Chapter 4
“So, Cedric tells me you are not a Pokémon,” the third professor stated in a deep voice. Celestia nodded, and he took a moment to contemplate in silence.
From what little she had been told of him, Celestia had assumed that Professor Rowan would have been similar to the Junipers. That assumption couldn’t have been further from the truth. Rowan was older than Cedric, but he was harder to read. Cedric seemed to always be smiling, took things in stride and with good humour, while Rowan reminded Celestia more of some of the professors employed at her school. His white hair was trimmed short, except for on his face where it grew into bushy sideburns and a long moustache. She got the sense that there was wisdom behind those aged eyes and his mind seemed to always be working, but he had mastered the art of keeping his secrets just that.
“It’s quite the coincidence that you look like a number of Pokémon then,” Rowan said at last. “It’s hardly any surprise that Professor Juniper confused you for one. I imagine I would have done much the same.”
“All of the Pokémon I have seen resemble animals from my home as well,” Celestia countered.
“Ah, that’s right,” Aurea cut in. She and her father were seated on the right of Celestia. Her assistant leaned against the wall, arms crossed and listening to all that was said. “We never did determine just where you come from.”
Rowan brought a hand to his moustache. “Where she is from won’t solve the problem. No doubt we lack the means to travel there. Instead, let’s focus on how you arrived here, Celestia.”
Cedric nodded, smiling broadly. “I imagine if it were as simple as boarding a plane, you’d have already bought yourself a ticket.”
If only it were that simple, Celestia thought. “I was working on repairing a powerful artifact when the magic I was using backfired. I’m a little fuzzy on the specifics, but... I felt like I was being engulfed.” She turned to look at Aurea Juniper. “Then I woke up in your aviary.”
Evan scoffed. “Magic? That’s nothing but stuff from fairy tales.”
Celestia was about to rebuff him when Rowan cleared his throat brusquely. “That’s hardly keeping an open mind, young man,” he said, his tone hard. “I’ve no doubt our ancestors thought Pokémon were magic, long before we decided to study them. And even now, some things they do defy explanation. To a child who has grown up on fairy tales, seeing an Alakazam levitate objects with its mind, or a Mr. Mime creating psychic barriers from nothing, would be indistinguishable from any form of magic.” Evan sourly looked away, obviously stinging from being rebuked.
“Perhaps our guest could demonstrate for us,” Cedric said. “We might learn something useful from it.”
Celestia shook her head. “I was forced to distance myself from my magic in order to protect the others working alongside me. I also didn’t want to discover what would happen if I were pulled past the barrier while still sharing my magic, and there wasn’t enough time to safely untangle myself.”
“What precisely was it that you were working to repair?” Aurea asked.
Celestia hesitated a few moments, debating how much she should reveal. “An ancient mirror capable of acting as a gateway to other worlds,” she finally said.
Aurea fished a hand into her pocket and pulled out the glass shard they’d found in the alleyway, holding it up so that everyone could see. Even out of direct light, a rainbow of colour cascaded across the surface. There was something oddly familiar about it to Celestia, but she couldn’t place exactly what it was.
“An ancient mirror capable of traversing dimensions,” Aurea repeated. “We found this shard of glass near where Celestia was first found, and there was that thug nearby. It can’t just all be coincidence.”
Cedric leaned in to peer at the shard. “Does it look like a part of your mirror?”
“It looks like any other piece of glass,” Celestia said unhelpfully. “And it would worry me more if it were part of the mirror. That would mean that our attempts to repair it have not only failed, but have scattered the pieces.”
“Is there any way you can confirm it?” asked Cedric.
“I can try, but without my magic it’ll be a difficult process.” Celestia extended her hoof and Aurea handed her the shard.
Without warning the tiny shard gave off a bright spark of light. Aurea and Cedric both brought their hands over their eyes as the room was awash in a rainbow of colour. Startled, Celestia dropped the glass and gawked as the colours traveled back into the reflective surface, like water flowing down a drain.
For a long while no one spoke, stunned by what had occurred. It was Rowan who finally broke the silence, the suddenness of his voice making Celestia jump a little. “I’d say that was decidedly unexpected.”
“That was certainly unlike anything I’ve experienced before,” Aurea agreed, rubbing her eyes tenderly. “I don’t suppose you have any insight in the matter?” she asked Celestia.
The alicorn nodded solemnly. “Yes, I do. That little burst was very similar to what the mirror was doing when my allies and I were working to repair it.” She gave a dejected sigh, feeling her spirits sink. “If the mirror itself is so destroyed, I do not see how I have any hope of getting back home.”
“Nonsense!” Cedric said with a clap of his hands. “If something’s broken, then you fix it. The mirror wasn’t destroyed, merely damaged; the shard we have here is proof of that. And where there is one piece, others can’t be too far off.”
