Somewhere in Pegalysium. Afternoon.
The group had finally reached the skies where they could head to Pegalysium. Although, there was an issue. They had just found out that since everything here was below the clouds, many lands and islands have been moving via the clouds carrying them. And since Celestia has been away from here for a while, reaching Pegalysium the same way she did before won't be so easy, unfortunately.
Celestia's meeting with the Sky Monarch might be delayed at this point until they can find the right island. Or, as Celestia was hoping, finding Garnet.
But for now, an adventure was bound for them. They had just passed the Sky Gate after meeting with the first Pegalysium resident. An old lady who was seemingly a guardian but not really. Now, the group have entered their first location.
A jungle.
Not a rainforest unlike what Celestia and Passion first came across.
"Okay. Where to first?" Ash spoke, looking at this sky jungle.
"Luna and I will focus on heading to the Sky Monarch if we can find it. Along with Adagio. The rest of you are free to do whatever you want. Just remember not to cause too much trouble." said Celestia.
"We won't," Twilight responded with assurance for the Sun Princess. "Hopefully we don't get lost here at least."
"But check this out!" Pinkie Pie cried out as she saw clumps of clouds laying on the ground. She and Mew went up to the clumps as they started touching them as if they were messing with snow. "You can move these clouds around!" She and Mew were actually sculpting with the clouds like snow, making a cloud angel.
"Mew-Mew!" And just like that, in just 5 seconds, they had made their cloud angel, showing it to everyone.
"Really now?" Twilight scooped up a nearby cloud clump with her hoof. "How's this possible? Have clouds always been this...interactable?"
"Espeon!" Espeon, deciding to be playful, stuck her head in the clumps of clouds.
"Eevee!" Chloe's Eevee decided to mimic Espeon by hopping out of Chloe's arms. The Evolution Pokemon then dived into a clump of clouds, getting her face both wet and full of clouds. Her eyes could still be seen poking out. "Vee?"
"What kind of flowers are these? They're singing!" Fluttershy came across the singing flowers of various varieties. The flowers were singing a song that greeted Ash and the others to the skies above with a sort of triumphant melody.
"Krick!" Popping out of Adagio's mane was Kricketot who quite liked these flowers. He started singing along with these flowers in their melodic tone. "Kricketot!"
"They sang for us when Passion and I came here the first time," said Celestia. "They do add some nice ambience and flair. And they can somewhat act as warning signs."
"Warning signs?" Spike poked on one of the petals as the tempo changed to something quicker. "Oh, I get it now."
"Amazing! I'm sure it wouldn't hurt if we kept one of them, would it?" Rarity was certainly a fan of these singing flowers. She felt like picking one of them and using them for obvious flashy reasons. Having these flowers added onto something like a dress would really help her business. Who could resist this?
"This fruit is pretty weird too." Starlight spoke as she ended up grabbing what seemed to be a berry from the trees here. "It's super hard."
"Is it?" Twilight went up to Starlight.
"Yeah. Look." Starlight then showed Twilight how hard the fruit was by throwing it at a nearby rock with her magic. She threw it at top speed as the berry ended up breaking through the rock instead of squishing with a verbal splat. "Rock slid. Probably even stronger than rock."
"So we can't eat 'em?" Applejack tested it out for herself by grabbing one of the fruits. Fittingly, this fruit resembled an apple but with a blue colouring. She bit into the blue apple, expecting her to feel something hard. Instead, she actually ended up chewing it like it was an ordinary apple. And like the apples back home, these tasted wonderful. "Mmm! This ain't too bad!"
"Is it hard or not?" Goh grabbed another of the blue apples to see for himself. He knocked on the apple as it injured his knuckles. "Ow-ow! What's with this place? How come you can eat them fine, Applejack?"
"Mm?" Applejack shrugged while continuing to eat the blue apple. Celestia, Luna, Passion, Arcanine and Adagio had already walked off to try and find the Sky Monarch in Pegalysium. But Celestia gave one last piece of advice.
"Oh, right. One last thing. There are these things called Flow-up Clouds. They are quicker ways to travel upwards in this land. If you come across one and decide to travel up it, make sure to navigate yourself when you're inside or you may fall out. And you'll need to stay afloat in the air after you reach the top and exit it." Celestia warned.
"Got it." Ash understood along with everyone as they rushed off to experience this wonderful land that had many surprises just waiting for them around every corner.
