Ponyville was on fire.
The train's conductors had begun stopping the train in its tracks a few miles before reaching the town at the sight of that disaster for the safety of those onboard. Yanking at the control rod for the breaks with everything they had, the massive locomotive listed forward heavily as the inertia from its movement having been stunted so abruptly sent everyone into a rough ride and were violently tossed forward, then backwards. The panic within the train was now at a frenzy and the steward was shouting for everyone to calm down.
However, the six familiar ponies and two humans aboard the train had already gotten up and out of their seats, and were jumping out into the outside from the gangway connector. The train had slowed down considerably for them to make the jump, and it only took a rough tumble before everyone was back on their feet and sprinting with dear life toward the disaster in front of them.
What a horrible outcome... Ruin for the innocent world of ponies... It pained Emile greatly to hear the horrified mares recite the names of their loved ones as they mumbled to themselves in absolute worry through their gasping breaths while they ran. At first, the six had stayed behind with the two humans despite their natural overall speed being faster than theirs, afraid that separating from the group might mean that something horrible could happen to any one of them. It was Emile who had to command them to leave them behind and hurry.
"But Emile, we can't just leave you." Twilight tried to reason.
"Of course you can! This is your town!" Pretty words be damned, this was an emergency. "We're outsiders and you don't have time for this! You're all faster than we are, so go help anyone you can. We'll meet you when we get there. If there are Pokemon present, do not engage. Even baby Pokemon carry enough power to have caused something like this, and you'll be severely hurt if you face one down one on one."
The six nodded solemnly, understanding his point of view. At this, Twilight took charge and began giving directions to the other five.
"Rainbow Dash, you go find the mayor or the royal guard pony sent by Princess Celestia, ask what happened here. The rest of us, go secure your loved ones first and then meet back up in the middle of the town. Look out for anything that might've caused this. And like Emile warned us, don't engage." She said, splitting the group their separate ways. "And Emile, Hilda... please be careful, okay?" She said before finally sprinting away from them with all the speed her legs could carry her with.
Emile was having a difficult time running at his best since his arm was still healing and unable to help with his sprinting momentum. The two Pokemon had long been recalled into their respective Pokeballs, but Eve still didn't have one, so it opted to secure itself to his back and beneath the hood of his jacket. The two humans made for a very strange sight indeed as they approached the town, running past some evacuating ponies who had skidded to a stop to avoid them. There was a look of panicked terror in their faces, as though somehow thinking that these strange creatures before them were at fault for the town burning in the confusion of the moment. But there was no time to explain anything to anyone, and they continued unabated towards the town.
The group of mares had already been long gone before the two had reached it. In getting there, they were met by massive pillars of winding flames encircled all over the pastel-colored houses of Ponyville, with most of the houses already evacuated save for a few brave ponies who were going door to door checking for any injured... or worse. Emile could surmise from the look on their faces that they had yet to be met by anything truly distasteful, and that was a sigh of relief if he had, had a moment to express it. But what he had to do still took precedence.
"I'll use Eve and Osha to put out all the fires I can. Hilda, go ask them if you can help and use Teah's natural fire resistance to search the homes safely. If the Pokedex is right, then she should have the move Odor Sleuth that you can use to sniff any survivors out. If you're met with any Pokemon, be careful too. We're not sure how battle-ready our buddies are. Take these and take care." Emile said as he handed her a couple of Super Potions he had in his backpack when he came to this world.
"Yessir! Great idea boss, I'm on it." She said without hesitation and began to run over to them.
"I'm technically younger than you are right now!" He shouted back, only getting a thumbs up from Hilda who mostly ignored him.
Emile quickly scanned through his Pokedex when he brought it up to Eve and Osha after letting the water otter out of his ball. He was searching through its function of being able to see their moves and was quite relieved to see that Osha could use Water Gun, immediately directing it to shoot out any fires he could upon doing so. It wasn't the kind of battles that the small otter had been expecting, but even so, it reveled at the challenge as the fires raged all around it and in its serious demeanor, began his orders with haste.
