-Origin Space, Arceus-
I looked away from my giant bowl of perfectly popped popcorn to the two who arrived, Celebi and Mew.
Mew, being the more childlike one, stole popcorn from my bowl immediately without asking.
Celebi being the more serious one, reported to me as to what they were looking into.
“Can I just point out that one of those conceptual spears actually hit and killed me?” Celebi was a small Pokémon that looked like a green fairy, it was a grass and psychic type and it was currently rubbing its head from the phantom pain of being struck down. This legendary Pokémon’s domain was to keep at least some forests of every world I have created healthy… and to make sure the timelines don’t veer into total decimation so easily, as they are want to do with increasingly alarming regularity, which was equally important as well. “The Greenleaf Kingdom isn’t spiraling, neither is the Fontaine Kingdom situation for that matter. What’s going on in Fontaine is pretty bad though. I’m more concerned about Ignis’s civil war. Also I got a front row seat to seeing Cu Chulainn was beaten into submission by the mortal you’re interested in watching. Didn’t honestly think a reincarnated demi-god would lose to a mortal like that, but we know that’s not an impossibility given how often a rescue team has needed to beat the snot out of a Legendary Pokémon to get them to stop causing problems and or from sleeping on the job.”
Many would not believe time travel was a secondary ability of Celebi’s main job, its powers were just meant for minor course corrections and paradox fixing and not part of its main domain. Celebi was actually somewhat of a subordinate to one of my first creations Dialga, whose main domain is making sure time marches forward.
“Didn’t you say Pom didn’t need to be a hero?” Mew were generally cuddly looking pink or white cats with incredibly psychic powers and long tails.
They were made to be friend shaped and they lived up to it, but for some reason I was thinking of something that had a mouth of a black hole and being rounder and pinker with red feet when I originally created them… something like a Jigglypuff. Still, Mew was a good companion to have when one was ultimately bored.
Mew were my most playful of creations, they also had the DNA of every Pokémon to exist and they will always receive an influx of more DNA for the ones that ‘will’ exist.
Mew’s job was to make sure Pokémon never went extinct or would never start going extinct, also a Mew is the reason why the blob Pokémon known as Ditto exist. One of the worst mistakes Mew will never live down… it always brought a smile to my face at least when the Pokémon with the domain of ‘life’ made Ditto the most plain faced being in any existence I have made. The other intelligent beings that were once Pokémon went into experimentation with trying to recreate a copy of Mew, which just led to more Ditto existing much to Mew’s chagrin.
Mew did much better with Happiny, Igglybuff and Cleffa, yet still couldn’t get my original idea down for a round pink thing that absorbs elements and copies their powers while generating cute and fearsome hats to show what powers it’s currently using. The closest thing to the appearance we ever got was the ultra-beast Guzzlord. Oh sure the hunger was there, but the ability to shift into things with hats wasn’t in the cards… also the thing embodied gluttony too much and was much happier in its own dimension and was partially the reason for the existence of Munchlax and Snorlax. Snorlax was a far more tenable species given they gained more energy from sleeping than eating.
Should something happen to me or all of the realms of Pocket Dimensional Monsters are destroyed, Mew was to be my emergency last ditch effort to build a new universe from scratch or seed an already existing world that could hold Pokémon.
All Mew even held a piece of my genetics in the event that something as powerful or even more so than me comes along and attempts to end my eternity and eternal dreams of infinite stories where I precariously live through watching others’ lives from birth to death.
A child known as Ash Ketchum was still one of my favorites on one particular world. Not very bright, but very entertaining all the same.
“I did say that Mew, Pom didn’t need to act in the capacity of a hero. Given that she’s already too good at acting in the capacity as a friend or someone who can’t look away from suffering, which is why you are somewhat upset as she would have helped in as much capacity as she could anyway.” Even I knew if she were told to not act as a hero, she would still see things through regardless and her efforts would never be wasted in Ransei. “The outcome is better for it, for the heroes that are already among Aurora under King Evan have a great example to pull from. Though the ‘Doggy Messiah’ stuff confuses even someone of my vast might and intelligence, since that didn’t exist before King Evan stated it and now a number of my worlds are suddenly worshipping the existence of Pom Lambchop despite her never having been near any of them.”
