Author's Note

Hey readers. I know you want to get to the chapter itself but I have some updates and warnings to get through first. There's more M/M fantasizing this chapter, even if I think everyone still reading this is okay with the gay. Regardless, you have been warned.

Second, a reminder that this Cadance is not the one in the show. She isn't canon beyond season 2 and questionably so before that. This is an alternate universe story because I felt like I needed to write this outside of the canon to make it all blend properly.
So please disregard "The Crystalling" from Season 6 Episode 1 before continuing.

With that out of the way, enjoy!

2/21/2024: Edits made. Everything is 2024 compliant now. I'll continue to work on this story soon.

Ghosts and Gateways

Breakfast had been cleared out and replaced with lunch as Team Allure and their pony hosts showed off their best moves.

Ebon himself had suggested the idea as a way to attract the less martially-inclined ponies in attendance a chance to appreciate a more non-violent display of pokémon strength — to say nothing of it being a way to blow off some steam.

Cadance didn’t seem to think another duel was advisable, not after seeing Glassie get severely burned and one of her soldiers get knocked out cold. To the disappointment of Ebon, she didn’t allow another fight to take place afterwards, preferring to use the arena for non-violent displays of might and magic.

“No worries. It’s no use battling on a full stomach anyway!” Glassie said, after hearing the bad news from Cadance.

Ebon knew she didn’t mean it, but he couldn't help but be relieved. It had been a nasty-looking burn and glaceons in general just didn’t handle fire damage well. She wasn’t called ‘Glassie’ for no reason, being a strong but brittle fighter.

The sun was high in the sky by the time Sike updated Ebon about the return trip to camp, and while he felt some concern, time had passed quickly for the fun the feasting and festivities had brought.

The ponies are going to keep watch over our camp while we’re gone. Somehow, it just feels wrong to leave it entirely unguarded, you know? she had informed her leader. Much to Ebon’s chagrin, that was about all she told him, with her updates being sparse at best. He supposed maybe sending telepathic signals over such a distance every hour was taxing.

A bubbling pit formed inside Ebon’s stomach at her words; one that may or may not have been related to overdoing it on poffins. He’d found room for the salads and fancy bread pushed his way by the ponies between demonstrations of each creature’s unique abilities, at the cost of indigestion. Ebon wasn’t proud to admit it, but he did tend to overeat when he was nervous.

And that’s how his sister came to be standing in the area, ready to show her moves to the assembled ponies, Ebon gnawing on some crusty bread as he watched.

Edelweiss had the ponies toss chunks of their crusty bread into the air for her to slice through with leafy blades launched from the two long tendrils on her back buried beneath her tan coat. The ponies demonstrated their appreciation by stamping their forehooves on their tables.

“She never misses, does that one! And she even speared a moving target!” said one particularly excited unicorn with a bag filled with pointed sticks on her back; Ebon surmised they were intended to be launched by the wood and string contraption that sat next to her in its case.

“Just because I’m peaceful doesn’t mean I’m harmless!” Edelweiss said haughtily before selecting a nearby patch of sunlight to lie in, lounging out within it to recharge.

“You think that’s awesome? Watch this!” said a stallion with neither wings nor horn, clad in heavy plate armor — larger and more powerfully built than the other two species. “I’m going to show these pokémon why we’re called ‘earth ponies!’”

“I suppose you're going to want the largest boulder conceivable for this stunt of yours, eh Cold Steel?” Aura Edge asked from the crowd.

“Natch!” he replied, airily.

“Alright, buster. You asked for it!” Aura signaled to two other unicorns to help her begin channeling some sort of spell. Within seconds, a boulder about three times the size of the stallion was floating from the mountain range across the moat, carried by three beams from the unicorn's horns. “Now launch it, Steely!”

Ebon and the two other pokémon cried out “no!” in shock as the unicorns launched the enormous boulder straight at the defenseless stallion who had by now turned his back to the unicorn assailants.

Expecting the worst, the stallion gave a powerful buck with his hind legs that shattered the stone into many tiny fragments which sprayed, shrapnel-like across the active magical field.

The crowd cheered with gusto, Ebon among them howling his approval and beating his front paws against the barrier.

