//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 A talk with the Sun // Story: Pokémon of harmony // by Firefoxino //------------------------------// After our encounter with the Starly along the road, me and Anne along with Trixie continued our journey to reach Canterlot. When we came back to the cart I was shocked to see that Anne was there waiting for us, her leg was healed somehow. "Anne? But how?" I asked shocked. She looked equally puzzled before starting her tale. "A strange white light did this, I don't know exactly what happened but at one point while I was in the bed it arrived from nowhere and I felt myself reinvigorated by it. In a second my leg felt perfectly fine and here I am." She told us. At that I was confused, I never saw or heard something like that happening before. "Hey you evolved too!" She said happily hugging me. Tightly. "Argh-Anne. Can't. Breath." I said choking. "Oh uhm sorry." She said letting me go. "As lovely as this is we must go." Trixie said. "We have to depart now, Trixie doesn't want to encounter anymore of those things." She said obviously angered by the previous confrontation. We all agreed and returned on the cart. From there to Canterlot it wasn't a long journey. This doesn't mean I didn't have any time to feel stupid. "So you almost died because a Staraptor hit you with a Brave Bird. Right?" Anne asked without emotion. "Yes?" I replied scared. "My dear Tommy." Oh-oh, I didn't like this, she only call me that when I'm in deep trouble. "You fought valiantly against this foe but if I remember correctly you CAN create barriers. Right?" *Gulp* "So, why in HELL didn't you raise one!" She shouted in my face. "Shit. I'm an idiot." I said like an idiot. "You're damn right you are IDIOT!" So I spent the last part of our journey in a corner trying to purge myself from the shame and stupidity. Barely a day after we finally reached the majestic doors of Canterlot city. "Alt." Someone shouted from outside. Me and Anne were inside, so we didn't see who said that but it was probably a guard protecting the entrance. "What's in the cart ma'am?" He asked. "This is Trixie's cart. The one behind this is the living arrangement of my assistants." Trixie replied as a matter of fact. "I'm sorry to delay you ma'am but we must check the carts." He said firmly. "Oh, uhm go ahead." She said not wanting to go against a guard. They entered the first cart and in a minute they were out. "Clear." One of them shouted then our door opened. Me and Anne were on the floor, I was trying to re-create the psycho cut without success while Anne was meditating on her own. Upon entering the guard's eyes went wide, he stopped locked on place. Then his training kicked in and shouted. "It's one of those creature call the capture team now!" "Wait what!?" We shouted. "They talk call the team, call the team!" The guard shouted while running out from the cart. "Unhoof me you!" Trixie screeched from outside, at that we took off and exited. "Ma'am you must go there are dangerous creatures inside the cart." The guard said trying to drag Trixie away. "Hey leave her alone!" Anne shouted, pushing the guard away with her powers. The guard bounced on the ground, not that strongly but still it was regarded as an attack. “Alarm! We have hostiles in the area!” The guard shouted creating a little shimmering bubble around himself, in a second though at least twenty guards were en route towards our location, they made themselves know. “Attention citizens!” An enhanced voice shouted from down a road, the speaker was yet another guard. “Return to your homes at once, there are dangerous creatures outside, the situation is being handled by the royal guards please refrain from exiting your homes at this time.” The guard announced in calm and levelled voice, ponies around them though immediately galopped away, some entered a home or two but the majority fled towards the center of the city. “Deploy the shield!” The same guard shouted. With precision and lightning reflexes the unicorns simultaneously powered their horns and caught us all in a big bubble of magic. “Well… that could have gone better.” I muttered. ANNE POV I’ll admit I could have handled the situation better. I genuinely thought that Trixie was in danger though. Alas this little excuse of mine held no ground against Thomas who made sure to scold me while we were transported to the castle. “We won’t have to search long for the castle at least.” I tried to say jokingly, which rewarded me with a slap on the back of the head by Thomas. Canterlot, aside from its very… strict rules, was a paramount of beauty for ponies. The elegant