“Uhhhhh… Where am I?” Curtis asks as he rubs the back of his head. He looks around and notices he is in some… Desert he thinks.
It certainly looks like a desert to him. It is hot, dry, there are rocks everywhere. Definitely a lot of rocks. Curtis remarks to himself.
Then something moved. Just barely within his peripheral vision. He quickly snaps his head to where he thought he saw it. Nothing. Wierd, he thought to himself. He sees it again. Something black. He turns again. He sees nothing.
“Ok come on out! I know you’re there!” He shouts at the “thing”. It didn’t look like anything he has seen or heard about. It looked like a bug’s chitin. But it was black so it is also a dark type? He can’t think of any Pokemon that are dark and bug. They shouldn’t be hard to fight though. His fighting type blood will make this quick.
Curtis hears another sound. This time behind him. Ready to fight, he turns around quickly and gets a good view of his stalker. It’s definitely a bug type. Its glowing blue eyes stare him down. Its’ chitin is… Full of holes for some reason. Its wings look tattered and beaten. Its’ fangs sharp and pointy.
No biggie Curtis thought. Unless it is supposed to look like that, it looks half starved. If it doesn’t wish to communicate he believes can fight it out. Even if it is a bug type, and bug types are strong defensively against fighting, Curtis is confident in his fighting skills now to be able to fight it.
All because of Jasmine... he thought. Then quickly shoot those thoughts away. She’s alive. Dialga and his brothers confirmed that. There’s no need to think things like that. Or at least continue that train of thought.
Curtis hears the same sounds, this time coming from the left and right of him. The bug in front of him is still standing there. Watching him with those blue eyes of his. He turns to his left. two more of them! To his right, three more! He turns around and theres two more. They have him surrounded. Now he’s really worried. He has faced overwhelming odds such as this before. But only with Jasmine. And she isn’t here right now. He’s surrounded and he’s all alone.
“W-what do you want from me?” He asks them, hoping he could talk his way out of this. Even though he wasn’t the best negotiator. That was usually Jasmine’s job.
Either the bug/dark hybrids didn’t understand what he said or they didn’t care for none of them replied back to him. They did, however start talking to each other in a series of chips and chirps in a language he didn’t understand. Which unnerved him. Every Pokemon spoke to each other in one language which they usually call Basic (accents of said language are everywhere) If there are pokemon who speak a different language than Basic, what kind of world did he end up on?
While they continue chirping at each other, Curtis focuses himself, ready to strike the first pokemon and making a run for it. They continue to chirp, which confuses him. He is in the weak, shouldn’t they start attacking him now? Yet they continue to chirp. The one in front, whom Curtis assumes is the leader of the pack, is chirping angrily at no one. It (He can’t tell if it is male or female) seems to be staring at the sky.
Finally the leader stops staring at the sky and looks at Curtis. In perfect, yet foreign Basic it says, “You. Whatever you are, you’re coming with us.”
“I….I don’t think so” Curtis says as he unleashes his focus punch onto the leader. The effects are immediate, for the hybrid was sent sailing and smashed right into a rock. If it wasn’t fainted by the punch itself, the collision certainly did it.
This of course made the rest of the hybrids attack all at once. Luckily though, that fight with Primal Dialga made him stronger, and he was not only able to endure the hit, but deal damage as well. He is constantly using Feint and Force-Palm as they have the most PP to use against them. Focus Punch leaves him too exposed to use, despite the fact that if he used it, he’d be guaranteed to be able to one-shot each of the hybrids. Most are surprisingly weak, and go down with Focus punch. Those who are hit with Feint usually ran away or went down running into their buddies.
Not much time has passed and Curtis has taken down every hybrid that dared attack him. The rest ran away, almost as if by command. Like a Vespiquen and her Combees. He doesn’t question it much, he has a chance to run!
And run he does.
He doesn’t know how far he ran but he kept running. He can hear them chasing after him. He doesn’t know if he is going farther in or away from this place he finds himself in but he keeps running. Until his stomach decided to make a protest.
