Start of Book One
The Golden Oaks library is normally a place of order, a picture of serenity and peace. I say normally because ‘normally’ isn’t every other tuesday, otherwise known as reshelving day.
Twilight Sparkle stood in the center of the chaos, a smidgen of which would have made Discord proud, a day having passed since Pinkie Pie’s visit. “Spike! Have you seen Fire and Ice: A Guide to Elemental Magic anywhere?” She shouted to the Dragon, currently rooting through a pile of books. He stuck his head out of the pile, a confused look on his face.
“Twilight, I can’t find my own tail in this mess!” He crawled around in the pile a little more until he came out holding his tail in his hand. “Found it!”
Twilight rolled her eyes and continued to look at the plethora of books floating around her, eventually finding the correct book and placing it on its spot on the shelf. “One down, two thousan-”
“DOOZY!!”
The sound of one of her friends screaming reverberated throughout the library, causing the Alicorn to lose her concentration and drop all of the books she was holding, several of which bounced off of her and Spike’s heads. Normally Twilight would have rushed to see what was wrong, but after several stories had been told to her about doozies past Twilight had developed a contingency plan. “Spike get over here, we’re taking a trip to Canterlot.”
The little Dragon rushed over to Twilight and hopped on her back, Twilight prepared to activate a very powerful teleportation spell when another call went up from the same pony.
“TWITCHY TAIL!”
This was followed by a resounding crash and a flash of light that once again threw off Twilight’s concentration, but not before losing a teleportation spell that dropped her and Spike several hundred feet above the library.
“Aaaaaahh!”
“Aaaaaahh!”
The princess and her assistant screamed as they plummeted towards certain doom, or at least a strong possibility of doom, this was all completely irrelevant, of course, considering that Twilight remembered that she had wings before crashing into the ground. Twilight landed safely in front of the library, panting in fear.
“What happened!” Spike asked woozily.
“I don’t know,” Twilight said, using the breathing technique Cadence taught her to get her racing heart rate down. She looked towards town in the direction of the Sugarcube Corner. “But I bet I know somepony who does.”
With that she galloped towards Sugarcube Corner, Spike clinging to her mane as she ran.
Gene woke up with the worst headache of his life, even worse than the time he had scared a Yanmega and gotten hit with a very powerful Supersonic. “OWWW!” He cried as he grabbed his head. “What happened?”
He opened his eyes and was temporarily blinded by the sudden sunlight. Once he regained his vision he smiled at the sight before him. Belle was asleep atop his chest, a small smile graced her face. His worries temporarily forgotten, Gene smiled and shifted his weight, trying to get comfortable.
This small motion awoke Belle from her sleep, her eyelids fluttered open. “Good morning beautiful.” Gene said, smiling at his partner.
Belle had been the first Pokemon Gene had gotten after starting his journey in the Hoenn region, he had gotten her from the Mossdeep City gym, she had been with him as he traveled the Hoenn, Johto, Kanto, Sinnoh, Unova, and more recently Kalos regions. These were just a few of the reasons why Gene got confused when Belle grabbed him in a telekinetic grasp, yanked him into the air, and held him upside down, staring him in the eyes, and said with hatred in her voice. “You have five seconds to tell me where my trainer is before I start pulling the information from. Your. Mind.”
Gene swallowed nervously, he had seen what Belle could do to someone’s mind, that was one of the few times Belle had scared him in any way. “Belle?” He asked nervously. “Are you alright? Cause you’re kinda scaring me.”
The Gardevoir’s eyes widened in shock and she dropped Gene on his head, where he landed on what felt like a spike, before falling on his back. “G-Gene?” Belle stuttered. “I-is that you?”
Gene pushed himself so he was sitting up and said. “Of course it’s me,” He repositioned the hat that, despite him having been held upside down and dropped on his head, remained on his head. “Who else would it b-”
At this point there were several things Gene could have noticed, from his location to his current...appearance, but what he did notice wasn’t any of that. “Belle! You can talk! As in I actually heard you, without telepathy.”
Belle stared at her partner, dumbstruck at his realization, and said. “Gene...I’m going to look in your mind because I need to figure out what happened to you.” Her eyes started to glow bright blue as she mentally reached towards him.
“Wait what’s wrong with me!? I mean I feel fi-” Gene paused when he felt the familiar presence of Belle entering his mind, only to withdraw a few seconds later. Her eyes stopped glowing as she returned to the confines of her mind having gathered the information she needed, and stared at the being she was now sure was her partner.
