Eventually though the trainer was able to bite through enough of the goop to allow Lycanroc to wriggle out, and when she was free the wolf Pokémon immediately started to rip the goo off Matt.

“Good girl Lycanroc.” Matt whispered as he petted the Rock-type’s head, getting a happy quiet yip. After praising his Pokémon Matt reached to his belt and pulled out another Pokéball, and called out another one of his Pokémon which caught the attention of his captors. But it didn’t matter!

“Ninetales use Confuse Ray now!” when the fox Pokémon was summoned her tails flared out with each one creating a golden orb, where they were fired at the group of captors and bursting in multiple flashes of golden light, which caused the ponies to shout in fear before they all developed a dazed look.

“Good work girl.” Matt quickly praised before running off.

“Now let’s get out of here and find Celestia!” the trio then started to run back where Matt and Lycanroc initially came from, climbing up the flight of stairs before bolting down a hallway. But as they reached the end of the hallway they spotted princess Cadence coming their way.

“Cadence you gotta hear this, there are these black insect-like ponies down stairs, and it sounded like their plotting something!”

“You don’t say.” The princess says calmly before looking up towards Matt…who only just noticed that her eyes were a deep shade of green with slitted irises.

“What—” Before Matt could say anything more both he, and his Pokémon, were surrounded by what looked like a cage of green fire. When the cage was erected they all started to sink into the ground! Matt tried to sweep the flaming cage away with his staff, while Lycanroc used her paws, and Ninetales letting out a blast of cold air from her mouth. But nothing they did affected the cage and they just continued to sink further into the floor, till they vanished without a trace.

~~~~~

A groan left Matt as he started to come around, but as he did he felt incredibly stiff and sore as he opened his eyes, though what he saw wasn’t a hallway or some other kind of room in the castle. Instead what Matt found himself in was like a cavern with crystals jutting out everywhere he looked. Aside from the cavern itself, Matt spotted Lycanroc and Ninetales both of whom looked just as sore and stiff as he did. Bringing himself to his feet Matt stumbled his way over to his Pokémon, and started to check them over to see if they were alright, which thankfully they were both fine. But to ensure that they were indeed fine, and kept safe the trainer placed them back into their Pokéballs. Once the Pokémon were safely tucked away the trainer then started to look for a way out of the crystal cavern he was in, but so far it looked like he was trapped in the cavern. However upon inspecting the crystalline walls more thoroughly, he managed to find a narrow crack in the southern wall which appear to exit to another room.

“This is going to be a tight fit.” Matt said as he barely manages to slip into the crack, and after a few minutes of carefully wiggling his way through it the young man was finally able to emerge out of the other side.

“Well that takes care of that problem, now I just—OOF!” Matt sputtered as he collided with something, but it wasn’t anything rocky or hard, in fact it was soft and warm. Looking down at what he stumbled into Matt was surprised at what he had found before him.

“What the heck, Princess Cadence!” the young man instantly jumped back and quickly pulled out his staff, but as he did so he also spotted something else. another alicorn that was a foot behind her, though this one was a dark blue coloring, with silver regalia and a mane and tail that looked like the night sky.

‘Who in the hell is this?!’

Chapter 11: Day of the Wedding

The trudge through the abandon crystal mines tunnel system has been long and arduous, truly, the labyrinth like mines were greatly unreadable. There were no markings, no signs, or any kind of indications of directions or even sections of the mines that told where the group of travelers were in. Fortunately, Matt and his two alicorn companions had Probopass with them, and with its ability to read magnetic fields to survey the mines the group should be able to make it out just fine. But the mines were just so massive in scale that it’s been hours since they started traversing through the tunnels, and with no provisions the group was getting fatigued rather quickly. The alicorns more so as they were traveling the caverns longer before meeting up with Matt, and started searching for a way out to warn those in the castle of the invaders plot to conquer the city.

“I think we should take a break for now and rest.” Luna suggested as the group came into what looked like an old mine car station. “We’ve been walking for hours now, and we’re all tired.”

“That sounds like a good idea auntie.” Cadence said as she and her aunt trot over to a dusty old table, as for Matt he and Probopass they looked like they were still able to keep on walking. “How are you not tired after all of this walking around Matt?”

“Please. This is basically a short stroll compared to what I’m used to.” Matt said as he sat down on a stool while Probopass sat down on the ground next to him.

“What do you mean by that?” Luna asked the young man as she and Cadence took their own seats.

“Where I come from I traveled across various regions, over several dozen miles over land, mountains, and everything else in-between.” Matt said to the two alicorns as he gave his Pokémon partner a good pat, earning a happy drumming sound for the display of affection.

“You must be well-traveled then Matt.” Cadence remarked as she looked at Matt with a curious look in her eye.

“I guess you can say that.” Matt simply retorted before turning to face the two mares. “By the way you two never did tell me how you two ended up down here.” Both mare’s looked ashamed when Matt asked them how they ended up down in the mines.

“Much like you Matt, I got tricked. I’m not sure who it was, but the one that turned into me lured me away by telling me the cooks were fighting, then she sent me down here.” Cadence explained before Luna, who looks equally embarrassed, then explained how she ended up here.

“I’m ashamed to admit it, but I was ambushed when I was asleep. I woke up when I felt something was sticking around me, and before I could fight back the look alike Cadence trapped me in a cage of fire—”

“And that cage melted you into the ground before dropping you here.” Matt finished to which the mare nodded; cheeks slightly pink as she did so. After a moment of recomposing herself Luna turned to look at Matt.

“Since we’re going to be resting why don’t you regal us with a tale or two of your travels, I would like to hear some.”

“Me to!” Cadence said enthusiastically as she leaned closer to the young man, eyes widen with vast curiosity. Reminding Matt of Twilight in a way.

“I wanna hear about the world you came from, and of the places and ponies you met along the way.” A chuckle left Matt as he shifted in his seat a little.

“Well let’s see…I can tell you how I initially met Probopass when it was a Nosepass.”

“Nosepass?” both alicorns said in unison clearly confused at what the trainer meant. Matt then reached into his back pocket and pulled out his Pokédex, before showing it to the two princesses where the image of a Nosepass was displayed.

“This is what Probopass looked like before it evolved.” Matt said as he tapped the screen, and had it show the image of a Probopass appear beside its prior form.

“Such a drastic change. Do all Pokémon go through such changes when they go through this evolution?” Luna asked the young man as he pockets his Pokédex.

“E’yup. When a Pokémon reaches a certain level of power progression, their bodies go through a rapid change to become an even stronger version of themselves. However there are some Pokémon that can’t evolve on their own, they’ll need some kind of outside influence in order to help them grow, and Probopass here is one such Pokémon that needs help to evolve.”

“What kind of help did it need to evolve?” Cadence asked the young man who then started to explain the method of his partners specific evolution method.

“For a Nosepass to evolve into a Probopass, they’ll need to reach the desired power level while being in an area that has a very strong magnetic field. When that happens then that strong magnetic field will then give the Nosepass an increase in power, and allows them to unlock new abilities such as flying around by using magnetic forces.” Probopass acknowledged this fact by letting out a series of rapid drumming noises, while Luna and Cadence looked at the pair with a sense of wonder and awe.

“Interesting. So what is this story that you mentioned before we got sidetracked in the specifics of your partners species.”

Matt leaned back against a beam as he was about to tell the story, but before the trainer could even get a word out, the group started to hear what sounded like footsteps coming from a nearby shaft. The group quickly looked for a place to hide as they had no idea who else could be down here, but considering their situation and what has happened to them, they had a rough idea on who is coming down the shaft. So after finding decent hiding places, with the alicorns hiding by a few mine cars and a flipped table, and Matt hiding behind Probopass with it having its backside facing the shaft and its mini-heads scattered around it and other rocks. Peeking over their hiding spots the group watched the tunnel that the sound of footsteps were coming from, and within a few seconds the trio saw a sizeable group of the familiar chiton insectoid ponies coming into the cavern. And they all seem to be on the search for something, or more specifically, someone’s.

“It doesn’t look like they’re in here either.” One of the insectoids said as he and his cohorts trotted out of the tunnel, while they saw the last one hocking up a glob of green slime on the ground which started to emit a weak glow.

“They must be using that goop to keep track of where they went.” Matt muttered quietly as he watched the insectoids trot by, hoping that they would pass them by and allow him and the princesses to follow their trail out of the mines.

“Wait!” one of them said suddenly, making Matt and the alicorns flinch in surprise, before she crouched down to the ground and looking at something intently. “There are hoof prints here, and their leading from that shaft over there.”

‘Shoot!’ Matt internally lamented as the whole party started to look around the cavern.

“Spread out and look for them.”

Just as the leader of the insectoid group gave the order, Matt watched as Luna leapt out of their hiding place flying up as high as she could in the spacious cavern, and appeared to be gathering energy in her horn. Initially the insectoids looked worried for a second, but the trainer soon saw them look more confident. Confused as to while they didn’t seem afraid Matt turned to look up at Luna, and saw that she looked slightly panicked while the glow of her horn sputtered out.

“Get her!” the leader of the insectoids called out, causing the group to bolt from the ground and towards the alicorn, who just hovered there in shock and fear.

“Oh no you don’t! Probopass use Magnet Bomb!”

Music: Battle! (Team Galactic Boss) – Pokémon Diamond & Pokémon Pearl.
Probopass quickly sprang into action, levitating upward as it spun around to face the insectoids, who in turn looked shocked and surprised to see Matt and his partner where they were standing. Then as Probopass let out a loud and foreboding drumming groan, all three of its miniature heads glowed with a bright white light before developing a metallic shine to them, and flew off towards the flying insectoids. And when the heads were close to the invaders, with one of them firing a beam of green magic from its horn at one, the miniature heads glowed even brighter before the erupted with the sound of a metal haul being breached! All of the insectoids were knocked out of the sky, slamming and crashing into nearby walls and the ground, while Luna was vaulted back a few feet before she corrected herself and looked at the scene before her.

“What happened?! How did it—GAH!” the leader of the imposters was cut off when Matt came in running from his left side and decked him as hard as he could in the face, sending the leader scraping a few feet across the ground.

“Luna you alright?” Matt called out to the blue alicorn.

“Y-yes. Yes I’m fine, thank you.” Luna retorted before her expression changed to one of worry.

“Matt look out!” the young man couldn’t react in time, and was bodied by one of the insectoids. But the struggle was broken up when Matt managed to squirm his staff in front of him, and used its extended function to knock the equine off him.

“Get up you grubs! Capture them now!” the leader of the invaders commanded as he held a hoof against his face, which was developing a blue tinge to it.

The eight insectoids, aside from the leader and the one Matt was squaring off against, all got up to their hooves and charged towards their targets. With one joining to capture Matt, another pair flying off towards Probopass, and the rest going after the alicorns. Matt engaged the two that were targeting him with his hand-to-hand combat skills and staff wielding, managing to keep them off him while battering them more than they could punch, kick, and even bite him in retaliation. The two that went after Probopass were chasing after the large Rock-type as it flew around, and using its mini-heads to try and batter the insectoids away, even resorting to body slamming or headbutt them. Or even firing a ball of pure concentrated electrical energy! As for the princesses Matt couldn’t get a good look for to long, but they seem to be on the ropes as whatever type of magic they were trying to use either didn’t work, or petered out before they could do any lasting damage, so they were resorted to kicking, body checking, and even using their horns to keep the insectoids away.

“This doesn’t look like it’s going so well!” Matt said as he knocked both his attackers away with one good staff swing, giving him enough time to get one of his Pokéballs.

“Mienshao give the princesses a hand!” Matt threw the Pokéball towards where the princesses were, and within a flash of light the ferret-like Pokémon darted forth and leapt into action to help the alicorns, by sending one of the insectoids flying by using a fire-coated kick! Matt was about to call out another one of his Pokémon, but he was tackled by his attackers who tried to wrap him up in their green goop!

“Not this again!” But before the insectoids could wrap him fully, a flash of light erupted from his back, and from behind the trainer a loud ‘bawl’ sound echoed out before a puff of fire scared the two insectoids away. Turning around Matt saw Camerupt came to his rescue.

“Nice timing partner!” Matt said while Camerupt mooed and breathed hot air on the young man, causing the goop to melt off his body.

“This is getting out of hand, and we don’t even know if there’s more of these guys down here.” Matt said as he looked towards the tunnel the invaders came from before an idea came to him.

“Everyone this way!” Matt called out, getting his two Pokémon and the princesses to make their way over to him and Camerupt, with the insectoids closing in behind.

“Alright partner use Yawn!” After taking a sharp inhale, as the rest of the party got behind the bovine Pokémon, Camerupt let out a loud and reverberating drawl sound as visible waves in the air could be seen being emitted from its mouth. As the soundwaves rushed past the invaders they all started to slow down, and getting droopy eyed before they all loudly yawned before they started to drop to the floor, where they started to snore.

“That’s incredible!” Cadence marveled as she looked at the sleeping intruders.

“Yeah but it won’t last long, so let’s follow their glow trail out of here.” The group nodded before they all ran down the tunnel, following the dimly glowing globs on the wall. They all continue to run for several minutes, running through smaller chambers and more tunnels until they actually came to what looked like a wide room of dusty old tile surfaces, and old lamps.

“This must be, where the mines and castle link up.” Luna huffed and panted as she tried to catch her breath.

“It looks like it auntie.” Cadence said as she tried to catch her breath as well.

“At least we finally got out of the mines.” Matt said before turning to his three Pokémon. “And as for you guys you all did great, expect a good meal and pampering after this whole thing is over with.”

The Pokémon seemed to like that little bit of news, but the mild celebration was cut short when the group heard what sounded like fireworks were going off. wondering what was going on the group ran up a flight of stairs till they came into another chamber, this one more clean and exiting out to an adjacent hallway, running to a nearby window they all saw that it was daylight, and various fireworks were being set off as the roar of a cheering crowd could be heard.

“The wedding is underway!” the group said in unison as they stepped away from the window.

“Oh no! Shining, he’s going to be wed to the leader of the imposters!” Cadence trembled as she started to look incredibly worried.

“Not if we hurry.” Luna said to her fellow princess. “If we get to the reception hall we can stop the wedding—”

“And unveil the fraud in front of everyone.” Matt stated which the night princess nodded her head in acknowledgement. “Then we have no time to loose!” the group immediately followed after Luna as she ran down the hallway, racing to wherever the wedding was taking place.

“Wait Luna, what about your magic?” Matt asked the princess as they rounded a corner.

“If we’re going to confront the imposter, won’t you need your magic? It looked like you and Cadence were having trouble using it during the fight.”

“We’ll deal with it later, right now we gotta stop this wedding!” Luna countered as she just kept on galloping down the hall, while the others tried to keep pace with her.

~~the Wedding Alter~~

Music: This Day Aria.
It was finally here! Today is the day! The day that queen Chrysalis plan to conquer the nation of Equestria, all she has to do is ensure that this very small step goes through without a hitch. But how could it? The real princess of love and the night were placed deep underground, and with her security force taking care of them and the unknown creature they won’t be able to stop her plan. And as for Celestia, the Groom, any pony else none of them suspect anything, not only that but the guards were all spread out all over the city in response to her false threat warning. So now her hive can take over the city with greater ease.

As the disguised queen was trotting down the walkway, ponies congratulating her on getting married and wishing her a happy life. And as they praised and cheered her own, the queen could only internally laugh at them all. Soon enough the queen spotted her mares in waiting, along with the best stallions plus the ring bearer, but her greatest prize was the captain of the guard standing at the alter…a glazed look in his eyes as a smile was plastered on his muzzle. Chrysalis has taken many husbands before, taken many stallions from those they were meant to be wed to, but this one was by far the easiest to fool and subjugate to her will. Reaching the alter the disguised queen and her mesmerized husband to be looked up to princess Celestia, who just looked down at the pair with a heat warming smile.

“My little ponies, we gather here today for the union between my niece princess Mi Amora Cadenza, and captain Shining Armor.” The day princess then looked down at the disguised queen, her smile growing ever so slightly.

“Mi Amora Cadenza, do you take this stallion to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

“I do.” the queen said as sincerely and true as she could convey, which made the white alicorn smile wider as she nodded her head before she turned to look at Shining Armor, who Chrysalis mentally commanded to stand up straight and give a resolute expression.

“Shining Armor, do you take—”

“SISTER WAIT!”

Chrysalis froze! The sudden voice that disrupted the perception, and causing the shocked and surprised look on Celestia’s face, was undoubtedly that of the night princess. Turning to look behind her the queens fears were confirmed as she saw the disheveled the night princess, but not just her but also princess Cadence and that unknown creature as well! There were also a collection of other strange creatures she’s never seen before beside them as well. But what really gripped the queens attention was that the ponies in the ceremony hall were whispering to each other, while baffled and dumbfounded looks shifted between her and the real Cadence, she even turned to look at Celestia and the others at the alter and all of them were starting to get suspicious.

“Luna what…what’s going on here!?” Celestia asked, and before Chrysalis could say anything, the creature spoke up.

“That isn’t the real Cadence! She’s a fake, a shapeshifter!” the hall then erupted into louder talks between the ponies, and even the ponies behind her were getting rowdy with concerns.

‘Damn it not now!’ the queen internally lamented before gritting her teeth. ‘Fine then, guess we’ll just have to accelerate the plan to phase 2!’

The queen then sent out a telepathic signal to all of her changelings, telling them to immediately start their attack on the city and castle, and after a minute of delay everypony heard explosions going off while the castle shook! The ponies in the hall were panicking and crying out as they ran for the exit, but that’s when a swarm of her changelings came in from the door and windows. The guards posted inside, along with the princesses and Twilight’s group trying to fight off any changelings that were trying to capture them.

‘Commander is the black throne in place?’ Chrysalis mentally called out.

‘Yes my queen, we just installed in into the center of the garden’s maze’ the commander responded which the queen smiled as she watched as the ponies try to use their magic, but were unable to cast even a simple magical blast. Seeing the ponies struggle in trying to fight off her swarm just made the queen laugh as her plan was being initiated.

“Cadence what is the meaning of all this?!” Celestia cried out as she kicked a changeling away from her.

“That’s not me auntie Tia, that’s the leader of all of these invaders!” the real Cadence called out as she was being defended by the unknown creature and its pets.

“I guess there is no point in keeping this disguise on anymore~”

The queens body then erupted in green fire as Celestia and the other ponies at the alter darted to where Luna and the others were, while the queens true form was revealed as her swarm cocooned and captured all of the ponies in the wedding hall. laughing in triumph as she a top of the alter, staring down all of the powerless fools before her.

“Canterlot is MINE! HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Chapter 12: Canterlot In Peril

For nearly a hundred years queen Chrysalis, leader the changeling Hive, has conquered many lands from the other side of the world. Lands ruled by other races and other kingdoms, all of who were to weak and vulnerable to rebel or even fight back. But there was a problem with her conquests. No matter how many kingdoms, cities, or even towns she puts under hoof, none of them could provide her or her Hive the energy they need to survive and thrive. But Equestria does have that energy! Pure and raw positive energy that can keep the changelings living on and increasing their own powers, so that they can be powerful. Powerful enough to make every other creature fear them, make them feel the fear and how powerless they were before Chrysalis became the Hive’s new queen. But even though Chrysalis had more power than she has had ever before, she knew that she was still too weak to take Equestria, the ultimate prize that will give the changelings everything they’ll need to be the all-powerful race Chrysalis knew that they were destined to be! Powerful enough so that no creature would be able to take advantage of them, or any pony they cared about ever again.

And today Chrysalis has finally achieved her ultimate goal, Canterlot was now in her grasp, she was so close in capturing it! all she had to do is marry her figure head of a prince charming, use him to get closer to the royal family and subjugate them to feed on their power, strengthening her and her Hive.

Everything was going according to plan! That is until that, creature, and those other princesses had to disturb everything, showing up in the middle of the ceremony, and trying to disrupt her plans! But it didn’t matter in the end though. Everything was already set up and in place to be thwarted by a simple hiccup, after all, conquering all those kingdoms and cities from the other side of the world has taught the queen to always have a backup plan or two, in-case of situations like this one. And one of those back up plans was installing her own throne in the throne room, where it will then start to absorb all of the magic not only in the surrounding area, but also from the ponies. Which was making the princesses of this nation forced to fight with hoof and horn, along with her students and her collection of friends having to fend off her swarm with no magic. which the queen found all the more amusing as she just stood at the altar, and watched her swarm out number them, the guards in the ceremonial hall, and any of the citizens that were fighting back.

“There’s to many of them!” one of Twilight’s friends, the cyan blue pegasus, shouted before four changelings tackled into her, and started to cocoon them up while she struggled.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight cried out as she was confronted by a pair of changelings.

“Princess what are going to do?” Twilight shouted as she kicked one of the changelings away, only to cry out in pain as three other changelings fired beams of magic at her.

“Twilight!” the group of ponies shouted as they fought back even harder, but the swarm of changelings were just overwhelming them, and were even cocooning the royals up as they were taken down by the more elite obsidian armored changelings.

“Face it ponies, there is nothing that you can do to stop me!” Chrysalis boasted as she stood proud upon the altar, watching her Hive cocoon up each and every one of the ponies.

“Canterlot is mine now, this entire city is now mine! And from this city I will usher in a new era for the changelings—”

