Pokemon: Sunset's Insurgence

by UnknownOrigin

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Death, Pokémon, Adventure, Equestria Girls, Violence, Crossover, Sunset Shimmer
Length: 54629

A crossover between Equestria Girls and Pokemon Insurgence, Sunset is dragged into the Torren region and must travel the region in hopes of finding a way back to CHS, all the while uncovering the dark secrets the region has to offer.

(This is a crossover between MLP:EG and the fangame Pokemon Insurgence, with the story following the dark storyline of the game. This essentially means that other than a few acts of violence and a couple of non major deaths, the only big thing is that the evil teams are cults.)

As strange occurrences begin happening around CHS that Sunset and the others can't seem to figure out, Sunset hopes that a visit with Twilight will help clear her head and yield some answers. However, things go awry as the portal to and from Equestria is corrupted by a shadowy entity that drags Sunset through the portal and into a world that while similar, is entirely different than that of the human version of Equestria. As Sunset travels through what is known as the Torren region with a boy who has lost his memories alongside strange creatures known as Pokemon, the two of them must fight cults who wish to use the power of the legendary Pokemon they worship in hopes of ruling over the region, all the while uncovering the dark secrets the region keeps hidden in hopes of finding a way for Sunset to get back to CHS.

Published 2023-07-23 06:50:00 UTC
Last updated 2024-12-25 07:06:40 UTC

Chapter 2: Escaping the Cult of Darkrai

After the door closed behind the robe figure, they walked down a set of stairs as the figure was now in some sort of complex that was hidden within the rocky mound. The walls were black with blue lights trailing the walls just right above the floor, with said floor being made of dark gray tiles. The ceiling was the same gray as the tiles with lights in the ceiling assisting in keeping the underground complex lit. However, it also appeared that the complex wasn't in the best shape, as right at the bottom of the staircase and immediately across a room that the figure carrying Sunset had descended into, were holes that were filled with a bubbling green substance. Lastly, on both sides of the bottom of the staircase, were two golden statues that seemed to show off a strange humanoid figure with the statue being connected to a golden base by its waist. The figure itself had a small waist that eventually gave way to a somewhat larger upper body. Its arms were thin and ended with three-clawed hands where the shoulders looked as though they were smoking as what appeared to be gas rose up from them. Around its neck appeared to be some sort of spiky collar that partially hid its face where piercing eyes could be seen. Finally, what appeared to be its hair also appeared to be smoke as it rose up and flowed back a little behind its head.

Once the robed figure reached the bottom of the staircase, a second figure wearing the same robe as the first approached them.

"Took you long enough. I thought you were going to miss out on watching the ritual." The second figure said before it noticed the first figure carrying Sunset over their shoulder. "What's with the girl?"

"I found her passed out in a clearing close to the base. I figured that we could possibly use her as a sacrifice." The figure carrying Sunset said.

"While I do like the idea, don't you think she'll wake up before we can even sacrifice her?" The second figure asked.

"Don't worry. As far as I can tell, she's out cold. I don't think she's gonna wake up anytime soon." The first figure said.

"Well, if your sure. Go ahead and put her in one of the cells. Also, check up on the status with the prisoner, I'm sure Persephone would want to hear how progress is coming along." The second figure said.

"Will do. I'll see you in the central chamber then." The first figure said before they headed down a hallway that was connected to the room they were in.

After taking it and turning left, the figure had to take one of their hands holding Sunset off of her as they approached a locked door with what appeared to be a fingerprint reader on the wall next to it. Placing their hand on it, it took a few seconds before the fingerprint leader let off a ding as the door slid into the wall, allowing the figure to carry on into another hall where a staircase leading up and another leading down could be seen. Taking the staircase down, the figure took a left after reaching the bottom floor of the complex and began heading down another hallway and then took another left as the hallway went left. Walking down the hallway, the figure walked pass a couple of open cells that only contained a couple of boxes. One cell however had a bookcase tucked away in the far right corner. The figure then had to take another left turn and then one more as the hall had now formed a U shape, where at the end a robed figure could be seen right beside what appeared to be a round bipedal creature. The creature was purple in color and had small arms and legs with spiky purple ears at the top of its body. On its back were a multitude of small purple spikes that followed from the top all the way down to a small spiky tail. Finally, its face was that of two sharp red eyes with a sinister grin right below it. As the figure continued down the hall, the creature entered the cell that it and the other robed figure were standing in front of with the figure closing the door to the cell behind it.

Passing by one last cell filled with boxes, the figure approached the cell right before the last one in the hall. There, they entered the cell and sat Sunset against the wall in an upright position before exiting the cell. As a precaution, the figure put their hand on a fingerprint reader right beside the cell, after which the door to the cell closed and was locked, preventing Sunset from escaping if she woke up. A window in the door allowed the figure to look into the cell, where after confirming that she wasn't waking up, approached the other robed figure who was standing by a console at the end of the hallway.

"So, how's progress with the prisoner?" The first figure asked.

"The door has just been locked, and Gengar is doing her thing. Soon, Dream Eater will rid the prisoner of the last of their memories. Hopefully, we'll be done within the hour." The second figure said.

It was at this moment that someone walked down the hallway and towards the two robed figures. Hearing the person's footsteps, the two robed figures turned towards the person approaching. The person in question was that of a woman with white skin, red eyes, and long pure white hair. She wore a short black dress with short sleeves that was longer on one side than the other and trailed off forming a sort of tail that wrapped around her right leg. Around her neck was a spiky, yet puffy, red collar that was similar to the ones the two robed figures were wearing. Around both of her wrists were red bracelets that were also spiky, though they appeared to actual be made of some sort of metal. She also wore short red boots with white bottoms with long white socks extending out from the inside of the boots. Finally, she wore a white hat that had the appearance of a hood, with the tip of the hat extending outward and drooping a bit behind her.

"Well, how is our youngest prisoner fairing?' The woman asked.

"According to the computer, Miss Persephone, their memories should be completely gone very soon. Everything is going as planned." The second robed figure said.

"Excellent. Finally, we'll have fulfilled our end of the bargain. Good work, you two." The woman, now known as Persephone, said. "We are starting the ritual soon in the upstairs room. Will you be attending?"

"Of course, Miss. I would never miss a sacrifice." The second robed figure said.

"Very well, I'll see you both upstairs then." Persephone said. However, before she could leave, the first robed figure spoke up.

"Miss, wait. I actually have something to ask and tell you. Firstly, after the child's memories are gone, what do you plan to do with them?"

"Kill them, of course." Persephone said in a calm manner as though she was saying she was going for a walk.

"Ok then. Um, the next thing is that I found a girl passed out in a clearing near the base. So I took them here and locked them up in hopes that we could possibly use them as a sacrifice." The first robed figure said.

Persephone seemed to think on this for a moment before she spoke up. "How close were they?" She asked.

"Roughly a quarter mile towards Telnor Cave." The figure responded.

"Interesting. Where is she being held?" Persephone asked.

"Right in the next cell." The robed figure responded.

Persephone made her way over to the locked cell and saw Sunset propped up against the wall. After looking at her for a bit, she returned back to the two robed figures.

"She's quite young, maybe late teens if I were to guess, possibly even the same age as the prisoner. She could have been possibly heading to Telnor Town in hopes of becoming a trainer, though something may have knocked her out. In any case I suppose that it wouldn't hurt using her as a sacrifice in the next ritual. Regardless, I expect to see you both upstairs within two minutes." Persephone said before she walked back down the hall and disappeared around the corner. Once she was out of sight and after waiting a couple of seconds, the first robed figure turned towards the second.

"Why are we bothering to wipe their memories if we're just going to kill them anyways?" The robed figure questioned.

"No clue, but thanks for not asking that in front of her. You know she hates being questioned." The second robed figure responded.

"Yeah, I suppose let's go upstairs then. It's always fun to see a ritual being performed." The first robed figure said.

And with that, the two robed figures headed back down the hall and left behind the last cell. Within it was a bed with purple sheets where someone could be seen sleeping and was covered up by the sheets. Right next to the bed, the creature known as Gengar had its mouth open, were a stream of pink energy flowed from the person sleeping into Gengar's open mouth.

Within an endless expanse of purple and pink fog, a blacked out silhouette could be seen laying down on an invisible floor, supposedly sleeping with how still they were. The silhouette was featureless, bearing no unique features whatsoever that could identify who they were. The silhouette felt at ease as their mind felt empty and cloudy, as though they were to sleep for eternity. However, the fog around them slowly began to clear before it disappeared entirely, leaving the silhouette now in an purple void as a voice reverberated throughout the empty expanse.

"Hello? Is this thing working? Can you hear me?" The voice called out. The presence of the voice triggered something within the silhouette, as they began to rouse from their slumber. Slowly, the began to wake up and rose up into a sitting position.

"Huh, what?" The silhouette sleepily said as they rubbed where their eyes were supposed to be. They then looked around where they were, seeing how they were in a endless expanse before they slowly stood up. "Where, am I?"

"Oh thank Arceus. You're not gone just yet." The voice said with relief.

"What, who's there?" The silhouette said as they were startled by the voice.

"You've got to listen to me, we don't have much time. You need to stay focused, and remember all you can." The voice quickly said. "If you value your memories at all, you'll listen to what I have to say."

"My memories? Just what is going on?" The silhouette questioned.

"We need to be quick. You at least remember your name, right?" The voice asked.

"My name? It's, it's..." The silhouette said as they tried to remember their name. It felt as though they were trying to grasp something elusive within their mind, and every time they felt as though they had grabbed it it managed to slip away at the last second.

"Come on, you can do it. Try and remember your name." The voice said encouragingly.

"W... Wy..." The silhouette said as they felt as though they were finally getting a grasp of what they were trying to remember. "Wy... Wyatt. My name is Wyatt!" The silhouette shouted confidently.

"Ok, ok. Good, you remember your name." The voice said happily. "What else do you remember? Are you a boy or a girl?"

"What?" The silhouette asked.

"Do you remember or not?" The voice asked again. The silhouette racked their mind once again, and while they did struggle a bit to find the answer, they managed to grasp onto the answer much quicker than before and was able to answer with confidence.

"I'm a boy."

"Perfect. Now, do you remember what you look like?" The voice asked.

"What I look like?" The silhouette repeated. He thought long and hard about it, slowly searching his mind for anything that was about what he looked like. As he did, the silhouette slowly began to become more detailed as he was able to slowly remember about what exactly he looked like. A short sleeve shirt appeared on their torso that was immediately covered by an unzipped hoodless jacket. Sweat pants covered their legs as sneakers appeared over their feet. Finally, short, scruffy hair appeared on their head. Finally, eyes, a nose, and a mouth appeared on their face as the silhouette began to gain some color. The shirt they were wearing was a light gray, the jacket was mostly black with a golden yellow trimming on the collar, ends of the sleeves, and the bottom of the jacket as what appeared to be a golden yellow circle appeared on the shoulder with both halves being split with a line that also surrounded a smaller circle within it. The sweat pants were black and the running shoes were also black, though the bottom of the shoes were light gray. Their hair slowly turned from black into a nice shade of purple with their eyes also gaining color with the irises also being the same shade of purple as the hair. Finally, their skin changed to a light white color as their eyebrows also changed to the same purple as their hair. Once the last bit of color appeared, the boy now looked at himself with confidence.

"Yeah. This is what I look like."

"Thank goodness, you haven't forgotten everything!" The voice said with glee. Suddenly, the entire void seemed to suddenly shake as the fog slowly began to come back.

"We're running out of time. Wyatt, you need to wake up! I've sent someone to fend off the one doing this and get you out of here. You need to wake up!" The voice said as it began to fade away. As the fog crept closer, the boy now known as Wyatt backed away from it. Suddenly, Wyatt's vision was filled with a bright white light as the purple void that surrounded him faded away.

In the cell, the stream of pink energy continued to flow into Gengar's mouth as it focused on trying to eat the person's memories. Because of this, it didn't notice as the air right above the bed began to distort before a small, floating pink cat with a long tail and blue eyes appeared right above the bed as the cat had teleported. Looking down, it saw the Gengar and floated down to it and getting within its line of sight. Seeing the floating cat, the Gengar was startled and backed away from the bed, causing the remaning stream of pink energy to flow right back into the person in the bed. And then, it began to talk without moving its mouth.

"Hey there! Sorry, but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to stop you right there." The cat said playfully. The Gengar was confused for a moment before the cat lifted up one of its small arms, its hand covered in a pink glow. The same glow appeared around the Gengar where it was then lifted up into the air. Then, the small cat swiftly swung its arm towards the door of the cell with the Gengar then being thrown against the cell door with so much force that the door busted open and hit the opposite wall. The Gengar then hit the door and slowly slid down onto the floor. The Gengar then weakly tried to stand up, only for it to fall on its side as it passed out. During this, the person in the bed slowly began to wake up.

"The Gengar's been knocked out... go. Follow Mew, get out of here, and never look back. Good luck." The voice said one last time as the person was waking up. As the voice faded away, the cat floated over to the person and began to pull them out of bed, revealing that the person sleeping in the bed was Wyatt as he tumbled out of the bed and onto the floor.

"Ow. I guess I'm up." Wyatt said as he slowly stood back up, only to be face to face with the floating cat. The two of them stared in silence at eachother before Wyatt decided to break the silence.

"Um, hello?"

"Hi!" The cat said, causing Wyatt to look at it in shock.

"You can talk?!" Wyatt asked.

"Eh, kinda. It's more like telepathy. I am currently talking to you by transmitting my thoughts directly into your head!" The cat said. "Anyways, I'm Mew. And I have been sent to help you get out of here."

"Wait, so you're the Mew that the voice was talking about?" Wyatt asked.

"Yep! Oh, also, the voice wanted you to have this." Mew said as it held out its hands and the air above the bed began to distort again as a backpack fell onto it.

The backpack itself was somewhat simple, the top half of it was white and the bottom half of it was purple. The two shoulder straps also followed the coloring as the top halves were white while the bottom halves were purple. There were three zippers that allowed access to the three different compartments the backpack had which each had small pockets were stuff could be stored. On the sides and towards the front were two more zipped up compartments as well that looked like they could also fit bottles inside them. Finally, the same symbol on the shoulders of Wyatt's jacket was also towards the top of the backpack and was right under one of the zippers, though it was the same purple as the backpack instead of golden yellow. Walking over to it, Wyatt slipped on the backpack and found that it fit perfectly.

"Alright, now let's get you out of here." Mew said as it floated over to white and sat on one of his shoulders, surprisingly hardly weighing anything. Looking towards the busted open entrance to the cell and walked through it, finding himself in a hallway. Walking down it, he eventually noticed the closed door of the cell next to his and looked through the window. He gasped upon seeing Sunset's still unconscious form.

"There's someone in there!" Wyatt exclaimed.

"Yeah. She might have been taken from somewhere and locked in there. Maybe the cult plans to use her as a sacrifice?" Mew said.

"Cult? What cult?" Wyatt asked.

"Oh yeah, you won't know anything about them since you lost your memories. But, just to be sure, let's test to see what you remember. First, do you know what a Pokemon is?" Mew asked.

"Yeah. Pokemon are creatures that we live alongside with. We work together, play together, and some even train and battle together. Pokemon can learn moves and have abilities, and some can even evolve once they reach a certain requirement. There also exist Pokemon that are considered Legendary and Mythical as there is only one of them or very few of them, and some of them also have control over certain aspects of the world. Though, I don't know if I have ever heard or seen a Pokemon like you." Wyatt answered.

"Ding ding ding! Correct, at least you know everything important about Pokemon. And if you're wondering, you probably have heard of me before you lost your memories, just know that I am considered a Mythical Pokemon." Mew said.

"Really?" Wyatt asked in disbelief that he was talking to a Mythical.

"Yep. Next question: What region are we in?" Mew asked.

Wyatt took a bit ton think about this, though an answer popped into his head. "We're in the Torren region, right?"

"Ding ding ding, that's another correct answer! Now then, what do you know about the cults of Torren?" Mew asked.

This was unfortunately were Wyatt's mind couldn't provide any answer, no matter how hard he tried to remember. Eventually he gave up trying to remember and gave an honest answer.

"I'm afraid I can't remember." Wyatt said sheepishly.

"Eh, I guess that's fine. Just know that they're bad, and when I say bad I mean they do some pretty bad and evil stuff, and that you are currently within one of their bases." Mew answered. This caused Wyatt to become nervous as he realized the seriousness of the situation he was in.

"Well, then we should get her out of here with us." Wyatt said as he looked back at Sunset through the door.

"Really? But I was told to get you specifically out of here. Can't we just, you know, leave her?" Mew asked.

"Sorry, but it doesn't sit with me right thinking about leaving someone here. And if what you said about these cults is true, then we shouldn't leave her for this cult to do whatever they want to her." Wyatt said.

Mew seemed to think over Wyatt's words a bit before she gave a defeated sigh. "Fine, I guess we can take her with us. Now, how are we going to get her out of there? There isn't a handle and the door seems to be locked."

Wyatt looked around a bit before he noticed a fingerprint reader next to the door. Curious, he placed his hand on it and after a few seconds, the reader gave off a negative sounding buzz as the scanner flashed red, indicating that it wasn't going to accept Wyatt's fingerprint.

"Well, so much for thinking that would work." Wyatt said. Seeing this, Mew then got an idea and tapped the sides of Wyatt's head.

"I know what we can do. But we need to leave her for now. Don't worry, we'll come right back for her."

"Are you sure?" Wyatt asked.

"Positive!" Mew said with confidence.

"Ok, if you say so. Then, I guess, let's keep going." Wyatt said as he looked back at Sunset once last time before continuing to walk down the hall until they reached the next cell which was also where the hall turned to the right. As they passed it, Mew looked inside and floated off of Wyatt's shoulder into the open cell.

"Wyatt, over here!" Mew called out.

"What is it?" Wyatt asked as he followed Mew into the cell and towards the back right corner. There, he saw Mew pointing at a purple spray bottle with a white and purple nozzle.

"A Potion?" Wyatt asked.

"Yeah, take it!" Mew said.

"Um, are you sure? I feel like stealing from an evil cult is something you shouldn't do." Wyatt said.

"Think of it like this, by taking it, you are inconveniencing the cult and making it harder for them to do evil stuff!" Mew said as it grabbed the Potion and handed it to Wyatt.

"Well, when you put it like that, I suppose I might as well take it." Wyatt said as he unslung the backpack off his back and opened the middle compartment. Right before he put the Potion in, it shrunk until it was slightly smaller than the palm of his hand, which caused him to accidentally drop it into the bag. "Whoops!"

"Did you forget Potions and stuff like that could shrink to save space?" Mew asked.

"Y-yeah. I guess it just caught me off guard." Wyatt said before he picked back up the shrunken Potion and then pulled it out of the bag, where it grew back to its original size. "I wonder how it works? Maybe something similar to how Pokeballs can grow and shrink?"

"Maybe. Now put the Potion away so we can get going!" Mew impatiently said. Wyatt, stuck the Potion back into his bad, though he stuck it into one of the many pouches that lined the middle compartment. Closing back up his backpack and slinging it back on, Mew hopped back onto Wyatt's shoulder as they continued down the hall and went down the turn, only to immediately turn right again. Passing by a cell closed with a locked door that could only be unlocked via the fingerprint reader, they stopped and looked into an open cell where a bookshelf could be seen in the back right corner. Curious, Wyatt approached the bookshelf.

"Why are we looking at a bookshelf?" Mew asked.

"I wanna see if there's anything about this cult here, maybe secret plans or something that we can take to the authorities once the three of us escape." Wyatt said.

"Well, nothing jumps out to me as being 'Top Secret'. It all looks like reading material to me." Mew said.

"Wait, how about this?" Wyatt asked as he pulled out a black book with the title "The Cults of the Torren Region". "This might be something.

"It looks like it was written by some random author. Store it and you can read it later once we're out of here." Mew said.

"Yeah, nothing else is catching my eye." Wyatt said as he opened the first and largest compartment and slid the book in there, though it didn't shrink like the Potion did. After that, they left the cell and continued once more down the hall and took one last right after passing one last locked cell. They then ran into the staircase leading to the upper floor and began ascending it. They now found themselves in a small hallway where up ahead the hallway split to the right and kept going straight. Unfortunately, there was a door locked by a fingerprint reader on the right side where the hall kept going straight, so they took the path to the right and saw another staircase. Before going up, however, Mew floated off of Wyatt's shoulder and got in front of him.

"Alright Wyatt, here you go!" Mew said as a note appeared in its hand.

"What's this for?" Wyatt asked.

"Just read it. It also ties into my idea." Mew said, in response, Wyatt looked down at the note and began to read it.

I chose Mew to help you out of this mess due to its special ability. It is able to use Transform to change its form and disguise itself as something else. However, unlike Ditto, Mew can transform you as well. If you can find DNA, Mew can disguise you as someone else. You should be able to use this to escape the base.

Good luck.
- Your Benefactor

"Wait, you can transform me into another person?!" Wyatt exclaimed.

"Yep! That means that if we can find some DNA of someone who is a member of this cult, then I can transform you into that person, which will allow you to open those doors locked by those fingerprint readers and rescue that girl." Mew said.

"That's great." Wyatt said as he looked at the note again, though mostly at the person who signed it. "My Benefactor? Who are they?"

"Just someone who cares about your safety. Didn't you hear a voice telling you to remember stuff?" Mew asked.

"Yeah, I did. I guess I'll have to thank whoever this benefactor is when I meet them. Now, let's see if we can find the DNA of a cultist." Wyatt said as Mew got back onto his shoulder. Going up the stairs, Wyatt and Mew found themselves in a massive room where they were on a small tiled path that was surrounded by a pit filled with a bubbling green substance.

"Yeah, I should probably avoid falling into that." Wyatt said as they followed the path and walked up a small staircase and found themselves in front of what appeared to be a giant red ritual circle with a four-pointed star in the middle and lines coming out of it and connecting to the edges. Right beside it to the left and right were bronze versions of the statues found at the staircase of the entrance.

Oh, and there was dried up blood splattered all over the ground on the ritual circle.

"Ok, blood. Probably should have expected to see this in the base of a cult." Wyatt said as he approached it with Mew floating off his shoulder and getting closer to it. After rubbing the dried up blood and getting some of it on its hand, Mew's eyes briefly glowed pink as it began to analyze the DNA within the blood. A couple of seconds later, its eyes returned to normal and it wiped off the blood and turned back to Wyatt.

"Ok, are you ready to be transformed into someone else?" Mew asked.

"I guess so. But, what I'm worried about is what if this blood wasn't that of a cultist." Wyatt asked with worry.

"Then we'll just have to find another way." Mew said.

After a few moments, Wyatt took a couple of breaths to calm his nerves before he looked back at Mew with a determined expression. "Ok, do it."

"Alrighty, here we go!" Mew said as its eyes began to glow white. Holding an arm towards Wyatt, its hand was also surrounded in a white glow while a white glow began to envelope Wyatt before he disappeared under the blinding light. A couple of seconds later, the light faded and revealed a robed figure standing in Wyatt's place, looking exactly like the cultists. Wyatt opened his eyes after closing them while the light enveloped him and was amazed at his new appearance. The transformation to him was both quick and painless, though he did feel a little dizzy while it happened.

"So, how do you feel?" Mew asked.

"I feel great!" Wyatt said, though his voice didn't change with the transformation.

"And Mew has once again done an amazing job." Mew said.

"You sure did. Now let's go see if I can unlock those door now." Wyatt said. The two of them rushed back down both flights of stairs until they reached the first locked cell on the left of the hallway. Placing his hand on the fingerprint reader, it scanned Wyatt's transformed hand and gave off a ding as the door unlocked and slid open.

"It worked!" Wyatt said in victory. Going inside the cell, there was a lone Potion that Wyatt took. Thankfully, Mew was able to allow Wyatt's backpack to be on his back even if he was transformed, though it would remain invisible unless it was taken off. Putting the Potion in the bag, they made their way pass the second cell with the bookcase and opened the locked cell next to it, though they didn't find anything inside other than a few empty boxes. Finally, they continued further down the hallway until they reached the cell where Sunset was. After opening the door, they made their way to Sunset where she was still out cold.

"It looks like she was knocked out." Wyatt said.

"Yeah, maybe the cultists knocked her out. In any case, how are we gonna get her out of here?" Mew asked.

"I guess I'll just have to carry her. Help her onto my back." Wyatt said as she lifted Sunset up. Mew then assisted Wyatt so that he could carry her on his back in a piggyback style, with Wyatt holding on to Sunset's legs as she was slumped against his back.

"Alright, now let's get out of here." Wyatt said. The three of them then headed back down the hallway and up the stairs and approached the locked door, after unlocking it Wyatt stepped through the door, though Mew turned invisible as they turned right and began walking down the hall and avoiding small halls filled with more of the bubbling green substance.

"Being invisible will allow us to sneak around easier if a cultist sees us. Though you carrying her might arouse some suspicion. Wait stop!" Mew said, prompting Wyatt to stop as he was about to round a corner. Peeking behind it, they saw the exit of the base, though there was a cultist at the bottom of the stairs. The cultist noticed to them and spoke out to them.

"Hey man, you should probably head upstairs where the sacrifice is happening. I'll be there in just a bit, but you go on ahead." The cultist said.

"Um, thanks. I'll, uh, see you there." Wyatt said before the three of them went back down the hall where they were back at the door.

"That was close. If you leaned any further that cultist might have seen the girl." Mew said.

"Yeah. I don't think we can sneak past them either. We might be left with only one option." Wyatt said.

"Yeah. I guess let's go watch a sacrifice, though where can we hide her?" Mew asked as they gestured towards Sunset.

"Maybe we can hide her somewhere and after the sacrifice is done and all the cultists are still their, we can sneak out=, grab her and escape." Wyatt said.

"Sounds good. Now, I guess we continue going down this hall." Mew said.

They continued down the hall in the opposite direction of the entrance and entered a room to their right where their question had been answered. Lined up in the middle of the room were tables covered in black tablecloths with boxes on top of them.

"We can hide her under one of these tables, that way if someone comes in here, they wouldn't see her unless they moved the tablecloth." Wyatt said, which they did. They slid Sunset under the table closest to the room's entrance and once ensuring there weren't any limbs sticking out, looked around the rest of the room where they found another Potion and a pink bottle with a gray nozzle that was known as an Ice Heal. Taking them, they exited the room and continued down the hall and avoided more pits filled with the strange substance and arrived in a room with a couple of small tables and a strange tube with a console connected to it. Ignoring the tube they found another Potion and a bottle similar to the Ice Heal but was light blue instead of pink that was known as an Awakening before they saw and went down another hallway connected to the room where they ascended a flight of stairs at the end.

The room the ascended into was almost identical to the one where they found the ritual circle and dried up blood. All around the tiled path were numerous cultists all standing and looking towards the direction of where Wyatt assumed was another summoning circle. Looking around, Wyatt saw that there was a path leading to a hallway at the end of the room. Seeing how no one was looking, he went down it until he reached a room with two tables and two bookshelves in the farthest corners. Looking at the bookshelves, Wyatt found two more books that he decided to take: a black book with the title "The Cult of Darkrai" written in red and a book titled "The Kalos War". After which, he headed back into the room and slowly made his way through the small crowd of cultists until he eventually reached the front, where to the left was a tube like machine like the one Wyatt and Mew saw earlier and multiple computers hooked up to it. Finally, up the stairs was the ritual circle, though this one was green where the one in the other room was red and the statues were gold instead of bronze. Standing in the middle of it was a cultist trembling in fear as Persephone stood in front of them, her back facing the crowd.

"And so we begin..." Persephone said.

"Miss, please! You cant do this! I don't want to die!" The cultist pleaded.

"You swore when you joined that you would give your life for us. How is this different?" Persephone said before she turned towards a cultist at the computers. "Turn on the ritual circle!"

The cultist gave a nod and pushed a button in front of one of the computers. Then, the ritual circle changed from green to red as Persephone began to speak.

"Darkrai, lord of darkness! I call upon you to enter our world! In return, I offer you the soul of this loyal servant, to be bound to your world of nightmares forever!" Persephone chanted before she began speaking in Latin. "Voco virtutem umbrarum dominum!"

As soon as she finished, a large puddle of darkness appeared under the feet of the cultist who began to sink into it, crying and screaming for their life until they sank completely into it. Then, the puddle disappeared as the lights began to dim before they were barely giving off any light and changed to a sinister red. Then, another puddle of darkness appeared in the middle of the ritual circle. Slowly, the same humanoid figure that the statues showed rose up out of the puddle and floated in midair.

Almost its entire body was deep black, it had no legs to speak of as the bottom of its body were its waist was spread out like a skirt and was spiky at the end. What appeared to be a flowing, spiky tail also flowed out at the back of the bottom of its body. The strange spike around its neck were red in color, almost appearing like some sort of collar. Its eyes were a piercing blue, almost as if they were staring right into the soul of those it looked at, and what appeared to be its hair was pure white, a major contrast to the rest of its body. It floated in place and watched Persephone.

"Darkrai, the lord of nightmares..." Persephone began. "You are the great balancer of the world. You punish the great, and slay the immortal. It has been a year since I saw you last. You remember what occurred then? We accomplished something incredible that day. I thought that you had finally accepted our offer to join us. But you fled soon after, never to be seen again. But now I call upon you again... Darkrai, why will you not join me? I know my sister has seen you time and time again... Why do you favor her over me? I beseech you, Darkrai. Join me. Join the cult that has worshipped you for so long. With my guidance, and your power, the world could be ours."

Darkrai floated there as still as a statue, watching Persephone all the way until she finished her speech. Then, a couple of seconds after she finished, Darkrai floated back down into the puddle of darkness it had emerged from and disappeared, seemingly rejecting Persephone's offer. As soon as it left, the lights returned back to normal, though Persephone stood there with an irritated expression.

"Well isn't that just lovely." Persephone said, struggling to control her anger. "It's probably gone off to Selene City to see my sister again. What a waste of a grunt..."

She then turned around and began to walk down the steps, only for two cultists to walk in front of her.

"And what do you two want, exactly?" Persephone asked.

"Miss, please. I'm confident that if we had another try, we could trap Darkrai here! We don't know why it didn't work this time, but if you'll just give us another chance..." One of the cultists said.

