A New World, A New Way: Deepground

Chapter Fourteen

Weapon’s Arrival

"I keep telling you both. I don't know where Celestia or Luna is at this time." Juniper said as the eheeyem made her way down the halls of Canterlot with a stack of papers in her hands. Tailing behind her were the eon siblings, Latias and Latios. "I've been busy in the science department working on cataloging all Pokemon-related information, seeing how all of it is back on earth. The ponies of this planet need to know so that they don't accidentally get hurt or worse."

"We can understand that, but it's very important that we see them," Latios said, which caused Juniper to tilt her head in confusion.

"Father sent us to warn the princesses. We have reason to believe that we found the source behind the strange energy that you must have noticed given how you're a psychic type as well, right?" Latias asked as Juniper nodded.

"I figure the legendaries would get involved upon seeing it. Though I'm surprised that Arceus is looking into the matter, what with him being busy with other important matters."

"Normally he would have Mewtwo or someone else to look into this matter, but it would see that it's not just in Ponyville or Canterlot. It's happening in different locations around the world." Latios said.

"Hence why Father sent us to Canterlot in his stead. He's currently fighting the creature to prevent it from reaching here, and we need the princesses' assistance on whether or not they might know what it is that father is fighting." Latias said as Juniper placed a hand to her chin to think.

"Hm, well if she's not here, then she might be either in Ponyville or the Crystal Empire. Might want to check if Princess Twilight has seen her."

"I suppose it'll have to do…I hope she's there and not in the crystal empire. That would take a while to get there and back." Latios said as his sister nodded in agreement.

"Thank you, Professor Juniper, you have been a great help," Latias said before waving goodbye to her as she and her brother quickly rushed off to Ponyville. "Do you think Father can beat that creature?"

"Of course, he can. Why would you say that?"

"Because it shouldn't take him this long for him to finish. Especially with Mewtwo by his side." She said which caused Latios to give her a deadpan expression.

"Pretty sure he's cleaning up the aftermath of the fight with the creature. Just you wait, I'm sure the moment we bring the princesses with us, he'll be cleaning up the destruction behind the fight in no time-" Before he could finish speaking, the sound of a glass-shattering roar pierced through the sky as it caused the legendary siblings to cover their ears. Within a matter of a minute, the roar subsided as they scanned the area to see where the noise came from. To their horror and surprise, they could see Emerald Weapon descending from the sky and towards Ponyville. More specifically, the castle of friendship.

[Castle of Friendship, Map Room]

"Of all the Pokemon she had to be, why did it have to be an ice type?" Iris thought while keeping a slight distance from Georgia. Though she would deadpan at her due to noticing a smug expression on the dragon buster's face. "Will you stop smirking like you won or something!?"

"Well given how I'm back to being human before you, this would count as a win in my book," Georgia said as she leaned against Emma's chair that she was sitting in. "What's even better is that I have an advantage over you even more now~"

"Oh really? And what makes you say that?" Iris asked before quickly dodging a fire spell. "What was that for….wait, you can use fire!? But….you're a Glaceon? How is that possible!?"

"You can thank the materia I gave them for that," Emma said while pulling out a green materia from her pocket and placing it on the table. "Both ponies and former humans can instantly learn magic that would take people from my world years to master. For some reason, you can learn it in seconds." She said as Twilight levitated the orb over to her to examine it closely.

"Fascinating, and this small orb can change a pony and Pokemon into a human?" Twilight asked as she noticed Rainbow Dash flying over to the soldier.

"So…you're the human that turned Lyra and the others into humans?" Rainbow Dash asked as she eyed the soldier up and down. "How can a kid like her be able to do something like that?"

"First of all I'm not a kid, I'm a thirty-nine-year-old adult that suffers from dwarfism. Not the kind where I'll have short limbs, but the kind where I'm stuck looking like a teen for the rest of my life." Emma said bluntly, which caused Applejack to elbow Rainbow Dash's side. "Do you ponies tend to judge a person by their appearance? Though I suppose it can't be helped given how I doubt any of you would be well versed in human anatomy except for Twilight and her visit to the human version of this world."