“Gene...I have no idea how you haven’t realized this but, you should really look at your hands.”
“Oook,” Gene said, deciding to humor his partner. “I don’t really see what that’s gonna...” Gene trailed off as he looked at his hands, or what he was assuming were his hands. Instead of five digits as he was expecting he had three green fingers that were connected to an equally green arm that, instead of bending at the elbow and then continuing to his shoulder, went onward from the elbow in two directions, going on to his shoulder as it was suppose to, and jutting straight out at the elbow, coming to an end at a point like a sword. in addition his arm, or at least the part that wasn’t a sword, was incredibly thin and the part that was a sword was just as wide and almost as flat as it’s actual counterpart.
Gene was normally a calm and collected individual, he had been through plenty of trouble on his journey. His journey had changed his life in so many ways, some good, some bad. But he had, physically at least, always been the same. So when he saw what had happened to his arms he was confused and shocked for the first time in quite awhile.
“Whaa?” He looked up and down his body seeing what else had changed, there were a lot more, and they were not small. The upper part of his torso was startlingly thin, with a pink triangle sticking out of his chest, which he suspected went through to the other side. While the lower half of his torso looked like an inflatable tube, in contrast to his upper body which was dark green, everything below his waist was stark white, including his feet, which were almost elephantine in appearance, and his legs which, until reaching where his ankle had been, remained mostly unchanged despite being white. “B-Belle?” He said. “What am I!?”
He jolted upright and patted down his head and face, already suspecting the answer. As he patted his head his suspicions were almost confirmed when he felt the helmet like growth covering his head, he also saw the very edge of it covering his face out of the corner of his eyes. He also felt two points sticking out of the corner of his face, were his ears use to be, (he assumed the sensory organs were behind them) and finally, feeling through his hat, the tall ridge jutting from the top of his head.
“Gene,” Belle said, still in shock. “You’re a Gallade.”
“So let me get this straight,” Twilight Sparkle stood in Sugarcube Corner, the normally busy sweet shop was almost completely abandoned, Mr and Mrs. Cake were upstairs with Pound and Pumpkin Cake, and the only occupants of the bakery itself were Twilight, Pinkie, and Spike, who was hiding under a table, clinging to one of the legs. “You have no idea what’s going to happen?” Twilight asked her friend, who having been pulled away from baking her special doozy time cupcakes, still had flour on her apron and in her mane.
“Nope.” Pinkie exclaimed happily.
“Not even a location?” Twilight asked hopefully.
“Nu uh.” Pinkie replied.
“Uggh.” Twilight banged her head on the counter out of frustration. “Just calm down, she’s just being Pinkie.” Twilight mumbled to herself. “OK,” She said, turning back to her friend. “Do you at least know what crashed, or where?”
Pinkie smiled and replied. “Weell, I know it crashed in the Everfree, like beyond Zecora’s house and the old castle,”
“Go on...” Twilight implored.
“And that whoever landed it is going to need a welcome party!” She finished.
“Uggh...” Twilight groaned again. This is going to be a long day. “Pinkie, I know this is hard for you but you have to tell me anything you can about whatever crashed.”
“And the doozy.” Pinkie corrected.
“What?” Twilight asked, confused.
“The doozy and the twitchy tail.” She explained.
“Wait,” Twilight held up a hoof to quiet her friend. “You mean that whatever crashed wasn’t the doozy?!?”
“Nope.” Pinkie said, still smiling.
Twilight was at a loss for words, now she not only had to deal with whatever had crashed in the Everfree, she assumed it was a meteor but she wanted to make sure it wasn’t some previously unknown force of evil or destruction, she also had to figure out what this doozy was, and she had a feeling that this time it wouldn’t be her going through a rage shift and accepting more of Pinkie’s nonsensical logic.
“Pinkie I need you to get Rainbow Dash and Rarity, I’ll get Fluttershy and Applejack. We need to have a meeting...and I have to make sure Fluttershy isn’t hiding under her bed,” She ushered Pinkie out the door and pulled Spike from under the table, placing him next to her. “More than likely, I’ll have to pull her out from under her bed.”
“Okey, dokey, lokey.” Pinkie said happily as she trotted through the seemingly abandoned town towards Carousel Boutique.
“Where is everypony?” Spike asked as he and Twilight walked towards Fluttershy’s cottage.