The queens monologue was interrupted when she heard a loud ‘bahing’ sound echo out through the hall, and saw a good cluster of her changelings falling out of the air, and dropping to the floor heavily snoring all the while. Though the queens confuse was further increased when she saw burst of fire popping up between small groups of her Hive, while also seeing flashes of light erupting out of nowhere while changelings were being launched into the walls and pillars, bodies crackling with electricity and convulsing as they twitched sporadically. Then the queen heard a deep drumming noise blurt out, before seeing a massive stone thing barrel through her swarm. That’s when the queen just remembered that it wasn’t just the ponies in the hall, but that strange creature Matt was there as well, and was fighting with his pets while wielding a staff. While the ponies were being captured one by one, this Matt creature and his pets were putting up a decent fight against her changelings!

“Probopass!” Matt cried out as he leapt into the air, before the large rock thing threw a small rock towards him. At first the queen thought that the creature was going to be struck by the rock, but instead Matt quickly grabbed onto the thrown projectile, which then flew him towards where Chrysalis was standing.

‘What is it planning?’

Chrysalis questioned as she watched Matt soar through the air, but halfway towards her the queen watched as the creature raised his staff while the small rock attached itself to the head of the staff, along with two more. That’s when the queen watched as the stones developed a metallic sheen to them.

‘Wait, is it—’ before the queen could finish her thought the creature swung his staff down, with the glowing rocks shinned more intensely as they closed in on her.

“Magnet Bomb Strike!”

Matt shouted as his staff head glowed pure white for just a second, before it collided with something solid, and an intense sound of something metallic being breached sounded out! But when the light vanished Chrysalis was shown to be just fine, although the green dome she raised up around her to block the attack had a massive, cracked hole in its surface, and the head of the staff was only an inch or two away from her face. A face that held a fearful and terrified expression as she looked at the creature, who without hesitation launched into another attack but he was knocked back when Shining Armor slammed into him, acting upon the mind control that was making him protect the queen at all cost. However Matt quickly recovered when the rock creature used the small rocks to catch him, and carefully placed him down next to it and the other animals that were still fighting the Hive.

‘Wha—What was that!? was that magic?!’ the queen balked internally as she just stared at the creature, who was being attacked by the remaining members of the swarm in the hall, as they all dove onto him and the animals.

“How could it use magic; my dark throne should be absorbing all of the magic in the area!” the queen quietly stammered to herself as continued to watched as Matt and his pets fought on, he even hurled the weasel like creature at a group of changelings when it grabbed his staff, and he swung it at the changeling guards.

“Calm down Chrysalis, this creature won’t be able to take on the entire Hive.” The queen said to herself as she looked at Shining Armor, who stood beside the queen and was looking down at the brawling crowd with a blank expression.

“I might as well get as much use out of you as I can, go on and capture that creature. And his pets!”

The stallion shambled his way down the altar and made his way over to the creature and his pets, and when he was closer enough to the group the unicorn charged at Matt when the swarm gave him an opening, his horn primed to strike down the bipedal creature! Yet when Shining Armor was but a foot from Matt, his attacked was blocked when the large bovine creature rushed to Matt’s side, and used its massive body to slam into the captain of the guard and sending the stallion rolling across the floor. Until the stallion collided with a pillar and was knocked unconscious. Then the bovine bellowed out a thunderous ‘bah’ as from its two rocky mounds, smoke and fire erupted as balls of lava flew everywhere! The swarm all tried to fly or run out of the way of the fiery attack, but a good majority of them were struck by the flaming projectiles, their bodies being burned and knocked away.

“How is that cow able to launch magma balls!?” the queen cried out as she flew out of the way from a few wayward blasts.

“Just what in the world are you and those creatures?!”

Chrysalis called out towards the strange menagerie as her swarm gave them a wide birth, all of them looking at the small rebellious group with fear and worry, as well as great uncertainty as none of the changelings even knew what they were all capable of.

“Someone whose going to put an end to this little hostile take over of yours!” Matt said as he spun his staff around as his pets all cried out in defiance as well, then the queen watched as several flashes of light burst from the creatures belt, where even more animals appeared.

‘Just what is this thing!?’

As the queen just stood there completely baffled and dumbfounded, she witnessed all of the creatures charged into the swarm of changelings, fighting them as they battled their way towards Chrysalis. She watched as they casted one spell after another, from lobbing rocks at the swarm, creating a flurry of frigid wind, firing balls of electrical energy, and many other types of spells. But the cow-like creature was the most brutal, stomping and ramming through the swarm, while also unleashing clouds of fire from its back mounds. Even the elite changeling guards defensive magic weren't able to block or withstand the attacks, and when their defenses failed them they were all knocked to the side by Matt and his small army of magical animals.

“How are they taking on my Hive so easily! Not even the trained warriors from the kingdoms I’ve conquered put up this much of a fight!” Chrysalis groaned as she watches another group of her changelings were battered and beaten away, before another group fired a volley of magical blasts at the group, most of which just struck the ground creating a large dust cloud.

“This maybe a good opportunity to try and trick the creature, if I get in close to it I might be able to take it down, and use him to stop the animals from wreaking havoc.” The queen then charged into the thick of the fray, her body being wrapped in green fire as she disappears in the dust cloud.

~~Matt~~

This has to be by far the most arduous fight that Matt and his team has ever been, even more so than that time he was caught in the middle of a battle between he police and Team Rocket! That whole situation was just a small scale tussle with a handful of goons in the building that Matt accidently found himself in, this however, he’s lost track on how many of these things that both he and his Pokémon have taken down. Not only that but these invaders were really going at them with nothing holding them back, they would even make those Team Rocket goons sweat with how aggressive they were fighting, and just overwhelming them with their greater numbers. It was amazing that Matt and his team lasted this long during the whole fight, even after the ponies were all captured and cocooned up and tossed to the sides of the ceremony hall.

“If we don’t end this fight soon we won’t be able to last much longer.” Matt said to himself as he kicked another pair of these insectoid ponies away, causing them to crash into another group of the invaders. But as he knocked the little insectoids away, the ground next to him exploded with great force, kicking up a large dust cloud in the process.

“Guys!” Matt cried out as he looked towards where his team was before the explosion, and as the dust cloud settled he saw that all of his Pokémon were fine, however there was one thing off about his team. There were two Camerupt’s instead of one.

“Oh I see, one of you little buggers is trying to confuse me by shapeshifting into one of my Pokémon, sorry to say that’s not going to work with us.” Matt said with a confident smile.

“Especially not with Camerupt.” The young man then raised his left hand with the key stone imbedded into it, while the Camerupt on the right rose up on its back legs, and then stomped down as it held its front left leg out more than the other.

“Let’s show them Camerupt! It’s time for; Mega Evolution!”

~~Twilight~~

Never in her life has Twilight witnessed something as spectacular as what she saw before her. When the entire ceremony hall was flooded by these chiton invaders and started to attack every pony, Twilight felt incredibly scared and frighten, after all their were all be attacked by these strange insectoid like ponies, not only that, but the pony that Twilight thought was her old foal sitter was actually the leader of this invading swarm. After she was captured Twilight thought that she and her friends, the princesses, every pony was going to be forced to live under such an evil tyrant that tricked and deceived them all, and outwardly spoken about using their city, her home as a base to launch more attacks on the other cities and towns of Equestria to control them.

Yet as the unicorn laid in the cocoon she was wrapped up in, her fears and worries started to slowly diminish as she watched Matt and his Pokémon fight on! They were all engaging in the relenting swarm of invaders, battling as hard as they can to defend not only themselves, but any of the ponies that weren’t captured in the initial attack. But even now as he and his Pokémon stood alone, they didn’t waver, they didn’t give up! they fought against the blacken insectoids. It was all inspiring to Twilight in seeing her newest friend try to defend a city not his own.

“Oh I see, one of you little buggers is trying to confuse me by shapeshifting into one of my Pokémon, sorry to say that’s not going to work with us.” Twilight heard Matt say as she saw what looked like a confident smile grace his lips as he stared at the two Camerupt’s.

“Especially not with Camerupt.” The violet unicorn then watched as the young man then raised his left hand that had the black glove on it, with that strange gem stone that Twilight noticed whenever she met up with Matt. Shen then looked towards one of the Camerupt’s that stomped the ground, and bared its front left leg out which had a black band wrapped around it, with a brilliant opal gemstone with a orange and copper looking pattern in its core.

“Let’s show them Camerupt! It’s time for; Mega Evolution!”

Twilight then watched as Matt tapped the gem on his glove, which started to glow with an absolutely brilliant light, being matched by Camerupt’s own gemstone lighting up with an almost blinding light. Twilight could only squint her eyes as she watched the room being lit up like a festival as ribbons of light energy swirled everywhere. Then when the lights had dimmed down enough the unicorn then saw the Camerupt with the band on its foreleg turn into a source of pure light, light that then started to change its shape as the body of the Pokémon grew bigger and wider. Mere moments later light erupted form the Pokémon’s body, and what stood before Twilight, the invaders, and any pony else that could possibly see what has transpired utterly stunned the mare. Where the Camerupt with the foreleg band stood, was now an even bigger Camerupt with its fur a brilliant shade of crimson red, and the large twin rocky mounds on its back fused into one miniature volcano. A volcano that had lava flowing from its peak, and being held back by the protruding blacken rocks sticking out of the Pokémon’s body.

All of the insectoid invaders looked completely gob smacked as they looked upon the now larger bovine, eyes widen, and mouth left agape. Even the other Camerupt looked incredibly stunned, especially when it revealed itself to being the leader of the swarm as she started to back away from the bovine. Who looked back at her with a clear expression of anger, and when it took a step forwards towards her not only did the tall lanky leader nearly tripped on her own hooves, but the moment that Camerupt placed its hoof down the unicorn could feel a rumbling vibration shake her cocoon.

“What! What is that thing, what has happened to it?!” the leader of the invaders blubbered out as she scooted away.

“Camerupt just reached the apex of its power, and now you’re going to witness it first-hand.” Matt called out as he and the other Pokémon took several steps back over towards where the invaders have tossed Twilight, and the rest of the ponies in hall to.

“Alright partner let’s show them your overwhelming power, use Earth Power!”

Camerupt ‘bahed’ as loud as it could as it reared up on it’s hind legs, and when it slammed back down Twilight will never forget what she saw. the moment that Camerupt slammed its hooves on the ground, spider-like cracks that branched out in all direction from beneath the large bovine, and then in a second golden light and steam fumed and shown from the cracks, before wellsprings of steam, rocks, and golden light burst forth and striking all of the invaders where they stood! As the attack was unleashed the whole ground shook violently, so much so that many of the cocoons that Twilight could see were starting to roll around. But thankfully Matt and the other Pokémon caught them and made sure that they didn’t roll off anywhere. Yet Twilight’s attention was more focused on the level of power that Camerupt’s attack was outputting, and seeing all of the invaders in the ceremony hall being literally blasted through the roof including the leader as she tried to use to protect herself. But it shattered into nothing as the erupting force just hammered into her.

As the leader of the dark invaders, and her swarm of followers, were vaulted out of the ceremony hall’s roof leaving only Matt, his Pokémon, and all of the captured ponies Twilight just laired there in her cocoon. Staring up at the various holes in ceiling before looking towards Matt and Camerupt, who along with the other Pokémon looked exhausted yet proud of their victory.

“Amazing!” was all Twilight could say as she watched the trainer and his team go around and un-cocoon every pony.

~~Chrysalis~~

In one of the buildings of the northern district of Canterlot, Queen Chrysalis laid in a pile of shattered roof scaffolding, a destroyed bed, with various members of her Hive scattered around the room. as the queen laid there amongst the rubble her entire body pulsed with pain, like her carapace was being crushed, while her insides boiled and roasted as if a great fire was burning up deep down. But even though her body was writhing with pain, she willed herself to her hooves.

“Damn it all.” The queen groaned as her pulsed with even more pain after just moving around just a little.

“How could those creatures do this, foil all of my hard work!” an angered snarling hissed escaped the queen as she manages to get up from her shattered landing pad.

“But I won’t give up so easily.” The queens eyes then blanked out as she reached out to all of the members of the Hive over the mind link.

‘All changelings hear me and obey, fall back to the Mound; we must adjust our plans.’

‘As you wish our queen.’ The chorus of voices of the changelings echoed within the queens mind. After the confirmation, the queen watched as the changelings in the room with her got to their hooves and then fly out, while she stood there in the room looking out a nearby window towards Canterlot castle.

“You may have foiled my plans today Matt, but the next time…you won’t stop me.”

Chapter 13: A Day in Canterlot

Author's Note

sorry for the inconsonant and lingered hiatus everyone, life is just running me through the ringer

Chapter 13: A Day in Canterlot

Canterlot was currently in a very tense state, which was very understandable. After all the city was just attacked and invaded not just three days ago, and since then the ponies of the city were still on edge with the citizens rarely leaving the houses unless in large groups or when a patrol of guards passed by, and speaking of the guards they were intensifying their training so that they will not be caught with the pants down, figuratively speaking. They were also doubling their patrol around the city and surrounding area, keeping their eyes and ears open for any remnants of the invading forces so that they act upon spotting the same invasion force, or any new ones might spring up. While the city was still in a fairly tense state, things that took place or prior to the whole changeling attack stopped any and all events, and in regards to the crashed wedding it was put off until everything had settled down. And to be certain that the changeling swarm and their queen have been thoroughly defeated, as well as ensure they won’t attempt to make another attack.

As for the newly appointed ‘Hero that saved the city’, Matt was taking everything in stride, from not just recovering from the whole ordeal but also the bowing and practical worship the ponies would give him if they passed by him. Which made the trainer feel a little weird as the whole thing was something he was not used to. He did understand that the ponies were grateful for him helping in saving the city, and defeating the changeling ruler, but all their grandstanding thanks was a little off putting. Other than the somewhat strange, and over the top, gestures not much else was happening around Matt that was odd. For the past three days while things in the castle and city were still trying to get back to how things were, the trainer and his team of Pokémon have helping the guards in their patrols through the city, to aide in ensuring that weren’t any changelings in hiding. But for today the young man and his Pokémon were taking a break from their new part-time work, resting in the palace garden, and enjoying a nice afternoon lunch with both princess Celestia, her sister, and Cadence along with Shining Armor while telling a story.

“—and that’s when I saw it, probably the most mysterious and glorious Pokémon I’d probably ever seen as I finally came out of the caves.” Matt said with a big smile on his face as the ponies listened to his stories on the Orange Islands, and how he came across the most rarest and most baffling Pokémon he had ever and will probably ever see in his lifetime.

“The crystal Onix!” a look of reminiscing wonder and amazement then graced his face as he recollected on the details of the strange yet wonderous Pokémon.

“It’s towering body stood amidst in a large pool of water, rays of light shining through the cracks in the rocky wall behind it, causing its entire body to shimmer and sparkle. Even after hearing the glass maker talk about it, and even seeing his own statue of it, I didn’t think it was real…but there it was…standing just a dozen or so feet in front of me.”

“What happened then!?” Shining Armor eagerly asked as he leaned over the table. “Did you battle it?” Matt quickly shook his head.

“You didn’t battle it? I thought that it would be a rare Pokémon to have.” Luna commented as she finished off her cup of tea, but Matt just shook his head as he petted Lycanroc’s head as he continued.

“Just because there’s a rare Pokémon right in front of me doesn’t mean that I’m going to instantly catch it. If I did and if I used it in battles, or in situations where a powerful Pokémon like an Onix would be helpful, it would only cause other less sensible or respectful people to try and challenge me so they can take it. Or just out right try to steal it from me.”

“That sounds very respectful and responsible Matt.” Celestia commented before giving the trainer a curious look. “But what did you do when you stumbled upon it?”

“Well at first I was just dumbstruck. I mean I was face-to-face with an unknown specimen of a documented Pokémon; I wasn’t sure if what I was seeing was real.” Matt chortled as took a drink of his lemonade before getting back to his story.

“Luckily the Onix didn’t see me as a threat, and actually came closer to me. That’s when I reached out and petted it, and even offered a nanab berry to show it I mean no harm, afterwards I took a picture of it before it left through the underwater tunnel system.”

“Do you have the picture?” Cadence asked the young man, to which Matt fished his wallet out of his pocket and pulled out a picture, and showed the ponies the crystal Onix in all of its glory. Body glimmering and shining in both the cave light and the slight flash from the camera.

“Incredible! It’s like a living statue of solid crystal!” Luna marveled as she looked upon the picture.

“I would’ve loved to see it in person.” Cadence remarked studied the large crystalline serpent before Matt placed it back into his wallet.

“Just goes to show that there are many types of Pokémon out there that aren’t even documented. And that’s why exploring the regions is such a thrill, and is the best part about being a trainer, seeing new and amazing things before you decide to settle down.”

As Matt spoke about his adventures back in his world the ponies all looked at each other with slightly worrisome expressions, as they all knew that this young man’s adventurous life style was pretty much at an end while in their world. As he knew nothing about this world other than Ponyville, and Canterlot city, they were also certain that Matt missed his friends and family back in his world, not to mention the other Pokémon that he had caught and cared for while traveling or at the families ranch.

“Princess Celestia.” The group turned their heads to find the solar princesses secretary Raven Inkwell with a binder and what looked like a small schedule planner note book in her violet aura.

“The mayor of Hoofington is here for his meeting, and the mayor Maresachusetts will arrive by the time that meeting has concluded.”

“Oh that’s right. Sorry everypony but I’ll have to leave for the rest of the day.” Celestia then left the group as she followed after Raven who also began listing off other things on Celestia’s schedule.

“I believe it is also time for me to retire as well.” Luna said as she stands from her seat while stretching out her wings. “I’ll need a good days rest to handle the night court tonight.”

“Have a good sleep then Aunt Luna.” Cadence said as the midnight alicorn took to the air and started to fly off.

“I think it’s also time for us to depart as well.” Shining Armor stated as he hopped out of his chair and stretched out his body, followed by and mimicked by Cadence.

“Well I’ll see you two around next time then.” Matt said as the happy couple bid their farewell to the trainer and trotted off while talking about security details, and something else as they entered the castle. Leaving Matt alone to his own devices.

Finishing off the last bit of his meal and drink Matt left the table, just as servers came to clean up the table, and started to just wander around aimlessly through the castle trying to think of what to do now. Training had crossed his mind, but the last few days has been nothing but training and practice, so the trainer decided to hold off training for his team for a few days to allow them to relax. Checking in with the guards crossed his mind, though considering how the guards wanted to redeem themselves in not being able to prevent the invasion, and their slight hero worship of himself, the young man thought it better not to disturb them too much. As Matt continued to wonder what he could do to pass the time he came across the main entrance of the castle, wide open and allowing the young man to see a collection of guards trotting about, and seeing the city beyond the gates. That’s when he got an idea to spend his time.

Making his way out of the castle and towards the main gates Matt noticed that some of the guards were watching him walk off, seemingly curious as what he was going to do but didn’t seem to stop him from leaving. Crossing the drawbridge the trainer began making his way into the city of the capital, where he could already see crowds of ponies going about their day, though as he struts down the sidewalk and sightseeing he’ll catch several dozen ponies stop whatever it is they are doing, and simply watch him. Some seem hesitant as he passes by them, while others waved at him and even thanked him for helping save the city from the invaders which he waved back, and gave simple replies in turn before continuing with his sightseeing. While walking around the city streets the young man’s mind started to think about his home world, and if he will ever see it again. But that thought swiftly shifted to the mystery in how he came to this world, because his initial hypothesis that it was by some strange act of the legendary Pokémon Palkia’s power was incredibly unlikely, especially in how random the who idea actually sounds.

“Every time I think about this idea the more confused I get.” Matt muttered to himself as he stops at a street corner as a small group of ponies hauling carts trots by.

“It just doesn’t make sense. If Palkia was really the source of how I got here…then why was I affected specifically?” once the small entourage of cart pullers had passed Matt continued to sight see, while still muttering to himself as a new idea came to his mind.

“Unless it wasn’t Palkia that sent me here. But—no, no, that can’t be it, there are no other Pokémon that I know of that can manipulate space. At least, I don’t think there are.” Eventually the young just gave up on trying to solve this mystery as it was only leading to an incoming headache.

“I give up, this whole thing is really just making me—AH!”

Matt cried out as he bumped into something and nearly tripped over himself, which was accompanied by what sounded like a feminine yelp, along with a slight jabbing sensation striking his leg. Thankfully he was able to catch himself by grabbing a lamppost next to him, though he did swerve a little as he tries to right himself up. once he was situated he looked to what he nearly tripped over, and was surprised to find Rarity, rubbing one of her forehooves as bags scattered around her.

“Oh my lord Rarity, I am so sorry! I wasn’t paying attention where I was walking.” The mare waved him off as she stood back up and gathered her bags.

“No, no, no it was my fault dear I was in a rush, and I was—Matt! Oh my goodness are you alright dear?” the mare asked the young man as she looked at him with a worried expression as he started rubbing his leg.

“I felt something jab me in the leg but nothing to serious.” Matt reassured the mare as he looks down towards her seeing that she looked relieved.

“That’s good to hear.” The mare said.

“But what are you doing here in Canterlot Rarity? You don’t have a shop here, do you?” the trainer asked the mare as he knelt down to be more at an appropriate height. The mare chortled as she lightly shook her head.

“No darling, at least not yet.” The mare retorted.

“I’m actually here gathering up some supplies for some special orders I’ve been commissioned to make, and I’m actually on my way to grab the last of the things I need.”