“Ugh, it’s apparently something ‘memetic’ Lord Arceus. At least it seems to only effect canids… including, as I've just found out, the legendary ones. Suicune is in the middle of commissioning Smeargle to get artworks of Pom and is filling an entire room of her doing adorable things with her friends, then again she is known as the 'Aurora' Pokémon so she does have some pull in that kingdom despite traveling around a lot. Having looked into Pom’s full history up to the present, I can see why ‘The Canine Queen’ comes up a lot with her.” Well that answers that Celebi, it didn’t seem bad at least. I would even say it was a mostly amusing and relatively harmless side effect. “It’s surprising that Pom is completely mortal and has not a lick of divinity, wolf pack spirit and the anti-magic wool aside of course.”
“I still think you should go back and stop yourself from causing the Holy Grail. Also why aren’t you doing anything about that Moon Cell thing?” Good question Mew, like all psychics you were intelligent and able to piece together information from very little. “It did show up here after what you did father.”
“Did those worlds truly need all the trouble such things brought them?” I asked back, Mew immediately started pondering all that much harder and continued stealing more of my buttered and salted popcorn. “If anything we have already Jirachi and they have caused similar problems. I will not go back and stop myself, this has been most entertaining. Those heroes and villains needed some time away from constant warring to live anew once more… despite the many issues it is currently causing Ransei.”
“Yes, but Jiriachi causes wishes on a lesser scale… which, having said that out loud, I can see your point and it admittedly makes me understand why you stopped all that ‘Holy Grail’ wish nonsense considering the crazy stuff Jirachi gets up to.” This one could sense that you had more to say Celebi, but I will answer preemptively.
“As for the Moon Cell, that will not be a problem as it cannot operate beyond the informational bounds it is contained within… well not yet at least. However… I believe Pom will eventually visit it, if for no other reason than for the opportunity to explore. Also to see if she can ultimately revive her dead companion if she doesn’t by that point. It will incredibly difficult to do so, as nothing around the subject of death is ever easy as Yveltal well knows.” That will be when Yggdrasil.sys gets involved no less, I could already feel the information goddess creating a world seed to bloom along aside my own. “The Moon Cell will not be able to manifest itself into our reality and I will certainly keep it suppressed if it tries to act on our reality with ill intent or too large an alteration that we wouldn’t appreciate. I will however be allowing some creatures from another realm to manifest into our world… within limitations. Mew will not be picking up their genetic structures for they will not be Pokémon or kin of us, no they are not ultra-beasts, they won’t have genetic structures to begin with as they will be informational entities.”
I will welcome Yggdrasil.sys and will slowly integrate the digital creatures into Ransei and then the world at large to see if we could come to a form of unity of biological and informational entities. We already had Porygon and Genesect as peaceful negotiators to send in first. That and to warn Yggdrasil.sys away from giving Moon Cell any access to manifestation knowledge or capabilities.
It will be curious what Pom decides to do if she runs across this stuff, especially when the computers Pokémon are creating in Ransei and ‘the ultimate supercomputer’ that is the Moon Cell collide in an information space.
Yggdrasil.sys will inevitably and curiously infiltrate and cause problems in the Moon Cell, of that I have little doubt already. I will try to integrate a safe connection with Moon Cell and the one Yggdrasil.sys will create in this world.
I lived in interesting times, many eons passed me, but there’s always a few years where activity is at its most hectic and most intriguing. I have also seen into Yggdrasil.sys and saw something that will be of interest to Pom, I will ensure that she crosses paths with them when she visits Yggdrasil’s sub-dimensional seed.
As for Yggdrasil.sys interfering with Moon Cell… I’d wait and see what will become of that situation, especially when Yggdrasil.sys used the power of mythology to create most of its beings and the Moon Cell was full of data on myths and legends.
The reason I didn’t doubt Yggdrasil.sys causing problems is because it wouldn’t resist the temptation to integrate said mythology into making new lifeforms. One of said lifeforms that was previously created was born on the basis of information about a, 'entirely theoretical’, apocalypse. That had to be one of the dumbest things that Yggdrasil.sys ever allowed to exist and it required help dealing with that… said help was in the form of children. The information goddess was equally infinitely intelligent and infinitely stupid.