“Probably hiding from Pinkie’s doozy.” Twilight said nonchalantly. “I just hope I can convince Fluttershy to come out.”
“Yeah about that,” Spike said. “What you going to do when you and the others are all together?” He asked.
“What do you mean Spike?” Twilight asked as she continued to look for any sign of life in the town.
Spike paused, looking at the vacant town. “Well you don’t have any idea what’s actually happening and if whatever crashed in the Everfree is dangerous you don’t have the elements to stop it,” Noticing that Twilight had continued to walk Spike rushed to catch up with her. “Also shouldn’t we send a letter to Princess Celestia, or Luna or anyone?”
“Don’t worry Spike, we’ve handled plenty of problems without the elements,” She looked in the direction of Canterlot, squinting to see the city. “And besides I think that that crash was probably heard in Canterlot and I bet the princesses will be here any minute.”
Meanwhile in Canterlot.
“DISCORD YOU MONSTER! WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY CAKE!” Princess Celestia burst from the kitchen searching for her prey. Unaware that the god of chaos, and her little sister, were hiding behind a nearby curtain.
“Do you think we went to far this time?” Luna asked, still snickering.
“Nah, old sun butt will calm down once she can’t find us and raids the pantry instead,” Discord said with a devious grin. “Now who wants cake?” He said, pulling a beautifully decorated chocolate cake. “Come on, it’s your favorite.” He waved a piece in front of the lunar princess' face.
Luna smiled and took the cake. “Thank you...but don’t you think we should at least look into that explosion?”
“Nah,” Discord said, shoving a piece of cake, fork, plate and all, into his mouth. “Sounded like it came from the Everfree, that’s Princess Twilight’s territory.”
To prove his point, Discord pulled down a large map of Equestria split into into several sections, with a purple area labeled PTS stretching over Ponyville and the Everfree. One labeled Lulu covering the rest of equestria overlapping a section labeled Tia, the only difference was that Luna’s had the word ‘moon’ in it, while Celestia’s had the word ‘sun’ another section over the Crystal Empire was labeled ‘candy girl and shiny’ and the section covering Canterlot was labeled ‘Discordtopia’.
Luna rolled her eyes at the map and continued. “Be that as it may, or may not, be the guards say that half the city is hiding in their homes and-”
“HUH!” Discord gasped and grabbed Luna’s face. “Why didn’t you tell me! This is too important to miss!”
“Thank you, that’s what I’ve...wait, miss what?”
“Miss the chance take this little escapade out on the town!” Discord threw back the curtain and was wearing a tuxedo, top hat, monocle and holding a cane. “I can never go out without everyone screaming completely ruining the decor, and this,” He gestured vaguely out the window. “Is the perfect opportunity for all of us to spend some time together outside the castle.”
Discord threw open the closest window, changed into a sky diving outfit, and yelled. “Tia! Luna and I stole your cake, come and get it!” Before jumping out the window.
Luna watched as Discord fell several hundred feet before opening a parachute that read CMC’s on the back, and landing in the gardens. “I still think we should-” Luna was suddenly interrupted when her sister ran into the hallway screaming.
“GIVE ME BACK MY CAKE!” With that Luna leaped out the window, unfurled her wings and glided down to the garden, where she ran towards the now open gates saying.
“Sorry Twilight!”
Twilight and Spike arrived at Fluttershy’s cottage and made their way to her the front door. “Alright Spike, behind these doors is a room full of scared animals and a terrified Pegasus, I want you to get ready to comfort and soothe like you’ve never comforted and soothed before.”
Twilight said, prepping him for what they were going to have to do. “Ready!” Spike said dutifully. Twilight nodded and opened the door, prepared for whatever was behind them. And screamed, Spike screamed to, but Twilight didn’t hear him, Spike didn’t hear her either, they both screamed and screamed at the sight behind the door. The skull like face, the glowing red eye behind that face, the wispy, grey body. They continued to scream until they needed to breathe, then the creature uttered a single phrase. “Duskull?” Rather quizzically and they started screaming again. This could have continued until Twilight and or Spike developed a sore throat, or fainted. But fortunately the odd floating being wasn’t the only being home.
“Oh Duskull no, you shouldn’t do that,” A butter yellow Pegasus fluttered into view and gently nudged the floating skull out of view. “You could scare somepony or get hurt.”
Fluttershy looked at her friends, feeling sorry that her new friend had scared them, and said. “Um, hi Twilight, hi Spike, what brings you here?”