"Get out of my way." Persephone said, as her temper finally snapped. She pulled out a small black sphere with green dots on it and an orange band circling around the middle of it. Clicking a button that extended out of the band, the sphere grew several times in size before it was roughly the size of a baseball.

"Fire Blast." Persephone said as the ball split in half but was held together at the back as a purple and black stream of energy was released from the ball. The stream of energy flowed forwards and onto the ground, taking a canine shape before the energy dissipated and revealed a black canine like creature an orange muzzle filled with sharp teeth, piercing red eyes, an orange underbelly, and a tail that had a black spearhead shape at the end. Two curved horns protruded from the canine's head as a gray collar with an oval gray shape with outlines of what appeared to be eyes was on its chest, with curved gray ridges on its back as there were gray bands around its legs above its paws.

The creature opened its mouth while it lifted its head as a small ball of fire began to charge up before it whipped its head back down and launched the fireball forward. Five streams of fire then shot out of the fireball forming a star shape as it hit the cultists as they were covered in raging flames. When the flames finally disappeared, all that was left of the cultists were a couple of piles of ashes.

"I'm going to check on the prisoner. None of you had better follow me." Persephone said as she walked directly by Wyatt and went down the stairs with the canine following closely behind her.

As the cultists in the room began milling about, Wyatt and Mew snuck down the stairs unnoticed and one the reached the bottom, Wyatt took off sprinting as fast as he could. Wyatt himself had gone pale from what he had witnessed, both from the cultist being sacrificed and two other cultists being burned to ash.

"We need to get out of here, now!" Wyatt said as he continued running.

"No argument there. That was absolutely brutal." Mew said as it had also been a little shaken up by what it had witnessed.

Running to the room filled with tables, Wyatt was relieved that Sunset was still where they had left her. Getting her back onto his back and piggybacking her once again, they made their way back to the entrance and, seeing how there wasn't anyone there, ran up the stairs and reached the door. There, all they had to was hit a button, and the door opened to the outside, where they sprinted through it. As the door closed, however, they were unaware of a security camera pointed directly at the entrance.

Author's Note

Well, that was intense. Yeah so here is where my warnings begin to show as pretty much three people have died in this chapter, and its already the beginning! Thankfully, there shouldn't be any deaths for the next while so we should be good at least. Now, this chapter was to pretty much introduce some of the other main characters of the story, explain how some things work in this world, and also introduce the first cult of the game: the Cult of Darkrai.

Note that there are also no references here in this chapter, don't worry, they'll be showing up soon. Also, fun fact, the reason the other main protagonist of this story is named Wyatt is because that is actually the official name of the male protagonist of Insurgence. For those of you wondering, the female protagonist's official name is Nicole. Below is a gif for both of them as I can't find a good still image of both, the variations shown are you options for what skin color you want the protagonist to have.

Now then, with Wyatt being assisted by Mew and helping getting both him and Sunset out of the Cult of Darkrai's base and with them hoping to leave behind the things they have witnessed, what awaits them as they head outside into a world unknown to them, with each having a different reason as to why. See you all in the next chapter!

Chapter 3: Waking Up in Telnor Town

After the door closed shut behind them, Wyatt, Sunset, and Mew found themselves standing on top of a large rocky hill in the middle of the forest as the sun had now risen a little bit over the horizon. The two of them stood there for a bit before the both of them took in a massive breath of fresh air as they felt as though they had been holding their breath since the ritual ended. Wyatt a little more so as he was still a little shaken up at seeing three people die in front of him within such a short period of time. If he didn't realize it before, he now truly understood just how dangerous and evil the cults that Mew mentioned were, and that it felt like a pressure on his shoulders lifted now that both he and Sunset had gotten out without issue.

"Hey, Wyatt, are you doing ok?" Mew asked in an attempt to break the silence.

"With witnessing three people die just moments ago and leaving me somewhat shook, other than that I guess I'm fine." Wyatt said.

"Well, I guess that's good?" Mew said with uncertainty. "Oh, now that we're out you don't have to look like that anymore. So let me just quickly..." Mew held out its arm towards Wyatt again as its eyes began to glow white with its hand also beginning to glow. A white light surrounded Wyatt once again before it completely covered him and when it faded away, Wyatt was now back to normal.

"Thanks Mew." Wyatt said.

"You're welcome. Now let's get down from here and see if we can find a town or something." Mew said as it floated towards the side of the rocky mound they were by. Following Mew, Wyatt saw a few sets of stairs that led down the hill and went down them. After getting down the last staircase and now walking on grass, Wyatt went around the rocky hill and saw Mew waving to him and pointing at a path that led through the forest. Walking over to Mew, the three of them began heading down the path as Mew and Wyatt began talking.

"So, any idea where we might be?" Wyatt asked.

"Not necessarily, I've never really been anywhere in the eastern part of Torren so your guess is as good as mine." Mew said.

"Well, I guess that kinda answers my question. Where do you usually stay then?" Wyatt asked.

"Mostly around the north half of Torren. But, the thing is, I actually only came here recently. Roughly a month or two ago." Mew said.

"Really?" Wyatt asked.

"Yep. I mostly hang around the Kanto region and a little bit of Johto as well. I do know a few Mythicals that tend to hang around here sometimes, so I got curious one day and came here myself to see what's so interesting about this region." Mew said.

"What other Mythicals do you know?" Wyatt asked.

"Well, there's Celebi who's somewhat shy but is really kind. I know Shaymin hangs out in the southern half, they're somewhat energetic and I suppose the word sporty also best describes him as he is very playful. The only other one I know personally is Manaphy who is quite the matchmaker, always loving to put humans and Pokemon in imaginary relationships." Mew said with a giggle.

"Huh, I guess Torren is some sort of tourist spot for Mythicals I guess." Wyatt said.

"What about you? Do you have any memories of any friends or know anyone personally?" Mew asked. Wyatt tried to see if he could remember anyone, whether it be a close friend or an acquaintance, though he had no luck. What really worried him was the fact that he couldn't remember if he has any family members or not.

"Afraid not. I don't even know if I have any family members here in Torren or anywhere else." Wyatt said somewhat somberly.

"Oh, then I guess we'll just have to see if anyone knows who you are." Mew said before they noticed what appeared to be a trail post with signs on it. "Wyatt, check it out!"

Wyatt noticed the post and quickly made his way over to it with Mew right behind him. Looking at the sign he saw two arrows on it with one pointing down a split in the trail that went left that said "Telnor Town" while the other pointed pointed towards where the path continued and said "Telnor Cave".

"Looks like there's a town nearby. At least we're not out in the middle of nowhere." Wyatt said.

"Looks like it, and it doesn't seem to be to far." Mew said as it looked down split that went left and saw a clearing in he forest roughly half a mile out.

"Alright, then let's hurry. The sooner we can get to civilization, the better." Wyatt said.

They then took off down the split and towards where the clearing was. Along the way, Wyatt saw a few different Pokemon through the trees as the went down the path and he was surprised that he was actually able to recognize some of them. He recognized a large green caterpillar known as Caterpie as it climbed up a tree, he watched as a large yellow mouse with a lightning shaped tail known as a Pikachu run through some tall grass, and he even spotted purple gaseous orbs knows as Gastly hiding within the shade of the trees as it was trying to scare a large brown chipmunk known as a Patrat. It felt calming that Wyatt was able to remember so many different Pokemon with ease, a familiarity that brought him comfort.

Eventually, they reached the end of the trail and exited the woods where they found themselves in a small town where he could see two small ponds by the entrance he was at, a large red and white building nearby that Wyatt was also able to remember was called a Pokemon Center Pokemon trainers took their Pokemon to be healed and also served as shops where people could buy a variety of different things. Towards the left there was a somewhat large brown building with a domed roof, and further into the town there were various small houses where people lived. Lastly, towards the back of the town there was a gray building with a red chimney that had windows lining it.

Telnor Town

"Well, looks like my job here is done, and, well, I need to get going." Mew said as they stood at the entrance.

"Wait, you're leaving?" Wyatt asked.

"Yeah, but don't worry. I have two last things I need to give you. First is this note." Mew said as a new note appeared in its hands.

"Um, could you read it. I kind of can't hold it at the moment." Wyatt said as he reminded Mew that he was still carrying Sunset.

"Whoops, sorry about that. Ahem, it reads:" Mew said as they began to read the letter.

This is the Quartz Flute which will let you call upon Mew when needed. All you need to do is play a few simple notes and Mew will be summoned to assist and help you anytime you wish. I'm afraid that this might be the final time you here from me, but just know that I wish for your safety and am watching over you.

Good Luck
-Your Benefactor

"A flute? What flute?" Wyatt asked.

"This one!" Mew said as a flute appeared in their hands. It was a crystal white flute with two white ribbons hanging off the bottom of it with five holes on it where Wyatt could place his fingers to play different notes. "And like the note says, all you need to do is play it and no matter where I am I will hear it and come right to you. You can use it if you need my help, or if you just want to talk to me."

"Thanks Mew." Wyatt said as Mew opened up his backpack and placed the flute inside alongside the three books Wyatt had taken. Now that he was out of the base, he planned on reading them sometime soon.

"Alright, I'll see you later Wyatt. Oh, one last thing. Don't tell anyone about me and that you can summon me, ok? Bye!" Mew said as it waved before the air around it began to distort and Mew disappeared as it teleported away. Wyatt smiled as he knew that he had someone, or in this case somemon, to easily call upon if he ever needed help. He then turned towards town to head into it, only to stop as he saw someone running towards him.

The person in question appeared to be a boy roughly Wyatt's age, maybe even a year younger. He had white skin, dark green eyes, and short platinum blond hair that at times appeared to be pure white when the morning light shone on it in a certain way. He wore a pale green hoodless jacket over a white shirt, red brown sweat pants, and black tennis shoes. As he approached Wyatt, he was rapidly looking around as though trying to find something before he turned to Wyatt.

"I could swear I just saw Mew here just now!" The boy said excitedly. "Did you see it? A tiny pink Pokemon? It was floating really close to you!"

Wyatt shook his head as he immediately did what Mew requested of him. "Sorry, I didn't see a Pokemon near me."

"Oh... I could swear I..." The boy said as he trailed off and looked around one more time before turning back to Wyatt. "Anyways, my name is Damian. I'm an aspiring Pokemon trainer! And you are...?" The boy now known as Damian asked.

"I'm Wyatt. It's nice to meet you." Wyatt said as he introduced himself.

"Wyatt? Ok, got it! Oh, who's that you're carrying?" Damian asked as he noticed Wyatt carrying Sunset

"I don't really know. Uhm, will you believe me if I tell you something?" Wyatt asked.

"Sure, I guess?" Damian said.

Wyatt then explained how he had escaped the Cult of Darkrai and managed to get Sunset out of there as well, how he had no memories to speak of, and that they had just gotten here. Making sure to slightly change the story here and there to make sure Mew wasn't included.

"You escaped from the Cult of Darkrai!" Damian exclaimed.

"Yeah. I'm also kind of hoping if anyone here recognizes me as I don't know who I was or if there was anyone I knew that could help me." Wyatt said.

"Sorry, but I'm afraid I don't recognize you. But escaping a cult is still a major deal. There have been reports of members of the Cult of Darkrai being seen in Shade Forest, but people have been shrugging them off as rumors." Damian said, though it was at this moment both Wyatt and Damian's stomachs gave off a loud growl and interrupted their conversation.

"Sorry, I haven't eaten breakfast yet. Though I guess you also haven't as well. How about you come over to my house? I'm sure my dad and mom would be willing to let you eat with us!" Damian said.

"Are you sure?" Wyatt asked.

"Definitely, and she can rest on the couch until she wakes up and we can learn who she is." Damian said.

"Ok then. I guess lead the way then." Wyatt said.

Damian led the three of them into town as they passed by the Pokemon Center and the building with the dome roof. Passing by through what appeared to be the heart of the town, Wyatt saw various streamers and banners hung up between light posts and trees. Some of the banners featured the face of someone with white skin, yellow hair, and green eyes. They eventually reached a house towards the edge of the town, said house seemed to be a simple two-story house with brown wooden walls and a yellow roof, windows could also be seen on the first and second floors and had curtains covering them. Damian opened the door and went inside with Wyatt and Sunset following closely behind him. They found themselves in a large room that acted as the first floor of the house, where everything was sectioned off and acted as its own "room". To the left was a tv on top of a cabinet with a large couch sat in front of it. To the right was a table with six chairs surrounding it as there was a small vase holding a couple of flowers. The back right corner of the room had a variety of kitchen appliances such as an oven, stove, fridge, and microwave as multiple cabinets lined the wall. Finally, a staircase leading to the second floor could be seen in the back left corner, supposedly leading to where the bedrooms were. Standing in the kitchen were two people. The first was a man white white skin, green eyes, and brown hair that was balding a little bit. He wore a long sleeve white button up shirt, brown kaki pants, and was wearing brown loafers. The other woman had white skin, brown eyes, and long blond hair. She wore a purple short sleeve shirt, a short pink skirt around her waist with black shorts as well, and wore pink high heels.

"Dad, Mom, I'm home! And we have guests!" Damian called out as they entered the house.

"Guests?" The man who was Damian's father asked as he looked over at his son and Wyatt carrying Sunset.

"Damian, what have we said about inviting strangers into our home?" The woman who was Damian's mother asked.

"Um, well you see..." Damian nervously said.

"Now honey, I'm sure Damian had good intentions with inviting these two into our home. Speaking of, is she ok?" Damian's father asked as he noticed Wyatt carrying Sunset.

"That's the thing, Wyatt and this girl escaped from the Cult of Darkrai and just got to town. Also, Wyatt says he doesn't have any memories so he doesn't know if there is anyone he can go to and he also says that the girl hasn't woke up ever since he recued her." Damian explained.

"WHAT?!" Damian's mother shouted. "No, we are not having people who were captured by a cult in our home!"

"Honey, you need to calm down." Damian's father said.

"Don't you see?! By letting these people into our home a cult may come barging down that door threatening us to tell them where they went!" Damian's mother continued.

"Honey, why would a cult visit a simple boring town like ours?" Damian's father said to try and comfort his wife.

"But-" Damian's mother protested.

"I'm sure we'll be fine. Anyways, I am sorry that you lost your memories... Wyatt, was it? Anyways, both you and the girl are free to be here." Damian's father said.

"Thank you, sir." Wyatt said before his stomach started to growl.

"Well, I guess I'm not the only one who was starting to get hungry. You can set her down on that couch and join us for breakfast, we decided to make Damian's favorite this morning." Damian's father said.

"You made Razz Berry pancakes?! Yes!" Damian happily shouted and went over to the kitchen to grab a plate.

Wyatt went over to the couch and set Sunset down on it, though took off her backpack and set it beside the couch so she could comfortable lay on her back. He himself also went to the kitchen and grabbed a plate as Damian and his parents began to take a seat at the table. The pancakes that had been made were golden brown and looked very soft and fluffy. On the side was a small bowl containing numerous berries that were red in color and had had small bumps on it. Putting a pancake on his plate and placing a Razz Berry on it, he went over to the table and sat by Damian who was already beginning to eat his pancakes, though not before taking his backpack off and setting it by his seat. Taking a fork and knife that had been set out, Wyatt cut off a bit of the pancake while making sure a Razz Berry was also on the bit he cut off. When he ate it, he was amazed at how sweet and delicious it was.

"So, how do you like it?" Damian asked.

"It's amazing." Wyatt said.

"Great. Man, I can't wait for how amazing today is going to be." Damian said.

"Why's that." Wyatt asked.

"The Augur- the greatest man in the world, of course- is coming today!" Damian said excitingly.

"The, Augur? Who's that?" Wyatt asked.

"You don't know who the Augur is? Have you been living under a rock?" Damian asked, only to see Wyatt's unamused expression. "Oh, right, no memories. Sorry. Essentially, the Augur is the guy who protects the whole region! He's my biggest hero!"

"The guy who protects the region?" Wyatt questioned as he took another bite of his pancake.

"Pretty much. He helps protect the region and its inhabitants from the actions of the cults. Though he hasn't really lived up to the title when it comes to actually dealing with the cults compared to the previous Augur." Damian's father said.

"Previous Augur? What do you mean by that." Wyatt asked.

"To put it simply, the current Augur is the second one Torren has ever seen. His predecessor, the first Augur, was a powerful trainer and was well liked throughout the whole region. You know about how bad the cult situation is, right?" Damian's father asked.

"Kinda. The only one I kinda know about is the Cult of Darkrai." Wyatt said.

"To put it simply, today 5 major cults plague the Torren region, with the Cult of Darkrai only being quite small compared to the others. Back in the day, there existed even more cults that were all feared for various reasons. The first Augur disbanded over half of them, and some of them disbanded on their own after witnessing what the Augur was capable of. He was an amazing man and was everyone's hero. However, about one year ago, the Augur disappeared without a trace with some people saying that he went missing trying to disband a cult. No one knows which one. Jaern, the current Augur, stepped up and claimed the position of Augur in his stead, saying that he doesn't believe the first Augur is dead and is acting as Augur in his stead. That's why I don't think Jaern has lived up to the title yet, but I'm fine with Damian seeing him as a hero. Who knows, maybe he will do something about the cults in a way that will make me happy." Damian's father explained, though throughout the explanation he had a look on his face as though he was yearning about the past.

"He sounded amazing, and I hope he shows up someday soon." Wyatt said.

"He was. Anyways, yes, the current Augur is visiting Telnor Town as a way of showing that he wants to make sure everyone is safe and happy. We've been putting together decorations for his arrival, you might have seem them in town on the way here. Anyways, I think we're pretty much finished it decorating. As long as everyone has their gift for the Augur ready, we're pretty much done with everything. Speaking of, you do have your gift, right Damian?" Damian's father said as e turned towards Damian.

"Oh..." Damian said as he began to visibly panic. "Well... Um... I may have, forgotten."

"Of course you have..." Damian's mother said as she gave an annoyed sigh.

"Now honey, it's fine. Damian, I've heard that you can find a Rare Stone in Telnor Cave within Shade Forest. Of course, you'd need a Pokemon to go safely..." Damian's father said.

This seemed to set something off within Damian's mother. "No, absolutely not! Not a chance! Damian is not ready to get a Pokemon! He's still just a child!"

"Mom, please. Almost all of the others in town have already gotten their and left!" Damian pleaded.

"And you're not going to follow them! You'll get yourself killed!" Damian's mother said, though it was at this moment that Damian became extremely annoyed and said something that made Wyatt's jaw drop.

"Why do you care? It's not like you're my real mother or anything..." Damian said.

"I've raised you since birth! You're not capable of raising a plant, let alone a Pokemon! You're irresponsible, antisocial, and you can't even-"

"That's ENOUGH out of you two!" Damian's father shouted as he interrupted both of them. "You're embarrassing us in front of our guests."

Damian and his now revealed stepmother looked away from eachother, though while his stepmother still had an annoyed expression, Damian's was that of sadness and embarrassment. Wyatt couldn't help but feel bad for him and gave him a light pat on the shoulder to show he was here for him.

"Anyways, Wyatt? Do you at least have any experience with handling a Pokemon?" Damian's father asked.

"None that I can remember, but I do know how Pokemon battles and everything involving them work." Wyatt said.

"I suppose that's good enough. We'll lend one to both you and Damian. Would you be willing to help him through Shade Forest and to Telnor Cave to help him find a gift for the Augur?" Damian's father asked.

"Of course. I want to help repay you all for allowing me to eat with you and Damian for helping me and her out." Wyatt said.

"Wonderful! I'm very grateful. So it's settled then..." Damian's father said as Damian and his stepmother looked at him, one with happiness while the other with annoyance. "Wyatt will help Damian to get a gift for the Augur, and if Daman shows responsibility, perhaps he can keep the Pokemon afterwards. How does that sound, you two?"

"Amazing! Thank you Dad!" Damian exclaimed.

"Fine. He won't, though." Damian's mother said. "But, we're not giving him one of ours to use. They can both get an Eevee from Professor Sylvan."

"I suppose that's ok. She does have a bunch of Eevee from her days as a trainer, so I suppose she wouldn't mind giving away some of them." Damian's father said.

"Hey, Wyatt." Damian whispered so only Wyatt could hear. "Thanks for agreeing to do this with me. I just hope I don't mess this up."

"You're welcome, and I'm sure you'll do fine." Wyatt whispered back.

"Ugh..."

Everyone froze as they heard someone groaning, and after looking around to see who it was, Wyatt and Damian realized that Sunset was finally starting to wake up and rushed over to her.

Sunset felt as though her entire body was rebelling against her at her attempts to try and wake up. Every single part of her body felt numb, and her mind felt extremely foggy which made it a struggle to try and think properly. However, the fog within her mind began to clear away as her senses slowly began to return to her. She felt like she was laying down on something soft and that she couldn't feel her backpack on her back. She let out a quiet groan as she began to open her eyes. which were greeted by her looking up at a ceiling. Looking around a little more, she found that she was laying down on a couch as the screen of a tv faced her. She noticed her backpack on the floor beside herself, and with one last groan, began to adjust her position so that she would be able to sit. As she did, she heard footsteps coming over to her as Wyatt and Damian approached her.

"She's waking up!" Damian exclaimed.

"Yeah, maybe we can learn why she was in the Cult of Darkrai's base." Wyatt said hopefully.

Hearing their voices, Sunset turned and looked at the two boys standing next to the couch with both of them looking to be around her age.

"Where... Who..." Sunset began saying as she was starting to fully wake up.

"Hey, it's ok. You're in Telnor Town, away from the Cult of Darkrai." Damian said.

"Telnor Town? Cult of Darkrai? What is-" Sunset's froze as everything that happened to her came rushing back. Her leaving her apartment and heading to Canterlot High, her trying to go through the portal only for her arm to start feeling as though it was being crushed, that face within the surface of the portal, and her passing out after being dragged through it by shadowy tendrils that shot out of it. She shot up out of her seat and stood up.

"Woah, hey! Are you ok." Wyatt asked.

"I remember, that weird shadow, the portal to Equestria acting weird, me being dragged through it..." Sunset began rambling in a state of panic.

"What are you talking about?" Wyatt asked.

"Uhm..." Sunset panicked as she realized she had been thinking aloud and accidentally mentioned the portal to Equestria. She also noticed how both Wyatt and Damian were human and how she still was one, so she thought that maybe she had been taking somewhere else within the alternate version of Equestria. "Nothing. Where, am I?"

"Like I said, you're in Telnor Town. Wyatt got you out of the Cult of Darkrai's base and then the two of you got here where I took you here to my house." Damian said.

"Yeah, we were wondering what you were doing locked up in that cell." Wyatt said.

"Wait, hold on. I was trapped in a cell by a cult? I don't remember that." Sunset said.

"So were you asleep the asleep even before the cult locked you up?" Wyatt asked.

"I don't know. All I remember is walking to CHS and passing out." Sunset said as she wanted to try and prevent talking about the portal.

"CHS, what's that?" Damian asked.

"Canterlot High School. Speaking of, do you guys know the way back to Canterlot because from what you said, I'm apparently not there anymore?" Sunset asked.

"I'm probably not the person to ask that question." Wyatt said. "Damian, is there anyplace called Canterlot?"

"I've never heard of a place called Canterlot here in Torren. Maybe its in another region? But even then the name doesn't sound familiar." Damian said.

"Wait, Torren? What's Torren?" Sunset asked.

"Torren is the region we're in! Since there isn't anywhere named Canterlot here in Torren, maybe there's one in another region! Maybe it's in Unova? Or Tandor? Hey it might be someplace in the Eldiw region!" Damian said.

Sunset had trouble processing what Damian had said. She had taken a few history and geography classes during her time at CHS, but she's never heard of any regions or countries named Torren or any of the other ones Damian had listed. She then came upon the realization that maybe she hadn't been taken somewhere else in the parallel version of Equestria, but to another world that while similar, was completely different. This caused her to begin feeling a little light headed as she began to panic.

"I... I need to get some fresh air." Sunset said as she walked towards the front door of the house and exited.

"You two should probably go check on her. She looked like she was about to pass out." Damian's father said.

"Yeah. Let's go follow her, and then we can go get a Pokemon from Professor Sylvan!" Damian said as he rushed out the door. However, Wyatt took a little bit longer as he went to put back on his backpack and, noticing that Sunset had left hers, grabbed it and followed Damian.

Outside, Sunset began to simply walk around Telnor Town as she tried her best to calm down. It felt as though she was back at the moment of going through the portal to the alternate version of Equestria and was scared as she didn't know where she was. And while she was still in a form she was familiar with, what was unfamiliar was the new world she was in.

"Ok, calm down and just go over what you have just learned. You were dragged through the portal to Equestria after something happened to it and are now in a new world. You are still a human and you are able to understand them as they appear to speak english. The only real difference so far is that the regions that boy listed are places you have never heard of. Is there anything else- Oh! Sorry about that..." Sunset trailed off as she had accidentally bumped into something small while walking and when she looked down to see what it was, she found herself staring at a Pikachu who was also looking back up at her. "What the..."

"Pika!" The Pikachu said as it looked up at her.

"Ahh!" Sunset fell down and backed away from the Pikachu as it looked at her in confusion, though it noticed someone behind her and ran off.

"There you are. You don't look like you're doing to good. Is everything ok?" Damian asked.

"What, what was that?" Sunset asked.

"A, Pikachu? Seriously are you ok? You acted as though you've never seen a Pokemon in your life." Wyatt asked.

"A Pokemon. What's a Pokemon?" Sunset asked. this prompted Wyatt and Damian to exchange worried glances.

"You mean you've never heard of or seen a Pokemon? Maybe she's like you and lost her memories as well, maybe the Cult of Darkrai did something to you both!" Damian exclaimed.

"No. I can know what a Pokemon is and almost everything about them. All I can't remember is anything personal or even my past. If they did the same thing to her as they did to me, then she wouldn't have asked about this Canterlot place." Wyatt said.

"I guess I really am in another world." Sunset said as she accepted her situation and stood up.

"Wait, hold on. What do you mean by other world?" Wyatt asked as he listened to Sunset.

"Well, um..." Sunset said as she had thought out loud again. Seeing how they had both heard her and that she couldn't deny what she had said, Sunset decided to tell them about the alternate Equestria. "The thing is, I'm not from this world."

"You're from another world! That's so cool! How did you get here?" Damian asked with excitement.

"Wait, didn't you say something about a portal after you woke up." Wyatt asked as he remembered what she had said.

"Yeah. The thing is, there's a portal back in my world that allows me to visit another one, and I was hoping to ask a friend from that world for some help regarding some things happening at Canterlot High. But when I tried to go through it, something weird happened." Sunset said.

"Weird how?" Damian asked.

"Well, the portal is a part of a statue and all I need to go through it is just walk through the statue. But when I tried to, Zit felt as though my arm was being crushed. When I pulled it back out, the statue began to start getting darker. The I saw something looking at me through the surface of the portal, and the next thing I knew these weird tendrils shot out of the portal and dragged me through. The was the last thing I remember before I passed out while being dragged by whatever those tendrils were attached to. I just woke up earlier as it felt like my body wasn't responding to me." Sunset explained.

"I guess that's why you were passed out when I got you out of that cell. The Cult of Darkrai probably found you after you got here and just put you in there." Wyatt said.

"You keep mentioning this 'Cult of Darkrai'. Who are they." Sunset asked.

"They're one of the 5 different cults here in the Torren region who worship Legendary and Mythical Pokemon! They're known for being responsible for some of the bad things that happen here, but people like the Augur are fighting against them!" Damian explained.

"Yeah, that's definitely something that wouldn't happen in my world. Well, I guess a lot of the stuff here is different than my world." Sunset said.

"What's your world like?' Wyatt asked.

"I guess similar to this one. The technology looks about the same. Though, you said those creatures are called Pokemon? Right?" Sunset asked which Wyatt nodded his head answering yes. "Pokemon don't really exist in my world. All we have are just simple animals like birds, dogs, and rabbits."

"I can't imagine a world without Pokemon. We wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for their help." Damian said.

"I guess." Sunset said before a somber expression appeared on her face. "I just hope I can figure out how to get home. The girls are probably worrying about me. And probably Twilight as well as I didn't show up." Sunset said, though that last part she whispered so the other's couldn't hear her.

"I know! Maybe you can come with us to see Professor Sylvan!" Damian suggested.

"Professor Sylvan? Who are they?" Sunset asked.

"She's the Torren region's Pokemon Professor! She mostly researches things about Pokemon, but maybe she might know something that can help! We were on our way over anyway so we can get a Pokemon so we can go to Telnor Cave so you can come with us!" Damian requested.

Sunset thought this over, she was pretty much stranded in this new world and there was the chance that this Professor Sylvan could know someway to help get her back home. Besides, she didn't really have a lot to lose by asking, she just had to make sure she didn't mention Equestria and she would be fine.

"I suppose it couldn't hurt. I'll come with you then." Sunset said as she accepted the offer.

"Awesome! Wait, we never introduced ourselves! I'm Damian, and I'm hoping to become a great Pokemon trainer by showing my parents that I can be one!" Damian said as he held his hand out for Sunset to shake, which she did.

"I guess I'm next. My name's Wyatt, and I can't really remember much else than a few things because I've lost my memories, though I guess the Cult of Darkrai is because of that." Wyatt said as he also held out his hand to shake which Sunset did.

"I'm sorry you lost your memories and I hope you are able to get them back." Sunset said.

"Thanks. And what's your name?" Wyatt asked.

"Sunset Shimmer, and thanks for helping me with, you know, apparently getting me out of a cult's base." Sunset said as she introduced herself.

"You have no idea." Wyatt said as he mentally shivered as he remembered what he had witnessed while trying to escape.

"Now that introductions are out of the way, let's go see Professor Sylvan!" Damian said before he began walking towards the other end of town.

"Is he always like this?" Sunset asked.

"I guess. But he was kind enough to help us out when we got here." Wyatt said as he offered Sunset her bag.

Sunset smiled and after thanking Wyatt for grabbing it, the two of them followed Damian to where Professor Sylvan's lab was located, both for Wyatt and Damian to get a Pokemon to help them reach Telnor cave, and hopefully asking if she knew anything about how Sunset can get back to the parallel version of Equestria.

