After their breakfast, Izzy, Misty, and the Scatterbug travelled to Bridlewood in the Marestream. The latter turned out to have a huge appetite, and had eaten as many pancakes as the ponies, Penny, and Sparky combined.

When they reached the heart of the village, they saw chaos. A horde of purple... things were running around and eating the giant crystals. They were around the same size as troggles and looked vaguely similar, but they had legs, and their arms ended in sharp claws. Strangest of all, they had polished gemstones in place of eyes. Dapple was trying to scare one off with his bongoes, while Alphabittle stood outside of his tea shop, brandishing a broom at a group of them.

"Dad!" Misty exclaimed, galloping towards him.

"I'm glad you're here, Ty," said Alphabittle, placing the broom down. "We need all the help we can get."

"Weird stuff's been happening in Maretime Bay too," said Izzy, "and we're trying to figure out why. But first, how can we help?"

"Make sure these gremlins don't get into my tea shop." With that, Alphabittle picked his broom back up and held it horizontally like a shield. One 'gremlin' tried to lunge at him, but he positioned it so it would smack into the pole instead.

"I have an idea!" exclaimed Izzy. "Misty, you stay here while I get some stuff!" Misty didn't seem to be listening, however; instead, she was looking over her shoulder. "Hello?"

Misty turned to look at Izzy. "Sorry. I just felt like something was watching me..."

After a trip to her house to get some supplies, Izzy returned with a pair of cymbals connected by a rope that was wrapped around an umbrella's handle.

"Ta-da!" Izzy held it up in front of Misty and Alphabittle. "Introducing my new Rain or Shine Gremlin Scarer! ...I'll work on the name later."

"How is that supposed to work?" asked Misty.

"You'll see..." Izzy levitated the Gremlin Scarer above her head, then let it slowly fall to the ground. During its descent, the cymbals repeatedly clanged into each other. The gremlins stared at it in mild interest. Once it landed, Izzy said, "Oh well."

The Scatterbug jumped off Misty's back and tackled a nearby gremlin... and phased right through it. Misty shut her eyes in concentration, and lifted the same one off the ground slightly. Realising what she was doing, Izzy joined in and helped her throw it into the distance.

"Yeah!" cheered Izzy to herself. A few more gremlins were clawing at the tea shop's doors, though — more than Alphabittle could handle on his own. Izzy tried to pull them all off at once, but her magic was only strong enough to lift one at a time.

"Any help here?" Izzy asked, but it was no use. Misty wasn't strong enough, and Alphabittle was preoccupied.

Suddenly, a dark shape leaped down from a tree branch and punched a gremlin with its glittering fist. It knocked the gremlin off the broom and sent it skidding onto the ground, where it couldn't get back up again. Then, something strange happened: the gremlin shrunk.

The dark shape landed on the ground, and the three unicorns turned to look at their rescuer. It was around the same height as a Sylveon, but that was where the similarities ended. Its fur was bluish-black, it stood on two legs, and had sharp claws. Its eyes were like a cat's, and in place of a left ear, it had a green feather. The icy glow around its fist disappeared as it uncurled it.

The dark thing hissed at the gremlins, as if it was taunting them. It swiped, slashed, and smacked the other gremlins around the tea shop, until they all fell down and shrunk as well. Then, it bent forwards and panted heavily.

"Thanks," Misty mumbled to it. Alphabittle looked at her with his head tilted and brow furrowed, so she explained, "It seems like these sorts of creatures can understand pony speech."

"They're called Pokémon," Izzy added.

"How do you know all of this?" asked Alphabittle.

"It's a long story," she said, "but to put it short, I found an EXTREMELY cute creature on the beach this morning. I brought Hitch with me to talk to it — he understands animals — and he asked her what she was. Her name's Penny!"

The dark thing stared at Izzy in shock.

"Do you recognise that name?" Izzy asked. It nodded, so then she said, "Great! You can come back to Maretime Bay with us... but we've got some gremlins to deal with first."

The dark thing made short work of the gremlins. It got tired quickly, so the unicorns helped it by throwing objects at the gremlins to weaken them first, or throwing them into tree trunks.

Once all the gremlins had either shrunken or been chased out of Bridlewood, Izzy, Misty, the Scatterbug, and their new ally headed towards the old library. There wasn't a librarian — it had been abandoned for generations, and now its only inhabitants were spiders. The dark thing slashed away the thicker cobwebs with its claws.

Izzy led the way to the magic section and looked through the shelves. "Let's see... Farasian Potions After Zecora... History of the Magic Pearl... Ah-ha! Practical Spells for Unicorns."

She levitated the book off the shelf and carefully leafed through the pages. The pages were fringed with brown and barely attached to the spine. Eventually, she found what she was looking for.

"This translation spell will let you understand any creature you cast it on, and let it understand you," she read. She looked over the instructions multiple times, then shouted, "Misty, Scatterbug, stand back!" She pointed at the dark thing. "You, get in front of me!"

Izzy closed her eyes and concentrated all her magic into her horn until it started to ache. Then, she launched the spell at the dark thing. The aura flickered and fizzed for a moment, then dissipated.

"Did it work?" asked Misty.

"Only one way to find out! What's your name?" she asked the dark thing.

"I'm Nemona," she replied. "Thanks for helping me with the Sableye earlier!"

"What's a Sableye?" Izzy asked.

"They're what you called 'gremlins'."

"And you are...?"

Nemona jumped and tried to do backflip in mid-air, but landed face-first. Once she got back up, she said, "A Sneasel!"

"She doesn't look like a weasel," Misty muttered.

"At least, I am now. It's a long story." Nemona sighed, but then smiled. Her sharp teeth freaked the ponies out, but she continued, "But being a Pokémon is awesome!"

"Well, I'm glad to hear that!" exclaimed Izzy. "Do you wanna come home with us to see if you know Penny?"

"Of course!"

Author's Note

I've removed references to Pokémon shrinking in the rewritten version because it confused people.