//------------------------------//
// Sweet Scent 
// Story: The Monsters She Lost 
// by Lost Deep 
//------------------------------//

	Dear Princess Celestia, 
This letter has been sent to inform you of an unusual development in Ponyville: The arrival of what I believe to be a trans-world traveler. The mare in question, who prefers to go by the name ‘Liz,’ came into the Golden Oak Library to do research on a variety of topics typically known by ponies of her age, and in a subsequent conversation (the details of which I can send you if you so desire) I determined that she was familiar with a number of things common in the ‘Canterlot High World’, such as human anatomy and advanced computing.
At the same time, she displayed knowledge of things not found in the Canterlot High World, primarily a sort of creatures known as “Pokémon.” (A full letter on the topic might be able to be written, if so desired.) Our discussion led me to believe that Pokémon had a strong enough effect on the culture of her home world that if they existed in the Canterlot High World, I would at least have heard of them.
As a result of this, I theorize that there are several human worlds, many of which are very different. If this is so, then perhaps there are many pony worlds, as well. However, more than that I cannot speculate on without additional information.
Currently, I am trying to work with Liz, determining whether how I can help her return to her own world. Any advice you have on the matter would be appreciated. I will endeavor to keep this within my circle of immediate friends, instead of permitting it to become public knowledge. 
Addendum: since writing the above part of this letter, a series of events has led Liz to believe that at least one Pokémon that was with her has also been pulled into Equestria. I intend to get further information on the topic soon.
Yours truly, 
Twilight Sparkle
P.S. As a completely unofficial note, I’m willing to bet that Discord knows something about inter-world travel. I will trust your discression on that matter, though, as risking him finding out about this situation, or about Canterlot High, might be too big of a risk.



The 7 mares were gathered in the main room of the library; Liz, Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash (who had been released from the hospital under a long list of conditions) and Fluttershy (who was tasked with making sure Rainbow Dash actually followed her set conditions).
“Liz,” Twilight said, “These are my friends, and they’re all willing to help, but… I get the feeling that this situation is bigger than one or two ponies. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable; but if there is a danger, to yourself or to other ponies, then please let us know.”
Liz sighed. “Allright… I was hoping that this could be nice and quiet, but without pokeballs… should I start with explaining humans?”
“Oh, we already know about humans,” Pinkie said, “There was a time where Twilight went to a human world and wound up getting to be princess of the dance, and fought alongside our human doubles, and got a crush on a guy, and when she got back it turned out that guy was kinda shallow, and nothing ever came of that.”
“Pinkie,” Twilight said, “That’s classified information, remember?”
“Yeah,” Pinkie said, “Strrrrrictly on a need-to-know basis, and the reason that everyone is here is that we need to know things. Besides, I’m willing to bet you already told her something about it.”
“Anyway,” Liz said, “Twilight at least thinks I came from a world that isn’t that one. The one that I came from has creatures that we call Pokémon, which often have odd powers. I think that Rainbow Dash chased around a Pokémon that came through with me.”
“‘Odd powers’ is one way to put it,” Rainbow Dash said, “If a lot of things are as, I admit it, awesome as that bug, you must lead a very interesting life.”
“Um, last night, you sounded like you are friends with, um, the bug,” Fluttershy said. “Does it have a name?”
“Cica,” Liz said, “He’s a Ninjask. He’s very, very fast, and his claws are very sharp. I don’t think that he, or any of the others, are dangers, they’re all used to people. Or at least humans. Really, they’re likely more dangerous to any monsters. Unless there’s really dangerous stuff out there.”
“Ah’m not going to lie to ya,” Applejack said, “There is. Huge dragons, giant monsters, hydras…”
“I heard the list last night,” Liz said, “and I’m not going to worry about that right now. One thing at a time. Cica is in Everfree Forest, and that is what I want to deal with. If the rest of my team turns up later, I’ll rush to them, but for now we only know of one.” 
“Okay, dear, calm down,” Rarity said, “Now, what is the plan?”
Liz took a deep breath, held it a moment, and then sighed. “I don’t have one. I’ve always just made it up as I went. I have no idea what to do.”
There was a bit of silence. Twilight pondered, Fluttershy fidgeted, Applejack scratched under her hat, Pinkie looked between all the rest of the ponies in the room. After about a minute, Rainbow Dash spoke up. “Doesn’t anyone else have any ideas?”
