//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 - An Explanation and a Decision // Story: Pokémon Red and Purple // by Universal Librarian //------------------------------// Twilight stared in blank surprise at the cute little foal standing on the table. It was undeniably Sunset Shimmer, after all, it wasn’t the first time she’d seen her friend in pony form, but Twilight couldn’t even begin to fathom why she looked so much younger than before. “Shimmy! Shim shim, shimmy?!” Sunset shouted. Twilight raised an eyebrow, utterly perplexed, “I… um… what?” Sakura cleared her throat and gestured to the old man wearing the lab coat, “Miss Sparkle, this is Professor Oak. He’s been looking after your Pokémon.” “Oh, right! Um, thank you,” Twilight said, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. Professor Oak smiled brightly, “It was my pleasure! I’m just glad to see that you’re both alright, is it true you both fell in the ocean?” “Something like that,” Twilight replied. She glanced over at Sunset, wringing her hands together, “I don’t want to be rude, but… do you mind if I have a quick chat with my, er, Pokémon? In private?” Professor Oak nodded, “Of course, by all means. I’ve got some paperwork to work on in the meantime. I’ll be at that computer over there, just come and get me when you’re done.” Twilight murmured in agreement as the Professor wandered over to a computer in the corner, the teenage girl following at his heels. “I really should be getting home, too,” Sakura said. “You look after yourself, alright?” Twilight smiled at her, “You too. And thank you, for everything.” She waved as Sakura turned and left, then turned back to Sunset. The little filly watched impatiently as Twilight stepped over to the table and crouched, bringing herself down to Sunset’s eye level, “Hey, Sunset. Are you okay?” “Shim! Shimmy, shim!” Sunset replied, gesticulating with her forelegs. Confused yet again, and feeling more than a little trepidation, Twilight asked softly, “Uh… Sunset? Can you understand me?” Sunset heaved a heavy, if somewhat cutesy, sigh, and nodded slowly. “Oh, thank goodness!” Twilight burst out, sagging with relief. “I was starting to worry that you had turned into an actual animal of some sort. But, if you can understand me, then why can’t I understand you?” Sunset sat and shrugged, “Shim shimmy.” Twilight groaned and straightened up, “Why did this happen? Do you remember anything about how we got here?” Sunset shook her head. “What about how to get back?” Another shake. “Me neither. Well. At least my parents think we’re on a research expedition, so we should have plenty of time to figure out a way home before they start worrying.” “Shimmy.” Twilight smirked reflexively, “Is that a request, or…?” Sunset just gave her a bemused glare in response, prompting an awkward giggle, “Right, sorry. Not the time. Hmmm. Do you think maybe I’m still human because that’s what I am originally, while you’re a pony because that’s what you were originally? That wouldn’t explain why you’re suddenly so young, though.” Sunset folded her forelegs, “Shim, shim shimmy shim shim.” Twilight let out another groan, “This is ridiculous, we have to find some way for you to communicate with me!” “Shim,” Sunset said, nodding in agreement. Looking idly around the room, she tapped a hoof to her chin in obvious thought, then her ears perked up as she got an idea. “Shim shimmy!” “What? What is it?” Twilight asked eagerly, squatting back down again. Sunset stood once more and held out a foreleg, looking up at Twilight while she slowly and deliberately traced letters with her hoof. “Writing! Of course!” Twilight glanced quickly around the room before hurrying towards another table. She returned moments later with a pen and a sheet of paper, which she placed in front of Sunset, “Here you go!” “Shimmy!” Sunset grinned and a faint glow emanated from her horn as she powered up her magic, with a similar glow surrounding the pen. Her grin faded as the pen refused to budge, becoming a grimace as she struggled, before, finally, the pen started to slowly rise into the air. Puffing out her cheeks, Sunset managed to hold the pen shakily for a few seconds, but couldn’t even get the nib to the paper before her magic gave out. Twilight’s shoulders slumped at the failure, “I guess your magic doesn’t work properly here. Or maybe its affected by the same process that turned you into a little foal?” Sunset glared at the pen as if it had offered her a grievous insult. Lunging forward, she snatched it up in her mouth and awkwardly tried to write with it clamped between her teeth. Sadly, the end result was nothing more than an illegible scrawl. Upon seeing this, Sunset