"Eve, think you can become a Vaporeon for me?" He asked, unsure if the little fox could really change at will and at his command. Sure enough, however, Eve complied without a second thought, and its form slowly changed into a Vaporeon again.
Something was rather odd with his Pokedex when he tried scanning Eve for its moves. Unlike with Osha, none of its available moves were showing, and every individual entry in it was replaced by question marks. He could not make heads or tails as to why this was happening. He thought back to the fight against the evolved trio at the garden. As an Eevee, it had been able to perform the usual moves he had already seen it use and he hadn't thought much else about it then, but when it transformed into the different eevolutions, it had used a multitude of high-level moves. From Thunderbolt, to Leafblade, and even Solar Blade. A very powerful and high-level move.
In retrospect, he had taken quite a risky gamble. He had naturally assumed that Eve still had its old moveset from before they came into this world when it became a Leafeon again, so he had asked of it what felt natural at the time, and his brain had just confirmed it without a second thought upon seeing it use Solar Blade. But if Eve was like Osha or Teah to any respect, then it shouldn't have had its old moveset at all considering it had, had its time rewound to before they had ever journeyed together.
Eve tilted its head inquisitively at Emile as it just watched him think for a bit. Emile finally brought one desperate finger towards the sky and slowly, as though he thought he was crazy, asked of the little blue fox one request.
"Eve, use Rain Dance."
Just like that, his suspicions were confirmed when Vaporeon became engulfed in a light blue aura whose glow began to grow brighter and brighter until it looked to the sky to howl at it. In mere moments, dark rain clouds gathered overhead, and it began to pour heavily all throughout the town. Emile fell to the ground and onto his butt in yet another ground-shattering revelation as he could only but stare at his buddy with all the bewilderment in the world. All logic had flown out the window this time.
As the rain beat down, the fires began to lessen little by little, with the bigger more ferocious ones being left to Osha to fight with the pressurized water from his Water Gun. Before he had realized it, a drenched Hilda was yelling at him with concern from his side. She had returned over to him after seeing the rain appear.
"Emile!"
"Huh?! What. Uh." He stammered while getting back up onto his legs to face her.
"Are you okay? You were really out of it."
"Yeah sorry, something weird just happened but we're all good."
"That's crazy fortunate that Eve knew Rain Dance, huh? Being able to evolve at will is one thing, but I didn't know it had Rain Dance in its natural moveset!" She said with a hearty laugh and slapped Emile on the back in a friendly Unovian gesture.
"Yeah... neither did I." He said, knowing full well that it wasn't. Rain Dance was clearly a move that could only be learned by Vaporeons through TMs...
"It's a huge relief to know we'll have saved a good bit of the town with this. Let's go check up on the farther side of Ponyville before we rendezvous with the girls where they told us to." Hilda said as she watched Osha put out the last big fire in their vicinity.
"Um. Yeah, before that..." Emile held out his coat to Hilda, looking away with a fluster to his face.
"Hm? You want me to take it?" She eyed him suspiciously as she slowly reached out to grab it. "Why do I feel like I know what this is about..." When she finally grabbed it, she looked down at her white shirt and small-fit black jacket that didn't quite reach the important bits. It had been raining after all. She immediately turned around on a dime and put on his coat without a word and with haste. She coughed awkwardly as she pointed both of her index fingers towards the direction they were meant to be going at this moment. "Ahem, yeah, so uh, let's get going right?"
"Yup, yup." Emile walked ahead, the two of them mighty embarrassed. "So uh, did the search turn up anyone?" Emile asked on the walk over to try to make conversation in the silence.