“No,” Twilight admitted. “Do you have one?”
“Well, if we could find it, we could probably have Fluttershy talk to it. In addition, Fluttershy right now is our only flier, since Twilight can’t fly very well. Our best bet for spotting it is Rarity, who has an unnatural ability to spot smudges and blurs and all that kind of stuff. Wait, Pinkie, do you still have that gyrocopter?”
“Yep!” Pinkie said, “I can get it if you want me to.” 
“Okay, and that means that if Pinkie can see it, she can follow it to the ends of Equestria. Trust me on that. Okay, back to finding. Rarity, can you cast a spell to find golden things?”
“Um,” Rarity thought for a moment, “Gold, sure, but not really… golden things.”
“Drat,” Rainbow Dash said, “That means we’re going to have to do it the hard way. Hopefully, we would find a way to lure it to us… does it have any favorite foods?”
“Sweet sap, sweet fruits, maple syrup when he can get to it,” Liz listed.
“Okay. The maple syrup will probably be the thing, then, since he can’t get it in the Everfree. Pinkie, Applejack, could you get us a lot of maple syrup and some kind of bowl?”
“Yeah,” Applejack said, “But… Dash, since when were you so good at plannin’?”
“Hello? I’m the weathermare for this entire region. I push a lot of clouds myself, yeah, but a lot of what I do is management; figuring out who is good at what and putting them to their best use. If I can’t chase this thing, at least I can use some of my other skills. Now then, worst case scenario, Twilight, could you make an invisible net that could snare its wings as it flew through it? I don’t think it should be necessary, but it’d be nice to have the option.”
“Sure,” Twilight said. “I could do something like that. The invisibility would be the hardest part.” 
“Remember,” Rainbow Dash said, “it would need to be like a spider web. Chances are it could fly away in the time it took for a trap to spring. Anything else… nope, I think that’s it. Tada! We have a plan, a backup plan, and room for the backup plan to go wrong.”
“Um,” Fluttershy started hesitantly, “Rainbow, you aren’t allowed to fly. Or go into The Everfree Forest.”
“Shh, Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash gently put her hoof over the quiet pegasus’ mouth, “Let me have this moment.”



“Man,” Twilight mused to herself. “I feel a little like a let down now. I had always stepped into a leadership position, but here I felt like I didn’t have enough information, and Dash just stepped up and whoosh! Off she went.” 
“Now Twilight,” Applejack said, “Don’t worry about it. It’s two different ways of going about things. Ya like to know a lot before you move, with the lists and all; while Dash is used to organizing the Ponyville pegasi, something of a rag-tag group, ya know, and making them all work together on whatever is going on. And I’m willing to bet ya she didn’t just think it all up on the spot, either. Ya know how she gets in a hospital bed, or anytime she can’t move around. She has to find something to do, and without a book on hand she wound up ponderin’ how to get… what’d Liz call th’ bug? ‘Kicka?’”
Twilight Sparkle and Applejack sat in a bush in the Everfree, viewing a log slathered with maple syrup. Across from them, Rarity and Liz were likely doing the same thing. They could occasionally catch a glance of Rarity’s hair, but apparently Liz was better at hiding than that. Somewhere, closer to the log, Fluttershy was also waiting. Pinkie Pie hadn’t been seen since they split up, but that was not thought as out of the ordinary.
“Cica, C-I-C-A,” Twilight said, “Her naming conventions are different from pony ones.”
“Right. Mah point is, Rainbow Dash had a bit to think about what to do about Kika, and she spoke up when no one else had a plan right off. You were in unfamiliar water, and maybe ya just didn’t work quite as fast as normal. That don’t mean you failed.”
Twilight nodded. “You’re right. If anything, I should be happy that she can manage and organize us just in case sometime I can’t.”
From there, they lapsed back into silence. That was what was going on for the most part, just waiting in silence and hoping for something to happen. Applejack had said it was kind of soothing, like fishing. Twilight definitely saw the parallels to fishing, but she also noticed that it was not soothing. She kept looking over her shoulder, fearing that something was sneaking up on the pair.
She wasn’t ready for it when Cica was suddenly in the clearing. She had barely heard the sound of wings before he was there, hovering around the log. It moved so fast, it was completely unseen… like a ninja.
Oh, right, Liz had said it was a Ninjask. It was hard to see like a ninja, and it was wearing a gold mask. That seemed like a logical name. 
