Latias had dropped Ethan off at Aether Paradise and the world champion had promptly gone right to Lusamine and Colress and chewed them out.
"I thought you were supposed to be taking every possible precaution! How did this happen?!"
Colress tried to look as formal as possible. "I apologize for the result of our little experiment. We were unprepared for how unstable the portal would be, and none of our precautions amounted to much. I can assure you that next time we will-"
"Oh HELL no! There's not gonna BE a next time! I'll have you know that this is the one of the best results we could've gotten from this catastrophe!"
Lusamine was afraid to ask but did anyway. "What would the worst-case scenario have been?"
Ethan looked her dead in the eyes. "Both dimensions could have collapsed in on themselves and ceased to exist."
Both Lusamine and Colress went pale at that. "Have we come to an understanding? Good. I'll handle the media for you. Just promise me you won't mess with ultra-space anymore."
Both Aether president and scientist nodded. "Good. Now I'm gonna go explain what's happened to the world, and then I'm heading over to this new region. If I find out you've broken your promise, I'll have the both of you tossed into the distortion realm. Cyrus is there, you'll love him."
Ethan sighed as he packed his things. The media was always annoying. Not because of the lack of trust, people trusted him for the most part. It was mostly just how pushy and demanding the paparazzi and talk show hosts could be for more details. He let the masses know what they needed to know. Nothing more nothing less.
"So you're leaving?"
Ethan looked over his shoulder to where Lillie and Nebby were watching him. The deity of the sun was watching Ethan with interest.
"Yeah. I've already said goodbye to Hau and Professor Kukui. I would've stayed a bit longer, but duty calls apparently."
"Yeah... I get that. It's just that, you've done so much for everyone in Alola... you've done so much for me. Without you, I never would've found the confidence to become a trainer myself."
Ethan looked up and gave Lillie a smile. "Lillie, you're my friend. You don't need to thank me for that. But I appreciate the thought regardless."
Lillie smiled. "I'm glad you think of me like that. I promise that Me, Nebby and all my Pokémon will train really hard for the next world tournament! We'll be sure to give you a fight to remember!"
Nebby looked at Lillie with a little shock. "You're certainly fired up."
"Of course I am Nebby! I want to show Ethan how much I can grow! Gladion and Mother as well!"
Solgaleo chuckled. "Whatever happened to that fragile, nervous wreck of a girl who helped me escape her mother all those months ago? You've certainly grown Lillie."
Lillie blushed a little and gave her partner/friend a hug. "That means a lot Nebby! But you've grown a lot too! There's no way you'd fit in my bag now!"
Nebby huffed. "Good riddance. I much prefer the Pokeball over that blasted bag."
Ethan laughed. He knew it was a good idea to talk Lillie out of letting him catch Solgaleo. They were a perfect match, those two. Besides, he already had Lunala at his side anyway.
"Well, it's been fun, but I've got to head out. I'll see you later, both of you."
"Bye Ethan! Promise you'll come visit!"
"Are you kidding? This region is paradise! I'm coming here for all my vacations from now on!"
Lillie and Nebby laughed as Ethan climbed atop the back of Latias. The Eon looked over and waved. "Hi Nebby/Solgaleo! I promise we'll try to find time for you to meet all of the legendaries soon!"
"I'm not in any real rush. Take all the time you need."
Latias nodded, and then flew off, leaving a giant cloud of sand in her wake.
Ethan sighed as he leapt off of Latias onto the ground. "Man... I've never actually crashed at a castle before. This'll be an experience."
He walked up to the gates and nodded towards the guards. They nodded back after a slight hesitation. Clearly they were still slightly wierded out by him and the general situation. Ethan supposed that made sense. These ponies weren't used to crazy things like this happening.
Ethan entered the castle and was greeted by Celestia in the main hallway. "Ah, Ethan. You've returned. I trust you've taken care of what you needed to?"
"Yep. The ones responsible for this whole mess have been ordered to never do so again, and the media has been given the general story."
Celestia raised a brow. "How much did you tell them?"
"A lot, but not everything. It was explained how the merge happened, but not who did it, for obvious reasons. They were told about this new land and its inhabitants, but only those granted express permission by either me or someone I trust is allowed to come here."
Celestia gave a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. I was worried we would be having quite a few visitors a little too soon. But how do you know that your rule will be followed by all?"
"If someone comes here without permission, they'll have to answer to me, which no one would want to do, given I can just have Palkia put them in a pocket dimension prison or something.
Upon Celestia's bewildered expression, Ethan elaborated. "Palkia's the god of space."
"...Of course. How many gods are there exactly?"
Ethan thought about that for a moment before giving an answer. "A lot. Telling you about all of them and their roles would take a long time, so I'll hold off unless you ask about a specific one."
Celestia decided to brush the topic off. She didn't want to be overwhelmed so soon after Ethan had returned. "I see, well I'll save the questions for later I suppose. Come, let me show you to the room you will be staying in."
Celestia lead Ethan upstairs and around a couple of halls. The veteran trainer thought he saw something purple out of the corner of his eye multiple times, but deemed it nothing more than a curious servant or something.
"Here we are. These are the guest rooms. Yours is the third on the left. Do not worry about keeping your room tidy when you leave it, a maid will be by to clean it while you are away."
Ethan looked inside the bedroom. For something meant for smaller creatures like ponies, it was rather spacious. The bed would fit him and he had room to spare.
"I gotta say it's pretty nice. I've stayed at some fancy places before and this is right up there."
"I'm glad you approve of it. Now, before I leave you, there is someone I would like you to meet Ethan."
Celestia turned down the hallway and smiled mirthfully. "You can come out my student, I know you are there."
A small 'eep!' was heard from around the corner and a lavender unicorn trotted out from her cover shamefully. "Sorry Princess, I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I just saw you with the human again and I couldn't help my curiosity!"
Celestia chuckled. "It's no problem, Twilight. In fact, I think it's about time you two met one another. Ethan, This is my personal student, Twilight Sparkle. Twilight, this is Ethan, whom I told you about last night."
Twilight nervously glanced up at Ethan. He was so much weirder looking up close! He walked on two legs and didn't have any fur. He had claws like Spike, but his were duller and softer than the dragon's. Not to mention he was around as tall as the princess!
Ethan smirked and rolled his eyes upon seeing the nervousness on Twilight's face. "It's fine. I'm not do anything malicious. I'm just here to try and help out with what's going on right now."
Twilight relaxed a little, and finally managed to speak up. "You're from the other dimension, right?"
"We inhabit the same dimension now but yes, I get what you're trying to say."
Out of nowhere, Twilight produced a paper and quill. "I have SO many questions!"
Celestia smiled. "Well, I'll leave the two of you to get comfortable with one another. I have day court to get to and given how I had to cancel yesterday, it will be quite a busy session." With that, the monarch of Equestria trotted away.
It was only after ten minutes of constant questions that Ethan realized he'd been had.