Only a dimension away, a two-story building in a metropolitan town. Sprawling on her bed was a teenager enjoying her portable. Sunset Shimmer had just bought a new game in the last fortnight; until recently, she had covered half its progress and been enjoying it. Of course, that doesn’t mean she couldn’t put her Dual Screen down, hanging out with her friends is more important, but still.
Her new game was titled “Pokemon”, launched at the local EQ Games via cartridge. There was some effort involved to get used to the mechanics, but after a while, she became decent.
“Nice try, Raichu, but you’re no match for my stronger Arcanine.”
In a span of 3 hours today, Sunset encountered a count of 80 encounters and had won approximately two-thirds of them. She was so focused on her new game that she neglected her alarm clock.
Her eyes would’ve been bloodshot if it weren’t for her phone’s ringtone of The Rainboom’s popular. The noise made her drop her console and she immediately directed her attention to her nightstand. Its displayed time shocked her because she wasn’t aware of how much time has passed.
“Oh my gosh! I didn’t realize it’s been 3 hours, I really need to get my eyes off that.”
By touching the green circle, the screen switched to moving pixels of a lavender-skinned character the same age as her, also known as Twilight Sparkle, with glasses and a ponytail.
“Hey, Sunset. How do you feel?”
“Hi, Twilight. To tell the truth, I’ve been playing video games a lot lately.”
“You mean that game you just bought?”
“Yeah, I feel guilty about my health.”
“Really? Well, perhaps you should delay it and do something else without radioactive windows for a change. It may not look like it, but even scientists like me have to watch their health.”
“I was actually thinking about that, but thanks for the advice.”
And then, her shelf of books shimmered at Shimmer. It was the diary given to her by someone from a parallel universe, it was making a move she noticed. Finally, something is being written on a page of the book.
“Gonna have to call you back. The other version of you finally wrote to me.”
“Alright, nice to see you, and tell her I said ‘hi’.”
Twilight replied before they disconnected. Sunset approached her shelf, reached for the book and flipped the pages. Ever since her excursion to Camp Everfree, she hadn’t been receiving any updates about her world-distant friend’s life. Maybe because she had more important duties like entitling herself “Princess” for her kingdom. Maybe that’s why she wrote…
“Oh my gosh, how long has it been? It’s been forever, Sunset. I am so sorry for not updating you in so long, you know, I had friendship lessons and also princess duties. You must be worried about your friend.”
The orange-skinned human figure smiled and giggled at her friend known for being overdramatic and also their reunion. She brought the hardcover down her flight of stairs to her pen holder and grabbed her favorite ballpoint.
“Don’t worry, I wasn’t worried, I can respect your duties. I am wondering about where you’ve been, though.”
A few seconds after lifting the pen off the page, new words magically fade in, forming a paragraph.
“Glad to hear. Well, we have recently fought with and won against 3 meanies and achieved world peace, well, for now anyways. I am also a few weeks away from promotion.”
“You’re getting promoted? Well, congratulations! I’ll wish you good luck.”
“Thanks, I guess?”
“Is there something wrong?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Sunset didn’t take the hint and just shrugged it off her shoulders. Meanwhile, she pondered about something. She planned to do any activity involving being away from screens, might as well use this moment as an advantage and to meet up with an old friend. Who doesn’t love to meet an old friend?
“You know what? How about we reunite, huh? You know, we could rendezvous.”
“Sure sounds like a plan, but won’t your human friends wonder where you went?”
“Not if I told them, plus I’m off school, on holiday.”
“Great, then we can arrange the visit. It’ll be the best reunion ever.”
“See you on the other side.”
And so, Sunset’s line concluded the literary telecommunication. She closed the journal and stored it back upstairs where she found it. Then she immediately and excitedly packed necessities in her portmanteau before leaving her building to accumulate the girls and bid arrivederci.
Only a portal away, world peace for a kingdom has been acquired. There once was the chitinous shapeshifter sovereign, the young rookie-flank pegasus and the power-hungry demonic centaur with a desire to win Equestria. However, they were unmatched against a stampede of creatures and friendship and earned imprisonment in a concrete sculpture.
Located in the middle of a village is a castle composed of crystals, historians say it grew out of the ground like a tree. The alicorn princess of friendship, Twilight Sparkle, is a resident. Time was the morning after breakfast when she concluded chatting with her bipedal friend through an enchanted book. Happy that she’s coming to town like Santa on Hearth’s Warming.
“Oh, I can’t wait to see her again. I should start by preparing the portal, she can’t portal-hop without the other entrance.”
Within 2 minutes, she fished out complex components from the closet and reconstructed the magic mirror machine in her home library. She can hope it works after having aged a year. Sunset Shimmer could emerge out of the looking glass any moment now, a matter of time. Next, Twilight wonders what to do for her in the meantime. Her lightbulb flickered.
“I know, I should call the others. You know, why couldn’t I introduce her in the first place? Ooh, maybe I could get the princesses here. Yeah. Spike!”
Now isn’t that a plan? Hesitation is not an option as the lavender equine called her young dragon assistant energetically. He came in from the door.
“Shh. You’re in a library. Wait, are you gonna summon Sunset?”
“Yes, Spike. I need you to write a letter to the princess.”
And so the winged wyvern pulled a scroll and quill from seemingly nowhere behind his back.
“Sure, but let me remind you you’ll be the next princess soon.”
“Yeah, I knew that.”
As the soon-to-be princess quoted her message, Spike noted her message.
“Dear Princess Celestia,
I am so excited to announce that the one and only Sunset Shimmer will be coming to Equestria for a reunion. I mean, it’s been a long time since we last heard from each other. Now if you would like, I invite you and Princess Luna to my castle to welcome her back. And hey, I remembered that you two have already made amends, I think you can keep it up.
From your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”
Upon the complimentary close and saying no more, Spike scrolled the parchment and burned it using flamethrower enchanted with the ability to teleport letters to Celestia herself. Speaking of which, Princess Celestia was one of two recently retired rulers of Equestria above the pony population spellbound with immortality. That meant she aged and governed for over a millennium, but she, and her younger sister, were considered young in alicorn years.
Meanwhile, on the morning after waffles, dethroned Celestia was playing hoofball in one of Canterlot’s many gardens with her beloved sibling, Luna. Both were wearing freestyle clothes and had only just stabbed cushions after discovering their horns are long and pointy.
“Very funny, Tia. Now I look silly. Are you sure the ball won’t be penetrated again?”
“It’s not my fault our anatomy comes with these long protuberances. These cushions will provide minimal damage to the ball and as long as you can ignore it, we can play. Incoming!”
Celestia kicked the ball in the air overhead and then it dropped to Luna’s muzzle.
“Coming back at ya.”
And as she flicked her muzzle and tossed the sphere back into the sky, some rolled-up paper appeared over Celestia. Its appearance distracted her and the ball landed through her horn, the cushion didn’t help and was instead pushed further into the bone. Luna was about to snicker when her sister replied…
“Not one word.”
The navy alicorn approached and removed the ball and the pillow that shielded her sister’s eyes. Once done so, Tia caught the letter in her vision and then levitated it in front of her, she unrolled the roll and read it.