Sure a massive war could break out between my faction, the Yggdrasil.sys faction and whatever will make up the Moon Cell faction and whatever smaller factions erupted from all of it, but I wasn’t going to panic over it personally.
I was more worried for all the mortals that would be involved in the high end dimensional chess about to take place.
It would also gravely interrupt my people watching...
-Ransei, Aurora Kingdom Castle, hours after battle, Pom-
The Sitrus Berries I bought helped a lot, but medical aid was still being applied to everyone who needed it direly. Nobody would want to heal a broke bone in the wrong way.
“Most of your group is fine… about as healthy as you can get really.” Happiny stated in a dull and tired tone. She had carried absolutely every injured Pokémon back, loaded onto large pallets she walked while holding above her head. Even managed to wake me up before the day was over with.
“Do you really like the work you do?” Since the little Pokémon hates idiots and is in the primary job of dealing with them.
“Nothing makes me happier than seeing someone healthy.” Happiny smiled wanly, not having the energy to be angry. “Sure most of the Aurora Kingdom Pokémon are idiots, but they are my idiots and I’d keep them alive no matter how many injuries they get. It is my purpose after all!”
The sudden gained energy resulted in the room becoming filled with a brilliant light and I watched as her form shaped and grew under the light like how Cu Chulainn had done when he apparently went through a mega evolution.
“You hear that, even Cu Chulainn’s injuries will be fixed on my watch!” Shouted the new Happiny, she noticed me staring at her. “Did everything suddenly just get smaller?”
“No, you just got bigger.” I made a gesture of holding up my hooves in front of my face. “Do this.”
She held up her flipper arms in front of her face and blinked and then looked down at her body… after a few moments of silence, she smiled a little.
“… oh my giddy Amaura… I’m a Chansey now!” Yeah, she looked like the Chansey in Arbora Town with some vague differences. “Well I’m going to be miserable for the foreseeable future.”
“Why?” Ocellus asked, having not taken a single injury the whole battle. Cu Chulainn’s battle frenzy was not safe to be near even if it wasn’t wide spread condense emotions, it was concentrated aggression.
“I have the capacity to heal more, better and will be able to help larger Pokémon… in essence everyone is going to expect far more of me!” Aurora’s Chansey started crying into her flippers. “So… much… wo-hr-hr-hr-rk…”
“Um, how is Cu Chulainn’s health?” After I mauled him at a speed most couldn’t even begin to see, I don’t think my Dancing Flame ability is supposed to be that potent.
“He’ll live, he’ll get use out of his right arm again, his legs though… he won’t be walking again for a while because I refuse to heal his ability to be mobile anytime soon. Call me Chan, even if I eventually become a Blissey.” Chan had seen to the Evan’s units and Evan himself, quite a number of them had slings and bandages wrapped around them. “In any case Cu Chulainn’s entire body will be in a splint for the next few weeks... possibly months if I take it slow enough.”
“I didn’t permanently cripple him?” That had been a concern of mine, I think I might have used too much force on him.
“Some Pokémon are very hard to permanently cripple, if there are any long lasting problems he just needs to find another Mega Stone to perform a mega evolution. Evolution heals most wounds, Mega Evolution is a repeatable phenomenon that takes fully evolved Pokémon to their peak and those stones always exist somewhere. Limited in numbers sure, but they still exist and he knows what once looks like.” Still felt horrible for all the pain I put him in Chan. “Sure the pain your putting him through will be excruciating, but you were run clean through and experienced a relatively similar amount of pain. That you didn’t scream in agony was surprising and that reviver seed is why you’re alright, those things are quite rare on this side of the world. You also owe you’re life to that annoying Skitty, Captain Skeeball, given that she saved you the early use of the seed for when you actually needed it.”
My tolerance for pain has sky rocketed since this adventure began.
“She doesn’t owe me anything!” Stated Captain Skeeball in a cheerful if highly pained tone. She proved herself a real hero by actually beating one of the two Lucario that were part of Cu Chulainn’s personal entourage before going down. “I would gladly give my body for others!”
“Be quiet and stop running around with said body and making my attempts to heal you fully moot!” Chan yelled at the cap wearing Skitty while pointing at her. “Butt, back to resting, now!”