“Now that is my kind of guy!” Ebon shouted ecstatically, his arousal barely concealed beneath his belly.

Several mares started laughing and having stood up on his hind legs, Ebon realized he’d been exposing himself to dozens of ponies, including Cold Steel himself whose face turned pink at the sight.

Ebon said nothing but dropped to his belly until his erection went down.

Eventually, they’ll all have to forget the inappropriate thing they’ve just seen… right? Ebon lied to himself, hoping for the best.

“My turn!” Glassie took her place in the circled-off arena and walked importantly to the center of it. “Behold, ponies. Here is a mere sample of what a glaceon can do!” Her body stiffened and her tail arched up as she focused all of her considerable power into a single fell stroke, chilling the air in the clearing until it was filled with puffs of steamy breath and pony figures trembling from the cold.

Edelweiss grumbled —“show off!”— and walked back over to Ebon, pressing her body against his. Ebon grinned and nuzzled her on the cheek.

“By the sun! Is she… controlling the weather?” A nearby pegasus muttered.

Glassie glanced at him and smirked. Instead of replying directly, she answered with her power as a powerful gust of wind began to blow through the chamber, and soon the air was filled with perfect powdery snow.

“Great form, Glassie! You still have what it takes to work at a ski resort!” Edelweiss called out to her sarcastically.

“Heed not the insults leveled by our resident grass-type,” Glassie shot back Edelweiss a stern look before returning her gaze to the pony crowd. “For such abilities as I possess can take on a far more dangerous form.”

“Hey! This isn’t Hearth’s Warming!” one complained, as far from the positive reception Edelweiss received, the ponies had not seemed to appreciate the sudden onset of winter. They began tossing their tails to and fro, whinnying loudly and snorting their apparent disapproval.

“Not if it ruins my hot tomato soup lunch!” An aggressive-looking pegasus mare with a close-cropped pink mane and tail launched herself into the air and began somehow destroying the banks of clouds Glassie had created by simply punching or kicking them. She was met by several other winged figures in the sky, and within ten seconds flat, the sky was cleared. To Glassie’s further chagrin, their efforts quickly turned the air warm again, leaving only a melting layer of snow to mark Glassie’s efforts.

The ponies began to cheer and stamp their hooves again joined by Edelweiss who cheered the most loudly of them all.

Dejected and with her ears hanging low at her side, Glassie returned to sit next to Ebon. “Fickle crowd…”

“In fairness, you might have warned the ponies before you changed the weather,” Ebon said, though he couldn’t help but note that the winged ponies could apparently control the weather as good as or even better than any of eevee's evolutions.

“And your friends!” Edelweiss shook the slush from her back, turning the wet surface to face the sun.

Ebon looked back at the pony Princess who forced a smile mid-grimace, flicking the melted snow from her feathery wings, when she noticed the umbreon was looking at her. “My apologies if we somehow offended you, Princess Cadance. And please pardon my curiosity, but can all pegasi change the weather like that?”

“To the extent, they desire to learn how, yes.” Cadance took her crown in both forehooves and blew the snow off before returning it to her head. “They all have the potential to do so, but all citizens of The Crystal Empire and Equestria are left to choose their own paths. Many instead choose to focus on issues closer to the ground. I know one who became a keeper and helper of animals, for example.”

Ebon nodded. “So they’re like city pokémon. I have a flareon cousin who generates electricity using a steam engine working in Kanto. I’ve seen him at it; he and nine other flareons with an equal number of vaporeons powering an entire town by themselves.” Ebon shivered slightly, as if a ghost-type had flown through him. “Cities are crazy places.”

“Don’t forget those hardworking leafeons out there keeping the air clean and the soil healthy,” Edelweiss chimed in. “Not that I’d know, though. I’m a country girl; always have been and always will be. Right, country boy?”

“You said it!” Ebon pressed his paw into his sister's, squeezing it gently.

“You sound like a certain earth pony I’ve met, Edelweiss,” a smiling Cadance said. “And you’ll get to meet her soon enough. I guess you could say there’s a lot of grass-type in her as well.”

Glassie cleared her throat, making Ebon turn his head. She’d been so quiet, he’d forgotten she was even there.

“Sorry about the, uh, snow back there,” Glassie said meekly, looking up at Cadance. “I guess I got a little carried away.”