Her favorite student, Twilight Sparkle, wrote it. A report about her former student, Sunset Shimmer, coming to Equestria and a request to arrive at the castle in Ponyville. Sunset and Celestia had an unpleasant past, they were opposites. Sunset was expelled from her class and ambitious like Macbeth and left Equestria to make her own path. They did make amends a few years later, but the question of whether she’ll keep that up is rather compelling.
“What do you think, Luna?”
Celestia asked as she presented the scroll in front of Luna’s muzzle.
“Sunset Shimmer? Why you didn’t have to ask. We can arrange a visit.”
“I’m not so sure about that. Let’s just say she and I did not make a long-lasting relationship.”
“But Tia, I know that you’ve made amends already, so you can persist in that. Why don’t you just ignore your past? And who knows? Something good may come from seeing her.”
Why consider when she could just go for it?
“Alright, then I accept Twilight’s request. Let me write a response to her.”
And so, Celestia materialized a pen and paper out of thin air using magic and started writing.
“My faithful Princess, Twilight Sparkle
I have read your letter and accepted your request. That would be wonderful, bringing Sunset Shimmer from the human world and letting her stay for a while. My sister and I will come very shortly and I hope we can leave the past behind and smooth each other’s friendship.
Yours truly, Celestia.”
By end of the page by a remark, the paper was rolled into a cylinder and then sealed with a ribbon and emblem, Canterlot’s seal of authenticity. The no-longer princess waved her osseous wand and vaporized it from existence to send on its way to her promoting protege.
“Shall we bring anything to our visit for the visitor, sister?”
“Bring anything? I don’t exactly know what to take with me. Do you?”
“Hmm.”
And then, something in her mind clicked as if she developed an ingenious plan.
“Eureka! Wait here, I’m going back to the castle.”
Within the village of Ponyville, a neighbor of the neighborhood neighbor alicorn neighbors to labor a favor as a baker. Her bakery was triple-layered and flavored with cake, her wit’s favorite taste. Pinkie Pie was babysitting her months-old P twins owned by her C employers. Even though Cup and Carrot had no extra limbs, Pound sprouted wings while Pumpkin grew a horn.
In the lobby, Pinkie and the infants played Chutes and Ladders with double the number of dotted cubes and triangular spaces. All their pieces landed on area 51, a dozen and a half midnights would cover the rest disregarding the chutes and ladders.
“My turn.”
She gripped the dice and tossed them and received two quincunxes for ten pips.
“I’m up by ten, so 61 has a chute to the meaning of life. Shoot! Oh well, down the well.”
Pinkie’s pawn could just go straight down to 42, but instead, she stamped its bottom on every square leading to the peak of the slide and pushed it down like:
“Weeee! It’s your turn, Pumpkin. Let’s see if you can get to 64!”
But before the young unicorn was able to release the ankle bones from her magic aura, the telephone on the wall was beeping. Usually, that caller was used to record orders from where they can’t arrive and then deliver to the addresses.
“Keep playing, I’ll be right back.”
Pinkie approached the wall, examined the phone and sanctioned the call.
“Sugarcube Corner, at your service.”
A voice came out and it’s a female monotonous in note F2. Somepony familiar she knew and loved: Ash coat and lavender mane wearing navy clothing, Maud Pie. Too, born on rocky acres and a passion for geology, but she loved her heterogeneous sister most of all.
“Actually, I’m not here to order.”
Of course, hearing the dryness fueled up her amygdala with dopamine, until she could not contain the emotion. So in order to not make a horrific impression, she closed the transmitter with a hoof and unleashed her excitement on her foals.
“Guys, it’s Maud!”
She expanded her lungs and released the energy and turned on serious mode, but not too serious.
“Hi, Maud. What brings you on the phone?”
“I want to let you know that I’m coming to you soon.”
“Really? Wait, but you don’t have to call me. You moved to Ponyville and you could just walk from your cave to here.”
“No, I’m actually at Griffonstone with Gabby after she invited me over and I haven’t packed my saddlebag yet.”
“Oh, you didn’t tell me you went there. Can you tell that griffon I said hi?”
“She replied hi back. I’ll see you soon, Pinkie.”
With the remark, Maud hung up the call and Pinkie hung up the phone on the wall. It’s simply impossible to hang up her impressions, she couldn’t hang up on the visit, hung up to be with her favorite sibling going downtown. Her cheers were hung up when the phone has rung up.
“Maud?”
Now, the voice was a male stallion, spaghetti western Ponish. He, too, was recognized not as a sibling but as a compadre: Hue of cheddar orange skin and chocolate orange locks with a yellow polo and named before his flank mark; a combination of an accordion and a grilled cheese sandwich, Cheese Sandwich. Self-proclaimed great and powerful party connoisseur.
“I’m not Maud and I’m definitely not Trixie either.”
“Cheese? Wait, how did Trixie fit into this?”
“Not a clue. Hey Pinkie, guess what? I scheduled a schedule out of schedule. I’m gonna visit you in a few minutes.”
“You’re kidding.”
While Pinkie kept speaking joyfully on the phone, Twilight and Spike forced the entrance open. They perceived Pound plus Pumpkin prevailing Pinkie’s playing piece provided pink pony’s presence preoccupied. Pleased at how precious these preteens came out. She came to recruit the Spirits of Harmony starting with Pinkie. Once she noticed she was on the phone, wouldn’t want to be rude, therefore she waited. Until…
“Alright, I’ll see you around.”
“Can’t wait.”
Sparkle thought she was free to talk, but her friend beat her to it and shouted in her face.
“CHEESE AND MAUD ARE COMING!”
Rude. She practically spritzed her spit on the lavender mare’s muzzle, causing her to look displeased. Ashamed, she immediately took a rag and innocently wiped the alicorn’s countenance.
“Oops, how rude of me. How am I gonna make a good impression on my guests like this?”
“Maybe you should try to bottle it up? Try thinking about neutral thoughts.”
“I’ll try.”
“Good, because you’re gonna need to do that for our guest, Sunset Shimmer. She’s coming back from the human world.”
“Sunset Shimmer? Um, why couldn’t we be introduced properly?”
“Exactly my question.”
“So this is gonna be my first time meeting her?”
“Yeah, basically.”
And then, Spike’s throat fired up and fired a fiery eructation. The green flame morphed into a scroll fastened with a ribbon and a C token. It’s definitely from Celestia, one could guess that she responded to Twilight’s request. Thinking positively and anticipating affirmative, the ex-princess’s boolean answer ended up being…
“Yes! She approved, Celestia and Luna are coming.”
Maud, Cheese, Celestia, Luna and Sunset. Everypony, well not everypony, is coming like a gigantic group gathering. However, little did anypony know, something else is incoming into the party. 10 minutes away from Equestria something is approaching Equestria, in orbit and will enter its Roche limit.
Twilight managed to make everypony volunteer gather inside her castle. Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Spike and herself were seated on thrones detailed with their respective cutie marks around a round table that typically serves as an atlas of Equestria. They were waiting for the princesses. Hopefully, they’ll arrive before Sunset. In the meantime, they were discussing that visitor and pondering her first proper introduction.
“Wasn’t she that pony who stole your crown?” Dash asked.
“Yes, but probably don’t blurt that to her,” Twilight responded.