"Eh? Uh, yeah actually. Just one pony that got caught in the rubble but we managed to get 'em out thanks to Teah. She's quite strong! She was able to Tackle those heavy beams apart with ease!" She sounded like she had already forgotten about it, but Emile didn't dare turn around. He was still 25 on the inside, and he wasn't about to give himself even a single chance at thinking something strange about a young girl like Hilda. Even if said girl was twenty on the inside herself. "Also, Teah's nose is like the best. She immediately found the pony too and we were able to trust her judgement going from house to house. When the rain started and it put out the fires, they told me they'd go back and recheck the houses just to make sure. I hope nothing bad happened to anyone. You didn't find anything like that, did you, Teah?" Hilda said worriedly as she looked down at the piglet in her arms, happily proud at being complimented by her favorite human. It oinked in response as if to say no, which made the girl relax.
"Our Pokemon have already been a huge help and we hadn't even befriended them for long! We'll have to cook the best curry in recompense to make it up to them." Emile mused to himself.
"Red's curry?!" Hilda gasped, shutting her mouth as if she had just said something outlandish. "Sorry, Emile I meant."
"No worries. I bet it's not easy to just flip a switch on my name just like that. But uh... you heard about my cooking before?"
"Who hasn't? It's like the main discussion on the forums dedicated to you online." Again, she slapped her mouth to quiet herself.
"I had forums dedicated to me? Ehm, did I really have that many fans? I didn't know, I just spent most of the time adventuring with my Pokemon..."
"Of course you did. Don't you know how insanely popular you were? I mean, even my two best friends and I owned all sorts of Red merchand-" The zero filter on her mind with her words were even affecting her, as she could not stop from saying all manner of embarrassing things to her detriment. "Uhm but yeah. You were popular and stuff." She said quietly trying to be more mindful. "It's common knowledge that you were really good at cooking since you even managed to evolve a Feebas into a Milotic with some really hard-to-make poffins."
"Oh yeah, I did do that, didn't I?" He thought about it for a bit. "All in the name of filling the dex. You know how crazy rare it is to find a Feebas in the first place much less a wild Milotic? It was insane. I was out fishing for weeks all down by the river in Route 119 in Hoenn. I knew I had to get good at cooking just to make it evolve, or else I was never going to see a Milotic for myself and document it for the dex." He sighed after having remembered the absolute pain in the butt that experience had been. "But at least now I can make some mean dishes."
"I'm so looking forward to trying it! Please make tons of extras for me and Teah!" Hilda said with the little piglet oinking her agreeance.
"Sure thing. I just hope we can find similar ingredients in this world that I can work with."
They both continued down through the town checking for stray ponies with Teah's help and putting out any rogue fires in the process thanks to Osha's help. The rain from Rain Dance had already cleared too by this point. After a good while and finally feeling like they were done, they recalled their two Pokemon and headed over to where Twilight had asked them to meet at near her library. Only three ponies were visible as they approached.
"Emile, Hilda! Thank Celestia you're okay." Twilight exclaimed upon spotting them from a distance, the two other ponies trailing behind her.
"Good to see you guys safe too. Any problems on your end?" Emile asked, getting a very relieving no from the purple unicorn.
"No reports of anyone hurt or missing in the head-count, except for one that Rainbow Dash said had been found recently."
"So happy that you guys are okay. It was really scary all-around town for a while but thankfully Mr and Mrs Cake and the tots had evacuated so I went about helping everypony I could. Oh! Then it started to rain and everything was okay afterwards." Said the pink fluffy mare bouncing up behind Twilight.
"And some rain that was. It came out of nowhere! Even stranger, I couldn't even touch those rainclouds or stand on top of them. It was like if they were just... made of water. They were like mist! It's so wweeeiirdd." Voiced the perplexed Rainbow Dash.
"Eh? What are clouds usually made up of for you guys then?" Hilda asked inquisitively.
"Well, most clouds are created in Cloudsdale by mixing magic into them."
"Sorry gals, I don't think I quite understand magic just yet. I know you tried teaching me this stuff back in Canterlot but... I have like 0 clue how that works. This world is all sorts of topsy-turvy for us."