“Perhaps, but didn’t you say there was someone with you when you discovered the shard?” Rowen asked Aurea, who nodded. “If there are others seeking out the mirror shards, then they perhaps know something about them that we don’t. They may also have the means to track them down.” He tugged on his mustache in thought for a few moments. “This talk of travelling between dimensions reminds me of something I read about, but I can’t recall precisely what at this time. When I get the chance I’ll call up my assistant and have him send me my research notes. Perhaps getting into contact with Professor Carolina would not be a bad idea either.”
Cedric cleared his throat. “First thing’s first. I think we should scan the shard to see if its energy patterns can be compared to a common element. If it does, then perhaps we can find a way of locating any more shards out there, or at the least finding something that gives off similar energies that could be used to get Celestia back to her home.”
The next few days were a flurry of activity in Aurea’s lab. For nearly ten hours a day, the professors were at work, analyzing the mirror shard and scrolling through a list of common elements for something to compare it to. Unfortunately, Celestia found herself delegated to the role of observer through all this. She was not a pony well versed in the sciences, and nearly all the equipment being used was designed for human hands, not pony hooves.
Am I really so helpless without my magic? Celestia wondered as she watched Cedric flip through his notebook. When she’d given up her magic to Twilight Sparkle to keep it out of Tirek’s hands, she felt helpless, sure, but not incapable. Here she felt like a foal watching something it couldn’t comprehend, unable to do anything but wait.
The most she was able to contribute was when Rowan would come and speak to her after the Junipers called an end to testing for the day. The elderly professor would query Celestia on her home, as well as the mirror itself, consulting his notes as she spoke. In turn, Celestia was able to learn more about this strange world she found herself in.
“Our world, as you’ve already come to discover, is inhabited by creatures we call Pokémon” Rowan said when Celestia asked him on her second day in his world. “Depending on where one lives, the number and diversity of Pokémon they can discover varies. For example, my home region of Sinnoh has Pokémon living there that can be found in several other regions, while this one, Unova, has Pokemon not found anywhere else.
“No matter where we live, Pokémon and humans work side by side in a variety of ways. At times we can play together or use one another to grow as individuals. The most common method for this is participating in Pokémon battles.”
“If you’re friends with them, why do you make these Pokémon fight each other?” Celestia asked.
“It’s not an easy thing to explain,” Rowan answered. “You’d have to participate in a Pokemon battle of your own to truly understand.”
“Then I doubt I’ll ever understand,” she replied.
It was during a somewhat rainy day that Celestia found a way to keep herself busy. Since the professors were so fixated on the shard, Celestia decided to attend some of their lesser duties—in this case, feeding the birds in Auria’s aviary. It wasn’t too much of a walk from the lab (though the light downpour and carrying the bag of feed with her teeth once again made Celestia yearn for her magic), but she enjoyed the chance to get outside and stretch her legs. And besides, she enjoyed caring for animals.
The aviary itself did little to stop the rain, as the cage was meant to keep the birds from flying away; fresh air was allowed to blow through as it willed, which allowed the rain and presumably snow in as well. Nevertheless, the birds didn’t seem too bothered by the weather. As Celestia entered the aviary, she was greeted by a resounding chorus of “Pidove” and “Tranquill” echoing through the aviary before being near-smothered in grey feathered bodies.
“Seems they like you,” a voice said from in front of Celestia. “But my advice would be to drop the bag before they tear a hole in it.”
Celestia followed the advice and let the birds descend upon the feed. Moving around them, Celestia saw Auria’s assistant standing beside a bird far larger than any of the ones she’d seen so far. Its feathers were dark grey—near black on most of its body—except for its underbelly and thighs, which were dark green. The bird’s head was dominated by a large red crest that trailed down to its wings like a ballroom mask.
“What’re you doing out here?” Evan asked, absently petting the bird’s neck.
“The professor was neglecting some of her other chores, so I thought I’d pick up the slack,” Celestia said.
“She can be very absent minded sometimes,” Evan said, then curiously looked at Celestia’s side. “You don’t have that Snivy with you?”
“No.” Celestia couldn’t hide her confusion. “Why would I?”
“That particular Snivy has been quite picky when it comes to trainers, but he seemed to like you the moment he saw you.”
Celestia sighed. “I’m flattered, really, but I’m not anything’s trainer, nor do I want to be.” She gave a slight shake of her head, glancing back at the birds as they ate before turning to Evan. “The whole idea of forcing them to fight for your amusement just seems so barbaric.”
Evan’s eyebrows furrowed in displeasure. “We don’t force our Pokémon to do anything they don’t want to do. They’re our friends and partners, not entertainment. Right, Unfezant?”
“Unfezant.” The large bird nodded its head and gave Celestia a similar insulted look.
“Unfezant here was the first Pokemon I ever caught,” Evan continued. “He was just a Pidove back then. If he’d wanted to, he’d have left me long ago and gone back to the wild if I’d ever mistreated him like you’re saying.”
“And yet you continue to make him battle, if I follow you correctly,” Celestia pressed on. “Does seeing your so-called ‘friend’ injured and in need of urgent care make you feel nothing, even knowing that it was you who urged him on?”
