Empress Twilight's universe, Her castle ship. morning.
"Still?!" Enraged and having her patience being tested, the Empress roared at her many soldiers, blowing them back with just her voice alone. "You still haven't found her?! And now you're mentioning Flurry Heart has left her position?!"
"D-Deepest apologies, Empress!" They bowed out of fear.
"Thar brat...It's fine..." Empress Twilight was keeping her cool. "The invasion can still go on without her and we'll track her down as well. She has to come back here eventually. Besides, she's not that important anyway. At least not anymore. The search for Luster Dawn is more critical and you will continue to search for her. Obsidian is still at the Pokemon World, correct?"
"Y-Yes, Empress..."
"Good. For his sake, he'd better find the right prison in the right region. The last thing I need is for all of this to-" Before the Empress could go off on another tangent, the alicorn she was mentioning about a few seconds ago had actually just arrived at the throne room.
Flurry Heart had actually returned.
"M-Morning, Auntie. I mean, Empress"
"Flurry Heart!" The Empress' voice had been raised on the young alicorn, intimidating her as well. "Where have you been? I try and call you in for yet another important meeting and you up and vanish, leaving your kingdom and royal duties behind for a day. I already have to deal with the disappearance of Luster Dawn and you pull this?"
"S-Sorry. I just...wanted to get out there and experience more you know...? Beyond my kingdom and even Equestria." The young alicorn pouted. "I'm sorry if I scared you, Empress."
"Hmph. And where exactly did you go?" The Empress narrowed her eyes.
"I um...w-went to another universe." Flurry couldn't help but tell the truth.
"Did you now? By using the Travel Spheres?"
"Mhm...I-I gave them back after my travel. Sorry I didn't tell you. Honest."
"Ugh..." The Empress facehoofed as she was soothing her fury. "I've had enough for a few days now...Luster Dawn and the invasion are what's important. You'll still receive punishment for what you've done, understood?"
"Yes, Empress." Flurry Heart bowed her head as she left the throne room afterwards. However, a slight smile was on her face as something was brewing. She had come here with someone after all.
And once she left the room with the doors closing, Flurry Heart began using the tiny little ear communication device on her ear, courtesy of one individual.
Pokemon Ranger Jackie.
"Okay, Jackie. Apologies are out of the way." She spoke to him through the device. "I'll head to the library and see if I can find the book. There are a lot of them."
"Gotcha," Jackie responded as he was currently residing in the same area Ash placed the hidden cameras. A sort of weapons room. With him, he had his own Pokemon, Chatot. As well as the Skitty that had attached herself to Flurry Heart ever since.
"Tot! Gotcha!" The Chatot that was with Jackie was known as Casey. He once belonged to the pirate known as Phantom but soon after Phantom's defeat by the hands of Ash and Manaphy, he became Jackie's Pokemon. And they've been partners ever since.
"It won't be easy will it?" Jackie asked.
"Auntie's a great organizer. She loves to ut the books in alphabetical order. But...so many of them have the same starting letters."
"That would be pretty time-consuming. That Nyx alicorn's coming here soon today isn't she? Double the alicorn assistance would be pretty great."
"It would. But um...I'm not allowed to learn other spells, let alone visit her personal library. Auntie wants me to stay limited in what I know. If I head into her personal library..."
"Someone's gonna stop you head-on, right? No need to worry. I've got a plan."
"You do?"
"Distraction. No one's better at it than yours truly." Jackie pointed at himself.
"Chatot! Yours truly!"
"Distraction? Wait hold on that sounds dangerous!"
"Don't worry. While everyone's hurrying in a scurry, you can have all the time in the world to get that book. I'll be the perfect magnet!"
"With just your Chatot?"
"Who said I brought just a Chatot? Besides, your auntie's been sending those Umbrage Thieves to capture other Pokemon, right?"
"Right. They're kept at the lab for research."