Cica hovered around the log, curious but cautious. At this point, it was up to Fluttershy. Fluttershy had also been caught off-guard by his sudden appearance, but quickly worked up the nerve and stepped out of her hiding spot.
He noticed her, and froze in mid-air. Hovering, it buzzed at her. Cica-Ninjask is not fool.
Fluttershy blinked. “I know you’re scared, and in an odd place, but I just want to talk.” She pulled out the bottle of maple syrup she had with her. 
What does Yellow-Winged-Thing know of Cica-Ninjask? It may know of Ninjask, but Cica-Ninjask is not Normal-Ninjask.
Fluttershy winced at the harsh buzz. “I don’t know anything about you,” She said, “only that someone is very worried about you, and wants to be sure you are okay.”
The Ninjask flew closer to Fluttershy, slowly, cautiously. Is it Awesome-Rainbow-Flying-Thing? Cica-Ninjask did not hurt her. Awesome-Rainbow-Flying-Thing could not turn fast enough. Cica-Ninjask hopes that Awesome-Rainbow-Flying-Thing is not hurt bad.
“She’s fine,” Fluttershy said, and offered the syrup to Cica. “Just a slight concussion. She’ll be back in the air in a few days.”
Cica accepted the syrup from Fluttershy, and downed some of it. Cica-Ninjask is happy for that. Awesome-Rainbow-Flying-Thing was very brave, and Cica-Ninjask respects Awesome-Rainbow-Flying-Thing.
“She thinks you’re awesome, too,” Fluttershy said with a giggle. “But right now Liz is worried about you.”
Liz-Human-Trainer? Liz-Human-Trainer is here? Please, Yellow-Winged-Thing, take Cica-Ninjask to Liz-Human-Trainer?
Fluttershy smiled, and gestured to Liz’s bush. Liz stepped out, and Cica immediately faced her. Faster than the eye could follow, Cica swept Liz’s hat off of her head and clutched it to his chest.
This is not Liz-Human-Trainer. This is White-Thing with Liz-Human-Trainer’s hat. Where is Liz-Human-Trainer?
“It is Liz!” Fluttershy said, “She’s just been changed by the event that brought you here.”
Cica-Ninjask wants Liz-Human-Trainer. Cica-Ninjask misses Liz-Human-Trainer! WHERE IS LIZ-HUMAN-TRAINER?
Cica emitted a buzzing screech. Fluttershy recognized it; the screech that she had heard twice before, but close up it was so much worse! Her ears began ringing, and she suddenly had a headache.
“CICA! SILENCE!” Liz barked. Cica fell silent. Liz also now had a headache from the screech, but she was somewhat used to it. She took a deep breath. “Now… Cica. You’re confused, you’re in an unfamiliar place, and I’m a pony. There aren’t any Pokemon, not as we know them, and the rest of the team are nowhere to be found. But that is no excuse to screech at people! Ponies. The ponies here are people… the people here are ponies… not important! What is important is that you need to calm down, not shriek at anyone, and let these ponies help. Okay?”
Cica hovered for a minute, as if processing this information. He looked at the hat in his claws, and then placed it back on Liz’s head. Liz pulled Cica into a hug, and Cica hugged back. He hugged gently, of course, making sure to avoid scratching Liz with his claws. The other ponies came forward, stepping out of the bushes. 
Cica noticed the other ponies, flying in-between them and Liz, but Liz quickly reassured him. “Don’t worry, they’re all with me. They all came out to help me find you. That’s Fluttershy, this is Applejack-”
“Wait,” Applejack interrupted, holding up a hoof, “Does anyone else smell that?”
Everyone stopped and sniffed. It only took a moment before the smell wafted fully into the area, making the ponies gag. Liz covered her mouth with her hat, but that only helped so much. She had smelled some nasty things in her time (a number of Pokemon were somewhat infamous for their strong scents) but this smell was new. “What is it? It smells like something-”
“Timberwolves!” Applejack shouted, suddenly turning and running. The others followed immediately, albeit Liz didn’t understand the danger. 
“What do you mean? What are timberwolves?” Liz asked. She heard a roar from somewhere behind her. “Why are we running? Are timberwolves really that scary?”