"Pikachu!"
After that, Celestia and her group had left to try and find Pegalysium. But since everyone was eager and curious to see what else Pegalysium had to offer, they may end up going in different directions due to how expansive this jungle is.
Their walk through the jungle led the ground further down it, listening to the ambience of the singing flowers. They could also hear the sounds of the running cloud waves, matching the sound of water.
So far, there didn't seem to be any sign of wildlife here despite this being a jungle. Fluttershy was eager to see what kind of creatures would live up here in a land filled with nothing but the sky.
Ash climbed up a tree to see things from a better view while Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew up next to him as well. They each narrowed their eyes, putting their hands and hooves over to see ahead. From what they could spot ahead, this jungle had a continuous path with a stream of water clouds.
"Hey look. Way over there." Ash noticed something in the far distance, resting on a floating island. "Looks like there's a bunch of temples over there."
"Oh, yeah, I see it." Rainbow Dash nodded. "Wonder what's inside?"
And speaking of wildlife, the three of them noticed something moving within the stream of water clouds. It seemed to be a fin obviously meaning that sealife creatures existed in this sky land.
"Oh...What do you think that is?" Ash wondered, watching the fin move.
"A shark?" Rainbow Dash theorized as she rambled on about what creature could possess that fin. A SkyShark? Maybe a Skydolphin or something. Or it could be a Pokemon?"
"But there aren't any Pokemon up here." But just to be sure, Ash took his Pokedex out to see if this was a Pokemon swimming about in the sky clouds. And when he did so the Pokedex responded in an expected outcome. No data. And not a single read from it. This was a creature that only existed in this world and this land.
But either way, Ash was excited to see something new along with Fluttershy. Both their eyes lit up but the supposed shark or dolphin creature dived down into the stream, disappearing. But this was confirmation that some wildlife existed here in this jungle.
And very soon, everyone else came across it.
Right from the tree that Ash stood on, popping out of the branches was some sort of squirrel-like creature as it gave Ash a slight startle.
"Woah!" Ash almost lost his balance on the tree as both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy zipped back a bit. This squirrel creature had shown itself as it had wings on its back. And those wings matched the colour of its brown fur. "Oh! Check it out! That squirrel's got wings!"
"Seriously?!" Rainbow Dash rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things.
"Oh, how cute!" Fluttershy gushed while flying over to this squirrel. "Hey there, little one. What kind of squirrel are you?" In response, the winged squirrel poked its nose onto Fluttershy's nose, making the pegasus giggle.
"So, wait. Do you think every animal here is like the animals back in Equestria...but with wings?!" Rainbow Dash gasped, thinking of a sight like that.
"Uh...I think you may be on to something Rainbow Dash. Look!" And very soon, Rainbow Dash's theory about animals having wings in this land had come true as Pinkie Pie pointed her hoof up at a nearby hill.
On that hill, a pack of monkeys with six wings could be seen. The winged monkeys looked down at Ash's group out of curiosity, acting like any regular monkey would. As for Ash and the others, they gawked at these aerial simians. Even though they weren't Pokemon, it felt like somewhere out there, there could be a Pokemon like them.
The pack of monkeys then flew off, using their six wings to do so. Everyone looked up, watching these primates take to the skies. This made Ash and Fluttershy want to see a Pokemon similar to that one day. Possibly a Normal-Flying-Type that isn't a bird-based Pokemon.
And the deeper they went into the jungle, the more winged animals they saw. Each of them having their own unique wings for their builds.
"Check this out! This fox is flying with two tails! Who needs wings when you can do something like that?" Rainbow Dash found herself a personal favourite. Instead of having wings like the other animals, this fox-like creature had two tails as it used those tails to fly.
Rainbow Dash picked up the fox with her hooves. In response, the fox put its paw on Rainbow's face, patting it repeatedly in a playful manner. Applejack found herself a winged meerkat that had landed on her hat, bouncing up and down on it and Sceptile's head before jumping into a hole.
Scorbunny came across some fellow rabbits that could not only fly but could also jump so high that they felt like anti-gravity from their movements. Scorbunny tried mimicking the high jumps with High Jump Kick. He was able to match their height, but he couldn't stay afloat like they could. The Rabbit Pokemon tried running in the air to try and stay airborne.
But Fluttershy being the helpful pony that she was helped grant Scorbunny that wish by holding him while flying.