"I think I'll gather myself a little party soon. Here goes!" Jackie opened the door of the weapons room, exiting it with Chatot and Skitty. Once he did, the Pokemon Ranger slammed the door as hard as he could, making a loud rumbling sound.
That would certainly attract the attention of mostly everypony in here. Especially the guards, who immediately got a move on once the door had been slammed. It was pure metal so of course, it was going to make some sound.
"What was that?!" One guard said as the rest were moving towards the direction of the sound. "It came from there!"
And at the same time, Jackie would actually be drawing attention to himself rather than staying hidden. Then again, Jackie's not one for keeping a full cover in all honesty.
Once he started running, the Pokemon Ranger, Chatot and Skitty immediately showed themselves to the nearest guards of this corridor and floor, exposing their appearance and cover.
"Good morning!" Jackie greeted
"Huh?! Who the- When did you get in here?!"
"Alright, Casey! Do your thing!"
"Tot! Do your thing!" The Music Note Pokemon already knew what he needed to do. He flew off of Jackie's shoulder as he used the move Boomburst against the targets in front of him. "TOT!"
Jackie covered Skitty's ears as Chatot's body became surrounded in a thin light-blue aura, before opening his beak and sending a swirly supersonic wave of pure sound that raged and echoed throughout the entire ship and castle.
There was no way no one didn't hear that. Not only did the sound waves absolutely blow the guards back with such force, but their aluminium armour and parts of the ship and castle were being crushed by this sound wave.
The armour around their bodies had shattered, removing parts of it. Mainly the helmets. Luckily for them, since the move only affects the ears of a Pokemon, their ears were safe but their armour and bodies weren't.
"Fun fact!" Jackie raised a finger. "When raised to an insane level, soundwaves have the power to crush even metal themselves. They rapidly implode and release an intense shockwave that produces enormous amounts of heat energy and a variety of high active radicals. Destroying any adjacent material. Even metal. But you guys knew that, right?"
"Chatot! Knew that!"
"You guys should feel pretty lucky." Jackie pointed his thumb at Chatot. "Chatot's not even the loudest Pokemon out there. Wait till you see Exploud."
"Ugh..." The guards couldn't respond since they were still recovering from that powerful blast wave and having their armour being crushed and shattered at the same time.
"Ooh." Jackie went up to the guards, seeing that their weapons had been taken off them. More specifically, the long and tough metal staffs they had on them. They had also been damaged by the Boomburst, but they still seemed usable.
At least one of them.
"I'll take this." Jackie took the staff, spinning it around. "Not bad. See ya!"
Thanks to Boomburst damaging the armour, the castle had been affected too. Bits of it were still material used from the old Canterlot Castle of the past but most of it was now aluminium for heavy reinforcement.
However, compared to the guards and their armour, the castle and the entire ship seemed to be more durable and reinforced than everything else, making it difficult to really shatter a place like this with just one powerful sound wave.
Because of this occurrence, the alarm had been set off as everyone in the castle had been made aware of this. From every floor and every room in the castle. And the Empress was most certainly made aware of this. Her plans had to be put on hold because of this abrupt interference
And with the alarms going off so did the castle's defences. Not just the guards, but the weapons built into the castle to deal with any intruders. From out of the walls themselves, mechanical laser cannons were coming out, aiming at Jackie, Chatot and Skitty. Other machinery and traps started appearing across the floors of the castle everywhere. Everything here was made to deal with intruders.
And Jackie knew that this wouldn't be easy.
"What now?!" Empress Twilight roared as her buttons were starting to be pushed to their limits. "Whoever it is, capture or let the defences get rid of them!"
And due to the hidden cameras being present in the castle, Celestia and Luna were watching from the other side. They could hear everything occurring and playing out but they couldn't exactly see the rest of it. All they could do is continue listening and hope for the retrieval of the spellbook.
And very soon, Pyrestar will arrive.
