-Equus, Ponyville, Tianhuo-
“The guard here seem to be expressing a lot more competence lately.” Foenum Tianhuo stated from next to me and she wasn’t wrong, the stallions were now much stronger than they had been a month or two ago.
“Yes, I too find that to be an amazing feat, given ponies generally… aren’t great fighters or are known very well for violence, this is despite them having a few karate dojos for self-defense in general.” The two of us shared a similar personality, but we differ on things like food, some culture and some other things.
“Okay, we’re done now… Gallus stop crying, you’re bound to be an elite guard member before you are even officially given the test. Be proud that I think that highly of you, why I think you’re even good enough for the Storm Creature army.” Fizzle was quite the trainer, then again she was using Sekhet’s Physical Education plans and those education plans tend to make one stallion armies out of people… provided they survive it of course. “If you think your training is bad, you should see what Silver Stream is being put through trying to learn archery!”
“Given that’s she’s the queen of the Storm Creatures, I can see where she’s an outlier.” Foenum Tianhuo said with a curious tilt of her head.
“When it comes to magic, Unicorns Ponies can be on even ground as far as capacity or output goes. A unicorn that has a focus on both physical health and a good control of their magic is truly quite dangerous. It’s not always the most magically powerful unicorn that wins though, but the smartest who can leverage everything around them. Your world has unicorns that focus purely on magic, they need to keep their distance in a fight and would do well to be a bit more athletic to keep said range.” I made a silent mental note that Fizzle wasn’t a unicorn that stayed still in combat. So she was more dangerous for the fact that she is able to focus on using magic and physically attacking at the same time. Gallus is quickly learning to deal with magic users thanks to that. “Now as far as Pegasus Ponies go, they have active magic yet they focus on the physical more often than not and what matters to them is maneuverability and how much force they can put on their bodies. Speed is what makes them physically dangerous, on ground or in the air, but I think they’d do well to leverage their elemental magic more in battle.”
“I don’t think they’ll ever quite match a longma at burst speeds… unless they can control the winds themselves for attacks. Which from what I’ve been told is how most Pegasus Ponies fly or else that bulky stallion over there wouldn’t be able to get into the air with such tiny wings.” Foenum Tianhuo stated as she watched the one known as Bulk Biceps slowly take to the air despite having tiny wings, he was quite the stallion who had a notably strong Earth Pony heritage and it certainly showed in his muscles. We soon after watched as Rainbow Dash flashed by in a blur. “Some exceptions might be available to beat us in burst speeds though.”
“I am of the opinion Earth Ponies are not given enough credit, they would be perfect guards if not for the stigma connect to a majority of them being farmers. Mares of Earth Pony lineage tend to be naturally twice as strong as a pegasus or unicorn stallion with a lineage that has no Earth Pony blood in it.” I was just making idle talk as I tried to stop shifting my gaze towards Foneum Pom and how playful she was with the eight dogs she was overlooking. “Now an Earth Pony stallion, those guys can level entire mansions and even a Minotaur would be wary to pick a fight with one.”
“You’re trying not to look at Foenum Pom playing with the dogs aren’t you?” Foenum Tianhuo carefully brought me into a one legged hug. We were both stoic enough to know that I would not break down, but I dearly wanted to when Pom was hunting a dangerous monster. “I am like a big sister to her. So I will have to say this as her sister, please don’t mistake her for your Pom… your Pom is quite capable from what I hear. Next to your Arizona who has taught ours much about breaking physics through sheer force of will. In fact I’m quite horrified that our Arizona is becoming as tough as yours is currently.”
My Pom clearly didn’t want to do it, but she was going to anyway and her chances of success were… quite blatantly grim according to Pom herself. My wife was almost too good for any world, but all I’m capable of doing currently is silently praying to the longma goddess Jiutian that she makes it through her tribulations in one piece. Pom being entirely mentally sound afterwards was not likely to happen.
I did believe Pom to be quite resilient, but not invincible. She was currently lacking wool mass, being actively hunted by a strong beast and was in a very cold place on top of all that, so the environment might take her out if the monster she was going after didn’t do it first or the one hunting her.
