//------------------------------// // Chapter V: The First Day // Story: A Love Beyond Worlds // by Viatorem //------------------------------// All the legendary pokemon, as well as Faust and Celestia, were already in Canterlot’s main park, The portal had been closed. Everyone was ready to go, the only reason why they haven’t moved yet, was because Arceus was giving some last instructions to Mew, Giratina, Palkia and Dialga; who were in their pony disguises. In fact, all the legendary pokemon were already in their pony disguises, with the exception of Arceus who didn’t see the point of using the spell on him when he was going to stay with Celestia. The legendary pokemon group wasn’t that special, except for some of them, like Dialga, who was kind of weird looking thanks to his silver/white mane that heavily contracted with his dark blue colour. As for the others legendary, some of them were quite big in comparison to the average pony, but in general they were a pretty normal group of looking ponies, of the three different races. But with the other exception being that all of them have light blue scarves around their necks, it was a gift from Celebi and Arceus part. From what Celestia understood, some time ago Arceus and Celebi went for a walk to a frozen lake. During that walk, because of the cold weather and some kind of ‘type disadvantage’ -something that Arceus promised to explain later to Celestia-, Celebi needed some clothes to keep herself warm, so she brought 2 light blue scarves, one for her and one for Arceus. Celebi them decided to give one to every member of the family and with help of Arceus she prepared scarves for everyone, sadly she wasn’t able to get any colour other than light blue . All that aside, Celestia had to admit that the scene where Celebi distributed the scarves was one of the funniest and cutest things she had seen. Most of the pokemon were still in their normal form, so basically, you have a small green creature giving light blue scarves to creatures from 2 to 10 times her size, and even helping the ones who didn’t have hands to put them on, something that almost killed Celestia due to an overload of cuteness. After around 10 minutes Arceus finished talking with his sons and daughter, he started to walked towards Celestia, who had been talking with Faust/Golden Feader. “All right Celestia, I’m ready to go,” Arceus said. “Perfect, let’s go then,” Celestia answer while walking towards the direction of the castle. Arceus followed Celestia until they arrive at the border of the center of the park, limited by the trees that surround the open area that was the center of the park. Arceus then turned around to give a final goodbye to his family by waving his hoof, the rest of his family returned the gesture, Celestia couldn’t avoid smiling at the scene, she had always liked these demonstrations of paternal love. After a few seconds, Arceus finished waving goodbye to his family and started to walk next to Celestia, the two of them follow the path towards the castle. “So Arceus,” Celestia said, “can you please tell me, what is that-“ Celestia interrupted herself with an involuntarily shiver, due to a breeze of cold wind, there might be a warm sunlight, but it was still winter, so things like the wind or the general temperature were low. Suddenly Arceus started to shine in a white light that made the princess look at him. What Celestia saw surprised her, Arceus’s golden ring and hoofs were now of a red colour, but more interesting of all, the princess started to fell warm, it was almost like somepony had made a fire to warm her. “What was that? Why did you turn red?” Celestia asked, surprised by the transformation of her companion. “Relax Celestia, I simply change to the fire type.” Arceus answered calmly, almost like nothing had happened. “But why did you do that?” Celestia asked, trying to get a more clear answer. “For you,” Arceus answer, not thinking in what he was saying. After hearing that, Celestia fell that she was blushing again, and apparently Arceus was blushing as well, like he had realised what he had just said. “W-what do you mean with, you did it for me?” Celestia asked, trying to hide her blush. “Well- because of the cold weather… because you shivered.” Arceus was feeling a little nervous, making it difficult for him to explain what he was trying to say. “You see, fire type pokemon tend to emit heat, just like a fire will do, and well, seeing you shiver made me realise that you needed something to warm you up, also to be honest with you I also was starting to feel cold as well, not that I only did it for me, I did it for the two of us.” Arceus was feeling nervous, but he was trying to not make a fool of himself. “Oh well, in that case, thank you.” Celestia answer, feeling a little bit less nervous, but more calm none the less. “You are welcome,” Arceus said in response. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Celestia started to talk again. “Anyway, we better get going” Arceus simply nodded his head, and the two of then restarted their walk to the castle. Unlike before, Celestia was walking closer to Arceus this was due to the heat that Arceus was emitting warming up the princess like she was next to a fireplace. She actually wanted to get closer to Arceus but she kept her distance due to Arceus’s ring. However, Arceus did notice that Celestia wanted to get close to him, so to the surprise of the princess, he began to move closer to her. "Arceus, wait-" Celestia said in protest, trying to bring to her companion's attention that his ring was about to collide with her. However, to her surprise the red ring that surrounded Arceus passed through her body without her felling anything. If fact if Celestia hadn't been looking at the ring she wouldn't have even registered what had happened. "... Wait, what?" Celestia asked, still looking at the ring that was now basically in the middle of her body, yet she didn't feel a thing. Arceus simply chuckled at the reaction of the princess, something that gained the attention of Celestia, who had almost forgotten that the red ring she was looking at actually was part of a creature. Celestia turned her attention to the face of her companion, Arceus gave her a silly smile mostly caused by Celestia's confused expression. "Surprised?" Arceus asked, holding back a childish tone for one more similar to that of a magician or inventor who had just presented something that had stolen the words of his entire audience. "Very," Celestia answer, turning her attention back to the ring, before looking back at Arceus, "How did you do it?" She asked. "Simple, despite what you might think, my ring isn't solid. Most of the time it is just visible but any kind of thing can pass through it." Arceus answered. However, he quickly realised that Celestia might need an answer that was easier to understand. "Think of them like your wings, you have them folded at the sides of your body. It is the same with my ring, but, instead of coming close to my body as your wings do, my ring simply loses its physical presence, leaving an image that can't collide with anything." Celestia seemed to understand this time. "Fascinating," she finally exclaimed, looking at the ring again, before quickly turning back to Arceus as new questions came to her head. "Wouldn't it be easier to just leave it there rather than making it a projection? Also, are you sure this is safe? I don't want to end up with that inside me." At the same time as Celestia spoke that last part, she moved a little away from Arceus, worried that his ring might impale her. "Don't worry Celestia," Arceus answered with haste after noticing the wariness in the princess's tone. "Just like how you can't open your wings against a wall, my ring can't become physical if it's inside something. In fact, that's the reason to why my ring isn't a physical object most of the time, otherwise I would easily get stuck in things. It would be like you going everywhere with your wings open." Arceus' delivery of his explanation gradually changed to sounding more relaxed, just like how Celestia seemed to relax. "So is it completely safe?" Celestia asked. She believed Arceus, however, she still wanted a more direct confirmation. "Celestia, you are safer next to me than anywhere else in the world." Arceus answered with a soft yet assuring tone, because he knew that what he was saying was true. After all he was the alpha and creator pokemon, there wasn't a place safer for Celestia that right next to him, even if she didn't knew how true that statement was. And it seemed that answer worked, as Celestia moved close to Arceus. In fact, she moved closer to him, to the point that the two were closer than before, as the warmth that Arceus body was emitting was something that Celestia was enjoying quite a lot “So, what were you going to ask me?” Arceus asked, trying to restart their conversation after the two went silent for a minute or so. “Oh! Right! Thanks for reminding me.” Celestia answered. “You are welcome.” Arceus said with a smile. Celestia returned the smile before she started to talk. “I wanted to know about those 'types' you were talking about.” “Well, there is quite an amount of things that you need to know in order for you to understand the types.” Arceus said, not looking forward to explaining all of that to Celestia. However, he knew that he would be getting information from Celestia about Equestria as well, something that interested him. Besides, it will be rude on his part to not explain to her. “Well the walk to the castle is quite long, so I think it will be enough time to talk about it.” Celestia sai. Like Arceus, she wasn’t really looking forward to a long boring explanation. ”In that case, we'd better start with the basics.” Arceus answered, the ring around his body began to shine, and quickly, in the middle part of his body, between his neck and the ring around his body, began to emit two small white lights, from the lights, two six-angle shape plates. One of the plates was of a dark blue colour and the other one was of a dark green colour. After the plates emerged completely out of Arceus body, the two lights in his torso disappeared, and he levitated the tables in front of Celestia. “This is the Meadow Plate,” Arceus said while pointing at the dark green plate. “And this is the Splash Plate,” Arceus added while pointing at the dark blue plate. “Now