While Jackie causes a ruckus, heading for the lab, Flurry Heart was going for the Empress' private library. A library that held all of the spellbooks she had stolen from various universes and only she has access to. Luster Dawn will one day inherit these spells as the Empress' protege and future successor and no one else. This private library was separate from the public library.
All of the guards moved past Flurry Heart, only paying focus and attention to the intruder that has managed to arrive here. Because of this, Flurry Heart could move freely without any worry. After moving past an abundance of guards with the alarms going off, she arrived at the door that led to the private library.
Unfortunately, the doors were locked. And the only ones who could open them were in a hurry to find this intruder. Not only that, but it was identical to a vault safe.
"Locked..." Flurry Heart sighed as she stood before the door. "Okay um...I don't have a key unlocking spell but I could use my magic to bla-"
But, before Flurry Heart could decide on how to get inside, Giratina did the honours. Even though it was inside the Ultra Ball, it could affect the outside as well, showing just how powerful it was.
With a pulse of red and black energy, the Renegade Pokemon sent a smidge of Antimatter that came out of the Ultra Ball. This pulse of Antimatter connected with the door, unmaking it right in front of Flurry Heart's eyes. All of that matter that the door was made out of was being reduced to its most basic level and soon even further down.
The door to the private library had been wiped from existence.
"Oh. Well uh...Auntie's gonna notice but that works too!" Accepting this decision, Flurry Heart pranced into the private library, coming across its sheer size and scope.
This was actually her first time here. The library was identical to Twilight's old library and home, Golden Oak library. Everything here matched its appearance to a T, although, it seemed to be larger in scale due to the increased number of books gathered from multiple universes.
The young alicorn gulped as she would have to find the right book that had the World Pirouette spell amongst this abundance of books. On the bright side, she knows one important detail about the spell. The Queen Chrysalis of another universe was the one who originally invented it, so most likely, a book made by the changelings would be the key.
"Okay." She took a deep breath as she was ready to get to work.
This was going to take a while.
Unova. Village of Dragons. Day.
Spike's training session at the Village of Dragons had begun. He was already aiming to head to Kyurem and challenge him, but first, he would have to learn and know a few critical things about being a Dragon Trainer. And the Elder, plus Drayden would help him with that.
He sat down with the Elder and Drayden alongside his Axew, Salamence and Druddigon. The major thing that Spike needed to know about being a Dragon Trainer is absolute communication with Dragon-Type Pokemon.
"Now." The Elder Spoke. "Raise your claw to your Pokemon, and let the Infinity Energy flow through you."
"Raise my claw. Got it." Spike gently raised his right claw, aiming it at his three Pokemon. He was looking forward to seeing what communicating with Dragon-Types would look like. Even if his eyes were closed right now.
Spike already knew what he was getting himself into and how much focus he needed. If there's one thing he's learned over the years in Ponyville and Equestria overall, it's patience.
And that's exactly what he had. Patience. Because of how much he's experienced in Ponyville and his time with Dragon-Type Pokemon, the baby dragon was well equipped to tackle this challenge.
Thanks to that patient focus, a golden glow started forming around Spike's claw, one that was identical to the colour of the sun itself. Or even an intense flame.
This golden flame-like glow was a bit faint but it started to gain some vibrance each passing second. The light then reached both Axew, Salamence and Druddigon, connecting to the three Dragon-Types.
That same light then outlined his Pokemon as the three Dragons could actually feel Spike's light taking effect, prompting them each to open their eyes.
"Axew?"
"Sala?"
"Drudd?"
"Oh. A quick learner." The Elder nodded. "I can see that you're already close with your Pokemon. Keep it up and don't lose focus until you can fully reach them."
"F-Fully?" Spike winced with his eyes closed as he was actually trying his best to maintain the glow right now with his arm twitching.
"You can do more than just communicate with dragons," Drayden spoke. "You'll have the power to read their emotions, heal them and even calm them. Some of the most aggressive Dragon Pokemon will be calm with what you can do."