“Of course, darling. You made friends with her, right? I understand.” Politely established Rarity.
“She must be vulnerable after what she’s done. I know how she feels.” Fluttershy also conceded.
“Recovered from her burden? Ah reckon she recovered better than me.” Applejack too, confessed jokingly but without further explanation.
“But seriously, why haven’t we been introduced yet? I mean, we feared the confusion of meeting our doppelgangers, but what about the pony who doesn’t have a clone? She had visited Equestria a few times, right? So, why must she hide from us?” Pinkie queried every query that needs to be queried.
“Look, we get it. But today will be the day. Today, us will meet her together for the first time. Once the princesses arrive, we will rendezvous in the room with the portal until Sunset leaps through it.” Twilight answered.
Nopony here had any complaints about the ex-villain’s visit, which is pleasant. On that occasion, the sun and moon former monarch dropped in at the castle, they knocked on the correct door to where the six were located. Sparkle called to the knocker.
“Come in.”
The doors were thrown wide as they exposed the appearance of two alicorns. Should the young equines bow to the wise godlike figures? No, because they’re not queens anymore, and neither should the future mare of friendship.
“Celestia and Luna. You’re just in time.”
“Well, Twilight, my student. Why wouldn’t we be?” Celestia declared.
Luna levitated a yellow gift box secured in red ribbon near her using her magic. Pinkie Pie immediately recognized what’s gonna happen.
“Whoa, Luna. Is that for Sunset Shimmer?”
“Just a little souvenir I received during my superannuation. I couldn’t be more proud to deliver it to her to take with her.”
“Well, now that everypony’s here, what are we waiting for?” Rainbow suggested as she dismounted from her throne.
Everypony else followed suit and followed the pegasus to the library, all but two. Twilight stayed so that Celestia could chat privately with her student.
“To tell the truth, although I seemed to know what is wrong and right, I was skeptical about seeing Sunset for the second time. I’m nervous that I might start a misjudgment.”
“Why would you be nervous? You’ve reunited before and come to an understanding easily, so there shouldn’t be a problem reconnecting with her. Besides, you’ll have plenty of time to make amends after parting for moons. And she also got used to absorbing memories of the past, what I’ve heard from her.”
“Well, thanks for the reassurance, Twilight. I needed that.”
It’s showtime, they were desperate to be in the room where it happens through the atheneum’s entrance. The ponies inside not only anticipated Sunset, but they also anticipated Twilight.
“Where were you, darling? We were worried you might miss your friend coming through the portal.” Rarity informed.
“Um, I slowed her down,” Celestia confessed.
“No worries. I’m here now, aren’t I? Any minute now, we should see a pony Sunset Shimmer surfacing out of the mirror.” Twilight notified.
She got comfortable sitting on a spot on the floor next to Spike while the aurora-maned alicorn placed her flank next to her sister, taking breaths to relieve anxiety about meeting this pony for a second time. For a few minutes, they all engaged in a variety of fascinating conversations and dialogues regarding everything that has happened so far and what is going to happen soon.
Among topics like opinions about this upcoming pony, who’s gonna return to Ponyville and Luna’s present that Pinkie was constantly nosing at, time flew by quite quickly. At some specific point in time, the machine activated and the speculum began to grow purple swirly patterns as everypony watching gasped. Very quickly, lo and behold, equine Sunset Shimmer came out standing on her hind hooves before falling on all fours. She came to her senses and just noticed the crowd.
“Wow, I wasn’t expecting a crowd.”
Twilight ran up to embrace her in her forehooves like two adults meeting since they’d parted from kindergarten.
“Sunset! How long has it been?”
“It’s been forever. Long time no see to Equestria’s Spike.”
“Oh right. I have a puppy counterpart in Canterlot High, ha.”
Whenever Spike the wyvern hops through the egress, he transforms into a canine because dragons would never exist in the world of humans, a world omitting fantasy. After greeting Spike, she observed some familiar colorful faces who she met in the other universe.
“Let’s see, yellow Fluttershy, orange Applejack, blue Rainbow Dash, white Rarity-”
“-And pink Pinkie Pie.” Pinkie Pie blurted out.
“Did you also notice us at least?” Celestia interrogated when Sunset was surprised to see her up close.
“Celestia and Luna? I didn’t think you would make it.”
“But why wouldn’t we? We wouldn’t want to miss this reunion.”
“Sunset, I’ve marshaled a little tchotchke in a little box for you.” Luna proudly presented as she presented the present which made Shimmer feel highly excited.
“For me? You didn’t have to, but thanks.”
Once the mustard unicorn pulled the ribbon and lifted the lid off with Pinkie hyperventilating anticipating the content inside the box, Sunset inserted her muzzle into the mouth of the container and gasped. She used magic and pulled out what looks like a plastic card until she read its text, the picture of an orange fire-breathing and flying dragon. Only she knew what it is.
“No way! It’s a holographic Charizard! Wait, these are only sold in the human world, how did you get this, Luna?”
Even everypony else was stupefied by this fact, including Celestia. Meanwhile, Luna was smiling.
“You see, during my retirement from being a kingdom sovereign, I secretly went and explored the human world myself. By the way, I have seen but haven’t met myself. Anyway, this one time, I visited a local store and bought a console and a few games, then the manager was like ‘Thank you for purchasing this console, have a holographic Charizard. And although I had no idea why, I decided to bring it home with me anyway, along with the video games.” Luna explained.
“I had no idea you were a gamer, but I saw your room and there was no technology.” Celestia described.
“But I was playing games, in secret.”
As soon as Luna revealed her secret identity, Celestia became unamused by the fact that she hid technology from her. Once they get back to the castle, Celestia is gonna force Luna to play with her and she’s gonna make her as uncomfortable as possible, not in an abusive manner, obviously.
“Looks like an ordinary card to me.” Rainbow pointed out.
“On its own, it does nothing but if I sell it to a local pawn shop, I could earn at the high-end almost 400 grand in human currency.”
“400 grand?!” Everypony shouted.
“Does that card mean you’re rich?”
Rainbow received a nod for an answer, jealous that she got that large amount of money for just a single card.
“Thank you so much. I’ll keep this when I leave while you’ll keep the wealthy castle, sound good?” Sunset honored Luna.
“You’re welcome. But um, actually, we won’t live in the castle in a few months.”
“Oh right, how did I forget? I want to congratulate Twilight for her promotion, I can’t wait to be in her coronation whenever that comes.”
“Oh, then Twilight will be there to invite you when it comes. Isn’t that right, Twilight?” Celestia asked.
“Yeah, sure.”
Something about the future promotion and coronation caused Twilight to contemplate the future. She was just not ready to spill her legumes of sensitivities to her venerated friends. Sunset placed the wealthy card in her taupe saddlebag for safekeeping. Before the rest could befriend her in a way, they could hear loud screams and chaos from behind the crystal walls of the castle.
“What’s happening outside?” Fluttershy cognizantly questioned.
“Come on, y’all.” Applejack advised as she ran to the exit followed by everypony else.
Guess Sunset’s fathoming each other is gonna have to wait, somepony has to solve some chaos. Outside were ponies running in unpredictable patterns, but they seemed to stray from one particular spot. Some galloped the wrong way, some collided unconsciously, some almost fell but recovered themselves.