the Meadow plate represent what we call the ‘Grass Type’ in my world, as for the Splash plate it represents what we call the ‘Water Type’, you follow?” “Yes, I do,” Celestia answered while looking at Arceus, but she kept glancing at the plates with curiosity. “However, I still have a few questions, however, something tells me that your explanation will be answered them, so feel free to continue.” “Very well,” Arceus said as he turned his attention back to the plates. “Now, the types are basically a way to classify different kinds energy that are related to different elements of qualities of my world. For example, water, or vegetation, the last being represented by the grass type.” Arceus paused a moment, turning to see Celestia and check if she was following along. Celestia had been listening to Arceus explanation. She began to compare this 'types' to equestrian magic, in particular the magic used by the three pony species. She then took notice of how Arceus had stopped talking and was looking at her. She quickly deduced that Arceus wanted to know if she was following along. Celestia simply smiled, at the amount of attention Arceus was giving to her as well as make sure that she was following. She then made a gesture with her head to indicate to Arceus that he could continue with the explanation. “This elemental energy, are one of the key pillars for the life of any Pokémon. They give us tools to survive, make things, the ability to survive in certain environments, some of them incredibly hostile, as well as access to certain skills. And most importantly, it allows them the ability to create powerful and different kinds of attacks based on said energies, as well as tank any damage made by said abilities and even counter any damage they might make.” Arceus made another pause, turning to see Celestia and once again check if she was following. Celestia had been able to follow Arceus' explanation mostly out of fascination, a fascination she hadn't felt since Star Swirl taught her and Luna about magic. Or well, more like the first week he taught them about magic, before everything descended into 5 hour-long lectures about stuff neither Celestia nor Luna ever ended up using in their 1000 year plus lives. However, leaving aside the failures of her teacher and going back to that sense of wonder, Celestia was quite interested in what Arceus had told her. True, Equestrian magic had similar effects, with pegasus, as well as any creature with wings, having the ability to stand on clouds, and earth ponies being able to basically turn the most infernal wasteland on a splendid garden, being good comparisons to what Arceus was describing. However, from what she could deduct, this types whet a little farther in comparison to equestrian magic, and had a major emphasis on attack and defense. That being said, she still had a few questions she needed answers for, so she decided to take advantage to the paused Arceus had made in her explanation to asked said questions. “What do you mean with tank and counter the attacks?” “Oh that, well. Certain types are weak or stronger when confronted with other types, meaning that certain types will be able to resist or even be immune to certain types, while other types can be incredibly weak to other certain types... let me give you a demonstration.” Arceus explained, before pointing at the plates. “Now, this might sound a little estrange, and I should probably use the “Flame Plate”, that’s the plate for the fire type, to make this a little easier to understand. However I’m currently using it to keep us warm, so this will have to do the trick.” Arceus explained to Celestia. Celestia simply nodded. “Yes, as much as I want to understand this ‘types’, I prefer to keep ourselves warm.” She said with a joking tone, “anyway, please continue.” “Very well.” Arceus said before turning his attention to the plates. “Now like I said before, both plates, or well more like the types they represent, are made of a kind of what can you call ‘elemental energy’. Said energies can be a little incompatible with each other, resulting in both taking damage, however, depending on what types are interacting, they will take more or less damage, even no damage at all.” After finishing his explanation, Arceus began to levitate the plates closer. “Now, put attention to how they interact.” Arceus said to Celestia, who began to look closer at the plates. What Celestia saw was quite interesting to say the least, as the plates got closer, a black spot began to appear in the middle of both plates, and as the plates got even closer the spot began to grow, not only in size but also like if it was extending similar to the root of a plant penetrating the earth. She wasn’t sure but it almost looked like small cracks, similar to those one would see in glass or crystal were starting to appear in the plates, giving the impression that they were about to shatter. However, she noticed that the effect of decay was affecting the blue plate, that according to Arceus represented the 'water type', while the green plate, the one that represented the 'grass type' was considerably less affected. “I think that’s enough, I believe I understand it now.” Celestia