The world, the world, the world, done to the death. There's so much more than this, you know?
The four Tapus represented many things to the people and pokemon of Alola. The seasons, the four islands, the four states of being and more were all represented by the four protectors of the Land Overflowing with Life.
But they were not considered legends in a very...conventional way.
While pokemon trainers and legend hunters attempted to catch mythical pokemon and legendaries, it was considered a great blaspheme to even enter the ruins of any Tapu if one was not deemed worthy, much less challenge them to a fight and attempt to catch one. The reverence by which the Tapus of Alola were held allowed them to bond with human communities on a level no other legendary pokemon could dream of in the modern era.
Many legendaries lived in constant fear, traveling the world for a human-free hideout or being sealed away--even sealing themselves--into centuries long slumbers. Ever since Arceus's defeat the human’s respect and reverence for the legendaries had waned into a lust for fame and power over an immortal. Millennia after millennia, the humans proved that although they had the capacity--
“PAIGE! WHAT IN EQUESTRIA WAS THAT?!”
Tapu Lele jolted awake. She was asleep inside her totem statue in the Ruins of Life. But, something was off.
As the yelling continued, the pink nature spirit reached out with her mind and scanned the area, finding her ruins swarming with strange creatures. Several stood on guard and many more were hiding in their homes.
Their...homes...
Lele needed to figure out what was happening. Why were there so many creatures with such densely packed territories and where had they come from without her noticing? The creature's minds were largely unprotected by psychic barriers, and the few that did were constructed in ways she had never seen before. She reached into the mind of the loudest pony in the vicinity and scanned his mind while he was busy.
Equestria. The ruins, her ruins had been picked up, transported across space and time somehow and had been unceremoniously dumped into some poor civilian neighborhood, where it was all now sitting and blocking the main road.
She said civilians, but she had to take a moment to figure out what that meant. They seemed to the Tapu to be exotic mudbrays, but the closer Lele looked the more she realized that they were not pokemon. She scanned the mind of...his name was Crackle Licks, Crack for short. She scanned Crack's mind and cobbled togther the knowledge she needed.
They were called ponies. They were intelligent, advanced and intricate, and reminded Lele of humans more than pokemon. Now, what of their situation...?
These particular ponies were police. They had come in response to her ruins apparently dropping out of the sky somehow, and they were not happy. They were having a hard time moving her ruins from the road, and a couple of totems had actually broken where the neighborhood ponies had attempted to clear a path that morning to get to work. Lele needed to move her ruins somewhere where they wouldn't get in anyones way, but more importantly she needed to tell these creatures that she wanted to do that for them without scaring them off.
The pony, (no, unicorn) Crack, was yelling again. He was directing the others around to stand guard. Lele needed to move these creatures so that she could relocate the ruins if her temple without hurting anyone.
With a flash of light, she rose from her sleep in the largest and most intricate of the carved rocks. Her power alone had kept it from cracking and wearing away like the ones closer to the ruins entrance, but now she channeled that power into reforming herself into a pink shell that resembled some sort of face. The smoke coalesced all at once, and Tapu Lele popped her head out of her shell to get to her bearing in the physical world.
The police ponies were facing away from the totem she had just exited, not even noticing her Psychic Surge sweeping gently over the rocks like a pink mist. They did, however, notice when that smoke warped the dimensions into a Psychic Terrain. The jumpier ones yelped and tried to run, but a certain unicorn barked orders at them all: stand your ground, prepare to apprehend.
She turned her attention to Crack, sifting around for more useful information. Barodius Strident, the Chief of police, had left Crack to watch things while he was away investigating strange animals that had appeared in someone’s backyard. Lele’s best shot was to earn Crack's trust, then by extension the Chief’s--
“ATTACK!” Crack screamed. “Catch it now!”
Okay fine be like that you armpit sweat stain.
Two magical blasts fired, followed by seven earth pony and pegasi full body assaults, all deflected by two well timed Protects. Tapu Lele lifted the magic users from the ground, floating up to sprinkle her scales onto the earth pony assailants below.
She giggled as Flatter began to take effect, the ponies stumbling and bumping into one another as they tried to discern the sky and the ground in a state of Confusion. She sprinkled another handful onto the unicorns that she had levitated, who she gently let back onto the ground as their eyes lost focus.