"Awesome..." Spike smiled while focusing his light onto his Pokemon. Axew, Salamence and Druddigon could feel Spike reaching them from within. With the light reaching further, Spike himself could feel and hear something. From what he could gather, voices were starting to call out to him. Voices that were unfamiliar yet familiar to him.
The baby dragon tried to hear those voices as he was starting to open his eyes. Now he could see his own glow as he gawked at its flame-like appearance.
"Oho! Sweet! Look at this!" He began moving his claw around which moved the light itself as well. He was excited to have achieved this light on his first try and his movements essentially gave it away. Unfortunately, getting so excited and looking at his claw made the light vanish along with the one outlining his Pokemon. "Huh?! Where'd it go?"
"You got a bit too excited there, I'm afraid." The Elder walked up to Spike. "While it is fun and exciting to utilize such power, a gentle emotion and nature are still needed. The user must transfer all of the light from across their body to their heart and Pokemon, channelling excess light all around their hands. Or claws in your case. But you must let the light flow to it rather than forcing it or riling yourself up."
"Oh...I gotcha. Gentle."
"But, you seem to already have a good grasp on something such as this. I should've expected this ever since the Salamence incident." Drayden observed. "You might develop faster than normal."
"Great! I thought I could really hear Axew, Salamence and Druddigon there." Spike tapped his head. "Bet I could hear Kyurem too."
"Everyone can hear Kyurem." Drayden and the Elder both said.
"Oh."
"Seems like your light is effective on mostly Axew and Salamence. Druddigon is faint but it's there. Then again, you did just catch him yesterday." Drake uttered.
"Now then, let's see you communicate with all of the Dragons in this village." The Elder suggested.
"All of them?!"
"If you can focus your light correctly, you can respond and sense any Dragon nearby. Allow me to demonstrate." To give a demonstration, the Elder sat down as Spike glued her eyes to this.
In just a second, the Elder was able to give off a strong sense of authority and power that pulsated through the tent. Spike shuddered from this invisible pulse as his Dragon Pokemon froze in place when responding to it. This pulse spread out, moving from the tent to the outside.
All nearby Dragon Pokemon who were moving about in a frenzy, having fun, immediately stopped what they were doing as they heard the pulse despite it being invisible. It was audible, however. And they could tell that it belonged to the Elder.
Everything was calm as the Elder had communicated with them while also reading their emotions too. She could tell how they were feeling and spoke them to all simultaneously. "Don't worry. I'm just showing Spike how Dragon communication can work. You can return to what you were doing."
Every Dragon Pokemon heard this. None of them belonged to her and yet she was able to somewhat command. And she did it so easily too. Afterwards, the glow faded away.
"Just like that?" Spike's jaw dropped. "Oh, cool! I totally wanna learn that!"
"Then let's get started. You already know what to do with the basics." The Elder turned around. "Let's see how far you can go."
"Right!" Spike sat down, crossing his legs together as he was ready to mimic what the Elder did. He could already summon the golden light but he was hoping that he could go even further beyond.
The baby dragon put both his claws out, closing his eyes as he had already summoned the golden light within his claws. But he was hoping that he could make the light come out of his entire body. Spike was already communicating with his Pokemon since he was close to them. Now all he had to do was reach the rest.
Spike grumbled, trying his best to make the light expand, but right now, that wasn't happening. In fact, the best he could do was reach his own Pokemon. And that was it. He started growling with his teeth showing and neck straining. The simple lesson of not forcing the light had been thrown out immediately once he tried pushing his light.
"Ah, it's no good! Can't even get the light to be extra vibrant like yours." Spike looked at his claws.
"Don't force it. You did extremely well before with all that focus." The Elder shook her head. "Even if you can't communicate and reach them all, you can keep trying until it grows. That light can progressively improve over time."
"Right. Sorry. Okay, let me try it again." Spike took a deep breath as he wasn't going to force it this time. He was going to play it out just like he did before. Reaching all Dragons would be more challenging than reaching his own Pokemon.