architectures of the entire city reminded me of a fantasy kingdom, the houses were mostly white probably made out of marble, the streets were well kept and completely made out of stone. Canterlot was absolutely different from Ponyville but that was to be expected in some way, this was the capital after all. After ten minutes of march we finally caught glimpse of the entrance of the castle, a majestic double golden gate with the insignia of what I could only guess was the symbol of Equestria upon it, on its side there were two unicorn guards. When they saw us they immediately moved away to let us pass, their look didn’t betray any curiosity, only duty. The gate opened, swiftly without almost a sound, it was surreal. We continued forth passing through an immense garden filled with many statues and pretty flowers, some very similar to some existing species of plant on Earth while other seemed completely alien. The palace itself was astonishing, the entire thing was covered with gold, wherever you looked you could see some of it shining in the sunlight. A single pony was waiting us at the front door, it was a stallion his mane was an electric blue, and kept it in a spikey fashion, he also wore a much different armor from the other guards. “Captain Shining Armor, sir.” The guards said at the same time. “At ease.” The stallion, replied. “The princess will want to see this, never before we encountered one of them that could talk.” Shining’s horn glowed with a pinkish aura and took the bubble we were in in his magic hold. The guards saluted and swiftly retreated. “You are Lulamoon Trixie. Correct?” He said, without looking back to us, after he took the bubble he immediately entered and we were now navigating the beautiful interior of the castle. “Yes.” Trixie answered. “Listen, sir we didn’t want to cause troubles. We were coming here to talk with the princess about a serious issue.” She said. “Maybe so. But it is my duty to protect the pony of Equestria from danger, and for the last week the danger is those little creatures you are taking with you.” he replied sternly. “Listen I-” “Silence!” He shouted interrupting me. “You will speak only when the princess will allow you to. Am I clear?” He said coldly. I nodded. Some time passed, I didn’t really focused on where we were going, I was still thinking. ‘Why the sudden hostility? Did something happen here?’ My thoughts were interrupted by the firm stop of the bubble I was residing. We were now in front of two doors made out of pure gold. The doors trembled and opened, in front of us there was an immense room. It was extremely long, stretching as far as the eye could see. Along the walls there were massive stained windows, all depicting some ponies doing possibly important tasks. At one point I swear I saw Twilight and her friends in one of those… “Greetings.” A voice said startling me. I didn’t notice but we had finally arrived to the end of the room, which was now clearly a throne room. The pony sitting on the throne was massive, easily towering above any other pony I have ever seen, her mane was made out of some ethereal substance for it floated in the air like if it was blown by a gentle breeze, her eyes were a wonderful magenta and were right now looking directly at me. “Oh, uhm Hi…” I awkwardly said. “You will show her majesty the respect she deserve you creature!” Shining barked making me flinch. “Peace my captain.” The pony, possibly Celestia? From what Discord told us anyway, said softly. “There is no need, please let me know your names.” She asked us, like a mother would, I couldn’t describe it but the air around her, it felt nice like if I was at home. “My name is Anne Bennet.” I said with a bow. “I’m Thomas Jones.” he said following up with me. “And I’m Trixie, your majesty.” The princess nodded and spoke once more. “I am Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria and harbrynger of the Sun.” She said. “Now my captain, I think you could lower this bothersome bubble.” “But your majesty-” He started. She held out a hoof to stop him. “Don’t worry, they are not a danger. I can feel it.” She said smiling softly. “As you command.” He said begrudgingly. Immediately after the barrier disappeared. “Now.” Celestia started. “Explain to me why you attacked one of my guards.” I started to sweat. A lot. “Well you see, your M-majesty I was inside my r-room when I heard Trixie scream and in a second I was outside and I saw one pony holding her and I just reacted and and-” My rant was paused by a hoof. “I understand. You were worried. Weren’t you?” Celestia asked. “Yes.” I said lowly. “It was my fault as well, I should have done something to stop her or to avoid a confrontation of that kind. Instead I did nothing and allowed the scene to continue.” Thomas interjected. “Worry not, I’m not angry.” She said much to our surprise. “That guard is fine, a little shaken but nothing more. Why did you wish to talk to me though?” She asked. “Well… For starters, we are Pokémon.” ‘We uh? Already forgot who you were? In nothing then a week?’ A little voice told me from my mind. I ignored it. “We come from a different world, possibly a different dimension altogether. Me and Thomas here are the most knowledgeable beings about Pokémon on this planet, our goal was to reach you in order to assist you in dealing with our sudden appearance. Which I’m sure caused some problems already.” I said. “Yes, unfortunately and sadly it has. Although you don’t resemble any of the creatures I saw until now.” She said. “Pokémon are an immense family, right now we number in the hundreds of different species. 807 to be precise.” I told her, she didn’t seem so shocked though. “Those are a lot. And are you certain all of them arrived here?” She asked. “No, I’m not entirely sure, but for now a vast majority is. It would be dangerous to discard the possibility of others arriving too.” I explained. “Very well, I-” A sudden letter popped in existence in front of Celestia who grabbed it and opened. “I see.” She said with a small laughter. “You encountered my student didn’t you?” She asked. “Twilight Sparkle?” I asked. She nodded. “Yes, she just sent a letter telling me how much she learnt from your lessons and how many Pokémon she found around and in the city. Those she found are mostly harmless it seems, she also warns me that you would be coming, a shame she was a bit too late.” She made the letter disappear. “And you?” She asked to Trixie. “Why do you travel with them?” “Well… Trixie was coming here when she broke a wheel in the Everfree forest. Anne and Thomas offered to help me but after we repaired the wheel we were attacked by a giant Pokémon. We escaped and ended up in Appleoosa.” “That’s quite the distance for a run.” Celestia noted. Trixie nodded. “It is, but fortunately Trixie found one of the ancient gates to teleport there.” “So they still work?” Celestia asked surprised. Trixie nodded, “Yes, as I was saying we ended up in Appleoosa where we helped some of the ponies by dealing with a group of Mankeys, they are now helping the ponies building and working in the fields.” Trixie said. “I’m very happy to hear of this.” Celestia said smiling kindly. “Now tell me.” She said looking at Thomas. “Who are you?” “I already said my name?” Thomas asked confused. The princess lightly laughed, she waved a dismissive hoof. “No, not like this. What I want to know is a bit more of yourself.” “Well my name is Thomas I’m a Kirlia right now and until I find a Dawnstone I’m stuck as I am.” He said, the princess cocked her head in confusion to this but didn’t interrupt. “I’m one of Anne’s friend-” “Besties!” I chirped in. He smiled and continued, “As I was saying I am her best friend and I just go where she goes.” He finished. “That’s wonderful but I’m curious. What do you mean for now? Regarding your species I mean.” The princess asked. “A wonderful question Princess. I think Trixie here may be able to explain, just to see if she studied.” I said smirking to Trixie which shot me an annoyed glare. “Why yes Trixie sure knows some things about Trixie’s assistants. From what they told me their base species is called Ralts, right now they are in the middle of their three stages evolution, a Kirlia. The next step is different, Anne when she will be strong and old enough will become a Gardevoir while Thomas could evolve right now. Only problem is that he needs something called Dawnstone to do it.” Trixie explained, wonderfully I might add. “Interesting, is this common for the other species of pokémon?” The princess inquired. “Yes, many of the known species evolve, some though remains like they are all their life such beings usually are Legendary Pokémon.” I said. “What are those?” The princess asked. “Legendary Pokémon are incredibly powerful Pokémon capable of controlling vary aspect of reality. To name a few we have Arceus, Dialga, Palkia and Giratina. Arceus is said to be the one that created our whole dimension along with everything in it, he gave Dialga the power to sustain and manipulate time while Palkia is the master of space itself. Giratina is a bit more obscure, he lives in a dark dimension called Distortion World, usually alone, his world is a mirrored version of our own, one time Dialga and Palkia fought between themselves, the