They admired the wildlife around them while moving further throughout the dungeon. They now had something else to expect. But they were curious as to how this was possible.
"How do you think all of this happened? You know...all of these winged flying animals." Spike asked.
"Well...It could be that since they've been living up here for so long, their bodies have adapted to survive in the skies. Like how animals have done for years or even how Pokemon evolve to become stronger." Twilight gave her own theory." That has to be it. And magic might be involved with it somehow."
"Wonder how they even made to have magic up here so long if there are only pegasi." Pinkie wondered. "By the way...where did Team Rocket go?
"I think James is staying behind to keep guard of the ship. Jessie, Meowth and Wobbuffet might be there too." Fluttershy said, knowing where Team Rocket were currently at.
At least, that's what she believed.
Back at Team Rocket's ship.
"Alright. Now that we're here we can gip Pikachu at any time without them having the chance to head back down. After all, we have their ticket home." Jessie said as she and Team Rocket were already up to their plotting.
"Ah...but shouldn't we get Fluttershy back home?" James asked as Jessie scrunched her face.
"Darn it!" She put her hand in her fist. "Why did we have to become good friends with her...?! Change of plans!" She then raised a finger. "There's probably some treasure buried here in this place if it's so ancient! We should shoot right for it. Maybe the ones that no one has found yet!"
"Ancient treasure is the best kind of treasure!" Meowth clapped his paws together.
"Hm-hm." James nodded. "And the pegasi there won't have to worry since it's so old and buried away. Class-A thinking Jess."
"Now, let's get rolling and find ourselves some ancient treasure!" And now, Team Rocket had a reason to venture through this island.
Grab some dusty old treasure from somewhere random and possibly deserted in these sky islands and conceal it away from Ash and the others while getting home with some potential riches.
Celestia's group.
Meanwhile, Celestia, Luna and Adagio were heading for something more important than everyone else. More important than exploration and finding old treasure. If they could find the Sky Monarch and have this meeting, then hopefully, things will end peacefully and they can head home.
That is if the clouds don't mix up the locations and where they came from while the minutes and hours pass.
Right now, they had come across one of the temples that Ash, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy spotted in the distance. This temple was currently standing in their way and they weren't sure where to go so perhaps it could lead them closer to the capital of Pegalysium.
While Ash and the others had seen clean and beautiful temples, Celestia's group came across a half-destroyed temple. It stood near a cloud lake with moss covering it from all over. There was also a large crater near the temple along with a giant pathway that started from the crater, revealing why parts of the temple were destroyed.
"All of this destruction..." Celestia looked at the ground and the path that was made from the crater. "Something must've been dragged through here...Something big."
"Hm? Hey, look over there!" Adagio then spotted something on the sea clouds, grabbing everyone's attention. Over at the sea clouds, they could spot gondolas. More importantly, gondolas that were tipped over with the oars broken in half. The gondolas also had large holes inside of them.
Hundreds of these gondolas could be seen everywhere with many ruined oars. Very few of them were still intact as some of them washed up on shore, laying there for who knows how long.
"What happened here exactly?" Luna looked at the gondolas and then the temple.
"Not sure...We should keep moving." Celestia said as they all chose to enter the temple. They felt a foreboding sense of dread around this area. The damaged gondolas, oars and temple were just adding to that dread.
After entering the temple, they were met with a dark blue aesthetic that it was giving off. The moon wasn't up so the colouring here was odd to them. Since the sun was shining, it should give off a brighter appearance. But it didn't. Now that dread was just increasing.
The floors below looked like they were about to crumble and possibly send them through the skies and back down to Equestria from how old they were.
As they trotted through this old temple, they noticed an assortment of creations up ahead, just resting on the side of these mossy walls. There were statues lined up across the wall in perfect unison. These statues were of ponies with their eyes closed and hooves put together as if they were praying. The wings were also broken off with rubble laying on the floor.
Luna shuddered as she felt nervous just looking at these statues. Something about how they were designed just sent chills through her spine. As if that wasn't enough, the howling of the wind echoed throughout this temple, having a unique sound that didn't make anything better. Luna stayed close to Celestia for safety.
However, they wouldn't be safe for long. After they passed the row of statues, a giant hole in the wall had just opened up.