Author's Note

With this chapter all said and done, we are now introduced to one of the rivals of the game and story: Damian. Also, Sunset has finally woken up and has realized that she isn't in either any of the worlds she is familiar with. I kind of struggled a bit if I wanted Sunset to tell Wyatt and Damian that she was from another world, but I eventually decided to go for it in the end and just have it be where she doesn't mention Equestria.

Also, we have our first two references within this chapter. I kind of want to see if you guys can find them as I will be revealing what the references are in the next chapter, so good luck with finding them!

One other thing, locations within Torren will have their actual in game location shown as to help piece together what the location looks like. They will also have a theme included along with them as well and I will try my best to include the actual theme used for it. If I can't, I'll do my best to find and pick another theme that would suit the location well. In this instance, I couldn't find Telnor Town's actual theme anywhere so I chose Nuvema Town's.

Anyways, the next chapter will see the introduction of two major characters of the story, as well as some new characters who are important in their own way. See you all then!

P.S.: Also at the end of these I will include small little bios about locations and an image displaying an actual map of Torren showing where it is. This is purely for fun and is just my way of doing worldbuilding without having to pause the story at an awkward moment. Here you go!

Telnor Town

Theme Used: Nuvema Town (Pokemon Black and White)

A small town located in the south-eastern corner of Torren. This small town is where the region's Pokemon Professor, Professor Sylvan, stays and is where her lab is located. She often gives out Eevees to aspiring trainers who wish to go and explore the region and compete in the Gym Challenge.

Chapter 4: Delta Starters

"Alright, we're here!" Damian exclaimed as the three of them had finally reached their destination.

They stood in front of the gray building that Wyatt had seen when he had first gotten to the town. Up close, it was only slightly bigger than the other houses and the windows reflected back their surroundings in the morning light. They had also found that the building was on a slightly higher elevation than the other buildings as it sat on a small hill with a staircase leading up to two glass doors that acted as the entrance to the building.

"This is the lab?" Sunset asked.

"Yeah. Were you expecting something else?" Damian asked.

"I was thinking maybe a room within a school or university. I wasn't expecting the whole building to be the lab." Sunset said as she stared at the building.

"Well people who are devoted to figuring out the mysteries of Pokemon tend to get a lot of funding. Buildings like these are found in almost every region where the region's Pokemon professor do their research." Damian explained.

"What kind of things do they research?" Sunset asked.

"Well, pretty much anything about Pokemon! There's Professor Elm in Johto who researches how Pokemon breeding works, Professor Birch in Hoenn who studies their habitats, and there's Professor Rowan in the Sinnoh region who studies Pokemon evolution! And those are just a few examples!" Damian said as he listed off Pokemon professors from other regions.

"Wow, and is it just those people by themselves who research those things?" Sunset asked.

"Well, no. The Pokemon professors do have assistants to help them, they're just the head researcher of a region and field of study." Damian said.

"Hey Damian? What does Professor Sylvan research?" Wyatt asked.

"Oh, it's... it's..." Damian said before he began to trail off. He then began scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. "I, actually don't remember what she researches. All I remember is that it has something to do with rare Pokemon. But I'm sure we can ask her when we get our starter Pokemon!"

"What do you mean by starter Pokemon? You mentioned that earlier." Sunset asked.

"Starter Pokemon are considered a trainer's first Pokemon. Usually trainers can go to the professor of a region to go get one from them, or they can inherit one or someone can get one for them." Wyatt said as he was able to remember what starter Pokemon were.

"Wait, you both mentioned the word 'trainer'. Is that someone who teaches Pokemon tricks and stuff?" Sunset asked.

"Pokemon trainers are people who train their Pokemon to get stronger by having them battle other wild Pokemon or Pokemon used by other trainers. Pokemon battling is somewhat of a common sport that happens in every region." Wyatt explained.

"Wait, you have animals fight eachother?!" Sunset exclaimed. She had heard about how some people and ponies in both versions of Equestria would have animals fight against eachother for sport, and it was almost always a bloody fight. She shivered at the idea of what Fluttershy would do if she found out that people in this world had animals fight eachother, and from the way Wyatt explained what a trainer was, it sounded like it was something that happened commonly.

"No, it's fine! Pokemon are somewhat competitive creatures that see battles as an opportunity to get stronger. Pokemon battles are just a way for both a trainer and their Pokemon to grow closer and stronger together. Even wild Pokemon fight against eachother all the time, and various way have been developed to help a Pokemon to heal after a battle so that they can be back in tip top shape almost immediately." Wyatt explained as he saw Sunset's panicked expression.

"Yep! That's also why I want to go on a journey and take on the Gym Challenge!" Damian said.

"Gym Challenge?" Sunset asked.

"The Gym Challenge is something that happens within every region. Trainers travel across a region to various cities where they can battle against powerful trainers known as Gym Leaders. If a trainer wins against a Gym Leader, they are rewarded their Gym Badge and can continue on to the next one! Once a trainer has gotten all Gym Badges within a region, they can take on the Pokemon League where they can take on the strongest trainer in the region known as the Champion. If the trainer wins, then they claim the Champion's title and become the new strongest trainer of the region! Though, there have been some complications involving the Gym Challenge for the past year..." Damian said as his mood shifted from being excited to somber.

"Why's that?" Wyatt asked.

"The first Augur also acted as the Torren region's 8th and final Gym Leader, but ever since he disappeared no one has been able to get an 8th Gym Badge. It also doesn't help that no one has tried to become the new 8th Gym Leader ever since he disappeared. But it's not only that, shortly after the first Augur disappeared, the Champion also disappeared as well and no one knows where she went. Someone else did step up and prove themselves to be worthy of filling in the role as a temporary Champion until she returns, but the problem lies with that no one knows who the one filling the role is. But, that doesn't mean I don't want to still take on the Gym Challenge!" Damian exclaimed as his mood was back to being happy.

"I feel like I need a dictionary or something at this point with how many things I don't know. Who's this Augur you two are talking about?" Sunset asked as she rubbed her hand against her temple as she listened to everything that the two boys said. Thankfully, Wyatt gave a short description as to who the Augur was so Sunset could get the gist of it, and also that the current one was coming to Telnor Town and that's why they were trying to get a Pokemon from Professor Sylvan.

"Wait, that doesn't make sense. Is the Champion the strongest trainer in Torren or is the Augur?" Sunset said as she was even more confused.

"Technically the Augur but since no one has seen how strong the stand in Champion is no one can say for sure." Damian said.

"I feel like my head is spinning from all of this." Sunset said, thinking how either of the Twilights she knew would be able to better grasp this information.

"Don't worry, I'm also learning about some of this stuff." Wyatt said.

"Now that the explanations are out of the way, let's go in!" Damian said.

The three of them headed up the stairs and entered the lab where they found themselves in a very spacious room. The floors were hardwood while the wallpaper was that of a dark blue. They currently seemed to be in the entryway of the lab, however the rest of it was blocked off by bookshelves filled with a variety of books that were behind a sliding glass wall. Though, there was a walkway in the form of a large gap between the bookshelves which the three of them went to and saw the rest of the room. More bookshelves lined the left and right walls but the back wall had a variety of machines and computers lined it, though there was also a gap in the back right wall where a staircase leading down could be seen. Wyatt also noticed a similar tube shaped machine as the one he saw in the Cult of Darkrai's base. Finally there was a table towards the middle of the right side of the room that stood upon a green carpet. Said carpet also stretched along the entire width of the room, though it ended right before it reached the walls.

Standing in the middle of the room were two people who appeared to be in the middle of a serious discussion. The first was a young woman with white skin, black hair that almost appeared navy, and blue eyes that were behind a pair of black glasses. She wore a red shirt and black shorts underneath a white lab coat that reached to her ankles where she could also be seen wearing black boots.

The second person was a man who also looked young but his appearance made it hard to tell. He had white skin, short jet black hair, and dark gray eyes that almost looked completely black with bags under them. He wore a white button up shirt and white pants that were covered by a black trench coat with red buttons that reached just below his knees. Finally, he was wearing a pair of black loafers and a black bowler hat on his head that had a white stripe going around it.

"Listen, Professor. These Pokemon... they're freaks." The man said. "No other trainer would want them, and we can't keep them any longer. All I want is for you to take them. You already keep a bunch of Eevee as is, surely these three won't be a bother?"

"Why do you care about them? I know what you've done." The woman said. The man in return gave a heavy sigh.

"It's true, I'm merciless. I've done some awful things. But there's no reason for these Pokemon to die." The man said. It was also at this moment that Damian decided to make their presence known.

"Umm... Hello?" Damian said which caused the two of them to turns towards the three of them. "I'm Damian, this is Wyatt and Sunset... Wyatt and I are here to get a Pokemon so we can go into the forest safely and talk with Professor Sylvan about something."

The two people in front of them stared at the three of them before the man turned back to the woman and continued the conversation.

"Sylvan, if you don't take these Pokemon, I'll release them, and they're sure to die in the wild. If you want, you can just give them to these kids, right?"

The woman now known as Professor Sylvan seemed to take a moment to think over what the man had just said. Then, after letting out a sigh, she gestured towards the table.

"Put them on the table." Professor Sylvan said.

"Very well." The man said. He then approached the table and reached into a pocket on his trench coat. He then pulled out three small balls that were split into two halves by a black band that wrapped around it. The top half was red white the bottom half was white. Clicking a white button that stuck out from the band, the balls rapidly grew in size before they were each the size of a baseball, the sight of which left Sunset amazed. The man then placed each ball on the table an equal distance away from eachother before he turned towards the three of them and walked towards them before he was right in front of them.

"Excuse me, please." The man said.

"Oh! Sorry." Sunset said as the three of them moved out of the way. They then watched the man pass by them and exit the building, though Sunset had a weird sense of unease when she was listening to his and Professor Sylvan's conversation. Deciding to ignore it, they then walked towards Sylvan.

"So, you said you two are in need of a Pokemon?" Professor Sylvan asked.

"Yes ma'am. But, we were hoping to ask you about something as it involves Sunset." Damian said as Sunset stepped forward.

"I see. And what is it that you want to talk about?" Professor Sylvan asked.

"Well, the thing is..." Sunset said as she began to explain how she was from another world and how she had gotten to this one. Though she made sure to leave out Equestria and the fact that she was from there, simply saying that she was from the human version of it.

"You're not messing with me, right?" Professor Sylvan asked.

"She's not! You should have seen her reaction when she saw a Pokemon for the first time!" Damian said trying to help.

"If that's the case, then..." Professor Sylvan said before she rapidly ran over to one of the computers and grabbed a clipboard on top of it that had some papers and a pen on it before she rushed back to Sunset with an expression of childlike wonderment. "Tell me everything about your world!"

"What?" Sunset asked as she was shocked as she saw a familiar gleam in Sylvan's eyes. One that brought to mind Sci-Twi and Princess Twilight's own when they found something they were excited to study and observe.

"What's your world like? How advanced is your technology? Are humans in your world capable of utilizing interdimensional travel if you were able to get here? How long do humans of your world live? How advanced is your architecture? Please tell me and spare no details!" Professor Sylvan rapidly said as she fired off question after question.

"Uh, Professor Sylvan?" Wyatt called out.

"Hm?" Professor Sylvan said as Wyatt shifted her focus onto him.

"We were wondering if you know of any way that can help Sunset get back to her world." Wyatt said.

"Oh! Right, I suppose I got a little carried away. The things is, I've been obsessed with the other worlds and dimensions all my life. So when you said you were from one, I guess I got a little excited. In any case, I'm afraid that my knowledge of interdimensional travel is, quite limited. I'm afraid that I can't think of anything that could help you get back home." Professor Sylvan said which caused Sunset form a somber expression on her face. "But don't worry! I have some friends in the Alola region who work at a research facility dedicated to researching dimensional rifts and travel. I could try and contact them and see if they know anything that could help, but it may take a few days for them to respond."

This brought back a little bit of hope for Sunset as hearing that there were people in this world who were studying interdimensional travel meant that they might know a way for her to get back to her own world. During this conversation, Damian had been thinking and had come up with an idea.

"Hey, I have an idea! There's a massive library in Utira Town that holds all kinds of different books from all over the world. Maybe there might be something that can help you get back home! After we get back from Telnor Cave and give the Augur his present, we can make our way over there!" Damian said. "Wait! I just thought of something even better. Sunset, you said you don't have Pokemon in your world, right?"

"Yeah? Where are you going with this?" Sunset asked.

"Why don't you get a starter Pokemon with me and Wyatt! That way, you can experience what it's like to be a Pokemon trainer and learn more about them. And since we're traveling across the region, you can take on the Gym Challenge with us! Wait, Wyatt, you are going to take on the Gym Challenge, right?" Damian asked.

"I guess it couldn't hurt. I might be able to find someone who knows me by traveling through Torren. I might even find a way for me to get my memories back." Wyatt said.

"Then it's perfect! The three of us can compete to get all seven Gym Badges and since we can't take on the Pokemon League, we can see which one of us ended up becoming the strongest trainer!" Damian exclaimed.

"Umm, I don't know. I don't think I would be a good trainer." Sunset said.

"I highly doubt that." Professor Sylvan said. "Anyone can become a great trainer, and many of them have started out from the ground up. If you don't believe them, I have sent off many trainers as a professor and many of them wound up becoming very successful at what they do. And if you also don't believe me, I am not joking when I say two ten year olds from a small town in the Kanto region both ended up becoming Champions. One of them being considered to be the greatest trainer to ever exist."

"You're saying two ten year olds became Champions of a region?" Sunset asked while dumbfounded.

"Well, the one who ended up becoming the greatest trainer of all time took the title of Champion from the second literal minutes after he became one, but yes. Also, you may be here a while anyway, so it won't hurt to do something until we can figure out how to get you home." Professor Sylvan said.

Sunset looked between Professor Sylvan giving her a confident smile and Damian and Wyatt with Damian having an excited grin on his face while Wyatt gave her a thumbs up to show he believed in her. She began to think this over as it was true that it may take some time for Professor Sylvan's colleagues to contact her back and it may take even longer for her to actually get back to home herself. And she also felt that what they were saying could be true, that she could end up becoming an amazing trainer even if she hardly knew next to nothing about Pokemon. But she may learn more about them by traveling around the region and experiencing what this world had to offer. After a couple more minutes of thinking, she eventually came to a decision.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to become a Pokemon trainer. So, yes. I'll become a Pokemon trainer and experience what this world has to offer." Sunset said, prompting Damian to cheer in happiness.

"Well, now that that's settled, I assume you all don't have your Trainer Cards or IDs?" Professor Sylvan asked.

"We need IDs to be trainers?" Sunset asked.

"Yes, it also helps with showing that you are taking part in the Gym Challenge as well. In any case, wait right here for just a moment." Professor Sylvan said as she went down the stairs in the corner of the lab. After a couple of minutes, she then came back up carrying three boxes that she set on the floor in front of the three of them and put them side by side. She then opened both boxes and each revealed to have multiples of two different devices though the third one contained something different. The first box looked like a slightly bigger phone as it was a device with a screen on it that came in different colors. There was also a small slot at the bottom of it with there also being what appeared to be a small white orb on the top as well. The other box held a device similar in shape, though was a lot different and came in various colors, though most of them were either black or white. Towards the bottom of the front was a design that Sunset remarked looked similar to the balls the man had put on the table. Each device in the box had different colors for the design, though one thing they all had in common was a white button sticking out of the middle of the design. A small black screen was above the design on the bottom with their being what appeared to be a green light right next to it. Finally, towards the bottom was a small indent that was the same color as the design, and there appeared to be small lens at the back of the device towards the top. The last box contained a variety of small cases that all had a clear lid that allowed one to look inside and see that there was strip of black cushioning foam. The backs of the cases were all different colors and had the same ball design as the second device had.

"Are these what I think they are?" Damian asked.

"Yes. This first box here contains what is known as a DexNav. These are pretty handy devices that offer a variety of features. They allow you to view the map of the region you are in, or any other region for that matter. They allow you to access the local news and a special channel that showcases things that may interest trainers. And if you all will be traveling, it has a call feature that will allow us to stay in contact and allow me to update you all if anything regarding a way to help get Sunset home pops up. Also, they are what you use to create your trainer IDs, so go ahead and start them up as you will need them for the next device." Professor Sylvan said.

They did so by first choosing their DexNavs. Sunset chose one that slowly changed from a fiery orange at the bottom to red as it reached the top, Wyatt chose one that had a purple and black checker board design, and Damian chose one that had a green and white zigzag design on it. Booting the DexNavs up, they found that they had to first answer a series of questions to help create their IDs and register their DexNavs. These were simple questions like what their name was, what gender were they, when their birthday was, and there was one that said what their favorite color was for some reason. However, there was one question that Sunset had to ask about.

"Um, its asking 'What is my home region?'. What should I do about that?" Sunset asked.

"Well, I suppose just put the Torren region as I don't think it would except you saying that you're from another world." Professor Sylvan said.

Sunset did just that, inputting 'Torren' for the answer. They finally finished a little bit later as the DexNavs began to process their answers before the words "Printing IDs" showed up on the screens. Then, a small card came out of the small slot of the bottom of the DexNav as it now said "IDs Printed". They took their IDs out of the slots and admired them and realized why it had asked for their favorite color as some of the text on their IDs was that color.

"These came out pretty well." Wyatt said.

"Alright, now that your Trainer Cards have been printed, you are now free to take a Pokedex. Go ahead and choose one that catches your eye." Professor Sylvan said as the three of them chose a Pokedex after putting their DexNavs in their pockets. Sunset chose an orange one with a red ball design on it, Wyatt chose a black one with a purple ball design, and Damian chose a green one with a white ball design.

"What's a Pokedex?" Sunset asked as she held hers and inspected it.

"A Pokedex, or Pokemon Index, is a device that is invaluable to a trainer. It allows a trainer to see what kind of Pokemon they have encountered and gives in depth details about it. Everything from an entry giving an overview of a Pokemon to even their stats!" Professor Sylvan said.

"Stats? What is this, a videogame?" Sunset joked.

"Stats are essentially a term we use to measure a Pokemon's capabilities within a specific field. There's HP, which indicates how much stamina a Pokemon has and how much of a beating it can take before it faints. Attack, which indicates hoe strong a Pokemon's physical moves are. Defense, which measures a Pokemon's resistance and ability to take physical moves. Special Attack, which indicates how strong a Pokemon's special moves are. Special Defense, which measures a Pokemon's resistance and ability to take special moves. And Speed, which indicates how fast a Pokemon is." Professor Sylvan said.

"Moves? Just how much is there to Pokemon?!" Sunset exclaimed.

"A lot. But you can learn more about that later. Anyways, in order to register your Pokedex, all you need to do is scan your Trainer Card. These Pokedexes in particular are that of the Unova model, I recently got a shipment of these to hand out to trainers. All you need to do is hold down that button that's sticking out and the Pokedex will enter scan mode which will also be what you use to find out what Pokemon you encounter is." Professor Sylvan said.

They did as she said and pressed and held white button on their Pokedexes. This caused a portion of the back to slide up and rest on the top of the Pokedex as a second screen was now on top of the first one and showed what was being seen by the lens at the back. Putting their Trainer Cards within the view of the lens, the Pokedexes began to scan them before a satisfying beep was issued from it as the words "Pokedex Registered to User ID" appeared. Once they let go of the button, Professor Syvlan told them to click the button again to bring the back part down again, which they did and put both their Pokedexes and Trainer Cards in their pockets. Sylvan then directed their attention to the box filled with cases.

"Lastly, these are your badge cases. They are where you can store your Gym Badges if you don't want to pin them on your clothing or anything else. Also it's satisfying to show them off this way." Sylvan said as they all grabbed one. Sunset grabbed one with a red back that had yellow hearts on it, Wyatt grabbed one that was purple back and had with a white ball design on it, and Damian chose one with a green and yellow plaid design on the back and while Wyatt and Sunset both put their in the largest compartment of their backpacks, Damian simply stuck his inside a pants pocket.

"Now, I suppose there's just one final thing left to do, and that is to give you three your starter Pokemon." Professor Sylvan said which prompted Sunset to look at the table where the man had placed the three balls. She remembered him mentioning about how she should give the Pokemon he had to them, but she had been confused as there didn't appear to be any Pokemon here.

"Professor, who was that guy you were talking to? And what are those balls he put on the table?" Sunset asked.

This caused Professor Sylvan to release a heavy sigh as she debated as to whether or not to tell the three kids in front of her who that man was. In the end, she eventually decided that they should know the truth.

"That man that was in here just now, he was one of my colleagues in university. He's a smart man, and a great scientist." Professor Sylvan said as she paused to sigh before she continued. "He's also the leader of the Cult of Perfection."

The three of them had different reactions to this: Sunset was surprised as she didn't think someone who looked like an average man was a cult leader, Wyatt wondered why Professor Sylvan knew a cult leader personally and also wondered what this "Cult of Perfection" was about, and Damian's jaw dropped as he gasped.

"A... a cult leader?! Those people are evil, Professor!" Damian exclaimed. "You shouldn't be talking to them, let alone be accepting gifts from them!"

Professor Sylvan walked to the table and looked at the three balls with an intense gaze before she turned back to the three of them.

"Tell me, you three. Though I suppose this is more towards Wyatt and Damian. Have you ever heard of something called 'Delta Species'?" Professor Sylvan asked.

"I can't say I have." Wyatt said.

"Me neither." Damian said.

"Then allow me to explain. Delta Pokemon are based on a phenomenon in the far away Holon region. They're Pokemon that have different DNA than normal Pokemon. Simply put, they're typed differently than normal. An example would be an Electric type Dragonite, or a Water type Porygon." Professor Sylvan explained.

"Ok, now there's types. Seriously, how much is there to Pokemon?" Sunset questioned.

"A lot. Types are pretty much what sort of affinities and elemental abilities a Pokemon is naturally in tune with. For instance, a Fire type Pokemon has an elemental affinity with fire and can utilize it. Also, moves also have types as well. This is important as depending on what type a Pokemon is, they are either resistant or weak to certain moves. This is especially true with dual-type Pokemon which are Pokemon that have two types. Having two types can both be a blessing and a curse as it allows a Pokemon to resist more types and even resist a type with greater efficiency, though it also means that they may have more weaknesses to certain types and be even weaker against a specific type." professor Sylvan explained.

"So Pokemon and these moves you mentioned have elemental affinities and properties? I guess I can understand that at least." Sunset said.

"That's good. Anyways, these Pokemon on the table now are Deltas. I'm not sure what type or types they are, but they seem to be experiments of Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle." Professor Sylvan said as she gestured towards the three balls which Sunset looked at with confusion.

"Um, Professor? Those are balls. I don't see any Pokemon." Sunset said.

"Right, I suppose you wouldn't know about these. These balls are a type of device known as a Pokeball, and the Pokemon are inside of them." Professor Sylvan said.

"How? Are the Pokemon just really tiny?" Sunset asked.

"Oh not at all. The way a Pokeball works is that it allows trainers to catch Pokemon and add them to their team. This is done by touching the Pokeball or throwing it at a Pokemon, triggering the catching mechanism. This causes the Pokeball to open up as the Pokemon is transformed into raw energy that is then sucked up into the ball where it is shrunk and reformed inside a habitat the Pokeball generates to make the Pokemon inside comfortable. Once the Pokemon is successfully caught, the trainer can the let the Pokemon out by pressing this button on the Pokeball, opening it up and allowing the Pokemon to be turned back into energy and flow back out of the Pokeball and back to normal size once it reforms. It can then be returned back to the Pokeball at any time by pointing the Pokeball at the newly obtained Pokemon. It is also able to grow and shrink to help save space by simply holding down the button while enlarged and just clicking the button while it is shrunken." Professor Sylvan explained.

Sunset stood their dumbfounded at what she had just heard. "You're telling me, that you all have found a way to transform living creatures into raw energy and store them inside balls where they generate an environment for the creature?"

"That's right." Professor Sylvan said.

"Both Twilights would have a field day in this world trying to figure out everything." Sunset thought to herself.

"Anyways, the Delta Pokemon in these Pokeballs are scientific marvels. I would love to keep one to study. Now! Normally, I would give you an Eevee as a Pokemon to start you off on your journey. However, it seems there are three more options for you to choose from. As such, I will offer you three this. You may choose one of these three Delta Pokemon to travel with, or the Eevee I normally give away. The choice is yours to decide." Professor Sylvan said as she walked to the table and stood behind it.

"Wyatt, Sunset, I don't know what to do. I don't like the idea of Pokemon made by a murderer... but I also don't like the idea of these Pokemon being left all alone forever. You guys make the decision and I'll follow it, but make it quick! We don't know when the Augur is arriving!" Damian exclaimed.

The two of them looked at eachother and began to think about what they should do. Finally, Wyatt was the one who came to a decision.

"I think we should take a Delta Pokemon. I'm with Damian as I don't think these Pokemon should be alone, and considering that they may have been made in a lab or something, they probably have never experienced the outside world. I kind of want to be there to help them with that, with or without memories." Wyatt said. "What about you guys?"

Sunset thought Wyatt's words over and remembered everything she's learned, how friends should be there to help others and help them experience fun and amazing things. She smiled, and gave a nod while wearing a confident smile.

"I'm with you. I'll choose one as well." Sunset said.

"Then I guess I'm choosing one as well. I guess let's see what we have to chose from, then." Damian said.

They nodded and headed over to the table where Professor Sylvan was waiting for them. "So you all want to choose a Delta, then?"

"Yes." All three of them said in unison.

"Alright. While I do wish I could have kept one to help with my research into the Delta phenomenon, I understand that you three don't want to leave them alone. Now then, I suppose you should see what you have to choose from then." Professor Sylvan said as she picked up the Pokeball on the left side. "This one should contain the Bulbasaur. Normally, Bulbasaur are both Grass and Poison type, so let's see what type this one is."

Professor Sylvan clicked the button and the Pokeball opened, letting out a stream of blue and white energy that gathered on the table, forming a creature before it dissipated, revealing the Delta Bulbasaur. It had an amphibian like appearance as it had pink skin and had four legs that it walked on. Its head was round with two small ears that were flopped against its head and a small white flower could be seen on its right ear. Its eye were a soft shade of light purple and it had a wide mouth with two sharp teeth sticking out of the ends of it. On its back was what appeared to be some kind of blue bulb with a small purple crystal sticking out of the top as two clumps of something white and fluffy (possibly cotton) stuck out of the base of the bulb on the left and right side. Finally, various spots that were either pink and blue were on both its body and the bulb. When it was released from its Pokeball, the Delta Bulbasaur looked up at the three of them and slightly backed up as it had a nervous expression on its face as it appeared to be cautious of everything around it.

"Aww, it's adorable." Sunset said as she watched the Delta Bulbasaur.

"You can use your Pokedex to find out more about it. Why don't you give it a try?" Professor Sylvan requested.

Sunset took out her Pokedex and held down the button, prompting the back to slide up and the top screen to show what the lens were seeing. Moving the Delta Bulbasaur into its view, the bottom screen lit up as information regarding what category it was, what type it was, and even what gender the Pokemon being scanned was as a robotic voice began speaking from the Pokedex and read off a description at the bottom of the screen.

Delta Bulbasaur

The Crystal Pokemon
Female
Fairy and Psychic type
A Delta Species discovered by EchoTheThird. The crystal growing from its back uses its mental energy to grow.

"A Fairy and Psychic type, not a bad type combination. Now, let's see the Charmander. Normally Charmander is a Fire type, so I'm curious to see what it looks like." Professor Sylvan said as she picked up the middle Pokeball. Letting out the Delta Charmander, after the blue energy dissipated was something that caused Sunset to freak out a little bit as she thought this thing was brought to life through necromancy. The Delta Charmander had the appearance of a skeletal lizard with a bone white skeletal body with two small arms and legs that both had sharp nails at the end of them. Its head was reptilian in appearance with their being a maw filled with sharp teeth and two small horns that were bumpy at the end grew out of its head. It had glowing purple eyes that were within to black eyeholes at the front of its head. Finally at the end of its tail was a small purple flame that seemed to flick around lazily. After coming out of the Pokeball, the Charmander gave one quick look around at its environment, gave a big yawn, and then sat down on the table with a lazy smile.

"I suppose I can already guess what type it is. Wyatt, would you mind checking it with your Pokedex?" Professor Sylvan asked.

Wyatt obliged, using his Pokedex to scan the Delta Charmander before its info appeared on the bottom screen and a robotic voice began to read off its description.

Delta Charmander

The Bone Lizard Pokemon
Male
Ghost and Dragon type
A Delta Species discovered by EchoTheThird. While the flame on its tail does not appear immediately after its birth, it burns more fiercely with age.

"A Ghost and Dragon type? Off of the top of my head that type combination both resists and is weak to a lot types. Now then, let' see what type the Squirtle is. Normally it's only a Water type, and considering how interesting these two have proved to be, I'm quite interested." Professor Sylvan said as she grabbed the last Pokeball, the one on the right.

Letting out the Delta Squirtle, the energy dissipated and what could be best described as something out of a cartoon show was revealed. The Delta Squirtle had the appearance of a bipedal turtle, with dark maroon skin and a shell with the underside (or front in this case) being yellow and the back was dark orange. Around its waist was a blue belt that wrapped all the way around its shell, there were black ribbons wrapped around its wrist as well. Its eyes were pure white, though around them was some kind of black mask like the kind a superhero would wear as it even had a black cape that was attached to where its head came out of its shell. Finally, its tail was the same dark maroon as its skin but was curled at the end with it also giving off the appearance of a sharp feather. After coming out of the Pokeball and seeing all of them staring at it, the Delta Squirtle began posing and flexing as though trying to impress them.

"Cool! It looks like a superhero, or maybe even a ninja!" Damian said as he pulled out his Pokedex and used it to scan the Delta Squirtle.

Delta Squirtle

The Ninja Pokemon
Male
Dark and Fighting type
A Delta Species discovered by EchoTheThird. Though its shell causes it to stand out when hiding in the shadows, it conceals itself using the cloth on its back.

"A Dark and Fighting type? Not too bad. Well, now that you know what are your options, who wants to choose theirs first?" Professor Sylvan asked.

"I think Sunset should!" Damian said.

"Me? Don't any of you want to go first?" Sunset asked.