damage was so big that the Distortion World suffered for this." I stopped for a second to catch my breath. "You see, the distortion world is nothing like our own, there some rules of physic don't apply, also Giratina lives there alone because of this he is not known at all. But his existence is what makes the life on our own world possible. One being can be only so much patient though, the final straw was when Palkia and Dialga fought. He hated them for what they did to his world and as such he wanted revenge, he managed to almost capture Dialga but with the help of another Pokémon, a Shaymin, Dialga escaped. Later on Zero a human tried to capture Giratina to gain his powers. He succeeded and stole his powers unfortunately this also costed Giratina his life.” The last bit really struck Celestia, usually she had a stone mask but just this time I could seen some sadness in her eyes. “A group of hero managed to stop Zero and Giratina was later on saved by Shaymin which used one of his powers to save him, basically resurrecting the legendary Pokémon. Now Giratina lives again in the distortion world still pondering his vengeance against Palkia and Dialga.” I concluded. “That was very interesting. I’m sorry for this Giratina, such a weight on himself and no one even knows him…” At this she really showed sadness and dropped her head low, she whispered something I couldn’t catch and shook her head. “Apologize I was just remembering. As I said before, the Pokémon here caused us no small problems fortunately no casualties but some of my ponies were gravely injured.” She said with a little bit of stern. “I’m sorry to hear this, but this is why we are here now. We will help you however we can. The first thing to know is that making your guards battle a pokémon is a big error.” I said. “Are you calling my guards weak?” Shining said sternly. I shook my head, “No, but Pokémon are very powerful creature, the best way to deal with a dangerous one is to use another Pokémon. Yes it may seem a little brutal but Pokémon are born ready to battle and battles helps them bonding with a partner and growing stronger, human guards on our world used Growlithe to maintain the order.” I visualized the image of a Growlithe in my head and used my powers to project it in front of me, seems like those pokédex entry weren’t lying when they said that Kirlia could create mirajes, later I will try to see if I can truly do divination… If only I learned to create illusions before the attack instead of while meditating in my room after it. “This is a Growlithe.” I explained. “As you can see it resemble a dog right?” “Fascinating, your magic is truly wonderful to project such a vivid image.” Celestia said watching the Growlithe which started to move around sniffing at things and especially trying to catch the scent of both Trixie and Celestia, the first did nothing while the latter just giggled. “No magic, psychic powers.” I replied. “I see. Very well, dear Anne I can see that your help will be invaluable in the incoming days as such-” Celestia was interrupted by a lone guard bursting inside the room, his armor was a mess, he was sweating and his labored breath was not helping him explain what was happening to make him run like this. “Princess, a creature! A giant one, bigger than anything we ever saw, it had three heads and is extremely powerful. It attacked the city a minute ago we cannot stop it!” He said, at this we all gasped. “How are the guards? Where are they?” Shining asked him. “We are trying to contain the creature unfortunately it is very resistant to magic.” “Can you describe the creature a little bit better?” I asked the guard who strangely complied. “It was very big, black and purple as its main colours and had three heads.” “Hydreigon.” I said. “This is a disaster.” “What is it?” The princess asked. “Hydreigon is a powerful Dragon, Dark Pokémon. Hydreigon is incredibly violent and it seems like he choose this peak as his nest as such he will destroy and kill everything in sight.” I said darkly. “I won’t let this Pokémon harm my subject.” Celestia stated, her hair growing in brightness and speed. “We will help you dealing with this!” Me and Thomas said at the same time. Celestia nodded and made her horn glow. “Trixie you remain here, we can take care of this.” I said to her. “Absolutely not, if you are going I am going!” Trixie said with absolute determination, I looked back at Thomas who was as distraught as myself. “Alright, but stay safe.” “I found the Pokémon, be ready for a teleport.” Celestia said and in a second me and everyone else except the lone guard disappeared in a golden flash.