spat the pen out and sat down with a frustrated grumble, “Shim. Shim, shimmy.” “It’s okay, we’ll figure something out,” Twilight assured her. “In the meantime, why don’t we speak to Professor Oak and see if we can get any clues as to where we are, or how we can get home?” Sunset let out a dejected sigh, then nodded once and stood back up. It was at this point that Twilight noticed another, relatively mild, problem, “Um, should I pick you up, or…?” Sunset held a hoof up for a moment, as if to say ‘one second’, and stepped over to the edge of the table. She looked down at the floor, apparently considering something, then suddenly her horn lit up. There was a flash and a crack as Sunset disappeared into thin air, and another a split-second later as she reappeared on the floor. Twilight stared at her in stunned disbelief, “Wha- you can teleport?!” Sunset grinned widely and trotted in place, clearly pleased with her success. “Shim shimmy shim shim! Shimmy shim shim shimmy!” Taking a moment to collect herself, she stopped trotting and strode off towards the Professor, triumph etched all over her face. Following along behind, Twilight couldn’t help but notice that little filly Sunset, marching along purposefully with her stubby little legs and squishy-looking frame, was completely and utterly adorable. The girl with Professor Oak looked up as Twilight and Sunset approached. “Oh, are you all done?” she asked, getting the Professor’s attention. Twilight tilted her head noncommittally, “Um, kinda? We actually have a few questions about, well everything. Oh, I’m Twilight, by the way.” “I’m Elaine, and this little one is Pikachu,” she replied, holding up her funny yellow mouse. “Pika!” “So, what’s your Pokémon called?” Elaine asked. Twilight rubbed her neck awkwardly, “Er… well, that’s actually what we wanted to ask you about.” She took a quick breath and looked at Professor Oak, “What exactly is a Pokémon?” The two looked at her in blank surprise. “How can you not know what a Pokémon is?!” Elaine asked incredulously. Twilight bit her lip, not entirely certain how to go about explaining herself, “Well, you see, there weren’t any Pokémon where we came from, so…” Professor Oak frowned at that. “No Pokémon? But what about this little one?” he asked and gestured to Sunset. “Sunset’s kinda… unique,” Twilight told him. Sunset herself nodded vigorously. “She certainly is,” Professor Oak replied, still frowning curiously. “How peculiar, I didn’t think there was anywhere on the planet where you wouldn’t be able to find Pokémon.” “It’s from, er, pretty far away,” Twilight admitted. “If that’s the case, then how on earth did you end up here in Pallet Town?” Professor Oak asked. “We were on a research expedition in an, er, exotic location,” Twilight explained, the other two listening with rapt attention. “We were investigating an old castle when a strange storm struck. The next thing I know, we were both falling through the sky and we landed in the ocean.” Elaine’s eyes widened in surprise, “How is that even possible?” “There’s something else,” Twilight continued, twiddling her fingers. “When we arrived here, while we were falling, I think I saw someone floating in the sky.” She sighed and shook her head, “It could have just been my imagination. The storm was throwing us around, and I only really saw an outline. It was probably just a trick of the light, but…” Professor Oak hummed and leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. After a moment he spoke, “Some Pokémon are capable of teleporting large distances.” Twilight glanced sidelong at Sunset at that, “Alakazam is the first that springs to mind, and they’re humanoid in shape, too, but I can’t think of a Pokémon that would be capable of something like this, not unless they were uncommonly powerful. Perhaps one of the legendary Pokémon? But that begs the question as to why?” He let out a quiet breath and stood. “I’ll make some enquiries in the scientific community, see if anyone had heard or seen something that might explain what happened. In the meantime, you are more than welcome to stay here for as long as you’d like.” Twilight smiled gratefully, “Thank you, I appreciate that.” Elaine tapped a finger on her chin thoughtfully, “Hang on, why doesn’t she just go out and look for it?” Twilight and Professor Oak both gave her curious looks. “Think about it, If a legendary Pokémon really did do this, you aren’t going to find it by sitting around in a lab.” “Elaine does have a point,” Professor Oak conceded. “Rare Pokémon tend to avoid towns and other densely populated areas. Well, usually,” he added, with a glance at Sunset. “She can come with me!” Elaine cried excitedly. “I’d love to