Twilight, panting from fear, looked at her friend and said. “Fluttershy, what was that thing?!”
“Oh, that was just Duskull, my new pet. I found him this morning, after that big explosion when I went to check on all my animal friends and-”
“Wait,” Twilight held up her hoof to stop her friend. “You found a creature with a skull face and a wispy body,”
“A ghost.” Spike offered helpfully, earning him a glare from Twilight.
“And you let it into your house?!!” Fluttershy pawed the ground sheepishly and said.
“Um...yes? I’m sorry he just looked so confused and scared and the others all-”
“Others?” Spike and Twilight said together.
“Um, yes,” Fluttershy said. “Duskull wasn’t the only little guy I found out there, in fact-”
“Cubone!” Fluttershy was cut off as a voice similar to that of a crying foal came from within the cottage.
“Oh no, I just got him to sleep!” Fluttershy zipped back into her cottage, allowing the confused Alicorn and Dragon to see into the room, their mouths both dropped open.
Fluttershy’s cottage was normally filled with all manner of creatures, from Beavers to Bears and Dogs to Draconequus the mare was the place to go if you wanted any kind if pet, and Twilight was always prepared for whatever was going to be there. Of course she hadn’t expected a floating skull to show up, nor had she expected something to crash in the Everfree, today was turning out to be a very abnormal day.
Inside Fluttershy’s living room were a collection of creatures that looked like they came out of a foals video game. There was a pink cat like creature sleeping on a window sill, it’s puffy tail was being batted at by an otter like creature with a sea shell on it’s chest. A tiny beetle looking thing with a brown shell was crawling around on the floor near the coffee table which was occupied by not one, not two, but three brown and white fox like creatures and what looked like a blue lion cub with a star on its tail, a large red and green dragonfly flew around the room, occasionally pausing to hover near a group of yellow fluffy things on the ceiling. Fluttershy was at one of the pet beds, this one apparently meant for a very special pet, in the process of comforting a small brown creature with a skull on its head that was crying its eyes out, and scolding one of the only normal animals in the room, a bunny Twilight recognized as the miniature demon known as Angel.
“-and you couldn’t give up one of your beds for a few hours so that Cubone could get some sleep!?” Angel waved his arms and hopped up and down, pointing at the various creatures and squeaking to prove his point. “Don’t give me that mister,” Fluttershy said sternly. “Now you go upstairs and think about what you’ve done,” With that Angel grabbed one of his stuffed carrots and, shooting a poison glare at the little creature still crying in his bed, tromped upstairs. “And you’re not allowed down until I say so!” Fluttershy shouted as the bunny passed out of sight.
Fluttershy turned back to the crying creature and started soothing it. “Oh don’t cry Cubone, everything is going to be alright.”
Twilight and Spike slowly walked to the center of the room awestruck at the plethora of odd creatures around the room. “Fluttershy,” Twilight said staring at the various creatures. “What are these things?”
Fluttershy, still comforting the Cubone, which had finally stopped crying, barely looked up as she said. “Oh, these are some of the creatures I found in the woods when I went looking for my animal friends.” She kissed the Cubone on it’s boney snout and placed it in the bed again, tucking it in and nuzzling it as it laid it’s head on the little pillow.
“Poor little guy, he just won’t stop crying,” As Fluttershy walked over to her friends several of the creatures scampered, or floated, or flew over to her and by the time she was in front of her friends she had a tiny otter clinging to her foreleg, a dragonfly sitting atop her head, wings buzzing infrequently, and the same ghostly skull floating in a wide circle around her head.
“Sorry about that, but ever since I found him Cubone has hardly stopped crying.” Fluttershy explained.
“Fluttershy,” Twilight said rubbing between her eyes and shaking her head. “What are these things? And why are there so many of them in your house?”
The dragonfly on Fluttershy’s head buzzed irritably and Fluttershy patted it saying. “It’s ok Yanma.”
“Yan yan ma.” It hummed looking at Twilight and Spike.
Fluttershy smiled and said. “Don’t worry, they’re really nice, I promise.”
“Fluttershy...” Twilight said in practically a growl.
“Oh, s-sorry Twilight, they all just seem so scared and,”
“It’s alright,” Twilight said with a sigh. “Just please, can you tell me what these things are?”
“Well, I would but I don’t actually know, I’m sorry.” The little Pegasus looked down and pawed the ground again, ignoring the otter still clinging to her leg. Twilight stared at her friend in disbelief.