I feared for her life far more than I would ever fear for my own if I were to be put in a similar position.
I glanced at the other Tianhuo and made a gesture with a hoof, she reciprocated and we were both on hind legs striking a pose to start sparring. I needed to continue holding firm until I could aid Pom, I just had to trust that she would make it to a point she will end up in Tambelon where we could finally give aid to her.
-Pokémon Realm, Nixtorm, the next day in the morning, southwest of Hail Hollow, Pom-
Another building collapsed as Articuno, a large legendary ice bird, battled it out with the Skull Chaosdramon X, it wasn’t going well for Articuno whenever it got into melee range and I was staying out of the sight of the destruction with Dolly, Quetal and a number of canid Pokémon that weren’t being ice cold to me like most of the locals as we stayed out of the way and hid to watch the battle.
I blamed my magnetism for the fact that the canids were more lukewarm than they would be otherwise.
Nixtorm’s military forces were decimated from the constant assaults, given they were barely able to field ten fully healthy units and were fielding injured units too.
Skull Chaosdramon X was still as terrifying as it ever was for a giant melted red metal skeleton dragon monster, given it was taking on a legendary Pokémon that it’s obviously been battering over the course of weeks and what little military force was left to deal with the problem.
At least Articuno had the advantage of flight and long range attacks, but said long range attacks weren’t doing as much damage as getting in close and personal where the Skull X could dish out devastating blows if it could land even one. I don’t think Skull X could even feel the cold fury radiating off the Ice Type bird trying to tear them down.
I stayed in my position behind a tree to the south side of the battle and watched as numerous homes, businesses and the like were torn apart by their vicious struggle. Those kaiju movies in the previous dimension had nothing on actually seeing a real fight from off to the side.
At least Articuno wasn’t fighting alone, but any help they were getting was utterly minimal as Skull X could stomp any unit in seconds, as in actually stomp on them and take out an entire unit of six Pokémon instantly with an explosive shockwave.
The western side of Nixtorm was torn open and I wondered where Fou was or had gotten to, they were definitely still out there.
“Looks like Articuno has seen better days.” Quetal quietly intoned as we stayed well away from the fighting. “That’s the monster we’re after right? That’s a tall order and I don’t think you’ve noticed this, but we’re not exactly god slayers Pom and that thing scares me on an instinctual levels like Bearctics would.”
“I’m aware.” Maybe the Digivice can use its data capture function? Well it wouldn’t exactly work on Digimon that were whole and undamaged. It would work on weakened rookie level digimon or just generally loose data knocked out of digimon to compile and build a completed digimon, if there was a chance that we could... then maybe…
So if Skull X was grievously wounded in a fight to at least being a champion, then maybe we could get to it before it could recover from its injuries and wear it down enough to capture.
Already I could see some cubes of light bleeding off of the monsters metallic form, signifying what would be a significant injury for any other informational being considering I’ve seen Sami quickly bleeding out once like that.
I thought that Canard was a good personality match for the plucky, if slightly dark, soldier as far as partnerships went.
-Beast of Comparison, Fou-
Fou was watching the fight from afar as two beings of great power were going at it and nothing could get in their way, despite some attempts to get in the way of the mindless metal dragon. He was enjoying the fight so much that he was currently ignoring Pom’s position for the time being, even if he definitely knew where she currently was.
He was in no hurry to rip into her, he had her smell quite thoroughly lodged in his nostrils. He was a capable of feats beyond magic and anti-magic was not something that bothered him in the slightest to fight against, even if it could actively be used offensively by the sheep without an ounce of aggression from her.
She couldn’t hold him off by herself or forever, but it was confusing that she wasn’t strong and yet felt stronger than most.
What he was busy currently doing was trying to compare himself to the two beasts fighting one another from afar. The negative emotions of the ice bird was quite engrossing as was the competition of power between them.
-Pom-
“I’m pretty sure it’s going to come after me and focus on me if it sees me.” Call it a hunch, but that thing wanted me dead previously on a personal level and I doubted it would ignore me now. Didn’t know why, but it definitely saw the cessation of my existence as a priority from when I last looked it in the eyes previously. “The blizzard is starting to get pretty nasty, we need to seek shelter soon.”