"Voir?!" And Passion was the first to sense this. Immediately, coming out of the giant hole was a large wooden log with a spike on both sides that was connected to a rope as it swung towards Celestia's group.
"Oh!" Celestia and the others gasped as they moved their heads back, avoiding the wooden log. The log then went back into the hole, promoting Celestia's group to move forward before it came swinging back at them. However, that wasn't the only log they had to worry about.
More were coming. From every part of the wall, spike-ended logs started flying out rapidly each time Celestia and her group advanced, putting pressure on them. In response, they started avoiding these incoming logs as much as they could by swaying or ducking. But there were so many of them moving at impressive speeds that they couldn't hope to dodge them forever.
"You must admit! Even after all of these years, the pegasi that lived here once have truly work to lethal effect to this day!" Luna spoke as a wooden spike clipped her tail, almost fully hitting her.
"Very sophisticated! Which is why I have to apologize for what is about to come next! Passion! Mystical Fire!" Arcanine, Flamethrower!"
"Garde...!"
"Arca...!" Both Passion and Arcanine prepared some potent flames via their hands and mouth. At the same time, the two of them spun around, creating a vortex of flames. These spiralling flames ended up burning away at the spiked wooden logs with ease due to how potent Pokemon fire is compared to regular fire.
Very soon, all of the logs had been obliterated, burnt to ashes before the flames of Passion and Arcanine. The two of them dispersed the aura of flames before descending. Now, Celestia and her group could advance onwards, safe from the first booby trap that this temple had.
At least, that's what the thought.
The moment they passed through an open square entrance that led to the other side of the temple, they were met with something else. In the blink of an eye, right near Adagio, a large silver rod came flying out of open holes in the wall, smashing into the wall and breaking pars of it off.
"A-Ah...!" Adagio stood there, frozen as she had just witnessed something that could've taken her out in an instant, but it had only missed her by a smidge.
That wasn't the only rod they had to worry about. Out of the rest of the holes, more rods were flying this way, targeting Celestia's group.
"Oh!" Celestia gasped as she quickly put a protective magical barrier around everyone, shielding them from harm. The rods rained down at high speeds, each capable of breaking the walls themselves. And not only that, but they could also damage Celestia's shield.
The rods made her shield tremble, sending pulses throughout as there seemed to be a constant array of them flying out. Celestia realized she couldn't block them forever, so she expanded her magical barrier, causing it to grow. It grew to a point where the rods were being pushed back, hitting the other rods that flew out each passing second. Because of this, the rods had destroyed each other in the process.
Soon all of them were gone thanks to Celestia's expanding magic as she made it disappear. At this point, they were expecting a third trap to meet them.
And that third trap was already ready for them. The moment the rods had been dealt with, the next trap had been activated. Celestia and the others took the time to have a breather. But that couldn't happen as the floor was trembling.
"What now?!" Adagio looked around, searching for the next trap. She wouldn't have to look any further as the next trap was approaching from behind them. And it came from the room where they had just avoided the logs. Turns out, that room had more than one trap waiting for them.
After the logs had been destroyed, the secondary booby trap activated. The eyes of the statues had suddenly opened wide, making a verbal sound that echoed throughout the temple. And once those eyes opened, they started crying. But these weren't simple tears.
The eyes had leaked out gigantic cloud waves, pouring them on the floor. This could be considered a Cloud Tsunami as it had the destructive force and movements of a regular tsunami but with a cloudy feel. Celestia and the others looked behind, feeling the tremor and hearing the sounds of something swooshing. Something wet.
That's when they saw the Cloud Tsunami coming their way.
"Go-go-go!" Celestia cried out as she and her group immediately bolted away. Adagio And Arcanine went on foot while Celestia, Luna and Passion chose to fly. The tsunami broke through the rubble and walls, moving at an aggressive pace as very soon, the entire temple may be consumed by it.
Celestia's group moved through the many entrances, entering other rooms to try and outpace this Cloud Tsunami. However, as they arrived at the others rooms, the other traps had been activated.
From below, eruptions of scorching fire had emerged with the first one appearing in front of Luna. Luna came to a screeching halt as she had almost been burnt by these flames. She flew around the flame in front of her while the rest of them erupted.
Rapidly with each passing second, flames were bursting out of the floor and walls, forcing Celestia and the others to slow down while a vicious Cloud Tsunami was chasing after them.