"Sorry about that. Rainbow Dash can be a bit rude." Applejack said before adjusting her hat. "I suppose introductions are to be in order. My name is-"

"Applejack, Ponyville's resident Farmer and the element of honesty." She said before looking over at Twilight and the others across the table she was sitting at. "Twilight Sparkle, a former student of Celestia, princess of friendship, and the element of magic. Rainbow Dash, the fastest flier in all of Equestria and the element of loyalty. Rarity, Ponyville's resident fashion designer, and the element of generosity. Fluttershy, the animal caretaker, and the element of kindness. And Pinkie Pie, Ponyville's super duper party planner pony, and the element of laughter."

"Wow…how did you know who we are?" Pinkie Pie asked while looking at Emma with a raised eyebrow. "Are you a pony pretending to be human?"

"A combination of the internet and Celestia. But mostly the internet. Slow as it is, it does have some useful information." She said before placing her helmet on the map table as she pulled up images of the six ponies before looking at Iris, Korrina, and Lucario. "And you two must be Iris, the champion of the Unova region, and Korrina, the gym leader of the fighting-type Pokemon gym in the Kalos region."

"...How did you know who we are…wait, you can understand what we're saying?" Korrina asked.

"Might be because I'm not from your world, or something along the lines of that as to why I can understand Pokemon language. As for how I know who you are, you can thank Georgia and Burgundy." Emma said while pointing a finger over to Georgia and Burgundy. "In exchange for helping them become human again, they would give me information on the world they came from." She said which caused Lucario and Korrina to look at Georgia and Burgundy with mixed expression.

"Is it wrong that I find them…a bit disturbing looking?" Rainbow Dash said before flinching from the trainers glaring at her.

"Well, it's not like we had a choice on what we would look like!" Burgundy yelled while folding her arms. "I'll take a form that will let you have hands then have stubby hooves as feet…no offense to those who have them."

"None…taken?" Twilight said before looking over at Emma. "A-Anyway, It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss. Rosemary."

"No need to be formal around, you can just call me Emma." The soldier said as Twilight nodded.

"Right, on behalf of everypony in Equestria, I would like to welcome you to our planet, Equus, and I would like to apologize for what Lyra did by accidentally bringing you here against your will."

"It's fine. Not angry at Lyra for what she did, can't blame her for being curious to know more about humans. If anything I'm flattered she's taken an interest in me." Emma said before looking over at Lyra who was grinning with confidence while creating a ball of gravity. "Though I am annoyed that both ponies and humans turned pokemon can master the magic from the materia I implanted inside them within seconds, while it took me two years or so to master the spells I have under my belt."

"Wait, so if you were to implant that weird orb thing, anypony can learn how to use magic without the need of training or studying?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Given what happened to Burgundy and Georgia, I will have to say yes. But fair warning, you will turn into a humanoid like Lyra, and for the time being, there is no way for me to turn you back." She said before presenting the materia to Rainbow Dash. "Are you willing to pay the price~?"

"Um…tempting, but I think I'll stick to being a pegasus, thank you. Nothing against you or anything…it's just that I prefer not to have to learn how to walk on two legs…or how to walk and act like a human."

"Fair enough." She said before looking at Iris and Korrina. "What about you two? Surely you want to be human again. Though it may be a poor substitute for being human, it would do until I can figure out how to turn you completely human."

"You can do that?" Lucario asked as Emma waved her hand sideways a bit.

"For the most part. I would need a bit more information and materia that will allow me to learn the spell transformation. Should be much of an issue, but for the time being. This hybrid between human and Pokemon should suffice."

"And you're not worried that Lord Arceus might find this inhumane or an abomination? I don't think you understand the situation you're in."

"You mean because he's a self-proclaimed god?" Emma asked while performing air quotes.

"He's not self-proclaimed, because he is a god," Lucario said with a stern expression on his face. "Are humans that arrogant from where you come from?"