“You...don’t know?” Fluttershy shook her head. “How can you,” Twilight pointed a hoof at Fluttershy. “The mare who tamed a Manticore and befriended a Draconequus, not know what these animals are?!”
Fluttershy just eeped and said. “I’m sorry it’s just, I’ve never seen anything like them before, I just call them what they keep saying but, that’s either one name for all of them or it’s the name for their species.”
“What do you mean?” Spike asked.
“Well,” She walked over to coffee table an nuzzled the little fox things.
“Vee.”
“Vee.”
“Vee."
They each said. “They keep saying Eevee, or part if it, so I just call them Eevee, and these little guys,”
She flew up to the congregation of tiny yellow things on the ceiling, the otter still clinging to her leg and the Duskull following her, she grabbed one of the tiny creatures and flew back down a few seconds later holding a tiny spider like thing, small enough to fit in the palm of her hoof. It looked up at Twilight with four electric blue eyes and said. “Joltik?” In a curious toned squeaky voice.
“Awww.” Twilight cried, never having expected that she would think any kind of insect or arachnid was cute.
Fluttershy smiled and continued. “These little guys all say Joltik whenever they say something.”
Twilight tore her eyes away the Joltik and said. “Alright we’ll ignore the admittedly adorable creatures around your house for now... I came to get you because, honestly, I have no idea what’s going on, with the doozy and whatever crashed in the Everfree,”
“You mean t-those weren’t the same thing?” Fluttershy asked in fear.
“Apparently not, and now that I’m here and I saw this,” She gestured at the various creatures. “I have even less of a plan than when I came here, now we need to get going, we still have to get AppleJack.”
“W-what for?” Fluttershy asked.
"We’re having a meeting about... whatever is going on.” Twilight explained.
“Oh, ok, I just have to get someone from the kitchen.” Fluttershy set the tiny spider on the wall, where it scampered to rejoin it’s group and trotted out of view, leaving Twilight and Spike alone with the various creatures. The little beetle like thing crawled over to her and looked up at her with two black eyes atop its shell.
“Kabuto?” It said. Twilight slid it away with a hoof and it crawled off.
“Wait did she say someone?” Spike asked, realizing what had just been said.
Before Twilight could respond Fluttershy reentered the room, lacking the otter and dragonfly but retaining the Duskull, in addition, a tiny white creature with blue and red markings and a pointed, crown like head sat atop her back. She was followed by a green creature comparable to a snake with arms and legs and a leaf like tail
“Ok Fluttershy, what are those? And why is that on your back?” Twilight asked eyeing the creatures.
“This,” She answered motioning towards the snake thing. “Is Snivy,”
“Snivy.” It said with a wave.
“And this little sweetie,” She nuzzled the creature on her back. “Is Togepi.”
“Toki, Toki, Pree!” It cried happily.
“Ok,” Twilight said in an exasperated tone. “But why are they here?”
“Oh, Snivy’s going to look after the place while I’m gone, I’d normally ask Angel but he’s in trouble, and Snivy seems to be very responsible.” Fluttershy explained, while Snivy developed a very snide expression. “And I just can’t leave Togepi alone, I think she has separation anxiety, and until I can find her real family I can’t leave her alone or she’ll start bawling like when I found her.”
“Fluttershy... I don’t think it’s a good idea to bring any of these, things, with. They might have something to do with everything that’s going on.” Twilight said as she looked at the tiny creature on Fluttershy’s back.
“But Twilight, she gets so lonely... actually Cubone does too, maybe I should-”
“Fluttershy...” Twilight said. “We don’t know anything about these things they could be danger-” Twilight stopped herself as several of the creatures looked at her with big CMC style eyes.
“Please Twilight,” Fluttershy said with the same eyes as the creatures. “They’re like foals, I can’t leave those two-”
“Fine!” Twilight said. “Fine, just keep them out of trouble.”
Fluttershy nodded and grabbed the still awake baby Cubone from his bed and placed him behind the Togepi on her back.
“Alright,” Twilight sighed, “Let’s go.”
With that the three friends, and the two Pokemon, began the walk to Sweet Apple Acres. One of them reassuring the little ones on her back, who were slightly unsure after leaving the safety of her home. One of them still trying to work out the situation, and an actual plan to go with it, in her mind. And one of them wondering why something always went wrong on reshelving day.