“I see. Well again I’m sorry for crashing into you, and hope your work goes well.” Matt says to the mare who nods her head, but then starts to scrunch up her face in a contemplating manor.

“Is something wrong Rarity?” the mare didn’t immediately say anything as she scanned the young man from head to toe, as if she was studying him.

“Dear how long have you been wearing those clothes of yours; they look a little warn out if anything?” Rarity inquired as she places a hoof on the trainers pant leg, and padding out a few creases along with what appeared to be a bit of dirt.

“I’ve been told the castles tailor is making a few copies of my clothes. This is the first they made, and I’ve only worn it since yesterday.” Matt said in reply to the mare’s question. The mare then hummed for a minute before looking as if she got an idea.

“Matt would you mind if I made you a few outfits?” the mare asked as she looked up to him with a hopeful look.

“After we first initially met and got to know you a bit more, I’ve been thinking about designing some clothes for you. so would you mind if I did so?” Matt took a moment to think about the offer.

“I mean I don’t mind but I don’t have anything to pay with.”

“Oh that’s fine dear I’m doing this for no charge.” The unicorn assured the trainer which did make him feel a little unsure, but if she was willing to do this for free.

“In that case I don’t mind.” The mare pranced in place while gleefully chuckling to herself as she makes a comment about creating something new compared to everything else she has created.

Once the offer was set Rarity then asked Matt to join her to get her last bit of supplies, mostly so she could probe the young man for details about human clothing and design, but to also get to know him better. As for Matt he was happy to talk to someone that he knows somewhat well, while still getting to see the city.

~~????~~

Sitting at a table at a café across the street from where Matt & Rarity were, was a tall and rather lanky purple unicorn with a short grey mane drinking coffee and just watching the pair. Ever since the biped came within his view the stallion has kept a constant watch on the human, studying his every move and assessing him. Soon enough the pair started to trot off in the direction where the biped initially came from, and as they trotted off the stallion finished his coffee and started to follow after the pair, making sure not to draw attention to himself. As he followed the duo the unicorn kept his eyes trained mostly on the human, but also the other ponies around him especially the patrolling guard groups whenever they appeared. Luckily the stallion managed to not raise any suspicion as he continued to follow the pair.

Ten or so minutes of following the pair the stallion watched the biped and mare walk into a store. when the duo entered the store the stallion made sure that no pony was watching him, or that there was any pony around, before his body quickly was engulfed in green flames where the stallion was replaced with a pink pegasus mare. Once the new pony gave her body a once over, and still ensuring that no pony saw her transformation, she made her way over to the store and entered the building and found it to be some type of fabric shop. Walls lined with rolls of fabrics from singular colors, to already stitched patterned ones and various other products. In the shop aside from the mare and her desired pair, who were browsing the rolls of the red fabrics, there was also the front counter pony, and at least four other ponies that were also paired off and talking to one another as they discussed clothing products.

“Hello miss.” the mare turned to her right where she found a chocolate brown unicorn mare with a curly cream colored mane trotting towards here.

“Is there anything that you need help with today?” the mare asked which the mare quickly shook her head before responding to the unicorn.

“No I’m mostly just browsing to gather some inspiration, and figuring out what colors would go great for this new dress I’m designing.” The mare said with out missing a beat to which the other pony simply nodded.

“Well if you ever change your mind just let me know.” the mare said politely before trotting off and immediately getting called over to a different pair of ponies.

The mare started to browse the various products of the wall closest to the pair she’s been tailing, listening in onto their conversation which was mostly the unicorn mare asking the creature questions regarding its preferred clothing choices and styles. The mare kept within relative close distance to the pair and listen in on their conversations, as if she was trying to see if the creature will reveal anything particular about itself, whether it was something regarding its strength, power, or the other strange creatures that its able to summon. That last bit was in particular more critical as the mare remembered what she had heard from the others, in where the creature summoned a small squad of strange creatures that seemed to bend and control elemental forces, and effortlessly took out a platoon of her comrades and her queen. But it seems that the mare wasn’t going to get any useful information from either of them today, so the mare decided to pull out a note pad, quickly jot down a few notes to at least seem that she wasn’t just browsing before leaving the store and saying to the brown unicorn that she will be back later on.

Once she left the store the mare took flight and made her way to the southern section of the city, where she then flew through several backstreets before coming upon a residential area and landed by a rather small house that look fairly run down. Once inside the mare dropped her disguise and revealed her true chitinous form, and started to trot through the house till she came to the back where a large hold in the wall stood, and having four other changelings flanking the entrance. Passing the guards the changeling trotted down the darken tunnel that was carved into the mountain, till she came upon a massive cave where other changelings were gathered, most resting, some talking and discussing things, and one small group on the far left wall and was transforming into large insectoid creatures and continued to tunnel through the rock and stone. Taking flight again the changeling flew up to the upper area of the cave, where she found the queen sitting on a makeshift thrown with various throw pillows, and appeared to be speaking to somepony telepathically.

“And the throne is back at the Hive safely?” the queen asked as she looked over what looked like a map.

“Good. Now while you’re at the Hive instruct the other lieutenants and captains on the state of the operation, oh and before you come back make sure to bring captain Pharyx to the city.” The queen then let out an exasperated sigh as she rubbed her forehead.

“Yes, and his little brother Thorax. But be sure to tell that lowly grub that he better shape up, otherwise he will be banished from the Hive. I have had enough with that grubs incompetence!” a moment later the queen turned her attention to the changeling standing a few feet from her who bowed to her.

“Report.”

“I’ve recently found the creature that have disrupted your plans my queen, it was in the city with another pony.”

“And what have you learned?” the queen asked as her full attention was on the changeling as they rose to a standing position.

“I have not learned anything particularly useful, as he and the mare were talking mostly about clothing and the like.” the changeling stated. The queen seemed to be contemplating in how to proceed for a moment before she looked back to the changeling.

“Keep on monitoring the city and looking for any other weaknesses, and if you see the creature keep on observing it.”

“Yes your majesty.” The changeling said before about-facing and trotting off then taking flight to head back out into the city and continue their observations.

Chapter 14: An Answer to a Question

Flying through the air and heading straight for the Everfree Forest was a large carriage being pulled along by four pegasi guards, inside the carriage was Celestia, Luna, Matt, and Twilight who out of the quartet was the most excited for today’s venture. The group was heading towards the ruins of the old castle deep within the forest, after Matt mentioned that it was where he awoke in the ponies world, so the princesses decided to inspect the ruins for any traces or evidence whatever force brought him to Equestria in hopes in learning how to reverse the process. But before the trio made their way to the forest they quickly made a stop to Ponyville to pick up Twilight, who was ecstatic to join on the excursion and promptly gathered up all of her research materials before joining the expedition. After several minutes of flying through the air the carriage made it to the large clearing in where the ruins laid, where the pegasi guards then landed a few feet from the gaping entrance. Exiting the carriage first was Twilight as she practically blitzed from the vehicle with boundless excitement and enthusiasm, which made both princesses chuckle at the younger mares jovialness as they exited followed by Matt who stretched out his back as the guards un-hitched themselves and rested up.

“So where do we start first?” Matt asked the ponies as he finished with his stretches.

“I think the best place to start is the spot where you initially woke up. Do you remember where it is that you awoke Matt?” Celestia asked the young man who gave a nod.

“At least I think I remember.” The trainer committed as he walked past the group of mares and tried to retrace his steps, while the princesses and twilight followed after him. Examining the interior of the ruins and walking for a few moments Matt started to remember the route he took to leave the ruins.

“You know, this place reminds me of a lot of the old ruins and structures back in my world.” Matt off handedly commented as he kept looking at the ruins while the group climbed a set of stairs.

“Were they the remains of old castles?” Luna inquired as they started to make their way down a hallway maneuvering around bits of rubble and debris.

“Some were. Some were the remains of old temples and other buildings.” Matt retorted as he stopped in mid step as he tried to recall the exact direction of the room where he woke up.

“What kind of temples did your people make Matt?” Twilight asked her curiosity of the young man’s world never ending.

“I’m not an expert on temples, or history for that matter, but most temples were places of worship for legendary Pokémon. Or to seal more dangerous Pokémon away.”

“Sealed!” Luna balked in surprised.

“Your people would seal away Pokémon? But I thought that Pokémon were good.” Matt gave a slight head shake as he explained more as he went back to retracing his steps.

“Most Pokémon are good, or at least indifferent…but there are Pokémon that are malicious and dangerous, some even steal the souls of people—”

“WHAT!” all three mares screamed in unison as they heard that bit.

“And there are those that can destroy the environment, or even cause a global threat. So to ensure that these people are pacified humans and Pokémon made places to seal them away, so that they couldn’t harm anyone.”

“My goodness! I wouldn’t have imagine that your world would have such formidable Pokémon.” Celestia said with a still shocked tone of voice.

“People back home always have to remember to be respectful and be careful around Pokémon, one never knows when a Pokémon will decided to use its powers on you either for fun or for more, nastier intentions. Thankfully most Pokémon aren’t like that and are peaceful and friendly towards each other and people.”

“That’s good to here.” Twilight sighed in relief as she and the group came to a larger room.

Entering the room Matt looked around for but a moment and concluded that this was the room that he woke up in. Celestia and Luna immediately went to work in studying the room, horns and eyes glowing with their signature magical auras as they examined every square inch thoroughly, as for Twilight her horn was glowing with its own magical aura but was beaming a cone of light like a flashlight as she scanned the room. While the three mares were at work Matt simply stood by the rooms entrance and just watched the trio, entranced at the ponies usage of their magical abilities. In fact ever since that Matt came to this world he’s been really fascinated by the ponies magic, as it seems that it is incredibly versatile and usable for many, if not all kinds, of situations in day-to-day lives. As time passed the three mares seemed to be coming up with nothing, at least as far as Matt could tell by their perplexed expressions after a few minutes of scanning the room from floor to ceiling.

“This is strange.” Celestia suddenly said breaking the silence that hung in the room.

“So you noticed it as well?” Luna chimed as she looked towards her sister.

“Did you two find something?” Matt asked in response to which Celestia nodded her head to both.

“I think I noticed it as well.” Twilight added as her horn stopped emitting its magical glow.

“There is a very faint trace of magic here in this room.” Celestia said as her still illuminated eyes scanned the room before looking straight down to the floor. The large alicorns eyes narrowed as she focused on the center.

“Luna could you cast a source detection spell there?”

Celestia asked as she pointed to where she was looking. Her sister nodded and as Luna’s eyes lost their glow her horn brightened up, before casting several pulses of magic down to the stop that Celestia gestured to. The group watched as the pulses of magic touched the ground where it started to glow brighter and bright with a blue coloration, but after several seconds of this continued deluge of pulsating rings of magic the glow on the floor changed from blue…to lavender. A moment after the glow changed colors the group then watched as the spell finally took effect, and watched as the lavender glow took on a more condensed magical aura and slowly start wisping into the air, before it began to drift around aimlessly for a moment.

“So…what’s going on?” Matt asked the mares with clear confusion in his voice as well as on his face as he looked towards the ponies.

“I’ve casted a spell that locks onto any lingering magical auras in a location, once my spell has found the aura it then amplifies it and causes the magical residue to spark back to life. Then the spell has been fully activated the magical residue will then give us an answer depending on a few key facts.” Luna explained as she and the others looked up to the swirling magical lavender energy.

“If the source of the magic is close enough then the aura will race off to rejoin the source. If the source is not within a set distance, and is instead due to something other than some pony casting a spell the aura will then fade into the air giving it the same colored hue as the aura.”

“So that means if Palkie did send me here this ribbon of magic will fade away?” the trained asked as he tried to understand the explanation that Luna gave, to which both solar and lunar princess nodded, which gave the young man a hopeful expression.

“Though if it is that later half it will be a bit more difficult to try and send you back, because we will then need to figure out a way to use Palkia’s power to send you back.” Celestia stated as the magical aura in the air finally stopped its aimless swirling before morphing into a small sphere.

“That sounds like it’s going to be difficult princess.” Twilight remarked at her teachers assessment.

“Indeed. If that is the case then we’ll need your guidance in that matter Matt.” The young man nodded his head in confirmation. Then with a small pop the group looked back to the sphere of magic where they saw it not fade into the air…but instead raced down towards Twilight’s horn! Everyone in the room looked equally confused and surprised, none more so than Twilight who just stared up to her horn before looking at the others.

“Twilight?” Celestia questioned more out of stunned dismay than anything else.

“Princess! I…I didn’t, I didn’t bring Matt here!” The small unicorn said in a panic voiced. “I never even attempted any kind of summoning spells, I promise!”

“Calm down Twilight.” Luna said as she trotted to the young mares side. “No pony is accusing you, we’re all just confused is all. Right Matt?” both princess and mare looked towards the trainer who was being comforted by Celestia as he looked unsure how to process this information.

“Matt, are you alright dear?” the white mare asked the trainer who gave a small nod while blinking his eyes as if trying to focus his mind.

“I’m fine, just…really confused.” The trainer said simply. Celestia then turned to face her student.

“Twilight are you certain that you haven’t been dabbling with any kind of summoning magic?” Celestia questioned her student who gave an affirmative nod.

“I’m certain princess! The only new type of spell that I’ve been working on is an advance teleportation spell that travels great distances.” Twilight confessed as she looked up towards her teacher still looking very panicky, while the alabaster alicorn looked a little bit skeptical.

“Where did learn of this form of, advance, teleportation?” Celestia inquired out of curiosity. Twilight ignited her horn with magic and with a buff & pop of magic Twilight conjured up a really old book that looked as if it was about to fall apart.

“I learned it from this book that I found in the basement of the library when I was turning it into my laboratory. I’ve only just got around to reading it.” Luna then levitated the book from Twilight’s magical grasp and began to carefully flip through the pages, reading each pages contents studiously.

“The spell is on page sixty five.” Twilight added which Luna thanked before flipping to the page in question. As the night princess read the pages, or attempted to decipher the old worn out letters and passages something had caught her eye.

“Did you find something Luna?” Celestia questioned.

“I believe so, though I can’t quite make most of the passage as it is rather faded.” Luna then offered the book to her sister who took it in her own magical aura and tried to read the faded pages passage. It took a moment for her to read the old Ponish words and translate them into modern Eques, and as she did she could clearly understand what the spell actually did.

“This is indeed an advance form of teleportation magic Twilight. However the spell is for something specific that comes from a far off place to the desired location of where the spell’s anchor, the magical circle drawn here, is etched.” As Celestia clarified what the spell actually did Twilight seemed to understand her grave mistake.

“What did you do when attempting to use this spell Twilight?” Celestia asked.

“After testing to see if I got the circle’s inscriptions right, I first tried to see if the spell would work by teleport two of my friends to Sweet Apple Acers as a trial test.”

“Then that must’ve been when the spell failed.” Celestia guessed as she looked to the book and then her student.

“What exactly did you and your friends do Twilight?”

“Well after making another magic circle in my laboratory, I had Applejack and Pinkie Pie stand in the circle where I was trying to teleport them to Applejack’s farm.”

“That’s probably when the spell went wrong.” Luna hazard a guess as Twilight continued.

“But nothing happened. If the spell did bring Matt here, he would’ve been brought to my basement, not here. Right?” Twilight asked her mentor and Luna as if seeking some kind of confirmation, though both princesses seem uncertain in their own assessment of this story. But as the ponies were trying to wrap their minds around this puzzle, Matt thought of something before asking.

“Twilight, when you first tested this spell, just the circle part did anything happen?” Twilight thought for a moment as she tried to recall anything out of the ordinary with her previous experiments, before something sparked to mind.

“Well when I first attempted to draw the circle Spike startled me by accident, and I…I…” Twilight stopped in mid-sentence as a sense of realization entered her mind and a look of alertness came to her face.

“Twilight?” Celestia said as she looked a little worried as her stood stopped her recollecting.

“I accidentally smudged the circle and attempted to fix it. I thought that would do it so I then funneled magic into it, to see if it would still work and I did it properly.”

“Then that must have been when the spell malfunctioned. Perhaps the initial disruption of the circle was enough to cause the incident that brought Matt here, as you were merely testing and not having proper understanding of the spells parameters.” After hearing Twilights recount of what had transpired when she was fiddling with the spell Celestia made an educated guess which only made the little mare look even more guilty. She then turned to Matt who was still trying to understand the whole magical jargon, but was able to mostly grasp the base concept of what’s been stated.

“Matt I am so sorry that I caused all this. I didn’t—” the violet mares said as tears started to swell in her eyes, but her apologies were stopped as Matt knelt down to her and patted her on the head.

“It’s alright Twilight it was just a freak accident.” Matt said with a small smile which eased Twilight’s grief a little while the princess looked pleased that the young man didn’t accuse the mare of malicious wrong doing, or the like.

“Well now that we know what has happened to me, is there a way to send me back?” as the young man asked the two princesses they both seemed a little unsure in how to respond.

“If we study this spell, and try to recreate the ‘accident’ that Twilight had, while managing to control it…or something along those line we might be able to.” Celestia retorted, not entirely sure if she was confident in her own words or plan. And by the concerned look her sister was giving her Luna felt the same way.

“Can you give us a little more time to try and see if we can figure this out Matt?” the alabaster mare asked, the trainer nodded his head and gave a grateful smile to the alicorn.

“Of course. Take all the time you need, we don’t want to accidentally send me to the wrong world do we?” the three mares chuckled at Matt’s words before the group decided to leave the ruins, and get started to studying the tome more thoroughly.

Leaving the room the group made their way back to the carriage, but as they entered the main hallway they all heard what sounded like a cacophony of howls and a craggily roar. Rushing outside the group exited the ruins and found the guards huddled around the carriage, all of which were looking towards the forest where the horrible noises were coming from. But the noises soon turned into a massive explosion as something erupted within the darken woodlands, causing the ground to shake violently while the sounds of trees fell and crashed about. As for the howls they no longer rang through the forest, which put the entire group of ponies on edge and huddled together, with the guards positioning themselves in front of the princesses and both alicorns readied their horns with magic. meanwhile Matt drew his staff and kept his off hand hover over his belt, ready to grab one of his Pokéballs in case he needed to call on one of his Pokémon. Then from the tree line something came flying out from the trees, it looked like a wooden canine creature as it rolled across the ground before it rolled off the side of the fissure’s basin, and plummeted to the bottom of the chasm.

“Princess!” Twilight muttered in a worried voice as she stuck close to her mentor, who wrapped her ethereal tail around the shaky mare.

“Stay close Twilight.” Celestia simply said as she and the others then heard something come stomping through the woods. then a moment later something emerged from the tree line, a large bipedal dragon that was roughly a head taller than both Celestia and Matt, it’s body rough and jagged looking while it’s bright red head looked around before its eyes focused on the group.

“What is that? a dragon?” Luna said a loud to no one in particular as she and the others stared at the dragon-like creature, who roared as it approached the chasm.

“Leave this to me, I can handle this.” Matt said as he reached for one of his Pokéballs.

“Matt be careful!” Twilight cried out in fright. “We don’t know what that dragon can do!”

“Don’t worry.” Matt responded as he tossed the Pokéball in the air where Ninetails appeared beside the young man, who looked towards the dragon and got into a defensive manner, while Matt spun his staff in his hand before getting into a battle ready stance.

“I can take it.”

As trainer and Pokémon got ready for a fight, the dragon lept through the air after slamming its tail on the ground to help launch itself into the air before landing on the other side of the ravine, standing a good dozen feet from the whole group. Growling as it’s claws flexed and it’s vestigial looking wings flapped in a threatening display, readying to strike at any moment, while Matt and Ninetails also readied themselves to face-off against there aggressive opponent. And as the opposing fighters squared off Celestia and Luna guided Twilight and the guards to a safer distance, ensuring that they do not get involved in the fight yet remained close enough in case they need to intervene.

Chapter 15: A Battle in the Woods

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Chapter 16: Rough Patches and Plans Ahead

Since the little expedition into the Everfree Forest yesterday, and learning of the circumstances of his being in Equestria now revealed, Matt was now waiting for when both Celestia and Luna have come up with a sure-fire way to send him back to his home world without the possibility of being sent to another world entirely, which was said to be incredibly difficult. If not dangerous if everything isn’t done correctly.

For the time being while the princesses worked on the spell, in-between their usual duties, Matt decided to hang out in Ponyville for a while to not only give the princesses space, and not distract them by accident, which Twilight was happy to agree as she could offer the young man a place to stay. So the trainer spent the rest of the day spending time with Twilight, and getting reacquainted with the town and the ponies. Which wasn’t too hard on the later part thanks in part due to Pinkie Pie throwing a party to welcoming the young man back to the town, and allowing the towns ponies to interact with him and his Pokémon. Well, most of his Pokémon. The entire town was really surprised and shocked to see Matt’s newest Pokémon, especially when Druddigon broke some stuff mostly by accident, and was just scaring ponies just by looking at them. Luckily with Matt’s help, and a little assistance from Spike, the dragon Pokémon’s introduction inevitably went over smoothly.