“We can make one for you if it’s too cold!” The Fairy and Ice Ninetails stated joyfully as his tails wagged.
“Yeah, it would be cool too!” Stated a Glaceon the ice version of an Eevee evolution, he was particularly peppy.
At least I found some Pokémon that could be nice… ish… given they were a little too into cuddling up to me physically, I was a little afraid they would become a bit too attached and would try to prevent me from leaving.
I was almost close to thinking they were having the negative attention effect like that one guy from Yellow Dog did.
“Right, can you make a flash igloo we can still watch the battle from?” They immediately got started on it without prodding, we were going to track that Skull X down as soon as it started running, which was when it got too damaged. That’s the one thing most Ice Types knew about it, it had something of a survival instinct and very little else to it.
Several Pokémon had tried to track Skull X back to its lair and failed to find it, but they didn’t have a necessary tools to track it like we currently did. The Digivice could easily track digital monsters, once it got a scan of them and a lot of other technological stuff I wasn’t bound to understand about signatures.
All I knew is that we were close enough for the device to lock onto Skull X as a target and track him no matter where he went and would be able to tell us where it was within a certain range. No matter where it went, we’d be able to find it and maybe deal with it.
We spent the rest of the fight in a quickly forged dome watching the fight as a portion of Hail Hollow was destroyed, I held the device in hoof and it had a lock on Skull Chaosdramon X. It was even projecting up to date data on it health and current combat abilities.
The screen data showed the words Mutant Mega, Skull Chaosdramon X, Undead Virus Type and a high danger level that was slowly dropping as Articuno continued to tear into it with their talons whenever they got an opportunity and whatever existed of Nixtorm’s remaining military could do to it.
The screen also listed its known attacks. The Poison Death Claw was a side effect from being poisoned by Dazzle, Poison Death Stomp again another side effect of surviving the poison that by all rights would have killed it by now given how corroded it became, the last two moves were Barrel Bash and Tail Sweep. Apparently all those were attacks based on what it could currently do now, which didn’t seem like much, if the monster wasn’t so large.
I tapped Barrel Bash and got an animation of the useless twin cannons on Skull X’s back spinning rapidly lashing out with air and a little dark energy that permeated Skull X. Said energy didn’t extend very far from the circle. That it could still use its degraded cannons as a back protecting weapon was interesting, because looking up I didn’t see it using that against Articuno from what little I could see of their fight, but it was capable of doing it if this device says it was.
The device also had an arrow pointing towards the monster signifying that it could now direct us to wherever it goes. So we could track it easily, all we were waiting for was the battle to be finished.
I heard Dragon Types were weak to Ice Types, but the Pokémon here probably didn’t realize that Skull X wasn’t a dragon as they knew it at first. Since it has been attacking them for quite a while now, I’m quite sure they learned all about it.
“Pom, if you are seriously thinking about going out there as a distraction, then I’m not liable to follow you.” Quite understood Quetal and you were reasonable without a doubt to point out that I was slowly starting to move forward and out of the shelter.
I quickly backed up and thought about protecting my friends more than the people of the city, which could apparently take care of themselves despite the ongoing destruction. It was giving me a headache to just stand here and watch while innocent people’s homes were demolished, even if they were rude, mean and or not very nice, I still wanted to help them.
“Is it getting smaller?” Dolly drew my attention to the fact that Articuno finally managed to push back Skull X and dislodged them from further destroying the city by forcing them out into the open. Also its size was diminished a slightly.
“Yes, Dolly, I think it is.” My response got a few stares from those around me looking for a translation. “Dolly might have just given us a bit of hope in actually hunting it down.”
For a monster that was winning a war of attrition against Articuno and what passes for the remainder of the Nixtorm military, it had its limitations as well and that was why it hasn’t destroyed all of Nixtorm yet… not that there was much to destroy in the first place in the frozen north of Ransei.
