It was hot.
Granted, they were in a desert. They being a research team from Canterlot, examining any possible environmental effects of the recent arrival of the Pokemon to Equus.
It had been several months since the fateful day when Arceus had escaped a five thousand year imprisonment, and proceeded to dump a fairly large number of Pokemon and humans-turned-Pokemon on Equus.
In the months following this exodus, there had been world meetings, a large number of incidents, several emergencies, and a fairly large period of adjustment.
Now that things were finally settling into something that resembled normality, the nitty gritty work of adjusting to the Pokemon was beginning, including environmental surveys.
These were usually very routine and didn’t feature much excitement, except for the stallion leading this particular survey, that is.
“Come on then!” Bio Chem shouted back at his research team as he ran over the top of a hill. “We’re sure to find a spot to set up camp sooner or later!”
“Celestia,” one stallion, a Unicorn named Geode, mumbled under his breath. “If he doesn’t stop talking soon, I swear I’m gonna-”
“You’ll do nothing,” a young Pegasus mare by the name of Silver Leaf said, slapping the back of his head.
“He’s just excited,” another mare, a Unicorn named Moonbeam, said with a chuckle. “Let him have his fun.”
“Fine,” Geode said with a huff. “But I do hope we find somewhere to set up soon, I don’t wanna be wandering the desert after dark.”
“What? Afraid of the dark?” Moonbeam teased.
Geode shook his head. “No, Sandworms.”
“Sandworms?” Silver Leaf asked.
“Sandworms.” Geode said with a nod.
The three walked on in silence for a while, until Bio Chem came rushing back to them with the familiar form of his Metang, Hal, at his side. “Okay, there’s a town over there,” he said, pointing over one of the hills. “Which is weird, cause I don’t recall a town on the map.”
Geode rolled his eyes. “We’re in the middle of nowhere, why would there be a town out here?”
“Why would somepony plant an Apple Orchard in the middle of the desert?” Bio Chem retorted. “I don’t know why Ponies do what they do, I just try to figure it out afterwards.”
“Does that mean we’re going to that town?” Moonbeam asked hopefully.
“I wouldn’t if I were you!” A new voice shouted from below them, causing Silver Leaf to shriek in surprise and take to the air.
Bio Chem looked down between his hooves and smiled at the little yellow face looking up at him. “Oh calm down,” he said, looking at the rest of his team. “It’s a Sandshrew.”
“Momma and papa say not to go near that town,” the Sandshrew explained. “Mr. Xatu told everymon something wrong is going on there.”
“What kind of wrong?” Moonbeam inquired of the little rodent.
Pulling himself fully out of the ground, the Sandshrew shrugged. “No one’s told me, but they don’t like Pokemon going near there, so I don’t care.” He crossed his arms and pouted. “One of them threw a rock at me.”
“Aww,” Silver Leaf, having recovered from her fright, cooed and nuzzled the Pokemon. “Don’t worry, we’ll find out what the mean ponies are up to.”
The Sandshrew smiled and thanked them before scurrying off. Bio Chem, meanwhile, considered his next course of action.
“I’ll have to leave Hal behind...” he shook his head. “I have a bad feeling about this place.”
“I think you were right to be nervous,” Moonbeam whispered to Bio Chem as they went past the first few buildings of the town. Already they had seen several ponies, all of whom had ran back their houses as they approached. “Did you see the-”
“Smiles?” Bio Chem asked. “Or perhaps the fact that of the ponies we’ve spotted, they’ve all had the same Cutie Mark?”
“... yeah, that,” Moonbeam said with a frown. “I think the Pokemon were right about this place, maybe we should-”
Bio Chem held up a hoof as another Pony approached, a pink Unicorn mare, flanked by several other ponies. Unlike the others, her smile seemed less horrifyingly joyful, and more... sinister.
“Well,” the mare said as she reached the research team. “We certainly weren’t expecting guests anytime soon.”
“Not surprising,” Bio Chem replied. “Seeing as how this little town isn’t on any official maps.”
The mare’s smiled faltered a little. “Is that so?”
“Indeed,” Bio Chem said, smirking a bit. “I’m Bio Chem, from Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. This is Silver Leaf, Geode, and Moonbeam,” the rest of the research team waved nervously. “We’re conducting an environmental survey of the area to see what affects the Pokemon have had on the environment.”