There was a crash from behind her, and she looked over her shoulder to see a timberwolf break through a bush. It was made entirely of wood, of logs and branches, and it was taller than the ponies. It almost seemed to have a green glow about it, and its eyes were literally glowing. More to the point, however, it had huge teeth and claws, like someone carved wooden stakes and hammered them into its jaw. To make matters worse, close on its tail were a couple of its friends. 
“Oh.”
Liz ran faster, suddenly moving up next to Applejack at the head of the group. While not all that used to running for long distances, time as a Pokémon trainer had made her an accomplished sprinter. This was not the first time she had to flee through the woods from a pack of hunters.
Remembering the other times, Liz glanced to the side. Sure enough, there was a group of Timberwolves pacing them to the right. Bad memories flooded her mind. “We’re being herded!” Liz shouted.
“Ah know!” Applejack shouted back. “Our best bet is ta get out of th’ forest before they can close th’ trap. If we can’t do that, we have ta try and break through-”
A trio of wolves jumped out in front of the group, and everypony came to a screeching halt. Like that, the trap was closed. The ponies were surrounded on all sides, the wolves cutting off every possible avenue of escape like the experienced and efficient hunters they were.
The largest timberwolf strode forward. Unlike the other wolves, it had a distinctly gnarled look to it. Knobs and scars covered its wooden hide, and its legs were not only much heftier than normal but covered in thorns. It roared in victory, having judged which of its prey would die first. It pounced forward, and was almost immediately separated from its front paws by a black blur. 
Cica was on it, his claws a blur as he slashed at its face. Wood chips, splinters, and sawdust fell to the ground. The timberwolf staggered back, roaring. 
Honk Honk!
Overhead, there was a comical whirling sound as a brightly-colored hoof-pedaled gyrocopter buzzed the pack of timberwolves. They snarled up at it, as they recognized it as something unusual and that it was too high up from them to pounce on. “Hello everypony! Sorry I’m late!” Pinkie Pie called down. “I was totally ready to be the plan C, but then plan A worked! Hi Cica!”
A green package in a bright blue bow dropped into the group. Twilight glanced at it, and noticed that the bow was somehow untying itself. She didn’t understand, but with Pinkie not understanding was par for the course. The more important thing was being able to guess what to do to minimize the damage.
Twilight hit the dirt. “EVERYPONY DOWN!”
The bow unfurled, the box popped open, and fireworks flew out. They whizzed over the ponies, exploding into stars and cupcake shapes. Fireworks combine three of the things that timberwolves hate: fire, loud noises, and bright flashes. Startled, the timberwolves roared and backed up, away from the sudden chaos. That was the chance that the ponies needed. 
Applejack rushed past the heavily wounded timberwolf, and the other ponies followed her lead. Cica broke off, buzzing back up to Liz. Twilight, at the back of the group, saw an opportunity and cast the invisible web spell behind her. She had made the spell, but since Cica was cooperating she hadn’t had to use it. Might as well test it here while she could. However, this was not exactly a controlled testing environment. The most she saw was a timberwolf run up against it before it was out of sight. 
Rainbow Dash was waiting at the edge of the forest. She was lying on a cloud that Ditzy Doo was kind enough to grab for her, which was floating maybe half a foot above the ground. It was comfortable, didn’t break any conditions, and if Redheart asked her later, Rainbow Dash could say that she got a lot of rest!
And she almost did get a lot of rest, as she came close to drifting off on more than one occasion. One such occasion was broken by the sound of hooves coming across the ground. Rainbow perked up, and was greeted by her five friends, Liz, and Cica coming toward her.
“Yes!” She said, thrusting her hoof into the air triumphantly. “It worked! Excellent! All-right!” Rainbow Dash slid down into the cloud, reclining. “Proving once and for all I don’t need to be in the air to be awesome.”
Twilight chuckled, and Applejack rolled her eyes. “Yep, the plan worked perfectly,” Applejack said, “At least up until the timberwolves found us, but we were able to take care of them with some high-flying help.”
Pinkie landed, followed shortly by her gyrocopter. “You know what this calls for? A PARTY!”
“Pinkie!” Twilight said and stepped forward. “I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to let Ponyville know about Cica.”
“The party isn’t for Cica; it’s a welcome party for Liz. And since Liz is an outdoorsy pony, it should be in the park, near a gazebo, and if anyone spots me putting bottles of syrup on the roof of the gazebo, they’ll just go, ‘Pinkie, you’re so random!’” 
Everyone blinked. “Seriously?” Liz asked incredulously. 