"Seconded." Followed up Emile. "Those rain clouds you saw were the natural ones from our world, although unnaturally called forth by Eve's move, Rain Dance.
"Wait, that was Eve? It can even call rain?!" Rainbow Dash said with surprise, the three ponies slack-jawed in response.
"I did mention it before, didn't I? Pokemon can even control the weather."
"Yeah, but we thought you meant Pokemon like that Arceus. We weren't expecting something as small as Eve being able to do that." Twilight petted the Vaporeon draped across his shoulders while addressing it.
"Oh for sure, Twilight, any Pokemon that can learn Rain Dance can call rain, even tiny pokemon like Tympole who are yay-big," Hilda said as she motioned out with her hands a very small tadpole-type Pokemon. "But what a move! Its power is entirely dependent on the Pokemon's strength. That Rain Dance felt like it came from a level 100!"
"Er, level 100?" Twilight asked.
"Our world likes to quantify the strength of a Pokemon in a numerical value. Level 100 is the pinnacle of strength, and not much is known on whether Pokemon can exceed that threshold. Each Pokemon species is unique and can be more powerful in certain areas than others, but they all seem to have a max ceiling for their strength." Emile explained. "What Hilda said was true. Which um, took me by surprise too because I didn't expect Eve to be this strong, especially considering the power of its Tackle and Quick Attack from when we first arrived here were so weak. As Rainbow Dash can tell you." He said, prompting her to nod to his explanation.
"Maybe the levels went down and then back up for some reason? Can that happen?" Twilight asked.
"Yes, actually. It's a little-known fact even in our world strangely enough." Emile mused. "It couldn't have happened as fast as it did this time in only a few days, but it's a possibility since levels can go down over time. I actually used to have many people interview me asking me why I didn't just steamroll through each Pokemon League upon my arrival to new regions considering my Leafeon had been at level 100 before. But it's sorta like exercising, you know? You work out and get strong. If enough time passes, you get flabby again and lose the muscle. Same principle. Eve and I always took some nice vacations in-between adventuring into new regions so it checks out." Vaporeon cried out its agreement. "No idea why its power seems to be fluctuating though... Hilda, what you said about Rain Dance earlier..."
"Hmm? Yeah, about being surprised it had it in its natural moveset?" She said. Emile nodded to this.
"It doesn't have it. Rain Dance is only something it can learn from TMs. By all accounts, it shouldn't have that move at all..."
"Wait, I'm not following," Twilight said as she was desperately trying to understand this bit of information.
"This is actually some pretty freaky stuff, Twilight." Hilda brought her hand to her chin now that she was starting to understand it herself. "Pokemon learn a few moves naturally as they get stronger. We call this the natural moveset. Some moves they can learn only exclusively from the parents when they are born. Some moves can only be taught to them by Pokemon tutors, humans who specialize in training Pokemon. And some moves can only be learned through TMs, otherwise known as training machines. Little man-made informational tools that help them learn it. There's none in this world as far as we know, but Eve was able to use Rain Dance, a TM move, regardless."
"Is that really such a weird thing? Is there not a chance it can learn it naturally?"
"No. It's perhaps the weirdest thing I've ever heard of or seen, along with Eve being able to evolve at will... Worse yet, none of the registered moves that it knows when I try to scan Eve show up either..." Emile said with expressive worry, causing the Vaporeon to cry out its concern.
"Well, weird or not, that rain was a huge help! So isn't it a good thing?" Pinkie Pie lightened the mood, bouncing with happiness.
"You're right this time, Pinkie." Emile followed up with, feeling a lot calmer. "We'll have to test your powers out at some point Eve, you okay with that?" He asked it. Eve cried out its readiness, prepared to do what it must. "That's what I like to hear."
At that very moment, they were met by the high-pitched shrieking of a particularly proud white unicorn.
"Help, help! Somepony, help! Oh, the horror!" She yelled out, immediately making everyone rush towards the direction of her voice.