"Some but not all. But I'll say whatever I want to him even if he isn't a god. He's not my god, and even if he was my god, I'd still call him out." Emma said while leaning back in her seat. "Because what kind of dumbass god would put humans, ponies, and Pokemon in the situation you're in now." She said before pointing over to Georgia and Burgundy. "Take those two for example. Did any of you know there's an Illegal underground fighting ring where the rich would force Pokemon to fight each other?"

"WHAT!?" yelled everyone except for Celestia, Luna, Lyra, Bon-Bon, Burgundy, and Georgia.

"Y-You're joking…right?" Rainbow Dash asked as she looked over at the trainers, who were looking away in shame.

"She's…not wrong," Georgia said. "The moment we ended up here, we got caught by a unicorn with blonde hair and were forced to fight against either other captured Pokemon, humans that were once Pokemon, or weird creatures that we didn't know of."

"If we had our Pokemon with us, I know we could have stood our ground and escaped," Burgundy said before biting her lower lip in anger. "But seeing how we were separated from our Pokemon, and we didn't know how to work the bodies that we were in before Emma changed us. So we spent the majority of the time forced to fight against our will, eat nothing but scraps of food left behind by the spectators, and slept in cages without getting medical treatment." She said while trying her best to hold back her tears.

"The only move that I could manage to learn from that place was how to use an ice beam attack, but what good is that if you have a unicorn that can just knock the beam away with a magical barrier," Georgia said before stomping the ground in frustration.

"They were both in bad condition when I found them. Burn marks, bruises in the legs, arms, and rib areas, and possibly some diseases that they might've picked up along the way." Emma said before pointing to the bandages on the trainers' bodies. "Had I not noticed them in the alleyway behind Donut Joe's place, they might've died from lack of treatment."

"How can we not know about this?" Applejack asked.

"Because they're rich," Emma answered. "If you have enough money, you can get away with just about anything with just bribing ponies with bits to look the other way. I mean if the job you're working doesn't pay much, you pretty much throw away your morals and values just to have food on the table for yourself or your family."

"Sadly, she's not wrong about that," Celestia said with a disappointed expression on her face. "I have myself to blame for letting something like this happen."

"You can't blame yourself for something like this happening. Nopony would expect you to be on everything." Fluttershy said before hearing Emma speak up.

"Well given how the rules were made when Celestia was depressed after sending her sister to the moon. Depression is a bitch, but it is her fault for letting something like that happen."

"Do you have to be that blunt?" Bon-Bon asked. "You can at least be tactful with your wording."

"You should know that I don't sugarcoat stuff like this. Much as I would, but you all have to remember. She is the leader of a country. She shoulders the burden of everyone. While it's sad that she had to do that to her sister, she can't slack off on her responsibility as a leader. Even if she were to change the rules around to prevent stuff like this from happening, it would take generations for the changes to take effect and for royals who are doing them to die off of old age or natural causes."

"As painful as her words are, she's not wrong. It would've been nice to have somepony to advise me in my ruling of Equestria for the past one-thousand years. But we can't change what happened in the past, we can only change stuff now so that it won't be a problem in the future." Celestia said as Luna nodded in agreement.

"Indeed, which is why we called Twilight and her friends here," Luna said before looking at Iris, Korrina, and Lucario. "You three are free to leave if you want. But something tells me that you two want to ask Emma some questions afterward?" She asked as Iris and Korrina nodded.

"We just wanted to ask a few questions about the whole transformation thing," Korrina answered before noticing Lucario raising an eyebrow at her. "No offense Lucario, but I was born human. It would be one thing if I was given the choice to be a Pokemon, but I wasn't. While being a Pokemon has given me a much more understanding of a Pokemon's point of view, I miss being a human."

"I…suppose that's understandable. I'm more worried about what will happen if Arceus finds out about it." Lucario said with a worried expression on his face. "He might end up punishing you for defying his wishes for humans to remain Pokemon. And I'll side with you, but even I can't fight against a god."