“Oh, what’s a little weather between friends?” Cadance giggled. “Apology accepted!”

Far from showing relief, Glassie appeared as gloomy as ever. “To be honest, Cadance, I’m not much of a smooth-talker and I’m not great with social cues. I pretty much just exist to bleed and breed.”

“Oh, Glassie…” Edelweiss threw her tail over the glaceon’s back, massaging it reassuringly. “You’re not that bad. Well, not mostly…”

Thanks, sis. Very convincing. Ebon thought to himself. “Glassie, you’re coming with us. Don’t even try to talk yourself out of it. Think about what Sike would say to see her hero turning down a chance to improve herself.”

“But I’m not nice, Ebon. I’m ice!” Glassie protested. “I’m hard, jagged and unpleasant.”

“And certain Pokémon have told me I look like I’m going murder them in my sleep,” Ebon replied. “But do you see me doubting myself?”

“You? Oh, you’re just a big, black huggable kitty cat, Ebon!” Glassie sat on her rump with her forelegs folded, a supremely adorable pout on her face. “Of course, the ponies will like you.”

“Well, what about Sike?” Ebon asked. “You remember what she was like, but even she could adapt and overcome. And besides, isn’t change what being an eevee is really all about?”

Cadance gave Ebon a wry look. “Well said, Ebon. It’s good to see you take your own advice to heart.”

Edelweiss giggled into her paw while Ebon felt his face begin to warm.

Before he could think to say something else, there was a sound of four dainty paws sprinting across the grassy field. “Hey guys, I’m back!” Sike ran up to the three eeveelutions, her round, alluring body a scene of constant motion as her large ears, cheek tufts, scrumptious roll of back fat, and forked tail bounded and swayed to the rhythm of four dainty paws beating, catlike, across the snowy field. “Awwh! I missed the chance to speak with Cadance!”

Ebon looked up at where Cadance had been standing only to realize that she was no longer there. For a big gal, she sure can make a silent exit. Ebon thought to himself.

Edelweiss put a paw to her chin. “I can’t be sure but I almost feel like she’s giving us space on purpose now that we’re here so we can talk privately.”

Sike’s eyeridges furrowed, and waving her forked tail behind her, she gazed intently at the pink Princess. “Wow, Edelweiss! You knew all that without being psychic!”

Ebon chuckled into his paw, knowing the reclusive psychic had been entirely sincere.

Glassie patted the espeon on the head. “That’s our Sike! So don't keep us in suspense. Tell us everything!”

“Ehh, limit everything to the pertinent details, just to be precise,” Edelweiss cut in.

“Run into any difficulties securing the camp and sending our letter to Treasure Town?” Ebon asked, trying to sound all business again.

Sike’s ears drooped, her face downcast. “So much pressure, I could dig a hole and hide right here! But no. The guards flew me down to the base — two big steel-covered earth pony stallions — and let me take care of it. They said some stuff about how clean and orderly we’d kept our camp and even offered to look after it for us while we were away. They seemed nice, so I took it.”

“I wouldn’t have given away our position so easily,” Glassie said with an air of unease. “But they must have left quite a positive impression on you to gain your trust so easily.” Sike nodded back at her in response.

Maybe it was a bad idea to send her off alone while wearing that pink stone that makes her so suggestable, Ebon cursed himself silently; the thought hadn’t even occurred to him until that very moment. “Then you sent a letter back to Treasure Town?”

“Oh, you bet I did. A real novel, too! I haven’t been this inspired to write in a very long time.” Sike’s tail glided spiritlike across the surface of the grass, sending ponies scrambling to avoid the moist spray of melted snow being flicked in their direction. “I told them all about the ponies and our camp and my pretty new love stone and I… may have mentioned having sex with you and Glassie — I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself, I’m still so happy! — and…”

“Whoa, whoa!” Ebon held out an extended paw. “That’s pretty TMI, don’t you think?”

“Please tell me you don’t mention all sex that goes on as a rule, do you?” Edelweiss winced slightly as she spoke.

Ebon couldn’t blame her. She’d surely known about him and Edelweiss sleeping together, and he wasn’t entirely clear what Glassie knew or thought about it, let alone relative strangers now thousands of miles away.