He stops and looks around where he is, checking to make sure it is safe. He is nearby a rocky mountain. Said mountain is full of holes. He doesn’t see any of the hybrids coming in or out of the mountain’s holes so he dismisses it for now. He continues to look around and sees nothing but shrubbery and occasionally, a couple of tiny Skorupi.
After observing his surroundings he looks at the mountain to see if any of those hybrids actually do come in and out of it. A few minutes pass and nothing has moved from it. He makes a bold move and starts to climb the mountain. Once he gets high enough, he crawls into one of the many holes in the mountainside and makes camp there.
It makes a perfect hideout, he thinks to himself. Indeed it is though. The massive amounts of holes in the mountains makes chances of finding him very slim. Add the fact that there are several other mountains that look exactly like the one he is hiding in and also the fact that they don’t know where he is makes his getaway a successful one.
His stomach growls yet again and now he finds the time to dig into his pack for the apples he’s packed. He brushes past the perfect apple the Guild master gave him. “For when you can celebrate with Jasmine!” He cheerfully told Curtis when he gave the Riolu the apple. He smiles at the memory. The Guild master has a way of making you smile, even in the grimmest of times.
He selects a bright red apple from his collection and sat at the edge of the cave and started munching on his apple. The view up here is fantastic, he thinks to himself as he stares off into the sunset. The height, being so high up, makes everything seem so small and yet that much more beautiful. The dying sun streaked brilliant colors of red and orange all over the wasteland, giving the place a look and feel as if it’s on fire. The clouds, having caught the reflection of the sun, glowed the same brilliant orange or the soft red of the rays.
As soon as the apple was eaten and the core was thrown off the mountain (hey a guy has to have some fun) he retreated into the cave where the warmth still lived. He grabbed one of the emergency blankets that they kept in there and curled up in it. Before he went to sleep to manage to murmur a “Good Night Jasmine…” before falling asleep.
“So who is this ‘Pinkie Pie?’” I ask Twilight. “And why do we have to meet her?”
Twilight chuckles, “You’ll see. But thats where the rest of my friends should be. You’ll probably want to meet them. Although you did get the brashest one out of the way first *cough*rainbowdash*cough* It will probably be wisest to meet the rest of them.”
“Okay, but why Pinkie Pie?”
“Because…” Twilight put a hoof to her chin, thinking for a moment. “You know, I really don’t know. It just seems like the best logical choice. She knows everyone in this small town of ours.”
“Oh, okay then,” I say and the rest of the way was met with silence. Of course it wasn’t true silence since the other ponyta went up to Twilight and greeted her. They seemed to ignore me though. Weird.
By the time we make it there, I think I see where we’re going. “Are we going to that house there? The weird one there that looks like it is made out of food?”
“Yep,” she says, “that’s sugarcube corner. It’s where pretty much all of us go to get our sweet tooth cravings fixed.”
I didn’t understand a word she said, but I went along with it and nodded my head. I know the word sweet, but it is a rarity in treasure town. Any sugar in town is usually bought out by the Kecleon brothers who use it for Arceus knows what. And the few times the guild gets some, my ears hurt too much thanks to Loudred who utterly loves the taste of it.
We enter the shop and the first thing I smell is the food. Oh sweet Arceus that smells sooo good! Sure there are towns out there who bake, but Treasure Town isn’t one of those towns. “Mmmmmmmm….” Was all I can manage at that moment.
“Twilight! I knew you’d come with a friend! My Pinkie sense told me there would be a newcomer but I didn’t see them!” Says the PINKEST Ponyta I have ever seen in my life! What kind of defect is that!? “Did you see them? Oh! You got a new pet! Hi there, I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name? Can you talk like Spike can? Oh, this is going to be so great! You’re going to like it here in Ponyville! *GASP!*” The pink menace has stopped talking for a moment! Now’s my chan- “I’m going to have to throw you a welcome to Ponyville party!