"I don't think he'll be able to do anything about it," Emma said, which caused Iris, Korrina, and Lucario to look over at her. "I don't see him as a god. Just a powerful being with matter manipulation powers from the looks of it. Given how there isn't anything like magic in the world where you come from, it can only be assumed that Arceus can't manipulate magic. Which would make sense given how Pokemon are super effective against magic in this world."

"They are? How do you know that?" Twilight asked as Emma pulled up a digital screen with information on both Pokemon and magic.

"With Burgundy's and Georgia's consent in letting me have a sample of their blood. I ran a few tests to see what would happen if magic can affect a Pokemon's cellular structure." She said before noticing Twilight carefully examining the information displayed to her with interest.

"Amazing, I never would've thought someone would go into this much detail with information like this."

"The perks of being a former medical soldier/scientist."

"Former?" Pinkie Pie asked. "Did you quit your job because it didn't pay you that well or are you retired?"

"...You did inform them about where I come from…right?" Emma asked after looking over at Celestia, who stared at the human for a moment before looking off to the side.

"Well, it was a bit of a small summary…Perhaps I should've proofread it before sending them out."

"....I can't be mad at her. Especially given how tired she must be." Emma said before typing on her laptop and bringing up her planet. "Before I begin. Let me be clear about one thing. I mentioned this to Celestia and Luna, but no species is better than the other. Ponies, Pokemon, and humans have their dark side. But just because they have their dark side, doesn't mean they should judge the rest of their species and think they're all evil. Ponies have Chrysalis, Sombra, and a few other villains. Humans have organizations like team rocket, team plasma, etc. Pokemon…hm…what do they have if you don't mind me asking?"

"...Well…there was the…I hate to say this, but the Malamar incident that took place back on earth about a couple of years ago." Lucario said with a bit of shame in his voice.

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot about that!" Korrina said which caused Celestia to speak up.

"Malamar incident?"

"Ash mentioned during his travels through the Kalos region that he along with his friends had a run-in with a small group of Malamars trying to take over the world. He didn't go into that much detail about it, but they were trying to change the world to suit their own evil needs."

"So…they were trying to terraform the earth…How?" Emma asked. "I mean I'm a bit impressed that Pokemon could do something like that, but how were they able to try and attempt that?"

"Don't know, you would have to ask him yourself. All in all, if it wasn't for him. The Malamars would've been successful in taking over the world."

"Okay, so I suppose I'll add these…Malamars for example of the bad side of Pokemon society. I used to work for an evil corporation called Shinra. Now don't judge me about why I joined them. But given how I lived in poverty, I needed the money to help the family." She said before bringing up pictures of the Shinra Corporation. Just as she was about to explain who Shinra was, the sound of a glass-shattering roar echoed throughout the room they were in and caused them all to cover their ears due to the pain behind the roar. Within a matter of seconds, the roar died down, but a small earthquake caused the castle to shake and everyone fell to the ground due to the force of the sudden quake. The first to pick themselves up from the ground was Emma as she spoke up. "Okay…do earthquakes with the force of a bomb being dropped on a village happen a lot in this town?"

"No…No, they do not." Twilight said while pulling herself up. The moment she did, her eyes widened in surprise. Not from the glass in the windows being shattered, but seeing Emerald Weapon standing outside of her castle. "What in the name of Equestria is that!?" She yelled as everyone turned their attention to the window Twilight was looking at which caused everyone to be taken by surprise by the giant metal monster outside the castle.

"What kind of Pokemon is that!?" Rainbow Dash asked before hearing Lucario speak up.

"That thing is not a Pokemon! If anything it doesn't even come close to what a Pokemon looks like!" He said while eyeing the monster up and down.

"Huh, interesting," Emma said before reaching for her helmet to scan Emerald Weapon. The moment she finished scanning, her eyes widened in surprise at the information given to her. "Wow…So the information about these things was real after all. I figured it was fake just to trick enemies who hack into Shinra's database to gather intel."

"You…know what that thing is?" Burgundy asked.

"I looked into some of the off-limits information in Shinra's archives. That outside is known as WEAPON."

"Weapon? Weapon of what? A weapon of mass destruction?" Rarity asked as the soldier shook her head.