The egress of Sparkle’s castle swung open, making way for Princess Twilight and her friends plus the two post-princesses and they saw the ruckus. They analyzed the scene, having no clue why everypony is panicking. That is until they looked up and saw a flaming tail in the sky from a distance approaching the ground, it was seconds from impact.
“A meteor? Everypony, take cover!”
Twilight alerted as the group split up and ran in different directions away from the meteor. At a certain point, everypony dove to the grass, laid on and held their heads to the ground. When the comet struck the ground bare of specimens, a loud but small boom sounded and the earth quaked violently.
Once the shaking stopped, the ponies groaned and stood up with the desire to investigate what had landed.
“What in tarnation was that all about?” Applejack protested.
“Let’s go investigate then. See what has crashlanded.” Rarity suggested.
The whole town grouped close to the smoke, but not too close. Only those who were brave enough were able to get a closer look. At the base of the smoke, it was a sphere colored half-red and half-white that caused a 750mm diameter dent in poor world.
“What do you think it is?” Twilight inquired.
While the lavender alicorn examined the item, Pinkie perceived two familiar voices in unison.
“Pinkie?”
Once she heard it, she almost couldn’t contain herself. She remembered Twilight’s advice back in the bakery to bottle up her excitement, so she tried and took a deep breath before turning around. There they are, Maud Pie and Cheese Sandwich.
“Maud? Cheese?”
“I told you I was coming, but I didn’t even know another pony was coming to visit you,” Maud explained.
“Same.” Cheese claimed.
However, that wasn’t the only reunion that was gonna happen. Applejack got a sneaky tap on her shoulder, she turned around and saw her fillyhood friend, Rara; short for Coloratura. She laughed when she was noticed.
“Rara? What are you doin’ here?” Applejack giggled along.
“I was gonna swing by and meet you without you knowing. Instead, I met your sister and her friends.”
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo made an appearance from behind the pop singer. Also known as the CMC; short for Cutie Mark Crusader. Also also known as Applejack’s, Rarity’s and vaguely Rainbow’s sisters respectively.
“Hi, Applejack.” Apple Bloom greeted.
“Hey, young’uns. Y’all better stay back from that thing.”
“Don’t worry, we’re just gonna stay here and, you know, be with you,” Scootaloo assured.
Yet again, that’s not all the reunions. Sunset got a greeting from somepony she’s met before. Starlight Glimmer came to the human world to solve a problem regarding Juniper Montage and her cursed mirror. Anyway, she also brought a familiar face with her.
“Sunset? Long time no see.”
“How could I forget, Starlight Glimmer? Hey, is Trixie your friend?”
“Obviously, Trixie is Starlight’s friend. We were even promoted together from vice president to president in Twilight’s school.”
“Twilight ran a school?”
“Yeah. Wait, how did you know Trixie’s name?”
“She had a bipedal counterpart in my world. Remember, Starlight?”
“Oh, right. I’ve completely forgotten the laws of your world.”
Back to the investigation at hoof, Twilight cautiously attempted to levitate the ball in front of her muzzle. She noticed that there is a black line around the horizontal equator of the sphere. She felt its material with her hoof.
“It has a plastic shell. It seems harmless, I mean, I don’t know.”
“I might have a feeling that I’ve seen one of these before, but I don’t remember.” Sunset clarified.”
“Fascinating.” Said a Ponish male voice.
Opposing Twilight was six more ponies, the stallion in front of her is Doctor Whooves, then there was googly-eyed Derpy Hooves, secret agent Bon Bon, lyrist Lyra Heartstrings, cellist Octavia Melody and silent headphone’d DJ-P0N3. Twilight was surprised when the stallion of science is also examining the extraordinary object. He had been noticed several times but never got the chance to know him or the other five with the same conditions.
“Oh, hi. Do I know your face?” Asked Twilight with the courage of talking to a new pony.
“You’re talking to me? Why, of course, you know my face. You’d face the same faces that appear in this village every day, Twilight Sparkle. For example, Mayor Mare, Golden Harvest over there and even your daily mailpony, Derpy Hooves here.”
“Hi, Twilight.” Derpy greeted
“Okay, so I do know your face. And I especially know the pony who dumped envelopes on my head again.”
“Did I? Sorry, I just don’t know what went wrong.”
Twilight and Doctor Whooves continued to investigate the peculiar object.
“Hmm. Is that a button on it?” The scientist explained.
“Button? What button?” Twilight questioned
Twilight held the ball in a way that a small circular button faces Whooves and Derpy and everypony else behind them. Derpy launched her hoof at the button intending to show the alicorn the button they were seeing, but um…
“This button. Oops…”
The black line at the circumference of the sphere glowed a bright red. Sparkle took fright and turned the ball and saw the button has sunk into a depth. Everypony saw it and feared what’s gonna happen while staring at the apologetic grey pegasus.
“Derpy, what did I tell you about not pushing buttons without a warning.” Whooves scolded.
“W-what’s gonna happen?” Fluttershy nervously enquired.
In an instant, the ball opened up on a hinge and puked out multiple white slithering beams and targetted everypony within a radius. The lights chose the Spirits of Harmony, the Royal Princess, the CMC, the six semi-irrelevancies and a few more.
While the ponies in the outer crowd blinded themselves with their elbows, the glowing equines in the inner crowd disintegrated and slithered back into the container. After the phantasmagoria, the outer equines saw in the inner equines vanished, leaving the mysterious sphere falling onto the ground.
“What happened to them?”
“Where did they disappear to?”
“Did anyone see that?”
“Did the princesses just leave us?”
As the events left the townsfolk to ponder the events with questions, the main question arose with compelling concerns. Can they come back? How will they come back? Somewhere out there, only a dimension away, a long journey awaits them.
Author's Note
Can you list the references in this chapter, I would like to see you try.
In the meantime, I've parodied the Pokemon theme song for my liking:
Something just fell into the ground
A ball that's red and white
The whole town gathered around
Until Hooves turned on the lights
On a Journey across the land
Will this quest ever end?
Teach Pokemon to understand
The magic to make friends
Pokemon
Ponies catch 'em all (Literally)
We gotta escape some way
So c'mon
Who will we encounter next
In a world that's so complex?
Pokemon
Ponies catch 'em all (Literally)
Let the humans lead the way
So c'mon
We'll make friends that never ends
Pokemon
Ponies catch 'em all
Gotta catch 'em all
Pokemon
A townlet located in a peaceful environment, not yet a human to be found. Somewhere on the intersection of the beige pathways, a group of 24 characters materialized, covered in white. The white immediately faded out while their visions faded in. The ponies and one dragon took a moment to surround their surroundings to realize the different topographies.
“Uh, guys. Where are we?” Applejack impeached confoundedly.
“I don’t know, but this doesn’t look like Ponyville or Equestria,” answered Rainbow.
While Ponyville saw mountains far from each other, this village is surrounded by mountains. Additionally, these houses' rooftops look made of wood whereas those at home were canopied with hay. It was Derpy’s fatal pony error that brought a string of ponies into another strange new world.
“It was all Derpy’s fault for bringing us here.” Bon Bon pointed out.
