It was freezing outside. The snow was coming down so thick and fast it was nearly a white-out. The weatherman had said this would likely continue through the weekend.
And I, Joseph Phillips, was out there loving every moment of it.
Four days into the greatest snowstorm of the year, and I wasn’t tired of it in the least. Work and life went on, but I had never lost that sense of wonder when it came to snow. Something so beautiful, so soft, yet merciless at the same time.
I lifted another shovelful to clear the driveway. I still had work in the morning, snow or no. Some people just can’t take a hint when Mother Nature decides we need a reminder that she’s still in charge. Oh well, I’d enjoy it while I could. I had been out for hours already, before I even decided to clear the driveway again. With my layers on I couldn’t feel the cold, except for my face which could hardly feel at all at the moment. I paused to catch my breath, taking a look around me.
The streetlights were already on, and the snow swirled in the light. Fierce and gentle at the same time.
It was starting to build back up on the drive, too. With a sigh at a job soon to be undone, I put my shovel in the snow mound and went to grab a bag of salt. I’d have to clear it again in the morning to leave, but it...probably wouldn’t be too bad. That taken care of for now, I took a look at the other houses. I had to wake up early, but it wasn’t too late. I could probably shovel another driveway before I went in. Be a good neighbor.
Looking around, only one house really stood out. Everyone mostly took care of the snow for the day, but Leo and his friends hadn’t touched their drive at all. They even had the wall the plows left behind.
If any of them want to leave tomorrow, they’ll have a hell of a time if any of that freezes over.
I grabbed my shovel from the snowbank and, rock salt in my other hand, started over.
Alright, top down, or center out? Center, I guess. Don’t want to have the pile be too tall and still have to be walking back and forth. And I’ve got to clear their mailbox too, don’t want it getting knocked down again.
That was actually how I’d met them all. During a snowfall last year, I was out building a snow fort (so what if I’m twenty seven, I can still play outside) and a plow “accidentally” took their mailbox out. I was over and trying to get it upright before they even came out of the house. I’m not sure if they’re renting, or if they’ve got parents, but the whole lot of them looked like teenagers, and I sure as hell couldn't afford a house at that age. Leo’s the one I really remember because he was wearing that Eevee hat of his, but there was a horde of them to fix the mailbox. I've talked to a few of them in that “passing neighbor” way, but it was mostly at times like this, when there was snow and I was outside. We’ve had a few pretty epic snowball fights. Lulu might have taken it too far with that water balloon though, she’s downright vicious when she wants to be.
I sung to myself as I shoveled. Songs about digging, songs about snow, whatever came to mind, really. It helped pass the time and kept the work from becoming work. I had managed to clear a few feet of snowbank down to the road when I saw a flashing light behind me. Thinking it was a plow, I turned to look towards it, but slipped on the ice.
I must’ve hit my head pretty hard, because my vision flashed white as soon as it hit the ground.
“Listen, I didn’t know I’d pull some other people along when I set this up, alright?” Discord told an irritated Arceus. “Besides, it’s not like this one would’ve done well in your world, so he might as well be in mine!”
I was some kind of dinosaur. That’s what the image in the ice was telling me. The fact that I couldn’t stand upright and could turn my head almost all the way around and see what the back part of me looked like were hints from before I found the mirrored ice.
Why was the ice so reflective, anyway? Probably the thin film of water on it, but I’m no scientist. And with that mystery solved to my satisfaction, I was left without a distraction and staring at what was, apparently, me.
Probably not a “real” dinosaur, though. The two gems embedded in my sides and the mood-ring eye sails were my clues there. In the time since I’d found the mirror I had cycled through deep blue flecked with white, green and ended up settling on black. My guess is despair at my situation, fear at discovering myself and just flat out stress. Was I some kind of Pokémon, then? Anything after Hoenn and before Alola was a mystery to me, but I remembered a fossil set that turned to dinosaurs that you could still get. Am...something. I couldn’t reach my head with my hands/forelegs without bending nearly in half, so I just squeezed my eyes shut to try to remember.
Am...what? Ampharos? No that’s the electric sheep. Aaaand I just understood that reference. My Dino brain truly knows no limits Focus, me! Am..Amaura, that was it! An ice type, judging by the blast freezers on my side, and the fact that I wasn’t cold in spite of my fur-free hide and the snow and ice surrounding me.
“I mean, ice is nice, and makes sense where I am, but how?”
It was a new mystery, or go back to panicking, and I swear the sounds I made then weren’t right coming from me. I don’t know if it was bleating or whinnying or an echoing shriek, but when I first stood and tried walking I fell and started freaking out so badly I swear I had my first panic attack. Inhuman, those sounds. Well...inhuman was what I was now.
I decided how was beyond me at the moment, I had what figured out, so I moved on to where.
So I’m somewhere in a Pokémon region I don’t know, in a body I’m unfamiliar with and unknown, presumably-ice abilities.
Wasn’t my kind basically extinct and revived from a fossil? I should be in a lab, right? Or with a trainer? But I hadn’t seen any humans in the hour or so I’ve been a dino. I even tried to “feel” a pull like I imagined a Pokeball might give. Nothing. So I’m a wild living relic, I guess.