~~~~~

The next day Twilight and Spike, along with Pinkie & Fluttershy, were guiding Matt to Sweet Apple Acres as the young man wanted to ask the farmer a question. As the group traveled along the dirt road making their way to the farmer, Twilight and the others occasionally looked over to the young trainer, and Lycanroc who was sticking close to her trainer, they would see that Matt was fiddling around with the device he calls a Pokédex. What he was doing on the device neither pony nor dragon could figure out, or outright understand with his mumbling, but for what they could gather at the bare minimum was something that involved fruit. And possibly some other stuff for food for his Pokémon. While the group was trotting along Pinkie tried to get a little closer to Lycanroc, but the bipedal wolf Pokémon just snarled at the pink mare causing her to flinch back.

“Okay, okay, sorry Lycanroc.” Pinkie said as she returned to her previous position while Lycanroc just stuck closer to Matt’s side, where she got a pat on the head.

“I told you guys that Lycanroc doesn’t like it when others try to get close to her.” Matt said as he continued to pat the wolf Pokémon’s head to calm her down, which seems to be working as she nuzzled into his side for a moment before walking beside him normally.

“Sorry. I just wanted to show that we’re all really friendly.” Pinkie said as she trotted backwards to the group to make eye contact with the trainer as he responded to the mare’s statement.

“It’s not that she doesn’t think that you’re not friendly Pinkie. She’s just very slow to trust new people that she’s just met, heck, back when she was just a little Rockruff she also slow to trust me.” Matt said as he looked down at the wolf Pokémon for a moment with a small smirk.

“Really?” Fluttershy asked as she eyed both trainer and Pokémon for a moment, unsure if what he said was true as Lycanroc has always been by his side whenever she or the others see her.

“It’s hard to believe that when she’s so attached to you.” Spike commented in response to Matt’s words which the trainer spun a hand as he went into more detail.

“Well when I first found her she was pretty roughed up, and even when I tried to help her she was very skittish.” Matt explained to the group as he began to tell the story of how he and Lycanroc first met each other.

“Was that when she grown attached to you?” Fluttershy asked as the group drew closer and closer to the front gates of Sweet Apple Acres.

“Nope.” Matt simply said before continuing on with his story.

“After I patched her wounds up, and made sure she would be alright, she was still cautious of me. I stuck around for a bit to make she was back to being one hundred percent, and once she was I left.”

“Wait! You just left her?” Pinkie asked with a clearly confused, if not baffled, tone of voice as she continued to trot backwards while looking up to Matt who just gave a small nod to her question.

“Well she was just a wild Pokémon at the time, and I only catch Pokémon that want me to catch them…but once I left she actually started to follow me. She kept doing it for a few days and was just intent on watching me.”

“What happened then?” Twilight asked as her curiosity of how Matt met and captured one of his Pokémon.

“She pretty much just hung around me wherever I went, and over time she grew more comfortable with me and my team at the time.” Matt said as the group reached the entry way of the farm.