"Weapon or Weapons to be accurate were created by the planet itself as a means to defend itself from life-threatening dangers. I heard that they appeared on my planet two-thousand years ago but disappeared after some time. Don't know what the threat was back then, but seeing one of them confirms that the information I have on them is real."

"You mean that thing was made by our planet?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Seems like it. It would explain the weird energy that Celestia and Luna have been seeing."

"If this thing was created by planet Equus, why is it here of all places?" Bon-Bon asked.

"I can think of a few ideas. One of them being that the planet sees Arceus as a threat given his haphazard plan of migrating Pokemon to this planet, or there is a much bigger threat looming in the darkness of Equus." She said while continuing to look at Emerald Weapon in marvel. As the soldier continued to gaze at the bio-machine, Pinkie Pie noticed Emma was floating.

"Hey Lyra, are humans supposed to float like that?" She asked while Lyra looked over at Emma floating. She was about to say something, only for the human to be sent flying backward into the crystal wall behind her. The human was unphased by being thrown against the wall, though the ponies and Pokemon were taken by surprise by this.

"So you're the source behind this madness." said a voice as everyone looked around the room to where the voice came from. It was when Korrina looked up as her eyes widened upon seeing the legendary psychic Pokemon. "I don't know where you come from, nor do I care about how you got here. But you will be coming with me, human."

"She is most certainly not," Celestia said as Mewtwo looked over to his right to see the white alicorn flying over to him. "She's currently under the accidental magic law. If you haven't been reading into Equestrian law, she was brought here by Lyra by accident. Don't know how she did, but that means you can't hurt her, nor do anything that would cause harm to her."

"Given the situation going on in Equestria. Restraining the source was Lord Arceus's command."

"And where is Arceus?" Luna asked.

"Currently repairing the damage this human caused by unleashing that thing upon the world," Mewtwo said before glaring at the human but paused upon seeing Lyra, Burgundy, and Georgia due to their sudden humanoid-like appearance. "Dear god…" He said before glaring intensely at Lyra and levitating her over to him via psychic to her throat. "What did you do to those Pokemon?"

"Um…okay…don't be mad," Lyra said as she felt the aura of anger coming off of the genetic Pokemon. "Okay scratch that, that's pretty much your default setting-" She said before being cut off by his psychic grip increasing more around her throat.

"I won't ask again. What did you do to them? If you do not tell me what you did, then I'll get the answer from reading you-" Before Mewtwo could finish his threat, a sharp pain radiated from the joint that connects his arm and shoulder. Looking at said location on his body, he notices a crimson red color blade sticking out from his body.

"Don't know what you're saying nor do I need to know what you're planning on doing. But given how you're hurting Lyra and ignoring Celestia's warning about the accidental magic law. I'm going to assume you're Mewtwo." Emma said as Mewtwo turned his attention to the human who was engulfed in a dark aura. The genetic Pokemon tried to use psychic on the soldier to get her off, but for some reason, it wasn't working.

"Why can't I use my psychic ability to push you away?" Mewtwo asked, only for his question to be answered by Emma pushing her sword deeper into the wound she inflicted on the legendary Pokemon, causing him to flinch and grunt from the pain he felt.

"Release the girl, or else you'll be missing an arm. Something that I'm sure you can't grow back." Emma orders as she notices Mewtwo using his other hand to fire off a shadow ball at her face. The shadow ball made contact with the human's face, but it didn't have much effect on her. If anything, she gave off a slight yellow glow after being hit by his attack as she in turn glared at him. "Wrong choice." She said before grabbing onto the Pokemon's shoulder and pulling her sword upwards. In doing so, it caused Mewtwo's arm to be cut clean up with little to no effort. Mewtwo let out an ear-piercing scream from having his arm cut off as he recoils in pain and causes Lyra to fall out of his psychic grip. Before the humanoid unicorn was about to hit the floor, Twilight quickly used her magic to stop her just as her face was inches from the ground.