"How did the pegasi in this temple even get around?!" Adagio groaned while stepping away from an erupting flame. Arriving into this room by destroying the walls as the Cloud Tsunami kept going.
Normally, the Cloud Tsunami could get rid of the erupting flames and possibly destroy any other trap that Celestia's group would come across. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.
Instead, the flames had become one with the Cloud Tsunami. The Cloud Tsunami absorbed the scorching flames, adding a blazing fury. Now the Cloud Tsunami had flames spewing and flaring out, holding the destructive fury of a tsunami and the heat of unbearable flames.
"Are you kidding me?!" Luna bellowed as they were now being chased by a Blazing Cloud Tsunami.
"Let's see if we can stop this! Passion, use Dazzling Gleam! Arcanine, Flamethrower, go!" Celestia ordered as she lit her horn up.
"Gardevoir!" The Embrace Pokemon and the Legendary Pokemon unleashed an array of multi-coloured beams and a flame even hotter than the ones inside of the Cloud Tsunami and erupting from below.
Celestia, Luna and even Adagio did the same by unleashing magical beams from their horns to try and hopefully prevent this Blazing Cloud Tsunami from consuming them.
The rays and hotter flames had actually managed to do something to this Blazing Cloud Tsunami. It had been pelted by the beams of Dazzling Gleam and magic rays, blowing parts of it off while Arcanine's Flamethrower had evaporated some of the water inside.
It was a success. The Cloud Tsunami had been held back by their coordinated efforts. However, since they were looking back at the Cloud Tsunami for a bit, as they passed through the entrance to the next room, another one of the traps had caught them off guard.
Mainly Adagio.
Large chains came flying out from the ceiling, having clamps on the end. Before Adagio knew it, she had been grabbed by the back of her neck via these clamped chains.
"Agh!" Adagio cried out as the chains had pulled her up instantly, right towards the hole they had emerged from as Celestia and the others looked up.
"Adagio!" Celestia cried out as another one of the chains almost caught her. Celestia's reaction time was quick enough to let her move out of the way. Other chains came flying out at high speeds, forcing everyone to back away. Because of the interruption of the chains, Adagio had been pulled into the hole.
"Gardevoir!" Passion wouldn't allow Adagio to vanish. By using her Psychic power, she caused a Psychic pulse that blew the other chains back, shattering them like they were bones. The Embrace Pokemon then flew into the air, heading for the hole as it was closing.
Passion then used Psychic with one hand to hold the hatch that could close the hole. She then used Thunderbolt with her other hand, shooting it at the hatch. And just like that, the hatch had been obliterated along with parts of the ceiling. Passion also destroyed the chain that held Adagio.
"Woah!" Adagio gasped as she used her siren wings to stay afloat, saving herself from crashing. "Thanks, Passion."
"Voir." Passion accepted Adagio apology as they all kept moving. The Cloud Tsunami wasn't finished yet. More of it was coming from the statues in the first room. And more traps were waiting for them the further they could go in this temple
But they weren't the only ones about to approach one of the temples.
Ash's group.
Nearby, Ash and his group were close to the other temples. The temple they stared at was sitting on one of the floating islands. But it could be accessed by flight. However, there was a second way to access it. There were multiple vines around this jungle area, perfect for swinging.
"Okay! Let's see if I still have it in me." Ash looked at the jungle vines connected to the tall trees as he held one of them.
"You know, Ash. It would be safer to just fly with Dragonite, wouldn't it?" Twilight suggested, wanting Ash to not do anything risky like he always does.
"Yeah," Ash replied with a single word before taking the risk of using the vines. With a wide grin, he jumped off the jungle that was held up, swinging on the rope as he let out a loud cry as if he was born and raised in the jungle. "AaaaaAAaaAAaaa, AAAaaAAAaaAAAAAAAH!"
"Ash!" Twilight exclaimed as Ash was now swinging between two cloud-bound islands and the azure skies, having the risk of falling. But, since Ash always took risks, he found ways around it.
And he certainly did as he swung far and high enough to reach the next part of the island where the temple was located. Adventuring through multiple regions for years definitely helped with this. Twilight let out a sigh of relief. She knows Ash loves to take risks, but she worries about the ones he goes for.
"Not a bad idea, Ash!" And following after Ash was Applejack who also took that risk. She grabbed onto one of the vines with her hooves, immediately swinging over. "Yeehaw!"