“It’s so boring being in massive amounts of pain though!” Skeeball retorted with a high pitched whine.
“Well whose fault is that?!” We all already knew the answer to that Chan. The Chansey turned to me and sighed with her left flipper on her forehead. “Look can you and your friends clear out, I need to take care of the rest of my idiots before they do something to mess up all my work.”
“Mom… please listen to the Pokémon who specializes in health.” One of her Skitty said with bother ears and butt bandaged.
“Fine…” Skeeball was certainly a personality.
“Right, healthy people out of my overloaded workspace!” Chan made a shooing motion to Ocellus, Dolly and me.
“What if I can send some Pokémon to help you out with the injured?” There was an idea percolating in my mind as I had two Pokémon who were eager to please and ate gratitude for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“As long as they are willing to listen to orders, then please do send them my way! I’m overworked as it is and my evolution isn’t going to make up for that anytime soon.” We left Chan to it.
-Helper’s Hamlet, Guild Hall, Dolly-
We walked into to see doggo and diggi hole working with Mr. large tongue cook guy who probably knows what everything tastes like.
“Fiffi, Foffo, got a commission for you from the Chansey that used to be a Happiny and now goes by the name Chan.” Announced Pom as the two 'deed deed' Pokémon came up to us. “She needs your help with the injured Pokémon at the Aurora Castle like yesterday, listen to her orders and help her out with them.”
“We’ll get on it right away Lady Lambchop!” The male floppo guy bowed and then turned to Flippi.
“Lady Lambchop, Lady Dalmatian and Ms. Ocellus, nice to see you are well after the fight that happened up north.” Flippi said while bowing too.
What is it with these guys and bowing?
“Good, get going. I’m going to take a seat and not move until late into the evening.” Sounded boring Pom, but fairly understandable.
We all got seats at a table together near the stairwell to the second floor.
“Do you think Motochika made it to Northeastern Fontaine?” Well Pom, I kind of, almost, wanted to know if he did too.
Motorboat kind of left as soon as he was done helping us out with that ambush. Chika definitely knows how to lead units and those water Pokémon seem quite experienced at ranged attacks. Speaking of ranged attacks, I could probably use Aero and do my speed up thing on something I throw to create high speed baseball pitches with anything I can throw…
So what if sports was always my go to, sue me my mental self-image! I know what I was about at least, I looked to Pom and tilted my head at her looking at the table.
What would happen if I tightened and shrunk Aero and then threw something through it?
“You kicked butt Pom, why do you… oh right… fighting so-, and still, not your thing.” Didn’t even have to have Pom look up or give me a mental image to know when I was going too far off the rails. “Sorry.”
“At what point did I become capable of what I did back there Ocellus?” Receiving a mental pat on the head from Pom, she turned to Ocellus.
“You mean mauling that guy within an inch of his life? Yeah, I can see why you would think you’re scary now, but I know you’re not on a personal level Pom. At least you didn’t go rabid or feral, you were in control of your actions right?” When Ocellus said that last bit we both noticed Pom wince and rub at her left shoulder with a hoof. “You had complete control over yourself.”
“That’s the problem…” Pom stated with a wide eyed and very much worrying look. “I would have been less worried if I wasn’t in control of myself when I did that knowingly! I’ve been in full contact with my feral side since the Yellow Dog base back in the world with all those evil cores, not a lot to do when you’re sitting around and being mildly molested by bipedal canine’s eyes, mentally and, thankfully not as often, physically.”
I popped up onto the table, padded across it, grabbed Pom's head in my paws, redirected her gaze to me and looked her deeply in the eyes.
It looked like I was looking at the real Pom, she looked like an anxiety riddle mess of a sweet and caring person, she looks like someone that would take a bullet for any dog and keep going!
Keeping a serious look on my face the entire time, I opened my mouth, extended my tongue slowly and then brought it carefully to Pom’s nose to not spook her. I proceeded to then slide my tongue upwards in a long drawn out manner. After having done that, I let go of her head and silent walked backwards keeping my eyes on her and fell right back into my seat to continue staring at her with concentration.
