A Legendary Issue
(3) - Tea Time
"Here we are," Shining Armour said as we approached a door indistinguishable from any of the other hundred or so. I learned quite a while ago that hiding in plain sight was often the best protection.
"So we are," I replied. "Mind knocking for me? I'm a bit preoccupied with not making the floor look like a mosaic..."
Shining Armour glanced at my levitating form, then shook his head to hide the grin that appeared. He raised a hoof to knock, but a voice rang out from inside before it made contact with the door.
"Come in," the voice said as the door was opened magically from the inside.
The Royal Office was nicely decorated, but it appeared to have been toned down since I was last here. The incredibly plush, bright red with golden embroidery, swamp of a carpet was replaced with a much less offensive blue one. The magnificent silk curtains were now mere cloth, and even the massive, mahogany desk was downgraded to a smaller, oaken version. Two alicorns, one white and one blue, were sitting at the ends of said table, drinking what appeared to be tea. Shining Armour immediately bowed.
"Princess Celestia; Princess Luna," he acknowledged. "The emissary is here."
Celestia smiled and took a sip from her cup. "I gathered," she said cheekily. "Thank you for directing him here, Guard Captain. That will be all," she concluded, dismissing Shining. He nodded, bowed again, then began walking back in the direction we had come.
When he was a bit further down, I hovered to the right enough that I could look into the room with both eyes, rather than just one.
"Are you just going to sit there, or are you going to—" I began, but my words were cut off when Celestia's horn flashed and I felt everything shift around me. Suddenly, I was a few feet further from the door, now actually inside the room. A wave of vertigo hit me like a brick.
"—teleport me inside, as I can't fit through the door," I finished lamely, vision swimming. When the sensation subsided, I tilted my torso in the direction of the princesses. "Good afternoon Princess Celestia... and Princess Luna. Good to see you back in the land of the ponies."
Luna seemed almost taken aback that I knew who she was, but she quickly hid it with a mostly differential mask. "We have not yet met. Thou art James, we—I," she corrected automatically, "presume?"
I nodded, silently snickering at her archaic accent. "You would be correct, princess. It's nice to finally meet you."
Luna placed her hovering cup down on the table and offered her hoof, presumably for the customary hoofshake. I stared at her foreleg wryly.
"I'd shake, but if I uncurl one of my legs to do so, I'd land onto the nice carpet and crush the marble beneath. Pretty bad design flaw, I know—it's like they weren't even thinking when they designed me."
A perplexed look broke free of Luna's mask, and she hesitantly withdrew her foreleg.
Well, so much for humour. I never was proficient at making good first impressions.
"Never mind," I sighed. I hovered a little more to the right in an attempt to center myself along the side of the table. I stuck out on both sides, but at least I tried. "So," I began. "What's got you so riled up that you needed me out of hibernation to fix it? And why was it important enough to not be included on the scroll?"
Celestia's horn flashed briefly. A moment later, a translucent gold sphere expanded from her horn, growing large enough to encase the three of us. As soon as the edge of the sphere had passed through me entirely, I felt my hearing shift. It felt like I was underwater, with sounds strangely distorted, but still understandable.
I recognized the globe's purpose: it was a noise-cancelling spell, and it made certain that we wouldn't be overheard.
"You really don't want whatever this problem is to become common knowledge, do you?" I commented.
Celestia nodded, and let out a pent-up sigh. "The locations already affected are suffering from mass hysteria. I can't risk any outside forces getting a hold of this information, for fear of the panic spreading."
That got my attention.
"Whoa there, slow down a second: just what are these 'affected locations,' and why are they—well, affected?"
Celestia sighed again, and it was then that I noticed the bags under her eyes. She looked like she hadn't had a wink of sleep in several days. "A series of tears between our dimension and another are occurring. I know not what the cause of these tears is, but that's not even our biggest problem."
Luna glanced at Celestia, who nodded subtlety in response.
"There have been reports of fantastic and extraordinary creatures harassing, tormenting, and in one case, killing our citizens that live in the outermost cities of Equestria," Luna explained solemnly. "The descriptions of the creatures vary indiscriminately, from large, dog-like creatures that control the elements to ones that seem to be made of living shadow."
If I had an esophagus, I would've gulped nervously. Those sounded a lot like—
"James," Celestia began before I could say anything, "do any of these creatures match the descriptions of other beings like yourself? Other... Pokemon?"
Ah crap. I knew there had to be a reason why it was me she chose rather than, say, a contingent of the Royal Guard.
"Yeah," I muttered, mind errant with hypotheses. This was bad; real bad. "Those descriptions match some Pokemon all right. Unfortunately, those Pokemon happen to be among the most powerful there are. I doubt that I'd stand much of a fight against one, let alone as many as you think are running amok."
Princess Celestia smiled grimly. "I'm well aware of that, which is why I'm not asking just you to handle this."
I felt a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.
"I take it you're referring to the rest of the people who're trapped here, too. Right?"
Celestia tilted her head slightly. "Whatever happened to calling them 'friends?'"
I snorted. "A lot can change in three-hundred years, princess. Even if I knew where the ones who can still walk are, that doesn't mean that they'll join my solitary quest at my behest."
"I'm well aware of that as well, James, which is why I'm sending my personal student, as well as five of her friends, to aid complete this task—with or without you."