Luna stared at the two birds, for once simply dumbstruck. The more she looked at them, the more obvious it was that something was terribly, awfully wrong with these two. Their feathers seemed just a few shades darker, as though they were somehow absorbing more light around themselves. They were poised differently as well. She’d gotten to know the standard flight stances of their species over these last few days. Spearow and Fearow were aggressive, yes definitely, but they were also perpetually poised to flee before stronger opposition, to submit to a more dominant bird rather than get pummeled. These two… they looked for all the world like they simply waited for a cue to attack without thought for restraint or self-preservation.
And their eyes… the bird Pokémon normally had such an alert liveliness to them. Perpetually alert for the next meal, or a predator, or a challenger from within the flock. They were in constant motion, flicking this way and that at all times. But now their dark eyes fixed unwaveringly on the princess, empty of feeling or awareness. There was their next target, and nothing else.
“Drill Peck now!”
Luna was snapped from her horrified reverie by the sound of a human voice. Without hesitation, Fearow threw itself at her in a corkscrew move, razor sharp beak enveloped in grey energy and pointed directly for her throat. The princess threw herself to the side, flapping her wings to gain some altitude. The beak struck home on the branch behind where she had been shattering the wood into a thousand sharp fragments. The alicorn felt a few of them patter against her flank, drawing a little blood. When Fearow turned swiftly about she saw several had cut into its flesh, but it didn’t even seem to notice.
Since when can Fearow do that? I fought this very creature for leadership and it never demonstrated that kind of attack.
“Spearow, Peck!”
The princess cried out in shock and pain as something slammed into her back with far more force than such a small Pokémon had any right to. Pitched forward by the sheer impact, she barely twisted out of the way as Fearow shot by with another Drill Peck, aiming for her head. This time she aimed a shot at its back with the move Floette had termed Dark Pulse, but suddenly her vision was filled with an incredibly angry tiny bird trying to jam its beak into her eye.
Luna jerked her head back but Spearow’s beak still scraped her cheek, drawing more crimson into her dark blue fur. But the little bird’s reckless attack put it far too close to dodge when she unleashed a point-blank Dark Pulse into its chest. Spearow was hurdled away by rings of black and purple energy almost as big around at is was. Before the princess could so much as look around she was finally struck in the side by Fearow’s corkscrewing attack.
The alicorn screamed, thrown from the air by the overpowering force of the attack. She hit the leaf-covered dirt right flank first and skidded a good few yards. Fearow plunged after her, beak aimed to plunge into her chest before she could recover. Luna’s mouth curled into a snarl, one forehoof glowing bright. Beak and hoof collided, strained with one another for a fraction of a second, then the energies exploded against each other. Luna was knocked onto her back and sent skidding back several more yards by the force of it. Fearow flew backwards and smacked headfirst into a tree. But even as Luna watched, the bird Pokemon struggled to rise and continue, eyes staring at her with naked malice – a far cry from its previous cowardice.
How is suddenly this powerful? Did that device of the humans do it?
“Now’s our chance,” one said to the other, “it’s weak!”
“Right!” the other human grabbed another black orb from her belt and pitched it hard as she could at the alicorn.
The princess scrambled, rolling hard along the rough ground. The dark device hit the forest floor some several feet from where she lay, but did nothing. Luna jumped to her hooves and, with one vicious stomp, shattered the little thing to pieces.
“Hey!” the woman snarled at her. “We have quotas to meet and Dark Balls don’t grow on trees!”
Celestia would probably have made a sarcastic quip about how sorry she was to inconvenience them, but Luna just bared her teeth in a naked snarl.
“This one’s a real pest,” the man said as he returned the snarl. “I don’t feel so sorry for what’s going to happen to it.”
“What’s going to happen?!” the princess demanded. “What devilry is afoot here, you brigands?”
“Fearow,” the man stretched out his hand. “Attack with Aerial Ace!”
The Pokémon, which had managed to return to its feet, hurled itself into the air and at the princess once more. A silver-white energy enveloped its wings, trailing off into the air behind it. Luna closed her eyes, drawing on the energies of the moon inside her, a pinkish-white sphere of energy taking shape before her face even as Fearow tore through the space between them. At the last possible second her eyes shot open and the sphere was hurdled at her subordinate turned foe. At such close range, it was all but impossible to dodge. The bird, set on its target to the exclusion of all else, didn’t even try.