“Thank you…” Pom started giggling a bit as she tearfully sat there wiping at her eyes and I grinned at her. “For that rather clear vote of confidence in me Dolly.”
“Yeah, I’m certainly not going to mistake that as a sign of anything else but carefully thought out and methodical affection for one second. Kind of weird because Dolly doesn’t usually do slow and methodical given how fast her emotions can flip from second to second, very easily excitable.” Hey, cheap crack Ocellus, I do those sort of things for Pom all the time! Someone has to keep saving her fluffy backside, even from herself. Also I learned about my close friends, I think I would know enough about Pom to cheer her up easily by now. “Dolly seems quite clued in to how you feel, now get me clued in because you felt like you were emotionally dead inside until that act of silliness.”
I wouldn’t be one oh one Dalmatian Streets cheer up pup of the year, every year, if I wasn’t good at being wildly fun!
-Ocellus-
“I’m just reflecting on how I feel about all of this, like I told you prior my fluffmancer abilities jumped to a level that I can physically augment myself to an absurd degree with less drawbacks than any other technique I have ever used prior. Add that onto me using Dancing Flame and doing it at an insane increase of proficiency… well it’s quite daunting!” Yes, that is quite true Pom, it was Daunting that your mind can actually keep up with your body when moving so fast.
Pom basically stopped creating blurs and turned invisible without breaking the sound barrier… that or she broke the sound barrier so hard that no sound existed with her movements. I don’t know which is more terrifying, but what I do know is that Pom has a brilliant mind and an equally brilliant way to apply her personal strengths.
“Is it that you made yourself look like a wolf that’s the issue here?” I was trying to play psychiatrist, but Pom had to know and acknowledge that I wasn’t an officially licensed one. I was, oddly enough, just a friend and a person willing to listen to her constant anxiety kicking me in the skull. An emotion she was willing to suppress around me on purpose for all the good attempting to suppress it did. “Maybe it’s the ability to commit to violence that has you frightened? I don’t see an issue with that, as you still have problems with being violent or aggressive. Though I don’t see why you lean towards ignoring the fact that you are a protector, you’re a guard and our guardian. Is it killing you inside that badly?”
“Maybe it isn’t… but I don’t want to be a monster.” I leapt across the table at Pom, Dolly did so as well.
We both knocked her to the floor and held her close.
“Pom… I’m a changeling, did you forget this fact in the course of us become friends? Because that would be real sweet of you to forget that Lambkin and Changelings don’t mix all too well! I would know all about not caring about what I did when I didn’t know any better and we were still kidnapping ponies to feed on their stolen love… I would safely know enough about being a monster to say that you worrying makes you far less of one than I was.” Now that’s another issue to worry about, I think Pom was scared of becoming too strong when she obviously needs her strength. “Also you looked cute with your wool like that. If anything I need psychological help when I went power mad taking control of those two mechanical monsters, I also failed you while you were out of action! That you're still seeing me as a friend and not a changeling is what makes me think I’m not a monster, alongside Smolder, Shanty and even Dolly… all my friends and family back on Equus waiting for us to come home. If you ever stop listening to us when and if we were to tell you to dial it back… we’ll knock some sense into you. At least Dolly definitely will considering the connection you have with her.”
I heard Dolly bark in somewhat cheerful agreement as she kept her paws wrapped around Pom’s neck and squeezed her in a loving manner with a wagging tail. Pom reached up and hugged us and started to pat me on the back, her eyes were closed and yet all I could feel were good emotions coming off her, she even had a faint smile going.
“So… apparently I didn’t ruin Cu Chulainn’s arm enough with a bark breaker technique as to be permanently unusable despite basically pulping all the metallic bones it. I think it is still worth worrying about when it comes to doing something like that to someone that had steel bones and skin just as tough. Had I aimed my bark breaker wrong…” Pom drifts off and I squeezed her as she took a shuddering breath. “You’ll never be a monster Ocellus, you’re too cute and silly.”
“… Pom…” I just held her, my friend, alongside Dolly.
-Later that evening, Pom-
“I… don’t know what to think about doing this wool shift, in front of Tianhuo I mean.” I rubbed at the wolf like scruff around my neck.