Most of Nixtorm’s military was devastated, but there was not much reason for the other kingdoms to try and take the territory here… since there wasn’t much here to be worth taking. Nothing unique that I knew of anyway and this kingdom was friends with the kingdom of Dragnor, I really don’t see anyone from Dragnor looking into all this aside from possibly watching things from afar.
I even think that was how it was healing shrinking down due to damage and and once it takes too much damage it retreats to rebuild the lost mass.
“What is it?” Quetal asked as he too started to stare at the monster fighting Articuno and he seemed to blink. “Is it that it’s getting smaller? It’s smaller than Articuno now at the very least... so we should get ready to move?”
“Do you think Curdle managed to get those supplies this morning before the attack hit?” I asked, if anything our piled of lemon cream and peach tarts had surprisingly earned quite a bit of Poké from selling herself as exotic food stuff.
“I wouldn’t know. If anything she’ll be personally fine at least, since she’s intent on being eaten as much as possible without being eaten to death.” At least we could agree on that she’ll be okay Quetal. After being splattered more than once in front of you, you would tend to stop worrying about the pile of sentient cream.
“Hey, are you guys talking about me?” We all jumped when Curdle poked her head into the dome and came in with a large pack on her back and was all smiles. The little ice vulpix was with her. “The commute was a bit rough this morning.”
“A bit? The city came under attack by a screaming metal nightmare… couldn’t have happened to worse people really.” Quetal’s disparaging remark against his homeland aside, Curdle admittedly came through for us and the fluffy white vulpix came over to me expectantly wagging her six tails. “Also if you haven’t noticed there’s a massive blizzard going on outside and we’re barely staying warm in here as it is without a fire… still wonder where the heat is coming from for this dome.”
I glanced at Dolly, was this a confirmation of dogs being space heaters for the underworld in her world? Did that mean that if all hellhounds left the underworld, would it start freezing over? All I’ve confirmed is that Dolly has supernatural origins and the Dalmatian family has had a history of it according to the zombie chicken that still loved their family beyond death.
Sighing audibly, I started to pet the vulpix and she took great enjoyment in every ounce of my lackluster attention.
“Anyway, we’re about to set out as soon as the monster starts running.” Since it’ll be weak and we can possibly deal with it when we catch up to it. “Split up the supplies for Quetal and me to carry our share of the burden, then get ready to move.”
“Articuno has tried to follow after that thing several times and they can fly, what makes your group different?” The Glaceon asked and I smiled at them while holding the clearly happy vulpix.
“We actually have the method to track it.” Since it apparently didn’t leave biological smells behind, it’s been a bit of problem for those trying to find and destroy it. “We just need to make sure we can get to it in time before it can recover from its injuries and we might… very small might here… have a chance of dealing with it permanently.”
The blizzard started clearing up immediately and we witnessed Articuno tearing open a large hole Skull X’s shoulder with a majestic looking Aerial Ace, causing a shower of cubes to spill out. What followed was a badly battered Articuno continued to fire icicles into the durable monsters hide as it began to retreat… at an incredible speed with Articuno trying to follow despite serious injuries.
Eventually Articuno flopped into the snow and was left breathing roughly in wake of the retreating Skull X’s form.
“Right, Dolly, Quetal, Curdle, let’s move we need to go now!” Once I got my portion of our supplies on my back, we were quickly up and running out into the cold. I held the device in my hoof and it showed a trail of color following the presence of the monster. “You guys stay here.”
“Aw…” The Ice Vulpix whined, as did Glaceon and the Ice Type Ninetails as we left.
-Seconds later, ???-
“Want my help with following them?” A voice asked of the three Pokémon left behind in the icy dome jumped as a figure appeared out of thin air.
-One hour later, Fou-
He was quietly watching Pom’s group chase after the monster, he was curious if they would be more successful than he at hunting the injured creature that fought with such ferocity with no thoughts in its head. No anger, no regrets, no malice, it was something unnatural in this world that warranted attention.
He quietly trailed after them, slowly stalking the sheep. How was she even tracking him, he’s lost sight of the monster and it left no physical smell behind.