"I'm fine with letting you two go first. Besides, this will be the Pokemon that you will adventure with! I've already seen and interacted with Pokemon all throughout my life, but you haven't! So go ahead, I can wait." Damian said.

"Ok then..." Sunset said as she looked at the three Delta Pokemon in front of her. Each caught her interests in various ways as she observed each of them closely. The Delta Bulbasaur seemed shy and nervous with her surroundings, which Sunset remarked that it was acting the same way that Fluttershy does when she's scared. The Delta Charmander, while cool looking in her eyes, reminded her too much of the necromantic arts that were used in Equestria back in the days of Nightmare Moon. While those arts did interest her while she was Celestia's pupil, she eventually decided to stop studying once she realized just how gruesome that kind of magic was. Finally was the Delta Squirtle, which reminded her of Rainbow Dash. It posing and flexing would definitely seem like something she would do, but it felt like it was going a little bit overboard with it. Stopping to think, she finally made her decision as she walked right to the Delta Bulbasaur and crouched a little bit so she was eye level with her.

"Hey there. I'm not going to hurt you." Sunset said as she talked to the Delta Bulbasaur in a soft tone as it watched her wearily. "I know you're scared right now. You're in an unfamiliar place filled with people you don't know, but that's ok. So am I. It's complicated, but I need some help to get back home, and I was wondering if you could help me?"

The Delta Blubasaur seemed to start slowly calm down as she began to slowly inch a little bit towards Sunset. When it was right in front of her face, Sunset felt a weak buzz at the back of her head as the Delta Bulbasaur's eyes began to glow pink. Then, she was surprised to see moments of her past appear around her, though she couldn't physically move. Examples included moments of when she was still a filly, happy times she had with Celestia back when she was still her student, her running away to Canterlot, her time spent being a bully, her being accepted by her new friends, and events like the Battle of the Bands and Friendship Games. Finally, the memories began to fade away as the Delta Bulbasaur's eye returned to normal before it got closer and began to nuzzle Sunset. Sunset picked up the Delta Bulbasaur and held it in her hands arms as the Delta Bulbasaur looked up at her and smiled, though Sunset couldn't help but ask Professor Sylvan something.

"What was that just now?" Sunset asked.

"What was what?" Professor Sylvan asked.

"I felt this weird buzzing sensation and began seeing moments of my past, though I couldn't move or do anything while it was happening." Sunset said.

"Considering that Delta Bulbasaur is a Psychic type, it sound like it was probably seeing your memories and judging whether to trust you or not. It looks like it did in the end." Professor Sylvan said.

"She looked at my memories?!" Sunset exclaimed as she looked down at the Delta Bulbasaur, surprised that it was able to do something that she could as well.

"Yes. Psychic type Pokemon are able to utilize many psychic abilities and powers that involve using the mind. Even if it's a Delta, I would have not expected anything different from a Psychic type. Now, then. Since you have chosen the Delta Bulbasaur, would you like to give her a name?" Professor Sylvan asked.

"I can give her a name?" Sunset asked.

"Yes, it is a common thing for trainers to name their Pokemon. While some may choose not to, it doesn't mean the bond that they form grows slower." Professor Sylvan said.

Sunset looked back down at the Delta Bulbasaur as she began to try and think of a name for her. She decided that she wanted to name her something that stood out about her, though it was when she noticed the flower on its ear and thought about the colors it had that she came up with the perfect name for her.

"Petunia. How does Petunia sound?" Sunset asked the Delta Bulbasaur who gave a happy smile in response and nuzzled her as if to say yes.

"I guess she likes the name. Alright then, here is Petunia's Pokeball." Professor Sylvan said as she gave the newly named Delta Bulbasaur's Pokeball to Sunset who shrunk it and tucked it into her pocket. "Now, I believe Wyatt is up next? Go ahead and choose your Pokemon."

Wyatt looked between the two options he had left and after some consideration, approached the Delta Charmander. When he was in front of him, the delta Charmander stood up and looked at Wyatt. Then, unseen by the others except himself, the Delta Charmander's expression shifted to a serious glare as Wyatt felt a shiver down his back as though the Delta Charmander was staring directly into his soul. It felt like multiple hours went by when in reality a couple of seconds just passed before the Delta Charmander's expression went back to being somewhat lazy as it lifted it arms up and began to try and tiptoe. Getting the message, Wyatt lifted the Delta Charmander up and onto his shoulder where it sat lazily as it now had a happy expression on its face.

"I feel like it was staring into my soul." Wyatt said as he held onto the Delta Charmander on his shoulder.

"That tends to happen with Ghost types. They have a natural affinity with spirits and souls so they are able to somewhat interact with them. He was probably just looking into yours to see what kind of person you are." Professor Sylvan said.

"Is that so?" Wyatt said as he looked at the Delta Charmander while thinking of a nickname for it. He almost immediately came upon one that seemed to fit the skeletal lizard perfectly. "How do you feel about the name 'Shade'?"

The Delta Charmander let out a happy sounding growl as its smile seemed to grow bigger as it accepted its new name.

"A term used for a spirit of the dead. Not bad. Now you will need his Pokeball, and I assume you're happy with getting the Delta Squirtle, Damian?" Professor Sylvan said as she grabbed Shade's Pokeball and handed it to wyatt who shrunk it and tucked it away.

"I'm fine with it! I was kinda hopping I would get to pick him anyway! And I already know the perfect name for him. What do you say, are you ready to be partners, Hero?" Damian asked the Delta Squirtle who gave a thumbs up. Picking him up, Damian set the Delta Squirtle on his shoulders as it hung onto his head as Professor Sylvan gave him his Pokeball.

"Well, I suppose that I now have to say congratulations on becoming official trainers you three!" Professor Sylvan said.

"Hey, now that we all have a Pokemon, you know what that means, right?" Damian asked as he looked towards Sunset and Wyatt.

"And, what does that mean Damian?" Wyatt asked as he had a feeling he knew what he was going to say.

"Let's all of us have a Pokemon battle! Right here, right now!"

Author's Note

With this chapter done, everyone now has their starters as it seems their first Pokemon battle as Pokemon trainers is on the horizon. In addition, we got to meet some more important characters for the story, Sylvan and the man who is the leader of the Cult of Perfection. I always felt like Sylvan should have played a bigger role in Insurgence other than just giving you your starter and sending you on your way. Well, in this story, she is. She will be checking in with Sunset and Wyatt as they travel through Torren to update them about anything she's learned that may help Sunset get home.

Now is the next part some of you guys have been waiting for. I saw that someone did get one of the references in previous chapter right, and I was kinda surprised it was found so quickly. The two references in the previous chapters are the regions Damian lists. Tandor is a reference to the region where the events of Pokemon Uranium take place, a fangame that is among my favorites, while the Eldiw region is a refernce to a fangame known as Pokemon Xenoverse. The fangame itself was originally in italian, but a couple years ago, it was updated and translated to english. It's really good and has a very interesting story, so I recommend trying it out. One other thing is that there are multiple references in this chapter. Good luck finding them!

Now then, one last thing at the end of some chapters are specifics about Pokemon Sunset and Wyatt obtain. Everytime they catch or obtain a new Pokemon, I will be including their very own bios down here. These include what type they are, their ability, their nature, and their moves upon being obtained. This will also be the only time that a Pokemon Damian gets will get a bio. Anyways, here you go, and see you all in the next chapter!

Petunia
Species: Delta Bulbasaur

Gender: Female
Nature: Bashful (+/- Sp. Atk)
Type: Fairy/Psychic
Ability: Psycho Call (Powers up Psychic type moves in a pinch.)
Moves: Tackle, Baby-Doll Eyes, Confusion

Shade
Species: Delta Charmander

Gender: Male
Nature: Docile (+/- Defense)
Type: Ghost/Dragon
Ability: Spirit Call (Powers up Ghost type moves in a pinch.)
Moves: Scratch, Growl, Twister

Hero

Gender: Male
Nature: Brave (+Attack/-Speed)
Type: Dark/Fighting
Ability: Shadow Call (Powers up Dark type moves in a pinch.)
Moves: Tackle, Tail Whip, Pursuit

P.S.: Fun fact, this Delta Squirtle is actually considered illegal as Delta Squirtle doesn't learn Pursuit. If you chose Delta Charmander as your starter, Damian gets a Delta Squirtle that knows Pursuit instead of Bite in order to make the fight not as hard.

Chapter 5: Delta Filled First Battles

"Wait, you mean like, right now? In the middle of the lab?" Sunset asked as she was caught off guard by Damian's proposition.

"Yep!" Damian exclaimed.

"I assure you Sunset, this tends to almost be tradition at this point when two or more trainers get their starter Pokemon. A lot of battles have actually happened in this very room. I don't mind you all battling in here, everything was reinforced a long time ago so that it will take more than just a few stray moves to break things." Professor Sylvan said.

"If that's the case, I'm definitely up for a battle as I kind of want to see what a Delta Pokemon is capable of. What about you Sunset?" Wyatt asked.

Sunset thought for a bit. She was interested to see how Pokemon battles played out, but she had no experience of either being in or much less witnessing one, so she didn't know how Pokemon battles worked. It seemed like both Wyatt and Damian knew how they worked, so maybe she could learn by watching them? Sunset looked down at Petunia who looked back up at her with a curious expression before she reached her decision.

"You two can go ahead. I don't really know how Pokemon battles work, so maybe I can learn a thing or two by watching the both of you." Sunset said.

"That's perfectly fine, Sunset. You can be on the sidelines with me and I can point things out and explain them to you so you can better understand them." Professor Sylvan said as she walked over to the computers at the other side of the room and stood there.

"We'll do our best so you can learn from us!" Damian said encouragingly as he moved to the left side of the room.

"Thanks." Sunset said as she went over and stood by Professor Sylvan, ready to witness the battle that is about to unfold.

"Oh man! You have no idea how long I've wanted to say this! Hero, let's go!" Damian shouted.

Hero jumped off of Damian's shoulders, did a front flip in midair, and perfectly stuck the landing as he now stood in front of Damian. He bent his knees a bit and leaned forward as his tail swished back and forth, showing that he was ready to fight.

"Ok, then it's our turn. You ready Shade?" Wyatt asked the Delta on his shoulder as he went over to the right side of the room. In return, Shade gave a lazy nod while still smiling. "Alright, then let's do this!"

Wyatt picked up Shade from his shoulders and set him on his feet onto the ground where Shade then took a few small steps forward. When he was about an equal distance from Wyatt as Hero was to Damian, Shade watched as Hero began to flex in an attempt to show he was confident in winning before giving a small taunt by gesturing to Shade to bring it on.

However, no one was expecting what would happen next.

As if some sort of switch had been flipped upon seeing his opponent, Shade's calm and lazy demeanor quickly disappeared as his expression changed. His eyes narrowed forward as though glaring at Hero, and his smile was replaced with a menacing growl as he began to slightly snarl. Shade bent his knees and tilt forward as though he was ready to charge straight at his opponent, and he kept opening and closing his hands as he flashed his claws at Hero. Needless to say, Hero's bravado disappeared as he was now thoroughly intimidated. It seemed like everyone else was as well.

"Shade swapped from appearing calm and carefree to looking like he wants to tear Hero apart! Was that lazy attitude just a show to hide how he really is?" Sunset thought to herself.

"Woah! Shade, calm down! You don't have to be this aggressive!" Wyatt said to Shade, though Shade didn't appear to register what Wyatt as said as nothing seemed to change.

"I think this is just Shade's way of intimidating his opponent." Sylvan said. "Many Pokemon have their own ways of trying to intimidate their opponent in battle from bird Pokemon flaring out their feathers to make themselves look bigger or even Pokemon with sharp body parts showing them off to show how dangerous they are. It's possible that in this case, Shade is doing the latter."

"Regardless, don't get intimidated Hero! We've got this!" Damian said encouragingly to his starter. Hero heard this and seemed to get back his bravado as he got back into his battle stance as Damian pulled out his Pokedex so he could see what moves Hero had.

Wyatt looked at his starter with a mix of worry and curiosity. He didn't know why Shade's attitude had changed completely, but he didn't feel like it was only Shade's way to intimidate his opponent. The growling sounded a little too feral for intimidation. It was if Shade was thinking of this battle as a life or death situation. Wyatt felt that if he and Shade didn't work together properly, something bad would happen.

"Shade, are you ready?" Wyatt asked and this time, Shade responded by looking back at Wyatt and gave him a small nod. Seeing this and giving a small smile, Wyatt pulled out his Pokedex so he could see Shade's moves. "Ok, then let's do this!"

V.S. Damian

"Ok! Let's start this off strong! Use Tackle!" Damian said. Hero braced himself before he launched himself forward towards Shade in order to ram him, only to phase completely through him.

"What?! Why did it... Oh. Right. Shade's not a Fire type, he's a Ghost type. Whoops!" Damian said sheepishly.

"Why did Hero pass through Shade? Wyatt was able to touch and hold him just fine earlier." Sunset asked.

"Here is where a Pokemon's typing comes into play. Tackle is a relatively simple Normal type move where the user tries to ram into their target. However, Shade's part Ghost type, and Ghost type Pokemon are immune to both Normal and Fighting type moves. And since Tackle is a Normal type move, Shade was immune to it. Resulting in Hero phasing right through him." Professor Sylvan explained.

"So Pokemon not only can be resistant and weak against certain move types, they can also be immune to them? That's interesting." Sunset said.

"Well, Petunia here is part Fairy type, meaning that she's immune to Dragon type moves. Actually, all three of the Deltas you all chose are immune to one or more types as Hero is part Dark type, meaning he's immune to Psychic type moves." Professor Sylvan said.

"Really? You're immune to dragons?" Sunset said amusingly while looking down at Petunia. She knew how tough and dangerous dragons were back in Equestria, with the exception of one she knew of course. So she found it kind of funny that something a small and cute as Petunia could win against a dragon.

"Alright, our turn! Shade, use Growl!" Wyatt said. Shade closed his mouth before he let out a loud growl that generated three small white shockwaves of sound that flew towards Hero. Hero was struck by them, and a blue aura appeared around him as blue particles fell around him and then disappeared as Hero felt physically weaker.

"Growl? What kind of move is Growl?" Sunset asked.

"Growl is a Normal type move that falls under the category of a Status move. Speaking of, there are three kinds of moves, Physical, Special, and Status. Physical moves are where the user uses a body part to attack the opponent, often making contact. Special moves involve the user firing a beam or a ball of energy at the opponent. Status moves don't deal damage most of the time, but they are able to strengthen or weaken a Pokemon in a variety of ways. Growl decreased Hero's Attack, meaning his Physical moves won't be as strong as before." Professor Sylvan explained.

"That's not good! Hero, even the playing field using Tail Whip!" Damian called out. Hero got close to Shade before using its tail to bat Shade a couple of times before t jumped away. It hit, and while it didn't do any damage, a blue aura appeared around Shade with blue particles falling around him and then disappeared as Shade felt weaker.

"Now what did Tail Whip do?" Sunset asked.

"Tail Whip is a Normal type move that lowers the target's Defense, meaning that Shade will take more damage from physical moves, also meaning that, in a sense, the effects of Growl have been evened out." Professor Sylvan said.

"But didn't you say that Ghost types are immune to Normal type moves?" Sunset asked.

"Yes, however moves such as Growl and Tail Whip, despite being Normal type, can still be used on Ghost types. A lot of status moves are like this, as a lot of the time their type doesn't matter and they can still be used on Pokemon that would be immune to the move's type." Professor Sylvan said.

"Shade, use Scratch!" Wyatt said, prompting Shade's claws to glow white before he delivered a powerful scratch that raked across Hero's front.

"Hero, shake it off! If we can't use Normal type moves, then we'll just use something that Shade's weak against! Use Pursuit!" Damian said. Hero's body was covered in a faint black aura before he rushed at Shade and readied a punch.

"Shade, try and dodge it!" Wyatt called out, only it was too late as the punch connected with Shade's torso and he was sent flying back a couple of feet before he landed back on the ground and got up. It seemed that the hit also did a lot of damage as Shade struggled for a second to get back up.

"That looked like it did a lot. What kind of move even was that?" Sunset said.

"Pursuit is a Dark type move that allows the user to hit a Pokemon even as its being swapped out. If that does happen, then the damage dealt by Pursuit is doubled. And since Ghost type Pokemon are weak to Dark type moves, that hit ended up dealing a lot of damage to Shade." Professor Sylvan said.

"You can swap out Pokemon in the middle of a fight?" Sunset asked.

"Yes. I suppose I should also explain that trainers are only allowed to carry six Pokemon at time. If a trainer has six caught Pokemon with them and catches a seventh, then the seventh one is converted into data and then is sent to their Pokemon Storage System, also simply called the PC, where it is stored inside and is placed in a digital environment where other Pokemon a trainer has caught can also be stored." Professor Sylvan explained.

"Yep, it's official. This world's technology is more advanced then the human version of Equestria. If either Twilights found out about this world, they would freak out and study everything they could about this world's technology." Sunset thought to herself as she was dumbfounded that Pokemon could be converted into data and stored inside computers.

"Shade, are you ok?!" Wyatt asked, which Shade responded with a simple growl. "Ok, then use Twister!"

To Sunset's surprise, blue and purple wind began to gather around Shade as it closed it eyes and began to concentrate. The wind then traveled down to Shade's tail where it began swirling around it. Shade's eyes shot open as it jumped into the air and swung its tail, the action causing the wind to peel off of his tail and create a small purple and blue tornado that rushed towards Hero and struck him, sending him flying into the air and crashing back down to the ground.

"Did Shade just create a tornado?!" Sunset exclaimed.

"Yep, Twister involves the user using what we call dragon energy to manipulate and empower the air around it, allowing the Pokemon to send forth a tornado of dragon energy towards their opponent." Professor Sylvan said.

"Hero! Are you good?" Damian asked. Slowly, Hero began to stand up as it appeared to be on its last legs. A black aura the briefly appeared around it as Hero gave off a small roar. "Yeah! That's the spirit!"

"What's going on with Hero?" Sunset asked.

"If I was to guess, that would be Hero's ability activating." Professor Sylvan said.

"Ability? What do you mean by ability?" Sunset asked.

"Having a type and learning moves of different types isn't the only thing a Pokemon has. Pokemon have what are known as abilities which are all different and trigger under certain circumstances. For instance, abilities such as Keen Eye and Big Pecks prevent a certain stat from being lowered while abilities such as Aftermath deal damage to the opponent that knocked out the Pokemon with the ability. Would you mind using your Pokedex to scan Hero for me real quick?" Professor Sylvan asked which Sunset obliged to and scanned hero, showing that his ability was called "Shadow Call". "Just what I thought. From appearance alone and the way it triggered, I can assume Shadow Call is a variation of the ability Torrent. Torrent increases the strength of all Water type moves used by the user as long as the Pokemon's HP is low. I assume Shadow Call is a Dark type variation of Torrent, meaning that Pursuit will deal even more damage to Shade." Professor Sylvan explained.

"Now Hero, use Pursuit!" Damian called out, prompting a somewhat fiercer black aura to appear around Hero as he rushed towards Shade.

"Not this time! Shade, use Scratch to try and parry it!" Wyatt called out. Shade's claws began to glow white as Hero got closer and prepared to punch him. Though right as he was about to Shade manage to redirect the punch using Scratch and kept parrying as Shade continued to try and punch Shade. However, in the end, Shade was unable to parry a punch and ended up being struck in the chest as he was sent flying back towards Wyatt.

"Shade! Come on, get up!" Wyatt shouted to Shade as he lay face down on the ground. After a couple of moments, Shade slowly began to get back up as it looked like it was about to fall over. Shade then let out a feral yell as a purple aura appeared around it as its glare seemed to become even more piercing. "Yes! You can do this!"

"Now what's Shade ability?" Sunset asked as she scanned Shade with her Pokedex, revealing its ability to be "Spirit Call".

"I suppose it's similar to that of the ability Blaze. It works exactly the same as Torrent, except it powers up Fire type moves instead. From the name alone, I can guess Spirit Call boosts the strength of Ghost type moves. But it doesn't appear that Shade knows any, so nothing has really changed." Professor Sylvan said.

"Alright Shade, let's give it all we've got! Use Twister!" Wyatt called out, prompting Shade to have more purple and blue wind surround him before he launched it forward again as a small tornado.

"Break through it using Pursuit!" Damian called out, prompting Hero to use Pursuit and due to the effects of Shadow Call, managed to punch straight through it and keep going. However, it seemed that it didn't negate the move entirely as some of the wind still hit him.

"Shade, finish it off with Twister, and make it the biggest one you can make!" Wyatt called out. Shade began to concentrate as even more wind began to gather around him and his tail before he swung it and created a tornado that was slightly bigger than the previous ones. It rocketed towards Hero and before Damian could call out a move, Hero was caught up in the small tornado and was thrown around in it while being buffeted by its wind before he was launched out of it and crashed into the ceiling before falling back down.

The aura around Hero began to fade away and he passed out as he was defeated, signaling the end of the battle. After a couple of seconds and making sure that Hero was actually down for the count, Shade's demeanor changed as his aggressive attitude and look went back to being happy and carefree as he let out a yawn and sat down as a happy smile appeared on his face.

"Hero has fainted, meaning that Shade and Wyatt have won the battle!" Professor Sylvan said.

"Wow, you're a great trainer! You totally beat me Wyatt!" Damian exclaimed as he went over to Hero and picked him up. "You were amazing as well, Hero."

"You were pretty amazing as well Damian. Using Pursuit against Twister was an amazing call, even if Hero still got slightly hurt from it." Wyatt stated.

"So, Sunset. I suppose you now have a better grasp on how Pokemon battles work?" Professor Sylvan asked Sunset.

"I suppose so. There was a lot to pay attention to and keep track of, but I feel like I now understand the gist of it." Sunset said as she felt as though she was starting to understand Pokemon battles more.

"Enough to want to try a battle yourself?" Professor Sylvan asked.

"Definitely not yet. But, maybe soon." Sunset said.

"Alright, now that Wyatt and I have had our battle, here's the deal." Damian began to say. "I'm going to go ahead and head north into Shade Forest. At the northern end of the forest is a really large cave known as Telnor Cave, and somewhere in the middle of that cave is the Rare Stone we need to look for. I'll meet you guys there, I want to get a head start on looking for the stone, so I'll see you guys there!"

Damian got out Hero's Pokeball and pointed the button towards him. Then, a small beam of red energy shot out of the button and hit Hero, where he was then transformed into red energy before he was sucked into the Pokeball. With Hero being stored back inside his Pokeball, Damian rushed out of the lab without another word.

"I suppose Damian headed to the Pokemon Center to heal his Pokemon before he goes into Shade Forest. If you're heading into there right away as well, I can heal Shade for you, Wyatt." Professor Sylvan said.

"Thank you Professor Sylvan." Wyatt said as Professor Sylvan went over to one of the bookshelves were multiple Potions could be found. Opening it, Professor Sylvan grabbed a Potion and walked over to Shade and crouched down so she could be closer to Shade.

"What's in that spray bottle, some sort of medicinal liquid?" Sunset asked.

"Remember how I said multiple ways have been made to heal Pokemon almost instantly after a battle? This is one of them. Potions are a type of medicinal spray that helps heal any injuries a Pokemon takes." Wyatt explained as Professor Sylvan began to spray Shade's chest and stomach where he was hit by Pursuit. Shade squirmed a bit due to how cold the spray was, but once Professor Sylvan finished spraying, Shade stood up as it now looked like he hadn't taken any damage at all.

"He looks good as new!" Sunset exclaimed.

"Yep. And there are types of Potions that are even more potent than a normal one." Wyatt said as Shade walked back towards him and gestured for him to be picked back up, which Wyatt obliged to and put Shade back on his shoulder.

"Now then, I assume you two are going after Damian as well? Also, why does he want a Rare Stone?" Professor Sylvan asked.

"Damian doesn't have his present for the Augur, so we're trying to help him get one before the Augur gets here." Wyatt said.

"Oh. Right. I forgot that was today." Professor Sylvan said, though she sounded very annoyed.

"Is something wrong, Professor?" Sunset asked.

"The thing is... Ok I'm just going to say it. I don't like the second Augur at all." Professor Sylvan said.

"You, don't like the second Augur? Did he do something to you?" Sunset asked.

"Nothing personally. I get that he's doing various things to help protect the Torren region from the cults... But tell me. How does ordering almost every town and city in Torren to create a statue of himself help the region. Also, this whole thing where he's visiting Telnor Town and he specifically asked if they could prepare him gifts sounds like something to boost his own ego. The first Augur never did any of this. For Arceus' sake, he would have been the one getting gifts for everyone in town." Professor Sylvan ranted.

"I, guess I can agree with you." Sunset said. Personally, neither her or Wyatt knew the second Augur personally and have been only hearing about him from other people. From Damian, he sounded like a hero and someone everyone in Torren loved. Though from both Damian's father and now Professor Sylvan, it sounded like some of the things he did weren't really liked by a lot of people, and that they missed the previous Augur a lot. However, they both mentally decided to see what he was like before they decided on how they thought of him.

"Anyways, sorry about my ranting. Let's register eachother's DexNavs so that I will be able to contact you both and vise versa. I need to see your Trainer Cards as your IDs are what is used to register a DexNav." Professor Sylvan said as she brought out a completely white DexNav from a pocket on her lab coat. Both Sunset and Wyatt gave her their Trainer Cards, and after a few seconds, she handed them back as they checked their DexNavs and found that Professor Sylvan's contact info had been registered.

"I suppose we should also register eachother's just in case?" Wyatt asked.

"Sounds like a good idea." Sunset said.

The two of them then registered eachother's DexNavs as they were now able to contact eachother easily if they were ever separated.

"Now then, you two probably shouldn't keep Damian waiting. In the meantime, I'll try and get into contact with my colleagues in Alola and see if there's anything they could know. If I do find out anything, I'll be sure that you two will be the first ones to know." Professor Sylvan said. "Now go out and enjoy your adventure!"

"Thank you Professor Sylvan!" Wyatt said.

"Same here, and thank you for helping me! It means a lot to me!" Sunset said.

The two of them then headed back outside the lab and took in a breath of fresh air with their new partners as their journey was now beginning. Both Sunset and Wyatt decided to leave their Pokemon outside of their Pokeballs so that they could take in the sights of Telnor Town as they walked towards the entrance to Shade Forest, though this did cause some of the townsfolk of Telnor Town to stop and look at the Delta starters. While Shade didn't seem to notice or care as he looked around, Petunia noticed some of the people looking at them and tried to shy away while still being held by Sunset as she was getting nervous. Eventually, the two of them made it to the entrance to Shade Forest, though Wyatt was starting to look nervous and Sunset almost immediately noticed his worried expression.

"Hey Wyatt, is something wrong?" Sunset asked.

"Kinda. Remember how I said I got both of us away from the Cult of Darkrai?" Wyatt asked.

"Yeah?" Sunset said.

"Well, the thing is, their base is in Shade Forest." Wyatt said.

"Wait, so you mean..." Sunset said.

"Yeah. I'm nervous that we may run into them while going to Telnor Cave. It's been a couple of hours since we got out, so they may have realized we escaped and might be looking for us." Wyatt said.

"Well, let me ask you this. Do you know where their base is specifically?" Sunset asked.

"Yeah. Its in this clearing within a rocky hill that's maybe a mile or two away from here." Wyatt said.

"Well, maybe if we stay away from that area we may not run into any of them." Sunset said hopefully.

"Maybe. I remember a sign that said Telnor Cave was down the path that was opposite of their base." Wyatt said before he let out a sigh. "Well, I guess we should go in and hope we don't run into any of their members." Wyatt said.

After that, the two of them entered Shade Forest and slowly made their way down the path through the woods. Now that there weren't any people around, Petunia was able to become a little more calm as there wasn't anyone staring at them. While walking down the path, Sunset was able to see some of the various Pokemon running through the trees and bushes that could be found in Shade Forest. Curious, she decided to scan some of them with her Pokedex and discovered what some of the Pokemon were called. There were Caterpies, Weedles which were large caterpillars but were brown and had small spikes on top of their head and on their tail, and small mammals that were either purple or light blue with large ears, whiskers, and horns on their heads that were called Nidoran. The different colors showed if a Nidoran was male or female with purple Nidoran being male and light blue Nidoran being female.

Shade Forest

Eventually, they made it to the split in the road where the trail post was.

"So where did you say the Cult of Darkrai's base was?" Sunset asked.

"Just down that way." Wyatt said as he pointed down the right path. "Following that path leads to the rocky hill where their base is located."

"Alright. Then I suppose all we need to do is head left and down this trail." Sunset said as she read the trail post and pointed down the left path.

"Sounds about right. Cross our fingers that we don't run into any cultists." Wyatt said.

The two of them headed down the left trail and after a couple of minutes of walking, Sunset began to feel her backpack buzzing as a purple light began to shine through the zipper of the large compartment of her backpack. Neither Wyatt or Shade noticed this as they were walking in front of Sunset, but when Sunset felt the buzzing it took her a few moments to realize what it was as she stopped in her tracks and her eyes went wide. She realized that since she still had her backpack and none of the cultists probably took anything out of it when she was taken to their base, then that meant...

"Hey Sunset, are you ok? You kind of just stopped walking." Wyatt asked which caused Sunset to snap out of her train of thought.

"Oh, um, yeah! I, uh, I just need to go to the bathroom real quick!" Sunset said as she thought up of a lie on the spot. "Do you mind if I just leave you all here while I go?"

"Oh, sure. Go ahead. Just make sure to be quick." Wyatt said.

"Great, I'll be right back. Petunia, stay here with Wyatt and Shade for a second." Sunset said as she put Petunia back onto the ground before going into the foliage and trees while her starter sat down beside Wyatt as they waited for her. Eventually after going a little bit into the woods and making sure that no one would be able to see her, Sunset sat down with her back against a tree as she took off her backpack and sat it down beside her. She then opened the main compartment and pulled out her journal where its pages were glowing with a purple light. Opening it, Sunset found that Twilight had been sending her messages that gradually increased in worry as Sunset hadn't arrived through the portal.

Dear Sunset,
You didn't arrive through the portal earlier, so I was wondering if you accidentally slept past the time you said you would come through the portal. Please write back as soon as you are awake or see this.