Once he closed his eyes, Spike let mostly everything around him fall silent until the only thing he could hear was the air and the beat of his own heart. This draconic light did require a connection to the heart after all. After doing so, Spike's light appeared once more as he was put into a sort of meditative state.
Once again, the light outlined his Pokemon, but this time, because of his focus, the glow was starting to gain more vibrance and saturation, but only around his own Pokemon. It hadn't yet passed through the tent and reached every other Dragon Pokemon residing here.
Spike already knew this, but he wasn't letting his focus disappear. He kept his eyes closed and didn't move. He was going to get this right and reach everyone here as he stayed still. Drayden and the Elder watched as Spike's meditative state was increasing, showing his state of mind and concentration. They nodded in agreement, knowing that Spike was surely learning fast. But, reaching all Pokemon was going to take a while.
All they had to do was wait.
Empress Twilight's Universe. Her main castle ship. Day.
"Excuse me!" Right now, Jackie was still on the move. Despite him being less armoured than everyone else here, he was still doing well. He's not a Rank 9 Pokemon Ranger for a reason.
He had evaded and defeated the guards that came his way by using his acrobatic skills while also utilizing this ship's security systems and weapons. Jackie was certainly fast enough to avoid them. When the lasers from the cannons were fired at him. Not only that, but he could also juke them out by using some of the guards as shields.
Chatot and Skitty were there to back him up too. Skitty had used Water Pulse, creating a pulsing blast of water and firing it on the floor. She caused a bit of a mini-flood, causing some of the ponies to slip or be caught in this flood. But, thanks to their armour, it wasn't too effective. But it was certainly effective on the electrical equipment. Skitty also fired Water Pulse at the defence mechanisms, overriding them with water.
However, that was only the surface of it. Jackie was ready to give them another fun fact while blocking his nose. "Fun fact number two! If water touches aluminium, a bunch of hydrogen gas is made! And if that happens, well I'd feel pretty bad for your oxygen."
"Tot! Oxygen!"
"What are you-" Soon, the guards were about to figure that out. Due to the presence of the water, some of the guards who had slipped over could feel the high concentrations of gas emerging. All of this high concentration was powerful enough to an oxygen-deficient environment. So, the guards immediately passed out from taking this gas in.
Some of them didn't pass out. Others were getting nauseous, dizzy, drowsy, headaches and ringing in the ears. Jackie quickly got out of there before it could affect him and the Pokemon. But oddly enough, some guards were able to resist this chemical reaction to their armour.
Chatot, being the vocal Pokemon that he is, further used Boomburst to blow anyone back. The force of his Boomburst also destroyed some of the defence mechanisms due to how high the frequency was. They had even blown up from it while more guards had their armours shattered.
Some guards got closer to Jackie, using their hard aluminium staffs to hit the Pokemon Ranger But Jackie was prepared. Due to him being taller than everypony here, he was able to gain an advantage. Plus his acrobatic and agility skills helped here.
The Pokemon Ranger avoided the swings of these hard staff by showing off a multitude of flips, jumps and even some sliding. No one could hit Jackie and if they did, he would just use the staff he stole to block it or just grab another one and toss it aside.
Jackie also noticed that these metal staffs aren't just for swinging. Some of the guards activated the electrical system on it as it was now a shock staff. Anything it touches will be shocked with 50,000 volts.
"Oh! Idea!" Jackie got an idea. "Skitty! On my back!"
"Skitty!" Skitty ran to Jackie, jumping on his back while Chatot ascended, knowing what Jackie was planning. Jackie noticed the function that could make these staffs electrical. A sort of motion sensor button above the handle. By interacting with that sensor, he activated the electrical function of the staff.
"This is gonna hurt me as well but...Here goes!" Jackie raised the staff as he looked at the floor with a wide grin. The guards then ran over to Jackie, ready to shock him with 50,000 volts.