“I guess when you put it that way…” Sike looked uncomfortable for a moment. “It’s just that I hear Temujina loves her gossip and I’ve never really felt close enough with her to talk about such things, you know?”

Ebon slapped a paw to his forehead. “That’s even more reason not to tell her, Sike!”

Glassie stretched her legs and let out a low growl. “While I’m glad to know my sexual exploits are the talk of the Guild, I’m not so sure it was a good idea to mention the ponies, Sike.”

“But why not?” Sike asked in perfect earnestness, to which Ebon grimaced.

“Because the news will spread to those we’d rather not know about it. Not yet, anyway…” Ebon remarked, his expression grim.

“Hmph!” Edelweiss tossed her head back defiantly, causing the long leaf atop her head to quiver. “Who cares what they think?”

Ebon narrowed his eyes at her. “We’re not going to have a theological discussion over the Creators right now, but they’re something we need to consider as a possible problem… to say nothing of certain mythical pokémon we’ve had run-ins with, recently.”

Edelweiss looked like she was going to retort but bit back her words. “Fine…”

Glassie arched an eyebrow at Ebon and Edelweiss while Sike simply frowned.

Ebon sighed and rubbed the back of one of his long ears. “Ultimately, this is all my fault, team. Don’t worry about the letter, Sike. I should have been more explicit in my instructions.”

Sike walked up and gently nuzzled Ebon’s well-muscled belly. “Ebon… I’m worried about the bully pokémon too. But we can’t hold anything back from our folks back home. They deserve to-”

“Sike!” Ebon snapped, causing the espeon to shrink back in apparent fear. “I would appreciate it if you don’t label the champions of our race as ‘bullies’.”

Ebon felt the weight of shame come down on him as he beheld his eevee friend back slowly away from him. "I'm a fool, Sike. I should not have raised my voice in anger. Please accept my apology."

Sike eyed him warily for a moment.

Ebon put on his biggest smile. "Please, Sike?"

Sike closed her eyes momentarily and Ebon could feel his mind receiving a very thorough scan. Seemingly satisfied that his apology was genuine, she smiled back at him.

"Apology accepted," Sike replied, the two sharing a one-legged hug.

“You’ll have to excuse, Ebon,” Edelweiss told Sike, “Mythics and Legendaries are a touchy subject for him.”

Ebon didn’t appreciate his sister’s patronizing tone but made no mention of it. “At any rate, the Legendaries are a discussion for another time. Sike, grab some lunch and we’ll head to this portal. I’m anxious to get started.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I ate back at camp.” Sike winked at Ebon before speaking directly into his mind. And don’t worry about your little secret. I didn’t tell Glassie about Edelweiss, but I also don’t think she’d mind the fact that you’re sleeping with your sister based on what I know about her now.

Ebon glanced over at Glassie and flushed, covering both of his eyes with his paws. Sike, sometimes I think you could give Darkrai himself a nightmare.

“Hey, what is this about? What did I do wrong now?” Glassie shouted. Ebon peeked out to see her stomping one paw into the grass, making him suspect Glassie thought the pair were having an unflattering telepathic conversation about her.

I’ll take that as a compliment, boss! Sike replied sweetly before Ebon heard Edelweiss politely cough.

Edelweiss tsked at her espeon teammate. “Sike, you’re doing it to him again, aren’t you? Come on, Equestria is waiting for us! There are flowers to buy, ponies to see, berries to eat, and who knows what kind of treasures we’ll find?”

“I just want to find the largest, most powerful creature there and knock it out!” Glassie jumped up onto her hind legs, bearing her fangs and claws before splashing back down with her front legs into the soupy wet grass. “They will call Team Allure the best. Like no one ever was.”

“We will heal their stricken forests from blight and save their people from darkness!” Edelweiss chimed in.

“We will seek out the long-eared damsel and win her affection!” Ebon said, puffing out his chest.

Sike withdrew the pink stone from her fluffy chest and caressed its shimmering surface. “We will learn of the magic called ‘Harmony’.”

“Indeed you will!” Cadance, having approached silently, made all four of them turn their heads to face her. “Are you ready?”

After a glance at his teammates, Ebon nodded.