“Eventually she finally warmed up to me and the others, that’s when she wanted to be part of the team, and that’s how I caught her--.”

“Hey there ya’ll!” As Matt was telling the ending of his story the group turned to where they suddenly heard the familiar greeting of their friend Applejack, and found her exiting the barn, dusting herself off and shaking some hay out of her mane. Once the farm pony was all cleaned up she made her way to the group who met her halfway.

“So what brings ya’ll down to the farm today?” Applejack asked the group as she straightened her stetson.

“Matt actually asked us to bring him here, he has a question for you.” Twilight explained as she made her way to the forefront of the group, catching her stetson wearing friends attention.

“Really now?” the orange mare then looked up to the young man who looked down at her. “So big fella what’s this question you got for me?”

“Well I wanted to know if it was alright if I could plant some of my berries here for my Pokémon?”

“Berries? What berries?” As Applejack asked the trainer, Matt knelt down and dug around in his pack, and presented a small box that had a selection of very colorful fruits, and several small pouches.

“These are the berries that I have left, I use them to not only feed my Pokémon, but also use as ingredients in Pokémon food.” Applejack looked over the berries and saw that all of them looked ripe and fresh, and they all smelled incredible.

“Unfortunately these are the only berries I have left, so I was wondering if I could plant some seeds to grow new berries.”

“Is that all? Shoot of course you can big guy, actually follow me fer a tick.”

Applejack then trotted off and headed towards where the barn was, the group then followed after her as she trotted behind the building. As the group trailed behind the farmer they all came upon the crop fields, where they could see all of the other vegetables that the family grows, from cabbage, potatoes, corn, and many more. Trotting the crop fields the group came to a stop when they arrived at a fairly empty stretch of land, the fields were plowed and appeared to be ready to start growing stuff.

“We just finished tilling this section of the field and haven’t decided what we were going to plant, so if you want Matt your welcome to use this field.” Applejack informed the young man as she stood on the empty plot of land while Twilight and the others stood on the path, except for Matt who stood next to the orange mare in the field.

“Thanks Applejack, this field looks perfect for planting these berries! Though I’ll only need a small section of the field to grow more berries, I won’t take up a lot of space.” Matt says graciously to the farmer who nodded her head in response as she then scanned the field.

“In that case Ah could use some rope, or make a small fence around the section of the fields that you need to go grow your berries, once you measure out how much space you’ll need.”

Nodding in response to the mare’s words the young man then made his way over towards one of the far end corners of the field, before taking out his Pokédex and appeared to be looking something up. A moment went by before the ponies watched as he started pacing, or measuring the section of land he needed for his berries by taking very precise steps, while muttering something to himself while keeping an eye on his device. Once he had measured out the amount of land that he needed, the ponies then watched the trainer then use his foot to mark the area of the field he was planning to use.

“I think that should be enough land to plant and grow my berries.” Matt said before looking back over to the farm pony.

“What do you think Applejack?” the pony then made her way over to where Matt was standing, and started to look over the outline he had drawn, and measured with his footsteps.

“Looks good to me Matt. Ah’ll get to work in getting this section blocked off so no pony else messes with it, or the berries that you’ll be growing here.” Applejack said confidently as she tilts back her hat as she looked up to the trainer who gave a thankful smile in return.

“Thanks again Applejack.”

“Not a problem sugarcube.” Applejack retorted with a joyful tone as she seemed happy to provide help to the young man.

“Say since your all here why don’t ya’ll stay for lunch?” Before the group could give a response they all heard a sonic boom off in the distance, and when they all looked up to where the sound came from they all saw the familiar rainbow trail zipping through the air, doing loops, air dives, and other aerial maneuvers.

“Looks like Rainbow Dash was back at in practicing more of her aerial tricks.” Pinkie Pie commented as she watches her cyan friend zoom around in the air.

“Does she do this a lot?” Matt asked the ponies as he watches the pegasus as well.

“Yeah. Rainbow practices like that all the time, so she can participate in any & all flying competitions, that way she can get into the Wonderbolts Academy.” Twilight explained to the human as they all watched the pegasus bolt high into the air.

“Wonderbolts Academy?” Matt replied, obviously a little confused at what Twilight meant.

“It’s a place where all of the top flyers across Equestria go to and train to become Wonderbolts, the best flyers in all of Equestria.” Fluttershy added as she watched Rainbow climb higher and higher into the air, before dive bombing to the ground at a rather steep arc.

“Ah don’t recall seeing her practicing a nose dive like that before?” Applejack commented as she watches their friend continue to dive straight to the ground, but loses sight of her over the hillside just a little further in the distance, and not seeing her immediately fly back up into the air.

“You think she’s--”

Before Spike could ask his question the group heard a distant cry, along with something crashing into another thing! Not wasting a moment the ponies and dragon raced off to head over to the hill, with Matt & Lycanroc chasing after them. Once the party had reached the top of the hill they started to look for their feathered friend, but the only thing they could see were a few scattered trees, bushes, and open fields. But they soon heard what sounded like grumbling and rustling coming from a small patch of clustered trees, and that’s when they found Rainbow Dash stumbling out of a large thicket of bushes. Mane and tail disheveled and full of leaves, which she tried shaking off along with dirt that clung to her fur, while flapping her wings to get leaves out of them.

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy cried out as she glided over to her friend while the others ran after her and towards the cyan pony.

“Are you alright?! Are you hurt?! We watched you fly around before you vanished behind the hill over there.” Rainbow quickly brought up a hoof to stop Fluttershy from sputtering off into panic mode.

“Yeah I’m fine, just a little sore that’s all.” Rainbow said as she stretched out her body before wincing as her back popped and her left hind leg cracked, causing the others to flinch at the loud crack. “Ow!”

“Maybe you should take a break Dash. Knowing you Ah bet you’d probably been practicing since dawn huh?” Applejack remarked.

Just as Rainbow was about to make a comeback she took notice of Matt who was hanging in the back of the group, and the moment the pair made eye contact the pegasus seemed to immediately look sheepish, and when the group noticed the brash pegasus’s change in mood they started to wonder what was wrong. Though it seemed that Pinkie might have a hunch.

“Are you two still not on good terms with each other?” Pinkie Pie asked as she looked between the two while catching the others attention. Before Matt could say anything Rainbow spoke up first after a moment of hesitation.

“…it’s not that we’re not on good terms, it’s just…” Rainbow said before scuffing the ground with a hoof, looking a little nervous as she does so before continuing.

“I’m just not sure how to talk to him.” Matt walked up to the mare before kneeling down and started talking.

“It’s not like you have to try and talk to me in a special way Dash, just talk to me like how you talk to your friends.” Matt said to the mare who just shook her head slightly before speaking up.

“I know that. The thing is that after everything that happened at the wedding, and then seeing you and your Pokémon fight off the changelings and send them flying off…it just makes me feel--.” Rainbow paused for a moment as she seemed to be thinking of a way to express how she feels, yet it looks like Fluttershy might know what her friend is trying to convey.

“You feel bad about of your actions when you two first met, and now want to try and make up but don’t know how?” Fluttershy asked aloud voicing her hunch, to which the cyan mare just nodded her head.

“Well if that’s the case Rainbow then you don’t need to worry.” Matt said as the pegasus looked up to him with a slight timed yet uncertain look as he continued.

“I know our first interaction may have been, rough, but I’ve moved past it awhile ago. And I’m willing to get to know you better, and put everything aside and start over. That is if you’re willing?”

Rainbow Dash peered up to the young man as he finished speaking and held out a hand, a second later the pegasus gave a small smile before placing her hoof in Matt’s hand where they shook. At the this the rest of the group smile as well, happy to see that the pair of them finally seemed to have reconciled, and are willing to give each other a second chance. Once everything was patched up, and Rainbow Dash insuring that she was indeed fine from her crash, the group then made their way back to Applejack’s farm where they all stayed for a nice lunch. Once they finished Rainbow went off to practice some more, and promising to be more careful, while Twilight, Spike, Pinkie & Fluttershy left the farm to head back to town. Matt meanwhile stayed behind with Applejack to begin planting seeds in his section of the crop field, while Applejack started making some basic wooden posts which soon became a fence. Along with a little sign signifying that the section was for Matt’s use only.

~~Hidden Hive~~

Within the hidden underground changeling hideout in Canterlot, in the private chamber Chrysalis was standing at a large rocky table that had various maps, charts, and old books scattered about, looking through them as if searching for something in particular. And every now and then the queen of the changelings would scribble something down on a piece of parchment, before flipping through more pages of the books she was reading through.

“Approach.” Chrysalis suddenly said before turning away from the table and seeing a trio of changelings trot up to her, all of whom bowed.

“We have arrived at your request queen Chrysalis.” The larger changeling of the trio said as he stood tall and gave the queen a salute.

“We have brought the reinforcements as requested, along with Lieutenant Pharynx and his brother Thorax.” The changeling gestured to the other two, who booth stood at a attention as they were called by name.

“Reporting for duty your majesty.” The pair said in unison.

“Excellent. Now as to the main reason why you are here, I need the two of you to perform two central tasks.” Chrysalis stated as she looked down to Pharynx first.

“Lieutenant I have a list of items that I need you and a squad to go out an look for, with them in our possession we might be able to launch a more successful take over of Canterlot.” the queen then floated the parchment that she had been writing on over to the changeling, who took it in his own magical aura and began studying the notes written down.

“You can count on your majesty!” the queen nodded to the changeling before looking squarely at Thorax, who flinched a little at the queens more stern and harden gaze.

“H-how can I serve you, your majesty?” Thorax asked nervously as he tried to remain calm.

“I’m giving you a task that even you should be able to handle without bungling it up. Your task is to track down and keep an eye on this creature called Matt.” Chrysalis says harshly as she levitates a different piece of parchment and holds it before the changeling, showing that it has a picture of the creature in question on it.

“You are to monitor him, watch him carefully for any weakness, or anything that can be used against him. and if you do discover anything you are to immediately report it, BUT ONLY if it is actually noteworthy.” Chrysalis then leaned down until she was almost muzzle to muzzle with the small changeling, who shrunk under the queens gaze while starting to lose whatever composure he had.

“Am I understood?”

“Y-yes your majesty!” Thorax quickly replied as he shivered in fear as Chrysalis stood back to her full height.

“Then go!” At the queens command both Pharynx & Thorax bowed and left along with the other changeling, and as they left the queen went back to her books and scrolls but before she could continue with whatever research she was doing, the queen turned to look behind her to see another changeling flying into the chamber.

“Report.” The changeling gave a quick bow before she spoke.

“I’ve just come from the castle your majesty and I’ve learned something. Rumors are going around that both princesses are researching some unknown spell.” The queen turned to face the changeling mare who continued to give her report.

“And from what I could gather it seems this spell has something to do with the creature known as Matt.”

“Is that right?” Chrysalis said mostly to herself than the changeling that was talking to her.

“Try and see if you can find out any specific details, otherwise continue monitoring the princesses and the inter-workings of the castle staff. pass this order to all other infiltrators in the castle.” The changeling mare bowed before turning and flying to perform her task, leaving Chrysalis alone in her chamber with her research and thoughts. and her ever evolving and changing plans in her second attempt to take Canterlot, and rule over the nation of ponies.

Chapter 17: Know Your Target

To say that Thorax was nervous would be an understatement. In fact, it would be more correct to say that the changeling is downright terrified! Not because of the mission that was given to him, but more so in failing it somehow and then having to face queen Chrysalis’s wrath, all the while being unable to rely on his brother to do anything to help him. Even thinking about his brother was further adding onto the changelings anxiety and fears, as while Pharynx is not as strict or harsh on him as others, but even though Thorax fails any missions, or even the simplest of assignments Pharynx still sticks by him and try to support him. Yet the only thing that Thorax thinks that he does is just bring down his brother with his failures. But not this time! This time Thorax was determined to accomplish his mission, and show that he can be a useful member of the Hive, and be somepony that his brother could be proud of.

“Now then where is this Matt creature?” Thorax asked himself as he made his way to Ponyville, after being told by the infiltrators in the castle, the changeling was now on the search for his target.

As Thorax was closing in on the town a loud, very loud, rumbling and roar echoed throughout the air, scaring the daylights out of the changeling. Looking around to find the source of the sound Thorax couldn’t initially see anything. But after another deep heavy rumbling and roar, the changeling looked out to the vast fields outside of the town, and that’s when he saw something strange. Large plumes of smoke and gouts of fire could be seen, but what really startled the changeling was seeing what looked like a massive pillar of steam just erupt from the ground. naturally the timid changeling was scared about what was going on, however his curiosity of what’s causing the rumblings, the roaring, and the strange fiery activities outweighed his fears. Making his way to the fields Thorax kept his eyes trained on the section of the field where the strange occurrences were happening, and as he got closer he was able to see what was causing it all.

Within the field Thorax could see a small group of creatures clustered up, yet the changeling was more focused on what the group was also looking at, a fight between two other creatures. One of which looked like a rather hefty bovine creature with two rocky stumps on its back, while the other creature looked like a blue dragon with a bright red head. both of whom were clashing and slamming into each other, with bovine charging head on, while the dragon tried to hold it back with its claws. Flying down to the ground, staying way out of the sight of any of the creatures, Thorax snuck as close as he felt comfortable before transforming into a bush and continued to watch the fight. Which nearly caused the changeling to drop his disguise when the bovine creatures hump bellowed out fire and smoke before charging at the dragon, who charged back and slammed right into it cause a resounding ‘boom’ to echo through the fields.

‘Wow! They’re really going at it.’ Thorax thought as the fighting continued as he then looked to the group, and amongst the gathered creatures the changeling found his target, standing taller than most of the of the other creatures and the two ponies.

‘So that’s Matt? I can’t believe that he actually defeated queen Chrysalis.’ Another clash brough Thorax’s attention back to the fighting creatures, and it seems that the bovine was getting the upper hoof as it knocked the dragon over.

‘But why are they watching these two fight? I thought ponies were supposed to be peaceful, so why are those two just—.’

“Alright you two I think that’s enough sparing for the time being.” The tall creature, Matt, said aloud which the bovine and dragon stopped right away and made their way over to the target, who started to check over the pair.

“Good. Neither of you seemed to have banged each other up to badly, rest up for now guys.”

“Actually I think it’s a good time to take a break from the sparing.” The cream coated pegasi said as she pulled out a basket from behind her.

“Sounds like a good idea, and this is a good time to try out my latest batch of Pokémon food.” The tall creature started as he walked over to where a backpack was and started to rummage through it.

As the creature dug around in the backpack, and the pegasus and violet unicorn started to set up a picnic blanket, with the help of a little purple dragon, Thorax took cautious steps to sneak closer and closer to the group to not only get a better look but hear them better. Though the changeling had to stop as every now and then would one of those creatures, more so the bipedal wolf and weasel, would glance towards his direction. The weasel especially looked like it seemed to know that Thorax was posing as a bush, which made the changeling sweat profusely but luckily the weasel didn’t do anything. Once the changeling felt it was safe to continue his approach, Thorax snuck up to the group till he was just twenty or so feet away from the group who were now in the process of eating, except for Matt who was passing out small cups of what looked like kibble to the creatures.

“This is the latest batch of food I made using stuff from town guys, give it a try and if you don’t like it that’s fine.” Thorax then watched as each of the creatures quickly ate the small amount of food from the cups, and it seems that they all like it as they all hummed in delight.

“It looks like they like it Matt.” The little dragonling said before biting into a green gem.

“I’m just lucky that all the foods you guys have here is pretty much the same back home.” Matt said as he started to fill out larger eating bowls and filling them with the food.

“Speaking of which I also made these for you guys.” The changeling then watched as Matt pulled out a small box and showed that it had what looked like colorful balls, yet at the sight of those balls the creatures aside from the dragon got visibly excited.

‘What are those things?’

“What are those Matt?” the unicorn asked, voicing the same question that the changeling was just thinking.

“These are Poképuffs. There like special treats stuffed with fruits and other fillings, their meant to be a treat…though someone keeps trying to hoover up all of them when I make them.” the target turned to look at the multi-tailed fox creature who turned to look away and looked very bashful.

‘Well he seems like a nice creature.’ Thorax thought to himself as he watched the target pass out the Poképuffs which were virtually ate in one bite. The only one that didn’t immediately devour the treat was the blue drag, as it seemed confused before taking a small bite, but after that small bite it ate the whole thing in one bite.

‘I still can’t believe that he managed to beat queen Chrysalis, I mean based on his looks he doesn’t look that tough to beat. Pharynx looks like he can beat him in a fight.’ Thorax internally said as he continued to watch the group eat their food and talked amongst themselves.