Besides people, I hadn’t seen much of anything really. Boulders and gentle hills, with hardy grasses poking through the snow. Were those far-off mountains? I suppose I’m in some kind of lowland, regardless.
What am I supposed to do now? I’m alone in the middle of nowhere. Don’t know how to get home, or even where to begin looking.
“I’ll just follow the sun, I guess. Try to extend my day and get as far as I can. Seize that American Spirit that’s as dead as my kind and ‘Go West’. Manifest my Destiny or something.” I know I’m talking to myself, but that’s nothing new. I was doing that while I was shoveling, and it helped fill the silence with something other than the wind and my own crunching footsteps. My stomach rumbled.
“I should look for food, too.”
I hate my body.
Not in some self-hate body-image kind of way, I’m actually kind of cute like this. I just don’t understand what I’m doing here, in this tundra. Because that’s what it is. The ground is too frozen for trees to develop roots, and I know this because I checked. Rock-solid permafrost a few inches down.
Sauropods were made for eating off trees, like giraffes. Every time I bend down to take a bite of grass or some shiny berries I found - some kind of berry/citrus flavor, sweet and bright, with a sharp aftertaste - my new center of gravity makes me overbalance and I land on my face, stubby legs or no. Also, my legs are stubby, and I am not a fast walker as a result. I bet my speed stat is abysmal. I’ve taken to eating whatever I can reach whenever I lay down to rest. I also have no perspective on height, so I have no idea how tall I am.
I did learn a move from this though! Body Slam, maybe. Or Tackle, or something. Something that explains why I sometimes leave a small crater when I hit the ground despite my (presumably) small size. I also leave a ring of frost, which seems to come from my gems, but only when I leave a crater. Maybe that’s my ability? I make normal moves into ice attacks? I don’t seem to know any actual ice moves, unless the cold air my gems give off counts as Icy Wind.
The sun was apparently not to the west, but to the south. Or north. I’m somewhere semi-polar, for sure. I’ve been walking and resting for “days” that last for a few hours at most, walking through the nights until I can’t continue. Considering how the ground is more grass than ice I’d say summer is just past. Mid-Autumn at the latest. That or the sun in this world is a fickle bitch.
Princess Celestia felt vaguely insulted, but didn’t know why. She presumed it had something to do with Blueblood.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the snow and ice and part of me can’t wait for true winter, but that part is not my stomach. I’ve never had to fend for myself outdoors, and my current “grazer” methods won’t work when everything’s covered in snow and ice.
A problem to think about as I continue to walk sunward.
Something moves near me, and I turn to look.
Oh, hey, a rabbit, I think.
“Oh, hey, a rabbit.” I say. It’s a snowshoe hare, with its winter coat coming in. We look at each other for a while before I manage to come up with, “You… are not a Buneary.”
Its nose twitched before it hopped on its way. I followed after it, thinking it might be heading towards better food, but I now have a new problem. Normal animals don’t exist in the Pokémon world, so...
Where the hell am I?
“This time it will work, Runic, I’m certain of it!” The deep-yellow stallion excitedly told Runic Gears. Runic, of the Canterlot University of Summoners, merely heaved another in a long string of sighs.
“Sunburst, I don’t know why you keep insisting on this. You keep trying out this long-defunct summons -this your fifth, I believe? - instead of just choosing one that you know works to bond with. You’ve unearthed and re-translated them dozens of times to be certain and they never work. There’s a reason we stopped using them!”
“Yes, but what is that reason? Why don’t they work?” Carefully placing another ingredient in his saddlebag after referring to both a list and a worn scroll, Sunburst continued his preparations. “I theorize it’s something to do with factors that weren’t documented. Potential influences from time of day, environment or accidental ingredients. Maybe the quantity or purity weren’t enough to pull the summon through? You can’t just ‘run out’ of an extra-planar construct.”
Standing off to the side, Runic glanced at the door to the room before looking back to the single-minded academic. “I don’t know why, maybe one of the other professors does. But Steel Circle has had enough, Sunburst. She’s said that if you don’t bond with a summon, your studies here will be over until you do. There’s things taught here that are beyond the academic, and you can’t learn them until you choose. If you don’t have something picked by the semester’s end she’s threatening to remove you herself.”
“I know, Runic, but these old ones are just so fascinating!” Sunburst went on, “Like this one here,” he indicated the summon circle he had copied. “It hasn’t been successfully cast in over a thousand years, and the last recorded attempt was over a century ago.”
“Shouldn’t that tell you tha-“
“BUT! We’ve refined summoning over the years. Methods are available that weren’t around when the scrolls were first written. Rare materials made more common with travel and trade! Take this glass prism,” he said, lifting one off the table with his magic, “they didn’t exist a thousand years ago. With that prism and a candle for light…”
Suiting actions to words, he lit a candle and the prism cast a rainbow onto the table. “I can create what the spell calls ‘the nighttime rainbow’. Who knows what phenomena had to occur a thousand years ago to create such a thing! But it’s possible now, today! Well, not today.” He looked towards the darkening window. “It wouldn’t make sense to have a night rainbow during the day. But that goes to prove my point about the time of day affecting the summon! Besides, I’m waiting on my material request to go through. Might be another few days before I can try this.
Shaking his head, Runic settled in to let Sunburst finish his preparations. For his sake, I hope this one works.