My ears… My poor ears. I think something is broken… Everything is still spinning. This is worse than the first time I met Loudred. His screaming made Curtis and I dizzy at most. This is…. Worse, in a way. Yes, there was the ringing and the eye spinning, but this is worse. Maybe because of the high-pitch of her voice? I don’t know.
“Ooooooh…” I manage to moan out. Or maybe it was whimper, I couldn’t tell. I think they’re talking to me I can’t tell. My vision is gaining focus though. That’s good. Twilight is talking to ‘Pinkie’ about something. She seems confused. Like she knows she is in trouble but she doesn’t know what she did wrong. Wait, I think I can hear Twilight saying something.
“... So please be gentler… She isn’t from around here. I think she isn’t even from this planet! The way she talks about things… It’s not right.”
“Uhhhh….. I thought we established my right and your right are different from each other.” I tell her.
She smiles at me, “That is true. But I still think it’s odd. Plus, Pinkie Pie doesn’t know. By the way, Jasmine this is Pinkie Pie, Pinkie Pie this is Jasmine. Go easy on her, please.” While she is talking to the both of us she points her hoof at each of us when she gets to our name.
“Hi there! Sorry about making you dizzy and what not. Really I am! So to make up for it have a cupcake! On the house.” As soon as she mentioned this ‘cupcake’ she shoved what looked like a tiny cake with A LOT of sugar on it. It also has these little colorful things on there that look a lot like gummis back home.
Cautiously I took a bite out of what I assume is the cupcake and taste it like I would with a gummi shake, and OH MY ARCEUS! That is delicious! “MMMMM!” I manage to mumble through my mouth as I devour the rest of the cupcake.
“Wow! You sure are a messy eater! And that’s saying something coming from me!” Pinkie exclaims as I finish eating it. I give off a burp and notice every pair of eyes is on me. I blush (not that anyone can see it, brown fur and all) and put my tail between my legs.
“Heh heh… sorry?” I say and, just like that, most of the eyes are off of me. The ones that didn’t watch me, their eyes were filled with curiosity.
“Its okay.” Pinkie shrugs. “It’s nice to see new ponies. It’s even better when they enjoy my food.”
“That was a cupcake you said?” I ask her. She gives me a nod. “That was delicious! What is it made out of?”
“Do you mean to tell me, you’ve never had cupcakes before!?” Pinkie practically screams. Her eyes completely filled with worry, as if not having cupcakes is the worst thing in the world.
“Ummm, yes?” I hesitantly tell her. To that, she gasped and FLOATED into the air for a second or two.
“B-But how could you NOT know what cupcakes are!? Do you live under a rock or something!?”
“Actually, I lived in a cliff….” I hesitantly tell her.
“Same difference!” She yells, probably for the sake of yelling. My ears are starting to hurt again…
“Okay, okay!” I manage to scream over her and she quickly calms down. “Where I’m from, we knew about the concept of baking. We usually made bread though. We never heard of this ‘cupcake’. Until now anyway.”
“Oh… Well I’m so sorry to hear about that. Well, since you asked so nicely, and said some things about it, I’ll tell you Pinkie Pie’s cupcake recipe! But first you need to Pinkie swear!”
I give her my confused look. “Pinkie swear?”
“Uh huh!” She says, starting to bounce. “Cross my heart and hope to fly stick a cupcake in my eye! A Pinkie Pie promise can NEVER be broken!”
“Ummmm….. okay?” I tell her. “I….Pinkie Promise…. To not tell anyone about your secret part of the cupcake recipe.”
She seems to deflate a bit when I said that, but she shrugs it off and continues to bounce. “Close enough. But you didn’t do it right!”
“Huh?”
“You gotta do it exactly like I do it! Here I’ll help you.” She then, somehow, moves faster than I can blink, for the next thing I know she is next to me and grabs my paw. “Cross my heart” She says as she moves my paw toward my heart and makes an X motion. “Hope to fly” She then takes my paw and extends it all the way, pointing at the sky. “Stick a cupcake in my eye!” And to top it off she bends my arm and pokes my eye, earning a yelp from me.