~~the Group~~

Today has been a rather productive day so far. Matt has been able to make some Pokémon food that his team actually likes from ingredients that the ponies had, and was able to replicate the recipes for not only the food, but also for the Poképuffs. And that they turned out alright for his team. Aside from the food Matt was also quite happy to see that Druddigon was getting along with the rest of the team, and that the others were accepting him very well. The training and sparring also helped in letting the group learn what he could do, and allow Matt to figure out how to best train him to be the best Pokémon he can, and help him learn how to interact with others.

“—so Matt after you finished your classes at school and the course for becoming a trainer, did you just leave your home afterwards? I mean leaving to go on a Pokémon journey when your ten sounds a little unrealistic.” Twilight said after taking a sip of her drink.

“Well normally that’s how it’s done back in the day, but in recent years—thankfully—people have been making those who want to be trainers take special classes, and courses to ensure you know how to handle yourself on your own, basic survival, self-defense and other skills, and how to handle and interact with wild Pokémon.” Matt explained to the mare before taking a bite out of a tomato sandwich.

“Also learning how to cook for yourself is a BIG help.”

“The more I hear you talk about your home, and how things there work, the more that I want to go and visit it.” Twilight pondered aloud as works on eating her salad.

“It maybe a bit difficult for you Twilight.” Matt retorted before continuing.

“You might be mistaken for a Pokémon so lots of people would try and catch you, including Pokémon hunters that would catch you and then sell you off.” The unicorn shivered at that last notion, but the whole stance of being mistaken for a Pokémon and having people chase after her sounded quite dangerous. As the group continued to eat Matt turned to look at Fluttershy who looked a little less apprehensive then she did moments ago.

“How are you feeling Fluttershy?” Matt asked the pegasus who was nursing her cup of lemonade.

“I’m feeling…alright.” The pegasus replied sounding slightly unsure.

“I know you still like the idea of Pokémon fighting each other, but this is normal not just for us, but for all Pokémon. They fight to defend themselves, to get stronger, and reach new evolutions.”

“I know.” the mare said as she took a very small sip of her drink.

“I just have to remind myself that creatures can defend themselves and fight if need be, but…after taking care of animals for most of my life I have this mentality to baby and take care of them.”

“That’s understandable. A lot of folks are like that back home, trying to protect Pokémon thinking that they are unable to do so themselves.” Matt said as he reached over and started to pet Mienshao on the head, getting a happy murmuring from the martial arts Pokémon.

While the group continued to talk and eat their lunch Matt answered more questions from the ponies and Spike, Spike especially loved hearing about the different dragon-type Pokémon, while Twilight and Fluttershy were still interested in how things back in Matt’s world still worked. Aside from the details of his world, Matt also shared more stories about his adventures and how met his team, as well as the friends he’s met along the way. But while the trainer & his friends were talking, he noticed something strange about Mienshao, which was that the martial arts Pokémon would occasionally look off to one side of the field, like she was looking for something.

“Something got your attention Mienshao?” Matt asked the weasel Pokémon who didn’t respond right away before turning to the trainer before shrugging.

“Well I think its about time that we headed back to town, I still have to finish organizing the library.” Twilight said as she started to pack up the picnic supplies with Fluttershy’s help.

“And I need to start heading to Sugar Cube Corner. I promised Pinkie Pie that I’d helped out today.” Spike said as he handed over the last of the cups and plates to Twilight.

“What about you Matt?” Fluttershy asked as she looked over to Matt as he gathered up the bowls and Pokémon food container and placed them back into his backpack.

“I’ll probably stay out here for a bit more. We still need to train up a little, and I need to get in some practice as well.” Matt responded as he started taking his jacket off and placed it beside the backpack, and got his staff ready for combat training.

~~Thorax~~

After the ponies and dragonling had packed everything up they started to leave the human and his Pokémon to train, and this sounded like a very opportunity to really study the human. If Thorax is able to learn how he and his band of creatures fight, he can take that knowledge back to the queen and tell her, which should not only allow the queen to have strategy when facing him. But also allow Thorax to finally show the queen that he is useful. When the ponies and dragon finally left, Thorax watched from his disguised position as the human and his creatures got ready to spar, with the human readying the staff he pulled out from a sheath on his waist while his Pokémon surrounded him.

Several moments later the Pokémon all rushed the human, who dodged each of their tackles with surprising speed and agility, even dodging the larger dragons claws and tail, and the flying rock things charge. Though when it came to the weasel and wolf Matt countered their paw strikes with his staff, and used his legs and arms to try and knock them back or trip them, but the weasel effortlessly dodged the attacks as it was just as nimble. However the wolf didn’t bother dodging and just tanked the hits and countered attacked in response, and when the sea horse jumped in the human leapt away to get some space. Unfortunately the human was knocked over when the large bovine slammed its massive body into Matt sending him skidding across the ground, but the tall being was able to get back on his feet and was quick to dodge another charge from the bovine, however the human wasn’t able to dodge the next attack which came from the white fox that charged at him and kicked him back. Yet the human was able to recover quickly and lashed out with his staff to knock the fox away, and quickly bat the dragon a few times as it tried to strike at the human again.

‘Wow! Even against seven targets he’s managing to hold his own and fight back.’

Thorax thought as he watched his target leap over the rock head creature and kicked the back of it to launch himself further over to the weasel creature and started dueling with it for a bit before both backed off from each other.

“Alright guys now try using your moves.”

‘Moves? What does he mean by—’

Just then the changeling watched as the sea horse launched a powerful stream of water from its snout, startling the changeling so much that he nearly broke his disguise! The human was able to roll out of the way of the blast of water which soared past him and struck the dragon in the face, which the dragon didn’t seem to like and launched a barrage of fire back at the sea horse who canceled the attack out with another burst of water. At first Thorax thought that there would be a fight between the two creatures, but the human seemed to have managed to calm the dragon down just in time before anything serious could happen. Once everything seemed to have settled down between the dragon and the sea horse the group got back to training.

‘It’s impressive that he was able to calm down a dragon like that so easily.’ Thorax thought to himself as watched the sparing match continue on with the creatures using more and more of what appeared to be elemental powers.

‘So far it seems that this Matt creature doesn’t have any kind of powers or magic of his own, the only thing that he seems to have going for him is his speed and agility and his martial skills. While the Pokémon he has have their strength, speed, and their powers.’

While Thorax monitors and studies his target the changeling started to wonder how the queen would tackle this foe, as he seems to be more able bodied and more combat practice than all the other foes that the queen has went against. Some time passed by and after watching the human and Pokémon spar, the group eventually stopped and called it quiets for today but before they headed back to town the human checked the party for any serious injuries. Afterward checking the Pokémon Thorax watched as the human used what looked like sphere to absorb them, which startled the changeling as he wondered if he could do that to other creatures and that scared him, so much so that he caused his bush disguise to rattle. Which caught the weasel creatures attention and caused it to approach him.

‘OH SHOOT!’ Thorax thought as the creature stood before him and started to rustle through his disguises leaves.

“Mienshao. What’s wrong?” the human asked as he approached the bush and the weasel, who looked back at Matt and seemed unsure.

“Is something in the bush?”

The changeling was internally panic as the human knelt down to look more closely at the changelings disguise that he thought that he was going to break it and reveal himself. Thankfully though the human and Mienshao left the changeling alone and made their way back to town. When the pair were gone Thorax shifted back to his original form and was panting heavily due to his panicked state.

“I thought I was going to give myself away!” the changeling took a moment to calm himself down before standing up.

“Maybe next—no! Definitely next time I’m using a transformation that won’t make me have a heart attack and a chance to get myself caught.” The changeling said as he took to the air and looked to where the town was and made his way to, after he turned himself into a bird, to keep track of his target and continue with his mission.

Chapter 18: News From the North - Pt.1

At Carousel Boutique Matt was standing on a podium, still as a board, arms stretched out, and was wearing only a pair of shorts while Rarity was trotting around him and taking measures and writing them down. the reason that the young man was in this position was because the white mare had what she called a, burst of inspiration, when she was thinking of making new clothes for Matt. And after rushing down to the library and fetching the young man, Rarity went right to work in measuring Matt while also drafting up some sketches for clothes. The trainer was more than happy to help as he was pretty much wearing the same clothes almost daily, and having to wash them multiple times every other day, and using a spare set that he got from the Celestia who had tailor make him more. So getting more clothes at this point was an Arcues sent gift.

“Okay Matt you can stop posing now dear I’ve got all your measurements and dimensions jotted down, and give me about…an hour or two and I’ll have a couple of new clothes ready for you.” Rarity said as Matt stepped down from the podium and got re-dressed.

“Thanks Rarity. I really do appreciate this.” Matt says graciously to the mare who simply waved him off.

“Think nothing of it darling I’m happy to make you new clothes. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while ever since I first met you, as I thought it would be quite the challenge to make clothes for a biped.”

“Actually Rarity can you answer this question for me? Why do you ponies wear clothes, seems a bit redundant to me.” Matt questioned as he finished belting his pants and started putting his shirt on.

“Well normally its usually only the ponies in more well-off families, or those with PLENTY of bits to spare to spend on such things. But even if ponies don’t need to wear clothes, it’s nice to dress up every now and then. It’s like changing your coat of fur without actually doing so.” Rarity responded as she tries to explain the situation to the young man, who seemed to understand the majority of it.

“Though I’m more curious as to why you humans wear so much clothes.” The mare said as Matt finished putting his shirt on.

“If you don’t mind me saying darling you are quite fetching when you show your body, so why do you hide it away with all your clothing?” Matt blushed a little as Rarity paid him a complement as she looked up to him with a questioning look.

“Well its mostly for modesty sake more than anything. Since most of our private regions are easily visible when we’re not clothed and standing up, and it’s also a social thing where its seen as incident or perverted to flaunt ones naked body.” Matt explained as he finished putting his clothes on.

“The only time that humans wear very little clothing is when we go swimming, or other physically demanding activities or exceptions that require us to be less clothed. Among other more, intimate things.” A small blush then graced Rarity’s muzzle as she turned to look down at her notes.

“I see! Well I’m sorry for making you strip down so much, gosh now I feel embarrassed.”

“It’s fine Rarity. This is one of those few exceptions.” Matt said to the mare to help her feel less embarrassed, though it seems that the mare is still a little red in the face.

“Any way, I thank you for sparing me your time and agreeing to my sudden request, I’ll bring the clothes to the library when I finish them.” the mare says as she starts to trot to the stairs.

“No problem Rarity, and thanks again for the offer.”

The mare again gave off a small wave as she ascended the stairs while looking at her notes and sketches in the little book she had. Once the mare was gone Matt made his way out of the boutique and started to walk down the street though he wasn’t going straight back to the library, instead the trainer decided to wonder around and see the town. As the trainer was walking around many of the towns ponies stopped and greeted him, asking mostly small questions like how was he doing and how he liked being in town. But as he was wandering around the town and sightseeing, and enjoying the rather peaceful day, Matt started to feel this odd sense tickling the back of his mind. It was like there was something in his brain telling him to be on guard, but he couldn’t understand why as nothing seemed out of sort wherever he looked.

“Hmm. It’s probably just nothing.”

Matt muttered to himself as he continued to walk about the town, that is until he came to the part of the town that led to the park and heard a lot of commotion going on. Curious as to what was going on the trainer made his way to the park to see what was up, though upon arrival a smile quickly came over him as he saw Camerupt, Ninetales, Probopass, and Kingdra playing with a bunch of foals and Spike.

“Guess Spike decided to take most of the group out for a nice walk and play date.” Matt said as he approached the group and was immediately being charged at by Camerupt who was ‘bahing’ happily.

“Hey there bud. You guys seem to be having fun.” Matt said as he met Camerupt’s charge and started to pet the large bovine.

“Hey Matt!” the voice of Spike called out as the young man turned to look back at the group and saw the little dragonling waddling his way over to the group.

“Hey there Spike. Decided to take the group out for a play date with the other kids?”

“Yeah. Though Lycanroc and the others didn’t seem keen on coming.” Spike informed the trainer who gave a knowing nod.

“Not surprising. But it’s good to see that the others are having.”

The young man then gave Camerupt one more ruffling on the head before ushering him to go back to playing, which the bovine did with glee as he chased after a few foals as they laughed away. It was nice to see his Pokémon have fun with new friends, and be able to get out and enjoy not being cooped up in their Pokéballs, or stuck with him.

“So I take it things at Rarity’s are over?”

“E’yup. She even said that whatever clothes she has planned for me should be done in the next couple of hours, so I’m just scoping out the town.”

“Okay. And don’t worry I’ll be sure to bring everyone back before lunch.”

Matt gave a thankful nod before giving the little dragon a pat on the head, causing him to chuckle before he waddled off to rejoin the fun while Matt went back to his little venture in exploring the town.

~~Canterlot~~

Within the confines of Canterlot Castle princess Celestia was sitting at her desk in her private office, studying the book that she got from Twilight while also trying to find a way to help Matt find his way home. however the spell was indeed challenging and complex, which surprised the mare to know that her student was able to cast the spell, if by accident. Still the alicorn felt proud that her protégé was growing up to be a truly spectacular spell caster. Letting out a sigh the aged mare scooted away from her desk and trotted out of her room, and started to make her way down to the library to look for another book to help her in her endeavors, though as she trotted along her thoughts then shifted to wonder what Matt’s world was really like. aside from the stories he told her and the others, the princess was immensely curious, and was even wondering if she could find a way to free travel between her world and his.

“Although considering that Matt told me that any of us can pass for a Pokémon, we might be sought after by other trainers, or those dreaded Pokémon hunters.” As the princess was muttering to herself she spotted Cadence trotting towards her, looking a little startled.

“Cadence? What’s wrong dear you look upset.” The solar princess asked the pink alicorn as they met up.

“Aunty I’ve just received word from one of our guards posted up north, something strange has appeared there, and a vicious blizzard is now ravaging the domain.” As Cadence relayed the message to Celestia the older mare seemed to have an idea what was happening.

“Was there anything else in the report the guards told you?” Celestia asked the smaller princess who gave a small nod before responding.

“The guards did mention that there was something else, but they were unsure what it was exactly.”

Thinking for a moment Celestia turned on her hooves and trotted quickly back to her office with Cadence following in tow. Upon reaching the room Celestia levitated what looked like a crystal ball from her desk, which floated in front of the mare as she channeled magic into, and cast a spell. A moment later both alicorns watched as the orb shimmered with a bright light for a brief moment, before transcending into a very dim glow while the orb displayed the image of a swirling blizzard. While the pair looked upon the orb they watched as the blizzard image darken in brief flashes, while little blips of what looked be like a castle appeared before vanishing behind the blizzard and shifting shadows. Then the image of the orb shifted to a bear of glaring and piercing green eyes, boarded, and rimmed with purple and yellow-ish smoke.

“What was that?!” Cadence asked worriedly as she looked up to Celestia who looked equally worried, yet also apprehensive.

“So it’s returned.” Was all the white mare said before she turned to look at Cadence.

“What’s returned auntie?” Cadence asked the taller alicorn who levitated the crystal ball back to where it came from initially.

“An old city from the past, along with some pony I thought I would never see again.” Celestia says to the pink mare as she starts to pace around the room.

“And if he has returned then my sister and I must make preparations.”

“Auntie what is going on? Tell me, maybe I can help.” Cadence pleaded as she started to feel worried as her aunt was looking incredibly worried.

“Forgive me Cadence I didn’t mean to worry you. what we just saw in the crystal ball was an old city from a bygone era of Equestria’s history, the Crystal Empire.”

“I’ve never heard of this empire before what is it?”

“The Crystal Empire is an old city state from an early time of mine and Luna’s rule, just as we became the rulers of the nation. Though it was never officially part of Equestria’s sovereignty, it was an allied state that aided in Equestria’s old kingdom in various ventures…however it all came to a head when it was overthrown, taken over by a stallion named, Sombra.”

“Sombra?”

“A stallion that is briming with dark magic, magic he uses to enslave others to his will to rule them.” Cadence gasped at the news while Celestia nodded her head in agreement.

“Indeed, truly a horrid fate. To have your will sapped from you, and controlled like a puppet. Made to serve every hour by the hour, and work to harvest crystals in the dark mines until you drop of exhaustion…or worst.” The younger alicorn shivered in fright and terror as she listened to the older mares recounts about the usurper of the old empire nation.

“What happened to empire?”

As Cadence asked the question, Celestia retold her and Luna’s ordeal in holding off the enslaved forces of the empire, while trying to stop Sombra in his quest to subjugate all of Equestria under his rule, and power. In the end Celestia and her sister were forced to stop Sombra by casting a powerful banishing spell that was supposed to seal him away, but before he was sealed away the dark king cast his own spell to make the empire, and its citizens, share his fate. After the final conflict nothing was left standing where the empire stood, only snow and ice of the land where the empire once stood, and where the ponies lived.