have a friend to talk to on my journey!” “You’re going somewhere?” Twilight asked. Elaine nodded enthusiastically, “Yep, I’m leaving to try and become a Pokémon Master!” “A what, now?” “Shimmy shim?” Professor Oak chuckled a little at the pair’s confusion, then turned away and gestured for them to follow him, “Come with me, I’ll explain.” Twilight and Sunset shared a look, shrugged, and followed the Professor out of his lab, Elaine and her Pikachu tagging along in their wake. Leaving through the back door, the Professor showed them into a small garden area filled with long grass and ringed with white picket fencing. Several small birds were perched on the fence, while the grass rustled constantly with the movement of small animals. Twilight gasped as a small brown creature popped its head up out of the ground, looked around for a moment, then disappeared again. “That was a Diglett, a type of Pokémon,” Professor Oak explained, seeing the look of wonder on Twilight’s face. He flung out an arm, indicating the birds and other creatures in the garden, “We humans live alongside Pokémon as friends. At times we play together, and at other times we work together. As for myself, I study Pokémon as a profession. Pokémon can be found in all kinds of shapes and sizes, and can be found almost all over the world. Each of them also has what we call a type. For example; there are Ground-types, like that little Diglett, Normal-Types, like the Rattata that are scurrying around in there somewhere, and then you have dual types, like those Pidgeys. They’re both Normal- and Flying- types.” Twilight raised an eyebrow. It all sounded so… simplified. “Shim!” Sunset called out suddenly. As soon as she had the others attention, she used a hoof to point from herself, to the garden, then back again. “Shimmy shim shim shimmy?” “I think Sunset wants to know what type she is,” Twilight said. Professor Oak looked down at her with interest, “This little one, you said her name was Sunset?” Twilight nodded. “Well, Sunset here is particularly fascinating. She’s a dual type. A combination of Fire and Fairy, to be precise. In all my years as a researcher I've never seen or heard of such a combination. I'll have to check with some of my colleagues, but I believe her type is something that's completely unique!” “Shimmy?” Sunset turned and twisted on the spot, checking herself over. After a few moments she apparently gave up and sat down, arching an eyebrow as she looked up at the Professor, “Shim shimmy shim?” “What does she want?” Elaine asked. “I think she wants to know how you can tell,” Twilight suggested, getting a nod from Sunset. “Oh, that’s simple enough,” Professor Oak replied. “Us researchers have a few simple tests that can determine the specific types of different Pokémon, I even helped to invent one or two of them.” “I’m a Pokémon trainer,” Elaine added. “I only got my first Pokémon today,” she paused and stroked Pikachu’s head affectionately, getting a delighted coo in return, “but I’ll be leaving soon to catch more, and try to become a Pokémon Master.” Professor Oak nodded, “Elaine is going on a journey to visit and challenge every Pokémon gym in the Kanto league, a quest that will take her across the length and breadth of the region. Going with her would give you the opportunity to seek out answers for yourself, while I do what research I can from here. In fact, if a Pokémon truly is responsible for your predicament, they may even try to seek you out, and will be more likely to do so if you’re not cooped up in the middle of a town, even a small one like Pallet Town.” “So, what do you think? Do you want to come exploring with me?” Elaine asked eagerly. Twilight took a step back, more than a little divided. Her curious nature was screaming at her to get out and study this whole new world and its strange creatures, but it wasn’t only her decision to make. “What do you think, Sunset? We were on a research expedition, after all?” Sunset cocked her head from side to side as she considered. Finally, she nodded, “Shim!” “Excellent!” Elaine cried. “Very well,” Professor Oak said brightly. “In that case, I’ll provide you with a cell phone so we can contact each other if we learn anything new.” “Oh, that’s a great idea! Thank you!” Twilight replied. Professor Oak waved a hand dismissively, “Oh, please, it’s the least I can do. Although, there is one thing I’d like to request, before you go.” “What is it?” Twilight asked. Professor Oak smiled down at Sunset once more, “You see, as I said earlier, Sunset here is a very unique specimen. Would you mind if I finish running a few tests on her?” Sunset instantly flicked her tail down over her rump protectively. "Shim!"