Your Friend,
Twilight Sparkle

Dear Sunset,
Did something come up? It's been a couple of hours since you said you would arrive, so I was wondering if something came up. If it involves the strange shadow and you aren't able to come here to Equestria, I would be happy to come through the portal and help out.

Your Friend,
Twilight Sparkle

Dear Sunset,
Are you there? Did Something bad happen? Do you need help?

Your Friend,
Twilight Sparkle

Dear Sunset,
Answer me. Please.

Seeing how worried Twilight was about her to the point of not signing the last message, Sunset rummaged around in her bag before she pulled out an orange pen and began writing a message as fast as she could.

Dear Twilight,
I'm ok, but something happened on my way to Equestria and... well... I don't know if I'll be able to get to you for a while. Or Canterlot High for that matter.

Your Friend,
Sunset Shimmer

After writing down her message, literal seconds later Twilight wrote back with her own message.

Oh thank Celestia you are ok! I've been worrying for the past few hours since you haven't been answering and I was just about to go to Canterlot High myself to see if something bad happened. Wait... What do you mean you won't be able to get to Equestria or Canterlot High for a while?

Sunset chuckled a bit as this was one of the rare few times that Twilight didn't address one of her messages as though it was a letter. It just went to show how worried the Princess of Friendship was and how relieved she was to hear she was ok. She decided to also not write the next few messages to help Twilight stay calm.

The thing is, when I was about to go through the portal, something happened to it. Its surface got dark to the point where it was pitch black and then something, I don't know what, pulled me through. Traveling through the portal to wherever the thing took me felt, I don't know, wrong. Like everything didn't feel natural. I unfortunately passed out before I could see where I was taken to, but I woke up not too long ago and I learned that I'm another world, one that is similar to the human version of Equestria, but is different in a lot of ways.

YOU'RE IN ANOTHER WORLD?! I mean, I guess it make sense that there are other worlds if an alternate version of Equestria exists, but back to the matter at hand. Do you have any idea how you got there, and also, what do you mean it's similar yet different to the alternate Equestria?

Well, for one, humans exist here and that I wasn't transformed into a unicorn when I was apparently taken here so I'm still a human. The other thing is that some of the architecture I've seen so far is similar, so there's that. But that's kind of where the similarities end for the most part.

So what's different then?

Sunset then wrote down everything she had learned so far ever since she woke up: how the continents and places of this world were different and how she was in what was known as the Torren region, how this world's technology was a lot more advanced compared to that of the alternate version of Equestria, and how Pokemon coexisted with the people of this world. She also included things such as some of the various technology she has witnessed, how Pokemon battles work, and also made sure to include that there were various cults in the Torren region and that she was helped to escape one even though she was passed out.

That's amazing! Well, amazing except for the fact that there are evil cults that torment the region, but other than that everything sounds incredible!

Yeah, but I had to tell some people that I'm not from this world. I didn't tell them about Equestria though! Currently the Pokemon Professor of this region is trying to contact some of her colleagues in the Alola region to see if they can help me get back to the alternate Equestria as they apparently research interdimensional rifts. While she is, I decided to become a trainer and take on the Gym Challenge with two others. Currently we're heading to a place called Telnor Cave where we can find a Rare Stone for this Augur guy.

That sounds perfect! Don't worry, I'll try and see if I can try and help find anything that can help get you back. I'll also try and see if Celestia or Luna might know anything that could help as well. Also, if you don't mind me asking, who are these other two people you're taking this "Gym Challenge" with? And who's this "Augur" you mentioned?

Their names are Wyatt and Damian. Wyatt is the boy who got me out of the Cult of Darkrai's base while I was unconscious. Though, they apparently did something to him as he can't remember anything personal. He doesn't even remember if he has any family or if anyone knows him personally, so he decided to take on the Gym Challenge to travel the region and see if he can find anyone who knows him. Damian is a boy who wanted to become a trainer for a long time and also thinks of the Augur as his hero. He reminds me of Pinkie Pie with how much enthusiasm he has, and he's also really kind as well. As for the current Augur, he's apparently the strongest trainer in Torren and helps protect it from the cults. The things is, while a lot of people admire him, some people don't like him as much compared to the previous one. Apparently the first one was able to disband many of the cults while the current one apparently hasn't disbanded a single one. Also he's apparently done a lot of things people don't like, but I don't want to judge until I meet him for myself.

"Hey, Sunset! Are you almost done?!"

Sunset jumped a little as she realize she may have been gone longer than she wanted to be as she heard Wyatt call out for her.

Sorry, I need to go. I need to get back to the others so we can continue heading to Telnor Cave. I'll write back later, ok?

Ok. And, Sunset? Thanks for letting me know you are ok. I'll do everything I can to help get you back to either version of Equestria. You can count on it.

Thanks Twilight.

Sunset closed her journal before putting it back into her backpack. While she was at it, she also decided to put her Badge Case inside the larger compartment as well to help slightly free up room in her pockets. Once she zipped up her backpack and put it back on, she walked back through the tress and grass until she was back with Wyatt, Shade, and Petunia.

"I guess when you gotta go, you gotta go. Right?" Wyatt joked.

"Yeah. Sorry I took so long. Anyways, let's get back on track, shall we?" Sunset said as she picked Petunia back up.

Wyatt gave a simple nod as the two of them continued heading through Shade Forest until they began walking through some grass and noticed a Potion lying on the ground which Wyatt went over to and picked up before they continued walking.

"Why did you pick up a Potion lying on the ground? It could have been someone's trash that they just decided to toss." Sunset asked.

"Well, that's usually not the case most of the time. Sometimes trainers will accidentally lose or drop items that fall out of their pockets or bags and they usually don't find them, causing them to be abandoned. It's considered common curtesy to pick up these dropped items and either throw them away if they do happen to be trash or keep and use them for later." Wyatt said as held the Potion in his hand.

"Well, I guess that's one way to make sure litter is taken care of." Sunset said before after a couple of minutes she noticed a red and yellow spray bottle similar to a Potion lying on the ground right by the trees. "So I guess I should pick that up?"

"Yep. And it looks like that's a Super Potion. Essentially they function almost exactly the same as a Potion, but as the name suggests, its healing capabilities are more effective compared to a Potion." Wyatt said as he put the Potion in his backpack while Sunset was looking at the Super Potion.

"Well then, don't mind if I do." Sunset said as she set down Petunia and went over to pick it up, only for Petunia to begin calling out as she tried to warn Sunset that something wasn't right.

"What's wrong Petunia?" Sunset said as she picked up the Super Potion and turned to look at Petunia who began to back away as she saw something behind Sunset. Turning around, Sunset was met with a Ghastly sticking its tongue out at her as it tried to scare her. It worked, causing Sunset to backpedal away from it in fright as the Ghastly laughed.

"Ahh! What is that thing!" Sunset cried out.

"That's would be a Ghastly. It's a Ghost and Poison type that likes to scare people and Pokemon. I guess it was using that Super Potion as a trap so it could scare anyone who would try and take it." Wyatt said.

"Seriously?! Why you little-" Sunset said as she tried to grab the Ghastly, only for it to easily float out of her reach where it then proceeded to stick its tongue out more at her. This continued on for a bit before it was covered in a faint pink aura as pink circles slammed into it from all around it and caused it to slam onto the ground. Surprised, Sunset looked around and saw Petunia's irises slowly stop glowing bright pink as she tried her best to look menacing, though was failing as she still looked very nervous.

"Petunia, did you just?" Sunset asked, however her attention was turned back to the Ghastly as it slowly began to float back up and stared at the group with a glare.

"Looks like we might have made it made. And it also looks like its glaring at both you and Petunia." Wyatt said.

Sunset looked back and forth between the Ghastly and Petunia. The Ghastly looked like it was about to attack at any moment, meaning that she needed to decide what she was going to do fast. That's when it hit her.

"Wyatt, it isn't illegal to battle wild Pokemon, is it?" Sunset asked.

"No, why do you... Oh! You mean you want to?" Wyatt asked excitedly as he realized what Sunset was saying.

Sunset nodded before she turned walked behind Petunia who looked back at her while trying to keep an eye on the Ghastly.

"Petunia, do you mind helping me to battle this Ghastly?" Sunset asked. Petunia responded by giving a shaky nod which prompted Sunset to pull out her Pokedex to see what moves Petunia knew. "Alright, then let's do this Petunia!"

Petunia let out her best war cry, which was still a little quite, as the battle began. "Petunia, use Baby-Doll Eyes!" Sunset called out, prompting Petunia to look at the Ghastly as her eyes began to sparkle. The Ghastly was unable to look away as a blue aura and particles appeared as one of its stats were lowered.

"What did Baby-Doll Eyes lower?" Sunset asked.

"Baby-Doll Eyes is a high priority move that reduces an opponents Attack. Oh, yeah, high priority moves are moves that are able to hit first regardless of how fast a Pokemon using it is. To put it simply, if a slow Pokemon was to use a high priority move while a fast Pokemon used a normal move, the high priority move would be used first and either hit the target first or be used first." Wyatt explained.

The Ghastly floated towards Petunia and got right in her face. Before she or Sunset could react, the Ghastly used its tongue and gave Petunia a giant lick that knocked her back a little bit, though it also seemed to do quite a bit.

"Did it just lick her?" Sunset asked.

"Yeah, that move is literally called Lick. It's a not too powerful Ghost type move, meaning that it's super effective against Petunia as she's a Psychic type." Wyatt said.

"Now that I think about it, how many types are there in total?" Sunset asked.

"Currently, 18 different types have been discovered. There could be more, but that's all the types that have currently been discovered." Wyatt said.

"Wow, that's a lot. Anyways, Petunia can't use Tackle as Ghastly's a Ghost type. So instead, use Confusion!" Sunset called out.

Petunia's irises began to glow pink again as a familiar pink aura surrounded Ghastly before more pink circles slammed into it and it was slammed back onto the ground. Floating back up, it's eyes began to glow light blue as waves of blue energy began to float towards Petunia.

"Petunia, dodge whatever that Ghastly's using!" Sunset called out. Thankfully, Petunia was able to move out of the way before the wave hit her. "What move even was that?"

"That was Hypnosis. It's a Psychic type move that inflicts the Sleep status condition." Wyatt explained.

"Ok, what are status conditions?" Sunset asked.

"Status conditions are negative effects that can be applied to Pokemon, often through the use of Status moves but Physical and Special moves can also inflict them. Sleep is just one of them, and as the name applies, the target is put into a deep sleep that they can only wake up from on their own or if they are attacked." Wyatt explained.

"Then I guess it's a good thing you avoided that. Now, use Confusion again!" Sunset called out. Petunia used Confusion once more which slammed the Ghastly back down. As it got up though, its eyes began to swirl around as small yellow birds began to circle around the top of it.

"What did we just do?" Sunset asked.

"Confusion is a Psychic type move that super effective against Poison types, and it has a chance to inflict the Status condition of the same name. Pokemon who are confused can't focus all that well and may end up putting too much force into an attack, miss completely, and hurt themselves in the process." Wyatt explained. As he did, the Ghastly tried to use Lick again, only for it to miss and crash into the ground next to Petunia and hurt itself.

"Fine by me! Petunia, finish it with one last Confusion!" Sunset called out. Petunia did, causing the Ghastly to be launched back towards the trees and into one, where it promptly passed out and fell to the ground as it was defeated.

"Petunia, we did it!" Sunset said as she knelt down and held her arms open where Petunia ran over to her and leapt into her arms as the two hugged over their first victory as trainer and partner.

"You both were amazing for your first battle." Wyatt said as Shade gave an agreeing thumbs up.

"Yeah. I guess we were." Sunset said as she looked back down at Petunia before she looked over at the Ghastly. "What the, now where do you think you're going?" Sunset asked as she saw the Ghastly slowly float back up. Noticing it was being watched, it flew back into the trees where it disappeared out of sight.

"It'll be fine. Wild Pokemon tend to get back up pretty soon after a battle, though it looks like that one go up pretty quickly. Anyways, you still got a Super Potion out of this ordeal!" Wyatt said as he pointed out the Super Potion that Sunset still held in her hand.

"Yep. I'll just put this away for now." Sunset said as she took off and opened the middle compartment of her backpack to put the Super Potion in, only to drop it as it shrunk, "What the?!"

"Yeah, Pokeballs aren't the only things that can shrink to save on storage space. Potions and other stuff can do that as well so that they can fit into bags easier." Wyatt said.

"Now I feel like this world's technology is actively trying to break my brain." Sunset said as she picked back up the Super Potion and put it into one of the many pouches in the compartment before zipping it back up.

"Speaking of..." Wyatt said as he pulled out one of the Potions he took from the Cult of Darkrai's base. "We can use this to heal Petunia. She may have only taken a little bit of damage, but it's best to be fully healed in case something happens." Wyatt then knelt down to and sprayed the Potion on Petunia, mostly on her face as she closed her eyes, as that's where she was hit by Lick. After he was done, Petunia was back to feeling 100%.

"Thanks for that." Sunset said as the two of them stood back up.

"No problem. Now then, let's keep going. Telnor Cave shouldn't be too far ahead." Wyatt said.

The two of them continued down the path before they eventually reached an opening in the trees. Going through it, they found themselves in a small clearing with flowers here and there and patches of tall grass as well. Further into it was a more open space as there was a small river that had a small wooden bridge over it that led to the other side, where the entrance to Telnor Cave was. Making their way further into the clearing and across the bridge, they made it to the entrance and went through it into Telnor Cave as they hoped to catch up with Damian and find the Rare Stone they were looking for. And maybe battle against any wild Pokemon that challenged them to a fight to help Shade and Petunia get stronger.

Author's Note

And so the next chapter is done, and with it, Sunset and Wyatt's first battles! I'm kinda happy with how both battle scenes turned out, even if a lot of it were either Professor Sylvan or Wyatt explaining some things. Trust me, future battles won't have this much explaining in them as Sunset is still learning how some parts of battles work. She'll get the hang of it eventually.

Anyways, here is the part where I reveal the previous chapter's references and easter eggs. And all of them were hidden in the Trainer Cards, with them being both the birthdays and ID #s of each card. Wyatt's birthday, August 13th, is a reference to when Insurgence was updated to its final version of 1.2, meaning that everything relating to story stuff and other things in the game was all released. I couldn't find the exact date for the original 1.0 release date, so I decided to go with this instead. His ID # on the other hand is the release date (June 9th, 2020) for Pokemon Insurgence most recent update, version 1.2.7, which is mostly just bug fixes. At least I think it is as that's the date of a post on the Pokemon Insurgence forums that was put out by one of the devs of the game that announced it. For those wondering, this is the post I'm talking about. Anyways, Sunset's birthday, June 15th, is the release date of the first MLP: EG movie, while her ID # is the release date of the Rainbow Rocks sequel movie (September 27th, 2014). Finally is Damian who's birthday, October 12th, is when Pokemon X and Y were released worldwide, marking the day of when the Pokemon series transitioned to the 3DS. His ID # is the release date of Pokemon Emerald in North America (May 1st, 2005). I decided since his color scheme involves a lot of green, then it would be nice if I could involve one of the green color titles for him. Now that that's out of the way, there aren't any new references in this chapter so you don't have to look out for them.

One other thing is that I decided to use Hop's theme from Pokemon Sword and Shield as Damian's battle theme for a couple of reasons. The first being that I don't think the generic trainer battle music suits him all that well. The other being that I think the way Hop's theme sounds is perfect for him as it helps express how upbeat and excited he his to finally have his first battle as a Pokemon trainer.

Anyways with that out of the way, the next chapter will see the introduction of a few more important people as our group of newfound trainers head into Telnor Cave to try and find a Rare Stone before the Augur arrives. And hopefully with Twilight now helping with getting Sunset back home, things might just be looking up for our young heroine. See you all in the next chapter!

Shade Forest

Theme Used: Shade Forest (Pokemon Insurgence)

A forest known to stay dark and shady even in the middle of the afternoon. Connecting Telnor Town to Telnor Cave, it is the perfect place for new trainers to catch a Pokemon to add to their team. Recently, rumors have been popping up with some people saying that they believe a cult might be gathering somewhere in the forest.

Chapter 6: Enter the Abyssal and Infernal Cults

As Sunset and Wyatt entered Telnor Cave, they found themselves in a decently large chamber within the cave where sunlight filtered in from cracks and holes in the ceiling, allowing the chamber to be illuminated enough to where flashlights or other light sources weren't really needed. They were currently on an overlook that allowed them to see that the chamber went down in elevation towards the middle where at the bottom of the chamber and towards the left was a hole with a ladder sticking through it which likely led deeper into the cave. Dotted around the chamber as well were decently sized puddles filled with water that probably went up to their knees in terms of how deep they were. Next, there were three other people in the cave, possibly trainers who would likely battle them if they passed them considering they had at least a Pokeball in their hand while they went about the cave. Finally, there were a variety of different Pokemon here and there that Sunset immediately began to scan with her Pokedex to learn what they were and found that almost all of them were either Ground, Rock, or part Ground or Rock type. These included what appeared to be small moles whose heads stuck out of small holes in the ground called Diglett, actual rocks with arms and a face that were known as Geodude, and strange Pokemon that looked like a mix between a clay doll and a top known as a Baltoy. There were also some Pokemon lounging around in the puddles, a pink sea slug with a white underbelly called Shellos and a blue Pokemon with a large head and small torso that Sunset thought looked similar to that of an axolotl called Wooper.

Telnor Cave

Traversing through the chamber, Sunset and Wyatt found themselves being challenged by some of the trainers wandering around to a battle. Sunset was somewhat confused as to why people would challenge others to a battle out of the blue, but Wyatt explained that it was simply a basic rule of being a trainer. He did say that if a trainer wasn't interested, they could simply refuse and continue on their way. Though, in the case of the two newfound trainers, they decided to accept their challenges so that their Pokemon could grow stronger and so Sunset could have her first battle with another trainer.

To put it simply: she actually did pretty well. Her first battle against a trainer and their Machop, a gray humanoid Fighting type Pokemon with yellow ridges on its head that Sunset was assured was actually a Pokemon, was pretty much over the moment Petunia was sent out to battle as her dual typing of Fairy and Psychic made her extremely resistant to any Fighting type moves the Machop used. After the battle, she was a little bit surprised when the trainer handed her some money before they began to head to Telnor Town and to the Pokemon Center to heal up their Pokemon. The money the trainer handed her looked similar to that of the parallel Equestria's currency as it was a few paper bills and some coins, though they had a different symbol on them that was similar to a dollar sign.

"Two questions. One: why did that trainer give me money when I defeated them? Two: what kind of currency is this?" Sunset asked.

"That's actually one of the main ways trainers make money. By battling and winning against another trainer, the trainer that loses has to give up a little bit of prize money to the victor. That's sort of another reason why so many people become Pokemon trainers even if they have an actual job. Pokemon battling is not only fun, but it's also very profitable. As for the currency, we use Pokedollars. Pokedollars come in either two forms, coins or bills. You can see how much a Pokedollar is worth by looking at the number on it." Wyatt explained, pointing out that some of the coins had different numbers on them. Mostly either 1, 5, or even 10. The bills on the other hand all had the number 100 on them.

"Its like the currency of where I'm from then. We use bills and coins as well, though the coins are actually a percentage of a single dollar. Though, I guess that's not the case here, is it?" Sunset asked.

"Not really. A single Pokedollar is the coin with the 1 on it. We don't really have anything that's a percentage of a Pokedollar." Wyatt explained.

"Good to know then." Sunset said as they continued going through the chamber.

As they continued going through the chamber and battling the other trainers, something interesting happened. During a battle against a trainer and their Aipom, a Normal type Pokemon that looked like a purple monkey who had a large hand at the end of their tail, Shade did something that Wyatt hadn't commanded him to. Shade raised his arms above him as three orbs of different colors, one orange, one purple, and one light green, appeared between his hands before he brought them down and launched all three of them at the Aipom. The orbs then circled around the Aipom at various different angles and inflicted Confusion onto the Aipom before they disappeared. After the battle, Sunset decided to ask what had happened as Wyatt scanned Shade with his Pokedex.

"What were those orbs Shade launched at that Aipom?"

"Looks like Shade learned Confuse Ray and used it during the battle! It's a Ghost type Status move that, as the name suggests, inflicts Confusion." Wyatt said.

"Pokemon can learn new moves?" Sunset asked.

"Yeah! When a Pokemon gets strong enough, they are able to use new moves that they can utilize. The thing is, a Pokemon can only know and use four moves at a time, so when a Pokemon wants to learn a new move and already knows four moves, they need to replace one of the ones they currently know with the new one." Wyatt explained.

"That's, interesting. So when a Pokemon replaces a move with a new one, is that move just gone forever?" Sunset asked.

"Not exactly. They still know how to use the move, it's just that they've replaced it with a new one and aren't able to use it. There are ways to reteach a move a Pokemon has forgotten, but I don't think we're going to see any of those ways anytime soon." Wyatt explained.

"That's nice to know." Sunset said as she looked down at Petunia. "I wonder what moves you'll learn."

Petunia simply gave a happy smile at Sunset before they reached the ladder. Thinking that Damian headed deeper into the cave, Sunset and Wyatt had to temporarily put Shade and Petunia back in their Pokeballs before they began to climb down the ladder and into the lowest level of Telnor Cave. They had climbed down into a chamber that was a lot bigger than the one above them and also slightly darker, though there were still cracks and holes in the ceiling where sunlight could pass into the chamber and slightly brighten the place up. There were still deep puddles of water scattered around the chamber as various inclines led to higher parts of the chamber, with another ladder leading up into another part of the cave being seen on one of the higher parts. There were roughly two trainers wandering around as well and Sunset was able to see three new Pokemon as well that she scanned. There were four new ones: a small reptilian Pokemon who was a light shade of brown, was carrying a small bone in one hand, and whose face was covered by a skull that was known as Cubone. A blue rocky Pokemon that had a triangular red rock on its face called Nosepass. A dark blue rocky Pokemon with two small feet, some sort of rocky appendage on its head, and had a small hole in its face that was surrounded by yellow rock called Roggenrola. Finally, a large snake Pokemon that seemed to be entirely made out of rocks called Onix. The last of which startled Sunset as it dug out of the ground beside her and simply dug into the wall after looking around for a bit.

While going through the second chamber of the cave and battling the trainers they passed, Petunia herself learned a new move during a battle against a trainer's Pidove, a Flying and Normal type bird Pokemon that looked almost exactly like a pigeon. The move in question was a Fairy type move known as Fairy Wind where pink wind gathered around Petunia before she sent it forward as a sharp gust of wind that swirled around the Pidove and damaged it. After congratulating Petunia on learning a new move and healing up their Pokemon, Sunset and Wyatt continued going through the chamber and eventually reached the ladder on one of the upper parts. Briefly returning their Pokemon into their Pokeballs, the two of them climbed up the ladder into what appeared to be the third and final chamber of Telnor Cave.

The chamber was as bright as the first one with holes and cracks in the ceiling allowing sunlight to brighten the place up. They had climbed up into the lower half of the chamber with the area they climbed up into having rocks and stalagmites scattered about here and there. To the right of where they climbed out was a small pond that seemed to be a couple of feet deep. Across from them was a slope that led to the upper half of the chamber which simply skimmed around the perimeter, with what appeared to be the exit to the cave right at the opposite side of the chamber and on the higher part. A bridge could be seen connecting two side of the upper half that went over the small pond. As Sunset and Wyatt climbed into the new chamber and let out their starters, Damian and Hero saw them as they had been looking near the stalagmites and came over to them.

"Wyatt! Sunset! You two were really slow! You took forever to get here!" Damian said as he and Hero approached them.

"Sorry, we kind of kept getting challenged by trainers and Sunset had her first battle on the way here." Wyatt explained.

"Really?! How did you do? Did you enjoy battling? Who or what was your opponent?" Damian asked excitedly.

"It was a Ghastly. It got the jump on me by using a Super Potion as a trap. And, well, I think the both of us did a pretty good job." Sunset said as she looked down at Petunia who was on the ground next to her who gave a happy nod in response.

"A Ghastly, huh? I remember that they would sometimes come into Telnor Town at night and would scare people who were still outside. Regardless, did you also fight some of the trainers on the way over here?" Damian asked.

"Yep, with Petunia and Shade learning new moves as well." Sunset said.

"Neat! Hero also learned a new move as well! Anyways, the two of us have been looking around and we think that the Rare Stone is somewhere among these stalagmites. We've only just started, but I have a good feeling that we're close to finding it!" Damian said. Meanwhile, Sunset was looking around before she noticed someone standing on the bridge to their right.

The person had white skin, pale red hair, and red eyes. They also wore an outfit that consisted of a red hood with three ridges on the top and a black stripe that went around it. The hood was also connected to a red cape with various parts trailing off into points that gave off the impression of fire. They wore a red and yellow shirt and pants that were white but had a red outline of the pockets, blue bands around the knees, and a pale red fire design around the ankles. The wore white gloves that went up to their shoulders with gold bracelets on each wrist. Finally, the shoes appeared to be some kind of boots that were mostly hidden under the pants, though the parts that were seen were golden in color. Something felt wrong about the person and Sunset couldn't help as she grabbed both Wyatt and Damian and pulled them behind some of the stalagmites, with their starters following their trainers as well

"Sunset, what are you-" Damian began to say only to be cut off by Sunset.

"Shh! There's someone on the bridge." Sunset whispered, prompting Damian and Wyatt to peek out from behind the stalagmite. Damian gasped as he saw the person.

"No way! That's a member of the Infernal Cult! What's an Infernal Cultist doing all the way out here?!" Damian whispered as he was shocked. However, his question would go unanswered as someone walked through the exit of the chamber and made their way to the Infernal cultist.

The person in question was a woman who had white skin, pure white hair, and gray eyes. Her outfit seemed to almost resemble a two piece swimsuit with the way it looked. The top half was like a tank top and was blue in color with red lines around the collar and shoulders. On her arms were disconnected sleeves that were also blue and had red lines around the wrists. The bottom half consisted of blue tights with red lines around the waist and red circular outlines on the sides of her legs. Around her waist seemed to be some kind of blue skirt that went to her knees, though the front part was missing. Finally, the woman was barefoot as she walked towards the Infernal Cultist and began talking.

"It seems like you are early."

"More like you're a little late. I've been waiting here for a little while now." The Infernal Cultist said whose voice revealed him to be male.

"Don't start with me like that. I had to ensure that something delivered to Miara Town made it safely. And what about your leader? Where's he?" The woman asked.

"Still waiting for that thing to do something. Seriously, I get that he trying to find out the complete thing but he has been waiting weeks for it to activate. So, he sent me instead." The Infernal cultist said with an annoyed tone.

"Regardless, he will not leave Telnor Town alive." The woman said, causing the three hiding trainers to focus on what she was saying. "My agent is already in place. I assume yours is, too?"

"Yes, and armed to the brink with the strongest Pokemon we had available. He's visiting a no name town out in the middle of nowhere. There's no way he would bring his Pokemon with him for just a short and simple visit. Rest assured, he will be dead before he leaves Telnor Town." The Infernal cultist said as Sunset felt chills crawl up her spine.

"Very good. This Augur disgusts me. I could at least grudgingly respect the first one, but this one is just useless." The woman said. "He's practically brainwashed the entire region with all this propaganda he's spread about himself."

"Yeah. It's really annoying hearing people say stuff about how great and wonderful he is." The Infernal Cultist responded.

"Have you heard how ridiculous some of it is? He was born of fire and lightning and he rode Xerneas as a steed? The man's been Augur for a year and already the people are worshipping him." The woman said.

"Well, we won't have to worry about him after today, will we? Anyways, we should be going. I suppose it was nice meeting with you at least." The Infernal Cultist said as he began to walk towards the exit.

"I suppose so." The woman said as she followed him out. Once they were both gone, the three of them stood up from behind their hiding place with looks of worry.

"Guys, this is bad. Both of those people were cultists! That woman looked like a member of the Abyssal Cult! And did you hear what they were saying?! They're planning to assassinate the Augur when he comes to Telnor Town!" Damian exclaimed as he began panicking.

"We were lucky to have not have been seen. Thanks for pulling us down Sunset." Wyatt said.

"No problem, but I can't believe we we just got caught up in the middle of this." Sunset said.

"Yeah! We... we need to help! We need to go back and warn the Augur before the assassins get to him!" Damian said as he returned Hero to his Pokeball and rushed to the ladder. "We have to hurry! The Augur might have already arrived!"

Following Damian's lead, Sunset and Wyatt returned Petunia and Shade to their Pokeballs and headed down the ladder, though Wyatt noticed something glimmering towards the bottom of one of the stalagmites and picked it up as it caught his eye. They rushed as fast as they could through the cave's chambers before they eventually made it back out to the entrance of Telnor Cave. They didn't stop as they continued running through Shade Forest and made it back to Telnor Town in just a couple of minutes, though all three of them were out of breath from the constant running and took a quick breather at the entrance to Shade Forest and headed into town where Damian's father called out to him.

"Damian, Wyatt, and miss... umm..." Damian's father said as he saw Sunset.

"Sunset Shimmer." Sunset said.

"Well, nice to finally meet you miss Shimmer. Anyways, the three of you are late. The Augur arrived five minutes ago and he's waiting in the Town Hall." Damian's father said as he walked towards the building with the dome roof and entered it.

"We have to hurry! The Augur could be attacked any minute now! Let's go!" Damian exclaimed as he rushed towards the Town Hall with Sunset and Wyatt close behind him.

The three of them entered the Town Hall and found that the inside was just one massive room. The room was quite long in terms of length with the floor being hardwood while the wallpaper was that of vertical stripes of two different shades of green. There were multiple table lined up in two columns that stretched across the room's length as sunlight shone upon the inside through the roof which was that of the dome they saw outside, the dome being made of glass itself. Finally, lined across the walls were small lights that were turned off as the sunlight streaming through the roof provided enough light to illuminate the place.

Multiple people who lived in Telnor Town were gathered around some of the tables in the room and Damian's father could be seen standing near one towards the back of the room. The table next to him had three people gathered around it, two of whom were shrouded and dirty brown cloaks that made it hard to tell who they were. The other person standing definitely gave off an aura of importance as he stood there and talked to Damian's father. The man had white skin, green eyes, and had blond hair that swept upwards towards the front while the back was tied into a ponytail. His outfit was quite unique. It consisted of a white shirt with gold lines on it. A white cowl was wrapped around his neck with a gold line wrapping around it towards the edge while a red necklace with green crystals was worn on top of it. His pants were white and a little bit baggy, but the front had a gold line going down the middle with it becoming two golden circles right above the knee on each pant leg before it became a line once again. Finally, his shoes were primarily green in color while gold bangles were worn around his wrists that also had green gem crystals inlaid within them.