Cadance beckoned the four to follow with a wave of her hoof. “Then let us be off! Right this way, Team Allure.”

“Coming, Princess.” Their talk done, Ebon found his attention returning to their surroundings, including and most notably the overhead glow he'd noticed before. He found he couldn’t take his eyes off the ribbons of light in the sky, their pastel ribbons twisting and undulating across the sunny expanse; as they drew closer, they could hear a slight hum that seemed to emit from the central spire itself.

“Oh, Ebon! My stone is reacting to the tower!” Ebon could see Sike clutching at the stone which now glowed enough to cast all three of them in its pinkish hue.

“I can feel it too,” Ebon replied. “It’s like the warmth of the sun but it warms me from the inside!”

The skin beneath his fur tingled pleasantly, reminding him of the restorative sensation he felt basking beneath the moon after a long, difficult day.

Ebon quickly realized that he wasn’t the only one who felt that way as he looked over at Edelweiss. Her grassy back tendrils stretched above her and waved idly like a field of cornflowers, seemingly soaking up the magical radiation. Seemingly finding it every bit as invigorating as he did, she walked forward with her eyes closed, her mouth curved into a smile.

Even Glassie couldn’t resist, grinning proudly with her long, diamond-shaped tail suspended high above her head, seemingly basking in the flow of power and giving whoever was standing behind her a great look at her frosty fun holes. Ebon couldn’t help but be slightly jealous, being almost half a day since his last sexual experience — a lifetime by his standards.

“I see you four, like many ponies, draw strength from the Aurora Crystialis,” Cadance said, looking back at Ebon. “Not that there was any doubt you could, after you managed to draw love from the crystal remnant you collected.”

The sound of two heavy doors sliding brought Ebon’s attention to the tower’s entrance, now opened before him and leading into a room filled with shimmering bright lights. Ebon squinted his eyes before shielding them with his paw. “What in Arceus are you ponies keeping in there?” He asked.

“It looks like you keep your own sun there!” Edelweiss squeaked excitedly.

“Or a battery to power the whole universe!” Ebon saw his eevee friend was likewise shielding her eyes, though with her tail instead of her paw.

“Or a god-killing death ray!” Glassie said in awe, earning an odd look from Edelweiss. “What? I’ve read stories like that. I can read, you know!”

“I don’t think so. Looks more like the entrance to some sort of interdimensional rocket ship or something,” Ebon grumbled, still shielding his eyes.

Cadance laughed at their banter. “You four are too much! But I suppose we did overdo it a bit with the brightness. I’ll correct your eyes if it hurts to look at.”

“Thank you, Miss Cadance,” Ebon replied, somewhat constrained as his eyes began to water. “But only if it isn’t too much trouble. We’re not used to looking at something this… pastel.”

Ebon felt a sensation like an invisible blanket falling over his head, obscuring and darkening his vision for just a split second before he could see again with perfect clarity. Everything now appeared as if being seen through a blue-tinted mirror. Better yet, the harsh glare of the interior of the castle disappeared, replaced by an incredible sight.

The three girl mons all “oohed” simultaneously, to no surprise as far as Ebon was concerned. It was all he could do not to emit the same call as beheld the vast chamber covered in blue and purple crystals. The floor was as blue as a glacial cavern and equally as hard and smooth, while doors of solid amethyst lined the walls in every direction leading no doubt to treasures untold.

Or maybe buckets and mops? Even ponies have to clean their extravagant dwellings sometimes, Ebon thought to himself with a grin.

But the wonders didn’t end there. Jagged pillars of lapis lazuli spanned from floor to vaulted ceiling, extending perhaps thirty feet up by the umbreon’s reckoning. Oppressive bright lamps embedded into the ceiling had been carved from the largest diamonds known to pokékind, bathed the room in harsh, white light — accentuated by a pastel gleam completely foreign to anything Ebon had ever witnessed in all Pokémon World. “By Arceus himself… we aren’t traveling to a new universe… we’ve already stepped into one!” Ebon exclaimed, taking in more of the room’s detail.

Bisecting the room was a long hallway, adorned by plush, red couches long enough to comfortably seat three fully-grown arcanines with room to spare. No small feat considering the arcanine stood fully two feet taller than Cadance and probably weighed twice as much. The males were also extremely well-endowed, to put it mildly. But before Ebon could imagine what it’d feel like to try to fit one inside of his rarely-explored tailhole, his fantasy was interrupted by Glassie talking.