“Oh I doubt they’ve done any damage around here,” the mare said with a smile. “We’ve done our best to... minimize, their presence... what are the Princesses doing about them anyway?”
Bio Chem smirked again. “The Princesses, along with world leaders from almost every other nation on Equus, met and discussed that a few months back.”
“And how is that going?” The mare asked.
“They made them all citizens,” Bio Chem watched as the mares outer calm faded, and was replaced by a look of anger, if only for a split second.
“Ah... wonderful,” the mare sighed. “No matter, I’m Starlight Glimmer, and I’d like to welcome you to our little town.”
“It’s... nice,” Silver Leaf said, looking over all the ponies who’d gathered around them, all of them looking on with giant, unsettling grins. “Why is everypony so... smiley?”
“And what’s up with the Cutie Marks?” Geode asked, pointing at Starlight’s own equal signs.
Starlight smiled. “I’m so glad you asked... everypony! All together now!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioDuLqK_LuY
Bio Chem shuddered as the song ended, while Silver Leaf was hiding behind Geode and Moonbeam.
Starlight, a smile on her face once more, trotted back over to the research team.
Bio Chem stared at her for a moment before speaking. “Are you a cult?” he asked bluntly.
Starlight looked startled. “W-what?” She asked nervously.
“I’m just asking, this seems rather cultish to me, conformity, isolationism... basically everything about this screams cult.”
Starlight glared at the stallion. “We are not a cult.”
“I’ll believe that when I see it,” he said under his breath.
Her glare hardened. “We are not a cult... and I can prove it to you... if you’ll just follow me.”
“Yeah, we’re not doing that,” Moonbeam interjected. “That’s like... the worst idea I’ve heard in a long time.”
“We’ll just be leaving now, thank you,” Geode said, before turning to see a wall of ponies blocking their path.
“I’m afraid that I can’t allow that,” Starlight said with a sigh.
Silver Leaf attempted to escape via the sky, but several Pegasi grabbed her and pinned her wings.
“Oi!” Bio Chem shouted. “You can’t keep us here!”
“And we won’t,” Starlight said, accepting a wooden staff from a white coated stallion. “In fact, pretty soon... I doubt you’ll ever want to leave!”
Bio Chem’s eyes widened as he saw the magic gathering on the staff. Fortunately, he had a plan B.
“Hal! Use Protect!”
There was a glint of light from above as a mass of blue metal sped downwards and stopped in front of Bio Chem, an orb of light formed in front of the Pony.
“Gah!” Starlight jumped backwards as the shot deflected from the barrier and glared at the Pokemon.
Bio Chem smiled and climbed onto the Metang’s back. “You’ve made a grave mistake today Starlight Glimmer... Confusion!”
Hal responded by sending out a Psychic pulse, knocking the ponies back and off of Silver Leaf and the others.
“Come on!” Geode shouted, already taking off back the way they had come.
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Silver Leaf replied, spreading her wings again and taking off.
“Stop them!” Starlight shouted, grabbing her staff and aiming it at the fleeing ponies.
Bio Chem, riding on Hal, and Silver Leaf were both fairly safe, Geode and Moonbeam on the other hand, found themselves facing another wall of ponies.
“Hang on!” Bio Chem shouted, turning his metallic steed around. “Use- Gah!” Hal tumbled backwards as another beam of magic shot from Starlight’s staff.
“GO!” Moonbeam shouted, blasting one of the ponies with a magic beam. “Get help! We’ll be fine!”
“But I-” He was cut off as another magic beam nearly hit him.
“Get that pony!” Starlight shouted.
Reluctantly, Bio Chem turned Hal around and flew out of town, several Pegasi on his tail. “Use Bullet Punch.”
Hal’s claws glowed orange and the Steel-types arms rotated back towards the pursuing Pegasi, before he fired several punches in their direction, hitting the unprepared ponies head on and knocking them out.
Bio Chem glared back at the town. “What now?” Silver Leaf asked. “Do we go back to Canterlot?”
The stallion chuckled lightly. “Canterlot... no, not Canterlot,” he looked off into the distance and smiled. “Hal... set course for Ponyville.”