An explosion of fey energy rocked the forest as Luna’s attack took Fearow head on. It went soaring like a baseball in a home run, flung back and back and back some more until it finally struck the earth. It bounced and skidded yet further, kicking up leaves along the forest floor until it finally came to a halt at the feet of the human duo. The princess watched, but this time Fearow did not rise.
“R-Right,” the female grabbed three more orbs from her belt and tossed them into the air. “Spearow, attack as one with Fury Attack!”
The orbs exploded into more dark energy, revealing the remainder of Luna’s scouting party. They too, she saw, had the dead eyes and dark complexion that seemed to come from those evil devices. They all surged forward with beaks aglow. Such a strategy might have worked if they had all attacked in tandem with Fearow to begin with, but now the alicorn had their measure. A Dark Pulse blasted one from the air, and the others pressed forwards without hesitation or the slightest regard for their fallen comrade. Their mindless aggression made them predictable, she shot a second bird down with another beam of black-purple energy. The third and final bird managed to close the distance, only to be rewarded with a glowing hoof rising to meet its beak. Even with its powers magnified, it was considerably weaker than Fearow and was sent flying by the attack.
After making sure it was down for the count, the alicorn’s eyes darted back to the humans. Or rather, where the duo had been. They were a considerable distance from there now, sprinting down the forest trail at full tilt away from her. Fearow was left to lie there on the forest floor, beaten and unconscious.
“Cowardly curs,” Luna snorted, then opened her wings and took off after them.
The outcome was never in doubt, the princess had centuries of racing against the best pegasi in Equestria and they had sheer terror. Luna gained ground rapidly, a snarl on her face. When she came close enough, she unleashed another Dark Pulse from her horn, this one sweeping into the ground in the space between the two. The explosion flung both humans in opposite directions, though both were hurdled into trees.
The man’s face was a grimace of pain as he looked up to see the alicorn descending on him like an avenging valkyrie. He reached for his belt, but quickly yanked his fingers back as a hoof descended, pulverizing the remaining black orb affixed to his right side. There was a sudden discharge of black energy from one of them as it was destroyed, and Luna’s eyes widened when she caught a glimpse of it around Fearow’s prone form as well. Turning her gaze to bird Pokémon, she saw its dark complexion fading away even while she watched, healthy brown returning to its feathers.
Luna’s ears twitched, and she jerked her head around to catch another black orb enlarging in the woman’s hand. Another Dark Pulse to the tree behind her hurled the human forward on the shockwave. The alicorn stuck one foreleg to her side, just in time to catch the human woman in the midsection. She all but bounced off the unbending limb, hitting the dirt on her back. Luna’s hoof smashed the devices still attached to her belt, one more attack consumed the one that had been ripped from her hand. The princess noted to her satisfaction that on the destruction of these the Spearow’s bodies crackled with dark energies and immediately began regaining their normal complexion.
“Now…” she turned her hard blue eyes back to the prone humans. “We have a great deal to discuss, you and I.”
Meanwhile, Team Rocket and all their Pokémon were once more jammed into the janitor’s closet. With little enough room to envy sardines and time pressures mounting with every passing day, it was little wonder that none of them were in the mood for games.
“Meowth, report,” Jessie demanded. “You’ve been lounging in the closest with miss sunshine and rainbows all day, it had better have been worth it!”
“We had to clean out the bathrooms today!” James fumed. “Can you imagine how much plumbing goes into a secret underground base for hundreds of people? And can you imagine what happens when it breaks? You can’t exactly call a plumber down here!”
“Moving on from that slightly nauseating thought,” Celestia interjected quickly, “why don’t you tell them what we have?”
“We spent all day trackin’ da cranky lady with da bad hair and funny visor,” Meowth said. We saw whereabouts she lays her head and sent Inkay ta take a look.”
“It’s just like you figured,” the little cephalopod offered while the cat translated. “The boss lady has her own room – a real nice one too – and she isn’t bunking with any grunts around. Near as I can figure there’s no one liable to notice real quick if she takes a nap.”
“Good,” Jessie nodded. “And our distraction?”
“Ready and waiting… and heavy,” Inkay saluted. “Really heavy, actually.”
Jessie arched an eyebrow. “You wanna scrub toilets instead?”
“N-No no,” Inkay waved his tentacles. “Heavy works for me!”
“That’s what I thought,” Jessie put her hands on her hips. “But if everything’s in place…”
“Then there’s no time like the present,” James finished. “Showtime, ladies and gents.”
“Wobbuffet!”
I like it.
Go Luna! She managed to save her birds, and beat the shit out of those two mooks. It'll be interesting if she can actually extract information from them, and how she plans to go about doing so. Excellent chapter.