“I now understand why no one has sought to drive you out of the mountains yet, Princess. They took one look in here and went blind.”

Ebon clenched his teeth, sucking air slightly between them and creating an audible hiss, while Edelweiss put a paw to her forehead as Sike merely glared. We can't take her anywhere! The latter thought to Ebon, leaving him reflecting it had seemingly taken Glassie mere minutes to forget her earlier lesson about not offending others.

Cadance snorted before busting out in a fit of laughter. “I appreciate your candor, Glassie. You are truly irrepressible! Thing is, you get used to the brightness where I come from. All of our buildings look like this. Even some of the ponies have a crystal glow.”

Ebon wiped his forehead as Sike and Edelweiss breathed a sigh of relief. "Crisis averted", he muttered to himself under his breath.

“Your ponies glow, Princess?” Sike asked. “You mean like Ebon?”

Cadance looked thoughtful for a moment, her eyeridges furrowing slightly. “Ebon only glows from the rings, right?” Ebon nodded back at her. “And he can turn this glow on and off. Crystal ponies are permanently enchanted by the Crystal Heart to glow.

“All the time?” Glassie asked. “They can’t turn that off when they go to sleep?

“Even while wearing clothes,” Cadance elaborated. “You can even see straight through them… but don’t get the wrong idea, Ebon. You can’t see beneath their fur or clothes if they’re wearing it; you just see what’s behind them.”

“Like a ghost-type!” Sike said in a high-pitched squeal while Ebon reserved the thought that Sike had good reason to fear ghosts, having a psychic typing.

“Funny you should put it that way, Sike,” Cadance said as if something had just occurred to her. “We’re not in any sort of hurry, are we? Let’s have a seat so we can talk about the citizens of my country for a bit.”

“It’d be a shame to waste perfectly good couches, so why not?” Ebon replied with a toothy smile.

The four made themselves comfortable. Ebon supposing idly that the wait to go to Equestria must be a real headache if the hallway needed its own couches. At least they were a convenience to them now.

Once Cadance had achieved what Ebon assumed to be an ideally elegant pose with her two forehooves dangling just right from the comfy couch, she addressed Team Allure. “The Crystal Ponies are immortals who existed long before my birth. They were chained to mortality by a very nasty unicorn named Sombra who enslaved the ponies using powerful dark magic and forced them to mine gems day and night.”

Edelweiss winced hard.“Yikes! Not all harmony and good times in Equestria, huh?”

Cadance sighed. “It’s not a paradise world, no. There are bad ponies just like there are bad pokémon. We do what we can, but evil holds ground, often for longer than good would like.”

“How long did evil hold those poor ponies, Cadance?” Ebon asked.

“For hundreds of years. Until Equestrians defeated Sombra and ended the ponies’ slavery, they were in a hard place, immortals with broken minds and bodies weakened from exhaustion,” Cadance continued. “I created the Crystal Heart as a way to aid in the healing process, strengthening and bringing joy to Sombra’s victims, but in the process, it also affected their bodies. They now carry with them the beauty of their youth despite being older than even they can remember.”

“So they can’t die, still?” Glassie asked. “I don’t know how I feel about that…”

“But they can still produce new life, right?” Edelweiss asked, with an air of false confidence.

Ebon knew what she was thinking because he was thinking it too. That these ponies weren’t ‘alive’ in the traditional sense. And if they weren’t…

Cadance looked back at Edelweiss and Ebon could see, for the first time, the centuries of painful experience behind the Princess’s gaze. “There hasn’t been a single recorded birth in the entire written history of the Crystal Empire. Well… not until I had my foal.”

“I’m sorry, Princess…” Edelweiss’s ears wilted.

“Don’t be, Edelweiss. My ponies make good use of their immortality to learn and create and grow as individuals. They still have a reason to exist that keeps them thriving.” Cadance pumped one hoof into the air, grinning. “That said if I could have it be any other way, I would change this unfortunate limitation. But as my reign over the Crystal Kingdom is still young, perhaps one day, arcane science will make that dream come true.”