The pegasi lunged for her while she was distracted with that, but there were only three and Lele had a plan for them.
She dodged their attacks by shooting herself straight upwards, corralling the ponies as they tried to apprehend her. They were surprisingly coordinated, never once bumping into each other.
But it wasn't enough, and Lele caught them all with one Mean Look.
Her psychic powers slowed the stunned pegasi’s descent as Tapu Lele floated back to earth. She was rather pleased with herself; all assailants dispatched and strictly with non lethal status moves! Being familiar with the human police for so long did wonders for figuring out just what she would be held accountable for in court. Now if she could just find that insufferable Colonel--
Fire, everything was fire. Lele Withdrew into her shell, hoping the burning wouldn't turn into a Burn status. She was caught in a roaring vortex that had sprung up out of nowhere!
She peeked out into the swirling flames, and saw him.
Crack's horn glowed with flickering orange magic that might as well have been fire itself. He used his magic to unbutton and levitate his uniform off, the absence of a shirt and saddlebags revealing a burning sword for a cutie mark.
Lele took a moment to recast Psychic Terrain, then turned her attention back to the unicorn.
“Whatever you are,” he hissed through gritted teeth. “You are NOT going to get away with this.”
You would think that a water-typed defensive move would do more against fire, but Withdraw hadn't lessened Crack's...Overheat? Yeah, Overheat. Withdraw raised physical defense instead of special and hadn't lessened the blow at all.
Crack was taking a moment to recover from using so much fire all at once. He was circling, a good tactic for keeping on your feet and blood flowing, even if your attacks weren't muscle-based. Lele stayed put, floating around would just mess up her concentration. She set up a Light Screen and mulled through her movepool for something useful. She had Safeguard, but she wasn't worried about statuses that much. She supposed she could start spamming Calm Mind to help her think and raise her defenses, but how many could she use before the damage stacked up?
A magic tug. Crack was trying to pick up the totem rocks and throw them at her, the nerve of this guy! Attacking a Tapu was one thing, threatening ancient, defenseless relics were something else entirely, and called for much more drastic measures. Lele’s grip on the rocks was stronger, and she scrubbed Crack's orange magic off of them, letting it cling to broken shards and loosened sand.
Then, she released a psychic flare.
Crack's connection to his magic wavered and broke as a basic understanding of the reach of Tapu Lele’s power swept through his mind and senses. His mental defenses buckled under a mere demonstration of her psychic abilities, his control over his very body stolen from him for a noticeable moment.
Now do you see? Lele had no voice, but her thoughts burned through his mind. They scared him more than any spoken word.
“D-d-do…” he gasped, the words emblazoned on the backs of his eyelids and ringing in his eardrums, but in his panic Crack could not comprehend what they said to him. “d-do I...s-s-see?”
Lele looked back at the other police ponies, shaking themselves of Confusion and helping each other up. The ones that noticed her were looking a lot more scared by her presence, and were either sheilding their colleagues or ducking behind the braver ones. Lele sighed, preparing a psychic message for explaining the situation to all of them. She was no good with spoken word, seeing as how she had no lungs or need to breathe--
A Will-O-Wisp struck her shoulder. Lele grabbed at the signed, throbbing skin, glaring daggers at Gill.
“You don't TOUCH those ponies,” if Crack was angry before, he was livid now. “Your fight is with ME.”
What was this guy's deal? Lele threw up a protect instead of dodging a barrage of smaller, faster fireballs. One minute he was screaming himself hoarse at the those ponies, and now this show of martyrdom?
One attack got around the Protect and she dropped it and started dodging, losing all patience and preparing a simple Astonish attack.
What, who…?
A riolu was running up the street, Chief Barodius Strident hot on his heels, and the mother lucario carrying an elder one on her back trying desperately to catch up. She could read the thoughts on the fronts of their minds: Barodius was not chasing out of malice, but the riolu had something planned.
While Barodius had stopped before the line of fire, pup charged right in. The blue blur easily dodged fiery attacks not aimed at it, running right up to Gill and balling its paws into fists--
POW! Crack's head snapped back as a devastating uppercut landed to his chin. The flames fizzling out when they lost their magic fuel or quietly chewing through greenery where the spells got a little too close to people's flowerbeds. The unicorn himself crumpled to a heap.