The group of friends was met by the visage of Rarity, laid across the ground in dramatic fashion as she had one of her forelegs to her forehead.
"Rarity! What's wrong?! Are you okay?" Twilight asked immediately as they reached her.
"I am okay, certainly. But something is very not okay!" She exclaimed, again, dramatically accentuating the dire straits she was experiencing.
"Is Sweetie Belle okay?!" Twilight tried guessing.
"Yes, she is. She evacuated with the rest of the fillies. But woe is me. It's horrible what happened." Twilight looked around inquisitively after the panic had faded in that instant at her obvious display of dramatics.
"Um. Did your boutique catch fire and ruin some of your dresses?" She tried guessing.
"No, my boutique was entirely untouched."
"Okay then. So what happened?" Twilight almost sounded annoyed now.
"It's Opalescence! Look at her! She's all skinny. Oh poor thing must've been beside herself when the fires went out and she must've become emaciated in her concern for me. I need Fluttershy, where is Fluttershy?! Or a vet!" She said as she pointed towards a rather thin, grey cat with a long curled up tail.
"Um." Twilight looked at the cat in question up and down. "That doesn't look anything like Opalescence, Rarity."
The white unicorn huffed as though she were being insulted. "How could it not be Opal dearest? Her glamour, her sophistication, every ounce of her is Opal." She said as she tried to paint the picture for Twilight as Rarity made a grab for the cat's tail, ears, and finally paws, earning her a pretty strong Scratch on the nose in return.
"Hmm, I guess it is Opal huh? Or maybe you're just bad with animals?" Twilight said as she saw Rarity recoiling from that familiar, annoyed attack.
Hilda and Emile looked at each other for a brief moment in silence and then nodded. Everypony turned to the noise of a plastic click that went off behind them, and they all eyed Emile walking up to the cat with an unfolded Pokedex.
"Emile?" Twilight clamored over to him to see what he was attempting to do, with everypony else and Hilda following suit. "What are you..."
Glameow, the Catty Pokémon. When angry, it flashes its claws, but it can also purr quite affectionately. It hides its spiteful tendency of hooking its claws into the nose of its Trainer if it isn't fed. When it's happy, Glameow demonstrates the beautiful movements of its tail, like a dancing ribbon.
"Yeah, can't be your pet, Rarity. This is a Pokemon. I've seen a few of them myself before." Emile said as the Pokedex had finished its description.
"What? Really? But that can't be true... even the air about her is so much like Opal..." She said as she looked despondently at the cat. "So then, where's the real Opal? I haven't seen her anywhere in my store..."
Before Rarity could feel terribly sad over it, Fluttershy's voice popped into hearing distance in the air above them as she rushed over to them in a flight.
"Girls! Please... I need to find Dr. Fauna! I think something is wrong with Angel..." She said as she dangled a huffy, annoyed little rabbit between her forelegs. A rabbit with very distinct orange-tipped ears and the ends of its feet, with a yellow tuft of fur in the middle of its nose.
"What's wrong with his ears and nose Fluttershy?" Twilight asked at the sight of him, having not being able to tell a difference between the original and this one.
"That's what I don't know. I think he's horribly sick! He was kicking up fire earlier with his feet and I had to scold him with... the stare."
Another plastic click, this time from Hilda.
Scorbunny, the Rabbit Pokémon. A warm-up of running around gets fire energy coursing through this Pokémon's body. Once Scorbunny is ready for battle, the pads above its nose and under its feet give off intense heat. The soles on its feet are also said to bring good luck.
"I recognized this one from the newly discovered Pokemon last year! This one is from the Galar region." Hilda beamed.
"Wait, Pokemon? But... I was so sure this was Angel." The little bunny, much like Angel, gestured at Fluttershy something that no one there but Fluttershy was seemingly understanding. "He's saying that he is." She said as she was somehow understanding this creature before her better than she ever had any of her animal companions.