“Are you kidding me, you look adorable… also fierce. Would Pinkie Pie say Fierce-rable or Adora-fierce Ocellus?” Smolder stated while looking at me with my wool in the wolf state. “In any case, she’s the person you care about the most when it comes to opinions.”
“Is this going to be another one of those volatile Chimi-Cherry-Changa things Smolder?” Ocellus stated with a snort. “In any case, Pom has a perfect Nightmare Night costume for the rest of her life. Plus she knows how to howl adding to the silhouette she creates, so imagine on a moonlit night seeing a glowing spiritual white wolf wandering about the shadows... with ridiculously gangly legs.”
I rolled my eyes at the gentle ribbing.
“I be thinking Pom be badass no matter her appearance, no pirate would seriously want to mess with her after seeing her move around with that appearance.” Shanty had taken a few rough blows and Favela was upset that she didn’t last nearly as long in the fight as Shanty did. Of course Shanty imparted the fact that it was experience and grit that kept her going, that was my younger and quite tough goat kid.
We all heard something move and we looked to Dodo’s egg shift about and some lines formed on it, but nothing more.
Take a long moment to steel my nerves, I put Arceus’s communication device down and called Tianhuo.
I couldn’t keep Tianhuo waiting, I couldn’t wait to hear her voice and I couldn’t wait to see how she reacted to my current appearance. What would be the first thing she says about this?
I was nervous and a bit anticipatory of Tianhuo’s honest opinion, my mental scars and the fact that I was agonizingly skewered to the point of dying hours ago had me worrying about my life more than ever.
That Reviver Seed was likely worth far more than the beginner rescue team kit the Kecleon’s owed me, unless the the kit initially comes with one of those... no don’t think about that now... because Tianhuo was about to.
“Pom, how has your-...” Tianhuo trailed off and stared at me, my appearance resembling the shape of a wolf. My large fluffy wolf like tail started wagging behind me. “It is apparent that there is no end to the number of surprises you’ll have in store for me.”
“My day hasn’t exactly gone very well Tian…” I took note of her bright red face and her looking at the cute triangular pointed ears that covered my own and then her eyes roved over my entire body for a bit before looking down at the wool digits and claws with my hooves acting as the palms of my paws. Her eyes even tracked my wolf like tail for bit, my tail was of course shifting about like an excited dogs.
“I miss you, every… single… day.” Tianhuo finally said after nine minutes of just staring at me with passion as I slightly moved about to show off my current wool shift. “Tell me about this day next time, because…”
Time was up.
“I be thinking that went rather well, she ignored the fact that Smolder and me be bandage to Tartarus and back!” Yes, thank you Shanty for reminding me that Smolder’s innate dragon toughness doesn’t translate very well as far as Pokémon are concerned.
-Equus, Canterlot Barracks, Fizzle-
“What was that?!” I asked Tianhuo who spent more time staring at her admittedly adorable wife and burning that image into her mind than actually talking to her… unbelievable.
Hopefully actions spoke louder than words here, because 'wow' was the stoic head of the guard from Huoshan distracted and struck mostly speechless.
“Oh, um… yes, did you need something Fizzlepop?” Giving Tianhuo a flat look, I just shook my head with a dry sigh escaping my lips.
I was not going to comment on Equus Shanty or Smolder looking quite roughed up and heavily bruised, didn’t want to worry Garble if he heard that Smolder is getting into bad fights where she currently is. Anything in that world that can bruise a dragon like that was quite dangerous.
Pom was probably trying to find a way to talk to Tianhuo about a hard day, but she spent most of nine minutes just letting Tianhuo inspect her cuddly wolf like appearance. She seemed entirely happy to just do that and turn small circles as if she were somewhat chasing her wolf tail made out of wool or at the end of a catwalk.
Something was obviously wrong with Pom mentally, but I’m guessing Tianhuo’s staring and blushing was quite reassuring to her somehow?
I wouldn’t know, my relationship is made up of raw, mostly unfiltered, chaos that Discord was proud of... not that I could go an entire week without something weird happening or Jaded plotting the downfall of Saddle Arabia behind everyone’s backs. A downfall that doesn’t end in Sultan Snickers just taking back her post as the Saddle Arabians kept begging to happen, because there was no way Jaded would hurt her familiar.