Edited by Element6147
I walked through the forest, my head swiveling from one side to the other as I took in the sights. It was an odd place, I thought, upon my further inspection. None of the other Pokémon seemed intelligent by any degree, at least none that I’d met so far. They were also strangely small. In particular, the Flying-types were extremely tiny, most that I’d seen so far not even the size of a Pidgey.
I had also yet to see an Oddish or a Bellsprout yet, nor even a humble Foongus. It was strange; the place was obviously full of life, yet it was not the sort of life I was used to. While I walked I began to think on what I had agreed to and my mind started to present second thoughts.
How am I supposed to find absolution for my crime when I know not where I am or what lives here? I asked myself with a frown. Worse still, how am I to know when I have truly been absolved? I… was expecting Father Arceus to task me with something… and upon completion of that task I would be absolved… I trailed off, not liking the thread of that thought.
A stick broke to the side of me and I turned to find myself confronted by a pair of glowing green eyes. Standing there in the brush beside me was… a green Mightyena who appeared to be made entirely of sticks and leaves. I regarded it with a frown.
“Hello; who are you?” I inquired, using a long standing practice that dictates hunters need not bother hunting other hunters. In response to my question it cocked its head to the side. Then it took a step forward, sniffing me before snarling and leaping back.
Strange. I frowned at it; did I truly smell so foul?
“I ask again; who are you?” I repeated. The strange Mightyena simply snarled at me. “I do not wish to hurt you, but if you continue to threaten me, I will have no choice,” I told it firmly. The beast growled at me some more, yet made no move to attack me, so I gave it a small shrug and carried on my way.
Strange, I thought to myself. Was it simply too stupid to understand me, or was I not speaking the same tongue as it? That was a difficulty I had not expected, though in retrospect, it now seemed quite obvious that I would encounter it.
I carried on down the path, not quite sure of where I was going until I sensed movement behind me. I sprang forwards and landed facing backwards to see that the green Mightyena had returned, and this time it had brought friends with it.
“Do you truly wish to do this?” I asked them, though certain that my words would have no effect.
True to my thoughts, the Mightyena did not heed me and snarled in unison at me before leaping at me. I sidestepped the first one as it hurtled towards me, and my blade slashed into its chest. The Mightyena let out a cry of pain as it landed, and I was forced to leap aside once more to avoid the others.
They landed before me and advanced as a group, forcing me to back away. I had no wish to sustain a real injury this early into my stay on this strange world. The Mightyena who I had already wounded had gotten to his wooden paws and regained its brothers, none the worse for wear. My brain kicked into overdrive, they were obviously grass types meaning that my dark attacks would do little real damage… so I would have to use something else.
I smiled as I came up with the proper solution – I would just have to draw upon my inheritance. I took in a deep breath to both steady myself and gather air for the attack to come. Then I exhaled and a stream of fire shot out of my mouth, hitting two of the four Mightyena.
The creatures let out yipping barks of surprise at the sudden fire, and the ones who had been hit directly let out howls of pain as they burned away to charcoal. I fixed the remaining Mightyena with a flat stare and let out a snarl.
“Leave me alone now and I will not inflict the same fate on you,” I told them from between gritted teeth. The Mightyena regarded me for a moment longer before they jumped back into the underbrush, leaving me alone once more. With a small sigh, I walked up to the burning twigs. “Father Arceus, I have slain another in self-defense. Please accept them and help their souls on their journey to you.”
I turned away and began to walk down the path once more; the forest around me had fallen silent. The short encounter had me slightly shaken, I was not used to being attacked unprovoked. I was, after all a fairly peaceful soul, or as much as any Pokémon could be considered one at any rate. As such, I could usually talk my way out of any major conflict, but here on this strange world, that would apparently not be the case.
A sigh worked its way out of my chest and I shook my head, it seemed that finding my absolution here would be even more difficult. Still, I had to, otherwise I would never see my dear Belle again, and that thought chilled my heart.
As I came around the bend, my heart still heavy with thoughts of never seeing Belle, I froze. Standing there, regarding me with a critical eye was a Blitzle, though it was unlike any I had ever seen before. For one, it looked far too mature, un-baby like. For another it lacked the distinctive electric crest, instead it had a grey and white mane. Lastly, it was adorned with several nuggets worth of golden jewelry.
I frowned at it, inspecting it as it did the same with me. Giratina's words came back to me: “A land of magical singing Ponyta”. Could this be one such creature?
“Hello?” I asked it slowly, keeping my voice calm. The ‘Blitzle’ frowned slightly.
“My, my, what a strange creature you are,” it spouted some gibberish in return. “Truly, you must have come some place very far.”
“I see… you cannot understand me,” I said, sighing slightly in the face of even more evidence of my alien nature here.
“You do not appear to be overly-threatening, which is strange,” the ‘Blitzle’ said, once again spouting gibberish. “Most of the creatures of Everfree are hostile, should I enter their range.”
I let out a huff, seeing that I would be getting nowhere with the creature and simply walked towards, and then around it, carrying on my way. The ‘Blitzle’ watched my course carefully, on the lookout for any predatory actions and as I walked away I heard it let out an audible sigh.
“Stranger and stranger,” the ‘Blitzle’ muttered to herself. “Perhaps Twilight will know if this creature represents a danger.”
It set off in the opposite direction from me and I soon put the encounter behind me. I had more pressing concerns. I continued walking for another ten or twenty minutes before I began to grow thirsty and I lifted my nose to the air, searching for a water source. Thankfully, it did not take me long, and I came upon a small brook and lowered my head to begin lapping up the water.