Lele floated over to Crack, sprinkling scales onto his bleeding nose. The scales fluttered onto his face like pink snowflakes, sinking into his fur and skin wherever they touched. The bleeding immediately stopped, and soon Crack sat up, smacking his lips without the slightest hint of the fight that had happened mere moments ago. He looked at the two monsters without quite processing them, then noticed his superior standing, mouth agape, about a yard away.
“Chief Barodius sir!” Crack sprang to his hooves and saluted.
Barodius looked past him. Crack blinked and turned without thinking to see what he was looking at.
The pup. It was saluting the weird pink floater. It had one paw clenched into a fist over its heart, its eyes downcast. A few feet behind it, the mother was actually bowing to it, still balancing the older one on its back.
This was bizarre. Strange monsters appearing, acting like ponies, using magic and fighting, now showing respect to superiors...
Showing respect…
Crack snapped back to attention, quaking with fear, expecting Barodius to fire him on the spot. When that didn't happen he noticed that the Chief was smiling, watching the monsters interacting.
“Colonel, there will be no arrests of these creatures,” he said, flipping open his notebook. “But, send word to headquarters. We have some...guests...that need interrogating.
“Most, hon-oray-ble Tapu.” the riolu gave a salute, a hand cleched into a fist over his heart, how strange...
Where did you learn the Salute to Honor? Lele’s telepathy started the first-stage slightly, but his pride bounced him back.
“Because I'm a hunter!” he replied with accidental indignation. He realised he used an inappropriate tone and cast his eyes down. “Sorry, didn't mean to yell.”
Tapu Lele chuckled, glancing at the lucario mother standing farther back. She was performing a shallow bow that was hindered by an older lucario she was carrying on her back.
Nothing to worry about. Now, care to introduce yourselves?
“O-oh yeah!” he slapped his paw to his chest. “I’m Gon Freecs, and those,” Gon pointed back at the two lucario, the younger not breaking her precious stance. “Are my Aunt Mito and Grandma Abe.”
Please rise, for your sakes and mine. Lele sighed with relief as Mito straightened up, as if she was the one carrying an elderly lucario on her back.
“It’s truly an honor.” Mito finally said, stepping forward. Gon tapped her side and reached out his arms. She understood, gently and gratefully moving Grandma Abe from her back to his.
Likewise. I hope you all have been taking the move well?
“Move?” Gon looked to Mito from under Abe’s arm and Mito looked to Gon while stretching out her cramped joints.
Ah, I suppose you haven’t yet realized, Lele scratched the back of her head, mulling over how best to deliver the news.
I do not know how or why, Lele began. but we seem to be very far from home, in the familiar house of a stranger.
“...Huh?”
Okay that sounded less cryptic in my head--
Seeing the expressions on the mortal pokemon’s faces, Lele tried again, bluntly this time.
We are not in our land, but in a place called Equestria, or Equus, I'm not sure. I do not know how we got here, but I do know that this world is already teeming with ponies, who are not pokemon and have no idea what a pokemon is.
“What?” Gon looked at Mito again.
“How did we get here?” Mito sounded worried. "Who moved us and why?"
I...have a theory. See, I can think of no Alolan pokemon strong enough to move us as far as we have moved in the way we have moved. The only pokemon who can manipulate minds and interdimensional space-time travel are the Sinnohnian creation and lake trio. And I see no reason as to why they would work together to do something as big and reckless as this, unless…
Lele held them for suspense, Mito looking unamused and Gon looking confused.
....unless they were acting out coordinated orders. Orders from Arceus.
“Who’s Arceus?” Gon asked.
Lele sent a smaller, less severe psychic flare through his mind to show him everything she knew about the distant legend. She was still impressed when he didn't so much as stumble after having information injected directly into his mind.
I’m not sure if I will be able to find Arceus, Lele admitted. But that is something you should leave to me. I will move my ruins so that they are not in the way and begin my search. I have a feeling this new world is going to be bigger than Alola.
“Colonel,” the pokemon all jumped, turning to Barodius. “there will be no arrests of these creatures.”
“Arrest?” Mito stepped in front of Gon instinctively.
He said DON'T arrest. Lele corrected with a twinge of silent hope.
“But, send word to headquarters. We have some guests that need interrogating.”