I don’t think there’s a cure for death, Princess, Ebon thought to himself. That poor mare, I can only imagine how awkward it is to talk about her foal around them.

I don’t envy her. But she really does love her citizens. And they love her back, Sike thought to Ebon. I can get a fleeting image of what they look like from her memories. They’re… gorgeous! They don’t look anything like ghost-types in our world. That said, I’m feeling a bit nervous about meeting them and saying the wrong thing.

You and me both, Sike, Ebon granted, grateful the Princess couldn’t eavesdrop on their telepathic exchanges.

“Well, that was a nice rest. And hopefully, you are now more informed about the Kingdom I rule So, shall we be going?” Cadance gestured towards the door at the end of the hall.

“Sounds good, Cadance. Let’s go,” Ebon said, the four walking two by two through the curtained doorway.

The five of them were suddenly standing in what appeared to be the center of the tall spire spraying the pastel aurora out into the sky, attached separately from the rest of the building the way the island stood in the center of the mountain range they were situated on. Where Ebon had been expecting more colorful crystal, the shaft of the tower was composed of a shiny, gray metal shell bracketing a pillar of milky, opaque quartz wreathed in shimmering white sparks that pulsed from the bottom of the shaft to the top.

The fur on Ebon’s back stood straight up as the tingling in his skin grew stronger in proportion to the growing anxiety within him. He made a futile attempt to dig his claws into the floor only to dull their razor-sharp tips. More shiny metal objects lined the room's walls; they appeared to be connected by wires to an equally shiny box lit by many gemstones.

Next to Ebon, he noticed his sister’s wilted demeanor — tendrils hanging limp at her sides like the branches of a weeping willow. She looked over at him, anxiously. Suddenly her tendrils sprung to life and Ebon was being pulled towards his sister who embraced him tightly in her trembling grasp.

“Ebon, Edelweiss… are you two okay?” Sike surveyed the pair of them with her head cocked to one side.

“This place is… a human laboratory!” Ebon gasped before burying his muzzle into his sister’s grassy dorsal mane, the scent of chlorophyll bringing him some semblance of relief.

Glassie prodded at Ebon’s back but he and his sister remained on the floor shivering.

“Oh my! You must be thinking the worst right now!” Cadance spoke from above Team Allure’s cowering commander and quaking quartermaster. “Wait, did you say something about a… human!?”

But far from being alarmed, Glassie cackled with glee, bringing Ebon a moment of wanting to smack his arena-loving assistant upside the head. “You’ll have to forgive them, Princess. Ebon and Edelweiss are country eevees; they’re strong but very superstitious.”

“But why? I don’t understand! I mean, we traveled through cities and wilds to get here, but they didn’t freak out like this!” Sike prodded Ebon’s belly with her tail.

“I’m sorry but I really have no idea what you’re going on about,” Cadance said in what sounded like sincere confusion. “Are you talking about the mythological talking apes you read about in comic books?”

She really doesn't know. All this time in the realm of pokémon and she doesn't know what a human is? Ebon thought to himself before tearing himself away from his sanctuary of sisterly love to look up at the Pink Princess. “This place… was it built by humans? Please, tell us! Human dwellings are cursed!”

“I guess it does sort of look like a laboratory, now that he mentions it…” Sike looked around at the room. “Should I be cowering too?”

“No!” Glassie shouted, shooting metaphorical icy daggers at Ebon with her eyes.

“If it eases your mind, Ebon, ponies built this place on top of the mystery dungeon located here. It’s one of the few permanent structures on this mountain.” Cadance lifted Ebon and Edelweiss up with her magical aura — Arceus, she is a strong one! Ebon thought to himself — “As far as any of our exploring parties know, your world is entirely made up of pokémon. There is no such thing as a ‘human’.”

Ebon sighed, forcing back the shame welling up inside of him to face Cadance properly. His sister’s tendrils were still gripping him tightly. He stroked them lovingly with the pads of his two free paws. “Humans haven’t existed in thousands of years but we pokémon will forever live in the shadows of their tombs. Their souls dwell here still. They are always watching us, Cadance. My sister and I do not wish to disrespect their resting places.”

“You never told us, Ebon!” Sike wailed. “I would have never asked you to travel through cities to save time if I knew how you felt about them.”