"You can understand it Fluttershy? That sounds a lot like what I can do with my Pokemon..." Emile was starting to get the clue.
"Yes... now that you say it..." Fluttershy turned back to hear more of what the rabbit was saying.
"Fellas! Thank goodness I've found ya. Somethin' strange is goin' on with Winona." Applejack said as she bolted over to the group, a small excitable brown puppy with a rocky fur collar trailing alongside her.
At this point, what was happening was clicking in everyone's head. Without a word, Rainbow Dash flew off somewhere at lightning speeds, and the rest of the mares that were left stared at Emile and Hilda, waiting for them to do what was only natural at this point.
"Huh? Uh. What's up with you guys? Nevermind that, I need your help Twilight, Fluttershy... Winona is..." Before she could continue, she was interrupted by the Pokedex's unique text-to-speech voice.
Rockruff, the Puppy Pokémon. Rockruff have lived with humans since ancient times. They train themselves by running around. Rockruff evolves into Lycanroc, which has two different forms based on when it evolves. It evolves into Midday Form Lycanroc during the day and Midnight Form Lycanroc during the night. Furthermore, when it gets close to evolving, Rockruff's temperament becomes more aggressive, and it tends to act more independent. It's common for it to disappear and then return after it has evolved.
"Now hold on... what in tarnation is going on here? Winona, a Pokemon?" Applejack eyed the dog curiously as it yapped a small little bark as if to agree with this new assessment.
Rainbow Dash reappeared at this moment, holding in her forelegs a small green little turtle with a brown shell and two little leaves on a twig on top of its head. "Tank is..." The mix of emotions in her face were undiscernible as she looked like she was ready to explode. Emile scanned the little turtle already knowing full well what it was.
Turtwig, the Tiny Leaf Pokémon. Its shell is made of earth and when it absorbs water, it becomes harder. It undertakes photosynthesis with its body, making oxygen. The leaf on its head wilts if it is thirsty. This Pokémon becomes more energetic the more sunlight there is. The part resembling a shell is similar to silt and is slightly damp and warm to the touch.
"Tank is awesome!" Rainbow Dash finally concluded as the little turtle lit up with happiness and sprayed a bundle of leaves in a random direction using its Leafage.
"Wait, so the animals are all turning into Pokemon? What in Celestia's name is going on..." Twilight said as she eyed the transformed pets.
"That can't be. Nothing was wrong with any of my other animal friends, even the ones I went to go check up on near their grottos. This is only happening to Angel and the rest of our pets..." Fluttershy spoke up, with normal birds passing overhead as if to confirm this.
"Then, is it just our pets that are transforming?!" Twilight looked over at Pinkie Pie who was just happily smiling away like she usually did. Everyone turned to stare at her. "Pinkie! Go check up on Gummy!" She said, distraught that the Pink pony had not already done so like Rainbow Dash.
"Gummy is fine! Nothing is different with him." She said in between a snorting laugh at their suspicion, quickly bringing out a small brown and black striped crocodile from who knows where. It just stared into space, like the usual Gummy did as it sat between Pinkie Pie's hooves.
"It's... pretty identical. Did you just color him black and brown, Pinkie?" Twilight asked.
"No, not really. It's been a while since I've painted him for parties. Maybe he just wanted to look different today?" Pinkie Pie looked the little croc up and down and up and around. "Hmm..." She rubbed her chin. "Well now that I think about it, he's a bit different. See?" She pulled its lip flaps up with her hoof, only to show... TEETH
Every pony immediately bolted backwards in horror, with Rainbow Dash and Applejack pulling the humans along with them, leaving the pink one laughing at their reaction from a distance.
"Goodness, how terrifying." Rarity said.
"I've seen this one myself, I think. " Hilda said as she walked up to it with her Pokedex having ignored everpony's visible fear, scanning the little reptile. Before she had a chance to finish the scan, Gummy lept a few meters upwards sporadically and bit the air where she was standing had it not been for her quick reflexes. "Yowzers. I see what has you guys so scared..."