told Arceus, as she separated herself from the two plates. “Although, I still have 2 more questions, but, I doubt the plates will be needed to answered them”. “Very well, shoot!” Arceus answered, at the same time he levitated the plates back to his body. “Well, I want to know if Pokémon from a certain type can be damaged by the thing that is represented by the type they are weak to. Basically, can a fire type Pokémon can be damaged by simple water?” Celestia asked, looking at Arceus with curiosity. “I was actually expecting that question.” Arceus said with a jovial tone. “Really?” Celestia asked, turning to look at him. “Yep,” Arceus said with a joking tone. “That has been a ferally common question and relative misunderstanding throughout my word’s history. Is not weird to hear a young Pokémon make that question to their parents.” Arceus explained with a smile, remembering how even some of the legendaries made that question when they were very young. “But, going back to your question, the answer is no.” Arceus finally said, after remembering that Celestia had made him a question. “Pokémon can’t be damaged by the element of the type they are week towards. Is true that they might be a little bit more at risk when interacting when the element they are weak towards, for example, a fire Pokémon is more at risk of drowning that a Pokémon that is not weak to the water-type. However, that doesn’t mean they can be taken down by a splash of water, of they can’t go for a swim. In fact most Pokémon, even fire type, need to drink water to survive”. “That’s, quite interesting…” Celestia said with a tone of surprised, “and a mouth full too.” She added with a joking tone when she realise that Arceus explanation had been a little too long. “Yep!” Arceus said with a chuckle. “Oh, and before I forget, most Pokémon don’t care that much about the types besides combat, they have no problem living with Pokémon of a type they might be weak or strong. Well, as long as the weather and biome is pleasing for them. Also, is possible for Pokémon of different types to reproduce with each other, even if they are weak or stronger to the type of their partner.” Now that really surprised Celestia, she was expecting for Pokémon to prefer living with the Pokémon of their type, instead, they were a more open society, similar or arguably better than Equestria. “By the way, what’s your other question?” Arceus asked, getting Celestia out of her thoughts. “Oh? What?... oh right!” Celestia explained as she remembers that she still had one more question to make. “I just wanted to know how many types exist?” “That’s an easy question to answered.” Arceus said, he was honestly expecting something a little bit more complex, “there are exactly 18 types”. “18 types!? That’s quite a big number don’t you think? I mean how do Pokémon keep track of what type they are strong and weak towards?” Celestia asked genuinely surprised. “Not really,” Arceus answered, keeping his calm attitude. “For a young Pokémon, or in your case, a newcomer, the variety of types might be a little overwhelming, but it doesn’t take that much to learn. As Pokémon, especially the young ones, tent to learn quite fast, besides they usually have their parents to help them and teach them about the types, is one of many main cornerstones of common knowledge in my world”. Celestia took a few seconds thinking about the answer, and she realised that just like how in equestrian knowledge about magic is common knowledge, knowledge about the types most be common in Arceus world. “Well… now that I think about it, that makes sense, although, I still want to know what are all the types. Arceus simply nodded. “Well the types can be divided into two groups, the ‘Elemental’ group and the ‘Attribute’ group. Now, the Attribute group is the bigger of the two groups by 2 types, that being said, there are more species of Pokémon of elemental types that there are of the attribute kind. However, there is an exemption for both groups and you also have to consider that some Pokémon can be of two different kinds of types from both or just one group”. Arceus made a small pause, to see if Celestia had any kind of doubt, she didn’t, so she simply told him to go on. “Now, you are already familiarised with 3 of the elemental types, thus being: Fire, Water and Grass.The other 5 are: Ground, Rock, Electric, Steel and Ice, by the way, ice is one of the exceptions I told you about, as ice-type Pokémon are the most uncommon of all the Pokémon with an elemental type.” “As for the attribute group, the types that enter this category are: Normal, Fighting, Flying, Poison, Ghost, Psychic, Dragon, Dark, Fairy and Bug. I’m Normal type, but I have the ability to change my type using the plates, also, bug is the other exemption, as Pokémon of that type are some of the most common”. After Arceus finished his explanation, a few things came to Celestia’s mind. “So you are telling me that there’s a type that’s literally 'Normal', look I can get behind the idea that there are a 'Psychic', 'Poison' and even 'Bug' type, but 'Normal' it’s a little too much of a stretch for me. I mean normal type fells like something that shouldn't be a type at all, I