“I know, I can’t do anything right. I shouldn’t have touched that button.” Derpy agreed
“Hey, cheer up. We’ll find a way out of this place without a doubt,” assured Doctor Whooves.
“But how exactly do we get out of a new dimension? Trixie sees no portal.”
There seemed to be no answer to that question to be found…yet. How are they supposed to leave without an exit or clue? Are they doomed to live here forever? Who is going to lead Equestria now? Did Star Swirl the Bearded return to his reign like in the past? Is Cadence going to take over her sister-in-law’s position?
But screw those questions. If one focuses on those questions, one would be unable to advance. Where they should start is quite simple: have a look around. Sunset Shimmer was familiar with these types of houses, their blueprints resembled those back when she stood on half her limbs.
“Yeah, these homes look just like the homes of my world. Angled corners, smooth roofs, positioned methodically. I’m willing to bet that the residents of this world are humans.”
“Now that you’ve mentioned it, I agree. If so, meeting one should be easy to make an impression.” Starlight Glimmer prophesied.
“So what’s the plan? Knock on somepony’s door and hoping they might provide us some info?” quizzed Octavia obliviously.
“That sounds great, but this looks too big of a crowd. I suppose we should separate, we don’t want to overwhelm the citizens of this world.” Celestia suggested.
So the herd of equines was divided into four roughly equal strings. Twilight, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Cheese, Maud and Spike went left of the intersection, Applejack, Apple Bloom, Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo and Coloratura headed south, Sunset, Starlight, Trixie, Celestia and Luna voyaged north, and Doctor Whooves, Derpy, Lyra, Bon Bon, Octavia and DJ-P0N3 en route right.
Each group of equines approached the nearest house they passed by. Every abode exhibited a wooden plate scrawled “Pallet Town” in text and its corresponding number which seemed to suggest the name of this place. Twilight’s group walked up to the porch and judiciously knocked on the door. The response sounded like a happy, youthful daughter's voice: well, that’s because they are.
“I’ll get it!”
Pinkie hearing the feminine-pitched vocals made her squee, the affectionate mood so joyful that she wanted to crank it up a tiny bit more. Within seconds, the lock clicked and the gates were open, exposing the abode’s interior and a pigtailed young’un. When she noticed the visitors being unicorns, other equines and a young dragon; stereotypical for girls, she gasped and was surprised to see them.
“Mom! Dad! Quick, they’re ponies. Oh, and a dragon.”
She was so overwhelmed. Fluttershy, Pinkie and Spike blushed because they made this daughter’s day by just showing up like they were considered appealing to children. They heard crescendoing running steps from inside the home. The adults appeared from the hall.
“Ponies?” The woman echoed as the parents saw the six of them.
“Wow, are we sure they aren’t just Pokemon ponies and a dragon?” The man entertainingly inquired as he too saw the unusual creatures.
Now, what was that new word he just pronounced?
“Poke-uhm-on? Um, sorry, we’ve never heard of them before.” Fluttershy explained.
“Did you hear that, mommy? They talked.”
The parents seemed to be open-mouthed after learning these ponies speak English and hearing that they acquired no knowledge of… whatever they were supposed to know beforehand.
“I think we’re supposed to?” Cheese Sandwich observed.
Meanwhile, Applejack’s load approached the closest abode on their road. Being under the porch and in front of the group, guess she’s the one knocking.
Quick triple taps by hitting her hoof on the ebony surface. With a little patience, they could hear faint stomping on planks. Perhaps, they were those humans walking on the floor inside. While the equines attempted to become confident, the primates came.
The door ajar displayed a mother in high heels. Just her attire forced Rarity to force her amygdala to neutralize, it was hard to do as she expected.
“Oh my stars, she looks outstanding in those heels. Heh heh, I just joked. Anyway, that untied monochromatic hairstyle, it’s just black but it’s the pear shape that’s standing out. Uh, I must control myself. Think nothing of her, think nothing of her!”
“Excuse me, ma’am. We might seem odd to you and we’re sorry to barge in.” Applejack introduced.
“We just wanted an explanation. And we’ll explain ourselves as a tradeoff.” Rainbow Dash explained.
“Oh, don’t worry, you’re not the oddest in this world. Come inside and we’ll have a word. My twins might enjoy having your daughters I see.” The woman counseled.
“Hey, ah know it doesn’t look like it, but we’re sisters, we ain’t daughters.” Apple Bloom corrected her.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. Would you all like to come in anyway?”
“Sure. we’d love to see your twins.” Sweetie Belle assured.
Meanwhile, Doctor Whooves and his group of other semi-minors arrived at a more expansive residence; a two-story with a center door between two awnings. Either the residents residing were just lucky or just chose to rent this.
“I’d fancy this place, it looks like whoever lived here lived decently, I won’t assume they’re wealthy.” commented the stallion scientist.
Lyra raised her hoof. “Uh, question: Sunset and Starlight mentioned humans but what are humans?”
“Look, I haven’t heard of them either, but whatever they are, they weren’t afraid of them. So we should be fine if we act friendly.” Bon Bon concluded.
Doctor Whooves is not one to be rude, even to any species he has never met or is not familiar with. The polite thing to do in front of a door is to knock with a hoof. Three consecutive booms and seconds later, the door was opened by a boy whose age looks a little under double digits. It’s not often you’ll find males who don’t mind feminine stuff, but luckily, this child had another perspective.
“Wow, are all of you Pokemon?”
“Uh, what-emon?” Lyra confusedly questioned.
“No, I don’t think we’re-” Octavia began to clarify before the boy interrupted her and called for her parent.
“Look, ma, I found six talking Pokemon, the rare kinds.”
Octavia wanted to specify his rudeness by cutting her strings, but he looked like a kid immature enough to learn manners, so she hid it inside her chest. Based on the boy’s info, it seemed that whatever Pokemon were either didn’t speak Ponish or at all and that those who do speak are hard to find.
“So “Pokemon” could be some kind of animal or organism since a majority of our animals back home can’t talk. Wait, no, those who can’t talk are pets like those in Fluttershy’s cottage and a lot of hybrid creatures in the Everfree Forest such as the cockatrice and the bugbear. This makes me question how speech in Equestria works because…”
As Doctor Whooves kept on pontificating in his thoughts, drifting into his own world, a woman appeared at the doorway. Surprised to see so many horses of different colors, but she knows what they aren’t.
“Um, I don’t think they’re Pokemon, Tom. I’m so sorry if he offended you all.”
He disgusted the cellist, that’s for sure. Everypony was waiting for Doctor’s response, but um, he’s still deep in philosophy. The second in line, the only pegasus of the group, Derpy Hooves filled in his role.
“Don’t worry, miss. We get it.”
Lyra followed up, “So, you’re a human?”
“Um, yeah? You don’t have people where you came from?”
“Oh, excuse me, we’re from another world. No, another universe.” Bon Bon answered.
“Oh, that makes sense.”
Meanwhile, Sunset Shimmer’s string of unicorns advanced toward a dwelling on their west. A bit narrower than the other ones, but hopefully someone’s home. She stopped to think about who should bang on the entrance.
“Does anypony want to do the honors?”
“The honors?” Starlight Glimmer echoed.
“You know, of knocking on the door.”