-Another thirty minutes later, Pom-
“We’re being followed by Fou.” I announced much to Quetal, Dolly and Curdles surprise. Dolly immediately went on alert and started looking behind us.
“If we are, then why hasn’t he attacked yet?” Good question, I really didn’t want to find out when we were still tracking the reason why we were even here Quetal.
“We can’t slow down can we?” Mumbled Curdle and my answer was to continue our pace.
“No, we have to keep moving!” If we get attacked, then we get attacked, we have to keep moving.
“Why are you suddenly so focused on this Pom?” Dolly asked.
“Let me ask this, do you think we could use this as an opportunity to find a way to revive him?” That got Dolly matching pace with me and no further questions.
-Far behind Fou and Pom’s group, Team-four fox, ???-
“That’s right!” The meowth stated as he popped his claws out.
“Quick question, how good are you guys against a Zorua’s illusion?” I asked.
“I’d think we’d known an illusion if we see one, they’d show absolutely no presence in the snow!” The Gurdurr answered, then my illusion faded away, leaving a hole in the snow along with a bunch paw prints leading in every direction as we continued to follow the very dangerous looking Zoroark following the beloved one. “… I have no response for that that will make things right.”
-Team Pocket, Meowth-
So snowboarding went pretty well, giant monster aside and Pom chasing after it, we were somewhat concerned about her and her small team.
If something were to happen to Pom and her group, then who would Team Pocket harass constantly in a vague attempt to rob them of their goods? Mind you Pom and her friend currently didn’t have much on them to rob in the first place aside from food, but it was the very principle of our team’s motto to interrupt anyone who’s a hero and busy doing something else. We had a pamphlet that said so and everything.
“Hey, you foxes, that was a dirty trick, get back here and face us in a lopsided five to four fight like true mons!” I yelled, then sighed and we continued to chase after Pom’s group.
“Six to four, I’m awake Meowth. So I’ll say… get back here you mangy foxes and face us like mons in a lopsided fight purely in our favor!” Isn’t that what I just said Jessie? Also she still looked half asleep and dazed, yep cold still getting to her.
At least she wasn’t beating us up and was much nicer in cooler weather.
-Team Harmony, Pom-
The device was showing signs of us getting closer to Skull X, but I didn’t see anything and soon the arrow started getting sketchy and pointing in random directions all of the sudden.
“Uh, Yggdrasil System, what’s going on?” I asked as we were on approach for a large mound and still found nothing as I stood on top of it.
“Massive spatial anomaly detected… Skull Chaosdramon X is likely within the anomalous space, please proceed with immense caution ‘Digidestined’ Pom.” It may only be a copy of the true Yggdrasil.Sys, and a limited intelligence therein, but I was glad it existed as it was certainly helpful in explaining the Digivice’s functions. “Continue to avoid direct combat with Skull Chaosdramon X user Pom, until you can procure a Digimon or a method to perform limited versions of biomerge, spirit evolution or bio-hybridization your safety cannot be guaranteed. The last option is not recommended for various reasons of prior health issues among adding to becoming half biological, loss of one’s self and possible massive shortening of lifespan from years to days being a possible result of forced bio-hybridization. Spirit evolution requires artifacts that are not likely to be in this realm. Biomerge Matrix Evolution… checking information… biomerge is functionally available, enough anomalous Dalmamon data is present within users Pom and Dolly and gathered spill data from Skull Chaosdramon X can assist in the function should you need it.”
“Ignoring that stuff… can you track the spatial anomaly?” Was the spatial anomaly why no one could find Skull X after chasing him? I Didn’t want to know what the biomerge thing would do, so I wasn’t going to even bother thinking of it as an option if it might incidentally kill what was left of Dormarch inside of the two of us.
“Tracking spatial anomaly…” The area stopped going out of control and pointed in a specific direction.
“Spatial anomaly, so something like Giratina’s Distortion World or… maybe… Pom… I think I know what kind of place that Skull X thing is in.” As he said this Quetal stopped in his tracks and I wondered what he meant. “I didn’t think about it before, but here disasters can be found and exist to such a large degree that… if that is what I believe we’re approaching then…”
I didn’t see it until I was right on top of it, I froze and didn’t move an inch and took control of Dolly’s body to make her stop too. Quetal came to a stop to my left and Curdle was right behind us.