Damian quickly led the three of them towards the man talking with Damian's father who noticed the three of them approaching and turned to them. When the three of them reached the man, he began speaking to them.

"Oh, hello. I'm Jaern, the Second Augur. It's nice to meet you all, you have a very lovely town. What might be your names, young ones?" The man now known as Jaern asked.

"Umm, my name's Damian... This is Wyatt... and this is Sunset..." Damian began saying as he introduced the three of them. "And I'm a huge fan, sir! But, the thing is, we're here to warn you that one of the guests here wants to kill you!"

Jaern, Damian's father, and the two cloaked people turned to look at Damian as it got so quite you could hear a pin drop. After several moments of tense silence, Jaern spoke.

"That's a very serious accusation Damian." Jaern said while Damian's father quickly went over to his son.

"I am so sorry about this, sir. Damian what are you saying? You're embarrassing us! You know that you shouldn't say something like that in front of the Augur! I'm sorry, but you will be punished for this." Damian's father said.

"Actually, I wouldn't worry about it. He'll get enough punishment here as is."

The five of them turned toward who had spoken, which was one of the cloaked people at the table. The two of them walked closer towards them and stood side by side.

"And who might you be?" Jaern asked.

"We're cultists." One of the cloaked people said as both of them ripped off their cloaks. "And we're here to kill you."

The person on the left looked and was dressed exactly the same as the Infernal Cultist that Sunset, Wyatt, and Damian saw in Telnor Cave. The person on the right had an outfit that was more in line with the one the Abyssal Cultist they saw in Telnor Cave wore, albeit a lot different. First, he had white skin, slicked blue hair that had a small cowlick at the top, and blue eyes. His outfit was mainly that of a blue bodysuit and he had a cowl wrapped around his shoulders that was primarily blue, but was red around the collar and shoulder and was white at the middle and bottom. He wore gloves that extended pas his elbows with the part around his hands being dark blue while the rest was the same blue as the bodysuit. Finally, he wore boots that were red for the most part but were dark blue at the bottom.

"W-what? No, you can't! In fact..." Damian said as he pulled out Hero's Pokeball. "You won't even get a chance to battle him!"

Wyatt looked between Damian and the cultists before he got a determined look as he decided he would join him and pulled out Shade's Pokeball. "I'm with you!"

Meanwhile, Sunset was starting to get anxious as she looked between the cultists and both Damian and Wyatt who were ready to fight them off. Steeling her nerves, Sunset pulled out Petunia's Pokeball and stood beside her two new friends. "If you want to get to him, you'll have to go through us!"

The two cultists looked at the three of them with a deadpanned look before the Abyssal Cultist spoke up.

"Really? Have you three been watching too many superhero movies? We're cultists. We have strong Pokemon and actual weaponry." The Abyssal Cultist said as he pulled out a dagger while the Infernal Cultist pulled out a metal bat to prove their points.

"Both of us have only come here to eliminate the Augur. Step aside, and we won't kill you too." The Infernal Cultist said.

Seeing the weapons the cultists pulled out caused the three of them to start getting nervous. While Wyatt was somewhat panicking a little bit at the death threat, Sunset began internally freaking out. Murder was a crime that was unheard of back in Equestria due to how peaceful everything there was. And while the alternate version wasn't as peaceful, murder was something really only heard about happening in other places. The fact that these two cultist were willing to kill all three of them without hesitation made her blood freeze. She was snapped out of her mental freakout when Damian spoke up.

"No, I won't back down! This is my chance to prove myself and show that I'm not some scared kid!"

Sunset was amazed at Damian's courage, and decided that she should gather hers and not back down. She had faced many magical threats like the Sirens or Gloriosa when she transformed and tried to "save" Camp Evrefree, and she wouldn't have been able to beat them if it wasn't for her friends. So, she decided to help one of her new friends of this world too. She stood beside Damian and was joined by Wyatt moments later as he managed to quickly calm down as well.

"Alright then. Just say we didn't warn you." The Abyssal Cultist said. The two of them brought out Pokeballs of their own as the battle between the five of them began.

V.S. Abyssal and Infernal Cultists

"Wash them away Skrelp!" The Abyssal Cultist said as they sent out a Pokemon that had the appearance of a seahorse. Its skin was a mixture of purple and brown as it also had blue fins and red eyes. It stood on its tail where three small brown fins were attatched to the end.

"Burn them Litleo!" The Infernal Cultist said as they sent out their Pokemon. The Pokemon in question looked like a small lion cub with light and dark brown fur. It had a small tuft of red hair on its head between two round ears and a small red nose. Overall, it looked pretty cute.

"Let's take them down Hero!" Damian said as he sent out Hero who emerged in his battle stance.

"Shade, let's go!" Wyatt said as he sent out Shade who, upon seeing his opponents, got into his aggressive battle and glared down the cultists' Pokemon.

"We're up Petunia!" Sunset said as she sent out Petunia who got a little nervous upon seeing the cultists, but did her best to remain confident.

"What the? Those are some weird looking Kanto starters." The Abyssal Cultist said as he saw the Delta Pokemon.

"Yeah... But now's not the time." The Infernal Cultist said.

"Right. Skrelp, use Bubble on that Charmander!" The Abyssal Cultist called out.

"Litleo, use Ember on that Bulbasaur!" The Infernal Cultist ordered.

A large bubble appeared on the end of Skrelp's snout before it was launched forward towards Shade and burst into multiple smaller bubbles. The Litleo on the other hand opened its mouth as a small flame appeared before Litleo raised its head and brought it back down, sending the flame forward as it grew into a small fireball that was sent towards Petunia.

"Endure it Petunia!" Sunset shouted.

"Brace yourself Shade!" Wyatt called out.

The bubbles struck Shade as he went into a defensive position by crossing his arms in front of himself while Petunia braced for herself as the fireball struck her. While the fireball did a little bit of damage to Petunia, the bubbles hardly seemed to do any damage to Shade.

"What?! Those attacks should have been super effective!" The Abyssal Cultist cried out.

"Wait... Those are Deltas! They aren't their normal types!" The Infernal Cultist exclaimed.

"Seriously? That changes things." The Abyssal Cultist said.

"Ok, it's our turn. Shade, use Confuse Ray on Litleo!" Wyatt called out.

"Petunia, use Fairy Wind on Skrelp!" Sunset called out.

"Hero, use Pursuit on Litleo!" Damian exclaimed.

All three of them used their moves at once, with the Confuse Ray hitting Litleo and making it Confused before it was punched by Hero as he used Pursuit. Meanwhile the Skrelp was assaulted by Fairy Wind as the sharp pink wind swirled around it, though it didn't seem to do much damage. Pulling out her Pokedex, Sunset quickly found out why that was the case as she saw that Skrelp was a Water and Poison type meaning that it resisted Fairy type moves. She also took the liberty of scanning Litleo, seeing that it was a Fire and Normal type.

"That's not good. Litleo, fight the Confusion and use Headbutt on that Squirtle!" The Infernal Cultist yelled out.

"Skrelp, use Faint Attack on that Charmander!" The Abyssal Cultist exclaimed.

The Litleo managed to focus on its target as it ran towards Hero and launched itself towards it head first and managed to collide with Hero. Meanwhile, the Skrelp hopped towards Shade with surprising speed as it feinted left and then right before an aura similar to the one that appears during Pursuit appeared as it slammed its tail against Shade and knocked him back a few feet.

"Well, at least we know that Charmander's weak to Dark type moves." The Abyssal Cultist said as Shade stood back up and glared at the Skrelp.

"Shake it off Shade! Use Twister on Skrelp!" Wyatt called out.

"Petunia, help Shade out by using Confusion!" Sunset shouted.

"Hero, hit that Litleo hard using Pursuit!" Damian yelled.

The Skrelp was assaulted by Confusion which did a lot of damage to it as it was forced onto its stomach, only to be sent flying into the air from Twister as it soared towards the Abyssal Cultist and landed right in front of it. Unfortunately for the cultist, Skrelp remained laying down as it was knocked out by the two moves used against it. Meanwhile, Hero struck the Litleo hard and pushed it back a couple of feet.

"You just got lucky. Horsea, your turn!" The Abyssal Cultist said as they returned the Skrelp to its Pokeball and sent out their second Pokemon. As the energy dissipated, a Pokemon that actually looked like a seahorse stood on its tail and tried its best to glare at its opponents. Other than having blue scales and cream colored scales, Horsea had a large snout and a small fin on its back with their also being small spines on the side of its head.

"Litleo, use Tackle on the Squirtle!" The Infernal Cultist cried out.

"And Horsea, use Water Gun on that Squirtle as well." The Abyssal Cultist said.

"Hero, protect yourself using Withdraw!" Damian shouted.

As Horsea launched a decently sized stream of water from its snout and Litleo began rushing towards Hero, Hero retracted its head and limbs into his shell. This time, a red aura and red sparkles appeared around him with the red sparkles flying upwards. Also, because Hero had made himself a smaller target, both the Water Gun and the Litleo's Tackle missed as both overshot him. In addition, the Litleo put too much force into the Tackle and ended up crashing into the ground hard, resulting in it fainting as it could no longer battle.

"Ok, what does a red aura mean?" Sunset asked.

"Withdraw is a new move that Hero learned while we were searching Telnor Cave. It helps him make himself a smaller target, and it also increases his Defense." Damian said.

"So a blue aura means a stat is being lowered while a red aura means a stat is being increased? Good to know." Sunset said.

"You kids are starting to get annoying. Go Pansear!" The Infernal Cultist said as he returned his Litleo to its Pokeball and sent out his final Pokemon. Pansear had the appearance of a small monkey with its head and ears being covered in red fur as a tuft of fur that looked like a flame sat on its head. Its chest and arms were slightly tan as it also looked like it was wearing pants as red fur covered its lower half. Finally, it had a tail covered in red fur with the end looking like a small flame.

"Petnuia, use Baby-Doll Eyes on Pansear!" Sunset called out.

"Shade, use Scratch on the Horsea!" Wyatt yelled.

"Hero, use Tackle on Horsea!" Damian exclaimed.

While Petunia used Baby-Doll Eyes on Pansear, lowering its Attack, Shade and Hero rushed towards the Horsea and attacked together. Shade rapidly scratched the Horsea a couple of times before he leapt away and let Hero ram into the Horsea and launch it a few feet towards its trainer.

"This is starting to get really annoying! Horsea, use Water Gun on that Bulbasaur!" The Abyssal Cultist called out.

"Use Lick on the Bulbasaur as well Pansear!" The Infernal Cultist said.

Pansear was the first to rush towards Petunia and gave her a giant lick with its tongue, inflicting a good amount of damage thanks to Petunia weakness to Ghost. The Pansear then leapt away as Petunia was hit by the Horsea's Water Gun straight in the face, resulting in her being pushed back a little bit as she began to look exhausted. However, Petunia let out a small battle cry as a pink aura appeared around her. Using her Pokedex to see Petunia's ability, she found that her ability was called "Psycho Call". It worked exactly like Shade's Spirit Call and Hero's Shadow Call, except it boosted the power of Psychic type moves. And since Petunia knew Confusion...

"Petunia, take down that Horsea with everything you got! Use Confusion!" Sunset called out.

Petunia did so, with Horsea being hit by the boosted Confusion, resulting in it being launched towards the Abyssal Cultist and struck him in the chest as both of them were knocked to the ground. As the Abyssal Cultist began getting up, his face had a shocked expression as he found that his Horsea had been knocked out, meaning that he had no other Pokemon to fight with.

"You can't be serious..." The Abyssal Cultist said as he was dumbfounded that he had been defeated. Getting up, he begrudgingly returned his Horsea to its Pokeball.

"Nice going Sunset! Hero, let's end this fight together! Use Pursuit on Pansear!" Damian called out.

"Shade, help Hero out by using Twister!" Wyatt called out.

Shade's Twister was the first of the two moves to hit, launching the Pansear into the air as it was struck by the Dragon type move. Shortly after, it was slammed back into the ground by Hero jumping up into the air and hitting it with Pursuit. As soon as the Pansear hit the ground, it struggled to get back up before it fell back to the ground as it was defeated.

Thus, the battle between the cultists and Sunset, Wyatt, and Damian ended. With the three of them emerging as the victors.

"Ugh... You can't be serious." The Infernal Cultist said as he returned his Pansear to its Pokeball.

"It doesn't matter if we lost or not..." The Abyssal Cultist said as he took his dagger back out. "We can still take you three down with him."

"Right you are." The Infernal Cultist said as he took out his bat.

"No, you won't."

Everyone went silent as Jaern slowly made his way past Sunset, Wyatt, and Damian and their Pokemon before he stood only a couple of feet away from the cultists.

"Trying to kill me is one thing, but threatening innocent children? That's one strike to many." Jaern said as he glared at the two cultists.

"Oh yeah? And what are you going to do about it. We're the one who are currently armed." The Abyssal Cultist said.

"I'm sending the two of you to Helios City for your trial... although after all that, I don't see a bright future for either of you." Jaern said before he held his arm up and made it so his palm faced the two cultists before he began speaking in Latin. "Vinculorum mortae!"

Sunset felt possibly the biggest chill of her life crawl up her spine as a bright flash of light came from both of the cultists that filled the whole room, blinding everyone within. After several seconds, the light faded away, with the cultists no longer standing where they were. Damian went over to where the two cultists were before, and to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating, swept his arm back and forth to make sure they were still there. Though his arm simply swept through the air uninterrupted before he turned back to Jaern.

"Did you just kill them?" Damian asked with a small amount of fear in his voice.

"Of course not. I've just sent them to Helios City where they are awaiting their trials." Jaern said. "Sorry for letting you three fight my battles, but I was curious to see how you would do. Don't worry, if you lost, I wouldn't have let you get hurt."

"Did, you just use magic?" Sunset asked. Whatever Jaern had just used to send those Cultists away didn't look like Equestrian magic, and also had a very different feeling than it as well, considering that Equestrian magic didn't send shivers down people's spines.

"Indeed I did. I have studied the art of spellcraft almost all my life, pursuing all different forms and kinds of magic. As you saw just now, it certainly has become useful when dealing with cultists. Regardless, I'm very impressed. You three are talented and responsible to have stood up against those cultists. If you ever happen to pass through Helios City, why not stop by? I'd love to see the three of you again" Jaern said as he held out his hand.

"We would love to! We're taking on the Gym Challenge anyway, so without a doubt we'll pass through Helios City!" Damian said as he shook his hand.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to say hi while we're there." Wyatt said as he shook Jaern's hand.

"And what about you miss Shimmer?" Jaern said as he held out his hand to her.

"Of course. I would love to-" Sunset began saying as she began shaking Jaern's hand. Only for her geode to flash orange as her eyes began glowing white.

Sunset found herself standing in what appeared to be some sort of plaza within a giant city. Nearby, she could see a giant green building that seemed to extend into the clouds above her.

"Where am I? All I did was touch Jaern's hand and-" Sunset stopped before she immediately figured out what was going on. "I guess my magic activated when we shook hands, so that must means I'm looking at Jaern's memories. But, this is different than the previous times. Normally, they would be as though I'm watching the memories, but this is the first time that I'm actually in the memories. Why is this time different?" Sunset asked herself before she heard Jaern's voice.

"Thank you all for coming."

Sunset looked in the direction of the voice and found a crowd gathered around a small stage, on top of which, Jaern was looking and talking to the crowd gathered around him. Seeing this, Sunset made her way over as Jaern seemed to be giving some sort of speech.

"We live in dark time, my friends. A grave loss has recently befallen us all." Jaern said as he began pacing around the stage. "The Augur was a great man. Not only was he an unmatched trainer whose only equal was our Champion, but his heart burned with the desire to protect his people. He was our hero... and possibly the best leader the Torren region has ever known." Jaern said.

"Wait, is this when the first Augur disappeared? I think Wyatt mentioned this when he explained who both Augurs were." Sunset said as she now stood to the side of the crowd so that she could have a good view of Jaern.

"But..." Jaern said as he continued pacing. "As you know, where other regions have evil Teams or organizations, it's Pokemon-worshipping cults that call the Torren region home. But to these cults, religion is so much more than believing. They won't rest until the world is remade exactly how they want it to be."

Jaern stopped pacing as he made his way back to the middle of the stage and faced the crowd head on.

"For our protection, the Augur defeated and disbanded over half of them. He saved us. However, a week ago, he went searching for one of the remaining cults..." Jaern trailed off as the crowd and Sunset watched him. "He has not returned, nor has he been seen since. In addition, I'm afraid our Champion has left as well upon hearing the news, meaning that we are currently without our strongest trainers to help protect the region."

Sunset remembered Damian explaining this, meaning that the Champion of Torren left shortly after the first Augur disappeared. Though, it didn't appear that the stand in Champion has appeared yet.

"People of Torren! I, like you, do not believe our Augur is dead. I assure you, I will search tirelessly until he is found again. With a heavy heart, I accept the burden of taking his place until he is found. Until the first Augur returns, I shall be the second. I promise you, I will use every resource at my disposal to find him!" Jaern said.

"So this is the moment that he became the second Augur? Considering that this might have been around a year ago and the first Augur still hasn't been found, I guess Jaern took up the position permanently." Sunset said.

"We will stand our ground! We will not let these cultists... these insurgents... split apart our families and destroy the place we call home! Long live the Torren region!" Jaern shouted.

"Long live the Torren region!" The crowd repeated as they cheered on Jaern.

As they continued chanting, Sunset couldn't help but notice the smallest of smirks appear on Jaern's face as he watched the crowd chanting. However, she wouldn't have time to dwell on this as her vision began being filled with a bright light.

"Miss Shimmer? Are you ok? You stopped talking all of a sudden?"

Sunset was back in the town hall where she was still shaking Jaern's hand, though he had a look of worry on his face. It also didn't appear that he noticed Sunset's magic activating, meaning she would be able to easily play it off.

"Sorry. I just thought about something funny. What I mean is that I would be happy to visit you." Sunset said as she lied about what had happened.

"Well, I suppose it must have been hilarious if it caused you to stop talking. For now, though, I should get back to Helios City. I have a trial to attend to." Jaern said as he stopped shaking Sunset's hand and turned to everyone else in the town hall. "Thank you for hosting me. You have a very lovely town, and it was nice being here. Have a nice day."

Jaern then began walking to the entrance of the town hall before he left as everyone began talking about what had just happened.

"Did the Augur just give you three a compliment?" Damian's father asked.

"I think so." Damian said as he had the biggest smile on his face.

"I think your foster mother is going to have trouble making you stay if that's the case. Damian, without a doubt, this is your chance to go on an adventure! All of you got an invitation from the Augur himself to visit him in Helios City!"

"I guess you're right." Damian said. "In that case, I need to get ready so I can get going as soon as possible! All my friends have already arrived at Midna Town and are training at the Trainer School! Hey, Wyatt, Sunset!"

The two of the turned to Damian as he called their names. "Why don't we race there? Midna Town is just on the other side of Telnor Cave and past Route 1! All of us can learn more about how to battle and some other things there as well!"

They were about to answer, only for a loud growl to escape from Sunset's stomach, causing all of them to look at her who blushed in embarrassment.

"Hehe... I guess it's been a while since I had breakfast." Sunset said.

"Well then, I suppose that you'll have to wait on heading out then. Why don't you two come over and have lunch with us before all three of you head out on your journey?" Damian's father asked.

"Are you sure? I already felt like I was invading when you allowed me to eat breakfast at your place." Wyatt asked.

"Nonsense. I insist. Think of it as my way of repaying you for protecting the Augur." Damian's father said.

"Well, thank you then, mister..." Sunset trailed off as she didn't know the name of Damian's father.

"Both of you can call me River. Now then, let's head to my home so you three can have lunch before you leave." Damian's father, who was know known as River, said as he began leaving the town hall with his son, Sunset, and Wyatt following close behind him after they returned their Pokemon to their Pokeballs.

Author's Note

And thus this chapter has been completed. Sorry it took a little longer than usual as I needed to figure out and research what moves the Pokemon used by the Abyssal Cultist knew as well as the ones I gave the Infernal Cultist. All in all, I'm very happy with how this chapter turned out.

Also, almost all cultist battles in Pokemon Insurgence use the basic trainer battle them, so I decided that all cultist battles will have their own themes. Also, how could I not use Team Aqua and Magma's battle theme for this battle? I really like all versions of the theme, but decided to go with the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire version as I felt that they would fit the cultists better. Also thinking about making it the theme when battling cultists of either cult, but I'm gonna think about it some more.

Finally, there aren't any references in this chapter as I wanted it to focus on the introduction of the Abyssal and Infernal Cults, and show that they aren't really messing around. Also explaining more about how this world works in terms of how Sunset and Wyatt will be getting money and how most fights against nonimportant trainers will be somewhat skimmed over with the only thing being talked about is if they use any new Pokemon that Sunset hasn't seen or if a Pokemon learns a new move.

With that out of the way, the next chapter will see Sunset and Wyatt preparing for the journey ahead of them, as well as going into detail about of some things in this world will work. However, I will be taking a little bit of time to work on the next chapter of my other story, so it will be a bit before the next chapter comes out. See you all then!

Telnor Cave

Theme Used: Dark Cave (Pokemon Insurgence)

A cave located within Shade Forest that connects it to Route 1. The cave is home to a plethora of Rock and Ground type Pokemon that new trainers can add to their team. It is also believed that Rare Stones can also be found within the cave as well.

Chapter 7: Preparing for the Journey Ahead

After exiting the town hall, it didn't take too long for the group of four to make it back to Damian's house and go inside. Once inside, Sunset actually had a chance to look around the first floor of the home as earlier she pretty much up and immediately left as soon as she woke up. The way everything was sectioned off reminded her a little bit of how her apartment was organized back home, albeit here it was on a much larger scale than a small one person apartment. And judging by the stairs she assumed that the bedrooms for the house were upstairs, or they simply slept in cots on the floor. That was sort of how she had to sleep when she first got her apartment, back when she had been in the human version of Equestria for a few years and had started to earn enough from small jobs here and there to finally get her own place. She couldn't help but feel a little homesick thinking about it.

"Now then, I hope you all don't mind having breakfast again for lunch as right after you all left we had to continue finishing a couple of final touches for the Augur's arrival." River said as he gestured towards the kitchen where there were a few plates stacked right beside a plate stacked high with pancakes with the bowl of Razz Berries right besides it.

"Aww yeah! Today keeps getting better and better!" Damian said as he went over to the kitchen and grabbed a plate and started putting some pancakes on it while also sprinkling some berries on top of it with Sunset and Damian following close behind.

"I don't mind. I haven't had breakfast since I woke up early this morning." Sunset said.

"Didn't you rush out of the house as soon as you woke up?" Wyatt asked.

"Well, I mean I had to wake up early as I wanted to meet up with my friend early so we could start coming up with a few things for some things that were going on at Canterlot High." Sunset explained as Wyatt grabbed a plate and started grabbing some pancakes as well. Though she paused when she noticed Wyatt putting some Razz Berries on his pancakes. "What kind of berries are those? They look kind of like raspberries."

"Yeah, these are Razz Berries." Wyatt explained.

"Wait, hold on, how do you spell it?" Sunset asked.

"Razz, as in r-a-z-z, and then just berries." Wyatt explained. "They are a small bit spicy, but they taste amazing. Anyways, how are you spelling it?"

"Rasp, spelled r-a-s-p, and then combined with berries. But raspberries aren't spicy, they're usually pretty sweet." Sunset explained.

"Maybe these are a type of berry you don't have in your world? We do have raspberries in this world, it's just that we also have Razz Berries as well." Wyatt asked.

"Yeah." Sunset said as she grabbed a plate and put some pancakes on it. Looking at the bowl of Razz Berries, she decided to grab a couple and put them on top of her pancakes as well. After which, both her and Wyatt joined Damian at the table and set their bags on the ground next to their chairs. Shortly after, they were joined by River as he also had a stack of pancakes as well as they all began eating. Sunset simply started off by eating one of the Razz Berries on her pancakes. They were a little bit spicy like Wyatt had said, but the spiciness eventually faded before being replaced by a sweet aftertaste. She honestly found it to be pretty good as she began cutting into her pancakes.

"Hey dad, umm, where's mom?" Damian asked.

"Well, right after the Augur arrived she was one of the first people to meet him. They both talked for quite a bit before she had to let someone else have a turn to talk to him. After that she came back here and had to leave for work in Midna Town, so she won't be back for a while." River said.

"Midna Town?" Sunset asked.

"Yeah! That's sort of every new trainer's first stop when they start their journey from here. The only trainer school in all of Torren is located there, it's a place where new trainers can learn some of the basics of Pokemon battling as well as learn about a couple of other subjects related to being a trainer." Damian explained. "To get there, all you have to do is go back through Telnor Cave and then just go through Route 1 and then you're there!"

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to visit the trainer school. I don't know if I've forgotten a couple of things about Pokemon battling, but it still wouldn't hurt to have a refresher. Without a doubt you might learn a few new things as well Sunset." Wyatt said.

"Yeah. So I suppose Midna Town's our fist stop then?" Sunset asked.

"Yep." Wyatt said.

"Actually, if you guys don't mind, I kind of want to travel by myself for a bit." Damian said.

"Really? Why's that Damian?" River asked.

"The thing is, I already have everything I need to go ahead and head on, but you guys probably should still visit the Pokemon Center and get some things. I've been waiting my whole life to start my journey and roughing it on your own is a common occurrence for trainers. I'll still be waiting for you guys in Midna Town, it's just that I want to go ahead and see if I can learn some things at the trainer school before moving on." Damian explained.

"Hmm, I suppose I am fine with that as long as you make it there before dark. And you do have a Pokemon of your own to help look out for you. Speaking of which, would you mind showing it to me? I didn't really get a good look at it when you three were fighting those cultists." River said.

"Of course! Come on out Hero!" Damian said as he took out Hero's Pokeball and let Hero out who appeared on the table.

"Is this a Squirtle? I've never seen one like this before." River said as he examined Hero who began posing once he noticed River looking at him. "Quite the charismatic one too."

"That's because it's a Delta Pokemon." Damian said.

"A Delta Pokemon? Ah, that's right. I remember talking to Professor Sylvan about the subject a while back. So she gave you one as your starter? Considering how rare Deltas are I'm quite surprised she wouldn't want to keep it for research." River said.

"Actually, all of us have Deltas." Sunset explained as she let Petunia out of her Pokeball who appeared in her lap. It took her a second to raise her front legs up to better see over the table. Meanwhile Wyatt let out Shade who appeared sitting on his shoulder and had his usual carefree smile.

"Really? Now I'm extremely curious. How did Sylvan get her hands on not one, but three Deltas? And she gave them to you as well?" River asked.

"Well... the things is..." Wyatt started as he began explaining what exactly happened when they left the house after breakfast. With Sunset's permission he also explained how they found out she wasn't from this world, how they witnessed Professor Sylvan talking to the leader of the Cult of Perfection and the discussion leading up to choosing the Delta Pokemon as their starters.

"That... That is truly not what I was expecting. I saw that man when I was helping prepare for the Augur's arrival. To think that someone as plain looking as him was a cult leader sends chills down my spine." River said as ever since it was mentioned that the leader of the Cult of Perfection was in town he appeared to have gotten a little bit pale.

"Dad, are you ok?" Damian asked.

"I'm fine. We were all very lucky that man didn't do anything extreme while he was here. In any case, I hope you take good care of your first Pokemon Damian. And I hope you will watch over and protect my son as well?" River said as he looked at Hero who stopped posing for a second and gave an enthusiastic nod. "In any case, we should probably finish eating so that you three can get a head start towards Midna Town."

"I'm already finished!" Damian said as he showed off how he had polished off the last of his pancakes. "Can I go and get my stuff packed real quick?"

"Of course you can. Just put your plate in the sink, I'll take care of it later." River said.

"Thanks dad! Come on Hero! Let's go get packed!" Damian said as he rushed towards the sink with Hero in tow before rushing up the stairs with his starter right behind him.

River let out a sigh before turning to both Sunset and Wyatt. "In all honesty, I'm happy that Damian is finally getting to go out on his own adventure across Torren. It's every child's dream to go out and explore the region with a Pokemon of their own when they're old enough. But, Torren isn't exactly like other regions now, isn't it? May I ask you two a favor?"

"What is it?" Sunset asked.

"I know Damian has a starter of his own, a Delta starter to be more precise, but I can't help but worry for him. I was a little bit scared when he went against those cultists, but that was the first time I've ever seen him that determined about something other than becoming a trainer. I want to thank you for sticking by his side thus far and helping him fight those two. In addition, all I want to ask is that you two keep an eye on him for me? I'm not asking you to follow him constantly, I do believe he can handle traveling by himself. Just, when you see him, make sure he isn't getting into too much trouble and is staying safe." River said.

Sunset returned the request with a smile of her own. "Of course. I'll make sure he's doing ok when we see him."

"Same here. I want to repay you for allowing us to eat breakfast and lunch with you all." Wyatt said.

"Thank you. Both of you. It helps to know that there are kind people like you two making sure my son is doing ok." River said.

After a couple more minutes of eating with River asking Sunset some questions about how she had come to this world and wishing her luck that she would be able to find a way back to her own, Damian eventually came back down the stairs with Hero standing on his shoulders and holding on to his head as Damian was now wearing a backpack of his own. It was actually pretty similar to Wyatt's own backpack, albeit with a couple of differences here and there. First was that the entire backpack except the bottom of the backpack was lime green, with the bottom of the backpack being red-brown in coloration. Attached to the top of the bag by a black strap connected by a clip was looped through both of the straps of the backpack was what appeared to be a small rolled up tent that was light green and white in coloration. Finally, a canteen with a design similar to his gym badge case, though the flask was green and white instead of green and yellow, dangled off of a clasp on the side of the backpack, and judging by the faint sloshing coming from it, it was already filled.