“…in the end we couldn’t stop him…nor could we save any pony.” Celestia said in a greatly somber tone as she hung her head in shame and regret, while tears started form in her eyes.

“You and Aunt Luna did everything in your powers to not only stop this stallion, but also try in help the ponies that were being tyrannized.” Cadence says calmly as she tries to console her aunt, both nuzzled into each other.

“Thank you for your kind words Cadence. It is much appreciated.” The smaller mare smiled at the taller one before speaking aloud.

“So. What shall we do? If the empire has returned, along with, him, how will we go about this?”

“For that we should first wake Luna up from her sleep, and consult her on the matter.” The two princess then left Celestia’s office and trotted their way to the west wing of the castle, where Luna’s chambers lie.

~~Ponyville~~

As Matt strolled his way around the town, interacting with ponies and overall enjoying the sights, giving the trainer a sense that he was part of some whimsical story book tale. All in all, his time in this world is certainly a strange delight. Though as he was walking about the town the young man turned his sights onto Canterlot Mountain, where his thoughts wondered about how the research of his way home was going, but as his thought of the research that Celestia was probably in the midst of among her official work, Matt’s thoughts turned that of magic. Back in his world while there are indeed fantastical elements and attributes, but nothing that could be considered magic or other such wonders. At least as far as he knows. Growing more curious about the idea of magic the trainer turned on heels, and made his way back to the library where he sought to question Twilight about magic and the like.

“I wonder if I can learn magic?” Matt thought to himself as he glanced down at one of his hands.

“Probably not, but wouldn’t hurt to ask. But if I can well that would be quite the surprise.” The trainer said with a chuckle as he made his way through the streets and passing by ponies that he has greeted. Soon enough the young man made it to tree library, however when he entered the tree he didn’t Twilight anywhere on the first floor.

“Maybe she’s in the private quarters.” Hustling to the steps Matt climbed his way up to the living quarters but much like floor below, the mare was nowhere to be seen.

“Looks like she left. Oh well, I’ll just have to ask her later.” Matt said to himself as he stretches out his back and arms as he makes his way down the steps.

But as he reached the bottom of the steps the trainer stopped, as he saw something quickly bolt to an adjacent room. Unsure what it was that he saw Matt make his way to the room where he saw the shade move to, but upon peeking through the rooms entryway he didn’t see anyone in the room, but none the less he searched for whatever could’ve caused the shadow. Yet as he looked around he still saw nothing.

“Must’ve been seeing things.” The trainer thought to himself as he left the room and thought about what to do next. Just as Matt entered back into the main room of the library the door to the library opened, and that’s when Twilight came in carrying a stuffed saddlebag, and a few extra bags of items in her magic.

“Oh hi there Matt.” Twilight said as closed the door. “I wasn’t suspecting you to be back so soon.”

“Yeah I came back because I got really curious about something.”

“Really? What would that be?” Twilight asked as she trotted to the kitchen area of the library, with Matt following behind the mare. Even taking some of the bags she was carrying.

“I just realized that magic was common in this world of yours, and that’s when I got really curious about it and wondered if you could teach me about it. and maybe, well, wonder if its possible for me to learn magic.” the trainer nearly tripped over Twilight when she stopped in her tracks.

“Teach you about magic, and see if you can use magic?” Twilight says with surprise in her voice.

“I actually never thought about it, but it sounds like it could be fun! And I’m more than happy to teach—” Just as Twilight was really about to get into the idea of teaching Matt about magic, the pair was distracted when a window suddenly popped open as a wisp of smoke came bellowing into the room.

“What’s that?” Matt asked as the smoke drifted over to Twilight, where it then transformed into a small scroll.

“It’s a letter from Celestia.” A gasp then left the mare’s mouth as she placed the bags onto the ground, and unrolled the scroll.

“It might be a progress report on the research of the spell Celestia & Luna are studying from the book.” The mare then started to read the letter but as she did, Matt noticed that her expression shifted to look more concerned.

“Is something wrong Twilight?” the trainer asked as he knelt down as the mare looked at him.

“Princess Celestia wants to see us about something important.” Twilight then rolled up the letter before speaking.

“Can you help me round up my friends and Spike, this might be a real serious matter.”

“Sure thing! I know where Spike is, and I can get Pinkie Pie and Rarity, you’ll just have to get the others.” After nodding her head the pair made their way to the kitchen to quickly put the bags of supplies away, before leaving the library and ran off to gather up the rest of the group.

Chapter 19: News from the North - Pt.2

Matt and his collection of pony friends have made their way back to Canterlot after Twilight had received a letter from her mentor, which from what the unicorn could interpret, sounded like something important was going on. Upon their arrival at the castle the violet mare was taken to go see Celestia & Luna by a guard, while the rest of the group were all asked to wait in the courtyard until the meeting between Twilight and the princesses had concluded. So now the group simply sat or trotted about the courtyard waiting for Twilight’s return, all of them speculating and wondering what it was that they were discussing, while also passing the time by playing some card games. As Twilight’s friends either wandered about, or played a game of cards, Matt sat patiently on the steps leading to the castle and was either watching his new friends do their own things, or on occasion spotted a Royal Guard trot by which he greeted either with a nod or small hand wave. While they returned the friendly gesture in kind.

“So what do you all think they’re talking about?” Rainbow asked while floating around the group while every so often looking over to the door, waiting for Twilight to come trotting out.

“Hopefully whatever it is their talking about is nothing dangerous.” Fluttershy retorted as she sat by the steps along with Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Matt. With the formers playing go fish.

“Maybe it has something to do with those nasty and mean shapeshifters! They might have come back to take revenge, and finish what they started!” Pinkie blurted aloud as she hopped to her hooves, dropping her cards in the process, while also making the group of mares look a tad more concerned.

“Let’s hope that’s not the case.” Rarity responded with a bit of disdain in her voice from her spot on the steps that she was sitting on, while Applejack trotted about nearby. Just as the group started to settle back down from their elevated levels, the doors at the top of the steps opened up and they all saw Twilight come trotting out.

“Well Twi, what did the princess say?” Applejack asked as she and the others gathered around the mare at the top of the steps, while the unicorn in question looked slightly concerned before she took a calming breath before answering the orange ponies question.

“The princess just told me that a long lost city had just re-appeared way up in the far north, a city called the Crystal Empire.” The others looked at each other with mild confusion clearly plastered on their faces, yet they had a little bit of intrigue creeping into their minds.

“Uh, Twilight, what is the Crystal Empire? I’ve never heard of a place like that, not even from the books you had about various civilizations around the world.” Spike asked as he looked up to his care taker.

“Like I said, it’s a long lost city that was banished to a different plain of existence thousands of years ago, after Celestia and Luna fought the old ruler of the city to a stand-still. But now it has returned, and so did he.” As Twilight elaborated a little more the group as a whole was silent for a bit before Matt broke the silence.

“So what’s going to happen? Are the princesses going to head to this empire and stop him again?” Twilight simply shook her head before speaking up.

“Unfortunately they can’t leave the city because of their own royal duties. They also need to coordinate with the guards to ensure new safety measures are implemented to the whole city, to ensure nothing like the invasion at the wedding happens again. But thankfully, Cadence and my brother have been sent out to evaluate the state of things.” The mare said which got everypony to smile a little bit as she continued on.

“And now I was asked to go north and help them determine the threat of the situation, and see if there is another way to stop this old king. Once and for all without having the city being banished in the process.” And the moment that the unicorn said those words, the smile that was on everypony’s face immediately drooped into a worried frown.

“Now I’ll be leaving to meet up with them in a little bit, and I wouldn’t ask you all to come with me—”

“Are you kidding!?” Rainbow said aloud as she flared her limbs out, cutting Twilight off before loudly and proudly exclaiming.

“You don’t expect us to just go back to Ponyville, and simply wait for you to come back or not. Na-huh! We’re coming with you! At least I’m definitely going.”

“You can also count me in on this wild country ride too Twily!” Pinkie said in her usual bubbly tone as she tossed a foreleg around her friends neck, brandishing a cheerful smile, and an explorers hat & backpack.

“Same here. Ain’t gonna let no friend of mine face unknown danger alone.” Applejack retorted as she adjusted her hat while portraying her own confident smile.

“As if I would let you go out and face something dangerous alone darling. I’m going with you as well, somepony has to watch your back.” Rarity said with a charming smile while brushing a bit of her mane out from her face. the unicorn gave her fellow horned mare a smile before turning to look behind her as she felt something plop onto her back, and seeing a confident Spike sitting there.

“As if you can leave me behind, and let you tackle an impossible task alone. after all, I AM your number one assistant, it’s my job to help you out however I can.”

“It does sound scary, and d-dangerous. But…” Fluttershy said in a hesitant voice before gathering up what little courage she believed she had, and stepped forward as she continued to speak. “I’m coming with you to.” the others then looked over to Matt who gave them all a small smile before kneeling down.

“If you want Twilight I’m willing to come along for the ride, besides, you never know when having extra hands, or hooves in your case, will come in handy.” The violet mare gave a thankful smile to all of her friends around her before speaking up.

“Thanks everypony, honestly I was a little nervous to go by myself. So again, thank you guys.” The others simply said that it was nothing and that were more than happy to tag along, and help her and her extended family, no matter what tasks they had to do.

“So what exactly are we going to be doing in this empire?” Matt asked as he and the others left the castle behind them, while they started to make their way back to the train station.

“For now we need to board the next train and head up straight north, then from their we’ll meet up with Cadence and my brother. And then we’ll go from there.”

“Then we better hustle, the train leaves in a few minutes!”