mean how is something with the powers you just describe, or the one’s you have, normal?” Celestia said while looking for the keys to open the garden gate. “That’s a valid observation, however by its characteristics and how they compare to the other types, you can say that…” Arceus stop when he saw that Celestia was acting a little weird. “Celestia, is everything all right?” Arceus ask concern for what Celestia was doing. “The keys, I can’t find them!” Celestia said while looking under her right wind, Celestia's horn started to shine, however after a few seconds nothing happened. “I think I let them on your world.” “Why is that a problem? Why don’t you use your magic? Or something, I mean is just a door.” Arceus asked. “The thing is that the garden is protected with magic to avoid any pony from entering without permission or the key, and well, I kind of forgot the counterspell.” Celestia answer. Arceus didn’t say anything, he just started to walk towards the gate passing next to Celestia. “Hey! I cast that spell almost 1000 years ago.” Celestia said while Arceus started to shine to finally change to ghost type. “Wait, what do you mean with over a 1000 years ago? How old are you?” Arceus ask, surprise for what Celestia just had told him. “Well, I’m a little over 1000 years old.” Celestia answer, it was obvious that she wasn’t very comfortable talking about her age in front of Arceus. “Interesting, I wasn’t expecting to find creatures that old in this world.” Arceus said without realising that he just had call Celestia old. However, it didn’t take more than a second before Arceus realised his mistake. “ I mean, is not that I think you are old, you don’t look old at all, in fact, I’m older than you, and you actually look quite young and beautiful.” Arceus said, trying to not get himself in an awkward situation, or at least a less awkward situation. “Thank you.” Celestia said not trying to put attention to Arceus complement, however that didn’t work as she started to blush again, but when she realised what he had just told her, her red checks stop been her priority when she noticed what Arceus had just told her. “Wait, you are older than me?” Celestia asked, surprised that she had met a creature that was older than her. “Yes, I'm actually much older, an awful lot more older than you.” Arceus answer. “How much?” Celestia asked. “Well, let’s just said that my age is written with 7 digits.” Arceus answer. Celestia stud there speechless for a few seconds before she was able to simply say. “Wow! Well you don’t look old at all” “Thank you.” Arceus said while nodding with his head. “Anyway, we better get going to the front door.” Celestia said after a few more seconds of silence, however, Arceus didn’t follow her, he started to walk towards the gate. “Hey Arceus, what are you doing?” “I want to try something.” Arceus said while closing his eyes. “Forget it Arceus, that protection spell was created by my old teacher, it will take a lot of effort, even for myself, to overcome it.” Celestia said with a dismissive tone, not realising that Arceus had become transparent. “I have no doubts about your capabilities Celestia.” Arceus said while walking to the gate, he kept on walking until, for Celestia surprise, got through the close gate, like it wasn’t even there. “But clearly that spell wasn't ghost-prove.” Arceus said while opening the gate for Celestia. “Considering that as far as we know, there are no ghosts in Equestria, I think is reasonable that is not ghost prove.” Celestia said while passing next to Arceus, she was both impressed and a little worried for Arceus abilities. The walk towards the castle was pretty normal, and with the exception of some encounters with the guards (with one being sent to escort, Faust and Arceus family) as well as the walk to the thrones room, there wasn’t any kind of problem, which mean that Arceus was able to finish his conversation when they arrive at the door of the thrones room, something that Arceus wanted to use as an opportunity to ask a few things to Celestia about her world and her. However, Arceus attention quickly shifted to the thrones room one’s it was open. He was amazed by the beauty of the place, and even when there were a few things that he found kind of pointless, he was captivated by the place, but what got almost all of his attention were the stained glasses windows, he found them to be quite charming with their simplistic art style. “Celestia, can you tell me: who made all of these stained glasses windows?” Arceus ask Celestia, who was standing next to him while looking at one depicted 6 ponies fighting against a bigger dark pony. “A group of Equestria fines glassworkers.” Celestia said. “Sorry that’s not what I mean, I was referring to the design, who made it?” Arceus ask, with the same relaxed tone that characterised him. “Oh! Well, it was me.” Celestia answer. Arceus turn to see Celestia. “Really?” Celestia also turned to see Arceus. “Yes, I actually made most of the other designs as well, it’s a relaxing activity to do, and more interesting than reading…” Celestia sighed and began to talk again, “legal documents.” She then turned around and started to walk, towards her throne, she had just remembered why she had come to the throne room, and she wanted to finish it as soon as possible. Arceus was a little confused by Celestia’s actions, he was about to ask if everything was all right, but he realised that Celestia was walking towards what he supposed to be her throne and right next to it was a relatively big mountain of papers.