“Of course that bothers me. I can’t think of anyone who it wouldn’t bother!” Evan shot back, clearly upset with her at this point. “But we don’t have Pokémon battles just to watch our Pokémon suffer. They’re about strengthening our bonds and demonstrating how far we’ve come as a team. Not master and slave. A team.” He paused to rub his Unfezant’s chin affectionately. “We do more good together than we could ever do apart.”
“Unfezant,” the large bird agreed.
Evan looked at Celestia with a determined gaze. “But maybe sometimes words aren’t enough. The only way to understand what I’m talking about is to experience it for yourself.”
“So everyone keeps telling me,” Celestia said, “but even if I agreed to, how would I go about experiencing it? I don’t have any Pokémon of my own, and you’re clearly too experienced for a battle to be fair.”
“I can handicap myself if that’s what you’re worried about. There are lots of Pokémon I caught on my journey that haven’t got much battle experience.”
Celestia shook her head. “But you still have it. It’s not a comparison of the Pokémon’s skills, but your lifetime of battling to my days of listening in on the subject.”
Evan took a moment to process what she said. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. But does that mean you’d agree to a battle with someone of your skill level?”
Celestia was silent for a few moments. “I suppose so, yes.”
Before Evan had the chance to say more, the averie door opened and Aurea walked in, smiling broadly. “Ah, there you are Celestia!” she exclaimed. “We’ve done it! It took no small amount of effort, I can attest to that, but we finally found a matching energy signature!”
“You have?” Celestia asked, her thoughts still focused on Evan’s words. Did she honestly agree to one of these battles in the future?
“Well, it’s not a complete match, but it’s the closest we could come to.” Aurea replied. “Rowan was doing some cross-testing based on data sent to him from a friend in Sinnoh and we found it just like that. Come, he and dad are just finishing uploading the data onto a scanner.”
“A scanner?” Celestia asked, falling into step beside Aurea. “I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but much of your technology I am incapable of operating.”
“Don’t worry. We’ve got that covered.” Aurea smiled and opened the lab door for Celestia. She trotted in, headed for the lab.
Rowen and Cedric were hunched over one of the desks, watching one of the odd screens as complicated text scrolled past. In the center of the room sat the shard the Snivy had found, held aloft by a peculiar set of pronged forks. All manner of electrical devices were set up around it; Celestia guessed they were meant to run tests on the shard.
“Ah, good, you’re here!” Rowan exclaimed, turning away from the screen. “The program is nearly loaded onto the scanner. Should be done in a minute or so.”
“Thank you all so much for this,” Celestia began. “Words cannot express how grateful to you all I am, though I am still curious how you expect me to operate a device meant for your kind.”
“That was the easy part,” Cedric answered. “All it took was a little modification to a standard-issue Xtransceiver.”
“And what is a Xtransceiver?” Celestia asked.
“It’s a high-tech transceiver device,” Aurea said. She pulled back the right sleeve of her lab coat to reveal a square black-and-pink device strapped to her wrist. “Normally they’re used for four-way communication, but we had the idea of modifying one with a Dowsing Machine program.”
“A modified Dowsing Machine program at that,” Cedric clarified. “It made our job much easier once Rowan remembered it. A few changes to what it searched for was all that was needed.”
“Not that finding the shards themselves is going to be any easier with it,” Rowan interjected. In his hands he held what Celestia assumed was the scanner. It looked much like the device on Aurea’s arm, but the box-section was larger and dotted with several buttons, and the strap had been extended to wrap around Celestia’s forehoof.
“Our sample loves to confuse our instruments at every turn,” Rowan continued. “I won’t bore you with the details, but the program is designed to search for and locate that exact type of interference. Because of it, though, the scanner won’t be very accurate when you get too close.”
Celestia raised her hoof for Aurea as she quickly affixed the odd device. Fortunately the weight was barely noticeable. “So this machine will tell me when another shard is close by?”
“Not quite,” Aurea replied. “It can tell you if a shard is within a two kilometer range, but as Rowan said, once you get within a hundred feet of the shard, the interference may overload the scanner.”
“We actually had the one you already found throw off our readings a few times,” Cedric added. “Which brings me to my next point. I assume you intended to carry the pieces with you, but the scanner wouldn’t be any good with any pieces so close, so we threw together a little carrying case for you. It’s lead-lined, but don’t worry, still very light.” He chuckled, sliding a rather plain brown box across the table, not much longer than the shard they had, though square in shape.
Celestia nodded graciously. “You’ve all been so kind, I can’t even begin to think how I can repay you.”
Cedric gave a hearty laugh. “What kind of professors would we be if we just left someone in need out to dry without so much as a helping hand?”
Celestia looked around at the room full of smiling faces. Friends to guide her and equip her, a hunt for shards in a strange land with no foreseeable way to get home. For the first time in nearly a thousand years, she felt the urge to explore.