“I think you should do it since you had the experience of being human,” Celestia suggested.
“Oh, well then, my question was useless.” Sunset laughed.
For one thing, she dodged the dangerous idiom of “punch first ask questions later”. In this case, she punched the door thrice with the tip of a hoof after realizing she wasted time and a question. While waiting, they could detect some voices from through the door.
“Who could that be? No one ever comes to our house for a visit.” exemplified in an acute voice.
“I know. It’s probably some Pokemon wanting a place to stay.” thought the deeper voice.
Like the previous times, the ponies heard the word ‘Pokemon’ without knowing its definition. Well, actually, Sunset has heard about them. They made a game titled that title back in her own homeworld.
“No way! Are we seriously in a Pokemon world right now? Hmm, if so, then Pokemon is obviously the norm of this universe. I don’t think they know what they are yet.” Sunset thought.
For some reason, Sunset kept silent about what she knew because she was curious. Obviously, going door to door was the first thing they did when they first arrived in this universe, so they couldn’t possibly learn all the norms yet. But that’s why they were going door to door, hopefully, the citizens of this village would give some informational insights starting with one question: “What was that three-syllable word?”
As the human vocals protruded, Celestia and Luna anticipated insuppressibly as they anticipated nice and kind humans to meet and greet. Luna hasn’t, Celestia hasn’t, additionally, Trixie hasn’t. So while their excitement was kept bottled up, the door opened and revealed a man.
“They sure look like Pokemon alright,” he said.
“Um, sorry, what is this “Puck-ee-man” you speak of?” Trixie asked with a gesture of hoof quotes.
“Yeah, they had never heard such a term before, sir,” Sunset confirmed for the human.
“Honey, there are talking equines on our porch!” The man shouted at the interior of the house.
The following sounds were a loud clap, probably via folding a book hurriedly, and allegro thumping, via the female character running in in her trainers. She noticed them and noticed what they were not.
“I don’t think they’re Pokemon at all. Not that I’ve recognized from the encyclopedia,” she concluded.
“That’s right, thank you for noticing.” Starlight Glimmer gratefully appreciated. Her own developed language amazed the lady.
“So what brings you all here at our residence? We thought, well, whoever knocked wanted a place to stay.”
“We would like some insight into how this world works. You see, we were teleported here from another universe.” Sunset gave insight herself.
“Ah, you’re one of those beings I see. Come on in. Our house may not be wide, but you may just find a comfortable spot.” The husband invited and the visitors obliged.
Everypony found their place in the street and met some kind people. The people kindly offered a place to linger, rooms to hang out and soon, an explanation of what this far-from-home world entails. Pokemon, Pokemon. Whatever Pokemon are, guarantee somepony or somebody will explain that too.
Everypony and everybody found their place in the living rooms of the abode of their choice. Somewhere comfortable, they were feeling comfortable sitting around humans like they were their saviors, it was a weird feeling for them. Being around human adults is exciting enough, but being around human youths is indescribable, that’s saying much for Pinkie, Fluttershy and the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
After introducing themselves, they had questions worth questioning. There were two main questions at their disposal; one about Pokemon and one about going back to where they came from. Any other question is acceptable so long as they’re not irrelevant.
“Thanks for letting us stay in your home. We appreciate your kindness.” Twilight began.
“Not a problem, Twilight. We don’t usually get many visitors, but since you all didn’t come from this world, why shouldn’t we let you in?” Laura, the mother in front of Twilight, explained.
“Where did you all come from anyway?” queried the husband of the mother, Kelly.
“We came from a kingdom called “Equestria”, it’s basically a world of life populated with ponies like us.”
Rainbow Dash answered while the younger fillies were playing with Karen’s twins and Rarity was still intently observing the female adult. Does she even know it’s rude or unladylike?
“Populated with all ponies?” Karen echoed in a question form.
“Well, it ain’t all ponies, we have griffins, dragons and yaks.” Applejack clarified.
“Oh, okay, so mostly equines plus some more animals and mythicals.” Hannah the child-free woman reiterated, talking to Sunset Shimmer’s group
“That’s exactly our kingdom, but I don’t think we can just fly out of this world and find Equestria ourselves,” Celestia stated.
“Yeah, we need some way to, I don’t know, teleport ourselves there or something.” Starlight Glimmer assumed.
Doctor Whooves got into the vast house via a push by Derpy Hooves because he was absent-minded, in front of the line and blocking the way. Apparently, wide houses don’t mean wide doorways. Eventually, he woke up and quickly understood where he was.
“So, you’re all humans?” Lyra began a question that no other group has asked or started with.
“Of course, you can find humans all over the world, in town or overseas.” answered single parent Dana.
“Hmm?”
Lyra hummed in a flat tone as she noticed both Dana’s and her own sitting position. For a long time, she had been sitting unconventionally, her back along a chair’s back while the others’ backs never touched the backs. Dana and her son, Nicky, both conveniently sat just like her.
“Maybe it’s just a coincidence that I perched like you, Dana.”
Back to the main questions at hoof… or hand. Sunset impeached, “You’ve mentioned Pokemon, right? What are Pokemon?”
“We’ve only just arrived here, you see. Surely, you’d understand.” Starlight elucidated.
“Oh ho, well. If you really want to know, prepare to be amazed, everyone.” human Jack informed.
While Twilight floated a pen and notepad to note some notes, Kelly continued to explain the subject: Pokemon.
“Pokemon, also called ‘pocket monsters’, are essentially creatures who you can keep and nurture if done correctly.”
“Like animals? Pets?” Fluttershy brightly questioned.
“Exactly, Fluttershy. Now, Pokemon trainers catch, care for and most importantly, train Pokemon for battle.”
“Battle?” Fluttershy restated in shock.
“What kind of battle?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“And why would they battle?” Rarity continued after breaking out of her trance.
“A Pokemon battle, where an opponent fights another opponent using Pokemon. It’s a tournament to see who can reach the top, be the champion and one day, achieve the dream of becoming a Pokemon master.” Karen spoke in a narrator-like voice.
The first line Coloratura spoke in this chapter here…, “From the sound of it, Karen, it sounded like whoever loses the battle would be suffering.”
“Oh, don’t worry, Rarity,” Hazel, a twin, assured.
“By some miracle, they would always come back with only a scratch.” the other twin, Sana, continued.
“Pokemon trainers make a huge community in this world. Some are friends, some are enemies, but their goal is to be the very best.” young boy Nicky revealed.
“How could anypony find these Pokemon? I mean, do they just pop out every so often?” Octavia interrogated.
“Well, sort of. Sometimes they can lurk in the grass or the bushes or whatever, and sometimes they just show up in your sights like a flying Pokemon in the sky for example.” Dana answered.
“Pokemon can fly? What types of Pokemon are there?” Derpy inquired.
“Haha. Well, that information is limited for us since we don’t really do Pokemon stuff, sorry.” adult father Kelly apologized.
“Don’t worry, Kelly, we understand. I mean, looking at your family, it seemed like you’re just being… family.” Maud spoke for her herd in the living room.
“What we do know about Pokemon though, is we do have dragons…” the male bipedal eyed at the only dragon in the room, Spike.
“Dragons?” Spike echoed.