“Let me guest, paperwork?” Arceus ask while following Celestia. ”Yes, luckily is not that much, but I need to finish it today if I want to be able to visit my student tomorrow, speaking of which, you don’t mind travelling in train, do you?” Celestia said while sitting on her throne. “I prefer more natural methods of transportation, but I don’t have any problem travelling in a train.” Arceus answer, he knew about trains as they were a very important method for transportation in a lot of other worlds, in fact back when he used to travel with Faust they realise that trains were the second most popular form of transportation in many worlds, the first one been the airship or zeppelin. “Perfect, that’s one less problem, by the way, why did you ask about the tainted classes?” Celestia asked while levitating a bunch of papers and a keel next to her. “Do you remember those windows in the meeting room, the ones that Golden called: 'uninspired'?” Arceus answer. "Yes, I do." Celestia answer, remembering the conversation she overheard while making her way to the portal, as well as the short time she spent looking around the meeting room the time she was on it. “Well, I been wanting to replace them with something more elaborated and creative, but I haven’t been able to come up or find something acceptable, until now. Celestia, your designs are beautiful, do you think I can ask you for some designs for my temple? Oh, and of course I going to pay you, although is going to be with goods, unless you accept pokes.” Arceus said as always, his voice was calm. “Oh, well, thank you Arceus, but, I think that’s going to be difficult, you see these designs take a good amount of time to make, but, I can recommend you another artist.” Celestia answer, not separating her face from the papers, but not reading them either. “What a shame them, like I said before your work is really beautiful.” Arceus answer. Celestia started to blush again, she was used to receiving praises, it was something normal for a princess, but most of them were just empty words, but not Arceus, he sounded honest. “TRhank you.” Celestia said, closing the papers even more to her face. “You are welcome.” Arceus answer, he then started to get closer to Luna’s throne. “Do you think I can sit here?” Arceus ask while pointing at the throne next to Celestia. “Well, that’s my sister’s throne, but I don’t think she will mind if you sit on it.” Celestia answer without looking at him, as she was still trying to hide her light red cheeks. “Sister?” Arceus ask. “Oh! Right, I didn’t tell you about her, you see I have a little sister, Luna, she and I are co-rulers of Equestria.” Celestia answer while Arceus sat in Luna’s throne. “Can I meet her?” Arceus asked. “Of course, but you have to wait until the sunset, she is sleeping now.” Celestia answer. “Wait, why is she sleeping instead of helping you?” Arceus ask in confusion. “Well, is complicated, she has her responsibilities as the princess of the night, just like I due as the princess of the day,” Celestia answer. “What do you mean with 'the princess of the day and night'?” Arceus asked even in more confusion. “Well, that’s kind of complicated.” Celestia said, she didn’t want to waste time explaining her abilities to Arceus, not that she wasn’t willing to explain it, is just that she wanted and needed to finish the paperwork, but she didn’t want to be rude with Arceus. “Does it have something to do with that image on your flank?” Arceus ask while pointing at Celestia’s cutie mark with his left hoof. “Yes, but as I said before, it’s kind of a complicated thing, that i will need a lof of-” Celestia was interrupted by Arceus, who was now standing next to her and with his left hoof on her back. “I get it Celestia, you need time to finish all of that work, you don’t need to give me and explanation right now, I can wait.” Arceus said to the princess with a smile. Celestia returned the smile and nodded with her head, she then returned to read the paper she had been levitating in front of her face for a few minutes by now, finally been able to go past the first paragraph. However, after finishing reading the first paper Celestia quickly turn around to see what Arceus was doing, he had returned to sit on Luna’s throne, but he also had a bunch of papers floating around him. Celestia was about to ask him what he was doing when she realised that he was trying to draw, constantly looking at the other papers floating around him, probably using them as a reference. After seen that Arceus was busy, Celestia return to her own work, the 2 of them kept on working for a few more hours. They work in silence, only hearing the noise normally cause by working with paper, from time to time, Arceus or Celestia will turn to see how the other was doing, they kept working like that until sunset, with only a small break to eat.