“What are you guys looking at… all I see is snow all around… us...” Curdle came up to us slowly trail off and then stopped. “Oh… yeah… that… that is… that’s a thing isn’t it.”
Once you got close enough to the anomaly you could see a cave stretching out of the ground like a large mouth full sharp teeth like icicles hanging from the roof. The top of the invisible cave had two hollow looking triangular eyes making it look like the cave was a living entity.
Taking a step back it disappeared from sight for me and I could still see it using Dolly’s vision, I stepped back forward and saw the entrance to the cave sticking out of the ground appear again.
“A Mystery Dungeon…” Quetal stated with finality before narrowing his eyes. “It’s taking refuge in a Mystery Dungeon… and is possibly the reason for its existence.”
“A… an actual Mystery Dungeon in Ransei?!” Screamed Curdle who started shivering with fright. “Those things are dangerous, especially without a rescue team badge! Sure I want to be eaten, but this thing would take every last bite of me and I wouldn’t be able to share myself with the world!”
Again, Curdle’s priorities were quite awful.
“If you enter, the only way out is going to be at the end of it and Skull X will likely be there waiting.” That’s kind of a terrifying thought Quetal.
“Can you and Curdle hold the entrance and prevent Fou from coming in long enough for us to get a head start?” Because I remembered that he was still following us, I did not want the beast immediately on my case if I go in there.
“We’ll sure try.” Quetal stated as he turned his back from the entrance. “Get going Pom, we’ll try to be here for you and Dolly when you get back.”
“Please, don’t die to Fou.” I stated before looking to Dolly and she looked back at me as we both looked at the dark void beyond the mouth like entrance.
“We’ll try not to.” Quetal reassured waving his left claw at us to continue forward.
“I’ll choke him with my delicious body if I have to.” Going to ignore that you said that Curdle.
“Come on Dolly.” I took a few steps into the mouth with Dolly at my side and then… and then we both fell. Where there should have been solid flooring beneath us a second ago in what should have been a long tunnel, there was now suddenly nothing.
The best I could do was hold onto Dolly and try to slow our fall as the light disappeared… and then suddenly started appearing again?
“Wha..?!”
-Quetal-
“They just… they disappeared.” Curdle shivered as we watched Pom take like three steps in and then disappeared from existence entirely with Dolly.
“If you want to go after Pom… then you’ll have to go through us.” I stated I turned around and faced down the unnatural Zoroark glaring at us.
Like that Noivern or Cu Chulainn, I knew there was something off about it and would have to put my all behind this fight to even have a hopes chance in Nixtorm of slowing it down.
Bringing my claws up, I glanced at my side as Curdle brought up her tiny fist in determination while sending a nod in my direction.
We both faced what Pom charmingly called ‘Fou’.
-Origin Space, Arceus-
My lower right eyelid was twitching.
“Mew… explain!” I suddenly stated as Pom ran afoul of a Mystery Dungeon in a place where Mystery Dungeons shouldn’t be.
“Let me put it simply and succinctly in as few words as I can manage as to what this could mean for the Ransei Region at large…” Mew stated with a long thousand yard stare while inhaling. “Well crap!”
“Remind me again what happened between you and that chocobo that really liked roller skating?” My attention was drawn to Tiamat who was tittering joyfully.
“Reminder that we too have Mystery Dungeon worlds, one that has the world’s most dangerous Chocobo.” Glancing at Bahamut I saw him look away with a hint of embarrassment. “I got my butt kicked around by a small, incredibly friendly, fluffy yellow mortal bird…”
“You should be more wary of any creature that knows manaward Bahamut.” Tiamat’s heads continued to giggle.
“To be fair to me, anything else that uses manaward only gets a reduction, not an outright complete immunity to my Mega Flare.” Grumbled Bahamut angrily. “At least it wasn’t just some random chocobo, as that was the hero of that particular world.”