Sandile, the Desert Croc Pokémon. A dark membrane protects its eyes from the sun, and it buries itself in the sand with its eyes and nose sticking out. The sun-warmed sands prevent their body temperature from dropping. Sandile is small, but its legs and lower body are powerful. Pushing sand aside as it goes, Sandile moves through the desert as if it's swimming.
As every pony and Hilda were left to discuss how this could've happened to their pets, something in the back of Emile's mind was surfacing...
What was it?
What was the thing that just wasn't making sense...?
The events with Arceus...
Coming to this world...
Being thrown back in time, and Eve's new powers...
Why was he having an icy cold premonition of something at the very pit of his stomach?
Suddenly, Twilight's voice spiked as she shouted something at the top of her lungs.
"SPIKE!!!" She immediately got up on all fours and started to run towards the direction of the evacuated ponies.
"Twilight! What's going on?!" Emile asked as he caught up to her just barely, making her slow down to explain to him her concern.
"Everyone's pets are turning into Pokemon... but I don't have a pet! Spike is the only one in my life that comes close to that, and he's my family... I'm afraid what will happen to him... I got a message from him when I tried searching the library during the fire that he had evacuated, but I don't know if this transformation is only happening now. I need to make sure he's safe!"
Before they could even turn the corner of a street, they were stopped by a small little green figure standing on its hind legs with two tusks coming out of its mouth horizontally.
There was total silence as the little dragon walked up to Twilight to stare at her in the eyes. You could see Twilight's heart shattering from her expression. "Oh no... Spike..." She said as she brought her forehead down to the little dragon in front of her, making it happy as it received this unfortunately sad, but tender expression from her.
"Did you call me, Twilight? I heard you yell out my name from way off. I was just returning to the library now. Oh hey! You met my new friend." Said the little distinct purple and green dragon from behind the tusky dark green one before her. She immediately looked up with confusion not understanding what had happened.
"Spike! You're okay!" She said mightily relieved now.
"Yes? I guess I am." He said as he walked up the dark green dragon and placed a claw over its shoulders. "But I found this little guy when we were evacuating. He hasn't said a word yet, but I can FEEL that he's a dragon too. So he's my friend now!"
"Wait wait! I got this." Hilda called out from behind them at this point as she unfolded her Pokedex and scanned the little fella.
Axew, the Tusk Pokémon. Axew marks its territory by making scratch marks on trees with its tusks, which regrow if they fall out. Its large tusks have a tendency to break, but each time they grow back, they grow in harder and sturdier. They use their tusks to crush the berries they eat.
"A Poke wha?" Spike mumbled his confusion after the device stopped talking.
Spike was very behind on the information it seemed, as he had only had a very quick explanation once before on what was happening, both with the humans and Pokemon. While Twilight took the purple dragon aside to explain it all to him and how he would be joining them on this new adventure, the rest of the group were left to talk to Hilda and Emile about Pokemon in detail and how they should go caring for their newly transformed companions. They could not rule out the possibility that more animals were transforming into Pokemon, so now a new variable was thrown into the veritable mix of problems on their hands.
There was also the investigation left to do about how and why Ponyville had been brought to the point of almost being burned to the ground. Nothing indicated that Fluttershy's scorbunny Angel had been the one to initiate the fires, so then there must still be those Pokemon around or at least somewhere nearby. They would have to find the Princess' Royal Guard she had sent out here to investigate and see what he knew...
Again, Emile had another cold chill trying to think deeper on why these things were happening. He could feel a very deep and very powerful mental block in the recesses of his mind. Hopefully continuing on this quest would help him find some answers, as this all seemed connected somehow.
He sighed to himself as he returned back to the conversations being had over how to proceed with their new reality. For better or worse, they would be met with all sorts of challenges from here on out.