“...oh, and the numbers, wait for it,” the human continued, “we have over a hundred unique Pokemon and over a thousand individual pokemon in the world.”
“Over a thousand individuals?” Everypony in each home parrotted simultaneously.
“If you want to know more about Pokemon, you need to see Professor Oak. His lab is southeast of this town, you can’t miss the windmill.” Jack suggested to Sunset’s string.
“We shall thank thee for telling us all thou can. *Ahem*” alicorn Luna thanked in an unnecessary archaic language, she then switched to the modern language, “I think you both have told us all we should know.”
“Oh, before you leave, you might want to have this book that contains a list of Pokemon you can meet. Don’t worry, I’ve bought like three of them and I don’t really know why.” Hannah presented a thick, heavy hardcover book to Sunset Shimmer, the only pony with a saddlebag, black with her emblem.
“Thanks, Hannah. Hopefully, it will come in handy,” Sunset prophesied.
“Oh, and since you came here unknowingly, I assume you probably didn’t bring any form of wealth, right?” Karen assumed.
“Wait, are you gonna give us some of your money?” Rainbow Dash figured.
“Oh no, we couldn’t possibly take any of your loans.” Coloratura declined for the seven of them.
“Girls, just take some, you might need some anyways, our world runs on our own currency.” Hazel insisted.
“We’re just gonna give a fraction of what we have, relax,” Sana assured.
“You don’t have to do that, but thanks.” Sweetie Belle appreciated the family’s generosity as Applejack was hoofed a hatful of gold discs etched with a P with two lines through it.
Each group in the four buildings has earned at least 5000 Pokedollars, one household was 10000 P more generous than the other three, those coming from the mother and son of the widest house.
Doctor Whooves approved his prediction, “I knew that you had money to burn!”
“Not even 20 American dollars? You could’ve given us more than this, Laura and Kelly.” Pinkie complained.
“Don’t! She’s just joking! Besides, the entire collection adds up to 117 and no cents.” Cheese Sandwich calculated.
Twilight, Fluttershy and Spike were clueless about what those two just articulated, not even the humans know what “American” is. They shrugged it off because it’s not worth wasting time arguing about facts and fantasies. Sometimes they wished they’d understand, but they couldn’t.
“Well, thank you both. We will cherish the offering until the moments we spend it.” Celestia acknowledged Hannah and Jack who replied…
“Be careful out there.” and “It’s been nice knowing you, ponies.” respectively.
Everypony waved their hooves to the human friends they had just met who waved their arms back, expecting the trek ahead of them and pondering whether they’ll see them again, they haven’t even got to know each other yet. But screw the past, they have their own investigation in this strange new world.
Everypony emerged from each residence near the intersection to accumulate on the intersection. Once within talking distance, everypony explained to everypony what everypony already knew. Unbeknownst to each group, they were explaining different things at the same time, it was almost deafening.
Sunset was addressing her excitement when learning about Pokemon, Fluttershy mentioned the number of unique creatures she was bewildered by, Applejack discussed the number of bones she had received, Lyra was comparing her sitting position to humans’. The only ponies who got the joke were Celestia and Luna, they were quite bothered.
“Silence!” Luna shouted, halting everypony’s mouths.
“I think we all had a good idea of what’s going on, hadn’t we?”
All nodded, they agreed. They had no idea what everyone else just told them, but everyone understood what this universe entailed by the time they left the houses. Well, actually, only Sunset Shimmer was given a book, a dictionary of presumably all the Pokemon that exist.
“Yeah, was I the only one who had received an encyclopedia?” she asked as she removed the book from her saddlebag.
“Nope, I made my own written article. That looks too heavy for your saddlebag, mind if I carry it for you?”
Twilight obliged as she used her levitation magic surrounding the treatise. Then suddenly, FLASH!, the book glowed in blinding lights and everyone couldn’t see what was happening, the rays were so bright they had to obfuscate their retinae.
“MY EYES!!!” yelled Pinkie.
“Too bright of phantasmagoria for Trixie!” she confessed.
“No more ‘glitz and glam’ in this show!” Coloratura referenced.
After the glow died down, the groggy string of ponies groaned and moaned as they lifted their eyelids. The book was left on the ground, Twilight must’ve released her magic and let it drop because of the shimmer. Left on the book was a glowing text in a fancy font.
“Befriend Every Pokemon & Enter The League In This Region To Continue.” the title read.
“Wait, the book didn’t have that title before.” Starlight confirmed.
“It must’ve been the result of Equestrian magic interfering with this world.” Twilight hypothesized.
“Well, whatever the cause, “every pokemon & league in this region”? Really?” Pinkie complained in disbelief.
Who knows, if there are over a hundred Poke-
Excuse me, Mr. Narrator.
I’m technically the author, but go on, Pinkie.
There are 151 Pokemon in this region alone and you need all eight badges to enter the league. Are you sure you want us to catch ‘em all? I mean, it’s gonna take a lot of epis… er, chapters.
Don’t worry, at least I’m not aiming for 151+ total chapters clearing Gen I Pokemon alone. (Hopefully)
Hmm, I hope you have a plan. Anyway, where were you, huh?
“So I’m guessing if we want to get out of here, we need to become… what did they call them?” clarified Spike unable to think of the term
“Pokemon trainers.” Twilight filled in the blanks while looking at the notepad she had written on.
“Looks like we’re gonna be here for a long time.” Bon Bon concluded.
“But look, I know what we’ve done after “a long time”. I didn’t earn the title “princess” when I was a filly.” Twilight mentioned.
“I didn’t become a full-fledged Wonderbolt immediately when I met them.” Rainbow reminded.
“We didn’t earn our cutie marks right after we became the Cutie Mark Crusaders.” Apple Bloom recalled.
“We will get home even if it takes half a year, more or less.” Applejack encouraged, her encouragement lifted everypony off their flanks.
“I’m very proud that you six still had the spirit and confidence in you.” Celestia approved.
“Now that we all have confidence, where should we go first?” Luna impeached.
“Our human friends told us to go southeast to Mr. Oak’s lab with a windmill, should be a good lead,” Fluttershy suggested, although she named the guy’s honorifics.
Twilight noticed. “It’s ‘Prof.’, Fluttershy. It’s not ‘Mr.’”
However, no route goes southeast, there’s only south and east. South walks past the house Applejack’s group’s been in and east walks past the house Derpy’s group’s been in. Maybe they should find the road that goes south and then east or vice versa, or perhaps the best option is to go off the road, into the grass and directly southeast and hope that for a lab. Or even better…
“Fluttershy, let’s see if we can see the lab from above.” Rainbow Dash advocated, then her other pegasus friend approved.
As the two pegasi took off straight eastsouth, the grounded ponies followed them via running. Shouldn’t be too hard to find a giant structure of a laboratory with a tall pinwheel tower nearby, right?
Right.
And there it existed, over the hills displayed a windmill and a pink-roofed yellow-walled building at the foot of it. Not one’s typical image of what a lab looks like; white, larger than a house. Twilight was expecting a Pokemon investigation facility to have exactly that description, albeit her experience of being in laboratories was not entirely white.
The path that the pegasi flew in led to a bridge bridging a river and then a gate that led to some cobblestone stairs. Now the question of whether it’s impolite to infiltrate the gate without a ticket is worth asking. Maybe the lab opens for guests at certain time intervals.