“Oops! Sorry!”
“Its okay,” I manage to reply. “It’s just a little poke. I’ve been through worse”
“If you say so!” And she casually tosses one of those delicious cupcakes into the air and puts all of it into her mouth. “So the cupcake recipe is very simple. In fact, by tomorrow I can have the recipe written down and I can give it to Twilight who then can give it to you.”
“Wow,” Twilight comments. “That is very responsible of you Pinkie. I’m actually kinda surprised”
“Why are you surprised Twilight? You know I’ve become more responsible, especially with watching Pumpkin and Pound.”
“True, but its still a shock you know? I still kinda see you as a lovable goofball, even if I know that isn’t the case anymore.”
“I know. It’s kinda weird like that. But it’s like what Discord occasionally says, you have to roll with it.”
“That is very wise.” I comment and to which Pinkie thanked me.
“Anyway,” She starts.. “Before we get sidetracked.” She leans in close to me….erm, closer. “The secret to my cupcake recipe,” She says in a quiet, yet still high pitched, whisper, “extra sugar and lots of love.”
I look at her with my head turned at her. “Really?”
“Yep!” she said with a beaming smile. “Now that I told you the secret part of my secret recipe, want to make some cupcakes?”
My eyes widen and my ears straighten up at that. A chance to gain the firsthand knowledge on how to make those heavenly glorious foodstuffs? Yes, please!
Pinkie giggles, probably at the way I look right now. “Well I see you’re excited! I’m going to go find you an apron so we can begin!” And just like that, the hyperactive, although to me she seemed very tame, pink pony bounced away from me and into the kitchen. Sounds of pots and pans can be heard from said kitchen and I think I heard glass break in there somewhere.
Twilight giggles. “Yeah that’s Pinkie Pie alright. You should see her at parties. Anyway, I’m going to leave you here, okay Jasmine? I have work to do at the library.”
“Yeah, it’s no problem. If something goes wrong, I can just spend the night here with Pinkie.”
I think Pinkie was eavesdropping on us, because as soon as I said that, I hear her scream “YAY!” Of course she could have just found the apron. Probably the latter, seeing as she is running out with an apron in her mouth. “Found it!” She exclaims and wraps it around me. “You ready to begin baking!?”
“You bet!” I exclaim and we run into the kitchen to make a mess. Oh, and to make cupcakes. Can’t forget that. Needless to say, this will be fun!
Curtis yawns as he begins to wake up from his sleep. He then stretches and pops his joints. If there is one thing he can say about this cave, it is that it doesn’t feel like the guild’s beds. Or his bed back in Sharpedo Bluff. But it suited his needs.
He looks out of the cave to the rising dawn of this planet. “Wow” He breathes in awe as he watches it. He couldn’t believe what he is seeing. It is more beautiful than any sunset he has seen back on his planet. Even more than what he witnessed when Jasmine agreed to help him. He smiles at the memory
“R-Really? You’ll really help?!” I remember asking excitedly.
She nods at me. “Of course. Its not right to sit out when I just saw that. Plus, those two are mean.”
“Th-Thank you!” I exclaim as I wrap her in a hug, surprising both me and her. “This means a lot to me.” I saw as I look over the water and into the sunset. It wasn’t a sunrise, but it was the most beautiful thing I ever saw.
“Right, let’s go! Quickly!” I say as I break the hug.
She nods. “Follow me!” and she starts running off
“Right behind you!” I saw as I look at the sunset one more time before following her into the cave
“Good times” Curtis says to himself and starts to climb down before he gasps in surprise. “No! no no no! No not here!”
He looks frantically left and right, up and down. The clouds are frozen in place, down below a dust storm is frozen, a cactus is suspended halfway through falling down in the ground, the grass looks stuck, blown in a wind that no longer exists.
Time in this region has been frozen to a standstill.