As I did so however, something strange happened. A rope of some sort fell across my neck, pulling taught. I was suddenly pulled to the side and nearly toppled over, I would have if not for my year spent in the mountains. Instead, I turned to find the source of the rope and found myself looking at two… strange Ponyta.
I stared at the two strange Ponyta in puzzlement. The one holding onto the lasso with its teeth was a light orange color and was wearing a rancher’s hat. She, it was obviously a she, had a blonde mane in exchange of flames and a determined look in her eyes. The other was a true oddity; it was shaped much like a Ponyta yet it had a pink mane and... a pair of wings on its sides. I stared at it for a moment, truly puzzled.
“May I help you?” I asked them, the futility of the act notwithstanding, it seemed the appropriate response.
“I gotcha, you varmint,,” the orange one grunted from between its teeth. I frowned at the words. The tone did not seem overly friendly. That, coupled with the rope around my neck seemed to indicate hostility, though what I could have done to garner such was a mystery to me.
“Not too tightly, Applejack,” the... odd one said, its tone kinder. “Remember, we’re here to teach it that eating cute little animals when they’re near my cottage is wrong, not to hurt it.”
“Right, sugarcube,” the first one garbled back at it.
I raised an eyebrow at them, the rope was beginning to annoy me. So, with a simple sweep of my head I sliced through it with my blade. The effects were rather comical; the orange one fell flat on her face, and I could not help the small smirk from crossing my face at the sight.
“Applejack, are you alright?!” the other asked, hurrying in front of her companion, her voice clearly worried.
“I’m fine,” it grunted as it got back to its hooves. “Consarn thing just caught me off guard is all.” It then looked down at its now useless length of rope. “And it cost me a lasso.”
I watched all of this with a frown, I was certain that I had not harmed the orange one, yet the amount of fuss the winged one was giving it made me think otherwise. The winged one turned away from her friend and gave me a hard stare, though I met it easily enough at first.
“How dare you break Applejack’s lasso? You should be ashamed of yourself.” it said angrily. I was confused; there was no real reason to be angry with me, I had simply cut a rope impeding my freedom. It was hardly a crime… as far as I knew at any rate.
So, I glared right back at the winged one, fully meeting her gaze. Her eyes were a marvelous cyan, almost as wondrous as Belle’s, and just as full of empathy and love. Still, I did not waver beneath their pressure.
“You also ate three of my beaver friends this morning while they were under my protection and I am here to tell you that is not how we do things here.” the winged one told me strictly – its tone of voice actually reminded me of my mother’s when she was angry at me.
“I have no idea what you’re saying,” I told her plainly. “Though I apologize for whatever I have done to earn your… chastisement.”
The winged one frowned at my words and at last I saw understanding bloom in its expression.
“You can’t understand me?” it said, though it was clearly directing a question at me.
“Once again, I have no idea what you’re saying,” I replied. “Though I am happy that something in this strange forest can understand me at the very least.”
“Do you even think you can communicate with it Fluttershy?” the orange Ponyta asked the other.
“Well... I can understand it... sort of. Its ‘speech’ is heavily accented… almost like it comes from Prance,” the winged one replied.
“Do you figure Twilight has some sort of spell to make you understand it more?” the orange one inquired.
While this was going on, I continued to glance between the two. The hostility had evaporated, for the most part so I saw no reason to flee or assault them. In fact, those two might, in fact, be my means of absolution.
“I don’t know… I suppose it’s worth a try.” the winged one hazarded. “Of course, we have to know where we can find it again later or even better; bring it with us.”
The orange one glanced at me with a judgmental frown. “I don’t know… it did openly kill those beavers on your land… but it doesn’t seem very hostile…” she slowly stated. “If you trust it enough to follow ya, I guess we can head over to Twi, but I’ll be keeping an eye on it.”
“Okay, let me ask it,” the winged one replied. She then turned to me. “Will you come with us?” she asked gesturing at me and then at them and then down the path they had come.
I frowned; it was clearly asking me to come with them. It was a risk, yet at the moment, I had no other real options. So, with a small nod, I stepped slowly forward. I walked up to her, while the orange one closely watched my movement. Then I bent down and gave the winged one a careful sniff.
She smelled of a variety of different small smells, each battling for dominance. Most clearly at the moment was that of a collection of three soaps, though layered beneath that was dry hay and seeds. Lastly was the musty smell of many Pokémon, though I could not identify any of them.
The winged one accepted my sniff calmly.
“See, I smell friendly,” she said easily. I frowned at the words and then shrugged, turning to the orange one and leaning forwards to repeat the process.
She slightly leaned her head away, but didn’t say anything against me, only continuing to watch me with wary eyes. Her scent was much easier to identify; there was soap, yes, but it was faint. The most easily apparent scent to her was that of apples and sweat. A hard worker and possibly a ranch ‘hand’ if my memory of humans was correct. Of course, that assumed the strange Ponyta’s culture was anything like the humans’.
I leaned away from her and turned my head back to the winged one. “My name is Cres... and I will follow you,” I told her slowly.
“Cres,” she repeated, and this time I could understand the word, it was my name after all. I nodded and let out a huff of agreement.
“Lead on,” I stated simply.
“I... okay,” the winged one said, turning around. “Come on, Applejack; let’s get Cres here to Twilight.”
The orange one nodded her head. “Alrighty... I’ll be right behind the two of y’all.” she said.
I gave her a skeptical glance, sensing the lingering hostility in her words, but shrugged and followed the winged one as she began to walk down the path. The orange one fell in behind me and I could sense her eyes boring into the back of my skull. Together, the three of us began to walk out of the forest.