However, Jackie's plan soon came into motion. Since the effects of Water Pulse were still present, the flood was still here. And that's when Jackie smashed the staff of electricity onto the water, causing a predictable reaction.
An immediate rapid flow of electricity started moving across the water since electricity and water aren't exactly the best combination in the world. Or any world really. It was about to get worse for the guards.
Since they were wearing metal armour, once the electricity reached them, their bodies were instantly affected. All of that electricity was conducting with their armour, sending immediate shocks through them as they stood in place. Jackie was affected too since he was standing into the water, but not as much as the guards since he wasn't heavily armoured like them. He then left to continue his mission.
Soon, Jackie came across the lab where there was already a major panic due to the alarm going off. All experiments were halted when they heard of an intruder within the castle. And to them, it sounded like the intruder was still here.
And he most certainly was.
With a stylish slide, havoc stride, cool smirk and radiating aura of confidence, Jackie had appeared in front of all the scientists who were in a panic.
"Hello there!" Jackie greeted as Skitty hopped off his back, opening her mouth.
"Skitty!" The Kitten Pokemon let out a cute roar before summoning yet another Water Pulse, shooting at the floor like always and starting another flood.
"TOT!" And Chatot, once again, used Boomburst without hesitation. By opening that beak of his, he sent yet another explosive blast of sound via the form of a sonic wave. The scientists here weren't guarded like the soldiers so they might've taken the worst out of this as they all fell over.
But since they weren't Pokemon, their ears weren't affected.
And speaking of the Pokemon, Jackie found his targets. The Pokemon that were being experimented on were indeed here as they were all being kept in these unexplainable and complex designed machines.
At least, they were. Until Boomburst and Water Pulse messed with all of the electricity and machinery here. The Pokemon were now freed but their ears were ringing. Jackie's eyes shined as he knew what needed to be done.
"Aha! Capture on!" Jackie pulled out his styler, immediately utilizing it as a spinning light was launched out of the device. Jackie made sure the light was extra long and large this time as it wrapped around all of the Pokemon like a large ribbon.
And once that light went into all the Pokemon, not only were they free, but they were also now on Jackie's side. Although to be fair, after what he, Skitty and Chatot did, they probably already were on his side in all honesty.
"Vi...Vibrava!" One of the Pokemon captured, Vibrara, let out a loud cry along with its other captured Pokemon as they immediately got to work, attacking the scientists here and thrashing the lab as fast they could.
"You know, you guys really shouldn't have caught Ground-Type Pokemon." Jackie crossed his arms. "Ground's good against anything steel, haha!"
"Tot! Good against anything steel!"
"Alright, Flurry Heart...hope you're having just as good luck as me..." Jackie said, hoping for Flurry Heart's safety.
The Private Library of the Empress.
And speaking of Flurry Heart, she was still searching for the book by choosing only the changeling exclusive ones. She did indeed have the magic capability to speed-read but there were so many pages and books that it couldn't go any quicker.
But aside from the changeling books, Flurry Heart knew that going through pages in alphabetical order could help. She was looking for the letter W. Meanwhile, she could feel all this ruckus occurring within the castle.
Flurry knew that Jackie was doing his job well. They sent the right Pokemon Ranger for this job.
"Come on...Category W...W. W." Flurry Heart's eyes narrowed as they started glowing. Before, she was once the most powerful alicorn until her auntie's actions. She still holds immense power that can help her in various ways.
"Aha!" And just like that, she found what she was looking for. " The World Pirouette spell! Just like it says, changing the world itself by manipulating all geography. I do take care of my mom."
"I can see that." And responding to Flurry Heart's words were the Empress herself. She obviously had to move around the castle due to all the commotion and chaos occurring. She couldn't ignore it.
The Empress was already annoyed by the current state of events. But now, she had come across her own niece in her private library while her door had practically been erased from existence.
"Auntie!" Flurry Heart gasped while the Empress growled.
"Flurry Heart...!"
As the journey continues.
Chapter 431 End.