“It sounds silly, we know,” Edelweiss finally slacked her grip on Ebon, her tendrils falling to the floor with an audible ‘thunk’. “We like technology too, Sike. It’s just really intense to have such a strong reminder of it dropped on you like we just did.”

“My, my, my,” Cadance shook her head slowly. “To think that mythological creatures once lived in alternate universes! Wait until our ponies hear about this!”

Ebon looked over at Sike who looked ready to say something and shook his head once to each side. Not yet, Sike. I’m not ready to tell them more. Don’t forget about our mission.

I understand, Ebon, even if I don’t completely agree with you this time. Sike replied mentally before turning her attention back to the crystal pillar. “So, this is the room that’s going to send us to Equestria?”

“That it is!” Cadance said, walked up to one of the strange, corded metal boxes and stood behind it. Ebon spared the box a curious glance; it had a blinking light, a bunch of switches and dials, and a huge red button. “It’s really simple to use. I just tell the machine how many objects are going through and it creates a mirror spell in front of that pillar marked by that lovely Saddle Arabian rug on the floor.”

“Is this… going to be safe?” Sike looked over at Ebon and scowled.

It would be helpful if I could tell the Princess about the human-to-pokémon transformations that might see us get transformed into ponies once we arrive, Ebon! Sikemessaged, sounding more threatening than he’d ever known her to be.

Stay cool, Sike. They don’t have humans there and probably no Arceus either. And they didn’t transform into us when they came here… right?

“Of course, it’s safe! We’ve been using it ourselves for many years.” Cadance replied to Sike. "Though, there is a chance you may turn from Pokemon into ponies on the other side. That happened to us in reverse when we came here initially."

Ebon grinned back at Sike, guiltily. Let me guess, the guards told you and you forgot to tell me?

Sike rolled her eyes in response.

“It’s only temporary, though. Well, I’ve been told the odds are pretty high you’ll switch back to a pokémon if we did send you back. Look, I’m not a scientist or anything but we haven’t vaporized anything into a fine mist yet!” Cadance insisted, the barest hint of a teasing tone in her voice.

She’s joking. See, Sike? We’ll be fine! Ebon thought to Sike.

Sike looked back at Ebon, seemingly resigned to her fate. I hope so, Ebon. But since you’re our fearless leader, you should go first!

Ebon smiled, deciding that she was right — it was a duty that fell to him and nobody else. “We trust you, Cadance. In fact, I volunteer myself to be the first pokémon to go through!” Ebon thumped his chest, smiling. “I’m harder to kill!”

“Now that’s the Ebon we know and love!” Glassie returned the chest-thumping gesture. “Show that technology who’s boss!”

“In that case, step forward, Ebon,” Cadance invited.

The humming from the pillar grew in intensity, the rolling wave of sparks intensifying briefly before calming back down. And then a circular spiral opening in the space in front of him appeared, hovering over the decorative carpet in front of the pillar and swirling like a vertical whirlpool. Quaint pink and yellow wooden houses with thatched straw roofs appeared in front of him within the semi-translucent vortex, along with a single dirt road.

The scene looked strangely copasetic for an alien dimension. He had the passing thought that it might even be a good place to raise an eevee.

Despite that, Ebon found that he had to muster his courage before he took a step closer to the swirling mass. It seemed safe; he could make out tall hills now and what looked like full-blown snow-capped mountains in the far distance. Trees and wildflowers dotted the landscape and as he watched, birds and even a butterfly flew by. It looked like paradise!

It could be an illusion. Maybe it was all a trap but the promise of hope compelled Ebon forward one step at a time. He stopped briefly just before the edge of the portal to take one last look back at his team — his comrades, friends and lovers. I promised Glassie sex tonight and to take things further with Edelweiss. Even now, Sike is carrying our egg. Our firstborn. I’m not going to leave her without a father, so whatever happens to me in there, I will survive. For you three.

Bowing his head, to the trio, he turned back to the portal and stuck his paw curiously into the visible outline of the portal, and instantly, he felt an invisible cord wrap itself around his body. Whatever their nature, he had no chance to resist them before they yanked him through, plunging him into not just a vortex, but an overwhelming maelstrom of swirling energy.