"Um…thanks?" Lyra said as Twilight carefully placed her back on her feet. Her attention was turned onto Emma as she noticed the human raising her hand at Mewtwo and summoning a shadow ball into her hand.

"Wait, isn't that the same move Mewtwo used?" Georgia asked which in turn surprised Iris, Lucario, Twilight, Burgundy, and Korrina.

"It is, but that should be impossible for a human to use," Lucario said before looking at Lyra.

"Oh right, you weren't there when I first met her. There's a materia that she has that lets her learn abilities from monsters and convert them into magic." She said which took everyone by surprise. "What? I saw it happen when she saved me from a small pack of hondours the night that I accidentally summoned her."

"So…that means it is possible to use Pokemon abilities?" Twilight asked as Lyra shrugged.

"I guess? You'll have to ask Emma about it." She said before noticing Mewtwo slowly recovering from the pain and glaring daggers at the soldier. "That would be if she survived this."

"We gotta do something, we can't just sit by and watch this," Korrina said as looked over at Lucario with a slightly nervous expression on his face. "Lucario?"

"I'm against the idea of fighting against a legendary, but I'll follow whatever orders you have for me to follow, Korrina." He said as the duo was about to aid Emma, only for Celestia to stop them by using her wing to block their path. "Celestia?"

"Even if you were to assist the human in this fight, I believe you would only get in the way," Celestia said before looking over at the human. "It would also mean that Mewtwo will have to step down and be replaced with Mew. But should things get out of hand, I will intervene for both their sakes." While Celestia watched the scene take place, the human looked over the genetic Pokemon's arm for a moment before placing it into her bag for safekeeping.

"In my defense, you did attack me twice. The first one I would let slide, but hurting Lyra is where I had to draw the line." She said before noticing the blood on her sword being absorbed as a surge of power ran through her body. "Now, are you going to calm down so we can talk, or are you going to use force?" Mewtwo said nothing as he used his psychic powers to stop the bleeding. He soon closed his eyes for a moment before slowly regenerating his missing arm, which impressed the soldier by causing her to whistle. "Impressive, regeneration on a cellular level. Though I'm sure it does take a great toll on your stamina in doing that."

"I'm giving you this final warning," Mewtwo said before glaring at the soldier. "Surrender now and I won't have to hurt you. If you don't, then I am not liable for what happens next."

"Yeah, that's not going to happen. Mainly because I fall under the accidental magic law, which I can assume you don't know about seeing how you pinned me against the wall and ignored Celestia."

"You somehow manage to escape my psychic grip and you're imitating my attack right now with that shadow ball in your hand. You are considered a threat to not only this planet but to the citizens given how Lyra and the other humans look like abominations. I can assume you being here will cause more of them to turn into that." He said before using psychic to take pieces of the crystal surrounding them in the room and position them around himself. "You must be contained until Father can send you back from where you came from."

"Sorry, but putting my faith in a murderous god that causes more deaths than need to be is something I'm not going to do."

"...I would recommend taking back what you said."

"It's not an insult, it's facts," Emma said while pointing her sword at Mewtwo. "Given what I've been gathering from Celestia, Lyra, and the humans who were turned into Pokemon. Your god pretty much just up and left his old world and pretty much invaded this world without so much of a plan. He didn't do any research then what was on the surface, didn't send any of his children to act as scouts on the planet or act as envoys to communicate with the leaders of this planet, and didn't give the humans who turn Pokemon the ability to defend themselves if they ended up being teleported in a dangerous area, didn't even give them the option to be human or pokemon, and the big murderous action would be taking the good humans and leaving the bad ones on what I can assume would be a dying planet?" She said, which caused Mewtwo to go silent. "Question, was it his decision to do this or a conjoint decision without telling the other humans and Pokemon?"

"I don't have to answer that question to someone like you. I will say this again, surrender now or else." Mewtwo said as Emma let out a sigh of disappointment.

"Suppose I'll get my answer from your god when he comes here. But for now, I think I'll play with you for a bit." She said before Mewtwo noticed a devilish grin on the human's face. "Getting an in-depth analysis on a legendary species would be very informative~"