You gotta love the irony of Luna saving other from a dark force possessing them.
Those Team Flare grunts just got a well deserved ass whooping.
Though Luna still hasn't realise they can't understand her.
I imagine Luna picking up the title "Forest Guardian"
They shouldn't have messed with Luna and her "knights".
Right, if Team Flare wanted to create a paradise free from evil for all Pokémon, why are they using Torture Balls on them, just to later have them killed? Isn't that basically against everything they stand for?
Meowth said. We saw whereabouts she lays her head and sent Inkay ta take a look.”
1. Forgot your opening quotation mark.
Now I'm interested to see how she will interrogate those grunts. Maybe if by chance she meets Ash and crew down the line with her prisoners (or assuming she just attacks all those wearing the uniforms) and got into a one sided discussion with Twilight saying those humans are using something akin to dark magic well... Who knows.
8995138
To quote Lysandre "[In the new world] Pokémon... Shall no longer exist. Pokémon are wonderful beings. Humans have worked with Pokémon, and we have helped each other flourish. But precisely because of that, they will inevitably become tools for war and theft!"
Or in other words: All Pokémon must die.
So...what is Luna's mobeset? More precisely, what was the glowing-hoof move?
8995169
Huh, I thought his motivation was that he wanted to free Pokémon from humans so they could live their life how they want to, considering Lyasndre's bond with his Pokémon. Not to mention in this story it's implied only Team Flare members will survive the artificial apocalypse, so either humanity is gonna go extinct from lack of humans, or some Team Flare members are retarded
8995169
Has he heard of guns?
8995274
that was Team Plasma, at least on the surface...
8995274
Pretty sure you're confusing him with N and Team Plasma for that first point.
As to the second, please keep in mind that not only does Lysandre believe a strictly limited population is the only solution to the the problem of limited resources, he also does not accept the validity of the aging process. That which is is beautiful has an obiligation, in his eyes, to stay beautiful forever. Like an alicorn, for instance. Also keep in mind that the ultimate weapon can do more than just blow stuff up, it can also make a person immortal.
8995300
I think its the Mega Evolution lore that has him confused. In order for a Pokemon to Mega Evolve it and its trainer need an extremely close bond in addition to the Mega Ring. In the game Lysandre mentions his special bond with his Gyrados several times. So the idea that Lysandre simultaneously is capable for forming a deep emotional connection with Pokemon to the point he can make one Mega Evolve but also wants to kill them all is kind of a mental disconnect.
My take that Lysandre is a walking pile of hypocritical contradictions whose plan starts to get more and more nonsensical the more you think about it is part of his villainy/insanity.
8995390
What, you've never heard of a martyr to the cause? Lysandre doesn't like the plan he's put together, he thinks that it is necessary for the sake of humanity and the planet as a whole. That by trying to save everyone, their eventual destruction is guaranteed. And he chose to value that perceived necessity over his personal emotional well being.
To his mind, Gyarados and the other Pokémon are sad but inevitable martyrs to the cause of a world of eternal peace and beauty for all (that's left of) mankind. There have been hints in this story that Gyarados at least is aware of this and accepts it for the sake of his friend. That's not hypocrisy, indeed it's far more consistent with Lysandre's principles than most people would be willing to go. Very few have the consistency to apply all their values to such a close relationship.
"Now…” she turned her hard blue eyes back to the prone humans. “We have a great deal to discuss, you and I.”
"Luna Luna Luna."
"Why yes, Luna is my favorite character from Sailor Moon."
"You're looking for Luna Lovegood? She's over there in that other fan fiction."
Oh, Luna...
[cackles in Mi-Go]
I just realised, Twilight is trying to defeat the evil forces by making new friends, Luna is electing to just beat the snot out of them, and Celestia is making the most of the fact that she was kidnapped.
8995617
So what?
8995652
Nothing, just an observation. It's just like each one of them.
8995656
It actually isn't. It's like a certain fan version of them.
Poor Lulu's interrogation is going to fail terribly simply because she can't talk here. :(
Wait... dream magic... Oh, this will be good.
You've just had your pokeballs handed to you by a Pokemon that looks like it popped out of a little girl's bedtime story...
History's finest Lysander!
8995080
And that is an awesome avatar icon.
8996064
Inb4 she accidentally uses dream eater
8996562
It comes from this art. I can totally imagine the Luna drawn in this same art looking at the 2 Team Flare goons she's caught like that.