"Ok, I'm all set. I just need to head to the Pokemon Center to get Hero healed and then I'm heading to Midna Town." Damian said.

"Indeed. I hope you will remember to call me now and then to let me know how you are doing." River said as he got up and walked towards Damian.

"I will. I love you dad." Damian said as he hugged River.

"I love you too Damian." River responded as he returned the hug. After a couple of seconds, the hug was split off as Damian turned towards Sunset and Wyatt.

"I'll see you two at the Pokemon Center! Bye dad!" Damian said as he rushed out the door and towards the Pokemon Center. Pretty soon, everyone else had finished eating their meals as the used plates were put in the sink as Sunset and Wyatt now stood at the door with their backpacks back on. Sunset was holding Petunia in her arms as Shade sat on Wyatt's shoulder.

"I suppose this is farewell for now as well?" River asked the two of them.

"I guess so. Don't worry, we'll keep an eye on Damian when we can and make sure he's doing ok." Wyatt said.

"Thank you, and Sunset? Once again, I wish you luck in finding a way to get back to your world. Never in my life would I think I would have someone from another world in my household. As for you, Wyatt, I also hope you can find someone who recognizes you and that you can regain your memories." River said.

"Thank you River." Sunset said.

"Same here. When our adventure is over, we'll be sure to come back and tell you how our adventure was." Wyatt said before both of them turned and exited the house.

River looked at the door for a few seconds as a small smile was on his face, happy and relieved that Damian was in good hands. That, and that Damian had possibly made some of the first friends he has had in years, and some reliable ones as well. His son was full of ambition and had the drive to get anything he had his mind set on done, even if he did make a few mistakes every now and then. Having companions like Sunset and Wyatt would certainly help Damian greatly. After a few more seconds, he began to reminisce on old times as he pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket, obviously old with age as he unfolded it and stared at it. A small frown replacing his features as he stared at the contents of the paper.

"Our son is finally going on a journey of his own. Wherever you are, I hope you still know that I love you, and that I know you would be proud of him like I am."

It didn't take long for Wyatt and Sunset to reach the red and white building towards the entrance to Shade Forest that was the Pokemon Center. Right as they got to it, they saw Damian stepping out of the building with Hero no longer on his shoulders, presumably in his Pokeball. Seeing the two of them, Damian rushed towards them with a large smile on his face as he was practically jumping in place with how excited he seemed to be.

"Hey guys, you're finally here." Damian said.

"Yeah, we just wanted to thank your dad for allowing us to eat at your house. So, this is a Pokemon Center?" Sunset asked as she looked at the building.

"Yep! Pokemon Centers are pretty much places designed with trainers in mind. Here, you can get your Pokemon healed by some of the nurses here in addition to being able to shop for stuff in the Poke Mart, which are essentially shops within Pokemon Centers that cater both general goods and items useful for trainers. The Poke Mart is usually located on the second floor of all Pokemon Centers while you can get your Pokemon healed by the worker at the desk on the first floor." Damian explained. "Oh yeah, you two might also want to get some other stuff here as well if you plan on sleeping out in the wild. Thankfully, Poke Marts usually tend to have a special deal for new trainers when it comes to outdoor gear. I highly recommend it as it looks like there's some sort of sale going on because the Augur visited today."

"That sounds good. I don't think I've been camping before, but it wouldn't hurt to have some stuff just in case." Wyatt said.

"Thankfully I have. If push comes to shove I can show you some of the things I've learned." Sunset said.

"Great! So... I guess this is where we part ways for now?" Damian asked.

"Only for now. Like you said, the plan is to meet up in Midna Town and go see the trainer school. We'll see each other again soon." Sunset said.

"Yeah, you're right! Now then, go ahead and get your shopping done and I'll see you in Midna Town." Damian said as he turned towards the entrance to Shade Forest. "Get ready Torren! I'm an official Pokemon trainer, and my journey starts now!"

Damian pumped his fist into the air while he was yelling before he took off into Shade Forest at a light jog, leaving Sunset and Wyatt standing at the entrance to the Pokemon Center as they watched him go.

"I guess we should go ahead and get our shopping done so we don't fall behind to far?' Wyatt asked.

"Yeah. Let's check out this sale Damian mentioned. Hopefully what I got from those trainers in Telnor Cave can help cover the cost." Sunset said as the two of them began headed towards the door.

As they got closer to the entrance of the Pokemon Center, the two of them watched as the glass doors leading inside slid apart, allowing them to easily step through and into the Pokemon Center. Looking around, they saw that the floor of the building was made up of white tiles that were clean to the point where they acted as a reflective surface. The walls stretched quite high and seemed to made up of blue paneling that Sunset couldn't figure out if it was simply wallpaper or actual metal. There were two floors to the Pokemon Center, the first floor where they had just entered into had a couple of small tables surrounded by cushioned chairs here and there where a couple of people sat at, Sunset and Wyatt recognized some of them as some of the trainers they encountered back in Telnor Cave.

In the middle of the first floor was a large reception area where a lady with soft pink hair and was wearing a nurse outfit could be seen checking over some sort of machine towards the back of the desked in area. Standing right next to her was a large, egg-shaped Pokemon whose top half was pastel pink in color with the bottom half being white in coloration, though there was a pink pouch towards the Pokemon's front that for some reason held an egg. What appeared to be fluff that were shaped like wings were attached to two stubby arms that came out of the Pokemon's sides and was around the Pokemon's waist, making it look like it had a skirt. Speaking of stubby, the Pokemon also had two stubby pink feet that it walked on. Finally was that it had two oval eyes accompanied by a small smile on its face, and that the Pokemon had pink, curly hair that bounced a little as it moved. Wyatt was quick to point out that the Pokemon was a Blissey, a Normal type Pokemon known for being quite compassionate and tender, to the point where it and it's pre-evolutions were often assistant Pokemon for those in the medical field.

Next was that there were also a couple of small things here and there, there was a large blue rug that Sunset and Wyatt had stepped on when they came inside, there were white pots filled with various flowers here and there including some white trashcans as well, a few bookshelves lined the wall to the right of the desked area that seemed to contain both books and magazines, and the entire wall to their left had a bunch of computers, each hooked up to some sort of cylinder shaped device. In addition, there were three doors at the far wall, the two closest to the left wall had a sign labeled "Bathrooms" above the middle of the two with the left door having a blue caricature of a man on it with the right having a pink caricature of a woman, the door closest to the bookshelves had a red sign above it with the text "Urgent Care" in bold white letters. Finally were the escalators to the left and right of the desked in area that lead up to the second floor where the area above the desked in area was gone, allowing those on the second floor to look down into the first. Scattered across the "ceiling" of the first floor were various tv monitors hanging from above that were all on different channels. Sunset couldn't really see much of the second floor, but could tell that the ceiling of the building was as white and reflective as the floor of the first.

"Huh. Reminds me of a hospital's reception area back home with all of the white, and that lady behind the desk." Sunset said as she took in her surroundings.

"She's a Nurse Joy. Nurse Joys are the ones usually in charge of healing people's Pokemon using that machine there." Wyatt explained as he pointed out said machine. "We should probably go ahead and get Shade and Petunia healed up."

"Good call." Sunset said.

The two of them approached the desk as the Blissey noticed the two of them and began tapping on the Nurse Joy to get her attention. Looking away from the machine, she noticed the two trainers and made her way over to the front of the desk to welcome them. Now that she wasn't turned away from them, Sunset saw that the woman had light blue eyes and light skin, the only other thing to note other than the pale blue nurse outfit and hat she was wearing was a nametag she was wearing that said "Nurse Joy: Eir" that was clipped onto her uniform.

"Hello, and welcome to the Telnor Pokemon Center. My name is Eir, how can I help you today?" Eir asked happily.

"Oh, um, we're here to get our Pokemon healed before we head off to Midna Town." Sunset said.

"I see. I haven't seen you two here before, so am I safe to assume that you two just became trainers?" Eir asked.

"Yeah. We received Shade and Petunia a little while ago, and we wanted to get them healed before we head further out from Telnor Cave." Wyatt said.

"I see. It's not too uncommon for newfound trainers to immediately head off into Shade Forest after getting their starter from Professor Sylvan. I should also assume the two of you got yours at the same time as Damian? He came in here earlier to heal his Delta Squirtle and buy a couple of things before heading out." Eir asked.

"Yeah, how did you know?" Sunset asked.

"Damian often came in here to study as much as he could about Pokemon so that he could be a trainer, to the point I'm quite positive he has read every book and magazine on that shelf." Eir said as she gestured to the bookshelves. "In addition, he also explained briefly how he had his Squirtle instead of an Eevee, so it should be safe to assume that you got your starters alongside him. Anyways, could you please return your Pokemon to their Pokeballs and place them in this tray?"

Eir pulled out a small tray with a cushioned bottom that had six indents on the bottom as well, presumably where the Pokeballs would go. Complying with her request, Sunset and Wyatt returned their starters to their Pokeballs and placed them in the tray. She then took the tray over to the machine and watched as Eir put the Pokeballs into two of the six indents that could be seen on the top of the machine. After which, she simply tapped a little bit at a small screen on the front of the machine before the top of the machine lit up with a blue light that covered the Pokeballs. After a couple of seconds, a happy little jingle played as the light began flashing yellow before turning off. Eir put the Pokeballs back into the tray and walked back towards Sunset and Wyatt.

"Thank you for being patient. Your Delta Bulbasaur and Delta Charmander have been fully healed." Eir said.

"Wow, that was fast! How are they healed that quickly?" Sunset asked as she picked up Petunia's Pokeball while Wyatt picked up Shade's.

"The exact details are a little too complex to put simply, but every healing machine ensures that everything from scrapes, scratches, bruises, and status effects are completely healed in a quick and safe manner for the Pokemon inside of its pokeball. Though in the case of more serious injuries, we take the Pokemon into the medical room in the back to treat them properly as the machine can't mend broken bones or twisted limbs all that well." Eir said. "Anyways, you two might want to head up to the Poke Mart above us to get some outdoor gear as well as a couple of other things. They also have a sale going on today since the Augur was here and there's also some sort of special deal they're doing. Something about a 'Mystery Bundle', I think?"

"Thanks for the heads up." Wyatt said.

"Your welcome. Have a nice day!" Eir responded.

The two newfound trainers walked away from the counter and began to approach the escalator on the left side of the Pokemon Center that was currently moving up as the two of them needed to get some shopping done, as well as see what exactly this "Mystery Bundle" deal was all about. The two of them began riding the escalator and after a couple of seconds were now on the second floor of the Pokemon Center. Directly in front of the two of them towards the back wall were four doors. The two in the middle were both bathrooms as the one on the left had the same blue caricature as the one on the first floor while the one on the right had the same pink caricature as the one on the first floor as well. The left and rightmost doors both had red signs with the words "Staff Only" in white text on both of them.

Looking around a little more, the floor of the second floor was made up of the same white tiles as the first floor and the walls, while made up of the same paneling as the first floor, had different colors and each side of the second floor had different colors of panels. The left side had red paneling and what appeared to be a clothing store took up the entire left side of the floor. Shelves and tables filled with different shirts, pants, jackets, and other different clothing articles were lined along the wall and around the floor while a man with fair skin, sandy blonde hair, blue eyes, and was wearing a clerk's outfit was behind a register located towards the back left corner of the building. The right side on the other hand had slightly darker blue paneling as the entire right side of the floor was taken up by a general goods store. Shelves could be seen holding a variety of items from Potions, Pokeballs, status healing medicines, different kinds of equipment, and even foodstuff as some shelves held a couple of food products and the entire right wall of the building was lined with freezers filled with frozen foods and drinks. Similar to the clothing store, a clerk that was slightly tanned with brown hair and green eyes wore a similar outfit to his fellow clerk in the clothing store and was also behind a register tucked in the back right corner of the building. Finally, on the other side of where Sunset and Wyatt stepped off of the escalators was what appeared to be a small rest area with a couple of couches surrounding some tables as a window allowed anyone to look out and see the entirety of Telnor Town.

"We should probably go ahead and get what we need from the general store first. Damian and Eir both said that there was a sale going on, that, and there's the deal for outdoor gear." Wyatt said.

"Sounds good. Let's see what there is to get." Sunset said.

The two of them began walking towards the general store and began to simply browse around for anything they might need. Some things didn't take too long to find, such as canteens and pop-up tents, and one glance at the prices immediately showed just how cheap they were as even the tents were being sold for $1,000 Pokedollars at most, and that was just upfront and even before the whole "new trainer discount" was being applied. There were even some small pots and kindling tools for cooking over campfires that were as cheap as $350 Pokedollars. As they continued browsing, Sunset found something that caught her eye.

"Hey Wyatt, what are these things?" Sunset called out.

"What is what?" Wyatt asked as he walked over to Sunset after looking at couple of sleeping bags.

"These." Sunset said as she pointed at the thing on the shelf in front of her. Said thing looked to be some sort of CD player as it was flat and square in shape, was white in coloration with the four corners being light blue, and had two orange two buttons on it, one with a "play" symbol while the other had an "eject" symbol. The middle of the device had a circular outline on it that had a black circle in the middle while a clear circular outline wrapped around in, allowing one to peer into what appeared into some sort of circular area. Below the outline and in between both of the buttons was a small screen that didn't really show anything. Finally, two long and black cords extended out of the back of the machine that were connected to two small rectangular pads. The second thing she was pointing at was a large cylinder that was yellow in color, though both faces of it had a white circle in the middle with a blue circle surrounding it. A small slider could be seen on the side that was blue as well.

"Oh, these are TM Players and TM Cases." Wyatt answered.

"TMs? What as TM?" Sunset asked.

"TMs, also called Technical Machines, are disks containing data for Pokemon moves that can be used to teach Pokemon moves that they either learn later on or can only be learned by using a TM. To teach a Pokemon a move using a TM, you just take a TM Player," Wyatt said as he grabbed one off of the shelf and hit the eject button while holding one of the cords. "Insert a TM into it, close it up, and then attach both of these little patches to the Pokemon you want to teach the move on the TM to. You can the use the screen to select which move you want the new move to replace. Also, it should be noted that moves taught through a TM have to be retaught through a TM if they are replaced, unlike a move that a Pokemon learns naturally."

Wyatt closed the TM Player back up and set it on the shield before grabbing the second thing Sunset had pointed out and pushed on the slider, allowing the top half of the cylinder to slide down and show that the inside was pure white and had many thin gaps within it. "These are TM Cases. They just allow you to hold any TMs you have obtained in here, making it easy to store them."

"Huh. That's interesting to know." Sunset replied. While it was a little surprising that you could manually teach Pokemon moves through TMs, she was actually beginning to accept some of the peculiar things of this world and how they worked. She was honestly proud that she was beginning to wrap her head around certain aspects of Pokemon and how this world worked even though it has been a few hours ever since she woke up here. She just hoped nothing too crazy came along and proved that she was still not getting used to this world just yet. "Anyways, we should probably grab one of these for each of us, right?"

"Yeah, there's a good chance we'll be gathering a lot of TMs on our journey." Wyatt replied.

Grabbing a TM Player and TM Case each, they continued looking around for anything else that they could need for their journey while also keeping an eye on the prices. After what felt like an hour of searching and deciding on things to buy that would reasonably fit in their bags, even if some of the items could shrink down to save on storage, they eventually had everything they felt like they needed.

Sunset found a pop-up tent that seemed large enough to accommodate her and her bag if she ended up sleeping outdoors. The tent itself was red and black in color and had a couple of silver stars scattered across the fabric that reflected any light hat hit them. She also grabbed a sleeping bag that was nylon orange, with the tag next to where it was on the shelf claiming that it had excellent temperature control, allowing one to stay warm in cold environments or warm when it was cold. Dangling from one of her hands was a canteen that had the same design scheme as her DexNav, and in the other was a pot and pan that would be useful for cooking alongside a ladle and some small plastic bowls, with the TM Player and Case being held within the pot to help with easily carrying everything. Her backpack was also slightly open in order to help carry some other things that could possibly help with their journey including a matchbox for starting a campfire, some Potions and Super Potions for healing their Pokemon, some Antidotes which were bottles similar to an Ice Heal that were yellow and cured a Pokemon from being Poisoned, and some more Awakenings in case they had to deal with Pokemon that knew some moves that could inflict Sleep. However, most importantly, something that a person going out traveling and camping would need that would be foolish to go without, toilet paper, deodorant, a simple orange toothbrush and toothpaste, and a hair brush.

Wyatt on the other hand had found a similar tent to the one Sunset had found, though this one was purple and black in coloration and had a few silver designs of Pokeballs on the fabric like the ones on his outfit that also reflected light. He grabbed the same kind of sleeping bag Sunset had found, however this one was dark purple instead of the orange that Sunset had picked out. Dangling from one of his hands was a canteen with a similar design as his Pokedex, though this one had many purple Pokeball designs on it. Held in his hands were some food items that the two of them could eat on their journey or if they were camping out. These included some meats such as hotdogs and bacon, a few packages of crackers, some vegetables. packages of both rice and noodles, and some cans of various sauces. Most importantly were some instant-meal packages that could easily be made using a pot or pan. Wyatt's backpack was also open slightly as a few drinks could be seen slightly sticking out from a couple of bottles of Fresh Water, some cans of Lemonade and various sodas, to even some packages of tea. There were also two white collapsible mugs sticking out of the backpack that could also be used for drinking if they didn't want to drink out of a bottle or wanted something to put their tea in. Wyatt was also not foolish enough to not grab some of the same toiletries that Sunset had gotten, though his toothbrush was light purple.

The two of them made their way to the counter where the cashier noticed them and began talking to them as they approached. "Hi there! I assume the two of you have found everything you need?"

"Yeah. I think we have, at least." Wyatt said as he set everything he was carrying onto the counter before also grabbing the merchandise he had set in his backpack to easily carry it.

"That's great. I also can't help but notice that you both are buying a lot of camping stuff. Would I be safe in assuming that the two of you are new trainers?"

"Yep. We just recently became trainers earlier today and our friend Damian said that there was a deal for new trainers?" Sunset asked.

"Oh yeah. New trainers get 70 percent off of purchases when it comes to camping and food supplies." The cashier responded.

"70 percent?!" Sunset exclaimed in shock.

"At the very least , it ensures that we have new trainers flock here immediately to buy a lot of things for their travels. Considering this is the town where people can get their starter Pokemon also helps a lot." The cashier explained nonchalantly. "Either way, let me get all of this rung up for you."

It took a little bit for the cashier to scan everything Wyatt had placed on the counter, but eventually the cashier began looking over everything and the total for how much was the price for everything.

"Alright, alongside the new trainer discount and the discount to celebrate the Augur visiting today, you total will be..." The cashier said as he punched a couple of keys on the register. "1,000 Pokedollars."

"Alright, here you go." Wyatt said as he handed the clerk the appropriate amount. Wyatt was honestly a little surprised at how cheap everything ended up being as he didn't think the sale today was also going to apply. At least one other good thing came about with Jaern visiting Telnor Town.

"Thank you very much. Now can I get your things as well?" The cashier said to Sunset as he handed Watt everything he purchased who set everything to the side to split up with Sunset in a second.

"Oh, yeah. Here you go." Sunset said as she set everything she was carrying onto the counter. The cashier then began to ring up everything she had gotten as well which didn't take too long.

"Alrighty, your total will be... Also 1,000 Pokedollars." The cashier said after he finished ringing everything up.

"Alright, um... Sorry I need a second." Sunset said as she pulled out some of the Pokedollars she had gotten from defeating some of the trainers in Telnor Cave. It took her a bit, but eventually she was able to count out the right amount of money for her purchase before handing it to the cashier. "Here you go."

"Thank you. Also, would you two be interested in purchasing something that our stores are trying out?" The cashier said as Sunset took the things she bought.

"What would that be?" Sunset asked.

"It's what we are calling a 'Pokeball Mystery Bundle'. For 500 Pokedollars, though I suppose with today's sale it would be 250, you get a bundle containing 5 random Pokeballs of varying value." The cashier explained as he pulled out a small white cardboard box with an image of a Pokeball on the front.

"Umm, what do you think Wyatt?" Sunset asked as she turned towards Wyatt.

"Hmm. Considering that it would probably be best if we catch some Pokemon later on to fill out our teams, I don't see why not. I think it would be a good idea." Wyatt said.

"Alright. I'll buy a Mystery Bundle then." Sunset said as she got out 250 Pokedollars and put it on the counter.

"Pleasure doing business with you." The cashier said as he handed Sunset the box before pulling out another one. "And you said you wanted one as well?"

"Yeah. Here you go." Wyatt said as he handed the sufficient payment to the clerk.

"Thank you both for buying our new little project that we have going on. And I wish both of you luck on your journeys!" The clerk said as he handed Wyatt the box.

The two of them thanked the clerk before heading over to the rest area between the general and clothing store as the both sat everything they bought onto one of the tables and sat down on a couch facing it. Their bags were currently at their feet as they looked over everything they had bought.

"So, how do we want to pack all of this?" Wyatt asked.

"For starters, l think we should first pack everything that is for each of our personal uses." Sunset said as she began to grab the pop-up tent, sleeping bag, canteen, TM Player, TM Case, and various toiletries that she had bought.

"Probably for the best to get our individual stuff out of the way." Wyatt said as he also began to grab his pop-up ten, sleeping bag, canteen, TM Player, TM Case, and toiletries he had gotten.

It took them a bit, but they eventually managed to set and pack everything up quite nicely. Both of them had set up their tents and canteens in a similar way that they had seen Damian with when he left his house earlier. They strung the strap of the tent between both by unconnecting the clip and then moved it to where it was looped through the straps of their backpacks and rested on top of it. Their canteens also had a similar strap situation where it was connected by a clip that they looped though the right strap of the backpack. As for the sleeping bags, it was three for three for having a similar strap where they simply repeated what they did for their tents except they looped it through the bottom of the straps to where the sleeping bag was under their bags. Other than that, the two of them had stored their TM Players, TM Cases, and various toiletries into their bags with the TM Cases and TM Players shrinking down to save space.

"Alright, that's done. I was thinking that I take most of the cooking stuff and you take most of the stuff for cooking while also splitting all of the potions and other things equally?" Sunset suggested.

"I'm ok with that." Wyatt responded.

Sunset was banking on the possibility that all of the things she would pack, including the pot and some of the food items, would shrink down like everything else she had packed. Thankfully she was right as everything she packed including the pot, ladle, some of the packages of instant meals, and a couple of the Fresh Waters and boxes of tea shrunk down to fit in her backpack. It was a good thing too, as her backpack was starting to get a little full as she still had the stuff in her backpack from before she found herself in this world. Wyatt on the other hand took the pan, bowls, cups, and all of the other foods and drinks and put them in his bag. All that was left were the two boxes they had bought containing five random Pokeballs each.

"Alright, do you want to open yours, or do you want me to open mine first?" Wyatt asked.

"Umm, I suppose I can open mine first." Sunset replied as she grabbed the box she bought.

"Alright, let's see what Pokeballs I blindly bought." Sunset said as she opened the box and pulled out the first Pokeball.

The first Pokeball was already interesting as the top and bottom halves of it were both completely white, with the only color on it being that the band around the middle of it was red as opposed to the black that a normal Pokeball was.

"Huh, so it's just a mostly white Pokeball?" Sunset asked.

"That's a Premier Ball. Unfortunately it's nothing really special as they're sort of a 'buy one get one free' type of thing. You can get one if you purchase at least 10 Pokeballs, whether they are the same kind or not, from a Pokemart. Considering you did get it without having to buy 10 Pokeballs, I think it's a good deal." Wyatt said.

"Ok. The next one is..." Sunset said as she put away the Premier Ball and pulled out the next one. The band and bottom half of the Pokeball were normal, but the top part was quite interesting to look at. The top part had two different colors making up the left and right side of the top as the left side was teal and the right side was dark gray with the two sides joining together and forming a jagged line pattern that ran vertically across the top. Finally, an icon of a yellow crescent moon could be seen on the very top of the Pokeball.

"This one looks nice. What kind is it?" Sunset asked.

"That's a Moon Ball. Those can get a little bit on the pricey side, so it was definitely worth getting the box. Function wise, it's a Pokeball that makes it easier to catch Pokemon that evolve with a Moon Stone." Wyatt explained.

Sunset immediately noticed how Wyatt mentioned how Pokemon could evolve with some type of stone, but she figured she could ask about it later as she was curious about something else. "What do you mean it makes it easier to catch certain Pokemon?" Sunset asked.

"Oh right, essentially while Pokeballs are able to catch Pokemon, various types have been made. While some mainly stand out with how they look appearance wise, some make it easier to catch Pokemon as wild Pokemon might try to break out of a Pokeball when a trainer attempts to catch them." Wyatt explained.

"So some Pokeballs are better at catching some Pokemon better than others? Good to know." Sunset said as she put away the Moon Ball and got out the third one in the box. The third one was also colored a lot differently than a normal Pokeball as both the top and bottom halves were light blue, though the top half had a weirdly shaped pale blue ring that wrapped around the top while the bottom of the bottom half was dark blue and had a wavy design to it.

"That's a Dive Ball. It's a Pokeball that is efficient at catching Pokemon that live in the water. Nothing to special outside of that." Wyatt said.

"I do kind of like it's design." Sunset said as she put the Dive Ball into her bag alongside the others before pulling out the fourth one. Right away the design and coloration told Sunset that this one was expensive. Both the top and bottom halves were black, which made everything else pop out more. The band as well as the button of the Pokeball were gold in color with there also being a white outline separating the top and bottom halves from the band. Lastly was a red line circling the top half that had a gold outline to it as well.

"Wyatt, how much is one of these?" Sunset asked as all she could focus on was how the Pokeball in her hand was designed.

"A Luxury Ball tends to cost around 3,000 Pokedollars on average. For good reason too, as these types of Pokeballs have a very much improved system of how they generate environments for the Pokemon inside, allowing the Pokemon to be a lot more relaxed and happy." Wyatt said as his eyes were wide.

"Well, I guess that's 250 Pokedollars well spent." Sunset said as she put away the Luxury Ball and pulled out the final one. Both the top and bottom halves were white like the Premier Ball, but that's where the similarities ended. Two streaks of red ran up and down the left and right sides of the Pokeball. Finally was that the top of the Pokeball was a black spot where the two red streaks touched while a red divot came out of the top of the Pokeball.

"Well, I guess the weird looking one's the last one. What kind of Pokeball is this?" Sunset asked.

"That's a Timer Ball. They are pretty much effective at catching Pokemon that are more on the faster side." Wyatt explained.

"Alright, well I guess that's all of the ones I got. Now time for yours." Sunset said as she put the Timer Ball into her bag as Wyatt grabbed his box and opened it, pulling out the first Pokeball he had grabbed. The first thing about it was that the top half was yellow in color, though it also sported the same black spot on the top that the Timer Ball had. The only other major thing about it was the red "V" on the front of it.

"Hey, a Level Ball! These are great at catching weaker Pokemon, usually ones that's haven't evolved yet." Wyatt said.

"Considering we are just starting our journey, this is good to have at the very least." Sunset said.

"Agreed." Wyatt said as he stored his Level Ball in his backpack before pulling out the next one. This one was eye catching as compared to ones before it, this one looked special in its own right. Both halves and the button of the Pokeball were all a deep red in color as it almost looked like there was no band for the Pokeball. Two grooves ran horizontally along the ball where the band would be with a red line within the groove.

"No way. I..." Wyatt said as he stared at the Pokeball in his hand in absolute awe.

"What is it?" Sunset asked.

Wyatt took a moment to collect his thoughts. While he didn't have any personal memories of his life, he at least still had a lot of knowledge about a lot of things revolving around Pokemon, both in terms of training and catching. He knew without a doubt that the Pokeball he was holding was one of the rarest Pokeballs in the world that were hardly manufactured and to the point that they were considered something sought after by collectors as the rarest thing in their collection. Even then, this thing functioned identically to that of a Pokeball for crying out loud!

"This... this is a Cherish Ball. It's considered one of the rarest Pokeballs ever as they are hardly ever manufactured." Wyatt said.

"Seriously?" Sunset asked with wide eyes which Wyatt returned with a small nod. "Well then, you better catch something special with it. You pretty much won what I assume is the jackpot for this thing."

"Thanks, and without a doubt I will." Wyatt said as he carefully placed the Cherish Ball in his bag alongside the others. Even though everything else in the box probably wasn't going to top him getting a Cherish Ball, he pulled out the next one. This one was quite simple as the top half was gray in color with four blue bumps sticking out of it towards the front with two on the left and right side. The bumps closer to the sides were a lot bigger than the two small ones in the front. It was also slightly more weighty compared to the others.

"Oh, yep. This is a Heavy Ball." Wyatt said as he wasn't expecting the weight.

"A Heavy Ball? I'll make a guess and say that it's good at catching Pokemon that are heavy?" Sunset asked with a smirk.

"Right on the money. I'll need to get used to throwing this thing when I catch a Pokemon with it." Wyatt said as he set the Heavy Ball into his bag. He then pulled out the fourth ball, and it was pretty simple in design as the top half was green as two light brown rings circled the top half of the ball.

"Oh this will be useful. A Nest Ball pretty much works exactly the same as the Level Ball, the only difference I suppose is its appearance." Wyatt explained.

"Huh, interesting to know that multiple Pokeballs exist for the esact same function." Sunset said as Wyatt put away the the Nest Ball and grabbed the last one out of the box. The top half of this one was also green, though the design on the front was definitely interesting as four red teardrops, two on the left and right side of the front, were pointing away from the button in the middle as there was a yellow dot between the middle of the top two teardrops.

"And the last one's a Friend Ball, pretty much identical to a Luxury Ball in function but slightly cheaper." Wyatt said as he put away the Friend Ball with the others.

"Alright, so that's pretty much everything from supplies to Pokeballs we can use. Definitely worth spending 250 Pokedollars each with what we got." Sunset said.

"I second that. Now, then..." Wyatt said as he got up and put on his backpack and was slightly thrown off by the weight of the new additions to it but quickly got used to it. "Ready to start our journey?"

"You bet!" Sunset said as she got up and also slung on her backpack, though was prepared for the weight of it. "Let's get going!"