After hearing Pinkie’s revelation about the trains departure time the whole group galloped, ran, and flew as fast as they could to reach the station. Reaching the station the group quickly grabbed their tickets, with Twilight paying Matt’s, before they board the train and rode off for the Crystal Empire. But not before deciding to make a quick stop at Ponyville to grab some stuff for the journey.

~~~~

As the human, and his gaggle of mare’s and diminutive dragon boarded the train, a nervous & scrawny looking lime green pegasus with a white mane & tail flew off from the train station and into Canterlot’s down town district. Upon reaching the district the pegasus ducted into a nearby shady alleyway, and his body was engulfed in green flames revealing the pegasus true form. Flying on for a few more moments Thorax reached a run-down building, and flew through the open door of the condemn structure and once inside the changeling flew through the buildings room before traveling through a tunnel. Moments later he entered the large chamber of the Changelings current Hidden Outpost, and made his way to the upper section, where he found Queen Chrysalis sitting on a make-shift stone throne. Sitting beside the queen was a brown earth pony stallion, looking heavily drained and sleep deprived, as Chrysalis siphoned love energy from him.

“Um. Queen Chrysalis, I’ve come to deliver a report.” Thorax nervously said, catching the queens attention as she turned away from her prey, and looked squarely at the trembling changeling with an annoyed expression.

“What is it grub?” the queen said with annoyance, and a little bit of disdain for the young changeling, who gulped down the lump that was building in his throat before speaking.

“I-I’ve come to report about that the target and the group of mares he hangs out with.” the queen ushered the changeling to continue on with his report.

“They’re all heading up north, far north, to investigate something called the Crystal Empire.”

“Crystal Empire?” Chrysalis echoed as a of look bewilderment, and minor intrigue, came across her features while quirking a brow as Thorax nodded his head in response.

“From what I could glean from listening in on their conversations, this empire is an ancient city, and that it has some kind of old evil king ruling it. and now both him and the city are back.” Thorax stammered out as his nerves started to die down ever so slightly.

“And when they reach the far north they will meet up with princess Cadence & Shining Armor to look into handling the situation.” The queen leaned into her make-shift throne while her hoof tapped gently on the stallion’s head, while the queen thought to herself for a moment.

“Go back out there and follow them to this, Crystal Empire. Once there you are to only watch and observe, and after they finish with whatever it is they are doing up in the north, report back.”

Thorax simply saluted to his queen, who went back to draining the stallion of his love, as he flew out of the hidden outpost while taking on his pegasus disguise again. Flying out of the city as fast as he could, the disguised changeling started to follow the train tracks to catch up to the vehicle as fast as he could. If he lost the train then then he’ll loose track of his targets, and if he did and is unable to perform his task, he’ll surely be punished for it by the queen. But what really worried Thorax was that if he failed this mission, that he’ll loose what little respect from his older brother, Pharynx. And that is what the changeling feared the most. His brother was the only sense of comfort he had in the hive, but with each failed mission that he’s botched over the years Thorax felt that his brother tolerated him less, and less, and feared that if he failed this time…then his brother might just cast him aside. For good.

~~the Group~~

After making the quick stop to Ponyville, and catching the train again, the group continued on with their journey to the north. However the train ride to the far north of Equestria’s boarder was fairly un-eventful for Matt and the others, if not downright boring. The only things that broke the boredom of the ride was the group playing games, curtesy of Pinkie Pie plucking them from her main and tail, or just watching the scenery pass by. Honestly out of all of the ponies that he has met so far in this world, the pony that has quite probably been the most bizarre pony he’s ever meet was Pinkie Pie. There was just times that she did, said, or simply do that baffled the young. Though considering what his other friends had told him, that was normal.

Aside from the card and board game the group was playing, or simply watching the landscape race past them from the windows, and playing eye-spy with said racing landscape, the group also occupied their time by listening to Matt’s retellings of his adventures from his world. from his time in his hometown, his time traveling the roads across the various regions, meeting new people and Pokémon. When it came to the different types of Pokémon that Matt has met in his travels the ponies were all fascinated in what he has told them, and showed them with his Pokédex, including some of the most rarest Pokémon there is. And of course his gym battles which really caught Spike’s & Rainbow’s attention, especially when he really gone into detail about each battle. The trainer also told his pony and dragon companions of the various encounters with criminals from poachers, Pokémon smugglers, simply cruel and mean trainers, that he’s come across which really got them hooked. He even told them of his encounters with a criminal organization where he, and three other trainers occasionally met up, and put a stop to their latest plans. Most of which were in retrospect silly and goofy, but some were down right thrilling!

“So the folks of your world would really just let kids go out and travel the world? Encountering wild Pokémon, and even face down bad guys and the like?” Applejack asked after hearing the latest story that Matt told them all.

“Well back in the day yeah, but now adays kids get former education so they know how the world works, and learn all they can about Pokémon before leaving. They also learned basic survival skills since most times you’ll be camping out, also you’d need to learn how to cook and take care of yourself, and of course taking care of your Pokémon.” Matt said in response to the orange mare sitting on the couch next to his.

“When did you start your own adventure Matt?” Fluttershy asked as she sat beside the young man, enjoying the head petting she was getting from him.

“I left home for my own adventure when I turned fifteen. And unlike most trainers who leave for their adventures, I already had a Pokémon partner.” Matt explained as he held Camerupt’s Pokéball in his hand, gently stroking it with his thumb.

“So you always had Camerupt when you were growing up?” Rarity asked as she and Twilight continued with their card game, to which Matt nodded his head.

“Back then he was just a tiny little Numel.” Matt then pulled out an old worn out picture from his wallet, and when he showed it to his friends they all saw the trainer as a little boy, and a stout yet happy llama creature wrestling around on the ground.

“Awww~ look at you two, you both were so cute when you were younger.” Pinkie awed at the picture along with the others.

“So you guys were basically old childhood friends huh?” the pink mare asked as Matt put the picture away.

“Pretty much yeah. And aside from Camerupt, and the Pokémon I have with me right now, I have other Pokémon that live on my families ranch.”

“Wait a minute, your family owns a ranch?” Spike asked as he looked up from his hand of cards along with Rainbow.

“Yeah. My family owns a Pokémon ranch where we take care of, and breed Pokémon. We even make various products from Pokémon on the ranch.”

Before Matt could further elaborate on his families ranch’s business, or the group asking for more details, the train came to a stop while the train conductor called out that the group had finally arrived at their destination. Looking out one of the windows they all saw snow blowing past them, while looking at a deserted train station covered nearly in nothing but snow & ice. Exiting the train car the group was instantly hit by both the snow, and blistering cold winds that whipped past them as they trudged into the station and tried to find a way to block the winds. Although as they entered the presumably empty building they were met with a surprise. Inside the building the group found a small group of royal guards gathered around a makeshift fire pit, with Cadence and Shining Armor sitting near the old stations front desk, looking over something. Though the moment the group entered the room all the guards, plus the newlywed couple, looked to them and were equally surprised.

“Twilight! You made it.” Cadence said as she and Shining Armor trotted over to the group, and while the princess and violet mare did their usual greeting, the rest were greeted by Shining Armor.

“Didn’t expect to see all of you here, that’s quite the surprise.”

“Once Twilight told us what was going on, we pretty much volunteered ourselves to come along and help out.” Matt said in response which Shining gave a hearty laughter.

“Well now that we’re here my dears, what do we now?” Rarity asked no pony in particular as she looked about the fairly dim lit room of the station.

“We were actually going over the details before you all showed up.” Cadence responded as she and Twilight rejoined the group, before levitating a worn-out and outdated looking map over to them, leveling it in the air to show the group.

“We’ve scouted the area, or at least as best we could with the blizzard going on, but we have found the empire.” Cadence used her magic to light up a small section of the map, which was in the upper left corner of the map, which didn’t seem to be that far from where the station was situated on the map.

“But aside from the empire, and the snow, we haven’t seen much of anything else.” Shining added in before speaking more.

“Although there is something we discovered about the empire, or at least the ponies that live there.”

“What about them? is something wrong?!” Fluttershy asked worriedly as she looked at the royal, who seemed uncertain how to respond to them.

“We’re…not entirely sure.” Cadence retorted.

“Physically they all seem fine, but, emotionally, mentally…I don’t know. Its seems as if, something, is missing from them.” the group looked at one another with very confused, if not worried, looks as if they weren’t really sure what to take from what the princess had just said.

“Maybe we should go and have a looksie for ourselves, maybe then we’d get a better handling on what to do next.” Applejack suggested as the pink alicorn rolled up the map and placed it in a nearby saddlebag.

“I think that would be a good idea. Bundle up everypony, its going to be a long and cold trot.”

Going through their own luggage, the group along with the band of guards and the couple, all dawned scarfs, hats, and special winter hoofwear to trek in the snow. Matt, however, only had a scarf, a hat, along with a pair of gloves, to keep himself warm. But he would manage, somehow. Once everyone was as bundled up and prepared as they could, they all left the station and began making their way out into the cold winds of the north. Making their way to lost city of the Crystal Empire. As the party made their way into the tundra, baring the brunt of the snow and wind crashing into them and trying to keep themselves steady on the slippery ground, unbeknownst to all of them a looming shadow far off in the distance watches them. stalking them like a predator in the underbrush, waiting for its opportune moment to leap out, and strike.

Chapter 10: Plots Uncovered - Pt. 2

Today took a rather strange turn for Matt, one minute he was relaxing in the palace gardens, then the next thing he knew he came upon strange insectoid-like ponies talking about taking over the castle, and getting into a small scuffle with said ponies. But then when Matt and his Pokémon managed to escape from the ponies, and went searching for princess Celestia to tell her what he and his team have uncovered, that plan went belly up when he came across princess Cadence. Or at least someone that looked like the pink alicorn. In any case when Matt came in contact with the alicorn, he was then ensnared in some kind of trap that the princess placed on him, which then sent him into some kind of crystalline cave structure. And after waking up in said cave, without knowing exactly how long he was out for, he was once again face to face with Cadence, as well as a different unknown alicorn.

“Matt!” the pink alicorn cried out as she made her way over to the young man, who just brandished his extendable staff and got into a defensive posture. “Matt? What’s wrong? Why are you taking out your staff?”

“Don’t try and play games with me whoever you are, I’m not going to fall for another trap!” Matt stated as he was prepared to attack the mare, but it looked like a sense of realization came over her because she then started to wave her wings in a defensive manner.

“Wait Matt I know what you’re thinking but it’s really me! I’m not the fake that sent you here! I’m the real Cadence!” the mare pleaded as the other mare quickly rushed to her side, outstretching a wing to cover her.

“And how am I supposed to believe you? For all I know, you could be that fake right now, trying to trick me into letting my guard down.” Matt retorted as he kept his distance from the pair, staff pointed at them and ready to bring out any of Pokémon if they decided to attack.

“Or how do I know that you’re not that fake, and this other pony isn’t one of those shapeshifters—”

“I can assure you Matt we are not fakes.” The other mare said in response cutting Matt off in mid-sentence, her voice sounding fairly tranquil and calming, yet also defensive and regal.

“Then prove it.” Matt said to the pair of alicorns, who seemed to be at an impasse in how to prove to the trainer that they are who they claim to be.

“I, I don’t know how to…” the pink alicorn said in a defeated tone as she lowered her head. But while the supposed princess Cadence seemed to have given up, the unknown alicorn still kept up her confidence in her claim.

‘Just who is this pony supposed to be? Is she posing as another princess from a different country?’ Matt thought as he kept his eyes focused on the mysterious mare in front of him.

“I believe your being unfair Matt, after all…how do we know that you’re really, you, as well.” The blue alicorn said as she kept her firm expression as her eyes remained locked with the young mans, but her words did resonate with him on some level. And it seemed her words have made the pink mare behind her to regain some level of composure.

“From what I’ve been told Cadence has had only a limited amount of interaction with you, because of the wedding being underway. And this is the first time you and I have ever met face to face. So how do I know you’re not an imposter trying to keep me, and my niece here sequestered in these old mines.”

Again, this mare did have a point. Throughout his time in the castle, Matt has had maybe only five, or so, interactions with Cadence and most of them were only for a few minutes. So Matt can’t really say that he knows the pink alicorn well enough to discern a fake, from the real one in this type of situation. Then there was this mare. Matt has no idea who she is, and since neither of them have met let alone hear about each other, it would be rather unfair to have a stranger try and prove that they are who they say they are. Same could go for him, how could he prove he wasn’t a shapeshifter to these ponies that’s trying to trick them. Relaxing his posture Matt stood up straight and gave a less tense look down to the two mare’s, as well as staying his staff before speaking up.

“You make a valid point miss. So how about we call a truce, in which neither of us will do anything so long as the other does the same?” Matt proposed to the two mares, to which the blue coated mare nodded her head as she folded her wing.

“That is an acceptable offer. Cadence, do you agree to these terms?” the pink mare gave a small nod before getting back some of her perkiness from earlier.

“Yes, and I’ll show you Matt that we are not the one who trapped you here.”

“Speaking of which—” the blue alicorn said as she looked towards Matt. “How did you end up down here?”

Matt hesitated to say anything for a moment, but he decided to just tell them. If they were the ones that placed him in these caves, then it would be pointless into trying to make up a story, as they would already know the real reason and method.

“Well it started out with me hanging out in the gardens, I also spent some time talking to Twilight and her friends and learning that they were taking part in aiding the wedding preparations. Afterwards the girls left to go do their jobs, and that’s when I spotted these black things zipping around, so I decided to investigate and that’s when I found these insect-like ponies talking about capturing the castle.” Matt retold the event of what happened earlier before continuing on.

“Afterward the little guys tried to capture me, but me and my Pokémon managed to get away. Except we didn’t get to far as we ran into, well, you know.” Matt said as he looked directly at Cadence, who she and the other mare nodded as they understood. That’s when both alicorns seemed to be thinking about something after being told about this bit of info, and it didn’t look like they were acting surprised by the whole re-telling. They instead looked more genuinely taken aback.

“Auntie Luna, do you think it was—”

“Yes.” The blue alicorn, who was called Luna, said as she looked up to Matt.

“These ‘insect ponies’ that you saw, were they roughly the same size of an average pony, their bodies being a black carapace and having translucent wings, with big pale blue eyes?”

“That’s right. And they were also able to—”

“Use some kind of green globs to trap you, correct?” Luna briskly said, finishing Matt’s sentence, which the trainer nodded again. “So whoever it was that attacked me, were also the ones that you encountered.”

“And I don’t suppose you know who these guys are?” Matt asked the alicorn pair, but neither of them know as they shook their heads.

“Whoever these invaders are, they have planned rather meticulously to achieve their goal.” Luna stated as she kept on pondering about the groups captors. “But what is their end goal? Simply taking over the castle can’t be their only plan.”

“Maybe their plotting to take control of the castle by posing as the royal family.” Cadence said which got Matt and Luna to look her way as she explained. “I mean if they went through the trouble of capturing us, and leaving us to wander aimlessly in these old mines, while they rule over the populace.”

“If that’s the case then why am I here?” Matt asked as he leaned on his staff while giving the two mares an uncertain look. “I mean I’m new to your world, so why capture me?”

“Because you stumbled on their plan, and even heard them talk about their desire to capture the castle.” Luna quickly answered. “And if you escaped you could’ve alerted my sister to what they were up to.”

‘Sister?!’ Matt mentally half-shouted in surprise after hearing what Luna had just said. “Wait a minute, your Celestia’s sister?”

“Yes. I am princess Luna, the ruler of the night court in Equestria.” the blue alicorn exclaimed as she fully introduced herself to the young man. After the night princess had introduced herself, Matt then started to think of something, his fingers drumming against his staff. “Is something wrong Matt?”

“Well it’s just with you two down here, two key figures of political power, and me the guy that knows their plans…why aren’t there any guards her to keep an eye on us?”

“That is a good question.” Luna said as she tapped a hoof against the ground.

“Cadence and I have been down here for a few days now, and so far neither of us have seen any pony meant to stand guard and ensure we don’t escape.”

“Perhaps they thought they wouldn’t need to.” Cadence said as she looked around the cave they were in, which Matt also looked around and noticed various mining cars, excavation equipment and tools scattered about, and even rusted railways for the cars.

“These mines were a primary source of crystals that the unicorns of Canterlot harvested several hundred years ago, but when the population shifted to using bit coins for currency, and finding easier places to mine gems, these old mines were shut down and left alone.” Cadence then looked back to the pair as she continued. “The ones who left us here probably figured we’d get lost in these old mines, letting us just wander around in circles.”

“So they don’t need guards to keep us down here, they’ll just let us walk around and get lost.” Matt said before and idea came to him as a smile formed on his face. “Well if that was their plan, then they screwed up.” the two alicorns looked at Matt generally unsure at what he meant, but the trainer just reached for his belt and grabbed a Pokéball.

“Probopass we need your help buddy!” the trainer tossed the Pokéball up and with a pop and a flash of light, the large floating Rock-type appeared before the group, which actually scared the two ponies, Luna more so, as they watched the Compass float over to Matt.

“What is that thing?! And how did you summon it?!” Luna balked as she looked at the trainer and Pokémon with a shocked expression.

“This is one of my Pokémon called Probopass, and whenever I get lost—especially in underground places—Probopass has never let me down.” The trainer patted the large Rock-type on the side of its head, getting a happy drumming sound in response.

“Alright buddy you know what to do, we need to find a way out of these mines.” The large Pokémon nodded before floating off a foot away from Matt, before landing on the ground and dropping its red crown over its eyes, while the mini-stone heads start to slowly circle around it.

“What is it doing Matt?” Cadence asked as she and Luna trotted up beside the young man.

“Probopass is trying to lock-in on the magnetic field of the mountain, and by doing that its able to readout the layout of the mines. We do this every time we get lost in old tunnels, and underground passages that stumble into.”

“So this isn’t the first time this has happened to you?” Luna asked the trainer, which Matt half-heartly chuckled in a very slight depressed tone.

“More than I would like to admit.”

Just then Probopass’s miniature heads stopped orbiting its body, and it floated back up before gesturing everyone to follow it as the Rock-type floated off. The trio quickly followed behind the Compass Pokémon as it lead the way through the mines tunnel system.

~~Elsewhere~~

In Restaurant Row, the district of Canterlot that houses the majority of restaurants, cafes, and other types of eatery, Twilight and her friends were sitting at a table and enjoying some drinks and snack. It’s been a full day since they were asked to help bring the final preparations to a close, and to their credit the six friends were able to help in getting the last pieces of the food preparations, the after party, scheduling of the whole event, and getting dresses made for the mares of honor, and ensuring the aerial show were getting done. And when the group were in the process of aiding where they could, they were all getting really into their assignments, especially Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. With the later finally cheering up from her little sulk fest when she met her heroes, and coordinate with them in the aerial display.

“So none of you have seen Matt around since yesterday?” Twilight asked her friends before taking a sip of her melon soda float with soft served ice cream.

“Nuh-uh. I haven’t seen him anywhere, though I was busy with the party committee to really notice anything else.” Pinkie lamented as she dunked a donut into her cup of hot chocolate and took a bite out of the pastry.

“Same here, Ah haven’t left the kitchen just an hour ago. Though Ah guess he’s either resting up somewhere, or is trying to help out the wedding wherever he can.” Applejack thought as she finished her second apple fritter with a cup of coffee.

“Well I do hope he shows up, because I wanted to go over a suite I designed for him.” Rarity commented as she took a sip of her tea.

“You seriously made him a suit?” Rainbow Dash said as she sounded sour again as their conversation shifted to focus on Matt.

“Of course I thought he would look dashing in a nice tuxedo for the wedding, instead of his casual wear.”

“Rainbow are you still upset about your little hiccup with Matt?” Applejack asked her cyan colored friend who initially gave a small groan to the apple farmers question.

“I’m not upset I’m just…I don’t know.” the cyan mare grumbled some more as she crossed her forelegs.

“Rainbow is just miffed that she hasn’t figured out a way to apologize for attacking Matt when he first showed up.” Fluttershy clarified to the rest of the group, which made Rainbow Dash sulk into her seat a little more.

“If that’s all that’s bothering you Rainbow, why don’t you just say you’re sorry for attacking him.” Twilight suggested to the rainbow maned pony.

“I tried. But every time I try to say it to him, I just get the feeling like it’s not enough.” Pinkie Pie then shifted closer to her friend and started to pat her on the back.

“There, there Dashie you don’t need to make some big gesture of apology, I’m sure a simple a sorry will be enough. And hey if your still nervous to talk to him, I’ll go with you when you decide to apologize.” The bubbly mare gave a comforting smile to her friend which Rainbow returned.

“Thanks Pinkie and yeah, I’d appreciate it if you came with me.”

The pinkie pony hummed in joy before spending the rest of the night talking about more happier topics. And as the night went on, many more ponies started to fill up Restaurant Row as they headed to their favorite places to eat, while openly talking about the wedding that happen tomorrow. But after an hour or so into the night, Twilight bid her friends a good night and left the table to head back to her old family house. As the unicorn trotted down the road and streets of her home city, she stopped for a moment and looked towards the castle as a hopeful smile graces her muzzle.

“Hopefully, everything goes according to plan tomorrow. I really want this wedding to be perfect for Shining Armor and Cadence.”

~~???~~

Princess Cadence was trotting through the halls of the castle, eyeing all of the castle staff and guards getting the final touches for tomorrow’s big event. And as she passes by the decorations, and the brainless dolts that surround her, a smile starts to form on her muzzle as she started to internally chortle and laugh to herself. Reaching her private chambers the princess’s body was then engulfed in green flames as she assumed her true form, her long lithe body strutting across the carpeted floor, her translucent wings fluttering in excitement as she openly started to laugh to herself.

“Everything is going so perfectly!” the black chiton figure chortled as she strolled over ponyequin that had Cadences wedding dress on it, its lovely white frills and hems glistening in the light of the room.

“No pony has even figured, or even noticed that I have replaced that lovestruck mare. Though that unicorn did seem to be suspicious at first, but it looks like after having a little talk with my soon to be husband, she's mellowed out.” The figures reverberating voices echoed a sense of delight and success as she trotted to the center of the room, and gave a few loud taps. Just then from various nick knacks around the room, from vases, to potted flowers, and even a few stools, all were engulfed in green fire before revealing the black insectoid equines.

“Is every member of the Hive ready to enact the takeover of the city?” the figure asked the small beings around her.

“Yes queen Chrysalis, the Hive successfully infiltrated and impersonated key figures of the castle staff, the guards, and hiding in the castle and city. Waiting for your signal to start our take over and weaken their forces.” The queen’s smile grew just a hair wider as she looked to one of the equines near the bed.

“And what of the black throne?”

“It is in position my queen, when you give the order we will bring it to the throne room.” the pony said as a wicked grin grew on his face.

“Excellent! Truly, everything is going according to plan.”

“If I may saying your majesty?” one of the ponies asked as she hesitantly stepped forth, which the queen allowed for the little mare to ask her question.

“Are you certain we shouldn’t post guards of some kind down in the mines to watch over the captives? They are two alicorns, and that creature is still an unknown. I don’t think it would be good to leave them unsupervised, that just might find their way out of the mines.” The queen thought for a moment and decided on a decision.

“It would be best to make sure that those three don’t, accidently, stumble out of that maze.” The queen then looked down to the little chiton mare.

“Take a battalion down into the mines, hunt them down and ensure they don’t make it out.” The mare nodded as she transformed into a female guard, and left the room.

“As for the rest of you return to your posts.” The rest of the ponies changed forms as well, and left the room via either the door or balcony window, leaving their queen alone in her room. Still sporting her triumphant smile a she looked at her wedding dress, and counting the hours till her entire plan to conquer this city, and use it as a base to inevitably take control of this entire country as its sole ruler.

“Long live the queen of the Hive!”