“This gate may not be here just for aesthetics. It may be a sign that we shouldn’t be trespassing over this guy’s property.” Twilight presumed.
“Are you sure? Because I don’t see many homes with cobblestone flights wrapping around a hill.” Pinkie stated.
Rainbow Dash got up to the front of the herd just to check the gate. Twilight was alerted because she thought her friend’s gonna do something illegal against this world.
“Wait, Rainbow!”
The purple pony precautioned as the pegasus promptly pushed the pylon with her padded pinion. She discovered the gate was not locked, so she thought that meant anypony or anybody could enter if they want to.
“Ha, the gate’s not locked, it should be safe,” Rainbow determined.
“No, just because the gate was unlocked doesn’t mean we’re not trespassing,” Twilight argued.
“Look, whether it’s trespassing or not, we need to get to this Prof. Oak person.” Rainbow reasoned.
“I have a better idea, what if we just waited for him to come out.” Twilight retaliated.
“A much faster way is to bring us to him, not him to us,” Rainbow suggested.
And they were just gonna keep going. Perhaps the rest should just leave the argument to the two of them and keep going, huh? …Cheese and Pinkie just winked at the narrator as if they agreed.
“Do you think we should leave them to argue and just get to Mr. Oak?” inquired Fluttershy.
“Yeah, I just want to see this Professor myself, not two ponies arguing for long minutes.”
Starlight Glimmer agreed as everypony left both Twilight and Rainbow at the foot of the hill to argue and climbed the mountain. Once at the top, they were face-to-face against a double door. And now they were conflicted with another query: Should they really be doing this?
With a crowd of horses as large as 22, this scientist might be overwhelmed with so many equines. Furthermore, they don’t even know how big a Pokemon lab is, maybe even minus two from the total won’t fit even two rooms and a balcony. They need to arrange something.
“You know, I’m observing this huge group of ponies and it’s intimidating in my humble opinion.” Doctor Whooves realized.
“Yeah, while I can’t count this many, I’m pretty sure we outnumber him.” Lyra calculated.
“We might scare whoever he is and he might refuse to help us.” Bon Bon added.
Fluttershy agreed being the kind pony she is, “You’re right. We need to do something about it.”
Well, what if there was a small string of ponies? Then Prof. Oak would be comfortable with a reasonable number of equines to look after, plus the bonus of having room to roam around. Maybe it’s best to drop some ponies out of the team first.
“Hmm, would anypony volunteer to drop out of the group? Maybe stand somewhere on the grassy knoll?” Sunset asked.
The truth is though, everypony wanted to explore the lab. Not only did they want to admire the interior decorations and positioned machines, but they had their own questions about Pokemon that they want to ask. Granted, some were nearly similar and some were entirely different.
“And miss out on the wonders of this world?” mentioned Spike.
“Oh no. No way are we sitting this one out.” Trixie argued.
“Come on, Sunset. You’re just gonna round up the six with you.” Apple Bloom whined.
“Yeah, at least let some of us through that door.” Scootaloo advocated.
Just because of that, Sunset has decided, “Okay, fine, everypony. Some of us are gonna ask permission to see if it’s alright to bring you guys in, alright? Just chill and stay on the grass.”
As soon as everypony agreeably volunteered to stand back, Twilight Sparkle downstairs finally broke up her argument with Rainbow and rushed upstairs to meet up with Sunset, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy in front of the door.
“Took you long enough to end that.” Applejack recalled.
“I’m sorry we argued, everypony.” Twilight apologized, “Now where did everypony go?” then realized.
“On your right.” Pinkie answered as Sparkle and Dashie looked.
They waved and then Pinkie explained, “They’re standing there so that our mob of ponies doesn’t scare the scientist.”
“I see. Well, what are we waiting for? Can we see Prof. Oak now?” Rainbow inquired.
“I think we can,” Sunset responded as she turned around and faced the door.
Nervous but bearable to reveal whoever was behind it, she knocked thrice. What were they expecting? A man in a white suit? A mad person with an afro? A woman her gender was confused with? Gosh, perhaps nopony… er, nobody’s home? If he is, then where could he- oh, wait, never mind, there was a voice.
“Now who could that be?”
The voice behind the door thought to itself as perceiving it tensed some of the seven equines under the porch like when meeting a celebrity, but they held it, especially when he appeared. He is taller than all of them, does wear a lab coat and his body features looked like they fit a researcher's persona.
He, upon noticing the specimens, was surprised like why wouldn’t anyone. He’s definitely never seen anything like them, not within the Pokemon glossaries or research files, nothing. There were equines within them, but not colorful-coated like these. Maybe they were Pokemon who hadn’t been discovered yet and wanted to be discovered, odd but convenient for his liking.
“Oh wow, aren’t you all magnificent Pokemon who just so happened to come to my door?”
“Why does everypony keep assuming we’re Pokemon?” Rainbow spoke which spiked the professor’s attention.
“And you speak English, do you all speak English?” Oak continued.
“Excuse me, sir, but we’re not Pokemon at all.” Twilight expressed to clear up the confusion.
“Huh, you sure look like Pokemon. If you’re not Pokemon, then what are you?”
“We’re ponies from another universe. Ponies who talk, play and enjoy friendship the most more than anything in our world, suitably named ‘Equestria’.” Pinkie explained.
“Ponies from another universe?” Oak rehearsed. “I’ve heard of different dimensions before, but what are you doing here in our universe?”
“Trying to get back home, to our universe,” Fluttershy answered.
“And I guess to do that, we’ll have to become Pokemon trainers.” Rarity further explained.
Finally, the professor understood what was going on. “Ah, so you came here to learn about Pokemon and how to become one,”
Everypony responded confirmative on that line. Looks like the ponies and the human were about to get along after all, even with a pack of seven. But how about the pack of two dozen?
“Question: could 24 of us fit in your lab?” Sunset ultimately asked.
Oak became confused as he observed only a few mares in his peripheral vision. That is until they point their hooves to his left where he had to lean out to see the rest of the ponies past an obstruction, the door jamb. He was stunned to see so many colors right next to him.
The question of whether it’s possible to squeeze some room so that everypony had room to learn how to Pokemon? Yes, it’s possible. Some may get a higher floor, but it’s possible. Oh, and he just noticed some had wings, so if they had endurance, they could make some room by, um, flying.
“Sure, I have a huge clear floor that I wasn’t using for anything but walking.”
“Really? Well, thank you so much, professor.” Sunset shimmer thanked.
The professor closed his eyes and had his hand behind his head in bashfulness, “Well, what can I say? I’m actually excited to tell some speaking ponies who don’t know Pokemon Pokemon.”
He broached as he 180’d while gesturing a beckoning palm, a ‘come in’ signal. The ponies queued up, Sunset and the Spirits of Harmony went in first and the rest followed up. Feeling anxious about what they’re going to learn? What are they going to learn?
Author's Note
I don't know how I feel about a color-coded giant block of dialogue in the centre of the page.
I was trying to dialogue among four groups at once like in cartoons.
But doing that in story form, doesn't feel right in the end.
Somebody tell me how to fix that, please.