"Sceptile!" As for Sceptile, he was the most skilled at this as he followed after Applejack. Twilight, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash just took the normal way of travelling. By using their wings. Spike would have his Salamence take him there while Goh had his Flygon.
But Pinkie had a creative idea.
"Oh! Mew! Turn into Rayquaza and connect to both of these jungles!"
"Mew-Mew!" Mew nodded as he immediately spun around, shifting his body shape, length and size. With a flash of light, he emerged as the Sky High Pokemon.
Cleverly, Mew made the body of Rayquaza form into a straight line instead of one that wiggles with its body. After doing so, the New Species Pokemon descended, placing his head on the island where the temple was and his tail on where the jungle was.
He became a Rayquaza bridge for an instance as Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Starlight and Chloe walked on him. And just like that, they were also on the other part of the island, safe and sound. Mew ended up transforming himself back into his original self. Surprisingly, his back didn't ache at all. Perfectly fine and healthy.
They had reached this destination without any harm. Now they had come across one of the temples located here. It wasn't the one that Celestia and the others were currently located in.
But one thing's for sure, something was foreboding about it.
"These temples look kinda new. Think anypony's living here?" Spike said.
"Temples have always been ancient after many years have passed. Maybe the pegasi that live here still use temples." Twilight replied.
"Audino..."
"Audi says that she doesn't hear anyone." Fluttershy translated. "It's empty and deserted in there."
"Only one way to find out," Ash spoke as he and Pikachu were the first to approach the temple in front of them. The moment they set foot into it, already, the first trap here had been activated.
Right in front of Ash and Pikachu, a rapid steel door closed in on them, almost crushing their bodies. Luckily, Ash and Pikachu were fast enough to react to that as they pulled their feet away. The steel door then clanged together.
"Woah!"
"Pika!"
"Traps. Always exist in temples, don't they?" Rarity uttered.
"Haha!" Rainbow Dash put her hooves together, rubbing them while having a confident beaming grin. "This should be fun and a cakewalk! I've seen this in a bunch of Daring Do books already! Just let the expert take it from here."
Confident in her own skills and from what Daring Do had done, Rainbow Dash ould be the guide to getting through this temple. If it was identical to the ones in the books.
One thing's for sure, this temple had different booby traps than the ones Celestia and the others were facing. Whatever they were, there was a guarantee they were lethal, without a doubt.
Celestia's group.
Speaking of Celestia's group, they were still on the run, avoiding as many traps as they could. Poisonous arrows came flying from the ceiling, raining down as the Cloud Tsunami was still moving inside of the temple.
Passion had put up a Psychic shield to block the poison arrows from connecting. The next room they entered had multiple pits that looked bottomless, scattered everywhere in this wide space. Seeing this made Celestia and the others wonder how the pegasi who used to live here even got around in such a place. It seemed impossible to live daily here. Unless of course, they knew tricks that Celestia's group didn't.
The pits were crossable via flight. Celestia, Luna, Passion and Adagio could do that, no problem. Arcanine found a way through it via Extreme Speed. He used his amazing speed to jump a high distance.
However, there was something below the pit. More poisonous arrows came flying from below. Turns out there were arrows from both above and below. Passion reacted quickly, using Psychic to blow away the arrows, crushing them in the process as Arcanine made the jump to the other side.
"Look! I see an exit!" Adagio noticed an exit in the distance as the sun rays broke through the temple. As she said that, breaking through the wall was the Blazing Cloud Tsunami. It seemed to have increased in size since the source of this tsunami hadn't been destroyed. With constant cloud waters leaking out, it only increased its power and size further.
"Did it get bigger?!" Luna gasped.
"This was just supposed to be a quick and easy meeting!" Celestia groaned as she and Passion suddenly stopped flying as they turned to face the Cloud Tsunami. "Passion, let's end this!"
"Gardevoir!"
Together, the two of them had initiated Celestial-Gardevoir as Celestia took out the Mega Stone. New poisonous arrows went right after Celestia and Passion after they had come to a screeching halt. In unison, they had emanated golden and red lights out of their body.
A sphere of Mega Evolution energy formed, blocking the poisonous arrows and obliterating them until they were nothing but dust and ash in the wind.
Emerging out of the sphere was Celestial-Gardevoir.