The two of them headed down the escalator closest to the general store where Eir waved them goodbye with the two of them doing the same while throwing away the leftover boxes into a nearby trashcan. They both stepped out of the Pokemon Center and with one look towards each other and a quick nod, the two of them began walking towards the entrance to Shade Forest with different things on their mind. Sunset was slightly excited to be able to experience something like this, but she was still focused on finding a way back to Canterlot High. Though with everything she has learned so far about Pokemon and having a clear goal in mind to getting to the Utira Town Library and having Petunia by her side alongside Wyatt and Shade, she had a feeling things would hopefully turn out ok, even if they might end up encountering some of the region's cults along the way. Wyatt on the other hand was also excited as this was a dream that many trainers wished to do, traveling all over a region and competing in the Gym Challenge to earn the title of Champion. However, he still wanted to try and recover his memories, hoping that he would at least encounter someone who at least knew who he was. And the big question remained: Why did the Cult of Darkrai want to erase his memories? He had a feeling that in order to get that answer, he was going to need to find out as much as he could, even if that meant having to battle against some cultists. At least he wasn't alone in this as he had Shade to help him alongside Sunset and Petunia in the long road ahead. And in some situations, he could at least call on Mew's help if push came to shove.

With smiles on their faces, the two newfound trainers, a girl from another world who was actually a unicorn taught under a pony capable of moving the sun but was trying to do her best to not reveal this, and a boy with amnesia who was hoping to find some answers and had an easy way to contact a Mythical Pokemon, stepped into Shade Forest, the first of many steps in their journey.

Author's Note

Hey everyone, sorry this was late as I was busy with finals for some of my classes. I wanted to use this chapter to set up a few things regarding what sort of camping gear Sunset and Wyatt will have as they will be camping out across Torren every now and then. In addition to describing a location that will pretty much stay mostly the same throughout the journey through Torren: Pokemon Centers. Do note, the Pokemon Center described here in Telnor Town is a lot different than the one in Pokemon Insurgence, the game version of the Pokemon Center in Telnor Town doesn't even have a second floor or a clothing store. I wanted to make something that will be seen often throughout this story have a lot more life and detail compared to the limitations of the game, and I think I did a decent job at that. Lastly, I'm pretty much giving you all some fun with guessing what sort of team members Sunset and Wyatt will get by giving them their Pokeballs, so have fun with that!

Finally, Merry Christmas everyone! In the next chapter, Sunset and Wyatt will begin their trek to Midna Town, though not without stopping by something interesting along the way and encountering something special. See you all then!

Chapter 1: A Shadow Over Canterlot High

"Ok, so has anyone found anything new about what's been going on?"

Currently standing beside a marble podium situated at the front of a high school known as Canterlot High were seven girls who stood together in a circle, all of them showing expressions varying from interest, amusement, to even being somewhat scared. The girl who had just spoke had light amber skin, light blue eyes, and red and yellow hair that fell to her waist and curled at the end. She was wearing an orange shirt that had a design of a fiery red and yellow sun with the colors somewhat swirling towards the middle, a sleeveless black leather vest that had golden spikes on the popped open collar, a raspberry colored skirt with a gray sipper running down it with two black velcro straps running over the zipper, and black heeled boots that had gray studs running along both the bottom and the top of the boots as two black bands with pink studs on them were wrapped around the boots. Finally, wrapped around her neck in a gold locket was an orange geode. This was Sunset Shimmer, a member of a band made up of her and her friends known as the Rainbooms and acted as a guitarist for the band. However, before becoming a student at Canterlot High, she was a unicorn who resided in a world known as Equestria and was tutored by its ruler, Princess Celestia. However, they one day got into a massive argument that resulted in Sunset running away to a parallel world were everyone was a human instead of a pony. Some time later and after attempting to rule over the world with a magical artifact and being stopped, she eventually began to become somewhat nicer as she became friends with the other six girls currently present. In addition due to an incident at a summer camp known as Camp Everfree, her and her friends got their hands on geodes that seemed to contain magic from the world Sunset came from, which granted them different magical abilities. Sunset's geode granted her the ability to see a person's memories through physical touch.

"Other than what people have been talking about already, I'm afraid not." The girl who replied had light purple skin, purple eyes that were behind black framed glasses, and whose hair was dark blue with a pink stripe running through it that was tied in a ponytail. She wore a light blue striped collared polo, a purple skirt that had designs of a magenta multi-pointed star that also had pockets, wore dark blue loafers with purple heels that had a light blue sock coming out of them. Finally, worn around her neck was a magenta ribbon that held a purple geode. This was Twilight Sparkle, or often called Sci-Twi by the others. She recently joined Canterlot High after and event known as the Friendship games where Canterlot High and another school known as Crystal Prep competed in various activities and events to see which school was the best. Prior to being enrolled at Canterlot High she used to be the top student at Crystal Prep who encountered magic from Equestria during the event and caused a few mishaps here and there by accident. In the end after being corrupted by the magic she accidentally stole she decided to attend Canterlot High to learn more about friendship and Equestrian magic. As a member of the Rainbooms, she acts as a secondary singer for the band. During the events of Camp Everfree she managed to gain control of the magic she still had and also got a geode of her own, granting her the ability to levitate objects using telekinesis.

"Even so, what other people are saying is still somewhat scary..." Another girl said. She had pale yellow skin, teal eyes, and long pink hair that went down her back and also covered a little bit of the side of her face. She was wearing a light blue dress that had a pink and white butterfly design on it, a pink band wrapped around the dress that also had a pink and white butterfly on it, pink sandals that had a butterfly design to them, and pink ribbons that wrapped around her legs and ended in a bow. Finally, around her neck was a light pink necklace that held a light pink geode. This was Fluttershy and has her named suggested, she was somewhat shy. She was pretty much shy around people, though she was known to be quite the caretaker of animals as she worked at an animal shelter. She was also known as one of the kindest girls in Canterlot High. As a member of the Rainbooms, she plays the tambourine. During the events of Camp Everfree, she obtained a geode that allowed her to actually talk to and understand animals.

"Yeah! Everyone's on edge because of it and even my attempts to cheer them up have failed!" A girl beside Fluttershy said. She had light pink skin, light blue eyes, and long and very poofy pink hair that was somewhat held together by a light blue head band. She wore a white tank top with a design of blue and yellow balloons on the front, a pink frilly skirt, white tights, and platform sandals that had pink straps and a light blue bottom. Finally around her neck was a pink necklace that held a pink geode. This was Pinkie Pie who was also known around Canterlot High as being one of the most energetic and party loving girls in the school. She always knew a student's birthday and made sure to always bring a smile to a person's face. As a member of the Rainbooms, she acts as the band's drummer. After the events of Camp Everfree, she obtained a geode gave her the somewhat destructive ability to make any kind of food (mostly sweets), explode after touching them.

"Ah agree. Ah sure wouldn't want to be walkin' down some hall and see a shadow starin' at me from around a corner." A girl with a southern accent said. She had lightly tanned skin, green eyes that had white freckle marks under them, and log blonde hair that was tied with a red hairband at the end. She wore a brown stetson hat, a white shirt with green sleeves that had an apple on the front, a jean skirt with pockets, and light brown boots that had an apple design on them. Around her neck was a red necklace that held a red geode. This was Applejack, a student at Canterlot High who also worked at an apple farm known as Sweet Apple Acres that was responsible for a lot of the apples that could be found in stores. As a member of the Rainbooms, her role is that of another guitarist, more specifically the bass of the band. After the events of Camp Everfree, she obtained a geode that granted her superhuman strength.

"Unfortunately I have personal experience. I wouldn't want to see that thing again." A girl next to Sunset said. She had pure white skin, blue eyes that had light blue eyeshadow, and long purple hair that had been finely taken care of and curled at the end with a hair clip that featured three blue diamonds on it. She wore a light blue blouse that was frilled at the bottom that also had a purple and white diamond pattern on it. She also wore a purple skirt as well. She was also wearing purple and white high heels that had various diamonds on them, even the heel seemed to be made of diamond. Finally around her neck in a pale yellow neckpiece was a purple geode. This was Rarity who was known to be a fashionista who could design and create a variety of outfits for any situation. As a member of the Rainbooms, she acts as the band keytarist and costume designer. After the events of Camp Everfree, she obtained a geode that gave her the ability to create diamond shields that were able to withstand almost anything.

"This thing is even messing with the soccer team. A lot of the other members are so paranoid that they can't focus." The last girl. She had light blue skin, pink eyes, and rainbow hair that was short at the front and was a little long at the back. She wore a white shirt that had a cloud with rainbow colored lightning shooting out of it on the front with a blue and yellow jacket with the sleeves rolled up, had rainbow sweatbands on her wrists, dark blue sweatpants with a rainbow lightning design on them, and blue and red tennis shoes. Around her neck was a blue necklace that held a blue geode. She was known as Rainbow Dash, captain of the soccer team for the school's sports team, the Wondercolts. She was also one of the more athletic members of the school as she also dabbled in other sports as well. As a member of the Rainbooms, she acts as the another guitarist and the lead singer. After the events of Camp Everfree, she obtained a geode that grants her superhuman speed.

Sunset sighed after everyone explained that they weren't able to find anything. "Alright, let's just go over what we know and see if we missed anything. Twilight?" Sunset said as she turned to Twilight.

Twilight pulled out a notebook and began to read off a few things that were listed. "Ok, so, two weeks ago reports of students claiming they saw some sort of shadow peeking at them at random locations in Canterlot High began to pop up. Students claim they saw the shadow peeking at them, only for it to disappear after they either blinked or went to investigate it. They also claim that they felt anxious and fearful while the shadow was there, only for those feelings to vanish as the shadow did."

"It's true. When I was looking at it I felt as though I was on the verge of having a panic attack, only for it to disappear as soon as it did." Rarity commented.

"Other than that, all we know is that it lingers for about 30 seconds at most before it disappears. And that it doesn't show up staring at the same student twice." Twilight concluded.

"What about the part where it looks like a weird snake?" Pinkie asked.

"Well, yes that too." Twilight said. "Sunset, are you sure you don't know of anything from Equestria that matches its description and what its been doing?"

"I'm afraid not. The closest thing is a unicorn that utilized dark magic who could transform his body into smoke. Princess Twilight explained who Sombra was while we were messaging each other when this first started." Sunset said. "I just feel like we keep running into dead end after dead end."

"So I'm guessing that last bit also has to do with you still not having found someplace that will let us play?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Unfortunately. I feel like I've tried everywhere, and I need to focus more on what's been happening around here. I don't know if Equestrian magic is involved, but if it's dark magic I can't ignore it." Sunset responded.

"Don't worry Sunny! We're here for you, and we'll make sure that wherever you manage to get us, it will still be an amazing first gig!" Pinkie said, trying to cheer Sunset up.

"Hmhm. And besides, Ah'm sure Granny and the other's won't mind if we use the farm if you can't find anywhere that'll let us play." Applejack said.

"Thank you. But my main priority is getting to the bottom of this." Sunset said. Moments later, the school bell began to ring, signaling that classes were about to start.

"I'm sure we will find something soon." Fluttershy said. "Maybe something might show up during school?"

"Maybe. Anyways, we can discuss more during lunch. We have to get to class." Twilight said as she began heading towards the school, shortly followed by the others besides Sunset, who lingered a bit behind as she was trying to think of anymore places that would allow the Rainbooms to play, as well as think of any answers as to what was happening. However, unbeknownst to her, peering over the other side of the marble podium and straight at Sunset, was a shadowy entity that was serpent like in shape, had spikes coming out of its sides, and had six tendrils coming out of its back. As Sunset walked into the building, two glowing red dots appeared on what appeared to be its face followed by a thin, glowing red smile as the shadow had finally found what it had been looking for. It then faded away, only to appear in the school out of sight of anyone's view as it began to follow and watch Sunset as she went through her school day.

All throughout the school day, Sunset had a small feeling of anxiousness that she simply put aside as her desire to figure out the reason behind the appearances of the shadow students kept seeing. All the while, said shadow kept stalking her throughout the day and watching her while staying out of sight. From hiding inside a shelf containing various vials and beakers in her chemistry class, to peering behind a bookshelf in her history class. It was during this time that Sunset ultimately decided she may end up having to take the offer for the Rainbooms to perform at Sweet Apple Acres. The place could probably comfortably hold a small concert, and she had also heard of powerful spellcasters in Equestria who started off casting spells at small taverns and inns before they were allowed to study and use magic on a grander scale, meaning that the Rainbooms could also start off doing small gigs before being able to play at bigger places. As the bell ringed signaling the lunch period for all of the students at CHS, Sunset made her way to the cafeteria and got her lunch before sitting down with her friends. Meanwhile, the shadow slipped under a nearby table and continued to watch her.

"So, did anything new show up regarding the shadow?" Sunset asked hopefully.

"Sorry sugarcube, we asked around but other than a few more students saying that they also saw it but were anxious to talk about it, Ah'm afraid there's nothin' new." Applejack said.

Sunset let out a sad sigh as she had been somewhat hoping that something new would show up, either the shadow doing something new or finding anything that could hint about what it could be. Really, she felt like she needed a breakthrough, and it was at that moment that Sunset thought of something that could potentially help solve this mystery, and considering how the weekend was coming up, she felt that it might be as good of a chance as any.

"Girls, I think we're going to need some more help." Sunset said.

"What do you mean by that?" Twilight asked.

"I think I may need to go to Equestria and get some help from Princess Twilight." Sunset said.

"Didn't you say you've been asking Twilight about if she knew anything about what's been going on?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Well, yes. But the thing is, neither of us have been able to find anything. The idea was to hopefully just put our heads together and see if there's anything in either her library or anywhere else." Sunset said, though she was also hoping that talking with Twilight could give her some advice on the trouble she's been having with finding a place that would allow the Rainbooms to play. Looking at the others, they seemed to think this over before Rarity spoke up.

"Well, I suppose I can agree with this idea."

"You do?" Sunset asked.

"Certainly. We haven't been able to find anything on our end and you said princess Twilight was having trouble finding anything as well, so it might be a good idea for you two to work together. I'm sure you would be able to find something." Rarity said.

"I'm with Rarity!" Pinkie exclaimed. "We need all the help we can get if we want to turn everyone's frowns upside down again. Besides, I want to go and see pony me and trade party advice!"

"You know it will just be me going, right?" Sunset asked.

"I know. I just haven't seen pony me in a while." Pinkie said. Sunset was about to ask when Pinkie visited Equestria before Rainbow Dash began talking.

"The point is, all of us can continuing investigating this thing while you're working with Twilight. And then, when you two figure out what's going on and then come back, we'll make this shadow regret messing with Canterlot High!" Rainbow Dash said.

Sunset smiled a bit as the others also explained that they were on board with the idea, as well as offering words of encouragement, or in Pinkie's case, also asking if she could bring back some of the baked goods the pony version of her makes so she could supply them at her next party. The shadow, on the other hand, seemed happy at this revelation, and slithered out from under the table it was hidden under and out of the cafeteria without none of the other students even noticing. After lunch, Sunset and the others continued on with their day as they finished the last of their classes before the school bell rang, signaling that everyone needed to head home. As the seven of them left the school, all of the girls gave Sunset words of encouragement and wished her luck with finding anything about the shadow. They also asked her to ask princess Twilight how she was doing and that they hoped she would come a visit and possibly even watch them perform. This caused Sunset to become a little bit down for a bit, though this was almost immediately replaced with confidence as she felt that when this whole business with the shadow was over that she could put more of her focus towards finding a place for the Rainbooms to perform.

Several minutes and a mile walk later, Sunset eventually made it to the building where her apartment was, and after making her way of a couple of lights of stairs, she eventually reached the door to her apartment and entered. The apartment itself was somewhat simple, as it was mostly one big room that was separated into different sections that all had a different purpose. The "living room" was right in front of her, which consisted of a couch and two cushioned seats around a coffee table that faced a tv that was set on top of a cabinet against the wall. Next to the tv were a few gaming consoles that were hooked up to the tv as well. Within the cabinet itself were a variety of different videogames that Sunset would play and make videos of to later upload them to her gamming channel for people to watch. Speaking of, right next to the cabinet was a desk that held a desktop computer that Sunset used to edit and upload said videos. To Sunset's left was the "kitchen" which consisted of a fridge that was right next to a stove and oven. Right above said oven and stove was a microwave, while right beside it where cabinets that held various dishware and silverware. Towards one of the corners of the apartment was a door that led into the bathroom, which was somewhat simple as it had a basic toilet that sat beside a sink and mirror with a shower at the end of the bathroom. Finally was the loft which was right above the "kitchen" and was accessed via a small staircase set into the wall. The loft itself acted as Sunset's bedroom, with a bed set within the middle of it against the wall while two dressers were set beside it holding Sunset's clothes. On top of the dressers were various photos that showcased Sunset as well as her friends. Some of these being the seven of them holding their instruments and looking as though they were about to play a song, an image showing them grouped together while smiling at the camera just after the Friendship Games had ended and Twilight had transferred to Canterlot High, and an image showing them fixing a dock at Camp Everfree as they looked as though they were having fun.

The next few hours were spent with Sunset getting everything she needed and packing them into a backpack she had gotten from Rarity, with all of them getting a custom made backpack from her with her saying she was hoping to get some inspiration from attempting to make a backpack. In the end, they all turned out quite well. Sunset's in particular was dark red and had an orange and yellow flame decal running across the bottom, with the same sun design on Sunset's shirt on the top of the backpack right under a zipper. There were actually three zippers that allowed access to three different sections of the backpack that all had various pouches were small items could go. Finally on each side was a black pocket where bottles could be held, allowing Sunset to store bottles there and easily access them while wearing the backpack.

Among the things Sunset packed were some notebooks that she could write stuff down in, a variety of pens that had different colors of ink, and finally, a book with a brown leather cover, two gold stripes on the spine, and the same sun design on her shirt and backpack on the front cover. This journal was somewhat special to her, in more ways than one. Back when Sunset was still a student under Princess Celestia's wing, Celestia had given her this book that was enchanted so that anything written in it would be copied to a book Celestia had. That way, the two of them could talk to each other even if they were far away, even across dimensions. When Sunset had come to the human version of Equestria, she had taken the book with her. It wouldn't see use until the Battle of the Bands, where Sunset used it to contact Equestria's Twilight to ask her to come and help deal with a group of girls known as the Sirens who caused distrust and anger through their singing. After that, she regularly used the book to keep in contact with Twilight, either by telling her about things going on in her life or asking for help with trying to figure out things. The reason she was taking it was that she was hoping Twilight could copy the enchantment and put it onto two more books in case the ones they used ever ran out of pages. Before packing it however, Sunset opened the book and grabbed an orange pen. A little while ago Sunset discovered that the color of ink used to write in the book would also appear in the other, meaning that if a message wrote in orange ink was written in the book, the same message would appear in the other book and would also be orange. After discovering this, Sunset decided to use pens with orange ink to write in the book as a small joke that Twilight eventually caught on to and began writing in purple ink in response.

Dear Twilight,

This is to inform you that after much thought and consideration, I have decided that I will be coming to Equestria early tomorrow morning, roughly 6:00 A.M. The reason being is that after we haven't been able to find anything relating to or hinting at what this shadow could be, I was hoping that there might be something in Equestria that may explain as to what we are dealing with. I'm also hoping that by putting our heads together, we may also be able to solve this situation as quickly as possible.

Your Friend,
Sunset Shimmer

After waiting a couple of minutes, text began to appear right under the message Sunset wrote as Twilight wrote back her own message.

Sunset,

I believe that this could be a great idea, and that I would be happy if you came to Equestria. Believe me, I've been searching the whole library for anything about this shadow, and while I have yet to find anything, I believe that we may be able to find something together. I might be able to ask Princess Celestia or Princess Luna if they may know anything. Regardless, I look forward to your visit.

Your Friend,
Twilight Sparkle

Happy that Twilight responded and that she agreed with the idea, Sunset put the book inside her bag and finished packing. After which she continued on with the rest of her day by simply editing a few videos that she had been working on for a little while. Once they were finished she uploaded the videos to her channel before eating a dinner that was just a simple sandwich before she took a shower and headed to bed, not before setting an alarm clock on the dresser next to her that would allow her to wake up early tomorrow.

It was almost 6:00 as Sunset finally made it to Canterlot High. After waking up from her alarm and letting Twilight know that she was on her way, she grabbed the backpack she had prepared the night before and rushed to Canterlot High as fast as she could where she now currently stood in front of the marble podium in front of the school. Not a lot of people new of the secret of the podium, as the only people that really knew were Sunset and her friends. Essentially, the podium in front of Sunset acted as a portal that allowed those who walked through one of its sides to travel to Equestria. However, this would also change their body to match that of their Equestrian counterpart, and the same was true for those that traversed the portal in Equestria that led to this version, transforming the pony who walked through into a human and making them look like their human counterpart. Sunset still remembered when she got here for the first time as she remembered having to take a long time getting used to walking on two legs and not being able to use magic. As Sunset stood beside the podium, the shadow that had been following her yesterday peered at her from a corner of the statue and watched her.

"Alright. Just get to Equestria, meet up with Twilight, and hopefully we can find out what that shadow is and find out why it's appearing and watching students. And hopefully she can give me some advice regarding the band situation." Sunset let out a sigh and, after looking around to make sure no one was watching her, she began to press her hand against the side of the podium. As she did, a light surrounded it as it began to phase through the surface as Sunset began to go through the portal.

It was at this moment that the shadow made its move.

It immediately dove into the portal, which had the immediate effect of causing an intense pressure to weigh upon Sunset's arm that felt as though something was crushing it. This is return caused Sunset to immediately yank her arm out of the portal and took a few steps back as she had not been expecting that to happen.

"Ow! What in the name of Celestia?!" Sunset swore as she looked at and massaged her arm. Thankfully, other than it feeling a bit sore, it didn't appear that anything was broken.

"That, shouldn't have happened. Why did the portal..." Sunset trailed off as she looked at the podium. She watched as the side of the podium began to darken, slowly turning from the white marble that they were before they became dark gray, and eventually became pitch black. Cautiously, Sunset slowly approached the podium and looked at the now dark surface of the portal. She then reached out again and placed her hand onto its surface and watched as her hand sank into it, though she immediately yanked her hand back out as she watched as the dark surface began to slowly crawl onto her arm. Then Sunset further stepped back as she saw two glowing red dots appear within the surface of the portal. Seeing this, Sunset began to feel an overwhelming feeling of fear as she felt as though those dots were staring into her soul, and then a thin red line appeared below the two red dots and slightly curled upwards. It was at this moment that Sunset realized:

She was staring right at the face of something looking through the portal.

Then without warning, a shadowy tendril with a red spike at the end of it shot out of the surface of the portal and wrapped around Sunset's arm tightly and slowly began to try and pull her in.

"What the?! Let me go!" Sunset yelled out as she began pulling away from the portal while trying to pull the tendril wrapped around her arm off. However, it was to no avail as it felt as the tendril had an iron grip around Sunset's arm. Then, a second tendril shot out of the portal and wrapped around her other arm and began to pull, causing Sunset to only be able to try and pull away from the portal.

"Help! Someone help!" Sunset called out, though no one was around to hear her pleas. Finally one last tendril shout out of the portal and wrapped around both her backpack and her torso. And with one hard yank from the tendrils, she found herself being rapidly pulled into the portal. Sunset could do nothing as she was pulled into the portal's dark surface and could only watch as the darkness obscured her vision and she was pulled completely through. Once Sunset was completely pulled through, the surface of the portal began to slowly brighten as it returned back to its original color, as though nothing had just happened.

After Sunset was pulled through the portal, the tendrils continued to drag her as she felt a strange wind rushing past her. However, she slowly began to feel dizzy, as though traveling through whatever the tendrils were pulling her through felt, wrong. A wrongness that Sunset's body couldn't handle. Eventually, as she began to see a distant light, she would lose consciousness right before the light engulfed her. As the light faded, Sunset's body could be seen being slowly dragged through what appeared to be some sort of rift where the entrance of Canterlot High could be seen through it. After she was pulled completely through, the rift began to shrink before it disappeared.

The place that Sunsets was dragged to was, to say the least, very strange. All around her were various floating landmasses made up of dry and cracked red dirt that all floated in a dark blue void where dark clouds could be seen swirling within it. Some of these landmasses had trees growing out of them that were tall and spiky in appearance and some of the landmasses also had pools of water in them with waterfalls flowing into them from landmasses above them. However, the strangest thing about this was that some of the land masses were angled in different directions, though waterfalls could still be seen flowing from one angled landmass to another as if the laws of gravity didn't apply here.

Once Sunset was completely dragged through, she was pulled towards the shadow that had been watching her the day before, however this time it was several times larger than before and seemed to tower over Sunset. At the moment, its eyes and mouth glowed nonstop, with there now being glowing red rings circling its body as well. Then, it began to speak.

"Finally, after all these years of searching, I have finally found the one. I have had to search through countless dimensions and other worlds in order to find one worthy and capable of the task I have for them, but now I have finally found the one who will be able to help carry out my plan. The one who will help me get revenge on father, and the one who will be able to stop Her. I understand that she is carrying out her plan solely out of the care of the others and even me, but she must understand. If she manages to complete her plan, then the original world and its inhabitants will be killed, their essence broken down into nothing and unable to recreated. As for father, she will help ensure that he is punished for what he has done." The shadow said while looking at Sunset. It then looked out at the swirling void and all of the floating landmasses in reminiscence, as though it was thinking of a time long past.

"I truly do miss the original world, how beautiful and orderly everything was. Now, after father cast me and the others out and into this one, we have had to live in a world where everything is a chaotic mess, a world on the opposite side of the original world. Even if we were cast out, we have managed to survive and endure for millennia, able to adapt quickly to our new home. And while I have been beginning to call this place home, it seems that not everyone has accepted staying here, why else would She be carrying out her plan." The shadow then turned back to Sunset who was still passed out and gave an amused chuckle.

"To think that the human I chose is not actually a human, but is from that alternate world filled with colorful talking horses. I would have assumed that you would have gotten used to traveling through dimensions, but I suppose that traveling to here is quite different than hoping through that portal. Nonetheless..." The shadow trailed off before looking at the ground nearby and, using its powers, managed to create another rift on the ground. Through it, a small field within a dark forest could be seen.

"You who I haven chosen to act as my chosen hero, you will go into the original world and assist the one chosen by Mew. You will journey with him and disband the groups created through Her actions. You will unearth the dark secrets the original world had been hiding for the past several years, and you will stop Her plans and ensure the original world's continued existence. Then, when we meet face to face again and when you have proven yourself to me, I will allow you to return back to the dimension from whence you came. The shadow said as it lifted Sunset over the rift.

"Now go, and fulfill the role I have given you." At this, the shadow released its grip on Sunset, causing her unconscious body to fall through the rift, with said rift closing right behind.

"I will be keeping an eye on you, Sunset Shimmer. And I believe father will as well, as I'm sure he wasn't expecting me personally to play my hand against one of my own people."

It was early in the morning as it was till going to be a little bit before the sun broke over the horizon the middle of a dark forest within a small clearing, a rift opened a couple of feet above the ground in which Sunset fell through and landed on the grass with a soft thud. After which, the rift closed right above her, leaving Sunset lying in the clearing. Towards the edge of the clearing and watching behind the trees, various animals had watched Sunset fall through the rift. Though, these didn't appear to be normal animals, some were caterpillars that were around a foot in height, there were purple and light blue four legged animals with large ears and whiskers, and oddly enough, there was a gaseous dark purple orb with eyes and a mouth. All of them watched the girl with interest, though when they began to hear grass rustling and saw a figure walking into the clearing, they all scurried away to avoid being seen.

The figure in question was wearing a robe with a hood that obscured their face. The robe itself was black in color with the trims of the sleeves being red while the hood of the robe was white. Finally, the collar of the robe was red and puffy, giving off the impression that the collar was soft. As soon as the figure entered the clearing, they stopped and spotted Sunset's unconscious form laying on the grass. Curious, the figure slowly approached Sunset and observed her. Wanting to make sure she wasn't awake, the figure used their boot, which was black and was red at the bottom, and nudged Sunset a couple of times. Seeing how she wasn't responding, the figure began to think aloud.

"Now, what is a girl like you doing out here so close to the base? Eh, nevermind that. I'm sure Persephone wouldn't mind using you as a sacrifice in the next ritual. If the one later fails and it runs off, we could use all the sacrifices can get." The robed figure said. They then leaned down and in one swift motion, picked Sunset up and hung her body over their shoulder. Keeping both hands on her as to not let her fall, the figure walked towards the edge of the clearing and began following a path that led out of it. A couple of minutes later after following the path and taking a turn here or that when the path split, the figure eventually arrived at a large rocky hill. Going towards the back, the figure climbed a couple of sets of stairs before they eventually reached the top where a large rocky mound. There, the figure then approached the mound until they reached an outline of what appeared to be a door. They then knocked a couple of times, before a voice began to talk through a small speaker embedded within the mound.

"Password?" The voice asked.

"Colbur Berry." The robed figure responded.

"Correct. Come on in." The voice said before the speaker shut off. After which, a thin line appeared right in the middle of the outline, separating it into two halves. After which, both halves slid into the walls, allowing the figure to walk through the dark entrance that had been made. Once the figure and Sunset both disappeared into the darkness, the halves slid back into their original position, closing off the entrance and leaving Sunset to be taken into whatever was being hidden within the rocky hill.

Author's Note

With the first chapter of the story done, we find Sunset being dragged somewhere unknown against her will by forces greater than she could even imagine. Though, it also looks like she's found herself in quite the predicament at the moment. Like I mentioned in the introduction of the story, this story follows the dark storyline of Pokemon Insurgence, and we're already seeing just how different it is than the normal story of the game.

One other thing, you all are free to leave any questions or comments that you have about the story, as I kind of want to be somewhat engaging with you guys as the story progresses. Anything from wanting clarification about something, to even pointing out some of the mistakes I make as even though I try my best to go through and make sure everything sounds right, there is the occasional thing I miss here or there.

Lastly, I'll also be including little references and easter eggs throughout the story and am interested to see if you all can find some of them. There aren't any here in the first chapter, I just thought I would give you all a heads up so you can keep an eye out for them. Also, side note, I couldn't find a good picture of Canterlot High that didn't have the destroyed statue, so I had to go with the one shown.

Anyways, see you all in the next chapter.