“She’s serious,” Rarity said, “and believe me when I say that would work.”
“Wait…” Rainbow Dash rubbed her chin, “Pinkie, how often is it that we see you do something random that actually makes kinda-sorta-sense in context?”
“More often than you would think, less often than you would suspect,” Pinkie replied. She folded up her gyrocopter into a candy-striped briefcase and hooked it with her tail. “If you will excuse me, I have a party to organize!” and with that she was off, little more than a dust trail and an afterimage left behind.
“Anyway,” Liz said, “I just realized something that I didn’t think of before. I don’t have pokeballs; where will Cica stay?”
“Pokewhat?” Applejack said, with a blink. Liz winced when she remembered that the only pony who knew anything about the details of her world was Twilight, and even she didn’t know about pokeballs.
“Um,” Fluttershy said, “He can stay at my house, if that’s okay. I look after a lot of animals, and it’s near the Everfree Forest, so he’ll be able to go in there and feed on sap. I mean, if that’s okay with you two.”
Cica, who had been waiting silently so far, gave what Liz recognized as an affirmative buzz. Liz couldn’t talk to Cica like Fluttershy apparently could, but she had gotten familiar enough with him that she recognized differences between buzzes. 
“Well,” Liz said to her beloved ninja bug, “If you want to, okay. I’m staying in the big tree that’s been made into a library, and I’ll be sure to keep in touch with you.”



Canterlot had some of the best of the best, and the machine shop was no exclusion. Tools, magical and mundane, filled the walls of the shop. Gears, fasteners, and metal plates of all sorts of compositions and sizes were around, a veritable treasure trove for any mechanic or metalcrafter. 
Of course, there were two things about this shop in particular that stood out. The first was the electricity: by gathering lightning from storms and bottling it, the workshop both had very good lighting and power tools usable by ponies that couldn’t power them themselves. The second thing was the pegasus who was working until midnight.
Wild Fire had taken a while to figure out what she really wanted to do with her life. After applying to the machine shop on a whim and out of boredom, she had found that she was a natural at it. Not only that, but she found it really, really fun. Some days it felt like the gears fell into place in her head, and all she had to do was make that reality and everything worked. Fuse, her unicorn partner in tinkering and the mastermind behind the building’s electricity, had been more than surprised at her quick learning and even quicker work rate.
Especially when she was in the zone, which she was right now.
Having finished all the orders that came in as much as she could without Fuse there to enchant them, Wild Fire had turned to her personal project. She hadn’t decided what to call it yet. Effectively, it was a horseless carriage, but it honestly didn’t look anything like a carriage anymore. The passenger area was smaller, and all the seats faced forward so that the driver could see where she was going. There was a gearbox in front of the passenger area, which gave the machine a rather long ‘nose.’ The gearbox took energy from a lightning jar, and was given instructions on how fast it should go from a series of levers from the driver. Wild Fire was still working on the steering; a lever had felt too clunky, so she was working on something you turned to steer, but that was still only on the sketchboard.
Right now she was working on the gearbox itself. Gears, chains, wires, motors… she kept putting them in, seeing an issue, and taking them out. Finally, she felt like she got it. She slid gears into place, ratcheted nuts and bolts, and connected pistons and chains rhythmically. She was told that she looked silly, doing mechanics to the beat of a song that no one else heard, but she didn’t care. She was one of the best, if not the best, mechanic in Canterlot.
And to think that her parents had wanted her to be on the weather team.
When she went over to the gears and found that the size she wanted was not there, it didn’t stop her. Didn’t even slow her down; this was not the first time she had to make a custom gear and it would not be the last. She got the right metal, set up the right tool, and got on her safety goggles automatically, all to her internal song. She powered it up, and began to cut the metal… and the tool sputtered and died. 
A challenge? Bring it on, tool. Wild Fire was about to disassemble it when the lights died in the shop altogether. 
After a second, she pulled out her lighter and lit it up for some light. She was not longer in the zone. Her music had stopped, leaving a cold fury in its wake. From the looks of it, the lighting jar had run out… but she knew for a fact that the current jar still had hours left in it. So that would mean that there was something wrong with the wires… but the wires had been fine this morning. 
That meant that somepony had come along and done something. 
Wild Fire took flight, and picked up one of the heftier wrenches in the shop. This smelled like the kind of problem that could be solved with a hefty wrench and a call to the guard.