Celestial-Gardevoir put her hands out, using Plasma Bolt by merging Mystical Fire and Thunderbolt as one. As she formed pure plasma, Celestial-Gardevoir fired a gigantic roaring bolt of plasma that was strong enough to almost push her back.
The bolt had struck the Blazing Cloud Tsunami. And the reaction went as followed. Celestial-Gardevoir blew a gigantic hole through it with the bolt. That giant hole managed to put an end to the tsunami that chased them down. And with such power as well.
But it wasn't over yet. The statues were still pouring out of Cloud Tsunamis as more of them appeared yet again, forcing Celestial-Gardevoir to fire Plasma Bolts. She did this while flying back. They needed to leave this temple after all.
Celestial-Gardevoir blew away the incoming tsunamis with constant bolts of plasma. But she didn't pay attention to the last and final trap that was above here.
Opening up a slim square shape, out came a sharp and slim steel bar that had the power to cut through even rocks. Celestial-Gardevoir gasped, sensing this incoming danger. She looked up, noticing that the bar was incredibly close to them.
But in a split-second, they had willfully ended their fusion by splitting up. Once they did, they managed to evade the bar by moving in different directions. After that, Celestia and Passion dashed off, following after Luna and Adagio.
And just like that, after holding back so many traps and evading all of them, they had reached the outside. And at the right time too. The Blazing Cloud Tsunami had just filled the temple, covering every last part of it.
Celestia and Passion tumbled on the ground after escaping the temple by a smidge. They breathed in and out before turning around. The Cloud Tsunami finally came to an end as the temple didn't sense anyone else inside of it anymore. The eyes of the statues had shut. All of the booby traps had ended.
"Oh...Finally." Celestia sighed as she laid on her back. "Props to the pegasi for building such a place."
"And yet...we have not arrived at the Sky Monarch." Luna groaned. "Where is it?"
"Doesn't look like it's gonna get any better." Adagio turned around as she noticed something about this part of the jungle. There was a second temple close to this one. There were the only temples that were connected.
Celestia and Luna lowered their heads, fearing that they would have to go through that temple next and encounter whatever bizarre traps were waiting for them.
Although, that may not be the case this time.
They heard hoofsteps approaching from the second temple. Hearing them made the group think that Ash's group had somehow reached here.
But it wasn't Ash's group. They were in another temple at the moment. Instead, arriving out of the entrance, the hoofsteps belonged to another pony. One they've never seen before. And neither was Celestia despite this being her second time up here.
Stopping immediately, this pegasus gasped after seeing some new individuals. Celestia's group weren't the only ones surprised.
"Ah, finally! Residents!" Celestia exclaimed with a smile on her face. "Hello there, my little pony!"
"Uh..." The stallion uttered, shifting his eyes around. He then started galloping on the spot, scrunching his face as he seemed to be nervous about something. "I-I wasn't sneaking around or anything!"
"Hm?" Celestia raised an eyebrow at his response.
"Oh. Phew. Thought I was caught for a second." He let out a sigh of relief with a beaming smile. He then faced Celestia and the others, quickly examining them with their eyes. The major things that stuck out to him were the horns, Passion and Arcanine. "Um...W-Who are you ponies?"
"Sorry if we're intruding. But, we are here to see the royalty in the Sky Monarch for a meeting. My name is Princess Celestia. This is my younger sister, Princess Luna, my student Adagio Dazzle and my partner's Passion and Arcanine."
"Gardevoir."
"Arcanine."
"...What?" The pegasus said quickly, a bit perplexed by a few things. However, he quickly had his brain receive a spark after hearing something about the Sky Monarch. "Oh! You're the ponies here to meet my parents! Right-right! I was wondering when you'd show up."
"Parents? wait! You're from the Sky Monarch?!" Celestia dashed over, getting in front of his face. "And you're parents are...?!"
"K-King Paramount and Queen Luminary." The pegasus stuttered after Celestia got close. "I'm their son. Shooting Star."
"Oh, thank goodness...Finally a lead." Celestia could find peace at last. "Nice to meet you Shooting Star."
"Yeah. So uh...what kind of pony are you? You've got something on your head. And what are those things?" Shooting Star asked questions what Garnet had asked when she first met Celestia.
"W-We can explain along the way. But for now, can you lead us to the Sky Monarch in the capital? A-Away from the temples." Celestia pleaded.
"Oh sure. Just follow me. I'll get you there in no time."
As the journey continues.
Chapter 491 End.